SAN JOSE, Calif.– LAWFUEL – Lawyer Announcements –Barbara Spector, an attorney with the firm of Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel in San Jose, has just been elected Mayor of the Town of Los Gatos. Barbara succeeds outgoing Mayor Joe Pirzynski and will serve a one-year term, at the end of which she will stand for reelection. The unanimous vote took place in the Town Council Chambers. Barbara was then sworn in by Hon. Mary Jo Levinger and Hon. Diane Northway of the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

The Town of Los Gatos, incorporated in 1887, is located a short drive from the heart of Silicon Valley. It is nestled in against the Sierra Azules where the Santa Clara Valley meets the Santa Cruz Mountains and encompasses about 14 square miles. Los Gatos is a picturesque and vibrant town, offering an appealing mix of residential, commercial and light industrial uses, while very much retaining a small town feel. Its historic downtown area is pedestrian oriented and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I am very honored to have been elected, and am looking forward to serving as the Town’s Mayor,” commented Spector. “My priorities include protecting our hillsides and environment, and retaining our small town character. Each time I look up Main Street and see our beautiful hills and our stately historic buildings, I can hardly believe I get to serve as Mayor of such an amazing place! I am excited about the challenges the coming year will bring.”

About Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel:

Since 1952, Hoge Fenton has provided outstanding legal service throughout Northern California. We are a single legal resource to businesses and individuals for their most important needs, including real estate and land use development, environmental law, business formation and transactions, banking and finance, mergers and acquisitions, labor and employment law, intellectual property, estate planning and wealth management, and strong advocacy at the trial and appellate levels in all areas of law. Our clients rely on our ability to quickly respond to their needs from our offices in Downtown San Jose, Pleasanton, Hollister, and Modesto. Our goal: to build lasting relationships and help our clients succeed. www.hogefenton.com

LAWFUEL – US Law Firm Announcement – Software as a Service (SaaS) shows promise to revolutionize the way businesses purchase software products. SaaS turns software into a service that is leased over the Internet, instead of a product bought and installed on company computers.

“The SaaS leasing model permits companies to avoid the expense and headache of installing complex software packages that typically require huge outlays of cash for hardware and software upgrades,” explains William H. Venema a member of the Business Law practice and administrative partner at the Dallas office of Epstein, Becker Green Wickliff & Hall, P.C., “Theoretically, SaaS frees users from having to hook up another computer in a remote data center to yet another database to an additional application server to one more security server. The challenge with such an open system is that security can be easily compromised unless the proper protections are in place.”

One of the best known SaaS providers, SalesForce.com, offers customer tracking and client relationship management services to nearly one million users. Unfortunately, the company recently experienced one of the weaknesses of the SaaS model, when one of its employees was tricked by an online phishing scam artist into divulging an internal system password that gave access to the company’s customer contact list. This exposed subscribers to spam emails containing fake invoices, computer viruses, and other security problems.

The SalesForce.com phishing incident represented a deficiency in both the technology and the process. The continued lack of Internet standards to authenticate senders or to notify servers of an email recipient’s blocking preferences leaves the door open to phishing attacks. Just as important, user gullibility is often the cause of phishing security breaches. Enhanced employee training for SaaS providers is essential to the prevention of breaches.

“Proper structuring of software licensing arrangements can help protect users against security breaches such as those that occurred at SalesForce.com,” adds Mr. Venema. “At a minimum, licenses should include provisions that address server and technician security. Unfortunately, too many companies fail to include such provisions and thereby increase their vulnerability to such attacks.”

Founded in 1973, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., is a law firm with more than 380 attorneys practicing in 11 offices throughout the U.S. – Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, Stamford, and Washington, D.C. — and affiliations worldwide. The firm’s size, diversity, and global affiliations allow our attorneys to address the needs of both small entrepreneurial ventures and large multinational corporations on a worldwide basis. EBG’s five core practices include: Business Law, Health Care and Life Sciences, Labor and Employment, Litigation and Real Estate. www.ebglaw.com