5 Companies That Had A Rough Week

The Week Ending July 14

Topping this week's roundup of those having a rough week is Kaspersky Lab, which was removed from the U.S. government's GSA schedule because of concerns the company may have ties to the Russian government.

Also making the list this week are Verizon, which had personal data on 14 million customers exposed in a security incident; Lenovo, which continues to see its share of the PC market shrink; Cisco Systems, which had to alert customers about a potential data loss problem with its UCS servers; and FireEye, which is losing its veteran chief marketing officer.

Not everyone in the IT industry was having a rough go of it this week. For a rundown of companies that made smart decisions, executed savvy strategic moves – or just had good luck – check out this week's 5 Companies That Came To Win roundup.

Kaspersky Removed From GSA Schedule, Limiting Federal Sales For Its Security Software

It was a tough week for Russian security software developer Kaspersky Lab, which was removed from the U.S. government's General Services Administration schedule this week. The move comes after months of pushback against the company because of concerns that it may have ties to the Russian government – something the company vehemently denies.

While removal from the GSA schedule doesn't prevent government agencies from buying Kaspersky software entirely, they can no longer buy the company's software using GSA contract processes. That will likely seriously limit U.S. government purchases of Kaspersky software from the vendor and its channel partners.

CEO Eugene Kaspersky (pictured), in a letter, sought to reassure partners that his company has no inappropriate ties to the Russian government. But removal from the GSA list is a blow for the company and its partners.

Verizon Security Incident Exposes 14 Million Subscribers

Personal data on more than 14 million Verizon customers have reportedly been exposed in an incident that highlights the need to strengthen data protection practices in the cloud.

The security lapse, discovered by research firm UpGuard, involved technology supplier Nice Systems, which left Verizon customer data unprotected on an Amazon Web Services S3 storage instance. The data contained names, phone numbers and PINs that could be used to access Verizon accounts.

It was not clear whether hackers had actually accessed the data on the estimated 14 million subscribers, more than 10 percent of Verizon's total 108 million subscribers. The affected subscribers were primarily those who called Verizon customer service in the past six months, according to the report.

Lenovo Loses Share In A Shrinking PC Market In Q2

The April-June quarter was a tough one for the PC industry in general and for PC vendor Lenovo in particular, according to shipment numbers released by research firm Gartner.

Gartner calculated that worldwide PC shipments in the second quarter totaled 61.1 million units, down 4.3 percent from more than 63.9 million units in the same quarter last year.

The quarter was especially tough for Lenovo, the No. 2 company in the PC industry, which saw its shipments decline 8.4 percent year over year to 12.2 million units. The company's overall market share was 19.9 percent in the quarter, down from 20.8 percent one year before.

The quarter wasn't a bust for everyone, though. Market leader HP Inc. shipped 12.7 million units, up 3.3 percent year over year, and increased its overall market share to 20.8 percent from 19.2 percent. No. 3 Dell, meanwhile, grew its unit shipments by 1.4 percent year over year to 9.6 million units and increased its overall market share to 15.6 percent from 14.7 percent.

Cisco Warns Customers On Potential UCS Data Loss Problem

Cisco had to issue a warning to customers this week that the company shipped a number of UCS servers with incorrectly configured hard drives that could lose data if the servers lose power.

The updated field notice informing customers of the problem, issued this week, offered detailed instructions for customers and partners to reconfigure the hard drives to prevent data loss.

The problem stems from five models of large-form-factor drives that were shipped with their hard drive write cache enabled. Normally they are shipped with the write cache disabled. The field notice said that if write cache is enabled during a power loss, it could result in a loss of data.

While Cisco said the problem had been corrected on its side, the affected drives have to be reconfigured in the field.

FireEye Loses Top Marketing Executive

FireEye confirmed this week that Kara Wilson, the security vendor's chief marketing officer for nearly four years, has left the company and taken on a new job outside the security industry.

Wilson was instrumental in helping to take FireEye from a pre-IPO startup to a global security company, a company spokesman said. Vitor DeSouza, vice president of global communications, has filled her position in the interim, the company said.

Wilson's departure comes as FireEye looks to revamp the messaging around its security offerings. In the last year the company has worked to overhaul multiple areas of its business including its channel approach, product portfolio and profitability model.