Storage: It is with blood-boiling indignation that Mario Apicella explains how remedies for data breaches have been inadequate, at best. “Almost all of those disclosures could have been prevented by using data encryption on sensitive data, especially when that data flows to mobile devices or removable media,” he explains in this week’s installment of Storage Insider. What’s more, the tools to do so are widely available. “Why, then, are companies not implementing encryption whenever possible and appropriate?” Startups: Silver Peak Systems claims to transition WANs into LANs. And no, I don’t have that backward. The idea was born while Silver Peak co-founder CTO David Hughes was an executive in residence at Benchmark Capital and examining the branch office to create an appliance that would improve the link to the home network. The result of that quest is disk-based data reduction that eliminates repetitive data transfers by identifying byte-level patterns of data that have traveled the WAN and serving them locally on subsequent requests.The news beat: After losing out to Google in the DoubleClick bidding war, Microsoft reveals intentions to scoop up aQuantive for its digital marketing services. Adware maker Zango sues PC Tools over the antispyware program flagging and removing Zango’s technology. A year-long study conducted by the OpenNet Initiative finds that government filtering of online content is on the rise. And Symantec says Chinese hackers are growing in number and skills. Careers: Most people have something to say worth hearing. You can’t possibly have all the good ideas. Those are but two pieces of the advice John West shares in this Leading from the trenches post. “People in all situations feel valued when they feel they have impact or influence on their surroundings,” West writes. “The strength of your solutions will increase ten-fold, and the strength of your implementations will increase exponentially.”