The biggest threat to IT security isn’t the hacker on the outside. It’s the employees on the inside that are, in increasing numbers, bringing consumer technologies like Skype, social networking, IM and “unsecured” mobile devices to work with them. So says a new Gartner report. The press release includes details on how to protect the corporate network. A while back, I looked at the use of Skype in business and some of the issues the Gartner study raises.

Satellite TV providers DirecTV and Echostar are getting into the IP communications game with distribution deals with WiMax provider Clearwire. The goal is to be more competitive with cable companies. It will be interesting to see how it rolls out because right now Clearwire’s coverage area is pretty limited and doesn’t include and major U.S. metro areas.

No one’s talking about how VoIP saves money any more. Instead the buzz is around how VoIP can change the way you do business. ComputerWeekly.com has a case study on VoIP as the cornerstone for the virtual office and remote employees.

The FCC is forging ahead with new 911 rules including technology-neutral location ID requirements and automatic location identification for VoIP services that can be used at multiple locations.

TCMnet’s Mae Kowalke connects the dots between Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Microsoft’s software-centric unified communications model. (You’ve been holding your breath for this, I know).

And while we’re getting geeky here, motherboard manufacturer MSI is building in a phone adapter for Skype and PSTN calls.

Yet another way to make long distance VoIP calls using your cell phone: VONaLink’s $29 DialBridge software.

We all know that dealing with email takes an increasing bite out of our days — about two hours to be exact, adding up to 10 years of our working lives. That’s the conclusion of a UK study commissioned of by headset manufacturer Plantronics. Unsurprisingly Plantronics found that phone calls were a better way to handle things.

What do Wal-mart and Bluto have in common? They’re both best noted for being, well —big.

So Skype is trying to reach the people in the marketplace bigtime. The Wal-Mart marketplace, namely, in more than 1,800 of the ubiquitous big box stores in all its forms: Wal-Mart Stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets, and Sam’s Clubs.

Ten years ago VoIP was the domain of hobbyists and uber-geeks. What they were doing involved a headset and what most people — think Wal-mart shoppers here — would consider rather arcane knowledge. In fact, doing what most people including the Wal-Mart greeter would have had trouble recognizing as a phone call.

So broadband phone call companies tried to meet the people where they were, through the obvious retail distribution partners, stores where people ordinarily go to buy electronics.

But with this move, anybody can mosey over to the dedicated Skype Internet Communications boutique in Wal-mart’s electronics section and throw down $8.00 for a pre-paid calling card. For $25 they can get a webcam so they can send the home movie of the birthday party to all their relatives.

Skype brings Wal-Mart something Wal-Mart customers want. Skype started out providing computer-to-computer VoIP. One of its least elusive charms was that the software was free and so were calls among Skypers.

Now, manufacturers like Plantronics, Philips, and Logitech make Skype Certified hardware that currently lets millions of people Skype voice and video calls and send instant messages. In short, it’s a lot easier for everyone get in on Skype’s action.

And Wal-Mart’s action is, well, everyone, right? Wal-Mart brings Skype a huge market right in the demographic where Skype’s value really rules. And Wal-Mart gets to offer that market Skype certified headsets under $15, webcams under $25, and handsets under $30 from nine different manufacturers.

Customers will also be able to buy pre-paid Skype cards for $20 that let them make international calls for as little as 2.1 cents per minute, or one for $8 that gets them three months of unlimited Skype calls to any landline or cell phone in the US or Canada.

But Skype isn’t the first to try this. Last year, Vonage was already pushing its broadband telephony service through such retailers as RadioShack, Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples and Office Depot. And Packet8 has been out there too.

But they’re partnering with all the usual retail distribution chain suspects. And that’s the difference this time around. And now Skype is going there, too, with this difference: Wal-Mart is so much, well—bigger.

Reactions are mixed. Some are glum. The naysaying views point up the fact that people don’t go to Wal-Mart for Skype’s kind of product. Others cite the great Sears Roebuck curse. In other words, if someone asks you if you got your driver’s license at Sears, do you take that as reflecting favorably on your very own personal brand image? So will Wal-mart reflect well on Skype?

So the question in this story is whether Wal-Mart is going to end up like Bluto in the Popeye cartoons. Sure, Bluto’s planning to take Olive Oyl, Skype, to the dance. But Olive Oyl always ends up with Popeye, the little electronics stores, right?

But others are sunny, seeing the Wal-Martization of Skype as one giant step in the democratization of VoIP technology.

“Skype is already hugely successful. Economically, Skype is undercutting Vonage because it’s pay-as-you-go, putting Skype within anybody’s reach,” says Infonetics Research Matthias Machinowski. Skype’s boutique presentation of the products that will make Skype work at all levels of technological know-how and equipment, obviates any geek-knowledge barrier. “It’s the right form factor,” says Machinowski. “Wal-Mart is low prices and inexpensive technology. It’s perfect.”

Another way to look at this is that Olive Oyl gets to go out with Popeye AND Bluto.

Everybody knows that Verizon won its patent suit against Vonage. But how many people understand the patents that were the basis of the case? Robert Green at Briefing.com has laid it all out in a helpful chart format describing each of the patents. Plus, a discussion of the how the court ruling is highly likely to have an impact on cable companies’ VoIP offerings. Here.

By 2010 46 million of us are going to be watching some kind of video on our phone, according to Infonetics. Here.

Skype released updated Macintosh software today, debuting a new call transfer feature that’s not available on Windows yet. Here.

Annoyed by those Ride of the Valkyries ringtones? Well get ready to be even more annoyed.

Emotive Communications of Los Angeles has contrived a new level of ringtone obnoxiousness with its “Push Ringer.” Emotive’s downloadable client lets callers send ringtones — which the company has dubbed “flingtones”— with a phone call.

The flingtone, which can be video, animations, avatars or flash files as well as audio, overrides the ringtone on the recipient’s phone. You can also record your own voice message as a ringtone. If you like the ringtone, you can order it on the spot.

The press release doesn’t specify what to do if you hate it. Or how to handle the ensuing social disaster caused by ill-considered voice message ringtones.

The first version of this was released in January for Skype as RingJacker. Versions for Symbian and Windows are expected later this year.

Emotive CEO Anthony Stonefield, who founded the ringtone company Moviso in the early 1990s, has described flingtones as a killer app for 3G and 4G phones. And he’s got some big name investors like Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments and Warner Music Group that apparently agree.