Dinah Greek, Computeract!ve, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 16:41:00

Web crime advice organisation warns 2009 will see cyber-criminals out in force

Rising unemployment and the global recession will fuel a huge increase in online crime this year, E-Victims has warned.

The not-for-profit community interest company (CIC), set up to benefit internet users and help victims of cyber-crimes and other online incidents, said it is receiving reports of new scams almost daily.

Jennifer Perry, E-Victims managing director, said: “We’ve seen honest traders go rogue due to financial pressures and we’ve seen desperate consumers taking more risks.

"Rising unemployment and a global recession mean we expect to see a huge increase in e-victims this year.”

Mrs Perry said typical scams seen last year included loan and debt consolidation fraud, and she warned these would continue to be a serious threat throughout 2009.

“But there will also be new ones to look out for, including repossession assistance and unemployment insurance,” she warned.

The organisation has detailed its top 10 internet scams to watch out for this year.

Identity theft and phishing attacks will remain a serious threat as cyber-criminals employ increasingly sophisticated ways of tricking consumers, including using social networking sites.

Mrs Perry said she also expected to see an increase in fake job adverts. The serious danger with these is that criminals use unsuspecting consumers to act as money mules as well as hijacking people’s personal details.

She said consumers should be aware that the increase in too-good-to-be-true bargains, including holiday and ticket scams, will continue unchecked.

“We saw large-scale ticket fraud with the Beijing Olympics. Criminals are producing counterfeit tickets for concerts, festivals, football games and other events.

"They sell them online via auction sites, classified ads or by setting up their own website."

Auction fraud is also likely to rise as people look to save money.

The organisation’s website has more information on scams as well as information, advice and support for victims of online crime.

Dinah Greek, Computeract!ve, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 12:42:00

Public can see crimes committed in their neighbourhood

People in England and Wales can now go online to view maps showing crime trends in their neighbourhood.

All 43 forces are now publishing the colour-coded internet maps, which show where and when crimes such as burglary, violent crimes and car theft have been committed.

The aim is to help members of the public see how police are tackling crimes as well as giving people perspective and putting crime into a local context.

It is also hoped the maps will help police tackle crime, including catching serial offenders and mapping street crime risk so they know how best to deploy policing resources.

Neil Rhodes, Deputy Chief Constable of Lincolnshire and Association of Chief Police Officers lead on Crime Mapping, said: "For many years, all forces have mapped crimes and incidents to help them focus investigations, analyse hot spots and tackle crime vigorously.

"The information now on the forces' websites has a different, more community-focused, perspective and means the public can now look at crime levels in their community simply by putting their postcode into their local police force's website."

Crime mapping formed part of the Government’s commitment to strengthen community engagement in policing at the heart of the reform programme outlined in last year’s Policing Green Paper.

When the map programme was announced in July 2008, the Government said the intention was that every force in England and Wales would produce the crime maps by the end of the year.

Although the maps are currently updated monthly, a Home Office representative said the frequency was up to local forces and may be subject to change.

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "I am determined to give people the crime information which, as the Casey Review found, they want.

"By empowering people with this information, they are able to engage more with their neighbourhood policing teams... crime mapping can help ensure people's voices are heard when police set crime fighting priorities.

"Providing this information to the public helps to make the police even more accountable."

Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeract!ve, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:01:00

NHS trusts should allow patients to use mobile phones in wards, Government suggests

The Department of Health has published guidelines which it hopes will encourage NHS trusts to relax mobile phone restrictions.

Using Mobile Phones in NHS Hospitals 2009 advises hospitals to allow patients, staff and visitors to use their mobile phones in wards and public areas.

However, mobile use in areas with sensitive medical equipment, such as in intensive care and specialist baby units, is still prohibited.

Hospitals are also advised to be wary of mobile phones with cameras in private areas such as bathrooms, toilets and secluded areas, which could breach a patient's privacy.

Health minister Ben Bradshaw said: "Mobile phones are commonplace in everyday life these days and people have told us that they'd like to be able to use their phones more in hospital to keep in touch.

"That's why we're keen to encourage sensible use in NHS hospitals where it is safe to do so, in addition to other services offered in hospitals such as bedside payphones, TV and internet access."

The 2009 guidelines were written following consultations with the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

They replace guidelines introduced in May 2007, which said visitors should only use their mobiles in designated calling areas and that mobile phones should still be banned on wards.

This meant that patients were forced to use bedside phones from companies such as Hospedia, which charges patients 10p per minute for outgoing calls.

Calls to the patient are charged at 39p per minute off-peak and 49p at all other times.

Clive Bray, director of device technology and safety at the MHRA welcomed the changes: "The MHRA recognises that mobile phones provide a practical way for patients to keep in touch with friends and relatives during their hospital stay.

"We welcome the clarification in guidance on the use of mobile phones in non critical areas,” he said.

However, the NHS Confederation, which represents hospital managers, warned that the use of mobile phones could cause a problem.

Nigel Edwards, director of policy, said: “The last thing we want to do is to make hospitals more stressful than they need to be because of the noise of annoying ring tones or the kind of loud phone conversations that already plague much of everyday life.

“Doctors and nurses doing their rounds should not have to constantly wait for patients to finish phone calls and night-times on wards should not be disturbed by the chirruping of text messages.”

Daniel Robinson, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 21:00:00

Collaboration suite beefs up Mac support and cuts email storage requirements

IBM has released version 8.5 of its Lotus Notes/Domino collaboration software, bringing updated support for the Apple Mac platform and improvements to the way attachments are handled that should lead to welcome savings on storage requirements.

The new release includes enhancements to both client and server components. On the client side, IBM said that Mac OS X users will now get the same experience as Windows and Linux users, which is one reason why the 8.5 version is being announced to coincide with the Macworld 2009 show in San Francisco.

"As near as we can make it, the Mac version now has parity with other platforms," said Darren Adams, IBM's Messaging and Collaboration business unit leader for the UK & Ireland.

While earlier Notes releases were developed for the PC and then ported to the Mac, the move to the Eclipse platform has allowed IBM to develop components that can run cross-platform, Adams explained. The growing popularity of the Mac also drove development.

"A lot of organisations are now looking at the Mac, and it is growing in usage worldwide," he said.

Among other enhancements, Notes users across all three platforms will now be able to make use of the built-in Lotus Symphony OpenDocument Format editors for office documents, while the Calendar tool now allows users to subscribe to, and overlay information from, other calendars, such as a group calendar, within their own system.

However, the most significant improvements in Notes/Domino 8.5 are on the server side. Chief among these is a feature that decreases the storage space taken up by email attachments by up to 70 per cent, according to IBM.

Domino Attachment Object Storage only stores an attachment once per server, regardless of how many instances exist in user inboxes.

"Prior to 8.5, if you sent an email to 20 people all of them had a local copy of the file, which meant it took up 20 times the storage space," explained Adams.

The new way of handling attachments also has the knock-on benefit of boosting overall server performance, and decreasing the time required to back up user mail accounts.

Another new feature, ID Vault, helps firms to manage user IDs by centralising them onto a server. This makes life easier for users who access email from more than one computer, as well as making it easier for admins to back up ID files.

For developers, XPages brings to Notes/Domino many of the features of modern web applications based on Ajax, according to IBM.

Adams said that XPages will allow developers to build new applications or update existing ones with better views and search capabilities, enabling more dynamic applications.

The new capabilities could give a boost to Notes, which many observers feel has been gradually losing market share to Microsoft's Exchange in the corporate groupware sector.

Lotus Notes/Domino 8.5 will ship ahead of IBM's Lotusphere 2009 conference that starts on 18 January, and will be available under the same licensing model as current versions of the software.

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Wednesday 7 January 2009 at 20:04:00

Fake profiles act as bait for attack sites

A rash of fake profiles on business networking site LinkedIn could put users in danger of malware infection.

Researchers at McAfee said that several hundred phoney profile pages on the service are tempting users with the promise of nude photos of celebrities.

When the user clicks on one of the links, they are taken to an external site which attempts to launch an iFrame browser exploit and then redirects the user to other potentially harmful sites.

"When an unsuspecting user follows the lure, he will end up on different malicious web sites trying the classic social engineering tricks of the 'missing video codec' or a fake anti-virus scan telling the user his computer is infected with malware and offering 'free' scanning software, which in fact is the real threat," wrote McAfee researcher Micha Pekrul in a blog post.

"So beware when following links, even on trusted Web 2.0 platforms like LinkedIn."

LinkedIn is used almost exclusively by professionals to manage business contacts and keep in touch with former colleagues, and has largely been spared from the scam attempts that plague larger sites.

Like all social networking sites, however, researchers expect LinkedIn to become an increasingly popular way for cyber criminals to lure new victims over the coming year.

The high traffic rates on such sites, combined with the ability to upload and share content, make the services an ideal medium for phishing and malware distribution.

A textbook example surfaced earlier this week when Twitter was hit by two major attacks. A large phishing operation plagued many of the site's users, while several high profile celebrity accounts were hacked and defaced.

Iain Thomson in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Wednesday 7 January 2009 at 19:53:00

Outside the US at least

The burgeoning netbook market is helping to drive Linux adoption around the world, according to new figures from Forrester Research.

The analyst firm's Netbooks are the Third PC Form Factor report suggests that netbooks have driven adoption of the open source operating system in ways that have not been achieved with either the PC or notebook markets.

"While Linux-based netbooks have not gained much consumer acceptance in the US, their success varies greatly by geographical market. In developing countries, Linux-based Eee PCs have fared better," said Forrester analyst J P Gownder.

"Even if a majority of netbooks run Windows, the minority that run Linux are the most successful non-Windows, non-Macintosh consumer PCs in the industry in terms of penetration."

Over a third of US households are investigating buying a netbook, according to the research, primarily for second or third computers, for use by children or to use exclusively on the go.

The good news for manufacturers is that the new segment is unlikely to encroach on the laptop market, as fewer than a quarter of those questioned said that they would consider buying a netbook as a replacement for a laptop.

Overall, laptop owners are the most interested in buying a netbook, followed by PC owners and non-PC owners. Barely a third of the 15 per cent of non-PC owners questioned were interested in a netbook, suggesting the existence of a hard core of consumers who do not want a PC at any price.

One of the key drivers is that netbooks are seen as ideal for mobile data use, while mobile phones are not. More than half of those questioned said that mobile phone screens are too small for mobile data use.

Rosalie Marshall, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 18:04:00

Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac readied for launch at Macworld

Apple Mac users will be able to enhance their Skype functionality from Wednesday with pay-per-minute Wi-Fi access and screen-sharing capabilities, according to new reports appearing ahead of the annual Macworld conference.

Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac OS X will provide Apple users with breakthrough Skype functionality that Windows users have yet to receive.

According to reports, the pay-per-minute Wi-Fi access will be provided through hotspot company Boingo, but the user will have the charges deducted from credits uploaded to their Skype account, rather than paying a monthly fee to Boingo.

A screen-sharing feature will also allow users to share portions of their screen with their contacts.

In related news, mobile voice calling service Truphone is to carry new support for Apple Skype users which will allow them to import their Skype contacts into the Truphone application, used on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and chat with them from the Truphone interface.

The Truphone client on both devices will show who is online with its built-in presence functionality. Instant messages sent from Truphone are free of charge when in a Wi-Fi environment.

Also at Macworld, iPhone users will gain access to a new application from Soonr that will bring cloud computing to the iPhone. The application adds extra functionality to the iPhone and allows users to access documents on the move for the first time.

A free version is available today from the Apple App Store with expanded versions offered through leading mobile operators.

David Neal, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 16:57:00

Redmond veteran named president of Server and Tools business

Bob Muglia, a 21-year veteran at Microsoft, has been named president of the software giant's Server and Tools Business.

Muglia was previously senior vice president of the server and tools group, and is credited with helping to build the unit into a £13bn business.

During his time at Microsoft, Muglia has served in a number of positions, ranging from managing the development of the MSN network through to tablet PCs. His role at the helm of the Server and Tools Business involves looking after a portfolio including Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio, and the firm's virtualisation and systems management products.

Muglia said in an interview posted on Microsoft's web site that he had never expected to be made a president at the firm, but was looking forward to the challenge. He is confident that the product set and a strong team will help see the business through tough economic times.

"We have a set of great businesses that collectively help to power the engine of our customers in their businesses," he said.

"Obviously if you look at Windows Server, SQL Server, our management products, our tools, and now our emerging security products, all of these things are very important for our customers, and have great revenue earning potential for the company.

"But the thing that I'm honoured about is the recognition of the great work that the team has done, and seeing the team continuously work to improve itself and build better and better products."

Muglia expects to see increased demand for his department's products, particularly in its database, virtualisation and services business.

"Virtualisation and the opportunity for customers to lower their administrative costs, and lower the capital costs, and deliver a great set of IT capabilities again at a fraction of the cost, is another great example," he said.

"Or look at our security business and the fact that we are offering customers a very cohesive solution that will cost them a small fraction of what they would pay going to our competitors."

Phil Muncaster, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:04:00

FLEXnet Manager 12 expands supported software types

Acresso Software today launched the latest version of its flagship FLEXnet Manager product designed to provide broader support for enterprise applications and back-office software, and give customers a more accurate picture of their software use.

FLEXnet Manager 12 features the ability to monitor, manage and report on the use of software including Oracle databases, SAP applications, product lifecycle management tools and event-driven architecture tools.

Built-in analytics functionality from Cognos is designed to provide improved reporting and allow better management of software use, reducing the risk of costly non-compliance with licensing agreements, according to Acresso.

"Companies are becoming aware of the options to reduce overspending and manage future spending more carefully," said Roger Bottum, senior vice president of marketing at Acresso.

"Without a solution like FLEXnet Manager, the effort required to better manage complex entitlements outweighs the benefits, so many enterprises instead continue to renew inefficient contracts and end up spending much more than they need."

Acresso FLEXnet Manager retails for around £34,400 for an enterprise-grade package.

David Neal, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:07:00

Recession bites at peripherals giant

Peripherals manufacturer Logitech has this week revised its 2009 sales targets and announced job cuts, blaming the deepening global recession.

Gerald Quindlen, president and chief executive at Logitech, cited a deteriorating retail environment as the impetus for the plans.

"We experienced varying degrees of weakness across all geographies and channels as our customers reduced inventory levels in the face of weaker consumer demand," he said.

"Moreover, we expect the economic environment to worsen in the coming months, and we are therefore taking significant actions to align our cost structure with what is likely to be an extended downturn."

Logitech will hold an earnings conference call on 20 January, in which it will outline a number of restructuring changes including reducing its salaried workforce by 15 per cent. Logitech expects the restructuring will be completed by 2010.

"Although the external environment is more challenging than anything we have experienced before, we believe Logitech is very well positioned to manage through this downturn," said Quindlen.

"We have a strong cash position, no debt, and we continue to maintain market share across multiple segments and geographies.

"We remain confident in our strategy for driving long-term double-digit growth, and we believe the well-considered actions we are taking now will result in an even stronger Logitech when the economic recovery begins."

Ian Williams, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:52:00

Microsoft in front, followed by Intel and IBM

Tech firms are leading the way in innovation if patent applications are any indication, according to the latest survey published by IEEE Spectrum, the magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

The results are based on a 'Pipeline Power' metric designed to show the overall strength of a company's patent portfolio.

It is derived not just from the number of patents owned by organisations, but from various measures of patent quality as well such as how often a given patent is cited.

Microsoft, Intel and IBM took the top three overall spots with scores of 3505, 2796 and 2747 respectively, and were all leaders in their given categories.

Much of the list remained similar to previous years, with Hitachi, Matsushita, Xerox and Sony all keeping their places in the Electronics category, and Cisco, Nokia and Motorola remaining at the top in the Telecom Equipment category.

There were a few upsets, however, the most noticeable being electronic ink company E Ink's appearance from nowhere with a Pipeline Power score of 914 to take third position in the Computer Peripherals and Storage section, behind Seiko Epson and Ricoh. E Ink's technology is used by Amazon in its Kindle e-book reader.

Despite the famous 1899 assertion by US Patent Office commissioner Charles Duell that "everything that can be invented has been invented", the research reveals that new patent applications are growing at an ever-increasing rate, and are now over double the number filed a decade ago.

Although software patents are increasingly popular among companies trying to protect their intellectual property and generate revenue from licensing agreements, many believe them to be too generalised to be effective.

The IEEE also recently announced that it is to set up patent pools to help enable companies to cross-license patents in an attempt to minimise litigation and cut legal fees.

Ian Williams, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 13:13:00

New unit to focus on megawatt-scale projects for utility and industrial plants

Toshiba has entered the solar energy market in a big way with the launch of a dedicated Photovoltaic Systems Division.

The new unit forms part of Toshiba's Transmission Distribution and Industrial Systems Company, and has been created to address the surge in demand for solar photovoltaic systems.

Toshiba will focus primarily on large solar power generation systems, such as megawatt-scale projects for utility and industrial plants.

The company will exploit some of its existing expertise to help give it an edge in the new venture, including the use of components such as its Super Charge Ion Battery, which Toshiba claims offers "excellent safety, long life and rapid charging".

Toshiba will also use its previous experience in systems integration, particularly in hooking up micro-grids that connect and manage dispersed small-scale power generation sources, including renewable energy sources.

The new photovoltaic division hopes to reach an annual business scale of about ¥200bn (£1.45bn) by fiscal 2015.

According to Toshiba's figures, the global solar photovoltaic systems market for utility and industrial plants is expected to reach ¥2.2tn (£15.98bn) by 2015, up from ¥1.2tn (£8.71bn) in 2008.

Daniel Robinson, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 12:20:00

Company expected to unveil new handset at CES

Rumours continue to grow about a new handset from Palm that will showcase its long-awaited Nova platform, both of which are expected to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas later this week.

Palm has been developing a successor to its venerable Palm OS platform for a couple of years. Nova is expected to be based on a Linux core and may have some backwards compatibility with older Palm applications.

But the company has been keeping its cards close to its chest, and has declined to disclose any details prior to CES.

Meanwhile, several sources have claimed that Palm will also introduce a new handset at the show based on Nova. Like the firm's Treo line, this is said to have a Qwerty keypad for email and messaging, but one that slides out from behind a touch-sensitive display.

Current Palm devices have a fixed keyboard below the screen, and run either Palm OS Garnet or Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

The move is being seen by many observers as a last chance for Palm to claim back some of the market share it has lost to competitors in the smartphone market over the past few years.

While the Treo line has been fairly successful in the US, sales have been hit by newer and more glamorous rivals such as Apple's iPhone.

Phil Muncaster, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 11:42:00

Early versions on P2P networks could contain malware

Security experts have urged users to be wary of pirated early versions of Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 7 operating system because they may contain malware.

An early build of Windows 7, labelled 'Windows 7 Ultimate Build 7000', was leaked onto the internet last week, and made widely available for download via several peer-to-peer networks.

Rob Rachwald, director of product marketing at security vendor Fortify, highlighted an increase in software infected with malware being posted on the internet, and warned that users should only download software from a trusted source.

"The whole idea is to exploit something popular, whether it's getting users to download porn or popular software. It's just a clever way to spread malware, " he said.

Rik Ferguson, solutions architect at content security vendor Trend Micro, echoed these sentiments.

"We would definitely discourage people from downloading and installing any software where they cannot be sure of the reliability of the content, or the trustworthiness of the source," he said.

"Pirated software distributed over peer-to-peer communities ranks pretty low on the credibility scale."

It is widely expected that Microsoft will make some significant Windows 7 announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Phil Muncaster, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 12:17:00

ViPr features enhanced security and Live Meeting support

Communications firm Aastra UK has launched a new version of its Virtual Presence (ViPr) video conferencing tool, which offers improved security and collaborative functionality.

ViPr is a SIP-based system which integrates into all IP telephony systems, including bridges to PBXs and PSTN, to enable the sharing of documents, multimedia content and real-time applications, according to the firm.

The new version includes Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) support to encrypt all media streams, and offers integration with Microsoft Live Meeting.

"Aastra's commitment is to deliver open, standards-based communication solutions to the enterprise and large campus environments," said Aastra UK general manager Michael Calvert.

"Customers are already using it for distance learning and training, remote medical diagnosis, secure remote depositions and testimonies, and global broadcasts of live performances."

The product is available in multiple configurations including personal desktop units and rack- or table-mounted conference room models. The system is based on the H.264 standard to provide good quality resolution at low bandwidths, the firm said.

Iain Thomson in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 20:47:00

Purge of 'vulgar' sites to match ban on political ones

The Chinese government has named 19 web sites, including Google.com, as failing to remove "vulgar" material such as pornography which it says is harming its citizens.

The government list, which also includes Baidu, China's largest search engine, was published as part of a new year crackdown on sites which the Chinese government deems offensive. It has already announced bans on adult video and audio products.

"Some websites have exploited loopholes in laws and regulations," Cai Mingzhao, a deputy chief of the State Council Information Office, said in a report on an official news website.

"They have used all kinds of ways to distribute content that is low-class, crude and even vulgar, gravely damaging mores on the internet."

Chinese state media is reporting that officials have conducted searches on Baidu and Google that returned too many links to pornography, and warned that the state would take action if the companies did not filter their results.

China already has one of the most heavily censored internet services in the world, and routinely filters sites dealing with politics or certain aspects of Chinese history such as the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Representatives from Google and Baidu are reportedly examining their output to assess the scale of the issue, but have released no formal statements.

China has also announced that it is to strengthen its laws on computer hacking. A draft amendment under review by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress would impose steep fines and prison sentences of three to seven years, depending on the severity of the offence.

Last week China announced its largest ever piracy bust, in which 11 people were jailed for copying Microsoft software.

Iain Thomson in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 23:00:00

Web giant reveals plans for touch screen phones for all

Google is working on an Android add-on that will make the mobile phone operating system much easier for blind people to use.

T V Raman, a Google researcher who has been blind since the age of 14, is working on a system whereby touching the screen would assign that point to the number five, the centre of the numeric pad.

This would allow much easier touch dialling for sightless users who could use the whole screen. They would also be able to shake the device to wipe the number and redial.

"The thing I am most interested in is all of the stuff moving to the mobile world, because it is a big life-changer," Raman told The New York Times.

There are already screen readers for mobile phones, but they can cost as much as the handset itself. Raman wants to build in support for the visually impaired right from the start of the design process.

"If I can get another 10 engineers motivated to work on accessibility, it is a huge win," he said.

Raman is also working on a system that would use the phone's mapping software and GPS to allow the sightless user to navigate using spoken directions from the phone. The same system could also help sighted users.

"If you have the technology that can recognise a street sign as you drive by it, that is helpful for everyone," he said. "In a foreign country, it will translate it."

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 23:20:00

MediaSentry deal comes to an end

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is said to be calling off a deal with the company that gathered information for its legal campaigns.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the RIAA had terminated its partnership with MediaSentry, a firm which specialises in online copyright protection and investigation services.

MediaSentry is said to be the primary provider of user download data for the RIAA's controversial legal campaign. The group has for several years been the target of consumer and privacy advocates for its decision to file suit against business employees and home users who downloaded music.

News of the move is the latest in what has become a changing strategy for the RIAA in recent months. The organisation decided last month that it would be discontinuing its practice of filing mass lawsuits.

First launched in 2003, the controversial legal tactic involved suing individual users who were believed to have made music available to others free of charge through P2P services and file-sharing sites.

The tactic led to a number of embarrassing cases for the RIAA, such as those filed against elderly women, teenagers and even a family that did not own a computer.

Perhaps the most humiliating defeat for the RIAA, however, came in August when a single mother won her countersuit against the organisation for false accusations.

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 01:37:00

Second display slides out from the notebook's casing

Lenovo has rolled out its latest line of notebook and desktop systems, including four IdeaPad models, an all-in-one IdeaCentre system and a ThinkPad for enterprise customers.

The new W700ds ThinkPad and will sport two screens. In addition to the 17in main screen, a second 10in display slides out from the notebook's casing.

Lenovo hopes that the new model will appeal to workers in traditional graphics-intensive enterprise fields such as digital media creation, geological exploration and computer-aided design.

Mark Cohen, vice president of Lenovo's notebook business unit, explained that balancing size and performance had proved a challenge for the company.

"Bringing this level of innovation to the most extreme PC users required continually balancing size and functionality with keeping the PC cool and quiet, " he said.

The new IdeaPad and IdeaCentre consumer offerings, meanwhile, will be pitched on their lighter weight and smaller design.

The IdeaPad systems will sport case designs as thin as 1in and offer screens as large as 16.5in. Lenovo is also offering a new netbook model with a 10in screen at a cost of $349 (£237).

The desktop model will sport a frameless 21.5in screen with an ATI Radeon graphics card and Intel Core 2 duo processor. The new system will also feature card readers and USB and FireWire ports. Like the notebook models, the desktop will be just 1in thick at its slimmest point.

Lenovo said that the dual-screen ThinkPad model will be available immediately, while the consumer notebooks are set to arrive in March, followed a month later by the A600 desktop model.

Daniel Robinson, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 05:15:00

New mobile chip jointly developed with HP

AMD has unveiled a new mobile platform which it claims will fill a gap in the laptop market between low-cost netbook models such as the Asus Eee PC and traditional ultraportable systems.

Announced today but due for official launch at CES in Las Vegas, the AMD Ultrathin Notebook Platform features a new mobile chip, the Athlon Neo, and was jointly developed with HP, which has built its HP Pavilion dv2 laptop around the platform.

AMD has identified what it believes is a gap in the market between mini laptops, which are affordably priced but compromise on performance and usability, and ultraportables, which offer a full PC experience but tend to carry a high price tag.

"What we see is an opportunity for a new highly portable notebook category that gives you the best of both worlds," said Bahr Mahony, director of product marketing at AMD.

The Athlon Neo is based on the same core architecture as AMD's other Athlon and Opteron chips, and is clocked at 1.6GHz. In the new platform, codenamed Yukon, it is combined with an M690T chipset and an optional discrete ATI graphics chip.

This enables laptops based on the platform to deliver the full graphics experience under Windows Vista, according to Mahony, but to remain "amazingly thin yet optimally sized".

The Ultrathin Notebook Platform will be followed in the second half of 2009 by another called Congo that will feature a dual-core processor, while the Athlon Neo is single core only.

HP's Pavilion dv2 laptop is the first model based on the technology, but other vendors have shown an interest, according to AMD. The dv2 has a 12in display and is expected to cost between $699 (£456) and $899 (£586). "No vendor is currently selling in this price band," said Mahony.

While the dv2 is aimed primarily at consumers, Mahony added that vendors have also expressed interest in the platform for business-focused laptops.

Tony Lock, programme director at analyst firm Freeform Dynamics, believes that AMD could find success with the Ultrathin Notebook Platform.

"I think there is certainly room for a very portable solution that offers more processing capabilities than existing ultra portables and netbooks without breaking the bank," he said.

Ian Williams, vnunet.com, Monday 5 January 2009 at 12:30:00

Remote computer searching without a warrant upsets privacy groups

The Home Office has awarded new powers to the police and MI5 allowing them to hack into personal computers without a warrant. The move follows proposals by the European Union which extend the use of intrusive surveillance.

The remote searching technique uses keyloggers, which can be installed in a variety of ways to allow officers to monitor a suspect's computer usage, including emails, web surfing and instant messaging conversations.

Each case must still be authorised by a chief constable, but the new measures have angered opposition MPs, as well as civil liberty and privacy organisations, which are threatening a legal challenge to the extension.

"The exercise of such intrusive powers raises serious privacy issues," said shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve. "The government must explain how they would work in practice and what safeguards will be in place."

Shami Chakrabati, director of human rights group Liberty, added: "These are very intrusive powers. The public will want this to be controlled by new legislation and judicial authorisation.

"Without those safeguards, it is a devastating blow to any notion of personal privacy. This is no different from breaking down someone's door, rifling through their paperwork and seizing their computer hard drive."

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) defended the move, pointing out that it would still be governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

"To be a valid authorisation, the officer giving it must believe that it is necessary to prevent or detect serious crime ... and is proportionate to what it seeks to achieve," said an ACPO spokesman.

"The police service in the UK will aggressively pursue serious and organised criminality, including where that takes the modern forms of hi-tech crime."

According to the police, 194 police hacking operations were carried out in England, Wales and Northern Ireland over the past two years: 133 in private homes, 37 in offices and 24 in hotels.

Phil Muncaster, vnunet.com, Monday 5 January 2009 at 12:41:00

Firm replaces hashing function after security alert

VeriSign has moved to address a flaw in its Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certification technology, which could have allowed hackers to create false certificates.

SSL certificates are one of the most common ways for firms to prove that their web sites are secure and authentic. By creating false certificates, hackers could deter online shoppers and possibly undermine consumer faith in e-commerce.

The so-called 'collision attack' flaw, first published by researchers at the Chaos Communication Congress last week, was aimed at the MD5 hashing algorithm of certificates issued by the RapidSSL authority, according to VeriSign.

"This presentation showed how to combine MD5 collision attacks with some other clever bits of hacking to create a false certificate," Tim Callan, VeriSign's vice president of SSL product marketing, said in a blog posting.

"We have discontinued using MD5 when we issue RapidSSL certificates, and we've confirmed that all other SSL certificates we sell are not vulnerable to this attack."

VeriSign has now transitioned to the SHA-1 algorithm on new RapidSSL brand certificates, and said that it will replace MD5 certificates for existing customers free of charge.

Callan added that the company aims to discontinue MD5 in "all end entity certificates" by the end of this month.

Matthew Tyler, director of consultancy firm Evolution Security Systems, explained that the MD5 flaw highlights why certificate authorities must "keep up to speed" with the latest security threats.

"As computing power increases there is a need to keep algorithms in pace with this change. MD5 was created over 18 years ago and had issues even before it went live in 1996 over 12 years ago," he said.

"MD5 is an old and debunked hashing algorithm and should have been phased out by the slightly more secure SHA-1/2, with SHA-3 due for 2012."

Extended Validation SSL Certificates, which VeriSign has been promoting vigorously since their launch in late 2006, are not affected by the flaw.

TypePad Blogs, Monday 5 January 2009 at 09:28:56

With Internet Explorer 8 on the horizon Microsoft will be looking to address declining interest in what used to be the undisputed...

With Internet Explorer 8 on the horizon Microsoft will be looking to address declining interest in what used to be the undisputed king of the web, an application that once commanded a massive 94.5% of the world's online computers. Not so these days, as security issues and worthy rivals have now condemned the software to its lowest market share for over a decade.

IE has been in steady decline for the last few years and today comprises less than 70% of the world market, according to NetApplications.com. The main reason for this is predictably the rise and rise of Firefox, which set new world records when launched last summer and now boasts over 20% of the market share. Safari is still the Mac users choice at around 7% and though Google Chrome currently has less than 1% of the market, this is a figure we'd expect to rise after it recently exited beta. Microsoft has some serious thinking to do before IE 8's official launch then, and is looking to address security, usability and features in the light of growing competition. Personally we suspect its time as undisputed champion has already come to an end. - Paul Lester [NetApplications] Internet Explorer Firefox web browser

TypePad Blogs, Monday 5 January 2009 at 10:00:05

All-in-One PCs are nothing new but US firm, Originatic, has been bleating on about wall-mounting PCs for some time and at this...

All-in-One PCs are nothing new but US firm, Originatic, has been bleating on about wall-mounting PCs for some time and at this year's CES show we are promised that the concept will become a reality. The Smart-Leaf all-in-one PC is designed to be wall-mounted with a fold-out keyboard that will save space in the home and the office. It debuted as a concept at last year's CES but this year we will get to see the Oasis [home] and Mountain [office] versions.

These are built to be tough cookies though, designed for kitchens and other well-used rooms in the home and office, and boast scratch-resistant touchscreens and water-proofing. They also come with TV tuners for those all important daytime soaps. Reno Smith, Originatic's Chairman, "We have had a strong response to the Smart-Leaf from both consumers and businesses. The Smart-Leaf appeals to consumers because it provides computer access in high traffic areas, like the kitchen, without taking up counter space. The Smart- Leaf enables businesses to deliver solutions to customers and employees in places previously considered too crowded." We have no solid specs or prices yet but we can't see the Smart Leaf being cheap enough to become a mass market product.-Martin Lynch [Slashgear] PC gadget CES

TypePad Blogs, Monday 5 January 2009 at 11:00:55

The New Year is looking very bleak indeed for Creative Technology which has just revealed that it shed 2,700 - almost 50%...

The New Year is looking very bleak indeed for Creative Technology which has just revealed that it shed 2,700 - almost 50% - of its workforce during the last fiscal year. The Singapore-based maker of music/media players and PC audio cards and speaker systems has been struggling for years to steal some of Apple's marketshare and blamed the cuts on poor sales of its music players. Creative makes the well known Zen series of music players.

In its annual report just filed, Creative revealed that it has 3,100 full time staff in June 2008, down 47% on what it had a year earlier. The report "The markets that Creative targets are highly competitive. Many of Creative's current and potential competitors have substantially greater financial, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and other resources." Creative posted is lowest revenues in 5 years, with a net loss of $19.7m on sales of $736.8m for the year ended June 30, 2008.-Martin Lynch [Source] music MP3 ipod