12th February 2002 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Nortel CFO quits over pension claims

Forewarned is forearmed

Nortel Networks Corp has announced the immediate resignation of its CFO Terry Hungle and notified US and Canadian regulators, alleging he has broken the rules of the company's stock investment plan, Terry Murphy writes. Nortel said Hungle, a 20-year veteran of the firm who was appointed CFO in early October, moved money in …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 08:57
Google in a Box

Search appliance for corporates

Google Inc has developed what it calls "Google in a box", a search appliance designed to reduce the cost and complexity of behind-the-firewall searches at large enterprises. With the likes of Inktomi Corp and AltaVista Co squarely in its sights, the company has already sold the product to National Semiconductor Corp and "a …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 08:57
Europe not sold on Internet at home

Not enough PCs

Europe's love affair with the Internet may never become as intense as that between US citizens and cyberspace, according to the latest eEurope benchmarking report of the European Commission. Although there has been a dramatic rise in household Internet use in the EU, rising from 18% of households in March 2000 to 39% last …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 08:58
HDS plays down API swaps with IBM or EMC

Not coming to terms

The prospects of cooperation among high-end storage makers turned flat last week when Hitachi Data Systems - one of the triad of suppliers in the market sector - ruled itself out of any near-term technology access swaps with its rivals, Tim Stammers writes. Although HDS said that the latest version of its HiCommand …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 08:58
Apple cuts jobs, discloses store revenue

Slims margins

Apple has taken a $24 million hit and shed 425 jobs, according to the company's latest SECC filing. The cuts fall on Apple's IT, operations and admin, and the bulk of the expense is cancelled equipment leases, as opposed to cancelled human being leases. And for the first time Apple has put a meaningful figure on revenue from …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 09:00
Anthrax and blood tests come to InterX rescue (maybe)

Clawbacks

An American anthrax and blood testing firm is the key to the survival of cash-strapped InterX, the British content management software company. Exemplar, a US screening firm is capitalised at $71m and listed on NASDAQ. It in turn is 56 per cent owned by Diligenti, a US life sciences online publishing firm, which in turn is 34 …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 10:23
MS issues monster IE security fix

One-stop patching

A total of six new security stuff-ups affecting Internet Explorer and Outlook Express have been addressed in a cumulative patch which has made two temporary appearances on the TechNet Web site since last week. This, the third posting, has been up for several hours, so we're going to take a chance and assume it works properly. …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 11:24
Accused DEA data-thief skips bail

Must be on drugs

Federal agents in Los Angeles are searching for a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who last week skipped out on felony charges of illegally selling sensitive information about private citizens from law enforcement computers, SecurityFocus has learned. "He's a fugitive," said Thom Mrozek, a …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 12:06
Charney an ominous MS pick

Not good -- not at all good

At the Blackhat Security Briefings in New Orleans last week my standard opening question in conversation was, "So, what do you think about Scott Charney?" For the most part, the standard response was, "Who's that?" If you have not heard yet, Microsoft has announced that Mr. Charney, previously a security and cybercrime …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 12:20
Rebel States slam MS witness list

'Blatant disregard...' etc etc

The nine States still pursuing the case against Microsoft yesterday asked the judge to bar 16 of Microsoft's witnesses, accusing the company of using "hide-the-ball" tactics by waiting until the last minute before filing the list. Microsoft's list includes 23 "previously undisclosed" witnesses, and maintains a certain coyness in …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 12:35
Former Corel CEO innocent of insider charges shock

It wasn't me, it was the holding com-pan-ee...

Former Corel CEO Michael Cowpland has been vindicated in the long-running Canadian insider trading action mounted against him by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). There is of course the small matter of the C$1 million fine, but still... The Great Escape can be described approximately as follows, and don't blame us, we …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 13:15
Boston E-Party looms, as EU set to tax online sales

Ministers poised for sign-off

The European Council of Economic and Finance ministers (ECOFIN) is set to agree the imposition of Value Added Tax on online sales today. ECOFIN agreed this in principle in December, but after today's sign-off it will have to go through the European Parliament, after which legislation will go into force. ECOFIN has bigger fish …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 14:01
Gambling software firm takes $1.3m charge for security breach

Crackers reprogrammed online slot machines

Cryptologic, the gambling software firm, is taking a a $1.3m charge for a fraud on its system perpetrated by hackers. Upon breaking into CryptoLogic's servers, hackers reprogrammed slot machines and a craps table at two Web-based casinos which use the firm's software so that illicit players won every time they played, Canada's …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 14:29
Cancer busters turned 'paranoid yank saviors'?

Anthrax is for sheep

As Vulture Central II Team Captain (oh the glory that title has bought me... the free beers, the women flocking, never getting given the wrong order a >Maccy D's....), I feel that it is my duty to inform theregister.co.uk and its readers that United Devices have stopped using _some_ of our PCs for the purpose of molecular …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 14:37
IBM Memory Keys in mystery virus infection

Rare, Dormant

A computer virus has somehow infected IBM's 32MB Memory Key, prompting the firm to issue a utility that cleans up the infection. The Memory Key is a removable storage device which plugs into the USB port. Last year, users reported that McAfee's VirusScan had spotted the WYX virus on the devices. This was thought to be a false …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 14:47
Mythic sued over EULA

If I could turn back Time

BlackSnow Interactive is a company which locates rare and expensive items in massively multiplayer online RPGs such as Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot and then sells them on its website. With seven full-time employees, it is the largest professional gamesmanship organisation this writer is aware of. It is also suing …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 15:53
The Great Mobile Phone Robbery

Samsung handsets worth £4.2m stolen

Thieves have made off with 26,000 Samsung mobile phones after an audacious raid on a warehouse on the outskirts of London. The A300 phones, worth an estimated £4.2 million, were stolen from a freight forwarding warehouse in Hayes, Middlesex, where the alarm system was turned off, prompting speculation that the raid may have …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 16:15
SGI stays with MIPS at high-end

'Long term commitment'

SGI has refreshed its high-end 64-bit MIPS line of high-end graphics servers, workstations and supercomputers with - a faster 64-bit MIPS line-up. The MIPS R14000A is produced by its former subsidiary in 550MHz and 600MHz flavours with the latter delivering up to 37 per cent more applications performance than slower …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 18:35
Dell rolls out GPRS notebooks across Europe

Road Warrior survival kit

Dell is making it easier for road warriors to obtain high speed Internet access by outfitting its notebooks with a GPRS connectivity package. The Dell TrueMobile GPRS package offers 'anytime, anywhere' wireless mobility to business users through a pre-configured, built-to-order notebook that includes the Dell TrueMobile 5000 …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 18:38
Best Buy offers $30 discount to GeForce-4 disappointees

Get back on that horse

The best medicine for a disappointed shopper is more shopping, Best Buy reckons. Thus all the customers who thought they might profit from a mistake which priced the Nvidia GeForce-4 at a preposterous $129 have been issued $30 gift certificates redeemable against any on-line purchase. But time is not on their side. The offer …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 21:26
Serious network security holes surface

Black day for BOFHs

A slew of security vulnerabilities in implementations of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) may allow unauthorised privileged access, denial-of-service attacks, or cause unstable behaviour, security clearing house CERT has warned. SNMP is a widely-deployed protocol commonly used to monitor and manage network devices. The …

Business 12 Feb 2002, 23:38