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1st March 2004 Archive

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  • Telewest unveils capped 256k Net access

    'No-brainer'

    Telewest has unveiled a 256k cable service to tempt customers who are wary of switching to broadband. Available in the Spring, the new package is five times faster than standard dial-up. It costs £17.99 a month when taken with another Telewest Broadband service, or £19.99 - just £2 a month more than narrowband services from BT …

    Telecoms 1 Mar 2004, 09:22

  • German revolt against RFID

    Metro scraps trial

    Metro Group has abandoned a trial of RFID radio tags, after protests by digital rights activists. The German retail giant has tested RFID tags at its Extra Store in Rheinberg, near Duisburg for nearly a year. The chips, hidden underneath price tags for cream cheese, shampoo and razor blades, were read over the air using radio …

    Security 1 Mar 2004, 09:43

  • BT touts £20 capped broadband

    1Gb a month limit

    BT has unveiled a capped, entry-level service that enables punters to take their "first step on the broadband ladder". Costing £19.99 a month, BT Broadband Basic runs at speeds up to 512k - just as fast as BT's mainstream consumer broadband package. But strings are attached - the service has a 1Gb a month usage limit. This cap …

    Telecoms 1 Mar 2004, 10:06

  • MS takes fight to the spammers

    Moots verifiable email ID

    At the RSA Conference last week, Bill Gates mapped out Microsoft's proposals for tackling spam. Of note are the company's Co-ordinated Spam Reduction Initiative (CSRI) and a technical proposal for email that's likened by many to the phone industry's caller-ID system. CSRI includes a roadmap for policy and technology …

    Security 1 Mar 2004, 11:00

  • Even Microsoft can't wait for Longhorn

    Delay would benefit Linux

    Microsoft is considering a u-turn in its Windows upgrade plan and releasing an update to XP before shipping its next generation operating system, Longhorn. The possible change of heart - Microsoft had previously sworn not to create any more versions of Windows before Longhorn - may indicate that the major product is further …

    Software 1 Mar 2004, 11:03

  • Security: the CIO's biggest headache

    Closely followed by upgrades

    Security, upgrades and modernisation, and budgets were the top three issues faced by Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in 2003, writes Bloor Research chief analyst Tony Lock. It's unsurprising to find security at number one on the list, compiled by the Standish Group. This subject is always quoted as the biggest cause for …

    Hardware 1 Mar 2004, 11:23

  • 419ers adopt Shakespearean line of attack

    Gently does it, good sir

    It's good to see that the lads from Lagos are still hard at work, despite the best efforts of police, spam-baiters and ourselves to cage/enrage/lambaste the advance fee fraudsters into submission. This latest piece of work, forwarded by reader Jack Healy, marks a departure from the in-you-face line of attack. It's a rather good …

    Bootnotes 1 Mar 2004, 11:24

  • Lloyds TSB leads the great Egg race

    Spooning with the Pru

    The race to buy online bank Egg is hotting up, with Lloyds TSB emerging as a possible favourite. Lloyds chief executive Eric Daniels is persuading directors that buying Egg from majority owner Prudential would increase market share and provide good cross-selling opportunities, according to The Observer. The paper reports a …

    Business 1 Mar 2004, 11:50

  • UK small.biz gets free online training resource

    All you can eat at the One Stop Shop

    e-Skills UK has set up a website for small IT businesses. Called One Stop Shop, this is a a free, online directory of courses and training providers across the UK. The site has information on tens of thousands of full and part-time courses, from public and private providers. It also offers a range of self-study courses, which …

    Small Biz 1 Mar 2004, 12:02

  • Your Communications buys Eurocall

    Manchester exchange

    Your Communications has bought rival Manchester telco Eurocall for £42m. Your's parent company, United Utilities, is paying £30 million in cash immediately and £12 million in two stages over the next 18 months. United Utilities expects to fund the acquisition from extra revenues generated by the enlarged company. Your will …

    Business 1 Mar 2004, 12:35

  • Three new handsets from 3

    Lovely. But 3 x DoCoMo = divorce?

    3 UK has introduced three small video handsets, doubling the range available to VideoTalk subscribers. Climbing onboard the 3G network are the NEC e616, the NEC e313 and the Motorola A925. The NEC e616 is a clamshell style, dual-band phone. It has a built-in MP3 player, Bluetooth, Sony MemoryStick Duo card slot and Java …

    Mobile 1 Mar 2004, 12:58

  • Ofcom goes to war over ‘070’ use

    Regime change prompts investigation

    British telecoms specialist Inclarity is under investigation by Ofcom, accused of misusing telephone numbers allocated by the British government. The row centres on use of '070' numbers - which can be transferred from landline to mobile phones. These numbers come with a list of strict restrictions on their use. Nilesh Pandya, …

    Mobile 1 Mar 2004, 13:02

  • Fistful of Bagles shoot up the Net

    Unmagnificent five

    Five new versions of the Bagle worm escaped on to the Web at the weekend. Just one, the medium-risk Bagle-C, has spread widely. The new bagles - C through to G - have minor differences only. It seems that unknown virus writers are trying different tactics to fool users into spreading their malicious code. All seven Bagle …

    Malware 1 Mar 2004, 13:26

  • What the PM's spokesman said next

    Lobby briefings for all

    Britain's murky political reporting could become a little clearer, courtesy of a website which publishes unedited transcripts of lobby briefings. These are the twice-daily press conferences conducted by the prime minister's official spokesman in front of a select audience of journalists. But now an unspun transcript of what he …

    Music and Media 1 Mar 2004, 15:15

  • Windows leak dangers ‘exaggerated’

    RSA No serious security calamity here. Move along...

    Don't worry: last month's leak of Windows source code will not compromise your IT security - any more than it is already. Some commentators (from example here and here) have talked up the danger of million of lines of Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code becoming available to crackers, virus writers and other …

    Music and Media 1 Mar 2004, 15:37

  • Maxtor champions 6 stream DVRs

    132Mbps? Bring it on

    Maxtor and Scientific Atlanta last week attracted column inches on their plans for the next generation of DVRs, due for release in about 18 months. But what exactly are they talking about when they boast of 6 stream technology? To date, pegging the price of DVRs and VCRs meant that they could feature a limited number of tuners …

    Personal 1 Mar 2004, 15:42

  • AT&T ADSL thunders across US heartland

    Broadband in 14 states and more to follow

    AT&T this week outlined a plan to sell broadband services in all states in which it provides bundled local and long-distance residential services. Last week saw the roll-out of the company's broadband services in Missouri, Kansas and Pennsylvania. This brings the total of states that AT&T covers to 14. The programme began last …

    Telecoms 1 Mar 2004, 15:44

  • Americans get personal online

    Committing innermost thoughts to cyberspace

    Almost half of America's Internet users have committed their innermost thoughts to the Web, according to a new survey. Forty-four per cent of American Internet users have contributed material online, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project report released on Friday. The non-profit research organisation found that …

    Music and Media 1 Mar 2004, 15:52

  • Rival ISPs rubbish BT Broadband Basic

    £20 more expensive, say Freeserve, Tiscali, et al

    BT's rivals have been quick to rubbish its new sub-£20 offer for a capped broadband service by pointing out that BT Broadband Basic is just as expensive as the monster telco's other no-frills offer. Although BT Broadband Basic costs £19.99 a month, the £80 up-front set-up cost means that for the first year punters will be …

    Telecoms 1 Mar 2004, 16:07

  • UUNet tops spammer-hosting super league

    ISPs harbour world's worst offenders

    UUNet hosts more spammers than any other ISP. It has 151 listings on the Spammers Block List (SBL), including 34 known spam gangs with ROKSO records, according to the anti-spam organisation Spamhaus' records for February 2004. The second worst offender, Chinanet-QD, has 82 entries on the SBL. It hosts Alan Ralsky, listed as the …

    Security 1 Mar 2004, 16:24

  • SCO ‘customer’ admits to IP license purchase

    Coming clean

    The SCO Group has managed to encourage one of its "customers" to come clean about signing up for an IP license. Hosting company, EV1Servers.net is the first company to publicly announce its purchase of a clean Linux license, buying the IP rights for close to 20,000 servers. SCO insists that a few other companies have signed up …

    Hardware 1 Mar 2004, 17:58

  • Mossad website ‘hacker’ walks free

    And gets pat on head for 'acting in the public good'

    An Israeli man was cleared yesterday of trying to hack into a website run by Israel's secret service, Mossad. Jerusalem Magistrate's Court acquitted Avi Mizrahi of computer crime offences after judges ruled his motives for checking the security of a Mossad recruitment site were innocent. Presiding judge Abraham Tennenbaum even …

    Security 1 Mar 2004, 18:22

  • Smartphone wars over, Symbian and MS both lost?

    3GSM Sun maybe won, if you call 'enabling lack of victory' winning...

    Events of the past few weeks have kind of undermined images of Symbian as the victor in the smartphone wars. Depending on how you look at it, last week at 3GSM the company was either staggering about with a dagger in its back, or David Levin was pointing a gun at his head and telling any shareholder who'd listen, "Buy more …

    Mobile 1 Mar 2004, 18:36

  • Netsky-D makes your PC go beep, beep, beep

    Put on your tin-foil hat

    An email worm posing as a PIF file is spreading rapidly across the Net today. The Netsky-D worm is clogging in-boxes already sagging under the collective load of five new variants of the Bagle worm and sundry other irritants. Netsky-D normally arrives in email with a variety of subject names (including Re: Approved, Re: …

    Malware 1 Mar 2004, 18:52

  • Is password-lending a cybercrime?

    Looks like it...

    A judge's wrongheaded interpretation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act illustrates the problems of allowing civil enforcement of a criminal law, writes SecurityFocus columnist Mark Rasch In a little-observed civil lawsuit involving tracking of magazine subscriptions, a federal court in Manhattan issued a ruling last …

    Security 1 Mar 2004, 19:15

  • Sun tries UltraSPARC IV temptation

    Upgrade sale

    Sun Microsystems is doing a bit of house cleaning as it attempts to move customers onto new UltraSPARC IV-based kit, offering discounts to customers willing to upgrade their servers. Sun will cut the cost of new UltraSPARC IV gear by up to 40 percent for customers trading in older kit. This offer also applies to customers who …

    Servers 1 Mar 2004, 19:55