Vista SP1 launched as Phorm declared illegal

IT greenery

Personal computers have come in for a lot of flak lately over their impact on the environment, but just how environmentally unfriendly are they? We spoke to Fujitsu-Siemens Computers CTO Dr Joseph Reger to get a better idea of the answer.

Whatever the answer, Nintendo probably aren't aware of it. The video games firm scored a penguin-saddening 0.3 on Greenpeace's green electronics rating ladder. Samsung and Toshiba earned the praise of all woodland folk by scoring 7.7 each - the highest score recorded.

The Phorm performance continues

BT has admitted it secretly tested Phorm's advertising tech on customer data last summer, and may have inadvertently sort of misled people about the fact, but 'fessed to the illicit data pimping on Monday. Customers are not happy.

And the Foundation for Information Policy Research, an internet think tank, has advised that Phorm's ad-targetting system is illegal. This is because the consent of those hosting visited websites is needed in addition to that of the visitors themselves.

Meanwhile Phorm is to let an independent software engineer scrutinise its source code. The move appears to be aimed at regaining some public trust, but the chances of that seem slim. Once a data pimp, always a data pimp...

EC tries to round up carousel fraud

The European Commission is considering rejigging VAT laws to try to stem rampant carousel fraud. It is hoped that speeding up the processing of VAT will reduce the opportunities for fraud.

Vista service pack 1 is go

Microsoft has released the first service pack for Windows Vista, but it appears to break a few third-party security products, and it was a bit late anyway. Use at your own risk.

Iomega succumbs to EMC

Initially coy, Iomega quickly changed its tune when suitor EMC revealed an enlarged offer. The proposal of a $205.5m buy was considered superior to a mooted all-stock deal with a stockholder.

It's the staff swap shop

Finance and small business software provider Sage has made Sue Swenson its CEO. Swenson was chief executive of Cellular One and has 20 years of telecoms experience.

Vodafone is to lay off 450 staff at its Newbury headquarters. This represents about 10 per cent of personnel there, but they'll be replaced by 490 new faces, albeit working in retail advice and billing.

And Motorola is dumping half its Birmingham staff in a bid to turn around its ailing mobile devices division. The div is certainly not feeling healthy - its fourth quarter sales are down 38 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Supermarket spills card details

New England-based supermarket chain Hannaford has coughed to a security breach that exposed around 4.2 million credit card records. The chain said that hackers might have accessed credit and debit card numbers as a result of the breach.

A Seattle man who used peer-to-peer software to obtain personal information on 50 people to commit ID theft has been incarcerated. The perp was given four years for mail fraud, computer hacking and aggravated identity theft offences, but a second charge of aggravated ID theft was dropped.

Bell Micro delisted

File your results on time, or you may face the consequences. Bell Micro didn't, and was delisted by NASDAQ as a result. Shares in the company then dropped 31 per cent to $1.94. You have been warned.

Apple unleashes patch, DSL Reports back up

Apple has released a huge security update that patches at least 80 flaws in its Tiger and Leopard operating systems.

A Japanese man has admitted creating the Pirlames Trojan, which deletes music and movie files from compromised systems. It used animation footage as a lure, and then installed via a backdoor when users clicked on the bait. The case against the author continues.

DSL Reports, hit by a DDoS attack that took it down for a few hours, is back online. At the time of writing the torrent had not stopped, but it had dropped to manageable levels. At least 1,100 bot-infested computers participated in the attack.

And former Microsoft worker Dan Griffin will later this month demonstrate security vulnerabilities in smart card plug-in software for Windows Vista that could let hackers compromise PCs.

Yahoo! bigs up future revenue

Yahoo! has told its investors it expects double cashflow in the next three years. The move increases pressure on Microsoft to increase its bid, something the software giant has so far refused to do.

Stop droning on...

California's Highway 99 was plunged into chaos on Sunday as a beehive-carrying truck overturned and spilled 440 colonies of bees onto the roadway. The Highway Commission drafted in apiarists and Romanians with beekeeping experience to repatriate the little buzzers. Those bees unfortunate enough not to survive the accident were swept up. ®