UPDATED: 4.5 million iPods drive record Apple profits

Apple has reported its best ever financial results on the back of sales of 4.5 million iPods and more than one million Macs. Revenue for the latest financial quarter, ending December 25 2004, was $3. ...more

Trojan on the wires to turn PCs to DDOS devices

Sophos has alerted users to the Qhosts-1 trojan which can commandeer infected computers for future use as part of a denial of service attack. Although already in the wild, the virus is not spreading at any great rate, mainly because it is not a worm, and so has no self replicating characteristics. Sophos says it has 'received a small number of reports' but warns that it exploits an as yet unpatched vulnerability in Internet Explorer. ...more

Russia first government with Windows code

Russia has become the first government to reap the fruits of Microsoft's Government Security Program (GSP). Announced barely a week ago, the program is designed to put Microsoft's most valuable asset - the source code to its Windows operating system - into the hands of governments. It will allow national bodies to adapt their own software to make best use of operating system's security features. ...more

Record industry scuppers Tiscali online music

The European recording industry is virtually impossible to work with in the promotion of legal music online, according to Tiscali, which says it has been 'forced' to turn off its music streaming service by recalcitrant record labels. The ISP says that a dispute over interactive rights means that it can no longer provide the Tiscali Juke Box service, which it launched in the UK and Italy on 26 April. The service gave users the chance to legally listen to millions of songs through p2p streaming. ...more

Microsoft and the EU square up for new battle over source code

Microsoft and the European Union look to be squaring up for another battle in what is becoming a trial of strength. On the one hand, the EU is trying to get what it sees as a monopolist trying to evade the penalties imposed on it. On the other hand, Microsoft is waging a PR battle to show that it is a good corporate citizen. ...more