Sony settles over dodgy DRM fallout

Sony BMG has agreed to settle a New York state lawsuit arising from its controversial deployment of digital rights management technologies on CDs released in the US. Under the terms of the proposed settlement, which will have to be approved by a judge, the record company will compensate anyone who purchased a CD that included either XCP or MediaMax DRM and will provide tools for removing the software from PCs. It will also recall all XCP CDs, having already recalled MediaMax discs, and has committed to limiting its use of copy protection measures in the future. ...more

RAR vulnerability reported for antivirus software

A 'critical' vulnerability has been discovered in Symantec's antivirus software, according to independent security researcher Alex Wheeler. The problem, he believes, could mean that the anti-virus software could actually let in the very malware that it is designed to identify and block. Security firm Secunia has labelled the vulnerability as 'highly critical'. ...more

UK phisher caught in net

A UK man, from Lytham St Anne's, has been arrested for the Internet scam of 'phishing'. He is accused of using a bogus website to angle for the financial details of users of Smile, which is the Internet arm of the Co-operative Bank. Officials from the NHTCU (National Hi-Tech Crime Unit) tracked the individual after they were tipped-off by Smile a month ago, reports Reuters. ...more

2005 review: AMD battles Intel for a multi-core future

A story of the progress towards full dual-core and 64-bit computing, interspersed with the ongoing legal battle between the two microprocessor giants, which started with investigations of anti-competitive behaviour by Intel in Japan. Not forgetting the sub-plots involving the emergence of the home-entertainment Viiv platform (pronounced vive) and Intel's support for HD DVD, the next-gen optical disc format that is battling Blu-ray for dominance. Multi-core Last year, we anticipated multi-core computing (where there are two or more co-operating processors rather than one powerful execution engine) being a key battle area for 2006, and so it has proved. ...more

BT cuts wireless costs

BT Openworld has cut the cost of its wireless networking products for SMEs. The price of USB and PC card adapters, which add wireless connectivity to computers, has been cut by 17 per cent. Wireless Access Point prices have been cut by 22 per cent. ...more