EFF guns for AT&T over privacy of communication

US comms giant AT&T has been sued by electronic civil rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for its part in aiding the National Security Agency's (NSA) programme to intercept communications across the US. The EFF is suing AT&T on the basis that its activities violate communications privacy laws. It alleges that the company allowed the NSA to intercept traffic over its network and gave it access to its 300 terabyte 'Daytona' database, which includes customer data on emails and phone calls made. ...more

Palyh-A - the email virus that is NOT from Microsoft

Another week another worm. Sophos is warning of a new threat to your PC - Palyh-A (alias Mankx), which purports to be sent from Microsoft.com. ...more

Sun to work on Mac-native port of OpenOffice.org

Sun has announced that it is devoting two engineers to work on porting OpenOffice to run natively on the Mac. Once complete it would be able to dispense with the X11 windowing layer, which stops the free, open-source suite from fitting in with Apple's distinctive user interface styling. Writing on the Sun blog GullFOSS, Philipp Lohmann outlined how 'practically from the start there was the plan to have a native version for Mac, however as a first step the community decided to produce an X11 port which - since OOo already had several X11 ports from the start - seemed to be a good way to get a version quickly as temporary solution. ...more

Denis Thatcher used in latest 419 email scam

Security experts are warning of a new email scam crafted to dupe the greedy into believing they have inherited a share of the late Denis Thatcher's estate. But in order to receive their share, recipients are asked to forward identifying information and document scans that could subsequently be used for identity theft and robbing bank accounts. 'Scammers are constantly trying to dupe computer users into divulging sensitive information with the promise of big money,' said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. ...more

Apple launches speedy PowerBooks

Described by Apple as 'faster and more affordable', there are new 12-,15- and 17-inch PowerBooks. Featuring processors running at speeds of up to 1.67 GHz, and priced from ?1,049, the machines are aimed at creative and business professionals. ...more