The e-fraud unit? You're looking at him

The shocking lack of police resources to tackle e-fraud was comically exposed at the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) annual parliamentary forum in Westminster. The forum, which brought together industry leaders and politicians to discuss internet security, provoked lively, and occasionally fractious, debate between the two sides. However, the unexpected highlight of the evening arrived when one member of the audience complained that his elderly mother's local police force failed to deal with her complaints about unsavoury spam messages. ...more

HP exposes new technology for labelling CD and DVD discs

The days of labelling CDs and DVDs with marker pen, sticky label or one of those CD printing attachments for inkjets are over, says Hewlett-Packard. The company has developed a new technology which uses the same laser that burns data to a disc to also burn the label. Known as LightScribe, the technology uses the laser to 'expose' a chemical on one side of specially-coated discs. ...more

Wireless hacking tool released

Security experts and hackers can now verify that wireless networks relying on WEP encryption for security are insecure. Blake Hegerle and Jeremy Bruestle have released a tool called AirSnort, which gathers packets of network traffic and, once it has enough, can guess the encryption password "in under a second", rendering the protection afforded by WEP useless. Both 40- and 128-bit encrypted sessions can be compromised in this way. ...more

Microsoft sets 2006 date for Longhorn but key features jettisoned

Microsoft has finally given a launch date of 2006 for the release of the long awaited 'Longhorn' desktop operating system. However, in doing so, it has had to jettison some of the key features from the release. Microsoft has admitted that the delivery date of Longhorn - now due some five years after the launch of Windows XP - is due to the clamour from customers who feel they have been strung along by Redmond. ...more

McDonalds rolls out Wi-Fi in its SF restaurants

Residents of San Francisco who pop in to their local McDonalds for a Big Mac can now stay connected. The company has announced that 75 of its restaurants have been WIFi enabled. The rollout follows a March pilot scheme in ten New York McDonalds as part of a scheme to offer Wi-Fi at several hundred McDonald's across the US by the end of the year. ...more