Comment: File sharing is peerless

The only time I was caught for speeding, it never occurred to me to plead guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Reaching over 70mph was quite an achievement in itself at a time when I had a car fit for a student. Nevertheless, perhaps I could have deflected the blame onto Fiat, which was surely aware its creation was capable of breaking the speed limit when going downhill on the M3. ...more

UK company pioneers self-destructing text messages

A UK company has developed a technology for sending text messages that self-destruct. Not only will StealthText messages be automatically deleted once they have been read they can only be read by the recipient in possession of the necessary 'secret code'. It will be possible to reply to messages, but not to forward them. ...more

Industry giants combine to promote DVB-H

The market for TV on mobiles is hotting up further with the announcement of a new industry body to promote the DVB-H format for delivering video to mobile devices. The Mobile DTV Alliance consists of some of the biggest players in mobile and wireless communications including Intel, Motorola, Nokia and Texas Instruments. The companies say they are planning to promote the use of the open standard amongst mobile operators, which will allow subscribers to receive streamed TV and video to their mobile devices whilst keeping the bandwidth free to receive voice and data communications. ...more

Microsoft to reveal source code for Office

Software giant Microsoft has announced that it is to open up the source code of its flagship Office 2003 suite to more than 30 governments worldwide as part of its Government Security Program initiative. The aim, Microsoft says, is to reassure the participating governments that its code is secure and that it will work with other technology systems. The code itself remains Microsoft's intellectual property and governments that sign up to the program have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. ...more

Sendmail flaw makes email vulnerable to hackers

The security software company Internet Security Systems (ISS) has discovered a security flaw in the most popular program for managing the Internet email traffic. The buffer overflow vulnerability affects the well-established Sendmail program. ISS states that Sendmail handles between 50 per cent and 75 per cent of three-quarters of all Internet email traffic. ...more