Banks 'shift liability' over fraud prevention

UK High Street banks stand accused of over-complicating systems and alienating customers in their attempt to clamp down on card-not-present fraud. Currently, the UK payment association APACS is trialling a new scheme where online shoppers put their credit or debit card into a special card reader that would generate a one-time passcode to authenticate the card and transaction. But the CEO of fraud screening company the 3rd man, Paul Simms, said many retailers deal with fraud and manage the threat with 'little or no impact on their genuine and honest customers. ...more

Music industry starts 2,000 file sharing lawsuits

The music industry has initiated 2,000 new lawsuits targeting alleged file sharers across 10 countries. The International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) announced today that the actions include the first in Portugal, where it claims the music market has been 'devastated' by the impact of file-sharing. The organisation said that hundreds of p2p users have so far paid an average of €2,633 to settle the lawsuits. ...more

Google sets Da Vinci code puzzle

The puzzles have been developed to tie in with the forthcoming film of the preposterous book due this summer and starring Tom Hanks. The puzzles have been developed by Wei-Hwa Huang, a Google software engineer and apparently four-time world puzzle champion who clearly has too much time on his hands. He and a bunch of other Googlers have come up with a total of 12,358 original puzzles. ...more

PC Pro Awards 2005 - the winners

The great and good of the IT industry were honoured at PC Pro's annual awards in London last night. Over 20,000 readers took the time to complete our Reliability and Service survey this year - a record response - and more companies than ever were nominated in the 12 Reliability and Service Awards categories. Additionally, PC Pro revealed its 2005 Editorial awards, which reward excellence in hardware and software design. ...more

Ryanair readies itself for mobile take-off

Ryanair plans to enable some of its 40 million-plus passengers to use their mobile phones in-flight from the middle of next year. But the budget airline will be pipped to the post by Air France who plans to start trialling the same system earlier in 2007. The news follows Boeing's announcement earlier this month to kill off its high-speed, in-flight broadband service, Connexion, at a loss of up to $320 million. ...more