Windows XP users warned off debugging system

The US Department of Energy has warned government users of a potential security hole in Windows XP, which is released tomorrow. The department's Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC) claims that the software's error reporting feature could send confidential government data across the Internet to a Microsoft database. The feature sends crash and debugging information back to Microsoft whenever a problem occurs with XP, and is designed to help the company detect and fix bugs. ...more

German firm defends hiring worm author

German security firm Securepoint has hit back at those who have criticised the company for hiring Sasser author Sven Jaschan. The company's technical director Lutz Hausmann says that Jaschan was 'just an immature boy with mindless intent'. Hausmann says that Jaschan was a 'casual script kid' who will 'never do such a thing again'. ...more

BT starts legal action defending its hyperlink patent

BT has taken US ISP Prodigy Communications to court in an attempt to recover licence fees over the use of hyperlinks. BT hopes to force all ISPs that use hyperlinks to pay the telco a licence fee. This move is believed to be the first of many, as the company contacted 16 ISPs, including America Online, back in June with a request for licence fees and hired intellectual property licencing firm QED. ...more

McAfee launches free security analysis tools

Protection as a service... ...more

Sweden's Pirate Party cut short

Sweden's recently formed Pirate Party is expected to win 33,000 votes in the country's national elections, failing to gain the one per cent of the total vote that it needed to gain financial support from the state at future polls. Its share of around 0.6 per cent is also long way short of the four per cent that would have entitled it to a seat in parliament. ...more