UPDATE: New Palms to be light on the pocket

Excitement grows as details of upcoming Palms leak - from geek.com - with one as low as ?75.95 including VAT. ...more

DoS attacks targeted by proposed UK legislation

A revision of the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) is back in the debating chamber, in the form of a 10 Minute Rule Bill proposed by Tom Harris MP. The Bill follows a similar proposition last year from Derek Wyatt MP, which was the result of work by the All Party Internet Group (APIG) which canvassed opinion from the public, industry and government as to the appropriateness of the 1990 CMA in today's Internet-dependent society. Wyatt's Bill, however, fell at the first hurdle when the General Election meant it ran out of time. ...more

Microsoft offices raided in Japan

Japan's Federal Trade Commission has raided the offices of Microsoft to look for evidence of anticompetitive behaviour, according to reports. Officials are investigating complaints from Japanese computer builders that the software company had included terms in Windows XP licensing agreements that forbid those companies from seeking licensing revenues from Microsoft - even if Windows XP contained their intellectual property. Japan is Microsoft's second largest market after the US. ...more

Half of ISPs fail to meet contractual obligations

Connection monitoring company iowatch has published a survey today showing ISPs could end up forking out compensation on a regular basis unless they sort out their acts. The survey monitored 189 business connections with its linkscan software ten times a minute for availability, speed and quality. It found that few ISPs manage to meet their Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 99. ...more

Virus points the camera at you, Big Brother style

'Is your webcam watching you?' That is the question posed by security company Sophos as it reports that the virus Rbot-GR has the capability to use the webcams and microphones that are attached to infected machines in order to spy on users, whether they be in their home or workplace. 'More and more hackers are interested in spying on the people they manage to infect with their worms and Trojan horses,' said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. 'In the workplace, this worm opens up the possibilities of industrial espionage. ...more