Copyright holders welcome new generation of P2P services

It wasn't so long ago when the phrase 'peer-to-peer' (P2P) was practically a curse word in the music and movie industries. But in the past month, two new services have emerged to utilize the technology for the legal, protected distribution of content - specifically video. One of them is BitTorrent, which developed the technology that at one point was used for one-third of all P2P traffic on the Internet. ...more

Another filter for safe surfing

The Internet Content Rating Association has released the ICRAfilter for parents to screen Internet content. Having worked to introduce a voluntary, source-embedded syntax for describing content (by which over 50,000 sites are labelled, apparently), ICRA's new filtering tool 'reads' the labels to help ensure content is filtered according to predefined values. According to Stephen Balkam, CEO of ICRA: 'It is important to state that no organisation, including ICRA, can guarantee a 100 per cent safe surfing experience. ...more

Cabir virus provides template for new mobile phone threats

More new viruses are being unleashed. F-Secure reports of yet another mobile phone virus running on Symbian and EPOC platforms such as Nokia phones. Again the proof of concept Cabir virus appears to be the template for these later versions out in the wild. ...more

MasterCard trumpets online SecureCode

With online shopping yet again expected to prove a hassle-free way of getting through the present-buying tasks this Christmas, MasterCard is launching a campaign to raise awareness of its SecureCode system to give shoppers an extra level of protection. The risks of online fraud are two-fold. Firstly, it's a fast-growing problem. ...more

LexisNexis security breach endangers 310,000 customers

LexisNexis, an online legal division of the Anglo-Dutch company Reed Elsevier, has admitted that a security flaw in its legal brokering unit meant that the personal details of up to 310,000 customers in the US were at risk. The breach occurred through a LexisNexis subsidiary known as Seisnet, a data brokering company that compiles information from federal records and probably holds information most US citizens. The personal details held include information such as Social Security numbers (SSN) and driver's licence information. ...more