E-mail virus insults its victims
A new computer virus has managed to infect -- and insult -- less savvy Internet users, antivirus companies said on Wednesday. Known as Winevar, the computer worm arrives in e-mail as an attachment that infects Windows PCs when opened and displays a dialog box pronouncing, "What a foolish thing you have done!" Despite the playful tone however, the virus is no joke. "Winevar has several extremely dangerous payloads, which can lead to the irrecoverable loss of data," Russian antivirus firm Kaspersky Labs said in an advisory released Wednesday.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-975569.html
Group urges limits on open source
The U.S. Defense Department should think twice before embracing open-source software, a trade association is advising. The Initiative for Software Choice, which counts Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Intel among its backers, said in comments filed Tuesday that the department should "avoid crafting needless and potentially detrimental IT policy to promote the use" of open-source software. "Open source" means every software developer can view the source code for software, modify it, and use it for free. The initiative, which launched in May and is chaired by a group called CompTIA, an organization that has close ties to Microsoft, is worried about a recent report that concluded the Defense Department relies on open-source software and recommended its further adoption.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-975578.html?tag=fd_top
Roxio closes Napster asset buy
Roxio, a company best known for creating CD-burning technology, said Wednesday that it had completed its purchase of assets from bankrupt file-swapping company Napster. Napster's technology and brand name have been on the auction block for months, after the company declared bankruptcy in June. German media giant Bertelsmann had initially agreed to purchase the company for $9 million, but the agreement fell apart after a bankruptcy court blocked the purchase. Roxio offers a music subscription service through Pressplay, a service owned by several major music labels.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975627.html?tag=fd_top
Future cell phones to see the light
The University of California at Davis announced this week it has received a grant from the Defense Department to build a new generation of cell phones that transmit and receive optical signals. The optical cell phones could make wireless communications speedier and more secure than existing optical fiber networks, researchers said. U.C. Davis will share the $5 million, four-year grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The researchers hope to build chip-sized devices that use a technology standard already in some cell phones.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-975513.html
Software license tied to human rights
Move over, free software. Step aside, today's open-source licenses. Software distributed under an "enhanced source" license released this week will be legally prohibited from censoring or spying on users. Crafted by Hacktivismo, a hacking group organized by the Cult of the Dead Cow, the license says that anyone using code released under it must respect privacy, free expression, due process and other human rights. Hacktivismo's release comes as concern is growing over governments using technology such as blocking software to restrict what their citizens can do or say online. In September, House Republicans released a report titled "Tear Down This Firewall," and this week, Amnesty International published a report highlighting China's crackdown on Internet use.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975638.html?tag=cd_mh
Sony Pictures forms lobby group
Sony Pictures Entertainment on Tuesday said it has formed a new lobbying organization as the company moves to adopt secure digital formats to distribute its stable of movies and entertainment products. The Digital Policy Group will be headed by Beth Berke, executive vice president of Sony Pictures. The lobbying group will represent the company in negotiations with legislators and regulators, review new technologies, and coordinate Sony Pictures' approach to digital technologies, both internally and with partners. "The goal of the Digital Policy Group is to move forward with a triple win -- for content, for hardware, and for viewers," Berke said in a statement.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975346.html?tag=cd_mh
Ad firms set rules for Web tracking bugs
In a relatively late effort to promote consumer privacy, a coalition of Internet-advertising companies issued on Tuesday guidelines for Web sites that use tiny electronic tags to track visitors' surfing habits and gather other data. The Network Advertising Initiative, a group of eight Web advertising technology companies, including DoubleClick and 24/7 Media, set industry standards that require Webmasters to notify visitors when they use the surveillance tags, also known as Web bugs or beacons, and what they are used for. The rules also mandate that sites obtain a consumer's permission before using the technology to collect and share data that could identify that consumer. Web site operators use Web bugs -- fairly undetectable strings of code in the form of 1-by-1-pixel tags -- to track site usage, count the number of visitors to a page or monitor visitor behavior.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975385.html?tag=cd_mh
Panama suspends Net-phoning order
Panama's supreme court has suspended restrictions on local Internet service providers that were intended to block Internet phone calls in that country, according to a report. Spanish language Web site La Prensa said Tuesday that the high court asked Panamanian telephone regulators to deliver a report outlining the facts behind an Oct. 25 order that forced ISPs to block several Internet data ports, including those commonly used to carry voice-over-IP phone calls. In addition, the court immediately suspended the order. VoIP enables voice calls between computers or regular telephones using the Internet, and is usually offered at steep discounts compared with standard long-distance telephone service. The technology is currently banned in a number of countries, including Panama, although that could change.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975408.html?tag=cd_mh
Archive: Fresh Spam for Everyone
Is your spouse dissatisfied with the size of your spam? A brand-new website has made several hundred thousand pieces of unsolicited commercial e-mail available for you to download today. Act now! After a quiet online debut last week, the Spam Archive is making quick strides toward becoming the largest public library of junk e-mail on the Internet. Paul Judge, director of research and development for CipherTrust, the e-mail security firm backing the project, says the site received roughly 5,000 forwarded messages a day during its first week. He predicts the archive will amass a corpus of 10 million unsolicited commercial e-mails over the next year. The archive's FTP site will begin to make its spam available, 10,000 at a time, starting Dec. 4.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,56624,00.html