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16th October 2006 Archive

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  • Five arrested over D-Link router theft

    Rogue routers for sale online

    Five people have been arrested by Kent police in connection with stolen D-Link routers. D-Link warned last week that 7,200 wireless starter kits had been pinched en route to its European logistics company and were being offered for sale online. The kit is worth some £350,000. But on Friday Kent police said they had arrested …

    IT Channel 16 Oct 2006, 08:36

  • Nvidia's three-GPU mobo spied on web

    Caters for visuals and physics

    Nvidia's nForce 680i SLI chipset for Intel processors has leaked out online, with a piccy of the part surfacing on a variety of websites. The chipset is expected to target the chip giant's upcoming quad-core processors, the 'Kentsfield' Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Quad. Little is known about the board's feature-set, but the …

    PC Builder 16 Oct 2006, 09:17

  • iSoft costing Staffs hospital dear

    £16m hole in accounts

    University Hospital North Staffordshire has been left with a large hole in its accounts thanks to the failed installation of an iSoft computer system. The multi-million pound deficit occurred because the computer system failed to properly bill primary care trusts for patients the hospital treated. The contract is not part of …

    IT Channel 16 Oct 2006, 09:44

  • 419 scammers launch shipping sites

    Fake escrows on the rise

    Nigerian 419 advance fee fraudsters operating from Amsterdam and Rotterdam have created copies of the websites of express transportation company DHL and Lufthansa Cargo. The idea is to lure victims into paying transportation and advance fees for used motorbikes and cars that are never delivered. Now that many people are …

    Software & Security 16 Oct 2006, 10:16

  • HSBC customers in cash machine hell

    Exclusive Accounts frozen, cards eaten

    HSBC's cash machine service turned on customers this weekend with many people complaining that their accounts were held hostage and others saying ATM boxes ate their cards. The issues also extended to HSBC's credit cards with thousands of people affected, The Register can confirm. Reports of the HSBC failures flooded The …

    Enterprise 16 Oct 2006, 10:23

  • Spyware infection prompts McDonalds MP3 recall

    Bitter aftertaste to Coke promo

    McDonalds Japan has launched a recall after discovering that MP3 players it offered as a prize were loaded with a particularly nasty strain of malware. Up to 10,000 people might have been exposed to the problem after claiming a Flash MP3 player pre-loaded with ten tunes and a variant of the QQpass spyware Trojan. Punters …

    Software & Security 16 Oct 2006, 10:40

  • Sapphire offers prizes for bare box-art lookalikes

    Get kit off, win kit

    Graphics card maker Sapphire is offering consumers the chance to win big prizes this Halloween, and all they have to do is get their kit off. Yes, Sapphire wants its users to dress up - or maybe that should be dress down, right down - as the nude but tastefully tackle-less bloke seen on its packaging. To be fair to Sapphire, …

    PC Builder 16 Oct 2006, 11:31

  • Brits bin their identity as ID thieves prosper

    Just shred-it

    More Brits than ever are placing themselves at risk of identity fraud, despite awareness campaigns warning them of the dangers. Organisers of the second National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, which begins on Monday, hope their educational campaign will finally get the message across. The campaign, backed by the Metropolitan …

    Software & Security 16 Oct 2006, 12:52

  • NEC packs up Packard Bell

    Hui buys veteran brand

    Lap Shun Hui has scored a success in his battle to collect the great PC brands of yesteryear by buying Packard Bell from NEC. NEC revealed the sale of its European PC operation earlier today but is keeping quiet on how much it got for the operation, Reuters reports. The news agency said Packard Bell turns over around $1bn a …

    PC Builder 16 Oct 2006, 14:01

  • Cisco gains patent on 'triple play'

    Time to pay up, partners

    Savouring the broad and bold nature of the US patent system, Cisco appears to have received the rights to the "triple threat". The US Patent Office granted Cisco's request in July, and the patent at hand is as vague as you might fear. Filing 7,075,919 covers a "system and method for providing integrated voice, video and data …

    PC Builder 16 Oct 2006, 14:05

  • McData offers $1.1m to keep CEO sweet

    Stick around, fella

    McData plans to shell out more than $1m to keep its current CEO once the company links up with fellow storage switch maker Brocade. In a regulatory filing last week, McData revealed that CEO John Kelley will receive a handsome $1.1m payout to stay loyal to BroData. To receive the full lump, Kelley must agree to certain terms, …

    Enterprise 16 Oct 2006, 14:35

  • Mozilla brainstorms Firefox 3.0

    Wish-list goes live

    The final version of Firefox 2 isn't available for download yet, but developers at Mozilla are already asking the community for suggestions on features they'd like to see included in the next version of the browser, Firefox 3.0. Mozilla has established a "feature brainstorming" wiki where users can post a wish-list of hoped-for …

    Software & Security 16 Oct 2006, 14:49

  • Larry Ellison's Linux nears release – pundit

    Not so stable but looks great in a Tux

    Wall Street continues to drool over the idea of Oracle producing its own line of Linux software for reasons unclear to us. Last week, Jeffries & Co analyst Katherine Egbert fired off a research note, claiming that "our independent checks in the past two weeks indicate that Oracle seems to be close to introducing its own …

    Software & Security 16 Oct 2006, 15:00

  • NK nukes: We're all (not) going to die

    Analysis The wrong monster

    Just when we all got comfortable with the idea of Islamofascists bringing down the curtain on humanity's dominion over the Earth, those wacky North Koreans come along and put everyone's pet Apocalyptic theories into disarray. And boy, is it getting complicated: we've got people trying to blow up airplanes with KY jelly and …

    Software & Security 16 Oct 2006, 15:40

  • McAfee opens data-theft snooping service

    Bolt-on acquisition

    McAfee, the US security software firm, has stumped up $20m cash for Onigma, a developer of data theft monitoring software. This will form the basis of McAfee Data Loss Prevention, a new host-based service helping enterprises to spy on staff and contractors in case they leak company info or indulge in some intellectual property …

    Software & Security 16 Oct 2006, 17:56

  • TomTom takes Garmin to court (again)

    Design issues

    TomTom, the Dutch navigation specialist, is taking US rival Garmin to court in The Hague on Thursday. The company claims that Garmin is copying the look and feel of its GPS based portable navigation systems. Garmin and TomTom are chief rivals in the booming car navigation market. TomTom has a 30 per cent market share in …

    PC Builder 16 Oct 2006, 20:34

  • Wired editor smokes out MySpace pedo

    Top-notch journalism

    Hats off to Kevin Poulsen for one of the best articles in tech journalism you will read this year. The one-time hacker extraordinaire, and now senior editor at Wired, combined investigative reporting and code-writing skills to collar a predatory pedophile reaching out to teenage boys through MySpace. Andrew Lubrano, a 39 year- …

    Software & Security 16 Oct 2006, 21:22

  • Samsung has bloody good quarter

    Confounds expectations

    Samsung has reported a 16 per cent increase in profits for the third quarter of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005. The Korean electronics giant posted net profit of 2.19 trillion won (€1.83bn) for the three months ending 30 September. This is far higher than analysts' expectations of a net profit of 1.89 trillion won …

    IT Channel 16 Oct 2006, 21:44

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