Wikipedia has banned editing from machines inside Volvo Information Technology - the outfit that operates the Swedish auto maker's IT infrastructure - after someone in the organization vandalized the free encyclopedia with a pair of profanity-laden racist rants.

Yesterday, an anonymous Wikifiddler sitting behind the IP address 192.138.116.230 suddenly unloaded a stream of egregious Wikiracism onto a pair of articles dedicated to Pakistani cricketers Wasim Akram and Inzamam-ul-Haq. According to an IP lookup, the address maps back to Volvo IT.

The Wikirants were directed not at the cricketers, but at certain Wikifiddlers and various others.

Less than twenty minutes after the rants appeared, the Wikipolice banned the IP in question. The ban will remain in effect until early December.

"It's one thing when kiddies at home or school do a bit of Wikipedia vandalism, but this is a reputable IT company with people who should know better," says one Wikinsider. "Or perhaps they don't realise IP addresses are tracked and logged in which case they get what they deserve."

Volvo says its security department is "investigating what has happened. We have a policy describing acceptable and prohibited use of Internet services and the measures to be taken if these services are misused." ®