Macrovision, content protection company, has agreed to purchase TV listing company, Gemstar-TV Guide International in a cash and stock transaction with a value of approximately $2.8 billion.
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Category: Security
DVLA Reveal Confidential Driver Info
Those in the UK will be all too aware of how government departments have been leaking UK residents data more furiously than a fire-hose blasting through a colander.
Following the loss of the bank details of 25 million UK families a few weeks ago, another loss has come to light.
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Websense 2008 Security Threat Predictions
If you were thinking of settling down in the run up to xmas and getting a bit of relaxing in, Websense, a computer security company has got other ideas for you.
They’ve compiled a list of their predictions for the top ten security risks for the coming year.
Interesting they feel that hackers will start to create cross platform attacks. Until now the majority of attacks have been against the Windows platform, as that is easily the most widely available. Websense’s logic is that With the rise of Mac and the iPhone the code for attacks will sense which platform is being used, altering the attack to exploit the weakness of the specific platform.
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Barclays PIN Sentry Disaster
Barclays Bank have cut off some of their business customers from making payments to new suppliers, by forcing them to use PIN Sentry hardware that they don’t yet have.
The PIN Sentry is Barclays attempt to stop their customers accounts being hacked and having payment sent to fraudulent accounts. Something that would appear to be a good idea … if their current customers had the device in their hands and were able to use it.
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Gigabyte Announces M704 UMPC
Sporting rather pleasing modern silver lines with a black edge, Gigabyte’s new M704 is the latest addition to the growing mob of Ultra Mobile PCs (‘UMPC’) being foisted on the public by a host of manufacturers.
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Pet Shop Boys Integral: Anti ID Card Song, With QR Codes!
Those krazy kids, The Pet Shop Boys, have released their new single.
Why are we interested? Two reasons, it’s drawing attention to UK ID Card – which we think are are serious blow for the future of civil liberties in the UK – plus the video has also got QR codes in it – letting people find out further info just by point their camera phone at it.
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Members Spam: A New Strain
We’ve recieved quite a few of what appears to be a new type of spam – and possibly phishing – email.
Starting “Dear Member”, the mail tries to trick you into thinking that you’ve registered for some sort of service – Ringtone World, Pet World, Poker World, you get the idea.
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Wal-Mart Launches DRM-Free MP3 Download Service
Retail titans Wal-Mart have started offering digital music downloads on its Web site free of the copy-protection technology inflicted on most MP3 web sites.
Boasting thousands of albums and songs from major record labels like Universal and EMI Group, Wal-Mart’s service will let users download tracks free of any digital rights management.
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Nokia Sign Up for Microsoft PlayReady DRM
Nokia has signed a deal with Microsoft to put PlayReady on some of their handsets.
Nokia say that they “plan to support PlayReady across a range of S60 and Series 40 devices starting in 2008.”
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UK Information Commissioner Calls For Great Powers
The security of information is always something that the government and financial institution are banging on about – pushing the responsibility of this on to the individual.
Personal responsibility for your own data should be part of your every day, but it sticks in the throat when the big companies that are lecturing about personal data security then go and treat the data under their control with gay abandon.
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