John Lister

A serious flaw in the way people use Adobe's Flash software could leave tens of thousands of websites vulnerable to hackers. The problem lies in Shockwave Flash files (SWFs), which appear on websites and allow the site author to include short movies ... or animated graphics. (Source: half-serious.com ) The way the software currently works means it's possible for hackers to insert their own code into these files. For example, they could program the file to send them copies of personal information that the user types while visiting a site. At the moment, there are no patches available. The problem ... (view more)

The 'Think Secret' website, which published insider scoops about Apple products, is to close down as part of a legal settlement. The deal means the site's owners will not have to expose their confidential sources. It marks the end of a lawsuit ... launched by Apple in January 2005 after the site leaked details of the Mac Mini computer two weeks before its official announcement. The case surrounded laws designed to protect journalistic sources. Apple sued the site's boss, Nick Ciarelli, claiming he had unlawfully revealed trade secrets. The Cupertino-based tech company also demanded Ciarelli's ... (view more)

Hundreds of thousands of users on Google's social networking site have had their computers infected by a 'worm' virus. One source reports 400,000 computers fell victim, while another puts the figure at over 700,000. The attack took place in the ... Portuguese language, likely because the Orkut site is particularly popular in Brazil. The virus took advantage of a loophole in the site's scrapbook feature to post a JavaScript code on users' personal pages. JavaScript is a type of computer code commonly used to make websites interactive. The code then sent copies of itself to a user and his or her ... (view more)

Online retailers in Britain could be missing out on more than $5 billion worth of business because customers are concerned about security. The report's authors found that one in five people questioned do not shop online because they believe rogue ... web traders will not deliver goods, or are trying to commit fraud. The survey was carried out by GetSafeOnline.org, a site funded by the British government, Microsoft, eBay and the HSBC bank. GetSafeOnline.org's managing director Tony Neate said, "Being aware of the warning signs, and taking a few simple precautions, is all that's needed to shop with ... (view more)

The rise of online video sites could cause major problems for the Internet as a whole, according to researchers. The amount of traffic on the web is increasing much quicker than its capacity. Brett Swanson of the Discover Institute says this is most ... likely to affect the 'edges' of the Internet, the final mile or so of cabling between telephone exchanges and peoples homes. He has coined the phrase 'exaflood', which refers to an exabyte, or one thousand million gigabytes of date. Until recently, an exabyte had simply been a mathematical concept, but Cisco estimates total Internet traffic will ... (view more)

Google is launching an ambitious project to become the Internet's leading source of information on just about every subject. Their plans appear to be a direct attack on Wikipedia's popularity. According to a blog by Google's Vice President of ... engineering, the company wants to make it easier for experts to share knowledge. They plan to do this through a project titled 'knol' (a term they are also using to refer to each entry). The idea is for Google to take care of the hosting and formatting, leaving the experts to concentrate on the information. The goal is for the 'knol' to be "the first ... (view more)

As much as 95% of all email is spam, according to new research. Barracuda Networks, an email and web security firm, analysed more than a billion emails sent to its customers this year. They found between 90-95% was spam, compared with 85-90% last ... year. They also carried out a survey of their customers, which include major firms IBM, Coca Cola, and Harvard University. They found that 57% considered spam the worst form of unsolicited advertising, more than junk mail and telemarketing put together. Though they found that most people receive five or fewer spam emails each day, an unfortunate 13% ... (view more)

The Ask.Com search engine now offers users the ability to search without any records being collected. Anyone using the site can, with just two clicks, make sure details such as their IP address (which identifies the particular computer they are ... using) and the phrase they are searching for are not stored by the site. (Source: irconnect.com ) The service is titled AskEraser. Some critics have noted that the name is slightly misleading; rather than erasing data, it simply makes sure the information is never written in the first place. It only applies to future searches and it isn't possible to ... (view more)

America OnLine (AOL) has launched a new version of its software, designed to work more efficiently with Windows. In the past, AOL users have generally had to access all of their Internet services (such as web browsing, email and instant messaging) ... through a single screen (or 'window'), an approach dubbed 'walled garden' by some commentators. AOL's tactic kept everything together in one place, but some users found it wasn't possible to use tabbed browsing. That's where you can quickly switch from one screen to another by pressing the ALT + TAB keys or simply clicking with the mouse. The ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced they will soon be testing Windows XP on the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) "$100 laptop". It's all part of a project to produce computers so cheaply that it can be donated to children in the developing world. Despite the ... nickname, the machine currently costs $188 to produce. Known as the XO, it's designed to be sturdy enough to work under a variety of conditions such as in extremely warm or cold countries. (Source: laptopgiving.org ) James Utzschneider of Microsoft says he'll be meeting the team behind the XO this week. He says reports that Windows already works ... (view more)