A potential loophole in security for Bluetooth phones, which could see strangers hacking into your address books, has been uncovered. BBC reports that researchers have managed to steal information including address books and images from handsets by exploiting shortcomings in Bluetooth security. Adam Laurie of security firm AL Digital has created programs that run… Read More »
Microsoft’s Bill Gates has announced new junk e-mail filtering technology called SmartScreen. AP reports the technology will use algorithms to judge whether incoming e-mail messages qualify as junk e-mail and filter them out before they get to the end user’s e-mailbox. More interesting, Gates demonstrated Microsoft Research’s Stuff I’ve Seen project, which is developing… Read More »
More music download site musical chairs: CNET Networks will buy MP3.com, one of the first online music services, from Vivendi Universal Net USA. AP reports that CNET, an online magazine/download site, will launch new digital music service launching next year. Vivendi acquired MP3.com in May 2001 in a $372 million cash-and-stock deal.
Further to my recent column on e-voting in FEER and WSJ.com (my apologies; available on subscription only), the story continues. Avi Rubin, the Johns Hopkins University computer scientist who identified security lapses in the voting system Maryland is adopting appeared before state legislators in testimony that illustrates the issues involved, and entrenched positions of those… Read More »
Sometimes I wonder whether it’s ever going to be possible to produce a watertight way of limiting access to digital music. Take Apple’s very popular iTunes, for example. CNET reports that an independent software developer has created a program that lets users of iTunes for Windows grab song files from other people on a computer… Read More »