Santy worm makes unwelcome visit

Santy worm makes unwelcome visit

Thousands of website bulletin boards have been defaced by a virus that used Google to spread across the net.


The Santy worm first appeared on 20 December and within 24 hours had successfully hit more than 40,000 websites.

The malicious program exploits a vulnerability in the widely used phpBB software. Santy's spread has now been stopped after Google began blocking infected sites searching for new victims.

Full story: Link

Source: BBC News

New CCIE R&S Written Coming Mid-January

New CCIE R&S Written Coming Mid-January

Cisco Systems recently announced that it will be releasing a new version of its Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert, Routing and Switching (CCIE R&S) written exam on Jan. 19.

Cisco released a beta (#351-001) of this updated exam in August. When live, the exam will cover "Networking and IP fundamentals, switching, routing, quality of service, WAN, security fundamentals, multicast and enterprise wireless mobility fundamentals," among other topics, the company said. Detailed objectives on the exam content can be found here.

Full Story: certcities.com

Chinese firm buys IBM PC business

Chinese firm buys IBM PC business

IBM,a pioneer of the personal computer business, is selling its PC hardware division to China's number one computer maker Lenovo.

After days of rumours, the announcement heralds a $1.75bn (£900m) deal which will make the combined operation the third biggest PC vendor in the world.

Lenovo, formerly known as Legend, has been pushing hard to spread its brand on the international stage.

Full Story: Link

'Brainwave' cap controls computer

'Brainwave' cap controls computer

A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer.

Four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes.

Full Story: Link

Network+ Beta Coming Nov. 29; Free Vouchers Available

Network+ Beta Coming Nov. 29

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) announced today that the beta exam for its upcoming Network+ revision will debut Nov. 29.

The beta (N11-003) will be available at Pearson Vue and Prometric testing centers worldwide although the first 1,000 "qualified candidates" who respond to a survey on CompTIA's Web site here will receive a voucher to take the beta for free. The organization does not specify what makes someone a qualified candidate.

Full Story: certcities.com

CompTIA Considering RFID Cert

CompTIA Considering RFID Cert

Next week the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), along with the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM Global), will announce plans to begin initial steps in developing a vendor-neutral certification for IT professionals who work with RFID technology.

A CompTIA spokesperson told CertCities.com today that the announcement does not mean that the organization will definitely develop the certification, only that it will begin working with AAIM and others in the industry to see if there is a need for such a title. The discussions will begin next month at a meeting with industry representatives.

Full Story: certcities.com

Napster creator reveals next step

Napster creator reveals next step

Napster creator Shawn Fanning has spoken publicly about his new project - a licensed file-sharing service with an almost unlimited selection of tracks.

The new technology gives consumers greater access to licensed downloads, while affording the record labels some degree of control over file-sharing.

Full story: HERE

Source: BBC News UK

Internet speed record quadrupled to 101 Gbit/s

Internet speed record quadrupled to 101 Gbit/s

Los Angeles (CA) - An international team of physicists, scientists and engineers achieved a new speed record for long distance data transfer: During the Supercomputing Bandwidth Challenge the sustained data transfer was 101 Gbit per second (Gbp/s) between Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. This is more than four times faster than last year's record of 23 Gbp/s. The group's "High-Speed TeraByte Transfers for Physics" record data transfer speed is equivalent to downloading three full DVD movies per second, or transmitting all of the content of the Library of Congress in 15 minutes, and it corresponds to approximately ten percent of the rate that all forms of digital content were produced on Earth during the test, the team led by the California Institute of Technology said.



By Wolfgang Gruener, Senior Editor November 29, 2004 - 15:34 EST

Full Story:...

A question of trust and technology

A question of trust and technology

A major government department is without e-mail for a week, and technology analyst Bill Thompson wants to know what happened.


"A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how my girlfriend had suffered when her cable modem blew up and she was offline for several days. "

It seems that thousands of civil servants at the UK's Department of Work and Pensions went through the same thing last week. It has emerged that the internal network crashed in a particularly horrible way, depriving staff of e-mail and access to the application software they use to calculate people's benefit and pension entitlement or note changes in personal circumstances.

Full Story: HERE

Source: BBC Technology News

New browser wins over net surfers

New browser wins over net surfers

The proportion of surfers using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) has dropped to below 90%, say web analysts.

Net traffic monitor, OneStat.com, has reported that the open-source browser Firefox 1.0, released on 9 November, seems to be drawing users away from IE.

Full Story: Link