Using open source software exposes organizations to a number of risks not typically encountered with proprietary software, and a group of companies is now offering policies to address that risk. Kiln Risk Solutions, which is a division of Lloyd’s of London, is working with Miller Insurance Services and Open Source Risk Management to provide coverage […]

Responding to an order from federal regulators, U.S. banks have begun employing “two-factor” authentication, which must be in use by all banking institutions by the end of 2006. Credit card companies have for years used various types of authentication that go beyond passwords, but because losses to fraud in the banking industry have been less […]

Recipe: Dungeness Crab and Avocado Salad on a bed of Arrugula

MIT and Nokia announced a venture to create a joint research lab, to be called the Nokia Research Center Cambridge. The lab is part of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and researchers there will study “the state of the art in mobile computing and communications,” according to a statement from the two organizations. […]

Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) has introduced a bill in Congress designed to create federal standards for the protection of personal information that might be included in a national health information network.
Currently, such information is subject to varying state laws, and this lack of consistency would likely be a significant roadblock to any national database of […]

Researchers at Stanford University have created a device that could lead to much faster optical networking that is also significantly less expensive than today’s technologies. The device, called a modulator or solid-state shutter, is made from silicon and germanium, two materials that are compatible with current technologies and are not nearly as costly as the […]

The Anti-Spyware Coalition has released a definition of what constitutes spyware, as well as guidelines for dealing with spyware.
The group’s definition says that spyware is an application installed without sufficient consent of the user and that interferes with the user’s ability to exert control over such things as security, privacy and personal information, and system […]

The latest offering for the vastly popular iPod are crib notes for books commonly included in college and university curricula. A company called SparkNotes, which competes with market leader CliffsNotes, provides the content, which is sold by a firm called iPREPpress.
Students who pay $4.95 each for a set of notes have access to the usual […]

As part of efforts to rebuild educational infrastructure in the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina, Cisco and certain of its executives have pledged $40 million in cash, equipment, and services. The money will target poorer school districts and individual schools that already have Internet access but would benefit from wireless technology and Internet-based video and […]

For the first time, a file sharer has been convicted in Sweden, a country long seen as soft on digital piracy. Indeed, the country only this past July passed a law against downloading copyrighted material.
The conviction stems from a case prior to passage of the downloading law, when Andreas Bawer uploaded a movie to the […]