Starting this fall semester, students in the engineering school at Virginia Tech will be required to have a Tablet PC, making the school one of the first to mandate such devices. Similar to a laptop but with a screen that users can write on with a stylus, Tablet PCs have been slower to take off […]

Despite a series of court judgments against file traders, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year against Grokster, the number of individuals who illegally trade files online is up from this time a year ago, according to BigChampagne. The company said about 9.7 million people worldwide used file-trading services in May 2006, about 6.7 […]

A team of researchers at University College London have demonstrated a technique that uses ultraviolet (UV) light–rather than intense heat–to create silicon dioxide, one of the components of today’s computer chips. Highly pure silicon dioxide is key to the way transistors function. Because the compound forms very slowly at room temperature, chip makers today heat […]

Under a law that goes into effect July 1, U.S. students enrolled in online courses offered by non-U.S. institutions may no longer use federal financial aid to pay for those courses. The Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 does allow students to use federal financial aid for programs that complement in-person instruction with online tools. […]

A stolen laptop containing personal information on 26.5 million people has been recovered, and authorities believe the data on the computer was not accessed. The laptop, which belonged to the Department of Veterans Affairs, was stolen on May 3 from the home of a VA employee.
The agency was harshly criticized for waiting until May 22 […]

A federal judge has sentenced one of the cofounders of the Shadowcrew Web site to 32 months in prison for his role in the scheme that traded in stolen personal information, including credit card numbers. Andrew Mantovani pleaded guilty in November 2005 and, in a statement at his sentencing, apologized for the damage caused by […]

A new research center is being launched at Utica College in New York to study identity fraud and ways to fight the problem. The Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP) is being developed by the Secret Service, the FBI, IBM, and LexisNexis. Norm Willox, chief executive of special services at LexisNexis, said that […]

A new Web site is designed to be a resource where teachers can sell instructional materials they have developed. For $29.95 per year, teachers can list lessons they want to sell, including lectures, quizzes, worksheets, and other materials sorted by topic and grade level. Most items cost a few dollars, and buyers do not need […]

Two graduates of Ohio University have filed a lawsuit following the institution’s disclosure of a series of computer breaches that may have compromised personal information on about 175,000 people. After announcing a breach at one of its units in April, the university later said similar break-ins had taken place at the alumni office, the health […]

A report issued by the Brennan Center Task Force on Voting System Security claims that all three of the most commonly used e-voting systems in the United States are vulnerable to fraud but that problems with the systems can be addressed. The task force, which is an effort of the Brennan Center for Justice at […]