A database of computer vulnerabilities created by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has proven extremely popular, both for reporting new problems and for researching existing ones. Since its debut one year ago, the National Vulnerability Database receives hits at the rate of 25 million per year and has grown from 12,000 vulnerabilities […]

Following a “third-party notification by Comedy Central,” YouTube has begun deleting film clips from its service that include copyrighted material from the network. Although a number of shows and personalities from Comedy Central have received considerable exposure on YouTube, which was recently purchased by Google for $1.65 billion, the network is reportedly seeking to protect […]

Social networking site MySpace will begin using software from Gracenote, which will allow it to identify copyrighted music that users have uploaded to the site. The MusicID audio-fingerprinting technology and Global Media Database will also allow the site to block users who try to upload copyrighted music. If a user continues to try to upload […]

Officials at Ofsted, the U.K. agency responsible for inspecting schools, announced a delay in the introduction of a new online tool for schools to track student-progress data and conduct self-evaluations.
The new system, Raiseonline, is intended to replace older systems that generate needed reports and to add new features that allow more extensive and meaningful analysis […]

New research from Point Topic indicates that as many as 44 percent of households in the United Kingdom lack Internet access and that 70 percent of those who do not have access do not intend to get it. This compares to 50 percent in 2005 who said they would not get access.
Katja Mueller, chief analyst […]

According to data collected by Microsoft’s Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool during the first half of 2006, nearly half of the PCs using the tool were infected with a backdoor Trojan, which allows a hacker to remotely manipulate the computer. Such “zombie” machines are used in distributed denial of service attacks, and, according to the […]

Intel announced plans to close its research center at Cambridge University as part of a larger effort to cut costs at the company. The center was established three and a half years ago, at which time it was expected to employ about 25 scientists from Intel and a similar number of outside researchers, most of […]

After losing a considerable amount of market share among college students in the 1990s, Apple has lately seen sales of its computers on campus rise to the number two spot behind Dell. Although Dell still controls more than half of the higher education market, Apple has ridden a wave of support to pass IBM, Gateway, […]

Picking up on the concept behind online fantasy sports leagues, a group of college students have created Fantasy Congress. In fantasy sports, players build fictional teams whose performance is calculated based on the results of the real players who compose the teams. In Fantasy Congress, players assemble a team of U.S. lawmakers who try to […]

Identity thieves continue to take a toll on online brokerages, racking up millions of dollars in losses to trading houses. Brokerages typically cover losses resulting from fraud, rather than forcing customers to pay. TD Ameritrade Holding issued a statement indicating that in the previous quarter, losses from fraud totaled $4 million.
E*Trade Financial said it lost […]