A judge in Illinois has rejected a petition by e360 Insight to force the closure of the Internet domain of antispam company Spamhaus. Last month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ordered Spamhaus to pay e360 Insight $11.7 million in damages for blacklisting the company, which keeps users of Spamhaus’s antispam […]

Using a scanner built from commonly available components, researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, were able to retrieve sensitive data from credit cards that use RFID technology. Creditors have issued millions of such cards, saying that they can speed transactions, and many retailers now have technology that accepts the cards, which, instead of being […]

After lengthy delays resulting from security concerns, the United States has begun issuing passports equipped with RFID tags. The tags, which transmit data including the passport holder’s photo and signature, are susceptible to illicit scanners that “skim” the information from unsuspecting individuals, according to those opposed to e-passports. The U.S. State Department said it has […]

A study conducted by researchers at Stanford University indicates considerable and rising rates of Internet addiction among U.S. users.
The study, which asked more than 2,500 people about their Web habits, found that almost 14 percent said it was difficult to be offline for more than a few days. Eight percent said they use the Internet […]

Microsoft has announced two partners in its book scanning project, which will compete with Google’s controversial Book Search program.
Cornell University will allow Microsoft to scan its library collection, and Kirtas Technologies will provide high-speed hardware for the scanning. Unlike Google’s program, Microsoft’s Windows Live Book Search will only scan books in the public domain or […]

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced that it has filed 8,000 new lawsuits against individuals accused of uploading copyrighted music files on P2P services including BitTorrent, eDonkey, SoulSeek and WinMX. Individuals named in the lawsuits are from 17 countries, including, for the first time, users in Brazil, Poland, and Mexico. Some lawsuits […]

Results from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) indicate generally poor performance on the organization’s new test, the ICT Literacy Assessment Core Level. ETS introduced the test to measure how information literate and computer savvy students are. The test was administered to volunteers at 44 institutions, including high schools and two- and four-year colleges. Of the […]

At a growing number of colleges and universities, students serve as the first line of technical support on campus. The role of the residential computing consultant (RCC) is not new, but is becoming increasingly common in an institution’s approach to dealing with the range of computer problems that students regularly face. At Stanford University, about […]

One of the founders of Wikipedia has announced a new online encyclopedia that he hopes will embody the foundation of Wikipedia while overcoming some of its shortcomings. Larry Sanger’s new project, called Citizendium, will use a number of tactics to elicit credible, useful content from a community of volunteers while avoiding the kinds of intentional […]

Following a series of concessions from Microsoft regarding its upcoming operating system, Vista, the European Commission has backed away from a threat to delay the European introduction of the new software.
Expressing concerns based on the 2004 antitrust decision by the commission against Microsoft, the commission warned that the new operating system, in particular some of […]