While still in its infancy, and not completely accurate, according to some experts, pattern-recognition software could nevertheless prove effective at finding links between disparate sets of information and data streams, such as phone usage and bank transactions. This software is trained on a large number of sample documents to pick out items such as names, phone numbers and places from generic text. This means it can spot names or ... Read full entry

Life coach Tim Brownson talks about working for yourself verses the apparent myth of job security of a nine-to-five job: There are so few downsides that I'm always amazed more people don't do it. I often get the security thing thrown at me. I understand that, but ask the people that worked at Enron, Arthur Anderson or who know work at any large corporation that is going through ... Read full entry

When I first saw this story it read like fiction, or a movie synopsis, because of the way that the exact details are not being revealed yet, albeit quite understandably. The flaw exploits the internet's address mechanism, known as the Domain Name System (DNS). This maps the names we associate with websites to the true numerical addresses of their internet servers, in the same way that a mobile phone's ... Read full entry

Here's an idea to make everyone's computers a little more secure, assign web browsers a use-by-date, in the same way as food, and other perishable goods, are. Security researchers have suggested that like food, browsers should have a best-before or expiry date. This comes after revealing that 637 million internet users are surfing with outdated and unpatched browsers, which puts them at risk from web-based attacks. This is an area ... Read full entry

Are Botnets Run by Spy Agencies? In other words is Big Brother indeed watching? But consider this - having remote control of millions of PCs, and a large percentage of the world's PCs seems like a very tempting target for the world's various intelligence agencies. Most zombies are used for external purposes, but it would be easy to have them searching their own disk drives for interesting documents, and sniffing their ... Read full entry

Sticking it to USB sticks, again If you've ever wondered what becomes of all those lost USB memory sticks, you ought to read this... A survey of 1,000 firms carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform revealed that despite all those amusing rumours of companies gumming up USB ports with glue to stop people doing anything potentially risky - like using ... Read full entry

Number of computer viruses tops one million Some other interesting statistics have also come to light according to a report on computer security, compiled by Symantec. The US was still by far the greatest contributor to the pool of malicious software infecting the world's computers, accounting for 24 per cent of such activity. Madrid, meanwhile, was the city with the highest number of so-called "zombie" computers - machines that have ... Read full entry

WordPress 2.3.3 I had pencilled in March 24 was the next big, or milestone, day for Wordpress users, but another interim WP upgrade has been issued today. WordPress 2.3.3 is an urgent security release. A flaw was found in our XML-RPC implementation such that a specially crafted request would allow any valid user to edit posts of any other user on that blog. In addition to fixing this security ... Read full entry

Are you suffering from password pressure? MyPetCatsName no longer cuts it, especially if you use kitty's name as a password for all the applications and services you access. The password pressure of modern life means that 61% of us use the same password wherever we can, according to a survey commissioned by digital communications agency @www. In fact, with more than one in 10 people having 50 or more separate ... Read full entry

Bebo named as best social networking site in survey. Oh groan, I guess I'll have join Bebo now... Bebo and Facebook achieved the highest scores of 79% and 74% respectively, and were rated easier to use than MySpace and best for socialising. Bebo, which is used predominantly by the 13- to 24-year-old age group, is praised for working hard to encourage responsible networking. "Users can restrict who sees their information, ... Read full entry