FBI, Microsoft and US banks promise new drive against phishing

Law enforcement agencies and a number of IT companies are pooling resources to tackle the growing threat of 'phishing' - sending spoof emails to people to try and gain personal information which can be used for fraud. The initiative, to be known as 'Digital Phishnet' is aimed at providing ISPs, banks, law enforcement agencies and others concerned with online fraud with a central pool of information so they can react instantly to any emerging threat. Among the companies who have joined Digital Phishnet are Microsoft, AOL, Lycos and Digital River along with nine of the top ten US banks. ...more

EU regs force Apple to pull products

Apple will stop European sales of several products at the end of this week in order to comply with the EU's Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) directive, AppleInsider reports. The website says that the iSight, AirPort Base Station With Modem, AirPort Base Station Power Over Ethernet and Antenna, iPod shuffle External Battery Pack and the eMac will be discontinued. All are said to contain banned substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and brominated flame retardants. ...more

Intel ready for run in with China over wireless requirements

Intel is approaching a face-off with Chinese authorities about the use of wireless networking in the People's Republic. The technical heart of the issue is the use of WAPI (wireless authentication and privacy infrastructure), which is a Chinese-designed data encryption scheme, reports Reuters. The crunch day is 1 June, when the implementation of WAPI will be required by China. ...more

Acer and Microsoft target Europe and China for Tablet PC push

Acer and Microsoft will focus their co-marketing efforts this year to push Tablet PCs into the mainstream of the Greater China and German markets, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported Saturday. This strategy was finalized during a meeting of top executives from the two companies held in Taipei last week, the report said. Acer had originally hoped to boost its sales of Tablet PCs to around 20 per cent of its notebook shipments in the six selected markets of Australia, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan and the US in 2004. ...more

Google boosts literacy through Book Search project

The spread of Google continues a-pace: the latest initiative from Mountain View is The Literacy Project. Described as a resource for teachers, literacy organisations and 'anyone interested in reading and education', Google has launched a literacy-related initiative. It is partly based on its existing Book Search service as well as its traditional search strengths. ...more