European Commission seeks to bolster IT and media industries

The European Commission has announced a new initiative to foster growth and jobs in the information and media industries. 'i2010: European Information Society 2010' is a strategy designed to encourage the development of the digital economy by modernising and deploying relevant EU policies on regulation, research and partnerships with industry. In particular it will aim to promote high-speed and secure broadband networks across the EU. ...more

LCD prices on the increase

Leading LCD researcher DisplaySearch has published its latest figures on the state of the LCD flat-panel display market and found that prices are on the increase as demand rises. In the third quarter of 2001, LCD monitor module shipments rose 43 per cent, higher than the anticipated 30 per cent rise. As a result DisplaySearch predicts that the end of year fourth quarter (Q4) will see a 27 per cent rise to 6. ...more

Britain faces 'crisis' in IT skills

Britain faces a skills crunch that will seriously affect the country's competitiveness in ten years' time according to the report published today. According to a survey undertaken by e-skills and Gartner, the UK is creating only a fraction of the IT professionals it needs to stay ahead in the global marketplace. According to the report, the country needs between 156,00 and 179,000 people with IT skills to enter the workforce every year. ...more

EC to clamp down on online racists

A proposal by the Council of Europe (COE) to criminalise the distribution of racist material online could become law in the UK in 2003. Penalties will be decided by COE member states, but the council said that, in the most extreme cases, these must include imprisonment. As part of its recent Convention on Cybercrime, attended by representatives from across Europe as well as the US, Canada, South Africa and Japan, the COE invited heads of state from Europe to sign a separate treaty banning racist activity on the Internet. ...more

Netscape patches critical vulnerabilities

Netscape has released a patch for its eponymous Web browser and email client to address several highly critical vulnerabilities. Three vulnerabilities are reported. The first is where Netscape allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by tricking the user into using the 'Set as Background' context menu on an image URL that is really a 'javascript: URL' with an evil statement. ...more