Bill Lindner

Some used PCs are reportedly being purchased not for hardware but because people want to get their hands on a copy of Windows XP instead of newer operating system Vista. A recent Gartner study found that about 197 million PCs were discarded because ... Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system created a demand for PCs with greater hardware capabilities. Of those 197 million PCs that were discarded, 44% were put up for sale. David Daoud, research manager at IDC, said that many consumers and businesses prefer used PCs with Windows XP because they still have older copies of software programs that ... (view more)

The unbelievable story of Julie Amero, the substitute teacher who became the scapegoat of the Norwich school system when a computer riddled with spyware was inundated with pop-up "nasties" that were viewed by children in her class, has finally come ... to an end -- albeit, what many consider an unjust end. Amero was originally charged with four felonies for letting impressionable students see pornographic pictures as she browsed the web in her classroom. According to the Hartford Courant, Amero, who has been hospitalized and suffers from declining health, agreed to plead guilty to a single ... (view more)

In what's being described as a sustained attack from a rapidly spreading network worm, the U.S. army has reportedly banned the use of USB sticks, CDs, flash media cards, and all other removable data storage devices in attempts to prevent infections ... from spreading any further. (Source: wired.com ) According to an internal army email, the ban comes from the commander of U.S. Strategic Command and applies to both the secret SIPR and unclassified NIPR United States Department of Defense networks. The suspension order is supposed to take effect "immediately" and similar notices went out to other ... (view more)

Recently, software development firm Passware Inc. released "Search Index Examiner:" a program that makes all data indexed by Windows Search instantly accessible. Windows Search is part of the Windows Operating System and its function is to "maintain ... a record of any document or application on your PC, and the contents found within those items." (Source: Microsoft.com ) By default, Windows Search is enabled on Windows XP and Vista, but can be disabled by any user with administrative rights. Search Index Examiner from Passware Inc. has the capability to list all documents, ... (view more)

New standards concerning how businesses collect, store and use consumer data for advertising are being developed by a new advocacy group called "The Future of Privacy Forum." The group is comprised of privacy scholars, lawyers, and corporate ... officials and will be led by Jules Polonetsky, who was recently in charge of AOL's privacy policy until earlier this month, and Chris Wolf, a privacy lawyer. The organization is sponsored by AT ... (view more)

According to an online safety group, complete financial identities, including names, addresses, passport numbers and confidential data such as credit card numbers, are being sold online for 80 GB pounds for a bundled package, and as little as 5 GB ... pounds for a single piece of data. The Get Safe Online group, backed by police, government and banks, says ID theft is a serious problem because of an international trade in stolen identities and data. The bundles of data are harvested in concerted attacks against poorly defended computers in wealthier nations and are often sited in countries with ... (view more)

Several Internet Service Providers (ISPs), along with "NebuAd," the company responsible for a controversial marketing technology that delivers "more relevant ads" while you surf the Internet are facing a class action lawsuit. The suit was filed in ... the U.S. District Court in San Francisco and alleges violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, California's Invasion of Privacy Act and California's Computer Crime Law, as well as aiding and abetting, civil conspiracy and unjust enrichment. Earlier this year, NebuAd made the news when ... (view more)

In an attempt to compete with Google and Zoho, Microsoft is reportedly giving away free software to early-state Web start-up companies as part of a recently launched worldwide program called BizSpark. BizSpark wants to help startups by providing ... production licenses and technical support for several Microsoft products. The licenses are free for the first three years. BizSpark gives Microsoft a way to promote the use of its software. ZocDoc, a New York-based company that offers an online service for booking doctor and dentist appoints, became an early member of the BizSpark program. ZocDoc ... (view more)

Details of more than 500,000 online bank accounts and credit and debit cards have reportedly been stolen by a virus described as "one of the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created." (Source: bbc.co.uk ) The RSA Fraud Action Research Lab, ... part of EMC's security unit, discovered log-in information on more than 270,000 banking accounts and 240,000 credit and debit card accounts that had been compromised from hundreds of thousands of financial institution in countries including the U.S. the U.K., Australia and Poland by a cybercrime gang using the Sinowal Trojan, first detected in ... (view more)

AT&T is reportedly considering limiting the bandwidth that subscribers are entitled to use each month, beginning with Reno, NV. Internet providers across the country are are limiting bandwidth to curb a small number of "bandwidth hogs" who use a ... lot of the network capacity. According to an AT ... (view more)