ID Scams on internet phones

Internet phone services have drawn millions of users looking for rock-bottom rates. Now they're also attracting identity thieves looking to turn stolen credit cards into cash.

The New York Times and Reuters report (20 Mar.) that some internet phone services allow scam artists to make it appear that they are calling from another phone number -- a useful trick that enables them to drain credit accounts and pose as banks or other trusted authorities, online fraud experts say.

The paper says the emerging scams underline the lower level of security protecting Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, the internet-calling standard that has upended the telecommunications industry over the past several years.

Traditional phone networks operate over dedicated equipment that is difficult for outsiders to penetrate. Because VOIP calls travel over the internet, they cost much less but are vulnerable to the same security problems that plague e-mail and the web, the NYTY says.

According to the NYT.,internet worms that snarl online networks can render VOIP lines unusable, and experts at AT&T say VOIP conversations can be monitored or altered by outsiders.

All of these threats remain largely in the realm of theory. Caller ID spoofing, on the other hand, has emerged over the past six months as a useful tool for identity thieves and other scam artists, according to fraud experts, the paper reports.

The NYT says caller ID spoofing is not prohibited by law, but the Federal Communications Commission requires telemarketers to identify themselves accurately, a spokeswoman said.

But, the paper says criminals can use caller-ID spoofing to listen to other people's voice mail,especially when those accounts are not protected by passwords.They also have begun to use the technology to make it appear that they are calling from a bank or other financial institution, a spokesman for the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a banking-industry task force, said.

China clamp down on internet users

China has blocked off-campus internet users from accessing several bulletin boards operated by universities as part of a government clampdown on outspoken domestic web sites.

The New York Times/Reuters reeport (20 Mar.) that Shuimu Tsinghua, a popular bulletin board run by Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, was among the sites sealed to outside participants last week, the Beijing Times reported over the weekend.

A Tsinghua University student who requested anonymity said on Monday the Ministry of Education made the decision to shut the site because the bulletin board was only supposed to be a platform for internal exchange within the university, says the peper.

The NYT/Reuters say a note posted on the bulletin board's home page on 16 March announced the move and said it had been made in keeping with a new policy passed by the Ministry of Education. There were no further details.

The paper said internet bulletin boards at Wuhan and Nankai universities were also barred to outside users earlier this month, the Beiojing newspaper said.

The NYT says such university bulletin boards had become popular forums for discussion of everything from politics to pop culture between students, faculty, graduates and others.

The paper says China has been cracking down on internet content -- from politics to pornography -- but has struggled to gain control over the medium as more Chinese have got web access and have used it to gain information beyond official sources. Yitahutu, a bulletin board operated by Peking University, was shut down altogether last September.

The NYT says China had 94 million internet users at the end of 2004, the government said this month, adding that the number should jump 28 percent to 120 million this year.

Beijing has created a special internet police force believed responsible for shutting down domestic sites posting politically unacceptable content, blocking some foreign news sites and jailing several people for their online postings, says the paper and Reuters.

Euro notebook PC sales boom

European notebook sales jumped almost 16 per cent year on year in January, UK-based market watcher Context has reported, pushing sales close to outselling desktop PCs.

The Register reports (21 Mar.) that only one of Europe's eight biggest economies saw notebook shipments fall in January - sales dipped a single percentage point in Germany. Most of the remaining seven nations saw double-digit growth, with France, Spain and Sweden, in particular, showing big year-on-year gains.

Shipments were up 40.5 per cent in France, 33.2 per cent in Spain and 32.6 per cent in Sweden. In the UK, shipments grew just over seven per cent, year-on-year, Context told The Register.

The Register says that Context tracks shipments through the reseller channel, so its figures effectively ignore any contribution made by Dell and other direct-only vendors.

The publication says that contribution may be enough to lift notebook sales beyond desktop shipments. As they stand, Context's numbers for January put notebook sales across Europe's eight largest economies just behind those of desktop PCs, but the market watcher said it expects the two form-factors' respective sales positions to swap round during the coming year, "if current trends continue", The Register reports.

According to The Register, the key trend is a half percentage-point increase in share for notebooks each month. In January, notebooks accounted for 49.2 per cent of PCs shipped via resellers in Europe, Context said, up from 42.5 per cent in January 2004.

The Register says Italy and Germany lead the way, with notebook shipment shares of 62.5 per cent and 53.1 per cent, respectively. That undoubtedly explains the relatively low notebook shipment growth seen in those territories in January, the publication adds.

France and Sweden, by contrast, both have high desktop:notebook shipment ratios, so it's no wonder, perhaps, that they also showed big notebook shipment increases in January, observes The Register, adding that both countries have simply been slower in the past to follow the trend favouring the notebook form-factor. Now they're catching up, says The Register - in France and Sweden, desktops took 58.4 per cent and 63 per cent, respectively, of PC shipments through resellers during January.

The Register says the UK is a little less behind the curve. Notebook shipments fell just behind those of desktops, taking 44.2 per cent of overall PC shipments in January, Context said.

Market researcher Gartner last month said worldwide notebook shipments would surge 17 per cent in 2005, well above its anticipated overall PC shipments growth rate of six per cent.

Ingram Q1 confidence

Ingram Micro has reaffirmed its guidance for its first quarter which finishes 2 April, with the distribution giant expecting sales to come in between US$7bn and US$7.2bn, generating net income of US$47m to US$50m.

The Register reports that this range reflected historical norms, Ingram said, even excluding its recent Tech Pacific buy and despite "pockets of increased competition and economic softness in specific markets."

According to The Register,Ingram's sales in the fourth quarter were US$7.45bn, 10.2 per cent up on the year. Net income was US$79.2m compared to US$46.4m the previous year. The fourth quarter figures received a boost from the dollar's weakness, and presumably the first quarter figures should get a similar fillip.

AFP sues Google

Agence France Presse is suing Google for linking to its news stories.

The New York Times/AP report (20 Mar.) that AFP is demanding Google remove all its headlines, intros and pictures from Google News and pay US$17.5m in damages. While many companies spend good money trying to improve how often, and how high up, the Google rankings they appear the French news agency is taking a different tack.

The NYT says the news agency claims Google is accessing its content without permission and that it has asked for it to be removed and Google has failed to stop breaching its copyright. The case was brought to the US District Court of Columbia late last week

The news agency said it asked Google to stop linking to its content but the search engine had not done so.

Startup helps control personal info on web

In the US., a Cambridge startup is offering a service it says gives a measure of control over the personal data the internet disgorges, giving new meaning to a practice commonly termed ``ego surfing'' or ``Googling yourself.''

The New York Times and AP report (21 Mar.) that the practice of typing your name into an internet search engine and seeing what pops up is now common, but the results can be unpredictable. The internet holds surprising amounts of personal information between its ever-expanding corners, and some of it may be outdated, inaccurate or embarrassing.

The paper reports that ZoomInfo's computers have compiled individual web profiles of 25 million people, summarising what the web publicly says about each person. The service, launched Monday, allows web surfers to search for their profile, then change it for free.

Chief Executive Jonathan Stern said the company is doing what popular search engines such as Google or Yahoo already do. What ZoomInfo adds, he said, is the winnowing out of irrelevant information, producing better results. People need good information about others for work and their daily lives, he said, reports the paper and AP.

According to the NYT., ZoomInfo, formerly Eliyon Technologies, is a privately held company with about 60 employees. An existing pay service helps businesses and recruiters use the internet to find and screen new employees at costs ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, depending on the size of the company and usage. The company said its customers include 20 percent of the Fortune 500, including Google, America Online and Microsoft.

ZoomInfo can't erase information on the internet, or stop web people searches from turning up incorrect or unflattering data. But since search engines display the most relevant results first, a well constructed ZoomInfo profile will be the first or among the first choices that appear, the NYT adds.

Ireland one of most expensive countries for broadband

Internet users in Ireland are paying through the nose for high speed net access with broadband charges in the country amongst the highest in the world, reports The Register (21 Mar.)

The Register says that when it comes to the high price of broadband among the 30 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries only three others - Luxembourg, Denmark and Iceland - are more expensive than Ireland, a report has found.

According to The Register, users who are able to subscribe to broadband in Ireland can expect to pay €39.98 a month for a 512k connection, according to a report compiled by internet consumer group IrelandOffline. In Korea, which topped the broadband league table, a 2.5 Meg connection costs €13.

The Register says those behind the report claim net users in IreIand are getting a raw deal. Said IrelandOffline chairman Damien Mulley: "This report is the clearest evidence yet as to the state of broadband in Ireland. No talking up, side-stepping, or clever marketing can distract from the evidence: 26 other countries in the league of 30 score better for value for money."

Ask Jeeves being sold

InterActive Corp (IAC) is buying Ask Jeeves for almost US$2bn.

The Register reports (21 Mar.) that IAC owns assorted web properties including CitySearch, Expedia, TicketMaster, dating site Match.com and the Home Shopping Network. The buy shows that search sites are still attracting investors. Microsoft recently followed Google and Yahoo into paid-for-search advertising.

According to The Register, IAC runs CitySearch which offers localised search results for businesses, bars, cinemas and restaurants.

The report says Ask Jeeves brought in revenue of US$86m in the last quarter of 2004 and income of US$17.5m. IAC will buy the search engine using shares which it will then buy back, according to anonymous executives quoted by the New York Times. Official confirmation is expected this week.

The Register says Ask Jeeves owns ask.com, Bloglines and Excite. Ask Jeeves is the seventh most popular search site in the UK with 1.9 per cent of total searches, Google is a long way in front with 63 per cent.

Intel ships 64-bit, 2MB L2 Pentium 4s

Intel has just begun selling its Pentium 4 6xx series, rolling out four versions of the 90nm, 2MB L2 cache chip.

The Register reports (21 Mar.) that the chip giant also added its latest P4 Extreme Edition to its official price list.

The P4 630, 640, 650 and 660 are clocked at 3, 3.2, 3.4 and 3.6GHz, respectively. All four chips support an 800MHz frontside bus. They also bring Intel's AMD64-like 64-bit addressing technology, EM64T, to the mainstream desktop, along with the latest version of the company's SpeedStep power management system, to minimise energy consumption. The anti-virus 'execute disable' bit is also supported. The processors connect through the standard top-end P4 LGA775 interface, says The Register.

The Register further reports that Q2 2005 is also expected to see the debut of the dual-core Pentium D, a faster P4 6xx chip, the 3.8GHz 670, and updates to the P4 5xx family that add a '1' to the model number and bring Intel's Virtualisation Technology - formerly known as 'Vanderpool' - to the desktop.

Hitachi displays rRobot on wheels

Hitachi's robot on wheels avoids obstacles, responds to simple voice commands and reads the weather forecast.

However, the New York Times/Reuters report (20 Mar.) that it is very much a work in progress: Reporters invited to a demonstration were warned not to touch the two prototypes for safety's sake. They also were asked not to use a camera flash at certain angles or to cross a white line on the floor.

The paper says the 150-pound, 51-inch-tall robots, nicknamed Pal and Chum, are equipped with digital cameras and radar sensors, allowing them to avoid obstacles with a reaction time of one-tenth of a second.

They don't have legs but zip around on two wheels at the speed of a slow jog. They appear a bit wobbly but manage to balance themselves and won't fall, even if nudged gently, says the paper. One showed it can raise its arm upon command. It also swiveled in a circle, gave directions to the bathroom and read the weather forecast.

Yahoo buys Flickr

Yahoo has bought Ludicorp Research and Development - the company behind popular photo sharing site Flickr.com.

The Register reports that Flickr lets you set up an online photo album and organise images and allow other people to leave comments about your pictures.

The publication says that the site promises that current management, who are all staying put, will not be turned into "a bunch of suits". Nor will Flickr become Yahoo Photos - the two services will continue separately but Yahoo will gain some of Flickr's features.

The Register says that Yahoo is beta testing a new blogging tool called Yahoo 360. The software integrates blogging software with instant messaging and search and sharing tools. A more sophisticated version of the software, possibly with picture-sharing, is expected in the next few weeks.