Hackers broke into Microsoft's computer systems in what a spokesman on Friday called "a deplorable act of industrial espionage". The spokesman declined to comment on which specific areas of the computer network were breached, what the specific goals of the hackers were or their possible motives. "We recently became aware of attacks to our corporate network," Microsoft spokesman Mr Rick Miller said. "Microsoft is moving aggressively to isolate the problem and to secure our corporate network. We are confident that the integrity of our source code remains secure." He said the company was working with law enforcement "to protect our intellectual property."
Student Study: The self-styled Irish Big Brother - despite the absence of any resemblance to the Channel 4 summer phenomenon - is now available online, all the time. Anyone anxious to spy into the lives of five Irish students 24/7, as the dotcom cliche goes, should go immediately to www.oxygen.ie. Webcams will cover every room in the 4 bedroom flat and viewers can select the camera that best meets their needs, from the bathroom to the bedroom. Delightful.
Corr-Parate Darlings: The Corrs played an exclusive concert for Euro MPs last week after which they lobbied for tougher EU copyright laws. "It's very important for the livelihood of artists who come after us, and definitely for music culture in Europe," Sharon Corr said. Co-ordinating their visit was the international recording industry group IFPI, which also wants changes to an EU copyright directive that has been in the legislative pipeline since 1997. It wants the directive to give more protection against music piracy on the Internet.
Keeping Agilent: Agilent Technologies has signed a portfolio licensing agreement for a range of Parthus mobile Internet technology. Under the terms of the agreement Agilent will gain access to Parthus' BlueStream Bluetooth platform and InfoStream mobile computing platform as core technologies for its next generation products.
Snooper's Charter: New British government regulations granting firms powers to monitor staff emails and phone calls could face a legal challenge. Under the regulations, employers will be allowed "routine access" to workers' communications. Employers denied that it amounted to a "snooper's charter", while the British government said it will not lead to changes in normal business practice.
AIB Closes Account: AIB last week scrapped its planned stand-alone Internet bank because customer numbers of Internet-only banks across the world were considered disappointing. The announcement came after a review of AIB's e-business strategy which will see the bank instead focusing on developing its existing online service. Work on the Internet bank was started earlier this year when it was believed customer take-up of online banking services would be quick and substantial.
Net Growth: Data for the month of September from Nielsen//NetRatings shows that over 1 million Irish people can now access the Internet from home. This represents a 50 per cent increase since March this year. A similar 48 per cent increase in the number of actual surfers since March is also reported. Internet penetration in Ireland now stands at around 30 per cent.
Cybercrime Standards: Net experts from the world's wealthiest countries attending a conference on cybercrime have recommended international security standards to protect users and institutions. The 100 specialists who gathered in Berlin as representatives of the Group of Eight top industrialised nations urged member countries to develop standards to protect users from fraud.
Space Oddity: The Soyuz TM-26 descent capsule flown to MIR by Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Soloviev and Pavel Vinogradov, is now up for sale at www.thespacestore.com for only $2.2million. They were the cosmonauts who performed emergency repairs in the capsule to save MIR following a collision with a Progress tanker.
In Brief...Baltimore Technologies and Motorola have announced a strategic agreement which will see the former supply the latter with its Baltimore Telepathy wireless e-security product and services offerings. . . Amazon.com has posted quarterly financial results that blew away estimates, surprising Wall Street with a smaller loss than it did a year ago as sales ballooned almost 80 per cent. . . A Playstation II, for sale on ebid.com had reached the staggering price of $5,000 on Friday afternoon. . .