A computer virus being circulated by e-mail appears to be an effort to bait the electronic monitoring system known as Echelon, according to an Internet security firm. The virus, a variant of the "ILOVEYOU" virus which wreaked havoc on computers across the globe a year ago, could be an effort to overload the Echelon monitoring system, according to the security firm Sophos. The virus, says Sophos, contains in its source code a number of words that could attract the attention of eavesdroppers, such as assassination, motorcade, sabotage, toxin, air command, Islamic revolution and boobytraps.
Although reports suggest that the Echelon system is operated by the top-secret National Security Agency, it has never confirmed or denied its existence. A spokesman for Sophos told Computimes that the new virus, which has !!! - text in its subject field was not very widespread and was unlikely to pose a serious threat either to businesses or the surveillance system it is targetting. "I would hope that Echelon is sophisticated enough to block such messages," the spokesman said.
CHEATING ONLINE: Thousands of German students studying for diplomas in information technology have been forced to resit an examination after the questions were leaked on the Internet. "Of course we are annoyed," Juergen Mund, a training officer for one of the regional chambers of commerce who ran the exams, said.
MS FIX: Microsoft says it has fixed a security flaw in its server software that allowed a hacker to gain control of a company's web server in minutes. The flaw affected users of Windows NT's Internet Information Server 4.0 and Windows 2000's Internet Information Server 5.0, the company said.
YET ANOTHER 3G DELAY: We'll have to wait a little longer for third generation (3G) mobile phones after British Telecom delayed the launch of services on the Isle of Man because of malfunctioning handsets. BT said its Manx Telecom subsidiary was postponing its launch of the high-speed mobile Internet technology by at least three months because of a software problem in phones supplied by NEC.
OPENNAP CLOSING: The Internet piracy crackdown has caused a sharp drop in "OpenNap" servers - computers that run Napster-like software but are not associated with the song-swap service, a research report shows. "OpenNap servers fell by over 75 per cent in the period from late February to late April 2001," said Kelly Truelove, founder and chief executive of Clip2, which tracks peer-to-peer networks.
KEEPING IT REAL: RealNetworks has unveiled a music download service that aims to replace Napster in the hearts of music lovers everywhere. A US House Judiciary subcommittee was shown a mock-up of the music industry's for-cash alternative to Napster. MusicNet, set to debut in August, is a collaboration between AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG and EMI Group.
CHEGWIN HACKED: British broadcaster Keith Chegwin has apparently been caught up in a cyberspace war as hackers sabotaged his website with an obscene message. The presenter, who has been fronting his own Internet programmes from home, has been hit twice before. Chegwin fans were greeted with a black screen and the hackers' message when they accessed www.cheggersbedroom.com last week. A spokesman said the site had been attacked by antiUS hackers after the spy plane stand-off in China. Er, what?
HOTMAIL'S LANDMARK: Microsoft's free Webbased e-mail service Hotmail now has more than 100 million users worldwide. Microsoft says its instant messenger software, which lets users type messages to each other in real time over the Internet, grew by two million users in March to nearly 32 million worldwide.
CYBER SHUTDOWN: Iranian police have denied reports of the wholesale closure of Tehran's Internet cafes last week, claiming only 15 had been ordered to shut. A proreform newspaper said that authorities had closed around 400 cybercafes across the capital.
IN BRIEF...French telecoms equipment maker Alcatel is in advanced talks to buy Lucent Technologies for slightly more than $40 billion, the New York Times reported. . . The German media giant Bertelsmann said that it had decided to fold its online bookselling unit BOL.com into its book club business. . . Parthus Technologies is paying an initial $41.4 million in cash and shares to acquire privately-held US group Chicory Systems. . .