E3 2002 - Xbox online plans go live

Microsoft sprang a few surprises when it lifted the lid on Xbox Live, the console's online gaming platform. The software giant plans to roll out Xbox Live in North America and, fingers-crossed, Japan and Europe before the end of 2002. The software giant officially announced that the platform will consist of five key features: Gamertag (a unique online ID for all Xbox Live games across the service), Xbox Communicator (support to allow for voice communication during play), Matching (a system that simplifies multiplayer game selection), Friends List (that allows you to find friends on the service and invite them into a game no matter what they happen to be playing at the time) and, finally, a facility to download extra game content onto the hard drive. ...more

Netsky-C prompts red alert

A C variant of the Netsky virus has been discovered, prompting AV experts Trend MIcro to issue a Red Alert. The company says it has received reports of high numbers of infections from around the globe. David Kopp, Head of TrendLabs EMEA for Trend Micro, told us: 'Trend Micro rarely takes the step of issuing a red alert for security threats, but the number of reports we have received worldwide has made this measure advisable to convey the potential seriousness of this outbreak. ...more

Taking the porn out of the portal

Yahoo has quickly reversed its policy on gearing up the sale of "adult oriented merchandise" following criticism from some customers and protest groups. We reported at the end of last week that the lure of revenue from the pornographic end of the video and DVD market had been too tempting for Yahoo!, which had posted disappointing quarterly results. The reaction of some users - and the general bad publicity surrounding the move - has led to a quick rethink of targeting that particular market. ...more

AMD slides in a new Sempron to beef up budget chip range

AMD has quietly introduced a new Sempron 32-bit budget processor - the 3000+, tucked between the top-of-the-range 3100+ and the 2800+. It operates at a frequency of 2.0GHz. ...more

Corporate security slips up on Banana

Results from Pentasafe Security Technology's Security Awareness Index (SAI) survey have found that 25 per cent of employees responded that they considered 'Banana' to be a safe and acceptable password. Available here, the SAI survey revealed that, along with easily hacked passwords, other faults ranged from 90 per cent of employees saying they would open email attachments, including Word files and Visual basic scripts, to 25 per cent not having read their company's security policy in more than two years. Forty per cent of workers that completed the survey were awarded a less than satisfactory D-grade for their security awareness. ...more