VeriSign signs Yahoo!, eBay to identity protection initiative

Security firm VeriSign is introducing a new hardware-based strong authentication system that it hopes will become a universal standard for user identification and prevent identity theft both on an offline. The VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Network has already signed up as partners some of the biggest online e-commerce organisations including eBay, and its online banking subsidiary PayPal, and Yahoo! The authentication technology is built around the 'Oath' strong authentication system. Memory stick specialist ScanDisk has been recruited to build USB mass-storage and trusted flash devices with the Oath One Time Passwords (OTP) technology built in at no extra cost. ...more

Recycling is so PC

Company formed to offer Internet-ready PCs from ?200 Key Computers, which will launch 24 September, is set up to offer cheap computers, notebooks and peripherals and tackle the growing mountain of waste computer products in the UK. Prices start from ?199.99 including VAT, credit card charges and delivery for an Internet-ready system based on a 233Mhz Pentium, a 1. ...more

Magazine gives away human blueprint

Are you sick of all the usual magazine covermounts and giveaway? Don't despair as one magazine is giving away a CD-ROM of the human genome on its front cover. The political and cultural magazine Prospect will be featuring the CD-ROM containing the human genome information – a complete genetic blueprint of a human body. The disc was prepared by experts at the Sanger Centre research laboratory. ...more

From the cradle to the mobile phone

Believe it or believe it not, but it seems that that electronics company Siemens is targeting its latest mobile phone at toddlers. News has trickled in via a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, which quotes a report in Danish newspaper Berlingske Tiden that the company is testing a handset in Germany which features big, child-sized buttons and weighs 200g. The new Leonie phone could hit European shelves next year and backs up the trend that youngsters are more interested in technology than playing with their toys. ...more

UK games chart: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas smashes into number one

With a squeal of burning tyres and the wail of sirens, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas careers straight in as number one on this week's ELSPA UK games chart. Kicking aside EA Sports's FIFA 2005 and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (down to number two and three, respectively), Rockstar's mayhem-causing sequel runs on the PS2. To complete the top five, Activision's Tony Hawk's Underground 2 slips down one place to four, and Burnout 3: Takedown, Electronic Arts's console game, inches up one place to five. ...more