Worm disguised as iTunes threatens music fans

A new variant of the Opanki worm has emerged that targets music fans by claiming to be Apple's iTunes program. Security company Trend Micro, which issued the alert points out that 'users may be tricked into thinking that this worm is associated with a legitimate product'. The message arrives as an instant messenger chat file with the heading, 'this picture never gets old' and a link to a file called itunes. ...more

Spamhaus risks losing .org domain name

Leading anti-spam operation, Spamhaus is threatened with losing its domain name, which would effectively put it out of business. The challenge comes from a company that says that blacklisting by Spamhaus had caused it lost business and jobs. In September an Illinois court awarded e360 Insight damages against Spamhaus to the tune of $11,715,000 and a permanent injunction to prevent Spamhaus from blacklisting the firm in the future. ...more

AOL Bertelsmann partnership on the rocks

AOL may sacrifice its partnership with European media giant Bertelsmann in order to keep its merger with Time Warner on track, say industry sources. AOL and Time Warner are being investigated by the European Union, which is concerned that Time Warner's content combined with AOL's distribution channel will force competition out. If AOL shelves its partnership with Bertlesmann, that will reduce its power in Europe and hopefully pacify the EU. ...more

CERT warns of hackers homing in on home users

The CERT Coordination Center - a federally funded research and development centre on Internet security in the US - has warned of a recent increase in the numbers of intrusion attacks targeting home users using Windows 2000 and XP. The soft underbelly of the operating systems, says CERT, is the file share protocol that runs directly through port 445 on XP and 2000, but runs through ports on NetBIOS in older versions. Coupled with home users' tendencies to use weak passwords, attackers are now specifically targeting IP addresses in ranges known to be used by home users ie by consumer ISPs; and particularly aiming for home broadband users. ...more

Net phone startup Skype gathers more funding

Skype has banked nearly $19mn of venture capital funding in round two. The peer-to-peer IP telephony startup gathered in $18.8mn in second round funding led by venture capital firms Draper Fisher Jurveston and Index Ventures. ...more