Data losses up over last year

A survey into the costs of online crime against businesses has found the cost of data breaches rising fast. The survey, carried out by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy and information management research firm, looked at all financial consequences of data breaches involving consumers identity details. It found data breaches cost companies an average of $182 per compromised record, a 31 per cent increase over 2005. ...more

Nokia 'pleased' with N-Gage launch

Nokia has stated that it is pleased with demand for its N-Gage mobile phone/handheld console hybrid, which launched at the beginning of October to a string of hostile reviews and reportedly dismal sales. Though the Finnish company says it has shifted 400,000 N-Gages to retailers, analysts suggest that consumer sales are a fraction of the units shipped to retailers. The price of the phone was temporarily cut by a third only two weeks after launch in two major retailers in the US, while here in the UK the mobile device has been changing hands for as little as 1 pence per unit (subject to additional line rental fees, naturally). ...more

Sony says yes to in-game trading

Sony is embarking on a new project to enter a market worth some $200mn in its estimation. That market is the business of trading virtual items within the online gaming worlds: in Sony's particular case it is setting up exchange systems for its EverQuest II game. In an address to the EverQuest community, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) president John Smedley wrote that despite the company's previous opposing stance on the subject, the decision to enable such trading is a response to high level of behind the scenes exchanges that currently occur and the fact that 40 per cent of customer service's time is spent dealing with these issues. ...more

UPDATE: Warranties being honoured at struggling Elonex

Deloitte and Touche, the appointed administrator, has told us that existing warranties are being honoured during the period of the administration and businesses is continuing as usual at troubled Elonex. Neville Kahn of Deloitte and Touche said: 'We are hopeful that we will be able to conclude a sale of the business as a going concern.' Some 28 of the 76 staff employed by UK systems vendor Elonex are to be made redundant after the company went into administration on Monday. ...more

AMD 'struggles to meet Athlon 64 targets'

Chip maker AMD is struggling to build enough Athlon 64 chips, research analysts have suggested. According to Smith Barney Citigroup Research, AMD shipped around 170,000 of the processors in Q4 compared with unofficial targets of some 300,000 given to channel partners. The channel partners are now being told to expect shipments in the region of 700-800,000 Athlon 64s in Q1 of 2004. ...more