And also today (14-May-2001), for the record...

Here, in brief, are some of the day's other stories. Windows 2000 SP2 jumps gun It seems some people just can't wait for their Windows 2000 Service Pack 2s. In a similar manner to the release of SP1, SP2 has leaked one week ahead of its official release. ...more

Security firm beats Microsoft to patch VML hole

A group of security researchers known as the Zeroday Emergency Response Team (ZERT) has issued a patch for the Vector Markup Language (VML) flaw in Internet Explorer. The patch is unsupported, and ZERT warns that although the patch is tested, it is provided 'as-is with no guarantee as to fitness for your particular environment. Use them at your own risk or wait for a vendor-supported patch'. ...more

Security researchers probe Proactive Worm Containment

A way of tagging worms and containing them before they damage computer systems has been devised by researchers. The research was carried out by Peng Liu, associate professor of information services and technology and director of the Cyber Security Lab at Penn State University. The technology, dubbed Proactive Worm Containment (PWC), doesn't rely on signature databases but looks at a packet's rate or frequency of connections and the diversity of connections to other networks - which, the researcher said, allowed PWC to react far more quickly than other technologies. ...more

Regulatory compliance cost UK business ?1.6 billion in 2006

The extra ?1.6 billion spent in 2006 on complying with regulations is dulling the UK's competitive edge, a leading business organisation has warned. In its 2007 Burdens Barometer report, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) showed that the cost of regulatory laws hit ?10. ...more

Sony rootkit DRM to spark copycat viruses

Security company F-Secure says it is expecting to see viruses exploiting the rootkit technology used in Sony's DRM software Security company F-Secure says it is expecting to see viruses exploiting the rootkit technology used in Sony's DRM software anytime now. F-Secure's Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypp?nen said that the company was already in discussions with Sony before the news broke on Monday, but because of the huge security risks that this information poses those talks were behind closed doors. 'We didn't go public with the info at the time as we were worried with the implications (especially with the info on how outsiders can hide files which have names starting with "$sys$"),' he said. ...more