Cryptography expert Bruce Schneier, in conjunction with a research group, has studied the security of TrueCrypt, to see whether it meets the specifications for a 'Deniable File System' (DFS) - implemented in TrueCrypt as hidden volumes - and is really

Opera Software has released version 9.5 beta of its Opera Mobile phone browser for downloading. Currently, it is only available for the Windows Mobile platform. Like its little brother, Opera Mini, Opera Mobile opens web sites in an overview mode.

Following the April 2007 initiative on "Enhancing the patent system", the European Commission has now published a communication on a European industrial property rights strategy (PDF). It hopes this will improve access to the patent system and to trademark protection

Network administrators working for the City of San Francisco still do not have access to the municipal computer system's backbone. In a sort of "cyber coup", an administrator and co-designer of the "FiberWAN network" has gained control of the system

With versions 2.0.0.16 and 3.0.1, the developers plug two security holes in Firefox that they categorised as critical. These versions will be offered soon via the built-in update mechanism and will also show up on the download sites.

Google, founder and member of the Open Handset Alliance has not openly distributed any updates for the Android SDK since mid-February, despite developers' reports of numerous bugs. On the other hand, Google supplied winners of the first round of the

Following numerous failed attempts to take over Yahoo!, Microsoft is currently engaged in intensive talks with internet portal AOL. Citing informed sources, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition that top managers from both companies wanted to meet

Twitter, the microblogging service which operates over SMS and the web, has acquired Summize, a service for searching Twitter. The announcement comes after Twitter has spent recent months fighting numerous problems. The company has scaled back the services that it

With the original Centrino if you wanted to have the Centrino label, the processor, chipset, and WiFi module all had to be from Intel and the processor manufacturer has stuck to this principle with Centrino 2. Developed under the code

A report from the University of Arizona claims that the package managers used in most Linux distrubutions contain security flaws that allow malicious distribution mirror servers to inject clients with old packages containing flaws. The researchers were able to demonstrate

Commissioner Richard Thomas, of the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO), has criticised government plans to set up a central database (PDF) holding all of the information collected by telephone companies and ISPs under telecommunications data retention regulations. According to the

Crafted Portable Document Format files can allow an attacker to gain control of a BlackBerry server. According to a security advisory from BlackBerry vendor RIM, the bug is in the PDF Distiller component of the Attachment Service, which runs on

Intel has co-led a $100m (£50m) round of venture capital funding for a California-based start-up that hopes to make DNA sequencing a routine part of medical care. Announced on Monday, the funding round, is designed to enable privately owned Pacific

The rate of open source adoption in the UK lags behind other Western countries, a recent report has found. Research by Forrester Research shows the UK is fifth in the league table for the number of businesses that have adopted

Google and Facebook are now competing over open source inter-server communication with the public release of Google's Protocol Buffers, taking on Facebook's Thrift.

OpenOffice.org has released the second beta of OpenOffice 3.0, aiming to release 3.0 in September. OpenOffice says this release is "made available to allow a broad user base to test and evaluate the next major version of OpenOffice.org" but does

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed suit against the US government to protest the new Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) recently passed by Congress. The civil rights organisation believes that the far-reaching authority granted by the Act, which

At the end of the year, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) will launch a European campaign for civil rights. As MEP Alexander Alvaro (FDP) put it, in a discussion organized by the Young Liberals on data

Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 will be withdrawn from the market for good on 1st November. Until then, device manufacturers can still license the old operating system for special applications, like weak processors - of course, this system has not

Chip manufacturer NXP, formerly the semiconductor division of Philips and well-known for its Mifare RFID chips, has filed suit against a group of researchers at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Holland. According to information provided by the company, the suit is