Biometric cash machine lands in Europe
A Polish bank has become the first in Europe to offer the use of biometrics instead of PINs at cash machines, writes The Register.
Customers of BPS visiting one of its ATMs in Warsaw have the option of placing their fingerprints on readers, instead inputting a four-digit code, to authorise withdrawals or other transactions, following the introduction of new technology this week.
The system is based on the recognition of the pattern of veins in an enrolled customer's finger, a form of biometric technology developed by Hitachi. The technology is already widely used in Japan, but new to Europe.
UK govt accused of 'stealth' e-profiling
A Cambridge University researcher has warned that the UK government and its European Union counterparts are eroding civil liberties in their rush towards an information society, reports Computing.co.uk.
Ian Dent claims in “Beyond Broadband: The True Cost of Digital Britain” that an "iron net is now descending upon Europe" as governments collude with business to create powerful IT infrastructures that allow them to collate information on citizens and covertly profile the population.
Dent argued that governments have been reorganising entire infrastructures based on information taken from vast databases, without proper scrutiny.
Campaign seeks to derail Net plan
A $1.4 million TV advertising blitz has been introduced across the US in an attempt to derail efforts to increase regulation of broadband services, reveals the BBC.
The ads claim "Washington wants to spend billions to take over the Internet" and urges the public to help stop the "Washington takeover".
The campaign is a response to new Net neutrality rules that require cable firms to treat all Net traffic equally.
DoS attack uses Web servers as zombies
Researchers have uncovered a botnet that uses compromised Web servers instead of the usual personal computers to begin denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, says CNet.
Security firm Imperva said on Wednesday it uncovered a botnet of about 300 Web servers after one of its "honeypot" servers was used in an attack and based on a search of attack code via Google.
Web servers were commonly used in such attacks a decade ago, but had been replaced by the more ubiquitous Windows-based PCs, says Amachai Shulman, Imperva CTO.
Share