Broadband to rule UK TV waves

TV delivered into living rooms over broadband connections will completely change TV as well as the Internet as we know it, concludes a report from Lovelace Consulting and informitv.

BBC.co.uk reports that within five years, many UK households will have their TV piped through a satellite dish, rooftop aerial or cable network, and through a broadband phone line.

Co-author Graham Lovelace, explained: "The `pull` of broadband network television will replace the `push` of traditional broadcast television."

This means that the control of what programmes and content is available to watch will move out of the hands of the traditional broadcasters and into the hands of the viewer.

The UK government claims a new Web-based IT system to help cut the time farmers spend filling in forms and dealing with red tape could save the farming industry up to lb28 million per year.

Silicon.com reports that the first stage of the system, including a Web portal and detailed farm appraisal in the form of a self-assessment package for farmers, went live this week.

The system, developed by Defra with IBM and SunGuard, provides a single point of access to information held in various government databases, including animal records, integrated administration and archaeological sites.

Tim Bennett, president of the National Farmers Union, urged farmers to preview the system to see the benefits for themselves.

"It will reduce duplication and make the requirements of regulation clearer and simpler to follow, allowing farmers to get on with running their businesses rather than chasing paper."

Computer users are more likely to engage in "riskier online behaviour" at work, such as downloading potentially malicious files or surfing suspicious Web sites, claims a new study.

The study, conducted by IT security firm Trend Micro, warned that this cavalier attitude in the workplace often exacerbates problems for IT departments trying to protect business operations from increasingly unpredictable threats.

According to an online survey of 1 200 corporate end-users in the US, Germany and Japan, many users of corporate PCs are complacent about the risk of viruses, spyware, spam and phishing, because they rely on the IT department to provide security, vnunet.com reports.

"Eye-opening revelations like these highlight the security challenges IT departments face within their own organisations and should motivate them to ensure greater protection across their enterprise," says Max Cheng, executive VP of Trend Micro`s enterprise business segment.