Cellphone that knows its owner

DoCoMo, one of Japan's top mobile companies, has released models with features which take mobile security to a new level, reports earthtimes.org.

This phone can detect when its owner moves away, provides a facial recognition locking system and has an inbuilt GPS system that can be used to trace the phone, if lost.

The new security system is a small black card that can be carried in the owner's bag or pocket. If the owner moves away from the range of detection of the phone, it automatically locks so that nobody else can use it.

Seagate has announced a hard drive that integrates a hardware- and software-based content protection technology, reports TGDaily.

The Drive Trust security platform can prevent unauthorised access to data stored on the drive. It promises users greater peace of mind when storing critical data.

The technology is likely to end up as a new digital rights management solution as well.

Nokia has become the latest consumer electronics company to enter the booming European car-navigation market, upping the ante for market leader TomTom.

The company unveiled its 330 Auto Navigation device with preinstalled Europe-wide map data from Netherlands-based navigation firm Route 66, says CTNews.

The product will use digital maps from US-based Navteq, and not from its main Netherlands-based rival, Tele Atlas, whose maps are used in a new Nokia N95 phone that doubles as a navigation device.

Accusations that RFID-based contactless credit cards can be easily read by thieves are nothing new, but this time a group of scientists at the University of Massachusetts has gone quite far to try to prove it, reports eweek.

The RFID Consortium for Security and Privacy tested about 20 samples from various contactless credit cards and concluded that the cardholder's name and, often, credit card number and expiration date are leaked in plain text to unauthenticated readers.

The group adds that a homemade device, costing around $150, effectively clones one type of skimmed cards.