Classic crimes could pose future threats

Researchers believe long-standing online crimes, such as financial market manipulation and social engineering, could morph into the security threats of tomorrow, reports Computing.co.uk.

McAfee Labs threat researcher Craig Schmugar and product manager Anthony Bettini said the changing landscape of the security market could help keep tried and tested cyber crime thriving in the coming years.

Bettini and Schmugar suggested the classic “pump and dump” scam has been given new life by the emergence of Web 2.0 services and the speed at which new information, both reliable and otherwise, is spreading.

In the absence of proper categorisation, egregious Web sites rule the Internet, free to terrorise the hapless workers of Web 2.0 with wanton non-productivity, says The Register.

This is how Cisco paints the landscape of a so-called "dark Web". It coined the term for an estimated 80% of the Internet that's not being correctly categorised by today's URL-filtering databases. Cisco blames the status quo on fly-by-night Web 2.0 blogs, micro-blogs, weenie-mini-micro-blogs and social networking Web sites that are built on dynamic content and collaboration technologies.

Said sites have a high amount of churn, and not only risk legal liability, but the sucking dry of employee attention, according to Cisco.

Researchers have demonstrated a small "nuclear battery" that produces energy from the decay of radioisotopes, reports the BBC.

As radioactive substances decay, they release charged particles that, when properly harvested, can create an electrical current.

Nuclear batteries have been in use for military and aerospace applications, but are typically far larger.

The video game industry is poised to rebound, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.

The analyst also predicted it will be Sony's PlayStation 3, and not the Nintendo Wii, that will lead console sales for the month, when NPD releases figures next week, says CNet.

"After six consecutive months of double-digit declines, we expect a return to double-digit sales growth [on video game software]," Pachter wrote. "We forecast sales of $750 million, up 21%, compared to last year's $618 million."