Cybercrime threat rising sharply

The threat of cybercrime is rising sharply, experts have warned at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, says The BBC.

They called for a new system to tackle well-organised gangs of cybercriminals.

Online theft costs $1 trillion a year, the number of attacks is rising sharply and too many people do not know how to protect themselves, they said.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is introducing a new system that will issue more secure emergency travel documents, says Computing.co.uk.

The system - which will be rolled out from the second half of this year - will allow officials at 200 overseas stations to issue the documents within a matter of hours.

The FCO currently issues 10 000 such documents a year to people who have lost their passports, but the process is likely to take weeks rather than days and the documents are not as secure as the FCO would like.

Intel has filed a $50 million lawsuit against insurance carrier American Guarantee and Liability Insurance, alleging breach of contract, reports CNet.

The alleged breach involves the insurance firm's failure to pay for Intel's legal defence related to anti-trust lawsuits filed by rival Advanced Micro Devices and consumers.

Intel, in the lawsuit filed last week in the US District Court for Northern California, alleges American Guarantee did not step up to the plate and begin paying for the chip giant's legal costs after it had exhausted $66 million in insurance policies provided by two other insurance carriers.