Hacking charge sticks to smut-surfer

A US court has turned down an appeal from a man convicted of computer hacking offences for using a workplace computer to post nude pictures of himself onto a swingers Web site, reports The Register.

Richard Wolf used his work PC to upload naked pics of himself to show prospective buddies through the Adult Friend Finder Web site, as well as surfing for pornographic content on other sites. He was caught and convicted by a jury over offences under a law that prohibits users from either stealing data, or accessing prohibited material through workplace systems.

Wolf admits wrongdoing, but denies hacking, promoting an appeal to an Ohio appeal court, which failed this week after judges ruled his misuse of workplace PCs was covered by Ohio state statute.

Analyst firm Forrester Research is advising companies to pressure their software suppliers to lower their maintenance charges. It accuses software vendors of persisting with "customer-unfriendly practices that wouldn't be accepted in other spheres", says Computing.co.uk.

In a new report, Duncan Jones, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, claims budgetary pressures are forcing IT leaders to demand reductions in maintenance costs - and many of them are succeeding.

"They can't talk about it publicly due to gagging clauses in software agreements, but many customers have won support cost reductions from even the most infamously intransigent industry giants," Jones writes in the report.

A credit card with a built-in display is being tested by Visa with the aim of reducing online fraud, says the BBC.

The Emue Card generates and displays a unique code each time it is used.

Developers say the new technology would make it hard for fraudsters, as any transaction would require the PIN to generate the code.

In a four-to-three ruling, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the State Police violated a criminal suspect's rights under the State Constitution when it placed a GPS tracking device inside the bumper of his van without obtaining a warrant, reports The New York Times.

The police had used the device to monitor the movements of the suspect, Scott Weaver, for more than two months. But the court ordered the evidence gathered from the device suppressed and ordered a new trial for Weaver.

In three written opinions, the judges debated the constitutional issues raised by the growing use of global positioning system technology as a tool of surveillance. The case could set an important precedent for state and local police agencies.