Hi-tech thieves target Olympics

According to security firms, the start of the Olympics proved irresistible to cyber criminals, reports The BBC.

The volume of junk e-mail messages with an Olympic theme spiked prior to the opening ceremony, said Symantec.

The malicious messages try to trick people into visiting fake sites, or opening booby-trapped e-mail attachments, say other firms.

The increasing interconnection of UK government IT systems poses a growing risk to the security of the critical national infrastructure, according to a report from the government, says Computing.co.uk.

The Cabinet Office's National Risk Register aims to catalogue any dangers to the UK.

IT systems in government departments, including elements of the national infrastructure, continue to be attacked electronically, according to the report.

Analyst firm EJL Wireless Research estimates that more than 12 million Chinese will use TD-SCDMA handsets by 2012, though it also claims Huawei won't provide much of the infrastructure to support them, reports The Register

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TD-SCDMA is a variant of CDMA designed to avoid paying patent fees to non-Chinese companies, and is the mandated 3G standard for China. The Chinese government promised to have its 3G network up and running in time for the Olympics, and to some extent has achieved that despite not formally awarding licences in time.

Anyone can manufacture TD-SCDMA handsets, and China is hoping the standard will spread beyond its borders; but according to EJL, only 13% of handset orders have been placed with non-Chinese suppliers, and no one outside China is making data cards complying with the standard.

Tipping bloggers for posts the reader enjoyed is the rationale behind new-media outlet Salon's latest initiative, says CNet.

Members of its "Open Salon" user-generated content community can now "tip" one another with real-world money if they like what they see. Popular content will also appear on the main Salon.com homepage.

Plenty of sites have instituted virtual reputation gauges (such as Yelp's "compliments") and a handful of amateur-content-driven media sites like GroundReport give their contributors a cut of ad revenue, but having members compensate one another is a novel concept.