IM viruses increase

While the total number of computer infections in Korea fell last month, the number of instant messaging program-related infections is surging, says Digital Chosunilbo.

According to computer security company New Technology Wave, the number of PCs infected with malicious codes in August dropped by 16.8% from a month earlier. In particular, the number of newly found malicious codes fell by 29.7%.

However, eight kinds of malicious codes that spread via instant messaging programs were discovered in August alone. That's more than the entire number of harmful new messenger codes discovered last year, which was five.

The first phase of an emergency text messaging system will be launched next week at the University of Calgary, says Edmonton Sun.

Most colleges and universities reassessed their emergency strategies in the aftermath of the 16 April Virginia Tech shootings, which left 32 dead on campus, before the gunman, student Seung-Hui Cho, committed suicide in a classroom.

The system won't be used to circulate any marketing or promotional information, and will be reserved for issues such as a university closure due to extreme weather, or ongoing incidents with the potential for significant disruption on campus.

Swift has released message standards compliant with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive to help the consortium's community meet the requirements of the directive ahead of the 1 November 2007 deadline, says CFO-news.com.

Following the completion of a gap analysis, existing ISO messages have been modified to ensure MiFID compliance. These will be live in the Standards Release annual maintenance on 27 October.

As an ISO standard, the new messages are useable over any network. Swift supports the standard on the Swift network and will drive adoption by offering investment firms, regulators and reporting intermediaries the opportunity to pilot the messages over Swift's file transfer service - SwiftNet FileAct - during the second half of 2007.