London IT job market shrinks

The number of IT vacancies in London and the South East has decreased by eight percentage points as the credit crunch leads to a recruitment slowdown in financial services, according to research, says Computing.co.uk.

The number of new technology jobs in the region has fallen from its peak of 65.5% of all IT vacancies in 2006, to 57.6% in 2008, as the recession has "disproportionately harmed" IT job creation in the areas where the financial services industry is concentrated, says the study carried out by IT staffing company ReThink Recruitment.

But compliance and risk management will boost IT staff numbers and sector consolidation should attract IT specialists to integrate disparate systems, says the study.

Yahoo profits plummeted 64% in its latest fiscal quarter and the company says it will jettison at least 10% of its workforce by the end of the year, reports The Register.

"As we saw the online ad market decline in the third quarter, I decided that Yahoo needed to accelerate the process of becoming more efficient and competitive," says CEO Jerry Yang, the man who refused a $47.5 billion takeover bid from Steve Ballmer.

"I believe getting Yahoo more fit at this time will provide the flexibility for navigating current conditions and strengthen our position for the future."

Computer criminals could soon be eavesdropping on what you type by analysing the electromagnetic signals produced by every key press, says The BBC.

By analysing the signals produced by keystrokes, Swiss researchers have reproduced what a target typed.

The security researchers have developed four attacks that work on a wide variety of computer keyboards. The results led the researchers to declare keyboards were "not safe to transmit sensitive information".

A judge in Kentucky seized the Web addresses of more than 140 Internet-gambling sites last week, in the latest example of how local governments can affect online businesses with physical operations beyond their jurisdictions, reports The Wall Street Journal.

It is common to think of the Internet as a global network that transcends geography. But online entities are often forced to adhere to laws in the places where they do business. One iconic example is a ruling by a French court in 2000, where the court said a French law banning the sale of Nazi paraphernalia applied to US-based Web site Yahoo.

In the Kentucky case, Circuit Court judge Thomas Wingate concluded that gambling Web sites were "virtual keys" that provided access to places where one could play online versions of gambling devices such as slot machines and roulette tables, which are illegal in the state.