Security spending remains robust

Firms are continuing to invest heavily in security despite the economic slump, according to figures released by IDC, says Computing.co.uk.

Spending on security appliances, including firewall, virtual private network and unified threat management appliances, rose to £265.6 million - a 10% increase on the same quarter a year ago.

"Despite a very challenging time for all technologies, the security appliance market is still showing healthy growth over last year," says Romain Fouchereau, research analyst at IDC.

Oracle and Hewlett-Packard are believed to have made a joint offer for Sun Microsystems in a deal totalling more than $2 billion, reports The Register.

Under the deal, database giant Oracle would have taken Sun's software portfolio for $2 billion, leaving HP with Sun's vast Solaris, Sparc and x86 server products, manufacturing and distribution, and user base.

A potential deal between the three is understood to have been blocked by IBM, in the middle of talks to buy the whole of Sun for a reported $6.5 billion.

Using a mobile phone abroad in Europe looks set to get cheaper, says the BBC.

European MPs have brokered an agreement that will see the tariffs for making calls, sending text messages and browsing the Web fall from July.

All the prices that have been agreed are the maximum that operators will be allowed to charge for the different services.

Facebook has changed the way its password reset tool works so that it does not easily verify e-mail addresses to potential spammers, reports CNet.

"Last night, we took steps to make sure our password reset tool is not confirming e-mail addresses," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

"Specifically, we now give users the same message whether or not we recognise the e-mail address, and we are adding random amounts of time to the response to ensure measuring the time isn't an indication of anything."