Trojan baffles experts

A new Trojan that has been making its way around the Internet in recent weeks continues to baffle security experts, who have been unable to get a handle on its behaviour. Eweek reports that it apparently made its first appearance around 16 May, and began randomly scanning Internet-connected machines.

The scanning was slow at first but has begun to pick up speed in recent days as more machines became infected. Researchers at Internet Security Systems (ISS) in Atlanta saw nearly 3 000 scans an hour on Tuesday across the entire address space that the company monitors.

ISS has been tracking the Trojan for about a month and has yet to find a copy of its code or successfully trace it back to an infected machine. Other security vendors and officials at the Department of Homeland Security are also tracking the Trojan, without any luck so far.

Japanese videogame-maker Nintendo says it has won one of its "most significant anti-piracy judgments ever" against a Hong Kong firm that sold devices capable of copying its games and putting them on the Internet for limitless downloading.

In the ruling, reports Yahoo News, a Hong Kong judge ordered Lik Sang International to pay an interim amount of HK$5 million (US$641 000) in damages.

Overseas demand for US technology products has fallen dramatically during the past two years - except in China, whose acceptance into the World Trade Organisation in 2001 has helped fuel a big appetite for semiconductors, mobile phones and other electronic goods.

Silicon Valley reports that US exports fell 26% to $166 billion last year from $223 billion in 2000, according to AeA, a trade group formerly known as the American Electronics Association.