Nokia unveils first cellphone for Edge network

Nokia yesterday unveiled the first phone for advanced wireless networks that lets users surf the Web at speeds up to twice as fast as before. The company says the Nokia 6200 was designed for wireless networks based on Edge (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution), the advanced version of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications).

The phone, aimed at professionals, comes with a colour screen as well as the ability to send multimedia messages and download graphically complex applications.

The Edge protocol offers peak data speeds of up to 118Kbps, twice as fast as the previous version, known as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), which provides access equivalent to home dial-up connections. [Reuters]

The much-hyped UnitedLinux initiative yesterday launched the first full release with the announcement of SCO`s Linux 4.0 at Comdex yesterday. The product is based on UnitedLinux 1.0, the core standards-based Linux operating system developed by a number of Linux players including SCO, SuSE and Connectiva.

"SCO Linux 4.0 provides customers with the base UnitedLinux operating system as well as the additional software, support and services from SCO that customers need to successfully run Linux in the business environment," says Mark Knight, the SCO Group`s regional manager for Africa and Middle East.

"For any operating system to be commercially viable, especially Linux, it needs a well-defined roadmap from a trusted supplier committed to and capable of supporting it."

Gary McKinnon, a 36-year-old UK hacker, looks very likely to be extradited to the US following a series of attacks against US military targets. Over the course of a year, from March 2001 to March 2002, McKinnon staged 92 separate break-ins of US Army, Navy and Nasa computer systems, in the process racking up an estimated $900 000 in damages. But while it was initially though that McKinnon was a highly skilled hacker, officials now believe that he was merely a talented amateur.

"In my opinion he is not a professional," says Bart Vansevenant, director of European security strategy at Ubizen. "It`s frightening to see what he did with a very common tool. He was using a standard port scanner looking for a system administrator who hadn`t installed a publicly available patch."

Most of what McKinnon accomplished was achieved with two ordinary hacker utilities, Solo and RemotelyAnywhere. Security company Kaspersky Labs says telltale signs of McKinnon`s amateurishness include the fact that he did not take steps to conceal his IP address nor did he adopt other identities.

This week in TechNiche:
Linux server sales to double next year