Google warms up for online voice calls

Google warms up for online voice calls

By David Litterick in New York and Dominic White (Filed: 25/08/2005)

Google yesterday opened a new front in the internet turf war with the launch of an instant messaging system that will allow users to make voice calls over the net.
The company is striving to expand its services beyond its search engine and hopes "Google Talk" will enable it to do so.
It will take on AOL, currently the US market leader in instant messaging with 41m people signed up, and Skype, tops in internet phone calls with 51m users worldwide.
Google dominates search - a position it hopes to translate into success in messaging and internet telephony.
However, analysts cautioned yesterday that persuading users to switch to Google from their current messaging system could meet inertia.
Users of Google Talk must have a Gmail account - Google's email service which marked its first foray into communications when it was launched last year. The service is only available through referrals from friends but Google yesterday said it would make it simpler to sign up.
Crucial to Google Talk's potential success is the boast that its "open model" will trump the closed systems of its rivals by enabling users to message the networks of other companies. Skype responded quickly yesterday by announcing it, too, was opening up its platform to others. Skype also retains the advantage that it allows users to make calls from PCs to land lines and mobile phones. Google Talk will initially only enable PC-to-PC communication.
Nevertheless, it backs up the assertion of Google chief Eric Schmidt who said "the only things that will matter on the internet are search and communication".
The launch of Google Talk, which will initially be free of adverts, is expected to drive adoption of Gmail, where Google makes money through the placing of ads targeted at the subject matter of an email.
The company announced last week that it planned to raise $4billion (£2.2billion) through a secondary share offering, prompting rumours it intended to buy its way into the market through the acquisition of a firm such as Skype.
Yahoo has also been in talks with the Luxembourg-based internet telephony leader which boasts 51m unique users, although talks broke down a month ago. Jerrome Buvat, strategic business consultant at CapGemini, said: "It is not surprising that Google is launching a voice over internet (VoIP) service given the very high growth of this market.
''The number of VoIP minutes is currently growing at a rate of 50pc a year."
In a timely reminder of the growth potential, the OECD yesterday said the growing popularity of internet telephony was posing a threat to the revenues of fixed-line and mobile operators.
The organisation said the number of fixed lines fell for the first time ever in 2003, and said Skype subscribers could make savings of 80pc on their telephone calls over users of traditional carriers.
Google has recently embarked on a blitz of new product launches as it attempts to win the PR battle with rivals and create a "one-stop-shop" on the net enabling users to manage their entire computer system from one website platform.

Speed of cars 'will be limited by computer'

Speed of cars 'will be limited by computer'

By David Millward, Transport Correspondent
(Filed: 22/08/2005)

Cars of the future could have their speed controlled by a computer, with drivers denied even the option of breaking the limit.
The Government is examining the results of research into "intelligent speed adaptation technology" carried out by the Institute for Transport Studies at Leeds University.
The system builds on devices already well known to road users: speed-limiters, such as those already fitted on coaches and heavy lorries, and satellite positioning, as found in anti-theft trackers and in-car navigation.
By combining the two technologies, cars can be controlled remotely.
The institute installed the system on 20 cars, and programmed speed limits on to an in-car digital map.
For the first month, drivers were told of the speed limit, but were left to decide whether to observe it.
For the following four months, the car was forced to slow down as the technology took over control of the accelerator pedal.
Then, for a final month, the driver was given full control of the car again.
The purpose of the research, according to the Department of Transport, was to examine how the technology affected driver behaviour.
There are no plans to make it compulsory. For the time being, at least, transport officials have ruled out another version of the system which could use roadside beacons - already in operation for some road-charging systems - to send signals to a passing car and ensure that it remained within the speed limit.
However, companies such as Siemens are experimenting with a consumer version of the product which, it is believed, may appeal to motorists. One potential market would be the driver who has amassed a number of penalty points on his or her licence and wants to avoid disqualification.
By adding speed limit data to existing satellite navigation systems, the driver could be told of the limit and then be forced to stick to it as the flow of fuel to the accelerator was controlled.
An alternative use would be to link the speed-limiter to an anti-theft tracker. Thus it would not only be possible to locate a stolen car, but also make it impossible for the thief to take it above a pre-set speed, such as 20 mph.
In its simplest form, a driver would need only a speed-limiter and a receiver, normally a small black box similar in size to a mobile phone, capable of picking up the satellite signal.
"It just needs the box to know where you are," said Andy Reeves, a product manager with Siemens. If the system was produced on a large scale, it could cost as little as £100, he added.

Infection Rates in New Windows Worm Low

Infection Rates in New Windows Worm Low

Aug 18, 9:38 PM (ET)

By MATTHEW FORDAHL

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Malicious hackers unleashed new variants of a computer worm that attacks a vulnerability in Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Windows 2000 operating system, but infection rates appeared to be relatively low and damage minor Wednesday.
The latest "War of the Worms" stands in contrast to previous outbreaks that brought networks and millions of PCs to a crawl in recent years.
It's a sign, security experts say, that computer users are heeding warnings to quickly install patches as they're released. It also indicates that Microsoft's efforts to batten down the hatches of its ubiquitous software is paying off.
"Customers who have been impacted are feeling pain and we're working with them to make sure they get through the recovery process as soon as possible," said Debby Fry Wilson, director of Microsoft's Security Response Center. "But in terms of the numbers of customers impacted, it is relatively low."
Still, administrators of infected computers scrambled Wednesday to clean their machines. In Massachusetts, the worm blocked e-mails and slowed Internet connections at state government offices and caused delays at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Across the country, San Diego County officials said 12,000 computers needed to be "fixed" after the outbreak.
Boeing Co. (BA) computers in St. Louis and Long Beach, Calif., also were hit, said spokesman Robert Jorgensen. Infected machines were isolated and patched, creating an "inconvenience" but not affecting critical operations, he said.
Several media outlets - including The New York Times, CNN and ABC - reported that the worms had invaded their networks. San Diego County was cleaning the bug from 12,000 computers. The worm blocked e-mails and slowed Internet connections in Massachusetts state government and caused delays at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Besides sluggish network connections caused by their spread, the worms - Rbot, Zotob and variants - also opened a backdoor that could be used to install additional programs. Some infected PCs also reboot repeatedly without warning.
On Wednesday, four new variants of the worm had been detected by F-Secure Corp. in Finland, bringing the total to 11, said Mikko Hypponen, the company's manager of antivirus research. He said the variations apparently had been programmed to compete with each other - one automated "bot" pushing the worm will remove another from an infected computer.
"We seem to have a botwar on our hands," Hypponen said. "There appears to be three different virus-writing gangs turning out new worms at an alarming rate - as if they would be competing who would build the biggest network of infected machines."
The latest worm targets a vulnerability that was publicly disclosed Aug. 9 by Microsoft, which also released a free fix. The problem involves the "Plug and Play" service that lets users easily install hardware on their PCs.
By Aug. 12, someone had posted code that could be used to build a worm - a piece of malicious software that replicates over networks. By Sunday, the first worm was released into the wild, continuing the trend of hackers increasing the speed with which they develop exploits.
From the start, the number of potential victims was limited by the fact that only a vulnerability in Windows 2000 was remotely exploitable. The operating system was never marketed as a consumer product.
The damage was further reduced by the fact that businesses have become more aware of the risks of not maintaining tight security.
"Businesses in general are doing a much better job at putting patches in place," said Martha Stuart, a researcher at the computer security firm Sophos Inc.
At the same time, Microsoft has reworked later versions of Windows to limit a computer's exposure to nasty software from the Internet.
Last summer, the company released a security update to Windows XP. By default, it recommends switching on automatic updates and installs a firewall that blocks the traffic used by the worm to propagate.
But even if those measures had been turned off, users of the latest Windows operating system were not affected. Microsoft reworked the software to ensure that it was less exposed to remote attacks.
"Compared to earlier versions of Windows, there are a third less vulnerabilities because of the security development work we have done - and half the number of critical vulnerabilities," Wilson said.
Microsoft will further ratchet up security with its next-generation operating system, Windows Vista, which is set for release next year.
Still, few expect the number of attacks to diminish. Running on an estimated 90 percent of PCs, Windows offers malicious programmers the opportunity of wide exposure and the potential of great damage should an attack succeed.