Monday, May 14, 2001		Latest in IT world

Foreign Ministry site hacked

PRO-Pakistan hackers infiltrated a Web site of India’s External Affairs Ministry and posted anti-India messages, the Press Trust of India said last week. The Web site was closed and restructured. PTI said one of the messages threatened that major government sites would be hacked into in coming weeks. The agency quoted the spokesperson as saying the government would put a strong security firewall around the Web site. India blames Pakistan for violence in its territory, especially in Kashmir.

K Laboratory Co Ltd, a unit of leading Japanese content provider Cybird Co Ltd, unveiled what it calls the world’s first instant messaging system for mobile phones. Based on BREW, or Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, a mobile phone software platform developed by the US wireless technology firm, Qualcomm Inc, K Laboratory’s messaging system allows mobile phone users to exchange instant messages with Yahoo! Inc’s Yahoo! Messenger system. While short messaging is catching on quickly in Europe, Japanese cell phone users are already exchanging e-mail via their cell phones, and many see instant messaging as an attractive next-step application for Web-enabled mobile phone services.

Chinese hackers, engaged in a "cyber war" with their counterparts in the USA, boasted that they had defaced 1,000 US Web sites but called a truce to the conflict. Tit-for-tat defacements across the Pacific linked to China-US tensions have caused untold damage to Web sites in both countries. A statement by the so-called Honker Union of China, carried by the Chinese portal, Chinabyte, said that having attacked 1,000 Web sites, their goal had been reached. "Any attacks from this point on have no connection to the Honker Union," the statement said. US hackers launched hostilities after an April 1 collision between a US spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter, which crashed into the South China Sea, killing its pilot. They broke into hundreds of Chinese sites, leaving messages such as "We will hate China forever and we will hack its sites". In response, the Honker Union — an informal network of Chinese hackers — announced on May 1 it would launch its own electronic graffiti blitz.

Australians could see the back of unwanted personalised junk mail by the end of this year under proposed legal changes unveiled last week. Draft guidelines to reform privacy legislation would force companies to ask consumers’ permission before sending them personalised post, mobile phone text messages (SMS) and e-mail advertisements (Spam). Attorney General Daryl Williams said in a statement the guidelines were a key step for businesses and consumers in understanding their rights and obligations when new private sector privacy legislation comes into operation on December 21. However the move to restrict access to consumers has concerned the business world, with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) worried that businesses would be unable to meet the tough new standards. — Reuters