December 8, 2003

24 Ready-to-Use 'Dirty Bomb' Missiles Stolen CNN - Dozens of rockets outfitted with so-called dirty bombs - warheads designed to scatter deadly radioactive material - appear to be missing in a breakaway region of Moldova. 2:19:48 PM

IBM draws first blood in SCO Linux battle The Register - SCO has lost the first round in its legal battle to assert intellectual rights over Linux. A federal court ruled Friday that SCO must respond within 30 days to IBM's demands that SCO hand over "all source code and other material in Linux to which plaintiff has rights". SCO claims ownership over "millions of lines" of code in Linux and accuses IBM of illegally donating chunks of its Unix operating system to the Open Source operating system. It is sueing IBM for a billion dollars and if successful, it will have a strong platform for claiming royalties from companies which have built products on Linux. 7:43:20 AM

Prepare to be scanned The Economist - IT HAS been a long time coming. But after years of false starts, security systems based on biometrics—human characteristics such as faces, hand shapes and fingerprints—are finally taking off. Proponents have long argued that because biometrics cannot be forgotten, like a password, or lost or stolen, like a key or an identity card, they are an ideal way to control access to computer networks, airport service-areas and bank vaults. But biometrics have not yet spread beyond such niche markets, for two main reasons. The first is the unease they can inspire among users. Many people would prefer not to have to submit their eyes for scanning in order to withdraw money from a cash dispenser. The second reason is cost: biometric systems are expensive compared with other security measures, such as passwords and personal identification numbers. So while biometrics may provide extra security, the costs currently outweigh the benefits in most cases. 7:22:41 AM