The FBI is leaning on the US government in a bid to force through changes to the net that will allow it to snoop on net traffic more easily.

According to Cnet, the Feds, along with the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration are leaning on the FCC, rather than Congress, to approve the plan without too much attention from the public.

The Feds have used data tapping to collar internet based crime and have the controversial Carnivore system, also called DCS1000 to do the job. Apparently the problem is that Carnivore has a devil of a job sorting out all the data it collects.

The result is that the spooks are looking at other ways of getting the data they want and are going back to their old idea of forcing software designers, ISPs and companies to build spook friendly back doors.

Jon Lech Johansen, who reverse engineered FairPlay back in January, and wrote the decryption code that was later used by an anonymous developer to create the playfair utility, has released a similar utility: DeDRMS. It's only 230 lines. T-shirts anyone?

Forgent Networks said Friday it sued 31 major hardware and software vendors, including Dell and Apple Computers, for allegedly infringing on its claim to an algorithm used in the popular JPEG picture file format.

In use since the mid-1980s, the JPEG, or Joint Photographic Experts Group, format has become the de facto standard for sharing photo-quality images electronically. Although the most widely used version of the format is in the public domain, Forgent said it believes that a 17-year-old patent it acquired through the purchase of Compression Labs in 1997 can be applied to a specific algorithm in the format.

Forgent's critics say the new lawsuit is yet another example of how the practice of using patents to generate revenue is endangering the computing industry. It isn't the first time the company has been criticized for trying to enforce the compression patent. In 2002, when Forgent first announced that it would seek JPEG licensing fees, the public outcry led JPEG committee member Richard Clarke to speculate in an interview with The Register that the International Standards Organization would have to withdraw the format altogether.

Network Associates is proudly telling the world about a new patent they've been granted by the US Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO).

The patent goes on to describe such revolutionary techniques as: Automated upgrades of software that needs upgrading and even: Performing diagnostics on the computer.

We at the INQUIRER would like to contgratulate Network Associates on their excellent invention. They will clearly want to make good use of the patent. As a first step, might we recommend suing Microsoft for their windowsupdate.microsoft.com website, which is clearly in blatant violation of the patent, filed October 4, 2002?

All this adds extra urgency to the need for US-style software patents here in Europe. Clearly, innovation is being stifled on a huge scale when groundbreaking inventions like "generating a report including a graph that is based on a statistical analysis" are denied the protection of a state-enforced monopoly.

The venerable MP3 music format, the technology most widely associated with unrestricted file swapping, is getting a makeover aimed at blocking unauthorized copying.

Thomson and Fraunhofer, the companies that license and own the patents behind the MP3 digital music technology, are in the midst of creating a new digital rights management add-on for the popular format, a Thomson executive said Tuesday.

Caldwell said he expected to see devices and services supporting the protected MP3 format by the end of 2004. The plans were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

David Bradley spent five minutes writing the computer code that has bailed out the world's PC users for decades.

The result was one of the most well-known key combinations around: CtrlAltDelete. It forces obstinate computers to restart when they will no longer follow other commands.

"I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous," Bradley said.

Gates didn't laugh. The key combination also is used when software, such as Microsoft's Windows operating system, fails.

It's only two days old and still growing, but at least one security firm is ready to crown the MyDoom virus as the worst ever.

Finnish security software and services company F-Secure made the coronation late Wednesday, declaring the MyDoom the fastest-spreading worm ever and "the worst e-mail worm incident in virus history" in a letter research director Mikko Hypponen wrote.

Other security companies had evaluations almost as dire. MessageLabs, which screens e-mail, said it had intercepted more than 3.4 million copies of MyDoom, which infected one 1 of every 12 messages, at its peak. That compares with a total of 33 million infections and a peak rate of 1 in 17 for SoBig.F. MyDoom had already climbed to No. 5 on MessageLabs' list of the all-time most active viruses, surpassing previous annoyances such as SirCam.

F-Secure estimated that the worm was accounting for 20 percent to 30 percent of worldwide e-mail traffic Wednesday, putting it well ahead of previous nasties, such as the SoBig.F worm.

On its face, that expression is neither offensive nor disturbing. "Hey!" is an informal way to say hello. It indicates kindness, simple courtesy and an economy of words.

But a 13-year-old boy at Richland Middle School in Richland Hills was suspended for three days in December because he sent that simple message to every computer in the school using an archaic form of instant messaging. The software was created years ago in the old disk operating system used in earlier versions of personal computers.

Beverly Sweeney, a computer teacher and campus computer liaison with the district, entered Carl's computer class and quickly figured out where the message originated and who sent it.

Carl did not send out a dirty word. Carl received no warning. No written policy prohibits what he did. Missing three days of school for something so minor is overkill.

"Hacking into a system should be highest on the list of tampering violations. I believe the other students are now aware that the district takes this seriously and will not tolerate such misuse of our equipment."

Kevin Mitnick has been commissioned to pen another book on the art of hacking and wants you to do the grunt research work for him.

America's "most-wanted" computer outlaw, who spent five years in the clink, is calling on fellow Net naughties to submit stories of their exploits for inclusion in a book tentatively titled The Art of Intrusion. Mitnick is offering up a paltry 500 bones to the hacker that supplies 'the most provocative' story of deception and network intrusion. The lucky winner will also receive a copy of Mitnick's first book The Art of Deception signed by no less than Mitnick himself. What a treat!