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Encryption

Australia Cracked US Combat Aircraft Codes 280

SpamSlapper writes "Former defense minister Kim Beazley has told how Australia cracked top-secret American combat aircraft codes in the 1980s to enable the shooting down of enemy aircraft. The radar on Australia's US-made Hornets could not identify most potentially hostile aircraft in the region — they were set up for European threats — but despite many requests, the codes were not provided, so 'In the end we spied on them and we extracted the codes ourselves.' The Americans knew what the Australians were doing and were intrigued by the progress they made."
Security

Submission + - Cybercrime now worth $105 bn, bypasses drug trade

Stony Stevenson writes: Citing recent highly publicized corporate data breaches that have beset major companies like Ameritrade, Citigroup, and Bank of America, McAfee CEO David DeWalt, said that cyber-crime has become a US$105 billion business that now surpasses the value of the illegal drug trade worldwide.

Despite the increase in government compliance requirements and the proliferation of security tools, companies continue to underestimate the threat from phishing, data loss, and other cyber vulnerabilities, DeWalt said.
Software

Submission + - OpenOffice 2.3 released 1

ClickOnThis writes: Surely I'm not the only one who noticed that OpenOffice.org has announced the release of version 2.3. From the website: "Available for download now, OpenOffice.org 2.3 incorporates an extensive array of new features and enhancements to all its core components, and protects users from newly discovered security vulnerabilities. It is a major release and all users should download it. Plus: It is only with 2.3 that users can make full use of our growing extensions library." You can download it but be kind and use a P2P client instead, such as bittorrent.

Silicon Valley Firms Having Cash Showers 123

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "'The market for high-technology start-up businesses is so intense in Silicon Valley that some companies are being showered with millions of dollars from investors -- without even asking for it,' the Wall Street Journal reports. The home-improvement website Done Right received an email from a well-known investment firm inquiring about putting cash into the company. 'Paul Ryan, Done Right's chief executive officer, says the missive wasn't sent to him or to his executives -- it landed in a general corporate email inbox,' the WSJ reports. 'Mr. Ryan wasn't put off by the impersonal plea: "We're having very good discussions with [the firm] right now," he says, declining to name the potential investor.' The Journal notes that 'pre-emptive' funding is, of course, risky, and harkens back to bubble-year investment trends."

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