The ATM machine is everyone’s favorite place to grab a quick stash of cash for an evening out or shopping. Maybe they aren’t as foolproof and safe as everyone likes to think. Recent reports from security firms have shown that they are vulnerable to Windows based hacker attacks.

The owner of TeamTaylorMade.com web site, Timothy P Taylor, was ordered to pay back the profits he made from the venture. His web site tricked visitors into installing spyware and adware onto their machines in the guise of free videos and free screen savers. Taylor will be returning $4595.36 USD, a paltry sum compared other recent legal news, like the sentencing of two software pirates.

The Australian Federal Police and Microsoft has teamed up to track predators. Microsoft will be adding a logistics system to the Australian Federal Police’s existing online child protection unit. The system will enhance the efforts of the AFP in tracking crimes against children and their perpetrators, and will help tighten the net for capture.

Australia’s Commonwealth Bank is the only financial institution currently investigating the use of biometrics as a key to account security. It is coming under fire from people who claim the technology behind biometrics is still too new and unrefined to use. Granted biometrics is considered an emerging science, but it has already demonstrated usefulness in other fields, so why not banking?

America is looking down the precipice at a fairly severe recession right now. This means that many in the world wide technology and software industry are biting their nails to see how it may affect their sales. The creators of Open Source software are sitting pretty.

After nearly a year of beta testing, Microsoft has finally made its Windows Live SkyDrive available to Australia. What is it? It is a free online storage option that is attached to your existing Windows Live Hotmail email account.

Ten ISPs, led by Intermode, have banded together in a complaint against Telstra. In the complaint, filed with the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission), the ISPs allege that Telstra is refusing to allow them access to their ADSL services. The ISP want Telstra to wholesale access to parts of the service to the ISPs.

Open Source advocates hold “installfests” all the time to help new Open Source users learn how to install and use Open Source programs on existing computer systems. Now one United States Open Source group has decided to take this helping hand to the next level by creating a combination installfest and buildfest to provide computers to schools.

Telstra claims their new Next G network did not cause a farmer’s recent death by bee sting. How could Telstra have been responsible? When the man tried to use his mobile phone to call for help, he was unable to make the call.

In a move that will be much appreciated by many who want to register domain names for actual use, Australia is set to begin retaliating against domain squatters. Domain squatters by domains only for their salability. They never have any intention of using the domain - they simply buy it and hold it until someone who needs it comes along and offers to buy it, often for exorbitant prices.

Biometrics is the science of using measurable physiological characteristics to authenticate a user such as fingerprints or facial characteristics. Australia had been given a mandate to look into using biometrics to help control immigration at its borders. The Australian DIAC (Department of Immigration and Citizenship) is catching flak now for only researching limited biometrics (facial recognition) instead of incorporating the full biometric spectrum as read by the mandate.

The University of Adelaide is now planning to use StealthWatch to monitor its network usage. StealthWatch is made by Lancope, and is a departure from the Cisco based tools the university used to use. The investment is costing the university $100,000 AUS for the switch.

In a bold move that could set negative precedent for other countries, the British government plans to go after British ISPs for file sharing instead of their customers. The hope is that the ISPs will then file the lawsuits against the customers to recoup the cost of dealing with the ISP, and also that ISPs will begin to track and throttle customers in earnest. (Currently an ISP called ComCast is under the gun of the FCC in America for throttling and blocking its customers.)

Some people are saying the Apple plan to introduce the iPhone to Australia could be illegal. How so? It seems that certain aspects of the deal violate international trade laws.

Telstra made some big promises to its shareholders to get their backing on its bid for a new network build in Australia. The main thrust of their promises centered on their own technologies, like NextG, and could put them out of pocket to the tune of as much $4.1 billion AUS, with the government estimating a total cost of over $8 billion AUs for the complete build.

Australian technology firms are bringing business home, and they are starting with Boeing. Australian Technology Information (ATI) was the winner of the contract to design a data communication system for the airline. The system will go into commercial planes, and they will also be creating systems for the RAAF.

A hacker group released a tool called Goolag Scan that uses Google to check web sites for vulnerabilities to attacks from hackers and other malcontents. How does it do that? By scanning your site for passwords, personal information that could be used against you and areas where your server is vulnerable.

Athletes and other Olympic staff and participants with blogs and web sites have been concerned about an Olympics rule barring journalism from within. Paragraph 3 of Bye-law to Rule 49 of the Olympic Charter states that “Only those persons accredited as media may act as journalists, reporters or in any other media capacity.” The International Olympic Committee has decided to look upon blogs and web sites and personal journals, rather than journalism. This decision will allow Olympians to write about the experience as it happens.

The UK is the first to receive prototypes of a new way to game: with your mind. How does it work? Basically, Brainwave allows you to control a game via a headset that translates your brain’s electrical activity into a language your game console can understand.

The European Commission has given the green light to deregulation of telecommunications companies in the United Kingdom. The company that has been handling regulation of the telecommunications is Ofcom. Once the deregulation goes through, 65 percent of homes and businesses across the United Kingdom will be under a competitive market.