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.

In a huge blow against internet crime, police in Spain detained 76 people for internet fraud. The fraud damages are valued at $4 Million USD, or three million euros. That’s a substantial bust, and one of the largest online crime busts so far in the battle to keep the internet crime free.

It was only a matter of time, really, until advertising hit your mobile phone. Like it or not, that day has arrived. Certain advertisers have been sending text ads to their customers already, but now the game has changed.

RealPlayer is one of the most used music players. It’s been out for years, growing its user base even as its parent company, RealNetworks, added services like Rhapsody to its repertoire. Because its been around for so long, its users automatically think of it as trusted software, installing upgrades without fear. If one company’s warning is heeded, that will change.

Court by email? Online Judging? Australia says in some cases, yes. Soon select court cases will be tried online in Australia, with lawyers making their cases via email under a new system dubbed Justice Link.

In a move that caused ripples of amusement over the internet, the Italian Parliament passed a law that has the unintended side effect of legalizing illegal music downloads. How did that happen? A simple misunderstood definition of a word.

Actor Heath Ledger, who died at a tragically young age recently, has become the latest tool in the ongoing cybercrime attacks on computer users. Cybercriminals are using fan sympathy for the actor’s death to trick unsuspecting internet users into downloading malware to their computers via bogus web sites.