MS investigates release of pirated copy of \'Halo 2\', and other brief reports ...

[*] The European Registry of Internet Domain names (EURid) and which will manage the forthcoming .eu domain has signed a long-awaited contract with the European Commission. EURid expects that the launch of the domain will take place in six to nine months time. Full Out-Law.com report [*] UK scientists have discovered that every desktop printer has a signature style that it leaves on all the documents it produces. And, they have found a way to use this to identify individual laser printers. This work will help to track down printers used to make counterfeit money, fake passports and other important papers. Full BBC News report [*] The Eastern Cape provincial Treasury paid more than R10m to an unnamed IT service provider for a financial management computer system that did not provide the required services, Auditor-General Singa Ngqwala\'s 2004 report has revealed. The R10m payment was listed under the heading ‘Fruitless and wasteful expenditure’. Full Daily Dispatch report [*] The SABC has been found guilty of contravening the Broadcasting Code for airing footage of the beheading of a hostage in Iraq. The Broadcasting Complaints Commission fined the SABC R15 000 for broadcasting the beheading on its Nguni television news. Full report in The Herald [*] According to a survey by CipherTrust, most phishing attempts come from around 1 000 compromised ‘zombie’ computers, and the phishing attacks are likely generated by less than five phishing operations. The survey found that the number of compromised machines remained fairly static during the two-week survey, suggesting that a limited number of groups were looking for exploited machines to send phishing scam e-mail. Full InfoWorld report