The UK banking industry has re-affirmed a policy that makes online banking customers responsible for losses if they have out of date anti-virus or anti-phishing protection. New Banking Codes for consumers and businesses took effect on Monday.

The Banking Code produced by the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), and followed by most banks, makes it clear that banks will not be responsible for losses on online bank accounts if consumers do not have up to date anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall software installed on their machines.

“If you act without reasonable care, and this causes losses, you may be responsible for them,” says the code. “This may apply, for example, if you do not follow section 12.5 or 12.9.”

Section 12.9 says: “Keep your PC secure. Use up-to-date anti-virus and spyware software and a personal firewall.”

The BBA said it was not aware that any bank had ever invoked that clause of the code to avoid covering a consumer’s online banking losses. The new code came into effect at the beginning of this week. The latest edition of the Business Banking Code took effect the same day.

Subscribers to the Banking Code must comply with it and are given until 1st July to ensure that their practices are in line with the code.

The BBC reports on the sad case of Simon Bunce. Mr. Bunce had his identity stolen, and credit cards were made to capitalize on the theft.

Some of those cards were used at sites offering child pornography, and as a result Mr. Bunce was swept up in Operation Ore. The poor man was prosecuted for his ‘crime’, and was eventually found innocent, but in the meantime he lost his job. It took him six months to find another at a quarter of the salary.

‘The police’s computer technicians take several months to examine [his computers and records], and Mr Bunce could not afford to wait to repair the damage done to his reputation. “I knew there’d been a fundamental mistake made and so I had to investigate it.”

Recent surveys suggest that as many as one in four Britons have been affected by it. In 2007 more than 185,000 cases of identity theft were identified by Cifas, the UK’s fraud prevention service, an increase of almost 8% on 2006

via: Slashdot

For parents, enticing kids to do their chores is often about making deals–a trade of sorts, like taking out the trash for extra time watching TV.

For George Zachary and his 10-year-old stepdaughter, that real-world exchange happens online through a site called Handipoints, a digital chore-list manager for parents and their kids. The Web site lets parents set a list of tasks for their children–like washing the dishes or filling the dog’s bowl–and kids can rack up points for completing the list. With enough points, children can cash them in for digital gear in the site’s virtual world, or for tangible goods with a few dollars from mom and dad.

“She earned points to get some Disney DVDs and books called The Warriors about an underground legion of cats,” said Zachary, who as a venture capitalist knows about deal-making. “The site is her start page.”

The new Service Pack 1 version of Windows Vista allows end users to purchase the “upgrade edition” and install it on any PC — with no need to purchase the more expensive “full edition.”

The same behavior was present when Vista was originally released, but the fact that the trick wasn’t removed from SP1 suggests that Microsoft executives approved the back door as a way to make the price of Vista more appealing to sophisticated buyers.

IBM on Friday said the Environmental Protection Agency has lifted a week-old ban that prevented the company from getting new government contracts.

The ban stemmed from an $84 million EPA contract the company lost last year and is protesting. Under a reciprocal agreement among federal agencies, when one issues a ban, the others follow it.

International Business Machines Corp. said it is continuing to cooperate with the EPA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which served grand jury subpoenas seeking documents and testimony relating to the contract.

The EPA’s decision likely means the incident being investigated is isolated, and that the agency acted so as not to “adversely affect a whole multinational corporation,” said Ray Bjorklund, a senior vice president at market research firm Federal Sources Inc.

If the company being probed was smaller and the potential violations touched most of its officials and employees, the government would have been less inclined to lift such a ban, Bjorklund said.

A hotly anticipated development kit for hacking your iPhone and bypassing Apple’s official application store has been released.

The PwnageTool is a Mac OS-X-based SDK from the iPhone Dev Team that lets you add “unsigned code” to the iPhone and iPod Touch. This means you don’t have to wait for Apple’s approval on what you can run or have to download approved applications from the App Store. A version for Windows is expected in the next 24 hours.

The SDK will be useful to anyone who wants to make software for the iPhone. Those who snapped up Apple’s official iPhone SDK and registered for the iPhone developer program have been left in the dark over whether can build applications with Apple’s imprimatur.

Adobe Systems Inc has started public trials of software that will deliver ad-supported subscriptions to TV programs, including CBS series “CSI,” “Survivor” and “Big Brother,” a company official said on Thursday.

The software maker has established partnerships with media companies including CBS and MTV-parent Viacom Inc, which will provide their programming through Adobe Media Player, said Adobe Chief Strategist for Dynamic Media Mark Randall.

Adobe and those companies will share revenue from advertisements that will air during those programs, Randall said in an interview.

MySpace, which has lured millions of big acts and garage bands alike to build profiles on the popular social networking hub to attract fans, said Thursday it will turn those pages into portals for selling music, merchandise and more.

Helping back the new MySpace Music are three of the biggest recording companies - Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group Corp.

Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed, but each of the music companies will receive an unspecified equity stake in the new company, said Chris DeWolfe, MySpace co-founder and chief executive.

The fourth-largest music company, EMI Group PLC, is not part of the deal.

Apple Inc.’s iTunes online music store vaulted past Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in February to become the top overall music retailer in the U.S., a market research firm said Thursday.

Best Buy Co. was ranked behind Wal-Mart and iTunes, with Amazon.com and Target tied for the fourth spot in January and February, according to consumer surveys conducted by The NPD Group.

The firm tabulated units sold, counting every 12 digital downloads as one CD. It did not count sales revenue, nor mobile music sales.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple touted the latest signs of its music retail dominance, noting it has more than 50 million customers. A survey NPD released in February covering annual sales proclaimed iTunes leapfrogged to the No. 2 ranking in 2007.