Jail for cyber criminals

Two men have been sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison for their roles in a wide range of online fraud activities in the UK.

Douglas Harvard, a 24-year-old US citizen, was arrested by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) in Leeds earlier this month following an investigation into Eastern European crime syndicates, Techworld reports.

Police found documents, correspondence and equipment for creating false identities, as well as evidence that a second man, British citizen Lee Elwood, was assisting him. Elwood was arrested a few days later and charged with conspiracy to defraud after police found a large quantity of forged bank documents, credit cards, computers and other equipment.

The pair`s extensive online fraud activities led authorities to warn about the growing rate of cyber crime. Both men were involved in Web sites that promoted and facilitated a range of criminal activities, according to the NHTCU.

Novell is preparing to launch its latest version of GroupWise (GW), the product that Novell continues to pitch against Microsoft Outlook.

GW has reached what Novell describes as its open beta stage, and the company expects the product, version 7, to ship later this year.

New features include improved e-mail, instant messaging and cross-platform capability - where it betters the Windows-only Microsoft Exchange, reports Techworld.

Security firm F-Secure has reported the first sighting of CommWarrior in the UK, zdnet.com reports.

F-Secure says a British citizen`s mobile phone fell victim to the virus during a holiday early this year. The unsuspecting holidaymaker returned home only to discover the infection some weeks ago.

The UK is the fifteenth country to witness an infection by the CommWarrior mobile phone virus, security experts claim.