Botnet ensnares govt PCs

Almost two million PCs globally, including machines inside UK and US government departments, have been taken over by malicious hackers, reports BBC News.

Security firm Finjan traced the giant network of remotely-controlled PCs back to a gang of cyber criminals in Ukraine.

The cyber criminals, who have not been caught, were selling access to the compromised machines on a hackers' forum in Russia. A thousand machines were being sold at a time for between $50 and $100.

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer has derided Oracle's decision to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion, says The Register.

"I have no idea why a software company would buy a hardware company. We don't want to buy any hardware companies," Ballmer told the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, Egypt, reports Reuters.

He also reiterated that Microsoft had no plans to buy Yahoo, despite the fact that Ballmer recently met with the company's CEO Carol Bartz. However, he insisted Microsoft would continue trying to claw market share in the Web search game away from Google.

The next version of the Bluetooth wireless technology is expected to transfer data 10 times faster than the current incarnation. Gadgets using it could be on the market by early next year, reports AP.

The consortium behind the technology, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, said this week it has united on a standard for Bluetooth 3.0, which will include an option for the faster data transfers. Those could be useful for moving music or movies from a PC to a cellphone or media player.

Three chip companies - Atheros Communications, Broadcom and CSR - said they had products that would work with the new high-speed option.

Every time a page is printed on a laser printer, it uses toner made from petroleum-based products. Now there's a greener choice that shows promise: a toner product derived from soybean oil, reports AP.

While some customers might be wary, potential benefits are clear. It's easier to recycle paper printed with soy. Perhaps more important in a sour economy, soy toners can cost less than the standard alternative.

Soybeans are a renewable resource whose price is likely to be more stable than that of oil.