Facebook in data sharing U-turn

Facebook appears to have U-turned on plans to allow external Web sites to see users' addresses and mobile phone numbers, states the BBC.

Security experts pointed out that such a system would be ripe for exploitation from rogue app developers. The feature has been put on “temporary hold”, the social networking firm said in its developers' blog.

It said it needed to find a more robust way to make sure users know what information they are handing over.

Demand for IT professionals in the UK has increased significantly over the past year, but employers continue to favour men and more experienced candidates, according to a report published by e-Skills UK today, reveals Computing.co.uk.

There are currently 1.5 million people employed in the IT and telecoms sector, the equivalent to one in every 20 people employed in the UK. Demand is set to continue, with employment in the IT industry expected to grow at 2.19% per annum - almost five times faster than the UK average.

This equates to over half a million new IT and telecoms professionals needed over the next five years.

Microsoft has released a software tool to help developers write secure applications by highlighting the system changes created when their wares are installed on Windows machines, according to The Register.

The Attack Surface Analyser, released yesterday, is a free verification tool that analyses the changes in system state, runtime parameters and securable objects in the Windows operating system.

The tool, which was released as part of Microsoft's Secure Development Lifecycle, takes snapshots of a system and compares the results before and after an app is installed. It then identifies resulting classes of security weaknesses.

Underscoring the confluence of technology, politics, and marketing, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has unveiled a new logo for HTML5, says CNet.

With the logo, the W3C wants to promote the new Web technology - and itself. The Web is growing far beyond its roots of housing static Web sites and is transforming into a vehicle for entertainment and a foundation for online applications.

The W3C hopes the logo - T-shirts and stickers with it already are on sale - will fuel excitement and interest in the refurbished Web.