GPS overlay ready for plane use

The European system that augments GPS signals to make them more accurate is now suitable for use in aviation, the European Commission says, states the BBC.

Egnos, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, can tell planes and helicopters where they are to within a couple of metres.

The system was certified for “safety of life” applications on Wednesday. This means its performance is of a high enough standard that pilots can reliably use it as a navigation tool.

A top South Korean cyber security company says about 40 government and private Web sites are under cyber attack, reports the Associated Press.

AhnLab says the targets include the Web sites of South Korea's presidential office, the foreign ministry, the National Intelligence Service, US Forces Korea and some major financial institutions.

The country's presidential office couldn't immediately confirm the AhnLab report.

Xhead = UK earmarks £30m for e-crime units

The UK government has agreed to provide £30 million in funding for regional e-crime units, according to Janet Williams, deputy assistant commissioner of specialist operations within the Metropolitan Police Service and national lead for e-crime, writes Computing.co.uk.

This funding is part of the additional £650 million set aside by the government in October last year when it upgraded cyber crime to a “tier one threat”.

Speaking to the Guardian, Williams said: "We are very concerned at the extent and growth of cyber crime. It is getting to be an increasingly larger problem. The agencies policing this are bringing all of their skills and capacity to the table.”

Fifa has given significant backing to goal-line technology by promising to fund further experiments, according to the Press Association.

The 10 companies that had presented systems to Fifa last month all failed to meet the criteria, raising fears that tomorrow's meeting of the International FA Board, the game's law-making body, will not support further experiments.

But now Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke says the world governing body will support new tests.