Spammers target P2P users

Research by the firm Blue Security has revealed that peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are lucrative hunting grounds for spammers, reports BBC News.

Blue Security found spammers were harvesting and spamming e-mail addresses found on file-sharing networks such as Kazaa, Edonkey and Gnutella by exploiting address books inadvertently being shared on the peer-to-peer networks by novice users.

Blue Security warns that addresses stolen this way could be used to avoid spam filters and while users can change settings to stop sharing e-mail archive files, this may not be enough to protect them.

RealNetworks has released a security patch for a flaw in its multimedia software that could allow hackers to run their own code on users` PCs, reports News.Com.

The report says the Secuinia security company rated the flaw as "highly critical". It affects most recent versions of the RealPlayer media player software for the Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

RealNetworks says the flaw is also found in some RealOne player versions and some versions of the software for Linux, excluding the most recent versions.

Motorola CEO Ed Zander has promised the long-awaited, oft-delayed iTunes phone will debut soon, reports News.Com.

Apple and Motorola announced in July that they would release the phone, but a firm commercial launch date has not been set.

Zander says Motorola plans to drive growth by developing new products based on 3G and eventually 4G technology, with the iTunes phone due for release in the "next few months" and the video equivalent of push to talk "right around the corner".

Borland Software is to release code from its JBuilder integrated development environment (IDE) into the Eclipse open source community.

The Register says the move comes after a surprise drop in first-quarter sales and Borland is hoping to recover JBuilder`s R&D expenses by putting the suite into Eclipse, where the open source community can drive feature improvements.

International law-enforcers have smashed an international drug smuggling ring that supplied pharmaceuticals over the Internet without regulation.

BBC News reports that up to 20 people have been arrested in an operation that spanned 15 countries. Most arrests were made in the US and India.

The ring was based in India, from where drugs like codeine, steroids and versions of Viagra were shipped abroad to order.

Drug enforcement administrators say there is a huge market in prescription drugs ordered and supplied over the Internet without any checks on a buyer`s age or medical need.