Network: Bytes

A NEW version of a Trojan horse-style program that allows Windows PCs to be hijacked over the Net was released yesterday at the annual hackers trade show, Def Con, in Las Vegas. Described as an "administration" tool, Back Orifice 2 can arrive as an e-mail attachment, which, if opened, operates invisibly to turn the PC into a client that can be remotely controlled by anyone with the administrator tool software. The first version, released last year, targeted Window 95 and 98 systems. The new version, which has stronger encryption designed to make it more difficult for anti-virus (AV) software to spot, will work with Windows NT.

The hacker group, Cult of the Dead Cow, says it is producing the program to expose security flaws in Microsoft operating systems. They also say they may make the code open source so that others are free to develop variations of it, making detection even harder. The group says that traditional security mechanisms, such as AV software, represent the wrong way of building secure systems, and that it should be addressed in the operating system itself.

Microsoft denied that Windows was fundamentally flawed and said Back Orifice is a destructive hacking tool. "[Cult of the Dead Cow] have no other intent than maliciousness," Jason Garns, Microsoft's product manager for Windows NT security, said. He added that ill-intentioned remote administration tools can attack any operating system and have existed for Unix systems for 20 years.

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TOTALWEB SOLUTIONS, a UK company, will be one of 15 new businesses approved to compete as registrars for the .com, .net and .org domains when tests of the new Internet address system are completed this week. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) says another 37 businesses will be accredited to join those 15 and the existing five members of the trial process.

Until last month, Network Solutions (NSI) held a US government-approved monopoly for assigning and registering Internet domain names. Although it is supposed to have ceded control to ICANN, there are unresolved issues about the terms on which its central database should be accessed by competitors. ICANN and NSI have signed co-operation deals with the US Commerce Department, but not with each other. NSI is being investigated by the EU to see if it is breaking competition laws with the contracts it is offering to new registrars.

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JIM BARKSDALE, the former Netscape president and chief executive, joined the board of Sun Microsystems last week. Barksdale, 56, was with Netscape until its acquisition by AOL, which included a deal with Sun about Netscape's enterprise software division. Last week, Barksdale, who serves on several boards including, 3Com, HomeGrocer, Mondavi, and Respond.com, also joined George Bush's Information Technology Advisory Council - a group set up to advise and direct the presidential candidate on hi-tech issues.

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THE 1999 Yell UK Web Awards, with nominations sent in by users of Yell, the electronic version of Yellow Pages, were announced last week at a ceremony in London Weekend Studios on the South Bank. Genie, the free Web service that delivers information direct to BT Cellnet phones, won the award for most innovative use of the Web. Carlton's Jamaba won best entertainment website. The best commercial site for consumers went to Lastminute.com, and Digital Vision picked up the business-to-business award. Walking Britain won the best website for a non-profit organisation.

Birds in a Cheshire Garden took the site of the year and best personal website awards (see the Websites guide). The best consumer e-commerce website went to FilmWorld. Cartoon Network beat off its rival Nickelodeon in the best youth website category, and Maidenbower Village won best community site. SimplyFood was voted the best content provider. Internet Magazine readers' choice award went to At Home With Your PC. Links to winners and runners-up are on Yell at http://www.yell.co.uk/yell/yellawards/index.html

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TOSHIBA IS buying out IBM's share of their joint Dram memory chip production venture for about $250m. The operation, Dominion Semiconductor, was set up in the United States in 1996 with a capitalisation of $400m. Toshiba plans to develop and produce next-generation memory chips with Fujitsu, while IBM is keen to move into more profitable chip making.

The sale is expected to be completed by the end of next year. Toshiba will immediately increase its share of the plant's output from 50 to 75 per cent. IBM will still produce some Dram chips in US and overseas plants.