bbc

Updated at 9 p.m. PDT with more details from a Symantec representative.

Symantec is investigating allegations that a call center in India leaked credit card numbers of its customers to someone who then sold them to BBC News reporters posing as criminals.

The security company has informed U.K. privacy authorities and attorneys general and officials in eight U.S. states and Puerto Rico of the allegations that three U.K. customers had credit card information leaked and that about 200 U.S. customers may have been affected because of interactions with the call center, Symantec spokesman Cris Paden … Read more

To demonstrate the threats from botnets, the BBC purchased a network of 22,000 infected computers, used it to spam its own e-mail accounts and for a denial-of-service test, and then left messages on the hijacked computers that they were infected.

The BBC's Click technology program said it acquired the "low value" botnet after visiting Internet chat rooms and used the network to spam a Gmail and Hotmail account it created for the spam test. It demonstrated the test in a video that accompanies a BBC article about the expose on Thursday.

The e-mail accounts received thousands … Read more

The BBC has hired Yahoo executive John Linwood as its new CTO.

Linwood will be responsible for delivering the BBC's technology strategy, including maintenance of the technical infrastructure behind all BBC output and overseeing the corporation's IT requirements.

He joins the BBC from Yahoo, where he was senior vice president of international engineering, overseeing 1,600 employees across 22 countries, with responsibility for the development, deployment, and delivery of Yahoo's services outside the U.S.

Linwood was also involved with Yahoo's social networking, social media, and user-generated content products as well as e-commerce and search. Linwood … Read more

Boxee, one of the more promising media applications out there today, is announcing the launch of a few new content sources today at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Boxee now has added support for content from Joost and MTV Music. Joost is bringing its usual assortment of video content to the table, while MTV provides a huge amount of music videos. In the United Kingdom, Boxee has also added the BBC's popular iPlayer to its arsenal of content.

In addition, Boxee will be totally opening up its Mac, Linux, and Apple TV alphas to anyone who wants to sign up. … Read more

Adam Smith has a headache today.

And it's nothing to do with the world economy.

Mr. Smith flew to Miami to work with the "Miami Beach, baby" Obama campaign and to try and "make the world a better place."

At least that is what he is now claiming. And it may well be true.

However, he was filmed, seated on the sidewalk, somewhat the worse for wear, filing copy for his newspaper, the estimable Birmingham Mail of England's second city.

The chap who filmed him, a highly altruistic Dutch amateur journalist from the famed … Read more

In one of the most exciting experiments of our time, the UK's British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is considering ways to open source its content:

"The broadcast era is finished," [Steve Bowbrick of the BBC's new openness campaign] says. "The BBC needs to provide web tools and a new generation of methods and resources that will boost [its] capital, but that will also use the BBC as a platform for promoting the individuals, organisations and businesses that make up UK plc."

What could the BBC create? It sits on a vast content resource, much of … Read more

I thought I made up a word, but upon further review, slaver turns out to mean to smear as if with saliva. Ew. But we also talked further about listening to media in the shower and even got to some tech news. That involved the release of Spore, the recall of Sony laptops, and Amazon launching a new video streaming service. Listen now: Download today's podcast

Spore (PC) game reviews http://reviews.cnet.com/pc-games/spore-pc/4505-9696_7-31484467.html

Microsoft cuts Xbox 360 to $199 in throw down with Sony http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080903-microsoft-makes-play-for-second-place-360-price-cut-to-199.html… Read more

BBC Worldwide is developing a music download service, offering streamed-for-free and paid download works from its archive of music that bands have recorded for TV and radio in BBC studios.

The Beeb's radio and television music shows frequently feature live sessions recorded at BBC headquarters, often of current singles, acoustic versions of popular tracks, or cover versions of other artists' songs. Radio 1's Live Lounge is a popular destination for pop artists. The BBC also has exclusive rights to broadcast performances at Glastonbury Festivals.

Naturally, live performances are well-recorded by the BBC and are often replayed upon request … Read more

A flood of e-mails pretending to be from MSNBC contain links to malicious software, security companies warned Wednesday.

According to an MX Lab blog post, subject lines always start with "msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS" then are followed with a variety of possible headlines, including: "Google launches free music downloads in China"; "Plane crashes into prep school, hundreds of kids killed"; "Please give your opinions for change"; and "US Dollar hits 6-year high, further gains expected."

The Web address http://breakingnews.msnbc.com is valid if you type it into … Read more