The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has released a standard for the use of biometric authentication at financial institutions but banks are unlikely to invest in the technology.
The developer of XML and a former ISO committee chair have both claimed that Microsoft was interested in having Office Open XML accredited as an international standard in order to forward the company's wider interests.
Ahead of this month's ISO decision in Geneva on the status of the software giant's contentious Office Open XML format, a visiting executive from Microsoft has said its persistence with the format has been spurred on by customer demand.
New Zealand has rejected Microsoft's proposal to fast track its Office Open XML document format as an ISO standard, but it may change its vote if certain concerns are addressed.
Microsoft claims that Australia will benefit from "greater choice" if local standards bodies vote this week to accept the Office Open XML format as an ISO standard.
Is it a truck? Is it a giant portable wind tunnel? Well, yes -- but it's also a mobile datacentre with a maximum capacity of 4.1 petabytes of storage, which would easily hold an awful lot of high-res Superman footage.
ID management expert Phil Libin says critics knocking an upcoming government security program miss the point.
Countries including the UK and the US are putting biometrics at the forefront of plans to improve national border security but there are still significant issues to be solved before the technology is up to the job.
Australia is keeping pace with other governments in biometric usage but are we operating in a policy vacuum with technology that is far from perfect?
Messagelabs CTO Mark Sunner claims that ISPs allowing unfiltered traffic to flow to customers is like a water authority pumping out raw sewage. Additional reading: Microsoft reward snags suspected Sasser author
Making a true, workable security policy is hard work but there is help, says ZDNet columnist Peter Judge.
As Australia and various other nations prepare to vote on whether Microsoft's Open Office XML becomes an ISO standard, the Redmond giant is attempting to downplay fears that OOXML adopters will be hooked into the company's technology.
Microsoft's Hyper-V is a solid virtualisation platform that's compatible with a wide range of modern server hardware.
Ubuntu is very user-friendly but not right for everyone. Oddly, both casual and advanced users will find this operating system wonderful, while day-to-day users may rail against Ubuntu's incompatibility with certain popular software applications.
Windows Vista Ultimate is essentially warmed-over Windows XP. If you're currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we see no compelling reason to upgrade. On the other hand, if you need a new computer right now, Windows Vista is stable enough for everyday use.
Nokia's N73 is one of the best camera phones we've seen this year, with a wide range of multimedia and business features tucked under its belt. Responsiveness, however, is not a strong point.
The stylish and easy-to-use Coolpix 3700 delivers good photo quality for a pocket camera but lacks the image controls that more advanced snapshooters expect.
Norton improvements won't happen over night
Software takes a long time to improve, says Symantec's VP of consumer engineering, Rowan Trollope.… Watch it now
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