In The Papers 19 August

19-08-2008

by Sylvia Leatham

Accountants' details published in web error | Tech courses remain unfilled

The Irish Times reports that contact details for more than 17,000 members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) have been inadvertently published on the web. During a redesign of the institute's website in July, a version of its membership database was mistakenly published on the site. The new site went live on 10 July. The ICAI was alerted to the error by a member on 5 August. The information included members' personal addresses, contact details including e-mail addresses and phone numbers, and personal data such as date of birth. The information was not linked to anywhere else on the site but did appear in the public directories. As a result a number of search engines came across the page and indexed it.

The paper also notes that Canadian telecoms equipment maker Nortel says it is aware of planned industrial action by an estimated 150 employees at its plant in Northern Ireland. Staff at the plant say they intend to hold a series of half-day strikes until further notice every Monday, following a dispute about pay and conditions.

The same paper notes that proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services is recommending that shareholders in Iona Technologies vote in favour of its acquisition by Progress Software at an extraordinary general meeting to be held on 28 August. US firm Progress is proposing to buy Iona for USD4.05 a share, valuing the Irish software firm at EUR109.9 million.

The Irish Examiner says that consumers haven't seen the end of sophisticated scams like the skimming operation that compromised thousands of bank cards over the weekend, according to security experts. Colm Murphy, technical director with e-security firm Espion, said criminals are highly skilled at finding new ways to carry out scams. "These are professionally organised gangs who will always find the weakest link," said Murphy. "Retailers should be putting protections into their shops."

The paper also says that more than 150 third-level courses -- mostly in business, engineering and technology -- will open up for fresh CAO applications on Tuesday. Almost a third of the programmes offering vacant places through the CAO website are in business disciplines, and colleges are unable to fill nearly 30 degree and higher certificate engineering courses. The remaining vacant places include spaces on 30 computing and science programmes. Applications are open to those with no previous course lists submitted to the CAO, and those not happy after the first round of offers.

Meanwhile, the Irish Independent says that Ireland will lose out on foreign direct investment unless more students take courses in the areas of science, technology, engineering and maths. The warning came from Martin Murphy, MD of Hewlett Packard, as noted by ENN on Monday.

The paper also says that tracks from U2's forthcoming album have appeared on the internet illegally after Bono played them too loudly at his holiday villa on the French Riviera. A Dutch fan of the group heard the music blaring out of the beachside home in the village of Eze-sur-Mere, near Nice, and recorded them on his mobile phone. He boasted about his achievement on U2 fan site Interference.com before putting them up on YouTube. Although U2 has managed to remove the four leaked songs from YouTube because of "copyright violations", they have not been able to stop people trading them via e-mail. However, the quality of the recordings is said to be poor, with background noise including waves crashing on the beach and cries from seagulls.

According to the Financial Times, mobile operator Vodafone is to increase its minimum call charges for UK customers from September by between 25 percent and 50 percent. The minimum call charges will rise from STG0.10 to STG0.15 for calls made outside the contracted bundles of minutes that customers get as part of their monthly contract. Pay-as-you-go customers will see a rise in minimum call charges from STG0.12 to STG0.15. Minimum charges for calls made to 0800 and other non-geographic numbers are also set to increase from STG0.15 to STG0.20. Vodafone said almost all of its customers would see their bills increase by less than 10 percent.

The paper also says that a computer pinball game maker has won a STG16,000 court award. Topware Interactive, the owner of Dream Pinball 3D, won the money from Isabela Barwinska, a woman who illegally shared the game with other users on a computer network. The judgment -- one of the first involving computer games -- highlights how businesses are increasingly trying to make examples of consumers in an attempt to kill the idea that illegal use of intellectual property is victimless or even acceptable.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Electronic Arts' USD2 billion unsolicited offer to buy videogame maker Take-Two Interactive Software has expired, but EA is exploring private talks to buy its rival. EA said it let its tender offer to buy Take-Two shares for USD25.74 each expire on Monday because the offer was conditional on being able to integrate Take-Two's top-selling Grand Theft Auto game franchise and other properties into EA's portfolio before the holiday selling season, something that is no longer possible. The two companies had discussions over the weekend, according to EA, although no deal is on the table.

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