Open Systems

Your security could be under attack if you fall for the hype surrounding US technology startup Primera, which aims to search the Web and your hard drive.
	Calling itself an ASP for portals, the company is hoping to license its Napster-style file-sharing technology to search engines such as Yahoo! and AltaVista.  If the companies sign up, next time you type PC Pro intoyour search engine you'll get a list of hyperlinks as well as links to documents on other users' PCs.
	However, despite assurances that it will be up to the user to say whether they want to share their information with the Web, privacy experts have expressed concerns.  'The user needs to be aware of the capabilities of this type of software.  People think that this is fun but it can open them up to all kinds of problems-you can never be sure what the technology is capable of,' says Yaman Akdeniz, founder and director of Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties UK.
	In addition to the privacy concerns, the software is in danger of violating UK legislation, adds Akdeniz. 'If personal datails become involved there are more serious issues such as data protection to consider, and whether it [the software] complies with the law in this country,'  he says.
	Elsewhere, the SANS (System Administration, Networking and Security) Institute has exposed how open we are to the outside world, with the publication of a report entitled Ten Most Critical Internet Security Threats.  In at number one is BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain), with CGI (Common Gateway Interface) taking the number two slot. 'Computer users are leaving the doors open to attack,' says Alan Paller, a director at the SANS Institute. Paller dinies claims that the report's publication will lead to more attacks, saying the point is to get people to fix the holes. 'We want to force people to do something about it. No-one has time to fix everything.  That's why we've identified the top ten,' he says.