Stories by: John Blau

Robots are having a heyday in Germany. While one group has just completed a World Cup championship in Bremen, Germany, another is diligently patrolling Berlin's Olympic Stadium, one of 12 venues hosting the World Cup soccer tournament currently under way in the country.

Germany is anxious about next month's World Cup soccer tournament -- in both senses of the word.

Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) will present several new open source-based desktop and security applications on Wednesday at a local Linux event.

Virus writers, forever in search of opportunities to distribute their malicious code, are exploiting interest in the avian flu by circulating an email with an attachment that contains information about the bird flu epidemic - and a Trojan horse tucked inside.

The world's governing soccer body, FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association), is warning fans and others that its name is being abused in a global phishing scam.

German teenager Sven Jaschan confessed at his trial on Tuesday to creating last year's Sasser computer worm that crashed hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide after spreading at lightning speed over the Internet.

German business software vendor SAP is offering customers a new service to ensure the security of SAP systems, the company said Wednesday.

Mobile phones running Symbian's Series 60 operating system are the target of a new strain of the Skulls Trojan horse program. The new Trojan comes with the Cabir.B worm, which, unlike the first version of the virus, can spread to other phones within reach of Bluetooth broadcasting range.

Two of Germany's biggest banks became the latest victims of phishing attacks last week as internationally organized criminal groups roam the globe seeking new targets, according to a spokesman at Postbank.

If your company doesn't already have one, the CSO should be your must-hire for 2002.