U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post (newspaper) reported on Friday 1^st August 2008.

Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies. The policies applied to anyone entering the country, including returning U.S. citizens.

Now more than ever, it's important that Windows users ensure their machines are safe from hackers. A dangerous new strain of malicious software that holds the victim's computers files for ransom has been unleashed, and Kaspersky Lab (Antivirus software developer) is warning that security researchers have yet to crack the encryption key.

The malware in this case is the latest version of Gpcode (Kaspersky calls it Gpcode.ak), a nasty piece of "ransomware" - A cryptovirus, cryptotrojan or cryptoworm is a type of malware that encrypts the data belonging to an individual on a computer, demanding a ransom for its restoration- that scrambles all of the victim's data files with an encryption key known only to the attacker(s). Victims are told via a pop-up message that they need to purchase a special decryption program to regain access to their data.

From iPods to navigation systems, some of today's hottest gadgets are landing on store shelves with some unwanted extras from the factory — pre-installed viruses that steal passwords, open doors for hackers and make computers spew spam.

Computer users have been warned for years about virus threats from downloading opening suspicious e-mail attachments. Now they run the risk of picking up a digital infection just by plugging a new gadget into their PCs.