The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 1/24/07

GOOD: Back in the money

Fueled by investments in software, biotechnology and the Internet, U.S. venture capitalists spent $29.4 billion in 2007, beating their totals from each of the previous five years, according to the quarterly MoneyTree Report . "Software-as-a-service is a big trend. Open source companies are doing very well," said investor Deepak Kamra of Canaan Partners in a conference call announcing the results. "We think those two sectors will continue to do well."

BAD: Adding up software piracy's toll

The Business Software Alliance says software piracy continues to cost the U.S. economy big time. Reducing piracy in the United States by 10% over the next four years could result in an additional 32,000 new jobs, $41 billion in economic growth and $7 billion in tax revenues above current projections, according to a new study commissioned by the BSA and conducted by IDC. Lowering piracy levels in countries like China and Russia could result in even bigger boosts for those nations.

UGLY: Drive-by pharming

The theory is now a reality. Symantec has reported that drive-by pharming, in which a hacker changes the DNS settings on a customer’s broadband router or wireless access point and directs the link to a fraudulent Web site, has been observed in the wild. The first such attack has been observed against a Mexican bank. "It’s associated with an e-mail pretending to be from a legitimate Spanish-language e-greeting card company," Symantec says.