Students turn dreams into hi-tech business

Another is tackling the problem of cheating in online computer games.

The scam is netting crafty players thousands of pounds in ill-gotten winnings.

Two young Higher National Diploma students at the North Down and Ards Institute of Further and Higher Education have set up UberWorld.

Millions of people play online computer games every day and some of them are competing for big cash prizes.

Videogames, which have traditionally been enjoyed in front of the television, are now increasingly played against faceless gamers online.

Companies such as Microsoft offer huge prizes for top players - but, just as traditional athletes have succumbed to illegal chemical enhancements, some online gamers are cheating to win

They hack into the game's code to find ways of increasing their statistics.

Chris Magee, one of the partners in UberWorld, said they were combining a number of existing anti-cheat programmes and are developing more of their own.

They are also starting their own online competitions which have plenty of safeguards built in, of course.

At a recent trade conference in Los Angeles, about 20 young Irish entrepreneurs were sealing deals that will put the country on the global gaming map.

The prospect of free phone calls could make the fortune of another youthful company at the North Down college.

Q-Intranet Solutions says it can offer companies with branches across the world a free communications link, via broadband.

Their extra unique selling point is the security of the system.

They say they can virtually guarantee that outside hackers will not be able to link into the system and pester workers with unwanted phone calls.

Darren Dickey says he has been appalled at the amount of money businesses spend on traditional phone calls using the public switched telephone network.

Accredited work

The North Down and Ards Institute has nurtured a number of new businesses and counts the commercial set up as part of the students' accredited work.

 While some universities do similar work, but take a share in the company's equity, the NDAI doesn't take any share.

 It says its reward is to send out creative and happy workers who may, or may not, create a money making business.

And Northern Ireland needs more people to take that risk. There are fewer people willing to become entrepreneurs, even though research shows people in the province consider it a high status occupation.

It seems Northern Ireland people do not like to take risks, so fewer start their own businesses.

However, when they do start up, they have apparently made sure they are onto a winning idea and there's a lower rate of business failure than anywhere else in the United Kingdom.

Hacking: A history

Great hacks of our time.

The original meaning of the word "hack" was born at MIT, and originally meant an elegant, witty or inspired way of doing almost anything.

Many early hacks took the form of elaborate practical jokes. In 1994, MIT students put a convincing replica of a campus police car on top of the Institute's Great Dome.

 Now the meaning has changed to become something of a portmanteau term associated with the breaking into or harming of any kind of computer or telecommunications system.

Purists claim that those who break into computer systems should be properly called "crackers" and those targeting phones should be known as "phreaks".

Purists claim that those who break into computer systems should be properly called "crackers" and those targeting phones should be known as "phreaks".

Kevin Mitnick is convicted of stealing software from Digital Equipment and codes for long-distance lines from US telephone company MCI. He is the first person convicted under a new law against gaining access to an interstate computer network for criminal purposes. He serves a one-year prison term.

 Kevin Poulsen, Ronald Austin and Justin Peterson are charged with conspiring to rig a radio phone-in competition to win prizes. The trio seized control of phone lines to the radio station ensuring only their calls got through. The group allegedly netted two Porsches, $20,000 in cash and holidays in Hawaii.

1994

A 16-year-old music student called Richard Pryce, better known by the hacker alias Datastream Cowboy, is arrested and charged with breaking into hundreds of computers including those at the Griffiths Air Force base, Nasa and the Korean Atomic Research Institute. His online mentor, "Kuji", is never found.

Also this year, a group directed by Russian hackers breaks into the computers of Citibank and transfers more than $10 million from customers' accounts. Eventually, Citibank recovered all but $400,000 of the pilfered money.

1995

 In February, Kevin Mitnick is arrested for a second time. He is charged with stealing 20,000 credit card numbers. He eventually spends four years in jail and on his release his parole conditions demand that he avoid contact with computers and mobile phones.

On November 15, Christopher Pile becomes the first person to be jailed for writing and distributing a computer virus. Mr Pile, who called himself the Black Baron, was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

The US General Accounting Office reveals that US Defense Department computers sustained 250,000 attacks in 1995.

1996

Popular websites are attacked and defaced in an attempt to protest about the treatment of Kevin Mitnick.

The internet now has over 16 million hosts and is growing rapidly.

 In March, the Melissa virus goes on the rampage and wreaks havoc with computers worldwide. After a short investigation, the FBI tracks down and arrests the writer of the virus, a 29-year-old New Jersey computer programmer, David L Smith.

 In February, some of the most popular websites in the world such as Amazon and Yahoo are almost overwhelmed by being flooded with bogus requests for data.

In May, the ILOVEYOU virus is unleashed and clogs computers worldwide. Over the coming months, variants of the virus are released that manage to catch out companies that didn't do enough to protect themselves.

In October, Microsoft admits that its corporate network has been hacked and source code for future Windows products has been seen.

The cyber attacks were likely to be carried out by "self-described patriot hackers, targeted at those perceived to be responsible for the terrorist attacks", said the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC). Malicious hackers have already defaced some websites, including that of Afghanistan's ruling Taleban movement.

But the hacking community appears divided over how to respond to the attacks, with some calling for an assault on the computer networks in suspect countries and others urging restraint.

The FBI has also alerted companies to be on guard against computer viruses, disguised as files related to Tuesday's tragedies. A new version of an old virus has already appeared on the internet, renamed to WTC, apparently in response to the attacks.