Ireland - The Bank of Ireland has agreed to compensate phishing victims after customers lost £160,000 through responding to forged emails. Nine customers had threatened to sue the bank for compensation if their money wasn't returned. The bank refused to comment directly, but said in a statement that it was aware of the phishing problem.

UK - A British man has been fined £45,000 for sending spam messages via Hotmail. Instead of using the UK's anti-spam laws, which carry a maximum penalty of £5,000, Microsoft, which owns Hotmail, filed a complaint that Paul Fox breached the terms and conditions of its free email service. A court order now prevents Fox from repeating the offence, says Microsoft.

UK - London is the UK's credit-card fraud capital, according to a survey by fraud tracking company Early Warning. Cardholder not present (CNP) fraud in the capital is much higher than elsewhere in the country and much of it is internet-related. Manchester and Kilmarnock in Scotland complete the top three black spots. Nationwide, CNP fraud cost £183 million last year.

China - Yahoo is set to appear in a Chinese court accused of distributing malware, according to reports. The China Anti-Malware Alliance announced that it had filed a suit against Yahoo in a Beijing court, seeking a public apology and a symbolic $11 (£6) in damages. Yahoo China plans to fight the case, says a report in the China Daily newspaper.

US - The longest jail sentence for a software pirate has been given to Nathan Peterson, sentenced to 87 months for running illegal software site iBackups.net. The site sold copyrighted software at a huge discount, notching up sales of more than $20 million according to prosecutors. The FBI began investigating the site in 2003 and shut it down last year.

Morocco - The creators of the Zotob worm, which disrupted computers at CNN, The Financial Times, ABC and The New York Times, have been jailed. A court in the city of Sale sentenced 19-year-old Farid Essebar and Achraf Bahloul, 22, to two years and one year respectively. Lawyers say the two men plan to appeal.

Malaysia - Microsoft and Cisco went head-to-head at Hack in the Box 2006 in Kuala Lumpur, with Cisco showing off its Threat Defense System and MS defending Vista against all comers. Presentations included "Pen testing Windows' Vista BitLocker drive encryption from the inside" and "Subverting Vista Kernel for fun and profit".

Australia - The Australian Communications Authority has launched an investigation into the activities of a man suspected of sending more than two billion Viagra spam emails. A PC has been seized and is being analysed, according to security company Sophos. Sending spam from down under carries a fine of up to £435,000 per day.