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President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian authorities to protect state computers from hacking attacks, the Kremlin said on Monday, after an Internet security firm said a spy network had infiltrated government and embassy computers across the former Soviet bloc. Dubbed Red October, the network used phishing attacks — or unsolicited emails to intended targets — to infect the computers of embassies and other state institutions with a programme designed to harvest intelligence and send it back to a server. Putin signed a decree on January 15 empowering the Federal Security Service to “create a state system for the detection, prevention and liquidation of the effects of computer attacks on the information resources of the Russian Federation”. State computer and telecommunications networks protected by the cyber security system should include those inside Russia and at its embassies and consulates abroad, according to the decree, which was published on a Kremlin website on Monday.

Pearson sees another tough yr as earnings fall

British education and media group Pearson warned on Monday it expects tough market conditions to continue in 2013 after a weak fourth-quarter hit earnings last year. The owner of the Financial Times newspaper and Penguin books publisher said it now expects to report on February 25 adjusted earnings per share of around 84 pence for 2012, below the 84.9 pence it had predicted in October, due to weaker educational funding in developed markets and sluggish advertising. The result had already expected to be down

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