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According to consumer comparison website uSwitch, prices for broadband in the UK have fallen 36 per cent in the past four years while average speeds have risen from 0.5Mbps to 8Mbps.

The experts at uSwitch say no one should have to pay more than £20 per month for standalone broadband, yet nearly five million consumers are still on old contracts a cost of £163 million per year.

The report showed Orange as the having the most expensive broadband for the past five years, while Virgin Media had the fastest services and has just announced it will offer 50Mbps connections next year.

Steve Weller, head of communications services at uSwitch, recommended that anyone without a contract should take advantage of the low prices as soon as possible in the new year.

“We predict that prices will stabilise,” he said, “but customers will be offered more for their money as ISPs continue to increase
speeds.”

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Social networking sites are likely to become an increasingly attractive target for fraudsters, experts have warned.

The turn of the new year is expected to see the popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook continue.

However, IT security analysts say the proliferation of personal details and the availability of information on people’s date of birth, interests and phone numbers could be a way in for unscrupulous hackers.

ScanSafe has forecast that 2008 will see Web 2.0 threats top the list of the biggest security worries.

“The explosion in popularity of Web 2.0 applications has made Web 2.0 sites an increasingly rich target for cyber criminals,” the firm declared in its evaluation of the coming year.

Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at the firm, told the BBC the nature of the medium meant it could be targeted.

“The technologies that play there and the third party add-ons make it an environment that is susceptible to compromise,” she explained.

Cybercrime is said to be an industry worth more than $100 billion a year.

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