Posted by Virus Bulletin on May 20, 2009
Klingon language scanner given away.
After last summer saw malware making its way into space, it seemed like only a matter of time before alien races would need protection from the digital contagions infesting our planet, and security firm Sophos has stepped up to fill the gap. A version of the company's 'Threat Detection Test', a standalone scanner, has been translated into Klingon.
The artificial language, created for the cult TV leviathan Star Trek and enjoying lasting popularity with sci-fi and language geeks alike, has a full range of vocabulary and grammar, allowing Sophos's crew to translate their interface. The full character set does not come as standard with Windows (although a fully Klingon edition of Ubuntu Linux is available), so simple transliteration is used instead.
The stunt has attracted wide attention, partly thanks to an apparently unintentional early release on an unfinished web page complete with Trek-fan comments in the page source, with news reports, blogs and comments springing up across the web, linking to various aliases of the download site. More details from Sophos's Graham Cluley are here.
Posted on 20 May 2009 by Virus Bulletin
