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
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