Top 10 stories of 2003

The year has been dominated by a number of headline-grabbing subjects, which are all represented in our top 10.

As ever, news about threats to your network in the form of hackers, spam and viruses proved popular during 2003 and emerging issues, such as tracking technologies and the growing popularity of 'offshoring' also impacted upon our top 10.

The roll-out of broadband services - by far the most popular issue of 2002 - only just registered one entry this year, proving that with almost 90 per cent of the country covered, it is slowly becoming less of a hot topic.

The full top 10 looks like this:

1. 'Nigerian' money scam: What happens when you reply?
This story broke all records on silicon.com after we published it on 18 February. It followed a month long email conversation with a Nigerian conman called Madu Frank. The idea was simple: how long could we string him along before he realised we were winding him up. Even we were surprised by the lengths he was willing to go in the hope of scamming us.

2. Track your staff using their mobiles
The issue of tracking - clothes, people, pets and razor blades - was a hot topic during 2003. On 26 November we wrote this story about companies tracking staff via their mobile phones - a subject which we thought might create a strong reaction.

3. Hacker chatroom secrets exposed
Following a court case involving a teenager with a computer we were put in touch with two hackers, Dryice and Frixion. On 24 October we published this expose of the hacker chatroom.

4. Jobs beats Gates as most important man in tech
Each year silicon.com publishes its Agenda Setters special report - which compiles a top 50 of the biggest names in tech. On 2 October we published the results - and news that Apple boss Steve Jobs had beaten adversary Bill Gates to top spot quickly caused a stir amid the IT community. A high ranking for Linus Torvalds also got everybody reading.

5. Mobile spam: Is the next plague upon us?
The issue of spam dominated 2003 and on 11 June we published this story about the growing instances of mobile spam, which threatens to be even more intrusive than desktop email spam.

6. The virus at 20: Two decades of malware
On 11 November the computer virus celebrated its 20th birthday. But it was the only one celebrating - for the rest of us it reminded us that the virus is now an indelible mark on the IT landscape. silicon.com threw a party of its own and invited some of the biggest names in the anti-virus industry to discuss just what the last 20 years of viruses has meant to the IT industry.

7. Exclusive: Now Argos exposes customer account details online
On 17 November we exposed retail giant Argos for a shocking lack of security on its website which was leaving customer data exposed to all and sundry. We got on to Argos and forced them to fix the flaw before revealing the fault which had been exposed on B&Q's website just days earlier.

8. Broadband 'go slow': Government gets off lightly in blame game
On the back of silicon.com research we revealed who the public blames for the state of Broadband Britain. We weren't surprised that many of you fingered BT but we also weren't surprised when industry experts said 'You've got the wrong man'. This story, published on 12 August, revealed how the UK government has got off lightly in the broadband blame game.

9. Exclusive: Barclays nears £450m offshore outsourcing deal with Accenture
Offshoring has been an issue for heated debate this year and on 17 December we exposed how high street bank Barclays is planning a £450m deal which will see at least 1,000 jobs affected, with 500 of those going to India.

10. See disputed code? Oh SCO you won't, says judge
The story of SCO's Linux lawsuit has rumbled on through much of the second half of 2003, keeping most of us guessing about the twists, turns and outcome. On 16 December this was the latest news to emerge from the case.