Columnist’s corner: The tiny country has been under cyber attack for three weeks now. The aggressor, Estonia’s government believes, is Russia. Such an assault raises all kinds of questions, namely: whether or not the Kremlin is involved, if such a devastating econo-knockout punch is comparable to military aggression, and under what circumstances the U.S. would intervene, David Margulius writes in Cyberpunks: Pick on someone your own size. “As an IT manager, should you care about Estonia? Not particularly. Should you care about the possibility of geopolitical turmoil leading to cyberattacks affecting your company? You bet.” Startups: A crop of companies has sprouted in the last few years to help guard against data leaks, and Code Green is one such example. “We’ve gone from talking to companies who want to get educated,” explains Chip Hay, senior vice president for marketing and customer care at Code Green. “Now they’ve decided that [they] want to put data leak prevention in place.” The next iteration of Code Green’s appliance will bring enhanced data fingerprinting for relational data, structured and flat files. Video: At WinHEC Microsoft chairman Bill Gates discusses Windows Vista and Server 2008, the operating system formerly known as Longhorn. “We’ve been amazed at the customer response,” Gates says, adding that Vista has sold nearly 40 million copies as of last week. Watch it here. The news beat: Microsoft and Novell defend their partnership with claims that Microsoft is now Novell’s most prominent channel partner. Dell begins shipping its first Linux PCs, pre-loaded with Ubuntu, along with a Linux Forum to guide users toward resources, help with troubleshooting. A Michigan man gets fined for hopping on a cafe’s wireless network — from his car parked outside. And Nokia says that it will add to its phones a feature that warns users when lightning is about to strike; exact timing for this one remains in the ‘someday’ realm, but the company has applied for a patent. Technology Industry