News

Storm worm tempts with Christmas strip show

SANS recommends blocking access to malicious site

Using eBay to catch a truck thief

Software developer runs his own sting operation in Texas

UK health chief defends records database

Proposed system will comprise interconnected regional databases

The white knight of phish-busting

Gary Warner corrals private citizens, law enforcement to take down phishing sites

Wikia search to launch Jan. 7

Open source project aims to bring more transparency to users

Cringely’s Christmas Carols

AT&T, Vonage finalize patent suit

Final terms not disclosed, but Vonage said earlier it would pay $39 million

The Queen logs on to YouTube

Annual Queen's Christmas Message to be posted online at about the same time it's broadcast on TV

McAfee to pay $13.8 million to settle backdating lawsuits

The security vendor has filed 10 years' worth of restated financial reports and has reached a tentative settlement in its backdating suit

U.S. trade agency to investigate antivirus patent claims

The ITC has voted to investigate claims by Trend Micro that Barracuda Networks, Panda Software, and Panda Distribution are infringing on its patents

Lucent agrees to pay fines for China dealings

Alcatel-Lucent will pay $2.5 million in fines for providing travel perks to Chinese government officials

Google’s DoubleClick deal brings greater focus on privacy

In the wake of its decision to approve the Google-Doubleclick purchase, the FTC has released a set of privacy principles for online behavioral advertising

Perl language upgraded

Hitachi considering ‘all options’ for hard-disk unit

Hitachi is reportedly in talks with U.S. investment fund Silver Lake over the sale of its HGST hard-disk drive maker, however there are disagreements on price

Microsoft to heat up battle vs. Flash in ’08

Microsoft's Silverlight will vie with Adobe for market share in the burgeoning RIA space

Russians close to prosecuting ‘Pinch’ Trojan authors

Authors of the 'Pinch' Trojan malware, which steals a variety of data, have been identified

Uncertainty rules for ’08 Wall Street outlook

NetSuite's IPO and Oracle's earnings report highlight the last full trading week of the year, but concerns for 2008 remain

Six months later: A hard look at the iPhone

Update: IBM buys in-memory database company Solid

IBM's acquisition may be a setback for MySQL, which has been a close partner of high-performance database maker Solid Information Technology

Sharp and Toshiba to team up on LCD TV screens and chips

Deal between Sharp and Toshiba provides both companies with a steadier supply of vital components for LCD TVs

Hotel Internet provider InterTouch to acquire rival MagiNet

NTT DoCoMo will invest $191 million into InterTouch to provide it with the funds to acquire rival broadband provider MagiNet

Update: Szulik out at Red Hat; former Delta exec tapped as CEO

Red Hat's longtime CEO steps down and is replaced by Delta Airlines COO James Whitehurst; Szulik will remain as chairman of Red Hat's board

Broadcom says Qualcomm is importing chips against ban

In the latest chapter of the ongoing Broadcom-Qualcomm fracas, Broadcom claims that Qualcomm is circumventing a court-ordered ban on chip importation

ComScore: Online sales heat up this week

As Christmas approaches, online shoppig picks up, and the beginning this week has seen online spending increase 33 percent over the same days last year

NetBooks aims at ‘S’ of SMB

NetBooks is aiming its hosted ERP software at what it considers the backbone of the economy: Small, owner-managed businesses with between 2 and 50 employees

Update: Cisco’s Giancarlo resigns

Chief Development Officer and Executive Vice President Charles Giancarlo, who had been seen as a candidate to replace CEO John Chambers, has resigned

Update: Microsoft to hand over Windows secrets to Samba team

In compliance with a European Union ruling, Microsoft has disclosed data on how Windows works to open-source software maker Samba

Scientists: ‘Buzz’ to break optical bottlenecks

Oracle’s Ellison: SOA migration a slow process

The Oracle CEO said that SOA requires a change in architecture, which is a slow process, but the company still sees an excellent long-term growth opportunity

IBM unveils ‘smart’ e-mail search engine

The free semantic search tool allows users to search e-mails based on 'concepts,' which the user can define, as well as keywords or natural-language constructions

Air France launches in-flight cell phone trial

The trial program will allow passengers to send and receive text messages and access the Internet, but voice calls are still prohibited

Nokia N96 pictures leaked to Net

New York nears decision on ODF vs OOXML

The public comment phase of New York state's ongoing debate on which XML-based format to adopt closes Dec. 28, after which officials will choose a format

Opposing view: Social media and the talent wars

E.U. data protection chief questions passenger records plan

The E.U. has proposed a plan similar to the U.S.'s Passenger Name Records initiative, but the E.U.'s top data protection official feels the measure goes too far

NetSuite sets initial stock price at $26

NetSuite's IPO price greatly exceeds its original estimate; some consider the company greatly overvalued as a result of the 'Dutch' auction

EU group says Google-DoubleClick deal will harm privacy

European consumer groups warn that a Google takeover of DoubleClick would erode consumers' privacy and push up prices for online goods and services

Update: FTC approves Google/DoubleClick deal

FTC downplays concerns by some privacy groups and approves the Google/DoubleClick deal, saying competition in online ad-serving markets is vigorous and likely to increase

Yahoo China loses music copyright appeal but Baidu wins

Court rejects Yahoo China's appeal against a $28,400 fine for infringing copyright by deep linking to MP3 files through its music search engine

Year end: AIR and RIAs raise Adobe’s profile

Flash Player and other Web 2.0 technologies push Adobe into the spotlight — and the crosshairs of Microsoft and more competitors

Microsoft to research advanced algorithms in India

Microsoft research group in India will look for ways to more efficiently process and analyze the increased volumes of data generated by Web apps

The dark side of vendor relationship management

Trojan bumps Google ads from Web pages

Google may be powerless to stop a Trojan horse program that replaces its text ads on Web pages with ads from another source

Software AG pays $26M for mainframe UI tools

Software AG adds Jacada's application modernization activities to its portfolio of tools

Intel Capital invests in online storage company

Intel's venture-capital arm invests in start-up company Nirvanix, expanding the number of storage nodes it owns

The year of the new mobile operating system

In 2007, Apple and Google shook up the mobile OS landscape and even bigger changes could be in store for the wireless industry

Apache, Sun still in disharmony over Harmony

The open-source Java project moves forward with the announced availability of Harmony 5.0 Milestone 4, but disagreement remains over compliance testing

Drupal developer bags $7 million

Oracle: No friendly BEA deal seen

Wi-Fi mesh lights up Mecca for Hajj

Tropos Networks has set up a network of about 70 meshed Wi-Fi routers in Mecca, providing Hajjis with free Internet connectivity during their annual gathering