Check Point Software Technologies announced its new Integrity Anti-Spyware on Monday, becoming the latest major vendor to offer its anti-spyware to corporate users.

Integrity Anti-Spyware, scheduled to hit the market in November, is designed to detect, automatically quarantine and remove spyware programs. Check Point, primarily a seller of firewalls and virtual private networks, historically has been slow to introduce new products. With this move, the company has joined McAfee and Symantec, which introduced enterprise anti-spyware products in the first quarter.

Check Point is offering its anti-spyware application with its SmartDefense Anti-Spyware Service, which provides updates from real-time spyware information collected through its network of ZoneAlarm users. Integrity Anti-Spyware will be offered as an add-on-module or part of the Integrity product suite.

Source: News.com

A new Linux worm is crawling the web looking for a large number of vulnerable PHP systems and applications. The worm, known as Linux.Plupii (Symantec) or Linux/Lupper.worm (McAfee), is rated as a Category 2 worm by Symantec, while McAfee considers the risk “low.” The worm installs a Trojan using wget and the attack allows for arbitrary code execution under the privileges of the web server user.

Source: Security Focus

Amazon.com on Monday announced new tools to help customers plan gift purchases and track their gift schemes for the holiday season. Gift Organizer is designed to let users build their gift recipient list and select gifting occasions such as birthday, anniversary or graduation. Based on each recipient, the tool links directly to Wish Lists, offers gift recommendations, saves gift ideas and tracks gifts already purchased, Amazon said.

Source: News.com

Grokster Ltd., a developer of Internet file-sharing software popular for stealing songs and movies online, agreed Monday to shut down operations to settle a landmark piracy case filed by Hollywood and the music industry, The Associated Press has learned.

The surprise settlement permanently bans Grokster from participating directly or indirectly in the theft of copyrighted files and requires the company to stop giving away its software, according to people familiar with the agreement. They spoke on condition of anonymity because settlement details were to be disclosed to a federal judge later in the day in Los Angeles.

Grokster’s Web site was changed to display a message that its file-sharing service was illegal and no longer available. “There are legal services for downloading music and movies,” the message said. “This service is not one of them.”

Source: AP

Samsung unveiled a prototype of a fuel cell that can run a laptop for 15 hours or more and may come to the market in 2007.

Like fuel cells for MP3 players devised by Toshiba and others, the Samsung fuel cell runs on liquid methane. The methane passes through a specialized membrane, which extracts electrons.

The fuel cell has an energy density of 200 watt hours per liter. Since notebooks consume around 15 watts to 10 watts on average, which means around a 15 hour run time. (200 watt hours divided by average watts.) It can provide a maximum output of 50 watts.

Source: News.com

Microsoft Corp. will release a new version of its popular software for helping companies house large amounts of data, one of the first in a series of product launches that the company is hoping will bolster its competitive edge.

The Redmond-based software giant is officially releasing a new version of SQL Server 2005 at an event Monday in San Francisco. At the same time, it also is launching updates of BizTalk Server 2006, which pulls information from different applications together, and Visual Studio 2005, which is a product for developers.

Source: AP

Five ISPs have been recruited by the government to hunt down virus-infected computers used to send spam or launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks from Australia.

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, launched the Australian Internet Security Initiative (AISI) on Monday, which is being run on a three-month trial basis by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

Anthony Wing, manager of the anti-spam team at the ACMA, told ZDNet UK sister site ZDNet Australia that the application, which took “some months” to build, can identify computers physically located in Australia that are being used for “illicit reasons”.

“[The application] identifies IP addresses that have been used for illicit reasons — for example spamming,” Wing said. “There are a range of sensors around that world that identify them. Those infected IP addresses are then fed to the relevant ISP. They know who their customers are so that can contact them”.

The five ISPs signed up for the trial are Telstra BigPond, OptusNet, Westnet, Pacific Internet and West Australian Networks. Each will regularly receive a list of IP addresses that identify computers on their network demonstrating zombie-like behaviour. The ISPs will then be responsible for contacting their customers and helping them disinfect their computers.

According to a statement from the ACMA, if the owner of a computer contacted by an ISP is unwilling or unable to disinfect that machine, the ISP could remove its connection to the Internet: “if the computer remains a threat to other Internet users, the ISPs may take steps under their acceptable use policy to disconnect the computer until the problem is resolved”.

Source: ZDNet

Microsoft Corp. has emerged as the front-runner in talks surrounding the potential sale of a stake in America Online.

Several issues could delay any potential transaction. The New York Times reports one issue is whether such an alliance would be another risky partnership for Time Warner Inc. The company is also looking at whether a new partner at AOL could help Time Warner navigate the digital world.

Microsoft approached AOL several months ago to discuss joint ventures, but any agreement is still likely weeks away.

Last week Time Warner’s chairman and chief executive, Richard Parsons, acknowledged the talks. But he says the discussions are very fluid, and they don’t know whether a deal will even be reached.

Source: AP

Google Inc. is introducing software Monday designed to make its local search and mapping service easier to navigate on mobile phones, continuing the Internet search engine leader’s effort to extend its reach beyond personal computers.

Consumers who download and install the new software will be able to skip some of the steps that had been required since Google began offering a mobile version of its maps nearly seven months ago.

For instance, users won’t have to type in their location before getting directions to a specific location, as long as their phone has Global Positioning System, or GPS, capabilities, said Deep Nishar, a director of Google’s mobile products.

Using Google’s new mobile mapping software requires Java-enabled phones. Most subscribers with wireless service from Cingular, T-Mobile and Sprint should be able to use the software, Nishar said. The service won’t work with Verizon phones, Blackberry devices or Palm devices.

Source: AP

Yahoo Inc. and TiVo Inc. are teaming up to blend some of their services, a move that further fades the lines between offices and living rooms, TVs and PCs.

Under a partnership to be announced Monday, the two will collaborate to offer Yahoo’s Internet-based content and services through TiVo’s digital video recording devices.

Starting Monday, users of Yahoo’s TV page will be able to click on a record-to-TiVo button directly from a television program listing to remotely schedule recordings.

And in the coming months, possibly before the end of the year, Yahoo’s traffic and weather content, as well as its users’ photos will be viewable on televisions via TiVo’s broadband service and easy-to-use screen menu.

Source: AP