A leading computer security company, McAfee Inc., fixed a dangerous design flaw months ago in its flagship technology for managing protective software in large organizations but did not warn businesses and U.S. government agencies until Friday.

McAfee issued a rare apology and urged customers to install updated versions of its software immediately. McAfee’s antivirus software is used by more than one-third of corporations in the United States and Europe. A spokeswoman, Siobhan MacDermott, said there were no reports of victims.

Source: AP

A boutique Washington, D.C.-based law firm is accusing IBM of hacking into its e-mail system and is seeking recourse.

The firm, Butera & Andrews, filed suit against IBM and is seeking unspecified damages and repayment of more than $61,000 that it paid to investigate the alleged break-in and repair its e-mail system, according to a copy of the suit, which was filed in April in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Source: News.com

Sun Microsystems has announced that it will be incorporating Java DB, the Sun supported distribution of the open source Apache Derby Project, as well as the Group Layout component from the NetBeans GUI Builder code-named Project Matisse into the latest version of the Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) 6 Java Development Kit (JDK).

Java DB will be available through the early access weekly builds of Java SE 6. Although it has a footprint of only two megabytes, Java DB is a sophisticated, fully transactional, relational Java technology-based database with support for open standards, triggers and stored procedures. Java DB can be used either in client-server mode or embedded directly into a Java application where it can run in the same Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

Java SE 6 will also include the new layout manager component that enables developers to create standards-based GUI layout easily and efficiently.

Source: jaxmag.com

Federal regulators on Thursday voted to impose fines on a Florida company accused of thieving phone call records and selling them on the Web for as little as $100.

At its monthly meeting, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously adopted an order that would force LocateCell to pay $97,500–the highest fee possible for an unregulated company in such a situation–for allegedly failing to provide the agency with all the information it had requested about how the company obtained the data it had sold.

Source: News.com

The Skype core protocol has been reverse-engineered by a Chinese company. The interesting thing is, that although the protocol is closed, it is not patented and thus it is not against the law to crack it.

By cracking the Skype protocol, the company claims it can also block Skype voice traffic, Paglee said. ‘They could literally turn the lights off on Skype in China very, very quickly

Source: Slashdot

A Dutch appeals court has thwarted attempts by the Dutch anti-piracy organisation BREIN to get the identities of file-sharers from five ISPs, including Wanadoo and Tiscali.

The court found that the manner in which IP addresses were collected and processed by US company MediaSentry had no lawful basis under European privacy laws. A lower court in Utrecht had reached a similar conclusion last year.

The court also argued that the software MediaSentry uses can’t properly identify users or provide evidence of infringement.

Source: TheRegister

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As vendors increasingly look to sell applications that “phone home” customer information, there’s a movement afoot to protect consumer rights by making sure companies are up front about the existence and intent of such software, and that users can uninstall it.

Companies can expect to see more software hit the market that, once installed, can soak in its surroundings and report back on what it finds. But vendors won’t necessarily be able to bully this technology onto their customers’ computers, as Microsoft tried with its Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy software. The benefits of fighting software piracy are clear, but users should also know that they have rights when it comes to having software surreptitiously installed on their systems.

Microsoft is learning this the hard way, as it defends itself from two lawsuits before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington State that accuse the company of installing spyware on its users’ computers under the guise of a “critical security update” that turned out to be the Windows Genuine Advantage Notification software. Installed as part of Windows Auto Update, WGA searches for pirated copies of Windows XP.

Source: InformationWeek

A federal court judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit against Google Inc. by disgruntled advertising customer Kinderstart that had accused the Web search leader of monopolistic business practices.

“The court concludes that Kinderstart has failed to allege any conduct on the part of Google that significantly threatens or harms competition,” Fogel wrote in a 23-page decision.

Related: Google to Defend Ranking Methods in Court

Web Site Files Complaint Against Google

Source: Reuters

“Enterprise search is our business, it’s our house and Google is not going to take that business,” Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, told a conference of more than 7,000 business partners here Thursday.

It’s the largest gathering that Turner has addressed, and only his second appearance at a Microsoft conference, since joining the company from Wal-Mart 11 months ago.

Turner said the company is also gearing up to take on IBM and Oracle, among other competitors, with new products slated for debut in the next few months. But he saved his most acerbic comments for Google.

“Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off of our plate, because that is what they are intending to do,” he said.

Source: News.com

The competition between the competing next-generation optical disk technologies of Blu-ray and HD DVD has entered a new phase, as optical drive makers start rolling out the first products based on the rival technologies. As products based on these formats begin to arrive in stores, one major question for Mac users is: When will Apple integrate this new technlology into its computers?

The question is more than just idle speculation. Apple enjoys a long track record of embracing emerging technologies—think FireWire, Bluetooth, and wireless networking, among others—and incorporating them into its offerings. Also consider that Apple is on the board of directors for the Blu-ray Disc Association, and it’s not hard to envision a future where Macs are sporting Blu-ray-based drives.

Source: MacWorld

New York’s attorney general sued leading makers of memory chips Thursday, claiming they made secret price-fixing arrangements that inflated the cost of personal computers and other electronic devices.

More than 30 other states were expected to file a separate lawsuit Friday in San Francisco federal court, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said.

The New York suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, claims the companies colluded to fix prices on dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips from 1998 until 2002. The defendants are Micron, Samsung, Infineon, Elpida, Hynix, Mosel-Vitelic Corp., Nanya Technology Corp. and NEC Electronics America Inc.

Boise, Idaho-based Micron was granted immunity from criminal charges in the federal case in exchange for its cooperation.

“I have never seen a price-fixing case where there is so widespread, so continuous an exchange of confidential price information among competitors or over so long a time period,” said Assistant New York Attorney General Richard Schwartz.

Source: AP