Sam Costello

The war of words between Texas financier Sam Wyly and Computer Associates International Inc. (CA) continued to escalate this week as Wyly's investment firm, Ranger Governance Ltd., filed a lawsuit against CA, and CA responded by accusing him of attempting to mislead shareholders and the media.

Computer and Internet security guru Bruce Schneier proclaimed that "the Internet is too complex to secure,"during a speech on the last day of the Black Hat Briefings security conference held in Las Vegas in July

Charging that Microsoft Corp. plans to use its forthcoming Windows XP operating system and .Net initiative to "unfairly and deceptively" obtain personal information from consumers, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and other privacy groups filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Thursday urging the agency to force Microsoft to change its practices.

Despite Adobe Systems Inc. reversing itself Monday and calling for the release of the Russian programmer imprisoned at the company's behest, Dmitry Sklyarov remains in U.S. federal custody.

The same company that discovered the original Code Red worm that has been wreaking havoc worldwide this week said late Friday it has identified a variant of the worm, which is harder to track.

When he goes to Washington, D.C. this week to testify before the U.S. Congress on computer and Internet security, Bruce Schneier, the chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet Security Inc., would like to tell them that such efforts are currently done poorly and with the wrong goals.

As if they aren't enough trouble already, Internet worms are going to take an evolutionary leap, worm researcher Jose Nazario said Wednesday at the fifth annual Black Hat Briefings conference in Las Vegas.

No major security company has yet released official financial results for the second quarter of 2001, but thanks to earnings warnings from three of the key players, financials season in the security market has taken on a darker cast.