A new version of the Sober worm wriggled out of its hole early on Monday and set about quickly attacking computers in Europe and the US. The worm is a mass-mailer, meaning it spreads itself via email using contacts listed in the address books of computers it infects. The first instance of the worm, called W32.Sober-K-mm, was intercepted by UK security company MessageLabs.

Long hours long have been part of software development. Explanations given for programmers frequently toiling into the night include the complex nature of many software projects as well as the need to meet shipping deadlines, especially in the video game world that relies on large holiday season sales. Observers say some software houses have learned to manage projects better. In effect, software makers are concluding that productivity suffers when employees work extended days month after month.

Computer geeks who love history have a chance to get their hands on rare documents and technical relics at The Origins of Cyberspace sale in New York next week, Christie’s auction house said on Friday. Lots on offer include an early version of a data storage disc dating from 1951, weighing 5.5 pounds which could only hold about the equivalent of one paragraph of text. Pre-sale estimates for the lots range from around $200 to $70,000 and the total for the collection adds up to between $800,000 and $1.2 million. At the sale on Feb. 23, buyers will have an opportunity first to bid for the entire collection as a whole and only if it does not reach an unspecified reserve will the lots be sold separately and the collection split up.

Bill Gates used his opening keynote speech at the RSA Conference to preview the next version of Internet Explorer, which has lost a sizable chunk of its market share of late to open-source challenger Firefox. It’s unclear exactly what kind of phishing protection Microsoft plans to offer, but it will likely include technology to detect spoofed Web sites, a key to phishing attacks.

Spam accounted for more than 80 percent of business emails last year, and the arms race against it continues this year. Of particular interest to enterprises is the SMTP gateway, or edge protection, to stop not only spam but also spam precursors such as directory harvest attacks.

In the wake of Real Software announcing a new version of its Realbasic application development tool, the company is concerned about a patent application Microsoft has filed that could affect all BASIC-like programming languages. It is Microsoft’s pending patent application for what it calls the IsNot function in BASIC languages, however, that has Real Software officials concerned.

This article lists the issues that Microsoft Product Support Services has identified as the top client/server support issues in Microsoft Exchange. This article contains links to relevant content. This article specifically addresses issues for the Professional and Premier customer segments for Outlook. Outlook Web Access, and Exchange Mobility.

Experts say they can’t understand why, yet a new variant of the Mydoom worm is on the move. Mydoom-BB is just another variant of the Mydoom worm that first began circulating a little more than a year ago and has had varying degrees of success in infecting large number of users. Among its more inventive areas of attack have been three variants that targeted the Windows IFRAME vulnerability.

Microsoft should be concentrating on securing Windows instead of trying to challenge security software companies, according to research firm Gartner. But Microsoft has missed an opportunity to make it clear what role it wants to play in the security market, by not stating its intentions, Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald said in an advisory published Friday. The company needs to "articulate whether it plans to be a leader in consumer and enterprise security solutions across desktop, server and server gateway," he said.

Mark Jen was fired for blogging, the ex-Googler confirmed in a Web posting on Thursday. Jen’s departure came just 11 days after he joined Google as part of a wave of new hires and began recording his impressions of his new employer, including criticisms, in his blog. Jen is just the latest employee to lose his job after a clash with management over public Web postings.