Software maker Audiotrieve hopes to step in where your conscience and good sense leave off with a new filter that scans outgoing corporate email for bad language, company secrets, dirty jokes and all other manner of potential legal time bombs. The company showed its new OutBoxer product on Monday at the Demo trade show, promoting it as a safeguard against the type of incriminating messages that have caused trouble for companies such as Microsoft and Oracle. The custom software is available now for U.S. business customers.

Open-source software company MySQL has revamped its pricing and licensing practices in an effort to make its database more attractive to corporate customers. On Tuesday, the company announced the MySQL Network, a yearly subscription service that gives customers the right to use the MySQL software and to access the company’s support services, at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. The service, targeted at big companies, offers software users an alternative to paying an up-front fee.

Microsoft, eBay, PayPal and Visa have joined a new antiphishing initiative spearheaded by WholeSecurity, the companies said Monday. Dubbed the Phish Report Network, the effort will attempt to slow the spread of phishing attacks by reporting deceptive Web sites to a central database operated by WholeSecurity, an IT security company based in Austin, Texas. Once a site has been reported to the network and confirmed as fraudulent, the organization notifies all of its members about the URL, allowing companies to block the suspect site and encourage their customers to follow suit.

Government contractor Science Applications International Corp. warned stockholders on Monday that their personal information may be at risk, after desktop computers holding the information were stolen from the company’s offices. The theft happened Jan. 25, according to the company, and affects current and former stockholders. SAIC stressed in its statement that the information may not have been the target.

Two researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have created an add-on to instant messaging that they claim will enable the participants to identify each other and have a secure conversation without leaving any proof that the chat occurred. The result, dubbed off-the-record (OTR) messaging by security researchers Ian Goldberg and Nikita Borisov, is a plug-in for the Gaim instant-messaging client that enables encrypted messages sans leaving a key–a sequence of characters–that could be used to verify that the conversation happened. That attribute, known in cryptography as perfect forward security, also prevents snoopers from reading any copies of the conversation.

BorderWare announced its first "tier-1" distribution relationship with SYNNEX Corporation. Under this relationship, SYNNEX will distribute BorderWare’s complete range of security products in North America, including the MXtreme Mail Firewall appliance, which provides large enterprises with comprehensive perimeter email security, and the series of BorderWare application-proxy firewall servers. SYNNEX will also distribute the 3Com Email Firewall "powered by BorderWare", a collaborative solution that delivers BorderWare’s MXtreme enterprise level protection against spam, viruses and other email-borne threats to small and medium -sized businesses.

MessageOne announced OneSwitch, the first fully automated replication and failover service that manages enterprise application availability with the push of a single button. With the OneSwitch enterprise console, users have a Web-enabled, centralized view of all critical Windows applications (Exchange, SQL Server, Internet Information Services and others). It provides the controls to initiate failover and failback at the push of a button, remotely from any location. In 15 minutes or less, OneSwitch enables companies to recover from outages and resume access to their Windows applications, without the risks and errors associated with traditional replication solutions.

Microsoft has shelved plans to release a 2.0 version of its customer relationship management software in March, saying it needs until the end of the year to finish the program. The delay, which the company discussed on Thursday, comes as Microsoft hires a new executive to lead its customer relationship management division. Former PeopleSoft executive Brad Wilson joined the company on Monday as general manager of Microsoft CRM. Dave Batt, former senior director of Microsoft CRM, left the company last month.

Technology executives from the largest U.S. software companies have called on President Bush to create a high-level commission to address cybercrime and identity theft. During a meeting with administration officials Thursday, chief technology officers from more than a dozen companies said the threat of malicious Internet incidents has become so great that a high-profile governmental response is necessary.

The European Commission on Friday said it had restarted its review of plans by Microsoft and Time Warner to acquire joint control of ContentGuard, a maker of antipiracy software. However, the future of this deal is unclear because Microsoft and Time Warner since then have modified it and brought in French technology company Thomson.