Officials with the European Union are skeptical of Microsoft’s announcement that it is opening up its technology to the outside world. However analysts in Europe have welcomed the move, claiming Microsoft and users will benefit in the end.

The software maker announced Feb. 21 its four interoperability principles and said it will open up all APIs in its high-volume products, such as Windows and Office, a move that despite EU rulings in the past, Microsoft has shied away from. The four principles are based on ensuring open connections, data portability, support for industry standards, and creating a more open conversation with customers and the IT community.

Cult of the Dead Cow, or cDc, an old-school hacking crew famous for its anti-censorship stance, has shipped a new tool that turns the Google search engine into an easy-to-use vulnerability scanner.

Taking its cue from Johnny Long’s Google Dorks–search queries that reveal sensitive information–cDc’s new Goolag Scan pushes the envelope even more, offering a stand-alone Windows GUI-based application to power the searchers.

The open-source program comes with about 1,500 custom Google search queries embedded by default to run searches for vulnerable Web applications, misconfigured Web servers with open backdoors, sensitive user names and passwords, and other documents accidentally exposed on the Internet.

After pushing 1,000 workers out to the door to better make ends meet, Yahoo is beefing up relations with its remaining employees.

The struggling search giant has made plans to offer all of its employees enhanced severance benefits in the event that they are laid off in a changing of the guards.

In a Feb. 15 email to employees, Chief Executive Jerry Yang announced the benefits plan, but said that it should not be construed as any indication that a change of control was in the works.

Microsoft revealed details of the next version of its Windows OS for small businesses and formally introduced a new product line aimed at small and mid-size businesses. Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2008, formally code-named "Cougar," is one of two software bundles in Microsoft’s new Windows Essential Server Solutions line; it also includes Windows Essential Business Server 2008, formerly code-named "Centro" and aimed at mid-sized companies. Both products are based on the same code as Windows Server 2008, the next version of Microsoft’s enterprise server OS.

The products in the Essential line bundle a server OS with other software products that Microsoft deems necessary to running a business–such as Microsoft’s messaging software, Exchange Server and security products–to provide what Microsoft describes as an all-in-one, easy-to-install software stack for companies that may only have a small IT support staff. SBS 2008 is aimed at companies with up to 50 PCs and includes one-year trial subscriptions to Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server Small Business Edition and Windows Live OneCare for Server.

Microsoft is spreading its arms to draw its SMB and midmarket servers under one roof, announcing what it’s calling a new "family," the Windows Essential Server Solutions family.

The new product family will encompass both the company’s small business and its midmarket servers, with licensing and migration paths to ease the move from one to the other. Specifically, the family entails an update to Microsoft’s Small Business Server, code-named Cougar, and the company’s midmarket server, code-named Centro and now dubbed Microsoft’s Windows Essential Business Server. Microsoft first mentioned Centro in 2005 and then gave more details and a final name for the midmarket server on Nov. 7.

Given the structure of Yahoo’s board of directors, Microsoft will likely trigger a proxy fight for the seats of Yahoo’s board without first making a tender offer, proxy solicitation experts said.

Proxy experts weighed in after Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates reaffirmed Feb. 19 that his company’s offer was fair in the wake of Yahoo’s Feb. 11 rebuke of the $44.6 billion offer, which was $31 per share, a 62 percent premium on Yahoo’s trading price as of Jan. 31.

A U.K. company has come up with a nifty laptop-protection system that can automatically wipe hard disk data on machines taken from authorized locations. Sold as a hosted service, Virtuity’s BackStopp server monitors a protected laptop using any medium available, including the Internet, or locally using Wi-Fi or GSM.

If a laptop is reported stolen–or even just moved from a designated space–the system can reach out and execute a file deletion routine that clears the laptop of all important data.

Opera has shipped a high-priority update to its flagship Web browser to correct multiple flaws that put Windows users at risk of malicious hacker attacks.

With Opera 9.26 for Windows, the Norwegian company shipped patches for at least three vulnerabilities that can be exploited to launch malware installations or conduct identity theft attacks.

The most serious of the three bugs–rated "highly severe" by Opera–can cause the browser to be tricked into treating custom comments in image properties as script.

Kaspersky Lab has uncovered a scheme using a greeting card Web site to specifically target financial information from customers of a Mexican bank. The spam was first identified by Kaspersky Lab on the morning of February 19 in the form of a Trojan masked to look like a standard greeting card email. When recipients of the fake card click on the link, a malicious file is downloaded on to their computer.

Once this malicious file is launched, it modifies DNS entries on the user’s computer, so that if they attempt to access the Mexican Banamex banking site through standard addresses like www.banamex.com, they will actually be redirected to a remote malicious user’s site–and of course, if they enter their banking details on that site when prompted, their data will end up in the hands of the bad guys.

A top-level Microsoft exec has promised developers will see additions to the install, client runtimes and other features of .NET, many deliverable by summer. A high-level Microsoft exec has revealed a series of enhancements and roadmap updates in a blog post that demonstrates a more open approach than most of his peers.

Scott Guthrie, recently promoted to head up the .NET Developer Platform, wrote a blog post updating Microsoft’s .NET Web development roadmap from November. Guthrie is a prominent exception to the practice of letting 5,000-plus Microsofties blog, but allowing top execs to remain mum.