Older people are missing out on critical services because they do not use the Internet, a report says. Just 28% of people over the age of 65 have home Internet access, compared to a UK average of 57% of households. As a result, pensioners cannot access government services as well as the most competitive deals on commercial goods.

An anti-piracy check for Microsoft Windows is causing problems for some users who are being told their copies of operating system XP are not genuine. The tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), is aimed at cracking down on millions of illegal copies of Windows XP in circulation. The tool is downloaded and installed voluntarily but Microsoft has said it could become mandatory in the future. Blogs and forums have been hit with comments and queries about the tool. The tool was downloaded as part of a wave of security updates Microsoft offered to users. If it is not installed Windows XP will periodically remind people to download and run the program.

A hacker broke into the Nebraska child-support computer system and may have obtained the names, Social Security numbers, and other information of 300,000 people and 9,000 employers, the state treasurer announced Thursday. The hacker got into a back-up computer server Wednesday morning for about 40 minutes and launched a virus, which state Treasurer Ron Ross said was immediately removed. Ross said the attack appeared to be routed through Australia from Asia. The State Patrol launched a computer forensic investigation.

U.S. lawmakers said Thursday they have learned of two more data breaches at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, even as the agency announced that law enforcement agencies had recovered stolen computer hardware containing the personal information of millions of U.S. military veterans. The House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Committee has learned of a May 5 incident in which a data tape disappeared from a VA facility in Indianapolis, and a 2005 incident in which a VA laptop was stored in the trunk of a car that was stolen in Minneapolis.

Dell said it would offer users of its computers the opportunity to recycle their old hardware for free, regardless of whether they plan to purchase a new Dell computer. Dell is the latest computer firm to announce extensions of its recycling program. In May, Apple Computer made its recycling program free to people who buy a new Mac, regardless of their previous computer brand. Hewlett-Packard also said it will run a number of recycling drives this summer in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Oregon.

A laptop containing personal information from thousands of blood donors–including Social Security numbers and medical information–was stolen from a local office of the American Red Cross, but officials said the information was encrypted. The data included matching names and birth dates of donors from Texas and Oklahoma, as well as donors’ sexual and disease histories. The laptop was one of three stolen from a locked closet in the Farmers Branch office of the American Red Cross in May, but the two others did not contain the personal information. There was no sign of forced entry, said Red Cross spokeswoman Audrey Lundy.

A federal judge has thrown out an antitrust suit brought against Microsoft by the founder of the now-defunct pen-computing company Go Computing, the software giant said Friday. In an opinion filed Thursday, Maryland District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz granted Microsoft’s motion to dismiss Go founder S. Jerrold Kaplan’s suit, which was filed in June 2005. Motz did allow Kaplan the option of filing a new suit based on any damages that may have occurred within four years prior to the filing of such a suit.

A laptop computer and external drive containing personal data on more than 26 million veterans and active duty military personnel have been recovered, officials said Thursday. The items were stolen last month from the home of a Veterans Affairs Department analyst. FBI forensic experts conducted initial tests on the computer and external drive that showed nothing had been accessed, but forensic examinations are still under way to ensure the integrity of the data.

Two new security flaws have been discovered in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and one could also affect Mozilla’s Firefox, security experts have warned. Code for both the vulnerabilities has been published, but there have been no reports of attacks taking advantage of the flaws, the SANS Internet Storm Center, which monitors network threats, said in an advisory released Wednesday. The flaw that affects both IE and Firefox is related to the handling of a technology that is used to access documents delivered from one Web site to another.

Microsoft is laying off 214 U.S. salespeople, a day after it announced some executive shuffling across various product groups, officials confirmed on June 29. While this isn’t the first time Microsoft has cut employees, the move is somewhat uncharacteristic for the 70,000-employee company that has been adding staff by the thousands each year.