Back to the Beach Software, creators of Web Studio Web design software, announced the release of Web Studio 4.0 Service Pack 3. The new version, which is free to current customers, enables customers to create HTML emails automatically. The new release includes over 30 additional new features and enhancements; among them support for Limited Users in Windows XP, centering of Web sites in browsers, and others requested by Web Studio users.

Microsoft is developing a network of Windows XP honeymonkeys to help detect rogue Web sites that exploit security holes to install malware on client machines. The project, code-named Strider HoneyMonkey Exploit Detection, is being created by the company’s Cybersecurity and Systems Management Research Group to help the software giant find the source of zero-day exploits targeting the Windows XP operating system.

A bogus cumulative update with a malicious attachment has followed Microsoft’s patch day. In what has become a monthly staple, virus writers are taking advantage of the heightened public interest around Microsoft’s patching cycle to trick users into executing a malicious attachment. The latest social engineering trick arrives via e-mail with an attachment that purports to be a "cumulative patch" for May 2005.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates countered the popular notion that workers are universally overloaded with too much information. Speaking to a crowd of chief executives, Gates cited the need for access to even more data in areas such as sales results and corporate budgets.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is planning to write another book on how new technology will affect people and companies. Gates, whose last book, "Business @ at the Speed of Thought," was published in 1996, is still in the early stages of planning and no date has been set yet for the book’s release.

U.S. agents have searched the property of at least 10 suspects as they investigate a security breach at data broker LexisNexis that left thousands vulnerable to identity theft. No charges were filed but an FBI spokesman said the searches were carried out by federal agents in several states, including California, Minnesota and North Carolina.

Enterprise software maker SAP displayed the first examples of the business applications being developed through its technology integration partnership with Microsoft. Presenting at the business software specialist’s Sapphire customer conference, Shai Agassi, a member of SAP’s executive board and one of its chief technologists, offered a peek at some of the benefits the enterprise applications giant will derive through its effort with Microsoft, a tie-up that has been code-named Mendocino. The first glimpse of the jointly developed technology came in the form of a customized version of Microsoft’s dominant Outlook email software that has been linked with SAP’s enterprise resource planning, or ERP, applications.

Netscape is expected to release the final version of Netscape 8, a Web browser designed to protect users against online scams such as phishing. Netscape has promised that the final version, like the previous ones, will include features to better safeguard systems while people surf the Web. Netscape 8 is also expected to have a cleaner look and feel, but not to be dramatically different from the public beta released in March.

After months of remaining nearly mum about the next version of Office, Microsoft is slowly breaking the silence. The company is still not discussing the specifics on most of the features it will add with Office 12, but it is promising to have the productivity software suite ready by the second half of next year. The company is also talking about some broad areas that it sees as ripe for improvement, including enhanced collaboration. Among the other key areas are individual productivity, finding business information and managing corporate business documents.

Microsoft is getting ready to provide an early peek at new Windows software that aims to help consumers deal with the plethora of Internet logins. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant plans to release a technical preview of the software, code-named InfoCard, by the end of May. It will also include other technologies designed to make using digital identities easier and safer.