DataViz announced that it has licensed the Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol. DataViz intends to incorporate this technology into RoadSync, a mobile ActiveSync client available both commercially and to potential licensees. It will provide non-Microsoft smartphones and other mobile devices with direct, over-the-air, secure synchronization with corporate Outlook email and personal information management data, such as Calendar and Contacts. By integrating the RoadSync client with ActiveSync, enterprise customers will have more choices in the types of mobile devices they deploy and will be better able to utilize their existing Exchange Server investment instead of relying on costly middleware solutions.

Jeffrey Lee Parson, the teen convicted of infecting 48,000 computers with a variant of the destructive Blaster worm, will not have to pay $500,000 in restitution to Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker said on Wednesday. Instead, the Minnesota teen will have to perform 225 hours of community service in addition to a year and half in prison and an earlier order to perform 100 hours of community service, once the final sentence is signed by Judge Marsha Pechman of the U.S. District Court in Seattle. He also will be placed under supervision for three years following the sentence. Microsoft, which released Parson from his financial obligation in a legal agreement signed by both parties earlier this week, said it was satisfied with the final sentence.

Longhorn has already survived several major delays, intense scrutiny from the industry and a radical redesign of its features. But the toughest test for Microsoft’s next release of Windows is still to come: Will anyone buy it? Even though it will be five years after Windows XP’s debut, Microsoft could still face a tough sell when it releases Longhorn next year. With past updates, users had clamored for more stability and security, but analysts say people are pretty happy with Windows XP.

Microsoft will build software for managing identities into Windows in order to beef up security by giving users more control over their personal information, the world’s largest software maker said Tuesday. The ID technology called "info-cards" will give users more control over their own personal information in order to shop and access services online, said Michael Stephenson, director in Microsoft’s Windows Server division. Microsoft is currently working on a new Internet Explorer Web browser and version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, but Stephenson declined to say whether "info-cards" would be built into the current Windows XP version or Longhorn.

With eight new variants surfacing in the last week alone, and over a dozen reported since the beginning of March, the Mytob mass-mailing worm appears to be evolving rapidly. On Monday, security software maker Symantec reported two new versions of the virus, labeled as W32.Mytob.R and W32.Mytob.S. Both worms achieved a low or moderate threat rating from Symantec, as have earlier variants of Mytob, but the company is still recommending that people update their security software immediately to protect against the emerging threat.

Hewlett-Packard has selected Mark Hurd, NCR chief executive, as its next CEO, according to a source close to the board. Hurd’s appointment comes less than two months after HP ousted former chief executive Carly Fiorina. Hurd will serve as president and chief executive, with Patricia Dunn retaining the chairwoman title, the source said. Hurd is expected to begin his new duties early next month.

It’s been six years since the Melissa macro virus first got loose, but security experts say network administrators and PC owners still have lessons to learn from it. The virus started spreading on March 26, 1999, and traveled quickly across the Internet, using the macro functions in Microsoft Word to burrow into the computers of victims who opened the document. Within three days, hundreds of thousands of PCs were infected.

Hewlett-Packard, much of whose profit comes from printer supplies, has sued two companies that sell refilled ink cartridges, but it stopped short of trying to block the refill business altogether. On Friday, HP sued InkCycle in U.S. District Court for the western district of Wisconsin, alleging that the company’s ink violates three HP patents. And on Monday, HP sued RhinoTek in U.S. District Court for the northern district of California, accusing RhinoTek of false advertising by using packaging that indicates its refilled HP printer cartridges are new.

Microsoft and the European Commission have agreed the software giant can sell a stripped-down version of its Windows operating system under the name "Windows XP Home Edition N", according to Microsoft. The deal represents a small step in Microsoft’s long battle with the European Union’s executive, which last year ruled the software giant had abused the near-monopoly of Windows to crush competition, fined it nearly 500 million euros ($650 million), and ordered it to change its business practices. The Commission ordered Microsoft to sell a version of Windows without its Windows Media Player audiovisual software and the two clashed over a suitable name.

Struggling to cope with a dramatic rise in malicious hacker intrusions, a group of 18 network providers and ISPs announced plans to share real-time data on cyber-attacks. The vendors, which include Cisco Systems Inc., British Telecommunication Plc., EarthLink Inc., MCI Inc. and XO Communications Inc., have formed the Fingerprint Sharing Alliance to automate the way information is distributed during an intense hacker attack.