Well, folks. We just discovered that here in the states, this is Memorial Day weekend. We found that out because lots of folks were asking us today what we’re doing over Memorial Day weekend and we kept saying, "Dunno, when is it?" Apparently, lots of you are taking two and even three days off from work (uh, what’s that mean?). So, in honor of you slackers, we’re holding off the 5/28 issues of our Weekly Update mailing until Tuesday. We’ll probably start the mailing Monday night, which will get it into your hot little hands Tuesday morning.

For those of you outside the U.S., Memorial Day is supposed to be the day we mourn our war dead. It also usually turns out to be a nice spring day and has become a day we drink much beer and carbonated soda water and eat much burger. This Memorial Day is strange for us, because the current United States government, our current administration, and even major media outlets frown on us acknowledging that more than 700 brave Americans have died fighting in Iraq and many more than 5,000 Iraqis died in this ill-fated war as well. But, in the new Patriotic America, it’s not entirely patriotic to discuss such things, so we haven’t here, now have we?

To those of our friends fighting in far flung places across the planet, and to their families and friends, our hearts and minds and best wishes are with you all. Come home safe, OK? [–DG and the editors at ZATZ Publishing]

America Online said that it plans to release a new version of its Netscape Web browser this summer. Netscape 7.2 comes amid speculation that AOL had all but ceased working on the browser following layoffs last year affecting some 500 developers in California, including most of the team that had been working on Netscape.

Symantec reported Thursday that it has analyzed what it believes to be the first known threat to 64-bit Windows systems, a virus labeled W64.Rugrat.3344. Company representatives stated the threat was merely a so-called proof-of-concept virus, a worm developed by someone to show that vulnerabilities are present in a particular type of system, and not a virus already spreading in the wild.

The California state Senate on Thursday approved a bill that takes aim at Google’s new Gmail service, placing strict limits on email providers seeking to scan customer messages for advertising and other purposes. The bill passed after revisions that removed a key provision that would have required email providers to win the consent of anyone sending messages to their service before scanning messages.

A New York state man who sent out millions of spam emails was sentenced to 3-1/2 to seven years in prison. Howard Carmack, known as the "Buffalo Spammer," received the maximum sentence for 14 counts of identity theft and forgery.

Zinek AB announced the availability of the latest enterprise communicate products, Mobile Manager (SMS Plug in to Microsoft’s Outlook) and Mobile Buddylist PC client (SMS sending client). These new enterprise products connect directly to Zinek’s robust Message Exchange server providing global messaging coverage and the ability to push and receive all forms of mobile data.

This is unqualified and unverified. Normally, we don’t traffic in rumors, but because Cisco routers are so core to the Internet, we’re passing it along. We’re getting numerous reports in today that Cisco’s core source code has been stolen from the company. Obviously, we feel for the developers. But more important, that open code could expose vulnerabilities in Cisco routers. Keep an eye on the news for updates and an eye on your networks for suspicious activity. Again, this is both unqualified and unverified. Nothing is being reported on the Cisco Web site as of the time of this posting. Updated: ComputerWorld has a more detailed report.

Microsoft will not debut Kodiak for its next version of Exchange, but instead will offer bits of Kodiak technology in piecemeal upgrades to Exchange Server 2003. MS also has announced that Exchange Server 2003 SP1 is now available.

Instant messaging is breaking into almost every corporation in some shape or form. This can lead to serious issues for companies subject to federal compliance.

This article takes a look at exactly what network access quarantine control does, how it does it, and an overview of how you can use it to increase the security of your Windows remote access server and network.