eWEEK EDITORS

Sun Microsystems is expected to announce today, Sept. 26, an alliance offering an alternative to Microsofts Passport user authentication service for online user IDs and transactions. Sun CEO Scott McNealy said yesterday, Sept. 25, that he was opposed to Microsoft establishing Passport as an unchallenged user authentication technology for a wide range of Internet services. […]

Sun Microsystems today launched a consumer-oriented Liberty Alliance to supply online user identification and authorization standards to compete with Microsofts Passport. No mention was made of Passport in the hour-long press conference, until a questioner referred to “the unnamed elephant in the room.” The alliance included Bank of America, Nokia, Fidelity Investments, General Motors, American […]

Americas computer infrastructure is highly vulnerable to attack and will likely be targeted in the near future, a panel of security experts told Congress today. In a hearing called by the House Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations, leading security experts painted a grim picture of the ability of Americas critical infrastructure […]

As expected, troubled Web hosting firm Exodus Communications Inc. filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today. The Santa Clara, Calif., company, considered a prince of the IT community a year ago, has been plagued by numerous financial problems, including more than $3 billion in debt, multiple rounds of layoffs, a plummeting stock price and […]

Exodus Communications filed for Chapter-11 reorganization today and has secured $200 million in debtor-in- possession financing from GE Capital. The money will go to fund post-petition operating expenses and supplier and employee obligations, the company said in a statement. The move was has been widely expected. Several industry experts said a voluntary bankruptcy reorganization was […]

Very few aspects of our lives have been untouched since terrorists flew jets into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. But Im optimistic that at least one part of life will remain unchanged: People wont stop worrying about protecting personal privacy. Since the attacks, a lot has been said about the potential for […]

Companies that were hit by both the Code Red and Nimda worms should quit using Microsofts Internet Information Server immediately, says Gartners research director for Internet security, John Pescatore. “Code Red had so much publicity. Dan Rather was talking about it. It had to be a wake up call,” for business owners and system administrators, […]

Exodus Communications could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the next two weeks, an industry analyst suggested in a research report released this morning. The analyst, Andrew Schroepfer, president of Tier 1 Research, wrote that Exodus is expected to fire about 1,000 people; shut down or sell off data centers and stop competing for new […]

WebGain Inc., a leading Java tool supplier, has withdrawn its registration statement from the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. WebGain officials notified the SEC last Friday that it had canceled plans to go public. “Given todays unbalanced market conditions, WebGain has decided that it is not appropriate to consider a public […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A congressional bill regarding online surveillance that is scheduled to be voted upon today was unexpectedly delayed Monday afternoon by an influential politician, pushing back passage of the antiterrorism bill by at least a week. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., chairman of the Houses Committee on the Judiciary, had planned to have his […]

WorldCom will get precious billing relationships with 83,000 customers and access to the midsize-business market if its $40 million offer for most of Rhythms NetConnections assets is accepted. “It can be a great deal at $40 million,” said Robert Saunders, senior analyst of Eastern Management Group, which covers telecommunications. The bid was disclosed in a […]

To help developers link Java applications to SQL Server 2000, Microsoft Corp. has licensed a downloadable software driver from connectivity specialist Merant International Ltd. Using the Java Database Connectivity Driver, built by Merants Morrisville, N.C., DataDirect division, Microsoft will offer the beta download for free, most likely by the end of this week, with the […]