eWEEK EDITORS

A wave of hysteria, a brief surge in traffic, a burst of defacements—by now, its a familiar story. The most recent chapter, of course, was written by the Code Red worm, which has swept through the Internet, infecting thousands of systems running unpatched versions of Microsofts IIS Web server software, including Microsofts own update site. […]

Were All Gonna Die! CEOs of data security companies must patiently pray that — yes! — this will be the week that some freaky, out-of- control virus metastasizes across the Internet, bringing everything in its path to a crashing halt and thereby demonstrating the need for their products. With last weeks Code Red worm, the […]

Security experts are warning that the problems spawned by the malicious computer program Code Red may be dwarfed by the pain that lies ahead. Some worry Internet security problems are going to get really bad, really soon, especially because of the “polymorphic worm,” an impending threat thats nearly undetectable. “Code Red is just the beginning,” […]

Grid Power IBM is working to make supercomputing resources available to anyone through its work on grid computing, which will deliver computing power much like a power company delivers electricity. The company is working with the British Office of Science and Technology. Bank Portal BEA Systems will announce this week that Citibank has built and […]

While open source databases have scored some recent successes, they wont pose a serious challenge to mature commercial databases until they have added some essential reliability and management features. Vendors offering open source databases say that they are working hard to close the gap — and they predict that their databases will someday become as […]

At first glance, the database landscape doesnt appear to be crowded, with IBM, Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. garnering the lions share of attention. But a growing number of smaller companies and startups are beginning to use technology in innovative ways to carve out niches to meet demand in areas that arent addressed by IBM, […]

Source code is the DNA of the e-commerce ecosystem, and access to it is essential to the survival and evolution of e-businesses. Responding to its customers calls for this access, Microsoft is starting to crack open the lid through its so-called shared-source program. We welcome this initiative. However, the look-but-dont-touch conditions Microsoft places on commercial […]

While IBM has been among the earliest and most ambitious proponents of shared, pay-as-you-go IT utilities, competitors such as Sun Microsystems Inc., Accenture Ltd., Computer Sciences Corp., Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are not far behind. Compaq and HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., for example, have in the last month announced what HP calls […]

It used to be that buffer overflows were just a nagging 40-year-old glitch in the software development process. Today, as illustrated by Code Red, they are the No. 1 reason hackers can slice through corporate networks like Swiss cheese. A buffer overflow occurs when someone inputs more data into a field than that field expects. […]

Traditionally, if companies want to deploy applications over the Web, they can use standard Web development tools that are ubiquitous and scalable but also grade low in performance and reliability, or they can use expensive customized code that is productive but proprietary and hard to maneuver. San Francisco-based Kenamea Inc. has launched software designed to […]

While IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc. have long waged a battle for the high end of the Unix server market, these companies no longer boast the biggest box on the block. Fujitsu Technology Solutions Inc. recently announced the availability of the first 128-processor, Solaris-based server, the PrimePower 2000. The announcement comes just as […]

Seasoned open source code developers are concerned that an effort to produce an open source alternative to Microsofts .Net development platform may be held hostage by the software giant, if the endeavor ever gets off the ground. Open source critics of Microsoft said the company would have the opportunity to strangle an open source project […]