Kelly McNeill writes “A new computer worm known as “Goner” that is capable of disabling computer security measures is spreading quickly throughout the Internet despite its simple structure, static subject line and message, according to antivirus experts. Officially referred to as “W32.Goner.A,” “GONE.A” or “WORM_GONER.A,” the mass-mailing worm that attacks Microsoft Outlook, ICQ instant messaging and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) users was discovered early Tuesday.”

Dave writes “Updated Apache packages are now available for Red Hat Linux 6.2, 7, 7.1, and 7.2. These packages upgrade the Apache Web server to version 1.3.22, which closes a potential security bug which would present clients with a listing of the contents of a directory instead of the contents of an index file, or in case of an error, the error message.

Read more here.”

VNUNet: “Open source security products are ready to mount a massive challenge in the intrusion detection market, according to experts. Security consultant NSS Group tested 16 IDS products from big vendors including Cisco, ISS, Computer Associates and Symantec, along with one freeware open source product called Snort. ‘In our tests Snort was the top performer – we were blown away by it,’ said Bob Walder, director of the NSS Group. ‘It was better than all the commercial products we tested.'” Read more here.

ZDNet: “West Virginia is one of nine states who have refused to join the Justice Department in settling a federal case against Microsoft. The state lawsuit filed on Monday would position the state to opt its 1.8 million residents out of a separate but related class action settlement with the company, according to one source familiar with the case.” Read more here.

ZDNet: “Apple Computer has been turned into an unwitting Santa Claus after some Mac diehards discovered a way to turn a complimentary Mac OS X upgrade CD into a free copy of the operating system itself.” Read more here.

ZDNet: “Ximian, long an open-source software company, will do business the proprietary way with a new software package that lets Linux computers connect to Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers.” Read more here.

LinuxHardware.org has benchmarked “the new NVIDIA drivers released yesterday and to say the least, the results are amazing. To find out what we’re talking about, read on. We have the charts to prove what a few good programmers are capable of.”

Debian Planet reports that “Joe Drew has written to
the Debian-devel mailing list about the organisation for the July 2002
gathering of international Debian developers currently being in a dire
situation… [I]f you happen to know someone in the Canadian LUG, universities or convention/conference scene who can help out in whatever way possible, now would be a good time to step up and offer your assistance to the Debian community.”

The Register: “Hewlett-Packard has at last taken the the wraps off its Blade servers… Surprisingly the first offerings will be Linux-only, with Windows and HP-UX to follow. Red Hat, SuSE and Debian – chalk one up for HP’s Linux advisor, Bruce Perens – are the favoured distros.” Read more here.

The Register notes that software company Trolltech has announced a worldwide developer contes to generate new apps for Sharp’s upcoming Linux-based handheld, the Zaurus
SL-5500.