March 2000

• Microsoft e-mailed lawmakers indicating it is willing to accept "common sense" conditions to settle the federal antitrust lawsuit.
• Hackers are mutating distributed denial of service (DDoS) tools, effectively rendering many DDoS scanning tools blind.
• Canadian Mounties have joined the FBI's search for hackers who attacked several major e-commerce websites last week.
• Intel chairman Andrew S. Grove kicked off the latest Intel Developer Forum here in Palm Springs, California, tailoring many of the company's more common themes to appeal to a crowd of high-growth Internet-based startups.
• Hacker attacks that shut down popular Internet sites last week were a wake-up call to take security seriously, and the White House and industry promised to work together to make it a priority.
• Just a block away from Microsoft's Windows 2000 Expo held February 15, Microsoft CEO and president Steve Ballmer touted the company's future development platforms at the Visual Basic Insider Technical Summit.
• Instant messaging has become a mainstay of online customer service, letting consumers escalate website inquiries into real-time communication with support agents.
• RealNames http://www.realnames.com warned users that a recent hacking attack into its system may have compromised credit-card information stored on the site.
• The executive team from Cisco Systems has moved on to form a new company. This is the same team that in 1996 founded NetSpeed (Austin, Texas), a digital subscriber line (DSL) company that was then acquired by Cisco in 1998.
• PrivateExpress.com http://www.privateexpress.com unveiled a new service designed to let users exchange sensitive digital documents over a highly secure link.
• Losses related to distributed denial of service attacks that temporarily shut down several of the most popular websites totaled more than $1.2 billion.
• In early February, the Clinton administration announced updated computer export controls that will relax limits on computer shipments to allies as well as potential political hot spots.
• Microsoft filed its reply to both federal and state conclusions of law, claiming the government is focusing on rhetoric rather than case law in its landmark antitrust case.
• Amazon.com disclosed a multimillion-dollar deal with Living.com to create a store on Amazon.com that sells furniture, bedding, home textiles, and home accessories.
• The investigation registrar of Internet domain names Network Solution was closed.
• Hewlett-Packard unveiled a series of e-business products and services.