Spammer-hacker may be fined $117m

A California man who is an apparent white supremacist and disgruntled Phillies fan has been charged with spam attacks on the Phillies, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. He allegedly flooded staff accounts with tens of thousands of e-mails, reports Philly.com.

FBI agents arrested Allan Eric Carlson, 39, at his home. He is charged with 79 counts of hacking offences and identity theft.

In 1996, Carlson was sentenced to 32 months in prison for vandalising more than two-dozen luxury cars. If convicted on the latest charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 471 years imprisonment and $117 250 000 in fines.

A Toronto police officer`s e-mail to Bill Gates, a spontaneous plea to the world`s richest man to help fight child pornography, has met with a response. Gates forwarded the e-mail to Microsoft Canada, and "three weeks later, I got a call", the policeman recalled.

CNN reports that Microsoft is now working with the Toronto police to develop software that will make it easier to investigate dissemination of child pornography on the Internet. They hope to complete an initial version in a month.

As part of its Dynamic Systems Initiative and patch management plans, Microsoft plans to officially launch its Systems Management Server 2003 on 11 November, reports InformationWeek. SMS 2003 features enhanced patch and application deployment, advanced remote management for laptops and handheld devices, new asset-management features and tools to speed deployment.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has said it expects its security effort to take time, reports CNet. The company plans to announce a detailed plan today to combat a recent wave of security threats.

Apple will ship desktop and server versions of its next operating system (OS), Mac OS X 10.3, on 24 October, reports CRN.com. Code-named Panther, the upgraded platform serves up more than 150 new features from the previous "Jaguar" OS, according to Apple.

Hoping to grow its business by reaching into new markets, Oracle has launched a new edition of its database software, priced for small and medium-sized businesses, reports Infoworld.

Called Oracle Standard Edition One, the software is available now and designed for use on single-processor servers in smaller businesses and at departmental level, the company said.