Obama begins cyber security review

President Barack Obama has started a review of how well the US thwarts spies and malicious hackers, reports the BBC.

The wide-ranging review is set to last 60 days and takes in all the "plans, programmes and activities" of official US cyber security efforts.

The end result will be a strategy to improve the way the US defends itself against Internet-borne threats.

Intel is feeling pretty confident about the ramp up of its 32nm processors, set for production in late 2009. In fact, the company says it's "accelerating" the process shrink by skipping 45nm chips that were going to arrive later this year, says The Register.

The upcoming Westmere launch will "de-emphasise" 45nm Auburndale chips that Intel planned on letting co-exist with its new 32nm line in 2009. Instead, those Auburndale wafers will be used to increase production of Westmere desktop and notebook chips. Intel detailed its revised roadmap at a press event in San Francisco today.

Westmere mobile and desktop chips are still on schedule for production in the fourth quarter of 2009. But Intel wouldn't comment on when OEMs could be expected to introduce products using the chips.

A slip-up by a law firm revealed Facebook paid $65 million to end its legal fight with a smaller social network, ConnectU, says LA Times.

The founders of ConnectU had accused Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, a fellow Harvard University graduate, of stealing their ideas to create his site. The details of last year's settlement were supposed to be confidential.

However, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, which represented ConnectU, recently issued a newsletter boasting about its legal victories. Among them: it netted Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the twins who started ConnectU, $65 million in cash and stock options.

All UK businesses that employ more than 50 people will be required to submit employee tax information online rather than on paper from April, reports Computing.co.uk.

All workers' P45 and P46 forms, as well as pensions information, must be submitted via the Internet to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Stephen Banyard, director of HMRC's Business Customer Unit, said the move will benefit all parties.