U.S. companies that outsource their IT security functions dramatically contributed to the volume of business sent overseas this year, according to a new survey. The survey, released Thursday by the Computer Security Institute and the FBI, revealed dramatic changes in 2006 in the volume of offshore IT security work. Of the U.S. companies that indicated they farm out their security functions, the amount of work sent overseas in some cases doubled year over year.

A California judge on Thursday dismissed a Web site’s lawsuit against Google over its fall in the Google search index, but left the door open for the lawsuit to be amended and refiled. KinderStart, a directory and search engine for information related to children, sued Google in March after it fell to a "zero" ranking in the Google index. The lawsuit claimed that by lowering KinderStart’s site in its PageRank system, Google had engaged in "pervasive monopolistic practices" that led to the denial of the site’s free speech rights, prevention and destruction of competition, and predatory pricing, among nine counts total.

Trivedi Solutions announced that it has achieved the IBM ServerProven certification for its mChart for Notes product. IBM ServerProven certification helps IBM customers to easily identify a business application that has been validated on IBM Systems. Solutions that are ServerProven represent applications that have been enabled for IBM Systems and have been verified through a customer experience to be installed and running in a customer location. mChart for Notes is document output, storage and retrieval software that enables business systems to automatically produce, manage and deliver premium-branded business documents across paper and electronic formats.

Intel will begin cutting about 1,000 manager jobs worldwide this week as part of an effort to become more competitive. Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy confirmed the layoffs Thursday, saying they would "both reduce costs and improve decision-making and communications." He didn’t disclose the financial costs or benefits of the cuts, but said Intel plans to share more details when it discusses financial results for the last quarter.

You know we bring you all the latest news, all the important happenings in the tech world. Well, what could be more important than this? Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis are back. Yep. Tayla and that freak Ronin, Samantha Carter and that dude from Farscape. Plus, MacGyver might be back. Maybe we’ll even luck out and the chick who played Aeryn Sun will be back full time. Who knew she could be funny? For you geeks out there (and, if you’re reading this, that means you, bucko), go program your Tivo before it gets too late. It’s all happening tonight (SciFriday) on the Sci Fi network. Does anything else matter? Really, next to Stargate being back, does anything else matter? Yeah, okay, it could have been BSG (whimper)…

Security researchers have a brand-new tool to use to go digging for malicious executables on the Web: The Google SOAP Search API. Malware hunters at Websense’s Security Labs have figured out a way to use the freely available Google API to find dangerous .exe files sitting on thousands of Web servers around the world.

Adobe Systems joined Microsoft on "Patch Tuesday" and delivered fixes for two security flaws in the ubiquitous Adobe PDF reader software. The vulnerabilities affect Adobe’s Acrobat and Reader software for both the Windows operating system and Apple Computer’s Mac OS, Adobe said in two separate security advisories. If left unpatched, the flaws could put Windows and Mac users at risk of a cyberattack.

A British banker who was questioned by U.S. authorities in connection with the Enron scandal has been found dead, British media said Wednesday. The man’s body was found Tuesday in a park in east London, but police declined to identify him. The Royal Bank of Scotland, however, sent condolences to the family of Neil Coulbeck, one of the bank’s senior employees who had been questioned by the FBI in the case of three British bankers facing Enron-related fraud charges. The British Broadcasting Corp. and other media outlets also identified the man as Coulbeck, 53.

Symantec’s Data Center Management business unit announced July 11 that the company is releasing major upgrades to two key management products, Storage Foundation and Veritas Cluster Server, both of which are being released as version 5.0. Storage Foundation 5.0 provides customers with a single interface for diverse storage solutions, while CLS protects against unplanned downtime and data loss. The announcement was made at Symantec’s Vision Government 2006 conference here.

Former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier collapsed Wednesday as he walked toward his seat at a memorial service for convicted Enron Corp. founder Ken Lay, eliciting shrieks from two women nearby and a rush of Secret Service agents. The agents were at the ceremony awaiting former President Bush and his wife, Barbara, and rushed to Lanier’s side along with several doctors.