Adobe Systems introduced a new software package aimed at helping manufacturers create and share documents in the name of accelerating the process of designing and building products. Dubbed as Acrobat 3-D, the system offers the ability for manufacturing companies to author, edit, and distribute documents that offer many of the same functions available in today’s engineering applications, such as those used in CAD (computer aided design) programs. The package comes from Adobe’s Knowledge Worker business unit and is built on the same technological underpinnings used in the company’s existing Acrobat products and Breeze collaboration software.

IBM was sued in federal court Tuesday for allegedly not paying overtime to tens of thousands of rank-and-file employees. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of three current and former workers, and seeks class-action status to represent computer installers and maintenance workers for IBM throughout the United States. "They were forced to work overtime without being paid in a manner that is required by the state and federal laws," attorney James Finberg said. Lawyers said they are seeking millions of dollars in back pay, and are also considering punitive damages.

A 20-year-old hacker admitted Monday to surreptitiously seizing control of thousands of Internet-connected computers, using the zombie network to serve pop-up ads and renting it to people who mounted attacks on Web sites and sent out spam. Jeanson James Ancheta, of Downey, California, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to four felony charges for crimes, including infecting machines at two U.S. military sites, that earned him more than $61,000, said federal prosecutor James Aquilina. Under a plea agreement, which still must be approved by a judge, Ancheta faces up to 6 years in prison and must pay the federal government restitution. He also will forfeit his profits and a 1993 BMW. Sentencing is scheduled for May 1.

Symantec said on Monday that its president and vice chairman Gary Bloom will leave before the end of March, marking the security software maker’s latest executive departure and sending shares down 4 percent. Bloom joined Symantec via the $10.3 billion merger with Veritas Software, where he had served as chief executive officer and chairman. Symantec said it would not fill the position at the moment.

Antivirus vendors are warning of a rapidly-spreading worm that is carrying a potentially destructive set of instructions. The Nyxem worm–also nicknamed the Kama Sutra worm–is programmed to overwrite all of the files on computers it infects on February 3, says Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure. F-Secure researchers found the worm truncates files to 20 bytes and causes an error message when one is opened. The worm appears to be programmed to overwrite all files on the third day of every month. So far, there’s no indication where Nyxem originated.

IBM announced the contents of its 2005 Global Business Security Index Report and provided an early look at potential security threats in 2006. Based on early indicators, IBM anticipates a fundamental shift, or evolution, in cybercrime from pervasive global outbreaks to smaller, stealthier attacks targeted at specific organizations for extortion purposes. According to the report, written by IBM’s Global Security Intelligence team, the global IT threat landscape spent the majority of 2005 at the medium level. While the Zotob worm gained international attention, impacting well known media organizations, there were decidedly fewer global malware outbreaks than the previous year.

IBM announced it has made new open source technology available that will enhance knowledge discovery capabilities across multiple industries and applications and provide developers with tools to support a new breed of software for the analysis of information. The company has completed the first step of making the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) available to the open source community by publishing the UIMA source code to SourceForge.net, the world’s largest open source development site.

IBM announced availability of new releases of its core IBM Workplace products, including Workplace Collaboration Services 2.6, Workplace Managed Client 2.6, Workplace Forms 2.6 and Workplace Designer 2.6. The 2.6 versions of these products include more than 50 new features and functions, including enhancements to cross-platform and open standards support. Along with WebSphere Portal, the Workplace family of products help provide the front-end to IBM’s Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) strategy.

Investment and superannuation specialist Russell Investment Group and global business consulting and technology organization IBM announced a seven-year, A$140m Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) agreement. Under the terms of the agreement IBM will assume operation of Russell’s Member Administration Service Centre in Australia and becomes a significant provider of superannuation member administration in Australia.

Building on 2005 double-digit growth in its Lotus software brand, IBM announced new programs, business partner offerings and platform support that will extend the value of the Lotus Notes and Domino platform, help increase productivity and lower costs for Lotus customers and Business Partners.