Stephen Ward, the IBM PC executive who became the CEO of Lenovo last year, has stepped down and will be replaced by William Amelio, one of Dell’s senior executives for Asia. The change could bring some clouds over a merger that, so far, has gone generally better than expected. Some analysts felt cultural issues, branding, and marketing differences would make it difficult for China’s Lenovo to absorb IBM. Surprisingly, Lenovo has only lost a little combined market share in the transition.

A Santa Claus worm is attempting to trick America Online, Microsoft MSN, and Yahoo instant-messaging users into clicking on a file that delivers unwanted software to a victim’s computer. The IM.GiftCom.All worm attempts to dupe IM users into thinking an acquaintance has sent them a link to a harmless Santa Claus file, according to a security advisory. People who click on the file will see an image of Santa, but what they are less likely to notice is a so-called rootkit being installed onto their system.

With the holidays just days away, shoppers rush around late into the night, radio stations blare seasonal tunes–and cybercriminals busily try to scam unsuspecting targets. "Fraudsters use current affairs to create legitimacy," said Melih Abdulhayoglu, chief executive of Comodo Group, a provider of Web site security certificates in Jersey City, N.J. Credit card fraud is easier now than any other time of year because of the high volume of transactions, experts warn. "The holidays are a great reason to send people email to try to scam them into giving up their information," Abdulhayoglu said. Internet users, in fact, can expect to see almost twice as many phishing attacks this December compared with last year.

An independent security researcher flagged an unpatched flaw in the Symantec AntiVirus Library and warned that attackers could exploit the bug to execute arbitrary code when a malicious RAR archive is scanned. In a published advisory, researcher Alex Wheeler said the vulnerability is the result of unchecked 16-bit length fields in RAR sub-block header types. The RAR file format is widely used for data compression and archiving and is popular among users looking to compress very large music and video files. However, virus writers are packing malware into RAR files to bypass perimeter defense systems.

People using Windows computers were unprotected against new viruses for 56 days this year, research shows. Security firm Ironport counted how long it took anti-virus firms to produce an antidote following the first appearance of a malicious program. It found that, on average, anti-virus firms took 17 hours to respond to new threats. Some viruses took far longer to tackle and in one case specific defenses took more than three weeks to appear.

Privacyware announced the availability of Endpoint Security Console, an administrative console for centralized deployment and management of Privacyware’s popular Personal Firewall and endpoint Intrusion Protection Application–Privatefirewall. EndPoint Security Console enables system administrators to install, monitor, and configure Privatefirewall on any Windows workstation within a server domain. Settings can be customized for each endpoint or User Groups, which are defined and configured within Active Directory. Privatefirewall automatically hides unused ports, assigns rules for commonly used applications, and thoroughly inspects inbound and outbound traffic to identify and disable malicious or unauthorized connections.

SMC Networks announced the newest in its EZ Connect g family of efficient 802.11g wireless networking products, the EZ Connect g 2.4GHz 54Mbps Wireless USB 2.0 Print Server. Compact and versatile, the new SMC EZ Connect g Wireless Print Server connects to any USB printer via its USB 2.0 connector, and to the LAN via either its built-in Ethernet port or its on-board 802.11g wireless capability, to provide printer placement flexibility and enhanced print performance.

Texans are poised to join a small but growing group of consumers and small business users worldwide who are accessing the Internet over electric power lines. In a move aimed to increase competition among telephone and cable companies, Current Communications Group will provide broadband power line technology to the electricity distribution subsidiary of TXU. Customers who subscribe to the service simply plug a tiny modem, based on the HomePlug power line standard, into an electrical outlet and connect a cable from their computer for Internet access, which is capable of two-way speeds 25 times faster than other high-speed services, according to the Current Web site. In addition to traditional data services, the "triple-play" service supports VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and digital quality video streaming.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected two of five patents at the center of the legal battle that threatens to shutter BlackBerry email service in the United States. This marks three times in the past month and twice in two days that the USPTO has issued a negative ruling on a disputed patent from NTP, the patent-holding company that sued BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. for patent infringement in 2001. U.S. District Judge James Spencer ruled in favor of NTP in 2003, instructing that RIM halt its sales of BlackBerry devices and services in the United States until NTP’s patents run out in 2012. He stayed the ruling, though, pending appeal. Since then, the case has gone through several appeals, and RIM is trying to take the case to the Supreme Court.

The European Union has passed a contentious data-retention directive that requires all telephone and Internet traffic to be logged and stored for between six months and two years in order to help combat organized crime and terrorism. The EU Parliament adopted the directive last week, in a 378 to 197 vote. The actual content of communications does not need to be tracked, but data that would allow law enforcement officials to find its senders does.