In the race to sell database software worldwide, Oracle improved its position to a "virtual tie" with IBM last year, according to a report by researcher Gartner. Oracle claimed 34.1 percent of the overall market for relational database software, with IBM lording over 33.7 percent–a finish the report considered a dead heat. According to Gartner analysts, the difference between the two vendors was less than $30 million. Microsoft came in third, with a 20 percent share.

Trilog, a developer of tools for collaborative business process solutions who is already offering skills and tools for re-engineering Notes and Domino solutions for IBM Workplace, is helping Relavis get to the Workplace platform faster with a solution complementary to Revalis’ Domino CRM suite. By integrating Relavis CRM and Trilog’s Project Management Workplace, the companies will deliver uniquely powerful solutions for improving the management of the sales process, particularly in complex, multi-enterprise situations. Relavis and Trilog are previewing the CRM Workplace solution at IBM Workplace: Live! events across North America.

Remote-controlled "zombie" networks operated by bottom-feeding spammers have become a serious problem that requires more industry action. The FTC and more than 30 of its counterparts abroad are planning to contact Internet service providers and urge them to pay more attention to what their customers are doing online. Among the requests: identifying customers with suspicious emailing patterns, quarantining those computers and offering help in cleaning the zombie code off the hapless PCs.

A high-risk security flaw in several of Computer Associates International’s antivirus products could put users at risk of cyberattack, the software vendor warned on Monday. The flaw lies in the scanning engine used in CA’s enterprise and consumer antivirus products, the company said. An attacker could gain full control over a victim’s PC by sending a specially crafted Microsoft Office document, according to a security advisory published on the CA Web site. CA publicly disclosed the security issue Monday, but had a patch available on May 3.

A laptop computer containing the names and Social Security numbers of about 16,500 current and former employees of MCI was stolen last month. The computer was stolen from a car that was parked in the garage at the home of an MCI financial analyst in Colorado. An MCI representative told the Journal that the laptop was password-protected but declined to say whether the employee information was encrypted or whether the employee whose car was burglarized was authorized to carry such information on a laptop.

At least two more bank employees will probably be arrested in the coming weeks over a scheme to steal data about customers at four major U.S. banks, a New Jersey police detective said on Monday. Police in Hackensack, N.J., last month had charged nine people, including seven former bank employees, over the possible compromising of hundreds of thousands of accounts at Bank of America, Wachovia, PNC Financial Services Group and Commerce Bancorp. At least 60,000 Bank of America and 48,000 Wachovia customers were notified that their accounts might be at risk. More bank customers may also have been affected.

Companies should not ban employees from writing down their passwords because such bans force people to use the same weak term on many systems, according to a Microsoft security guru. Speaking on the opening day of a conference hosted by Australia’s national Computer Emergency Response Team, or AusCERT, Microsoft’s Jesper Johansson said that the security industry has been giving out the wrong advice to users by telling them not to write down their passwords. Johansson is senior program manager for security policy at Microsoft. According to Johansson, use of the same password reduces overall security.

Stealth Ideas, a manufacturer of computer peripherals designed to protect consumer privacy, have released the StealthSurfer II, a thumb-sized flash storage drive that includes on-board integration with Anonymous Surfing, an identity protection program from Anonymizer. Tiny enough to carry on a keychain, and bundled with its own high-speed browser, the USB 2.0 flash drive plugs into the USB port of a computer and allows users to surf the Web with total privacy. The device begins shipping in May and will be available in memory configurations of 128-megabytes to one-gigabyte at pricing starting at $99.

AOL blamed an unnamed third-party security vendor for the embarrassing release of its Netscape 8 Web browser with several publicly known security flaws. Just hours after the security-centric browser shipped, the company was forced to rush out a patched version to correct the gaffe. Netscape 8 is based on the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox code base, which means that security bugs in Firefox are likely to affect Netscape users. However, three critical flaws that were fixed in the Firefox 1.0.4 update released earlier this month were never added to Netscape 8.

A group of academic publishers is challenging Google’s plan to scan millions of library books into its Internet search engine index, highlighting fears that the ambitious project will violate copyrights and stifle future sales. In a letter scheduled to Google, the Association of American University Presses described the online search engine’s library project as a troubling financial threat to its membership–125 nonprofit publishers of academic journals and scholarly books.