Actuate announced that Actuate 9 SP1, with its new support for native Microsoft PowerPoint, now allows users to choose from the complete range of Microsoft Office formats for viewing and presenting information. Actuate 9 SP1, which is scheduled to be available in December, offers the features from business intelligence applications by giving users the power to choose the most appropriate format for the information and the audience. These format choices eliminate the need for users to manually transfer information into other formats, which can introduce errors.

Oracle posted a 21 percent rise in second-quarter profit, but sales of new software application licenses were weaker than Wall Street’s forecast, sending its shares down 3 percent. Larry Ellison, chief executive of the database software maker, cited an inability to close deals in the quarter as a reason for the shortfall, rather than a broad slowdown in technology spending due to a stuttering economy.

Automated penetration testing software maker Core Security released the latest version of its flagship product line on Dec. 18, promising new capabilities used to probe IT networks for potential vulnerabilities. Dubbed Core Impact 6.2, the second of two yearly updates of the software from Boston-based Core promises new tools designed to help administrators test the likelihood that users will cooperate with threats that demand interaction, or so-called social engineering attacks.

A new worm that uses a known security hole in Symantec’s corporate antivirus tools to spread has hit the Net, experts warned Friday. The worm, dubbed Big Yellow by eEye Digital Security, turns vulnerable computers into remote-controlled zombies. It is the second such malicious code in as many months that exploits a 6-month-old security flaw in Symantec Client Security and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition. A fix for the flaw has been available since May.

Ytria announced the release of new major versions for its Notes development/admin tools that easily manipulate database information and slash application development time. Implementing a new "look and feel" and the Unicode Standard in its latest release, Ytria continues to provide professional-grade IBM Lotus Notes and Domino tools ideal for use in application design, development, debugging, and maintenance.

IBM and Intel are looking to create new standards for enterprise customers and IT administrators looking to deploy virtualization in the data center. One of the first initiatives from the two companies is a new methodology for IT managers to compare processor platforms and various system configurations within the data center. Called vConsolidate, the new benchmark can predict the effects of running multiple instances of consolidated databases, email, Web and Java workloads in various virtual partitions.

Hewlett-Packard is bundling new security features with its HP-UX 11i v2 operating system. The additional security features, which the Palo Alto, Calif., company will start making available to its customers Dec. 18, will include new encryption and hardening capabilities for its Integrity servers, which are powered by Intel’s 64-bit Itanium chip.

Could blogging be near the peak of its popularity? The technology gurus at Gartner believe so. One of the research company’s top 10 predictions for 2007 is that the number of bloggers will level off in the first half of next year at roughly 100 million worldwide. The reason: most people who would ever dabble with Web journals already have. Those who love it are committed to keeping it up, while others have gotten bored and moved on, said Daryl Plummer, chief Gartner fellow.

Businesses are increasingly being put at risk of failing compliance audits and struggling with other security-related efforts, as demand for employees capable of managing such projects is outpacing the supply of qualified candidates. According to a new research report published by the Department of Management at the London School of Economics and sponsored by security software maker McAfee, businesses worldwide are reaching a "compliance breaking point" as an increasing number of regulations make it harder for them to stay ahead of auditors. While the lack of adequate help is currently most severe in the United States, where the government has been more aggressive in creating new directives such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which is aimed at forcing companies to do a better job of policing workers’ handling of sensitive information, the shortage of highly skilled security expertise will soon come to a head in other nations that are in the process of applying new rules.

A stolen laptop at Boeing has pushed a widely watched tally of U.S. data breach victims past the 100 million mark. On Tuesday, Boeing disclosed that files containing Social Security numbers, names and home addresses of 382,000 current and former employees were compromised in early December when an unencrypted laptop was stolen from an employee’s car. That disclosure pushed the total number of data breach victims on the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Web site to 100,152,801, said Beth Givens, director of the consumer advocacy group.