British security researcher David Litchfield is raising an alert for a brand-new class of vulnerabilities affecting Oracle database products. Litchfield, a database security expert who has clashed with Oracle in the past, went public with the discovery in a research paper that warns that dangling cursors in database code can be manipulated and used to expose sensitive data. The attack technique–called "dangling cursor snarfing"–can be launched if developers fail to close cursors created and used by DBMS_SQL, the Oracle package that provides an interface for using dynamic SQL to parse data manipulations or data definition languages.

Talking about money during the hiring process should feel nothing like being a contestant on a nerve-wracking game show. Job candidates who prepare before the interview and adhere to some specific principles during the negotiation will eliminate much of the guesswork in the equation.

Criminal gangs using hijacked computers are behind a surge in unwanted emails peddling sex, drugs and stock tips in Britain. The number of "spam" messages has tripled since June and now accounts for as many as nine out of 10 emails sent worldwide, according to U.S. email security company Postini.

At a price tag of $65 million, IBM announced Nov. 22 that it had agreed to settle all claims in an overtime pay class action lawsuit filed by current and former IBM technical support employees in federal district court in the Northern District of California in January 2006. Should the settlement meet the approval of the court, each qualified individual will be entitled to apply for a payment in accordance with the agreed-upon formula.

The European Commission has called on governments, regulators, Internet service providers and businesses to step up the fight against spam, spyware and malicious software. Despite existing EU legislation to outlaw spam, Europe continues to "suffer from illegal online activities from inside the EU and from third countries," the Commission said in an announcement on Tuesday. It wants national authorities to step up their actions to prosecute illegal online activities.

When antispam activist Mark Mumma received unsolicited emails advertising cruise vacations two years ago, he posted a report on his Web site and threatened to sue Omega World Travel. But Mumma met with an unpleasant surprise: He was the one sued in federal court by Omega World Travel and its subsidiary Cruise.com, which demanded $3.8 million in damages for defamation. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the alleged spammers. In a little-noticed opinion issued in mid-November, a three-judge panel acknowledged the email messages in question may have included a false Internet address and a nonworking "From:" address, but concluded that they nevertheless were permitted under the federal antispam law known as the Can-Spam Act.

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared to take issue with the current legal standard for granting patents, which many high-tech firms claim is ineffective at weeding out inventions that should be obvious. During hour-long oral arguments in a case that’s closely watched by the business community, Chief Justice John Roberts suggested that an existing federal court test for determining patent obviousness relied too little on common sense. Justice Antonin Scalia went so far as to call the test "gobbledygook" and "meaningless."

IBM announced plans to acquire Vallent, a software developer for the wireless industry. Vallent develops software designed to monitor network performance and provide service management. Big Blue will integrate Vallent into its software group, expanding its Tivoli Software Netcool portfolio. The transaction aims to enhance Netcool’s operations support system offerings, which targets communications service providers. IBM expects the acquisition to close in the first quarter. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Senior Technical Editor Mick Moignard digs into the 1070 grams and 700 pages of Lotus Notes Developers Toolbox: Tips for Rapid and Successful Deployment, an IBM Press book by Mark Elliot. Should you consider adding the book to your own toolbox? Perhaps you should read Mick’s hard-hitting review first.

Read this DominoPower article.

How many times has this happened to you? You visit a Web site but registration is required, with a valid email address needed for confirmation. But maybe it’s just a message board you want to read one time only, or a store you have no interest in shopping from again and from which you don’t want to be saddled with a lifetime of spam. And you can’t use a made-up email address because you have to confirm a link or send back a reply. Well here’s a brain-dead simple solution to the problem: 10 Minute Mail, which provides, for free, exactly what is promised in the name: An email address that vanishes after 10 minutes. There’s no registration, no verification. Just click over to the site and hit "Get my 10 Minute Mail email address." You’ll instantly be given an address that ceases to exist after 10 minutes.