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Gartner FirstTake via TechRepublic:
Microsoft brings affordable e-commerce to smaller businesses

Cyber terrorism is ‘fantasy’:
Following the WTO/Pentagon attacks, Richard Clarke, cyberspace security adviser,
felt America was vulnerable to many viruses and hacking threats know as a
“digital Pearl harbor”. Security experts feel that the FBI was “ill-advised” for
raising concern about viruses prematurely since cyber terrorism has yet to
happen.

Instant-messaging tool for hackers poses a threat. CNN Nov 26 2001 3:19PM ET

A new hacking tool using the instant messaging platform Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is rapidly spreading across the Internet and has the potential to shut down Web servers.

Called “Voyager Alpha Force,” the tool has already been used to infect about 300 computers, according to various reports, but its biggest threat lies in its ability to be used in distributed denial-of-service attacks, according to security experts.

“It is a malicious program you download from the Internet. It looks like it’s an IRC bot. Though we don’t have any numbers, and I don’t believe the software has yet been used to bring a Web server down, we do know that it’s gone around quite quickly,” says John Safa, chief technical officer at BitArts, a software security company in the U.K.

Voyager Alpha Force infects computers running Microsoft’s SQL Server database software, allowing rogue software to be sneaked onto computers. In turn that software could then be instructed to send so many requests to a targeted Web server that it shuts down, Safa says.

[Computer security news]

Web Services, Part II: Calling Service Methods. Our JavaScript Web services series continues with a look at basic calling methods.
Turns out it’s a lot like ordering pizza: when the delivery does actually show up, you might need to check and see if it’s the right one.
By Yehuda Shiran and Tomer Shiran. 2001/11/21 [WebReference News]

See also:
Part I: Web Services, Introduction

Steve Gershik: “That’s it. I’ve read enough of Dave’s web site. I am now officially a disciple.” Heh, look at the url.  [Scripting News]

See also”

UR IT Strategic Intent

and the Malkovich Mediator

Tech wry humor: Really Teensy ELF Executables

A few CSS tricks from A List Apart, e.g.:

If your site serves all browsers (and most of our sites do), you can write a text message explaining why the buttons don’t work in 4.0 and older browsers. Use a CSS class such as the one below to hide the message from compliant browsers:

.hidden { display: none; }

Include the Style Sheet rule in a secondary, “sophisticated” Style Sheet. Then hide the sophisticated Style Sheet from 4.0 browsers by using the @import linking method.

Compliant browsers will parse the imported Style Sheet and hide the message; cruddy browsers will display the message. You can see this in action by visiting zeldman.com with a compliant browser and then re–visiting with, oh, say, Netscape Navigator 4.

If you feel like doing even more work, you can use CSS to hide the buttons themselves from 4.0 and older browsers by placing the buttons in an invisible DIV and then over–riding the invisibility with a more specific CSS–2 rule in your @import Style Sheet. But in so doing, you’ll miss the chance to gently evangelize browser upgrades by tantalizing your readers with functionality their current browser fails to support.

Trojans make firewalls futile. IT-Director.com Nov 10 2001 4:29PM ET [Computer security news]

Security Auditing for Linux
[Slashdot]

Auerback Analysis, via TechRepublic:
Intrusion detection: A guide to the options