SAP accepts some liability in Oracle case

In today's podcast: SAP accepts some liability in Oracle case; malware found hiding with security company's certificate; and Lebanon latest to seek BlackBerry data.

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The German software giant SAP said Thursday it would accept liability for some claims made by Oracle in a suit that alleges theft of trade secrets, but it will continue to fight what it called Oracle's "vastly exaggerated" claim for billions of dollars in damages. The development comes about three months before the two sides are due to go to trial, in a case Oracle filed more than three years ago over the alleged conduct of SAP's TomorrowNow subsidiary. TomorrowNow provided maintenance services for customers of Oracle's PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards software, and Oracle accused the company of downloading software patches and other materials illegally from its customer support website. SAP acknowledged almost from the start that TomorrowNow made "mistakes" and has since shut down the division, which it acquired in 2005. On Thursday, SAP said it would accept liability for Oracle's claims of copyright infringement and illegal downloading, if Oracle in turn agreed to dismiss other claims.

Researchers at Trend Micro have found that a widespread piece of malware used a digital certificate from a competing security company's product in an attempt to look legitimate. The malware is Zeus, a bot that is used to steal all kinds of data from computers and has proved to be a tricky application for security companies to detect. The version of Zeus detected by Trend Micro had a digital certificate belonging to Kaspersky's Zbot product, which is designed to remove Zeus. The certificate -- which is verified during a software installation to ensure a program is what it purports to be -- was expired, however. Stealing digital certificates is a frequently used technique by malware writers. Experts at the security company Trusteer said security software suites are often only able to detected about 10 percent of the active Zeus variants circulating.

Research In Motion and its Blackberry service continue to gain attention from governments that demand unfettered access to residents communications. Lebanon’s telecom regulator said Friday that it will start negotiations with Research In Motion to provide the country’s security agencies access to communications on the BlackBerry network. The move follows a security assessment of the country’s telecommunications networks, Imad Hoballah, acting chairman and CEO of Lebanon’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in an interview on Friday. Lebanon joins a growing number of countries that are demanding greater access to data running on RIM’s BlackBerry service. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India and Indonesia are all making similar demands over BlackBerry services.

And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I’m Elizabeth Heichler in Boston. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.