Global News Update: Monday, November 24, 2008

In today's podcast: Judge rules Ballmer must testify in Vista case; Symantec warns of higher risks for Windows PCs; and Connecticut teacher settles classroom porn case.

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A federal judge in Seattle has ordered Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to testify in a class action lawsuit against Microsoft that alleges the company misled consumers in a marketing campaign for its Windows Vista operating system in which computers sold with an older Microsoft OS were labeled 'Vista Capable' when in fact they could only run a basic version of Vista. Ballmer has unique personal knowledge of facts surrounding the case, therefore he must face questioning, said Judge Marsha Pechman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.

Symantec is warning of a sharp jump in online attacks that appear to be targeting a recently patched bug in Microsoft's Windows operating system, an analysis that some other security companies disputed Friday. Symantec raised its Threat Con security alert level from one to two because of the attacks, with two denoting "increased alertness." But other vendors, including Arbor Networks and McAfee, said they were seeing no such activity. The attacks spotted by Symantec target a flaw in the Windows Server Service that Microsoft says could be exploited to create a self-copying worm attack. Late last month, Microsoft took the unusual step of rushing out an emergency patch for the bug after it saw a small number of online attacks that took advantage of it.

The case against Julie Amero is finally closed. On Friday, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with the former Connecticut schoolteacher who at one time faced up to 40 years in prison after being convicted of endangering minors. The charges stemmed from a 2004 incident in which a computer loaded with spyware displayed pornography to her students. State prosecutors dropped four felony charges of "risk of injury to a minor" against her, with Amero pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor, according to the Hartford Courant. Amero will pay a US$100 charge and have her Connecticut teaching credentials revoked

Another chapter in the lengthy legal saga between SCO and Novell is closed, with the release of a final judgment by a Utah court on Thursday. The judgment largely reiterates earlier orders dismissing copyright-infringement, slander and breach-of-contract claims brought by SCO, but it also prevents SCO from being able to dismiss certain claims and then revive those same claims in potential future appeals. SCO has lost a number of rulings in the ongoing battle with Novell, including a major loss last year when a judge decided that SCO owes Novell for licensing revenues SCO received from Sun Microsystems and Microsoft.

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