Internet business ideas

In late December, a security firm sent out an alert that a worm was spreading via Skype. It turned out to be a false alarm. No worm has spread on Skype, and while security experts have painted a target on the popular Internet telephony application, its defenses have been pretty solid, according to the company's chief security officer, Kurt Sauer. That's not to say there is no work to be done on security at Skype, part of eBay. The company is looking at integrating payment features, which obviously need securing, Sauer said. Also, Skype is in talks with security companies to provide add-ons to its software to secure text-based communications, he said. Skype is often described as a boon for security because all calls are encrypted and there is no central server that could be targeted in a cyberattack. ***

Microsoft's idea to purchase Sybari Software came from a place where many of its ideas are born--its labs. Late last year, the software giant wanted to build on an important technology--the RAV antivirus software that it acquired from Romania-based GeCad--to take it beyond a desktop virus scanner to a security product for businesses. Rather than develop the extra software needed, the company looked to partners. Sybari's Antigen scanner for Microsoft Exchange e-mail and SharePoint collaboration servers seemed an obvious fit, because Microsoft's customers were already using it. But as the development progressed in the labs, it became even more obvious that Sybari's product would make just as good an addition to the whole of Microsoft's security lineup, said Mike Nash, head of the company's security business and technology unit. "Microsoft has come, as a company, to really believe in using what we sell and selling what we use," Nash said. ***

Ad-hoc organization XML/EDI Group is winning praise for a new method for conducting business-to-business data exchange over the Internet, which it's promoting. But the group has stepped on a few toes in the process. The organization posted to its Web site an initial draft of guidelines for using the emerging XML (eXtensible Markup Language) Internet standard for improving business-to-business data exchange over the Internet. However, a press release announcing the posting of the draft ruffled some feathers. First the organization, which conducts an Internet newsgroup discussion on the topic, slammed Actra, an e-commerce software joint venture of Netscape Communications and ***