At Deadline Briefs

Computerworld -

Feds Warn Banks of Al-Qaeda Cyberthreat
The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team last week warned banks and other financial institutions that al-Qaeda had threatened to attack their Web sites in December. But US-CERT, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has “no information to corroborate the threat,” said a DHS spokeswoman. The alert, which was issued Thursday, was “really sent out of an abundance of caution,” she added.

DOJ Probe Seeks Info From AMD, Nvidia
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Nvidia Corp. both said they have received subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Justice as part of an antitrust-related investigation of the market for graphics processors and cards. AMD said the DOJ hasn’t made any allegations against it or graphics chip maker ATI Technologies Inc., which it bought in October. AMD and Nvidia each said they will cooperate with the investigation.

Business Objects Buys Web Tools Vendor
Business Objects SA said it has acquired Nsite Software Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based vendor of tools for developing software-as-a-service applications. Business Objects plans to use Nsite’s technology to build customizable business intelligence applications that integrate multiple data sources and can be accessed via Web browsers. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed.

Short Takes
The U.S. Department of Commerce approved an agreement for VeriSign Inc. to continue to operate the .com domain for six more years after its current contract expires in late 2007.... The Texas Department of Information Resources awarded IBM a data center consolidation and management contract valued at $863 million over seven years.

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