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The article offers an update of issues related to the computer industry in the U.S. as of December 2005. Microsoft released a Security Advisory warning about an unexpected behavior in Windows Firewall that could let a clever attacker who had broken into a user's PC leave a back door to the Web unlocked for next time. Panda Software identified a new worm that redirects the search requests of users to a phony Google site. The P21oad. A worm masquerades as a free Star Wars game. Possible causes of failure to get updates from the Microsoft Update or the Windows Update site include conflicts with third-party firewalls and problems with the update sites' addresses hard-coded into Windows' Hosts file.

This article introduces F5 Networks Inc.'s Application Security Module (ASM) that adds security features to its Big-Internet protocol line of appliances for managing application traffic and performance. ASM provides users with an application-layer firewall that is designed to protect Web-based systems against buffer overflow attacks, compromises of access-control mechanisms, worms, and other problems. In addition, cloaking features are included to conceal error messages from end users.