4. "Chinese Army Blamed for Pentagon Hack"
Sept. 4, Techworld

"Bush Doesn't Confront China over Pentagon Hack"
Sept. 6, Computerworld

This week's geopolitical IT news comes out of the Pentagon via The Financial Times newspaper, which reported that the U.S. Department of Defense has identified the Chinese military as the source of a hack into a Pentagon computer network. The Pentagon declined to identify the source of the June hack on the record, but the Times cited unnamed current and former U.S. officials saying it was the Chinese military. The hack led to the shutdown of a computer system used by the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates. A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry called the accusations "wild" and said that they are "totally groundless and also reflect a Cold War mentality." President George W. Bush opted not to raise the issue with Chinese President Hu Jintao when the two met in person this week, according to a national security advisory. Bush had hinted that he might broach the topic, but it wasn't brought up during the 90-minute meeting that covered climate change, Darfur, product safety and religious freedom in China, among other matters.

5. "Foleo, Foleo, Where Are Thou, Foleo?"
Sept. 4, Network World

While delays of products are usual in IT, the outright scrapping of them is not so ordinary. But Palm CEO Ed Colligan posted word on the company blog that he has canceled the Foleo project "in its current configuration" and that focus will turn instead to the next generation software platform that is under development and to new smartphone models. Foleo was Palm's "smartphone companion," which the company announced with great fanfare in May, but analysts and potential customers were skeptical about the device from the outset. Palm's marketing message wasn't terribly clear; how the "companion" device should be used and exactly who was its target audience were among the questions that remained largely unanswered. As recently as the end of last month, Palm was still insisting that Foleo would ship by the end of the third quarter this month, denying industry reports that it would be delayed.

6. "Microsoft Readies Five September Security Updates"
Sept. 6, InfoWorld

Patch Tuesday should be less rugged than in past months, with Microsoft giving advance word that it will issue one "critical" update for Windows 2000 next week and four "important" patches. Fixes will be offered for Visual Studio, Windows Services for Unix, SharePoint Services and Windows Live and MSN Messenger on the first Tuesday of September.