First and foremost- Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-039 was released. MS03-039 patches three critical vulnerabilities related to the RPC protocol. The flaws in MS03-026 that were exploited by the MSBlast worm and all of its cousins were also related to RPC. Experts fear that a worm for MS03-039 will hit the Internet fairly quickly because it will only take a couple revisions to the existing MSBlast code. If you haven't already done so, read the bulletin and apply the patch where necessary as soon as possible.

The second big news of the week was that notorious hacker Adrian Lamo was arrested. He surrendered to authorities and was released on bail with the caveat that he must live at his parents home and his computer access is limited and monitored.

The third big thing was the RIAA unleashed a wave of lawsuits against users alleged to have been downloading and sharing illegal MP3's on peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus. One of the perpetrators turned out to be a 12-year old honor student who lives in public housing in New York. She settled with the RIAA for $2000 and P2P industry trade group P2P United stepped in to pay the $2000 bill for her.

Read the links below for more news such as a potential flaw with the MS03-032 patch which Microsoft denies or a report from a security firm in the U.K. that most successful hacks are against Linux servers or speculation that the electricity grid is becoming more vulnerable to worms and hackers.

Last but not least, check out the new Free Computer Security 101 Class. Using the 10-part Computer Security 101 series and accompanying quizzes, I posted my first class. When you subscribe to the class you will receive a new lesson in your email each day until the course is complete. Sign up for this class and look out for new ones in the near future.