Indian officials investigating last week's attacks in Mumbai claim that the terrorists used Google Earth to "learn their way around." But the information available on the attacked locations is also available via printed tourism maps, IDGNS reports.

If that's true, then we have yet another case of technology being vilified simply because it is new.

Microsoft released an emergency patch in October, and is now saying it sees increasing reports from users about a worm exploiting the vulnerability that was patched.

John Fontana has details.

Cisco is shutting down most of its operations for four days at the end of the year, as part of a larger effort to reduce costs, Cisco has confirmed.

Shutting down means saving payroll and facilities expenses, and Cisco is looking to stay ahead of deteriorating economic conditions.

Cisco has been a vocal opponent of so-called "patent trolls," companies that abuse the patent system to extort money from equipment manufacturers. IBM obtains more patents every year than just about anyone. The two companies have become the first members of a group formed by a startup that pledges to help get the patent system under control.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been ordered to testify in the lawsuit against the company that claims Microsoft misled consumers through its "Vista Capable" marketing campaign.

Note that at any time, the deposition could devolve.

It's time once again to think of stuffing the turkeys. In Network World's case, this means picking out a few people or companies from the past year and showing their turkeyness for all to see.

Check out this year's list.

A serious flaw in DNS was discovered over the summer, the so-called Kaminsky bug. But the question of what to do about it, for the IETF, isn't as simple as "fix it." Some members want to do that - but others claim that the fix is already out there.

The hard part is getting everyone to implement it. Carolyn Duffy Marsan explains.

Ellen Messmer has picked out 10 IT security-related start-ups doing some groundbreaking work. Check out her list.

Perhaps it's unfair to lump these two CEO changes together, but they happened around the same time - Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang announced he was stepping down, and Symantec CEO John Thompson announced he is retiring as well.

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You may not even have realized that Cisco is the top vendor when it comes to network security. That's because so much of its security gear is integrated into switches and routers.

But there is a tremendous performance tax to doing security that way, according to some recent tests. Ellen Messmer has the scoop.

More repercussions in the tech sector as Sun announces it is letting go of 15% to 18% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan. The layoffs are intended to save $700 million to $800 million per year and will affect as many as 6,000 employees.

Despite all the gloom that has been gathering, observers remain optimistic about tech.

Nortel has been second-guessed and criticized and analyzed all week, ever since announcing that it would lay off 1,300 employees and four executives and reorganize into autonomous business units.

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Cisco's ASR 9000, introduced this week, is believed to be the successor to the high-end 7600 series router. But while Cisco is giving out some stats about the new device, there is a certain lack of detail in the portrait being painted that has the industry abuzz.

Jim Duffy explains.

The article says it all:

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EMC unveiled a set of cloud storage hardware and software that could help large businesses manage software across hundreds of sites.

EMC calls the software portion "Atmos" - get it? And analysts say it's much more than just storage virtualization writ large.

Nortel had a bad third quarter and announced plans to lay off 1,300 of its workers. Among those leaving are CTO John Roese, Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Flaherty, Global Services President Dietmar Wendt and Executive Vice President Global Sales Bill Nelson.

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It used to be that all you had to know about Wi-Fi security was to avoid Wired Equivalent Privacy, or WEP. Now, it's replacement, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), has also been compromised, all in the name of "research."

Google says that the reason it backed out of its proposed deal with Yahoo was that the U.S. Department of Justice was going to block it anyway.

Market research firm Point Topic is reporting that the costs of cable, DSL and fiber access are falling rapidly all over the world, while speeds are going up.

DSL users are the big winners, with prices dropping 20% so far this year, but on average, broadband users paid $53 for a subscription in the third quarter, vs. $66 in the first.

Read the full results of the report here.

Network World has already featured a couple of showdowns among smartphones, such as the iPhone vs. the G1, or the BlackBerry Storm vs. the iPhone.

But this week we have a more comprehensive smartphone battle, involving six of the hottest phones out there and a preview of a few more. Check it out.