What is the cyber-security Manhattan project?

According to Wired, “[t]he government’s new cyber-security ‘Manhattan Project’ is so secretive that a key Senate oversight panel has been reduced to writing a letter to beg for answers to the most basic questions, such as what’s going on, what’s the point and what about privacy laws.  The Senate Homeland Security committee wants to know, for example, what is the goal of Homeland Security’s new National Cyber Security Center. They also want to know why it is that in March, DHS announced that Silicon Valley evangelist and security novice Rod Beckstrom would direct the center, when up to that point DHS said the mere existence of the center was classified.”

PCWorld.com writes that “Google played a significant part in the undoing of Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo, the latest example of Google’s ability to interfere with Microsoft’s attempts to boost its online advertising business.  While the main reason Microsoft dropped its bid was a disagreement over price, Google served as the ammunition that Yahoo needed to discourage Microsoft from launching a hostile takeover.”

In more Microsoft / Yahoo news, Reuters reports that “Yahoo Inc’s shares tumbled as much as 20 percent on Monday after Microsoft Corp withdrew its $47.5 billion takeover offer, wiping about $7.6 billion off the Internet company’s market capitalization and piling pressure on its leadership.”

The Wall Street Journal reveals that “[a]s concerns mount that the slowing economy may hurt the online-ad market, Silicon Valley Web start-ups are developing new approaches. Companies such as online-software venture Slide and video and social-networking site Bebo are trying to run ads that appeal to a younger audience — one that often turns up its nose at old-fashioned online ads, such as traditional ‘banners’ trying to promote brands.  […]  Some efforts show early signs of working. Slide, which sells programs that people can use to decorate their pages on sites such as Facebook, has launched campaigns with advertisers including Energy Brands’ Glaceau Vitaminwater and Estée Lauder.  One campaign lets Slide users send virtual representations of different-flavored bottles of Vitaminwater to friends online through an application called ‘Top Friends.’  In eight days, Slide says, users sent 10 million ‘bottles’ of Vitaminwater.”

Computerworld today has an interesting article on “backscatter — bounceback messages from legitimate e-mail servers that have been fooled by the spammers. “