A wave of coordinated terrorist attacks across Mumbai late Wednesday dominated the news this week, with bloggers and people using Twitter helping to get information to families and friends of those affected. Multinational technology companies are not expected to change their business strategies as a consequence of the stunning attacks, which targeted westerners.

1. Mumbai terrorist attacks don't deter technology companies and In Mumbai, bloggers and Twitter offer help to relatives: Terrorists attacked nine locations across Mumbai late Wednesday, with hostages taken in luxury hotels and at a Jewish center, where five were reported Friday to have been killed. The death toll by week's end was 151, with at least 327 injured in the stunning attacks, which targeted people carrying passports from the U.S. and the U.K. The attacks were the latest in an ongoing string of terrorist activity in India. Despite the apparent continuing terrorist threat there, analysts and others said that multinational technology companies are not likely to alter their strategies for doing business in India. As the news unfolded this week from Mumbai, bloggers and people using Twitter helped get information to the families and friends of those affected by the attacks.

2. Microsoft warns of malware exploiting known vulnerability: Microsoft warned of an increase in exploits taking advantage of a bug in the Windows Server service that could lead to a worm infiltrating networks. The company issued an emergency patch for the exploit last month. Those who haven't applied the patch are being urged to do that as soon as possible.

3. Estonian ISP cuts off control servers for Srizbi botnet: An Estonian Internet service provider cut off control servers for the massive Srizbi botnet, which is responsible for much of the spam that clogs inboxes globally. Srizbi was temporarily derailed earlier this month when upstream providers shut off access to McColo, an ISP that was identified as the host for the botnet's command-and-control servers. Spammers being spammers, it didn't take long for them to find a new host, Starline Web Services in Estonia, but that ISP got wise to them, too.

4. ComScore forecasts flat holiday online shopping: Online retailers got an ominous sign this month, with online spending dropping in the first three weeks in the run up to the critical holiday shopping season. Hopes for a robust "Black Friday," the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday which kicks off the year-end holiday shopping season, were dampened by ComScore's consumer survey. Online shoppers spent 4 percent less in the first three weeks of November than they did last year in the same period. ComScore predicted that spending online will be about the same this year as it was last year.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.