CALIFORNIA LAWSUIT BLAMES MICROSOFT FOR WORMHOLES.

A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Sept. 30 claims Microsoft Corp.'s failure to provide software that is secure against viruses violates the state's law against unfair business practices as well as a new one protecting privacy of personal information on computer databases.

The suit was filed on behalf of Marcy Levitas Hamilton, a film editor and "garden variety" computer user whose Social Security number and bank information was stolen on the Internet. But it is intended to become a class action.

Microsoft's Windows operating system now resides in more than 90 percent of personal computers and has been a repeated target of hackers.

"The vast majority of successful Internet attacks are attributable to major vulnerabilities" in Microsoft software, the lawsuit alleges.

Further, it says, the company does an inadequate job warning customers about the problems and helping fix them. It says the security warnings are too complex to be understood by the general public and serve only to tip off hackers on how to exploit flaws in system.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages and an order requiring Microsoft to impose security notification.

"Microsoft's eclipsing dominance in desktop software has created a global security risk," the lawsuit alleges. "As a result of Microsoft's concerted effort to strengthen and expand its monopolies by tightly integrating applications with its operating system . . . the world's computer networks are now susceptible to massive, cascading failure."

Plaintiffs' attorney Dana Taschner said the language of Microsoft's licensing agreement, to which buyers must assent, constitute a fundamentally unfair condition barred by California law given the company's market dominance.

A Microsoft spokesman said the company is reviewing the suit, but added it has made security a top priority and will oppose any attempt to make the lawsuit a class action.