Business briefs for July 21, 2003

Monday, July 21, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.

Cosmetics companies settle consumer suit

SAN FRANCISCO -- Cosmetics companies have agreed to give away $175 million worth of products to settle a price-fixing lawsuit, lawyers say.

The settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, involves some of the country's largest cosmetics manufacturers and retailers. It was disclosed last week in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Estee Lauder, one of the companies involved.

The giveaway is expected to take place in about a year, and would involve products specially manufactured for the occasion, according to lawyers involved in the case.

The class-action suit was filed on behalf of people who bought cosmetics from the stores between May 29, 1994 and June 1, 2003, but no receipts would be required to get a free product.

Hackers attack system flaw; no outages reported

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Hackers tried to bring down network routing gear by exploiting a flaw in Cisco Systems Inc. equipment that carries the bulk of the world's Internet traffic, but there were no immediate reports of outages or slowdowns.

The lack of problems Friday suggested that network administrators heeded Cisco's warnings about the flaw and implemented workarounds or installed the free patch.

"Cisco is aware that there have been isolated incidences of attempts to exploit the vulnerability," company spokesman Jim Brady said. "We have no confirmation of any networks being impacted. There are no reports of any successful attacks."