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 Topic: MicrosoftThe new items published under this topic are as follows.
Security hole digs into Microsoft
Posted by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 02, 2006 - 12:21 PM
Microsoft
| SEATTLE -- For the second time this year, Microsoft is scrambling to fix a critical security hole in its Internet Explorer Web browser, a flaw cybercrooks found and have already begun to exploit.
The flaw allows intruders to seize control of the PCs of anyone visiting corrupted websites. Thursday, cybercrooks stepped up their weeklong assault by releasing e-mail spam that entices victims to visit such websites, says Dan Hubbard, research director at tech security firm Websense.
Spam recipients are asked to click on links to news stories about the U.S. dollar vs. other currencies. After clicking on the link, the user's PC freezes up for 30 seconds or so, as the website installs a software program that captures online bank account log-ins, then sends the log-ins back to cybercrooks. "You've really got to be confident about the website you're visiting," Hubbard says.
Microsoft security chief Stephen Toulouse downplays the threat. "We're not seeing a lot of attempts to exploit this," he says. Even so, Microsoft recommends turning off IE's "active scripting" function until an official patch is ready.
Instructions are at support.microsoft.com/security.
The larger issue: Microsoft is being forced for the second time in three months to deal with a feared phenomena in tech security: a vulnerability for which no patch exists, known as a "zero-day" threat.
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Microsoft Warns Against Outside Fixes
Posted by: ALLISON LINN on Sunday, April 02, 2006 - 12:20 PM
Microsoft
| SEATTLE - When Microsoft Corp. researchers learned recently that a software flaw had been made public and could prompt Internet attacks, the company ordered a team to devote all its time to fixing the flaw and making the repair work with other products.Microsoft argues that's the approach customers want and expect, but some security experts complained that the software company's traditional method, which could take days or weeks, wouldn't help people fast enough.
So for the second time in three months, outside programmers took matters into their own hands by quickly releasing their own fixes, days ahead of the official Microsoft patch for its market-dominant Internet Explorer browser.
Microsoft doesn't endorse such third-party fixes, warning it can't vouch for whether they will work smoothly with Microsoft products and other applications. But those providing them argue they have a responsibility to protect users from attacks.
"It's kind of like having the cure and not sharing it with anybody," said Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer with eEye Digital Security Inc. of Aliso Viejo, Calif., which earlier this week released such a fix.
Rather than replacing Microsoft's own patch, Maiffret says he is hoping to provide a bandage for the interim.
The security expert also doesn't fault Microsoft for taking time to finalize an official patch because it can be difficult to make sure that repairing one part of the complex Windows operating system, which includes Internet Explorer, doesn't cause problems elsewhere.He also realizes that a patch like this can cause any of the thousands of non-Microsoft applications running on Windows machines to stop working, crippling businesses and frustrating home users.
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Microsoft moves exec from Office to Windows
Posted by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 02, 2006 - 11:15 AM
Microsoft
| Two days after it said it will delay the next version of Windows, Microsoft Corp. overhauled the management for its flagship operating system, giving a top position to an executive from its Office division with a reputation for running a tight ship.
The company also said Thursday that it will delay shipping the new retail version of its Office word-processing, e-mail and spreadsheet package until January, to coincide with the late shipment of the Vista operating system.
Microsoft officials played down the shake-up's connection to the postponed retail release of Vista, saying the management changes had been in the works for months.
But Steven Sinofsky, the senior vice president who will head the Windows desktop group, is known in the industry for overseeing efficient and timely software development projects.
"They needed a very senior engineer who could knock heads together when disputes arose and had backing from senior management," said Rob Helm, a director at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. "Steve is really tailor-made for the job." In his new role, Sinofsky, 40, will also head Windows Live, a collection of online programs designed to make money through advertising and subscription fees.
Sinofsky's replacement as chief of Office, the company's second-largest moneymaker after Windows, hasn't been named. Microsoft will make Office 2007 and Vista available to business customers late this year and will have the products on store shelves in January, spokeswoman Melissa Havel said.
Kevin Johnson, co-president of the Platforms & Services Division within which the Windows and Windows Live group falls, said Sinofsky's new position "would have come (Thursday) regardless of the news earlier this week" about Vista's delay.
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Microsoft Signs Distribution Agreement with Temtec
Posted by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - 12:20 AM
Microsoft
| A software distribution agreement has been signed by Temtec, a provider of intuitive self-service analysis and reporting software for business intelligence, with software company Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) (Nasdaq:MSFT).
Microsoft will, under the terms of the agreement, market a private label version of Temtec's Executive Viewer as part of its analytical platform. Executive Viewer is intended to optimise user access to information stored in Microsoft Analysis Services and enable non-technical users to analyse business critical information.
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Windows Live services planned
Posted by: trraju on Wednesday, March 01, 2006 - 09:37 PM
Microsoft
| Microsoft Corp. issued updates Tuesday for several of its Internet-based Windows Live services as the company tries to win over users of Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. products.
Microsoft's latest updates:
The company said it plans to open its new online classifieds service for public testing in the United States. The service, Windows Live Expo, at expo.live.com, was previously code-named Fremont and open only to employees at select companies. It's modeled after an internal service for Microsoft employees, letting people choose how widely they want to list an item, confining it to their own companies or releasing it more broadly. Windows Live Expo could compete with existing services such as craigslist.org.
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New version of Windows to be called 'Vista'
Posted by: Anonymous on Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 01:21 AM
Microsoft
| Microsoft Corp. is expected to call the next version of its flagship product "Windows Vista," departing from its long-standing use of acronyms and years as suffixes in the name of the dominant PC operating system. The company yesterday scheduled a Windows-related announcement this morning, declining to confirm any details. But there were widespread reports online that Microsoft had disclosed the new product name yesterday to employees at the Microsoft Global Briefing, an internal conference in Atlanta. Microsoft hasn't publicly filed to register the name with the federal Patent and Trademark Office, according to an online search last night. But online reports noted that the company is the owner of the online domain name, windowsvista. us. The ownership of the more common windowsvista.com and windowsvista.net wasn't clear.
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Microsoft offers glimpse at new Hotmail
Posted by: Anonymous on Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 01:20 AM
Microsoft
| Microsoft has released a beta of a new version of its Hotmail online email service. Codenamed 'Kahuna', the project has been made available to select group of current Hotmail users. An MSN spokesman told vnunet.com that the service is currently in an incubation stage. He declined to give a projected release date and would not even confirm that the software will be released at all. The new Hotmail has been rebuilt from the ground up and is "faster, safer and simpler to use", according to the spokesman.
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Microsoft may license Xbox software
Posted by: Anonymous on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 - 07:07 AM
Microsoft
| TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Forget the video game console -- your TV could already have the brains to play those games.A coy Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hinted Thursday that his company might license the software underlying its Xbox gaming machine to a variety of outside companies in a bid to expand the market share for the Xbox machine -- a platform that trails the sector's No. 1 Sony PlayStation.
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Windows cheaper than Linux in China
Posted by: Anonymous on Monday, July 04, 2005 - 06:17 AM
Microsoft
| BEIJING, Jun 30, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- CCW Research in Beijing released findings this week that open-source Linux software actually is more expensive than the Windows operating system. The firm's analysts were quoted in the China Daily as saying Linux's total cost of ownership was greater than Microsoft's banner software. CCW Research defined TCO as the price paid for a product, plus the costs of maintenance, upgrades and downtime. The firm's analysts said the Linux market is expected to grow by 35 percent 2005, representing a big opportunity for diversification in the country's software industry, but they predicted the higher TCO will hamper adoption of the open-source system in China over the long term.
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Bill Gates announces investments of US$4.5 million in Thai tech projects
Posted by: Anonymous on Monday, July 04, 2005 - 06:17 AM
Microsoft
| BANGKOK, Thailand - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Thursday the software giant plans to invest more than US$4.5 million (euro3.7 million) in educational, commercial and technology projects in Thailand. In a speech during his first working visit to Thailand, Gates lauded the government's commitment to advancing digital technology, saying he and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra "share a sense of excitement about the future."
"Thailand is one of the countries leading the way," Gates said at Bangkok's Government House. The government has been working with Microsoft on Thailand.net, a long-term project to train Web developers, strengthen the local software industry and promote Thai Web services internationally.
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