McAfee Preps Business Anti-Spyware
At the RSA 2005 Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, McAfee unveiled an enterprise software package to combat the growing threat of malware in business.
Anti-Spyware Enterprise is designed to complement McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 7.1 and 8.0i as an extra layer of protection and is centrally managed. The software is suitable for both small-to-medium sized businesses and the enterprise, the company says.
Microsoft Denies Threatening Denmark
Microsoft is dismissing allegations that it attempted to strong arm Denmark into opposing pending European Union legislation that restricts software patents.
Borsen, a Danish financial newspaper, first reported that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates personally told Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen that he would strongly consider moving 800 jobs out of Navision, a Microsoft subsidiary. Prominent Danish politicians likened the threat to "blackmail."
Mozilla Drops IDN Support Due to Flaw
Mozilla developers are closing the door on phishing schemes that exploit a widely reported flaw in the Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) specification. Upcoming builds of Firefox 1.0.1, Mozilla 1.7.6 and Mozilla 1.8 beta will have IDN disabled as a temporary corrective measure to protect users from identity theft.
IDN is presently enabled by default in Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, and Apple's Safari Web browsers. Microsoft's Internet Explorer does not have native IDN support and therefore is not affected by the problem.
Vonage Claims VoIP Blocked by Rivals
Vonage has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission asking the US government to investigate allegations that competitors are deliberately blocking the use of its voice over IP services. FCC chairmen Michael Powell told reporters that the agency was "on the case" and taking the complaint "pretty seriously."
The unnamed competitors are accused of blocking Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) addresses that Vonage relies on to operate. IP telephony, better known as VoIP, has economized both local and long distance calling with cut-rate prices. While smaller Internet firms like Vonage hold a large share of the market, major companies such as AT&T, SBC and Comcast have recently launched VoIP offerings.
Novell Secures the Perimeter with Linux
Today, at the RSA Conference in San Francisco and LinuxWorld in Boston, Novell make known the availability of a gateway security solution called Novell Security Manager powered by Astaro. Security Manager is a SuSE Linux-based appliance configured to guard against viruses, worms, spam and network intrusion.
Novell has bundled six different perimeter security applications and includes an integrated management platform.
PalmSource Looks to Smart Phones
PalmSource is starting to reap the benefits of its recent acquisition of Chinese embedded software company China MobileSoft (CMS). PalmSource today announced four new software products for mobile phones, broadening its product offerings and increasing its worldwide market reach.
The four new products include: PalmSource mFone for Smart Phones, a smart phone platform development kit; PalmSource Feature GUI engine and applications suite; PalmSource mMMS short message service; and PalmSource mBrowser, a WAP browser for smart phones.
Microsoft, eBay Join Anti-Phishing Push
Recognizing the threat posed by "phishing" and the call to address the ensuing identity theft, WholeSecurity has activated a worldwide anti-phishing aggregation service. Initial participants include industry giants such as Microsoft, eBay, PayPal, and Visa.
The service, dubbed "Phish Report" is a reporting system where partners log in and deposit fraudulent Web sites into a central database. Real-time definitions of known phishing sites are dispatched to subscribers who will in turn blacklist the sites with "user-facing" security applications.
Sony Queues Up Films for PSP Launch
Sony has revealed that it will release four movie titles on its proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD) format that will play on its new PSP PlayStation Portable handheld entertainment system. The flicks are slated to be released on April 19, one month after the PSP's availability in retail stores on March 24. The titles include "XXX," "Hellboy," "Resident Evil 2," and "Once Upon A Time in Mexico."
UMD is a proprietary disc format created by Sony, which can store up to 1.8GB of data on a single disc that is several times smaller than a standard compact disc. Sony has baked digital rights management into the format to thwart illicit duplication. The PSP is a versatile entertainment device that offers 3D games, as well as the ability to watch movies and listen to music. Units will retail for $249.99 USD and will include several accessories.
Exploit Forces MSN Messenger Upgrade
Security researchers from Core Security have devised a way to crash MSN Messenger without user interaction simply by selecting a specially crafted Portable Network Graphics (PNG) file as an avatar. In response, Microsoft has begun forcing users to upgrade their software before being able to sign in to its IM network.
The exploit stems from design flaws in a component file called "libpng" that enables the viewing of avatars. Worst still, the exploit has the potential to run arbitrary code on a user's system.
Liberty Alliance Converges with SAML
In the past, cooperation among identity management standards organizations consisted of thinly laced talk about convergence. Today, at least two identity specifications are one step closer to being drawn together.
The Liberty Alliance has announced the public draft release of ID-WSF 2.0, the second generation of its federated identity and Web service standards framework. The framework continues to advance on a feature by feature basis; most significantly, WSF 2.0 supports OASIS's SAML 2.0 secure data exchange specification.
MSN Messenger Gets Music Integration
BetaNews has learned that the latest beta builds of MSN Messenger 7 have begun exhibiting signs that Microsoft plans to integrate its music properties into the software. Beta build 604 implements a feature that enables users to jam a playlist of the songs that they are listening to within their personal message. But Microsoft is now singing a different tune on the final release date.
In contrast to the noted progress, Windows enthusiast sites are abuzz with rumors that the client will be delayed, and Microsoft has added to the confusion by issuing conflicting statements about when the final version will ship.
Judge Blasts SCO for Lack of Evidence
Today, a U.S. Federal judge berated Utah-based SCO group for failing to offer any "competent evidence" to substantiate its claims of that its controls the derivative works born out of UNIX System V. The statement came in a ruling brought on by a copyright infringement suit filed by SCO against IBM.
Despite being in agreement with the IBM's attorneys on the substance of the complaints, the judge rejected IBMs request to scrap key elements of the case.
Trojan Targets Microsoft AntiSpyware
With its recent acquisition and pre-release of antivirus and anti-malware software packages, Microsoft has declared war on malicious programmers. Now, it appears that one of them has returned fire. A trojan program dubbed PWS-Banker.j by McAfee has preemptively taken aim at Microsoft's AntiSpyware software.
The malware, also known by the aliases Troj/BankAsh-A, PWSteal.Bankash.A and Trojan-Spy.Win32.Banker.jv in virus threat bulletins, attempts to render antivirus software ineffective by deleting program files and blocking notifications - specifically Microsoft's. It goes one step further by also attempting to deny access to antivirus Web sites.
Longhorn to Branch Out Displays
By the time it is released in 2006, Longhorn may have proven to be the catalyst for new breeds of auxiliary displays. Company officials at the VSLive conference revealed that the concept, which was first made known at the 2004 Windows Hardware Engineering conference, will materialize in time for the first beta build of the OS.
The displays will span a variety of form factors not limited to at-a-glance laptop lid displays, electronic picture frames, PDAs, televisions and other portable devices.
Microsoft to Provide Glimpse of 'Indigo'
Microsoft told attendees of the VSLive conference in San Francisco that it will deliver a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Longhorn's "Indigo" communications subsystem by the end of March.
The CTP source code will follow and contain aspects of the WinFX programming model and, when released, will join Longhorn's Avalon presentation system in the public domain in the lead up to a complete Longhorn beta.
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