Phishing attacks now affect one out of every four Americans every month, according to details of a survey released Wednesday by AOL and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). The study is the only one to actually go into homes and see what malware resides on users' PCs.

Worse yet, more than two-thirds of respondents are mistakenly identifying scam e-mails as legitimate, meaning a large number of computer users are at risk of identity theft.

Continue reading →

In conjunction with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Sony BMG said on Tuesday it had issued a patch to fix a security vulnerability within the SunnComm copy protection utilized on 27 CDs. The new problem is separate from the XCP DRM software by First4Internet that included a rootkit.

Specifically, SunnComm's MediaMax version 5 does not properly protect a directory it installs, opening the door for a privilege escalation attack. A restricted user account could replace the executables within the MediaMax directory with malicious code, which would then be executed by an administrator upon inserting a CD.

Continue reading →

The European Union's .eu domain opened for registrations on Wednesday morning, with its supporters hoping the newest international domain will boost EU e-commerce. The launch of the domain ends a six-year process that began in 1999 and later received the support of the European Commission.

The domain will be the first to be shared by multiple countries. It will put the various member nations on equal footing, and could become the .com of Europe, industry executives say.

Continue reading →

A new worm on the AOL Instant Messenger service is believed to be the first that will actually "talk" with a victim in an attempt to trick them into downloading a malicious file. Security firm IMLogic warned of the worm, dubbed IM.MySpace04.AIM on Tuesday.

According to the IMLogic advisory, the conversation will start out with "lol thats cool". When a user responds to the IM, the worm will respond with "lol no its not a virus" or some other message to attempt to trick the user into downloading the file.

Continue reading →

The release of Firefox 1.5 has helped Mozilla gain additional traction against IE, according to details of a survey released on Wednesday by Web statistics firm NetApplications.com. The market share of the alternative browser reached 8.84 percent in November, up over one percentage point since September.

The findings suggest that Mozilla could still be on track -- although a bit later than hoped -- to attain a 10 percent market share by the end of 2005.

Continue reading →

California-based software company Grouper unveiled a free video sharing service on Wednesday, which would allow for the easy editing, sharing and transfer of user-created videos. Grouper is moving away from its previous incarnation as a private P2P network to focus on video.

The 2.0 beta release of Grouper also allows users to format their videos for playback on the video iPod, PSP and other portable devices. The company says it will not put limits on the number, size or duration of content being shared on the service by any one user.

Continue reading →

UPDATED Less than a month after it reached a $30 million settlement with South Korean Internet portal Daum, Microsoft has been fined another $32 million by the country's Fair Trade Commission. The Korean FTC has also ordered Microsoft to unbundle its instant messaging client and media player from Windows, and link to competing software.

Daum and RealNetworks had previously complained to the country's antitrust watchdog in 2001 about the bundling. Although both companies have recently settled with Microsoft and dropped their claims, the KFTC said it would continue its investigation.

Continue reading →

Sun on Tuesday ushered in a new era for the company by introducing a line of servers using its UltraSparc T1 processor, code-named Niagara. Rather than focusing on megahertz, Sun says, developers instead looked to pack more throughput onto each piece of silicon.

The first two servers to use the Niagara chip will be the SunFire T1000 and T2000 servers, introduced at the company's quarterly launch event in New York on Tuesday.

Continue reading →

Seven large radio conglomerates said on Tuesday that they had forged a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of HD Digital Radio. Called the HD Digital Radio Alliance, the charter members will include Bonneville, Citadel, Clear Channel, Cumulus, Emmis, Entercom, Greater Media and Infinity.

The organization will help coordinate the rollout of the technology, as well as work to encourage adoption by automobile manufacturers. The companies also plan to help make the technology affordable, and aid in the marketing of HD digital radio products.

Continue reading →

Those eager to get a taste of the next Internet Explorer release with tabs and RSS support only need to wait a couple more months. A public beta of IE7 for Windows XP is slated to arrive in the first quarter of 2006, IE team head Dean Hachamovitch confirmed on Tuesday.

It's not clear if the public pre-release will be branded Beta 2; however, it does coincide with the expected Beta 2 launch of Windows Vista, which will also be open to the public. "We want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to try a pre-release version of IE7 and tell us how it works with their web sites, their applications, their add-ons, and how they use the web overall," said Hachamovitch.

Continue reading →

After a year in beta testing, the update to Windows Server 2003 known as "R2" has been released to manufacturing, Microsoft senior vice president Bob Muglia announced in a webcast Tuesday morning. R2 will serve as an interim release between Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Longhorn Server, due in 2007.

R2 delivers many enhancements and several new components that Microsoft says customers have asked for since the operating system was released in April of 2003. However, the core of Windows Server 2003 SP1 has remained unchanged to facilitate faster deployment.

Continue reading →

Cingular on Tuesday introduced its answer to Verizon and Sprint's wireless broadband offerings by launching BroadbandConnect, the first HSDPA-based 3G cellular data network in the United States. The service will initially be available in 16 major metropolitan areas, with plans to expand the network rapidly in 2006.

The first cities to receive Cingular BroadbandConnect will be Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Calif., Seattle/Tacoma, and Washington D.C..

Continue reading →

UPDATED After filing suit against Zone Labs last week for alleged damage to its business, adware provider 180solutions has come under fire from all angles. The company has also been accused of letting partners slip its ad software onto users' PCs through illegal crack and porn sites. Now, 180 is promising to clean up its act.

On Tuesday, 180solutions announced it was ending the distribution of 180search Assistant and releasing Seekmo Search Assistant instead, which it says includes technologies to help reduce the number of unauthorized installations. Asserting its innocence, 180 claims its partners are the ones trying to defraud end-users.

Continue reading →

The fight between Sharman Networks, the owner of the Kazaa peer-to-peer service, and the Australian music industry intensified on Tuesday.

The record industry accused Sharman of failing to comply with a September mandate that it install filters to weed out copyrighted content. In turn, Sharman accused the record industry of attempting to sidestep the decision and have the service shut down altogether, which was not part of the ruling.

Continue reading →

Time Warner and Microsoft are close to an agreement on an advertising pact that would create a service similar to Google's AdWords program, sources close to negotiations told the Wall Street Journal Tuesday. However, there still is a chance talks could break down and AOL could opt to strengthen preexisting ties with Google.

The deal would ostensible combine the advertising departments of MSN and AOL's new portal business. An agreement is expected close to Christmas.

Continue reading →