A South Korean man claims that Microsoft hid information about a flaw in Windows and has filed suit against the Operating System maker.
Jang Young-ha, 47, filed the lawsuit against Microsoft with the Suwon District Court on charges of deception, accusing the US software giant of selling the flawed program for use in handheld electronic devices.
There is a trojan making the rounds that is acquired by clicking on links in an email. That’s not necessarily new, however…. this email represents itself as an authentic-looking Microsoft security bulletin and the links are supposedly to updates (sorted by Windows version.) It’s important to point out that Microsoft does not send registered users security notices in this manner and if you are concerned about security updates you should either enable automatic updates or visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
Now it appears that the Illionois Attorney General is also investigating Sony in relation to the recent DRM software debacle related to their XCP Digital Rights Management software.
her office has requested information from the company regarding anti-piracy software it included on music CDs that experts have shown exposes Microsoft Windows users to security holes and computer viruses.
The Hindustan times has an article on the latest round of India vs. Pakistani hacker/IT online skirmishes. It sounds as though there has been a recent rash of back and forth with Pakistani cracker groups trying to break into and deface Indian web sites and India trying to get word out to help secure the sites against the attacks. This is not a new thing….
Incidents.org has a note on a recently noted trojan.spaxe.exe, that when on a system will mimic the windows notification dialogue “bubble” near the system tray with the following text.
“Your computer is infected!
Windows has detected spyware infection.It is recommended to use special antispyware tools to prevent data loss.
Windows will now download and install the most up-to-date antispyware for you.Click here to protect your computer from spyware.”
When the news was first out that an antivirus firm (f-secure) had cracked the psuedo-random algorithm that the sober worm uses to determine where to download “updates” from, they said that they had previously notified German authorities where the free hosting sites were located so that they could deal with the sites. I did find that they have announced a list of the addresses for the January 5th update (and the January 6th as well.)
Infoworld has an interesting article this afternoon, that suggests that Microsoft may pay users of their MSN search out of the ad revenue that Microsoft earns from their new adertising service. Speaking of Google, Bill Gates says…
But they don’t share these advertising revenues with the end users who help them get the revenue, Gates said. “Google keeps all of the money with itself,” he added.
ZDnet has this article today of an ebay auction for information on a Microsoft Excel vulnerability that the auction-seller had notified Microsoft of.
An online auction of a “brand new vulnerability” in Microsoft Excel had reached about $60 when eBay pulled the item late Thursday.
A seller using the name “fearwall” started the auction Wednesday evening at 1 cent. It was up to $56 on Thursday afternoon with 21 bids placed, and eBay quashed the auction soon after that.
An editor at tech republic gave a challange not too long ago to Linux users to step up and offer articles along the lines of the top 10 things to do before hooking a linux pc up to the internet. Click to read the first of these submissions (I don’t know if there will be more featured, but more are viewable here.)
Freedom-to-tinker once again has continued analysis of the whole Sony DRM mess. They basically have taken a look at the ways of protecting an audio cd. Active protection (using software to prevent the duplication of music) is currently the main practical solution if you’re pursuing DRM. But what’s interesting is how much in common they have with spyware writers.