You just have to look at how Microsoft always announces certain patch releases for their software these days. Nothing is definite and safe just yet especially if you consider hackers and computer geeks trying to discover flaws in certain computer software such as an operating system. There will always be something discovered and the loophole can be entirely critical and dangerous.
Unlike in the latter 1990’s, today we rarely see patches being given since they have more or less covered the security threats ranging from viruses to malware today. There are still recommended patched needed. But surely, they are not as rampant and dangerous compare to before. And to make sure that you are using authentic software, they make use of software authenticity codes to know if you are using genuine software or not.
Microsoft can be commended for this but it still remains that there are still a lot of flaws as far as their software releases are concerned. But to make sure that customers do not experience these unfortunate mishaps, a continuous research and development for such threats has to be implemented. We can see these days that something will suddenly break out and if you are not protected, chances are you are missing a patch.
As much as possible, apply these patches. If you are in doubt, read on them or even ask for technical support. Security breaches in the IT world are common and to stay away from such a discomfort, it is best to be updated and make sure you are well-protected.
Tags: Malware, Microsoft, patches, security, viruses
Categories: IT Security Basics, Malware, Operating Systems
It seems that the shrug Yahoo gave Microsoft a couple of weeks ago seemed as if it were only yesterday and yet, here they are again. They are again making public a willingness to talk to the internet search company as the big “M” is yet to acquire a business that would rival the amount of ad profits as Google’s. The decision to shrug off the bid by Microsoft irked many of Yahoo’s investors that the search company had to pay attention.
What the hell does Microsoft from Yahoo, something to fight Google’s advertising profits through Adsense and AdWords that is driving them crazy enough to engage in another round of talks (even if it means doing it under the tables). This is one avenue that Microsoft has not ventured into and their seeing the profits Google earns from advertising alone is reason enough. Having Google place ads for companies on your sites gets them premium and cheap ad time and space without the company having to shell out many of their hard-earned cash and in this day of recession, everybody wants the easiest way to earn money.
Icahn who has control of around 5% of Yahoo wishes to kick-out Yang (one of the search company’s founders) and is engaging Microsoft in secret talks this week to get the details right and laid out. Upon hearing the news, the company releases the answer that states:
“If Microsoft and Mr Ballmer really want to purchase Yahoo, we again invite them to make a proposal immediately,” Yahoo said in a statement.(BBC)
Microsoft on the other hand is getting competition from Google who has also expressed interest in getting into bed with Yahoo (which might be the reason why Microsoft’s snortin’ like mad back at the table) but is raising concern with US lawmakers who are monitoring their talks due to a successful partnership that would result in over 80% control of the US’s internet search ad market.
Tags: Google and Yahoo, Internet Search Market, Microsoft, Microsoft Takeover, Yahoo
Categories: General, News, Operating Systems, Real-World Issues
The move to shift from multi-level communications and incorporating Unified communications such as VoIP and other unified platforms has become the prime targets of hackers who are now turning to IM attacks as their targets. Offices have de-centralized communications and other systems combining them into one system that is capable of handling communications eliminating the need for maintaining several systems each with its specific function. IM or Internet Messaging is cheaper and allows office workers in the field to communicate cheaply with the office and VoIP allows them to communicate cheaply over vast distances.
Unified communications is the next step towards virtualization which is currently being developed and tested by various developers. IM is one of the most convenient means of communications which has the capability to receive mail from all over just as SMS or Text messaging has done in the Mobile Industry. Every user who uses the internet may have one or more IM accounts with the many free mail providers or through their company hosting service. Using the IM allows hackers to send malware, unload their payloads and go on to propagate through the networked system, which if looked at from a business perspective crippling one of the vital communications links. There are still mobile phones and other means communications but being ever present at every desktop, any unsuspecting user can download malware without proper intrusion prevention and detection systems in place. Mobile phones have also suffered attacks from malware that is designed to attack stripped down versions of popular Operating systems, the forays of hackers into unified communications may mean they are keeping pace with the development of new technologies as fast as businesses adopt them and accept them as just part of the game.
Tags: IIS, IM, Microsoft, Unified Communications, voip
Categories: General, IM, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Malware, Network Security, News, Privacy & Anonymity, Real-World Issues, Security Policies
The news that Microsoft was going to drop everything that has to do with Windows XP came as a shocker to all for not everybody was ready to jump onto the Vista Bandwagon which has nothing to show in the area of reliability and stability that XP has shown. As with their move when they pulled out the plug on Windows 98, many went up and many took up arms to show their disgust. Many saw it as a move to force people to upgrade to a newer operating system even when the old one was still working just fine. Windows XP has reached a level of stability which has exceeded that of Windows 98′ but the company initially saying they were pulling the plug irked quite a lot of people that they decided to have support for it till 2009. They also said that the selling of OEM and packaged XP’s were to be stopped and that they were only to be available to Ultra-portable sellers.
The Up’s and Down’s of their decisions may show that the company is feeling the pressure form the open-sourced community and that it is trying to keep hold of their piece of the pie in the IT market may be in danger of being lessened. Their failed bid to acquire Yahoo as a move to go against Google shows the failure of their company to realize the significance of advertising. They were hoping to acquire Yahoo to use as their internet marketing branch and to get a bite of the search engine market at the same time. They have extended support for XP till 2009, but the problems with XP SP-3 have been so much they had to hold release a week or so back. The update is now available for automatic or manual download from Microsoft’s TechNet and through AutoUpdate.
Tags: Delayed, Last-Minute Glitch, Microsoft, XP SP3
Categories: General, News, Real-World Issues
Yep, Microsoft the every surprise filled software developer who made Vista has now announced that the company will be extending the life of Windows XP till 2010. This overturns earlier announcements that they would be ending support and phasing out(which includes stopping the selling) of the most stable Windows Operating system ever. This is to give way to the newer Windows version, Vista which has again and again disappointed users even with the much promised improvements with SP1 (what…where?????? the improvements….. I see bugs, tons of them) which has failed to impress users from around the world. Big businesses are wary of the new operating system due to stability and support issues (which is only gathered from many years of continuously refining a program like XP, you’d think they’d have learned) which is still quite shaky at best.
The European arena isn’t too impressed either with the many lawsuits the company faced due to unfair commercial practices the software giant has allegedly committed(found Guilty and fined millions of Euros). The move may be a sign of what some bloggers are calling as a “continuing fiasco” regarding Vista’s capabilities which are irking more and more users everyday, having them revert to their old’ reliable XP installations for getting the simplest jobs done. Worst of all, better and improved versions of software from open-sourced communities and organizations is forcing big-M to do something fast for more and more are shifting to them for they are faster and better than Explorer with little overhead that eats up precious memory, hard disk space and video power.
Just hope the company would be more realistic than with their sudden twists and turns such as they have been doing in the last months regarding Yahoo and the announcement of other unusually generous gestures(again) from the company that is big-M.
Tags: Explorer, Microsoft, Open-Sourced
Categories: General, News, Real-World Issues
The software giant may be showing signs of slowing as the Core Brand Power 100 2007 Study shows the firm slipping from one of the top ten most powerful and recognizable brands the world over. The study shows that in 1996, the company was ranked number one to its current level at 59. This might be why the company is continuously surprising industry leaders with bold moves in the industry. Its current foray into the acquisition of Yahoo, the opening of doors for sharing some of its trade secrets and many more unknown strategic moves which might show they are looking for a boost to its business. The company has lost favor of many companies who have been loyal to its product lines but have now turned to cheaper and free versions offered by open-sourced developers. Open Office, which is similar to Microsoft’s office, is a better and cheaper choice for businesses who are now trying to save all they can due to the current financial crisis.
Many have also opted to use Linux and the many other Unix-based operating systems which cost a lot less that mass volume licensing Windows. Some are even free which is blamed as the main reason for their favorability. These competing operating systems also have fewer requirements with regards to hardware with the most basic stripped versions which can be used as web servers able to run at older machines. Linux is re-compilable, meaning it can be stripped down of all unnecessary components which makes it faster and cheaper to implement. Windows has strict requirements with regards to processor type, the amount memory and hard disk space which it gobbles up in no time. The advent of a Windows-like interface for Linux has also made the cut deeper into the Windows market along with the release of more and more open sourced applications that can do what Windows-based ones do.
Their monopoly on the Operating system market might still be tight but elsewhere, it’s downhill. The many bugs and weaknesses of Microsoft software is also proving to be too costly for businesses and for something they pay so much for to cause so many problems they are starting to think twice before getting more of their products. Though still a player in the IT industry, it may only be time before some other IT giant is born to take its place as the world’s most prolific software vendor/developer.
Tags: Microsoft, Open Office, Open-Sourced
Categories: General, News, Real-World Issues
News that Microsoft, the world’s largest software developer, is going to disclose some of their so-called proprietary/secret software technology to competitors is sending chills down the spine of many IT industry leaders. This comes after the company suffered a blow when Yahoo.com rejected their bid to buy a majority of shares from the internet search engine giant. Yahoo might have been in the rut for sometime, but they are still one of the most used search engines on the planet making them an ideal target for the IT giant.
The news comes as a surprise as Microsoft has always worked hard to prevent technology in terms of software design and other inter-operability technologies between their operating systems like XP and Vista, the Office Family and many other software products that have managed to keep the lead in terms of the number of installations. Being the most recognizable IT firm (and even the most hated by some), Microsoft has managed to come out of many problems such as the well criticized and publicized flop of their Vista SP1 which many saw as just another way for the firm to say they care for their customers. People who have the Service pack were not at all pleased with it saying thatit was not as they expected (maybe referring to the milestones they came over when they did the same for XP with SP1 and SP2). This leaves a sour taste in the mouths of prospective users still with XP that the upgrades and improvements will be not as significant as they had hoped for.
Microsoft has been in the spotlight before but not as a company who regularly shares details about its products. The step might be a step in the right direction or it may just prove to be a testing of the waters for the software giant. Time will tell if the information they do disclose would benefit competitors or as others have said, it might just be another try to get people hooked on their technology, taking them down as a whole (hook, line and sinker) into the world of Microsoft.
Tags: Breaking News, Microsoft, Opening Up Microsoft
Categories: General, News, Real-World Issues
Some of these updates and patches are well publicized and known to media and IT circles while others are not. The real truth, not all users want to know the details of the several updates and patches that are being installed as long as they get to use the internet and other software without issues. This is a dangerous tightrope to walk for like the Facebook incidents and MySpace problems, and yes even Google (with their customer purchase tracking system which they took out of service as people took notice and were pissed they were being monitored as to shopping habits etc).
Even the most popular web search engines have come under fire when people took notice of their tracking systems and how that information is used to target them for advertising campaigns. The web is a true and proven signal of unparalleled freedom for it allows you to get information all with the press of a few buttons. But the battle begins at your desktop or laptop where the OS resides and is installed on making it the root of all possible problems. Yes, Attacks do come from the net but they are targeted at your home or office desktops using them as propagation tools to spread them all over the globe. Privacy and the right to know is quite battered on these fronts with many problems being discovered at every turn. People love intrigue and they will continue to scrutinize and criticize the work of others may they be friends or foes. On goes the OS wars and we are on the sidelines waiting to suffer all the fallout of their drive to be the first to release the most innovative and feature loaded software (with bugs and system crashes all bundled and included in the box, well till they release the respective fixes and patches to remedy them).
Tags: Apple, linux, Microsoft, OS Wars
Categories: General, IM, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Malware, News, Operating Systems, Privacy & Anonymity, Programming, Real-World Issues, Security Policies, Spyware
Is Microsoft looking for another area of investment? Well, it sure looks like it, for they have just placed a bid on Yahoo which may be a sign of them trying to diversify and try to catch some action on the search engine part of the internet. The well publicized bid will make Microsoft more part of everyday computing and the internet that it already is. This move would bolster their already well-known market dominance with their operating systems such as Vista (the latest addition to their Windows series of operating systems), Xbox (their bid to get some share of the gaming market previously dominated by Sony with their PlayStation Series) and the many other products such as Microsoft Office.
Bill Gates has left the company onto another’s hand which spelled the end of his prominence in the PC and computer industry but he is not expected to fade out soon for he is still looked at by many as the father of the Windows empire. If they indeed succeed with their bid for expansion, they will add yahoo to their already diverse list of markets on the IT industry which they have a cut of. This would also add more hatred to those people termed as the rebels of the IT world who have hated windows and it’s tight grip on the internet and computing industry as a whole.
Hackers have made it known again and again that they will continue to pester and bring headaches to the company which has resulted in many well publicized attacks causing the company millions of dollars in lost revenue. Their problems with the Xbox and Xbox live, also proved to be a hard pickle to swallow for the problems of the Christmas season when their high-tech gaming network system ground to a halt, to the dismay of many a players and subscribers. They managed to get out of it promising a free game for all their clients which should have instead earned revenue. More would be expected on Microsoft as they enter a new year filled with challenges and hurdles but they will always be a presence on the computer industry. This might also turn out to be a bad choice for they already have their resources stretched too thin with successive problems with their products. They might have to stick with what they do best which is to focus on their OS systems rather that diversify and expand. Well, we’ll see this year if their strategy for expansion works or not.
Tags: Bidding-for-Yahoo, Microsoft, Microsoft-and-Yahoo, Microsoft-News, Yahoo
Categories: General, News, Real-World Issues
Microsoft’s patch update for this month fell on Tuesday this week as they issued ten of the eleven scheduled security patches. These patches fixes 26 security vulnerabilities, the largest number of flaws fixed with one patch update since they began their monthly patch cycle. Six of these patches are important; five of these fix critical vulnerabilities in the Windows shell and Office suites that hackers may exploit to remotely control your system. The last one is an update for the Windows Service that could allow a denial of service attack. An out-of-cycle patch has also been released last month dealing with the VML-exploit on Internet Explorer web browser.
Since programs are constantly evolving to improve usability and performance, as time passes problems may arise as glitches in the source code gets revealed. Installing these patches is essential for ensuring your computer system’s security. Not only do these patches fix any bugs that are known to attackers, they also fix any privately disclosed ones that security researchers have uncovered and reported to the software company. In the days after a patch is released hackers will attempt to exploit these formerly-undisclosed vulnerabilities on unpatched computers.
If you have the option to receive reminders for these patches for your system and applications, use it. Then check out if they’re stable before installing them. Of course, glitches can happen all the time. Users have reported delays in receiving patches from the Windows Update system, but they have been advised to manually download the patches from the download site.
[tags]Microsoft, security patches[/tags]
Tags: IT Security Basics, Microsoft, Network Security, News, security-patches
Categories: IT Security Basics, Network Security, News
