Category: News

Now published to corporate users. On Friday, they released the package to OEMs and manufacturers. Sent via BlackBerry – a service from AT&T Wireless.

This unique hardware and software combination is designed to keep computers protected against certain malicious viruses, computer worms and Trojan horses.

When combined with the Data Execution Prevention technology found in Windows XP SP2, it provides a multi-layered defense against many common online threats. It not only identifies certain malicious code, specifically those that execute buffer overflow attacks, but also prevents them from replicating and spreading throughout the system.

The hardware and software technology from AMD and Microsoft is designed to proactively defend computers from these far too prevalent attacks, providing critical protection from some of the fastest-growing and most damaging viruses in the world today,” said Rob Enderle, President and Principal Analyst, Enderle Group.

Every AMD Athlon64 FX-53, AMD Athlon64 mobile and desktop, and Mobile AMD Sempron processor customer will be able to use the built-in EVP capability when enabled by Windows XP SP2.

http://www.cooltechzone.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=457&Itemid=0

In a note headlined “To patch” or not to patch” posted Friday on its corporate intranet, IBM tells its employees not to download SP2 when it becomes available because of compatibility issues.

“While this patch may be good news for other Microsoft Windows XP owners, IBM is directing XP users not to install SP2,” the note states.

Currently, some high profile, business-critical applications are also known to conflict with SP2,” IBM tells its employees in the note. Microsoft has made something of a trade-off, focusing on security at the expense of compatibility. Earlier this week the software vendor released an update for Microsoft CRM (Customer Relationship Management) 1.2 because SP2 will prevent the original application from running correctly.

Because of the broad changes, analysts have compared the XP service pack to a Windows upgrade instead of a simple update. Business users typically take much longer to install a new version of Windows than a service pack because of compatibility testing.

http://www.itworldcanada.com/Pages/Docbase/ViewArticle.aspx?id=idgml-e2660c5c-be61-46fe&s=334096

According to a survey of more than 1,200 small- and medium-sized businesses by the Institute of Directors, half said that they’d been hit by attacks caused by personnel “misuse.”

Workers do dumb things, said managers, such as downloading non-work programs, opening worm-infected e-mail, and turning off security software.

Done for security vendor McAfee, the survey said the second highest cause of security problems, at 45 percent, was due to poorly updated anti-virus software. “All too often businesses are preoccupied with patching holes, updating anti-virus, and configuring firewalls without looking at the dangers posed by their employees,” said Sal Viveros, the director of McAfee’s small- and medium-sized enterprise group, in a statement. “Businesses can have the most robust and integrated security system in the world but one rogue end user could still be responsible for introducing malicious code onto the network.”

http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20040806S0004

Responding to an email security survey carried out by MessageLabs a further 40 per cent said they feel ‘worried’ by the current email security threat to their business, with only 29 per cent feeling ‘optimistic’. The survey shows that few (15 per cent) think email will remain the same application over the next decade, while two thirds think it will merge with other messaging applications, such as wireless and instant messaging. But only 14 per cent of respondents think it will become completely obsolete.

Over 20 per cent of firms responding to the research indicated that online fraud such as phishing and identity theft will be the greatest threat.

Viruses achieved a similar rating (21 per cent).

The leakage of confidential or sensitive information was rated by 18 per cent as the main issue, with 15 per cent stating that it would be the potential for industrial espionage. The survey reveals continued concern over levels of spam, with over 40 per cent of respondents predicting that levels of junk email will more than double over the next 10 years, and a further 24 per cent expecting it to rise by more than 50 per cent. Only four per cent think it will be non-existent.

Mark Sunner, chief technology officer at MessageLabs, said in a statement: “These results clearly show that concern about email security continues to run high, to the extent that if the situation does not improve the status of email will be under threat. “The convergence of the various email attack methods has led to a more damaging and complex breed of email security threat, meaning that everyone’s favourite ‘killer app’ is also capable of mortal damage to the business.”

http://www.vnunet.com/news/1156684

Microsoft’s Windows Update Services (WUS), the product formerly known as Software Update Services (SUS) 2.0, is now due to ship by mid-2005, rather than mid-2004. And the new Microsoft Update (MU) Service, a new patching system designed to provide fixes to not only Windows, but also Office, SQL Server, Exchange Server and other core Microsoft products, also is now due out by mid-2005, a year later than anticipated.

Microsoft officials said at the partner show that SP2 will be released to manufacturing in August, and be available to consumers over the course of the next few weeks and months via download, CD and preload on new PCs.

Nash said Microsoft is not planning to phase out any of these mechanisms any time soon. Microsoft’s patching systems/services are crucial to its customers.

In addition to delivering Microsoft’s monthly bundle of patches/fixes to users, they also are the vehicle via which Microsoft rolls out impromptu patches for viruses, worms and other malware.

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1622941,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535