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SAN FRANCISCO — Believe it or not, a Windows Web server is more secure than a similarly set-up Linux server, according to a study presented yesterday by two Florida researchers. The researchers, appearing at the RSA Conference of computer-security professionals, discussed the findings in an event, "Security Showdown: Windows vs. Linux." One of them, a Linux fan, runs an open-source server at home; the other is a Microsoft enthusiast. They wanted to cut through the near-religious arguments about which system is better from a security standpoint. "I actually was wrong. The results are very surprising, and there are going to...

Microsoft Corp.'s 2001 antitrust settlement with the Bush administration hasn't reduced the dominance of the company's Windows personal computer operating system, a Justice Department lawyer said yesterday. There has been "no demonstrable change in the operating system marketplace," government lawyer Renata Hesse said in Washington in response to a question from the federal judge overseeing the accord. "Microsoft continues to have a large share in that market." The 2001 agreement resolved a suit that at one point threatened the world's largest software maker with a breakup ................................................... Kollar-Kotelly, who approved the settlement in 2002, said she wasn't concerned about Microsoft's...

It hasn't been a good week for Firefox and its fans. First, the Danish security company Secunia warned that it had uncovered a vulnerability in Firefox and other browsers that can allow the URL displayed in the address bar and the SSL certificate to be spoofed, which means the browser and others are vulnerable to phishing attacks. The flaw affects all browsers built using the open-source Gecko browser kernel. And this time around, Internet Explorer is not vulnerable to the attack. Making matters worse, a few days after that, a security researcher found a trio of security bugs that affect...

TODAY’S donation pushes Bill Gates into an even more exalted position as the world’s biggest philanthropist. The Gates foundation, which is worth $30 billion, (£17billion), is now the largest charity to have been created by a single benefactor or private company by a factor of three, following a previous $3 billion gift from its founder last July. Mr Gates has stated that he intends to give away 90 per cent of his fortune, which is currently valued at about $50 billion. The causes to which he has channelled his wealth — global health inequalities, education programmes, public libraries and projects...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. personal incomes soared a record 3.7 percent in December, largely as the result of a one-time $32 billion dividend payment from Microsoft, the Commerce Department said Monday. Excluding the dividend, incomes rose 0.6 percent, the government said. Meanwhile, consumer spending increased 0.8 percent in December, as spending on durable goods jumped 4.3 percent. ....................... The $32 billion paid out by Microsoft was reported as an annual $298 billion increase in December's income. The government estimates about $24.8 billion of the $32 billion was paid to U.S. residents...............

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced record revenue of $10.82 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, a 7% increase over the results in the same period of the prior year. Operating income for the second quarter was $4.75 billion, which was an increase of $3.27 billion over the same period in the prior year...... "Our record revenue came from across-the-board strength in both our business and consumer segments," said John Connors, chief financial officer at Microsoft. "And our long-term approach to growing new businesses is paying off. Home and Entertainment delivered its first profitable...

Microsoft on Monday replaced Yahoo's search technology with its own homespun software and will kick off a huge advertising campaign to supplant Google in consumers' hearts. As expected, MSN, a unit of the software giant, has taken its Web search technology out of the laboratory, and placed it on MSN's newly redesigned home page in 25 countries. Two and a half years in the making, MSN Search will now be the focal point of the updated, lighter-weight site; and it is the subject of Microsoft's newest ad campaign, which includes television, print, Internet and outdoor promotions. MSN Search Vice President...

SuSE releases critical patches by Derek Sooman on Mon 07 Feb 2005, 12:11 PM Novell owned SuSE has released a number of patches, which they claim to be "highly critical". The patches in question are to address several vulnerabilities that have been found to exist in SuSE' eMail Server 3.x, Linux Database Server, Linux Enterprise Server 9 and Linux Office Server. Resultant exploits include cross-site scripting attacks, remote system access, exposure of sensitive information, spoofing and denial-of-service attacks, so if you are a SuSE user, you should get downloading and patching right away. However, there have been some concerns over...

All non-Microsoft browers include a flaw that allows URL spoofing using Unicode characters, which can be exploited by phishing scams seeking to steal login information for online banking accounts. The spoofing flaw, which is demonstrated on the web site of the Shmoo Group, works in the Firefox, Mozilla and Opera browsers, as well as the Safari browser for Macs. The spoof exploits flaws in how the browsers interpret Unicode characters. A link using Unicode characters to replace the letter "a" in "Paypal" will display as www.paypal.com in the browser, but send users to www.xn--pypal-4ve.com - which then displays "www.paypal.com" in...