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Ever since the introduction of Windows Vista in early 2007, Microsoft has enforced the rule that Windows drivers must carry digital signatures by default. Any software that runs in kernel mode, in fact, has to be signed by the company. This is a security measure that should prevent malicious software from digging its claws in too deep. However, what happens when Microsoft gives its blessing to a rootkit? That's what happened a few months ago and was just now discovered thanks to G DATA Software security analyst Karsten Hahn. Initially, the company received a false-positive alert from a driver that...

Microsoft Corp disclosed the details of a deal signed with China's top economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Wednesday. Microsoft's vice president and chief technology officer Craig Mundie arrived in Beijing to disclose the details of the MOU signed on Apr 18, according to which, Microsoft Corp will invest $100 million in setting up cooperation with China-based software enterprises and their subsidiaries, joint ventures outside China. It will place orders worth $100 million to software enterprises in China. Microsoft will place a 700-million-U.S.-dollar hardware export order with Chinese companies in each of the next...

HANOI (Reuters) - Thousands of Vietnamese students climbed trees and pushed against barricades to give Microsoft founder Bill Gates a pop star's welcome in Hanoi on Saturday. The world's richest man is on a one-day visit to the impoverished Southeast Asian country, which has the highest rate of fake software sold in the world, according to trade groups. With annual per capita income of $640 (360 pounds), few can afford Microsoft packages and pirated versions sell for a dollar or two. "I hope that one day I can be as successful as him," said Nguyen Trung Dung, 19, one...

Excerpts - Later [Hu] said to Gates: "I admire what you have achieved at Microsoft," Hu said. "Because you, Mr. Bill Gates, are a friend of China, I'm a friend of Microsoft," he said. "Also, I am dealing with the operating system produced by Microsoft every day," he added, amid laughter. "I certainly look forward to the extension of your cooperation with China," Hu said. Hu also said he would certainly welcome a further increase in Microsoft's investment in China. "I'd also like to take this opportunity to assure you, Bill Gates, that we will certainly our words in protecting...

BEIJING, Sept. 27 -- Microsoft invested US$20 million in a Beijing-based domestic software firm yesterday, aiming to strengthen its commitment to the Chinese market and tap into the nation's software engineering talent pool. International Finance Corp (IFC), an investment arm of the World Bank, also invested US$15 million in the same firm, ChinaSoft International Ltd. The company is under the control of the State-owned China National Software and Service Co Ltd (CS&S). The parties involved declined to disclose how big the stakes of Microsoft and IFC are. ChinaSoft International is valued at HK$788 million (US$101 million) on the Growth...

Former Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee has accused the software giant of incompetence in its plans to gain a business footing in China, and testified that an expletive-filled tirade from chairman Bill Gates was a low point before he defected to rival Google. In testimony during a hearing on Microsoft's lawsuit against Lee and Google, Lee said on Tuesday he wrote a memo to another Microsoft executive saying he was "deeply disappointed at our incompetence in China - that we have wasted so many years in China with little to show for it." Lee went on to say in the email...

Excerpt - Microsoft is on track to outsource more than 1,000 jobs a year to China, according to blistering evidence released yesterday in Microsoft's increasingly nasty spat with Google over an employee who jumped ship in July. In a revelation that highlights the complexity of China President Hu Jintao's visit to Seattle and Microsoft on Monday, legal filings detailed claims of how Microsoft had offended the Chinese government by not outsourcing as many jobs as promised to Chinese technology vendors. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer visited China in 2003 and promised to step up the pace, from $33 million worth of...

BEIJING, Feb. 28 -- Zhejiang Golden Eagle said Friday that a charitable body launched by Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and his wife had bought into the Shanghai-listed textile maker, the second time the Gates foundation making investments in the A-share market on the Chinese mainland. The Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province-based Golden Eagle said in its 2004 financial statement that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had owned 607,040 shares as of the end of December 31 to become its fourth-largest shareholder. The Golden Eagle purchase followed earlier announcement by Shanghai-listed water utility Nanhai Development Co. that the Gates foundation...

   BEIJING, Feb. 1 -- A Charitable body set up by Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and his wife has bought into Shanghai-listed water utility Nanhai Development Co., the latest foreign investor seeking to tap into the potential of China’s water industry.     Foshan, Guangdong-based Nanhai Development said in its 2004 financial statement the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation purchased 523,501 shares during November and December last year to become its ninth-largest shareholder.     Nanhai Development did not disclose how much the Gates charity paid for the shares, but domestic media reported the foundation had bought Nanhai Development shares at about eight...

The latest barfer from Bill Gates is excerpted from his interview with Peter Jennings of ABC News - JENNINGS: Is there any part of the world that intimidates you? GATES: Well I could say that every time I go to China I am amazed by the level of energy and activity there. And you know its like super charged capitalism where they're creating new jobs and they are being very efficient. And you know that's daunting. It's a challenge to the rest of the world that we got this great opportunity that they're going to build good products, but we...

China has created brand-new form of capitalism: Bill Gates DAVOS, Switzerland, (AFP) - US software giant Bill Gates has high praise for China, which he says has created a brand-new form of capitalism that benefits consumers more than anything has in the past. "It is a brand-new form of capitalism, and as a consumer its the best thing that ever happened," Gates told an informal meeting late Friday at the World Economic Forum in this ski resort. He characterised the Chinese model in terms of "willingness to work hard and not having quite the same medical overhead or legal...