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New worm targets Linux systems By Joris Evers Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: November 7, 2005, 5:12 PM PST A new worm that propagates by exploiting security vulnerabilities in Web server software is attacking Linux systems, warned antivirus companies on Monday. The worm spreads by exploiting Web servers that host susceptible scripts at specific locations, according to antivirus software maker McAfee, which has named the worm "Lupper." Lupper blindly attacks Web servers, installing and executing a copy of the worm when a vulnerable server is found, McAfee said in its description of the worm. A backdoor is installed on infected...

The broader media usually take little interest in public policy debates about technology, but they’re missing a big story in Massachusetts. The technology trades, blogs and industry are buzzing about a monumental policy shift in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Officials in the state have proposed a new policy that mandates that every state technology system use only applications designed around OpenDocument file formats. Such a policy might seem like something that should concern only a small group of technology professionals, but in fact the implications are staggering and far-reaching. The policy promises to burden taxpayers with new costs and to...

Firefox's 'retreat' ensures Microsoft excels Open source web browser Firefox has lost the momentum it has steadily gained since it was unleashed last year, according to Web analysts at Net Applications. The online portal’s unique Hit List service reveals a slump in the Mozilla browser’s market share, falling from 8.7% to 8.1 % in July. Coinciding with its demise, was the advance of Microsoft's IE that has gained some of the ground surrendered in June, climbing back from 86.6 % to 87.2% last month. The revival for the dominant browser comes on the back of average monthly losses of between...

Microsoft, showing its endurance in the mobile phone business, is expected to announce on Monday a partnership with the largest contract electronics manufacturer, Flextronics of Singapore, to make low-cost smart phones that run on Microsoft's mobile operating system. . The device, in a so-called candy-bar design, will have the interactive features of a smart phone at the price of many standard mobile phones today, Microsoft executives said in advance of the opening on Monday of the 3GSM World Congress, the mobile phone industry's annual trade show in Cannes. . Microsoft began making software to power mobile phones five years ago...

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...

A federal magistrate has handed a partial victory to Utah's SCO Group, ordering computer giant IBM to turn over more of its Linux operating system-related program codes. U.S. Magistrate Brooke Wells' ruling, released just minutes after Salt Lake City's federal courthouse closed Wednesday, came in the Lindon software company's contractual suit stemming from Big Blue's alleged distribution of Linux applications purportedly tainted with SCO's proprietary Unix code. In a lawsuit tentatively set for trial next fall, SCO is seeking damages ranging from $5 billion to $50 billion from IBM. The Utah company also is in Linux-related litigation with Novell, Linux...

Open Source Development Labs has reportedly rejected reports it is leading a revision of the Linux Kernel to remove code that might infringe software patents Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), which promotes the adoption of the Linux operating system, has denied that it plans to rewrite the Linux kernel to combat claims that it infringes some software patents. Linux Business Week reported last week that, according to "informed sources", the OSDL, Intel, IBM, the state of Oregon and the city of Beaverton are part of a consortium that will rewrite the parts of the Linux kernel that allegedly infringe patents....

IBM goes silent on Linux desktop effort Big Blue mum about progress of the company's move to open source clients By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service January 25, 2005 More than a year after IBM's (Profile, Products, Articles) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano challenged his company to move to the Linux desktop by the end of 2005, IBM has significantly toned down its rhetoric on the subject of open-source clients. "We don't have anything we want to say that's definitive," said Nancy Kaplan, an IBM spokeswoman, as she declined to comment on specifics of the roll-out. "There are...

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...

24 June 2004Mac OS X security myth exposedAnd thousands of other products and OSes given security rundown. By Matthew Broersma, Techworld Windows is more secure than you think, and Mac OS X is worse than you ever imagined. That is according to statistics published for the first time this week by Danish security firm Secunia. The stats, based on a database of security advisories for more than 3,500 products during 2003 and 2004 sheds light on the real security of enterprise applications and operating systems, according to the firm. Each product is broken down into pie charts demonstrating how...

Solid reputation paints bull's-eye on Mozilla's Firefox Free Web browser is known to be virtually impregnable to viruses and pop-ups, but it isn't hack-proof Sarah Stables CanWest News Service Thursday, January 06, 2005 A reputation for being virtually impregnable to viruses, pop-ups and other nasties of the Web is driving millions of fed-up computer users to ditch Internet Explorer in favour of the supposedly hack-proof alternative, Firefox, Mozilla's free Web browser. There's only one problem: the upstart isn't hack-proof at all. The evidence is at K-Otic.com, a Web site where hackers and security experts post their latest "exploits" - coded...

A vulnerability in Firefox could expose users of the open-source browser to the risk of phishing scams, security experts have warned. The flaw in Mozilla Firefox 1.0, details of which were published by security company Secunia on Tuesday, allows malicious hackers to spoof the URL in the download dialog box that pops up when a Firefox user tries to download an item from a Web site. This flaw is caused by the dialog box incorrectly displaying long sub-domains and paths, which can be exploited to conceal the actual source of the download. Mikko Hypponen, director of antivirus research at software...

The Government on Wednesday asked software giant Microsoft to put its vast collection of satellite images, remote sensing data and other information about the country's terrain in digital form. "As the project progresses, citizens of India can actually get a bird's eye view of the country," said P Anandan, head of Microsoft Research India, the company's research center opened at Bangalore, also on Wednesday. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding for research collaboration. The first project under the memorandum will be a geographic information system to make high technology information available to the public in an easily understandable...

SAP and Microsoft announced the availability of a new portal development kit, delivering on a promise made last year to integrate their Web services-based technology platforms. The kit, with the unwieldy name Portal Development Kit for Microsoft (Profile, Products, Articles).Net within SAP (Profile, Products, Articles) NetWeaver, aims to help programmers use Microsoft's Visual Studio.Net 2003 development tools to build portal applications on SAP's NetWeaver middleware, application server, and integration platform. In May, the two companies announced a cooperation agreement aimed at reducing friction for customers who have to work with both .Net and NetWeaver but don't want to work with...

Preliminary info from MacWorld Expo - Jobs introduces Mac mini. New member of Mac family including a slot-load Combo optical drive, FireWire, ethernet, USB 2.o, both DVI/VGA output. It plays DVDs, burn CDs, and is very quiet and tiny. Its height is half the size of an iPod mini. Jobs calls it "BYODKM" -- Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, Mouse. Will come in two models: 1.25GHz 256MB/40GB for $499. A second model with a 1.4GHz, more memory and larger hard drive will sell for $599. Mac mini will ship on January 22. Ships in a box smaller than the regular...

Enriching lives and library cards. When a company is as huge as Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), and the pockets as deep as those of billionaire Bill Gates even ancillary entities make the news. So it is with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was announced Friday that Ghana's Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital will receive $5 million from the foundation to procure equipment for the hospital. The money is expected to be used in training and retraining of health personnel of KATH and other health institutions in the African nation. In domestic business, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer...

Microsoft is showing off its Smarter Retailing initiative this week at the National Retail Federation (NRF) convention in New York. Several Microsoft partners are announcing products based on, or supporting, Windows Embedded for Point of Service, a specialized version of XP Embedded aimed at the retail and hospitality industries .................. Hewlett-Packard -- will offer Windows Embedded for POS on its rp5000 POS device, a PC-like device with additional functionality to support POS requirements. ............. Microsoft claims that Windows Embedded for POS will be the first retail-optimized software platform to provide plug-and-play functionality to enable retail peripherals to be easily installed...

Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, has been talking about the digital future. The other Bill, technology critic Bill Thompson, has been reading between the lines.Bill Gates thinks I'm a communist. Not the old-fashioned state socialist concerned with five-year plans for boot production in the eastern provinces, but a "new modern-day sort of communist", the sort who "want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and movie-makers and software makers". Admittedly, Mr Gates probably does not know who I am and I doubt if he spends a lot of time reading the BBC news site. But he...

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...

Davos - Rock star and anti-poverty campaigner, Bono, and computer billionaire Bill Gates, united with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday to warn that 2005 must be a turning point for poverty in Africa. Bono emphasised that leaders of the Group of Eight industralised countries were carrying the hopes of a generation, as Blair reiterated pledges to implement massive financial help for Africa this year. ........................................ Gates and Bono praised efforts by the G8 - which is led by Britain in 2005 - to finance more aid, trade and health care for Africa in recent years. "I'm very optimistic...