Microsoft

Microsoft on Tuesday fired a major shot across the bow at Salesforce.com, filing a federal lawsuit against the online software company claiming it infringes on nine patents.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, seeks both monetary damages as well as temporary and permanent injunctions. Specifically, the company seeks a jury trial and also asks that the damages be tripled and that Salesforce be ordered to pay legal fees and other costs, arguing that the company's patent infringement is willful.

If you use Hotmail it's probably because you've always used Hotmail. Let's face it Microsoft's web based email hasn't done itself many favours in recent years, but that all looks set to change...

The Redmond giant has today dropped Hotmail into the 21st century with a massive overhaul of its look and features, so let's break them down.

Microsoft on Tuesday warned users of a vulnerability in 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that could expose users to malware attacks.

Exploitation of the bug in the Canonical Display Driver would most likely cause vulnerable machines only to reboot, Microsoft spokesman Jerry Bryant said in a blog post. But it could also be abused to silently install malware, although attackers first would have to bypass memory randomization protections baked in to the operating systems to prevent code execution attacks, he added.

There's no safe place on the Web, reports former hacker Marc Maiffret, who shared some interesting insights recently with CNET.com regarding Internet security. Nearly a decade after he exposed the vulnerability used by the Code Red worm, Maiffret gave Micro soft's security model high marks.

"Now, when you look at Microsoft today, they do more to secure their software than anyone," he said. "They're not perfect; there's room for improvement. But they are definitely doing more than anybody else in the industry, I would say."

One part of Microsoft Global Security's activities is monitoring physical security at the company's premises around the world. This is carried out from three Global Security Operations Centers (GSOCs), located at Redmond (USA), Reading (UK) and Hyderabad (India), each responsible for their geographical region

The previous approach was decentralised, people-intensive, and involved more than 60 different proprietary systems, inconsistent policies across locations, live video monitoring, VCR recording, and lots of paper.

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), the software giant's free antimalware solution, is one of the few products that is not affected by the recently rediscovered method for disabling security software on Windows. MSE does not use SSDT hooks, so its real-time protection cannot be disabled via this method.

Microsoft’s latest update to its emulator for the still-in-development Windows Phone 7 platform shows some ongoing refinements, and a hint that Microsoft may be nearing a “release candidate” version of the OS, after which major changes are unlikely.

And hackers unlocking the latest Windows Phone 7 emulator are trying to delve into the underlying kernel and understand a range of technical issues such as memory management.

IT administrators were treated to a light security update from Microsoft on Tuesday when the software giant pushed out two patches for previously unknown issues, but remained working on a fix for a zero-day SharePoint vulnerability.

Each of this month's patches addresses one "critical" vulnerability, but neither of the patches were delivered with much urgency from Microsoft. The company said chances of exploitation were low.

Microsoft has confirmed earlier reports that Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) will not run on XP. That's prompted speculation that the company may be using the browser as a way to encourage users to upgrade to Windows 7.

Some sources speculated that a future update to either the browser or operating system might alter the lack of support for Microsoft's current #1 operating system (OS). But this week Microsoft's Giorgio Sardo confirmed IE9 will never run on Windows XP.

In an official statement made by Microsoft it is bound to release a security bulletin that will cater to address two vulnerabilities. These flaws address to the issues pertaining to the Windows operating system and Office suite that gives an access to the hackers to take control of computer system.