Microsoft has touted Windows Vista as giving significant security improvements over Windows XP, and it offers the Windows Firewall, with its new two-way filtering feature, as one reason for that better security.
But as shipped, the Windows Firewall offers little outbound protection, and it's not clear how outbound protection can be configured to protect against spyware, Trojans and bots.
It would seem that hackers in Iran have managed to crack the latest copies of Windows Vista and have started distributing so-called 'fully cracked' versions. The software is being distributed by an Iranian software company and is retailing for an incredible USD8! They claim the version is completely 'legal' and can be activated with no problems but I don't think Microsoft are going to be too happy about it.
Maybe they?ve waited too long after all.
When Microsoft finally released the consumer versions of Windows Vista and its companion Office 2007 in late January after a five-year wait, the PC software and hardware industry breathed a sigh of relief that the packages were finally ready, along with a feeling of ?Is that all there is??
It has cost billions of dollars to develop, been subjected to millions of hours of observation testing and, after a few delays, Microsoft?s new operating system Windows Vista, is here.
We wrote an article lately on the criticism Microsoft has received for its Digital Rights Management (DRM) included in the Windows Vista operating system that intends to make life harder for pirates. Unfortunately, as DRM has shown us in the past, these kind of restrictions hurt honest consumers every single day too.
North American computer enthusiasts didn't surge to the stores to snap up new versions of Microsoft's Vista, the new operating system and first major upgrade in more than five years.
However, Microsoft said the software is available for the first time by download.
The system, which is the next-generation replacement for Windows XP, has been released in 70 countries. Microsoft also released a new version of Office, its flagship business software and Microsoft Exchange e-mail software.
The security software in Microsoft's Windows Vista is "ineffective" in blocking malware and slow to update against viruses, according to a security software vendor.
A test performed by Webroot Software found that Windows Defender, the security software included with Vista, failed to catch 84 per cent of spyware and malware. The test included 15 of the most common malware programs, said Webroot.
The Home Office is not taking cybercrime and related fraud seriously enough, Microsoft says.
The software giant says that cybercrime reporting mechanisms in the UK have been inadequate, since the closure of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), whose operations were folded into the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) last year. Its critique comes in a hard-hitting submission to a House of Lords Science and Technology Committee inquiry into internet security.
Microsoft Corp. has landed in the Wikipedia doghouse after it offered to pay a blogger to change technical articles on the community-produced Web encyclopedia site.
While Wikipedia is known as the encyclopedia that anyone can tweak, founder Jimmy Wales and his cadre of volunteer editors, writers and moderators have blocked public-relations firms, campaign workers and anyone else perceived as having a conflict of interest from posting fluff or slanting entries. So paying for Wikipedia copy is considered a definite no-no.
Microsoft's Genuine Advantage programme has seen more than 500 million users validate their copies of the Windows XP operating system, the company has revealed.
However, of those users, over 100 million were found to be using pirated copies of Windows XP. The scheme is designed to sniff out illegal copies by matching codes inside the operating system with codes known to be used by software pirates.
