Microsoft

A few months ago it was Microsoft Word. Last month it was Excel. Now PowerPoint is under attack through a critical hole. Why so many Office flaws so quickly?

Part of the reason is that "black hat" hackers now have cracking tools called "fuzzers" that can automatically run through thousands of combinations of programming calls to find the one (or the dozens) that will crash a program. Such holes fetch good money from valid security firms that pay bounties, as well as from the Internet black market.

CodeRed, Nimda and Blaster. These high-profile worms, which exploited flaws in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and other applications, made Microsoft the butt of security jokes and forced the company to re-examine its approach to developing secure software.

Microsoft issued three patches for security vulnerabilities yesterday, including one for a critical flaw in Office Publisher that could let attackers take control of affected systems. In addition to the low patch count, what was notable about yesterday's release of patches was the lack of a patch for the memory corruption flaw in Word 2000 that led to the zero-day "MDropper.Q" Trojan over the Labor Day weekend. Meanwhile, malware writers continue to target the vulnerabilities Microsoft fixed last month.

Microsoft plans Tuesday to officially launch its updated and renamed Internet search engine, the latest step in a massive effort to make headway against market leaders Yahoo and Googl.

Live Search had previously been available in test form and is the successor to MSN Search, Microsoft's current search engine. It ranks a distant third in U.S. popularity after Yahoo and Google, according to the most recent data from Nielsen/Net Ratings.

Microsoft Corp.'s long-delayed upgrade of its flagship Windows operating system will cost the same as comparable versions of the previous version, Windows XP, the company said Tuesday.

The software maker also said Windows Vista remains on track to be delivered to businesses in November and to consumers in January.

Unveiled over the weekend, Windows Vista RC1 comes barely two weeks after Microsoft?s release of the pre-RC1 build 5536 - which was in itself an impressive ?interim build? that by all rights could just as easily have been dubbed Beta 3.

Indeed, you?ve got to look very hard to detect the differences. Most of the changes take place under the hood - Microsoft says that its tossed more device drivers into the pot, along with tweaking performance. We can vouch for the later: pretty much everything you do in Vista RC1 is snappier and more responsive than previous milestone builds.

With security vendors warning of new malware that exploits a recently patched flaw in Windows, Microsoft is saying that attacks are not on the rise.

Earlier this week, two new malicious programs popped up, both of which took advantage of the MS06-040 Windows Server service vulnerability. This prompted Symantec to raise its ThreatCon rating to 2 on Thursday, an indication that users should be at a heightened level of security awareness.

Microsoft on Friday made available a nearly final version of Windows Vista, the long-awaited and often-delayed successor to Windows XP.

Availability of "Windows Vista Release Candidate 1" was announced by Microsoft's Jim Allchin in a note to participants in a special Vista beta test program, according to an e-mail sent by Microsoft's public relations agency. Allchin, "Mr. Windows," is Microsoft Windows Client group vice president.

Several security experts are warning of increased cyberattacks targeting Windows PCs, but Microsoft says all is calm on the attack front.

The SANS Internet Storm Center, Symantec, McAfee and several other security companies are warning of a new worm that wriggles into Windows PCs by way of a security flaw for which Microsoft issued a patch with security bulletin MS06-040 on Aug. 8.

David Flynn takes a sneak peek at the new versions of the Windows and Mac OS X operating systems - one of which will run your next computer.

Whether you're using a Windows PC or an Apple Mac, running a desktop or laptop, next year will be one of life's more significant technology changes.

By the middle of 2007, each of the IT industry's big wheels will have moved forward considerably - helping users and in turn enhancing their own spheres of influence.