Microsoft

Microsoft is investigating 13 spam operations it believes sent millions of junk mail messages through a single PC that the Redmond, Wash.-based developer purposefully set up as a "zombie," the company said Thursday.

Microsoft's action, which was done in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Action, a San Francisco-based advocacy group, was part of a call to arms against zombies, compromised computers that are used without their owners' permission to send spam, launch denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and spread worms and viruses.

Microsoft's making Internet Explorer (IE) 7 a tougher browser by giving the boot to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 2.0 and sliding Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 into the slot. These changes will users a more secure environment to utilize the Internet.

Microsoft is losing two talented executives who have separately resigned in recent days.

Don Gagne, director of development for Microsoft Office, plans to leave the company in December to pursue a car racing hobby. The 11-year Microsoft veteran gave his notice last week, company spokesman Lou Gellos said Tuesday, confirming a report about Gagne's resignation in a blog.

A quiet revolution is transforming life on the Internet: New, agile software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock prices fluctuate and better manage their online photos and e-mail.

Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant Web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to worry about installing software or moving data when they switch computers.

And that could bode ill for Microsoft Corp. and its flagship Office suite, which packs together word processing, spreadsheets and other applications.

Even game consoles are under attack by hackers, a security company noted Friday. But although the current crop poses little risk to the average player, the next generation may if attackers decide to take on the Internet-centric xBox 360, Microsoft's next game machine.

Panda Software said that over the last several days, it has tracked a trio of Trojans that aimed to reduce Sony's PSP (PlayStation Portable) and the Nintendo DS game consoles into expensive bricks.

Microsoft Corp. has quietly backported one of the security improvements slated for the new Internet Explorer 7 browser into IE 6.0, but the giveaway comes with a small catch. The Microsoft Phishing Filter, which is being embedded into IE 7, will now be available in IE 6 but only via an add-on to the MSN Search Toolbar.

A free 1.3MB download of the anti-phishing add-on is now available in beta form for IE 6/MSN Search Toolbar users running Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2).

Microsoft's latest batch of security fixes keeps causing trouble for some users.

A "critical" patch for a problem in a Windows component for streaming media, called DirectShow, apparently isn't as straightforward as Microsoft thought. Some Windows 2000 users have applied the incorrect patch, leaving their computer vulnerable and the users thinking they patched up, Microsoft said Thursday.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke on Wednesday at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo. He covered a number of topics and one stuck out prominently. The security concerns for Windows: Vista have been paramount in discussions because various versions of Windows have been brutally attacked by hackers all over the world for years. Microsoft is intimately aware of problems with security in its software. They release security updates every month.

Firefox has been adding new features in an effort to match IE; now, the browser is catching up in a more unfortunate way -- with vulnerabilities. Our own security guru Russ Cooper recently reported in his weekly Security Watch newsletter (sign up here) that the Web is awash with code that can attack Firefox and its Mozilla brethren. There are two fixes: patches and disabling International Domain Name (IDN) support.

For the second year in a row, Microsoft Corp. invited a small number of hackers onto its Redmond, Wash., campus to crack the company's products for all to see. Blue Hat V2 was held on Thursday and Friday and teamed noted "white hat" hackers with Microsoft employees to break into and expose security weaknesses in the company's products.

Over 1,000 Microsoft developers, managers and security experts attended, including Microsoft brass Jim Allchin and Kevin Johnson, co-presidents of the company's Platforms, Products & Services Division.