Microsoft

Microsoft plans to release three critical security patches on Tuesday, 12 July. Two of these affect Windows while one affects Office. News of the upcoming patches came in an advanced bulletin notification issued Thursday which omits any details about the upcoming security fixes.

Next Tuesday will also bring with it non-security but high-priority updates to Microsoft's patching tools. Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services and Software Update Services are all due to get to get a fresh lick of paint.

Microsoft has witnessed an improvement in the way people are securing their computers.

Speaking at the company's TechEd conference in Amsterdam today, Detlef Eckert, chief security advisor for Microsoft, said although the level of hacking and virus attacks remains constant, people are being more vigilant about online threats.

Once thought unthinkable, Sun may eventually offer Microsoft's operating systems on its servers if customers ask for it. This is according to comments made last week by operating platform vice president Tom Goguen.

The founder of pen computing pioneer Go filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft, claiming that the software giant violated antitrust laws by trying to thwart Go's attempt to enter the PC operating system market.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, was filed on Wednesday in US District Court in San Francisco by S. Jerrold Kaplan, Go's founder.

Microsoft's forthcoming Longhorn operating system places great emphasis on locking down PCs to prevent unauthorised access to hardware and software, the software giant revealed today.

According to Detlef Echert, Microsoft's chief security advisor in Europe, there are several key elements designed to boost security in its next OS.

Hardware locking via a dedicated chip is combined with "hardening" of the OS to restrict how memory can be accessed.

Microsoft has released software that can be used to mitigate a critical vulnerability in Internet Explorer that was first reported last week. The bug, which concerns the way Internet Explorer (IE) handles ActiveX components, can cause the browser to crash and could be used by an attacker to run unauthorized software on the IE user's machine, according to Microsoft.

Forget the video game console -- your TV could already have the brains to play those games.

A coy Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hinted Thursday that his company might license the software underlying its Xbox gaming machine to a variety of outside companies in a bid to expand the market share for the Xbox machine -- a platform that trails the sector's No. 1 Sony PlayStation.

A fake Microsoft security bulletin is doing the rounds, complete with a link to a Trojan that will hand over control of your PC.

The e-mail identifies itself as Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-039, and offers a link to what it claims is a patch against the Sober Zafi and Mytob worms.

Bulletin MS05-039 doesn't exist however and a phony patch is a variant of the SDBot Trojan software, which is at present not detected by anti-virus software products, according to a report form security research firm WebSense.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is dropping hints that he may be ready to license the brains of the Xbox gaming device to other companies. It's a risky move to better compete with Sony's PlayStation, according to one analyst.

In an interview with Nikkei Newspaper in Tokyo, Gates was asked whether Microsoft would consider opening the manufacture of Xbox units to third parties. Gates responded that "there is nothing concrete" but said the company is always talking with partners about how to expand the Xbox culture.

HACKERS ARE focusing their love and attention on two key Windows components, according to security boffin Bruce Schneier.

Schneier, who runs an outfit called Counterpane, monitors more than 450 networks in 35 countries.

He told the Sydney Morning Herald that over the last few months, the two attack vectors that he saw in volume were against the Windows DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) interface of the RPC (remote procedure call) service and against the Windows LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service).