Microsoft

You might be thinking that running Exchange Server 2003 on the Internet itself is tempting, however you should be concerned with the security issues in doing so -- there are many attacks and automated scripts in the hands of hackers that pound on Exchange machines and attempt to compromise them. Outlook Web Access can be a useful option, however there are security issues with deploying this as well. And the fact remains that sometimes you absolutely need to provide full access for Microsoft Outlook clients, and the Web Access front-end just won't cut it.

Short-Media have thrown up a new article which asks does Windows Service Pack 2 slow you down?

Microsoft released Service Pack 2 and millions installed it. Did boat anchors come with the enhancements? We threw 108 benchmarks at Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 in an attempt to declare a winner.

It's been barely two months since Microsoft made a pop-up blocker available for its Internet Explorer browser--but Web advertisers have already found a way to slip their loathed marketing pitches past it.

Microsoft threatened severe penalties on Thursday for those who circulate a stolen copy of "Halo 2", the hotly anticipated Xbox game set to go on sale next month.

Microsoft representatives confirmed that a pirated copy of "Halo 2" -- in the French language and the PAL video format used by European television sets -- began circulating on the Internet late on Wednesday via newsgroups and "warez" sites for swapping pirated software.

Stuart Okin, the public face of Microsoft UK's security work, has resigned from the software giant.

In an email sent by Okin on Wednesday afternoon, and seen by silicon.com sister site ZDNet UK he revealed he was "moving on to pastures new" after eight years at Microsoft. Okin confirmed those "pastures" will be within Accenture.

Okin was appointed as Microsoft UK's first chief security officer in February 2002, and is well respected by security professionals.

Recent updates to IE contain a serious regression that leaves systems once more vulnerable to a flaw fixed more than two years ago, according to security researchers. The vulnerability, which involves how IE processes XML files, gives rise to information disclosure risks. The security bug was patched and closed back in Aug 2002, six months after Microsoft was initially notified about it by Israeli firm GreyMagic Software, which discovered the problem.

Microsoft yesterday released 10 new security bulletins to fix multiple components in its Windows operating system and applications.

I sat up and took notice when Microsoft released not one, but two interim fixes to an announced flaw in ASP.Net, and released them fairly quickly. This is not SOP in Microsoft Land.

HERE IN DUBLIN, not too many miles away from the forbidden zone – Intel’s Leixlip fab – Annette Jump, a senior analyst at Gartner ha delivered a presentation on what corporations and system builders should do given the current confusion over Windows clients.
Jump didn't say this but the Gartner graph of Microsoft support certainly suggests that if you're confused as a corporation or an end user, it's not really your fault at all.

The software giant acknowledged on Monday that it continued to battle a technical glitch that prevented MSN users from logging into the service's instant messaging system for the past three days. The problems, which several users complained about on discussion forums frequented by network administrators, caused several hours of outages on Monday morning.