Microsoft

Several high-profile Xbox Live accounts for former and current Microsoft employees were compromised by attackers using social engineering techniques, the company said late Tuesday.

"We are actively working with law enforcement and other affected companies to disable this current method of attack and prevent its further use," the company said in a statement. "Security is of critical importance to us and we are working every day to bring new forms of protection to our members."

If you've got 99 security problems, odds are Microsoft's not one—or at least it's just a minority of them. In its annual review of software vulnerabilities, security software firm Secunia found that 86 percent of vulnerabilities discovered on systems scanned by its software in the 50 most popular Windows software packages in 2012 were attributable to third-party developers and not to Microsoft's Windows operating system or applications. And for most of these vulnerabilities, a patch was already available at the time they were discovered.

Having worked on several continents, I know how difficult it can be to adjust to different cultures.

In Poland, for example, men kiss men at work. In the United States, on the other hand, they sue for that kind of thing.

So you have to feel for any American who is suddenly asked very nicely by his employer to leave the deep safety of the nation and venture to, say, the United Kingdom. They're different there. They're tight-lipped and generally superior. Kinder employers, therefore, create little handbooks to prepare unwitting expats for a new world.

There've been rumors for years, literally, that Microsoft planned to move its Windows Phone team under its Windows team with former Windows President Steven Sinofsky as the head of both products. Cut to March 2013: Sinofsky is no longer with Microsoft and Windows Phone still sits in the Entertainment & Devices division.

Google Now is arguably the single best feature found in Android Jelly Bean, and soon, it seems, it may be coming to iOS, Windows 8 and Chromebooks everywhere.

Microsoft has released four critical security updates for Windows and Internet Explorer, along with a bevy of other products, in order to protect against at least 19 vulnerabilities identified in its software.

On deck this month, there are four "critical" vulnerabilities that affect Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, and Windows Server, including one for Silverlight that affects both Windows and Mac machines.

Microsoft next week expects to release seven patches to cover vulnerabilities across its product line.

According to the software giant's advance notification announced Thursday, four of the bulletins are rated "critical," while three earned "important" designations. They address flaws in Internet Explorer (IE), Windows, Office, Server Software and Silverlight.

Internet Explorer vulnerabilities warrant notice in this month's set of Microsoft Patch Tuesday bulletins and need to be fixed quickly even though the sheer number of patches may seem daunting.

The weaknesses leave users open to drive-by attacks where malicious code is downloaded without the user's knowledge while browsing. Not patching them because they are time-consuming will just widen the window of opportunity hackers have to exploit them, says Alex Horan, a senior product manager at CORE Security.

Ever since it was announced, I've had skepticism about the purpose and value of Windows RT, Microsoft's version of Windows that runs on ARM computers. The upside of Windows RT—cheap devices and long battery life—was diluted by Intel finally managing to beat its Atom processor into shape. The downside—incompatibility with almost every Windows application ever written—seemed substantial.

Microsoft is showing off prototypes of some of the fruits of its research labs from around the world, many of which have big-data, machine-learning and natural-user-interface tie-ins.

TechFest, the 2013 version of Microsoft's annual research and development showcase, kicked off this week on March 5. March 5 was the only day that TechFest is open to non-employees. A number of press, customers and partners had a chance to see a subset of the research projects that Microsoft will be highlighting throughout the week.