Larry Seltzer

I wont bother asking you whether youve noticed a lot of spam coming into your e-mail account lately. It would be more interesting to ask if you can notice any real mail. MessageLabs, a mail security service, recently reported that 76 percent of all mail they processed in the month of May was spam. That […]

A couple versions ago I looked at Secure IE from Winferno Software and was unkind to it. As I said at the time, it largely just automated settings in Internet Explorer you could make on your own and for free. I met some resistance at the time from colleagues who felt that the product could […]

A British Web developer has revealed a new form of a cross-site scripting, or XSS, attack that facilitates phishing activities. The attack, demonstrated by the developer on his own site, allows an attacker to execute scripts in the context of another Web site. Testing by eWEEK.com indicates that the attack works on both Internet Explorer […]

If youve ever wondered why major software releases such as new operating systems take so long, one of the biggest contributing factors is backward compatibility. Microsoft is especially sensitive to this, and especially with its largest customers. It works very hard not to break old applications. But with Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), expected […]

The first known virus for the Windows CE operating system has been developed and sent to anti-virus companies. The virus, known as WinCE4.Dust, does no direct damage to the system. When its executed, according to descriptions from several anti-virus companies, it asks, “Dear User, am I allowed to spread?” Symantec notes that if the user […]

A new variant on the Bagle worm has elicited increased alert levels from anti-virus companies owing to increased numbers of submissions, from both consumer and corporate clients. Known as W32/Bagle.af@MM to McAfee, WORM_BAGLE.AF to Trend Micro and W32.Beagle.AB@mm to Symantec, the new version is rated “medium on-watch” by McAfee and “category 3 – moderate” by […]

After two ho-hum months we all knew a more significant patch day was coming in July. By the time the next one comes around, Windows XP Service Pack 2 may have gone “gold,” changing the landscape somewhat. But there still may be patches, even in August. I took note of the fact that none of […]

Shared hosting can be a cost-efficient solution for many Web sites, but you may end up paying a different sort of price. As always when sharing with strangers, theres a risk of the unknown. A well-designed and -managed operating system along with other system software may be able to protect applications and users from one […]

Microsoft issued seven security bulletins Tuesday, two of them designated “critical,” for various versions of Windows and associated products. The company recommends that all Windows users apply the critical updates immediately. One of the critical bulletins, MS04-023, titled “Vulnerability in HTML Help Could Allow Code Execution,” addresses vulnerabilities in the Windows HTML Help system that […]

In the wake of last weeks revelation of a security hole in Mozilla that allows the execution of arbitrary programs on the client system a philosophical debate has emerged: Is this a bug in Mozilla or a bug in Windows? I think the argument is that Windows should prevent the shell scheme from executing programs, […]