Larry Seltzer

At Comdex earlier this week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced that the company would release an anti-spam filter, the Intelligent Message Filter for Microsoft Exchange 2003. This filter implements the same “SmartScreen technology” in MSN mail, Hotmail, and Outlook 2003. Suddenly, the analyst circuit lit up with concerns about the damage this would cause to […]

I remember my first Comdex even though more than a dozen years have passed. At that time, it was a must-attend event for the IT pro. Comdex was like going to the Super Bowl—the extravagance was completely over the top. Still, even then I could see that getting everyone together in one place could become […]

Users have been reporting problems with some of the security patches and other updates recently released by Microsoft Corp. The Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer, which addresses numerous security flaws in Internet Explorer 6, introduces bugs involving the scrollbar. After the patch is applied, the page scrolls up or down twice when the user […]

Microsoft began to talk about the upcoming Service Pack 2 for Windows XP at its recent There was a time when service packs were mostly just bunches of individual patches consolidated into a single program. Sure, there were new features in them but they were subtle features, like a new tab on a dialog box. […]

If you use e-mail regularly, the spam clogging your in-box has no doubt reached the point where you cant continue without doing something about it. Fortunately, spam-blocking utilities and services for both individuals and corporations have improved by leaps and bounds over the past year, drastically cutting the amount of spam you receive while reducing […]

After I completed the testing and writing for PC Magazines recent Antispam product roundups, I decided it was time eat my own dog food, to use a phrase I believe was coined by Microsofts David Cutler. It refers to using the products you try to get your customers to use. Basically the business version of […]

A researcher at ICSA Labs has reported that some implementations of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), a standard for cryptography of data on Wi-Fi networks, can be compromised through a dictionary attack. Robert Moskowitz, senior technical director at ICSA Labs, detailed the attack scenario in a paper published yesterday. Not all WPA-based networks are vulnerable. Those […]

By now its clear to most everyone that law enforcement is ill-equipped to effectively uncover the perpetrators of the widespread viruses and worms. Microsoft is doing something about it, by starting a fund of reward money for information leading to the arrest of such miscreants. Now, the $5 million fund is not a major investment […]

The recent coverage of Longhorn Windows got me thinking of virtual machines and their potential for security. Of course, that wasnt always the case. I remember writing a 4GL database management system. Now, this wasnt a conventional program; it ran in a virtual machine. The instructions in the compiled software werent executed by the CPU […]

Windows Microsoft said this week that it plans to switch off its Windows Messenger service and activate Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) by default on Windows XP. Windows Messenger–not to be confused with the companys MSN Messenger instant messaging service–is used to exchange data between computers. Windows XP Service Pack 2 is due in the first […]