Ryan Naraine

Microsoft Corp.s first monthly patch day for 2005 will include security fixes for three vulnerabilities in Windows products, the software giant said Thursday. As part of its advance notice mechanism, Microsoft said the maximum severity rating for the three updates is “critical.” The security updates may require a restart. It is not known whether all […]

Continuing its recent spate of security moves, Microsoft Corp. on Thursday said it plans to release a virus detection and removal tool on Jan. 11. The antivirus fighter will be updated on the second Tuesday of every month as part of the companys scheduled software patching cycle. Meanwhile, exactly three weeks after acquiring anti-spyware startup […]

Six Apart Ltd., the small software firm founded by childhood sweethearts Ben and Mena Trott, is set to make a big splash with the acquisition of Danga Interactive Inc.s LiveJournal blogging network. The deal, which will be announced on Thursday, involves an undisclosed amount of cash and stock, eWEEK.com has confirmed. The acquisition gives the […]

Almost a month after Microsoft released a fix for a security issue in the WINS (Windows Internet Name Service) name server, malicious exploits continue to haunt tardy network administrators. According to an alert from the SANS ISC (Internet Storm Center), there has been a startling increase in hacker probes directed at TCP port 42 and […]

The first drop of Microsoft Corp.s “A1” security sauce has been spilled internally and its all systems go for a full-scale beta launch of an anti-spyware application within the next month. A spokesperson for the software giant confirmed that a repackaged—and rebranded—version of the Giant AntiSpyware tool was released to employees for testing ahead of […]

Network security vendor Symantec Corp. has rolled out fixes for three high-risk security holes in its Nexland Firewall appliances. The flaws could put users at risk of security bypass, manipulation of data and denial-of-service attacks, according to an advisory from research outfit Secunia, which rates the vulnerabilities as “highly critical.” Symantec confirmed that the vulnerabilities […]

Another mutant of the Santy worm has started squirming, this one depositing a so-called patch for vulnerable Web forums powered by the phpBB software. The “Anti-Santy-Worm V4,” discovered by anti-virus vendor F-Secure, works very much like the original Santy worm, which used Google search results to randomly find—and deface—phpBB forums. Google has since tweaked its […]

Microsoft on Thursday rushed to put the kibosh on talk that it was abandoning the single sign-on Passport identity management service. But even as company officials insist that Passport “will be around for a long time,” it has become increasingly clear that a series of security-related hiccups has ruined consumer trust in the Web-based tool. […]

The state of California is mounting a legal challenge to a recent Federal Communications Commission ruling that VOIP phone services sold by Vonage Holdings Corp. were exempt from state and local regulations and tariffs. In a petition for review filed with the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit, the Public Utilities Commission of […]

Anti-virus vendors are bracing for a deluge of new and potentially dangerous mutants of the Cabir worm on smart phones running the Symbian Series 60 software. Thats because the source code used to create the original Cabir worm has been posted on the Internet by a member of an international virus-writing group. According to an […]