Ryan Naraine

Microsoft Corp. on Monday chided a private research outfit for releasing proof-of-concept code for three potentially serious flaws in the Windows operating system, warning that irresponsible disclosure was not in the best interest of consumers. The software giants rebuke comes five days after a Chinese community group called Xfocus Team said it discovered several high-risk […]

Time Warner Inc., the parent company of America Online Inc., has snapped up approximately 1.5 million shares of Net2Phone, which amounts to a 3.1 percent stake in the company, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The move comes just two weeks after AOL announced plans for a voice-over-IP rollout in Canada […]

The Apache Software Foundation has shut down the top-level Avalon project. Apache Avalon, which began in 1999 to provide Java software for component and container programmers, has been split into several sub-projects, according to a resolution passed during last months ApacheCon conference. Foundation officials said that the Avalon 4.x framework will now be housed inside […]

Digital media firm RealNetworks Inc. reacted with glee to a European Union judges order that Microsoft Corp. immediately strip the Windows Media Player from its operating system in Europe, saying that compliance with the ruling is “a big victory for consumers.” In an interview with eWEEK.com, RealNetworks deputy general counsel Dave Stewart said the ECs […]

A decision by Google Inc. to block certain search queries has helped thwart the spread of the Santy worm, but the public release of the worms source code could lead to new attacks, security experts warned on Wednesday. Google began filtering the worms queries late Tuesday night, effectively stopping the Santy propagation on vulnerable Web […]

Anti-virus vendors have raised the threat level on a new Internet worm squirming through Web servers that are running unpatched versions of the popular phpBB Web forum software. The worm, known as Net-Worm.Perl.Santy.A or Santy, uses Google search to randomly find sites running phpBB and overwrites several different files to deface the forums. By targeting […]

Looking to widen its appeal and find a niche in the small business market, Cerulean Studios has added support for Apples Rendezvous protocol to its popular Trillian instant messaging application. With Rendezvous support, Trillian now will offer serverless IM capabilities for users on the same LAN. The Rendezvous protocol, which is a key feature in […]

Web search powerhouse Google has acknowledged—and patched—a security vulnerability in its desktop search utility that opens the doors for man-in-the-middle data leak attacks. The Google fix was issued after a pair of Rice University graduate students discovered that two different attack scenarios could be used to exploit the Google Desktop vulnerability. The students, Seth J. […]

Microsofts big move into the anti-spyware business has hit an immediate speed bump, with questions swirling around a Florida companys claim that it co-owns the Giant AntiSpyware code—and all future definition updates—that Microsoft purchased earlier this week. Sunbelt Software Distribution, which markets a spyware-protection application powered by Giant, reacted to the Microsoft acquisition with glee, […]

Microsoft Corp. has quietly released a “critical” Windows XP Service Pack 2 update to fix a serious flaw in the Windows Firewall utility. “After you set up Microsoft Windows Firewall in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), you may discover that your computer can be accessed by anyone on the Internet when you use […]