Ryan Naraine

The absence of an official patch from Microsoft for a known and widely exploited Internet Explorer flaw has spawned a cottage industry for homegrown fixes. Security experts say a browser add-on masquerading as a third-party IE patch is being sold on the Internet, but users are being warned to steer clear of software from untrusted […]

The ubiquitous banner ad has become the latest delivery mechanism for exploit code targeting a known flaw in Microsoft Corp.s Internet Explorer browser. During a 12-hour window over the weekend, hackers broke into a load balancing server that handles ad deliveries for Germanys Falk eSolutions and successfully loaded exploit code on banner advertising served on […]

Is there a place in the enterprise for a legal file-sharing application using peer-to-peer technology? Three former America Online Inc. executives with a history of entrepreneurial success believe they have the answer with Grouper, an encrypted P2P network that integrates file sharing, instant messaging and multimedia streaming.Josh Felser, who hit pay dirt with the $320 […]

IBM has issued an interim fix for a pair of DoS (denial of service) vulnerabilities affecting its HTTP Server V2.0. In an advisory posted Friday, the Armonk, N.Y.-based firm said the flaws are related to two known issues in the open-source Apache HTTP Server. IBM said the first bug could allow a remote attacker to […]

German security researcher Stefan Esser has discovered multiple vulnerabilities in smbfs, the mountable SMB (Server Message Block) file system for Linux. In an advisory made public Wednesday, Esser said the bugs theoretically could crash the kernel or leak kernel memory with the help of the SMB server. The alert carries a “moderately critical” rating. The […]

Security researchers are warning of another pair of vulnerabilities in Microsoft Corp.s Internet Explorer browser affecting users on fully patched Windows XP Service Pack 2 systems. According to an alert from Secunia that carries a “moderately critical” rating, the holes can be exploited to bypass a security feature in XP SP2 and trick users into […]

Microsoft Corp.s oft-delayed WUS (Windows Update Services) is finally ready for public testing. A public beta of WUS was released at the Microsoft IT Forum show in Copenhagen to give system administrators their first look at the tool that handles the download, installation and management of software updates. Microsoft has been privately beta testing WUS, […]

Security software specialist McAfee Inc. has added a new module to its virus scan engine to help businesses combat the growing spyware scourge. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee (formerly Network Associates) said the new Anti-Spyware Enterprise Edition Module will plug into the McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 7.1 and 8.0i to add another layer of protection against […]

Amazon.com has quietly started testing a back-end message queuing interface for distributed applications, a move that suggests a bold push into the middleware services market. With the beta launch of the Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service), the Seattle-based firm on Monday announced plans to sell a third-party service to handle message buffering between distributed application […]

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, on Friday flipped the switch on a new URL transfer policy, which aims to simplify the way domain names can be moved between registrars. ICANN, the nonprofit outfit that coordinates the assignment of TLDs (top-level domain names), said the new policy will simplify and standardize the […]

Work on the new Atom content syndication format is almost done and ready for review by the Internet Engineering Task Force, a key backer announced Friday. Tim Bray, technology director at Sun Microsystems Inc. and primary voice behind The Atom Project, has given the thumbs-up to the draft format and is proposing that the working […]

A Connecticut man arrested on charges of selling Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code stolen from a Microsoft Corp. partner faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to a complaint unsealed by a New York court. William Genovese, who allegedly used the online moniker “illwill” and operated […]