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May 9, 2003
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Flaw exposes Microsoft ID service
Microsoft has admitted that for the last seven months up to 200 million Passport accounts have been vulnerable to plundering by thieves and malicious hackers.
BBC
Microsoft acknowledged a security flaw in its popular Internet Passport service that left 200 million consumer accounts vulnerable to hackers and thieves -- an admission that could expose the company to a hefty fine from U.S. regulators.
CNN
Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday a security breach in its Passport online identity service had exposed personal information, e-mail accounts and registered credit card information for an undisclosed number of users.
The world's largest software maker said it had already fixed the flaw, which affected potentially all of its active 200 million Passport accounts.
The disclosure of the security loophole and the breach comes as Microsoft pushes to make its software more secure, in part to head off fines from regulators and the loss of important government business.
Reuters
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Computer security: Gary Morse
Gary Morse, president of Razorpoint Security Technologies, has more than 20 years experience in information technology, focusing on security, network architecture and new media. In particular, he is an expert in attack/penetration testing, which uncovers and identifies vulnerabilities used by hackers against corporate networks. Before founding Razorpoint Security Technologies in 2001, Gary served in IT security and management positions for ConcreteMedia, Thaumaturgix, and IConCMT in New York City. Additionally, from 1989 to 1994 Gary headed the technology effort for the rollout of a multi-national european information network for the international transportation industry. Prior to that, working with secret government clearances, Gary worked on the development of tactical training systems for the US Navy and the Air Force. Chat with Gary about keeping your computer safe from hacking and viruses.
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The buzz on ancient flies in Antarctica
The tiny fossil of a fly discovered 300 miles from the South Pole could help scientists figure out what life was like millions of years ago in Antarctica.
The find by geologist Allan Ashworth, detailed in this week's journal Nature, could open a new chapter in the understanding of plant and animal life in ancient Antarctica and shed light on global changes in the the climate.
Until now, scientists did not think that the coldest continent ever harbored this type of flies, which are from the Cyclorrhapha family, so-called "higher flies" that include the common housefly, Ashworth said.
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Gateway shifts from PCs to TVs
Struggling US computer maker Gateway has unveiled plans to transform itself into a diversified comsumer electronics producer, in an attempt to stem mounting losses.
The firm will remodel its 192 shops, and launch a range of up to 15 televisions and probably digital cameras and camcorders.
The plan aims to build on the success of Gateway's 42-inch plasma television, which was launched last November for around $3,000 - hundreds of dollars below competitors.
"This allows us to position ourselves for a much larger, higher-growth market," chief executive Ted Waitt said.
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An army as old as the dinosaurs
Army ants, groups of ants that sweep along in massive, voracious groups, evolved just once -- contrary to common scientific belief -- a Cornell University researcher reports.
Entomologist Sean Brady studied the DNA of 30 army ant species from across the world and concluded that they all had the same point of origin.
Brady's findings, scheduled for next week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were being released early, the academy said Tuesday.
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Japan launches asteroid probe
Six weeks after blasting two spy satellites into orbit, Japan launched another rocket on Friday, this time carrying a spacecraft that scientists hope will bring back the first rock samples from an asteroid.
Taking off from Kagoshima in southern Japan, the Muses-C space probe is scheduled to visit the 1998 SF36 asteroid, 300 million km (186 million miles) from Earth, and bring back a single gram of rock in four years' time.
"Asteroids are known as the fossils of the solar system," said mission leader Junichiro Kawaguchi of Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science.
"By examining them, you can find out what substances made up the solar system, including Earth, in the distant past."
The mission will cost at least 18.7 billion yen ($160 million).
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RIAA an undemocratic, unelected, overpowerful regime
The recent claims by the New York Times that record companies are preparing software that will lock a computer system for a period of minutes or perhaps hours make it high time to call "Enough!" on the tactics of the RIAA and its members and to call for a thorough investigation of its powers and activities in regard to anti-piracy.
The most serious misgiving that I have with the RIAA is that it is a body that functions on behalf of its member record companies.
It is not an independent and duly authorised legal body and yet has acquired for itself the power to hack into any computer to examine the contents of the hard disk and the power to deposit new software or modify exiting software. On top of this, its degree of liability for damages for these activities is so minor as to be meaningless.
As things currently stand, the RIAA appears to have the power to download music files onto any hard disk, then to claim that those files were put there by the users of that computer and take due action against them. Whether you believe that it would take such action is up to you -- I only report how the situation appears.
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Microsoft, Best Buy accused of Net scam
A Los Angeles man has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Best Buy Inc. and Microsoft Corp., accusing them of scamming customers by charging them for online services without their knowledge.
The suit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims the alleged scam stemmed from a promotion in which customers at Best Buy, who paid for purchases with credit or debit cards, were given free compact discs that allowed them to try Microsoft's online service, MSN.
Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics chain, were partners in a pact dating back to 1999 to promote Microsoft's money-losing MSN Internet access service.
"We haven't yet received the complaint and therefore have no comment," a Microsoft spokesman said. Best Buy officials were not immediately available for comment.
Plaintiff Samuel Kim said he unwittingly became a victim in February after making a purchase at a Best Buy store in Los Angeles with his debit card.
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Dr. Dre to pay $1.5 million for Stealing Music Sample
Tuesday was not Dre's day, as the G-funk doctor was ordered to pay more than $1.5 million to the copyright holder of a song he illegally borrowed a portion of for his last album.
A Los Angeles jury awarded London-based Minder Music Ltd. less than half of the $3.5 million originally sought after hearing testimony from the music publisher as well as Dr. Dre.
U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall, however, has not yet signed the judgment.
Howard King, Dre's lawyer, believes the case will be thrown out because of inconsistencies within the jury's findings.
Dre testified that before hiring a musician to play a bassline from the Fatback Band's 1980 song "Backstrokin'" for his 2001 track "Let's Get High," he consulted a musicologist who said the riff was commonplace.
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E-Mail Hoax Targets First Union Customers
A hoax e-mail purporting to come from First Union Bank and attempting to dupe recipients to visit a malicious Web site is making the rounds on the Internet.
The mail arrives from an address at Firstunion.com and informs the recipient that the bank has lost the recipient's online banking username and password. It directs users to a Web site where they are encouraged to enter their usernames and passwords, which are presumably then collected for later use by the scam artist who created the e-mail.
The e-mail arrives from the address bankaccount@wachovia.com and bank officials say they're unsure exactly how the sender was able to forge the address. Nor have they discovered how the attacker got a list of the bank's customers' e-mail addresses.
Even if users don't enter their personal information in the form at the site, they could still be at risk. Simply visiting the site triggers an automatic download of the Backdoor-AMQ Trojan horse program to the visitor's machine, according to an advisory published Thursday by the Unified Incident Reporting and Alert Scheme, the U.K. equivalent of the CERT Coordination Center.
Backdoor-AMQ is a well-known application that gives an attacker the ability to remotely control infected machines. Once installed a PC, the program allows an attacker to perform a number of tasks on the remote machine, including deleting and moving files, shutting down Windows, logging off users and hiding or killing applications, Windows and processes.
Officials at Wachovia Corp., in Charlotte, N.C., which now owns First Union, said they first became aware of the scam in mid-April and have had some reports from customers who have been affected by it.
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Quarries record bombardment
The Earth experienced a massive bombardment from meteoroids 480 million years ago after the break-up of a giant space rock.
The amount of material that rained down on our planet was 100 times that experienced today, say researchers.
The evidence comes from fossil meteorite fragments found in limestone deposits spread over a wide area of Sweden.
These all contain a particular mineral signature that links them to the same mighty asteroid that came apart in a collision with another huge rock.
The research team, from Göteborg University and Rice University, US, reports its findings in the journal Science.
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'Pollution' threatens night sky
A new campaign is being launched on Friday to combat the growing problem of so-called light pollution in the UK.
Researchers have found that a good view of the night sky is becoming more and more difficult in the countryside.
They have found that during the 1990s the area of countryside with pure dark skies reduced by 27%.
Campaigners want better downward-pointing street lighting introduced to enable the continued view of the night time sky's landscape.
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Office 2003 Beta 2 Update Screenshots
We've got hold of a few screenshots of the latest update to the Office 11 beta. From the screenshots below you can see there are a lot of icon improvements. It finally looks like Microsoft has decided to sort out the icon consistency in its products.
According to sources the beta update is to be released to testers soon and for download only.
We hope you like the screenshots and there should be more to follow.
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Nanotechnology bill approved in the House
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved oversight legislation on Wednesday (May 7) authorizing a national nanotechnology research and development program.
By a vote of 405-19, House members approved a three-year spending plan totaling $2.36 billion for nanotechnolgy R&D programs for the National Science Foundation, the departments of Commerce and Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Defense Department is also spending millions on nanotechnology research.
The House bill is designed to coordinate research among the different agencies and promote commercialization of nanotechnology applications. "Nanotechnology has the potential to become a $1 trillion global market in a little over 10 years, and as such, countries around the world are in a race to develop their nanotechnology industries," said Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif, a chief sponsor of the legislation.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is preparing a nanotechnology game plan that calls for delivering a set of primary objectives for a U.S. research program by the end of the summer. The strategy would include recommendations on "grand challenges" and strategic goals that could be used in developing a fiscal 2005 budget request. The recommendations would not cover spending levels, only how federal funds should be spent.
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Irish schools stop truants with text messages
Two Irish schools are testing a new scheme using modern mobile-phone technology to take the temptation out of playing truant.
Under the scheme, a database records the names of absent students each day and automatically sends out a text message to parents notifying them if their child missed roll-call.
"If the absenteeism is legitimate, parents can ignore the message. If not, they can contact the school," David Sweeney, principal of Dublin's Portmarnock Community School -- one of the two pilot sites -- said on Thursday.
While the school, which has 900 pupils aged between 12 and 18, did not have a big problem with truancy, the scheme had already made an impact, he said.
"It's a natural progression from the old style of roll-call. It's quick and efficient and we're very pleased with it."
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Digital radio's Kiss of life
The new radio listening figures show healthy numbers for digital radio stations - what does this mean for listeners?
"This is a historic press conference" announced the head of Rajar, radio's official audience research body. "For the first time, we have listening figures for digital radio."
And very good they are too - as far as they go. Just a handful of digital radio stations have submitted themselves for measurement so far, but the figures they announced took many people by surprise.
The dance station Kiss 100 attracted 961,000 digital listeners, while two of its sister stations - Smash Hits Radio and Kerrang! Radio - each won more than 750,000.
Why is that surprising? Because there aren't that many of the new digital radio sets, sometimes called DAB sets, in British homes.
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