A new addition to the Microsoft website, along the lines of security as Microsoft seems to be doing a lot of recently. This new subsection of the website devotes itself to displaying information on current threats and also allowing users to submit their own files which are deemed suspicious.

You can search through a vast encyclopedia of information regarding almost every threat under the sun - it even has up to date information on the latest definition files relating to Windows Defender and Microsoft Forefront Client Security, so everyone can keep their systems up to date whether in x86 or x64. This website’s great, you must check it out.

Go and see the Microsoft Malware Protection Center.

Google has stepped up its efforts to take on Microsoft Office with the $625m (£310m) purchase of web-based security provider Postini. The search engine giant said the deal would allow it to provide more companies with web-based services similar to its Google Apps package. Postini sells encryption and archiving software to more than 35,000 businesses and 10m users across the globe. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter.

“With this transaction, we’re reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes,” said Google chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt. “With the addition of Postini, our apps are not just simple and appealing to users - they can also streamline the complex information security mandates within these organisations.” The acquisition is the third biggest announced by Google after it snapped up DoubleClick for $3.1bn in April and its $1.65bn takeover of YouTube.

Google has been moving closer to directly taking on Microsoft’s Office package of applications with the launch of a number of popular business web services including email, calendars, spreadsheets and word processing. So far its Google Apps service has been adopted by 100,000 business, the firm said.

This one is really easy - miss having the administrator on the Welcome screen? You can really easily put it back on there with a command from Run.

1. Go to Start, and in the Search box type in cmd.
2. Right click the Command Prompt at the top of the Start menu and select “Run as administrator”.
3. At the command prompt, type in net user administrator /active:yes then press Enter.
4. Log off and you should see the administrator sitting there on your Welcome login screen.

Source: VistaBase

Isn’t it time we got a grip and sorted some of this out? Last year, the IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) had more than 31,000 reports of websites which had alleged child abuse images. Around 10% of this actually had indecent images of children, which were under the age of 12.

31,776 reports processed
10,656 pages contained child abuse content
3,077 websites contained all of the images
1,667 were commercial websites
10.5% of all pages were on photo sharing websites
91% of victims appear to be under 12 years old

Peter Robbins, chief executive of the IWF, said that the US was the worst offender, principally because of access to technology and its geography.

Microsoft are trying to play a part in increasing web safety with such safety features being implimented in Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail and Spaces, with a standalone product, Family Safety, being released later in August according to internal sources. Is this enough? Should the software giant be doing more to promote web safety seeing as it’s their products being used to do these things? Comment ahoy.

Parts sourced: BBC News

V Sharma shows a security flaw in Orkut, if exploited it exposes the email address of any person.

“Orkut has been in the midst of privacy and security concerns since its launch. There have been many ways through which you can get to know the email address of any person on Orkut even when it is not displayed in the public profile. Although, Google keeps on fixing bugs as and when they are highlighted; however, there seems to be a long way before they can make Orkut a secure social network.”

Orkut: Your Email Address Can Be Hacked

We couldn’t put it clearer - use Firefox! It is so much better than Internet Explorer or Opera, even Safari. You can get Firefox on a number of different platforms - for Windows, Linux, Red Hat, and even Apple Mac, don’t forget mobile editions.

It loads things faster, it’s more secure, it’s simpler, it shows websites much better than Internet Explorer, it manages passwords and saved data much better, it’s easier to use, it updates itself automatically to keep you secure from online threats, it has in-built safety features such as a phishing filter (which Microsoft stole of course). All these, and it’s completely free.

Currently 61% of Live and Beyond viewers (as of 31st March 2007) use Internet Explorer and only 28% use Firefox. C’mon, use Firefox to view Live and Beyond and show us that you really support open-source and better browsing. Let’s try and get that figure up to at least past half way. If you’re using Internet Explorer, we’ll tell you so in the top right hand corner of your screen.

I wasn’t far off - it’s been released this evening! Download ahoy!

Windows Server 2003 SP2 (32-bit x86)
Windows Server 2003 SP2 for x64 Editions
Windows Server 2003 SP2 for Itanium-based Systems

Windows Vista (32-bit) has been cracked. It’s the day that genuine users hoped would never come but indeed it has. Known only as Paradox 2007, they have worked tirelessly to crack the latest operating system from Microsoft (why, I don’t know, but they have).

I can confirm, that running Vista in a virtual environment, this patch does work. Let’s just wait and see if Windows Aero works and the Ultimate Extra’s are available.

Check it: The Land of Richard

“Tor — an acronym for The Onion Router — is a freely available, open-source program developed by the U.S. Navy about a decade ago. A browser plug-in, it thwarts online traffic analysis and related forms of Internet surveillance by sending your data packets through different routers around the world. As each packet moves from one router to the next, it is encoded with encrypted routing information, and the previous layer of such information is peeled away — hence the “onion” in the name.” - PAUL CESARINI

There are many reasons Tor can be used for; Preventing Amazon from learning your preferences and dynamically charging you by learning your buying habits, journalist in oppressed states where there is no free speech can use it to access news from the outside and so on..

Tor [website]

MySpace is being sued by the families of five teenage girls who it is claimed were sexually assaulted by men they met through the social networking website. The negligence and fraud suit against the popular site, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, was filed at a court in Los Angeles.

It comes after a similar lawsuit was filed by the parents of a 14-year-old American girl last year. Last year, MySpace increased security measures to protect its younger users. In April 2006, the website hired a former prosecutor in the US Justice Department’s internet child exploitation unit, Hemanshu Nigam, as its chief security officer.

It also made it impossible for users aged 18 and above to contact 14 and 15-year-old members, unless they knew the younger person’s email address. The girls involved in the latest lawsuits were all aged between 14 - the minimum age for a MySpace account - and 15.

“In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users,” said Jason Itkin, a lawyer for one of the firms representing the families. However Mr Nigam said that “ultimately, internet safety is a shared responsibility”.

“We encourage everyone to apply common sense offline security lessons in their online experiences and engage in open family dialogue about smart web practices,” he added. News Corporation’s shares rose 1.7% in Thursday trading. It bought MySpace for $580m (£333m) in July 2005.

Source: BBC News