Microsoft plans to launch its Internet Explorer 7 browser “within the next two weeks”, the company said at the Digital Life conference in New York.

The software developer previously had said that the application would be available some time in the second half of 2006.

Internet Explorer 7 will be bundled with the forthcoming Windows Vista operating systems and will be made available as a free download to Windows XP users.

The new browser promises an increased level of security by running in a protected mode that limits the software’s access to other data stored on the system. The application also comes with a built in phishing filter that prevents users from accessing known phishing websites.

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Widespread worms, viruses or Trojan horses spammed to millions of mailboxes are typically not a grave concern anymore, security experts said at the Virus Bulletin conference here Thursday. Instead, especially for organizations, targeted Trojan horses have become the nightmare scenario, they said.

“Targeted Trojan horses are still a tiny amount of the overall threat landscape, but it is what the top corporations worry about most,” said Vincent Weafer, a senior director at Symantec Security Response. “This is what they stay up at night worried about.”

The stealthy attacks install keystroke-logging or screen-scraping software, and they are used for industrial espionage and other financially motivated crimes, experts said.

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Reports surfaced today of spam purporting to be from Dell, Walmart, Circuit City or Sony confirming an order for a Sony Vaio computer with a PDF attachment, but the attachment is, in fact, a very nasty piece of malware named Haxdoor. Text of email:

Quote:

---

Subject: Order ID : 37679041

Dear Customer,

Thank you for ordering from our internet shop. If you paid with a credit card, the charge on your statement will be from name of our shop. This email is to confirm the receipt of your order. Please do not reply as this email was sent from our automated confirmation system.

Date : 08 Oct 2006 – 12:40
Order ID : 37679041
Payment by Credit card
Product : Quantity : Price
WJM-PSP – Sony VAIO SZ370 C2D T7200 : 1 : 2,449.99
Subtotal : 2,449.99
Shipping : 32.88
TOTAL : 2,482.87

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News source: Spyware Confidential

If you didn’t already download the Windows Vista Release Candidate (RC) 2 bits, you missed your window of opportunity.

Microsoft posted the RC2 bits for download on October 6 and made them available to technical beta testers and others who had enrolled previously in the Customer Preview Program beta pool. Once Microsoft passed its internal target of having 200,000 testers download the new build, Microsoft closed off access to the RC2 build, No. 5744.

“We hit our download target (200K+) within 72 hours of propping the files!” said Vista Program Manager Nick White in a posting on the Vista Team Blog.

Microsoft officials have said RC2 will be the last broadscale test release of Vista. The next time the masses will have access to the code is in November 2006 (for business customers) and January 2007 (for others obtaining the product through other retail/delivery channels).

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News source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft will end support for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and SP1a on Tuesday, leaving people no option but to upgrade to Service Pack 2 if they wish to continue to receive crucial components, including security software.

There’s little reason for anyone to still be running SP1; SP2 contained a range of improvements to XP’s security. People can check which version they are running by right-clicking on the My Computer desktop icon and then selecting properties.

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News source: News.com

The company on Thursday launched a Web site, Google Code Search, which the company says will let programmers search billions of lines of code for tips on how to write their own software.

The service, conceived by the Google Labs early technology group, will crawl publicly available code, most of which is made available through open-source projects. The search and indexing covers code on Web pages and code that resides in compressed files, said Tom Stocky, a product manager at Google.

Google expects that the search engine will be used primarily as a learning tool to help students and serious programmers, rather than a way to find and copy another person’s code.

“Most of the code is open source so you can reuse it. But I don’t think that’s the primary use–it’s more about how to learn about things and, when you’re building open-source packages, to make sure you doing it the right way,” Stocky said.

View: Google Code Search
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News source: News.com

PressPass: Please describe the Software Protection Platform in more detail.

Hartje: One of the things the Software Protection Platform enables is enhancements to the genuine experience in Windows Vista, thereby differentiating it from the non-genuine experience. Customers that use genuine Windows Vista product should expect, and will get, an enhanced set of features that will not work on non-genuine or unlicensed versions of Windows Vista. Customers using genuine and licensed copies of Windows Vista will have access to Windows Aero and Windows ReadyBoost features, as well as full functionality of Windows Defender and extra optional updates from Windows Update. Computer systems that do not pass validation will not have access to these features, although they will still have access to critical security updates. Aero offers Microsoft’s best-designed, highest-performing desktop experience and is available in Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate. ReadyBoost lets users use a removable flash memory device to improve system performance without opening the computer to install additional memory. Both are key features that a user of non-genuine software will quickly realize are not running. Windows Defender helps protect a user’s PC against pop-ups, and security threats caused by spyware and other malware.

In addition, users of non-genuine Windows Vista software will be notified if their copy of Windows Vista is determined to be non-genuine with the appearance of a persistent statement in the lower right hand corner of their desktop space that reads, “This copy of Windows is not genuine.”

Another important change with Windows Vista has to do with the activation process. As with Windows XP, Windows Vista systems must activate with Microsoft with a genuine product key within 30 days. Failure to do so will result in the system operating in reduced functionality mode until a genuine product key is used to activate and a successful validation occurs.

PressPass: Does “reduced functionality” mean Microsoft will turn off people’s PCs running non-genuine Windows Vista software?

Hartje: No, Microsoft anti-piracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer. In alignment with our anti-piracy policies we have been continually improving the experience for our genuine customers, while restricting access to ongoing Windows capabilities for those who choose to use counterfeit software. Reduced functionality mode has been a part of the initial Windows XP product activation process for retail and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) installations since its launch, and, similarly, Windows Vista will have a reduced functionality mode but one that is enhanced. Reduced functionality mode in Windows Vista will allow the user to use the browser after the reduced functionality mode has begun. Reduced functionality mode can occur as a result of failed product activation or of that copy being identified as counterfeit or non-genuine. In most cases customers will be able to correct this situation quickly with the options provided. With the tools in place for OEMs, and small to large customers, we expect that most customers should never be affected by having a non-genuine installation.

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Beaming people in “Star Trek” fashion is still in the realms of science fiction, but physicists in Denmark have teleported information from light to matter bringing quantum communication and computing closer to reality.

Until now scientists have teleported similar objects such as light or single atoms over short distances from one spot to another in a split second.

But Professor Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University in Denmark have made a breakthrough by using both light and matter.

“It is one step further because for the first time it involves teleportation between light and matter, two different objects. One is the carrier of information and the other one is the storage medium,” Polzik explained in an interview on Wednesday.

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News source: CNN