AirMagnet Inc., the award-winning leader in wireless network assurance, announced the results of a recently conducted survey measuring wireless signal strength in a standard office setting both before and after introducing a change in the office environment — holiday decorations. While decorations are relatively commonplace at this time of year and might seem innocuous, as with any change introduced to a wireless environment, it’s difficult to predict how new elements might affect wireless performance – but proper planning can help reduce the negative effect on wireless networks. AirMagnet’s survey, using AirMagnet Survey PRO and AirMagnet Laptop Analyzer, showed the decorations had a significant impact on the Wi-Fi network, with:

* Signal strength decreased by 25 percent
* Signal deterioration increased over distance by one-third
* Signal distribution uneven in some locations, deteriorating signal strength by an additional 10 percent

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News source: AirMagnet.com

35 days before Windows XP was officially released, a pirated key, called the “devils0wn”, began circulating around the web which allowed users to run a pirated copy of the operating system. Since then, the key has been used thousands of times and is now a part of Windows XP history. Trying to follow in devils0wn’s footsteps, a new crack for Windows Vista is rumored to have become available. Called “Windows Vista All Versions Activation 21.11.06”, the key reportedly unlocks any version of Vista. Sounds great for pirates, right? Maybe it is, depending where you stand on software piracy.

Those who download “Windows Vista All Versions Activation 21.11.06” will end up with anything but a cracked version of Vista. The file is neither a crack nor key generator, but it is a trojan installer that installs the malware known as “Trojan-PSW.Win32.LdPinch.aze.” According to APC Magazine, most antivirus scanners will recognize the trojan, but NOD32 and Norton’s latest signatures do not.

While most of us dread the thought of a new piece of malware in the wild, it’s hard not to like the motive behind this trojan. Nevertheless, any propagation of malware is a bad thing so I’m happy to hear that most scanners can stop this one.

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News source: Ars Technia

F-Secure has spotted an outbreak of a Javascript exploit that uses flaws in Apple’s Quicktime to grab MySpace profile data.

It’s not easy to explain, but it’s a form of phishing: you visit what looks like a normal MySpace page, but the links have been altered to take you off-site (though that still looks like MySpace). There, a Quicktime .mov is downloaded to your system and runs a Javascript file that changes your MySpace profile.

The aim: to steal lots, and lots of MySpace login details.

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News source: Guardian Unlimited

Microsoft expects software piracy, which costs the company billions of dollars every year, to ease with the introduction of its new Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007 software suite, CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday.

Microsoft launched Windows Vista to businesses Thursday, releasing the first major upgrade in five years of its dominant operating system that sits on more than 90 percent the world’s computers.

In an interview, Ballmer said that more than 20 percent of its software running around the world is pirated and the company aims to lower that figure with a new authentication program to run in Windows Vista and Office 2007.

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News source: VAR Business

Security vendor McAfee has predicted that the increasing popularity of video on the web will make it a future target for hackers.

The use of video formats on social-networking sites — such as YouTube — will attract malware writers, the company claims. As people become more reluctant to open email attachments from anonymous sources, hackers will target users who open media files instead.

The functionality of online video, which includes pop-up ads and URL redirects, will become “ideal tools of destruction for malware writers,” claimed McAfee in a statement. “As video-sharing networks on the web proliferate, the potential capture of a large audience will incite malware writers to exploit these channels for monetary gain.”

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News source: ZDNet

When the smartest businesspeople on the planet – the Google guys, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates – all say the future of their companies is in video, who are we to argue? Google is buying YouTube. Apple is set to launch the iTV, which will wirelessly connect your TV to your Mac.

The much delayed operating system launches on Nov. 30 for business users and in January for consumers. And like any new rev of the OS that still commands 90 percent of the PC market, Vista has the power to take a technology and make it mainstream.
Pumping cash into the global economy

Just as Windows 3.1 led to mass adoption of the graphical user interface and Windows 95 popularized the browser, Vista will slowly but surely transform the PC into a true multimedia device. The computer has already absorbed the telephone’s capabilities; Vista’s role is to throw in the TV too.

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News source: Money

Just talked to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in advance of tomorrow’s Very Big Deal launch of the new Vista Windows operating system and new generation of Microsoft Office. (Funny — I saw Sun Chairman Scott McNealy last night, and he joked that Windows and Office make up “120% of Microsoft’s profits.”)

Though we didn’t really intend to talk about the Zune music player, it did come up — and, you’re hearing it here first, Gates says that if Apple will make iTunes music playable on Zune, he’ll make Zune music playable on iPods. Though, of course, Gates knows what it’s like to hold all the cards, and right now Jobs holds all the cards in digital music.

Said Gates: “If Apple said any song on the iPod could be played on Zune, we’d say the same thing. Because they have such a high market share, they’re not interested in interoperability, but that’s too bad.”

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News source: USA Today