Skype Technologies has updated its popular Skype Internet telephony software to fix a security bug that could expose sensitive data.

The flaw could let an attacker construct a Skype hyperlink which, when clicked on by the target, sends a file from the victim’s computer to another Skype user, the company said in a security alert published Friday.

Source: News.com

Two people who admitted being part of a ring that distributed illegal copies of music on the Internet before its commercial release were sentenced to prison terms of between six and 15 months.

The US Justice Department said three people had pleaded guilty to involvement in piracy groups responsible for millions of dollars of illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games and music on the Internet.

Source: AFP

While there is no inherent discontinuity with making Java open-source and keeping the technology compatible, the community will have to remain vigilant in this regard, according to a Sun executive.

“I do not think anyone wants to break Java compatibility, but any of the large licensees with the market power to distribute their own version technically could do so, intentionally or unintentionally,” Simon Phipps, chief open-source officer at Sun Microsystems, said.

Source: eWeek

The U.S. Department of State will not use Lenovo Group computers on a classified network because of ongoing concerns about the company’s Chinese government ties, a U.S. congressmen has announced.

Source: InfoWorld

The company behind the unsuccessful bid for a new .xxx domain for internet pornography, ICM Registry, has embarked on a legal fight-back.

ICM will file a suit against the United States Department of Commerce in the Washington district of Columbia later today, in order to gain access to information withheld by the department in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made back in October 2005.

That information will provide the “extra evidence that provides the irrefutable proof” that the United States government intervened in the issue to prevent .xxx going ahead, ICM Registry head Stuart Lawley told TheRegister. If true, it would also contradict public statements made by the Department of Commerce (DoC) that it “plays no role” in the day-to-day running of the internet.

Source: TheRegister

A Japanese laboratory claims to have recreated the voices of the Mona Lisa and Leonardo da Vinci using “methods employed in criminal investigations”, Physorg.com reports.

Source: TheRegister

Antivirus companies and the SANS Internet Storm Center (ISC) issued a warning Friday about sophisticated e-mail attacks that are using a previously unknown hole in Microsoft Word to infiltrate corporate networks.

On Friday, Symantec raised its Internet threat rating, citing confirmation of attacks using an unknown hole in Microsoft Word were being used to compromise computers on the Internet. The warning came as monitors at ISC detailed “limited targeted attacks,” originating from China and Taiwan, against an unnamed company that used Word attachments to install Trojan horse programs on corporate networks.

Symantec warned subscribers to its DeepSight Threat Management Service that it had confirmed reports of active exploitation of a hole in Microsoft Word 2003. The attacks use Word document attachments in e-mail messages to trigger the security hole and run code that gives attackers control over vulnerable systems, Symantec said.

Source: InfoWorld

Apple has sued digital music player rival Creative Technology, accusing the company of infringing on four of its patents. The lawsuit, filed in a Wisconsin District Court, was apparently launched on May 15, the same day Creative sued Apple for patent infringement.

Source: Macworld

A senior Microsoft executive told a BBC documentary that people should use commercial software if they’re looking for stability.

“I don’t think (open source) is anti-Microsoft in the sense that it’s giving people choices in the technologies that they use,” Jonathan Murray, the vice president and chief technology officer of Microsoft Europe, told BBC World in the first part of the documentary “The Code Breakers,” which aired this week.

“Some people want to use community-based software, and they get value out of sharing with other people in the community. Other people want the reliability and the dependability that comes from a commercial software model. And again, at the end of the day, you make the choice based on what has the highest value to you,” Murray continued.

It isn’t clear from Murray’s statement which category he believes commercial open-source companies such as Red Hat and MySQL fit into.

And to that I say, yeah right, look how “stable and secure” Microsoft products are.

Source: News.com

Yesterday the Turkish cracker going by the handle “Iskorpitx”, succesfully hacked over 38,000 websites in one shot and defaced (on a secondary page) all of them with a message showing the Turkish flag (with AtaTurk face on it) and reporting:

“HACKED BY iSKORPiTX

(TURKISH HACKER)

FUCKED ARMANIAN-FUCKED FRANCE-FUCKED GREECE-FUCKED PKK TERROR

iscorpitx, marque du monde, présente ses salutations à tout le monde. “

Source: zone-h.org

Windows Live Book Search is an online search service for book content, providing readers with tools for discovering and evaluating books for purchase.

Source: liveside

Seven high schools near Fort Campbell, the home of the Army’s storied 101st Airborne Division, will broadcast their graduation ceremonies live over the Internet for the first time for family members stationed overseas.

Source: AP