Microsoft’s security response center is recommending that businesses consider blocking Excel spreadsheet attachments at the network perimeter to help thwart targeted attacks that exploit an unpatched software vulnerability.

The Redmond, Wash., software giant published a pre-patch advisory on June 19 with a list of workarounds that include blocking Excel file-types at the e-mail gateway.

On a personal note: I think that this is the dumbest advice Microsoft could ever had, it would have been better if Microsoft wouldn’t have said that, it makes them look stupid. It is just like saying, “If you don’t open your computer you won’t be infected by computer virus”.

Source: eWeek

Yahoo introduced on Monday a beta of its Yahoo Messenger with Voice chat application that includes free plug-ins designed to let people to do things like track eBay auctions, see friends’ wish lists on Amazon.com, collaborate real-time on event planning and compare calendars with contacts.

Source: News.com

Prime-time ABC television shows were viewed more than 11 million times on the Web in the first month of a test by the Walt Disney Co of whether consumers will watch ads online if the shows are free.

An online exit survey posted the first week of the two-month trial showed that 87 percent of respondents could recall the advertisers that sponsored the episodes they watched.

That compares with typical ad recall of about 40 percent for commercials viewed on television, industry sources said.

Source: Reuters

Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with most of Hollywood’s studios to offer movie downloads via its popular iTunes Music Store Web site, show business newspaper Daily Variety reported on Monday.

Citing unnamed sources, Variety said iTunes might begin offering film downloads by the end of 2006, but currently a price on iTunes is a sticking point in negotiations.

Apple’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is said to want one flat price of $9.99 per movie, whereas studio executives want a range of prices that mirrors videos and DVDs at retail stores which, generally speaking, run from discount titles at a few dollars apiece up to $19.99 or more for new releases.

Source: Reuters

Microsoft’s Live-branded online services don’t end at the Web browser. They extend deep into Windows.

The company last week quietly showed off software for embedding its Web-based Windows Live ID authentication services within Windows applications. Windows Live ID is the successor to Microsoft Passport, a hosted service for verifying a person’s name and password for logging onto Web servers.

Later this year, Microsoft will release a beta version of a software developer’s kit (SDK) for making the Windows Live ID service function within a Windows application, said Lynn Ayres, program manager on the Windows Live ID team.

Source: News.com

COMPUTER hacker attacks on banks and other financial institutions increased by 300 per cent last year but the skills to fight them are in short supply, a report says.

Consultant firm Deloitte’s annual 2006 Global Security Survey says 78 per cent of financial services institutions — including banks, insurers and investment professionals — had been attacked by hackers in the past year. In the 2005 survey, only 26 per cent of institutions reported attacks.

Source: theage

Microsoft Corp. today released Windows Live Messenger, one of the first of more than 20 new Windows Live services to launch globally over the course of the year. Windows Live Messenger goes beyond the traditional instant messaging (IM) service, enabling people to connect and share, with free PC-to-PC calls and inexpensive calls from a PC to phones around the world, video calling, easy sharing with Sharing Folders, and more.

And for those hearty souls who want to set sail with a ghostly crew, the new Windows Live Messenger offers a treasure map to a peek at exclusive scenes from Walt Disney Pictures’ upcoming film “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,�? with exclusive access to “Dead Man’s Tale,�? an interactive online adventure that allows users to earn a berth aboard Jack Sparrow’s ship, the Black Pearl.

Features of Windows Live Messenger include the following: (more…)

Oracle today announced immediate availability of the industry’s first integrated, standards-based product offering to help organizations build, deploy and manage event-driven applications, based on an Event-Driven Architecture (EDA). Oracle(R) Event-Driven Architecture Suite is comprised of best-in-class Oracle Fusion Middleware products that allow customers to sense, identify, analyze and respond to business events in real-time. EDA is a key component of SOA 2.0, the next-generation of service-oriented architecture (SOA) that defines how events and services are linked together to deliver a truly flexible and responsive IT infrastructure.

Internet phone service provider Vonage Holdings Corp. on Monday said it has been served with a patent infringement lawsuit filed by two units of Verizon Communications Inc.

Adding to its woes since a weak stock market debut last month, the lawsuit from Verizon Service Corp. and Verizon Laboratories Inc. alleges that Vonage had infringed on seven patents related to voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, the companies said.

Source: eWeek

Applicants to the University of Abertay’s new Ethical Hacking course will be subject to stringent background checks before being offered a place, to make sure they are not likely to abuse the knowledge they will gain.

The four-year degree “Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures” will be on offer from this September, and is designed to produce White Hat hackers, capable of working with businesses to defend their networks.

Source: TheRegister

Just in time for his return to the silver screen, Superman’s trusty phone booth is back. Only this time, there’s a bit more room for his biceps.

Because the pay phone itself is gone, today’s booths are BYOC — bring your own cellphone.

Source: USATODAY

Motorola Ventures, the venture capital arm of U.S.-based Motorola, the world’s second-largest cell phone maker, plans to invest up to $25 million in Israeli start-ups in 2006, a senior executive said.

“We have a $150 million investment commitment from six offices for 2006,” Motorola Ventures co-founder and Managing Director Matthew Growney told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of a venture capital conference in Tel Aviv.

“Of that, we will invest $20 to $25 million in Israel.”

Israel is a leading high-tech center, and technology exports account for about half of total industrial exports. High-tech companies are expected to raise about $1.4 billion in 2006, similar to levels in 2005.

More companies from Israel trade on the Nasdaq market, which is known for tech stocks, than from any other country outside of the United States.

Source: Reuters