The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is likely to consider a plan this month to auction public airwaves with a mandate that the winning bidder set aside some for free Internet nationwide, a proposal staunchly opposed by the cell phone industry.

The plan is championed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican whose time as chairman is waning as the Obama administration prepares takes office in January. Martin is expected to announce on Tuesday that his proposal will be considered at the commission’s December 18 meeting.

The number of Windows users surfing the web fell below 90 per cent for the first time, making for Microsoft’s biggest market share drop in the past two years, according to new statistics.

Net Applications, which compiled the November data based on the sites it monitors, reports systems running Windows during the month was 89.69 per cent of traffic. That’s a change from 90.46 per cent in October.

Meanwhile, Mac users took 8.82 per cent of the market share pie, a gain from 8.21 per cent from the previous month. November is the company’s third month running with a share of internet traffic above 8 per cent.

Below Mac user numbers, we’re talking much smaller shares of internet traffic. Linux had a bump to 0.82 per cent from 0.71 per cent of web browsers. The iPhone grabbed 0.37 per cent of traffic, which also was a small increase.

In what appears to be a first, Apple is recommending that Mac users install antivirus software.

But don’t read this as an admission that the Mac operating system is suddenly insecure. It’s more a recognition that Mac users are vulnerable to Web application exploits, which have replaced operating system vulnerabilities as the bigger threat to computer users.

Apple quietly signaled its shift with an item titled “Mac OS: Antivirus utilities” posted on its Support Web site November 21: “Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.”

The item offers three software suggestions: Intego VirusBarrier X5 and Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh, both available from the Apple Online Store, and McAfee VirusScan for Mac.

The worm exploiting a critical Windows bug that Microsoft Corp. patched with an emergency fix in late October is being used to build a new botnet, a security researcher said today.

Ivan Macalintal, a senior research engineer with Trend Micro Inc., said that the worm, which his company has dubbed “Downad.a” — it’s called “Conficker.a” by Microsoft and “Downadup” by Symantec Corp. — is a key component in a new botnet that criminals are creating.

“We think 500,000 is a ball park figure,” said Macalintal when asked the size of the new botnet. “That’s not as large as some, such as [the] Kraken [botnet], or Storm earlier, but it’s still starting to grow.”

Last week, Microsoft warned that the worm was behind a spike in exploits of a bug in the Windows Server service, which is used by the operating system to connect to network file and print servers. Microsoft patched the service with an emergency fix it issued Oct. 23, shortly after it discovered a small number of infected PCs in Southeast Asia.

However, the new worm is a global threat, said Macalintal. “This has real potential to do damage,” he said. Trend Micro has spotted infected IP addresses on the networks of Internet service providers (ISPs) in the U.S., China, India, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America.

The worm first appeared about a week and a half ago, and began spreading in earnest just before Thanksgiving, he added.