Ryan Naraine

For the second time in as many months, Microsoft has published source code for one of its projects on SourceForge, the world’s largest open-source software development repository. The software giant announced plans to release the Windows Template Library (WTL) project on SourceForge under an externally created open-source license. The idea is to encourage a larger […]

Gartner vice president Martin Reynolds is hailing Microsoft’s plans to simplify the integration of the Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) with the coming Longhorn operating system. In giving the plan his thumbs-up, Reynolds said the move makes it easier to secure applications without wrenching code rewrites. In a research note, Reynolds wrote that the original […]

A plan by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to upgrade security in the widely used Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) could prove costly because of Cisco’s patents. After an IETF working group submitted a draft document proposing changes to the way TCP handles inbound segments, the network and routing giant reminded the group that the […]

Users of Microsoft’s Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems are at risk of remote code execution attacks because of a flaw in the Help and Support Center feature, according to an alert issued by the software giant. The MS04 -015 advisory, which carries an “important” rating, could allow an attacker to remotely execute […]

A group of big-name technology firms has announced plans to develop an open specification to help stop the scourge of network viruses, worms, denial-of-service attacks and host software vulnerabilities. The Trusted Computing Group (TCG), which counts Intel , HP and Verisign among its members, used the spotlight of this week’s Networld+Interop show to outline plans […]

Prominent security analyst John Pescatore has put a new twist on the Windows cost of ownership debate with a call for enterprises to add the expense of managed intrusion prevention software to the price of Microsoft’s operating systems. Pescatore, a vice president and research fellow at Gartner, said companies must recognize that the expense of […]

Even as Microsoft and law enforcement authorities celebrated the arrest of a German teenager believed to be the mastermind behind the malicious Sasser worm, anti-virus firms have quarantined yet another mutant attacking vulnerable Windows users. Over the weekend, Microsoft announced the arrest of an unidentified 18-year-old in connection with the creation and distribution of the […]

What a noisy last few weeks in the public instant messaging space. Microsoft , AOL and Yahoo all rolled out new product upgrades, all of them promising to reinvent the popular text-chat application. Of the three, AOL’s ICQ and Yahoo’s YIM platforms continue to push the innovation envelope with nifty features that turn instant messaging […]

Security researchers have discovered a “highly critical” security flaw in QUALCOMM’s Eudora e-mail client that could lead to the execution of malicious code on vulnerable systems. Paul Szabo, a computer systems officer at the University of Sydney, reported the flaws in versions 6.1, 6.0.3 and 5.2.1 of Eudora and warned that Windows users were at […]

Microsoft is working on a plan to include worm removal tools in a new feature called Microsoft Update that’s on schedule for release by this year’s end. With the proliferation of destructive worms like Blaster, NetSky and Sasser escalating daily to pose an ever-greater threat to home users, Microsoft plans to release the new Microsoft […]

Microsoft officials poured cold water on a published report that said its Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) project is being canned. “The project is continuing full steam ahead. It’s alive and kicking and we’re very excited about it. The vision has been refined over the last year but it’s absolutely not true that it’s being […]

Flush with cash from a string of recent big-name deals, New York-based Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) announced plans to expand beyond the diamond and into the lucrative online sports content business. MLBAM, launched in 2001 to run the online operations of MLB’s 30 franchises, has launched a spin-off company called Sports on Earth […]