11th April 2002 Archive

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Eight new IIS security holes exposed

A patchy Web server

There are eight new security stuff-ups affecting various editions of Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server), the most serious of which will enable an attacker to take over the system, MS revealed today. If you're wondering why you haven't heard about them before, chalk it up to Trustworthy Computing, a Redmond policy which …

Software 11 Apr 2002, 00:13
NAI ups bid for McAfee.com

Is it enough?

Network Associates Inc's attempt to acquire McAfee.com Corp looks to be back on after the enterprise security vendor upped its offer by 15.6%. Santa Clara, California-based Network Associates originally offered 0.675 of a Network Associates share for each McAfee share, a value that McAfee's special committee of the board …

Business 11 Apr 2002, 06:28
BT plans mobility services push

MS alliance

BT Group Plc yesterday said it plans to raise 180m pounds ($258.5m) in new revenue from wireless services in 2004, including 30m pounds ($43m) from the UK's first public access wireless LAN service. The announcement underlines that last year's spin-off of the UK incumbent's mobile network to mmO2 Plc did not signify its …

Mobile 11 Apr 2002, 06:29
Microsoft mobilises, as partners back .NET

Notification on the hoof

Microsoft Corp has accelerated its drive to make SQL Server central to .NET for enterprises, announcing software providing information notifications to mobile devices in addition to desktop-based systems. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft's partners have also announced .NET versions of products or .NET-ready versions of …

Software 11 Apr 2002, 06:29
IBM mulls earlier launch for iSeries Regattas

Codename or two

IBM debuted midrange versions of its pSeries "Regatta" Power4 servers this week, and the rumor making the rounds in the iSeries community has it that IBM may move up its iSeries Regatta announcements, too, Timothy Prickett Morgan writes. The new pSeries 670, which wasn't expected to debut until October, has four, eight, or …

Mobile 11 Apr 2002, 06:29
Rambus profits up

Legal costs down

Rambus, the controversial designer of fast memory chips, produced profits of $6.7m for Q2, ended March 31 (Q1 $6.2m and Q2, 2001 $8m) on sales down five per cent sequentially, and 25 per cent down on Q2, last year. It was a good quarter for RDRAM commission, with royalties up 23 per cent sequentially. However, the increase in …

Channel 11 Apr 2002, 06:44
EB UK waves through name change

GAME, set and Match

Electronic Boutique UK shareholders yesterday approved the name change of the company to THE GAME GROUP PLC. The name change takes effect within three working days, and all EBUK stores will get a GAME makeover. Electronics Boutique announced its intention to change its name in January this year. It owns the Game name through …

Channel 11 Apr 2002, 06:56
MS pulls the plugs on Hailstorm, pending rethink

Is it our imagination or in the .NET vision shrinking?

Hailstorm, one of the cornerstones of Microsoft's .NET "bet the company" strategy, is no more - at least in the most ambitious of its advertised forms. As initially envisaged .NET was about Microsoft producing the systems that would allow delivery of services across to Internet to individuals, and Hailstorm, subsequently …

Software 11 Apr 2002, 11:08
mmO2 signs 10-yr deal with IBM

Nuff said

mmO2 - aka BT Cellnet - has turned to IBM to sort out its customer services operation in a deal worth £50 million in the first year. The mobile telco has signed a ten-year outsourcing agreement with Big Blur to build customer and business support services. The first phase of the agreement with IBM Global Services covers the …

Software 11 Apr 2002, 11:09
How modular is Windows?

Not very...

Is a stripped down version of Windows possible? In the Unsettling States' version of the antitrust trial (the full, unexpurgated version, as opposed to the DoJ's Antitrust Lite) Princeton University professor Andrew Appel argued this week that it is, basing his opinion on the existence of Windows XP Embedded. XP Embedded is …

Software 11 Apr 2002, 11:38
Yahoo! increases! Q1! revenue!

Posts! losses! too!

Yahoo! Inc remains chipper about the future despite posting yet another quarterly loss. Publishing Q1 results for the three months ended March 31 Yahoo! reported that revenues had grown from $180 million in 2001 to just shy of $193 million this year. The monster Internet portal reported a net loss for Q1 of $53.6 million - up …

Business 11 Apr 2002, 11:49
Monitoring reduces security risks

Peering under the security kimono

Counterpane today released statistics to back its claim that customers of its monitoring services are far less likely to have their networks penetrated. In the first quarter of 2002, Counterpane monitored approx. 200 networks worldwide and processed 31 billion network events. The company's analysts investigated 57,000 separate …

Security 11 Apr 2002, 11:52
Newmedia agency cleared of spreading worm

Updated Klez-E is as cunning as a Fox

Subscribers to a mailing list on news about 20th Century Fox received an unwelcome release yesterday when they were sent a copy of the Klez-E worm. The infection-bearing email appeared to come from fox-news@lists.foresight.co.uk, prompting Reg readers to conclude that some breach of security at the new media agency was …

Security 11 Apr 2002, 13:40
ARM tools up for killer phone app – 3D games

Graphics deal lays ground for Next Big Thing

ARM announcements tend to vary on a scale from dull to impenetrable, and today's - detailing a 3D graphics collaboration between ARM, Imagination Technologies and Superscape, is no exception. We'd categorise it as understandable but not very exciting. But it just so happens that The Register spent some time with Mike Grant of …

Mobile 11 Apr 2002, 14:31
Europe elbows Internet content ‘blocking’

'Technically difficult, democratically questionable and undoubtedly inefficient' - Yo!

The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to oppose the use of "blocking" as a way of regulating content on the Internet. The vote (460 in favour, 0 against and 3 abstentions) this morning means that ISPs will not be forced to restrict access to Web sites. Instead, they have been given the green light to continue with …

Media 11 Apr 2002, 14:36
Audit trail dogs DVD+RW drive manufacturers

Yes, they did promise upgrades, say users

Numerous readers have contacted us pointing out that we were overly kind to DVDR+W drive manufacturers yesterday when we said they didn't seem to have specifically advertised that their products would be upgradable to be able to write DVD+R media. Well actually, yes they did. Packaging for the Philips DVDRW 208 specifically …

Personal 11 Apr 2002, 15:58
UK plc ignorant of RIP Act

Snoopers' charter still confuses

Awareness of the Government's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) remains low among UK businesses and ISPs more than a year after the controversial legislation became law. A survey of 100 senior managers in UK companies and 100 ISPs by law firm Nabarro Nathanson found 86 per cent of businesses and an even more …

Media 11 Apr 2002, 16:01
Give your password to complete strangers? No problem…

Survey reveals the full horror

When it comes to password security UK office workers are extremely lax, according to an unscientific survey of commuters at a busy London train station. Two thirds of those quizzed were seemed perfectly happy to hand over their company passwords to complete strangers - which must make those in charge of IT security shudder in …

Security 11 Apr 2002, 16:06
Win-XP Search Assistant silently downloads files

Trustworthy computing?

Just over a week ago, while searching for a file on a Windows-XP machine, I was surprised to see the Search Assistant attempting to activate my Internet connection. It puzzled me because I wasn't searching the Internet, only my local drive. I was busy with other things at the time, but I made a mental note to look into it soon, …

Software 11 Apr 2002, 20:47