Wiretapping Made Easy

Wiretapping Made Easy

Silently tapping into a private cell phone conversation is no longer a high-tech trick reserved for spies and the FBI. Thanks to the work of two young cyber-security researchers, cellular snooping may be soon be affordable enough for your next-door neighbor. In a presentation Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference in Washington, D.C., David Hulton and Steve Muller demonstrated a new technique for cracking the encryption used to prevent eavesdropping on GSM cellular signals, the type of radio frequency coding used by major cellular service providers including AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile...

Read the entire story at Forbes.com.

Microsoft opens APIs and protocols to all

Microsoft opens APIs and protocols to all

In an apparent bid to calm still feisty regulators, Microsoft has agreed to publish application programming interfaces (APIs) for its major software products and provide free access to those interfaces. In addition, Microsoft will free up protocols around its client and server software and has vowed not to sue open source companies that create non-commercial versions of these protocols.


This shift, first revealed by The Register, represents a major change in Microsoft's conduct. The company's tight control over the key APIs that help others interact with Microsoft's software have been a subject of controversy for both US and European regulators. Now it would seem that Microsoft wants to assuage critics by embracing a more open software development model. (The Commission remains to be convinced - see our story...

How to extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period

How to extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period

This article discusses a beta release of a Microsoft product. The information in this article is provided as-is and is subject to change without notice. No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this beta product. For information about how to obtain support for a beta release, see the documentation that is included with the beta product files, or check the Web location where you downloaded the release. Evaluating Windows Server 2008 software does not require product activation. Any edition of Windows Server 2008 may be installed without activation, and it may be evaluated for 60 days. Additionally, the 60-day evaluation period may be reset (re-armed) three times. This action extends the original 60-day evaluation period by up to 180 days for a total possible evaluation time of 240 days.

The article shows you how to install the eval copy without activating it and how to...

Microsoft yanks Vista SP1 update causing endless reboots

Microsoft yanks Vista SP1 update causing endless reboots

February 20, 2008 (Computerworld) Responding to reports of endlessly rebooting PCs that flooded support newsgroups last week, Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it had pulled an update designed to prep Windows Vista for Service Pack 1. Although the update -- actually a pair of prerequisite files that modify Vista's install components -- has been temporarily pulled from Windows Update, Microsoft has not yet produced a fix for users whose machines either won't boot or reboot constantly.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9063479&intsrc=hm_list

Microsoft Giving Away Developer Software

Microsoft Giving Away Developer Software

Microsoft Corp. is giving students free access to its most sophisticated tools for writing software and making media-rich Web sites, a move that intensifies its competition with Adobe Systems Inc. and could challenge open source software's popularity.The Redmond-based software maker said late Monday it will let students download Visual Studio Professional Edition, a software development environment; Expression Studio, which includes graphic design and Web site and hybrid Web-desktop programming tools; and XNA Game Studio 2.0, a video game development program. The company will also give away SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition and Windows Server Standard Edition.

Read the full story at The Associated Press.

Vista SP1 prerequisite updates send some PCs into endless reboot

Vista SP1 prerequisite updates send some PCs into endless reboot

Updates that Microsoft Corp. began feeding Windows Vista users last week to prep PCs for next month's release of Service Pack 1 (SP1) have crippled some machines, according to messages posted to the company's support site. Microsoft said it is investigating the reports. Last Tuesday, Microsoft started sending Vista users two final prerequisite updates that are required before SP1 can be installed in March. The updates to the operating system's install components were delivered via Windows Updates, which automatically downloaded and installed them on the majority of Vista machines.

Article published at ComputerWorld.com.

Are you ready to have every move you make tracked online UK?

Are you ready to have every move you make tracked online UK?

For years, Internet service providers have watched with envy as the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft sliced up the online advertising pie. Selling Internet access has been a decent business, but selling Web advertising has been an even better one. Now three Internet providers in Britain have gotten together to try to grab a plump piece of online advertising for themselves. Last week, BT, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media announced a deal with a company called Phorm, whose technology tracks Web users and serves them ads related to their interests.

Hope none of you are being naughty! International Herald Tribune.

Opera, Firefox bug could export users' Web history

Opera, Firefox bug could export users' Web history

A flaw in the way the Firefox and Opera browsers handle an image file could allow an attacker to see what Web sites a person has visited. The problem concerns how the two browsers handle a ".BMP," or bitmap, image file, according to an advisory written by Gynvael Coldwind of Vexillium.org, who posted a video illustrating the problem. A malicious bitmap file can be created that pulls other information from the browsers' memory. Some of the information that can be captured is random, but at other times could be valuable, the advisory said.

From open.ITWorld.com

Friendly 'worms' could spread software fixes

Friendly 'worms' could spread software fixes

Microsoft researchers are hoping to use "information epidemics" to distribute software patches more efficiently. Milan Vojnović and colleagues from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, want to make useful pieces of information such as software updates behave more like computer worms: spreading between computers instead of being downloaded from central servers. The research may also help defend against malicious types of worm, the researchers say.

Finish reading this article at NewScientistTech.

MS Exams Scheduled for 2008 Retirement

MS Exams Scheduled for 2008 Retirement

There is a limited amount of time left to take one of the 22 exams being retired in March 2008, including the Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) upgrade paths from Windows Server 2000 to Windows Server 2003.

Link: HERE