The Newspaper Shop -- wednesday edition

[walktalker]

I've lost track of the number of newspaper I published now... oh, what the heck, pick a number

Software patches are rotten to the core
If there was a recurring theme to this year's Black Hat Briefings and DefCon conferences in Las Vegas, it might have been this: Software vulnerabilities create opportunities for malicious users. There's a little bit of the proverbial chicken and egg to this statement. After all, you can't patch a flaw if you don't know about it, and if you do know about it, there's a good chance that malicious users do, too. Firewalls provide pretty good protection. However, companies and some government systems now open holes in their firewalls to allow employees or service partners remote access to their internal network. Services such as VPNs, wireless, P2P, and SOAP make it hard for system operators to identify who is on the "inside" of a given system and who might be attacking them from the outside.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/co...790357,00.html

Microsoft pulls back on Java support
Microsoft is quietly pulling back support for Java in its new products, dealing a new blow to a rival technology that played a starring role in the software giant's continuing antitrust battle with the government. Prerelease copies of Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system, which goes on sale this fall, drop the software needed to run Java-based programs. Java software is used to create some of the animated and interactive features of Web pages and hand-held devices; Web surfers using computers with Windows XP won't see those features without loading additional software.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...790355,00.html

Viral, bogus MS bulletins shuttered
The Web sites of two bogus Microsoft security bulletins were closed down on Wednesday after they were discovered to contain malicious code that could cripple infected computers. The two bogus bulletins -- complete with software patches and links to a hoax Web site -- were discovered on July 10. Both contained potentially damaging viruses. "This is a cunning piece of psychology to get past the most suspicious PC user," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at anti-virus firm Sophos. "You receive a message that at first glance looks like a Microsoft bulletin, but once executed takes you to the virus distributor's Web site and downloads the malicious component."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...790383,00.html

Arrest fuels Adobe copyright fight
Attention, software pirates, security researchers and those out to prove a point: Adobe Systems doesn't pull its punches. That's the lesson Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian software programmer, learned Monday when FBI agents arrested him in Las Vegas for allegedly publishing a program that removes the security protections from Adobe eBook files. The bureau said such activity was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Sklyarov, who has been moved to San Jose, Calif., for trial, has become the latest casualty in a fight between software maker Adobe and Elcom, a 20-person company in Moscow. The jailed programmer is one of the authors of the Advanced eBook Processor, an application designed to strip various security measures from Adobe's eBook format.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...790369,00.html

Bush calls for cyber-security force
The Bush administration is moving to set up a government cyber-security panel to determine how best to protect the nation's most important computers and keep the federal government functioning in case of serious cyber-attack. The effort is outlined in the final draft of an executive order, called "Infrastructure Protection in the Information Age," which is circulating among senior administration officials. President Bush is expected to sign and issue the order within two weeks, and the panel would begin operations Oct. 1.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...790366,00.html

"Code Red" worm claims 12,000 servers
Almost 12,000 Web servers have been infected by a new Internet worm that takes advantage of a security flaw in Microsoft software to deface sites, security experts said Wednesday. The worm could also help attackers identify infected computers and gain control of them. Known as the Code Red worm because of evidence that it may have been launched from China, the self-spreading program infects servers using unpatched versions of Microsoft's Internet Information Server software and defaces the Web sites hosted by the servers. The code is still being analyzed to see if it does any further damage. But the way the worm is written, it could allow online vandals to build a list of infected systems and later take control of them, said Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer with eEye Digital Security.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Copy-protected CDs quietly slip into stores
For the last several months, consumers in ordinary record stores around the world have unwittingly been buying CDs that include technology designed to discourage them from making copies on their PCs. According to Macrovision, the company that has provided the technology to several major music labels, the test has been going on for four to six months. Although it's not disclosing just which titles have been loaded with the technology, at least one has sold close to 100,000 copies, the company said. The technology, which inserts audible clicks and pops into music files that are copied from a CD onto a PC, highlights what could become a critical part of the major music labels' efforts to stem digital piracy.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Napster gets temporary reprieve
A federal appeals court on Wednesday issued a short reprieve for Napster, saying the company can temporarily restart its song-swapping service online. The ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco stays a week-old decision ordering the company to block all song trading through its service, unless it could block 100 percent of the songs that record labels had identified as copyrighted. Napster, which is appealing last week's order, had said it could block more than 99 percent of unauthorized songs on its service with new audio fingerprint technology it is testing but could not guarantee 100 percent success. The appeals court released a terse note Wednesday saying that last week's ruling, made by federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, would be "stayed pending a further order of this court."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Microsoft asks court to revisit browser ruling
Microsoft on Wednesday petitioned an appeals court to rehear part of its antitrust case. The Redmond, Wash.-based company asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to readdress the finding that combining the Internet Explorer Web browser with Microsoft's Windows operating system violated antitrust law. "Through this petition we are making a good-faith attempt to seek clarification on the issue of commingling," the company said in a statement. "This issue is important not only to Microsoft, but the industry as a whole, so we are asking for the court's guidance on this matter." The company said it "believes there is no basis for the District Court's finding on commingling" and is "requesting the appeals court to review the record once more."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Napster fans can test new system soon
A test version of Napster's new subscription-based file-swapping service will be available shortly, the company said. Napster is letting fans try out a free beta version of the software before it launches a new paid model designed to appease the recording industry, which has sued the current free service out of existence. "We're hard at work creating an environment that will sustain the Napster community over the long term," the company said in a letter to beta testers. "We expect that Napster will start small and grow, just as it did when Shawn first released it two years ago." Shawn is Shawn Fanning, who started the wildly popular file-swapping system, which attracted tens of millions of consumers before a series of court challenges by the Recording Industry Association of America succeeded in shutting down the service.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Web studies rate bigger ad formats
The Internet Advertising Bureau trade group, Microsoft and DoubleClick have a message to companies skeptical about online advertising: Bigger is better. At least that's what two studies, made public Wednesday by the groups, conclude. The studies come months after the standards for larger, more interactive ads that could help advertisers better brand their products and services. "The new (ads) were three to six times more effective than banner advertisements in increasing message association and brand awareness," said Nick Nyhan, president of DynamicLogic, which was hired by the IAB and Microsoft to conduct their studies. Message association is an industry term that refers to a consumer's ability to match a logo or slogan to a product.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Open-source challenge to the musical status quo
At a moment when online music is increasingly the domain of giant corporations, a small band of independent programmers is working to shake up the status quo by developing a free, high-quality music format. With a format bearing the unlikely name of "Ogg Vorbis," these programmers want to create an audio technology that competes against Microsoft's Windows Media and RealNetworks' technologies -- and perhaps even unseat MP3 as the unrivaled king of the Internet audio world.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201...html?tag=bt_pr

More news later on