Despite its high profile in the tech world, patent trolling — in which companies sue for damages over patents they don't intend to use — has been difficult to address. Reform efforts in Congress stalled earlier this year, when Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) failed to broker an agreement that would have raised the bar for sending patent infringement warnings and increased the risks for bringing...
Playing offense against cybercriminals is what drives me and everyone here at the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit. Today, Microsoft has upped the ante against global cybercrime, taking legal action to clean up malware and help ensure customers stay safer online. In a civil case filed on June 19, Microsoft named two foreign nationals, Mohamed Benabdellah and Naser Al Mutairi, and a U.S. company, Vitalwerks Internet...
We want to update all our loyal customers about the service outages that many of you are experiencing today. It is not a technical issue. This morning, Microsoft served a federal court order and seized 22 of our most commonly used domains because they claimed that some of the subdomains have been abused by creators of malware. We were very surprised by this. We...
The Blender Foundation has released Blender 2.71, an update to its cross-platform, open-source 3D graphics tool. Version 2.71, also available in 64-bit and portable form on Windows, includes new features and continues to build on the recently revamped user interface. Areas that enjoy significant changes include the Cycles renderer, Animation, Modelling, Sculpting-Painting, Game Engine and Freestyle NPR Rendering tool. Cycles gains support for rendering volume textures, fire and smoke,...
Avast Software has released the fourth update to its Avast 2014 range of products with the unveiling of build number 9.0.2021 for Avast Free Antivirus 2014, Avast Internet Security 2014 and Avast Premier Security 2014. As with the previous few updates, R4 contains no new features, but does include several important security enhancements among other tweaks and optimizations that once again make it essential for...
In business perception is everything. Many companies succeed or fail not because their products are great but their brands are perceived to be that way. Apple is a remarkable perception manager. Consider iPhone 5s, which features and benefits fall far behind many competing devices. Rather than innovate, the fruit-logo launches an evocative marketing campaign — “You’re more powerful than you think” — that makes...
Bromium has just published the results of “Endpoint Protection: Attitudes and Opinions,” a survey of more than 300 information security professionals, focused on end user threats and security. The majority of the respondents believe: Existing security solutions are unable to stop endpoint infections, Anti-virus is unable to stop advanced targeted attacks and End users are their biggest security headache.
Linux users are not the most sociable bunch. Sure, I am generalizing, but I speak from experience. Not only do I know many socially awkward and inept Linux nerds, but I am one myself. While I do not use operating systems based on the kernel exclusively, I use them often, and understand preferring the company of a computer to other humans. Still, every once...
Secunia Research classifies vulnerabilities by rating the severity of vulnerabilities from 1: "not critical" to 5: "extremely critical." Going by the PR Heartbleed received, you would be excused for thinking that what we were dealing with here was, indeed, "extremely critical." But it was not, as vulnerabilities go. That rating we use for "remotely exploitable vulnerabilities that can lead to system compromise. Successful exploitation...
Malwarebytes has announced the first full public release of Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit, a powerful tool which protects against many zero-day exploits. It’s now available in three editions. A basic Free version shields some browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox, Opera), their addons, and Java, on Windows XP or later. A Premium version ($24.95 for 3 PCs, 1 year) also protects PDF readers (Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Foxit...
Recent Forum Activity