Microsoft's Ballmer tells customers to stick with Windows

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO has emailed management and IT professionals in a fierce defence of Windows against Linux and Unix in the Enterprise. In the email he warns potential Linux customers, `the number of security vulnerabilities is lower on Windows, and Windows responsiveness on security is better than Linux; and Microsoft provides uncapped IP indemnification of their products, while no such comprehensive offering is available for Linux or open source.` Citing various studies, some of which were paid for by Microsoft - although all 'independent' according to Ballmer - he claimed that while Linux may appear 'free', training, consultancy and continuing support costs meant that over the longer term, Windows was less expensive. ...more

Computer professionals surrender passwords for chocolate

New research has found that two-thirds of workers would reveal their passwords for a piece of chocolate. According to a survey carried out by Infosecurity Europe of 300 office workers and IT professionals, 64 per cent of respondents were prepared to give their passwords in exchange for a bar of chocolate. The study also found that 67 per cent thought that someone else in their organisation knew their CEO's password, with the most likely candidate being the secretary or PA. ...more

IGF - Anti-spam bodies form new alliance

International anti-spam bodies have joined together to launch www.stopspamalliance.org - a central resource to inform anyone with an interest in fighting spam. ...more

Mozilla fixes more holes in Firefox

Mozilla has released an update to Firefox which addresses three security vulnerabilities. The three vulnerabilities now fixed comprise the Privilege escalation via non-DOM property overrides, 'Wrapped' javascript: urls bypass security checks and Code execution via javascript: IconURL. The update also fixes DHTML errors encountered at some websites - for more information on this go to developer-test. ...more

The Dell machine powers record sales

The Dell machine is not running out of gas just yet. The Texas-based computer company, famous for its direct sales business model, has reported record sales for the last three months in its latest financial results, and recorded a profit of $1 billion. The headline figures for the company's fourth quarter are: revenue of $15. ...more