Articles by Jennifer LeClaire

More than a year after the CAN-SPAM Act became law, e-mail users say they are receiving slightly more spam in their in boxes than before, but they are minding it less, according to a new survey Nevertheless, analysts warn that spam is a vehicle for worms, trojans and other malicious activity on the Internet that should not be treated lightly....

In a move to jumpstart their chances in the software ecosystem, Microsoft today said it would license its intellectual property to eight high-growth IT firms. The announcement marks a shift in the software giant's policy of licensing only to larger corporations and governments Microsoft is licensing its Windows fonts, a set of traffic-related techn...

Microsoft today announced it has filed eight lawsuits against computer system builders and resellers for alleged distribution of counterfeit, illicit and unlicensed software and software components. This action follows similar action in November 2004 against eight other dealers The lawsuits were filed against Abacus Computer Corp., of Anaheim, Cali...

More than a year after the CAN-SPAM Act became law, e-mail users say they are receiving slightly more spam in their in boxes than before, but they are minding it less, according to a new survey Nevertheless, analysts warn that spam is a vehicle for worms, trojans and other malicious activity on the Internet that should not be treated lightly....

Looking for a Web hosting service provider? All vendors are not created equal. A little consumer education goes a long way toward ensuring you get a host that offers the right combination of products and services -- and at the right price "There are so many Web hosting providers out there today," said John Lally, area vice president of marketing fo...

Microsoft plans to provide eight patches, some of them critical, when it delivers its monthly batch of security updates next Tuesday In a notice posted to its Web site, Microsoft said critical fixes for Windows, Office, MSN Messenger and Exchange would be released. Five of the eight patches are for Windows....

MTV this week announced the launch of "MTV Overdrive," an Web-based channel designed for broadband users who want their MTV -- online The service will launch on April 25, 2005 with exclusive, MTV-style content, including music videos, live music performances, short-form programming and artist interviews....

Virus encounters, virus disasters, malicious code -- and the recovery time and costs associated with these events -- are on the rise, according to a new survey Cybertrust division ICSA Labs' 10th Labs Virus Prevalence Survey shows that viruses in 2004 increased nearly 50 percent over the previous year, reaching 392 encounters per 1,000 machines eac...

Microsoft today released MSN Spaces and Messenger version 7.0 to the public, and with new initiatives designed to connect advertisers with target customers through the services, users may get more than they bargained for The software company plans to integrate ads into users' personal Spaces -- free Web journals, or blogs, revealed in beta form in ...

As if phishing isn't bad enough, network security firms report pharmers are now emerging in larger numbers on the Internet to steal your identity. To top it off, new research has found that the volume of IM-borne security threats have also increased dramatically since the beginning of the year The pharming scam uses DNS Cache Positioning to cheat ...

Microsoft has confirmed that it is delaying the launch of its Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition. The software giant initially expected to release a beta version this summer, but has postponed the launch until the first half of 2006 in order to respond to early customer feedback Microsoft spokesperson Kelly Perkins told TechNewsWorld that ...

Linux is gaining momentum as a complimentary server presence in Windows networks, according to the "Linux-Windows 2005 TCO Comparison Survey" released by the Yankee Group today The report states that more than 50 percent of companies surveyed said they plan to install Linux in parallel with, or in addition to, existing Windows operating systems....

A vulnerability has been discovered in the Firefox Web browser that could be exploited by malicious people to gain knowledge of potentially sensitive information, according to an advisory from security research firm Secunia The vulnerability comes less than six weeks after the Mozilla Foundation released a security update to the Firefox browser tha...

Sun Microsystems today announced the names of the five individuals selected to participate in the OpenSolaris Community Advisory Board (CAB). The board was created to steward the evolution of the OpenSolaris community towards self-governance "The formation of the CAB is another major step forward in making OpenSolaris a reality," said John Loiacono...

Business users have been slow to make the upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 2, according to AssetMetrix Research Labs, a vendor that helps companies analyze their computing infrastructures. But analysts said the survey may not tell the entire story Of the 251 surveyed North American corporations, consisting of over 136,000 PCs, a mere 24 percent h...

The Open Source Initiative on Friday announced a new interim president and plans to focus on evaluating the OSD licensing process with its recently added international board members OSI is the non-profit corporation responsible for the management and promotion of the Open Source Definition, which sets the criteria under which software may be called...

Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment is vying to become the iTunes of the downloadable movie industry. So said Michael Arrieta, senior vice president of Sony Pictures, at the Digital Hollywood conference earlier this week in Santa Monica, Calif "We want to set business models, pricing models, distribution models like [Apple CEO Steve] Jobs did for m...

In a competitive move that extends beyond aggregating general-audience blogs and RSS news feeds, Bloglines this week added package tracking to its free Web-based services Bloglines users can now track the shipping progress of package deliveries from FedEx, UPS and the United States Postal Service within their "MyFeeds" page....

In sharp contrast to the harmless pranks that will be played on this April Fools' Day, deceptive phishing schemes are no laughing matter To strike a blow against criminals who prey on Internet users, Microsoft yesterday filed 117 lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle against alleged John Doe phishers....

One of the most vehement opponents to European patents is throwing in thetowel before the fight is officially over. Florian Mueller announced today that he is stepping down as manager of NoSoftwarePatents.com, the European anti-software patent campaign, and returning to his computer games business ...