Microsoft:
Beware these critical Windows flaws
Time to back up that hard drive
-- Microsoft said Tuesday that its Windows operating system has three
flaws rated “critical” that could allow hackers into PCs for viewing
of data thought to be secure. The systems affected are Windows NT 4.0,
Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and server programs Windows NT
Server and Windows Server 2003. The email program Outlook Express is also
affected by one of the flaws. This announcement comes just two years after
Microsoft boss Bill Gates announced an initiative for safer products he
called “Trustworthy Computing.” But this is the 14th
security bulletin issued by Microsoft this year, half of which have been
labeled “critical.” Microsoft also issued 51 security bulletins last
year, roughly an average of one per week. To safeguard themselves from
possible security issues, users are urged to use Microsoft’s Windows
update service, in which patches that supposedly fix the flaws are
automatically downloaded and installed.
Hackers
attack college & research machines
Hackers
have been targeting university and research computers at some 20
institutions over the past few weeks, hoping to use the attacked machines
to go after the web at large. One such super-computer, the National
Science Foundation’s TeraGrid, is used for such high-tech operations as
genome sequencing. Other TeraGrid systems were attacked at the University
of San Diego-California and the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. The hacks booted researchers off their work for nearly a
week, with investigators coming in to try to solve the problem. So far no
one has been caught or questioned, and there’s no permanent damage to
the computer systems.
On
the rise, those easy-order cyber catalogs
If
you’re doing more ordering online, you’re not alone. The new Oxbridge
Communications National Directory of Catalogs finds that the number of
printed catalogs that went online last year was up 60 percent over the
previous year. The total hit a record 6,097 online catalogs, up from 3,733
in 2002. Fewer than 700 of those are online-only publications, with 5,449
available both online and in print. The most popular category for the
print catalogs is books, with 1,071 listings, followed by apparel at 711.
'Pig
Brother,' the days and nights of swine
It’s
reality TV, minus the real people. A new German web site dubbed “Pig
Brother” is attracting interest from around the world for its quite
surreal concept. The site of the German Hunting Protection League
chronicles the daily adventures of several boar families (three guys,
three gals and their more than 50 kids) living in the Eifel mountains. The
GHPL apparently got the idea after the latest run of the German version of
“Big Brother,” which films roommates who live together without knowing
each other first for several months. Since the site went up in March, it
has received more than 1.5 million visitors and 400 guest book signatures.
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