News


West Virginia Settles in Antitrust Case

Holding out of the Microsoft antitrust settlement paid off in a big way for West Virginia. The state, one of the poorest in the nation, settled on Monday with the software giant for $21 million in cash and vouchers.

Microsoft Strikes at Alleged Spammers with Lawsuits

Microsoft opened a legal offensive against spammers on Tuesday through a flurry of lawsuits filed in Washington state and the United Kingdom.

Microsoft Reiterates SQL Slammer Warning

In response to the publication of the SQL Slammer source code in a major industry magazine, Microsoft officials are warning users to make sure they've taken advantage of the rash of SQL Slammer defenses on the Microsoft Web site.

Instant Messaging Tidal Wave to Hit Corporate IT

Corporate instant messaging will take off in the next four years, according to a new study by messaging researchers at The Radicati Group.

Dell, EMC Extend Storage Alliance

About two years and 4,100 customers into a storage partnership, Dell and EMC have decided that the arrangement is working out well enough to extend it.

Gartner: Intrusion Detection Systems a Bust

Investing money in intrusion detection and prevention technologies is a mistake because the systems are failing to provide value and will be obsolete by 2005, according to research analysts at Gartner.

Microsoft Buys Antivirus Vendor

Microsoft on Tuesday announced that it has bought the intellectual property and technology assets of a small Romanian antivirus vendor, but Microsoft left its intentions very fuzzy for how extensively it intends to get involved in the antivirus market.

New Version of Bugbear Strikes

A variant of the Bugbear mass-mailing worm started hitting corporate networks late last week, prompting the first worm alert since Microsoft launched its Virus Information Alliance.

Exchange 5.5 Support: Get It While It Lasts?

Underwhelmed by the feature set of Exchange Server 2003? There’s still a bogeyman that could push you, the entrenched Exchange 5.5 user, to make the move to the new version of Exchange: The probability that Microsoft will phase out support for the aging messaging system by the end of 2003.

Exchange 2003: Spam-killer?

Many Exchange administrators cite Exchange 2003’s improved spam-filtering capabilities as another attractive feature of the new messaging platform.

New Tools Emerge for Keeping Spam in the Can

Spam has grown out of control and is choking many corporate e-mail systems. About 24 percent of e-mail coming into corporate systems is unsolicited junk mail, a percentage projected by Radicati Group to grow to about 50 percent over the next few years. A number of approaches are emerging to help organizations get a grip.

Exchange 2003 -- Is There Enough There There?

Researchers say that as many as 60 percent of Exchange seats continue to run on Exchange 5.5, even with Exchange 2000 approaching its third anniversary. Microsoft has put a lot of features into Exchange Server 2003 to entice those 5.5 users to move on up. Will it be enough?

Host Integration Server Lives!

Microsoft Host Integration Server, Microsoft's product for connecting Windows servers to mainframes and other so-called "legacy" systems, has seen its marketing budget killed and its development team slashed, yet the product keeps selling. In fact, Microsoft plans to ship an updated version, Host Integration Server 2004, next year.

IBM Guns for SQL Server

IBM on Thursday released a new version of its DB2 database designed to compete with Microsoft SQL Server for the fast-growing cost-sensitive end of the database market.

Two Critical Vulnerabilities in IE

Two critical vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5 and 6.0 could allow code execution. Microsoft released a cumulative patch on Wednesday for Internet Explorer that fixes the flaws.

Microsoft, VeriSign to Collaborate on PKI Platform

Microsoft and VeriSign are working together to deliver what they call a "next-generation public key infrastructure platform" for delivery by the end of the year.

Microsoft's Charney Promises Patch Management Improvements

The patch management problem is in Microsoft's crosshairs. During a TechEd keynote, Microsoft chief security strategist Scott Charney said he has created a patch management working group inside Microsoft. Current projects include a white paper that will lay out the company's patch management strategy and an engineering effort to reduce the company's number of patch installation technologies from the current eight to two by the end of the year.

64-bit Exchange a Possibility for Post-2003 Version

Will Exchange Server 2003 support Windows Server 2003? Seems like a simple question, but with Microsoft's myriad server OS editions, the answer gets complicated. In almost all real-world usage scenarios, the answer is yes.

Exchange 2003 Enters RC1 Testing Stage

DALLAS -- Beating the drum for Exchange Server 2003's eventual launch, Microsoft on Monday at TechEd announced the availability of Release Candidate 1 of the company's flagship messaging server.

Looking Backwards: 3 Security Patches Re-released

Think your organization is up to date on its Microsoft security patches? Then make sure you've reviewed the events of the last week. Since Wednesday evening, Microsoft has re-released three security bulletins for reasons ranging from quality control problems to underestimates of the number of platforms affected by a threat to underestimates of the seriousness of a threat.