News


Group: Attacks Spike in September

An independent security vendor based in London, mi2g, says September was the third consecutive record-setting month for what it calls "overt digital attacks." Windows systems made up the lion's share of targeted systems.

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Bugbear of a New Worm Hits the Web

Antivirus vendors warned customers on Tuesday that corporate networks worldwide were being hit by a new worm, appropriately called Bugbear, which is listed in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as a synonym for "problem."

Critical Vulnerability in FrontPage Server Extensions

Microsoft publicized a critical new vulnerability for Web servers running its FrontPage Server Extensions.

IDC: Windows Servers Grow Market Share in Tough 2001

Microsoft grew its share of shipments in the server operating environment market in 2001 by seven percentage points even as the overall market declined by about one percent, according to market researchers at IDC.

IBM Doubles Down on Blade Servers

IBM on Tuesday unveiled its next generation of Intel-based server blades, which allow users to stack about twice as many blades per rack as the current 1U generation of server blades. IBM expects to ship the blades, which will support Windows, Linux and Novell NetWare on Xeon processors, in November.

Ignoring Skeptics, Microsoft Touts Java as Key Language for .NET

Earlier this month at its Server DevCon event in Seattle, Microsoft professed its support for Java, describing Visual J# .NET as a primary language for the .NET Framework. And though developer interest seems low, Microsoft continues to insist J# is equally important in the .NET scheme of things as its flagship languages Visual C# .NET and Visual Basic .NET.

HP Updates Workload Management Tool for Windows

In Windows 2000, Microsoft packaged a Process Control tool for workload management only in its high-end Windows 2000 Datacenter Server product. The OEMs who sell Windows Datacenter systems have typically layered on additional functionality with their own workload management technologies drawn from Unix or mainframe product lines. This month, Hewlett-Packard made its workload management tool more attractive to lower-end Windows Server users.

Enterprises Not Ready for UDDI

Although Web services is finally starting to gain momentum as the latest “it” technology for enterprises, one of the concept’s base-level standards, Universal Description, Discovery and Integration, has been particularly slow out of the gate.

IP Metrics Goes Deeper into Network for Fault Tolerance

Two months after being acquired by storage networking vendor FalconStor Software, IP Metrics is shipping an update to its four-year-old network card failover and load balancing software that moves the solution up the fault-tolerant networking stack.

2 Critical Flaws Patched in Microsoft VM

Microsoft issued a patch early Thursday fixing two critical vulnerabilities in its controversial Microsoft Virtual Machine, Microsoft's middleware for implementing Java code on Windows machines.

Group: Windows XP SP1 Violates Antitrust Settlement

An advocacy group this week submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that Microsoft's efforts to comply with the antitrust settlement through changes implemented in its recent Windows XP and Windows 2000 service packs are "hopelessly inadequate and misleading."

Yankee Group: Get the Lead Out in XP and .NET Migrations

It's no secret that many companies are holding off from migrating to the advanced features of Windows 2000, such as Active Directory, as well as to Windows XP on the client side. It also appears that companies will be slow on the uptake for migrating to Windows.NET as these server operating systems roll out. IT budgets are tight, and companies don't see the urgency to moving to new versions of Windows. However, companies that procrastinate on these migrations do so at their own peril, a Yankee Group analyst warned in a recent teleconference sponsored by the consultancy.

IBM Shakes Up DB2

IBM's next release of its DB2 universal database, version 8.1, will come with much lower prices for mid-market customers and higher prices for enterprise customers, especially for those deploying high-end clustered configurations. DB2 8.1 for Windows, Linux, and Unix will ship on November 21.

Microsoft Ships 2.0 of SQL Server CE

Microsoft this week put out a second version of the handheld edition of its SQL Server database. Aside from the usual performance enhancement work, Microsoft crammed several new features into the compact database. The download availability of SQL Server CE 2.0 was simultaneous with a private Beta 2 release of the Visual Studio "Everett" developer toolset.

Gartner: Get Web Services Pilots Rolling in 2003

A lot of attention around Web services has been hype, and many necessary standards are not in place. Nonetheless, analysts at Gartner said this week that even cautious companies need to begin Web services pilot programs in 2003.

4-Processor Licensing Offered for Datacenter

Microsoft recently altered its licensing with Windows Datacenter Server to allow for four-processor licensing packs. The change makes it easier for customers to license and use Datacenter for its high availability features.

Intel Releases Faster Server Chips for Dual Processing

Intel put out a higher clockspeed processor for two-way servers and workstations this week. New to the Intel Xeon line are a 2.8-GHz model and a 2.6-GHz model.

Outlook Express Feature Could Let Viruses Slip Past Virus Scanners, Firewalls

A security firm discovered that users who enable a rarely used feature in Microsoft's Outlook Express client could allow viruses, trojans and worms to slip past the usual array of perimeter security defenses, including gateway virus scanners, SMTP-checking firewalls and content filters.

NEC Shatters Windows Non-clustered Scalability Record

NEC blasted back into the high-end Windows scalability fray this week with the first major audited benchmark showing significant scalability for a 64-bit Windows-based system.