A Christmas Surprise -- Redmond Channel Partner

Barney's Blog

A Christmas Surprise

While less conservative than it was two decades ago, IBM isn't exactly a wild and crazy company. So when IBM told me that electronic holiday toys could include malware, I had to trust the information.

The idea is that toys, especially those that connect via USB, could be loaded with software to give hackers a backdoor entry to your machine and maybe your network.

Posted by Doug Barney on December 02, 2008

Featured

Microsoft Dismantles RedVDS Cybercrime Marketplace Linked to $40M in Phishing Fraud

In a coordinated action spanning the United States and the United Kingdom, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and international law enforcement collaborators have taken down RedVDS, a subscription based cybercrime platform tied to an estimated $40 million in fraud losses in the U.S. since March 2025.
CrowdStrike's Acquisition of SGNL Aims to Strengthen Identity Security

CrowdStrike signs definitive agreement to purchase SGNL, an identity security specialist, in a deal valued at about $740 million.
Microsoft Acquires Osmos, Automating Data Engineering inside Fabric

In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.
Linux Foundation Unites Major Tech Firms to Launch Agentic AI Foundation

The Linux Foundation today announced the creation of a new collaborative initiative — the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) — bringing together major AI and cloud players such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and other major tech companies.