The Evil Empire
Information about Microsoft, bugs, security holes, and dirty business tactics.
Updated irregularly (about once per week)

Drag-and-drop flaw mars Microsoft's latest update

An independent researcher warned that an Internet Explorer vulnerability could turn drag-and-drop into drag-and-infect, even on computers updated with Microsoft's latest security patch.

The flaw affects the latest version of Internet Explorer running on Windows XP, even after the latest major update—known as Service Pack 2—is applied. An attacker using the flaw could install a program on a victim's computer after convincing the person to visit a malicious Web site and click on a graphic. More... [Cnet News.com]

How eight pixels cost Microsoft millions

Microsoft's lack of multicultural savvy cost the Redmond behemoth millions of dollars, according to a company executive. The software giant has seen its products banned in some of the biggest markets on earth—and it's all because of eight wrongly colored pixels, a dodgy choice of music and a bad English-to-Spanish dictionary. More... [Cnet News.com]

Study: Unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes

Don't connect that new PC to the Internet before taking security precautions, researchers at the Internet Storm Center warned Tuesday. According to the researchers, an unpatched Windows PC connected to the Internet will last for only about 20 minutes before it's compromised by malware, on average. [...]

[This] is worrisome because it means the average "survival time" is not long enough for a user to download the very patches that would protect a PC from Internet threats. More... [Cnet News.com]

Security pro: Windows easier to 'own'

Microsoft has been waiting for security researchers to say that its Windows operating system has a lower total cost of ownership. One finally has, but that's not good news.

On Friday, David Aitel, a noted security professional and managing director of vulnerability assessment firm Immunity, published a paper stating that "owning" a computer — hacker-speak for compromising a system — is easier if the target computer runs Windows. While couched in puns and jokes, the paper takes a serious stance on the security of Windows compared with modern Linux, Aitel said.

The Aitel paper marks the first time that a security professional with hands-on experience of hacking both Linux and Windows systems has weighed in on the issue. His conclusion: The security of Windows computers is easier to breach than modern Linux computers, despite more than two years of work by Microsoft to secure its operating system under its Trustworthy Computing initiative. Microsoft declined to comment on the paper. More... [Cnet News.com]