Stories by Gregg Keizer

Researchers: Maybe IIS issues not Microsoft's fault

Independent security researchers agreed that Google was on the right track Tuesday when it claimed sites running Microsoft's Web server are twice as likely to host hacker code than sites that rely on servers operating open-source software.

McCain: Bring me Steve Ballmer

Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) last week promised to draft "the best and the brightest" of American CEOs to work in his administration if he was elected, and named Cisco Systems's John Chambers and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer as among those he would tap.

Firefox 3.0 may block sites fingered by Google

Mozilla is considering adding a tool to Firefox 3.0 that would automatically block Web sites thought to harbor malicious downloads, but the company's security chief refused to spell out details, saying Mozilla is "not ready to talk about the feature."

Spam spikes wreak havoc

Extremely aggressive spam blasts against individual domains, dubbed "spam spikes," are on the upswing and can disrupt small and midsize businesses as much as a determined attack designed to knock a company offline, MessageLabs said Monday.

New zero-day bugs crop up in IE, Firefox

A noted security researcher Monday disclosed four new zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft and Mozilla's browsers, including a critical flaw in Internet Explorer (IE) and a "major" bug in Firefox.

Sponsored search links less safe than non-paid links

Clicking on a paid link in a results page displayed by Google, Yahoo and other search engines is two-and-a-half times riskier than using an "organic" link, McAfee reported Monday, although the percentage of dangerous sponsored links has fallen in the last six months.

Apple sets iPhone debut for June 29

Apple Inc.'s iPhone will debut June 29, the company announced in new television commercials that aired Sunday night on the CBS news show 60 Minutes.

Phishing URL numbers skyrocket, attacks fall

The number of phishing web URLs nearly tripled from March to April, a security group says, as cybercriminals returned to a late-2006 tactic designed to do an end run around browser-based antiphishing filters.

Mozilla patches 6 Firefox bugs

Mozilla Corp. patched its flagship Firefox browser Thursday with fixes for six vulnerabilities, one of which was stamped "critical" by the open-source developer. This was the third time Mozilla has updated Firefox in 2007.

Mac OS open to attack through unpatched Samba

Hackers can attack Apple's Mac OS X by exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in the open-source Samba file- and print-sharing software that's included with the operating system, Symantec said Tuesday.

Symantec may compensate users hit by buggy update

Symantec Corp. may compensate Chinese computer users whose systems were <a href="http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9019958">crippled by an antivirus update</a> last week, a senior director of the company's security response team said.

Microsoft: Oops, XP SP3 still set for '08

Windows XP users will have to wait until next year for Service Pack 3 after all, Microsoft said Thursday as it claimed a recent press release saying otherwise was a mistake.

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