Tag: slashdot

Microsoft AntiSpyware Program Removes Norton Anti-Virus

Welcome to wild wild world of Microsoft. New beta Anti-Spyware program detect Norton Anti-Virus program as a password-stealing program and prompts users to remove it :/? It detects Symantec Antivirus files as PWS.Bancos.A

The lesson is simple do not install beta products in production environment. More information available at washingtonpost, Slashdot and Microsoft support forum.

India To Form Expert Group On Google Satellite Image Issue

Concerned over satellite images of its strategic installations being made available in the public domain by internet search engine Google, India has decided to constitute an expert group to suggest ways to safeguard the country’s interests. According to yahoo news, “Satellite images made available by Google include Rashtrapati Bahwan, residences of the Prime Minister, besides commercial airports, naval bases, atomic establishments and other sensitive installations, which could create a crisis from a safety point of view, he added.”
This story is on slashdot too. I have already written about this threat issues Google earth images created storm across India.

Linux worm targets PHP based application

There is news of a worm which uses a vulnerability in the PHPXMLRPC libraries to spread a computer virus. It is called as Linux/Lupper.worm. This is not just Linux or BSD specific it would affect anything that use the PHP. McAfee reports that

This worm spreads by exploiting web servers hosting vulnerable PHP/CGI scripts. It is a modified derivative of the Linux/Slapper and BSD/Scalper worms from which it inherits the propagation strategy. It scans an entire class B subnet created by randomly choosing the first byte from an hard-coded list of A classes and randomly generating the second byte.

WordPress blog software is secure from this attack :D Read the McAfee report here. More coverage is here and here.

Xara announces Xtreme Open Source

Xara announced that they are releasing an open source version of their vector drawing program, Xara Xtreme.
Xtreme Software is:

  • Graphics software for all your drawing and day to day photo needs, ideal for both print and the web
  • Creating web graphics
  • See gallery/effects of Xtreme online

Xara Xtreme on Linux will bring a leading-edge graphic tool to the Linux platform. This is really a good news for all of us.
Read slashdot story and offical press release.