Bill Lindner

The latest study commissioned by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) shows that software pirates caused the software industry sales losses of nearly $48 billion last year. The fifth annual report says that from 2006 to 2007, overall losses grew by ... $8 billion and worldwide piracy rates increased by 3 percentage points to 38 percent. While overall losses grew, piracy rates dipped in 67 of 108 countries included in the report. The BSA said about half of the increased dollars are attributable to the declining value of the dollar. In an interview conducted by CNET News , BSA President Robert ... (view more)

Charter Communications, the fourth largest Internet Service Providers in the United States, has reportedly begun telling some of its 2.7 million broadband users that they'll be monitoring every web site they visit to help web advertisers deliver ... targeted ads. The web-tracking program, dubbed an "enhancement" by Charter, is a pilot program set to begin next month and it appears to be similar to a targeted advertising system in the U.K. developed by Phorm, a London company alleged to have spyware roots. Charter plans to test its program in four markets: Ft. Worth, Texas; San Luis Obispo, ... (view more)

Security researchers have reportedly developed a new type of malicious rootkit software capable of hiding itself in an obscure part of a computer's microprocessor, hidden from current antivirus products. Dubbed a System Management Mode (SMM) ... rootkit, the software runs in a protected part of a computer's memory that can be locked and rendered invisible to the operating system, but it can give attackers details of what's happening in a computer's memory. The SMM rootkit, built by Shawn Embleton and Sherri Sparks, operators of security company Clear Hat Consulting, comes with keylogging and ... (view more)

Microsoft has reportedly warned that users updating to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) won't be able to downgrade from Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) to IE6 without uninstalling Windows XP SP3. A post on Microsoft's IE Blog warns "If you choose to ... install XP SP3, Internet Explorer 7 will remain on your system after the install is complete. Your preferences will be retained. However, you will no longer be able to uninstall IE7. If you go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, the Remove option will be grayed out." The inability to downgrade to IE6 after installing Windows XP SP3 was by design, ... (view more)

Blu-ray may have won the high-definition format war, but sales of its high-definition DVDs and players have tanked. A report from ABI Research notes that it's been one quarter since HD DVD lost the high-definition format war to Blu-ray, and the ... market has absorbed the consequent impacts. HD DVD and universal players are selling at deep discounts and will no longer ship after 2008, but Blu-ray player and optical drive markets will need to undergo further evolution before reaching their full potential. Consumer electronics manufacturers need to introduce full-featured players that sell around ... (view more)

Microsoft has reportedly developed a small plug-in device that can be used by investigators to quickly extract forensic data from computers that may have been used in crimes. The Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) is a USB "thumb ... drive" that Microsoft quietly distributed to a handful of law-enforcement agencies last June. The COFEE device contains 150 commands that dramatically cut the time it takes to gather digital evidence. It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer's Internet activity and data stored in the computer. COFEE lets the investigator scan for evidence on ... (view more)

Microsoft released to manufacturers (RTM) the final code for Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3). The public version will be available for download from Microsoft on April 29, 2008. CNET reported that the upgrade will be effortless for most Windows XP ... users. Windows XP SP3 includes functionality previously released as updates. Other Windows XP SP3 updates relevant to home users include: Support for WPA2, the latest standards-based wireless security solution derived from the IEEE 802.11i standard. Improvements to black-hole router detection (detecting routers that are silently discarding packets ... (view more)

As the official June 30, 2008 deadline for Windows XP sales for PC makers and retailers looms on the horizon, Business Week is reporting that a recent upgrade to the Mac operating system (OS) is moving Apple closer to challenging Microsoft for ... overall computing dominance, even in the corporate market. A new feature from Apple called 'Spaces' makes it easy to instantly switch between a Macintosh OS and a Microsoft Windows OS with two fingers. Easy toggling of OS' coupled with Apple's release of a tool kit for programmers to write applications for the iPhone will be followed by the June launch ... (view more)

The Washington Post reports that at least 8.3 million personal and financial records of consumers were potentially compromised by data spills or breaches at businesses, universities and government agencies in the first quarter of 2008, according to ... a report released from the Identity Theft Resource Center. The Identity Theft Resource Center ( ITRC ), based in San Diego tracked public reports of 167 data breaches in the first three months of 2008. 448 data breaches were recorded in 2007 by the ITRC. Detailed breakdowns from the first quarter of 2008 are available from the ITRC here (PDF) and ... (view more)

Computer World reports that Leopard recently dumped Vista in a corporate satisfaction survey. Mac business users were more than 5x more likely to say they're 'very satisfied' than Windows Vista users. A poll of 2,200 U.S. corporate computer users ... was conducted by ChangeWave Research in February. 53% of those using Mac OS X 10.5 reported that they were very satisfied. 40% of those using Windows XP and only 8% of those using Windows Vista said they were very satisfied. Paul Carton, director of research at ChangeWave Research says that Apple continues to set the standard for corporate customer ... (view more)