Hotmail have activated new preferences so you get more spam
Microsoft try to dictate what we can use
Microsoft get access to your system using Media Player Update
Microsoft Warns of Office and I.E. risks

Hotmail have activated new preferences so you get more spam

Hotmail users please be warned: MSN has activated new preferences in the Personal Profile section of your Options Folder. These are: 'Share my email address' and 'Share my other registration information'. This means that your email address and personal details are now being shared among third parties - without your consent or knowledge! Perhaps the 'shared' information is being sold? This would certainly explain why Hotmail attracts span like iron filings to a magnet. This is nothing less than a violation of our privacy and a betrayal of our trust.

Microsoft try to dictate what we can use

In Microsoft's computing future, trusted computing will involve 24 hour computer monitoring and security to make sure you don't abuse your PC.

Microsoft's trusted computing future involves one thing: not trusting you to use your own PC. This move, led by Microsoft and Intel through an organisation called the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA), will be heralded by the arrival of a completely new generation of PC hardware and software products. This new generation will leave you wondering what all the fuss was about when Microsoft introduced product activation for Windows XP. The Trusted Computing Platform Alliance is based on a hardware authentication system, with the operating system tying into this new layer. It works by using a public key encryption scheme that's managed externally? Effectively a global digital rights management system (or DRM). The difference here is that the DRM will be built directly into your motherboard chipset and processor.

Because its been built into the heart of your system it will activate the moment your PC boots up, watching for any activity that breaks its trusted state, which could include running or copying untrusted software or files. It will be built into the BIOS and maintained from there. Once the Operating System starts it takes over the tracking.
The other side is run by the new hardware, currently named Fritz. The Fritz chip is a hardware implemented public key encryption system. If you try to run or copy protected software the system has to certify this with the third party through the encryption system which effectively ties software and files to a single system. If the system isn't trusted, its deemed to be using the software in an illegal manner, and the system will block its use

At the heart of this is Palladium (part of the next version of Windows) and TCPA, provide a vastly powerful system for controlling and limiting what can be copied and run on computers, as well as limiting what they're used for. This can provide some powerful tools for locking specific documents and files to a specific computer or set of computers. For home use it can remove the threat of viruses, eliminate email spam and provide complete system security. The problem is that someone has to decide what's trusted and what's not. If a company decides a document shouldn't exist it could instantly be removed. This is of course, censorship on a global scale!

While this system might providing unsurpassed protection for the user, its clear that its primarily aim is to help the entertainment industry find a foolproof way of controlling distribution of its digital content. More worrying is the level of censorship and exclusion this will provide to certain bodies, such as governments and large corporations - are we cynical in suggesting these are the groups that should never be trusted?

Microsoft get access to your system using Media Player Update

Microsoft's security update for Windows Media Player could be giving Microsoft free access to your system, thanks to a newly worded EULA. If this flaw is confirmed, expect another update soon.

Microsoft Warns of Office and I.E. risks

Microsoft have reported that "critical" security lapses in its Office software and Internet Explorer Web browser put tens of millions of users at risk of having their files read and altered by online attackers.

Microsoft said that an attacker, using e-mail or a Web page, could use Internet related parts of Office to run programs, alter data and wipe out a hard drive, as well as view file and clipboard contents on a user's system.

Office, which runs on Windows and is used to write documents and crunch numbers, is a major producer of revenue for Microsoft. "Microsoft is committed to keeping customers' information safe, and is providing a patch that eliminates three vulnerabilities in Office Web Components," Microsoft Security Program Manager Christopher Budd said in an e-mail.

In addition, Microsoft reported vulnerabilities in the three latest versions of its dominant Internet Explorer browser software that allows infiltrates to read files. Microsoft urged users to fix the glitches by downloading software patches from Microsoft's TechNet <http://www.microsoft.com/Technet> Web site.

"It's important that users get the patch," said Russ Cooper, head of security at TruSecure, a computer security company, and editor of NTBugTraq. "Typically with these types of issues it will be six to nine months until we see a massive attempt to start exploiting it," Cooper said, adding that a pre-emptive patch was critical. "Since Office is used by at least 100 million users, the risk of widespread attacks was significant".

The security warnings are the latest headaches for the Redmond, Washington -based software company.

Microsoft, shaken by break-ins to its system and vulnerabilities in its software, launched a "trustworthy computing" campaign earlier this year to improve the security of all of its software. Since that initiative, which Chairman Bill Gates said had cost the company $100 million so far this year, Microsoft has issued at least 30 security bulletins for flaws in its software.

Last week, security experts reported serious flaws in the Internet Explorer browser and a complementary encryption program that could expose credit card and other sensitive information of Internet users. The Office related programs vulnerable to attacks include Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, Money 2002, Money 2003, Project 2002, as well as server software. Microsoft said it is not aware of any specific security breaches or the amount of any potential damage that might have occurred due to vulnerabilities in its software.