Tuesday, April 29, 2014

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Microsoft is still cheaper than open sauce

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 02:54 AM PDT

Everytime UK local government people look at open sauce, Microsoft products are always cheaper, claims a local government CIO - Jos Creese.

Speaking to Computing, Hampshire council's Creese said part of the reason is that most staff are already familiar with Microsoft products. Voleware also works well with the thin client model employed at Hampshire council.

But there is an additional reason too. Microsoft has been flexible and more helpful.

The true cost is in the total cost of ownership and exploitation, not just the licence cost. Creese said he did not have a dogma about open source over Microsoft, but proprietary software - from Microsoft, SAP to Oracle and others - needed to justify themselves and to work doubly hard to have flexible business models to help further business aims.

Creese added that his organisation did use open source in some areas. But he said that generally vendors needed to show greater flexibility over contracts, with an appreciation that longer term deals may need to change over time to suit evolving business needs.

He said that there was a range of habits and behaviours he expected from big suppliers to justify continuing using any proprietary software.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has called for government departments to drop the Microsoft Office suite in favour of open source alternatives.

Creese said that there were areas where central government has often had an undue dependence on a few big suppliers, which makes it hard to be confident about best value and he could understand where the Cabinet Office is coming from.

But sometimes you need to do what's best for the taxpayer, and sometimes that means a space can only be filled by a larger and proprietary supplier. 

New zero day flaw for IE tips up

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 02:52 AM PDT

Software king of the world Microsoft is warning that its Internet Exploder software has a zero day flaw which allows hijackers to install malicious software without any help from users.

All a potential victim has to do is visit the wrong site and they are toast.

In an alert posted on Saturday, Microsoft said it is aware of "limited, targeted attacks" against the vulnerability (CVE-2014-1776) so far.

The flaw was found by security firm FireEye with discovering the attack.

In its own advisory, FireEye says the exploit currently is targeting IE9 through IE11 and the weakness also is present in all earlier versions of IE going back to IE6.

It uses a well-known Flash exploitation technique to bypass security protections on Windows.

So far, Microsoft has not yet issued a stopgap "Fix-It" solution for this vulnerability. For now, it is urging IE users to download and install its Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET), a free tool that can help beef up security on Windows.

However, Vole admits that EMET 3.0 does not mitigate this attack, and that affected users should instead rely on EMET 4.1.

According to information shared by FireEye, the exploit also can be blocked by running Internet Explorer in "Enhanced Protected Mode" configuration and 64-bit process mode, which is available for IE10 and IE11 in the Internet Options settings.

Vole has also indicated that this is one of many zero-day attacks and vulnerabilities that will never be fixed for Windows XP users.

Microsoft last month shipped its final set of updates for XP. Unfortunately, many of the exploit mitigation techniques that EMET brings do not work in XP.

Of course, XP users could solve the problem by running Firefox or any other browser which is not Internet Explorer. 

Governments warn against Internet Exploder

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 02:51 AM PDT

The US and UK governments advised computer users to consider using alternatives to Microsoft's Internet Exploder browser until the company fixes a security flaw that hackers used to launch attacks.

The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in an advisory that the vulnerability in versions 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer could lead to "the complete compromise" of an affected system.

The UK National Computer Emergency Response Team told British computer users, that in addition to considering alternative browsers, they should make sure their antivirus software is current and regularly updated.

Versions 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer dominate desktop browsing, accounting for 55 percent of global market share, according to research firm NetMarketShare so there are lot of people who are going to have to download a different browser.

High on the list are Google's Chrome or Mozilla's Firefox. The last time that there was a panic like this, Mozilla cleaned up, particularly in the EU.

Cybersecurity software maker FireEye warned that a sophisticated group of hackers have been exploiting the bug in a campaign dubbed "Operation Clandestine Fox".

There is an additional concern that even after Microsoft fixes the bug; it will not be available to those who use Windows XP. Microsoft has stopped upgrading XP except for selected customers who pay for it. There has been a reluctance for some businesses and uses to go off the aging operating system despite government warnings that use of the software might endanger your business' health. 

Brazil's coppers don't know what internet freedom means

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 02:44 AM PDT

It seems that Brazil's coppers have not received the memo about the country's much trumpeted internet privacy law.

Due to a secret lawsuit by the judiciary against Radio Muda, the oldest independent radio station working in Brazil, Saravá's main server was confiscated this week.

Sarava is a research group that for the past 10 years has offered gratis technological infrastructure, political thinking and autonomous and secure communication resources to research groups and social movements.

Radio Muda has had its equipment confiscated once before and Prosecuting Attorney Edilson Vitorelli Diniz Lima from the Public Prosecutor's Office has now signed a request for the server aiming for the radio's site data that might identify its members.

But as Sarava pointed out, the server has no record that could identify its users as part of its Privacy Policy and even if it didn't isn't the server seizure against the internet privacy law?

The Marco Civil Internet Bill has just passed and Brazil is basking in the attention it received for standing up to US spooks and setting up its own internet privacy meeting. Brazil is even hosting a World International Internet Meeting.

Yet it seems that while Brazil is implementing state-of-the-art legislation towards Internet privacy, freedom and security, its government is attempting to steal data, undermining the privacy of research projects and free access to information -  just like the US.

Sarava says on its site that the decision of breaking the confidentiality of its communications following the Public Prosecutor's Office lawsuit is disproportionate.

"We demand that the police attacks against the server of Saravá Group and its users' data be brought to an immediate halt," the site said.

What a pity there is not an internet privacy law to protect them -- like the one Brazil has... oh. 

FCC's stance on Net Neutrality could kick off piracy

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 02:35 AM PDT

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rolling over on net neutrality could be a huge blow to the content industry.

For a while the FCC looked like it would stand up to the telcos and force them to be more reasonable on the issue of a two-tiered interent. The telcos saw forcing the content industry to pay more to use their cables as a good way to make a fast buck, even if it would effectively damage the internet structure. It paid its stooges in Washington to declaw any attempts by the FCC to regulate net neutrality.

When the FCC said that it was considering rules which would allow the comms companies to charge big content for "superior service" people moaned about the death of open communication, the rising costs of access, and perhaps, most importantly, how they would access streaming episodes of favourite programmes.

The comms companies shrugged and said that demand for streaming content has choked US networks, so they have to spread the cost of upgraded service to content providers like Netflix. This means, they claimed, that they could spend extra money on better connections.

Of course, the fact that they will not have to spend any more money on improving anything because they are getting more money from the heavy users of the tubes is unimportant.

But there is something more dangerous that the content industry might fear more. For the last few years, they have been winning the battle against piracy. In fact, it is easier and cheaper for people to buy and stream content than it has been to risk lawsuits with Big Content. Now the Telcoms companies have just made that streaming product less attractive by making it more expensive and the fear is that people will turn back to the P2P sites and piracy as a way to get their favourite shows.

If the issue is that if you are paying for content and the telephone companies are not providing it, then turning to piracy is the only logical thing to do. But ironically it means that the content companies are going to get a double dose of hurt.

However the feeling is that if consumers are the victims of the lack of net neutrality caused by corporate greed, then it is logical that they are going to get their own back. With the FCC taking the side of the corporates, there is no place else to go.

At issue is the question of whether the internet is now a human right, or a business to be controlled by the telecoms companies. Many have argued the US government should treat the internet as a public utility rather than an oligopoly.

Part of the problem is that in the US, a low number of ISPs control the bulk of the market, and in some areas there is only one ISP available. Under such a system, there is no advantage in being served by market forces, because there is aren't any. 

Nokia boss denies he was Ballmer’s plant

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 02:33 AM PDT

As Nokia started to snuggle up to Microsoft, the dark satanic rumour mill claimed that the Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was a Trojan Horse who had been planted in the phone company to subvert it to the way of the Vole.

The theory was that Elop, who used to work at Microsoft, would slowly turn the outfit into a Microsoft subsidiary which would later be bought out by Steve Ballmer. The theory gained some traction when Elop dumped Nokia’s Symbian business and moved to become a Windows only shop. At the time, Windows was nowhere on the telephone world stage.

Now that Elop is back working at Vole and Nokia is part of the glorious Volish empire, people are starting to ask “was he really a plant” and part of Steve Ballmer’s cunning, but evil, plan to take over the company.

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley wrote that former Nokia CEO and current Microsoft exec Stephen Elop was quizzed about this during a question-and-answer session.

He was asked if he was a “Trojan Horse” at Nokia whose job was solely to bring the company’s value down enough for Microsoft to buy it on the cheap. Elop defended his decisions.

“We could not see a way that Symbian could be brought to a competitive level with, for example, the iPhone that had shipped three years earlier!” Elop wrote in defending his decision to unceremoniously axe Symbian, which at one time had been the world’s leading mobile operating system.

“As for the Trojan horse thing, I have only ever worked on behalf of and for the benefit of Nokia shareholders while at Nokia. Additionally, all fundamental business and strategy decisions were made with the support and approval of the Nokia board of directors, of which I was a member.”

Some shareholders at Nokia’s general meeting last November openly bashed Elop while describing his tenure at the company as a “triple-A flop” that put Nokia on “the road to ruin” and led to “the funeral of Nokia phones.”

However to be fair to Elop, the company was tanking.  We can remember writing stories working out how long Nokia could last before its cash ran out.  Elop was in damage limitation mode most of the time. Leaving Symbian was a no brainer and if he had gone to Android he would have been competing against nearly everyone.  He would also have to pay royalties to Microsoft to use the IP installed in Android. Elop’s first move to save Nokia was collecting $1 billion from Microsoft to run its operating system which was clever – sadly it was not enough. 
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