Internet surfers who use Firefox as their internet browser are advised to upgrade to the latest versions to avoid numerous security vulnerabilities.

Those that use version 1.x must upgrade to version 1.5.0.9 and those that use version 2.x should upgrade to 2.0.0.1 version.

The email client progam called Thunderbird is also affected by the flaws so users should upgrade to version 1.5.0.9.

The bugs are buffer overflow, SVG proceesing code, JavaScript engine, and the feed preview of Firefox 2.0 flaws.

In total, there are nine flaws and they create a way for hackers to acquire sensitive info, gain control of a system, or run cross-site scripting attacks.

A new vulnerability was reported which targets four Windows operating systems. The affected operating systems are Windows 2000 SP4, Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, and Windows Vista.

The code targets the Client Server Run-Time Subsystem.

A member of the Microsoft Security Response Center responded “While I know this is a vulnerability that impacts Windows Vista I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date.”

Microsoft will release information to its customers if the threat becomes a major problem.

‘Write an article about how techies can make themselves appear more human’, says the brief for my debutante freelance article for Technibble. AS IF! is my first reaction. That nugget has been floating about since I was at University, where they made us carry out a special course on communication - which was fine. After all, we only had to communicate with each other, and everyone in my class was fluent in stunted geekobabble anyway!

Then I started to think about the subject properly. What is it that we do or don’t do that unnerves the world at large? Why are we seen as being so unapproachable and geek-like? And what can we do to change it?
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A spam email is circulating over the internet which tells the receiver that he or she can save $319.05 if he or she downloads Windows Vista right now.

The intention of the spam is not clear whether it will give out a pirated edition of Vista or steal credit card information.

The warning about this news was announced by Sophos which is a security firm.

A senior technology consultant for Sophos said “The spammer has added random noise in the form of speckled pixels to make the graphic slightly different on each sending…”

A news has been released about an exploit that targets the file “ole32.dll” on Microsoft Outlook which is Microsoft’s popular email software.

Two Windows XP SP2 systems (with all the patches) were tested. The result after the test was that the user lost control over their Oulook mail software or on their web browser which is Internet Explorer. IE versions 6 and 7 and versions 2000, 2002, and 2003, of Outlook are affected by the exploit.

Users are advised to read their email in plain text format until Microsoft release a patch for this problem.

Driver Collector is a tool designed to find and collect installed windows drivers for the hardware you select on your PC. Once you tell it which type of drivers you want to collect, it will copy them to a specific folder. This can be very handy when preparing for a format and reinstall of Windows, especially when you or a client have since lost the computers driver disks.
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Microsoft has posted on their Vista website the minimum requirements to run their newest operating system.

The minimum requirements are the following:
Processor: 800 Mhz
RAM: 512 MB
Video Card: DirextX 9 capable card which is able to at least show 800 X 600 resolution
Optical Drive: CD-Rom
Hard Drive: 20 GB that has at least 15 GB of free space for the installation

Note that users cannot run the Aero interface if they have a system that barely pass the minimum specs. There is no news if Vista can be installed on systems which did not meet the specifications above.

Chris shows us how to install a CPU fan, flash your BIOS, replace your BIOS battery, keep your PCI ports performing at their best and disabling onboard functions such as your PS2 Ports.
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Today I was called out to a clients house because their computer was getting popups even if they werent surfing around the internet. This is the type of job I have done hundreds of times before and its usually because someone installed something they shouldnt have such as a free screensaver or free toolbar. However, this job was a little different.
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Microsoft has finished on fixing a hole on their Windows Vista operating system.

The hack is made up from code of the test builds and code from the final release. This creates a hybrid installation which Microsoft calls “frankenbuild”. In this hybrid version, the users can bypass the activation process. Therefore, the security checks that Microsoft has implemented cannot detect them.

Windows Update addressed this issue and Microsoft had stopped illegal product keys from working.

Microsoft is hoping that this update would deter users on finding workarounds to its security systems.