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A new online threat - The Clampi Virusby Andrew Redfern @ 2nd October 2009 3:52 pm microsoft A highly sophisticated new Trojan virus is currently spreading from the US to Britain. The Clampi virus infects computers when users visit certain websites that host a malicious code. This allows access to your computer for cyber criminals who will seek to capture sensitive information such as online banking log-in details. Experts have warned this new Trojan is one of the biggest threats to anybody who uses a Microsoft Windows operating system. Only computers running Microsoft Windows have been infected up to now and small and medium-sized businesses seem under particular risk of attack once infected. Investigators have found that the range of sites that Clampi is monitoring included banks, credit card companies, online casinos, retail sites, mortgage lenders and even government sites. Last month, attackers placed a virus in an advert on the website of The New York Times! The virus has already spread across hundreds of thousands of computers in the US and is now being detected in Britain. Orla Cox, from Symantec, an online security company, told The Times: The first big wave was in the US in July, but it is spreading around the world, particularly English-language countries. We have seen samples of it targeting UK high street banks. There is potential for another wave to come.” How to protect yourself against the Clampi Virus 1 - Make sure you are running antivirus software such as and a firewall on your computer. 2 - Install any critical updates and security patches for your operating system, all the latest bug fixes and patches are available from the Microsoft website. 3 - If you’re using a Wi-Fi network, ensure it is password protected and secure to prevent people hacking into your network. 4 – Consider using a separate account from your current account for online shopping. If you use a Credit Card ensure that it is a pre-paid card so if anybody does gain access to your details then the amount of money then can spend is restricted. 5 - When surfing the internet, do not click on any suspicious links, especially in emails from unknown senders. Google List Top 10 Most Wanted Malware Sitesby Andrew Redfern @ 23rd June 2009 11:51 am microsoft Google have listed what they consider the top 10 worst offending Mal-ware sites on the Internet. Using their google online security blog Google have identified the 10 worst sites:
Google regularly scan for potentially dangerous sites, 4000 sites in total were identified as supplying malware 30% of which using a .cn TLD many with variances of google trading names in order to trick the user. As ever it is essential that Internet users protect themselves with up to date virus and online protection software. comScore report Bing launch captures market shareby Andrew Redfern @ 18th June 2009 4:05 pm microsoft Web monitoring firm comScore are reporting a rise in Microsoft’s share of the search sector following the high profile re-branding of Microsoft’s search offering from Live to Bing.
The Bing share of the market has risen to 12.3% whereas it’s predecessor was clocking in at 9.1%. The search sector is an absolutely huge market and so this represents a significant rise. Microsoft launched Bing in a blaze of publicity with some commentators putting the publicity budget at $80 - $100 million. Clearly this will have had an effect. They key is whether Bing can hold this market share after the initial interest wanes. Also key to these figures will be the effect of Bing’s rise on market leader Google and Yahoo who occupy a distant second. Clearly it would take a monumental shift in market share for Google to be topled from it’s number one sport but it’s obvious that Microsoft are throwing their massive corporate weight being their search offering in order to capture a bigger percentage of the highly lucrative area. Microsoft are giving the figures a cautious welcome with chief executive Steve Ballmer saying “We have had some very good initial response, I don’t want to over-set expectations. We are going to have to be tenacious and keep up the pace of innovation over a long period of time.” It’s clear that the launch has had a positive effect and it will be interesting to see subsequent sets of figures to ascertain whether Bing will hold this market share and, perhaps more importantly, which of it’s rivals it is taking traffic off. Microsoft announce the release date of Windows 7by Andrew Redfern @ 3rd June 2009 4:27 pm microsoft The BBC has reported that the release date for Microsoft Windows 7 will be 22nd October 2009.
Windows 7 has been designed specifically to be compatible with Vista so computer sellers who have a stock of machines pre-loaded with Vista will not have to upgrade the computers. Customers who buy a new PC with Vista on will be offered an upgrade to Windows 7. Microsoft are hoping that this will draw a line under Vista which was released 3 years ago and met with negative press and general disapproval Speaking at the Computex 2009 trade show in Taipei, Microsoft’s Steve Guggenheimer said “We’ve received great feedback from our partners who are looking forward to offering Windows 7 to their customers in time for the holidays.” Mr Guggenheimer confirmed Microsoft will make an upgrade option available, so PC makers and retail partners can offer customers the ability to purchase a Windows Vista-based PC and install Windows 7 when it is released. Thus avoiding a sales “no-man’s land” where users put off purchasing their new PC because they know their operating system is soon to be superseded. When Vista was launched many users expressed frustration that the operating system did not work with all types of existing hardware and peripherals, or programs used commonly on PCs. A Vista compatibility programme for hardware proved to be confusing and, in some cases, somewhat misleading. Google consolidate their lead in searchby Andrew Redfern @ 16th April 2009 3:32 pm microsoft comScore have published a report giving the latest figures in relation the various search engines and their share of the US search market.
They report that Google have increased their share in March to 63.7%, a rise of 0.4% from February. The gain does not come at the expense of their main rivals Yahoo and Microsoft who both fluctuate but ultimately stay within 0.1 of the February levels at 20.5% and 8.3% respectively. It would seem that AOL and Ask are the main losers over the month with Ask losing 0.3% of it’s share leaving it at 3.8% and AOL slipping 0.2% down to 3.7%. Overall the sector increased by 9% meaning that in the US in March there were 14.3 billion searches. The figures come as analysts await Google’s first quarter results. They will come at the end of an unprecedentedly difficult period for the search giant with staff layoffs and several Google applications & services being mothballed or withdrawn. Google are expected to see a drop in revenue for the first time in it’s history as a public company. according to Reuters Estimates are forecasting a first-quarter revenue of $5.53 billion which would represent a 3 percent fall from the previous quarter but a 6.6 percent gain on the same period last year. These are extremely hard times in this sector. Yahoo Inc has projected a fall of as much as 16 percent year on year in the first quarter. And analysts expect revenue at Time Warner Inc’s AOL unit to slip 19 percent on the same period a year ago. The market seems to be giving Google management the thumbs up. It’s stock has risen 23 percent since it’s last quarterly earnings report. Would you like to know more about the search market? If so, contact Hit Search, SEO and Google adWords qualified PPC specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Microsoft Talks Kumboby Andrew Redfern @ 3rd March 2009 7:07 pm microsoft Microsoft Live Search’s General Manager Mike Nichols comments today about the recent news of how its new baby Kumbo is going through a test phase at the moment; Mike commented
Interesting time ahead for Microsoft; the constant will they won’t they on the purchase of Yahoo (it is just me or it like a scene from Friends!) and on the unveiling of a new product in the making. Early stage look good but you do worry if Kumbo is actually going to give us something new and provide users with a better way more efficient way of searching. Whatever Microsoft lauch it will be interesting to see what kind of take up it receives. Follow our Micro Blogging Twitter Feed on http://twitter.com/hitsearch Would you like to know about Internet Marketing? If so, contact Hit Search, Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click & Social Space Marketing specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Microsoft Research Shows Tomorrow’s Computing Technologyby Andrew Redfern @ 26th February 2009 6:01 pm microsoft Today at Microsoft Research TechFest 2009, visitors immersed themselves in technologies that promise to change the way people interact with computers, take advantage of new computing power from many core processors and make datacenters far more energy-efficient. The technologies were being shown as part of TechFest, the research lab’s ninth annual innovation fair that draws thousands of Microsoft Corp. employees to view futuristic projects that grow out of the company’s global investment in basic research. Many of the technologies demonstrated at TechFest ultimately make their way into the next generation of Microsoft products. For one day only, nearly 40 technologies, out of hundreds, were on display to the public for a glimpse at what tomorrow’s computing technologies will make possible. Addressing attendees at TechFest, Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, reinforced the company’s commitment to investing for the long term. “Conducting basic and applied research is part of Microsoft’s DNA,” Mundie said. “More than ever we’re committed to this investment, enabling our researchers and developers to continue advancing technology for challenging societal problems and pushing the boundaries of computing in exciting ways.” Speaking together with Mundie, Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, said the company’s long-standing commitment to basic research has impacted nearly every product the company releases, and many of the innovations have been shown at TechFest along the way. “Research projects at TechFest are technological hints at what the future holds,” Rashid said. “In past years we’ve shown touch technologies that are now part of Microsoft Surface, artificial intelligence projects that enhanced Live Search and Windows, and database and graphics research that led to WorldWide Telescope.” This year the projects ranged from natural user interface technologies that respond to speech, touch and gesture for the automobile, home and office to important new datacenter technologies intended to greatly reduce the costs of datacenters. Rashid announced a new research organization called Cloud Computing Futures aimed at reducing datacenter costs by fourfold or greater, while accelerating deployment and increasing adaptability and resilience to failures. “Our cloud computing research begins with a key concept: the datacenter is a computer, and it must be designed and programmed as an integrated system,” Rashid said. The group, led by Dan Reed, director of scalable and multicore systems, will target lowering hardware costs and power consumption, as well as reducing the environmental impact of operations, particularly in carbon emissions. The group will partner with others across the broader industry to explore hardware innovations while simultaneously building the software stack to exploit new hardware designs. Two particular datacenter projects were on display: * Closed-Loop Control Systems for the Datacenter, a project aimed at improving the energy efficiency of datacenters by selectively putting idle servers into a low-power state while maintaining service response times * Low-Power Processors for the Datacenter, an experiment to build a server from low-power processors and evaluate how well it runs some of the tasks typically performed in a datacenter, such as processing a large number of independent requests or running databases for a Web site Other projects from Microsoft’s worldwide labs spanning dozens of disciplines in computer science that were shown to the public at TechFest 2009 included the following: * Commute UX: Dialog System for In-Car Infotainment, a set of spoken language technologies that enable automobile drivers to easily interact with their devices and information more naturally * Audio Spatialization and Acoustic Echo Cancellation for Teleconferencing, a technology that makes the teleconferencing * Sticky Notes in Augmented Reality, an investigation of new ways for people to use the physical space around them to interact with thedigital information and media they really care about, wherever they are * Situated Interaction, a project that weaves together multiple sensing, learning and reasoning components to create conversational systems that help with everyday tasks and activities to bring to life services such as those provided by a personal assistant and a building receptionist * Social Media and Learning Theory, a study that examines people’s online behavior and helps to model social interactions so people can get the most value from their networks Follow our Micro Blogging Twitter Feed on http://twitter.com/hitsearch Would you like to know about Internet Marketing? If so, contact Hit Search, Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click & Social Space Marketing specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Other Related Stories That May Be Of Interest:
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