Date: 05/10/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, security

Security software maker profits top average Wall Street forecasts, sending the company's shares up 3 percent

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6070511.html

Date: 05/09/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, security

Trio of security updates includes two for critical flaws in Exchange e-mail server and third-party software in Windows.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6070350.html

Date: 05/11/06 (Web Development)    Keywords: software, web

Candidate must have excellent written and verbal communication skills and strong organizational skills are required. Military or civilian agency experience desired. Ammunition and PEO Ammo experience is preferred.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/webdev/319885.html

Date: 05/11/06 (C Sharp)    Keywords: software, asp, security

While the project to which this question applies is written in C#, this particular question is more of an architectural issue and less of a semantic/syntactic C# problem, for which I apologize. I was hoping I could still get some help.

In vague and general terms, here is my architectural problem du jour:

I am constructing a client-server application with a subscription model, in which the "server" component is an ASP facility owned/leased by my company. There are various levels of access granted to a given customer -- for the sake of simplicity, let's say there are two levels, "demo" and "purchased." The "demo" level allows the customer to run the client software on one PC at a time (I have the logic in the client and server software for this to happen, so it's not part of the scope of this question); the "purchased" level allows the customer to run the client software on some large number of PCs simultaneously. The application's value proposition depends somewhat on its large-scale deployability; it needs to be very simple for a "purchased" user to install the client-side software on a large number of PCs with very little effort or time investment. Therefore, a silent install is required -- an installation requiring absolutely no interaction from the user, aside from being launched. Progress/confirmation may be displayed, but no additional interaction would be required after launching the installation. I believe I can build such an installation mechanism without much weeping and gnashing of teeth, so that's not my question here.

The client software's mission in life is to transmit data periodically to the server, which customers can access to view the data in a valuable, money-saving, revolutionary fashion (that's the idea, anyway). However, the server needs a way to associate all of these clients' data streams with the computers from which they are originating, each time a transmission is made. This part is done -- using a series of hashes, the server is able to distinguish unique computer from unique computer when they transmit their data streams.

However, it is the next level of association with which I am having trouble. Each unique computer needs to be associated with one customer.

One solution I was imagining was a very computationally expensive process by which the registration of each new customer causes a recompilation of the MSI archive and setup application, bundling a new customer ID into the archive for each new customer. Then, when that customer downloads the client software to install on his target PC(s), the silent install notices this customer ID and transmits it with each data stream. The hashes I gather give me uniqueness among different computers within the same customer, while the customer ID gives me uniqueness among customers and ownership to each unique computer. However, this strategy would require the MSI compilation software installed on the ASP, which is a unique configuration that I'm not sure I could persuade many leased-ASP providers to support. "Someday," if the application is successful, I would have no problem colocating or owning the ASP myself, but in the beginning this would not be an option.

Another solution I can imagine is that each new computer the server notices that is not associated with a customer gets put in a pool of new computers, and the customers may select those computers which he wants to add to his account. Unfortunately, the type of this software would make such a model a vast security risk, so it is not an option.

Finally, I thought of a solution in which the customer is asked to provide details about the PC(s) he will be adding to his account, e.g. the public IP address from which they will be transmitting. However, this approach seems even more intrusive than asking the customer to type in a customerID every time he installs the client software on a local PC, so it's not feasible either.

Any of your help would be very much appreciated. Thanks for any thoughts or ideas, even if they're not completely fleshed out; they might give me the impetus I need to come up with a complete solution.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/csharp/61406.html

Date: 05/15/06 (Web Technology)    Keywords: software, microsoft

review Latest update to Microsoft's jukebox finally gives media lovers a user-friendly alternative to Apple's software.
Image: Microsoft Media Player 11

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6072210.html

Date: 05/15/06 (Data Management)    Keywords: software

Software giant draws Rakesh Agrawal, a key data-mining and randomization scientist, away from IBM.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9592_22-6072321.html

Date: 05/16/06 (Security)    Keywords: software

New rules for credit card-accepting businesses will put more scrutiny on software, but let them off the hook on encryption.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6072594.html

Date: 05/16/06 (Java Web)    Keywords: software, security, virus, antivirus

Ten commandments for computer security: Thy shall create strong passwords Thy shall use good antivirus software Windows users shall regularly update critical updates Thy shall download online forms after verifying URL https:// or forms with lock icons Thy shall use secure shell (ssh or sftp) for file transfers Thy shall not open unnecessary emails Thy shall regularly back up important files Thy shall [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/ten-commandments-on-cyber-security/

Date: 05/16/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, virus, antivirus, spyware

Companies may have the best antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall software, but that hasn't stopped rise in spyware.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6072948.html

Date: 05/17/06 (Application Development)    Keywords: software

New server software aims to help workers find data stored on their company's computers.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9593_22-6073028.html

Date: 05/17/06 (Java Web)    Keywords: software

Skype 2.5 introduced strong stealth techniques in the software to make it harder to detect and block using ip filtering techniques. Unfortunately it has been cracked. Skype 2.5’s call setup no longer conforms to a small number of predictable patterns, which could be identified and filtered at packet level. The company’s PRX Traffic Manager now use [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/skype-25-heuristic-stealth-mode-cracked/

Date: 05/17/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, security, virus, antivirus

Antivirus giants launch initiative with legal action against group selling illegal versions of their security software.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6073382.html

Date: 05/18/06 (Application Development)    Keywords: software

The software giant is expected to get specific about what features PCs will need to run the Windows update.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9593_22-6073056.html

Date: 05/18/06 (Software)    Keywords: software

http://global.bsa.org/softwarecluedo/

You have 5 mins to find it.

I managed 193000 points

Yours?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/software/64309.html

Date: 05/18/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, web

Whale Communications' tech to broaden software giant's expertise in secure remote access, Web app firewalls.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6073726.html

Date: 05/19/06 (Open Source)    Keywords: software

It's the Windows business model, not the software, that is inherently undependable.

Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=655

Date: 05/20/06 (Security)    Keywords: software

Update to Internet telephony software is available to prevent possible attacks that could expose user data, Skype says.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6074640.html

Date: 05/22/06 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: software, web

So as part of a community service project, I am trying to record books on "tape" for an elementary school teacher using the computer. I have a microphone, and have successfully recorded using the sound recorder software that comes with windows. But this software will only record for 60 seconds at a time. I tried looking around on the web for some other free recorders, but they seem to be limited to 60 second tracks also. I'm not looking for anything fancy (I don't need to add in other instruments, do mixing, etc, etc) but I would like something that would record longer tracks. Does anyone know of any free software out there that I could use for this purpose?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/924974.html

Date: 05/22/06 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: software, security, virus, antivirus, web, microsoft

I have been having trouble with a few websites in Firefox lately. They don't look like they load fully. I tried loading them in IE and everything is perfect.

I ran spybot and found the following thing pop up:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center\AntiVirusOverride!=dword=0 Kind=Registry.


Is this a virus? Did something get changed and I didn't know it?

If there is anything you can tell me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/925496.html

Date: 05/22/06 (Security)    Keywords: software, microsoft

Microsoft antipiracy exec says the company would rather educate than punish users of pirated software.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6074831.html