Microsoft awards MVP  to 'adware' distributor
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has come under fire for naming the developer of a program that can install adware on user's PCs as one of its Most Valued Professionals. MVPs are people with deep knowledge of Microsoft products who volunteer to answer technical questions for other users or contribute to its software in significant ways. It's a prestigious recognition, with only about 2,600 MVPs worldwide. Microsoft recently added Cyril Paciullo to its MVP list. He's the developer of Messenger Plus, a free plug-in that adds some handy features to Microsoft's Windows Messenger program, like the ability to stack several chat windows together and access them via tabs. But security experts say his software is also a distribution vehicle for Lop, which they describe as a nasty adware program. "Bottom line is, Microsoft are rewarding someone that has an active involvement with one of the most maligned names in PC hijacking," said Christopher Boyd, a Microsoft Security MVP who's also director of malware research for FaceTime Security Labs. "If that isn't booberific, I don't know what is," he wrote in his blog. Lop is a family of adware programs which will, among other things, generate pop-up advertisements and install misleading icons on a user's desktop, according to Sunbelt Software Inc., a security company that also noted Paciullo's MVP award with interest. Messenger Plus does provide users with the option to not install its accompanying "sponsor program." But Pacuillo's involvement with adware makes his MVP appointment questionable and also devalues the program, critics said. "Yeah, it now gives you an option as to whether you want to install it or not -- but that's hardly the point, is it?"Â Boyd wrote. "Note that he does give the option to infect your machine (and quite politely, at that). But itâs still Lop,"Â Sunbelt Software said. Paciullo, who goes by the alias Patchou, could not be reached for comment on Friday. He says in a frequently asked questions section on his Web site that the sponsor program is not dangerous and can be uninstalled easily. He acknowledges that some adware programs flag his software, but says that's because they can't distinguish between "a clean adware solution and nasty spyware." Microsoft also did not immediately comment. It's own malware protection engine flags Messenger Plus as a threat, according to Boyd. Paciullo is not new to criticism. His software has been a target for another Microsoft Security MVP, Sandi Hardmeier, who runs a blog called Spyware Sucks. Paciullo has made some changes to Messenger Plus in response to Hardmeier's criticisms,Â Hardmeier wrote in her blog. Version 3.63, introduced April, no longer installs a toolbar and resets the browser home page, she said. But it does generate pop-up windows that try to install Active X controls on a PC, she said, including one that's known to use rootkits, making it still "malware" in her book. Â
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Microsoft has made a minority investment in Linux management firm Vintela, sources say. Microsoft Watch, which broke the story, reports that the two companies are working together Microsoft's Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) to add interoperability with Unix platforms. ADFS, code-named "TrustBridge," will arrive with Windows Server R2 in late 2005. Vintela is also developing a plug-in to Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, which the company unveiled today at IT Forum 2004 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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CNet Editors&#39; Choice Award winner, Nov. 2003. Stops pop-ups, kills adware and spyware; erases cookies and history. Protect your privacy.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the public beta availability of Popfly, the company&#39;s mashup creation tool for non-technical users introduced in alpha form in May.During Ballmer&#39;s appearance on Thursday at the&#160;Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, a Microsoft staffer gave a demo of Popfly in which he showed how the tool can be used to create applications for sites like Facebook&#39;s social network and Microsoft&#39;s Windows Live Spaces without the need to write code.Popfly is built on Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering video and interactive applications. Silverlight is Microsoft&#39;s answer to Adobe&#39;s ubiquitous Flash technology.While acknowledging that Adobe has done &quot;a good job in rich media&quot; with Flash, Ballmer nonetheless said there are plenty of opportunities for Microsoft to innovate as Web applications &quot;continue to get richer and richer.&quot;Speaking at the same event on Wednesday,&#160;Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen downplayed Silverlight&#39;s threat to Flash, saying Flash has been around for 10 years, is widely adopted and has a broad ecosystem.Ballmer, who answered questions from conference chair John Battelle and from attendees, said that the clamor over Web-hosted office productivity applications like Google Apps and suites from Zimbra and Zoho as major threats to Microsoft Office is misguided.In the communication and collaboration software space, Microsoft is focused on making its applications accessible in whatever way customers require, and that the issue isn&#39;t a black-and-white opposition between packaged and hosted software.He acknowledged that Microsoft pays attention &quot;to what the other guy is doing&quot; and is receptive to implementing good ideas in its products.As the interest in hosted applications rises, critics have said Microsoft has been slow in responding with a hosted alternative to Microsoft Office, and that it risks missing an opportunity that others are eagerly pursuing.Asked if he was getting impatient with Microsoft&#39;s search and online advertising efforts, where the company lags far behind leader Google, Ballmer said he&#39;s confident his company will continue to improve in the coming years as it focuses on several key areas.For example, Microsoft will continue improving its search engines, because they are key for generating online ad revenues. It will also continue to strengthen its consumer communication services, like webmail and instant messaging.Key as well is having a strong ad platform, which is why&#160;Microsoft spent $6 billion on aQuantive, and a strong ad syndication business, he said. Ad syndication will go through a major transformation in the next five years as the focus shifts from matching ads based on a Web page&#39;s content to based on users&#39; online behavior, he said.Ballmer declined to comment when asked about rumors&#160;Microsoft is buying a stake in Facebook, but he said&#160;the companies&#39; existing online ad partnership&#160;is going very well.He dismissed questions about the consistent speculation that&#160;Microsoft might buy the embattled Yahoo, saying Microsoft is confident in its strategy to at some point generate 25 percent of its revenue from online advertising. &quot;We believe in our independent path. We like what we&#39;re doing,&quot; Ballmer said.Microsoft also released at the event a beta version of the Windows Live Photo Gallery photo management tool that adds publishing support for Yahoo&#39;s Flickr photo-sharing site. As of Thursday, the Microsoft product has a &quot;publish on Flickr&quot; option in addition to its ability to post photos directly to the Windows Live Spaces blogging and social network. The Windows Live Photo Gallery is available on the Windows Live beta page .Microsoft further announced new features for its Live Search for Mobile search engine and launched Live Search 411, a toll-free directory assistance service accessible by calling (800) CALL-411 (800-225-5411).Additionally, Microsoft provided an update on the adoption of&#160;Silverlight, whose 1.0 version was released a month ago. The number of partners in the Microsoft Silverlight Partner Initiative has grown to more than 50 organizations, and more than 40 customers have delivered Silverlight applications.Microsoft also said that Silverlight 1.0 is now available in 10 languages, including simplified and traditional Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese.
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January 15, 2005 -- a Saturday -- will almost certainly pass quietly on the bucolic Redmond, Washington, campus of Microsoft Corp. But for those in the field of information technology security, who often make a sport of following the company's struggles to secure its products, the date is certain to attract some notice: it's the third anniversary of a now-famous internal Microsoft e-mail dubbed the "Trustworthy Computing" memo.ADVERTISEMENTSBC Case Study: Crate & BarrelWhat sold them on improving their network? A system that could cut management costs from the get-go. Find out more.
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This is pretty interesting, seems as though Microsoft has acquired an anti-spyware company noone&#39;s ever heard of. I know spyware and adware removal software is big business now but I&#39;ve never heard of Giant Company Software Inc.
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The success of Google  opened  Microsoft's  eyes to the riches available in Web  advertising, the chief technologist for the world's largest  software maker said on Tuesday.
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Microsoft today announced that it will buy Giant Company Software, a developer of anti-spyware and Internet security offerings. The Redmond, Washington, firm will use technology from the acquisition
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Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has acquired GIANT Company Software Inc., a provider of top-rated anti-spyware and Internet security products.
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The success of Google Inc. opened  Microsoft Corp.'s eyes to the riches available in Web  advertising, the chief technologist for the world's largest  software maker said on Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has signed another Linux distributor to a patent-licensing and collaboration deal similar to theÂ one it struck with NovellÂ last year. Xandros, which offers desktop and server versions of Linux, has agreed to license Microsoft intellectual property (IP), said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. He dropped the news in the middle of a keynote Monday at the company's TechEd 2007 conference in Orlando. Muglia shed little light on specific details of the agreement, saying only that it follows the same model as the Linux and Windows interoperability and licensing deal Microsoft struck with Novell last year. "Xandros has taken a license to our intellectual property," he said. "They've taken the position of helping customers to ensure that when they use open-source software, that the IP the industry has created is a part of that." A news release the companies made available Monday had more details, confirming that the deal includes "covenants" to protect customers using Xandros software from anyÂ potential patent-infringement claimsÂ from Microsoft. Microsoft said recently it would aggressively seek royalties for patents it says it holds in open-source technologies such as Linux. The company acknowledged thatÂ instead of going to courtÂ it would rather sign back-room patent and cross-licensing deals with open-source distributors. Muglia acknowledged that in the past year Microsoft has stepped up efforts to ensure its products are interoperable with competitive offerings, and working with the open-source community has been a big part of that. "Over the last year, you've seen Microsoft take a number of steps that ... demonstrate a change of approach for us," he said. "You've seen partnerships you might not have expected Microsoft to be a part of." Muglia mentioned partnerships with Xensource, Novell and JBoss as examples of the company's new attitude. In addition to the licensing component, the five-year deal between Xandros and Microsoft also will include collaboration between the companies to make their Microsoft System Center and Xandros Systems Management products more interoperable. Xandros also will join the efforts to standardize and use Web Services (WS)-Management protocols, which Microsoft supports. As part of the deal, Xandros will license Microsoft server communications protocols so Xandros Server will work better with Windows Server in IT systems. The company also will join the effort to build translators between rival document formats Open Document Format, an international standard favored by open-source companies, and Open XML, Microsoft's default format in Office 2007. Finally, Microsoft will endorse Xandros desktop and server Linux OSes as the "preferred" distribution for its customers, and company engineers will be trained to support the software to help channel partners offer both Microsoft and Xandros software. Â
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Microsoft is giving its users an opportunity to direct where its charitable efforts go to through the "i'm Initiative," which sends a portion of Windows Live Messenger ad revenue to a selected charity.
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Security software makers, the 800-pound gorilla has landed. Microsoft Corp. was to announce Wednesday that it is releasing software that aims to better protect people who use its Windows operating system from Internet attacks.
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Microsoft Sweden offered 'marketing contributions' to encourage business partners to vote for the adoption of the Open XML format.
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In a move to quell rising consumer frustrations, Microsoft on Thursday announced it has acquired Giant Company Software, maker of well-reviewed but little-used anti-spyware software, for an undisclosed sum.
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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has released a Windows XP Service Pack 2 update to fix an installation problem that was caused by a third-party adware program named "T.V. Media."
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Microsoft announced today that it had bought New York software company Giant Company Software, which produces a robust anti-spyware tool.