MS builds tougher piracy protection into Vista
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Redmond's latest plan to scuttle pirates unveiled Microsoft has announced plans to tighten up anti-piracy features in its forthcoming operating systems Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn".â¦
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Broken by brute force and swiped from shelves The activation method used by Microsoft to protect Vista from piracy is under attack on multiple fronts.â¦
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The mystery faces on Vista -- not to be confused with the bogus face on Mars -- are only the latest in a long line of Microsoft efforts to knock down software piracy efforts against their products. Some were weirder than others, some more successful as PR, but so far just one's engendered government complaint for including a shirtless baby.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft will introduce a new system for fighting software piracy with its upcoming Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn Server operating systems, the company said Wednesday. Called the Microsoft Software Protection Platform, it's a collection of technologies that aims to do better at detecting pirated versions of Windows, and will also force unauthorized versions of its software into a limited-functionality mode, encouraging users to obtain a legal copy. People using unlicensed copies of Vista will be blocked from accessing certain features, including a new interface design called Windows Aero, and software for fighting pop-up advertisements called Windows Defender, Microsoft said. The company has already used a reduced functionality mode with Windows XP. Users with an unlicensed versions of Windows will also see a persistent reminder message in the corner of their screen, reading "This copy of Windows is not genuine." The new software is bound to come under scrutiny. Microsoft's previous attempt to reduce unauthorized use of its software, Windows Genuine Advantage, was partially rolled back after it wasÂ criticized as "spyware"Â for stealthily installing itself on users' PCs and reporting information back to Microsoft. Microsoft said the new technologies are necessary to fight software piracy, and said end-users can also benefit because they are less likely to be exposed to faulty or compromised software. End-users installing pirated Vista copies, or who don't register their software using a product key within 30 days, will have their OS functionality reduced. The product key is an ID number assigned to customers for each purchase of Windows. The company said it will also be able to track more easily when products are activated with product keys that have been stolen from a business. Regardless of the authenticity of their Vista copy, all users will have access to Microsoft security updates, the company said. For businesses that use volume license keys for Vista and Longhorn Server, Microsoft will introduce new, policy-based tools for activating those systems. The new tools, called Microsoft Volume Activation 2.0, won't be linked to Microsoft's software billing systems, the company said. Windows Vista and Windows Server Longhorn -- the code name for the next version of Microsoftâs server software -- will be the first products to ship with the antipiracy technologies, but they'll eventually be used in more of its products. Around 35 percent of all software installed worldwide in 2005 was pirated or unlicensed, Microsoft said, citing a figure from the Business Software Alliance, an industry group. More information isÂ available here.Â
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Microsoft Corp. , the world's biggest software company, is adding technology to its Windows operating system software that prevents pirated copies from working properly, starting with the Vista version due out in November.
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Visitors with a pirated copy of Windows may lose easy access to company's Download Center.
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(InfoWorld) - Hackers are distributing a file that they say lets users of the corporate version of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system get around the software's anti-piracy mechanisms. Windows Vista must be "activated," or authorized by Microsoft, before it will work on a particular machine. To simplify the task of activating many copies of Vista, Microsoft offers corporate users special tools, among them Key Management Service (KMS), which allows a company to run a Microsoft-supplied authorization server on its own network and activate Vista without contacting Microsoft for each copy. The software Microsoft.Windows.Vista.Local.Activation.Server-MelindaGates lets users spoof that KMS process, allowing them to activate copies of the enterprise editions of Vista, its creators say. The hacked download is available online on sites including The Pirate Bay and other file sharing sites. Microsoft's official KMS offering is available to customers with 25 or more computers running Vista. The machines activate the software by connecting to the KMS server, and must reactivate every six months. KMS is not the only option that enterprises have for volume activation of Vista: they can also call Microsoft by phone or connect over the Internet to activate the software. The MelindaGates hack allows users to download a VMware image of a KMS server which activates Windows Vista Business/Enterprise edition, its creators claim. Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment on the hack. Vista is the first Windows operating system that requires volume users to activate each product. The new activation processes are aimed at reducing piracy. While one security expert said he isn't surprised that KMS has been cracked, he said the MelindaGates hack offers some insight into piracy. "This also shows how piracy is not just about kids swapping games," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of F-Secure. "The only parties that would need a KMS crack would be corporations with volume licensing."
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Microsoft Corp. on  Wednesday  launched its biggest initiative yet to combat rampant software piracy in Brazil, allowing only registered customers access to "non-critical" updates of its Windows operating system.
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Visitors with a pirated copy of Windows may lose easy access to company&#39;s Download Center. As part of its efforts to combat software piracy, Microsoft is testing a new feature on its Download Center Web site that can lock out pirated copies of Windows.
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Microsoft has included new security-related APIs in soon-to-be-released service packs for Windows Vista and XP to expand the use of Data Execution Prevention, an anti-exploit technology.
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Microsoft Corp. is offering an olive branch to users of pirated versions of the Windows XP operating system. The software giant on Wednesday unveiled the Windows XP Counterfeit Project in the UK, offering
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Avast! Microsoft is taking action to thwart a possible hole in its Vista anti-piracy measures.â¦
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New tools make it easier for IT managers to set encryption policies on notebooks or evaluate Vista compatibility by running a virtual version of the OS.
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(InfoWorld) - When Windows Vista ships next year, customers might have a tougher time getting their security software to work properly, executives from Symantec said Wednesday. At issue are two new features being introduced with Vista: an enhanced Windows Security Center as well as a feature in the 64-bit version of Vista called PatchGuard. Microsoft says it is adding these features to lock down the operating system, but Symantec believes that they will be harmful to customers by making it harder for them to use third-party software. "There's no question that they're leveraging a monopolistic position to limit customer choice," said Chris Paden a Symantec spokesman. While Symantec executives did accuse Microsoft of being more difficult to work with on Vista than with previous operating system introductions, they stopped short of accusing Microsoft of antitrust violations. "It's not anti-competitive behavior, because Vista hasn't even hit the market yet, " Paden said. Security vendors like Symantec are in a state of heightened sensitivity these days as they've begun to compete with Microsoft head-on, and the specter of further antitrust actions looms over Microsoft's every move in the security space. Last week the European Union's spokesman on competition, Jonathan Todd, warned that theÂ market could be threatenedÂ if Microsoft doesn't allow security vendors a fair chance of competing. Symantec and other security vendors dislike PatchGuard because it prevents them from accessing the Windows kernel. They say it will stop them from delivering important features like Symantec's "anti-tampering" technology, which prevents malicious programs from modifying Symantec's own software. PatchGuard will also make it more difficult for security vendors to protect against malicious software that takes advantage of kernel-level bugs, said Eric Sites, vice president of research and development with Sunbelt Software. "There are a lot of new exploits coming out that exploit kernel-level drivers, " he said. "If we're able to get into the kernel, we can watch for things like that, but with what Microsoft is doing we can't do that." Microsoft declined to be interviewed for this article, but in an interview with IDG News last week a Microsoft executive said that PatchGuard was simply an effort toÂ prevent the kernel from being misused. "We think that there's a significant amount of confusion around... certain security features in the product that we think raise the foundation," said Stephen Toulouse a senior product manager in the Security Technology Unit. "What we're doing is we're walling off the kernel from attackers, because the functionality that is currently there was never meant to be used by anybody -- by software vendors or attackers." But PatchGuard is enabled only in the 64-bit version of Windows. Because there are few 64-bit applications written for Vista, most of Vista's initial users are expected to run the operating system in 32-bit mode, and their security software will still be able to access the kernel. A more immediate issue for Symantec is many Vista users will find that both the Windows Security Center and Symantec warnings will pop up simultaneously. This doesn't happen with Windows XP because Symantec's software is able to automatically disable the Windows warnings, but with Vista users will have to turn off the Security Center themselves. This will make things unnecessarily complicated for many customers, said Rowan Trollope, Symantec's vice president of consumer engineering. "Most users can't figure out how to do that," he said. With two warnings popping up, each with different wording, users will be confused at best, and may simply begin ignoring security warnings altogether, said Sites. Some observers have speculated that Symantec may press the EU for action against Microsoft in this matter, but Trollope and Paden wouldn't say what Symantec planned to do to address these problems. "We're looking at all the possibilities now," said Trollope, "And none of them are good for customers."ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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MicrosoftÂ on Thursday released an update to Windows Vista that will shut down unauthorized versions of the OS that allow users to skip the product's activation system.
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Microsoft (Quote, Chart) has issued significant security enhancements to its operating system software, making the Windows Server 2003 SP1 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) available for download.
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Microsoft is fighting back against those attempting to distribute a cracked version of Windows Vista. It has issued an update to detect use of a tampered build which mixed files from test and final versions of the OS.