Articles by Jay Lyman

Game giant Electronic Arts is giving the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division a multimillion-dollar donation to advance interactive media education and produce professionals for the next generation of gaming The money -- which is part of EA's global education and talent development effort -- will fund two USC interactive m...

A computer worm that targets antivirus or firewall protection is nothing new, but the most recent case of a direct attack against computer defenses unfolded with alarming speed, less than two days after vulnerabilities in BlackICE and RealSecure software -- made by Internet Security Systems -- were disclosed As a result, the Witty.A worm -- a netwo...

Rounding out the last half of the alphabet with Bagle.Q, Bagle.R, Bagle.S and Bagle.T variants, the latest worms in a long string of malware have become more sophisticated and sneaky, leaving security experts to ponder what might come next from the evolving family of malicious code Reports from antivirus and security vendors indicate the latest Bag...

A former Romanian software programmer who now works for Microsoft has filed a $25 million lawsuit against peer-to-peer (P2P) leader Sharman Networks, which owns and runs the Kazaa file-sharing utility that the man, Fabian Toader, claims is his work Toader, who worked on a freelance basis for Kazaa from Romania four years ago, claims he never signed...

Internet civil libertarians are raising red flags over parallel bills in the California state legislature that would punish file traders of copyrighted materials with up to a year in jail, US$2,500 in fines or both if the users do not provide their real names and addresses with the title of the work A California State Senate bill introduced by Sen....

Despite lacking a legal requirement to comply with government surveillance rules, Time Warner is reportedly among major cable operators working to follow the controversial Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which the FBI has recently argued should apply to Web-based, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications Critics...

Along with efforts to make its software more manageable, Microsoft has announced it is replacing its Software Update Services with a new, more forceful program called Windows Update Services, which will be aimed at getting security patches installed more quickly Microsoft said Update Services 1.0, released in beta this week, marks a major step forw...

The number of security holes poked in computer software may be leveling off as vendors scramble to make their products more secure, but the vulnerabilities that are found these days -- despite these efforts -- are more severe. New vulnerabilities increasingly are being leveraged to attack companies and consumers with worms that threaten confidentiality and privacy, according to Symantec's latest "Internet Security Threat Report."

With half a billion copies of its Reader document software in use, Adobe has shown its strength in the digital dimension But the company now is committing more resources to develop software for government agencies, businesses and other organizations that are forced -- through regulation, mandate or competition -- to maintain use of hard-copy paper ...

In addition to assigning traditional clock speeds to processors, Intel is rumored to be preparing to assign performance names to its chips. But in discussions with TechNewsWorld, an industry analyst and Intel company insider have indicated those reports are incorrect. When asked about a new performance-rating system from Intel -- reportedly in the...

The recent spate of computer worms have included elements of spamming and a supposed battle of words between different malware authors, but the real intent of the dueling viruses is to deny site availability to online gaming companies and other sites that have not complied with Russian mobsters' demands, Gartner research director Richard Stiennon told TechNewsWorld...

Propose a technology that will stem the flow of unwanted e-mail spam, and the industry will definitely listen -- but if it's Microsoft that is doing the proposing, suspicion and fear follow that interest Such is the case with Microsoft's proposal for a caller ID system for e-mail that would diminish spammers' ability to fake or spoof the origin of ...

Online music store Napster announced this week a new cache-management technology that uses Linux, open standards and IBM services to provide its music service for universities, ISPs and businesses without impacting bandwidth or introducing security threats The application, dubbed "Super Peer," will use IBM eServer BladeCenter systems running Linux ...

A group of major technology players has announced an initiative to get a top-level domain (TLD) -- such as .com, .net and .org -- specifically for mobile sites to bridge the Internet and mobile worlds Microsoft, Nokia, Vodafone, HP, Orange, Samsung, Sun and the GSM Association are applying for the mobile domain from the Internet Corporation for Ass...

Microsoft is probably glad its latest monthly round of software patches is relatively mundane, with three separate holes in Outlook 2002, MSN Messenger and Windows Server 2000 service packs all rated as medium-level threats There was some concern that the Outlook 2002 hole -- addressed in an Office security update (Service Pack 3) -- actually might...

Having to send someone from the IT department to a desktop every time there's a computer glitch is inefficient and uncomfortable both for challenged users and skilled tech-support workers. But desktops increasingly are being treated as servers. That is, they are expected to self-report issues, head off breakdowns and remain running without disrupting the network...

A group of Europe's largest semiconductor companies and research centers has announced a project called NanoCMOS that will push developments in semiconductor materials, processes, architecture and interconnection through use of nanotechnology Participants in the project include Infineon, Philips, STMicroelectronics and European research centers and...

After a rough start to the year, with serious security problems and European antitrust regulators aiming to separate Windows from the company's media player, Microsoft got a win this week as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rejected the patent claims of Eolas and the University of California The news also is good for Microsoft independe...

In an accusation reminiscent of Microsoft's U.S. antitrust case -- which dealt with the company's bundling of the Internet Explorer Web browser with the Windows operating system -- the European Commission has signaled it might penalize Microsoft or force it to separate its Windows Media Player from its operating system for antitrust violations. Ac...

Software giant Computer Associates is refuting reports that it is among a handful of companies that have agreed to buy a license to run Linux from SCO Group, which has sued companies that have refused the license on the basis of its claims to owning certain source code used in Linux SCO backpedaled from confirmations last week that CA was among the...