[ale] MS in the news

[Bob Toxen]

Best one is hole in .NET/passport.
Some guy found it, told MS multiple times, they did not respond.
(This has been confirmed on the security mailing lists.  Don't
trust YOUR credit card or bank account data to them.)

Send a generic URL with a valid hotmail/.NET account name, and they let
arbitrary person reset password.  hacker goes in with new password, looks
at data.  MS encourages .NET account to hold credit card info, so you
don't have to re-enter it everywhere.


2nd issue is class action suit, with Best Buy.  Seems best buy threw in free
MSN discs to many customers at checkout, even if they didn't want it.

MS then got info from checkout, and started monthly debits for 
MSN service, all without permission.  MS and BB would not give
money back, so guy started class action suit.

But wait, there's more ...

So, today's one of those days when every bit of news is dominated by
Microsoft. To spare you six different stories about the Borg, we'll
assimilate them all into this one. You have seen the stupid 
Passport hole
<//slashdot.org/articles/03/05/08/122208.shtml?tid=172> in 
an earlier story;
also the iLoo 
<//slashdot.org/articles/03/05/02/188215.shtml?tid=109>,
although that hasn't stopped you from submitting stories 
about it, oh no.
New news: a report paid for by Microsoft shows that Windows 
is a better
server than Red Hat

<http://www.veritest.com/clients/reports/microsoft/ms_netbench.pdf>. A
class-action suit has been filed
<http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-1000393.html> charging 
that MSN and Best
Buy combined to scam customers. The WINHEC
<http://www.microsoft.com/winhec/> conference is ongoing - 
Steve Ballmer
says DRM is an opportunity, not a prison

<http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2003/05-07rightsmanagement.asp>,
the Xbox is going to be your home communications center
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/30580.html>, Wired talks about
how
hardware will be changed to imprison users
<http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58748,00.html>, and once you're
locked in to Microsoft you get to pay more each year
<http://msn.vnunet.com/News/1140730>.

An article describes why user desktops are locked down

<http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030430.wkapi430/BNStory/einsider/>

Oh, and here's another on DRM:
<http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=1074796437&eid=-255>
just because. 
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