A SECURIY researcher who worked with Microsoft’s Security Response Centre has accused Vole of pulling the wool over the eyes of its customers.Matthew Murphy claims that Microsoft is secretly fixing security vulnerabilities and deliberately hiding details about patches in its monthly security bulletins.

He said that the software maker of misleading customers by not clearly spelling out exactly what is being patched in its bulletins.

The last bulletin was rated “critical” and contained patches for a hole in Explorer. But when Murphy scanned the fine print in the bulletin he discovered that the update also fixed a flaw which had been labelled as a “publicly disclosed variation” of a flaw that was reported in May 2004.

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File sharing through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks has been popular for some time now. The legal and ethical issues around file sharing make it controversial, but when used properly it can also be very useful. The down side is that you are sharing your computer with anonymous strangers and accessing files from other anonymous stranger’s computers. That means that joining or using a P2P network requires some added safety precautions. This article provides 4 steps to help you share and swap files without becoming a victim.

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Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking is a fairly popular concept. Networks such as BitTorrent and eMule make it easy for people to find what they want and share what they have. The concept of sharing seems benign enough. If I have something you want and you have something I want, why shouldn’t we share?

For one thing, sharing files on your computer with anonymous and unknown users on the general public Internet goes against many of the basic principles of securing your computer. It is recommended that you have a firewall, either built into your router or using personal firewall software like ZoneAlarm.

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