2 replies to this topic

[Admin]

Yahoo was pulled into the growing row between China and Google today, as its Chinese partner slammed Yahoo's statements supporting Google,

The move comes as it is claimed the search giant has stayed silent about cyber-attacks. Yahoo knew it had been a target of sophisticated Chinese cyber-attacks on U.S. firms before Google alerted the company to them, but remained silent while its bigger rival went public, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Yahoo's Chinese partner, e-commerce firm Alibaba Group, in which it owns a 40 per cent stake, nonetheless called 'reckless' Yahoo's comment last week that it stood behind Google's position.

Meanwhile, a Google spokeswoman today denied Chinese online reports that it has already decided to shut down its google.cn site.

'Alibaba Group has communicated to Yahoo! that Yahoo's statement that it is 'aligned' with the position Google took last week was reckless given the lack of facts in evidence,' the firm said in a statement today.

Yahoo said Wednesday it supported Google's position that attacks on company networks are deeply disturbing and that violation of internet user privacy is something that must be opposed.

That was a day after Google announced it might exit the China market after suffering a sophisticated cyber-attack on its network that resulted in the theft of its intellectual property.

Google said it was no longer willing to filter content on its Chinese language google.cn search engine, and would try to negotiate a legal unfiltered search engine, or exit the market.

Source

[Admin]

The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security. The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems.

Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers increased security setting would prevent any serious risk. However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe.

Thomas Baumgaertner, a spokesman for Microsoft in Germany, said that while they were aware of the warning, they did not agree with it, saying that the attacks on Google were by "highly motivated people with a very specific agenda".

"These were not attacks against general users or consumers," said Mr Baumgaertner. "There is no threat to the general user, consequently we do not support this warning," he added.

Microsoft says the security hole can be shut by setting the browser's security zone to "high", although this limits functionality and blocks many websites.

However, Graham Cluley of anti-virus firm Sophos, told BBC News that not only did the warning apply to 6, 7 and 8 of the browser, but the instructions on how to exploit the flaw had been posted on the internet.

"This is a vulnerability that was announced in the last couple of days. Microsoft have no patch yet and the implication is that this is the same one that exploited on the attacks on Google earlier this week," he said.

Source

[Admin]

Microsoft said it was working around the clock to patch an Internet Explorer 6 software hole through which China-based cyber spies attacked Google and other firms. Microsoft is testing a security fix and will make it available as soon as it is ready instead of following its protocol of releasing security updates on the second Tuesday of each month.

"We are working 24-by-7, around-the-clock," Microsoft general manager of Trustworthy Computing Security George Stathakopoulos said. "We have been monitoring the threat landscape since the start of this issue." Microsoft will today announce when the security patch will be released.

Attacks that prompted a showdown between internet giant Google and global power China only worked against IE6, so computer users can protect themselves by switching to newer versions of the web browser, according to Mr Stathakopoulos.
"IE7 and 8 seem to be holding," he said.

"None of the attacks we know of will be effective against IE8. That could change, but that is what we know."

Source