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| | | March 30, 2003
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Sunday, March 30, 2003 |
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War in Internet's spotlight
As the news about the war in Iraq dominate a large portion of TV programming and debates in real-life society, the Internet appears to be one of the most vital and prompt sources of information and discussions on the conflict.
As we reported last week, news web sites have enjoyed a dramatic increase of visitors voracious for war coverage. For the first time, media outlets are even providing unique access to live, raw video of news conferences and reports by "embedded" journalists with U.S. and British forces in Iraq. Workers at offices with high-speed Internet connections who lack access to a TV set are drawn to seemingly essential web locations like CNN and ABC News. The so-called "virtual control rooms" -- online interfaces to managing several live video streams -- appear to provide much greater interactivity, allowing the viewers to make their own editorial judgment, when deciding whether to watch and Iraqi Information Ministry briefing or a press conference from U.S. Central Command at Doha, Qatar. The hunt for news about the war has also ousted top search terms, according to data from various Internet search engines.
Aiming to satisfy the growing interest, Al-Jazeera, the most popular 24-hour Arabic news channel, launched an English-language version of its controversial web site AlJazeera.net. The web site featured disputatious video material of American prisoners of war (POWs) and news stories written from a vastly different perspective than those published by Western media. Despite purporting to offer balanced and independent coverage, Al-Jazeera has for long provoked vehement debates about the level of its editorial objectivity. Nevertheless, the launch triggered significant interest and access to the site was intermittent at best.
On Thursday, however, both the English-language and the main Arabic site were hacked by a pro-U.S. group. Using a technique called "DNS poisoning," attackers redirected visitors to a freely hosted web page displaying a large image of the American flag and the caption "Let Freedom Ring..." VeriSign, the company in charge of maintaining Al-Jazeera's Internet registry record, acknowledged the breach and swiftly restored the correct DNS information.
Meanwhile, UK's IT news portal The Register reported that Swedish police have interrogated the suspected author of the Ganda worm -- a virus trying to draw users' attention by claiming to offer U.S. spy images and other Iraq-related information.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 3 | Reuters 1 2 | The Register | VNUNET.com | Washington Post
Microsoft in the news
Microsoft announced this week that the long awaited Windows Server 2003 operating system has been released to manufacturing. Scheduled to launch on April 24, Windows 2003 will be providing significant enhancements and is expected to cater to businesses still using the 7-year-old Windows NT 4. In addition, Microsoft will also announce additional components for its flagship product, including Group Policy Management Console, Windows Systems Resource Manager, improved Rights Management Services, and Greenwich, a new instant messaging technology aimed at business users.
Just this week, information divulged that the software giant has backed down from one of Internet's key standardization bodies, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In the middle of March, Microsoft pulled out of W3C's choreography working group, which is seeking to set web services standards. The move is widely seen as a result of a dissension within the group, where Microsoft, IBM and BEA Systems have proposed their own models for standardization. Microsoft's pull out will probably undermine the group's credibility and may demonstrate that the world's largest software maker can unilaterally test and set standards.
Meanwhile, Microsoft suffered a setback after South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ordered the U.S.-based corporation to withdraw a controversial advertisement, claiming that its products are so secure they " will make hackers extinct." The ASA viewed the ad as unsubstantiated and misleading and demanded that Microsoft immediately stop the campaign.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 3 | Computerworld | Reuters | Silicon.com
In Other News...
 MSN Hotmail, one of Internet's most popular free web-based e-mail services, imposed a clear-cut limitation on outbound messages, in an uttermost attempt to curb spam proliferation. According to Microsoft-owned MSN, less than 1 percent of the current subscriber base will be affected by the measure, while it will significantly conduce to the elimination of unsolicited e-mail originating from the company's servers.
ICANN announced that the availability of non-English Internet domain names may turn into reality within the next few months. According to the Internet oversight body, the technical work on the process has been completed and user's will soon be able to access Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic and other domains.
Dell Computer announced its own line of laser and inkjet printers this week, entering a lucrative market. The launch is widely seen as a challenge to its biggest rival Hewlett-Packard.
Microsoft released a patch for a newly discovered vulnerability in its implementation of the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) protocol, affecting Windows XP, 2003 and NT systems. The exploitation of the security hole may lead to a successful Denial of Service (DoS) attack.
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