Windows XP awarded security certification

The US government`s National Information Assurance partnership has awarded Microsoft Common Criteria security certification for six versions of the Windows operating system.

According to eWeek, the highest level of assurance granted to commercial products was awarded to Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 and Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 2. Four different versions of Windows Server 2003 also received certification.

The Common Criteria certification was ratified as an international standard in 1999 to contribute to higher levels of consumer confidence in IT product security and help customers in key market segments to evaluate IT products. However, critics of the certification say they do not take every general-purpose situation into account.

Sun Microsystems says an open, stable document format is necessary to preserve the world`s information, reports News.Com.

Sun`s chief open source officer Simon Phipps is quoted as saying a format like OpenDocument (ODF) is needed to prevent a permanent condition of what he dubbed "corporate Alzheimer`s". According to Phipps, some documents will not be accessible in future without a widely adopted stable standard.

Sun, IBM, Red Hat and others have lined up in support of OpenDocument, but Microsoft, Intel and Apple are supporting a rival standards body. Sun has appealed to the US government to support ODF, arguing that no company with a monopoly is likely to support an open and stable standard.

Microsoft`s Internet Explorer (IE) and Mozilla`s Firefox browsers are both vulnerable to bugs, warns BBC News.

While Microsoft has issued a critical patch and warned IE users of a bug that lets attackers take over a PC through the IE browser, a similar bug is affecting the rival Firefox Web browser.

The bug found in the Firefox browser would also allow attackers to download code via well-crafted Web sites that hands control over to them. Microsoft and Mozilla have urged browser users to ensure the latest patches are applied.

The AT&T telecommunications company has announced a 24-hour Internet security Web cast programme aimed at delivering security alerts and daily dispatches to corporate customers.

According to News.Com, AT&T`s new Internet Security News Network (ISNN) is designed to offer news updates twice a day and interviews with security experts. It also uses AT&T`s year-old managed security services and Internet Protect subscriber service.

The security video network is designed to operate 24 hours a day and deliver live emergency broadcasts to users when attacks occur. The report says the new services from AT&T are similar to those offered by Symantec, McAfee and Checkpoint Software Technologies.