XP Service Pack 2 only for mid 2004

Microsoft is still working on its Windows XP Service Pack 2, and CRN reports the final version will not be distributed until the middle of next year, although a beta version will be available later this month.

Service Pack 2 security enhancements focus on port-based attacks, attacks via e-mail attachments, malicious web content, and buffer overrun attacks.

Microsoft says a major enhancement to the Service Pack, called the Windows Firewall, will block data or malicious code in e-mail and instant messenger attachments. Other enhancements include improved patch management.

The Bugbear.B worm tops a list of the most frequently detected computer viruses this year published by an anti-virus software developer, Panda Software .

Panda concludes many computers are still unprotected, many anti-virus programs have not been updated recently, and many users have not installed security patches released by major software vendors.

Panda says Bugbear.B`s ability to mass-mail itself and exploit a vulnerability in Internet Explorer to run automatically, enabled it to top 11% of malicious code detected in 2003.

The Klez.I worm came in second, claiming 8.5% of infections, and the PSW.Bugbear.B Trojan third with just over 6%.

The infamous Blaster worm that exploited a vulnerability in some versions of the Windows operating system came in fourth at only around 5%, but Panda says a programming error in the virus made it relatively easy to detect and prevent spreading.

In close succession came the polymorphic Parite.B virus, the Mapson worm, and the Enerkaz worm.

The NoClose virus came in eighth, with the final two spots going to the first worm in the Bugbear family at just under 3.5 percent and a variant of this worm called Bugbear.B.Dam with 2.5%.

Top server industry companies have joined forces to standardise the way networked machines are managed to ease administrator burdens and accommodate new technologies.

CNet says Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are co-operating on a standard for remote administration software to perform tasks such as rebooting, reconfiguring storage, assigning Internet addresses or updating software

Wired News reports that advertising targeted at the individual is no longer science fiction with retailers being able to track individuals using cell-phone technology.

Stores can now conceivably tailor marketing messages to people based on demographic data with researchers at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories already developing a system that changes projected product information according to which customers it detects approaching.

The system is even designed to measure and report reactions to the marketing message being projected. The system is based on facial-recognition technology that can determine race, age and gender.