Another critical bug in Microsoft ‘s Internet Explorer (IE) browser has been found by researcher at Austrian security consulting firm SEC Consult. This IE bug can cause the software to crash, in turn, could possibly be used to let an attacker run unauthorized software on the IE user’s computer system. Microsoft has confirmed that the bug exists and is investigating the matter.

By loading HTML pages that make use of certain ActiveX components, researchers were able to overwrite registers on the computer’s processor, said Martin Eisner, CTO with SEC Consult. This technique could theoretically be used to fill parts of the computer’s memory with malicious code, creating what is called a “heap-based buffer overflow,” he said.

Quoted:
“It’s possible to crash Internet Explorer,” Eisner said. “Executing arbitrary code might be possible; we could not confirm that now.”

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IE Bug Might Crash Browser

Last week, we heard in the computer processor market, AMD sued Intel for some antitrust offences. In the same week, in software market, there was a settlement done between IBM and Microsoft for 1990s antitrust case.

IBM Corp. announced on Friday, July 1, 2005, that they will get USD$775 million in cash and USD$75 million worth of software from Microsoft Corp. to settle claims still lingering from the federal government’s antitrust case against Microsoft in the 1990s. The USD$775 million payment will be included in IBM’s second-quarter earnings, which are due to be released in two weeks.
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IBM Wins USD$850 Million From Microsoft

In an expansion of the anititrust law suit started early this week, Advanced Micro Devices filed two suits against Intel in Japan seeking more than USD$50 million for alleged anticompetitive acts.

AMD filed the claims through its AMD Japan unit on Thursday, June 30, 2005.
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AMD Takes CPU War To Japan

Click Defense Inc, a click fraud protection firm, filed the suit in California in the name of an unknown number of plaintiffs for an amount not less than $5 million. This law suit was filed in US District Court against Google alleging breach of contract, negligence, unjust enrichment, and unfair business practices due to the click frauds suffered by their advertisers.

Quoted:
Colorado-based Click Defense, a company that specializing in procuring rebates for advertisers, says the average cost per click is 50 cents. Disputing the 20% estimations, Click Defense alleges that click fraud on Google is as high as 38%.

The 18-page documented lawsuit claims that since 99% of Google’s revenue comes from advertising, Google has a huge financial interest in doing little about the instance of fraudulent clicks and criticizes the search giant for failure to disclose its own estimate of the number of fraudulent clicks.
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Google Got Sued For Click Fraud

Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini fired back AMD recent law suit against Intel, stating the company would not change its business practices and expects any court decision to be resolved in its favor.

Quoted:
“Intel has always respected the laws of the countries in which we operate,” Otellini said in a statement. “We compete aggressively and fairly to deliver the best value to consumers. This will not change.”

Well, fair or not, wait til the result comes out. :)
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Intel : Won’t Change Business Practices

Google has just unveiled on Wednesday, June 29, 2006, a beta version of its newly developed Personalised Search service. Personalised Search allows the serch engine searched results based on what’s most relevant to the user.

For example, by using Personalised Search to search the word “tackle” might give different results for a footballer and a guy who is looking for ways to tackle a girl. :D The service builds on the Google My Search History feature launched as a beta in April. The service ‘remembers’ past searches, allowing users to quickly retrieve a recently visited page.
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Google Personalized Search