Tag Archive for Office

| January 24, 2012
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Tablet Info

The Tablet PC has long been a pet project for Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who showed the first Tablet PC prototype in 2000 at Comdex. Mr. Gates described the device, which featured input via stylus only, as an evolutionary step in PC functionality and usability. For the next ten years leading up to CEO Steve Ballmer‘s introduction of the new “slates”, which support Windows 7 touchscreen features, the company has tried to make the Tablet catch on but with little success according to PCWorld.

MSFT Office Coming To iPad Next Year – Report

Microsoft Office for the MacMicrosoft may be bringing Office to the iPad next year, according to a report in The Daily. The report cites unnamed sources and says that Microsoft (MSFT) will also update its version of Office for the Mac next year.

On a business level, it might make sense the Apple (AAPL) iPad is making inroads into the enterprise, and having some sort of Office client available for it would let Microsoft earn at least some money from these Apple invaders. It would also help make sure that Office 365 the company’s cloud-based business services would work on the iPad according to the BusinessInsider,

Microsoft might even do this at the risk of driving some enterprise customers to stick with iPads instead of adopting Windows 8 tablets. After all, Office and related back-end products have been driving Microsoft’s growth for the last year, while Windows sales have been pretty stagnant (I wrote about Office’s profitability here).

The BusinessInsider points out that Microsoft has NEVER released Office for the Mac in the same year (or before) Office for Windows. Microsoft is building Office 15 for Windows. It’s going to be a ton of work to revamp it to work with the Windows 8 tablet interface, or risk having it relegated to traditional PCs only (and having one less reason for customers to choose Windows 8 tablets). The Mac version of Office almost always comes a year after the Windows version. It COULD be different this time, but that would require a diversion of resources to a minority platform (the Mac still has less than 5% market share for personal computers).

Microsoft said through a spokesperson: “We already deliver Office on multiple platforms and devices and are committed to expanding in the future, but have nothing further to share today.”

BI says that expanding Office to the iPad is not crazy.

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Dell Streak Discontinued

DellThe Dell Streak 7 tablet won’t even get to turn one year old. The BusinessInsider noted that Dell (DELL) is pulling the plug on its unremarkable tablet, as indicated on its site.

This is only shortly after discontinuing the Dell Streak 5 as well.

BI recalled Walt Mossberg‘s February 2011 AllThingsD review of the tablet, he sums it all up with one sentence: “I found the compromises Dell made to get to that low price make it impossible for me to recommend the Streak 7.”

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I wrote about hardware companies abandoning the tablet market in 2012 here. Does this move make Dell a market leader?

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Proof That The PC Is Dying

Proof That The PC Is DyingThe BusinessInsider noted this excellent chart from Horace Dediu @asymco as proof that the PC is dying a slow, painful death. Mr. Dediu’s chart shows PC sales, including Google (GOOG) Android and Apple (AAPL) iOS devices, from the dawn of time to today.

As you can see, PC sales have started to go flat. Based on recent numbers from last quarter, they may have already hit their peak.

proof that the PC is dyingMeanwhile, Macs are gaining steady momentum while Android and iOS tablet devices are blowing up.

One thing BI thinks could break the trend is all those fancy new Ultrabooks displayed at CES. Those could give PC sales a major boost considering how cheap and efficient they are.

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Apple Sues Chinese Outfit for Heresy

Apple Sues Chinese Outfit for HeresyApple (AAPL) is suing a Chinese company for making graven idols of its founder Steve Jobs reports TechEye. Chinese company In Icons created an “eerily realistic” 12-inch action figure of Steve Jobs. TechEye says the model comes with the clothes and accessories such as the black faux turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers. It was being sold in a box that looks like Walter Isaacson‘s “Steve Jobs” biography cover and comes with a chair, a “One More Thing…” backdrop, as well as two red apples, including one with a bite in it.

Apple sees this as an affront and has told In Icons that using Apple’s logo or products, or Jobs’ name or appearance, is a “criminal offense.” The article points out that the Pope and Elvis have similar deals on their merchandise.

But it is clear that its threat is going nowhere In Icons is not giving up.

Tandy Cheung, the entrepreneur behind In Icons told TechEye said that he was an Apple fanboy, and a lot of people like him want to have Jobs’ action figure. Cheung spoke with several lawyers from Hong Kong who told him that he wasn’t in violation unless he decided to brand any of his designs with Apple products or logos. He told IB Times that Steve Jobs was not an actor, he’s just a celebrity. There is no copyright protection for a normal person. Steve Jobs is not a product.

BuzzFeed updates that the promo pics from toy company In Icons might suggest that the late Apple co-founder comes with cool accessories, like an iPad tablet, but alas. For $99 all you get is the black turtleneck-clad 12” action figure, no assembly required. Due to U.S. release in late February.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| May 11, 2010
Comments Off on Microsoft Security Report

Microsoft Security Report

Microsoft Security ReportMicrosoft (NASDAQ MSFT) released the latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIRv8) on April 26, 2010. Data for SIRv8  came from 500 million PCs across the globe between July and December 2009 and for the first time separates enterprise user and consumer user malware trend data. The data included in the 250-page report says that enterprises and consumers each suffer from different types of malware threats.

Microsft security goog news

Microsoft logoThe good Microsoft security news from the SIR 8 report is that newer operating systems and up-to-date applications are the most secure. Windows 7 and Vista Service Pack 2 have the lowest infection rates per 1,000 executions of the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) in the second half of last year. (pg. 85). Microsoft runs the Malicious Software Removal Tool before installing Windows updates.

Windows OSPC's cleaned/1,000 MSRT
XP SP121.7
XP SP214.5
Win 7 32-bit2.8
Vista SP2 32-bit2.2
Vista SP2 64-bit1.4
Win 7 64-bit1.4

The report shows that the more recent versions of Microsoft Windows are less vulnerable to attack. Cliff Evans, Microsoft UK’s head of security and privacy says only about 5% of the vulnerabilities are in Microsoft software. This has led to a shift in emphasis to targeting third-party programs and utilities. In XP, around 45% of attacks exploited third-party (i.e. non-Microsoft) code, with Vista and Windows 7 it’s around 75% according to an article in the Guardian.

Application attacks continue to increase. Running updated software decreases the attack surface and increases Microsoft security robustness. The report shows that attackers target Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6) up to four times more often than the newer version IE 7 (pg.33). Matt Thomlinson, general manager of product security in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group told DarkReading, “With Internet Explorer, IE 6 is four times more targeted in drive-by attacks.” Thomlinson says SIR 8 provides the first real results to illustrate this.

Browser attacks

The Microsoft security report says that nearly 75% of the browser-based exploits encountered in 2H09, were third-party applications, including Adobe Reader, RealPlayer, Apple QuickTime, and AOL software (pg.26). This means Windows Update is not enough to protect users, who must also install updates from Adobe, Apple, and other software suppliers.

Attacks against Microsoft Office make use of older vulnerabilities that have mostly been fixed and can easily be avoided by keeping the software suite up to date. The majority of Office file format attacks can be avoided by applying service packs (pg. 43). For example, 75.8% of the attacks on Microsoft Office files exploited a single vulnerability (CVE-2006-2492, the Malformed Object Pointer Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word), which was found in 2006.

The report found that enterprise users contract more worms, “In the enterprise, worms are more of a problem, which is not a surprise in that you have networks with trusted file shares and USB devices, and they are more susceptible to those transmission mechanisms,” Thomlinson told DarkReading. “This is the first time we’ve had data allowing us to separate [enterprise and consumer machines] and show differences [in malware prevalence.]” Worms were found in 32 percent of enterprise PCs.

ThreatPresent %
Worms32
Miscellaneous Trojans18
Unwanted software16
Trojan down-loaders and droppers13
Password-stealers and monitoring tools7
Backdoor programs 5
Viruses 4
Exploits 3
Adware3
Spyware1

Rogue anti-virus attacks

Windows in both the enterprise and the consumer markets were hit hard by rogue anti-virus attacks last year. Rogue security software was found on 7.8 million up 46% from 5.3 million in the second half of last year. The most detected rogue security software family, Win32/FakeXPA, was also the third-most prevalent overall threat detected by Microsoft worldwide in 2H09. Three other rouge software families were also widely detected:

  • Win32/Yektel,
  • Win32/ FakeSpypro, and
  • Win32/Winwebsec.

MSFT claims that attacks are now motivated by financial gain, with a “black economy” of malware authors, botnet herders, and other criminals working together to exploit vulnerabilities in Windows PCs. “We’re seeing that the criminals are more professional and organized,” Thomlinson says. “This is really about criminals in shirts and ties, not with tattoos.” Criminals are becoming more specialized in different aspects of cybercrime. They are then coordinating with criminals with other specialties. He says. “Threats are being packaged together and sold as commodities and kits,” he says. “It struck us as we looked at botnets that this is an early version of cloud computing: There is computing available for whatever use they have in mind, and they are taking advantage of many machines to do that. This is the ‘black cloud’ of computing.”

rb-
The next report will be interesting as attackers focus their attention on Win7 as it becomes wider deployed. The takeaway from the report is:
  • Keep your installed software patched to current levels.
  • Running old versions of operating systems, browsers, and application software exposes companies to additional unnecessary risks (Ask Google).
  • Invest into initiatives that get systems upgraded to the newest technology available.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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