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Writing a column containing debatable comments from security experts is nearly as good at filling up your e-mail inbox as the SoBig virus. Last week, I concluded that Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh OS X provided safer computing than Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating systems -- in part because its small market share offers Internet villains too little opportunity to spread mayhem and partly because OS X ships with all of its vulnerable services turned off. This blocks potential attackers from gaining access to the system's software in the first place.

If yours is like most IT departments, you probably aren't deploying Macintosh systems in large numbers. And if you're deploying them at all, you're doing so in niche spaces such as graphic arts, multimedia and publishing. But the truth is that Mac OS has changed quite a bit in the past few years, and today's Apple systems offer a reasonable alternative to Wintel systems for many mainstream uses and are often best-of-breed tools for tasks such as desktop publishing, multimedia and other content creation. OS X, code-named Jaguar, and the recently announced successor called Panther are rock-solid Unix at the...

All, Here a scoop to Freepers which is just now hitting us security pro's. There is a first vulnerability that uses the MS Bug that MS addressed with MS 03-026 two weeks ago. It is calling itself MSBLAST.exe and is spreading in the wild unbelievably fast. http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?date=2003-08-11 A first advisory from McAffee has just been published: http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/defa...&virus_k=100547 Once it finds a vulnerable system, it will spawn a shell on port 4444 and use it to download the actual worm via tftp. The exploit itself is very close to 'dcom.c' and so far appears to use the "universal Win2k" offset only....

According to a report tonight at MacRumors.com, the Apple website listed the specs (apparently by accident) of the new Macs expected to be introduced on Monday at the Worldwide Developer's Conference. The information was found via the Akamai internet service that Apple uses to accelerate web page downloading. The purported specs are - The world's fastest personal computer. 1.6GHz, 1.8GHz, or Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 Processors Up to 1 GHz processor bus Up to 8GB of DDR SDRAM Fast Serial ATA hard drives AGP 8x Pro3 PCI or PCI-X expansion slots One FW800, two FW400 ports Bluetooth & Airport Extreme...

Apple Launches Paid Music Service By Leander Kahney | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 2 next 01:46 PM Apr. 28, 2003 PT SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a slick and easy-to-use song download service on Monday that some experts said breaks down the barriers to online music distribution. At a big launch event in downtown San Francisco, Jobs showed off Apple's new iTunes Music Store, which makes more than 200,000 songs from all five major music labels available at 99 cents a download. "The Apple online music store is going to be the hottest way,...

Apple Computer Inc. informed MacCentral by special invitation Monday morning of an event the company will hold in San Francisco on Monday, April 28, 2003. While the invitation was not specific on exactly what the company would announce at the event, it did narrow down the possibilities. The invitation says that Apple will have "announcements that will be music to your ears." Apple has several music products, but speculation over the past couple of weeks has focused on three things: a new iPod; a buyout by Apple of Universal Music; and a new music service by Apple. News of Apple's...

THE NATION Apple Reportedly in Talks to Buy Universal Music A deal could yield up to $6 billion for parent firm Vivendi and make tech maverick Steve Jobs the most powerful figure in the record business.By Chuck PhilipsTimes Staff Writer April 11, 2003 In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said. Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, the...

<p>Now that Apple Computer Inc. has let the cat halfway out of the bag about the next major revision to Mac OS X, sources report that the "Panther" release will reach end users in mid-September.</p> <p>According to sources familiar with the forthcoming revisions to the Unix-based OS, Apple will freeze development on new features in May and finalize enhancements to the user interface in July.</p>

Goodbye to the classic Apple iMac By Mark Ward BBC News online technology correspondent The computer that came in different hues and revolutionised the home computing market - not to mention Apple's fortune - is finally being phased out. Consider the desktop computer. For years these instruments of social change could not have looked less revolutionary if their designers had tried. Instead of anonymous beige boxes, users yearned for something less like an oversized box and more like an implement fit for the 21st Century. Something like the Apple iMac, for instance. When the company first unveiled its new, blue...

Al Gore Joins Apple’s Board of Directors 2:45 PM PST CUPERTINO, California—March 19, 2003—Apple today announced that Albert Gore Jr., the former Vice President of the United States, has joined the Company’s Board of Directors. Mr. Gore was elected at Apple’s board meeting today. “Al brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and wisdom to Apple from having helped run the largest organization in the world—the United States government—as a Congressman, Senator and our 45th Vice President. Al is also an avid Mac user and does his own video editing in Final Cut Pro,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Al is...

<p>In The Global-Investor Book of Investing Rules (Financial Times Prentice Hall), shareholder activist and gadfly money manager Robert Monks, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, coined a new rule for investors: Short the stock of any company employing a former Tennessee senator on its board. After all, Albert Gore Sr. sat on the board of oil giant Occidental Petroleum ( ) during a period of corporate misdeeds back in the 1960s. Former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker of the Volunteer State was on the board of Waste Management ( ), another troubled outfit. Construction concern Stone & Young had on its board ex-Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson. It declared bankruptcy soon after his tenure.</p>

Former Vice President Al Gore Joins Apple's Board of Directors3/19/2003 4:32:00 PMCUPERTINO, Calif., Mar 19, 2003 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Apple(R) (AAPL) today announced that Albert Gore Jr., the former Vice President of the United States, has joined the Company's Board of Directors. Mr. Gore was elected at Apple's board meeting today. Al brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and wisdom to Apple from having helped run the largest organization in the world -- the United States government -- as a Congressman, Senator and our 45th Vice President. Al is also an avid Mac user and does his own video...

<p>Apple Computer Co. has been hit by a growing number of lawsuits filed by Mac dealers who are upset by the company's alleged efforts to lure their customers to outlets that Apple owns. They are also fed up with what they say are long-standing problems in the company's service and billing systems.</p>

Apple says profits eaten away, flat sales ahead CUPERTINO, California (AFP) Jan 15, 2003 Apple Computer Inc. said Wednesday it lost money in the three months which ended December 28 and it expected flat sales ahead. Apple made a net loss of eight million dollars or two cents a share in the three months, compared to a profit of 38 million dollars or 11 cents a share in the same period a year earlier, it said. Sales rose 7.05 percent to 1.47 billion dollars. Apple said it would have made a small profit in the period, but the money was...

Latest move for OS X is intended to bring parity with other UNIXes and deepen its Open Source community involvement. When Apple launched its OS X development effort, it made a big deal out of the new OS's UNIX base. But for UNIX folks using the OS, certain components were missing or incomplete. For example, it lacked package management. So the Fink development team ported dpkg and apt-get from Debian; X on X implemented an X window system; X11 binaries for Darwin (Apple's open-source BSD-derived base code for OS X) were made available by the XFree86 project. But X11 still...

[Read from the bottom up; each paragraph was posted in reverse order as Jobs spoke.]Macworld Expo keynote coverage recapby Peter Cohen, pcohen@maccentral.comJanuary 7, 2003 12:00 pm ET MacCentral's coverage of Steve Jobs' keynote address from Macworld Expo has concluded. Please visit our home page for more news from the show. The coverage below is presented in reverse chronological order, with the oldest content at the bottom of the page. "What's driving us is one simple thing, and that's innovation." Jobs says that 2003 is "the year of the notebook for Apple." Displayed video and TV ads showing off new PowerBooks....

Hordes of Apple faithful were on hand Tuesday for another of CEO Steve Jobs’ revival meetings, again disguised as the keynote address at the Macworld exposition in San Francisco. And Jobs didn’t disappoint, telling his flock of a new Web browser, an open-source presentation program plus a pair of new notebook computers, including the first one ever to have a 17-inch screen. THE BIGGEST NEWS on the software front was the announcement of two new programs which will directly compete with Microsoft software that handle similar tasks. Safari is Apple’s new turbo-charged Web browser for OS X (the current version...

On the two-year birthday of the high-end Titanium PowerBook, Apple Computer on Tuesday upped the ante by introducing a model with a massive 17-inch display. "We believe someday notebooks are even going to outsell desktops," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. He predicted the sales ratio will climb to at least 50 percent in a few years. "We want to replace even more desktops with notebooks," he said. To achieve that goal, the company created a PowerBook that is 1-inch thick, slightly thinner than its predecessor. It weighs 6.8 pounds,...

Software Safari A free web browser for OS XKeynote Presentation software offering rich graphics capabilities - $99iLife iTunes 3, iPhoto 2, iMovie 3, iDVD 3, all bundled for $49 or (with the exception of iDVD) available separately for freeFinal Cut Express A lite version of FC Pro - $299 Hardware PowerBook G4 12" Apple's most compact notebook, starting at $1799PowerBook G4 17" The largest screen in the portable market, starting at $3299 Apple.com

Apple preparing new upgrade fees By Joe Wilcox Staff Writer, CNET News.com January 3, 2003, 12:14 PM PT Apple Computer next week will announce a plan to charge for upgrades to some of the company’s highly acclaimed "digital hub" software, a move that could anger customers accustomed to receiving free updates. According to sources familiar with the plans, Apple is expected to announce at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco Tuesday that consumers will have to pay for new versions of iDVD, iPhoto and iMovie, which will be sold together as a bundle. Previously, Apple had offered upgrades to its...