Shakedown 2.0

Pentagon doesn't want Google mapping out their bases

2008-03-07T14:43:00.002+08:00

The US defence department has banned the giant internet search engine Google from filming inside and making detailed studies of US military bases.

A message sent to all Defense Department bases and installations around the country late last week told officials to not allow the popular mapping website from taking panoramic views inside the facilities.

Close-up, ground-level imagery of US military sites posed a "potential threat" to security, it said.

The move follows the discovery of images of the Fort Sam Houston army base in Texas on Google Maps.

"Images include 360-degree views of the covered area to include access control points, barriers, headquarters, facilities and community areas," said the defence department in a statement quoted by AFP news agency.

It said such detailed mapping could pose a threat.

Google spokesman Larry Yu said the decision by a Google team to enter the Texas base and undertake a detailed survey, had been "a mistake".He said that where the US military had expressed concerns, images had already been removed.

source: bbc tech news

Mozilla Firefox reaches 500 million downloads

2008-02-23T15:02:00.004+08:00

Firefox, the open source web browser from Mozilla, is continuing to grow at a phenomenal rate, and has now passed the 500 million download mark since its launch in November 2004.

According to the Spread Firefox web site, there had been 500,168,448 downloads as of 6:15 a.m. PST. About 12 hours earlier, there had been more than 499,900,000.

In September 2007, Firefox crossed the 400 million download mark, indicating an average rate a bit shy of 20 million per month at present.

Firefox is the only browser in the market to have somewhat managed to put a dent in the market share of Microsoft Internet Explorer. But even with this level of success, Firefox is still a long way behind Internet Explorer as web browser of choice. While IE has a market share of about 75%, Firefox can only manage 17%.

The developers behind the project have been working on the version 3 of Firefox which is expected to come out in the near future.

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technorati tags: mozilla, firefox

China censures its own popular search engine Baidu

2008-02-20T06:11:00.004+08:00

Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com was asked by Beijing's Internet self-discipline organization to make a public apology for spreading Hong Kong star Edison Chen's pornographic photos.

China's top Internet search engine, Baidu.com, has been censured by a government-sponsored watchdog for allegedly helping spread sexually explicit photos that appear to feature several Hong Kong stars.

The photos, which appear to show actor Edison Chen and several female stars performing sex acts or in sexually suggestive poses, are believed to have originated in Hong Kong. They have circulated widely here.

"'Key-words searching' and 'Tieba', a picture-sharing section of Baidu.com became a platform to show and spread the obscene pictures and Baidu failed to block the photos after other Beijing-based websites had taken actions against the pictures' spreading," said in Beijing Association of Online Media's statement.

The association praised other Chinese websites, such as NetEase.com, Sina.com and Sohu.com for urging their users not to spread the photos.

Baidu.com is the most popular internet search engine in the China and even dominates the global leader Google. China's online population has soared to 210 million people, and was said could surpass the United States this year to become host to the world's biggest online community.

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technorati tags: china, baidu, internet

Happy Hearts Day!

2008-02-14T17:41:00.001+08:00

The Story Behind the Google Logo

2008-02-13T15:15:00.007+08:00

Ever wondered why they made Google's logo like that? Who made that simple but catchy face logo that has represented the most popular search engine on the internet? And do you have any idea what Google's first logo look like when it was still a Stanford project?

Well some of us probably don't really notice Big G's logo that much unless it was doodled by the creative Dennis Hwang for some special events or holidays. But who really is the brain behind Google's primary logo? It is Ruth Kedar, who was teaching design at Stanford when she was introduced by a friend to Google founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page.

Google at that time wanted a unique logo that would clearly differentiate them from the other existing search players (Yahoo, Excite, HotBot, etc.), as well as embody their unique vision. But these other websites mentioned were commercial portals first, and search engines second. Google on the other hand wanted to convey that it was as a search provider first and foremost.

On an interview at WebProNews, Kedar explained on how they ended with the now popular Google logo:

* It was playful and deceptively simple. The design subtle as to look almost non-designed, the reading effortless. The colors evoke memories of child play, but deftly stray from the color wheel strictures so as to hint to the inherent element of serendipity creeping into any search results page and the irreverance and boldness of the “I am feeling lucky” link. The texture and shading of each letter is done in an unobtrusive way resulting in lifting it from the page while giving it both weight and lightness. It is solid but there is also an ethereal quality to it.

* Times-Roman was the font of choice for the web at that time, while sans-serif fonts were the darling of the printed world. I wanted the readability of a serifed font, but looked for a typeface that had the same qualities we were looking for – subtly sophisticated, but with some humor and irreverence . The chosen typeface is a based on Catull, an old style serif typeface. Catull borrows elements from traditional writing instruments such as the quill and the chisel with a modern twist. Search, by nature, is an activity that requires we look into the past. Therefore Catull’s historical ties seemed appropriate, as did the bridging between the old analog world and the new emerging digital era.

* Visually, there were two main schools of thought at the time: those wanting to emulate the conventional non-web giants such as Sun and SGI (bold all-caps sans-serifed fonts), and those who viewed the irreverence of Yahoo’s non-designed approach as “the look" for the new medium. This design managed to break with the existing conventions landing Google with the unique visual expression it was looking for.

BackRub:

Does the name scare you? Or is it the hands? Well, that hand right there is of Larry Page. When Google was a Stanford research project, it was nicknamed "BackRub" because the technology checks backlinks to determine a site's importance. For more info regarding this, read the BackRub FAQs page. The logo evolved to other designs when they used "Google," here's a demo page of their early Google search engine.

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technorati tags: google logo, ruth kedar, backrub, search engine

Yahoo to Microsoft's offer -- it's not enough!

2008-02-12T07:23:00.000+08:00

Yahoo! Inc., owner of the second most used Internet search engine, rejected a $44.6 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp. as too low, pressuring the world's largest software maker to raise its bid.

After evaluating the proposal, the board unanimously concluded that the proposal didn't adequately compensate shareholders for Yahoo's global brand, large audience and future growth prospects, and that it undervalues Yang's company.. according to a Yahoo statement.

Microsoft later said in statement late Monday that it was “unfortunate” that Yahoo had not embraced its offer, and reiterated that it may “pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.”

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technorati tags: yahoo, microsoft

EBay to change rules on its feedback system

2008-02-07T07:13:00.000+08:00

All buyers and sellers are equal in the virtual auction world of eBay, but buyers are about to become more equal than everyone else. The on-line auction site is to ban sellers placing negative feedback about buyers on trades that go sour.

eBay has said it plans to overhaul its feedback system, said problems were occurring, and slowing down trade, when buyers left negative comments about sellers who then retaliated with their own views. The move, which will affect users worldwide, has angered many sellers.

EBay has defended the move, claiming that buyers need more protection than sellers because they have to send money to a counterparty they do not know.

The group added that it is rare for buyers to renege on payments. But sellers have claimed that the new system leaves them vulnerable to extortion with buyers wielding the ability to blacklist them without the opportunity to defend themselves. And they complain that by still allowing buyers to leave dissenting comments about sellers, eBay has skewed the whole trading process.However, eBay counters that problem buyers can still be dealt with.

"If a buyer doesn't pay, the seller can easily contact eBay, we will review any complaint and maybe remove the buyer," a spokesman said.

EBay says that only a minority of sellers leave negative feedback for buyers.

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technorati tags: ebay, feedback system

Super Smash Bros. Brawl sold more than 500k in Japan

2008-02-05T13:18:00.000+08:00

In its first day of release, Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii sold more than 500,000 copies in Japan, shattering sales figures for all other platforms combined, according to the Japanese source Famitsu.

No other new release came close. The Playstation 3 version of Devil May Cry sold 140,000 copies, followed by the PS2's Haruhi at 105,000 units and Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut with 70,000. It is also the biggest one-day sales number for any Wii game in Japan.

The game's official site is currently rated more popular than Nintendo.com and Wii.com, according to Web tracker Alexa. The game's official website Smashbros.com currently ranks as the 681st most popular site on the Internet.

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technorati tags: nintendo+wii, super smash bros brawl, super smash brothers, japan

No Need for Google to Fret, Says Analysts

2008-02-03T07:07:00.001+08:00

So far the most talked about news on the internet lately is about the possible merger of Microsoft and Yahoo!, with the former offering to buy the latter for around $44.6 billion to better compete with Google in the market for online services.

But Analysts says big G can take time responding to 'Yahoosoft,' and that there is no immediate pressure for Google to act boldly.

"Google doesn't have to do much. It is that far ahead," says Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.

Google's share of Internet searches is nearly 60% in the U.S. — about twice the combined total of Yahoo and Microsoft, according to estimates from market researchers.

At the same time, Google commands more than 40% of worldwide online ad sales. Combined, Yahoo and Microsoft are less than 25%. Microsoft's Online Services group lost $537 million last year, while increasing ad sales a tepid 7%.

What Google also has is time. Any real competitive gains by a Microsoft-Yahoo cartel could be a long time coming. The U.S. Justice Department on Friday expressed interest in reviewing the deal, a setback to Microsoft's plans to close the deal by 2009.

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technorati tags: google, microsoft yahoo merger

Sweden claims Pirate Bay Violates Copyrights

2008-02-01T06:56:00.000+08:00

The four men in charge of running Pirate Bay, a popular file-sharing site, have been charged with conspiracy to break copyright law in their home country of Sweden.

A Swedish prosecutor filed charges Thursday against the organizers of popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, saying it has helped millions of users worldwide violate copyrights.

The Pirate Bay, started in 2004, allows 10 million to 15 million users share films, music and other copyright-protected material. Pirate Bay acts similar to Kazaa in that it is a source for users to find, share and download content, much of which is copyrighted. The site creates Torrent files, which must be accessed through third-party software programs before it can be viewed.

Swedish prosecutors say because Pirate Bay receives advertising revenue for its infringement of the copyrighted works, the people who operate the site are in violation of the law.

There are four men facing the charges: Peter Sunde, Carl Lundstrom, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Frederik Neij. If the men are found guilty they could face a possible maximum of two years behind bars. Pirate Bay has been under legal scrutiny for a while but the owners always refused to shut down their operations. In fact, the site is still up and running today.

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technorati tags: pirate+bay, sweden, copyright violation

MySpace opens up more to developers

2008-01-31T14:58:00.000+08:00

Social Networking site MySpace is introducing tools for developing games, media-sharing features and other programs that better integrate with the Internet's leading social-networking site.

Similar to what rival Facebook did last year, which opens its platform to developers, a move that has proven to be a boon for music-sharing start-up iLike.com, photo-sharing service Slide and countless other companies. Those applications, in turn, have helped make Facebook even more popular, although it still ranks as the second most trafficked social network behind News Corp.'s MySpace.

MySpace will formally launch the MySpace Developer Platform next Tuesday with a kickoff event and workshop at its new San Francisco office. Although developers will have all the tools they need to create and test programs, they won't be able to integrate them right away. MySpace has yet to announce a start date for that.

The company said the program should result in innovations in how friends connect and communicate.

DoCoMo buys more of PLDT

2008-01-30T12:55:00.000+08:00

Japan's NTT DoCoMo has raised its stake in Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), the Philippines' largest telecom company, lifting the NTT group's overall holding to 20 percent, according to a report from Reuters.

DoCoMo, which controls more than half of Japan's mobile market, bought 12.53 million additional PLDT shares for 86.7 billion yen (US$760 million) since March 2007, raising its stake in PLDT to 13.3 percent from 6.7 percent.

The investment, bringing the NTT group's holdings in PLDT close to a 21 percent-limit previously agreed on, will help the Japanese company strengthen its partnerships in global roaming services and joint technological development, DoCoMo officials said.

About NTT DoCoMo:
NTT DoCoMo is the world's leading mobile communications company. DoCoMo serves more than 51 million customers, of which more than half subscribe to FOMA(TM), launched as the world's first 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA in 2001. DoCoMo also offers a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services, including i-mode(TM), the world's most popular mobile e-mail/ Internet service, used by more than 46 million users. With the addition of credit-card and other e-wallet functions, DoCoMo mobile phones have become highly versatile tools for daily life. NTT DoCoMo is listed on the Tokyo (9437), London (NDCM) and New York (DCM) stock exchanges. For more information, visit www.nttdocomo.com .

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technorati tags: docomo, pldt

PayPal to buy Israeli fraud-detection company

2008-01-29T09:35:00.000+08:00

Paypal announced it has agreed to acquire Fraud Sciences, an Israeli security company, for $169 million. The deal marks the first time eBay and PayPal have acquired a security technology company.

eBay's PayPal has been battling online fraud, which has cost it millions of dollars. Paypal is by far the most widely used online payment service, and as such it is one of the biggest targets for phishing and other Internet scams. Fraud Sciences has developed technology that it claims helps in differentiating between legitimate transactions and those perpetrated by fraud.

Fraud Sciences' risk tools will be integrated with PayPal's fraud management system, PayPal President Scott Thompson said. The move "should allow us to be even more effective in protecting eBay and PayPal's hundreds of millions of customers around the world," he said.

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technorati tags: paypal, fraud sciences, online security

Church of Scientology responds to Internet attacks

2008-01-27T21:58:00.000+08:00

After the Church of Scientology's website has been taken down by a group of hackers calling themselves "Anonymous," the church responded by airing a video Friday evening.

Karin Pouw, public affairs director for the Church of Scientology, focused on the leak of a Tom Cruise video on YouTube earlier in the week.

As the Church previously announced, the pirated and edited excerpts of Mr. Cruise were contained in an official Church event in 2004, an event attended by 5,000 Scientologists and their guests and further available for viewing in any Church of Scientology world over. Having presented these selective and out-of-context excerpts with the intent of creating both controversy and ridicule, nevertheless resulted in people searching for and visiting Church of Scientology Web sites...

The church however still allows anyone who wants to know more about their religion to visit their websites.

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technorati tags: hack attack, scientology, anonymous

Hack Attack! Hackers Hit Scientology With Online Attack

2008-01-26T14:53:00.000+08:00

A group of hackers calling itself "Anonymous" has hit the Church of Scientology's Web site with an online attack. This group claims to have knocked the Church of Scientology's Web site offline with a distributed denial-of-service attack.

According to a web page maintained by Anonymous, the attack was launched Jan. 19, which is seeking media attention to help "save people from Scientology by reversing the brainwashing," according to a Web page maintained by Anonymous.

Anonymous has managed to generate a measurable attack against the Scientology.org Web site. Over the past few days, the site was hit with several DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks, which flooded it with as much as 220M bps of traffic, according to Jose Nazario, a senior security engineer with Arbor Networks, whose company compiles data on Internet attacks.

If publicity was Anonymous' ultimate goal, the group has had some success. Late in the day Friday, seven of the top 10 stories on the Digg.com news-linking site related to Scientology or to Anonymous' communiques.

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technorati tags: scientology, anonymous, hack attack

PayPal’s Valentine’s Day Survey Proves Money Still Can’t Buy Love

2008-01-24T13:47:00.000+08:00

Nearly 60 percent of young U.S. couples surveyed argue over money at least once a month, according to PayPal’s second annual “Can’t Buy Me Love” survey. Meanwhile, issues relating to work and household responsibilities top the list for couples in the UK. In both countries, sex ranked low on the list of couples’ common arguments, coming in fifth. The research, conducted by Ipsos, examined how personal finance issues affect couples and singles in the U.S. and UK.

“The ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ survey takes a look at the role money plays in romantic relationships,” explains author and personal finance expert, Carmen Wong Ulrich. “Communicating with your partner about money is a vital part of developing and maintaining a happy relationship. It’s very interesting to see how dynamics and priorities differ between genders and nationalities.”

For the second consecutive year, the survey found that PayPal is the number two most popular reported method of payment for respondents buying their Valentine’s Day gifts online, immediately after credit cards.

The PayPal “Can’t Buy Me Love” Survey was conducted by Ipsos from December 12, 2007 to December 18, 2007 via email invitation to online panelists.

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technorati tags: valentines day, paypal, valentines survey

Guitar Hero Franchise Rocks Past 1 Bln Mark

2008-01-23T06:03:00.000+08:00

According to market research firm NPD Group, Activision's Guitar Hero franchise has set a video game industry sales record, surpassing $1 billion in North American sales in 26 months. What's more, the latest installment, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, is now that top-selling single-year video game title of all time in terms of units and total dollars earned.

"Guitar Hero is one of the biggest brands and one of the most powerful distribution platforms in all of entertainment today," said Michael Griffith, president and chief executive officer of Activision Publishing Inc. "Guitar Hero's popularity with broad audiences is a confirmation that video games have become a true mass medium."

Since the arrival of Guitar Hero III, gamers have download over 5 million songs.

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technorati tags: guitar+hero, activision

Turkey bans YouTube... Again

2008-01-22T13:29:00.000+08:00

YouTube has once again found itself banned from Turkey for having clips available that insult the first president and founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, marking the second time in less than a year that the popular video sharing website has been banned in Turkey for the same reason.

A Turkish court blocked access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube because of clips allegedly insulting the country's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, according to reports Sunday. It is illegal in Turkey to insult the revered figure, whose portrait still hangs in nearly all government offices nearly 70 years after his death.

Users trying to access the Web site from Turkey were met with notices in English and Turkish saying it was banned under an Ankara court order issued Jan. 17.

In March 2007, YouTube was banned for two days in Turkey for the same reason until the offending videos were taken down.

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technorati tags: youtube, Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

China Showing Their Numbers on the Internet

2008-01-21T21:55:00.000+08:00

The Chinese government said Friday its Internet population has soared to 210 million people, putting it on track to surpass the U.S. online community this year to become the world's largest.

That figure puts China just 5 million users away from becoming the world's largest wired nation -- and with only about 16 percent of the population online. At its current growth rate, China will become the world's top Internet market sometime in the next few months.

The greatest growth came from users under 18 and over 30, CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) said. China's most popular Internet application is online music, used by 86.6 percent of those surveyed, followed by instant messaging with 81 percent. E-mail placed only fifth, with 56.5 percent using it.

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technorati tags: china, internet population

Would You Buy a Domain Name Worth $750,000?

2008-01-20T23:07:00.000+08:00

Would you buy a domain name worth $750,000? Cable News Network (CNN) is willing to do that.. and they just did.

Rick Schwartz, known as the "Domain King," has just completed the sale of iReport.com to the CNN for $750,000. When asked if he had any similar domains he told CNN he also owned the hyphenated version, i-Report.com. Instead of making another deal, he just gave i-Report.com for free (how generous, hehe).

Schwartz is a domain investor, he makes a living by buying domain names and reselling them to the highest bidder. This is the biggest URL sale for the year 2008 so far. Domain selling can reach up to millions of dollars in bidding, below is a list of the top ten largest sales of 2007 from DNJournal.

1. Porn.com = $9,500,000
2. Computer.com = $2,100,000
3. Seniors.com = $1,800,000
4. Tandberg.com= $1,500,000
5. Scores.com = $1,180,000
6. Vista.com = $1,250,000
7. Chinese.com = €810,001 = $1,120,008
8.tie Guy.com = $1,000,000
8.tie Topix.com = $1,000,000
10. Poker.de €695,000 = $957,937

Rick bought and registered the domains ireport.com and i-report.com way back in 1997.. for how much? $70 -$100.

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technorati tags: Rick Schwartz, ireport.com, i-report, cnn, domain selling

The Cloverfield Hype... and Slusho

2008-01-20T17:08:00.000+08:00

Web-savvy movie lovers have been buzzing about Cloverfield for months, thanks to a viral marketing strategy-meets-alternate-reality game.

Starting in early July 2007, a mysterious movie trailer began showing in theaters nationwide during screenings of Transformers. The film, which opens today, had no name, but the trailer was stamped with a date of 01-18-08 and said it was produced by J.J. Abrams, of the TV show Lost.

The curious headed online to try to track down information about the film.

Under Abrams' filmography on the Web site imdb.com, a clue was discovered — a listing for a project titled Clover, aka the Untitled J.J. Abrams Project, with a synopsis: "a giant monster movie (referred internally as The Parasite) which is shot using home video cameras from the point of view of real people who are experiencing the attack on New York City."

Followers of the movie-to-be debated what the monster could be. Was it the return of Godzilla or Voltron? Leviathan? Or a new monster?

Message boards lit up as clues were discovered, including the Web site 1-18-08.com, which contained a single photo of two women looking up in horror — at what, of course, was the question.

Other Web sites, including www.slusho.jp, raised more questions than they answered. What did this drink, with its "deep-sea ingredient," have to do with the creature that attacked New York, and why was one of the characters in the film wearing a Slusho T-shirt?

By the end of July, MySpace pages of characters in the film were discovered. Amusingly, they were blogging in real-time and have continued to do so up until the film's release. On Jan. 4, for instance, the main character Rob Hawkins blogged on his MySpace page (www.myspace.com/robbyhawkins) that he'd just been hired as vice president for marketing and promotions for Slusho and was moving to Japan in mid-January. The movie documents the ill-fated night of Rob's going-away party on Jan. 18.

Here's a trailer of the movie uploaded on YouTube:

For links to all the Cloverfield-related Web sites, and to catch up on the buzz, check out the fan site www.cloverfieldclues.com.

{source}

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technorati tags: cloverfield, slusho, cloverfield movie, youtube

Hack Attack! CIA Confirms Blacked Out Cities caused by Cyberattacks

2008-01-20T07:11:00.000+08:00

Have you seen Bruce Willis' Die Hard 4.0? Well the plot of the movie is John McClane taking on an Internet-based terrorist organization who is systematically shutting down the United States. If you think that only happens in Hollywood films then think again. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has just confirmed that recent black outs from select cities were caused by hackers.

Criminals have launched online attacks via the Internet that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the U.S., CIA analyst Tom Donahue said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said.

Hacking the power grid made front-page headlines in September when CNN aired a video showing an Idaho National Laboratory demonstration of a software attack on the computer system used to control a power generator. In the demonstration, the smoking generator was rendered inoperable.

The U.S. is taking steps to lock down the computers that manage its power systems, however.

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technorati tags: hackers, black out, cyberattack

Proximic deal with Yahoo! and eBay could challenge Big G

2008-01-19T06:59:00.000+08:00

Proximic, a new player in the contextual advertising and content-matching arena, announced that it has signed an agreement with Yahoo! Shopping Network and eBay's Shopping.com.

Using pattern-matching technology to deliver online ads, this German startup is taking on the giant - Google. Both of Yahoo! and eBay's sites will harness Proximic's patent-pending pattern matching technology to deliver advertisements over the Net that Proximic says are better suited to the context in which they're placed than anything Google can equal today.

Proximic's method called "Proximity Analysis," is a language-independent approach that automatically reads and matches relevant content according to interconnected "patterns" that are not even based on words but which exist within each document. The approach enables publishers to automatically serve up meaningful content -- articles, ads, products -- without the need for keywords or preset categories. It's similar to querying a search engine with a complete set of 200+ words, and finding the most relevant and similar results to that query.

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technorati tags: proximic, web+advertising, google

Yahoo To Support OpenID Standard

2008-01-18T13:23:00.000+08:00

Yahoo announced Thursday that it is supporting the OpenID standard for a universal Internet log-in. Once the new Yahoo ID service is live, people with a Yahoo user name and password will be able to use that ID information to access non-Yahoo Web sites that support the OpenID 2.0 digital identity framework, reducing the amount of different log-in information people need to create, remember and enter online.

Yahoo’s 248 million users worldwide is a huge addition to the current OpenID members which is just around 120 million OpenID accounts so far. OpenID is designed to facilitate single log-ins for multiple unaffiliated Web sites. Gradually, large sites like AOL and Plaxo have begun supporting the standard, but it remains a tool for the Web's early-adopter set rather than the online community at large.

Yahoo launches its OpenID in public beta form on January 30.

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technorati tags: yahoo, OpenID, OpenID 2.0

Attackers targeting Microsoft Office Excel

2008-01-17T17:18:00.000+08:00

On Tuesday, a security advisory was released by Microsoft stating that malicious attackers are targeting versions of its Office Excel with vulnerabilities, not only Windows OS users but also those who use Mac OS.

Included in the affected versions are Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Service Pack 2, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2002, Microsoft Office Excel 2000, and Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac.

Microsoft said that Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac, and Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Service Pack 3 do not appear to be vulnerable.

People who open a malicious e-mail attachment or visit a malicious Web site may find that their systems are compromised and that arbitrary remote code is executed. Computers configured to allow the user to have administrative user rights are at greater risk that those with few user rights on the system.

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technorati tags: microsoft excel, excek attack, security, malicious email