A security start-up is borrowing a technique from the research labs to try to give Internet Explorer PCs relief from Web-based attacks. GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed start-up, plans to release a consumer security tool that puts Microsoft’s IE in a virtual sandbox. Called GreenBorder Pro, the product uses virtualization technology similar to what researchers at antivirus companies have been using for years. In a virtual environment, malicious software is allowed to execute, but it can’t touch the underlying operating system.

For Microsoft right now, the business of workplace communications looks a lot like the server business of the early 1990s. Like then, there are a number of companies all trying to provide the same thing–this time, a way to bring together voice mail, email and other digital communication in the corporation. But, also like then, many of their products are one-off approaches that don’t work well with others. So to make its mark in this market, Microsoft is hoping that it can do what it has done in the past–create key underlying software, and then convince the rest of the industry to build on top of its architecture.

MessageLabs announced the launch of version 2.0 of its Web Security Services. The new services have been developed on a proprietary MessageLabs Web scanning architecture and feature full integration with MessageLabs existing email and IM services and address the key business issues surrounding Internet use in the workplace: security, organizational compliance, and policy control.

Microsoft and Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works, have teamed up to release a copyright licensing tool that enables the easy addition of Creative Commons licensing information for works in popular Microsoft Office applications. The copyright licensing tool will be available free of charge at Microsoft Office Online, and CreativeCommons.org. The tool will enable the 400 million users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office PowerPoint to select one of several Creative Commons licenses from within the specific application.

As more people turn to Web applications for everyday tasks like email, friendship and payments, cyber criminals are following them in search of bank account details and other valuable data, security researchers said. Users of Yahoo’s email service, Google’s Orkut social networking site and eBay’s PayPal online payment service were among the targets of attacks in recent weeks. All three companies have acknowledged and plugged the security holes. The attacks come as Microsoft, whose Windows operating system runs about 90 percent of the world’s computers, has plugged many of the most easily exploited holes in its email program, browser and other products following dozens of embarrassing breaches over the past several years.

Microsoft appears to be working to add physics support inside of its DirectX application interface, according to a job posting by the software giant. Microsoft is currently advertising for a software design engineer to join Microsoft’s "Direct Physics" team, "responsible for delivering a great leap forwards in the way game developers think about integrating Physics into their engines," according to the posting. Physics simulation, according to Microsoft, "is a key part of the next generation gaming experience, bringing increased realism, greater immersion and more interesting experiences."

The United States has never experienced a massive Internet outage, but a coalition of dynamic chief executives said Friday that the nation must do more to prepare for that prospect. The cautionary document was a product of the Business Roundtable, whose 160 corporate members include companies ranging from Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems to General Motors, Home Depot and Coca-Cola. All told, the group’s high-rolling membership counts $4.5 trillion in annual revenues, more than 10 million employees, and nearly a third the total value of the U.S. stock market.

Microsoft plans in August to publicly release the privacy rules its employees have to follow when developing products. The move, which offers a look behind the scenes at Microsoft, is meant to give the industry an example of what the software giant sees as best practices in customer privacy, said Peter Cullen, the chief privacy strategist at Microsoft.

The European Commission said it had received no complaint from Adobe Systems against Microsoft over the treatment of PDF documents in the U.S. software giant’s forthcoming Windows Vista operating system. Spokesman Jonathan Todd said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes had expressed concerns about the way PDF-type documents would be dealt with in Vista in a letter to Microsoft in March. The EU regulator remained in touch with Microsoft on the issue, he said.

Over half of all companies doing business in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors have experienced data breaches that potentially exposed their intellectual property or customer information, a new research report shows. According to the report, published by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, not only have many technology providers been hit with the same sorts of data losses that have recently plagued other industries, but a large number of the firms have also failed to make sufficient investments in security technologies aimed at preventing future incidents.