The FIFA World Cup 2006 tournament won’t get underway in Germany until early June, but computer virus writers are already attempting to cash in on the planet’s most popular sporting event with viruses aimed at deceiving eager soccer fans. Researchers at UK-based Sophos released notification of a new attack that infects Microsoft Excel files and has been disguised as a spreadsheet charting the national teams participating in the World Cup.

An early review of the much-publicized security features due in Microsoft’s next-generation Windows Vista operating system concludes that the tools may be so unfriendly to users that they delay enterprises’ move to adopt the new product. In a research report published May 8, analysts at Boston-based Yankee Group said that Microsoft’s latest attempt to better secure its dominant OS is significantly off the mark. Based on feedback garnered by the experts from a wide range of software developers already testing preview versions of Vista, Yankee Group said that the intrusive nature of the security features could turn off IT administrators and users alike.

Looking for further expansion, Symantec is considering delving into identity management, encryption and a range of managed services, the security giant’s chief said Monday. Symantec CEO John Thompson mentioned those fields as areas the company is interested in as it tries to become a single-source supplier for management of data centers and protection of data and of online transactions.

Symantec has admitted it’s falling down on customer support for its email archiving product. The security services provider has been experiencing difficulties in support for Enterprise Vault, a data management product picked up in its acquisition of Veritas Software, CEO John Thompson told attendees at the company’s annual Vision customer conference on Monday.

Symantec will fight off Microsoft’s security software challenge by being better at coming up with new ideas, the company’s CEO said Monday. John Thompson vowed that it would put more resources into research and development over the coming the year. Microsoft’s development of security products for its upcoming Vista update to the Windows operating system prompted Symantec to be bullish about taking on the software giant.

Thomas K. Equels, Managing Shareholder of the Holtzman Equels law firm, and attorney Benjamin R. Alvarez have filed a class action on behalf of Miami resident Juan C. Arteaga against Dell Financial Services. The complaint alleges Dell violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by refusing to provide credit to individuals based on their ethnic backgrounds.

Laplink Software announced they have earned Microsoft Gold Partner certification in four key areas, including ISV/Software Solutions, Mobility Solutions, and OEM Hardware Solutions. Laplink was also recognized as a Gold-level Small Business Solution Provider. Gold Certified Partners represent the highest level of competence and expertise with Microsoft technologies, and have the closest working relationship with Microsoft.

The two word processors are actually surprisingly similar; this article will show how doing things through the program features, rather than manually, helps you create documents that convert better between office suites. No two office suites are alike, and the more manual, highly controlled items you have in your document, the more likely the formatting will get messy when you go from one office suite to another. But if you use the formatting capabilities to indent and add spacing documents will better transfer from one suite to another.

Microsoft plans to double spending on research and development at its MSN Internet unit as the company focuses on software services, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said. The world’s largest software maker caught investors off guard last week when it said it would sacrifice billions of dollars in profit next year to invest in new business areas.

While Microsoft has had some 20 years to make Office what it is today, most industry analysts say that new open-source contenders, such as OpenOffice, measure up reasonably well against Redmond’s suite. But they also say that while these suites do have most of the features of Microsoft Office, they lack certain advanced capabilities that make all the difference. Clearly, Microsoft continues to define the office space and likely will dominate office software for the foreseeable future. But an interesting question to ask is whether a group of volunteers–however large–can ever hope to measure up against Microsoft’s millions of dollars. Is the idea so far-fetched that a group of volunteers can compete successfully with Microsoft?