Anti-virus vendor Trend Micro has spotted a Trojan in the wild attacking Windows users via the image rendering flaws patched by Microsoft two days ago. The Trojan, identified as TROJ_EMFSPLOIT.A, causes the "explorer.exe" file to crash, causing the taskbar on unpatched Windows machines to disappear. Trend Micro described the exploit as a "proof-of-concept Trojan" that exploits the Graphics Rendering Engine vulnerability patched by Microsoft earlier this week. Microsoft rated the flaw as "critical" and warned that a successful exploit could let an attack take "complete control" of unpatched Windows 2000, Windows XP (including SP2), and Windows Server 2003, but the Trojan identified by Trend Micro simply causes a denial-of-service condition.

Microsoft is concerned about rootkit features in CDs from Sony BMG artists and is evaluating the situation to see if any action needs to be taken, a spokesperson said. The Redmond software maker said the security of its customers’ information is a "top priority" and that the company is concerned by software like that deployed by Sony to block illegal CD copying. However, unlike other security software vendors, Microsoft hasn’t decided whether to take more aggressive action against the product, such as detecting and removing it from systems, the spokesperson said. Sony’s rights management technology, which it calls "sterile burning," shipped on CDs on around 20 Sony BMG artists and is installed along with a custom media player that must be used to play the songs on a Windows PC.

Re-invent Technologies announced the launch of ASP.NET 2.0 hosting, available on all Re-invent Web hosting plans at no additional charge. Re-invent customers may choose which version of .NET they would like to develop in as ASP.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET 1.1 are installed side-by-side on all servers. ASP.NET is a programming framework built on the common language runtime and can be used on a Web server to run powerful Web applications. The first version of ASP.NET offered advantages over previous Web development models. ASP.NET 2.0 improves upon that foundation by adding support for many new features to increase developer productivity, extensibility, and performance.

Capacitors are an inexpensive little component on a PC motherboard, but they can be a costly headache for manufacturers when a whole bunch of them go bad. Last week, Dell announced it was going to take a $300 million financial charge on its earnings to cover costs associated with the replacement of motherboards with faulty capacitors in some of its Optiplex workstations. The Dell system boards in question were manufactured from April 2003 to March 2004, according to several contract computer repair firms that are starting to replace the systems. At issue are faulty capacitors on motherboards that store power and regulate voltage. Defective capacitors found in the Dell Optiplex workstations, some Apple iMac G5s, HP xw-series workstations made in 2004 and PCs with the Intel D865GBF motherboard have been found to bulge, pop, leak and crust over, causing video failure and periodic system shutdowns.

Apple Computer, which is in the process of switching to computers based on the omnipresent Intel processor, has filed a patent application describing a method for securely running Mac OS X on specific hardware. The Mac maker has applied for a patent to cover a system and method for creating tamper-resistant code. Apple describes ways of ensuring that code can be limited to specific hardware, even in a world in which operating systems can be run simultaneously, in so-called virtual machines. The patent application was made in April of 2004, but only made public last Thursday.

Technology firms voiced disapproval over draft broadband regulations discussed at a contentious, six-hour congressional hearing Wednesday. Google, Microsoft, eBay, Amazon.com, and InterActiveCorp representatives said in letters and statements to a U.S. House of Representatives panel that the new legislation it is preparing is too heavy-handed and favors certain technologies to the detriment of others.

Senforce Technologies announced version 3.1 of Senforce ESS (Endpoint Security Suite). ESS centrally enforces an organization’s security policies by location–for every PC worldwide in a ’24×7′ fashion–whether or not they’re connected to company-managed networks or even to the Internet. Version 3.1 builds upon the same sophisticated endpoint security features and takes them to new levels of performance, scalability and manageability in support of large enterprise deployments. Senforce ESS is a single, integrated solution for complete endpoint security. Rather than deploying several products with non-integrated components from multiple vendors, organizations use ESS’s modular design for flexible, tightly integrated endpoint security. ESS provides centralized management and policy definition, location-aware policy enforcement, powerful reporting and strong audit controls.

Microsoft is expected to release a new version of its Web Services Enhancements technology that simplifies the development of secure Web services. Ari Bixhorn, lead product manager for Web services strategy in the developer and platform division at Microsoft, said new WSE 3.0 features fall into three categories: simplified development of secure Web services, integration with Visual Studio 2005 and preparing developers for building applications on Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), code-named Indigo.

Fraudsters are using a promise of a $400 prize from Google as bait in a new phishing scam aimed at stealing credit card data, a security expert has warned. A fake copy of the Google Web site hosted on a server in the U.S. displays the message: "You WON $400.00 !!!," security monitoring company Websense said in an alert Tuesday. To collect their prize, "winners" are asked to click on to a second page that asks them for their credit card details and address, Websense said.

Aiming to stir up the same kind of momentum as his Internet Tidal Wave memo of a decade earlier, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has penned a memo outlining the challenges Microsoft faces from a host of online competitors. In the memo, Gates cites an earlier missive from Ray Ozzie, outlining the importance of tapping online advertising and services as new revenue sources. Ozzie’s memo, which was also seen by CNET News.com, includes a laundry list of missed opportunities for the software maker, citing competitive threats from rivals such as Google, Skype, Research In Motion, and Adobe.