Stories about: Good Guys

Version 3.0 of BackTrack has been released. BackTrack is a Linux-based distribution dedicated to penetration testing or hacking (depending on how you look at it). It contains more than 300 of the world's most popular open source or freely distributable hacking tools.

Score one for the good guys: Last week, Microsoft announced that not only would Office 2007 Service Pack 2 support the ODF (Open Document Format) standard, but the productivity suite would not offer support for the ISO standard version of Microsoft's own OOXML (Office Open XML) format until its next major version, release date unknown.

If you can't beat them, scam them back...or slander them into quitting.

You've got to admit that when it comes to public relations, Google totally rocks. The company's goofy name has become the generic term for "search the Web" -- a branding coup your average Madison Avenue marketing wizard would kill his grandmother for. And the company's motto ("Don't be evil") and ostentatious eco-friendliness successfully promote the image of a wacky company that just wants to be your best buddy.

It's a good time to be a malicious hacker. That's because even though it's not a time of revolutionary new techniques in hacking for profit, business is booming for the established methods. Despite increased investment in information security defenses, the good guys continue to lag badly behind. According to one report by Sophos, which called the recent uptick in ­malware a "deluge," by April 2007, more than 250,000 websites were hosting malicious code and more than 8,000 were being added to that total every day.

Sun Microsystems is putting millions of Java users at risk by staggering the release of security patches for the software, security vendor eEye Digital Security said Monday.

To some, vulnerability researchers such as H.D. Moore are knights in shining armor for their efforts to discover security flaws in software products. Opponents argue that the only ones being helped are the malicious attackers.

Ethical hacking may seem an oxymoron to some, but not to Computer Power corporate training, which is bringing its Certified Ethical Hacker course to Australia.

SCO Australia and New Zealand managing director Kieran O’Shaughnessy’s recent claims that Linux doesn’t exist (CW AUG 30, p1) and is just an unlicensed version of Unix have been labelled ‘stupid’ by former AUUG president and 25-year Unix veteran Greg Lehey.

Less than a month after becoming the first publicly announced purchaser of The SCO Group's controversial intellectual property license, Internet service provider Everyones Internet is reconsidering the benefits of doing business with the Linux community's enemy number one.

The groundswell of vendor support for Linux in the enterprise continued this week, with Novell's latest moves.