IE flaw threat raised to 'extremely critical'

The security company Secunia has re-issued warnings about critical vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The advisory was first published back in October 2004 - New security holes identified for Internet Explorer post SP 2 - and it even affects machines that have Windows XP SP2 installed. As well as increasing the rating of the threat - from 'highly critical' to 'extremely critical - Secunia has constructed a test program, which can be used to check if a browser is affected. ...more

One in five managers sceptical about home working

Research published this week suggests that a handful of managers are still resistant to the idea - and the reality - of flexible working. Despite the backing of many professional bodies and government spokespeople, some managers still equate being away from the office with not working. Just over one fifth (21 per cent) of managers associate working from home with slacking off, with 37 per cent suggesting that they think their staff use this time to take longer lunch breaks or carry out other personal activities. ...more

BT offers 75p bait for 256Kbps broadband

BT Wholesale has notified ISPs of the price it will charge for its 256Kbps home broadband service. Introduced, says BT, at the behest of service providers, IPSTream Home 250 will costs ISPs ?12.25 per month, just 75p less than they pay for the 512Kbps service. ...more

Intel and VIA settle patent lawsuits

Intel and VIA have agreed to settle their long-running legal dispute without the further aid of lawyers. The dispute, which has lasted more than a year and a half, involves a series of patent-related lawsuits covering chipsets and microprocessors. The battle has spanned five countries, with 11 pending cases involving 27 patents. ...more

Mozilla pitches first release candidate for Thunderbird 2

Mozilla has announced the Release Candidate 1 of the next version of its Thunderbird email client. Following on from the last beta release in December, the release candidate establishes new features including Message Tags that enable the creation of custom tags for organising email. Messages can be assigned any number of tags that can be combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organise email. ...more