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Archive for April 16th, 2009

eBay Will Spin Off Skype and Make an IPO in 2010

On Wednesday, eBay put an end to speculation about the fate of Skype. eBay will spin off the Internet VoIP telephone service and make an initial public offering in the first half of 2010.Although Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating growth, eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said it’s clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and its PayPal subsidiary.

“We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential. This will give Skype the focus and resources required to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications,” Donahoe said. “In addition, separating Skype will allow eBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines — e-commerce and online payments — and deliver long-term value to our stockholders.”

Click here to read the rest of my story on NewsFactor.

April 16th, 2009

Attackers Focused on 10 of 23 Patch Tuesday Holes

Microsoft on Tuesday issued eight security updates to fix 23 security holes in its software, 10 of which are rated critical. Attackers have already used six vulnerabilities and four have a proof of concept or attack plan published.This marks the largest release of security patches since October 2008 and addresses issues in Windows, Internet Explorer, DirectX, Excel, Word and in the company’s security software.

One of the four critical vulnerabilities that address issues with Internet Explorer is of particular concern, according to Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager for Symantec Security Response.

“Vulnerability CVE-2009-0554 appears to be the easiest of the bunch to take advantage of by an attacker and also happens to be the one that requires the least amount of involvement by a user to exploit. An attacker can simply lure a victim into viewing a Web page that contains malicious content and that individual’s computer can then be taken over,” Greenbaum said.

“This collection of Internet Explorer patches released today is a positive step, since the Web has become the primary conduit for attacks against end users. Many browser vulnerabilities, such as these announced by Microsoft, allow attackers to gain complete control over everything a user has permission to do on an exploited machine. You can imagine how dangerous this can be, especially if the user has administrator rights.”

Click here to read the rest of my story on NewsFactor.

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