Microsoft Word security risk

Users of Microsoft Word are being urged to be careful as malicious hackers target the word processing software. Three unpatched bugs in Word have been uncovered in the last few weeks and two are already being exploited by attackers.

The loopholes being exploited allow attackers to create booby-trapped documents that steal information or take over a PC when they are opened. Microsoft has yet to release patches to fix the bugs in the Word software.

Information about the latest problem in Word was posted only a couple of days after Microsoft released its latest security update. Over the last year malicious hackers have taken to releasing code soon after the regularly-scheduled monthly Microsoft security update to give them the biggest chance to abuse it before a patch appears. So far the latest Word exploit, which revolves around the way the information describing formatting is handled, is only a proof-of-concept flaw but Symantec and McAfee have confirmed that it will work. Abusing the flaw could allow attackers to take over a PC or run malicious code on a compromised machine.

The latest flaw joins two others that Microsoft has acknowledged are already being exploited in attacks which it describes as "limited and targeted". To avoid falling victim it said: "users should always exercise extreme caution when opening unsolicited attachments from both known and unknown sources".

Malicious Word documents exploiting one bug discovered in early December are known to have been spammed out to firms in Asia. Together the three vulnerabilities are found in Microsoft Word 2000, 2002, Office 2003, Word Viewer 2003, Word 2004 for Mac, and Word v. X for Mac and Works 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Microsoft pointed out that to fall victim to the attacks users must receive and then open a booby-trapped Word document.

On its security blog Microsoft said it was actively investigating the three problems and would release patches when work was complete.

Windows XP keyboard shortcuts

We all tend to get rather attached to the mouse and forget that there are often quicker ways of doing things using the keyboard. Here are ten useful shortcuts:

1. Ctrl Alt Del (affectionately known at the "three-fingered salute") is a crucial shortcut to know as it's very useful when your PC locks up. Pressing the combination once (simultaneously) opens the Windows Task Manager. From within the Task Manager, you can force an exit from a crashed program, see a list of processes or applications running on your machine, check performance parameters such as how hard your CPU is working, or track your network usage.

2. Ctrl-S saves the file you're working on. Have you ever lost hours of work because you didn't save regularly? Hit Ctrl-S (simultaneously) to save - hit it early and often! Also Ctrl-O universally opens the File/Open window.

3. Ctrl-C copies text, files, or icons that you've highlighted, Ctrl-V pastes them, Ctrl-X cuts whatever you've highlighted out of the document (or folder, photo, movie clip etc) and Ctrl-A highlights the entire file you're working on or everything in a folder or on your desktop.

4. Alt Tab lets you switch on the fly between all your open windows. Press the combination once to switch to your last open window or multiple times to switch to any other open window.
Holding down Alt Tab will bring up a system window that shows you what applications are running and which one you're switching to.

5. Have you ever wondered why almost every Windows program has the F in File underlined, not to mention the E in Edit, and so on so forth across the top of the Window? Hit Alt and that letter to open that particular menu; you can either use the arrow keys to move around within that window, or look out for more underlined letters to use more Alt key combinations.

6. The Windows key (with the Windows logo on) R opens the Run dialog. From here, you can launch a command-line window by typing cmd, but you can do a lot more. You can, for example, paste in a folder path, such as C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\Expenses, and Windows will open it automatically. You can also use the Run dialog to open Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, or Notepad. Just type winword to launch Word, type excel to launch Excel, and notepad to launch Notepad.

7. Windows-E launches Windows Explorer, defaulting to My Computer.

8. F2 renames a selected file or folder. (This is so much easier than right-clicking!)

9. F3 launches Search if you're on the desktop or in a folder.

10. Windows-M minimizes all open windows, and Windows-D shows your desktop. Although these results look identical, they're slightly different: Windows-M minimizes all windows that support the command, while Windows-D simply raises the desktop to the top. Shift Windows-M will bring up the minimized windows, and Windows-D to drop your desktop back down again.

Hopefully you will be able to use some or all of these to speed things up.

Safer laptop batteries to be produced

Following on from the recent article about new safety standards for laptop batteries, one manufacturer has has announced its intention to produce safer batteries.

Read the full story here

Windows Vista considerations

While Windows Vista is now available for big businesses, organisations vary widely in their plans for adopting the new operating system. Some have plans to aggressively move to Vista, while others are taking more of a wait-and-see approach. Here are some things you need to consider before taking the plunge.

1. Is your hardware up to scratch?
2. Which edition(s) of Vista do you need?
3. Understand Vista licensing
4. What about application compatibility?
5. Assess the network infrastructure
6. Who needs Vista (and who doesn't)?
7. Are your users prepared?
8. Are support personnel ready?
9. Is your data safe?
10. What will it really cost?

More details on these will follow over the coming days.

Firefox or Internet Explorer?

While we wait for the full launch of Windows Vista, the web browser competition has hotted up with the recent release of Internet Explorer 7 and of Firefox 2.0.

Personally I have always had a preference for Firefox until now, principally because of its tabbed browsing facility. However the new version also offers built in anti-phishing, improvements to the tabbed browsing, better RSS handling, and a spell checker to help with webforms or other text entry. A big bonus is the "session restore" which remembers exactly what you were doing last time Firefox ran, including open browser tabs and in progress downloads: this can be a huge help if you suffer a system crash. All new features are listed here.

Whereas you can choose to download Firefox, anyone with automatic updates turned on will automatically download IE7. If you need to do it manually is can be found here. New features include tabbed browsing (at last!) shrinking a web page to fit a printer page,, and RSS support. One issue I have found so far is that in trying to configure a BT Home Hub router, IE7 just won't let you - something to do with the way it opens new windows - so I simply had to use Firefox (and although BT told me that wouldn't work, it did).

There are not the only browsers about, although IE accounts for about 81% of the market and Firefox for almost 14%.

Useful website

Found a really useful website (not technology focussed) while renewing car tax online of all things!

Take a look at www.direct.gov.uk/ for a wealth of information.

Outlook trivia

As we come up to the "silly season" how about a few bits of Outlook trivia:

The Calendar ends on August 31, 4500.

From the "Why on earth do you need this many?" department:

The Places bar in Office 2003 can hold at least 150 places.
Each folder can have 128 views.
You can add 50 additional mailboxes to an Exchange profile.

Disabled users let down by websites

According to a new poll, nearly all websites fail disabled users - in this case just three out of 100 met the minimum criteria for disabled access.

The poll was commissioned by the United Nations and undertaken by Nomensa, a UK-based accessibility agency. Although 100 is not a valid statistical sample, the results, if extrapolated across the entire universe of websites, should be of particular concern here in the UK where there is a legal requirement to make websites 'disabled-friendly' in accordance with the Disability Discrimination Act Part III. This came into effect as long ago as October 1999 so it is not a new concept.

The Disabilities Rights Council defines 'disabled-friendly' as provisions that make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, such as providing extra help or making changes to the way businesses and organisations provide services so that disabled people are not discriminated against.

Food for thought.

Do you backup your Outlook?

A free and not very prominent add in available from the Microsoft website here allows you to backup your Outlook data separately from any other backups you may do.

You can set a reminder which pops up when you exit Outlook (ok, so that's a bit irksome as the odds are you exit Outlook just before you turn the PC off....) and you can specify which files, including archives, you back up and where to.

Try it - it costs nothing. It won't suit everybody but it will probably be a whole lot more reliable than what a lot of people are using......

Remember too that your Outlook file is not by default stored in My Documents so merely backing up My Documents doesn't cover Outlook.

Laptop battery problems - safety standard to be created

Ironically the first reports of battery problems recently with the Dell/Apple/Fujitsu/Toshiba machines first started appearing on blogs. Since the middle of this year there has been uncertainty surrounding which laptops are "good" in terms of batteries.

However this should be alleviated by the creation of updated safety standards for laptop batteries within the next 12 months. The Portable Computer Battery Working Group was set up in November 2006 following this year's problems with batteries, sometimes resulting in explosions or fires. The scale of this problem should not be underestimated as over 10 million batteries have been recalled.

Specifically the recent problems affect Sony's lithium-ion batteries which are used in millions of computers worldwide. Analysts have speculated that the problems could cost Sony £260m to replace faulty batteries.

These problems have led to some airlines temporarily (we hope) banning the use of certain laptops on their planes, and who can blame them?

Analysts IDC claim consumers may be persuaded to switch brands because of the reported problems: 15% of corporate buyers and consumers surveyed said the reported problems had caused them to alter their buying plans.

Useful PowerPoint plug-in

Take a look at www.powerpressed.com for a useful little plug-in which compresses PowerPoint presentations.

McAfee announces updates to enterprise security tools

McAfee yesterday (December 4th) announced Total Protection for Enterprise 2.0, the latest version of the company's security products for business users. The update adds phishing protection to the Advanced edition and offers improved antivirus, antispyware and network access control features, according to McAfee.

The updated antivirus and antispyware components of McAfee Total Protection use behavioural technology to detect threats, going beyond the traditional database of signatures, McAfee claim. The security software also has capabilities to find rootkits, which can be used by hackers to hide their malicious code on a PC, the company said.