In their most recent report on the status of broadband internet in the US, the FCC has finally admitted "broadband is not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion."

Although this is the sixth Broadband Deployment Report to be issued by the agency since 1999, it is the first to reach this conclusion. Previous reports have been widely criticized for both the benchmark by which broadband was defined and the methodology for determining service areas.

For example, in the last report, from 2008, 200kbps downstream (download) speed was still considered broadband. Addit...

Microsoft Corp. late Tuesday released an automated tool to stymie exploits of a critical unpatched Windows vulnerability that experts fear will soon be used by hackers against the general PC population.

However, the tool, like a manual procedure that Microsoft recommended last week, is only a makeshift defense, one that many users may resist applying, since it makes much of the Windows system, including the desktop, taskbar and Start menu, almost unusable.

The company posted a "Fix It" tool on its support site that automatically disables the displaying of all Windows shortcut files. Micr...

Microsoft released a beta of the new version of its Security Essentials antimalware software on Tuesday, sporting a few changes and enhancements.

Following version 1.0 of the free Security Essentials released in September, the folks in Redmond outfitted the 2.0 beta with an updated antimalware engine. The new engine is smarter at detecting and removing security threats and offers a better performance, according to a Microsoft blog. The software also now integrates directly with Windows Firewall and gives users the option to turn the firewall on or off.

By integrating with Internet Explor...

Microsoft may have a tough time fixing the Windows shortcut vulnerability, a security researcher said today.

A noted vulnerability expert, however, disagreed, and said Microsoft could deliver a patch within two weeks.

"The way Windows' shortcuts are designed is flawed, and I think they will have a very hard time patching this," said Roel Schouwenberg, an antivirus researcher with Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab.

Schouwenberg based his prediction that a patch may prove elusive on the fact that Microsoft has never faced a security issue with shortcuts, and thus has no security processes in p...

More details are surfacing about why Blogetery.com, a blogging platform that claimed to service more than 70,000 blogs, was mysteriously booted from the Internet by its Web-hosting company.

The site was shut down after FBI agents informed executives of Burst.net, Blogetery's Web host, late on July 9 that links to al-Qaeda materials were found on Blogetery's servers, Joe Marr, chief technology officer for Burst.net, told CNET. Sources close to the investigation say that included in those materials were the names of American citizens targeted for assassination by al-Qaeda. Messages from Osama...

Microsoft on Friday warned that attackers are exploiting a critical unpatched Windows vulnerability using infected USB flash drives.

The bug admission is the first that affects Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) since Microsoft retired the edition from support, researchers said. When Microsoft does fix the flaw, it will not be providing a patch for machines still running XP SP2.

In a security advisory, Microsoft confirmed what other researchers had been saying for almost a month: Hackers have been exploiting a bug in Windows "shortcut" files, the placeholders typically dropped on the deskto...

Nearly two weeks after rolling out a Google News redesign, Google has added a new feature to the page in hopes of placating complainers. The feature lets people opt to view news stories in two columns, unlike the initial redesign that listed all stories in a single long column.

To call the response following the June 30th release of the redesigned News site angry would be an understatement.

"Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate, it, hate it!!!!! Get my point?" one person using the name iJustinJ wrote in a Google News forum.

"What is happening to you? Why are [you] doing this to...