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Paypal to Block Unsafe Browsers (But Not Safari)

It all started when a white paper entitled “A Practical Approach to Managing Phishing,” was published by web payment firm PayPal’s Chief Information Security Offer Michael Barrett and Senior Director of Risk Management Dan Levy. The paper released at the RSA Conference on April 10, 2008, described what could be done to tackle the Internet’s widespread problem with “phishing”, that range of “social engineering” activities that trick users into providing personal information or other sensitive data, such as a Web site having a slightly misspelled name that captures web visits from careless typists.

The paper reveals the following: “It’s critical to not only warn users about unsafe browsers, but also to disallow older and insecure browsers… Letting users view the PayPal site on one of these browsers is equal to a car manufacturer allowing drivers to buy one of their vehicles without seat belts.” Barrett defined “unsafe browsers” as those “which do not have support for blocking phishing sites or for Extended Validation SSL certificates,” EV SSL certificates are a new form of digital certificate designed to reassure users surfing the web that the site they’re currently visiting has been vetted and is valid.

Note that one part of the solution is to block older browsers that are no longer supported with security and safety updates and are therefore vulnerable to hacker attack, such as Internet Explorer 3, released in 1996 as part of Windows 95 (Microsoft (News - Alert) dropped support for it and Windows 95 in 2001). Internet Explorer 4 and Windows 98 support was finally dropped in July 2006. Even Internet Explorer 5.01 will be abandoned in the middle of 2010 when Microsoft cuts loose Windows 2000. IE6, IE7 and Opera 9.25 and later seem to be in the clear.

So far so good. However, what makes things white hot is the second statement about blocking browsers that don’t have support for Extended Validation SSL certificates. PayPal supports the use of Extended Validation SSL Certificates. When a browser supporting this technology arrives at a legitimate, certified site, the browser’s address bar is highlighted in green, this makes it easy for users to see that they’re on the actual, legitimate, website.

The latest version of Internet Explorer supports EV SSL certificates, while Firefox 2 supports it via an add-on. The problem is that Apple’s (News - Alert) Safari browser for Mac and PCs does support such certificates. Thus, it appeared that PayPal was going to warn and then ultimately block Apple’s Safari browser on their site.

After a storm of protest and the usual mob brouhaha, PayPal now has no intention of blocking current versions of any browsers, including Apple’s Safari, from its website. Apple currently supports Safari 3.0 with security updates and other patches. The earlier Safari 2.0 browser that shipped with Mac OS X 10.4 (alias “Tiger”) an operating system still supported by Apple. In any case PayPal now says it will not block Safari 2.0 on Tiger until Apple starts shipping “Leopard,” the successor to Mac OS X 10.5.

Barrett and Levy’s paper goes on to say that users could be protected from attacks though the use of signed emails sent from servers supporting DomainKeys and the Sender Policy Framework (SPF). Service providers could then filter out phishing emails before they ever reached users. PayPal is also currently exploring a relationship with Iconix, a company that sells email client plug-ins that verify email signatures.

Software Notebook: Gates picks challenging year to leave Microsoft

Just as Microsoft's past year was characterized by launches, the next will be defined by a departure.

But even as Bill Gates leaves his full-time executive role, the company will be grappling with some of the biggest competitive challenges in its history, particularly on the Internet.

Here's our annual look at what to watch at the company in 2008.

GATES LEAVING, SORTA: The Microsoft co-founder is slated to end his day-to-day executive duties at the end of June, but he will remain chairman, and he's expected to continue working on selected projects.

Microsoft has been preparing for Gates' full-time shift to philanthropy since 2005, when the plan was announced, and it has already installed executives Craig Mundie and Ray Ozzie to fill his roles in the business, working with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

"I don't think the departure will be too disruptive -- it's not like it's a complete severing of the relationship," said Dwight Davis, an analyst with the Ovum research firm. "But nonetheless, that's going to be a notable milestone in the coming year for Microsoft -- one that will alter the company's profile in a fairly significant way."

ONLINE STRUGGLES: Microsoft tried to gain traction online in the past year, most notably through its $6 billion acquisition of online advertising company aQuantive. But it continued to struggle against Google in the Internet search business, with some studies showing the search giant widening its already substantial lead in U.S. market share.

Microsoft has been making progress in online display advertising, through deals with big names such as Viacom and Facebook. However, the overall online unit remains unprofitable due to the company's big spending on data centers and other projects.

"The amount of money they have thrown at it has not been sufficient" to make a difference in the search-related ad market, said Rob Helm, director of research at the independent Directions on Microsoft research firm. "The thing to look for in 2008 is whether they can actually turn it around."

WINDOWS VISTA: Launched with considerable hype at the beginning of 2007, Microsoft's latest PC operating system has been met with a shrug by many consumers and businesses. Among other challenges, Vista's steep hardware requirements have limited the ability to upgrade older machines to the new operating system.

Vista "really has not won hearts and minds the way it should have," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. The question, he said, is how Microsoft will change its approach to Windows from both technical and marketing standpoints.

The first service pack for Windows Vista is due out in the next three months. Traditionally, that big bundle of updates and fixes has led businesses to feel more confident upgrading, but analysts say the hardware requirements will be an obstacle this time around.

The next version, known internally as Windows 7, is due sometime in 2010. Microsoft has so far been tight-lipped on what that version will offer.

WEB-BASED SOFTWARE: Microsoft's partners and rivals will be watching closely to see how far the company strays from its traditional PC-based software to offer programs and features over the Internet -- funded by advertising or subscriptions, rather than a traditional licensing fee.

The company is already going in that direction with an online version of its Dynamics CRM customer-relationship management software, trying to counter Salesforce.com. More of Microsoft's business software is expected to follow suit.

The company also has edged its Office suite further online, with an Internet-based file-sharing and collaboration service called Office Live Workspace. But so far, it isn't offering full-fledged online document creation and editing.

SERVER LAUNCHES: Microsoft's Server and Tools business has been a big contributor to the company's bottom line in recent years, and the company will be launching new versions of the Windows Server and SQL Server programs in the coming year.

However, Windows Server 2008 will initially be missing a key technology to enable virtualization -- the increasingly popular practice of running more than one operating system on a single piece of hardware. Microsoft won't be coming out with the final version of that technology until later in the year, and it will face stiff competition when it does.

XBOX: The coming year will be pivotal in the video-game console industry, where Microsoft's Xbox 360 is competing against Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3. Entering the past holiday season, the Xbox 360 and Wii were neck-and-neck in worldwide market share, with the PlayStation 3 trailing.

Microsoft has said it wants its Home and Entertainment Division, which includes the Xbox business, to reach sustained operating profitability in the company's current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

HARDWARE AND DEVICES: Microsoft's Surface tabletop PCs are expected to start appearing in commercial venues in the spring -- behind the original schedule, which had them coming out last month.

Microsoft isn't expected to release a new full version of its Windows Mobile software for hand-held devices in the coming year, but it is planning incremental updates to the software, and a variety of new devices are in the works for the current Windows Mobile 6.

The company's Zune music player is continuing its uphill battle against Apple's iPod.

LEGAL ISSUES: Microsoft continued to clear its legal docket in 2007, making a series of settlements and dropping its European antitrust fight after losing a pivotal court ruling. One case that will bear watching in the coming year is the new antitrust challenge filed by Opera Software in Europe over Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows, and the relative lack of support for Web standards in the browser.

INTERNET EXPLORER: Speaking of the Microsoft browser, the company is promising to release a preliminary version of the next one, Internet Explorer 8, in the first half of 2008. The company is promising better support for Web standards.

ACQUISITIONS: Another huge deal along the lines of the aQuantive acquisition isn't likely. But Ballmer recently said the company expects to make about 20 acquisitions a year for the next five years, at individual values ranging from $50 million to $1 billion. That's roughly in line with the number and size of acquisitions made by the company in recent years.

Australia Joins China In Censoring The Internet

The Australian Government has announced that they will be joining China as one of the few countries globally that broadly censor the internet.

The Labor Party’s policy was announced prior to the Australian Election in November (release here) and was justified on the basis that the previous Government’s policy of providing free copies of NetNanny to all Australian households who wanted it didn’t adequately protect children.

As recently as the week prior to the election, Labor Party candidates were telling those concerned about the proposed law that the censorship wouldn’t be compulsory, and that the “clean feed” would be opt-in, not opt-out. Today’s announcement by Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy states that the censorship regime will be mandatory, although people will be able to opt-out of it. The problem of course then becomes if you opt-out questions will be asked as to why you want out, which in itself may lead to Government monitoring.

To be censored by the Australian Government is “pornography and inappropriate material.” X rated pornography is illegal online in Australia, as are casino style internet gambling, certain forms of “hate” speech and R rated computer games. BitTorrent would be a possibility, even if certain downloads for personal use may be legal under Australian law, sharing those downloads would not be. How far “inappropriate material” may extend was not made clear, for example questioning Government policy where it comes to Aboriginal people could be deemed to be discrimination under Australian law and hence blocked by the censorship regime. Worst still, bloggers or those (such as forum owners) who allow users to comment or post could find themselves blocked under this proposal should someone say or post the wrong thing. If there is one certainty in any country that implements broadscale censorship, once they start blocking content it doesn’t stop, and certainly every do-gooder group and special interest lobbyist will be wanting the Government to add to the list.

There is also a potential cost involved to Australian Internet users. The previous Government regularly cited feedback from ISP’s stating that the cost of implementing a “clean feed” would be passed onto internet users, who already pay some of the highest internet access costs in the Western world for on average slow services.

Notably Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was a former Australian Diplomat in China, and speaks fluent Mandarin; given Australia’s boom is fueled by mineral exports to China, it would seem that Australian Government policies are now by China in return. This video from before the election may have foretold some of the future.

Stock Prices - Melbourne IT (MLB) $3.45

IF there's ever an entity in keeping with the trendy themes of globalisation and the online migration of commerce, it would have to be Melbourne IT. Despite its parochial moniker, the company now derives half its earnings from offshore and ranks as the world's fifth-biggest domain-name registrar.

"One of the things about this company is we are very much aligned to the internet and the internet is a reflection of the modern times," says Melbourne IT chief Theo Hanarakis. "The biggest brands five years ago were Coke and Ford; now they're Google and MySpace."

Melbourne IT is a textbook example of a company that has reinvented itself to adapt to shifting industry conditions, thus becoming one of a handful of tech-wreck survivors. The diversification push was bolstered with last year's $61 million acquisition of listed web hoster WebCentral.

While the domain registration game is hardly dead industry data puts September-quarter domain name growth at 31 per cent these days Melbourne IT's business is slanted to one-stop services for SMEs.

This means anything to do with running a website: hosting, branding, site design, encouraging more clicks and kicking off pesky cybersquatters. A new arm, brand services, targets big companies and has more than 460 clients.

Hanarakis believes there's still ample scope for local growth through both cross-selling and new customers. One hundred thousand new SMEs started in 2007. "They will need an internet presence of some sort," he says.

While Melbourne IT itself ranks as a possible takeover target, Hanarakis says more acquisitions are on the agenda. "We have got a clean balance sheet. We are in a cash position with no debt," he says.

But he believes asking prices are "somewhat ambitious". While he won't name names, one can't go past this month's $68.9million offer for listed web hosting group Hostworks by Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group. The offer price is struck on a dotcom era-esque revenue multiple of three times and 20 times earnings.

Hanarakis says Melbourne IT's second-half earnings of the December-balancing company will outperform the first-half net result of $6.5 million (and EBIT of $9.1 million).

Analysts forecast an average $18.5 million of full-year EBIT on revenues of $150-160 million.

According to Bell Potter analyst John O'Shea, the Australian dollar's strength will lop off $200,000 to $500,000 of second-half EBIT, "but we expect this decline to be offset by a stronger performance from Melbourne IT's business and consumer division".

Melbourne IT stock is priced at a modest premium despite coming off 20 per cent since June. But its five-year track record of 30 per cent compound annual growth justifies a long-term buy call.

Howard answers questions online

Internet users from will be able ask Prime Minister John Howard any questions they like, but only a few will get an answer.

Mr Howard is seeking comments from voters over the coming week on the Yahoo!7 website's Answers forum, where people normally seek online answers for a broad array of questions.

He plans to select five of the questions submitted and make a response by video.

"This new venture is an exciting development ... it will help maintain a direct line with the Australian public and can only foster greater interest in the democratic process," Mr Howard says on the web site.

"I am looking forward to it."

This move online follows Mr Howard recently releasing video taped announcements via the popular website YouTube.

David McGrath, Yahoo!7's director of news and sport, said both Mr Howard and federal Labor leader Kevin Mr Rudd were keen to become involved with the Answers site.

"Considering the prime minister has so far been very selective with his online exposure, he was extremely enthusiastic to be the first involved in this innovative approach to campaigning," Mr McGrath told Fairfax.

"But this is not just a one-week commitment by Mr Howard.
"He's indicated he's open to the idea of returning for another Answers session later in his campaign."

Carnival Media is excited about the move to digitalise this type of open forum with such an important Australian figure. With the Prime Minister utlising such mediums we hope to see future local and federal government election campaigns embrace the technology currently available online. This will give the Australian public an accessible medium to gain a better understanding of the candidates and their policies which will should result in a more confident and educated vote.

Microsoft: 60 Million Copies of Vista Sold

At a conference of analysts and reporters yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and chief operating office Kevin Turner took pains to point out that their operating system is still far and away the biggest in the world. Despite recent news of a sales spike in Macs, Ballmer noted that the company is on track to reach 1 billion Windows users by 2008.

"If you stop and just think about that, parse that for a second, by the end of our fiscal year '08, there will be more PCs running Windows in the world than there are automobiles, which is at least to me kind of a mind-numbing concept," Ballmer said.

He also claimed that Vista saw one of the safest launches of any recent OS. "There have been just 12 serious vulnerabilities reported with Vista over the first 180 days versus 25 for Windows XP over the same period. This number is also lower than for Apple and other operating systems. We have also seen 21 percent fewer support calls for Vista versus XP over the same period," he said.

Carnival Media Group’s web and application development is based on Microsoft's true Object Orientated languages and programming paradigm. This direction has been derived from a collective experience in developing applications for real world business use. Microsoft has a long and colourful history in the programming world and continues to advance and enrich its offerings. With this long history they have managed to embrace many new technologies and have a firm foothold in today’s information technology market. Now with Vista advancing as the new operating system environment CMG hopes to see advances in web application integration into desktop and business applications.

NAB engages Carnival

We welcome NAB and their banking network to Carnival Media Group. The NAB is one of the largest banks in the world with six brands stretching across three continents.

NAB have developed internal systems that fast tracks their employees learning and development providing them with career acceleration through strategic leadership pathways.

NAB engaged Carnival to find a way to effectively and efficiently communicate this message to their thousands of employees. Carnival Media Group produced multi format and visually intriguing and consistent materials that graphically represented the NAB program and successfully conveyed the message.

Microsoft Remix 07

Carnival Media Group attended the recent Microsoft Remix 07 conference at Crown Promenade, Melbourne.

Many interesting topics were covered by a variety of speakers both local and international. Microsoft showcased their direction in the web arena including the soon to be released Microsoft Expression Studio and their latest Silverlight offering.

This release coupled with the new features included in Visual Studio 2008 (Codename "Orcas") defines some great improvements for web design and development. Carnival Media Group as a Microsoft based development team will embrace these technologies and will hope to empower our customers by doing so. Overall the conference was a great success and we look forward to Remix 08!

Mozilla slams Steve Jobs' Windows Safari plans

Mozilla's chief operating officer John Lilly has hit out at Apple's Steve Jobs, calling his plans for building Safari's market share "out of date" and "duopolistic".

Lilly made his comments following Jobs' recent keynote at Apple's worldwide developers conference, where the Mac maker unveiled a version of the Safari browser that is designed to run on Windows Vista or XP.

With the introduction of this browser to the Windows Vista & XP platform potentially brings issues concerning usability and design. If this become another mainstream browser for Windows based visitors Carnial Media Group will need to perform further cross platform testing and potentialy modify design guidelines.

Howard's high speed internet

ALMOST every Australian would have access to high-speed broadband under John Howard's ambitious plan to bring the nation up to international standards.

Mr Howard will this morning unveil a two-stage high-speed broadband package delivering minimum speeds of 12 megabits per second to 99 per cent of Australians. Metropolitan users would get even faster services, although the precise speeds are not yet known.

Carnival Media Group believes this sort of development will change the way Australian's work with the internet tremendously. With the surge in popularity of video, streaming content and new media we will be able to deliver rich content to everyone who visits our sites.
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PMP Digital Website

Carnival Media Group recently completed the web design and development of the new PMP Digital site.

PMP Digital is part of PMP Limited. PMP Limited is Australasia's leading integrated provider of consumer insight and printed communications solutions. An ASX Top 200 listed company with over 3,000 people in locations across Australia and New Zealand – they specialise in the areas of data-driven market and customer analytics, marketing advisory services, creative and photographic services, digital pre-press, magazine, catalogue, directory, corporate and book printing, and letterbox and magazine distribution through Pacific Micromarketing, PMP Micromarketing, PMP Digital, PMP Print, PMP Distribution, Gordon and Gotch and Griffin Press companies.

PMP Digital previously had no website and with the spilt of Dimension from Digital are focussing on Digital being a brand that supplies workflow solutions and content management to a customer base which predominately consists of large corporate and publishing clients who have large product range, build product directory style publications (manufactures etc) and who also have a diverse range suppliers (i.e. travel agents dealing with wholesalers, hotels, airlines etc).

PMP Digital wanted a brochure-ware site at this point in time that will showcase their Graphic Design, Photography, dLibrary, Xinet and Stibo products.

Carnival Media Group delivered a fresh new design for their website, ontime and within budget.
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2007 GMC Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix Website

Carnival Media Group is pleased to be a part of the recent development of the 2007 GMC Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix website.

GMC is proud to be an official sponsor of the 2007 GMC Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Global Machinery Company (GMC) is an Australian owned company with a commitment to delivering innovative and value for money power tools.

To promote their sponsorship of this event they engaged Carnival Media Group to design and develop a website. The website has promotions (including a dynamic competition module), news and articles on the Motorcycle Grand Prix event and also provides great representives of Team GMC, Stacey McMahon and Lincoln Sutherland.

Carnival Media Group delivered the design and functionality as well as a Content Management System (CMS) for GMC to use.
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