The first beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials was limited to 75,000 downloads within several targeted countries.

Microsoft has opened public access to its brand new security product Microsoft Security Essentials Beta. It protects home users from viruses and spyware. Free of charge.

I am going to attend the 2009 MVP Global Summit, which will be held at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle and at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, from March 1 through 4.

Win32/Conficker.B/Downadup exploits a vulnerability in the Windows Server service (SVCHOST.EXE) for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2008. While Microsoft addressed this issue in October with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067, and Forefront antivirus and OneCare (as well as other vendor’s anit-virus products) helped protect against infections, many systems that have not been patched manually through Server Update Services and Microsoft/Windows Update or through Automatic Updates have recently come under attack by this worm. Attacked systems may lock out users, disable our update services and block access to security-related Web sites.

atsec information security today published the “IT security standard planetarium”, which depicts the relationships among many IT security standards.

The beta version of Windows 7, Microsoft’s next-generation PC operating system, can be downloaded today by MSDN, TechBeta and TechNet customers. Consumers who want to test-drive the beta will be able to download it beginning Jan. 9.

A team assembled by honeynet specialist Thorsten Holz from the University of Mannheim has published a case study of banking trojans, keyloggers and their dropzones. The researchers observed a variety of malware and their activities over an extended period and discovered over 33 GBytes of log files in the dropzones of over 70 different data-stealing pests.

30 November is Computer Security Day.

Microsoft announces plans to release a new anti-malware solution with code name Morro.

With the author’s consent, I am publishing a new whitepaper – “.NET Framework Rootkits: Backdoors inside your Framework” (PDF), Erez Metula, CISSP.