Plus: E-rate put on hold; Chinese group revives network-computer idea; new Trojan horse attacks spyware; Microsoft investigates ASP.Net vulnerability.
President Bush last week signed a bill that included an 18-month extension of an R&D tax credit sought by many IT groups.
Bush signed the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004, a $146 billion law designed to provide tax cuts to the middle class. The bill included $13 billion in corporate tax cuts, more than half of that for the extension of the R&D tax credit. Technology organizations such as the Computing Technology Industry Association have long called for a permanent extension of the tax credit, but the bill extends the current tax credit through Dec. 31, 2005. The R&D tax credit, first passed as a temporary credit in 1981, already had been extended 10 times. It lets U.S. firms conducting R&D activities get a tax credit of up to 10% of R&D spending.
In the face of waste and fraud charges, the government’s E-Rate program has been put on ice. Congress set up the E-Rate program in 1996. The program now has a budget of $2.25 billion to help schools purchase network equipment and services. Critics say schools and IT vendors have skirted competitive bidding requirements, charged for equipment that is not allowed to be funded, and requested millions of dollars in unnecessary gear. The Universal Service Administrative Co., which oversees the E-Rate program, halted funding in August, pending adoption of new accounting procedures. The FCC told USAC to change its procedures by Oct. 1 in response to E-rate audits and Congressional charges of waste, fraud and abuse – but apparently no action has been taken, and schools have been left scrambling to pay for services. It wasn’t clear when the funding would resume.
Many years ago Oracle CEO Larry Ellison touted that really cheap “network computers” would one day rule the network landscape and put a crimp in Microsoft’s visions of desktop dominance. It never happened. But the idea is being revived by a group of chip makers and partners in China. The Open Source Networked Computing group is touting a $150 computer that runs Linux software and will have the equivalent of open source hardware because many chip makers could manufacture the chips.
Chip makers PMC-Sierra, Mips Technologies, ATI Technologies and a handful of Chinese companies also plan to produce the machines. Sun and Wyse already make similar devices so it’s not clear how these new boxes will compete – especially if they are sold in the U.S.
A new Trojan horse program discovered last week that attacks and removes adware is circulating on the Internet, according to Symantec. The program, called Downloader.Lunii, attempts to kill off computer processes and delete files used by adware programs such as Powerscan and BargainBuddy. But Lunii is not entirely benevolent. Like other Trojan horse programs, it also modifies the configuration of Microsoft Windows machines and attempts to download files from a remote location, Symantec warns. Lunii works by halting Windows processes that adware programs use to communicate and by removing known adware programs from systems it infects. The Trojan program also modifies a Windows file called the “hosts” file, inserting its own list of bogus Web sites, which may block access to certain Web pages, Symantec says. The company recommended that its customers update their virus definitions and provided instructions for removing malicious programs
Microsoft said it is investigating a reported vulnerability in its ASP.Net that could let an attacker bypass security on a Web server and view sensitive content. The company last week published an advisory for Web site administrators on the vulnerability and provided instructions for mitigating the effects of the hole, which is in a component of ASP.Net called the “canonicalization routine.”
Attackers could create URLs designed to exploit the flaw, letting them bypass authentication or Windows authorization on Web applications that use ASP.Net, Microsoft said. ASP.Net is the latest version of Microsoft’s Active Server Page technology that lets developers create Web-based applications by embedding into Web pages small programs that are written in languages such as Visual Basic.
