IP PBXs Could Be Kink in UC Plans

Buyers of IP PBXs need to look beyond simple voice capabilities to unified communications and make sure the gear they buy will be compatible with applications they will want in the future, experts say.

IP PBXes won't be just about making phone calls as they become the anchors for UC technologies, which draw instant messaging, presence, collaboration and business-process applications into the mix with voice. (Compare UC products.)

As long as an IP PBX has the software interfaces it needs to integrate with UC platforms, it will be serviceable for the foreseeable future, says Jay Glassman, an analyst with Gartner. That is a major concern among his clients, he says.

Those who may just be moving to corporate VoIP -- what Glassman terms IP telephony -- are well aware of UC and want to be sure they make the right choice of IP PBX. "They are looking ahead to what will be available in three years and want to know what is their investment protection going to be like if they an IP PBX today." he says.

That protection will require that the platforms support open interfaces to all the key applications that create UC, says Phil Hochmuth, an analyst with the Yankee Group. "You need to think of an IP PBX as another data center server," he says. "How will it work with database servers, with CRM and ERP applications? Look at it as part of a larger IT infrastructure puzzle."

In particular that means Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Hochmuth says, which is not necessarily the signaling protocol used by the top IP PBX vendors today, but that all of them are moving to adopt. They are also trying to make their implementations of SIP interoperable with those of other vendors. For instance, Avaya says it performs compatibility testing with other vendors' gear such as phones and with service provider trunks.

This is good for customers but also serves Avaya's game plan of helping customers link business applications together with business processes, says Lawrence Byrd, director of IP telephony and mobility at Avaya.

It is conceivable using UC for a help desk application to spot a critical problem and automatically launch a voice call, IM or e-mail to notify someone who can deal with it, Byrd says, a process pulling together multiple individual underlying applications.

"If they are all SIP-enabled it is much easier to orchestrate them to make them work together," he says.

Microsoft Security Fixes Focus on Windows Desktop

Microsoft has released four sets of security updates for its products, fixing critical flaws in the Windows desktop.

The software maker's monthly set of security updates, released Tuesday, mostly fixes problems in the underlying operating system, but also includes a patch for a component of the OneNote note-taking software that is used by Microsoft Office.

In all, eight bugs are squashed in the four sets of patches, but the most critical problem is addressed in the MS08-052 update, according to Andrew Storms, director of security operations with security vendor nCircle. This update fixes five bugs in the Graphics Device Interface+ (GDI+) software used by Windows programs to draw images on computer screens and printers.

GDI+ was first released as part of the Windows XP operating system, and this latest security fix gets top priority because it is so widely used, security experts say. "If you are running XP, 2003 or 2008, you are going to need an update," Storms said via instant message.

Five months ago, hackers targeted a flaw in the older version of GDI, used by Windows 2000 systems. In these attacks, criminals placed maliciously crafted images on Web sites, which were designed to exploit the GDI flaw and install unauthorized software on the victim's machine.

Although Microsoft has not heard of anyone taking advantage of these latest GDI+ bugs in an attack, now that the software patches are available, hackers can probably reverse-engineer one of the flaws and develop new code that exploits the bugs, Storms said.

In its other Windows updates, Microsoft fixed vulnerabilities in the Windows Media Encoder 9, which is not included in the default Windows configuration, and Windows Media Player 11. Media Player 11 is the latest version of the audio and video player that ships with Windows. The Windows Media Encoder 9 is downloaded as part of the beta code for the Advanced Windows Media Plug-In for Adobe Premier 6.5, Microsoft said.

Although several of September's bugs look like they could be used to create some nasty attacks, they primarily affect Windows desktops rather than servers, said Eric Schultze, chief technology officer at Shavlik Technologies. "So your servers sitting in the data center, you're way less at risk with those," he said. "Worry most abut the computers where people are sitting in front of the keyboard."

Critical Vulnerability Patched in Google's Chrome

A Vietnamese security company has found a critical vulnerability in Google's new browser Chrome, but Google has already released patch for that problem and at least one more.

The vulnerability is one of several problems identified in the browser since it was released early last week. The bug is a buffer overflow that occurs if a user saves a Web page containing an overly long "title" tag, according to Bach Koa Internetwork Security (Bkis), based at the Hanoi Institute of Technology.

The browser can encounter a problem trying to save a file with the name contained in the overly long title tag. An attacker could then have control of the PC and could execute other code on the machine, Bkis wrote on its blog. The problem can be exploited on PCs running Windows XP SP2 and Chrome version 0.2.149.27.

Chrome users are advised to upgrade to the latest version. To do that, go to the wrench icon in the upper right hand corner of the browser and down to "About Google Chrome." The browser will then check for an update. If there is one, Chrome will download it and ask to restart. The up-to-date version is 0.2.149.29.

Although Google has been working on Chrome for two years, it still considers the browser a beta version. The company was using the browser internally among its employees for some time, but its surprise unveiling last week set the browser loose to the general public in more than two dozen languages.

Last week, researcher Aviv Raff wrote that Chrome had a vulnerability due to its use of an outdated version of WebKit web browser engine. The vulnerability is know as the "carpet bombing" flaw, which can cause Windows to download a potentially dangerous JAR (Java archive) and execute it without warning users. Google has also fixed that flaw, a company spokesman said Monday.

The second problem identified shortly after Chrome's release could allow hackers to force Chrome to crash. That vulnerability, found by security researcher Rishi Narang, could be exploited by constructing a malicious link of a certain format, according to Narang's advisory.

Microsoft's Renewed Vista Strategy

It is eighteen months since Windows Vista was launched with the slogan "The 'Wow' starts now." Far from wowing users, however, Vista left them cold. They were unhappy with its speed, with compatibility issues and with what seemed like gratuitous changes to well known functions.

All through 2007 and into 2008 the beat-up continued and Microsoft's rivals, most notably Apple with its engaging comparison advertising, made hay with little effective response from Redmond. Microsoft, a company once renowned for its marketing and for swift PR responses to even the mildest slight, seemed to have lost its mojo.

As the months went by, critics wondered aloud when Microsoft would begin to respond to Vista's critics -- and to those pesky Apple ads.

Slowly, off the back of Service Pack 1, a response has emerged. In June, Ben Green became the man charged with changing perceptions of Vista in New Zealand. At the same time, Microsoft wrote directly to its top corporate customers worldwide, including a handful in New Zealand, to clarify its position and its plans for Vista.

Microsoft then undertook the strange "Mojave experiment," in which 140 people were exposed to a ten-minute demo of a "new" operating system. They loved it. And then the truth was revealed: the new system was Windows Vista.

Some are picking Mojave to feature in that new advertising campaign, a campaign we now know will be fronted by Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates himself. It is said the campaign will push a message along the lines of "Windows, not walls," in an apparent reference to Apple's increasingly closed ecosystem.

Meanwhile, much of the noise out of Seattle is now about Vista's successor, Windows 7, leading some to suggest it's all over for Vista and even Microsoft has moved on. And doesn't that pull the rug from under Green and his efforts to shift perceptions of Vista?

Not so, Green says. Microsoft has learned from its Vista experience and one of the things it has learned is to shorten the time between operating system releases -- hence the noise about Windows 7. Shorter cycles will also mean users won't be exposed to huge changes when they upgrade, he says.

Another reason why Microsoft is talking about Windows 7 is that it is engaging much more with the Windows "ecosystem" over the development of the new operating system, including independent software vendors to preempt future compatibility problems.

"Backward compatibility is important," Green says. Windows 7 will have the same security model as Vista to minimize disruption.

Green defends the Mojave experiment as well, saying it underlines that there is a gap between the perception and reality of Windows Vista. Green says 70% of businesses using Vista report that it delivers productivity improvements.

Green also shrugs off reports that a significant number of users are choosing to downgrade to Windows XP, saying the ability to do so is part of Windows' value proposition.

"It's not a loophole," he says. "Some organizations run a mixed operating system environment and others don't."

On the other hand, Green says, statistics from auction site Trade Me show that 20% of all people using the site are using Vista.

He says as technology changes the benefits and risk of staying with XP also change. Users need to look at factors such as the growing demand for mobility, improved security and total cost of ownership.

Green says it will take up to four years for the older PCs that aren't suitable for a Vista upgrade to work their way out of New Zealand businesses. To ease the pain of transition, Microsoft is delivering tools and technologies to help support those mixed environments, something Green acknowledges requires skill.

"We're continuing to communicate the value proposition as clearly as we can and to give IT professionals the skills and technologies they need to run and to innovate on Windows," he says.

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