Microsoft, Adobe in the spotlight of a new patent suit

Unknown company Aloft Media has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and Adobe, alleging the two giants infringed on a pair of patents it owns concerning graphical browser interfaces.

Aloft says the patents, which it described as a "network browser graphical user interface for managing web content" and a "network browser window with adjacent identifier selector interface for storing web content", contained ideas that were used in Microsoft's Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7.

Additionally, Aloft claims Adobe's Acrobat Standard, Acrobat Professional, and Acrobat 3D infringed on the same patents.

Aloft, a relatively new company that specializes in digital media, is seeking unspecified damages.

Pioneer introduces new Blu-ray Disc burner

Pioneer has announced a new Blu-ray Disc PC drive that can burn BD-R as well as rewritable BD-RE media.

The second generation BDR-202 drive from Pioneer has limited equalizer LSI and a liquid crystal tilt compensator, which help in playback and data reading of discs. Additionally, it incorporates ultra DRA technology, designed to reduce the vibrations when burning a disc, according to CDR Info.

The drive can also write and read all forms of blank DVD and CD media. Maximum writing speed is 2x for BD-RE, 4x for BD-R, 6x for DVD-/+RW, 12x for DVD-/+R, and 24x for CD-R/RW.

The BDR-202 is already available in Europe for around 490 euros, and is expected to launch in the US for between $600 and $700.

IRS employees fail computer security test

In a test to see how well its employees safeguard sensitive data, the IRS found that it was fairly easy for someone to gain access to system files.

The IRS ran a test by having someone pose as an internal technical support rep and call employees throughout the bureau. The caller said there were technical problems and asked the employees to give them specific data. Of the 102 people who got the call, 61 of them handed over their IRS user name and complied with the caller's request to change their password, according to a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

This gave the caller access to sensitive computer files within the IRS databases. The report says the 61 employees did not question the caller's identity, which puts the data of virtually every taxpayer at risk.

Only eight of the 102 employees contacted security officials to validate the identity of the caller. The report urges the IRS to train its employees about these and other hacker tactics.

The IRS went through a similar test in 2001 and 2004. After each case, it was determined security measures needed to be updated. While it has added additional safeguards, the report said, "the corrective actions have not been effective."