I spent much of last Friday installing and taking pictures of the latest Office Beta release-the Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR). B2TR's improved support for images when creating blog posts was one of several updates I wanted to examine. Unfortunately, each time I tried to open a new blog post, Word 2007 just refused. The application wouldn't crash, but it wouldn't open a blank blog post.

Norton AntiVirus (NAV) can seek out and destroy bugs better than an Orkin man, identify viruses faster than the CDC, and stomp worms harder than the cruelest kid. Version 2002 showcases a new, simple interface and provides some additional protection against e-mail and script-based nasties. If you're new to the antivirus game, purchase NAV 2002 ASAP. But if you already have Norton AntiVirus 2001, pass on this upgrade, unless you're migrating to XP, and pay $10 for another year's worth of virus definitions.

With the ever-growing threat of viruses being written to infiltrate your network via e-mail, securing your Exchange server is a top priority. What can you do to keep viruses from causing problems on your network? In this Daily Drill Down, I'll look at protecting your Exchange server from viruses using Norton AntiVirus For Microsoft Exchange (NAVMSE). This Norton product monitors not only your mailboxes, but also your public folders. If an e-mail message is sent through your Exchange server, NAVMSE can be configured to scan it for viruses.

Get rid of your bugs and worms with Exterminator by your side! Exterminator takes a special look this week at the worm everyone knows as the ILOVEYOU virus. Are you aware that there are copycats out there as well? Exterminator has them all here for you, thanks to Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center!

NAV. It may be the definitive antivirus program. Why has Norton's antivirus software proved so popular? Because it's worked, and it's worked well. But has Norton done it again with Norton AntiVirus 2000?

Mozilla launched the third beta of its Firefox 3 browser Tuesday night with enhanced security features.

European spam networks have pumped out more unsolicited e-mail than those in the U.S. for the third month in a row, according to security vendor Symantec.

Symantec released its February state of spam report and Europe has become the center of the spam universe.

eEye Digital Security is reporting that they have uncovered a major vulnerability in Symantec's AV product. Basically it will allow a remote hacker to compromise any machine that is running Norton Anti-Virus. This is a big oops. Symantec will have to scramble to get an update pushed out to all of their customers. I would imagine they can do this before an exploit is developed that allows wide spread use of the vulnerability or a worm to spread.

According to The NPD Group, US retail sales of non-games software totaled $2.4 bln in 2005, an increase of less than 1%. Weak sales in the Education, Imaging/Graphics, Operating System and Personal Productivity categories offset the strong sales of the Business and Finance categories, which showed respective increases of 9% and 4% over 2004.