September 04, 2008
Hope for Cards fans
You might remember two years back there was an odd reverse correlation between the fortunes of Sony and the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
Well in St. Louis where they are 10 games out they must hope it is still true.
Posted by Peter at 02:06 PM
August 11, 2008
21st century Warfare
We talked about cyberwar being the warfare of the future, but as Russia continues its assault on Georgia it appears to be the warfare of the present:
Several Georgian state computer servers have been under external control since shortly before Russia's armed intervention into the state commenced on Friday, leaving its online presence in dissaray.While the official website of Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President, has become available again, the central government site, as well as the homepages for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence , remain down. Some commercial websites have also been hijacked.
The Georgian Government said that the disruption was caused by attacks carried out by Russia as part of the ongoing conflict between the two states over the Georgian province of South Ossetia.
Look for this to be standard operating procedure in the years to come.
Posted by Peter at 08:28 PM
August 10, 2008
Our readers aren't surprised by this
It looks like hackers have found a "new" target:
Security specialists said Saturday that hackers are taking increasing aim at iPhones and Macintosh computers as the hot-selling Apple devices gain popularity worldwide.Hackers have historically focused devious efforts on computers using Windows operating systems because the Microsoft software has more than 90 percent of the global market, promising evil-doers a wealth of targets.
Macintosh computers have been gaining market share and catching the interest of hackers, according to Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) security vulnerability analyst Cameron Hotchkies.
We saw this coming for a while.
Posted by Peter at 10:27 AM
August 08, 2008
Well it WAS a hacking conference
Reporters will do anything for a scoop to wit:
With thousands of hackers milling around the Black Hat convention here, and widespread snooping on the public Wi-Fi network, one place was supposed to be off limits: the press room.But in a case of reporters spying on other reporters, three journalists working for the French publication Global Security Magazine were booted Thursday from the hackers' conference after they were allegedly caught hacking into the private computer network set up for the media.
Did these guys actually think they wouldn't get caught here?
Posted by Peter at 09:16 PM
August 07, 2008
You can't be a good thief without an open honest face...
...so said the Doctor to Romana in the Ribos Operation. Looks like these guys took that advice:
The criminal network identified in the Justice Department indictments this week as having stole tens of millions of credit card numbers used people with skills in technology, finance and black markets -- some whom were notably polite, attentive and productive.In one chain of ICQ messages excerpted by federal authorities in an indictment, there is back-and-forth about the software used to get credit card data from Dave and Buster's Inc. restaurant chain. The U.S. says it was one of nine retailers hit. The hackers gave the chain a positive review: "A very nice place, they have many locations," wrote Albert Gonzalez, of Miami in an instant message.
But little time was wasted on chitchat. Tech support was needed to modify sniffer software for an intrusion.
Sniffer software is the same stuff that is used to crack wireless software. Remember that your data is only as safe as the safest location it is in.
Posted by Peter at 09:36 PM
August 06, 2008
From Russia with love
This isn't really news unless you haven't been paying attention:
The gang was identified publicly in May by Joe Stewart, director of malware research at SecureWorks, a computer security firm in Atlanta. Mr. Stewart, who has determined that the gang is based in Russia, was able to locate a central program controlling as many as 100,000 infected computers across the Internet. The program was running at a commercial Internet hosting computer center in Wisconsin.Mr. Stewart alerted a federal law enforcement agency that he declined to identify, and he said that it was investigating the matter. Although the original command program was shut down, the gang immediately reconstituted the system, he said, moving the control program to another computer in the Ukraine, beyond the reach of law enforcement in the United States.
The system infects PCs with a program known as Coreflood that records keystrokes and steals other information. The network of infected computers collected as much as 500 gigabytes of data in a little more than a year and sent it back to the Wisconsin computer center, Mr. Stewart said.
The real worrying bit is the screen info capture stuff, great for watching your kids but nasty when its used to watch you.
Its kind of funny that places where the governments have a ton of direct control and power stuff like this still manages to happen, then again maybe not so strange.
Posted by Peter at 02:06 PM
August 05, 2008
All the words an (i)Pod
I see much more Limewire than I'd like to see in my job but that doesn't mean that legal downloads aren't taking place:
More U.S. music buyers are getting their music fix through iTunes than from any other source, according to data released on Tuesday by NPD Group. Earlier this year, Apple took over the top spot from Wal-Mart Stores, and it maintained that lead during the six months from January to June, NPD said.
They must be doing something right.
Posted by Peter at 01:42 PM
July 28, 2008
Still true two years later
Two and a half years ago in this post we quoted Glenn Reynolds on Wikipedia:
My sense is that the wiki format works pretty well when issues are uncontroversial, but that it doesn't handle politics very well.
Gawker proves the point again today. This prompts Roger Simon to say this about the lockdown:
Especially do not trust those whose expertise pretends to be encyclopedic. No one’s is, not even an organization that pretends to use the wisdom of crowds in the manner of Wikipedia. Too often we reference Wikipedia as if it were authoritative. It isn’t. Not even faintly.
Wikipedia the site that anyone can edit, except when they can't.
Update: However there are other topics that aren't beyond the pale:
The following are among such techniques described in vivid detail: beheading, cutting oneself, drowning, suffocation, electrocution, use of explosives, hanging, vehicular impact, jumping from bridges and towers, drug abuse, inhaling and ingesting poisons, suicide by fire, stabbing, shooting, starvation and suicide attack.When WND contacted a representative of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, she said, "A site detailing the different methods someone could use to kill themselves could definitely be harmful to the public."
However, Jay Walsh, head of communications for the Wikimedia Foundation, said the organization does not take responsibility for editing the content of its pages.
Even funnier is this quote later in the story about pornographic content:
We don't censor any of the content...
I guess it all depends on the meaning of the word content.
Posted by Peter at 09:58 PM
July 22, 2008
It's ALIVE iT'S ALIVE! xp IT'S ALIVE!
Well Microsoft has finally stopped sales of the XP OS on new systems...except for where it hasn't:
Microsoft Corp said it will extend support for the Windows XP operating system on a new class of low end hardware until June 20, 2010.The software giant said that the machines can cost as little as $300 and typically do not have enough memory and CPU power to run the most basic version of the Windows Vista operating system.
In other words when the choice is abandoning a market to Linux or keep xp, xp will win every time.
So much for the need to retire the OS.
Posted by Peter at 12:19 AM
July 17, 2008
Web and the election
Web spiders are often thought of as annoyances on the web, but for the McCain presidential campaign there are a friend. Who says you can't teach an old dog a new trick:
The politicos' mutual stalking has reached unprecedented new levels this year: At least one side has started to spider the other's campaign website to track that campaign pages' precise word changes up to an hourly basis.John McCain's campaign published a side-by-side comparison of Barack Obama's Iraq War policy web pages on Tuesday using a new automated online tracking service called Versionista.
The service, which launched two months ago, allows users to track and cache changes to specific web pages up to an hourly basis, depending on the level of filtering requested, says Peter Bray, its creator in Portland, Oregon.
This type of stuff will become more common as time goes by.
Posted by Peter at 10:49 PM
July 11, 2008
iPhone today, wake me when its over
The new iPhone is coming out today.
Am I the only person on the net who doesn't care?
UPDATE: Via Glenn Firmware already cracked.
Posted by Peter at 08:43 AM
July 03, 2008
Nothing you want your mother to see? How about Viacom?
A court ruling on the suit between Google and Viacom has let to a shocker:
Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.
I've already had a talk with my boys, might be time to talk to yours.
Posted by Peter at 07:19 PM
June 28, 2008
That's one
Looks like the MPPA has one one:
EliteTorrents was one of the largest and most popular BitTorrent trackers during 2003-2005. Administrators of the site were responsible for uploading the prerelease of Star Wars, Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, 12 hours prior to its theatrical release. The repercussions of their actions were swift, as on May 25, 2005, the collective efforts of the MPAA, FBI, local police and US Customs forced the site off line and the administrators in custody during operation D-Elite.
Via slashdot that whose users don't think it is very cool but there doesn't seem to be any question concerning the facts of the case. I've said it before and I'll say it again no movie is worth large fines or jail time and anyone who simply can't live without seeing something early needs to get real priorities.
Posted by Peter at 09:47 PM
June 22, 2008
Mail Fraud
Well users of Yahoo mail have a problem:
Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), the world's largest provider of e-mail services, said on Monday that a software virus aimed at Yahoo Mail users had infected "a very small fraction" of its base of more than 200 million accounts.The e-mail virus, or worm, has been dubbed Yamanner and landed in Yahoo mailboxes bearing the headline "New Graphic Site."
Once opened, the message infects the computer and spreads to other users listed in Yahoo users' e-mail address books, security experts said.
This small problem has gotten bigger and bigger as the week has gone by. It would be a very good idea to do a manual update of your Anti-virus to make sure you are updated before going in there again.
Posted by Peter at 09:17 PM
June 21, 2008
Garbage in Garbage out
Given the choice between hard work or a quick click guess what happens every time:
The Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) said pupils are turning to websites and internet resources that contain inaccurate or deliberately misleading information before passing it off as their own work.The group singled out online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows entries to be logged or updated by anyone and is not verified by researchers, as the main source of information.
Read the whole thing, like everything else on the net use with caution and don't leave your doubts at the door.
Posted by Peter at 10:42 PM
June 17, 2008
Are they just TRYING to be delinked?
I figured after the week of fiasco for the AP the couldn't do anything stupider.
I was wrong:
The AP’s disharmony with bloggers may have only just begun, as the alternative it’s now offering to being served with takedown notices involves paying an up-front sum for excerpting online articles — as few as five words…The pricing scale for excerpting AP content begins at $12.50 for 5-25 words and goes as high as $100 for 251 words and up. Nonprofit organizations and educational institutions enjoy a discounted rate.
Captain Ed (now blogging at Hotair) asks the question:
What’s their game here, seriously? They’re turning themselves into laughingstocks and blogosphere pariahs while drumming up business for Reuters and AFP.
Ignorance is bliss and the AP is being run by happy people.
Posted by Peter at 10:48 PM
June 14, 2008
Yahoo & Google vs Microsoft?
Now that Google and Yahoo are doing some work together rather than hanging with Microsoft but there might be pitfalls when you cross the big guy in the pond:
"Without Microsoft, this probably would stand up to regulatory scrutiny," Enderle said. "But Microsoft has increased its presence on Capitol Hill significantly ... and there are restraint of trade issues, so by the nature of Google's size and because Microsoft is going to be pounding on a lot of doors, I think this is going to be a problem."Because of Microsoft's considerable influence, Enderle gave the deal a 35% chance of passing regulatory muster. But if regulators approve it, they will be keeping a much closer eye on Google in the future, he said.
If I can't have yahoo nobody can!
Posted by Peter at 06:05 PM
June 12, 2008
This is getting old
You know I actually skipped the last story on this topic because I've seen too much of it but might as well get it over with:
National security agencies are warning businesses and federal officials that laptops and e-mail devices taken to the Beijing Olympics are likely to be penetrated by Chinese agents aiming to steal secrets or plant bugs to infiltrate U.S. computer networks.Chinese government and industry use electronic espionage to "easily access official and personal computers," says one recent report by the Overseas Security Advisory Council, a federally chartered panel comprising security experts from corporations and the State, Commerce and Treasury departments.
same ole same ole.
Posted by Peter at 10:43 PM
June 11, 2008
Well Duh! update
A while back Mickey Kaus at slate had this to say about Microsoft XP and Vista:
Suicide Marketing! Has Microsoft hit on a brilliant new sales strategy? Here's how it's done: First, you screw up your major product, replacing it with a fancier version that is widely derided and universally regarded as inferior to its main competitor. But--key point--you keep selling the old, popular product. Then you announce that you'll stop selling the popular product on June 30. This causes a predictable--and highly profitable--surge in sales. ("Last chance to buy Windows XP!") You pocket the millions from those sales, but then at the last minute announce a reprieve. Bowing to customer demand you'll keep selling XP--until you need another little boost in the bottom line, when you will announce once again that you're killing it after a date certain. Last last chance! Really. We mean it this time! Then another reprieve, and another deadline, and another surge of panic buying, etc.--on and on, seemingly ad infinitum (at least if you are a monopoly player like Microsoft). ...
Interesting thought, he updates today with this:
"Want Windows XP pre-installed? Time's running out."--Promotional email from Dell Small Business SystemsAfter that, you'll have to buy the product Microsoft actually wants to sell you! ... A strong vote of confidence in Windows Vista from Dell. ..
Oh well.
Posted by Peter at 11:52 AM
June 10, 2008
Well DUH!
Here is a news flash from the department of the bleeding obvious:
DiBona finds that “a year of overwhelmingly bad publicity, coupled with opportunities for continued XP ‘downgrades’ or potentially skipping over Vista for Windows 7, looks to have meaningfully eroded support for Vista and are likely to impair the product’s overall adoption.”
Bad publicity is causing people to not adopt Vista, who woulda thunk it?
Posted by Peter at 10:45 PM
June 09, 2008
Ho Hum more china stuff
Where have we heard this story before?
Although Canadian authorities refused to identify the perpetrators of this attack, they leave doubts on Chinese hackers. From June to September 2007, roughly during the same period, five countries - the USA, Germany, Britain, France and New Zealand - have announced that they had suffered similar attacks on from cyber hackers
I didn't think that Canada would have so many secrets that might be worth hitting. via Slashdot.
Posted by Peter at 11:43 PM
June 05, 2008
Linux over vista?
How do you know that an operating system isn't doing the trick? When another one is offered by the manufacturer:
Acer has already started selling Linux in its Media PC business but this should now spread, according to Gianpiero Morbello, vice president of marketing and brand at Acer. "We have shifted towards Linux because of Microsoft," he said. "Microsoft has a lot of power and it is going to be difficult, but we will be working hard to develop the Linux market."
Microsoft needs to remember that it is not only the end user but the manufacturer that is their customer and act accordingly.
Posted by Peter at 09:04 PM
June 04, 2008
Here comes the Snow Leopard
Engadget tells us the next apple OS is on the way:
Steve will also use his keynote to introduce the next major version of OS X, codenamed "Snow Leopard." As the derivative release name indicates, there aren't many changes in store from 10.5 Leopard -- Apple's said to instead be focusing on tightening up speed and stability as it starts producing more mobile devices. What's more, this could be the end of PowerPC and Universal support in OS X
More reasons to ignore vista.
Posted by Peter at 07:52 PM
June 03, 2008
If everything is a computer then everything needs to be secure
When it comes to security it is more than laptops that people need to worry about:
Some 94% of senior IT staff fear PDAs present a security risk, just above the 88% who highlighted mobile storage devices as a worry.Nearly eight in 10 said laptops were an issue. Only four in 10 had encrypted data on their laptops, and the remainder said the information was "not worth" protecting.
Whats worse is the caviler attitude of the users.
A key danger with PDAs was that over half of IT executives surveyed were "not bothering" to enter a password when they used their phone.Nine in 10 of the smart phones were being given access to company networks without extra security, even though the phones were individually owned by users. There were no access restrictions being applied to 81% of the phones.
Data is only as secure as the people who hold it.
Posted by Peter at 11:44 AM
May 31, 2008
China does it again
Well here is some news that won't surprise anyone here if they were paying attention around here:
Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts.
Its going to reach the point where this won't even qualify under the "news" category around here.
Update: See what I mean:
U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce computers, officials and industry experts told The Associated Press. ADVERTISEMENTSurreptitious copying is believed to have occurred when a laptop was left unattended during Gutierrez's trip to Beijing for trade talks in December, people familiar with the incident told the AP. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was under investigation.
Posted by Peter at 09:01 PM
May 25, 2008
Translation service available
When starting a different hours (I'm working mornings this week instead of nights) its always good to begin the day with a healthy laugh. Lucky for me the CEO of Google provided me with one:
Google billionaire co-founder Larry Page criticized a potential Microsoft takeover of Yahoo, saying it would concentrate too much power in the online communications market, stifling innovation and curbing competition.
In proper English this is translated as:
We don't like the idea of a company with Microsoft's resources being able to compete with us, it threatens our market share.
What is rather funny is the line that immediately follows:
But he discounted the idea that an advertising deal between Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.—one the two companies are now exploring—would present any potential antitrust problems.
It instantly brought to mind this clip from the British TV comedy Black Adder (4th season) the relevant bit is from 2:26 to 2:38 in the clip. The rest is pretty funny but the use of language might not be proper for the younger ones.
Posted by Peter at 08:01 AM
May 20, 2008
There is speech and there is speech
You know there are some things that go without saying, well apparently not:
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., called Monday for YouTube to take down al-Qaida videos that users had posted, but the site said most of the videos his office had flagged did not contain material that violated their guidelines and rejected his request that they act to remove all material from U.S. designated terror groups.
Their answer was cloaked in the most principled terms;
The blog posting said the site "encourages free speech and defends everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. We believe that YouTube is a richer and more relevant platform for users precisely because it hosts a diverse range of views, and rather than stifle debate we allow our users to view all acceptable content and make up their own minds."
Lieberman's aide counters thusly:
"It is not reasonable, let alone legal, for an al-Qaida spokesman to visit the United States and try to recruit and build support here," the aide told UPI. "Why is it reasonable for the same person to do that in this virtual community?"
Glenn Reynolds reminds us that Google's/You Tube's lofty principles haven't always trumped things in the past.
Posted by Peter at 10:35 PM
May 19, 2008
Some interesting news today
If you are a tech fan then Slashdot should be a place you regularly visit. If you don't here are a few stories that you might find interesting:
Now that what I call customer tracking:
Customers in shopping centres are having their every move tracked by a new type of surveillance that listens in on the whisperings of their mobile phones.The technology can tell when people enter a shopping centre, what stores they visit, how long they remain there, and what route they take as they walked around.
I guess there is an advantage to not owning a cell phone.
Your Windows Media Center knows how to take orders:
News that the world's largest software maker has voluntarily agreed to help broadcasters control the recording of their shows is bound to outrage enthusiasts of digital video recorders, as it represents the biggest threat to the practice known as time shifting since the FCC's attempt to require flag adherence."Microsoft has put the requirements of broadcasters above what consumers want," said Danny O'Brien, a staffer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for Internet users that is looking into Monday's block. "They've imposed restrictions way beyond what the law requires. Customers need to know who Microsoft is listening to and how that affects their equipment. Right now, the only way customers know what Microsoft has agreed to is when the technology they've bought suddenly stops working. Microsoft needs to come clean and tell its customers what deals it has made."
American Gladiators should be blocked on the grounds of good taste alone although my pal Paul who tried out for the show might disagree.
Want to get a refund for all the stuff you don't want pre-installed? Move to France:
A French user asked for a refund after buying an ASUS computer that came with Windows XP and other software pre-installed. ASUS tried to apply a procedure which cost more money to the consumer that they will give back... The court ruled in favor of the user, who received back 130 Euro (~200 $) for the software.
I shudder at the thought of the number of Vista refunds that would take place if this happened in America.
And finally what is the most popular pc game the answer will surprise you:
It's more surprising that these Windows solitaires, with their primitive delights, remain hugely popular despite now competing for our affections with e-mail, the Web, and thousands of online games. According to Microsoft developer-blogger Raymond Chen, the company's usability research crew discovered that the three most-played computer games (solitaire or something else, Microsoft or otherwise, preloaded or user-installed) are, in order … Spider Solitaire, Klondike Solitaire, and FreeCell.
My wife is living proof of this.
Posted by Peter at 04:04 PM
May 15, 2008
Does he have a point?
Rob Pegoraro at the Washington Post slams the "nostalgia" people have for XP over vista:
XP is not something that needs to be "saved," as if it were some architectural triumph in need of historic preservation. It's not an Old Post Office or a Union Station; it's more like that crummy midfield terminal at Dulles International Airport, a once-serviceable structure that outlived its utility years ago.
Well I'm typing this on one of those systems that's outlived its utility, when I work today it will be using one of those outlived systems. To say it has outlived its utility is a tad off.
His argument is that things are getting better.
In some aspects, the worst part of the transition to Vista is over. This software has seen numerous bug fixes, including a Service Pack in March that curbed its widely hated anti-piracy defenses. Most third-party developers who hadn't updated their software for Vista have fixed their products by now.
Its true the service pack is finally out and things are improving, although not the hardware needs that are still outrageous. He also reminds us of xp's issues when launched:
XP had enough problems at its October 2001 debut, starting with weak security and inadequate tools for organizing your information, and the Internet has only gotten busier and more brutish since then. Even with all of Microsoft's patches -- including XP's third major Service Pack update, issued last week -- and the prospect of continued security fixes through April 2014, keeping XP running safely and reliably requires a host of add-on security and Internet programs to paper over its faults.
This point is valid but he forgets that XP was replacing Windows ME(ss), the absolutely worst operating system that the public ever paid money for as opposed to an OS that business' around the world are using without issue. He concludes thusly:
If you're unhappy about Vista, don't get sucked in by the misguided nostalgia for XP. Root for the success of non-Windows computers. Or buy one yourself. Nothing attracts a company's attention like taking your business elsewhere.
If you a business user either corporate or a home business user you aren't in business to root for non-Windows computers, you are in the business of running your business and the expense of transitioning people to a new OS that requires more oomph and new software is an expense that is unwanted and frankly unnecessary at this point. Until transition is a net profit rather than a net loss its not going to happen.
To answer the question at the start of the post, he does have a point but not a strong enough one in my opinion. Of course if you judge by the comments section in response to the article his readers conclude that his point is at the top of his head. They are running as of this moment about 5-1 against him.
Posted by Peter at 08:57 AM
May 14, 2008
Is it censorship if people don't want it?
I tend to go on about internet speech a bit here. I've been pretty hard on China over the years but apparently the Chinese people by and large don't have a problem with it:.
A Pew Internet & American Life Project report indicates that of an overwhelming majority of Chinese people that believed the Internet should be 'managed or controlled,' 85% want the government to do this managing. This is resulting from surveys on Internet use over the last seven years in China.
The actual reports are here. It's rather amazing when you think about it.
Posted by Peter at 04:09 PM
May 12, 2008
Now that's good use of tech
After reading this story I've come to one ironclad conclusion. Never steal a pc with a built in web cam:
A Westchester woman whose Apple laptop was stolen was able to connect remotely to her computer , photograph two suspects, steer the cops to them and get her computer back.
I wonder if she is looking for a position?
Posted by Peter at 03:37 PM
May 10, 2008
You get what youpay for and then some
When it is suggested that counterfeit products may not have the same quality and have other issues they weren't kidding.
Sources told ABC News the counterfeit hardware could represent a major breach to national security. An FBI PowerPoint presentation, which somehow ended up on a Web site, lays out the concerns and the breadth of what has been a far-reaching investigation.Friday afternoon a somewhat miffed FBI released a statement that read: "At the request of another federal government agency, on Jan. 11, 2008, the FBI's Cyber Division provided an unclassified PowerPoint presentation and briefing on efforts to counter the production and distribution of counterfeit network hardware," said FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director James Finch. "This unclassified briefing was never intended for broad distribution or posting to the Internet."
I wonder if there is any relation to what we wrote last week?
Posted by Peter at 08:53 PM
May 06, 2008
Free is a relative term
I've been telling customers for years that you shouldn't be doing business over open hotspots/networks. If you won't take my word how about the FBI's?
...there are 68,000 Wi-Fi “hot spots” in the U.S. (see the graphic below for the top Wi-Fi countries), at airports, coffee shops, hotels, bookstores, schools, and other locations where hundreds or thousands of people pass through every day. While many of these hot spots have secure networks, some do not, according to Supervisory Special Agent Donna Peterson of our Cyber Division. And connecting to an unsecure network can leave you vulnerable to attacks from hackers.How do hackers grab your personal data out of thin air? Agent Peterson said one of the most common types of attack is this: a bogus but legitimate-looking Wi-Fi network with a strong signal is strategically set up in a known hot spot…and the hacker waits for nearby laptops to connect to it. At that point, your computer—and all your sensitive information, including user ID, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.—basically belongs to the hacker. The intruder can mine your computer for valuable data, direct you to phony webpages that look like ones you frequent, and record your every keystroke.
I think that given the risks I can wait to see how my ebay bid is going.
Posted by Peter at 11:15 PM
May 05, 2008
...speaking of China and the internet
Today's China PC news is not limited to worrying about net access during the Olympic games, as the Times of India via slashdot reports:
The core of the assault is that the Chinese are constantly scanning and mapping India’s official networks. This gives them a very good idea of not only the content but also of how to disable the networks or distract them during a conflict.This, officials say, is China’s way of gaining "an asymmetrical advantage" over a potential adversary.
The big attacks that were sourced to China over the last few months included an attack on NIC (National Infomatics Centre), which was aimed at the National Security Council, and on the MEA.
The paper noticed something that both India and China are overlooking:
But the real gap is that a retaliatory offensive system is yet to be created.And it’s not difficult, said sources. Chinese networks are very porous — and India is an acknowledged IT giant!
Could we be on the verge of the first big cyberwar? Only time will tell.
Posted by Peter at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2008
Fun stuff for the iPhone
Do you have an iPhone but are looking for the coolest stuff to use with it? Look no further Swtiched (a subsite of EnGadget) has a list of cool accessories for use with your phone.
There are some cool things there but since I haven't even reached the cell phone point the iPhone point is not on my radar right now but maybe it will be on yours.
Posted by Peter at 01:48 PM
April 24, 2008
The Gathering Storm
Geek Press gives more info on the storm botnet. The good news is its scope is being overestimated, the bad news however is still bad enough:
Criminal gangs are increasingly active in producing things like Storm, and, in the case of China, so are government Cyber War operations. Russia is also believed to rely on criminal hackers for help in carrying out Cyber War tasks, usually espionage. (emphasis mine) Meanwhile, it's clear what Storm is up to. It has been launching attacks at web sites involved in stopping or investigating Storm. This involves transmitting huge quantities of bogus messages, that shut down targeted web sites (this is a DDOS, or distributed denial or service attack). The Storm botherders are also advertising their botnet as available for the usual illegal activities (various types of spam).
Cyber attacks and cyber warfare is going to be the wave of the future so we'd better get used to the idea.
Posted by Peter at 05:45 PM
April 23, 2008
Nothing like loving your customers
You know there are going to be days when a system may go down or a phone might malfunction or volume might be high or a half dozen other things can go wrong that can sometime make the customer less than desired. Any good company will do their best to avoid that since the customer is why they are in business.
However it looks like Microsoft never got the memo:
Microsoft just announced that it will no longer supply authorization keys for songs purchased from the defunct MSN Music service. That means that the PlaysForSure music you purchased will only play on your registered computers (up to 5) for as long as they shall live. As Microsoft puts it, "If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play."
This is certainly not what the people who purchased the service had bargained for.
Posted by Peter at 02:09 PM
April 17, 2008
Meanwhile in the world of gaming.....
Well X-Box and PS3 have had plenty of time to tweak themselves and their adverts. Have they caught up to the Wii in popularity or sales? Short answer: No.
"Super Smash Brothers Brawl along with a greater supply of inventory helped the Wii to capture the highest single month unit sales of any platform outside the holiday timeframe," she added.As far as hardware numbers go, Nintendo sold 720,000 Wiis last month; more than double that of combined Xbox 360 and PS3 sales, and almost enough to match the combined sales of all other consoles when including PS2.
You would think a revamped game that's been around forever wouldn't sell so well but my kids were dying for it.
Meanwhile my old Xbox has become the repository for my Big finish Dr. Who cd's.
Posted by Peter at 09:11 PM
April 04, 2008
It's ALIVE
Now here is the best news of the day:
Demand for XP on devices like the Eee and Intel's Classmate machines has prompted MS to reconsider axing XP entirely this June: the company will now sell XP Home through at least June 2010, and for one year after the release of Windows 7 -- which means sales of XP could stretch into 2012.
How dare Microsoft let a little thing like customer demand influence what they do!
Posted by Peter at 04:19 PM
March 18, 2008
Keep your fingers Crossed
Vista SP1 is available for download today.
I'll wait till next month for the auto update.
I think the title of the post says it all.
Posted by Peter at 04:16 PM
March 12, 2008
Not as bad as it sounds
Hacking is it not just for pc's anymore?
A new study demonstrates a large gap in the security of implanted devices that help regulate heartbeats and use wireless technology, researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the University of Massachusetts, and elsewhere report today."With some technical expertise, we were able to retrieve information from the device in an unauthorized fashion," said Dr. William H. Maisel, senior author of the report. "We were able to send commands to the device in an unauthorized fashion and could reprogram settings and even tell the device to deliver a high-voltage shock."
While it might be useful if you are a tech savvy Ninja assassin I suspect this s less that it seems to be, today's hacker is a for profit enterprise. Unless you have someone directly threatening murder this isn't going to fly.
However remember the more a device builds on existing tech blocks of a pc the more likely it is subject to those same issues that a pc has.
Posted by Peter at 12:15 PM
March 11, 2008
Google the future?
LGF wonders if Google knows something the rest of us don't.
Posted by Peter at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2008
Glenn has the last word on Vista
A NYT article today talks about how Vista a year later is still a problem.
We usually do not have the opportunity to overhear Microsoft’s most senior executives vent their personal frustrations with Windows. But a lawsuit filed against Microsoft in March 2007 in United States District Court in Seattle has pried loose a packet of internal company documents. The plaintiffs, Dianne Kelley and Kenneth Hansen, bought PCs in late 2006, before Vista’s release, and contend that Microsoft’s “Windows Vista Capable” stickers were misleading when affixed to machines that turned out to be incapable of running the versions of Vista that offered the features Microsoft was marketing as distinctive Vista benefits.
The lawsuit stuff is interesting but Glenn hits it on the head with his link...:
My sister-in-law, a computer whiz who's getting her Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, gave up on Vista and switched back to XP. That's been enough to keep me away.
Who can argue with that?
Posted by Peter at 04:12 PM
February 27, 2008
Here comes the next one
Back in the 90's it was AOL then it was Microsoft (and to a degree still is) Microsoft, now Google is getting its paws into everything:
Viewed through the lens of its interest in mobile advertising and phones, not to mention its participation in the FCC's recent spectrum auction, Google's previous investments in "dark fiber" -- unlit fiber optic cable -- have fueled speculation that the company aspires to become a network operator like AT&T (NYSE: T) or Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA).But Google's network acquisitions manager Francois Sterin, in a blog post, denies any such ambition. "If you're wondering whether we're going into the undersea cable business, the answer is no," he wrote. "We're not competing with telecom providers, but the volume of data we need to move around the world has grown to the point where in some cases we've exceeded the ability traditional players can offer. Our partnership with these companies is just another step in ensuring that we're delivering the best possible experience to people around the world."
Kevin Williamson at media blog said it best:
Google is going to make Microsoft's alleged monopoly look like the board game before they're through:
I think I'd have used quotes around the "alleged" myself.
Posted by Peter at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2008
And the good news just keeps coming
More great security news:
Researchers with Princeton University and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have found a flaw that renders disk encryption systems useless if an intruder has physical access to your computer -- say in the case of a stolen laptop or when a computer is left unattended on a desktop in sleep mode or while displaying a password prompt screen.The attack takes only a few minutes to conduct and uses the disk encryption key that's stored in the computer's RAM.
And if that is enough:
"People trust encryption to protect sensitive data when their computer is out of their immediate control," said EFF Staff Technologist Seth Schoen, a member of the research team. "But this new class of vulnerabilities shows it is not a sure thing. Whether your laptop is stolen, or you simply lose track of it for a few minutes at airport security, the information inside can still be read by a clever attacker."The researchers cracked several widely used disk encryption technologies, including Microsoft's BitLocker, Apple's FileVault, TrueCrypt, and dm-crypt. These "secure" disk encryption systems are supposed to protect sensitive information if a computer is stolen or otherwise accessed. However, in a paper and video published on the Internet today, the researchers show that data is vulnerable because encryption keys and passwords stored in a computer's temporary memory -- or RAM -- do not disappear immediately after losing power.
That just goes to show you that there is no substitute for keeping your hands on your pc.
Posted by Peter at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2008
Well this Ipod hack will keep the lawyers busy
Well the iPod/iTunes news today is big:
A notorious Norwegian hacker known as DVD Jon is preparing for another run-in with the music industry after he released software that lets iPod owners copy music and videos bought from iTunes and play it on other devices.The program allows people to drag and drop songs from iTunes into a folder on their desktop, which in turn copies the files to other devices such as mobile phones and games consoles via the web.
The question is the legality:
DoubleTwist, DVD Jon's company, maintains that its service is legal, but lawyers said that Apple would almost certainly seek to shut it down because the law now specifically targeted technologies which attempted to circumvent measures such as DRM.The hacker has previously enabled iPod owners to play music bought from websites other than iTunes.
The lawyers are going to have a lot of fun with this.
Posted by Peter at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2008
We waited 6 months for this?
I haven't busted vista in a bit but this note from Slashdot fills one with foreboding of evil:
Echostorm writes with word that Windows Vista SP1, which began rolling out via Automatic Update, has left some users' machines un-bootable. The update loops forever on "Configuring updates: Stage 3 of 3 — 0% complete. Do not turn off your computer."
By an odd coincidence something similar happened to my vista machine a few days ago. As my son had accidentally unplugged the power to my laptop I assumed that was the cause when I had to restore and my system wouldn't boot. This is certainly not the way for Vista to win hearts and minds.
Posted by Peter at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2008
Another reason to worry
As if there weren't enough to worry about on security end that we've talked about already via Glenn here is a biggie for business:
That networked multifunction printer sitting innocently in the corner of your office just might be the most significant entry point for hackers to hijack sensitive data from your business.
Is he kidding?
"When I was doing my research, I had dozens and dozens of MFDs under my control, and no one in IT knew what I was doing. The idea of an attacker having equipment completely under their control on a company's internal network is a frightening proposition," O'Connor said in an interview with eWEEK.
No I guess he's not. Although he does say that the home network is not in much danger, not so for a business:
"Should my mom be worried that a hacker is living in her printer? No. But, if you're a Fortune 500 company, vulnerable printers on your network is a scary thing," Ptacek said in an interview with eWEEK.
I hate to admit it but I never even thought of this, but it makes sense we are no longer dealing with single function items. Just goes to show you everything cost something.
Posted by Peter at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2008
Microsoft responds to the XP Petition
Computer world (via slashdot) covers the Microsoft "save the OS" petition and Microsoft's reaction to it:
In late November, a survey of 961 IT professionals conducted by King Research found 90 per cent of respondents had concerns about migrating to Vista. Apprehension stemmed primarily from stability issues, but also due to compatibility problems and the cost in both hardware and software terms of migrating. 44 per cent said they would consider non-Windows operating systems to avoid these migration issues, with many stating that virtualization had made it easier to implement alternative operating systems.In response to Infoworld's petition and other pro-XP outpourings of support, a Microsoft spokesperson in the US told Computerworld: "We're aware of it, but are listening first and foremost to feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense based on their needs. That's what informed our decision to extend the availability of XP initially, and what will continue to guide us."
Read the whole article; the response sounds kinda weasely.
Posted by Peter at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)
February 02, 2008
New laptops from Sony
Well Sony is upgrading their new laptop lines:
The VAIO AR60 series, which Sony says was the first ever notebook to boast an integrated Blu-ray Disc drive, now has an Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 processor at its heart (model VGN-AR61ZU). It also features a full 4GB of RAM, the nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics chip with 512MB of RAM, a 17-inch X-black screen with a 1,920-x-1,200 resolution and two lamps. For fun outside of work, the laptop has a DVB-T digital tuner and an HDMI output for connecting TVs.
It will be interesting to see what kind of splash these laptops make.
UPDATE: title and post edited.
Posted by Peter at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2008
The end to the beginning
The first time I ever went on the internet it at a college that a friend of mine worked at sometime in the mid 90's, we were there for a D&D game.
I opened up a program I'd never seen before and low and behold the New York times appeared on my screen. The Times doesn't get my blood flowing anymore but that first use of Netscape navigator was really something.
Well those days are over as Netscape is as of today no longer supported.
February 1, marks the demise of Netscape Navigator, the first commercial web browser.Navigator will continue to function should you happen to have a recent copy stashed away. But America Online, which has been Netscape’s guardian during its long, downward slide in popularity, will no longer support the browser and will stop releasing updates. Support for all versions of the software will be off-loaded to the Netscape community forum. Netscape.com will continue to live on as a web portal.
It was once top dog but Microsoft and Internet Explorer defeated it. The successor to it Mozilla/firefox is slowing growing again but Netscape itself is done. Just for the fun of it I installed it today for that reason.
Meanwhile Google is next in Microsoft's sights as it is looking at Yahoo:
Microsoft's audacious attempt to buy Yahoo, spelled out in an unsolicited offer announced Friday, shows just how much Google threatens the world's largest software maker's grip on how people interact with computers.For Yahoo, the bid represents another painful reminder of how missed opportunities and mismanagement combined to open the door for Google to supplant it as the Internet's main gateway, decimating its stock price in the process.
Google, be afraid, be very afraid.
via LFG
Posted by Peter at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)
January 31, 2008
One sure winner from online gambling
Gambling is a risk and online gambling is an impersonal risk, but there is one group that is guaranteed to be a winner, that is if Rep Jim McDermott has his way:
A new tax revenue analysis announced by Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) estimates that regulating Internet gambling would generate between $8.7 billion to $42.8 billion in federal revenues over its first ten years. The findings of the analysis, prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers, were provided to all Members of Congress by McDermott earlier this week.
Talk about betting on a sure thing.
Representative McDermott introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (H.R. 2607), which would tax regulated Internet gambling.
As a person who doesn't even do his taxes on a PC I can't fathom risking money online in this way, but if those figures are right I am clearly in the minority on this one.
Posted by Peter at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2008
Hp's Green ink
Looks like all of HP's ink is going to be the same color; Green:
The technique has already been trialed, and now is being put into production. HP said that it has already produced more than 200 million cartridges during the so-called trial, and the company expects to use 10 million pounds of recycled plastic during 2008, partly as a result of the new manufacturing technique.
I wouldn't have thought it would have been that hard to use.
Posted by Peter at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2008
Free legal music (or not)
A brand new service for free legal music downloads Qtrax launches as the latest entry in the P2P contest for music downloads.
Forgetting for the moment the dangers of p2p, it will be a relief to know that your music downloads will not come with a risk of expensive lawsuits. Or not:
But Warner Music said it had not authorised the use of its tracks by Qtrax - and later Universal Music Group and EMI followed suit, saying they did not have licensing deals with Qtrax and discussions were continuing.Justin Kazmark, a spokesman for New York-based Qtrax, has declined to comment.
We will soon find out if this is a bump in the road or a crash into a tree.
Posted by Peter at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2008
A slash dot roundup...
Today there are three slashdot articles that are worth a mention so rather than three different posts lets take them in order:
Lies, Damn Lies; and Statistics:
It looks like iPhone sales might not be all they are cracked up to be;Let's walk through the theory. Apple said on Tuesday that it sold 3.7 million iPhones in 2007. But AT&T said Thursday that it ended 2007 with around 2 million iPhone customers.One huge difference between the third quarter and the fourth--other than the temperature--was that the iPhone became available for sale in the U.K., Germany, and France through other carriers. But even the most optimistic estimates for iPhone sales in Europe didn't come within shouting distance of 1.7 million units. O2, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.K., has said it expects to have sold 200,000 iPhones by around this time, and France's Orange and Germany's T-Mobile were expected to sell about 100,000 units each in 2007.
So that leaves 1.3 million iPhones to find.
Well we can account for one but I doubt they were all blended.
It's called MYSPACE not My Personal Space
Looks like Myspace might be taken tips from Baghdad Bob on plausible deniability:A 17-gigabyte file purporting to contain more than half a million images lifted from private MySpace profiles has shown up on BitTorrent, potentially making it the biggest privacy breach yet on the top social networking site.The creator of the file says he compiled the photos earlier this month using the MySpace security hole that Wired News reported on last week. That hole, still unacknowledged by the News Corporation-owned site, allowed voyeurs to peek inside the photo galleries of some MySpace users who had set their profiles to "private," despite MySpace's assurances that such images could only be seen by people on a user's friends' list.
A person expect a lesser amount of privacy online but this is nonsense.
Those Bluetooth booties are beauties.
This is the most amazing use of bluetooth that I've ever seen:Bleill, 30, is one of two Iraq war veterans, both double leg amputees, to use the Bluetooth prosthetics. Computer chips in each leg send signals to motors in the artificial joints so the knees and ankles move in a coordinated fashion.Bleill's set of prosthetics have Bluetooth receivers strapped to the ankle area. The Bluetooth device on each leg tells the other leg what it's doing, how it's moving, whether walking, standing or climbing steps,
Of course this is another example of that Western Civilization striking again.
Posted by Peter at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2008
Expect a lot more of this
Unfortunately this is a sign of the future:
Paller said that Donahue presented him with a written statement that read, "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands. We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge. We have information that cyberattacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."
As the technology gets better this problem will get worse and worse. Via Glenn.
Posted by Peter at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2008
And the avalanche begins
Amazing. Within one week we see Ransomware for the Mac and an Iphone exploit.
Mac is becoming a bigger and bigger target. I blame this guy.
Posted by Peter at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2008
Yeah its thin. So?
The MacBook air is a rather cool looking thing. People are commenting on how thin and cool looking it is.
Thin is nice, but looking at it I have two quick questions:
How is it temp wise?How is it shock resistant wise?
Small and compact is nice but I'd be asking those two questions real quick before dropping my dough.
Posted by Peter at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2008
What Google worry?
According to Arts Technica Google doesn't seem very worried about the lawsuit from Jarg:
Should the case go to trial, Google apparently feels confident. The company's request for a jury trial implies that Google's legal team isn't particularly worried about a negative judgement in Eastern Texas, which is saying quite a lot. The venue is the most popular in the US for this type of suit because juries typically side with those who claim to have been pinched (e.g., parties such as Jarg). Any resolution in the case is still months away—possibly years, if the case goes to trial—but Google obviously feels it's playing from a very strong position.
They confidence might be well founded but you never know what a jury will think.
Posted by Peter at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2007
Now this is just sick
The murder of former prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's may or may not be used by the barbarians of Al-Queda and their allies, but it is already being used by Malware operators:
Surfers searching for video footage of the suicide attack that killed Bhutto and at least 21 others on Thursday are liable to find malware posing as video clips that attempts to trick users into running malign ActiveX controls. The malicious downloaded file is detected by Symantec as the Emcodec-Trojan.
There is low and there is low.
Posted by Peter at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2007
Bad timing
If you are trying to push a game system this isn't the thing you want to have just before Christmas:
Xbox Live has been down for (deleted)hours, and doesn't seem any closer to getting back online. Anyone able to get on? Or are you still having issues? Shout it out in comments, we feel your pain.
Well my kids Wii was working today but he doesn't play online, just surfs.
Posted by Peter at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2007
More vista more vista
The San Jose Mercury News comments on Vista the good and the badFirst the good, things are getting better:
...compatibility is getting better. At launch, there were 1.5 million devices compatible with Vista, he said. That was three times the number for Windows XP's launch, and now the number is 2.4 million devices. Of the top 100 Windows applications, 98 work fine on Vista now.
Sales are up but that is a red herring since with some exceptions Vista is all you can get. Speed issues persist:
Karp says he's among those who won't go back to XP and would rather fix problems. He notes you can speed Vista up by going into the control panel menu and turning off the "view thumbnails" feature, which presents a mini view of an open file as you hover over it with the mouse. Or you can make sure that your machine has enough main memory to run Vista.
In other words he'd rather spend more money on memory to get the same speed and/or turn off Vista features. If you are going to do that why buy Vista in the first place? Maybe due to security:
In the first six months, Vista had 12 security vulnerabilities reported, compared with 36 in the first six months for Windows XP. One problem is that, under antitrust rulings, Microsoft has to keep antivirus protection separate from the operating system. It sells its OneCare protection and backup service for $50 a year, when it really should be included in the operating system. Imagine. They sell a vulnerable operating system for as much as $400 and then get to sell you the antivirus software and other protections on top of that.
The anti-trust point is well made but the number of vulnerabilities found number doesn't wash since Vista as a new OS had to be learned and examined by those who want to attack it.
The bottom line is its a mixed bag. The fact that the service pack is still months away is a black mark against it but as the old saying goes, what can't be cured must be endured. So I guess we will endure it.
Posted by Peter at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2007
a 5th Amendment right to an encrypted password?
Via Glenn at the Volokh conspiracy we see what might be the biggest computer news of the year, at least in the US:
Now here's where it gets interesting. Two weeks later a government forensic analyst started to analyze the machine. He created a "mirror" copy of the hard drive and then looked at the mirror to see what it contained. But it turned out that the part of the hard drive that was designated "drive Z" was encrypted with the popular software program PGP, and no one — no one, presumably, except for Boucher — knew the password. The government tried to guess the password and failed, so the grand jury issued a subpoena to Boucher ordering him to disclose the password to drive Z. Boucher's counsel them moved to block the subpoena, arguing that he had a Fifth Amendment privilege not to comply. The government responded that it would be happy to just have Boucher enter in the password without the government ever seeing it. The Court thus addressed only whether Boucher had a Fifth Amendment privilege not to enter in the password.Judge Niedermeier ruled that Boucher did have such a privilege and quashed the subpoena. According to Judge Niedermeier, entering in the password would be testimonial.
Lets get the actual meat and potatoes from the ruling:
Since the government is trying to compel the production of the password itself, the foregone conclusion doctrine cannot apply. The password is not a physical thing. If Boucher knows the password, it only exists in his mind. This information is unlike a document, to which the foregone conclusion doctrine usually applies, and unlike any physical evidence the government could already know of. It is pure testimonial production rather than physical evidence having testimonial aspects. Compelling Boucher to produce the password compels him to display the contents of his mind to incriminate himself. Doe III did not deal with production of a suspect's thoughts and memories but only previously created documents. The foregone conclusion doctrine does not apply to the production of non-physical evidence, existing only in a suspect's mind where the act of production can be used against him.
Among the 5th Amendment rights granted is the right to not testify against oneself. If this ruling stands then only the very stupid computer user who is acting illegally will keep data on a non-encrypted drive.
This will really put a damper on file sharing suits and could have interesting results in domestic terror cases.
The big question is this: If I'm the government to I require a software company to have and provide a backdoor to get into such files? Does a company have a right to refuse such a request?
It will make some interesting law.
Posted by Peter at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2007
Willie sutton would be proud
Well via Glenn ZDnet reports on the efforts of the underground cyber economy and its not an encouraging word for law enforcement:
As director of antivirus research for F-Secure, you might expect Mikko Hypponen to overplay the seriousness of the situation. But according to the Finnish company, during 2007 the number of samples of malicious code on its database doubled, having taken 20 years to reach the size it was at the beginning of this year..There seems to be some serious evidence then for the idea of an evolution from hacking and virus writing for fun to creating malicious code for profit. Security experts are increasingly pointing to the existence of a "black" or "shadow" cyber-economy, where malware services are sold online using the same kinds of development methods and guarantees given by legitimate software vendors
As I have said over and over again it is financial gain and not being a pain that drives virus'. That drives our business too but it can be a big issue
Posted by Peter at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2007
The end of the Apple myth
You might remember last month I said the following:
the supposed invulnerability of the Mac has more to do with the number of users than the OS itself. This first trojan has a limited and easily defined victim profile but it is just the beginning. Once malware authors figure out how few Mac users assume that they can't be hit and surf accordingly the flood gates will open.
Looks like the Financial times agrees:
“Over the past two years, we had found one or two pieces of malware targeting Macs,” said Patrik Runald, an F-Secure security researcher. “Since October, we’ve found 100-150 variants.”The rising security threat could present a challenge to Apple, which has long touted the security advantages of its platform over those of Microsoft, whose software is a perennial target for hackers.
“As Apple’s platform becomes more visible, it will increasingly come under the gun,” said Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies.
Watch for a whole lot more of this, the days of Apple users sneering at PC virus and the myth of Apple's immunity to virus' has now gone the way of the Dodo.
Posted by Peter at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2007
The identity theft motherlode
If you are somebody looking to to commit identify theft this is the stuff of dreams:
A security flaw in Passport Canada's website has allowed easy access to the personal information - including social insurance numbers, dates of birth and driver's licence numbers - of people applying for new passports.The breach was discovered last week by an Ontario man completing his own passport application. He found he could easily view the applications of others by altering one character in the Internet address displayed by his Web browser.
Why do I get the feeling that a smart thief may have already found this out but kept quiet about it?
Posted by Peter at 07:32 AM | Comments (0)
Why pirate an empty ship?
Microsoft's service pack 1 for vista will apparently close a security holes allowing unlicensed copies of the software to run.
Although, unlike previous Windows versions, Vista is not available as an activation-free version, a number of more or less effective methods were quickly found to run Vista without activation. However, this is soon to end. According to Microsoft, Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista closes two vulnerabilities which previously enabled operation of Vista without a license
The piracy rate for Windows Vista is less than half that of Windows XP, according to Microsoft. The vendor made the claim as it revealed plans to further curtail piracy when it launches the first service pack for Vista.
Of course that might not be as big an issue as it sounds at least not now:
I don't think that is due to better security issues. I think it is for the same reason that counterfeiters tend to make phony $100 bills rather than phony $5's.
I actually was able to recommend Vista to a customer two days ago. Of course they did have ME....
Posted by Peter at 07:10 AM | Comments (0)
November 30, 2007
And you think YOU are worried about hackers...
...the military is even more worried:
Military officials say that a cyber attack by foreign enemies or terrorist groups would result in “an electronic Pearl Harbor” that would shut down electricity, banking systems, cell phones and other tools of day-to-day life.Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of more-limited cyber assaults are bombarding the firewalls of government computer systems daily, prompting U.S. officials and military leaders to declare that the United States is already at war on the cyber front.
“America is under widespread attack in cyberspace,” Gen. James E. Cartwright, then-commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the military’s computer grid, told Congress in March. “Our freedom to use cyberspace is threatened by the actions of criminals, terrorists and nations alike.”
The interdiction of communications has always been a vital tactic in war. As those communications move to the internet those attacks are naturally heading in that direction. Remember it was just a few months ago that the Chinese military hacked the Pentagon.
It remains to be seen what the hows and whys will be in this realm. The book on the subject has apparently yet to be written but we are far away from A Taste of Armageddon.
Posted by Peter at 08:41 AM | Comments (0)
Maybe this is what they were worried about
CNN is taking a hit for not being able to use Google vis a vis the presidential debate two nights ago. Perhaps their non use of Google was because of this:
Sunbelt first noticed the huge number of infected sites, and their appearance in results lists for a bewildering array of searches, on Sunday. Thomas explained how the attackers managed to beat the search system. "For months now, our research team has monitored a network of bots whose sole purpose is to post spam links and relevant keywords into online forms, typically comment forms and bulletin board forums," he said. "This network, combined with thousands of pages such as the two seen above, have given the attackers very good, if not top, search-engine position for various search terms." Among the hundreds of search terms he had spotted being used were "infinity" and "hospice."
Google has managed to purge most of this stuff while not commenting on if it was done at all. Unfortunately it didn't last long:
Google cleaned up its search index earlier this week, but the original hackers (along with a new group) have responded with a fresh assault, reports anti-spyware firm Sunbelt Software.Once again, plugging innocuous terms into Google, such as "funny drunk quote", can lead to search results where at least some point to malware. The tactic goes hand in hand with establishing thousands of pages on compromised servers that mention targeted terms to obtain a relatively high search engine ranking score.
The money the money the money. Its all about the money. And as long as the money is there the Russian and Chinese sites and others will keep pushing this stuff.
Posted by Peter at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2007
And we want Vista because of what?
Apple has been having a lot of fun with their latest Vista downgrade ads. They are funny but reality is even funnier:
Devil Mountain researchers ran a mix of tests comparing existing versions of the operating systems -- the original Vista and XP SP2 -- and versions that had been patched with the latest updates -- Vista SP1 beta and XP SP3 beta. Tests were also run on machines with 1 Gbyte and 2 Gbytes of memory.Windows XP trounced Windows Vista in all tests -- regardless of the versions used or the amount of memory running on the computer. In fact, XP proved to be roughly twice as fast as Vista in most of the tests.
The results for increasing ram on Vista were even more pathetic.
It this type of stuff keeps coming up Vista might turn out to be the greatest new product since New coke.
Posted by Peter at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2007
Oldest profession + Newer Technology = Police Headache
Like many other online business, the worlds oldest profession has discovered that you can use the internet not only to make arrest less likely but also to cut out the middleman:
James said many of the online call girls are bypassing pimps and inviting potential customers to meet them at a location selected by the prostitute.James said the prostitutes used to make a lot of money on main thorough fares, but it was easier for cops to make arrests. Now that many prostitutes are taking their business to cyberspace, the veil of virtual anonymity has made it much more difficult for police to arrest them.
In the end this had to happen. The technology might change but people always remain the same.
Posted by Peter at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2007
I guess I don't get any of this action (Update old news)
As many of our customers know I'm kind of old fashioned. I don't own a cell phone and I do all my taxes myself and by hand. So I guess that means that this Turbo Tax Lawsuit is not going to make me a penny:
The suit alleges Intuit engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices by failing to fully disclose the mechanisms and consequences of "product activation," technology Intuit added to TurboTax to tie each copy of the software to a single PC. Widespread customer complaints about the product activation, enabled by Macrovision's SafeCast software, have ranged from concerns that SafeCast surreptitiously stores information on hidden areas of a PC's hard disk to difficulties getting TurboTax to work again if the owner switches hard drives or PCs.Intuit executives have pledged to eliminate some of the most controversial technical aspects of product activation in future versions of TurboTax.
Personally I want to know what each line and deduction means I don't want a pc to tell me otherwise, but I'm surely in the minority on that one.
Update: Somehow I managed to miss that this is a VERY old story. I don't know how I managed to do so. My bad big time. If I wanted to deal with a current suit concerning Intuit I should have used this link.
Posted by Peter at 02:29 PM | Comments (1)
November 13, 2007
Bigger size mean a bigger target.
Fresh off their win against Microsoft Europe is giving some attention to a proposed Google's proposed merger with doubleclick:
"The Commission's initial market investigation indicated that the proposed merger would raise competition concerns in the markets for intermediation and ad serving in online advertising," the European Commission's competition unit said in a statement.The statement added that the decision to extend the review process "does not prejudge the final result of the investigation."
The bigger you are the more attention you will get.
Mergers are all well and good but if you make the better project you are going to make the better business.
Posted by Peter at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2007
Would you like a trojan with that hard drive?
Well never let it be said that the only things I wrote concerning China had to do with internet speech:
Investigators say the tainted Maxtor portable hard disc, made by Seagate, uploads information saved on the computer automatically to Web sites in Beijing
This is not the type of news you want to hear right before the Christmas shopping season.
Posted by Peter at 09:14 PM | Comments (0)
Encryption what encryption?
Here is some not so great news via Slashdot:
A group of researchers headed by Dr. Benny Pinkas from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Haifa succeeded in finding a security vulnerability in Microsoft's "Windows 2000" operating system. The significance of the loophole: emails, passwords, credit card numbers, if they were typed into the computer, and actually all correspondence that emanated from a computer using "Windows 2000" is susceptible to tracking. "This is not a theoretical discovery. Anyone who exploits this security loophole can definitely access this information on other computers," remarked Dr. Pinkas.
If this doesn't get those last uses off 2000 nothing will. Of course if the RNG is similar in later OS' this could bloom into real trouble.
Posted by Peter at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2007
Another reason to avoid myspace
Well looks like an infection is spreading through Myspace:
Members fall into the phishing net by clicking on a provided link in the posting, which in some cases comes in the form of what looks like a video featuring a scantily-clad young woman. After clicking on the link, the member is taken to a faux MySpace login page where the user is asked to re-enter his or her username and password. That information, however, is actually being sent to the "phisher," a third party illegally acquiring the member's personal information.
A scantily clad women video used as bait for people to fall for a phishing scam? I'm shocked SHOCKED!
Posted by Peter at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2007
More legal silliness
Here we go again, via slashdot another city deciding they want to sue an individual due to a blog post:
Tetley received a letter Monday from the district’s law firm demanding she remove what it termed libelous statements and other “legally offensive” statements posted by her or anonymous users, and refrain from allowing such postings in the future. If she refuses, the district plans to sue her, the demand letter states.
Now since the courts have ruled in the past that districts can't sue for defamation we will likely see individual suits by the people involved.
I think this is a foolish move and one that will make Galveston become the target for scorn and ridicule from the blogosphere and rightly so.
Posted by Peter at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)
That's not even news anymore
You know I don't know what is worse the fact that Yahoo is helping repress speech in China or that the fact they do so doesn't even phase me:
"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said angrily after hearing from the two Yahoo executives.He angrily urged Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan to apologize to journalist Shi Tao's mother, who was sitting directly behind them.
Shi Tao was sent to jail for 10 years for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive after Yahoo turned over information about his online activities requested by Chinese authorities.
As a Holocaust survivor Rep Lantos knows what he is talking about on this subject.
It's terrible, I'm just not phased, The reason being that I just don't expect better from any of the large companies on this subject. As long as the China trade is where the money is these guys are going to make deals and the human cost be damned. Shi Tao, he is worth caring about Yahoo I just shake my head.
Posted by Peter at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)
October 31, 2007
Leopard vs Vista not as easy a call as you might think security wise
Considering my oft stated opinions on Windows Vista you might think that any comparison between the Mac OS X Leopard would be as lopsided as last week's Patriots Redskins game. Well according to Ryan Naraine at ZD Net that isn't true, at least not in the area of security:
The new firewall in Leopard isn’t the only security feature being pooh-poohed by security researchers. According to Thomas Ptacek (right), co-founder of Matasano Security, Apple’s implementation of memory randomization in Leopard doesn’t make the operating system immune from virus and worm attacks.
After you read the whole thing you might consider some of the aspects such as the firewall issue as overblown as it can be tweaked, but there is an important thing to consider.
The days of computers being the providence of geeks is gone forever. The computer is an appliance in the house no different than the PC or the microwave. This means that like most other appliances:
The customer expects to turn it on and have it work.The customer is unlikely to keep let alone read the manual.
This is not so much a rap on the customer as a result of the successful efforts of very good programmers who took us from the command line days to the graphic interface days to making the use of a computer easy enough for everyone.
Because of this default settings are in my opinion critical. The natural instinct is to make things as easy as possible, you don't want thing people want to use blocked by default but I would submit that this is wrong. It is much easier to allow something accidentally blocked than to remove something nasty that is accidentally allowed in. A customer might be annoyed by having to permit things in the UAC of vista, but they will be much more annoyed by a worm or virus.
Remember Apple doesn't have some magic immunity from virus' and worms. It just has a market share so small by comparison that the Windows OS is a more profitable target. (Not to mention the Microsoft "evil empire" rep that Apple loves.)
You pay extra for the Apple OS a comparable computer with the Apple OS you should expect better.
(And yes I know there have been a lot of sports references lately.
What can I say; we are in Boston and Boston teams are on a roll!)
UPDATE: Looking at the comment below Alan was quite correct, the base OS price if you are just buying an OS is comparable or even cheaper than buying most flavors of Vista. But I was referring to a personal computer with the OS installed vs the OS itself, a fact that I didn't make clear thus the correction above.
However if you look at those computers with the OS installed the point is easily made. As a base comparison lets take a look at the apple store first:
The low end Mac is the Mac mini they are $600 or $800 dollars. I'm not much for the smaller sizes due to heat issues but they seem a neat little machine. That price doesn't include a monitor which is not so odd but it also doesn't include a mouse or a keyboard.
The Next jump is to the Mac Laptops the ibooks. Those start at $1100 and are a pretty little machine. But again $1100 is the low end.
Now lets look at Office Max (a company that HiWired has a relationship with) when you check you their page you see this.
You will note that you can pick up Several models for a pretty good price. There is not a model on the page above $700 and both the Acer and the Gateway models come with Monitors (and all come with keyboards and mice whoo hoo!)
On the laptop page there is only one model listed for above $930 dollars and that is a high end system.
All of this doesn't mean that these computers are better than the Mac. I'm sure that Mac lovers can fill the page with comments stating how satisfied they are with their machines and more power to them. I'm just suggesting that as you are going to pay more for a Mac and as the OS is kept in house that one would naturally expect more attention to some details like the one mentioned above.
Posted by Peter at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)
October 28, 2007
The pubishing group currently known as idiots
Idiot might be a harsh word but what do you call a company that makes copyright infringement demands over this:
The back story is here:
Twenty eight people, mostly friends and family, had viewed the YouTube video by June, when mom Stephanie Lenz said she received an e-mail from YouTube informing her that her video had been removed from the site at the request of Universal Music Publishing Group, the recording industry's largest label, and warning her that future copyright infringements on her part could force the Web site to cancel her account.
After getting over her initial worry she like any sensible person got angry:
But Lenz was angry, and she said she wasn't ready to let it go.She contacted a leading cyber rights legal organization called the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and filed a civil lawsuit against the music publisher, claiming they were abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by sending out reams of what are known in the industry as "take down notices" to Web sites like YouTube, claiming their artists' copyrights had been infringed upon -- when in fact, sometimes they may not have been at all.
Yeah lets anger our customer base, give the video national and international attention and make ourselves look foolish. I'm sure this is just what the stockholders were looking for.
Posted by Peter at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2007
Microsoft's version of Ransonware
Well Microsoft has decided to stop fighting, pay the fines and open the code per the EU's order:
As part of an effort to smooth relations with European regulatory authorities, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) said it has no plans to appeal a court decision that upheld nearly $1 billion in antitrust penalties against the software maker.The European Court of First Instance upheld the fines in a decision handed down last month. At the time, Microsoft hinted that it might appeal the ruling to Europe's highest court. On Monday, however, the company said it won't challenge the verdict.
"We will not appeal the CFI's decision to the European Court of Justice," Microsoft said in a statement.
The EU's European Commission originally fined Microsoft $613 million in 2004 following a five-year investigation sparked by a complaint from Sun Microsystems.
I'm sure the EU will wisely use those funds. And Sun will without a question use this opening to make high quality products at an affordable price.
Hopefully my sarcasm will prove unfounded.
Posted by Peter at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2007
Bigger doesn't mean smarter
Looks like the #3 grocery chain needs to take some basic lessons in web smarts.
Supervalu Inc., the No. 3 U.S. grocery chain, has fallen prey to an e-mail fraud, nearly losing about $10 million after wiring money to bogus bank accounts, according to federal court filings.The fraud is detailed in a pair of forfeiture cases filed under seal earlier this year in U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho.
The fraud began after the supermarket chain received two e-mails - one from someone purporting to be an American Greetings Corp. employee and another claiming to be with Frito-Lay, according to court documents. Both e-mails claimed the companies wanted payments sent to new bank accounts.
Now we've been advising people to be careful with their money online for years. If they had read us they would have been prepared.
Posted by Peter at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2007
Security Dump
There has been a ton of security related news lately. Just wanted to share a few.
Skype Trojan steals login credentials
US ID theft bill seeks redress for victims
Teen accused of hacking emergency 911 system
Pump-and-dump scammers debut MP3 spam
Cafe Latte attack steals credentials from Wi-Fi clients
Bad hair d