Top Stories for Today
[21] Hackers hit MacRumors keynote coverage [20] Apple unveils updates, new MacBook Pro, iTunes changes [19] Hackers hijack Obama's, Britney's Twitter accounts [19] Creator of ZiPhone iPhone unlock hack calls it quits [17] Tech thriller 'Daemon' rises from the underground [16] Sanyo to Cut Up to 1,000 Jobs Before Panasonic Takeover [16] Mozilla, Microsoft and VeriSign Tackle MD5 Flaw [16] Security firm warns against downloading pirated Windows 7 beta [15] Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac Released [15] Apple to sell iTunes songs DRM free [15] California poised for energy-hungry plasma TV crackdown [15] Motorola unveils phone made from recycled bottles [15] Public betas of Windows 7 client and server could hit this week [15] Another former Softie joins VMware [15] Comcast starts new year with new network management system [14] The Five Most Dangerous Security Myths [14] Fake celeb LinkedIn profiles lead to malware [14] A rare peek at Homeland Security's files on travelers [13] Salesforce.com outage exposes cloud's dark linings [13] Chinese Internet portals argue porn crackdown easier said than done View the Top 50 articles
Top 20 of the Last 2 Weeks
Past Articles
| Monday, January 05 |
| · | Lenovo planning to cut 200 jobs in China (0) |
| · | How to Succeed in Tech in a Downturn (0) |
| · | PwC wrestles with Satyam dilemma (0) |
| · | Wikipedia reaches $US6m fundraising target (0) |
| · | China jails Microsoft counterfeiters (0) |
| · | Computer forensics - a subject every executive should understand (0) |
| · | Lockheed, Boeing eye huge cybersecurity market (0) |
| · | Hackers Cause a Run on GripShift (0) |
| · | Israeli Student Team Wants Help Hacking Hamas (0) |
| · | Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro to go Unibody, sans removable battery (Silver-Zinc replacement?) (0) |
| · | UK police to be allowed to hack into home PCs without a warrant (0) |
| · | Verbatim’s new quad-interface 500GB/1TB external hard drives (0) |
| · | RIAA dumps its primary evidence collector (0) |
| · | Israeli news site down, blames cyber attack (0) |
| Sunday, January 04 |
| · | iPhone Dev Team on the hunt for Jody Sanders and iphoneunlockuk (0) |
| Friday, January 02 |
| · | Microsoft Virtual Earth gets a 48TB update (0) |
| · | Steve Wozniak to Appear with Axiotron at Macworld (0) |
| · | Terrorists launder cash through online gambling (0) |
| · | If you love Windows XP, you’ll hate Windows 7 (0) |
| · | Longstanding Theory Of Origin Of Species In Oceans Challenged (0) |
| · | 25 Years of Mac: From Boxy Beige to Silver Sleek (0) |
| · | The biggest threat to open source in 2009 (0) |
| · | Yahoo, Intel have high hopes for Internet TV (0) |
| · | Are ID cards in Britain the road to 1984? (0) |
| Thursday, January 01 |
| · | New Mac Mini at Macworld, Will Look Like iMac + Time Capsule (0) |
| · | Georgia Sex Offenders Have to Give Internet Passwords to Authorities (0) |
| · | Sexiest Geeks of 2008 (0) |
| · | Who Leaked Windows 7? (0) |
| · | Dell reorgs amid slumping profits (0) |
| · | Security predictions for 2009 (0) |
| | Older articles |
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A rare peek at Homeland Security's files on travelers
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 01:15 AM (Reads: 14)
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Source: Newsweek
The oversize white envelope bore the blue logo of the Department of Homeland Security. Inside, I found 20 photocopies of the government's records on my international travels. Every overseas trip I've taken since 2001 was noted.
I had requested the files after I had heard that the government tracks "passenger activity." Starting in the mid-1990s, many airlines handed over passenger records. Since 2002, the government has mandated that the commercial airlines deliver this information routinely and electronically.
A passenger record typically includes the name of the person traveling, the name of the person who submitted the information while arranging the trip, and details about how the ticket was bought, according to documents published by the Department of Homeland Security. Records are made for citizens and non-citizens who cross our borders. An agent from U.S. Customs and Border Protection can generate a travel history for any traveler with a few keystrokes on a computer. Officials use the information to prevent terrorism, acts of organized crime, and other illegal activity.
I had been curious about what's in my travel dossier, so I made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for a copy. I'm posting here a few sample pages of what officials sent me.
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Fake celeb LinkedIn profiles lead to malware
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 01:06 AM (Reads: 14)
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Source: Yahoo! Tech
A security researcher has discovered fake profiles for celebrities on LinkedIn that have links to malicious code, according to a blog posting on Trend Micro's site.
The celebrity profiles that are not to be trusted include ones created using the names: Beyonce Knowles, Victoria Beckham, Christina Ricci, Kirsten Dunst, Salma Hayek, and Kate Hudson. They were uncovered by Trend Micro Advanced Threats Researcher Ivan Macalintal.
In its blog posting late on Monday, Trend Micro said it was continuing its investigation. The links on the professional networking site attempt to lure viewers by purporting to be nude shots of the celebrities. McAfee's Avert Labs Blog has more details and screenshots.
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Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac Released
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 01:05 AM (Reads: 15)
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Source: PC World
Just in time for Macworld, those ridiculously talented Estonian engineers have come out with the latest version of everyone's favorite Internet phone and video calling software the Skype 2.8 beta.
Among other extras, this new version includes two all-new features: The first lets you use your Skype credit to pay for Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots on a minute-by-minute basis. So, forget having to fork over $10 just to send a quick message off to your loved one or business partner. Now you can do it for actual small change--just US$0.19/minute.
You can also now do screen sharing with other Skype users. Of course, iChat has had this feature for awhile now, but iChat can't do cross-platform screen sharing so you can help out your Windows/Linux friends. There are some limitations at the moment, though: for example, while you can share your screen with your buddies on Windows and Linux, you can't yet see their screens. But really: who wants to look at a Windows or Linux screen when you've got your Mac in front of you?
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The Five Most Dangerous Security Myths
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 01:05 AM (Reads: 14)
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Source: PC World
Still think that today's computer viruses and other malware come from some maladjusted teen out to vandalize your PC to make a name for himself? Think again. The persistent myth is a holdover from days long gone, and it's important to dispel it if you want to know what you're up against - and how to protect yourself.
The splashy worms and malicious viruses that clogged entire networks and indiscriminately wiped hard drives are essentially gone. Today, it's all about cash - and lots of it. If there's a way to use evil software to make money, whether it means taking over a PC to send pharmacy-advertising spam, or stealing financial logins and credit card info, or even hacking game accounts, it's out there in some form.
There's even a thriving online black market that sells everything from software kits to roll-your-own malware to spam services using infected PCs to reams and reams of credit card data stolen by keylogger malware.
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Apple to sell iTunes songs DRM free
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 01:04 AM (Reads: 15)
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Source: Yahoo! Tech
Apple on Tuesday said every song in its iTunes library will be available without anti-piracy software by April.
The announcement came at a Macworld Expo keynote presentation at which Apple marketing vice president Phil Schiller unveiled a new top-end MacBook Pro laptop computer model and snazzy upgrades to Macintosh computer software.
"We worked with all major music companies and, starting today, iTunes will offer eight million songs DRM free and by the end of this quarter all 10 million will be DRM free," Schiller said. "All songs will be DRM free in iTunes at iTunes Plus." Recording studios have long insisted on digital rights management (DRM) software that prevents music from being copied.
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California poised for energy-hungry plasma TV crackdown
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 01:02 AM (Reads: 15)
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Source: Business Green
The most power-hungry flat screen LCD and plasma TVs could effectively be banned across California from 2011 under new regulations proposed yesterday.
The California Energy Commission, which manages the state's energy policy, said it was working on new standards for TV sets designed to cut energy consumption across the state by the equivalent of the energy use of 86,400 homes. The commission is likely to target the most power-hungry widescreen plasma sets, which can consume up to three times more energy than traditional cathode ray machines.
It said that a second wave of more demanding standards would then be introduced from 2013, which could target Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs that use 43 per cent more electricity than traditional models.
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Chinese Internet portals argue porn crackdown easier said than done
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 01:02 AM (Reads: 13)
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Source: Yahoo! Tech
Leading Chinese Internet portals said Tuesday they would do what they could to stamp out pornography in line with a new government crackdown, but said it would be hard to carry out in practice.
The nature of the Internet makes it difficult to stop obscene material from showing up in their search engine results, they said, a day after officials threatened to close down sites that failed to wipe out online vice.
"We cannot block this material automatically," said Li Mei, an official at the popular Internet portal Sohu. "It's actually quite difficult to immediately spot and delete anything that is vulgar or pornographic when netizens post them, but we will definitely step up our efforts," she told AFP.
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Motorola unveils phone made from recycled bottles
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 01:01 AM (Reads: 15)
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Source: Yahoo! Tech
Motorola Inc unveiled a cell phone made of recycled water bottles on Tuesday, hoping to cash in on the trend for environmentally friendly products.
The company, which dropped to No. 4 in the global handset market in the most recently reported quarter due to a weak product line-up, said the W233 Renew eco-friendly phone would be sold by Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA in the current quarter. It did not disclose pricing for the phone, which will be showcased at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Motorola said it was the world's first carbon neutral phone. As well as using recycled materials for the plastic casing, the company also pledged to offset the carbon dioxide used in manufacturing, distribution and operation of the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation.
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Salesforce.com outage exposes cloud's dark linings
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 01:00 AM (Reads: 13)
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Source: The Register
Exposing the dark side of cloud computing, Salesforce.com suffered an outage that locked more than 900,000 subscribers out of crucial applications and data needed to transact business with customers.
Salesforce, the 800-pound gorilla in the software-as-a-service jungle, was unreachable for the better part of an hour, beginning around noon California time. Customers who tried to access their accounts alternately were unable to reach the site at all or received an error message when trying to log in.
Even the company's highly touted public health dashboard was also out of commission. That prompted a flurry of tweets on Twitter from customers wondering if they were the only ones unable to reach the site.
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Public betas of Windows 7 client and server could hit this week
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:56 AM (Reads: 15)
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Source: ZDNet (Blog)
It’s not much of a secret at this point, but CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to announce official availability of the closed Windows 7 Beta 1 release during his Consumer Electronics Show keynote address on January 7. The official (non-Torrented) Beta 1 bits should be available to pre-approved Windows 7 Beta 1 testers later Wednesday night or early on January 8.
Ditto with Windows 7 Server, a k a Windows Server 2008 R2. The private Beta 1 release of that product is scheduled for late January 7/early January 8, I’m hearing. I’ve gotten a number of questions from readers this year already about the expected public betas of these products. I’ve made some discreet inquiries.
The public (the one and only) beta of Windows 7 client and server could be released simultaneously with the private Beta 1 builds this week, according to some of my sources. What’s the point of a simultaneous public and private beta? The private testers’ feedback will get top priority; the public beta will be more of a milestone marker than anything else.
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Another former Softie joins VMware
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:54 AM (Reads: 15)
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Source: ZDNet (Blog)
A year ago when I wrote that former Microsoft manager — and current VMware CEO – Paul Maritz was getting the old band back together, I had no idea how many members would end up reuniting.
Maritz is now CEO of VMware. Another former Softie, Charles Fitzgerald, is now Vice President of Product Management with Decho, a startup that encompasses Maritz’s former Pi Corp. And on January 6, VMware announced yet another former member of the old Microsoft gang — Tod Neilsen — is now Chief Operating Officer with VMware.
Nielsen’s been around. Most recently he was President and CEO of Borland Software. Before that, he did stints with Oracle and BEA Systems. (BEA bought his company Crossgain — a company which put him in Microsoft’s non-compete crosshairs for a bit.) At Microsoft, where he worked for 12 years, Neilsen held a number of positions, including, according to the VMWare press release, general manager of database and developer tools, vice president of developer tools, and, vice president of Microsoft’s platform group.
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Sanyo to Cut Up to 1,000 Jobs Before Panasonic Takeover
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:54 AM (Reads: 16)
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Source: Daily Tech
Sanyo Electric Co. plans to cut up to 1,000 jobs in the lead up to its purchase by Panasonic. Panasonic stated last month it would acquire Sanyo Electric for up to $9 billion.
The Nikkei Newspaper Daily reports that out of 20,000 regular employees in Japan, Sanyo is planning to cut 500 individuals primarily from the semiconductor division. Several hundred people from the semiconductor division will be cut under an early retirement program. Total layoffs including temporary workers, is expected to reach about 1,000 people.
Sanyo Electric has seven semiconductor plants overseas in countries such as China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The company plans to reduce the number to two. A company spokeswoman vaguely stated changes are coming but did not elaborate with specific details, "As we have announced with Panasonic, we must pursue structural reform. But at this point in time, no firm decision has been made."
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Comcast starts new year with new network management system
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:53 AM (Reads: 15)
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Source: Arstechnica
Comcast says that, as of December 31, it has turned over a new leaf, network management practices-wise. The new-and-hopefully-improved "protocol agnostic" system the company unveiled to the Federal Communications Commission in September is now in effect.
"We have deployed the new technique throughout our network and turned off the P2P-specific technique everywhere in the network," Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice told Ars.
The company informed the FCC of the changes in a statement filed on Monday. "Comcast will continue to refine and optimize these congestion management practices to deliver the best possible broadband experience for our customers," company Vice President for Regulatory Affairs Kathryn A. Zachem promised the Commission. The announcement also discloses updated acceptable use rules for Comcast customers.
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Mozilla, Microsoft and VeriSign Tackle MD5 Flaw
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:46 AM (Reads: 16)
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Source: Enterprise IT Planet
A vulnerability in a widespread digital certificate technology has lit a fire under major Internet stakeholders, prompting moves by Microsoft, the Mozilla Foundation and others to prevent attackers from using the hack to endanger secure Web sites.
Researchers yesterday announced they had found a flaw in MD5, or Message-Digest algorithm 5, a cryptographic technique used in a variety of security applications, including secure Web site certificates. Digital certificate vouch for the safety of numerous types of secure online communications, like e-commerce transactions.
In response, Microsoft and Mozilla each said they are working with affected certification authorities, or CAs, to ensure they update their issuing processes to prevent this threat from harming users of the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. CAs act as trusted third parties to issue online certificates guaranteeing that the certificate's owner, an e-commerce site, for example, is who it claims to be.
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Tech thriller 'Daemon' rises from the underground
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:44 AM (Reads: 17)
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Source: USA Today
You may never have heard of Daemon author Leinad Zeraus, but get ready to hear a lot about Daemon author Daniel Suarez.
A computer systems consultant and fan of computer games, Suarez self-published his debut techno thriller in 2006 using a pseudonym he created by reversing the spellings of his first and last names.
Thanks to Daemon's growing underground popularity with techies and bloggers, followed by an April 2008 Wired magazine article about Daemon's snowballing fan base, Suarez got a two-book contract with a major New York publishing house. Dutton will publish Daemon on Thursday.
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Creator of ZiPhone iPhone unlock hack calls it quits
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:44 AM (Reads: 19)
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Source: iPhone World (Canada)
Piergiorgio Zambrini, aka Zibri, the creator of popular ZiPhone jailbreak/unlock hack for the iPhone (whom iPhone World got to interview a while ago), has decided to call it quits.
In a message posted on his website Zibri states that due to a recent addition to his family he will no longer maintain ZiPhone. And to prove that he is serious, he is even selling the ziphone.org domain that served as official website for ZiPhone for a long time.
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Security firm warns against downloading pirated Windows 7 beta
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:43 AM (Reads: 16)
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Source: vista.blorge.com
A security software firm has warned against downloading the pirated copies of the Windows 7 beta which are available through torrent sites. It says there’s a serious risk of copies being infected with malware.
Fortify’s Rob Rachwald (pictured) says “The problem with this version is that there’s absolutely no way of authenticating that the early build hasn’t been tampered with by a hacker. They may have coded all sorts of malware into the 2.44 gigabytes file.”
The firm also points out that it’s particularly difficult to check a pirated operating system for viruses when it isn’t yet on the market. It’s not the same as downloading a program and running it in XP or Vista. By definition there’s no guarantee that your usual virus scanner will actually work when you come to run the pirated Windows 7. And if anyone has tampered with this copy of the operating system, chances are they’ve also disabled the security measures built into Windows itself.
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Hackers hit MacRumors keynote coverage
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:41 AM (Reads: 21)
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Source: CNet News
Some nasty pranksters, likely associated with Web forum 4Chan, have hacked into Apple gossip mainstay MacRumors' live-blog coverage of Tuesday's Macworld keynote. Hosted on a separate domain, MacRumorsLive.com, the site was plagued by offensive messages about Apple CEO Steve Jobs' health and general inanity (i.e. "SEX ME") before finally succumbing to "technical difficulties."
It remains uncertain whether the pranksters actually brought down the site, or whether MacRumors voluntarily took it down to keep things under control. It's pretty clear, however, that this was the work of 4Chan, which has gained both respect and notoriety (depending on who you ask) over the past year for its persistent protests against the controversial Scientology sect in the form of an offshoot group called "Anonymous."
Over on 4Chan's labyrinthine forums, a couple of threads (warning: contains explicit language) hint at members' collusion to take down MacRumors Live, and the hacked live blog was peppered with declarations of "4CHAN FTW" (that's "for the win," for those who stepped in late).
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Hackers hijack Obama's, Britney's Twitter accounts
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:39 AM (Reads: 19)
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Source: Computer World
Hackers hijacked the Twitter accounts of more than 30 celebrities and organizations, including President-elect Barack Obama, Britney Spears and Fox News, early on Monday, the company confirmed today.
"This morning we discovered 33 Twitter accounts had been 'hacked,' including prominent Twitter-ers like Rick Sanchez and Barack Obama," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in post to the company blog. "We immediately locked down the accounts and investigated the issue. Rick, Barack and others are now back in control of their accounts."
Earlier in the day, the hacked accounts had been used to send malicious messages, many of them offensive. CNN correspondent Rick Sanchez's account, for example, tweeted a message claiming that "i am high on crack right now might not be coming to work today," while Fox News' Twitter update reported "Breaking: Bill O Riley [sic] is gay," referring to the network's conservative talk show host.
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Apple unveils updates, new MacBook Pro, iTunes changes
Posted by l33tdawg on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 - 12:38 AM (Reads: 20)
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Source: CNN
Apple Vice President Philip Schiller took the stage here Tuesday for the keynote address at the Macworld Conference & Expo to unveil software upgrades, introduce an ultralight notebook and announce iTunes pricing changes.
The company's iLife '09 will include a feature called Faces that finds and organizes a gallery of a user's friends in his or her photos, thanks to face-recognition software, Schiller said. A feature called Places will organize pictures around where they were taken, he added.
This would be accomplished through an interactive world map with GPS geotagging that will pinpoint the location of every photo users take, as long as they have a GPS chip in their camera or iPhone.
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Last 15 Postings to HITB Forum
Packet Storm Security Latest
· USN-703-1.txtUbuntu Security Notice USN-703-1 - Paul Szabo discovered that the DECRQSS escape sequences were not handled correctly by xterm. Additionally, window title operations were also not safely handled. If a user were tricked into viewing a specially crafted series of characters while in xterm, a remote attacker could execute arbitrary commands with user privileges.
· USN-702-1.txtUbuntu Security Notice USN-702-1 - Gunter Hockel discovered that Samba with registry shares enabled did not properly validate share names. An authenticated user could gain access to the root filesystem by using an older version of smbclient and specifying an empty string as a share name. This is only an issue if registry shares are enabled on the server by setting registry shares = yes , include = registry , or config backend = registry , which is not the default.
· phpauctionsystem-insecure.txtPHP Auction System suffers from an insecure cookie handling vulnerability.
· phpauctionsystem-sqlxss.txtPHP Auction System suffers from cross site scripting and remote SQL injection vulnerabilities.
· joomlaphoca-sql.txtJoomla Phoca Documentation remote SQL injection exploit that makes use of index.php.
· lfi-rfi2.txtLocal / Remote file inclusion scanner that attempts to make use of a c99 shell on a vulnerable host.
· theratcms-sql.txtThe Rat CMS Alpha 2 remote blind SQL injection exploit that leverages viewarticle.php.
· walusoft-traversal.txtWalusoft TFTPServer2000 version 3.6.1 suffers from a directory traversal vulnerability.
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