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"Spear Phishers" land 15,000 sucker fish

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:35:31 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

"Spear Phishers" land 15,000 sucker fish

A recently released VeriSign report contains further evidence that targeted spam attacks are slowly on the rise. We covered this type of attack back in April, when it became apparent that a number of CEO's and their families had been "served" with subpoenas supposedly requiring them to testify in a federal case. This type of attack is known as "spear phishing," and it turns conventional spam wisdom on its head.

Instead of creating a general message with the goal of enticing a large number of people, spear phishers craft more personal missives that are directly targeted at a core group. The legal approach we saw last April was a novelty, but its one of an almost infinite number of angles, all of which can be tailored to groups ranging in size from a general profession (electrical engineers) all the way down to a specific person at a particular company.

Screensavers causing massive global pollution:

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:19:10 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: apcmag.com

Midnight, is, according to ancient lore, the witching hour. It's when ghouls, ghosts and computer viruses are at their most potent; a time of ill feelings and odd superstitions. And, as it transpires, if you were a Telstra employee working a bit of overtime last Monday, also the time you may have found your screen going black.

No warding of ghoulies or goblins here, however -- it's part of a company initiative to go green, by eliminating a standardised Telstra screensaver -- replete with company-affirming messages -- and replacing it with a black screen.

UK ISP bows to record industry, to send P2P warning letters

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:55:59 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: arstechnica.com

UK ISP bows to record industry, to send P2P warning letters

As we noted yesterday, one of the fondest dreams of the recording industry is to get Internet service providers to help them police the content flowing across their networks. Now, British ISP Virgin Media has taken a halting step in that general direction by agreeing to work with the BPI, the UK equivalent of the RIAA which represents the interests of the recording industry in that country. The agreement will have Virgin sending out warning letters to those who the BPI has identified as sharing copyrighted material.

Korea fines Intel $25 million for antitrust violations

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:11:44 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: www.computerworld.com

Korea fines Intel $25 million for antitrust violations

The Korea Fair Trade Commission has fined Intel a reported 26 billion won (US$25.42 million) for abusing its dominant position in the microprocessor market, by offering rebates to South Korean computer makers in a way that unfairly harmed its rival Advanced Micro Devices.

The KFTC said Intel offered rebates to Korean PC makers including Samsung Electronics and Trigem Computer, if they did not also buy chips from AMD, according to various reports. The KFTC couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The KFTC has shown no reluctance in the past to taking on large corporations that it found to have engaged in anticompetitive practices. In 2005, it fined Microsoft $34 million, and required that the company sell a Windows version in Korea that did not bundle instant messaging or Windows Media Player software.

XP SP3 omits critical security update

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:10:38 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3
clipper's remarks: not up to date

Clip Source: computerworld.com

XP SP3 omits critical security update

While it doesn't install vulnerable version of Flash, it doesn't update Flash either

June 4, 2008 (Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. yesterday confirmed that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) omits a critical security update issued by the company in November 2006.

The AWOL update, MS06-069, patched five vulnerabilities in Adobe Systems Inc.'s Flash Player and was rated "critical" by Microsoft, the company's highest threat ranking.

Flash Player has made security news of late; last week, for example, researchers revealed that hackers were actively exploiting Flash Player 9.0.115.0, an edition released by Adobe in December 2007. On Monday, Computerworld reported that Windows XP SP3 shipped with that out-of-date and vulnerable version rather than the newer and more secure Flash Player 9.0.124.0, which Adobe issued in early April, about two weeks before Microsoft wrapped up the service pack and began distributing it to resellers.

Tags: windows xp

Firefox 3.0 memory v IE 7 memory the Test

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:22:52 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: blogs.zdnet.com

This morning I came across an article on Neosmart claiming that Firefox 3.0 is, despite the best attempts of the Mozilla dev team, still a massive memory hog.

I took two identical VMware virtual PCs, both running Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 32-bit. The systems were given a meager 512Mb of RAM. I then took both browsers for a good two hour browsing session, visiting some of the Internet’s best “hot sheets” websites and loading up 30 tabs for each browser (remember, IE7 and Firefox 3.0 are running in different virtual machines).

Internet Explorer 7

Memory usage: 319,260K
Total system: 436MB

Firefox 3.0 RC1

Memory usage: 159,168K

Total system: 376MB

Seems pretty clear to me which browser is the winner - and it isn’t Internet Explorer 7! Not only did IE7 consume more system resources, it made the system noticeably sluggish when running with 30 tabs loaded. Firefox 3.0 on the other hand felt fast and responsive throughout.

But this test does raise some interesting questions:

Tags: windows

Friends quit smoking? You probably will too

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:24:08 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: www.chinadaily.com.cn

Friends quit smoking? You probably will too

LOS ANGELES - The urge to smoke is contagious, but quitting apparently is, too. A team of researchers who showed that obesity can spread person-to-person has found a similar pattern with smoking cessation: A smoker is more likely to kick the habit if a spouse, friend, co-worker or sibling did.

Turkish students light up in Istanbul in January 2008. A law banning smoking in public places has come into effect in Turkey -- a country where nearly two-thirds of men smoke. [Agencies]

What's more, smokers tend to quit in groups and those who don't stop puffing increasingly find themselves pushed to the edge of their social circles, the researchers found.

"Your smoking behavior depends upon not just the smoking behavior of the people you know, but also the people who they know" and so on, said Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a medical sociologist at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the new report.

Tags: smoking

Green tea may shield brain from sleep apnea effects

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:31:00 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3
clipper's remarks: Drink Green tea

Clip Source: www.chinadaily.com.cn

Green tea may shield brain from sleep apnea effects

Researchers found that when they added green tea antioxidants to rats' drinking water, it appeared to protect the animals' brains during bouts of oxygen deprivation designed to mimic the effects of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

The findings suggest that green tea compounds should be further studied as a potential OSA therapy, the researchers report in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

OSA is a common disorder in which soft tissues in the throat temporarily collapse and block the airway during sleep, causing repeated stops and starts in breathing throughout the night.

The immediate symptoms include chronic loud snoring and gasping, as well as daytime sleepiness. Left untreated, OSA can eventually have widespread effects in the body; it's linked to high blood pressure, and research suggests that the intermittent dips in oxygen to the brain may lead to memory and learning difficulties.

Tags: china

55% Australian women not satisfied with sex

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:19:28 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: www.chinadaily.com.cn

55% Australian women not satisfied with sex

"It seems women go into the bedroom and expect it will happen quickly, automatically, with orgasm, even be multi-orgasmic, but without spending the time to do so."

"They're busy and stressed and not taking the time for their sexual expression," the professor said.

The online survey questioned more than 400 women about their sex lives and sexual feelings, and found 65 percent had some form of sexual dysfunction.

Half had a diagnosable sexual desire disorder, said McCabe, who oversaw the study by Ph.D student Katie Giles.

McCabe believed anxiety and depression were found to be contributing factors, but stress and poor body image had the biggest influence on sexual interest and response.

The results could help women feel that they are not alone, and that they can seek help, McCabe added.

Tags: australian

Store owner arrested for selling relief tents

Thu, 29 May 2008 22:13:26 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: www.shanghaidaily.com

Store owner arrested for selling relief tents

Chinese soldiers and construction workers build temporary shelters in Yingxiu Town in Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the May 12 earthquake, on Wednesday.

AN OUTDOOR equipment store owner in Chengdu has been arrested for allegedly cheating the Red Cross and selling quake-relief tents as regular tents, Western China Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

The prosecutor's office in Jinjiang District of the capital of Sichuan Province has approved the arrest of store owner identified as Liu, the newspaper said.

Liu allegedly ordered and received 616 tents, 880 sleeping bags and 1,083 air mattresses from May 14 to May 21 that were delivered via special express trains carrying relief materials.

He pulled off tags that read "for victims" and "relief materials" and sold the items for more than 800,000 yuan (US$114,300), the report said.

Tags: china

The Best Free Service you've never Used

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:32:27 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: www.internetnews.com

The Best Free Service You've Never Used

Besides, if you're going to embrace an online office suite, you'll go with a major brand – like Google Apps, right?

• Better online collaboration -- Zoho, like Google Apps and many other alternatives, give you a Microsoft Word-like application that lets you grant permissions for others to work on the document, too. However, Zoho also gives you a Wiki tool, which is like document collaboration on steroids. Like the Wikipedia, you're given rich tools for multiple authorship and editorship of any document, with full formatting.

• Better PDF Creation -- Most of the major Zoho applications, including Zoho Writer, save in PDF format. So if you don't have a PDF creator installed on your PC, you can just import your document into Zoho, then export it into PDF.

Sex billboard ruled to be offensive

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:37:45 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: www.nzherald.co.nz

Sex billboard ruled to be offensive

In a decision released yesterday, the Advertising Standards Authority upheld 38 complaints received about the billboard for the Advanced Medical Institute.

Complainants said the billboard was near two schools and there was a high likelihood it would be seen by children. They said it was not clear what the actual product was and the dominant message was sex.

Upholding the complaints, the authority acknowledged that premature ejaculation affected about 30 per cent of men. But it said it was conscious of the public concern at using billboards to advertise matters relating to personal health problems.

It said the combination of the wording, large type size, bold colours and overall size of the billboards promoting a product for adult men to assist with a personal health problem was likely to cause widespread offence.

This was particularly so as it was visible to a very wide audience, including children.

Bangladesh army feeds troops potatoes

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:18:09 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Bangladesh army feeds troops potatoes

More than half a million Bangladeshi troops have been ordered to eat potatoes in an attempt to ease the impact of surging rice and wheat prices.

Potatoes are not traditionally on the menu for Bangladesh's 140 million people but army chief General Moeen U. Ahmed and the country's army-backed interim government has ordered a change in diet because the tubers are now cheaper and more abundant.

World prices of rice, wheat, edible oil and pulses have almost doubled over the last year, increases that poorer Asian countries can ill afford.

Bangladesh was hit last year by two severe floods and a cyclone that destroyed around 3 million tonnes of food grains, raising fears of a possible famine.

"The daily food menu now includes 125 grams of potato for each soldier irrespective of ranks," government agriculture adviser Choudhury Sajjad Karim quoted the army chief as saying on Thursday.

massive phone bills for unlucky Aussies

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:05:20 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3
clipper's remarks: Hackers Phone calls

Clip Source: www.nzherald.co.nz

Hackers are bypassing codes, passwords and security systems to ring up massive phone bills for unlucky Aussies.

A Melbourne retailer and university were last week hit with collective phone bills of more than A$100,000 ($118,990) of overseas calls with police still gathering evidence of more victims.

Both parties are angry with Telstra which, they say, is insisting they pay the bills.

A Swinburne University spokeswoman said it knew nothing about the scam until it was hit by an A$80,000 bill.

Police sources have said the scam is carried out by overseas-based manufacturers of phone cards commonly used by students to make cheap overseas phone calls.

"That's how they (phone card sellers) get cheap rates for their customers, through illegally tapping phone lines."

The hackers bypass codes, passwords and other security systems as computers run through various combinations in milliseconds until they find the right one, Mr Koh said.

Vista Sucks keep XP June 2010

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:58:48 GMT

clipped by: hotdoge3

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

If Vista “gets a long enough life cycle, it will not be remembered like Millennium Edition,” he said.

That life cycle is looking somewhat shorter than XP’s. Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates said recently that the new version of Windows’ operating software, code-named Windows 7, will be released “sometime in the next year or so.”

In the meantime, the company is facing a class-action lawsuit in federal court over the way it advertised computers sold with XP as being capable of running Vista.

Among them, the company said earlier this month it will keep selling a version of XP for use on new, low-cost computers, such as Intel’s Classmate PC, through at least June 2010. Such computers are designed mainly for word processing, e-mail and Web surfing.

Gates: Next Windows ‘sometime’ in next year
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