An investigation by mobile security vendor Lookout warns that malware is being transformed into a large-scale, sophisticated software business, complete with customer support.
Brute force attacks to pry login credentials from content management sites like blogs have been growing as more data robbers use a short-term gain for a bigger payoff later on. Such sites are attractive targets because they tend to be less secure than other environments—such as financial services—and since they're interactive by design, "drive-by" malware planted on them can infect a lot of users quickly, said David Britton, vice president of industry solutions at 41st Parameter. "With these types of interactive sites being compromised, we see more evidence of the developing attack trend that is focusing less on direct financial gain and more on gathering more detailed personal data, allowing fraudsters to build much more complex social engineering attacks that result in an eventual larger payoff," he said via email. More and more attackers are realizing that websites built on CMS platforms, like WordPress, . "This marks a sea change in attackers targeting the low-hanging fruit of these blog systems," Matt Bing, a research analyst with Arbor Networks, said in an interview.
Windows' share of grew slightly in the second quarter, as shipments also ticked up in the face of a slow-down by tablets overall, researcher IDC said last week. But the company's innovative Surface line contributed just a fraction of that tally, showing just how difficult a task Microsoft has set for itself in transforming into a device builder and seller. "The [hardware] partners who have been supporting Windows 8 continue to do so, which is good, and they're starting to make some traction," said Ryan Reith, an IDC analyst on the team that tracks tablet shipments. "But I would not call Surface a success by any means." While all tablet shipments in the second quarter compared to the first, those powered by Windows grew by 11 percent over the same stretch, according to IDC estimates released last week.
The Twitter's new login verification feature will likely make it useful only to actors, politicians, and other high-profile users willing to go through the hassle for tighter security. Twitter, like Google and Facebook, is experimenting with as a back up to the traditional user name and password that most experts agree is no longer sufficient to protect user accounts. In its latest attempt to bolster security, Twitter has focused on the mobile phone as the keeper of the crown jewels for protection. In general, called asymetric cryptography in which an iOS or Android device is used to generate a private and a public key. While the former stays in the phone, the latter is stored on a Twitter server. Together, the keys keep track of clients trying to log into a Twitter account. If someone tries to log in from a Web browser, then a notification is sent to the phone, asking the user to OK the request for entry.
When Christian Johnson began his summer 2012 internship at the information management branch of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, he little suspected that he'd soon be virtually tooling around the center via a vaguely humanoid robot on wheels. Once classes began in the fall, the 18-year-old had to finish up his senior year of high school in Buffalo, New York and needed to telecommute to continue his work as data analytics specialist at the research center. One of his co-workers had heard about a company called that makes a wheeled personal avatar, or what it calls a "productivity improvement solution," that lets people see and hear—and be seen and be heard—from far away. The co-worker wrote a proposal urging Langley's CIO to buy a VGo unit, and the CIO's office approved the purchase of one of the robotic avatars so that Johnson could use it to move virtually through the building and attend meetings—just one of the new ways robots are making their mark in business today. Industrial robots have been around since the early 1960s and have been used mainly in automotive plants. As they have gained more sophisticated sensors in the past decade or so, they have increasingly been used in other fields, including healthcare, . Robots have even been used for underwater applications.
A Chinese hacker gang whose malware in 2011 infiltrated more than 100 companies and organizations, and was so eager to steal data that it probed a major teleconference developer to find new ways to spy on corporations, according to researchers. The or RAT, tagged as "Comfoo" is largely inactive, said a pair of veteran researchers from Dell SecureWorks, who presented their findings at the recent Black Hat security conference. But their discoveries showed just how pervasively a can infiltrate networks and walk away with secrets. "We're not seeing it used to the extent it was before," said Joe Stewart, director of malware research at SecureWorks, in explaining why he and his college, Don Jackson, revealed their undercover campaign.
The development of reliable biometric technology, particularly useful on mobile devices, could replace passwords on other platforms as well.
. Does that mean AWS is going back on its long-held stance that private clouds don’t make much sense? It might depend on how you define a private cloud. for customers and if it’s building data centers outside of the U.S. designed for use by government agencies. I didn’t get replies to either of those questions, instead I got a statement that I’ve seen at least part of before referencing the CIA deal. It notes that GovCloud and FinQloud are examples of “community clouds” that AWS may build for groups or organizations that have specific requirements. both reside in AWS data centers. The CIA cloud would live in CIA data centers.
Microsoft's Windows 8 app ecosystem badly needs a jolt to make it competitive with iOS and Android on tablets, an analyst says. But it's looking like that won't happen anytime soon. "Most of the top apps are still not supported by Windows 8," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. "Not only is that a major issue on its own, but Windows 8 now has a reputation for not having the right apps." And that reputation will stick—and the taint will stink—long after the developers of the must-have apps have created something for "Even when Microsoft rounds out the catalog, Windows 8 will have a lingering perception issue with consumers," Moorhead said.
The market for parental control software will be worth over $1 billion this year, driven by various cultural, educational, moral, and personal factors. is a growing concern for parents, educators, and public administrators. ABI Research estimates that the global parental control software market to be worth $1.044 billion in 2013. This growing market will be driven primarily by parental spending; to a lesser extent, educational institutions, such as schools and public libraries, and information and communication service providers will also contribute.
One or more antivirus vendors flagged 22 percent of 8000 popular apps as having issues
Desktop Linux users accustomed to a relatively malware-free lifestyle should get more vigilant in the near future—a researcher at RSA has detailed the existence of the "Hand of Thief" Trojan, which specifically targets Linux. According to cyber intelligence expert , Hand of Thief operates a lot like similar malware that targets Windows machines—once installed, it steals information from web forms, even if they're using HTTPS, creates a backdoor access point into the infected machine, and attempts to block off access to antivirus update servers, virtual machines, and other potential methods of detection. Hand of Thief is currently being sold in "closed cybercrime communities" for $2000, which includes free updates, writes Kessem. However, she adds, the upcoming addition of new web injection attack technology will push the price to $3000, and introduce a $550 fee for major version updates. "These prices coincide with those quoted by developers who released similar malware for the Windows OS, which would make Hand of Thief relatively priced way above market value considering the relatively small user base of Linux," she notes.
A federal judge took Apple to task on Friday for showing no contrition about potentially defrauding its customers of hundreds of millions of dollars. "None of the publishers nor Apple have expressed any remorse" about colluding to fix electronic book prices in 2010, said District Judge Denise Cote, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District Court of New York. "They are, in a word, unrepentant." Additionally, Cote expressed dissatisfaction that Apple had not taken any steps to such as establishing internal compliance monitoring, to prevent it from undertaking similar behavior in the future. Cote addressed this charge to Apple's attorneys at a hearing held Friday to discuss remediation, or the actions the court would take to compensate consumers and prevent further price-fixing.
Older Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets get banned, but you don't have to worry about it affecting you too much.
Though earnings from some tech vendors brightened up a week of tepid market reports, shares of IT companies broadly declined Friday along with the rest of the market. The Nasdaq Computer Index closed at 1723.96, down 7.52 for the day and 11.93 for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 72.81 points to close at 15,425.51 and the Standard and Poor’s 500 index declined 6.06 to close at 1601.42. Mediocre quarterly earnings and fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve will wind down its bond-buying strategy, intended to boost the economy, have weighed on markets recently. IT spending and hardware shipment news was disappointing this week. In the second quarter, , which have been the bright spot for hardware as PC sales slump, declined sequentially for the first time ever, according to IDC . Worldwide tablet shipment growth declined by 9.7 percent from the first quarter to 45.1 million units. Since the tablet market is still only a few years old, sequential quarter-to-quarter data is still relatively important. However, tablet shipments were up 59.6 percent from a year earlier.
President Obama announced reforms to the NSA surveillance programs: "We can and must be more transparent."
Breaking Bad is about to reach its meth-addled conclusion, but you still have time to watch the beginning of the end.
Samsung has launched an $1400 ATIV Book 9 Plus laptop (shown above) equipped with Intel’s latest Haswell chip, but analysts said such sustained high prices for laptops and Ultrabooks could hinder the recovery of the PC market. PC shipments are already in a steady decline with the growing adoption of tablets, and buyers are not yet willing to pay a premium for machines with Microsoft’s Windows 8, analysts said. Most of the new laptops with Haswell chips, including Toshiba’s latest Satellite laptops, are priced above $800, and buyers at this point are only willing to pay a premium for Apple products. “The thought that you can sell a $1400 notebook is ridiculous. The mess is partly credited to Windows 8,” said Roger Kay, president and principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates. Most of the Haswell laptops are still priced at $800 or more, with a few exceptions, like , which is priced at $599 after a $300 discount. Intel has said it hopes to bring the Ultrabook prices to under $600 by the end of this year, though the processor type in those laptops has not been specified. It is likely that sub-$600 Ultrabooks will have the older Intel Core processors code-named Ivy Bridge, as has happened in the past when other older processors were used in less-expensive Ultrabooks.
Nvidia continues its foray into its own branded hardware with a miniature tablet dubbed the Tegra Tab, if a number of Asian blogs are correct. So far, the strongest proof that Nvidia plans to manufacture a Tegra Tab is that the company . Nvidia generated a flurry of news in the last 24 hours, as it reported , but also forecast revenues to be lower than expected. Nvidia also reported disastrous revenue in its embedded Tegra division, with a 71-percent drop in revenue from a year ago, to $52.6 million.
releases in November. Key news: if you’re a family or have roommates, your life is about to get a lot easier. And cheaper. , Microsoft’s now decade-old subscription multiplayer service, has long been the best online experience for consoles—except for families and other shared-living arrangements. , for instance, had to log in to your account and play, or buy a second copy for the same household. It was all a bit silly.
Using the right gadgets can make your life more efficient, simpler, and more enjoyable. But which ones are right? Before you shop, stop and think: What do I want these devices to do for me? Then, decide which gadgets meet those needs (and which ones you can afford). The good news is that if you do your homework you can find what you need without maxing out your credit cards. (Click any of the headers below for a more thorough guide to that particular class of gadgets.)
Acclaimed German director Werner Herzog teamed up with AT&T to create a gutpunch of a PSA about the consequences of texting while driving.
Apple's lawyer argues that a federal judge made mistakes when she rejected Apple's request for a sales injunction against Samsung Electronics in a multimillion-dollar patent infringement case.
Slenderman's hipster-Frankenstein genesis as a Photoshop contest winner has spawned an unexpectedly popular homebrew horror cottage industry. Slenderman: The Eight Pages explores the self-styled urban legend as a short-form first-person survival game, and the result is a mildly diverting proof-of-concept piece that meets its meager goals, but fails to match the creativity and impact found elsewhere in the Slenderman mythos. For the uninitiated: Slenderman is a distorted, faceless, man in black who stalks people and makes them disappear. For a supernatural entity, Slender is pretty sloppy with his abductions, leaving behind a handy mountain of photo and video evidence for endless posts on places like . Slenderman stories brush aside traditional narrative forms and are told via found footage, snapshots, message board threads, audio recordings and similar interlocking sources using a technique called . Imagine a crowd-sourced Blair Witch, served up as digital performance art, and you're on the right track. It's odd then, to find this risk-taking attitude and creative spirit completely absent in Slender: The Eight Pages. Gameplay is pared down to 3D-engine-bound first-person survival basics, with WASD motion keys and controls for a flashlight and camera zoom. You've got two speeds for motion, slow and slower, the first accompanied by impaired lighting in a failed gambit to add tension.
LG Electronics and Motorola Mobility are betting on updated user interfaces on smartphones in a bid to differentiate their latest products, but analysts aren’t convinced that’s enough to break Apple and Samsung’s dominance. As smartphone design and hardware specs grow more similar, vendors are increasingly turning to the user interface as they try to differentiate their products and get people to upgrade in a saturated market. The two latest examples are . The latter has been equipped with buttons on the back, which can be used to control the volume and turn on the phone as well as access some apps. Motorola is betting big on voice control and users can also turn on the camera with “two quick twists of your wrist.”
in a way that benefits local businesses. When a user searches Google Maps, paid content will appear in a purple box, and the icon on the map will be purple instead of red. The user can tap or swipe to get more details, directions, reviews, and other information about the advertised businesses. It’s a great service for Google Maps users and a valuable tool for local businesses. Targeting local customers with the new Google Maps ads enables businesses to reach customers “in the moment.” Rather than advertising broadly to the Internet, Google Maps ads will be presented to users specifically searching in the vicinity of the business. auction as other Google advertising services. The more popular the search criteria, the more the ad costs, and businesses can outbid each other to buy a higher search ranking.
If you're not affiliated with a university or don't have access to its proxy, getting full-text versions of articles is either expensive or impossible. DeepDyve is an innovative service targeted at individuals and companies alike, which makes the game much more affordable by letting you rent articles from . An abstract is not enough to judge an entire paper. A free account with DeepDyve gets you free access to full-text articles for five minutes a day. If you deem an article interesting, you can pay $20 for five 30-day rentals, or $40/month for 40 monthly rentals (or by DeepDyve's odd definition, "virtually unlimited"). DeepDyve's interface is friendly and easy to use, and a browser plugin for Google Scholar tells you which articles in the results list are available for rent. Your DeepDyve personal homepage is an RSS reader of sorts, and can be used to follow your favorite journals . Even if you are affiliated with a university, DeepDyve is a great way to preview full-text articles when you don't have access to the proxy. The Download button takes you to to the vendor's website.
Job candidates seeking employment at consulting firm McKinsey & Company better prepare themselves—it ranked as the toughest company to interview at in a recent report, well ahead of big-name technology players like Google, Microsoft and Facebook. McKinsey was bestowed the title of distinction for the third time in a row, as part of Glassdoor’s third annual of the “top 25 most difficult companies to interview,” released Friday. Rounding out the top five, in order, were ThoughtWorks, a software design company; Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm; technology research company Gartner; and Bain & Company, the management consulting firm once led by Mitt Romney. Google, which has a reputation for leading job candidates through a grueling interview process chock-full of brain-teaser questions with many numbers of managers, placed eighth on the list. Microsoft and Facebook were ranked 16th and 22nd, respectively.
Taiwanese PC maker Asus plans to launch new tablets in its Transformer and MeMO Pad lines of Android tablets later this year as it aims to build up its brand in the tablet space alongside the Google Nexus 7 series. detailing the company's product roadmap. The slides mentioned product names including "MeMO Pad HD 8", "MeMOFone HD 5", and "PadFone mini", suggesting the company is planning new tablets at varying sizes. was unveiled last month and pricing starts at $229. "The goal is our own branded tablet volume will be bigger than the Nexus 7 volume," Shen said. "After a six month effort, I believe in Q3 our own branded products will achieve more than 50 percent of our total tablets."
that is rolling out now. *Cough*) . for Windows Phone, adding to the reports about upcoming 1080p support.