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Wikipedia: If you see ads on our site, you have malware

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:45:50 +0000

Wikipedia: If you see ads on our site, you have malware

Summary: Wikipedia is warning its users that seeing ads on its website usually means your computer is infected with some type of malware. Most of the time, this means a rogue browser add-on or extension.

Wikipedia has issued a warning to its millions of visitors. The headline says it all: �If you�re seeing ads on Wikipedia, your computer is probably infected with malware.�

The free encyclopaedia gives three examples of how ads can get onto the site, but only one involves malware. First thing�s first: get yourself a solid antivirus solution like Microsoft Security Essentials or Malwarebytes and start scanning.

If your antivirus solution doesn�t find anything, the second way ads get onto Wikipedia is via browser add-ons and extensions. One example is a Google Chrome extension called �I want this.� To remove it, or any other such extension, open the options menu via the wrench icon on the top right, click on Settings, open the Extensions panel, and click the Remove button next to it.

The third way is your Internet service provider (ISP) may be injecting them into Wikipedia and other webpages. This is most likely the case with Internet cafes and �free� wireless connections. In this case, you can�t do anything other than just switch your method of accessing the Internet. You could of course block the ads, but that doesn�t solve the underlying problem.

�We never run ads on Wikipedia,� a Wikipedia spokesperson said in a statement. �Wikipedia is funded by more than a million donors, who give an average donation of less than 30 dollars. We run fundraising appeals, usually at the end of the year. But rest assured: you won�t be seeing legitimate advertisements on Wikipedia. We�re here to distribute the sum of human knowledge to everyone on the planet � ad-free, forever.�

8 things Microsoft needs to do to save Windows 8

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:04:57 +0000

8 things Microsoft needs to do to save Windows 8

Summary: The real world runs on real computers doing real work and those computers run Windows. Microsoft needs to remember that as they introduce Windows 8 to the real world.

Our home media PC is getting a little long in the tooth. It�s always been a bit of a problem because we bought a horizontal case that would look pretty in our media room, rather than one optimized for holding PC hardware. Right now, the machine is just about three years old, hasn�t had a Windows reinstall in all that time, and has developed its own set of quirks.

It�s getting near that time. It�s getting near that time when either a Windows reinstall is necessary, or its general crotchetiness will give us an excuse to build a spiffy, new machine. And that has had me thinking about whether we�ll just put our trusty copy of 64-bit Windows 7 on it, or hold out for Windows 8.

That has had me thinking about whether I even want to run Windows 8, and that got me thinking about what it would take to make Windows 8 a real, acknowledged, indisputable success in the marketplace.

Here, then, are eight things Microsoft needs to do to save Windows 8:

1. Clearly overcome Windows 8�s WTF problem

Windows 8 suffers from WTFitis. Most of us, when presented with news of Windows 8�s various changes � from the weird start environment to Metro to Windows RT, to the apparent push for Windows on tablets � look at Windows 8 and simply ask, �WTF?�

In other words, why is Microsoft doing this to us? Why can�t Windows 8 just be Windows, only better? That�s all most of us want, anyway. Just Windows, but better.

Microsoft seems to have iPad envy, and the company looks like it�s willing to sell all us desktop and notebook users down the river, just so it can have a nice tablet interface, even though most tablet users will still just buy an iPad.

So, the first major thing Microsoft has to do is make it clear that they understand that there�s a future desktop and notebook market, and that they don�t consider all of us who have to do real work with Windows 8 the ugly step-children of the beautiful people who use tablets and want a PLAYSKOOL interface so they can fling Angry Birds.

See also: Why Windows 8 matters for real work, and so will Windows 9

2. Rename the tablet version of Windows to �Windows for Tablets�

This is a corollary to #1 above. There�s a version of Windows 8 being designed for OEMs who are building tablets on Arm processors (the most popular mobile processor). This is a fundamentally different Windows than most of us will run on our PCs, and it�s not even available to the general public.

But Microsoft�s early Windows 8 marketing has been problematic, because Microsoft hasn�t made it clear that PC version is completely different from the tablet version. Even now, things aren�t completely clear. Microsoft has been encouraging developers to move to RT as a development library, saying that it�s the future of Windows applications.

But Windows 8 RT is just the version of Windows for Arm devices (yes, the name of the tablet product is �RT�, not something � you know � like �tablet�). So it�s not clear to developers that if they start coding RT applications, whether or not those applications will only run on Windows RT or Windows for PCs.

Clarity is essential here.

3. Build an install option to install Windows 8 in �classic� mode with a Start button

There is no doubt that the Metro interface has the potential to be pretty � on small displays. But there�s also no doubt that all the jumping back and forth into and out of Metro to simply launch desktop programs is completely untenable � especially, again, for those of us doing real work.

Clearly, there are now two approaches to the Windows interface � the old-style desktop and the optimized-for-tiny-displays Metro.

To avoid truly pissing off Microsoft�s very loyal (and very busy) desktop user-base, they need to create an option for a �classic� interface install, including a Start button and the desktop as the primary environment.

4. Start promoting the �getting real work done� benefits of upgrading to Windows 8

As it turns out, other than the whole Metro nightmare, Windows 8 is a pretty slick desktop OS upgrade. It adds a ton of helpful new features that will make using Windows more productive.

These include being able to manage what items boot from the Task Manager, without having to MSCONFIG or hack a registry, faster booting, the ability to do a clean Windows reinstall without wiping your data or settings, the ability to sync your settings across PCs, and a lot more.

These individual feature tweaks are what will make us active users (you could also call us �recommenders�) decide to upgrade to Windows 8.

Microsoft needs to go out of its way to explain these benefits, not just rely on us in the trade press to discover them and point them out as afterthoughts.

5. Remove artificial performance limitations from all Windows 8 versions

Windows 7 has a bunch of artificial performance limitations, designed to force customers to buy different packages just to get better performance from their computers. For example, Windows Home doesn�t allow you to use all your RAM, if you have a boatload of RAM.

Another limitation: the IIS Web server artificially throttles down the number of simultaneous Web sessions, presumably to try to force server operators to buy Windows Server.

These artificial limitations do not encourage Windows upgrades, they simply annoy their customers. Any company that wants a fully powered server operating system will buy Windows Server, for example. But there�s no good reason why Microsoft should be pushing people to things like Apache and Linux, when their own products work quite well.

The way to separate versions is by features, plain and simple. The Pro version of Windows 8, for example, will offer Active Directory domain management, a feature that�s almost exclusively corporate. This makes sense, but artificial limitations don�t.

6. Make sure Windows Media Center runs on the non-Pro version of Windows 8

In a truly bizarre move, Microsoft announced that the Media Center version of Windows will only work on the much pricier Windows 8 Pro. Worse, most PCs that users might buy and want to put in their living rooms won�t be running Windows 8 Pro, so in order to use the Media Center features, users would have to install or upgrade their entire OS.

Ed Bott outlines some possible reasons why Microsoft is pushing this approach, and it has to do with paying licensing fees for DVD codecs.

But there are easy ways around this, up to and including charging a small fee for the DVD codec. After all, it doesn�t make sense to limit such a critical hub function of home PCs just because Microsoft doesn�t want to incur the cost of licensing a codec for an obsolete technology.

7. Stop self-limiting Windows

This brings me to another point. It seems that Windows 8 is being brutalized by Microsoft�s product management, trying to get everything to fit �just so� in an Excel spreadsheet or a PowerPoint slide.

Home machines can�t run media center. Desktop machines are forced into a non-desktop UI. A provided Web server can�t really serve more than a few Web pages. And so on and so on and so on.

Look, Windows 8, without the artificial limitations, is one seriously kick-butt OS. But it�s if it�s going to be held back from showing what it can really do in the market it dominates because some brand managers are eying another market, they�re going to wind up killing the golden goose.

Sure, it totally makes sense for Microsoft to go after the mobile, small computer, and tablet market, since that�s where the growth is. But it doesn�t make sense to self-limit an incredibly powerful OS just because there�s some iPad-envy out there.

8. Give out a completely free, ultra-bare bones version to absorb all those XP users

There are a tremendous number of Windows XP users still out there. Many of them are running unsafe, virus-ridden, completely vulnerable systems, but aren�t upgrading to Windows 7 or Windows 8 because they either don�t know how, or don�t want to pay for an update.

A lot of these people are senior citizens, so we have our most vulnerable populace stuck with the most vulnerable version of Windows.

Here�s my suggestion: make a build of Windows 8 with almost all the features stripped out, except for an updated IE and the ability to install and launch applications. Remove all the games, all the media player applications, all the neat support applications like the Snipping Tool, most of the accessories, the Remote Desktop Connection, etc.

Remove all of it except what it takes to run a program and browse the Web. Then make this version free, with an easy to see and use Anytime Upgrade button.

First, this is probably the only way Microsoft will ever be able to finally be done with Windows XP. It�s a way to strike a strong blow against cyberattackers who love running distributed denial of service attacks from vulnerable XP machines. It�s also a way to get more people voluntarily using Windows 8.

As we all know from in-app purchases, once you�ve got something installed, you�re far more likely to press that upgrade button than you are to undertake a massive installation project. So if Microsoft were to release Windows with a fremium model, they�d solve a whole bunch of problems at once.

Finally, it�s not like Microsoft would lose any customers who�d otherwise buy Windows. Most people and OEMs wouldn�t tolerate a Windows devoid of almost all features, so we�d all upgrade anyway. But I�ll tell you what it would do. It�d give those Linux desktop folks a kick in the teeth, taking away their primary selling point of a free OS.

This strategy would not only finally bring an end to XP, not only brutalize the Linux market, but it�d also give Microsoft a nearly guaranteed stream of Anytime Upgrade revenue. Talk about a win-win-win strategy.

Can Windows 8 be saved?

So there you go, eight things Microsoft needs to do to save Windows 8. While there�s undoubtedly tremendous growth in the world of tablets and other toy computers, the real world runs on real computers doing real work and those computers run Windows.

Microsoft needs to remember that as they introduce Windows 8 to the real world.

Workers' comp covers sex-related injuries, judge rules

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:09:44 +0000

Workers' comp covers sex-related injuries, judge rules
Peace of mind while on the job AND on the job

By Joe Fay � Get more from this author
Posted in Jobs, 20th April 2012 19:31 GMT

Injuries sustained while having sex on a work trip are covered by workers' compensation, an Australian federal judge has ruled.

The ruling accepted that the nookie-related injury sustained by a government employee on a business trip occurred during "the course of employment", overturning an earlier rejection of the woman's claim for workers comp.

The claim arose in 2007, news.com.au reports, when the un-named female claimant - who worked for the Human Relations Section of the Commonwealth Government Agency - was sent to a small country town as part of her job.

While there, she hooked up with a male friend and went for dinner. The pair then retired to the claimant's hotel room, presumably to further explore the subject of human relations.

During the post prandial passion session, a light fitting over the bed fell off the wall, injuring the woman.

The male party said in a statement that the couple had been "going hard" and it was not clear to them whether they had bumped off the light, or it had fallen off the wall.

�I think she was on her back when it happened but I was not paying attention because we are rolling around,� he explained.

The woman subsequently made a claim for physical and psychological injuries, but it was initially rejected

However, this week's appeal declared that having sex in a hotel room was an "ordinary incident of life", just like showering and sleeping.

He added that if the woman had been injured playing cards in her hotel room, she would have been entitled to compensation, and being hurt while having sex is no different.

That said, Aussie readers wanting to make sure they're fully covered might want to presage any hotel room nookie with a relaxing game of strip poker, just to be on the safe side. �

Avira antivirus upgrade wreaks 'catastrophic' havoc on Windows PCs

Tue, 15 May 2012 21:08:21 +0000

Avira antivirus upgrade wreaks 'catastrophic' havoc on Windows PCs
Service pack bricks machines by blocking boots, banning launch of virtually every Windows executable

Computerworld - German security firm Avira yesterday issued a service pack for its antivirus software that crippled an unknown number of Windows machines, with one customer calling the gaffe "catastrophic" to his company.

Today, Avira updated the software to sidestep the problem.

"Following the release of Service Pack 0 (SP0) for Avira Version 2012, the ProActiv feature blocked legitimate Windows applications on customers' PCs," Avira acknowledged on its support site. "We deeply regret any difficulties this has caused you."

Avira is the world's second-biggest antivirus maker, according to usage statistics.

The service pack included an update to ProActiv, a behavioral-based monitoring system that watches for suspicious events that may hint at a malware attack or point to an infection.

Users quickly reported that the updated ProActiv was blocking almost every legitimate Windows executable file -- those with the ".exe" extension -- meaning that most applications refused to launch. Even worse, ProActiv prevented critical Windows files from running, which in many cases "bricked" PCs, or kept them from even properly booting.

The inadvertent blocking impacted Avira Professional Security, Avira Internet Security 2012 and Avira Antivirus Premium 2012, paid products priced between $30 and $60. Avira's free antivirus software, which has limited functionality -- and does not include ProActiv -- was not affected.

Customers were understandably irate.

"This update has been pretty catastrophic. The whole company ground to a standstill," reported someone identified as "AaronH" in a Tuesday message on Avira's support site. "I've been a big proponent of Avira within our company, but I think that may change when it comes time to renew our license in a few months."

According to the same support discussion thread, Avira's fix simply disabled ProActiv. The company will reportedly investigate to uncover the root cause of the massive blocking before re-enabling the feature.

Avira isn't the first antivirus vendor to cripple or damage Windows systems with a flawed update.

Last September, Microsoft's Security Essentials and Forefront -- its consumer- and enterprise-grade antivirus software, respectively -- issued a faulty malware signature update that deleted Google's Chrome browser from thousands of PCs.

Before that, all three of the world's largest antivirus companies -- Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro -- had shipped defective definitions. In some cases, those mistakes have wreaked as much or more havoc as the Avira blunder.

In April 2010, for example, an update from McAfee paralyzed an unknown number of corporate PCs when it quarantined a crucial Windows XP system file.

According to security vendor Opswat, which reports on usage share every quarter (download PDF), Avira products accounted for 11.6% of all operating copies of antivirus software in the first quarter of 2012, putting the firm in second place worldwide behind Avast, and ahead of AVG Technologies and Microsoft.

In North America, where Symantec, Microsoft and AVG were the top three vendors, Avira had just 4.4% of the market.

Hundreds of Thousands May Lose Internet in July

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:48:56 +0000

Hundreds of Thousands May Lose Internet in July

Detect

Find out if you have been violated and infected with DNS Changer.

Fix

If you think you are infected, please follow take action to fix your computer now.

Protect

Protect your computer from DNS Changer.

For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.

Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.

Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.

"We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the Internet is broken."

On the night of the arrests, the agency brought in Paul Vixie, chairman and founder of Internet Systems Consortium, to install two Internet servers to take the place of the truckload of impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials planned to keep their servers online until March, giving everyone opportunity to clean their computers. But it wasn't enough time. A federal judge in New York extended the deadline until July.

Now, said Grasso, "the full court press is on to get people to address this problem." And it's up to computer users to check their PCs.

This is what happened:

Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide. They took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system to install malicious software on the victim computers. This turned off antivirus updates and changed the way the computers reconcile website addresses behind the scenes on the Internet's domain name system.

The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address � such as www.ap.org � into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website.

The hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least $14 million, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their Internet browsing.

When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians last November, the agency replaced the rogue servers with Vixie's clean ones. Installing and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the federal government about $87,000.

The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique Internet addresses were using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the number is down to at least 360,000. The U.S. has the most, about 85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000 each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.

Vixie said most of the victims are probably individual home users, rather than corporations that have technology staffs who routinely check the computers.

FBI officials said they organized an unusual system to avoid any appearance of government intrusion into the Internet or private computers. And while this is the first time the FBI used it, it won't be the last.

"This is the future of what we will be doing," said Eric Strom, a unit chief in the FBI's Cyber Division. "Until there is a change in legal system, both inside and outside the United States, to get up to speed with the cyber problem, we will have to go down these paths, trail-blazing if you will, on these types of investigations."

Now, he said, every time the agency gets near the end of a cyber case, "we get to the point where we say, how are we going to do this, how are we going to clean the system" without creating a bigger mess than before.

��

Online:

To check and clean computers: http://www.dcwg.org

Microsoft remains mum on Windows 8 upgrades from Vista, XP

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:59:04 +0000

Microsoft remains mum on Windows 8 upgrades from Vista, XP
Limits upgrade path confirmation to 2009's Windows 7

Computerworld - Microsoft today declined to confirm whether users of Windows XP and Vista will be able to upgrade their PCs to Windows 8 when the latter launches later this year.

On Monday, Microsoft spelled out the editions? it would offer customers working with 32- and 64-bit Intel and AMD processor-powered PCs and tablets.

In that blog post, the company also noted the upgrade paths to Windows 8 for existing machines, saying that people now running Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic or Home Premium could upgrade to the consumer-oriented Windows 8. Systems running Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate will be upgradable to Windows 8 Pro.

Although Microsoft did not specify the upgrade path for customers currently running Windows 7 Enterprise, the assumption is that they will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Enterprise, which, like its predecessor, will be distributed only to companies with Software Assurance upgrade agreements.

The omission of the problem-plagued Vista and the nearly 11-year-old XP from Microsoft's explicit upgrade path seemed odd: In February, the company used an FAQ to plainly state that users of those OSes could upgrade to Windows 8's beta, tagged "Consumer Preview."

"You can upgrade to Windows 8 Consumer Preview from Windows Developer Preview, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP," the FAQ stated, "but you might not be able to keep all of your files, programs and settings."

Developer Preview was Microsoft's name for the first public sneak peak at Windows 8 as a work-in-progress, and was issued last September.

In the FAQ, Microsoft said that Vista users who upgraded would retain user accounts and files, as well as Windows settings. XP-to-Windows 8 upgrades would only preserve user accounts and files. Windows 7-to-Windows 8 upgrades, meanwhile, conserved not only user accounts, data files and Windows settings, but also already-installed applications in the move.

Ironically, migrating from Windows 7 is more thorough than from Windows 8's own Developer Preview, which will retain only as much information as an XP-to-Windows 8 transfer.

When asked today whether Vista and XP users would be able to upgrade to Windows 8 RTM, or "release to manufacturing" -- the label used to designate the final code -- as they were allowed in the Consumer Preview, a Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment. "[We have] no information to share outside of what's in the blog," she said in an email.

It's possible Microsoft was using a narrow definition of "upgrade" in the Monday blog that confirmed only Windows 7-to-Windows 8 paths, one that included application migration as well as that for files and settings.

Previously, that kind of upgrade has been called "in-place," or one that leaves everything undisturbed as it swaps out the old OS for the new.

If Vista and XP get the cold shoulder, it wouldn't be the first time.

Three years ago, Microsoft offered an in-place upgrade to Windows 7 to users running Vista, but gave XP customers only the option of what it called a "custom" install -- others pegged it as a "clean" install -- that deleted all data on the hard drive before installing the then-new operating system.

It may seem foolish to exclude XP users from a possible Windows 8 upgrade since that 2001 edition powered 51% of all Windows PCs that went online last month, according to metrics company Net Applications. Vista accounted for another 8% of all Windows editions.

But the aged hardware running XP may be the hurdle Windows 8 can't jump: Microsoft has repeatedly said that PCs able to run Windows 7 will be able to run the new OS, but the system requirements it outlined for the Consumer Preview -- a 1GHz processor, 1GB of memory and a graphics card able to handle DirectX 9 or later -- may preclude many older machines.

Microsoft has not yet revealed the pricing for Windows 8's upgrades, or described how they will be distributed.

While Windows 7's upgrade in 2009 was handled much the same as always, Microsoft debuted a new strategy with Office 2010 when it dropped upgrade pricing -- a move that effectively raised costs for users of earlier editions of the suite -- and launched single-license "key cards" that carried only an activation code.

According to one analyst, Microsoft is unlikely to follow Apple's lead and offer Windows 8 upgrades only through its online channels, which could include Windows Store, the software market designed for Windows 8. Microsoft has not said whether Windows 7 users will be able to access that e-store.

Dick Clark dead at 82

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:15:55 +0000

Dick Clark dead at 82

Famed television personality Dick Clark died of a heart attack Wednesday morning in Los Angeles, his spokesman confirms. Clark was 82.

Clark is best known for hosting long-running television shows such as "American Bandstand," the game show "Pyramid" and "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve."

Clark had been in St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif. after undergoing an outpatient procedure Tuesday night. He suffered the heart attack following the procedure and that attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Clark is survived by his wife, Kari, and his three children.

Musicians of all ages quickly took to Twitter to remember Clark.

"REST IN PEACE to the DICK CLARK!! U were pioneer n a good man!! Thank u sir" wrote Snoop Dogg.

And Isaac Hanson of the band Hanson tweeted, "Dick Clark was a Rock 'n' Roll Radio/TV icon with an influence on pop culture for more than 50 years. Rest in peace."

Check back with TODAY.com for updates on this breaking story.

Malware Masquerading as Angry Birds Game

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:31:14 +0000

Malware Masquerading as Angry Birds Game

By: Jeffrey Burt
2012-04-15

Security software vendor Sophos and game maker Rovio warn about a Trojan horse pretending to be the popular Angry Birds Space game.

Malware authors are using the popularity of the Angry Birds series of games as a way to infect the smartphones of users who download the exploit from unofficial Android app stores, according to a security software firm.

In an April 12 post on SophosLabs� NakedSecurity blog, Graham Cluley said the Trojan horse masquerades itself as the Angry Birds Space game. When downloaded, the malware installs its malicious code onto the device.

�The Trojan horse, which Sophos detects as Andr/KongFu-L, appears to be a fully functional version of the popular smartphone game, but uses the GingerBreak exploit to gain root access to the device, and install malicious code,� Cluley wrote. �The Trojan communicates with a remote Website in an attempt to download and install further malware onto the compromised Android smartphone.� Andr/KongFu-L is a known Android Trojan.

Once the malware is installed and the Android device compromised, cyber-criminals can then send instructions that will lead to more malicious code being downloaded or URLs to be displayed in the smartphone�s browser, he wrote.

�Effectively, your Android phone is now part of a botnet, under the control of malicious hackers,� Cluley wrote.

The Trojan that pretends to be the Angry Birds Space game from Rovio can be downloaded from third-party unofficial Android app stores, though SophosLabs did not name any of those stores. Cluley said the version of Angry Birds Space in the Google Play, Google�s official apps store�formerly called Android Market�is not affected by the malware.

Rovio also posted a warning on its Website about malware-infested versions of the game: �As you get ready to pop pigs in zero gravity, watch out for fake versions of Angry Birds Space, and make sure to download safe by getting the official game from Rovio.�

As smartphones increase in popularity with both enterprise users and consumers, they�re also becoming a growing target of cyber-criminals. According to a report released in February by Juniper Networks, malware specifically targeted at mobile operating systems more than doubled in 2011, growing by 155 percent across all platforms�including Apple�s iOS, Google�s Android, Research In Motion�s BlackBerry and Nokia�s Symbian.

Android saw the biggest leap in malware incidents, according to the Juniper report. Malware targeting Android grew 3,325 percent in the last seven months of 2011, and Android malware accounted for 46.7 percent of unique malware samples that targeted mobile platforms, followed by 41 percent for Java Mobile Edition.

According to Juniper, Android�s diverse and open marketplace�where developers can post their apps�and the platform�s growing market share made it an attractive target for cyber-criminals. It has almost half of the mobile operating system market, according to analysts.

"Hackers are incented to target Android, because there are simply more Android devices as compared to the competition," Daniel Hoffman, chief mobile security evangelist at Juniper, said when his company�s report was released.

Hoffman said Google's "Bouncer" service, which scans apps in the official Android market place and removes offenders, is making it more difficult for scammers to upload malicious apps. Bouncer, which began operating in the second half of the year, will "certainly help" reduce infection rates from downloads on the official market of known threats, he said.

Sophos� Cluley said users of Android-based mobile devices need to take care when they decide to download an app. �It feels like we have to keep reminding Android users to be on their guard against malware risks, and to be very careful�especially when downloading applications from unofficial Android markets,� he said.

Lightly clad Aussie woman caught US hacker

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:38:21 +0000

Lightly clad Aussie woman caught US hacker

Caught by the billabongs

12 Apr 2012 09:48 | by Nick Farrell in Rome

Pictures of a half naked Aussie woman led to the arrest of a hacker who broke into law enforcement and government websites in the United States.

Higinio Ochoa III was apparently good at breaking into police websites, but when it came to half-naked Australian women he met his Waterloo.
Ochoa, who was a member of an Anonymous off-shoot, has been charged by the FBI with hacking into the websites of at least four US law enforcement websites.

The Sydney Morning Herald said he was caught when a headless photo of a bikini-clad woman in Wantirna South, holding a message taunting US authorities, was published online.

According to the FBI, a Twitter account with the name @AnonW0rmer pointed followers to a website where the information lifted from the law enforcement websites could be found.

At the bottom of the website was a photograph of a woman who was Ochoa's Australian girlfriend. She was holding a sign saying "PwNd by w0rmer & CabinCr3w <3 u BiTch's".

The picture contained data which showed it was taken by an iPhone. The iPhone data contained GPS co-ordinates which showed the Wantirna South street and house where it was taken.

Then there was another link on the Twitter account pointing followers to a website that railed against oppression by police departments around the world.

That featured a picture of a woman with a sign stating "We Are ALL Anonymous We NEVERForgive. We NEVER Forget. <3 @Anonw0rmer".

The picture was the same woman and the FBI found two references to the pseudonym ''w0rmer'' on unconnected internet sites, one of which had Ochoa's name alongside it.

It was then a matter of putting his apartment under surveillance.

But actually what finally linked it all together was when the FBI found Ochoa's Facebook page, on which he named an Australian woman as his girlfriend. It turned out that she was the woman in the photo taken in South Wantirna.

She is now in the United States with Ochoa, who will appear in court this week.

Apple promises Flashback malware killer

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:20:44 +0000

Apple promises Flashback malware killer
Week after firms put infected Macs at 600,000+, acknowledges infections

Computerworld - Apple on Tuesday for the first time publicly acknowledged a malware campaign that has infected an estimated 600,000 Macs, and said it would release a free tool to disinfect users' machines.

"A recent version of malicious software called Flashback exploits a security flaw in Java in order to install itself on Macs," Apple said in a support document published Tuesday. "Apple is developing software that will detect and remove the Flashback malware."

Although Flashback has circulated since September 2011, it was only last month that the newest variant began infecting Macs using an exploit of a Java bug that Oracle patched in mid-February.

Apple maintains its own version of Java for Mac OS X, and is responsible for producing security updates. It issued a Java update on April 3 that quashed the bug Flashback has been using to sneak onto Macs.

In the seven weeks between Oracle's and Apple's updates, hackers responsible for Flashback managed to insert their software -- designed for, among other things, password theft -- onto an estimated 2% of all Macs.

Apple, which rarely comments on security issues, and never prior to producing a patch, had been mum since last Wednesday, when Russian antivirus maker Dr. Web said it had "sinkholed" Flashback command-and-control (C&C) domains. Dr. Web tallied the infected machines that communicated with those hijacked domains to come up with its 600,000 estimate.

The Loop blog first reported on Apple's support document late Tuesday.

Apple also said it was working with Internet service providers (ISPs) to "disable [the Flashback] command and control network," referring to the usual practice of asking hosting firms to pull hacker-operated C&C servers off the Internet so that infected computers cannot receive further orders.

And the company promised to issue a special tool to "detect and remove the Flashback malware." Apple did not set a timetable for its release.

It won't be the first time that Apple has crafted a detection-and-deletion utility. In May 2011, the company announced a similar tool to sniff out and remove the MacDefender fake security software that plagued Mac users for several months last year.

Apple delivered the promised anti-MacDefender tool as a software update one week later.

If the company sticks to the same tempo this time, the Flashback deletion tool should be available April 17.

Similar aids are already available, however. On Tuesday, Kaspersky Labs, one of the Russian antivirus companies that counted the number of infected Macs, released a free removal tool dubbed "Flashfake," that detects and eradicates the malware. Kaspersky and others have also created websites where users can determine if their Macs harbor the Flashback malware.

Apple issued patches last week for the Java vulnerability exploited by Flashback, but only for the two OS X flavors it still supports: Lion and its immediate predecessor, Snow Leopard.

Mac owners running older editions -- Leopard and earlier -- should disable the Java browser plug-in, Apple said, and pointed users to instructions. According to Web metrics vendor Net Applications, about one-in-six Macs run an unsupported version of Apple's operating system.