Hacker Steals Twitter’s Confidential Documents

July 16, 2009 at 7:05 AM | In Hacking, Twitter | Leave a Comment
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Hacker Steals Twitter's Confidential Documents

Hacker Steals Twitter's Confidential Documents

Hackers are getting more creative in targeting certain companies and Twitter has recently discovered the consequences of such an attack. About a month ago, an administrative employee at Twitter was targeted and her personal e-mail was hacked, according to a blog post today by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. The hacker used information in the e-mail account to access this employee’s Google Apps account, which contained a wide variety of Twitter documents from ideas to financial details. Today TechCrunch said it had received 310 confidential Twitter documents in a zip file from the hacker who calls himself Hacker Croll.

In the last few years, security experts have seen an increase in the amount of highly-targeted attacks. Unlike, say, massive spam campaigns designed to get employees to divulge personal information like bank accounts, these types of attacks involve hackers targeting anywhere from one to five employees within a company. The motive is to steal confidential information that the hacker will use to make a profit, says Patrik Runald, chief security advisor at F-Secure, a security firm. The types of organizations frequently targeted in these attacks are defense contractors, governments and non-profits with ties to Tibet, he says.

Many times, as in the Twitter incident, the target of the attack involves employees who are not in the executive suite because those employees often have access to information hackers can use, whether it’s blueprints or large databases of customer information. For example, at defense contractor Northrop Grumman, hackers often try to target the computers of employees in the contracts department because of their knowledge of the marketplace, said Tim McKnight, chief information security officer at the company in a recent interview with BusinessWeek.

After the Twitter incident first became public, some speculated about the quality of Google’s security but Biz Stone absolved Google Apps in his blog post. “This attack had nothing to do with any vulnerability in Google Apps which we continue to use,” he wrote. Instead, he wrote, the incident underscored the need for choosing strong passwords.

The best passwords have more than 8 or 9 characters and are comprised of alphanumeric characters, a combination of letters and numbers, says John Pirc, a former cybersecurity specialist for the CIA and current executive with IBM Internet Security Systems. But really, he says, this is a people issue in that employees often don’t practice good password safety and may use the same password for many different applications.

Yet, the incident does underscore some risks involved with cloud computing in the enterprise. Some have called for better security mechanisms. “With the Twitter data, hackers were able to take a password and log on anonymously from anywhere,” says Rich Marcello, president of the systems and technology business at Unisys. Now Unisys is working on a higher level of security that would essentially cloak the data that comes into its cloud and only users within certain communities logging in from certain locations would be able to see the information. It’s akin to how only certain characters who are members of a specific group in Harry Potter are able to physically see the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. “If you can do that, even if there’s a password issue, there’s no way hackers can make any sense of the data,” says Marcello.

Companies also need to think about the kinds of information they’re putting in the cloud. While e-mail collaboration may be available over the Internet from reputable service providers with good track records in security, some applications are better left behind the firewall, says Dennis Quan, director of autonomic computing at IBM, who suggests private clouds for applications dealing with classified or confidential information.

“Part of the beauty of cloud computing is that users don’t need to understand the ins and outs of the technology they are using,” says Quan, adding, “This simplicity is great for consumers but can be dangerous for enterprises and governments.”

Microsoft vs Google: Office Web Will Kill Google Docs

July 15, 2009 at 2:11 PM | In Microsoft vs. Google | Leave a Comment
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Microsoft vs Google

Microsoft vs Google

As Google positions itself for a future of web-based operating systems and applications, a new reality is about to intervene: Microsoft Office 2010, with both web and stand-alone versions, will kill Google Docs. Long live, Office Web!

Maybe Google will be able to rescue something from its Docs misadventure, but it better do something quick. Microsoft says it can solve big customers’ big complaint about Google Docs and will do so at a price Google understands: Free.

Here’s the gripe: Corporate IT doesn’t think Google Docs are a secure place for important information. Microsoft will deal with this by offering something Google doesn’t, the ability to host Office Web on the customer’s own servers.

And Microsoft will include this capability–for free–as part of all Office 2010 volume-licensing agreements. OK, that isn’t totally free, but for customers who will upgrade to Office 2010 it’s a nice value add. It is also something Microsoft could easily package with other deals, such as server operating systems and even Windows 7, as an incentive to upgrade.

What Microsoft is offering will seem close enough to free to entice customers who considered Google Docs and backed away. There will, of course, also be the free version of Office Web on Microsoft’s own servers as a try-before-you-buy.

Bottom line: Google Docs are underwhelming and the company needs to move quickly, it’s just that simple.

But, it gets worse.

Here’s the double-whammy: The mere existence of an online Office suite is enough to send Google Docs to the great beyond. Why have “sort-of compatible” Google Docs when you can have “100 percent” compatible no-brainer online apps from Microsoft?

This is another manifestation of the Microsoft that is starting to play rough with Google, formerly treated as a bit of a handsome rogue by Redmond’s masses.

And the attack has multiple fronts. Besides Office Web taking on Google Docs, Bing is slowly finding a niche, maybe even a profitable one, as a Google alternative. And Chrome OS doesn’t seem to be off to the rosy start Google might lead us to believe.

While Google is more nimble and carries the cachet of coolness, Microsoft is rolling back into town and looks like, where Google is concerned, it won’t be taking prisoners.

Isn’t it nice to once more be watching a really competitive industry?

Why is Microsoft even offering Windows 7 Ultimate?

July 7, 2009 at 2:10 PM | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
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Microsoft offers steep discounts on Windows 7 upgrades for Home and Pro versions of software – but not Windows 7 Ultimate.

According to a CNET report, users can “preorder Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional on about half of list price, but the Ultimate version offered in the entire $ 219 cost.”

Microsoft offering Windows 7 Ultimate

Microsoft offering Windows 7 Ultimate

Those who currently use Windows Vista Ultimate and was hoping to switch to Windows 7 Ultimate was understandably upset. After getting a little more than a few extras for Vista Ultimate that Microsoft’s BitLocker Drive Encryption Software, was the hope they will be treated better this time when they have opted for Windows 7 Ultimate.

According to Microsoft’s Windows 7 Web page, Windows 7 Ultimate edition sports only two functions that you do not find in Windows 7 Professional: a full language pack, which includes support for 35 languages, and its BitLocker software. A press release from Microsoft sent to journalists in February lists Branch Cache and Direct Access support as well.

This is stupid. BitLocker was included with Windows Vista Ultimate. I am willing to bet that if you asked most Windows Vista Ultimate users, how often they use BitLocker, they will wonder what you are talking about.

Although it is nice to see Microsoft supports multiple languages for the more comfortable computing in their first language, a relatively small part of the market will really want such a feature. For many it is a waste. And since both the Cache and Branch Direct Access is designed specifically for enterprise users, consumers will have no reason to use these tools either.

Why did Microsoft even consider releasing Windows 7 Ultimate? It is not only more expensive than Windows Professional 7, which sports all the features most people will have anyway, but its add-ons are again indifferent.

For its part, Microsoft says that Windows 7 Ultimate is not for everyone. Windows General Manager Mike Ybarra said in an interview with the Microsoft Press Pass, the company’s PR arm, that Windows 7 Ultimate is for the “enthusiast.”

“There is a small group of customers who want Windows 7 has to offer,” Ybarra said. “So we will continue to have Windows 7 Ultimate edition to meet the specialized needs.

“Windows 7 Ultimate edition is designed for PC enthusiasts who” want it all “and customers who want security features such as BitLocker is available in Windows 7 Enterprise Edition.”

Although I have not seen Microsoft’s customer research, I have difficulty believing that the PC enthusiast will look at Windows 7 Ultimate as a go-to version. PC enthusiasts are generally experts with a high level of IT knowledge. Why would they choose an overpriced OS version whose features can not justify its price?

Indeed, Windows 7 Ultimate edition looks like a sucker’s bet. People who go to the store with little knowledge of the software will be left wondering why they should not just use an extra $ 20 for Windows 7 Ultimate when judging from the name, it must be better than Professional. (BOXED copies of Windows 7, which is available in October, will cost $ 119 for Home Premium, $ 199 for Professional and $ 219 for Ultimate.)

Windows 7 Ultimate is really just Windows 7 Enterprise by another name. It offers nothing compelling that would make at home or even small business customers will buy it. And yet, Microsoft is still selling it at full price.

Once again, Microsoft has damaged the “Ultimate” moniker. Perhaps it is best if it fades away before Microsoft ostracizes even more customers.

Firefox 3.5 Released – Best browser, faster, easier and more

July 1, 2009 at 12:43 PM | In Internet Browser - Mozilla Firefox, Technology Advances | Leave a Comment
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Firefox 3.5 Released - Best browser make browsing faster, easier and more

Firefox 3.5 Released - Best browser make browsing faster, secure, private, easier and more

The just released version Firefox 3.5 is a winner, offering significantly faster Web browsing, better tab handling, a host of interface tweaks and, like just about every other browser on the planet, a “porn mode.” If you already use Firefox you’ll want to upgrade right away. If you’re not a Firefox user, this version represents a very good opportunity to give the browser a test run.

Speed

For many people, the browser wars are all about one thing: speed. There’s no doubt that version 3.5 of Firefox is significantly faster than version 3. Pages load noticeably more quickly for a number of reasons, not least because Mozilla built a new JavaScript engine called TraceMonkey for this version of Firefox.

How much faster is open to debate. Mozilla says it ran the industry-standard SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, which measures how quickly browsers render JavaScript, on versions 2, 3 and 3.5 of Firefox, and asserts that the newest version is more than twice as fast as Firefox 3 and more than ten times as fast as Firefox 2 on the test. Other testers have reported similar results.

Private Browsing

Any browser worth its salt these days has a porn mode, and with version 3.5, Firefox now has one as well. It’s called Private Browsing (Internet Explorer’s is called InPrivate Browsing), and it works as advertised. When you browse the Web using it, nothing about the session is stored — no history, no cookies, no temp files, no forms information, no search information, nothing that can show where you’ve browsed or what you’ve done. To turn the Las Vegas tag line on its ear: What happens in Firefox doesn’t stay in Firefox.

To use Private Browsing, Select Tools –> Start Private Browsing, or else press Ctrl-Shift-P. Unlike with Internet Explorer, a new instance of the browser doesn’t launch. Instead, a warning appears, asking you if you want to start a Private Browsing session and telling you that Firefox will save your tabs if you want to start one.

Firefox then closes your existing tabs, and immediately launches a private browsing window. From here, browse the Web as you normally would, and nothing of the session will remain. To end the Private Browsing session, close Firefox as you would normally, or else select Tools –> Stop Private Browsing, or else press Ctrl-Shift-P. The current session ends, and Firefox launches with all of your previous tabs intact.

There are other nice touches for those who don’t want other people to know what sites they’ve been visiting. You can remove all the traces of a site you’ve visited while you were in a normal browsing session.

This eliminates it not just from the History list, but also kills all traces of the browser on your computer, including cookies and temp files, search history, forms you’ve filled out, and more.

To use this feature, first open your History list by choosing History –> Show All History or by pressing Ctrl-Shift-H. Then right-click the site you want to remove, and from the menu that appears, select Forget about This Site.

You can also remove all of your history and other data related to your browsing session from the last few hours or last day. Select Tools –> Clear Recent History, or press Ctrl-Shift-Del. From the drop-down list on the page that appears, choose either the last hour, the last two hours, the last four hours, today, or everything.

You can also fine-tune what to clear by clicking the Details button; it lets you determine what data to remove — browsing and download history, forms and search history, cookies, cache, logins, etc.

Music and Video Support

Because Firefox 3.5 supports HTML 5 audio and video elements, users can watch video and listen to music directly in a Web page, without launching any plug-ins. The video or audio can be saved by right-clicking and saving it. That’s a big improvement with the torrent of video viewing taking place on the internet.

Awesome Bar

The location bar -dubbed the “Awesome Bar” by some perhaps overly enthusiastic developers – has been made even more, well, awesome in Mozilla Firefox 3.5. Previosuly, you could simply type the name of what you were searching into that field, foregoing the search box altogether, and a Google search page would show results. Mozilla has tweaked the search functionality in the browser so surfers can show only bookmarks by using an asterisk after a query such as “Channelweb *”, or show only tags by using a plus “Channelweb +”.

Session Control

If Mozilla Firefox crashes, users can choose which tabs to resuscitate, a feature previously available through the Session Manager add-on. That’s handy particularly if a Flash-based or heavy JavaScript site was the cause of the crash, so users aren’t caught in a perpetual, and irritating, crash-and-restart cycle in their browser.

Apple iPhone 3GS costing $179 in production and sells for $199

June 26, 2009 at 11:30 AM | In Technology Advances, iPhone 3GS | Leave a Comment
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In the production of the latest iPhone 3GS, Apple to punch up the product line without a lot of components towards tear down analysis.

ISuppli researchers found that the cost of components and other materials for Apple’s latest iPhone 3GS was $172.46. Add the cost of $6.50, and the total $178.96 or only $4.63 more than the older-generation iPhone 3G.

Apple iPhone 3GS at $199

Apple iPhone 3GS at $199

ISuppli’s cost estimates are no other costs associated with a product, such as marketing, sales, and the accessories bundled with the device. Nevertheless, the tear down notes that Apple has the iPhone 3GS to drastically increase performance, without cost.

The new low-end iPhone 3GS offers twice the memory of the last low-end model without the expense of Apple’s much more to do. ISuppli, the tear down on its entry-level 16 GB version of the iPhone 3GS in comparison to the low-end 8GB iPhone 3G on pricing in July 2008. AT & T (NYSE: T), the exclusive iPhone service provider in the United States, with the latest iPhone 3GS for as low as $199 with a two-year contract data, the same treatment as the older product when it first time. AT & T is now with the older phone with a contract for 99 U.S. Dollar.

Without a contract, the iPhone 3GS will cost $599, including the price of the iPhone 3G. But despite the similarities, there are price differences in the technology.

Functions only for the iPhone 3GS Video-Capture include a 3 megapixel autofocus camera, compared to a 2-megapixel camera in the old iPhone, and a built-in digital compass. Aside from these extras, the hardware is not much different, according to ISuppli.

“From a component and design perspective, there is also a great similarity between the 3G and 3GS,” ISuppli analyst Andrew Rassweiler, said in a statement released Wednesday. “Through the use of these materials together to optimize and taking advantage of price erosion in the market for electronic devices, Apple offers a higher performance product with more memory and features only a slightly higher material and production costs.”

One of the main hardware change is the use of a single-chip Broadcomm Bluetooth / FM / Wi-Fi device. This component provides the industry trend of integrating more functions on one chip. The iPhone 3GS uses two chips, the same functions.

Her debut in the iPhone is Dialog Semiconductor’s power management integrated circuit. To implement the digital compass, Apple added AKM Semiconductor electronic compass andSTMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) “accelerometer.

Toshiba has the largest design win the iPhone 3GS with 16 GB Multi-Level Cell NAND Flash memory device, which at $24 is the third most expensive component, after the display module and the touch-screen assembly, said iSuppli. But Apple is likely to compare and the same part of memory from other vendors, especially Samsung Electronics.

Samsung’s position as provider of the iPhone applications processor, the fourth most expensive component. The processor plays an important role in the iPhone 3GS faster performance than its predecessor. When the 3G was an ARM RISC microprocessor with 400 MHz clock frequency, the iPhone 3GS with a 600 MHz version.

Intel suppy chip-set to Nokia mobile devices

June 23, 2009 at 1:11 PM | In Intel Technology, Nokia Mobile Devices | Leave a Comment
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Intel chip-set to Nokia mobile devices

Intel chip-set to Nokia mobile devices

Intel try to moving into the mobile market by putting its chip set into the world’s largest mobile device maker’s products.

Nokia has agreed to partner with Intel to put its chips in the Finnish phone maker’s products, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Intel has plans to make the announcement official at a press conference that is scheduled for later this morning. Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager, Ultra Mobility Group, is schedule to make remarks just before noon Eastern Time today.

Chandrasekher’s group at Intel is responsible for producing a scaled down chip that netbook users are likely to be familiar with: the Intel Atom processor. Atom is a stripped down processor designed specifically to run mobile devices that primarily need access to the Web.

While the Intel Atom isn’t designed to handle the needs of a fully functional notebook or desktop, it provides enough functionality for netbooks to surf the Web and do basic computing — which would likely make it a good candidate for Nokia’s mobile devices.

Currently it is unclear exactly what Nokia, who controls the largest share of the mobile device market in the world, is planning to offer in conjunction with Intel.

But because Nokia has the largest share of the mobile device market around the world, even a minor foray by Intel into the Finnish company’s product line would mark a significant increase in the chip maker’s footprint.

The exact details of the announcement will be detailed by Chandrasekher later today.

T-Mobile Android handset myTouch 3G due in August

June 23, 2009 at 11:52 AM | In T-Mobile, Technology Advances | 1 Comment
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My Touch 3G

My Touch 3G

T-Mobile has announced a new competitor, slated for August, which will be the second smart phone to run on Google? S open source Android platform. The myTouch 3G sports a 3.5in touch-screen with a 3.5-megapixel camera and a pre-installed 4GB microSD memory card.

Designed by HTC, the myTouch 3G will be available for presale at T-Mobile customers on July 8 and will sell for $ 200 for users who sign a two-year service contract. The phone, which has a 3.2-inch touchscreen, will be launched under a year after T-Mobile launched its first Android-powered smartphone, the HTC G1.

T-Mobile Smartphone, HTC G1

T-Mobile Smartphone, HTC G1

As G1, the myTouch want to use Google’s Android mobile platform. The handset will also be equipped with a new setting tool called Sherpa, which automatically suggests locations, sites and applications based on user interests.

The phone will run on T-Mobile? S GSM-based Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) 3G network, and the Wi-Fi network. T-Mobile was the last major wireless operator to launch its own 3G network, which the company only add UMTS services online last May.

The myTouch 3G is one of three other Android-based phones are expected to hit the market in the near future. One of the phones, known as the HTC Magic, is already available in Spain and the United Kingdom and is expected to be launched in the U.S. again in the near future. The phone was approved for use in the U.S. by the FCC last March and will likely be carried by T-Mobile. The HTC Lancaster, meanwhile, is slated to be released on August 3 of AT & T, and is described as a? Social messaging device? that has a slider QWERTY keyboard.

“T-Mobile myTouch 3G gives you first, so you can create a mobile experience that is truly your own,” said T-Mobile U.S. marketing chief Denny Marie Post.

“There is no cookie-cutter-based approach to myTouch. Inside and out, is the endless opportunities for Personalization so that you can put your mark on the phone and make it unique account.”

The myTouch 3G is the newest product to be announced in what has been a busy summer for T-Mobile. Together with the roll out a major software update for the G1 handset, the company is said to be working with a number of new Android-based devices.

The news of the T-Mobile new device comes on the same day that Apple is celebrating a milestone for its latest iPhone model.

In the announcement of the iPhone 3G S had sold one million units in the first three days, the Apple chief Steve Jobs declared that “customers are eligible to vote and the iPhone is winning.”

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