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Emailed bait to exploits of the still-unpatched vulnerability in Internet Explorer have been sent, a security company said Monday, escalating the threat facing Windows users. In addition, an earlier zero-day bug in IE is now being exploited in the wild, and an unfixed flaw in Windows Media Player is behind a third attack. San Diego-based Websense said it was starting to see mass-mailed lures, ie messages with links to sites hosting a Vector Markup Language (VML) exploit. The sites, noted Websense, are using the WebAttacker "kit" that has been updated to include the VML exploit. The message cited by Websense drew users to a page posing as a Yahoo Greeting Card. Users…

Privacy certificate twice as likely to harbor badware than non-certified sites, study alleges. Websites that feature the TRUSTe security certificate are two times more likely to contain badware than websites without any security certification, spyware and adware researcher Ben Edelman alleges in a new report. Among others, adware providers Direct-revenue and Webhancer are using TRUSTe certificates in an attempt to look more trustworthy than they really are, Edelman claimed. Direct-revenue is facing legal action from the New York Attorney General for its adware software. Edelman alleged that Webhancer often is installed without the user's consent. Link: -> un…

Hard drive manufacturer Seagate reckons it could be shipping 2.5 terabyte hard drives by 2009. Capacities like that could change the way people buy movies. Seagate announced this week that it had set a world record in magnetic encoding of information of 421 Gbits per square inch using magnetic media created with currently available production equipment and said that it expected this technology would enable it to deliver hard drives with storage capacities in 40GB to 275GB for 1-and 1.8-inch consumer electronics drives, 500GB for 2.5-inch notebook drives, and nearly 2.5TB for 3.5-inch desktop and enterprise class drives by 2009. Link -> Terrorbites! Cheers from…

There are no doubt many gamers all over the world gritting their teeth in frustration at the prospect of being forced to wait yet another six months or more before they can take home their long promised Sony PlayStation 3 console. However, the damage to Sony by this further delay goes way beyond its prospects in the games space. Sony's lethargy in bringing PS3 to market has not only enabled Microsoft to gain a firm foothold in the games console market with Xbox 360, it's a foothold that will get even firmer over the next six months. It also threatens the Japanese electronics giant's prospects of winning the high definition video format war. Many consumers were looki…

When a company like Microsoft announces a release candidate of a software package like Windows, one imagines that the product is exactly is what the company says it is - a version of the product good enough to be considered a candidate for release. Apparently this is not the case with Vista Release Candidate 1 because it's nowhere near good enough to be released. According to some leading Microsoft watchers, the software company is pulling a bit of a swifty on users by even naming its latest operating system build Vista Release candidate 1 because the software still has so many bugs and things that need to be done that is really just another beta. In fact Microsoft …

Some Windows 2003 users have been experiencing problems with the operating system after CA antivirus software wrongly detected part of the operating system as malicious software last week. At the heart of the problem is part of Windows' built-in security, a file called Lsass.exe. This was wrongly detected as a virus by CA's eTrust software and was deleted, causing some servers to crash and fail to reboot. CA, formerly known as Computer Associates, said that it quickly spotted and remedied the problem on Friday and also advised affected users to find out how to fix it. The cause of the confusion seems to be Lsass.exe being mistaken for the Trojan Win32/Lassrv.B…

Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 is now available for download. The most noticeable change from Beta 1 is the new theme, updating the familiar look of Firefox. It has created considerable controversy among Firefox testers; some love it, others hate it, still others prefer to wait and see what the final version looks like before they pass judgment. New features and changes in this milestone include: A new theme that updates Firefox's familiar interface Built in Phishing Protection Enhanced search engine management and search suggestions for Google, Yahoo! and Answers.com Improvements to tabbed browsing, including the ability to re-open recently closed tabs Firefox will resume from w…

Free music website set to challenge iTunes A new free music website has won the backing of Universal Music, creating a new model that could challenge market leader Apple's iTunes Music Store. New York-based SpiralFrog, which plans to launch its service later this year, said Universal Music, a unit of France-based Vivendi, has agreed to make its library available for the service to United States and Canadian customers. The site is apparently the first to offer legal music downloads for free to customers willing to watch online advertisements. The inclusion of the biggest of the big four music labels is expected to give SpiralFrog an edge with consumers. T…

http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/p...n/download.html grab it, after a certain number of downloads it will stop working! Edit - You need a Valid Beta 2 key to get it to work, which i dont have )corjello(

Google rolled out its free wireless Internet service in its hometown of Mountain View, Calif., covering 11.5 square miles of the city with some 380 access points. A 1Mbit per second connection would be provided to each user, who would be able to use the network by signing up for a free Google account. "This network is a way for us to give back to and engage with the community where our headquarters are," product manager Minnie Ingersoll said. "It has been has been tremendously rewarding to partner with the local government, the schools, the library, the neighborhood associations, and all of our trusted testers to introduce the power of free, wireless Internet connectiv…

Latest Gadgetry, The new mouse from Logitech.... with more buttons and better functionality (but it still doesn't make coffee!!! ) New Meece Cheers :D

Anyone out there have the new LG vx8300? 1.3 Meg camera with video, color screen inside and out with flash wallpaper, MicroSD card slot. Oh.....looky here......in the hidden "Service Menu", you can convert it to a MP3 player.

Power devices said to cause overheating risk; Apple sees 'no material impact' on finances; battery maker Sony says recent recalls will cost as much as $258 million. Apple is recalling 1.8 million battery packs for its iBook and PowerBook notebook computers because of an overheating problem, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced Thursday. Read more -> Crispy Apples _____________________________ Cheers from your intrepid webreporter

Malicious code that exploits a recent Windows hole has led to significant growth in the number of hijacked PCs, according to messaging security company CipherTrust. On Tuesday, CipherTrust reported a 23 percent growth in the total number of so-called zombie PCs it has detected. The jump is due to the spread of Mocbot worm variants, CipherTrust said. Mocbot, also known as Cuebot and Graweg, exploits a Windows security flaw for which Microsoft issued a patch with security bulletin MS06-040 on Aug. 8. Read more: -> CNET News _______________________ Cheers from your intrepid webreporter

Dell recalls fire-risk laptop batteries By DAVID KOENIG, AP Business Writer1 hour, 5 minutes ago In the largest electronics-related recall involving the Consumer Products Safety Commission, Dell Inc. agreed to replace 4.1 million notebook computer batteries made by Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). because they can burst into flames. A Dell spokesman said Monday that the Sony batteries were placed in notebooks that were shipped between April 1, 2004, and July 18 of this year. "In rare cases, a short-circuit could cause the battery to overheat, causing a risk of smoke and/or fire," said the spokesman, Ira Williams. "It happens in rare cases, but we opted to take thi…

From The Article: Agnitum security experts have analyzed these new measures, and it is their informed opinion that these measures will actually cause more harm than good, for two primary reasons: It will be more complicated for third-party security software companies to install and maintain their software on Windows PCs. In some circumstances, kernel patch protection may even block the installation of third-party security software. It will be easier for hackers to share and use this new technology than for legitimate software developers." Source: http://www.agnitum.com/news/kernel_patch_protection.php This is bad. now i know i won't be getting Vista :P

From the article: "The Redmond Company has announced that Office 2007 Beta 2 has reached the 3 million downloads milestone, and that it will implement a payment system for any additional downloads. Microsoft stated that it is going to charge $1.5 for a single download come August 2. This measure was deemed necessary considering that the demand for Microsoft’s latest Office Suite has bested all expectations by 500% and that average downloads ranging from 550MB to 2GB have, like was the case with Vista, stretched Microsoft’s network capabilities to their maximum." Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-t...a-2-31347.shtml Get it while it's still free ed…

Web sites like Amazon.com and MySpace.com may soon be inaccessible for many people using public terminals at American schools and libraries, thanks to the U.S. House of Representatives. By a 410-15 vote on Thursday, politicians approved a bill that would effectively require that "chat rooms" and "social networking sites" be rendered inaccessible to minors, an age group that includes some of the Internet's most ardent users. Adults can ask for permission to access the sites. Source: Cnet News

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) -- Microsoft Corp. warned about a new computer virus that exploits a vulnerability in its PowerPoint presentation software to allow hackers to infiltrate computer systems. Link -> PP Virus ________________________________ Cheers from your intrepid web reporter

Web Application Worms exploit persistent Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in websites. It's a new category of malware and it's a growing concern for popular websites. Social Networking sites seem to be the most popular target as of now. MySpace has already been hit by two such worms - the Samy worm in October last year and last week's Flash worm. Samy was written by a guy who wanted to become popular on MySpace. So he designed the worm to crawl through the site while furiously adding people to his friends list. The result: over a million "friends" in a couple of hours. Last week's worm exploited a vulnerability in Macromedia Flash to redirect MySpace users to an…

Banner ad on My Space infects computers with adware. The Story

It appears that all the fuss related to the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD was all for nothing. Why do we need their storage capacity, when other formats have just been developed and promise to boast the storage capacity up to 50TB (terabytes - 50,000GB) or more? What do you say about that? A Harvard Medical School team of researchers have developed a special technique that makes use of proteins, previously applied onto a common DVD to increase the storage capacity. Professor V Renugopalakrishnan, one of the researchers, said that, in this moment, a protein-coated disk could store up to 20 times more than a just released Blu-ray support. “Using modified proteins …

Lexar Media Inc. yesterday recalled certain flash memory drives made in China over fears they could overheat and burn users or cause property damage. In a joint statement with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Lexar said consumers should stop using the affected products immediately and contact Lexar for a free replacement. The recall involves about 66,000 devices from Lexar's JumpDrive FireFly family of flash drives, and the metallic silver colored 1GB JumpDrive Secure II. Source: ComputerWorld News

A little-known capability in Google's search engine has helped security vendor Websense uncover thousands of malicious Web sites, as well as several legitimate sites that have been hacked, the company said today. By taking advantage Google's binary search capability, Websense has created new software tools that can sniff out malware using the popular search engine. Websense researchers Googled for strings that were used in known malware like the Bagel and Mytob worms and have uncovered about 2,000 malicious Web sites over the past month, according to Dan Hubbard, senior director of security and research with Websense. Source: PCWorld News

According to angry consumers and the New York State Attorney General, Direct Revenue makes "spyware." These programs track where you go on the Internet and clutter your screen with annoying pop-up advertisements for everything from pornography to wireless phone plans Consumers have strong opinions about Direct Revenue's software. "If I ever meet anyone from your company, I will kill you," a person who identified himself as James Chang said in an e-mail to Direct Revenue last summer. "I will f------ kill you and your families." Such sentiments aren't unusual. "You people are EVIL personified," Kevin Horton wrote around the same time. "I would like the four hours of my l…