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At Last !!!  Finally StopBadware.org brought the Real Malware, RealPlayer from RealNetworks, to the light of the day.

StopBadware has brought just some of the bad practises out in the open, while you can find about it in much more details in reader comments I’ve found on highly recognized technology sites like CNET’s News.com, tehRegister.co.uk and PCWorld.com, posted by their tech savvy readers.

Just in case, if you are wondering who / what is this StopBadware.org ?
Stopbadware, an industry-academia group designed to raise public awareness about software that violates fair information and privacy practices, is a collaboration between Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University’s Oxford Internet Institute, with support from companies like Google, Lenovo, and Sun Microsystems.

Cambridge, MA — StopBadware.org, the consumer protection initiative developed to combat badware, on Jan 31, released an alert about RealNetworks Inc.’s RealPlayer software application.

The group found RealPlayer version 10.5 to be badware because of inadequate disclosure of advertising behavior and RealPlayer version 11 to be badware because it bundles an additional application without disclosure.

RealPlayer 11 is the current version of the application, offered on Real (dot) com as an internet video and multimedia player. RealPlayer 10.5 is an older version which is still widely distributed through such sites as BBC Radio and through the Firefox web browser’s “missing plug-in” capability.

The report highlights two areas of concern:
• The Software does not fully, accurately, clearly, and conspicuously disclose the principal and significant features and functionality of the application prior to installation - The advertising software bundled with RealPlayer is misleadingly called a ‘message center’, and is described incompletely and inconspicuously in the EULA as software designed to provide useful software updates. When RealPlayer 10.5 is installed, the advertising features of this ‘message center’ are enabled by default for users who choose not to register their personal information with RealNetworks after the software is installed.
• Software installs deceptively - RealPlayer 11 does not disclose that it installs Rhapsody Player Engine, and does not remove this software when RealPlayer is uninstalled. Users are not informed by the installer or uninstaller of the connection between RealNetworks and Rhapsody Player Engine.

“Software producers have a responsibility to inform users, clearly and unambiguously, about what software will be installed on their computers and what it will do,” said Maxim Weinstein, manager of StopBadware.org at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. “RealNetworks does not allow users to make an informed choice about how their computers will be used. We hope to see a new version of RealPlayer soon that addresses these
concerns.” More at StopBadware.org (in pdf).

According to StopBadware.org’s definition of badware it is “malicious software that tracks your moves online and feeds that information back to shady marketing groups so that they can ambush you with targeted ads.”

Here are some of the reader comments I’ve found on PC world in response to their article on the issue:
User “Yert” writes at January 31, 2008 8:59 PM PT
“About freaking time. Real Player is the worst media software ever. And its competitors have DRM systems in place!

Seriously though, I don’t use Real Player, and uninstall it whenever I am authorized. It is not safe, not sane, and bloated, even compared to iTunes. Real Player should have lost the EU judgement on the fact that their product sucks!”

User “OnlineSolutions” writes at February 03, 2008  6:55 AM PT
“I installed RealPlayer’s suite once as an experiment and signed up to Rhapsody for their 30 day trial. I immediately changed my mind, but was unable to cancel using their website. They required a phone call to cancel, but the 800 number they gave didn’t work. After repeated emails and phone call attempts, I had to change my credit card number to stop the $19 / month in charges that had continued for 6 months. These people are either incompetent or crooks.”

Reader comments on CNET’s News.com:
Reader “GermanVermin” writes:
“realplayer sucks: Yeah. I have always hated realplayer. its chock full of advertisements, a pain to install, and runs background and startup services that slow down your computer. For an official client of a common propreitary video codec, RealPlayer should be more professional.

Use RealAlternative instead, it allows you to play realplayer videos inside of windows media player.”

Reader “MadLyb” writes:
“What a surprise: I stopped using RealPlayer years ago because of their intrusive software and policies. I’m surpised it took this long for someone to ding them.”

Reader “Electric.81″ writes:
“Real Player: Real Player is a piece of ‘crapolla’ and always has been since day one….now they’ve been caught with thier hand in the ‘cookie jar’ ;>) ”

Reader comments I’ve found on theRegister.co.uk:
Reader “Kev K” writes:
“Real Player & Quicktime both suck : QT lite and Real Alternative from free-codecs.com do the job very nicely for me without the bloat or constant nagging.”

Reader “Anonymous” writes:
“It’s been 3 years: since I stopped using this shyteware, just because of this annoying ODRealSched process of theirs that was getting reactivated once in a while despite I deleted it and removed any link to it.

How come you can trust such a company. Good thing they are named and shamed. At last !!!! ”

Reader “Robert Moore” writes:
“Die RealPlayer die!!! : I have come to accept that most media players (In windows) are resource hogs these days, but Real takes it to a whole new level.

I used to work for a retailer, in their service center, and I would regularly get in computers that the complaint was “Choppy DVD playback” or words to that effect. In most cases a quick uninstall of RealPlayer would fix it right up. Only PH would be foolish enought to install RealPlayer.”

Excerpts from the reader janimal’s comment:
“Real Malware: Have you ever read the Real license?? I’m pretty sure satan was involved because, it goes way beyond the usual accepted rights buggery and weasleness of the standard software license.

Happily if you want to view RM files these days (thanks for the access BBC bastards . I complain to them regularly about Real software) you can use Real Alternative avalable here..

http://codecguide.com/about_real.htm

I choose thumbs up because that’s what Real like to put up people’s bottoms.”

Finally, I never get that, when there are choices of free Windows Media Player 11 and Open Sourced VLC Media Player, why in the world any one need to use RealPlayer? Ok how to play the contents that are available only in Real Media ? I just never play those files

BUCHAREST, Romania – On Tuesday, Dec 18, BitDefender announced that BitDefender antivirus analysts have detected a new trojan, which hijacks Google text advertisements, replacing them with ads from a different provider.

The threat, which is identified by BitDefender as Trojan.Qhost.WU, modifies the infected computers’ Hosts file (a local storage for domain name / IP address mappings, which is consulted before domain name servers and is considered authoritative).

The modified file contains a line redirecting the host “page2.googlesyndication.com” which should point to an IP of the form 6x.xxx.xxx.xxx to a different address, of the form 9x.xxx.xxx.xxx, so that the infected machines’ browsers read ads from server at the replacement address rather than from Google.

“This is a serious situation that damages users and webmasters alike,” said Attila-Mihaly Balazs, a BitDefender virus analyst. “Users are affected because the advertisements and/or the linked sites may contain malicious code, which is a very likely situation, given that they are promoted using malware in the first place. Webmasters are affected because the trojan takes away viewers and thus a possible money source from their websites.”

Users are advised to let BitDefender software delete the trojan. More info on the ad-hijacking trojan at BitDefender here and Real-time Virus Reporting here.

Beware of the Love Bots!

So you think you’ve found Mr. or Ms. Right online in, of all places, a Chatroom. Beware! A Russian company has just come up with software that can simulate online flirting, genuinely fooling people into thinking they’re making overtures to a real person.

The program, so far available only in Russian, will go on sale around February 15, just after St Valentine’s Day, said the CyberLover.ru website.

San Francisco, Calif — PC Tools, on Dec 12, uncovered new software developed in Russia that flirts with females or males seeking relationships online in order to collect their personal data.

The software, CyberLover, can conduct fully automated flirtatious conversations with users of chat-rooms and dating sites to lure them into a set of dangerous actions such as sharing their identity or visiting web sites with malicious content.

According to its creators, CyberLover can establish a new relationship with up to ten partners in just 30 minutes and its victims cannot distinguish it from a human being.

PC Tools is concerned about the program’s ability to mimic human behavior during online interactions and urges internet users to beware of this new breed of software that can easily be used for malicious purposes. The concept behind this software could be the catalyst for a dangerous new trend in malware evolution.

“As a tool that can be used by hackers to conduct identity fraud, CyberLover demonstrates an unprecedented level of social engineering,” says Sergei Shevchenko, Senior Malware Analyst at PC Tools. “It employs highly intelligent and customized dialogue to target users of social networking systems.”

“Internet users today are generally aware of the dangers of suspicious attachments and URLs they receive, the documents they open or the websites they visit, but CyberLover employs a new technique that is unheard of – and that’s what makes it particularly dangerous.”

“CyberLover has been designed as a bot [robot] that lures victims automatically, without human intervention. If it’s spawned in multiple instances on multiple servers, the number of potential victims could be very substantial,” says Shevchenko.

According to PC Tools researchers, the CyberLover software:

- offers a variety of profiles ranging from ‘romantic lover’ to ‘sexual predator;’

- uses a series of easily configurable “dialogue scenarios” with pre-programmed questions and discussion topics;

- is designed to recognize the responses of chat-room users to tailor its interaction accordingly;

- compiles a detailed report on every person it meets and submits then to a remote source – the reports contain confidential information that the victim has shared with the bot, which can include the victim’s name, contact details and personal photo(s);

- invites victims to visit a “personal” website or blog which could in fact be a fake page used to automatically infect visitors with malware.

Though Cyberlover is currently targeting Russian web sites, social networkers and online daters in the are urged to stay alert to unusual activity credited to programs like CyberLover.

To protect themselves, PC Tools recommends:

• Never give your personal details to anyone over the internet.
• Consider using aliases/fake names on social networking sites and when chatting online.
• Carefully monitor the online behavior of your family members and educate them of the dangers.
• Ensure you have up-to-date AntiVirus and Anti-Spyware installed, with real-time and behavioral protection.

PC Tools warns the security industry to prepare itself for this potential new trend of malware which uses “natural language dialogue systems” – already deployed within gaming technologies. PC Tools.

OAKLAND, Calif — Ask.com a search engine owned by IAC on Tuesday, Dec 11, announced the launch of AskEraser, the first product to give consumers privacy control over their online searches.

When enabled by the user, AskEraser completely deletes all future search queries and associated cookie information from Ask.com servers, including IP address, User ID, Session ID, and the complete text of their queries.

An AskEraser link is featured prominently in the upper right corner of the Ask.com homepage and search results pages - clearly and constantly indicating to the user that their search activity will be ‘erased’ from Ask.com servers. AskEraser remains ‘on’ for searches conducted across Ask.com’s major search verticals: Web, Images, AskCity, News, Blogs, Video, and Maps & Directions - and can be turned ‘on’ or ‘off’ by the user at anytime.

“For people who worry about their online privacy, AskEraser now gives them control of their search information,” said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com. “AskEraser is simple, straightforward, and easy-to-use. It is an idea whose time has come.”

Earlier this year, Ask.com also announced that it is implementing a new data retention policy to disassociate search history from IP address and User ID after 18 months.

In addition, Ask.com has taken steps to further industry collaboration and dialogue on privacy issues. In July, Ask.com and Microsoft joined together in urging the online industry to develop global privacy principles for data collection, use and protection related to searching and online advertising.

AskEraser launched Tuesday in the United States and in the United Kingdom - and will be deployed globally in 2008. More at Ask.com.

Dec 08, ‘07 — Gadi Evron, a Security Architect for Afilias global registry services, an expert on corporate security and counterespionage, botnets, e-fraud and phishing, and the founder of the Zero-Day Emergency Response Team (ZERT), writes an excellent in-depth article on effectively fighting spam at ZDNet.

Excerpts from Gadi Evron’s article:
“Working in the Israeli city of Netanya, next door to our offices was a spam operation with roughly 30 employees. One day they weren’t there anymore.

They were blog comment spammers, but officially were doing Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Instead of optimizing content, they posted illicit comments on many blogs with commercial or misleading messages leading to their clients’ web sites, mainly for the purpose of increasing their clients’ web sites visibility in search engines such as Google. They would do this using an illegal tool such as botnets, and make quite a bit of money.

The reason for their disappearance soon became clear; nearly all their clients were gone. A law was passed in the United States which addressed online gambling operations (”Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act” - UIGEA). As a result, the public gaming industry ceased accepting online wagers. More than that, UIGEA addressed processing payments to and from Internet gambling sites. In a day, most of US-based gambling web sites ceased to exist (others moved over-seas, although quite a bit of the world’s credit processing is done by US firms).

This effectively caused the death of numerous black hat SEO companies–comment spammers. Perhaps the UIGEA measure against processing of payments proved too difficult to overcome. Not being a lawyer I can’t say exactly how UIGEA caused this death. No matter, US online gambling operations were effectively destroyed.

Spam decreased. The underlying cause for that was that the clients weren’t there due to the inability to process payments because of the online Casinos law. Not only black hat SEO companies suffered, many spam operations lost clients. There is nearly no more Casino spam in our mail inboxes. Isn’t that grand?

A long time ago I heard somebody say they asked a corporate take-over lawyer on how he’d take down spam. He said: Legalize and regulate it. It seems like he was right, just on a deeper level.” More at ZDNet.

San Francisco, Calif — Dec 05, ‘07 — Beacon, the online advertising system that was supposed to light Facebook’s way to riches, has created such a dark storm of controversy that Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg today told users they could turn it off.

The dramatic reversal in the face of huge public outcry is an attempt to restore the company’s battered image with its more than 55 million users and the marketers trying to reach them.

Excerpts from Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘Thoughts on Beacon’ on The Facebook Blog

About a month ago, we released a new feature called Beacon to try to help people share information with their friends about things they do on the web. We’ve made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we’ve made even more with how we’ve handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.

While I am disappointed with our mistakes, we appreciate all the feedback we have received from our users. I’d like to discuss what we have learned and how we have improved Beacon.

When we first thought of Beacon, our goal was to build a simple product to let people share information across sites with their friends. It had to be lightweight so it wouldn’t get in people’s way as they browsed the web, but also clear enough so people would be able to easily control what they shared.

But we missed the right balance. At first we tried to make it very lightweight so people wouldn’t have to touch it for it to work. The problem with our initial approach of making it an opt-out system instead of opt-in was that if someone forgot to decline to share something, Beacon still went ahead and shared it with their friends.

It took us too long after people started contacting us to change the product so that users had to explicitly approve what they wanted to share. Instead of acting quickly, we took too long to decide on the right solution. I’m not proud of the way we’ve handled this situation and I know we can do better.

People need to be able to explicitly choose what they share, and they need to be able to turn Beacon off completely if they don’t want to use it.

This has been the philosophy behind our recent changes. Last week we changed Beacon to be an opt-in system, and today we’re releasing a privacy control to turn off Beacon completely. You can find it here. If you select that you don’t want to share some Beacon actions or if you turn off Beacon, then Facebook won’t store those actions even when partners send them to Facebook.

On behalf of everyone working at Facebook, I want to thank you for your feedback on Beacon over the past several weeks and hope that this new privacy control addresses any remaining issues we’ve heard about from you.

More at The Facebook Blog.

San Francisco, CA — Nov 29, ‘07  — Seeking to keep the peace in its popular online hangout, Facebook has overhauled a new advertising system that sparked privacy complaints by turning its users into marketing tools for other companies, the AP is reporting.

The AP further reports, “Under the changes outlined late Thursday, Facebook’s 55 million users will be given greater control over whether they want to participate in a three-week-old program that circulates potentially sensitive information about their online purchases and other activities.

Facebook provided two different opportunities to block the details from being shared, but many users said they never saw the “opt-out” notices before they disappeared from the screen.

With the reforms, Facebook promised its users will now have to give their explicit consent, or “opt-in,” before any information is passed along.

The concessions were made after more than 50,000 Facebook users signed an online petition blasting the system, called “Beacon,” as a galling intrusion that put the Palo Alto-based startup’s pursuit of profit ahead of its members’ privacy interests.

More than 40 different Web sites, including Fandango.com, Overstock.com and Blockbuster.com, had embedded Beacon in their pages to track transactions made by Facebook users.” More at AP.

Wellington, New Zealand — Nov 29, ‘07 — Police nabbed the suspected teenage kingpin of an international cyber crime network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers and skimming millions of dollars from victims’ bank accounts, officials said.

“Working with the FBI and police in the Netherlands, New Zealand police arrested the 18-year-old in the North Island city of Hamilton, said Martin Kleintjes, head of the police electronic crime center. The suspect’s name was not immediately available.

Kleintjes charged that the ring was responsible for stealing at least $20 million using bank account and login details detected by their illegal spyware.

The 18-year-old Hamilton man is now co-operating with police after they carried out searches at Canterbury, Northland and Waikato addresses.

The FBI believes “AKILL” is the ringleader of a “botnet” – in this case a cluster of over a million computers infected by a malicious virus letting the perpetrator gain control of them, access private information and attack other computers.

The arrest was part of international probe into the criminal use of “botnets,” in which hackers gain control of third-party computers through malicious software and then use them as remote-controlled robots to crash online systems, accept spam and steal users’ personal information.

Eight people have been indicted, pleaded guilty or convicted since the investigation started in June. Thirteen additional warrants have been served in the U.S. and overseas in the investigation, which the FBI says has uncovered more than $20 million in economic losses.

New Zealand police searched the residence of the 18-year-old suspected to be the ringleader earlier this week. The federal agency identified the person by the online handle “AKILL.”

Earlier this month, Ryan Goldstein, 21, of Ambler, Pa., was indicted in the case. Authorities allege that the New Zealand suspect and Goldstein were involved in crashing a University of Pennsylvania engineering school server Feb. 23, 2006.” More at Stuff.co.nz

Nov 29, ‘07 — BBC News is reporting on a huge campaign to poison web searches and trick people into visiting malicious websites has been thwarted.

“The booby-trapped websites came up in search results for search terms such as “Christmas gifts” and “hospice”. Windows users falling for the trick risked having their machine hijacked and personal information plundered.

The criminals poisoned search results using thousands of domains set up to convince search index software they were serious sources of information.

While computer security researchers have seen small-scale attempts to subvert search results before now, the sheer scale of this attack dwarfed all others. “This was fairly epic,” said Alex Eckelberry, head of Sunbelt Software - one of the firms that uncovered the attack.

Eckelberry said tens of thousands of domains, many based in China and only a couple of days old, were used in the vanguard of the attack.

Websites loaded on these domains were booby-trapped with malicious software that looked for vulnerabilities in copies of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer used to browse them. “If your machine was not fully patched you were going to get hosed,” said Eckelberry.

The criminals who bought the domains convinced Google, MSN and Yahoo they were good and popular sources of information, said Mr Eckelberry, by using comment spam on blogs to push the pages up the search index rankings.

He speculated that the campaign was being waged by the Russian Business Network - a hi-tech criminal gang known to favour web-based attacks.

But, said Eckelberry, this attack was likely to be a harbinger of many more. “This is not going to go away,” he said.” More at BBCNews.

Targeted online advertising is set to face increased scrutiny from European Union regulators concerned about invasion of privacy, threatening the growth of a potentially big online revenue-booster for media companies. Reports, Astrid Wendlandt of Reuters.

“This is a very hot topic that can be expected to be part of our work programme next year,” Gabriele Loewnau, a senior legal adviser for the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection, said on Friday, Nov 23. The German commissioner currently heads the European Union’s advisory body on data protection matters, the so-called Article 29 Working Party.

When an individual makes an online search or purchase, the computer can remember the entry through so-called cookies and pass on the information to advertisers.

Brussels’ heightened awareness comes as more than 13,000 Facebook users have signed a petition protesting against the networking site’s new advertising system which alerts members of friends’ purchases online. Members can opt for their transactions to be kept private but critics say the option is easily missed.

Some Facebook members have even threatened to leave, complaining the new system allowed their friends to find out what they were planning to give them for Christmas. The Facebook petition was led by the civic action group MoveOn.org.

FAST GROWING

Online advertising is the fastest-growing segment of the ad industry, gaining more than 25 percent a year, or more than five times the recent average annual growth all media included.

“Online sites have to make sure they are not intruding people’s privacy, otherwise targeted advertising will backfire,” said Vincent Bonneau from French telecoms research group Idate. More at Reuters.

Some users of the online hangout Facebook are complaining that its two-week-old marketing program is publicizing their purchases for friends to see.

Those users say they never noticed a small box that appears on a corner of their Web browsers following transactions at Fandango, Overstock and other online retailers. The box alerts users that information is about to be shared with Facebook unless they click on “No Thanks.” It disappears after about 20 seconds, after which consent is assumed.

Users are given a second notice the next time they log on to Facebook, but they can easily miss it if they quickly click away to visit a friend’s page or check e-mail.

“People should be given much more of a notice, much more of an alert,” said Matthew Helfgott, 20, a college student who discovered his girlfriend just bought him black leather gloves from Overstock for Hanukkah. “She said she had no idea (information would be shared). She said it invaded her privacy.”

The new program lets companies tap ongoing conversations by alerting users about friends’ activities through the feeds. About 40 Web sites have decided to embed a free tool from Facebook, known as a Beacon, to enable the marketing feeds.

The idea is that if users see a friend buy or do something, they’d take that action as an endorsement for a movie, a band or a soft drink. But it also raises privacy concerns.

Users are able to decline sharing on a site-by-site basis, but can’t withdraw from the program entirely.Liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org formed a protest group Tuesday and had more than 6,000 members by Wednesday. The group is calling on Facebook to stop revealing online purchases and letting companies use names for endorsements without “explicit permission.”

Facebook user Nate Weiner, 23, said he uses a tool for the Firefox Web browser called BlockSite, which he says prevents sites from sending data to Facebook.

“What if you bought a book on Amazon called ‘Coping with AIDS’ and that got published to every single one of your friends?” he said. More at AP.

Related Article:  Young Warned Over Social Websites

LIVERMORE, CALIF — In an effort to find an answer to the problem of identifying smuggled special nuclear material (SNM), researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in California say a Neutron Scatter Camera they are developing may be able to detect radiation from much greater distances and through more shielding than current detection instruments.

The neutron scatter camera, says Sandia physicist Nick Mascarenhas, has the capability to count neutrons from a source of SNM and localize it — meaning it doesn’t only indicate there is radiation present, but also where it is emanating from and, under some circumstances, how much.

“This instrument can pinpoint a hot spot in another room through walls, something not typically possible with gamma-ray detectors,” says Mascarenhas. “Performance-wise, it’s beating the older technologies, but we want to continue to push the limits of sensitivity and detection distance.”

Distance, says Mascarenhas, is a significant benchmark because it means the neutron scatter camera has the potential to detect through various types of shielding, a concern at any border crossing or point of entry.

Since 9/11, radiation detection has taken on a new immediacy as a means of preventing a nuclear weapon attack within the United States. Gamma-ray and neutron detectors are being deployed at border crossings and ports, with the goal of enabling interdiction of a nuclear weapon or material before it enters the country.

The neutron scatter camera has an advantage over traditional neutron detection because it can differentiate low energy neutrons from high energy neutrons.Another advantage is shielding. While some gamma rays can be blocked from detectors, neutrons are much more difficult to conceal. In a lab test, the camera easily detected and imaged a source placed across the hallway, through several walls and cabinets.

The biggest obstacle to the camera becoming widely adopted is the liquid scintillator, which is flammable, hazardous, and requires special handling. According to Mascarenhas, materials exist that could be used as a solid scintillator, but they need to be mass produced and made readily available in the U.S. for this purpose. Solid scintillator material, he says, is not in the scope of the current project but is a logical next step.

“We are not concerned with size at this point — our mission is to understand everything about the performance of this instrument and make it the best it can be,” he says. “Making it portable or compact might be the next steps, but that’s something I’m confident that Sandia, as an engineering laboratory, can solve.” More at Sandia.gov

BBC News is reporting on The Information Commissioner’s Office in UK warning young people about the online footprint they leave on social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook.

BBC News further writes, “Millions of young people could damage their future careers with the details about themselves they post on social networking websites, a watchdog warns.

The Information Commissioner’s Office found more than half of those asked made most of their information public.

Some 71% of 2,000 14 to 21-year-olds said they would not want colleges or employers to do a web search on them before they had removed some material.The commission said the young needed to be aware of their electronic footprint.

The ICO also said young people could be putting themselves at risk of identity fraud because of the material they post on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.

ICO deputy commissioner David Smith said: “Many young people are posting content online without thinking about the electronic footprint they leave behind.

“The cost to a person’s future can be very high if something undesirable is found by the increasing number of education institutions and employers using the internet as a tool to vet potential students or employees.”

“We have to help teenagers wise up to every aspect of the internet age they’re living in. It may be fun but unfortunately it is not the safe space many think it is.”" More at BBCNews, ICO.gov.uk

SEOUL, South Korea –BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 22, ‘07 — Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest provider of thin-film-transistor, liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels, announced today that it has completed development of a flat panel X-ray detector (FPXD) for radiology machines, in collaboration with Vatech Ltd, a Korean medical machinery manufacturing company.

By using digital imaging with thin-film transistor (TFT) technology, the diagnostic process is enhanced in many ways. In addition to delivering a much more precise image, Samsung’s new FPXD imaging sensor can save medical labs considerable time and money because no film or development process is needed.

An X-ray detector is an elaborate imaging sensor that converts invisible X-ray images into digital signals, which are then instantly transformed into pictures. Today, the medical profession still relies primarily on costly, plastic-based analog film for X-ray photography applications, which can take an excessively long period of time to develop in many medical situations.

The new FPXD measures 45 centimeters (cm) wide x 46cm high (or 61cm diagonally) and boasts a 3072 x 3072 (9.4 megapixels) resolution providing ultra-high definition images.

The new Samsung FXPD technology has virtually an endless range of applications beyond conventional X-ray systems. For example, it can be adopted for more advanced diagnostics such as CAT scans, for building inspections (scanning rebar structures, etc.) and for airport security scanners.

To create its FPXD, Samsung attached photodiodes to a TFT substrate that was produced using its proprietary amorphous silicon technology. The X-rays are detected photon by photon and then converted into visible light, which in turn is converted to electrical signals that can be displayed as diagnostic images on a flat panel screen.

In addition, Samsung has created an image enhancement function to eliminate most digital image noise interference to provide the highest radiographic sensitivity in the industry.

Samsung’s expects that its new, FPXD one-stop, total solution will secure the leadership position in the growing market for medical equipment detectors.The device will be available worldwide beginning first quarter, 2008.

Nov 21, ‘07 — Israeli authorities plan to issue a new anti-hijack identification system to incoming aircraft which they say is foolproof, but some experts are not convinced it will plug all the security holes on the horizon.

Starting next year, Israel will require pilots who fly to its airports to use the Security Code System (SCS), a local invention designed to ensure planes that have been commandeered for al-Qaeda-style attacks are spotted in time.

Israel plans a trial run for the system, using a credit card-sized keypad, next month, in cooperation with five airlines from the United States, Europe and Africa. About 10 000 of the units will ultimately be issued, with Israel bearing the cost.

Pilots who fail the authentication test when they approach Israeli airspace will be denied entry. Should a plane go ahead, ignoring further warnings, Israel will consider it hostile and scramble fighter planes for an interception.

In the worst case, that could mean an aircraft is shot down. “You can’t bluff this system,” Dani Shenar, chief of security for Israel’s Transportation Ministry, said.

He said the system knows how to differentiate between “a classic hostage-taking hijacking and a 9/11-style hijacking”.

Elbits Systems designed Security Code System (SCS), is an apparel designed to have a 100% identification success rate of who is in the pilot’s seat. The first units of SCS will be deployed on a few American and European planes flying to Israel, starting in December 2007 for live tests.

Several experts familiar with Israeli methodology say the system — also known as “Code Positive” — is based on the assumption that a hijacking will take place in one of two ways.

Hijackers could either kill the pilots and take control — as is believed to have been the case in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Or they could force pilots to issue a compliant response to the system in the hope of buying enough time to reach Israel and crash the planes into a target on the ground.

In the first case, the hijackers would fail the security check as they entered Israeli airspace, giving military authorities about 15 minutes to launch a response. In the second, Shenar said, pilots would be expected to relay a “May Day” alert. He declined to say how they would do this during a hijacking.

“International airliners have long been equipped with a universal transponder for emitting distress signals, something known to most hijackers by now. SCS would, at the very least, offer a novel safeguard,” Chris Yates, aviation security editor for Jane’s publications said. “Any technology enhancing flight safety is a worthwhile addition to the arsenal we have to beat terrorists”. More at M&G Online.

Nov 16, ‘07 — Adam L. Penenberg at FastCompany.com writes an article on iPhone hacking demoed by a UNIX specialist and consultant from Sedona, Arizona, Rik Farrow.

In his words, “Of course, the Web is rife with braggadocio, and just because a few computer engineers could gin up an obscure software exploit or two didn’t mean anyone had actually unleashed any. Still, my editors and I wondered just how vulnerable is the “Jesus Phone” to an unscrupulous hacker? Could it really be turned into a tool of espionage?

So we purchased an iPhone for Rik Farrow and commissioned him to crack through its defenses, which he did using H D Moore’s Metasploit, a popular platform for testing security systems. The result is this video, in which Farrow was able to take complete control of an iPhone and demonstrate the ability to eavesdrop on conversations, intercept voice mail and e-mail, and upload nefarious software programs. “Physical access to an iPhone,” Farrow points out, “is not required.” Although in Farrow’s demo the Wi-Fi was turned on — common enough for iPhone users, since AT&T’s EDGE network makes Web surfing slow and laborious — Moore says his exploit can work on EDGE, too.

Now, our lawyer would like us to emphasize that Farrow was careful not to offer a cookbook, or how-to guide, on how to hack Apple’s touch screen marvel. He just showed what was possible.

As for the iPhone, however, Apple engineers have made it easier to attack by running all software applications as “root,” which means they offer the same full-system privileges. Locate a security flaw in one — say, e-mail or the Web browser — you can control them all. Standard security protocol dictates providing layers of protection to guard against this, which the iPhone does not.

As a result, there are a number of ways to exploit the iPhone’s defenses. If you know your target’s phone number, you could text message a link to a malicious Website, which would covertly install a third-party application executing malicious code. The corollary would be to send your target an e-mail with a nefarious attachment; he clicks on it and the attacker “owns” the phone.

Or there’s always the “man-in-the-middle” (MITM) attack, which is perhaps the most James Bondian: You sit in, say, Starbucks with a laptop set up, as part of the ruse, to operate as a Wi-Fi access point, so a target’s Web browsing and e-mail pass through your computer first. (How can you tell who has an iPhone as opposed to someone with a standard laptop, rival smartphone, or PDA? Simple — the exploit only works on iPhones.) “This method would allow exploitation of any application that downloads images from the Internet,” Moore says. “This covers standard Web-browsing using Safari, but also includes the iTunes Music Store, the YouTube video browser, and the Google Maps application.”" More at FastCompany.com

CUPERTINO, CA– Nov 16, ‘07 — On the heels of Microsoft releasing Windows Live OneCare, Symantec today announced new versions of Norton SystemWorks, the leading PC tuneup solution that diagnoses, repairs and maintains consumer and home office/small office computers. Norton SystemWorks Standard, Norton SystemWorks Premier and Norton SystemWorks Basic are now Vista compatible and provide consumers the opportunity to choose the solution that best suits their needs.

All three editions of Norton SystemWorks automatically diagnose and fix hard drive errors with the One-Button Checkup feature. Also included are Norton Utilities’ trusted tools, Norton Cleanup, which removes cookies and temporary files, and System Optimizer, which allows computer users to optimize their Windows settings from a single screen.

In addition, Norton SystemWorks Standard and Premier include Norton AntiVirus 2008, which protects against new and emerging malicious code. Norton SystemWorks Premier also features Norton Save & Restore 2.0, offering easy yet reliable system and data backup and recovery, and an emergency boot CD so customers can start their computer when it can’t start itself.

Pricing and Availability

The estimated retail prices for the products are US$69.99 for Norton SystemWorks Standard, US$49.99 for Norton SystemWorks Basic, and US$99.99 for Norton SystemWorks Premier. Prices for all editions of Norton SystemWorks include a one-year subscription to Symantec’s protection updates. More at Symantec.

REDMOND, Wash — Nov 15, ‘07 — Microsoft on Thursday officially released Windows Live OneCare 2.0, which has been in beta testing since July.

Windows Live OneCare is an online service that provides managed maintenance and security for consumers and small businesses. It offers protection from viruses, spyware, and phishing, helps with firewall settings, and coordinates system tune-ups and data backup.

“Customers have told us they want an all-in-one solution for PC care that is simple and easy to use across all the PCs in their home,” said Amy Barzdukas, senior director of Windows Live OneCare at Microsoft, in a statement. “Windows Live OneCare helps address this need by providing a comprehensive set of security and performance tools while adding new features, including multi-PC management, printer sharing support and centralized backup options.”

The service’s main new feature is the OneCare Circle, which links PCs together over a wireless connection to make them manageable from a single place. OneCare Circle allows, for example, a parent to see that a child has disabled the firewall on his or her PC and to turn it back on. It also helps centralize data backup by allowing a hard drive connected to any linked machine to serve the whole home network.

The service also includes the new Start Time Optimizer, which helps users load only the programs they require at startup, thus accelerating the startup process. In addition, it includes a “Proactive Fixes and Recommendations” feature to help optimize PC performance, and it helps maintain wireless networking security. More at Microsoft.

Atlanta, GA — Nov 15, ‘07 — Half of more than 3,000 retail stores that a wireless security company secretly monitored at major shopping areas in the U.S. and Europe use wireless data systems vulnerable to hacking, the company said Thursday.

The data that stores routinely transmit on wireless networks include credit card and Social Security numbers and other sensitive customer information.

AirDefense Inc., an Atlanta-based maker of security products for wireless data systems, found that about 25 percent of the stores’ 4,748 wireless access points were exchanging data with no encryption at all to foil electronic eavesdroppers.

Another 25 percent were using an outdated encryption method called Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) that is easily cracked by thieves using widely available tools.

The remaining half of the access points — the connections between wireless devices and computer networks — were using newer encryption methods that are considered far harder to crack.

The six-week undercover project — conducted at shopping areas in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, London and Paris — attempted to expose security holes in wireless networks that are increasingly used to transmit data inside stores.

Wireless systems are believed to have been the entry points for recent large-scale data thefts at retailers, including a massive heist at discount retailer TJX Cos.

TJX said in March that at least 45.7 million cards were exposed, although recent court filings by banks suing TJX estimate than 100 million were. Canadian investigators concluded in September that TJX had failed to upgrade its encryption from the older WEP method by the time the eavesdropping began in July 2005.

“The bad guys are going to go for the low-hanging fruit, and that’s the wireless networks,” said Richard Rushing, AirDefense’s chief security officer and manager of the survey project.

The most common data security lapses involved mis-configured access points that open backdoors to data. On several occasions, larger retailers had configured access points to work with WPA but had not switched off WEP, the weakest wireless security protocol. In addition, many retailers use their store name in the SSID, the name assigned by the equipment vendor to the wireless network during installation giving away a retailer’s identity. SSID’s can easily be reconfigured but often times are not. More at AirDefense.

Nov 14, ‘07 — AT&T plans on Wednesday to introduce a nationwide program giving owners of small- and medium-size businesses some of the same tools big security firms offer for remotely monitoring employees, customers and operations, the New York Times said in its online edition.Under AT&T’s Remote Monitor program, a business owner could install adjustable cameras, door sensors and other gadgets at up to five different company locations across the country, the newspaper reported.

Using a Java-enabled mobile device or a personal computer connected to the Internet, the owner would be able to view any of the images in real time, control room lighting and track equipment temperatures remotely, the Times said. All the images are recorded on digital video which can be viewed for up to 30 days, the newspaper added.

According to the Times, equipment costs range from $199 for a fixed camera starter kit in a single location, to $349 for multiple cameras including ones that will pan or tilt. The newspaper also said monthly monitoring charges range from $9.95 for a single location, to $39.95 for five locations. More at AT&T Remote Monitor.

Los Angeles, CA — Nov 10, ‘07 — A Los Angeles  computer security consultant entrusted with making personal computers safer has admitted to hacking into them to create a rogue network of as many as 250,000 PCs, which he used to steal money and identities.

Federal prosecutors Friday said that John Kenneth Schiefer, a 26-year-old computer security consultant, used an army of hijacked computers, known as a “botnet,” to carry out a variety of schemes to rip off unsuspecting consumers and corporations.

Schiefer agreed to plead guilty to four felony charges in connection with the case and faces up to 60 years in prison and a $1.75-million fine, according to court documents filed Friday in federal court in Los Angeles.

Schiefer, who used the Internet name “acidstorm,” is the first person charged under federal wiretapping law with operating a “botnet,” or network of compromised computers, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Krause said.

“People hired him to fix their computers, to make sure they’re safe,” Krause said. Instead, prosecutors contend that Schiefer and his associates installed malicious computer code, called malware, that gave them remote access to the computers without the owners’ knowledge.

The “zombie” computers then eavesdropped on the users’ electronic communications. The vast number of computers that Schiefer compromised — as many as 250,000 — highlights a stealthy online crime spree on the rise.

These botnets, short for “robot networks,” remotely harvest personal information, including user names and passwords, to give their operators access to credit card information and online bank accounts.

Schiefer culled user names, passwords for the PayPal online payment service, and other account information that he used to make unauthorized purchases and passed on to others, prosecutors said.

In all, the federal indictment includes four counts of accessing protected computers to commit fraud, disclosing illegally intercepted electronic communications, wire fraud and bank fraud. Federal authorities were still trying to identify victims and the scope of their losses, Krause said.

Cannes, France (Gartner ITxpo) – November 5, 2007 – Trend Micro today announced the latest version of its mobile device security solution, available to the market in December 2007. The release of Trend Micro Mobile Security (TMMS) 5.0, girded with data encryption and authentication, mitigates mobile security challenges such as security breaches and data leakage while allowing enterprise administrators to manage security for handheld devices from a single console.

TMMS 5.0 features new data encryption and authentication capabilities: If a mobile device is lost or stolen, the business-critical data contained in it is encrypted unless it is unlocked with a password. Data on devices that do not comply with policies can be wiped out by administrators. The anti-malware features block viruses, worms, Trojans and SMS text message spam. Built-in firewall and Intrusion Detection System (IDS) protects against hackers, intrusions and denial-of-service attacks – all potential threats to mobile devices.

TMMS 5.0 uses the OfficeScan Client/Server Edition (OSCE) 8.0 console which also manages medium business and enterprise PC and server security. By installing TMMS 5.0 onto their OSCE 8.0 console, existing customers use a single console to manage mobile devices, desktop PCs and enterprise servers. Customers not presently using OSCE 8.0 receive an OSCE 8.0 console license with their TMMS 5.0 purchase.

Trend Micro Mobile Security 5.0 supports multiple leading platforms such as Windows Mobile 5.0 (Smartphone.) Windows Mobile 6.0 (Standard Edition); Windows Mobile 5.0 (PocketPC.) Windows Mobile 6.0 (Classic and Professional); and Symbian S60/3rd Edition (Nokia E-Series.)

Pricing and Availability : Trend Micro Mobile Security 5.0 Standard includes antivirus, firewall, Intrusion Detection System, and centralized management. Trend Micro Mobile Security 5.0 Advanced adds encryption and authentication. TMMS 5.0 starts at $US35 per device while TMMS 5.0 Advanced starts at $70 per device with standard volume discounts applying. TMMS 5.0 Standard and Advanced for Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0, and TMMS 5.0 for Symbian/S60 3rd Edition (Nokia E-Series) will be available in mid-December 2007. TMMS 5.0 Advanced for Symbian/S60 3rd Edition, which includes encryption and authentication, is planned to be available in the first half of 2008. More at Trend Micro here and here.

Nov 02, ‘07 – A New Jersey man was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Friday for helping send “spam” e-mails to more than 1.2 million America Online subscribers.

Todd Moeller, 28, was sentenced 27 months in prison in a federal court in New York after he was caught making a deal with a government informant to send junk e-mails — known as spam — advertising a computer security program in return for 50 percent of the profits, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said.

Moeller and Adam Vitale of New York pleaded guilty earlier this year to breaking anti-spam laws and defeating AOL’s filter system by using a variety of computer servers and changing the header information on e-mails to ensure they could not be traced, court papers said. Vitale will be sentenced November 13.

McAfee to Enhance E-Commerce Security by Integrating HACKER SAFE with SiteAdvisor Safe Search.  

Santa Clara, CA — Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — McAfee today announced a definitive agreement to acquire the privately-held ScanAlert, creators of the fast-growing HACKER SAFE Web site security certification service, for approximately $51 million in cash up front and with an earn-out of up to an additional $24 million if certain performance targets are met. The acquisition will extend McAfee’s leadership position in Web security, and will help to guide the more than 116 million U.S. consumers who shop online to safe e-commerce Web sites. 

According to the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure List, which is sponsored by the National Cyber Security Division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, vulnerabilities found in Web applications are now the most commonly found, surpassing those discovered in Microsoft Windows and desktop software. 

ScanAlert audits and certifies the security of 8,000 customers representing more than 75,000 Web sites, and its patent-pending technology protects more than 15 million e-commerce transactions each month. The HACKER SAFE security trust mark is displayed by over 60% of the Internet Retailer Top 500 list, including well-known brands such as American Red Cross, GUESS, PETCO, Toshiba and Warner Brothers. 

Web sites earning HACKER SAFE certification derive multiple benefits:

• HACKER SAFE’s trust mark has shown to boost consumer confidence and drive an average of 14% increase in conversion rates.
• Increased visibility in comparison shopping services. Merchants may drive an increase in sales furth