ZDNet India : Google to offer gigabyte of free e-mail

Google, the company that made off with the search market, is setting its sights on free e-mail. Hotmail currently offers 2MB of free e-mail storage. Yahoo offers 4MB. Gmail will dwarf those offerings with a 1GB storage limit.

ZDNet India : Google takes searching personally:
"As the search wars intensify, Google hopes that making a personal connection with its visitors will give it an edge.The company launched a test version of its personalized search"

The company launched a test version of its personalized search engine on Monday, part of its effort to tailor its search results to users' preferences. Google also plans to e-mail registered users of personalized search with the results of their queries.

The Mountain View, Calif., company introduced testing tools for its Personalized Web Search and Web Alerts on Google Labs, its public developmental playground.

Garcia said she would like to see Google increase the complexity of personalization it offers. The company could encourage greater use of the system by adding more depth in customization, such as providing more localized options and a larger range of buttons for finding content aimed at children and teenagers, she said. The system currently lets people highlight what state they're most interested in; by taking that down to the city or town level, Google could have even brighter prospects, according to Garcia.

"I could see people using this as an alternative to existing yellow pages and directory listings, if Google pushes it to the metro level," Garcia said. "There's also a huge opportunity to attract more local advertisers when that happens, and as much as this is a tool that caters to end users, I think it plays very nicely into that equation."

ZDNet India : Microsoft looks to unite PC, Xbox games:
"Microsoft announced a new set of development standards and tools Wednesday intended to cover both PC games and titles for the company's Xbox console."

...Another "smart" move by M$ !

ZDNet India : Google talks without the browser
Google is not the obvious company to telephone when you are looking for directions to a restaurant or hotel, but the popular search engine's development team is hoping that its emerging voice search facility may over time completely change the concept of a search engine.

ZDNet India : 'Witty' worm infects, dies quickly
Using a manner of infection similar to the fast-spreading Slammer worm, the Witty program compromised more than 20,000 machines in less than an hour."Because it crashes the machines eventually, (the worm) died off really fast," Ullrich said. He estimated that almost 30,000 computer had been infected by the worm, and most of them had crashed because of file corruption within 30 minutes of being infected.

An unknown author created the worm about two days after news of the flaw became public, in what may be the fastest turnaround of malicious code writing to date. "It is the only time that I can think of that this had happened so quickly," Ingevaldson said. "This was surprising. We didn't think we would see something that could come up this big and fast."

ZDNet India : Tech giants abuzz over VoIP for cell phones:
"Sun Microsystems and other tech giants are calling Internet phone technology the cell phone industry's next big thing, saying it will help solve old problems and create new servi"

VoIP is a technology for making phone calls via IP, the world's most popular method for sending data from one computer to another. After years of overpromising and underdelivering, VoIP is generating significant interest among telecom carriers, corporations and consumers, thanks to significant improvements in quality of service.

Carriers are already embracing VoIP as a way to cut traffic costs on international and long-distance calls, and it is expected to eventually replace the public switched telephone network, as big phone companies convert to IP-based fiber-optic networks. Currently, about 10 percent of all international voice traffic is classified as VoIP, although less than 1 percent of those calls are initiated on a VoIP phone.

ZDNet India : U.S. Army to Gates: Halt the free software: "Microsoft has been mailing free copies of its pricey Office productivity software to government employees, but CNET News.com has learned that at least two federal agencies are warning recipients to return the gifts or risk violating federal ethics policies."

Bill sure is smart. :p

Cooool !
DiscT@2 technology

After several years in development, it was in the summer of 2002 that Yamaha Electronics introduced its innovative DiscT@2 technology. This allows a CD-RW drive's laser to tattoo graphics and text onto the unused outer portion of a CD-R disc, thereby providing a far more professional looking disc labelling system than possible by use of stick-on labels or felt-tip markers.

The Penny Black Project - Outsmarting Spam

Microsoft has a plan in place to put spam into history: increase the cost of sending multiple messages. Currently, it costs the same to send a message to one or more persons. With new software, code-named Operation Penny Black, for every email sent the sender's computer would require to solve a complex math problem that takes 10 seconds. It wont be a problem for sending a few mails but spammers, who send millions of emails, will certainly be haeding for trouble.

Source: India Today (feb 23, 2004)

ZDNet India : Windows 2000 code posted on Net:

Microsoft is investigating how a file containing some protected source code to Windows 2000 was posted to several underground sites and chat rooms.

"The 203MB file contains code from Microsoft's enterprise operating system, but the code was clearly incomplete, said Dragos Ruiu, a security consultant and the organizer of the CanSecWest security conference, who has examined the file listing.'It was on the peer-to-peer networks and IRC (Internet relay chat) today,' Ruiu said. 'Everybody has got it; it's widespread now.'

The 203MB file expands to just under 660MB, he said, noting that the final code size almost perfectly matches the capacity of a typical CD-ROM. The entire source code, he said, is believed to be about 40GB, meaning that the file circulating Thursday is only a fraction of the full code base."

Virus strikes the Internet - Virus Ithihaas

LONDON (Reuters) - The MyDoom Internet worm claimed its first scalp on Sunday, paralysing the Web site of American software firm SCO Group with a massive data blitz.

SCO is not alone. Microsoft Corp has been targeted by a second variant of MyDoom, dubbed MyDoom.B. That attack is timed to kickoff on Tuesday.

MyDoom, the latest worm to infect computers over the Internet, is the fastest-spreading attack since last summer's twin attacks by the Blaster worm and SoBig virus, computer security experts said.

Following are brief descriptions of some of the major viruses, according to various security firms including TruSecure/ICSA Labs, Trend Micro, F-Secure Corp., Sophos, Network Associates Inc., and Symantec Corp.

-- In 1986, two brothers, Amjad and Basit Farooq Alvi, wrote what is thought to be the first PC virus to infect floppy disks. Dubbed the "Pakistani Brain" virus, it was designed to advertise their software company, Brain Computer Services in Lahore, Pakistan.

-- The first worm -- a virus that spreads through the Internet -- was released on November 2, 1988 by Cornell graduate student Robert Morris Jr. The "Morris Worm" exploited a flaw in the Unix operating system and spread within days to about 6,000 mainframes, or between five and 10 percent of the total on the Internet at the time. Morris, the son of a computer security expert at the U.S. National Security Agency, was convicted of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

-- In 1989, a teenager in Sofia, Bulgaria, released the Dark Avenger virus that destroyed data and contained references to lyrics from metal rock band Iron Maiden, including "Eddy lives ... somewhere in time." He also wrote the first polymorphic virus, which changes characteristics to avoid detection.

-- Ching Ing-hau, a sergeant in the Taiwanese army, wrote the Chernobyl virus, also called CIH, in 1998. Set to activate on the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, April 26, it would try to erase the hard drive on an infected computer. Experts said he wrote it to get revenge on the anti-virus industry after the army got infected by a virus.

-- In 1999 David Smith of New Jersey wrote the Melissa virus that spread via e-mail and infected Microsoft Word documents. Smith had two aliases, "Vicodin" for his virus writing, and "Doug Winterspoon" for when he was posing as a legitimate virus expert, experts said. Smith did not go to prison for several years but is now serving time.

-- Filipino university student Onel de Guzman released the "IloveYou" or "LoveLetter" e-mail virus in 2000. It tricked people into opening an infected e-mail attachment and installed a keystroke logger so he could get access to passwords on infected machines.

-- Jan De Wit, from The Netherlands, wrote the Anna Kournikova virus in 2001 using the alias "On the Fly". Created with virus generation software, the worm tricked e-mail users into clicking on an attachment that purported to be a picture of Russian tennis star Kournikova. He was charged with spreading data via a computer network with the intent to cause damage.

-- Blaster worm and the Sobig e-mail virus disabled computers and snarled Internet traffic across the globe in August and September 2003. Sobig.F became one of the most widespread viruses ever, crippling corporate e-mail networks and filling home users' inboxes with a glut of messages before jetting copies off exponentially to more victims. The "Blaster", or "LovSan" worm spread through a security hole in Windows.

-- MyDoom - also known as Novarg or Shimgapi has spread rapidly, mostly in North America, accounting for one in nine messages globally. The volume of messages clogged networks and appeared to be concentrated in corporate environments. Later MyDoom.B, a new variant emerged to target Microsoft Corp.'s Web site, security experts said.

Radiation from PCs can be used for spying


In a computer, some of the most powerful radiation emanates from the monitor, a cathode-ray tube in which electron guns fire streams of electrons more than 60 times a second to produce the images displayed. That bombardment produces wave frequencies, some of which overlap with the familiar VHF and UHF television bands.

In short, the invisible, information-bearing radio waves from a monitor are remarkably similar to a broadcast TV signal. A spy's scanner need only tune in the waves and process them line by line to replicate the image on the original screen.

One superb copy protection technology !!!

Software pirates who make illegal copies of a particular computer game are finding the games companies are coming up with a radical new anti-copying strategy.

Illegally copied games protected by the system work properly at first, but start to fall apart after the player has had just enough time to get hooked. As a result, the pirated discs actually encourage people to buy the genuine software, the developers say.

The new protection system, called Fade, is being introduced by Macrovision, a company in Santa Clara, California, that specialises in digital rights management, and the British games developer Codemasters, based in Leamington Spa. It makes unauthorised copies of games slowly degrade, so that cars no long steer, guns cannot be aimed and footballs fly away into space. But by that time the player has become addicted to the game.

Fade exploits the systems for error correction that computers use to cope with CD-ROMs or DVDs that have become scratched. Software protected by Fade contains fragments of "subversive" code designed to seem like scratches. The bogus scratches are arranged on the disc in a subtle pattern that the game's master program looks for. If it finds them, the game plays as usual.

When someone tries to copy the disc on a PC, however, the error-correcting routines built into the computer attempt to fix the bogus scratches. When the copied disc is played, the master program then cannot find the pattern it is looking for, so it knows the disc is a copy.

Similar technology is being planned for Dvds as well wherein the movie stops playing after a key plot.

ZDNet India : IE bug lets fake sites look real

Malicious hackers frequently lure victims to convincing replicas of e-commerce sites such as eBay, where they're tricked into handing over financial and other private information. The method is said to be a key tool in credit card and identity theft.

Click here for a demonstration.

ZDNet India : AMD, Intel put antivirus tech into chips: "Advanced Micro Devices and Intel plan to soon release technology that will allow processors to stop many attacks before they occur."

Mailblocks Debuts New Free Web-Based Email Service at CES; Adds Innovative Features to Premium Services

Jan. 8, 2004--Mailblocks, Inc. today launched a free version of its Web-based email service and announced a host of new features for both its free and premium services, furthering its goal to provide the best consumer email experience possible.
Mailblocks helps consumers manage, protect and consolidate their email. Among the service's signature features are:

-- 100% elimination of spam with no false positives via Challenge/Response 2.0.

-- Consolidation and management of existing Yahoo! Mail, AOL, MSN, Hotmail and POP3 accounts into one universal inbox.

-- Email access from a super-fast, application-like Web interface or through desktop email applications.

-- Largest storage and attachment allowances at best pricing for consumers.

ZDNet India : Almost half of Kazaa downloads 'threaten security':
Around 45 percent of the files downloaded from Kazaa contained planted viruses, back doors and Trojans...

ZDNet India : The duel of the dual-layer DVD formats

One side of the ongoing recordable DVD format battle is expected to be first with products that nearly double the amount of data held on one disc. But that victory may not put an end to the feud.

The skirmish began a few years ago, when a group of companies did not like the recordable DVD technologies developed by the DVD Forum standards body. The DVD Forum approved formats called DVD-RAM and DVD-R, for write-once recording. Later, the DVD Forum added the DVD-RW rewritable standard for the ability to record, erase and record again on the same disc.

The dissident companies formed the DVD+RW Alliance, which put out its own technology for write-once and rewritable recording. As a result, seemingly countless recordable drives and disc media types are on the market, creating potential confusion for consumers. For example, a DVD-R/-RW drive cannot record on +R or +RW discs. In theory, discs that are recorded using +R, +RW, -R and -RW media all can be read by DVD players. But a recent government study found that DVDs and DVD drives are compatible only 85 percent of the time.

Net blackmailers scout for easy prey

London, Dec. 29 (Reuters): Cyber blackmail artists are shaking down office workers, threatening to delete computer files or install pornographic images on their work PCs unless they pay a ransom, police and security experts said.

The extortion scam, which is believed to have surfaced a year ago, indiscriminately targets anyone on the corporate ladder with a PC connected to the Internet.

It usually starts with a threatening e-mail in which the author claims to have the power to take over a worker’s computer through an exploit in the corporate network, experts said. The e-mail typically contains a demand that unless a small fee is paid — at first no more than $20 or $30 — they will attack the PC with a file-wiping programme or download onto the machine images of child pornography.

“They prey on the nice secretary who wouldn’t do anything wrong. When she gets one of these e-mails she thinks ‘Oh, my goodness what am I going to do?’ So she puts it on her credit card and transfers the funds to the (suspect’s online bank) account and hopes it goes away,” a British detective specialising in cyber-crime said.

The officer advised against cooperating with the fraudsters. “If a person pays up, say it’s just 20 euros, then they have identified a soft target. They may come back for more, next time demanding more money.”

In the annals of cyber-crime, investigators acknowledge the racket is one of the most difficult to crack. Because the ransom is small, people tend to pay up and keep quiet.

Police said the number of cases is tailing off but because it so often goes unreported, there is little evidence the crime is actually in decline.

According to Finnish computer security firm, F-Secure, a large Scandinavian university was hit earlier this month.

Several university officials received an e-mail from a fraudster who appeared to be based in Estonia, said F-Secure research manager Mikko Hypponen.

The e-mail said several security vulnerabilities had been detected on the university’s network and that unless the e-mail recipient transferred 20 euros ($25) to the author’s online bank account, he would release a series of viruses capable of deleting a host of computer files.

Hypponen said he advised the university to take the necessary precautions, alert police and not pay. “A lot of these cases are simply bluffing. But I’m sure there are both bluffs and actual cases,” said Hypponen. Police say crime gangs have turned cyber extortion into a tidy business of late.

A preferred tool is the crude, but effective denial-of-service attack on a company’s network, capable of crippling it with an overwhelming flood of data. There are scores of cases of companies — particularly small and medium-sized firms — receiving extortion threats that demand the victim transfer money to the fraudster’s bank account or the attacks will grow in severity, police said.

Fraudsters also send out streams of menacing e-mails with hollow threats of cyber sabotage. The scam works even if only a handful of the countless recipients follow through and pay up.

“It’s getting simpler,” said Hypponen. “If you wanted to extort money from a small company you would have had to hack them and convince them you have stolen their information. Here, you don’t have to do anything but send an e-mail around.”

The Telegraph - Archives

ZDNet India : Communication breakdown threatens VoIP in the U.S.:
"As cable and telephone companies begin offering Net telephony services to U.S. consumers in earnest, complications on the back end threaten to crimp cost savings for providers and ultimately dampen expectations for the much-hyped technology. "

Currently, about 11 percent of all phone calls use VoIP at some point in the connection, with some analysts forecasting a US$10 billion a year business for broadband providers selling a majority of the world's phone calls. Most of this VoIP shuttling takes place in delivering international calls, through IP network providers such as iBasis and ITXC. Calls are handed off to traditional circuit-switched networks at either end, but make long-distance jumps using cheaper packet switching, or IP, technology.