10 Reasons Why Windows 7-Based Tablets Won't Work...

With the HP Slate 500 now available for purchase, some are wondering if Windows 7 is an effective operating system for tablets. For its part, Microsoft believes it is. The company has said time and again that it believes Windows 7 is ideal for customers that want more out of tablets than what they're currently getting from devices such as Apple's iPad or Samsung's Galaxy Tab. 

However, Windows 7-based tablets just don't seem to be the best choice for customers. Microsoft's operating system suffers from some serious drawbacks that make it a less-than-ideal choice for both consumer and enterprise customers. As much as Microsoft might want to get behind its platform—as it should—the OS falls short in too many areas for it to be a real competitor to iOS or Android. 

Here are the reasosns why Windows 7-based tablets just won't work as expected. 

1. Tablets don't need full-fledged operating systems 

Apple has proven that tablets just don't need full-fledged operating systems to be a success. The company's iPad boasts iOS, which, by all accounts, is far less capable than are Mac OS X and Windows. Samsung's Galaxy Tab runs Android, which is also under-powered compared with desktop alternatives. So far, consumers—and even some enterprise customers—haven't taken issue with that, and they aren't likely to in the future. 

2. Security concerns 

Security is a major concern for IT staff whenever an employee leaves the office. At least for now, Android and iOS are most likely safer than Windows. They still allow users to be susceptible to phishing scams, but Windows-based malware won't affect those operating systems. That eliminates a significant portion of the security concerns both companies and consumers currently have with operating systems. 

3. Mouse and keyboard first 

Even with Windows 7 in tow, it's important to remember that Windows was designed for use a mouse and keyboard. As a result, it won't work as well as it should in a tablet-style device. Android and iOS, on the other hand, were designed with touch screens in mind. That's an important distinction, and it will help drive consumer interest in those platforms.

4. Apple matters most 

When it comes to tablets, it's hard to find a single company—Google included—that is as important as Apple. Steve Jobs and Apple were instrumental in bringing tablets to the mainstream. Apple's iPad is easily leading the way in the tablet space—at least so far. Could that change? Sure. But if that does change, it will no doubt be Google taking the top spot. Microsoft and Windows 7 just don't have what it takes to overcome Apple's importance in this niche market

5. Google is attracting vendors 

Speaking of Google, the company is doing a fine job of attracting vendors. In fact, it's expected that, in addition to Samsung's Galaxy Tab, products that run Android will arrive on the market in 2011 from LG, Acer, and other providers. Considering both Microsoft and Google are offering an operating system for vendors to include in their products, the companies are competing for the same development dollars. So far, at least, Google looks to be ahead. 

6. Tablets are an escape from Windows 

Don't underestimate that part of the allure of a tablet is that it's an escape from Windows. Devices such as the iPad or the Galaxy Tab allow consumers to bypass most of the security concerns, as well as all the quirks that make Windows so useful on desktops, but less useful on tablets. When it comes to tablets, consumers want to use products that are designed with those form factors in mind. And, to date, Apple and Google are doing the best job of delivering on that. 

7. There's a long history there 

Let's not forget that Microsoft has been heavily invested in the tablet space for years. Windows XP Tablet Edition is one of the more notable tablet offerings extant. Yet, it never caught on much beyond the enterprise. It wasn't until Apple offered the iPad that tablets officially became a product for mainstream users. If Microsoft hasn't had success in the past, what would make one think it can turn this around in the future? 

8. Enterprise-only? 

There is some debate over the viability of Windows 7-based tablets in the enterprise. On one hand, the operating system doesn't seem a good choice for companies that want a simple, intuitive experience for employees. However, Windows is heavily entrenched in the enterprise, and it's the operating system that employees know. It's hard to see Windows 7-based tablets becoming successful in the consumer market, but they might have a slight shot in the enterprise. Unfortunately for Microsoft, though, that won't be enough to take down Apple or Google. 

9. The “time and effort” question 

Running Windows 7 can be a pain. It is arguably one of the better operating systems Microsoft has released on the desktop, but it still requires constant attention from users regarding both security and general housekeeping. It's a robust operating system that doesn't offer the ease of use and simple upkeep that its competitors offer. That's not necessarily a problem on the desktop, where that kind of upkeep is expected, but it is a problem in the tablet space. 

10. Software considerations 

One of the key aspects of a tablet-based operating system is a healthy supply of simple third-party apps. Apple's App Store and Android Market are packed with mobile apps. But Microsoft's platform doesn't have a mobile app store, in that sense. Granted, Windows 7 boasts support for Windows programs, but is that what consumers are really looking for in a tablet? Some might say yes, but, when it's all said and done, one can easily argue that mobile apps will rule the day in the tablet space. 

In the case of tablets, Android seems to be the future of the business. Microsoft need to work hard to create a little space in the tablet market. 

How to Stop Bom Sabado Worm? Here is the way!

Everyone whose orkut account has been affected with the Sabado Worm, can use this simple trick to get out of this issue. People whose account is not yet affected, please follow the below steps to keep this worm away from your accounts.

The worm injects a hidden iframe containing a malicious javascript [do not click this] http: //tptools. org/ worm . js [do not click this], which steals the user cookie which contains the password in an encoded form. Even though the attacker does not get to know your password, they can login to your account using your credentials by impersonating the cookie to fool the identification system. 

So a trivial solution is to diable javascript, another solution is to disable iframes or u can take an advanced measure by blocking the domain http : // tptools . org / by editing your hosts file and redirecting it to a safe address, say 127.0.0.1 go to C:>windows>system32>driversetc There is a file named %u2018hosts%u2019. It is a read-only file. Go to it's properties and un-check the read-only option and edit it with you favourite editor. add this line at the end of it 127.0.0.1 tptools.org save it. and then restart your network interface. ( in simple words, just reconnect your internet connection ). Bingo!! the worm%u2019ll became useless!!!! 

Orkut is attached by Bom Sabado Worm!!!

In a major XSS (cross-site scripting) attack this week, Google owned Orkut was flooded with "Bom Sabado" scraps.

The word "Bom Sabado" means "Good Saturday" in Portuguese, which is the also the official language of Brazil, one of the last remaining Orkut bastions in the world.

The worm seems to be posting scraps with the text "Bom Sabado" and also adding affected users to new Orkut groups. Such XSS attacks have targeted Orkut in the past too.

Experts have advised users to avoid logging on to Orkut till Orkut engineers fix the hole and also not to click on any suspicious links. Orkut had just last month announced new updates to the website.

Earlier this week, the popular microblogging website Twitter was also at the receiving end of an XSS exploit. The attack, which emerged and was shut down within hours Tuesday morning, involved a XSS flaw that allowed users to run JavaScript programs on other computers.

Earlier on Sep 2010, the most popular social networking hub with more than 500 million users, Facebook, also faced networking glitches due to an outside technical problem. It was Facebook's most tragic outrage in its history.

Here you have' e-mail worm hits corporate world!!

A new virus based in e-mails with the subject line "Here You have" began running rampant Thursday, hitting corporate America hard.

So far, the virus has already been sighted at ABC/Disney, Google, Coca Cola and NASA, several individuals with knowledge of the situation told. Comcast was forced to shut down its e-mail servers entirely after being hit, a spokesperson said on Twitter.

E-mails that carry the virus contain a link that encourages readers to click on a PDF document file. But rather than a PDF, the file  contains a Windows script that transmits a virus and spams the entire contact list of the person who opened the file.

The worm is similar to the ILoveYou and Anna Kournikova worms, which spread in 2000 and 2001, and is a type of malware that has not been a major problem since around 2002, according to David Cowings, a senior manager with Symantec Security Response. "It looks like we've had a resurgence of mass-mailing worms," he said.

This latest worm seems to do nothing more than send itself out, using the victim's contact list. Cowings said "It appears to be mailing itself to all of the mailing lists that are in someone's contacts. It may also go to individuals," he said. The worm appeared to be affecting Outlook e-mail users, but it's not clear if it is also affecting users of other mail programs.

The body of the e-mail typically says something like, "Hello... this is the document I told you about, you can find it here." Because the worm is spreading via contact lists, the e-mail often comes from someone the victim knows.

A note posted on the McAfee site Thursday afternoon said: "It looks like multiple variants may be spreading and may take some time to work through them all to paint a clearer picture."

New application measures mobile phone radiation

AN Israeli company has developed software that monitors a mobile phone's radiation levels and alerts the user if the levels becomes excessive.

Tawkon (pronounced talk-on) said the aim was to reduce a phone user's exposure to emissions without having to give up their phone.

Tawkon's application is already available for Research In Motion's BlackBerry handsets and will be launched for Google's Android-based phones and Nokia's Symbian later this year.



"We are the first solution that can be downloaded to a phone," Tawkon co-founder and CEO Gil Friedlander told Reuters. Until now radiation emissions were measured with an external device.

In many countries handset manufacturers must disclose the maximum level of radiation emitted and similar legisation is starting to appear in the United States, Friedlander said.

The application monitors the phone user and if radiation levels reach a certain threshold called the "red zone" an alert is emitted along with suggestions to minimise exposure.

"There are simple things you can do such as changing the phone's position from horizontal to vertical," Friedlander said.

On many phones the antenna is on the bottom and often covered by the user's hand, causing the phone to emit more radiation. Connecting an ear piece or switching on speakerphone will reduce radiation exposure. In addition, Tawkon is connected to GPS and the software will show users where to move to reach a "green zone" and reduce exposure.

"We don't want people to stop using phones but to use them more responsibly," the Canadian-born Friedlander, 44, said.

Tawkon initially targeted its software for the iPhone, but said Apple rejected it in March for sale in its App store.

"The media picked up on it... and a week later I got a phone call from Apple saying they wanted to talk with us. They are trying to see how they can get it into their App store," Friedlander said.

Friedlander would not disclose how many users Tawkon has but said every three days the number of downloads doubles.

San Francisco became the first US city to pass a law requiring retailers to post radiation levels on cell phones and Friedlander said he believes Tawkon will benefit from this increased awareness. It will launch its application for phones based on Google's Android software in San Francisco in a month.

"It will take a few years until research (on the health effects of cell phone radiation) will be more conclusive," Friedlander said. "A lot of regulatory bodies are concerned this will be too late for a whole generation. To take precautionary measures is the right thing to do."

A Strong Password Isn't The Strongest Security

Make your password strong, with a unique jumble of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. But memorize it, never write it down. And, oh yes, change it every few months. These instructions are supposed to protect us. But they don’t!

Some computer security experts are advancing the heretical thought that passwords might not need to be “strong,” or changed constantly. They say onerous requirements for passwords have given us a false sense of protection against potential attacks. In fact, they say, we aren’t paying enough attention to more potent threats.

Here’s one threat to keep you awake at night: Keylogging software, which is deposited on a PC by a virus, records all keystrokes — including the strongest passwords you can concoct — and then sends it surreptitiously to a remote location.

“Keeping a keylogger off your machine is about a trillion times more important than the strength of any one of your passwords,” says Cormac Herley, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research who specializes in security-related topics. He said antivirus software could detect and block many kinds of keyloggers, but “there’s no guarantee that it gets everything.”

After investigating password requirements in a variety of settings, Mr. Herley is critical not of users but of system administrators who aren’t paying enough attention to the inconvenience of making people comply with arcane rules. “It is not users who need to be better educated on the risks of various attacks, but the security community,” he said at a meeting of security professionals, the New Security Paradigms Workshop, at Queen’s College in Oxford, England. “Security advice simply offers a bad cost-benefit tradeoff to users.”

One might guess that heavily trafficked Web sites — especially those that provide access to users’ financial information — would have requirements for strong passwords. But it turns out that password policies of many such sites are among the most relaxed. These sites don’t publicly discuss security breaches, but Mr. Herley said it “isn’t plausible” that these sites would use such policies if their users weren’t adequately protected from attacks by those who do not know the password.

Mr. Herley, working with Dinei Florêncio, also at Microsoft Research, looked at the password policies of 75 Web sites. At the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, held in July in Redmond, Wash., they reported that the sites that allowed relatively weak passwords were busy commercial destinations, including PayPal, Amazon.com and Fidelity Investments. The sites that insisted on very complex passwords were mostly government and university sites. What accounts for the difference? They suggest that “when the voices that advocate for usability are absent or weak, security measures become needlessly restrictive.”

Donald A. Norman, a co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, a design consulting firm in Fremont, Calif., makes a similar case. In “When Security Gets in the Way,” an essay published last year, he noted the password rules of Northwestern University, where he then taught. It was a daunting list of 15 requirements. He said unreasonable rules can end up rendering a system less secure: users end up writing down passwords and storing them in places that can be readily discovered.

“These requirements keep out the good guys without deterring the bad guys,” he said.

Northwestern has reduced its password requirements to eight, but they still constitute a challenging maze. For example, the password can’t have more than four sequential characters from the previous seven passwords, and a new password is required every 120 days.

By contrast, Amazon has only one requirement: that the password be at least six characters. That’s it. And hold on to it as long as you like.

A short password wouldn’t work well if an attacker could try every possible combination in quick succession. But as Mr. Herley and Mr. Florêncio note, commercial sites can block “brute-force attacks” by locking an account after a given number of failed log-in attempts. “If an account is locked for 24 hours after three unsuccessful attempts,” they write, “a six-digit PIN can withstand 100 years of sustained attack.”

Roger A. Safian, a senior data security analyst at Northwestern, says that unlike Amazon, the university is unfortunately vulnerable to brute-force attacks in that it doesn’t lock out accounts after failed log-ins. The reason, he says, is that anyone could use a lockout policy to try logging in to a victim’s account, “knowing that you won’t succeed, but also knowing that the victim won’t be able to use the account, either.” (Such thoughts may occur to a student facing an unwelcome exam, who could block a professor from preparations.)

Very short passwords, taken directly from the dictionary, would be permitted in a password system that Mr. Herley and Stuart Schechter at Microsoft Research developed with Michael Mitzenmacher at Harvard.

At the Usenix Workshop on Hot Topics in Security conference, held last month in Washington, the three suggested that Web sites with tens or hundreds of millions of users, could let users choose any password they liked — as long as only a tiny percentage selected the same one. That would render a list of most often used passwords useless: by limiting a single password to, say, 100 users among 10 million, the odds of an attacker getting lucky on one attempt per account are astronomically long, Mr. Herley explained in a conversation last month.

Mr. Herley said the proposed system hadn’t been tested and that users might become frustrated in trying to select a password that was no longer available. But he said he believed an anything-is-permitted password system would be welcomed by users sick of being told, “Eat your broccoli; a strong password is good for security.”

Google updates its privacy policy!

Google has relooked and renewed its privacy policy after the settlement of privacy lawsuit over its Buzz. The users are warned with new privacy policy when they visit the Gmail website.  The company faced the lawsuit due to disclosure of private information including all contacts of Gmail.


“Long, complicated and lawyerly—that’s what most people think about privacy policies, and for good reason. Even taking into account that they’re legal documents, most privacy policies are still too hard to understand,” Associate General Counsel, Mike Yang, said in the Google’s official blog.

He further said that Google is not changing anything with regards to policy. He indicated that only thing that will be changed is the wording of the language.  “So we’re simplifying and updating Google’s privacy policies. To be clear, we aren’t changing any of our privacy practices; we want to make our policies more transparent and understandable,” he further said.

Google is going to delete 12 product-specific policies because of the duplication with Google main policy. In simple words, any policy that is being covered by both Google’s main policy and product specific privacy policy will be removed from product’s privacy policy.  Google is also updating the main privacy policy by “cutting down the parts that are redundant”.  The new privacy policy will be effective from October 3.

Gmail: The Bug That Turned Email into Spam is fixed!

Google has fixed a bug with Gmail. The bug caused some of its accounts to repeatedly send email messages over and over.

The bug affected less than 2.5 percent of the Gmail users. It involved odd behavior including the repeated messages. 

The bug was resolved Thursday night, according to Google's Google Apps dashboard.

"The problem with Google Mail should be resolved," Google's tech support staff wrote. "We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better."

MrEvan, a Google employee, also added his own apologies. "Thank you again for the patience you have shown, and sincerest apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you," he wrote. "I too have friends and professional contacts and absolutely understand the value of those relationships and how it could be very frustrating to have bothered some of those folks unintentionally. While I can't take the messages back with some sort of magical Undo Send, I totally sympathize with your situation. Please understand that the Gmail Team has worked tirelessly to investigate this issue and get it solved for you. Your reports were very helpful in our investigation."

At a press conference announcing the integration of Google Voice and Gmail this week, Google executives were asked about the number of Gmail users. Executives declined to provide an exact number, although comScore numbers cited by The Wall Street Journal put the number at over 160 million, putting the maximum number of users affected by the bug at about 4 million users.

Fake 'Dislike' button spreads across Facebook

Social networking website Facebook, which offers its subscribers a "like" button for anyone's updates, is now faced with a fake "dislike" button, which is spreading like a virus across the site.

The fake dislike button is followed with a link that takes people to a fake application. Instead of installing a dislike button, the application uses the person's network to continue spreading the fake program.

Graham Cluley of the British security firm Sophos wrote in a blog that the fake dislike buttons "are going viral" on Facebook.

"Watch out for posts that look like this: I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts!" CNN quoted Cluley as writing in the blog.

"If you do give the application permission to run, it silently updates your Facebook status to promote the link that tricked you in the first place, thus spreading the message virally to your Facebook friends and online contacts," he wrote.

A message on technology blog Mashable said: "As usual, we advise you not to click on suspicious links on Facebook, especially if they promise something that sounds impossible or unlikely. Do not give away your personal information, unless you're absolutely sure why and who you're giving it to."

Cluley said the fake dislike button is part of a recent trend of Facebook scams. "It's the latest survey scam spreading virally across Facebook, using the tried-and-tested formula used in the past by other viral scams."

Such schemes are designed to steal information from internet users. That information then can be sold to other parties. The scams are also used to affect an internet user's social network contacts.

The experts give the following advice to avoid the fake button: "If you accidentally installed the fake application, click on the 'account' button at the top right of the Facebook home screen. Navigate to the option that says 'application settings' and disable the fake 'dislike' application."

"If the application is posted to your Facebook wall, go to your profile page and delete those posts to stop the scam from spreading further."

Facebook has said it is trying to block the "dislike" button.

"We're working hard to block and remove malicious applications that claim to provide dislike functionality and inadvertently update people's statuses," a Facebook spokesman said.

"There is no official dislike button. Also, don't click on strange links, even if they are from friends, and notify the person and report the link if you see something suspicious," the statement said.

Oracle Vs Google: and The Winner is Microsoft!!!

Oracle's suit against Google has one clear winner: Microsoft. With Google's Android tied up in litigation, and Oracle becoming the latest villain in the open source community, Microsoft has a chance to make inroads in the mobile market and elsewhere.

Oracle is suing Google, claiming that Android infringes on Oracle copyrights and patents that are related to Java. Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said in a statement:

"In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement."

Google begs to differ. Android doesn't use Java in Android, but instead a Java compatible technology called Dalvik. Google claims the Oracle suit is "baseless," and will fight it.

No matter what happens with the suit, though, it hurts Google, and helps Microsoft at a time when Microsoft is particularly vulnerable in mobile. Android use has skyrocketed, jumping to 17.2% market share today compared to 1.8% a year ago. Meanwhile, Windows Mobile has become practically a footnote in mobile, dropping to 5% of the market.

Android's success has been fueled by the large number of phone makers building smartphones based on it. Those phone makers, though, may be scared away by this suit. IDC analyst Al Hilwa told Computerworld:

"This is a typical intellectual property value defense lawsuit, but it can have serious consequences on the Android market and its adoption by OEMs."

Those OEMs could easily turn to Windows Phone 7 when it ships this holiday season, helping Microsoft increase its market share.

Microsoft can also be helped because Oracle will now become public enemy number one in the open source community, rather than Microsoft. This suit could mean very big trouble for the open source community, because they could be in Oracle's cross-hairs next. And unlike Google, most of the open source community doesn't have deep pockets to pay for lawyers to defend them. He writes:

"If I were Google or any other company that has shipped Java spins-offs, I'd be worried. I have a sinking feeling that patent cases, such as this one, are going to be far more troublesome for Linux and open source than any of the bogus SCO copyright claims were...This does not bode well for free and open-source software."

Via its acquisition of Sun, Oracle owns quite a bit of open source software, including MySQL and OpenOffice. Those both compete against Microsoft software. It may be that Oracle's Google suit will chase people away from using the company's open source software, and if so, it could mean an increase in market share for Microsoft.

What I personally thing is that Friday the 13th didn't turn out to be a good one for Google, but it may well be good luck for Microsoft.

Android: Is Google Voice Actions before the time???

Google Voice actions is a “cool” new feature for Android (Froyo 2.2). With this new feature you are able to tell your phone what to do, with just your voice. How about some of these examples:

1) “send text to bob hey are you coming for lunch or what?”
2) “note to self don’t forget our anniversary”
3) “listen to bob marley”
4) “call the hot tub factory”

Pretty cool stuff — everything just works the way you would expect. Kind of. The feature is awesome, but after all is said and done, I think there may still be a few issues that need to be worked out before people can effectively make use of this.

The biggest problem with things like this is that people don’t know how to talk to computers yet. What do I mean by that? Well, if you look at a similar problem, searching the web, you will notice that talking to a search engine and your buddy across the cubicle wall is completely different.

In real life, the more detailed your question is, the better your answer is. But when talking to a computer, the more detailed your question is, the worse you answer is — people have learned how to use keywords to get the best results.

The same is true with voice actions — when talking to a human, the more detailed your “command” is, the better your results. If you make any kind of detailed call to action for a computer, you will get worse than bad results. The problem is that people don’t know how to effectively use keywords in every day speech.

When a user attempts to use a keyword, they end up having to think — people get frustrated when they have to think when they speak. Speaking is supposed to be effortless — and if the recipient of a message doesn’t understand, it’s job is to clarify. Currently, there is no “clarify” option when talking to your phone, and therefore, it’s really tough to formulate an accurate command on the fly, until you have practiced a lot.

So, if practice makes it workable, then why is that an issue? People lose interest when it’s easy to fail — and right now, it’s really easy to fail. This feature isn’t much different from other stuff already on the market, but hopefully in later versions, I will be able to say stuff like:

1) “uh, can you get collin on the line?”
2) “send a text to uhh… tony that says i’m… umm… out of the office and…. …. … not to bother trying to call me until tomorrow”
3) “what’s that band playing at GM Place… err, I mean the cube tonight?”

People don’t formulate perfect sentences when they speak naturally — but computers currently expect it. I’ll be interested to see what this type of technology works like in 5 years — but as of right now, I dont’ care for it. I used it once, and it failed — I’m done.

Oracle sues Google over Android!

Oracle Corp sued Google Inc, alleging patent and copyright infringement in the development of the popular Android smartphone software.

The suit, filed on Thursday in California federal court, claims that Google "knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property" in developing Android, Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said in a statement. "This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies."

Oracle acquired Java through its $ 5.6 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems earlier this year. Analysts said the suit against Google could signal that Oracle intends to be more aggressive in seeking licensees for Java, a technology that is used in many types of Internet-based products.

Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison has said he views the Java software as a key asset, pointing to its use in a variety of electronic devices, from PCs to DVD players.

"Sun's corporate philosophy was obviously very different from Oracle's in terms of enforcing the Java patents," said Edward Reines, an IP litigator at Weil Gotshall who is involved in separate patent litigation against Oracle.

A Google spokesman said he could not comment on the lawsuit as the company had not had a chance to review it yet.

Analysts say Google's Android operating system uses portions of Java technology.

About 200,000 smartphones and other devices based on the Android operating system are sold each day, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said at an August 4 conference.

The case is Oracle of America Inc v Google Inc, in US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Orkut changes it's appearance!

Since past couple of weeks Orkut is undergoing minor changes whcih people didn't much notice. But, finally they made it visible to all the users. The Orkut face has changed! They have introduced new appearance to Orkut. They changed the layout to an extend and added an easy access for your favorite application. 

Now you can choose to send a private scrap to a friend. On the new orkut, before posting a scrap, just change its visibility to "private", and that scrap will remain visible only to you and the person receiving the scrap, so it stays completely secret. 

Orkut has made it absolutely clear who else can see the content you’re looking at on orkut. Every scrap (as well as photos, videos, etc) will now have a privacy label, so you can easily tell who else can see it. These are exactly the same as the privacy levels that we already had on photos: private, friends and public. 

Orkut has become a secure place than before. Here you can have a private conversation with your friend via scrap and noone is gonna peep into that. 

I am relaxed now as I don't worry about my private scraps being expossed to whole the world!

Facebook Bug: Decreases the Fan Counts!

Over the past few days many Facebook Page administrators have noticed their fan counts decreasing. If you’ve seen this happen, you are not alone. Facebook does not response on the issue, which means there is probably a bug which needs to be fixed. Unfortunately there hasn’t been any clarifications from Facebook, but don’t worry as many other people have noticed similar issues.

We watched our Facebook Page increasing in popularity earlier this week, however starting three days ago, the number of fans we have has decreased by over 400. Initially I thought that there had been a temporary surge in fans which was followed by a random mass “unfanning”, something that has never happen before. Even the top Facebook Pages, like Michael Jackson, have seen their fans decreasing.

So what on earth is going on? We have no idea to be honest but rather than not posting about the issue, we’ve decided to make it known that this issue appears to be happening to the vast majority of Facebook Pages. Don’t worry though, your fans should all be intact. We’ll definitely be sure to update this Page once we receive any information from Facebook, who has so far been quiet about the problem.

Facebook addresses this issue with the following statement: “There was a bug that caused an accounting error for the number of people who like a Page. We are working hard to fix this bug and restore the counts as quickly as possible. No fans or data was lost, and news feed distribution has not been affected.”

Microsoft to Fix 34 Vulnerabilities in Windows, Office and IE

Microsoft plans  to plug no less than 34 security holes in Windows, office and Internet Explorer come June 8th, 2010. The move is part of the company’s monthly patch cycle scheduled for release on patch-Tuesday, the second Tuesday of every month. There will be a total of 10 security bulletins as a part of the June update release, three of which carry the maximum severity rating of Critical, meaning that they are designed to patch vulnerabilities, which, in the eventuality of a successful exploit could allow attackers to perform remote code execution on a vulnerable system.

“Six of the bulletins affect Windows; of those, two carry a Critical severity rating and four are rated Important. Two bulletins, both with a severity rating of Important, affect Microsoft Office. One bulletin, again with a severity rating of Important, affects both Windows and Office. One bulletin, with a severity rating of Critical, affects Internet Explorer,” revealed Jerry Bryant, group manager, Response Communications.

According to information offered by Microsoft, Windows 7 users will need to deploy no less than seven security bulletins, three of which critical, if the IE patches are also taken into consideration. However, the Redmond will not be providing any patches for Office 2010. Released to manufacturing in April 2010, Office 2010 is not affected by any of the vulnerabilities resolved with the June security bulletin release, otherwise, the software giant would have also released updates for Office 2007’s successor.

“As ever, we recommend that customers prepare for the testing and deployment of these bulletins as soon as possible. We will also be acting on two Security Advisories this month. We are closing Security Advisory 983438 (Vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint Could Allow Elevation of Privilege) with the June bulletins. We are also addressing Security Advisory 980088 (Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Information Disclosure),” Bryant added.

Electronic Clearing System of the Income Tax Department, India hacked: Hacker Diverted around Rs 15 crore

The Electronic Clearing System (ECS) of the Income Tax (I-T) Department has been hacked into, jeopardising the functioning of department across Mumbai. On Wednesday, three days after the incident, the I-T department handed over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Sources revealed that the ECS of the I-T department, which facilitates tax refunds of Mumbaikars has been hacked into. It is believed, the hacker also managed to divert crores of rupees from the system. Following this incident, the entire system that processes income tax payment has been shut down since Monday. To prevent further damage, the department has now changed the passwords of all the senior officers with access to the ECS.

Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, R K Singh confirmed the report, stating, “The matter has been transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).”

According to I-T sources, the incident came to light last week when an additional commissioner level officer discovered unauthorised remittance made from his section. The officer informed his seniors about it and investigations revealed the ECS had been hacked into.

“It seems that more than Rs 15 crore has been siphoned off from the ECS. Investigations are on to ascertain the total amount,” an officer from the I-T Department said requesting anonymity.

ECS system of the I-T was launched recently to clear the refunds of taxpayers in bulk and cut down the tedious paperwork. Sources said that the department has cleared the refunds of one lakh more assesses in a short span of a month through ECS.

“The remittance was made by computers. Now, to check the source and officer who has cleared the refunds, one has to manually go through the entire process which will take a really long time,” said an assessing officer from the I-T department.

In a parallel inquiry, the investigation wing of the I-T is also on a trail of bogus PAN cardholders. Sources said a businessman from suburban Mumbai had filed an income tax return with the help of bogus PAN card. The I-T official got suspicious and found that the card was made in the name of two boys. I-T officials interrogated the boys who revealed that they never applied for any PAN card.

Further inquiries revealed that their father’s employers had managed the fake PAN cards in the name of boys. The I-T officials then approached the local police, but police refused to register the offence. Inquiries are still on in the matter.

I-T payment system has been shut down since Monday following the incident

China tried to hack India's computers: NSA

Chinese hackers have tried to penetrate computers in the offices of National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, a British paper on Monday quoted him as saying.

Narayanan said his office and other Government departments were targeted on December 15, the same date that US defence, finance and technology companies, including Google, reported cyber attacks from China.

"This was not the first instance of an attempt to hack into our computers," Narayanan told The Times in an interview, adding the would-be hackers sent an e-mail with a PDF attachment containing a Trojan virus.

The virus, which allows hackers to download or delete files, was detected and officials were told not to log on until it was eliminated, Narayanan said.

"People seem to be fairly sure it was the Chinese. It is difficult to find the exact source but this is the main suspicion. It seems well founded," he told The Times, adding that India was cooperating with the US and Britain to bolster its cyber defences.

The Chinese government has denied any role in the attacks, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying: "Hacking in whatever form is prohibited by law in China."

Narayanan said that while he expected China to be an increasingly high security priority for India, the main threat still came from militants based in Pakistan.

He said Islamabad had done nothing to dismantle militant groups since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and criticised Britain for accepting its excuse that such groups were beyond its control.

"The British are still blinkered on this. We believe Pakistan's policy of using terror as a policy weapon remains," Narayanan said, adding India is anxious to prevent an attack from Pakistan during the Commonwealth Games in October.

"From Pakistan's point of view, it's important to disrupt the Games so you can claim that India is not a safe place," Narayanan said

Gmail down for an hour!!!

A majority of Google mail users were unable to access the service on Tuesday afternoon, in a rare widespread outage of the popular Gmail service.

Google said at 5:37 pm ET that it fixed the problem but was still investigating the cause of the outage, which lasted for over an hour.

Users around the world appeared to be affected, with people from England, Italy, Singapore and South Africa reporting problems on the company's support site.

The outage comes as Google attempts to compete with Microsoft Corp. and IBM to expand its service among business users, who are likely to be less tolerant of long outages. Gmail already competes with Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo's Web-based e-mail.

"Anyone thinking of migrating over to Google mail for business might want to think again! It's so annoying - free or otherwise!" one user wrote on the support site Tuesday.

Google offers its email service for free and also sells a version to businesses with extra features and technical support for $50 per user per year.

The fear of outages, in addition to security concerns, has been a reason many businesses are wary of adopting "cloud computing" technologies being offered by Google as well as Salesforce.com and Amazon.com, which help deliver data and services over the Internet

Microsoft confirmed another zero-day vulnerability!!!

Microsoft confirmed another zero-day vulnerability on Monday in a set of software components that ship in a wide variety of the company's products.

The vulnerability resides in Microsoft's Office Web Components, which are used for publishing spreadsheets, charts and databases to the Web, among other functions. The company is working on a patch but did not indicate when it would be released, according to an advisory.
"Specifically, the vulnerability exists in the Spreadsheet ActiveX control and while we've only seen limited attacks, if exploited successfully, an attacker could gain the same user rights as the local user," wrote Dave Forstrom, a group manager who is part of Microsoft's Security Response Center, in a blog post.

An ActiveX control is a small add-on program that works in a Web browser to facilitate functions such as downloading programs or security updates. Over the years, however, the controls have been prone to vulnerabilities.
The new flaw comes just a day before the company is set to release its monthly patches, including one for another zero-day vulnerability revealed earlier this month. That problem lies with the Video ActiveX control within Internet Explorer and is currently being used by hackers in drive-by download attempts.

In cases of especially dangerous vulnerabilities, Microsoft has deviated from its patching schedule and issued one out of cycle.

Microsoft said that the flaw could allow an attacker to execute code remotely on a machine if someone using Internet Explorer visits a malicious Web site, a hacking technique known as a drive-by download. Web sites that host user-provided content or advertisements could be rigged to take advantage of the vulnerability.

"In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these Web sites," the advisory said. "Instead, an attacker would have to persuade users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker's Web site."

Microsoft issued a list of affected software, which includes Office XP Service Pack 3, 2003 Service Pack 3, several versions of Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Office Small Business Accounting 2006, among others.

Until a patch is ready, Microsoft said one option for administrators is to disable Office Web Components from running in Internet Explorer and has provided instructions.

Why do people write viruses???

Every time when reports of a big new virus or other malware attack hits media, my mind will be out for an answer for the question: Why do people write viruses?

I answer as succinctly as I can, but the question is a deep and complex one. Why do people burglarize homes? Why do people tag buildings with graffiti? Why do they post anonymous hatred on online message boards? Why do they play video games? These questions may sound like they have nothing to do with one another, but you might be surprised how their answers are all related to the topic at hand.

TechRepublic offered an interesting analysis of this issue a month ago but it slipped by me. Fortunately I stumbled upon it this weekend and hope you'll give it a read in order to help shed a little light on a surprisingly complex issue.

So why do people write viruses (and I'll use that term loosely throughout this post as a descriptive for any kind of malware)?

TechRepublic plays it down a bit, but my #1 answer to the question is always the obvious one: For the money. In the old days, a virus designed to erase your hard drive or fill your computer screen with garbage was just a prank (more on that later) but those viruses are quite rare these days. Nowadays, the vast majority of viruses have far more practical ends: They make your PC send spam, they harvest financial information, turn computers into zombies, and extort money out of you directly if you want it deleted. All of these have direct and quantifiable financial goals: Spam is paid for by the message (or the millions of messages) sent. Personal data can be sold on the black market for use in identity theft. It's business, pure and simple -- bad business, to be sure, but all about the cash at the end of the day.

Several of the items on the TechRepublic list get at a secondary reason for virus-writing: They do it because they can. It's the same reason people jump out of planes or drive at insane speeds: It's a thrill, and for a certain subset of programmers, there's a thrill, a laugh, or a power-trip to be had from causing as much damage as possible -- and getting away with it. While most virus writers don't want attention (which can bring serious prison time in the end), a few do, and some underground hackers get off on the notoriety.

Sabotage -- whatever the motivation -- is another common theme in malware creation. Any political issue -- whether it's a presidential election or a Microsoft vs. open source legal spat -- tends to be ground zero for hacker attacks. Denial of service attacks are commonly launched against websites owned by those with opinions unpopular in the hacker community. And that's where your machine comes in: Hackers compromise it with malware to turn it into a DoS zombie.

So, getting the picture? Viruses and other malware are going to be with us forever because they're a digital version of human nature.