Great news by the week 27/09/2013 - Fromrum Friday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing great. Welcome to my blog on this nice Friday evening! :)



Tonight I am sharing with you all some great techy news from this week. If you missed any of these cool articles, go ahead and check them out! :)

How do I maximize security for XP even after support ends?

In MBAM and SuperAntiSpyware you have made two excellent choices. While OnlineArmor Firewall (OAF) is powerful it clashes with many other programs. Years ago I found that out the hard way - I was using Avast Free Anti-virus and I added OnlineArmor Firewall and that crashed my system.

I am going to quote the obviously biased manufacturers ...Read More

Hackers crack major data firms, sell info to ID thieves, says report

An illegal service that sells personal data "on any U.S. resident" -- which can then be used for identity theft -- hacked into servers at several major data aggregators including LexisNexis and Dun & Bradstreet, according to a report.

The service's customers have, the report said, "spent hundreds of thousands of dollars looking up SSNs, birthdays, driver's license records, and obtaining unauthorized credit and background reports on more than 4 million Americans."

In an article Wednesday, former Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs, who now writes the KrebsOnSecurity blog, outlined how a site called Expose.su managed earlier this year to post financial information on celebrities and government officials.

The site's activities triggered an FBI investigation, in part because...Read More

Do you think kids should have cell phones?

"You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something."

This, as famed psychologist Louis C.K. explained to Conan O'Brien, is one of the reasons he doesn't want his girls to have cell phones.

Cell phones, he believes, are taking away "the ability to just sit there."

Underneath everything, you see, there's the knowledge that it's all for nothing and you're alone. Cell phones try to make you pretend that you can be in contact with someone all the time....Read More

Valve's Steam Machine prototype to ship early to 300 lucky players

On the heels of its SteamOS announcement, Valve has confirmed the existence of its living room PC hardware called Steam Machines. To test its early prototype, Valve is giving out 300 machines to eligible Steam users who apply for its beta test.

As for the final Steam Machines, "We want you to be able to choose the hardware that makes sense for you, so we are working with multiple partners to bring a variety of Steam gaming machines to market during 2014,...Read More

Chinese APT Espionage campaign, dubbed 'Icefog' targeted Military contractors and Governments

Kaspersky Lab has identified another Chinese APT campaign, dubbed ‘Icefog’, who targeted Governmental institutions, Military contractors, maritime / shipbuilding groups, telecom operators, industrial and high technology companies and mass media.

The Hacking group behind the attack who carry out surgical hit and run operations, is an advanced persistent threat (APT) group, used a backdoor dubbed Icefog that worked across Windows and Mac OS X to gain access to systems.
"The Mac OS X backdoor currently remains largely undetected by security solutions and has managed to infect several hundred victims worldwide," the report (PDF) said.

This China-based campaign is almost two years old and follows the pattern of similar APT-style attacks where victims are compromised via a malicious attachment in a spear-phishing email, or are lured to a compromised website and infected with malware....Read More

Hope you find them interesting. Send me your suggestions: suggestions4blog@gmail.com and comments: comment4blog@gmail.com
Hope to see you soon again. Good night! :)

ATM hacker Barnaby Jack dies [Content Repost] CNET - Tech Tuesday

Hey all my dear readers! I hope you all are doing great! :D



Welcome to my blog on this Tech Tuesday. I was thinking about posting the Firewall configuration tutorial. But it's not yet read, so you guys will have to wait a little more. In the mean time, I wanted to share this CNET article which I read yesterday.

The Original CNET article is here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57595776-83/atm-hacker-barnaby-jack-dies/

---Original Article starts here---

The security researcher, who was expected to demonstrate newly-discovered pacemaker vulnerabilities at Black Hat next week, made headlines in 2010 when he hacked an ATM in front of an audience.

The computer-security community is in mourning following news that superstar hacker Barnaby Jack died on Thursday. The San Francisco resident was 35 years old.

The New Zealand native was the director of embedded device security at IOActive, a Seattle-based security evaluation company. He rose to prominence beyond the hacker community in 2010 when he demonstrated what he called "jackpotting" an ATM. He dragged two ATMs on-stage in front of a rapt audience, and then forced them to spew fake cash into the air.



The demonstration had been highly anticipated, delayed by a year after an ATM vendor pressured his then-employer to pull the talk from the Black Hat schedule.

Jack was scheduled to give another highly anticipated Black Hat presentation at the conference this coming Wednesday on how to hack defibrillators and pacemakers. He had apparently figured out a way to deliver a lethal high-voltage shock from 50 feet away via a compromised pacemaker.

IOActive said in a statement, "Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby Jack has passed. He was a master hacker and dear friend. Here's to you Barnes!"

His research had a substantial impact. ATM vendors and banks attempted to assuage hacking concerns after Jack's demo, and insulin pump manufacturer Medtronic changed their designs after Jack disclosed how to hack them.

The cause of his death has not been made public. Reuters is reporting that he was found on Thursday evening at a Nob Hill apartment, and that the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office is conducting an autopsy. Murder is not suspected as the cause of death.



---The Original Article ends here---

I know you guys think hackers to be computer wizards who are thieves, but it is not the case. It's the black hat hacker who does that. A white hat hacker helps demonstrating security flaws so that they can be corrected. So try to think differently next time you come across the word hacker. Barnbay Jack was star in the community, and let's pray for his soul's peace!

Good day friends. I will come up with the Windows Firewall config tutorial soon! :) Stay tuned!

Funny and Cool Pics 27/07/2013 - From Social Network

Hey all! Welcome once again to my blog! :D I hope you all are doing great. Bringing to you another enjoyable post! :D



I found more cool pics from Facebook/Twitter! :) Enjoy them! :D

Google Cleaning for 2013 - Fromrum Friday

Hey all! I hope you all are having a great Friday! :) Welcome to my blog on this Fromrum Friday! :D

Straight from Google's Blog

I am copying this content directly from the official google blog(Original article here). You all must take a look at the big changes coming in this year.

A second spring of cleaning
(Posted: Wednesday, March 13, 2013)

We’re living in a new kind of computing environment. Everyone has a device, sometimes multiple devices. It’s been a long time since we have had this rate of change—it probably hasn’t happened since the birth of personal computing 40 years ago. To make the most of these opportunities, we need to focus—otherwise we spread ourselves too thin and lack impact. So today we’re announcing some more closures, bringing the total to 70 features or services closed since our spring cleaning began in 2011:

• Apps Script will be deprecating the GUI Builder and five UiApp widgets in order to focus efforts on Html Service. The rest of the Ui Service will not be affected. The GUI Builder will continue to be available until September 16, 2013. For more information see our post on the Google Apps Developer Blog.
• CalDAV API will become available for whitelisted developers, and will be shut down for other developers on September 16, 2013. Most developers’ use cases are handled well by Google Calendar API, which we recommend using instead. If you’re a developer and the Calendar API won’t work for you, please fill out this form to tell us about your use case and request access to whitelisted-only CalDAV API.
• Google Building Maker helped people to make three-dimensional building models for Google Earth and Maps. It will be retired on June 1, but users are still able to access and export their models from the 3D Warehouse. We’ll continue to expand the availability of comprehensive and accurate new 3D imagery on Google Earth, and people can still use Google Map Maker to add building information such as outlines and heights to Google Maps.
• Google Cloud Connect is a plug-in to help people work in the cloud by automatically saving Microsoft Office files from Windows PCs in Google Drive. But installing Google Drive on your desktop achieves the same thing more effectively—and Drive works not only on Windows, but also on Mac, Android and iOS devices. Existing users will no longer be able to use Cloud Connect as of April 30.
• We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.
• Beginning next week, we're ending support for the Google Voice App for Blackberry. For Blackberry users who want to continue using Google Voice, we recommend they use our HTML5 app, which is more secure and easier for us to keep up to date. Our HTML5 site is compatible with users with Blackberry version 6 and newer.
• We’re deprecating our Search API for Shopping, which has enabled developers to create shopping apps based on Google’s Product Search data. While we believe in the value this offering provided, we’re shifting our focus to concentrate on creating a better shopping experience for users through Google Shopping. We’ll shut the API down completely on September 16, 2013.
• Beginning today we’ll no longer sell or provide updates for Snapseed Desktop for Macintosh and Windows. Existing customers will continue to be able to download the software and can contact us for support. We’ll continue to offer the Snapseed mobile app on iOS and Android for free.

These changes are never easy. But by focusing our efforts, we can concentrate on building great products that really help in their lives.

Washington Post article, printing with permission

Google Reader being taken down news is a big concern for many webmasters. I know this news is quite outdated, but hey, I am a blogger, and google reader is about to be taken down this Monday, so just refreshing memories. So memories refreshed? :D See you all soon again. Have a great weekend up ahead! :)