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Warning sounded over 'flirting robots'

2007-12-27T00:33:00.000-08:00

Those entering online dating forums risk having more than their hearts stolen.

A program that can mimic online flirtation and then extract personal information from its unsuspecting conversation partners is making the rounds in Russian chat forums, according to security software firm PC Tools.

The artificial intelligence of CyberLover's automated chats is good enough that victims have a tough time distinguishing the "bot" from a real potential suitor, PC Tools said. The software can work quickly too, establishing up to 10 relationships in 30 minutes, PC Tools said. It compiles a report on every person it meets complete with name, contact information, and photos.

"As a tool that can be used by hackers to conduct identity fraud, CyberLover demonstrates an unprecedented level of social engineering," PC Tools senior malware analyst Sergei Shevchenko said in a statement.

Among CyberLover's creepy features is its ability to offer a range of different profiles from "romantic lover" to "sexual predator." It can also lead victims to a "personal" Web site, which could be used to deliver malware, PC Tools said.

Although the program is currently targeting Russian Web sites, PC Tools is urging people in chat rooms and social networks elsewhere to be on the alert for such attacks. Their recommendations amount to just good sense in general, such as avoiding giving out personal information and using an alias when chatting online. The software company believes that CyberLover's creators plan to make it available worldwide in February.

Robot chatters are just one type of social-engineering attack that uses trickery rather than a software flaw to access victim's valuable information. Such attacks have been on the rise and are predicted to continue to grow.

Update 4:10 p.m. PST: Mike Greene, vice president of product strategy at PC Tools, said that the company learned of CyberLover's existence earlier this week as part of its regular monitoring of IRC chat rooms and other places where talk about malware takes place.

Greene said that it is hard to tell how prevalent use of the program is in Russia.

"We don't have exact statistics, but I think it's early on," he said.

Greene said that the perceived anonymity of the Internet has desensitized people to the fact that information disclosed in an online chat can cause real-world damage.

"People are used to not opening attachments or maybe not clicking on a link that shows up in their IM," he said. "But this emulates a real conversation, so you more are likely to give over personal information, click on a link or send your photograph."

Physics of the iPod awarded Nobel Prize

2007-12-27T00:18:00.000-08:00

Albert Fert of France and Peter Grünberg of Germany were awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for a discovery that has shrunk the size of hard disks found in computers, iPods and other digital devices.

The duo discovered a totally new physical effect that has let the computer industry develop sensitive reading tools for information stored on computer hard drives from the tiniest laptops to portable music and video players.

"The MP3 and iPod industry would not have existed without this discovery," Borje Johansson, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said. "You would not have an iPod without this effect."

In its citation, the Nobel academy said the discovery could also be considered "one of the first real applications of the promising field of nanotechnology," the science dedicated to building materials from the molecular level.

"Applications of this phenomenon have revolutionized techniques for retrieving data from hard disks," the prize citation said. "The discovery also plays a major role in various magnetic sensors as well as for the development of a new generation of electronics."

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The announcement also broke a streak of American wins from 2000-2006 that saw 20 people awarded the prize, of whom 16 were U.S. citizens or did their work at U.S. laboratories and universities.

The last time no Americans were awarded the physics prize was in 1999, when Gerardus 't Hooft and Martinus Veltman, both of the Netherlands, were honored for "elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics."

Phillip Schewe, a physicist and spokesman for the American Institute of Physics, said this year's prize honored "a terrific combination of great physics and huge practical application."

"I can hardly think of an application that has a bigger bang than the magnetic hard drive industry," Schewe added. "Every one of us probably owns three or four or five devices, probably more, that depend on billions of bits of information stored on something the size of a dime."

Fert, 69, is a professor at the Université Paris-Sud and scientific director of Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thalès in Orsay, France. Grünberg, 68, is a professor at the Institute of Solid State Research in Jülich, Germany.

In 1988, the pair independently discovered the physical effect known as giant magnetoresistance, or GMR. In this effect, very weak changes in magnetism generate larger changes in electrical resistance. This is how information stored magnetically on a hard disk can be converted to electrical signals that the computer reads.

Both realized at an early stage that their discoveries would have a huge impact. In his first scientific publication on the effect, Fert predicted it would generate important applications.

"You can never predict in physics," he said in an interview. "You can somewhat in maths, but in physics, you can never be sure of what you dream up," adding that he has seen the fruit of his labors in more mundane situations, too.

"These days when I go to my grocer and see him type on a computer, I say 'Wow! He's using something I put together in my mind,' " Fert said. "It's wonderful."

Grünberg went a step further and filed a patent as he was writing his first scientific publication on the discovery, the academy said.

Speaking to reporters in Germany, Grünberg was elated but said he was not surprised.

"Because I have received a lot of awards, I was often asked: 'When will the big award come?' " he told reporters. He said with a wink that he made sure to be at his office Tuesday morning "because one knows that Stockholm usually calls at around 11:30 a.m."

Grünberg will share the 10 million kronor, or $1.5 million, prize with Fert.

It was not the first time both men were honored for their research. Earlier this year, they won the 23rd annual Japan Prize given out by the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan and shared a ¥50 million, or $425,000, cash prize.

On Monday, Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies, of the United States, and Martin Evans, of Britain, were awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for groundbreaking stem cell research.

Prizes for chemistry, literature, peace and economics will be announced through Oct. 15.

The peace award is announced in Oslo, while the other prizes are announced in Stockholm. The prizes were established in the will of the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.

The prizes are always presented to the recipients on the Dec. 10 anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
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Making The Virtual World Real

2007-12-27T00:16:00.000-08:00

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An Israeli company, 3DV Systems, is unveiling technology that lets electronic gamers use their body as a controller for a wide variety of videogames. The technology relies on an inexpensive camera, called a Zcam, that connects to computers and game consoles via a USB cable. The camera picks up changes in light reflected off objects at high speed (namely 60 frames a second) and translates those into videogame commands.

Although the technology will not be commercially available until next year, 3DV Systems says it will price its camera much like Webcams, which typically cost between $50 and $100.

To demonstrate the system, 3DV Systems Chief Executive Zvika Klier held his arms in front of him as if he were grasping a steering wheel and used his thumb to pull an imaginary trigger. In an onscreen computer flight simulation game, virtual bombs dropped from a plane onto a town below.

“The camera calls for completely new types of game play," Klier declares.

Klier's choice of demonstration was just an accident. He and his management team have extensive experience in the Israeli military. His previous company, GammaSense, developed nuclear material sensors for U.S. homeland security. 3DV counts Silicon Valley's prestigious Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers among its investors, along with Rafael Development, a holding company with close ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. 3DV has been working on depth-sensing technology for years and released its first such camera in 2000. Only now has the company been able to squeeze the technology into a small--and cheap--enough camera that it could be sold to gamers.

Klier also showed off a computer boxing game. On a computer screen, Klier's body appeared in front of a fierce, virtual opponent. The challenge punched; Klier ducked. As the real-world Klier threw punch combinations, so did the virtual image. The camera can recognize left and right and up and down motions, as well as movement either away or toward the camera. It can pick up the flick of a small finger or a wildly swinging limb. The system can also insert a background video--such as a tropical paradise or war-torn game landscape--behind the virtual player.

Nintendo (other-otc: NTDOY - news - people ), Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), makers of the major gaming platforms, have all expressed some interest in "gesture gaming." Nintendo’s simple Wii remotes popularized the concept. Both Sony and Microsoft both sell Webcams that bring video of gamers onscreen with a few limited motion-recognition features. "Wii has been very helpful in creating public awareness about how much better games can be if they are intuitive," Klier says.

But waving the Wii remote as a virtual tennis racket or baseball bat is a far cry from the total-body immersion Klier wants to see. "The Wii tracks motion at one or two points. But what about your head?" he says."What about dancing and body language? Think about [online virtual world] 'Second Life,' where you can fly and wave at people."

Getting hardware makers and software developers onboard to publish games for a new interface--such as one without familiar controllers--is difficult, however. Klier says he's in talks with "major" hardware and software companies about making systems compatible with Zcam. Last March, a prototype of the Zcam was part of a demonstration of innovative technologies at Microsoft's annual TechFest. Klier hopes the camera will be ready for mass manufacturing in the middle of 2008, ideally in association with a gaming system or existing consumer electronics brand.

3DV is among dozens of game interface companies struggling to team up with established hardware and software gaming businesses. In March 2007, San Francisco-based Emotiv Systems announced its game interface controller--a skullcap that lets players control action in a game with brainwaves (see "Future Play"). Nine months later, the company still has announced no partnerships.

"Competitors are not a threat to my business--the biggest threat is that the market isn't ready for us as fast as it could be," Klier says.

Top 5 Most Famous Black Hat Crackers of All Time

2007-12-27T00:09:00.000-08:00

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Black Hat Crackers
The Internet abounds with hackers, known as crackers or "black hats," who work to exploit computer systems. They are the ones you've seen on the news being hauled away for cybercrimes. Some of them do it for fun and curiosity, while others are looking for personal gain. In this section we profile five of the most famous and interesting "black hat" hackers.

Jonathan James: James gained notoriety when he became the first juvenile to be sent to prison for hacking. He was sentenced at 16 years old. In an anonymous PBS interview, he professes, "I was just looking around, playing around. What was fun for me was a challenge to see what I could pull off."

James' major intrusions targeted high-profile organizations. He installed a backdoor into a Defense Threat Reduction Agency server. The DTRA is an agency of the Department of Defense charged with reducing the threat to the U.S. and its allies from nuclear, biological, chemical, conventional and special weapons. The backdoor he created enabled him to view sensitive e-mails and capture employee usernames and passwords.

James also cracked into NASA computers, stealing software worth approximately $1.7 million. According to the Department of Justice, "The software supported the International Space Station's physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space." NASA was forced to shut down its computer systems, ultimately racking up a $41,000 cost. James explained that he downloaded the code to supplement his studies on C programming, but contended, "The code itself was crappy . . .certainly not worth $1.7 million like they claimed."

Given the extent of his intrusions, if James, also known as "c0mrade," had been an adult he likely would have served at least ten years. Instead, he was banned from recreational computer use and was slated to serve a six-month sentence under house arrest with probation. However, he served six months in prison for violation of parole. Today, James asserts that he's learned his lesson and might start a computer security company.

Adrian Lamo: Lamo's claim to fame is his break-ins at major organizations like The New York Times and Microsoft. Dubbed the "homeless hacker," he used Internet connections at Kinko's, coffee shops and libraries to do his intrusions. In a profile article, "He Hacks by Day, Squats by Night," Lamo reflects, "I have a laptop in Pittsburgh, a change of clothes in D.C. It kind of redefines the term multi-jurisdictional."

Lamo's intrusions consisted mainly of penetration testing, in which he found flaws in security, exploited them and then informed companies of their shortcomings. His hits include Yahoo!, Bank of America, Citigroup and Cingular. When white hat hackers are hired by companies to do penetration testing, it's legal. What Lamo did is not.

When he broke into The New York Times' intranet, things got serious. He added himself to a list of experts and viewed personal information on contributors, including Social Security numbers. Lamo also hacked into The Times' LexisNexis account to research high-profile subject matter.

For his intrusion at The New York Times, Lamo was ordered to pay approximately $65,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to six months of home confinement and two years of probation, which expired January 16, 2007. Lamo is currently working as an award-winning journalist and public speaker.

Kevin Mitnick: A self-proclaimed "hacker poster boy," Mitnick went through a highly publicized pursuit by authorities. His mischief was hyped by the media but his actual offenses may be less notable than his notoriety suggests. The Department of Justice describes him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." His exploits were detailed in two movies: Freedom Downtime and Takedown.

Mitnick had a bit of hacking experience before committing the offenses that made him famous. He started out exploiting the Los Angeles bus punch card system to get free rides. Then, like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, dabbled in phone phreaking. Although there were numerous offenses, Mitnick was ultimately convicted for breaking into the Digital Equipment Corporation's computer network and stealing software.

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Mitnick's mischief got serious when he went on a two and a half year "coast-to-coast hacking spree." The CNN article, "Legendary computer hacker released from prison," explains that "he hacked into computers, stole corporate secrets, scrambled phone networks and broke into the national defense warning system." He then hacked into computer expert and fellow hacker Tsutomu Shimomura's home computer, which led to his undoing.

Today, Mitnick has been able to move past his role as a black hat hacker and become a productive member of society. He served five years, about 8 months of it in solitary confinement, and is now a computer security consultant, author and speaker.

Kevin Poulsen: Also known as Dark Dante, Poulsen gained recognition for his hack of LA radio's KIIS-FM phone lines, which earned him a brand new Porsche, among other items. Law enforcement dubbed him "the Hannibal Lecter of computer crime."

Authorities began to pursue Poulsen after he hacked into a federal investigation database. During this pursuit, he further drew the ire of the FBI by hacking into federal computers for wiretap information.

His hacking specialty, however, revolved around telephones. Poulsen's most famous hack, KIIS-FM, was accomplished by taking over all of the station's phone lines. In a related feat, Poulsen also "reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for an acquaintance who then ran a virtual escort agency." Later, when his photo came up on the show Unsolved Mysteries, 1-800 phone lines for the program crashed. Ultimately, Poulsen was captured in a supermarket and served a sentence of five years.

Since serving time, Poulsen has worked as a journalist. He is now a senior editor for Wired News. His most prominent article details his work on identifying 744 sex offenders with MySpace profiles.

Robert Tappan Morris: Morris, son of former National Security Agency scientist Robert Morris, is known as the creator of the Morris Worm, the first computer worm to be unleashed on the Internet. As a result of this crime, he was the first person prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Morris wrote the code for the worm while he was a student at Cornell. He asserts that he intended to use it to see how large the Internet was. The worm, however, replicated itself excessively, slowing computers down so that they were no longer usable. It is not possible to know exactly how many computers were affected, but experts estimate an impact of 6,000 machines. He was sentenced to three years' probation, 400 hours of community service and a fined $10,500.

Morris is currently working as a tenured professor at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He principally researches computer network architectures including distributed hash tables such as Chord and wireless mesh networks such as Roofnet.

Top 5 Most Famous White Hat Hackers of All Time

2007-12-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

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White Hat Hackers
Hackers that use their skills for good are classified as "white hat." These white hats often work as certified "Ethical Hackers," hired by companies to test the integrity of their systems. Others, operate without company permission by bending but not breaking laws and in the process have created some really cool stuff. In this section we profile five white hat hackers and the technologies they have developed.

Stephen Wozniak: "Woz" is famous for being the "other Steve" of Apple. Wozniak, along with current Apple CEO Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple Computer. He has been awarded with the National Medal of Technology as well as honorary doctorates from Kettering University and Nova Southeastern University. Additionally, Woz was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in September 2000.

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Woz got his start in hacking making blue boxes, devices that bypass telephone-switching mechanisms to make free long-distance calls. After reading an article about phone phreaking in Esquire, Wozniak called up his buddy Jobs. The pair did research on frequencies, then built and sold blue boxes to their classmates in college. Wozniak even used a blue box to call the Pope while pretending to be Henry Kissinger.

Wozniak dropped out of college and came up with the computer that eventually made him famous. Jobs had the bright idea to sell the computer as a fully assembled PC board. The Steves sold Wozniak's cherished scientific calculator and Jobs' VW van for capital and got to work assembling prototypes in Jobs' garage. Wozniak designed the hardware and most of the software. In the Letters section of Woz.org, he recalls doing "what Ed Roberts and Bill Gates and Paul Allen did and tons more, with no help." Wozniak and Jobs sold the first 100 of the Apple I to a local dealer for $666.66 each.

Woz no longer works full time for Apple, focusing primarily on philanthropy instead. Most notable is his function as fairy godfather to the Los Gatos School District. "Wozniak 'adopted' the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment."

Tim Berners-Lee: Berners-Lee is famed as the inventor of the World Wide Web, the system that we use to access sites, documents and files on the Internet. He has received numerous recognitions, most notably the Millennium Technology Prize.

While a student at Oxford University, Berners-Lee was caught hacking access with a friend and subsequently banned from University computers. w3.org reports, "Whilst [at Oxford], he built his first computer with a soldering iron, TTL gates, an M6800 processor and an old television." Technological innovation seems to have run in his genes, as Berners-Lee's parents were mathematicians who worked on the Manchester Mark1, one of the earliest electronic computers.

While working with CERN, a European nuclear research organization, Berners-Lee created a hypertext prototype system that helped researchers share and update information easily. He later realized that hypertext could be joined with the Internet. Berners-Lee recounts how he put them together: "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and – ta-da! – the World Wide Web."

Since his creation of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT. The W3C describes itself as "an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff and the public work together to develop Web standards." Berners-Lee's World Wide Web idea, as well as standards from the W3C, is distributed freely with no patent or royalties due.

Linus Torvalds: Torvalds fathered Linux, the very popular Unix-based operating system. He calls himself "an engineer," and has said that his aspirations are simple, "I just want to have fun making the best damn operating system I can."

Torvalds got his start in computers with a Commodore VIC-20, an 8-bit home computer. He then moved on to a Sinclair QL. Wikipedia reports that he modified the Sinclair "extensively, especially its operating system." Specifically, Torvalds hacks included "an assembler and a text editor…as well as a few games."
Torvalds created the Linux Kernal in 1991, using the Minix operating system as inspiration. He started with a task switcher in Intel 80386 assembly and a terminal driver. After that, he put out a call for others to contribute code, which they did. Currently, only about 2 percent of the current Linux kernel is written by Torvalds himself. The success of this public invitation to contribute code for Linux is touted as one of the most prominent examples of free/open source software.

Currently, Torvalds serves as the Linux ringleader, coordinating the code that volunteer programmers contribute to the kernel. He has had an asteroid named after him and received honorary doctorates from Stockholm University and University of Helsinki. He was also featured in Time Magazine's "60 years of Heroes."

Richard Stallman: Stallman's fame derives from the GNU Project, which he founded to develop a free operating system. For this, he's known as the father of free software. His "Serious Bio" asserts, "Non-free software keeps users divided and helpless, forbidden to share it and unable to change it. A free operating system is essential for people to be able to use computers in freedom."
Stallman, who prefers to be called rms, got his start hacking at MIT. He worked as a "staff hacker" on the Emacs project and others. He was a critic of restricted computer access in the lab. When a password system was installed, Stallman broke it down, resetting passwords to null strings, then sent users messages informing them of the removal of the password system.

Stallman's crusade for free software started with a printer. At the MIT lab, he and other hackers were allowed to modify code on printers so that they sent convenient alert messages. However, a new printer came along – one that they were not allowed to modify. It was located away from the lab and the absence of the alerts presented an inconvenience. It was at this point that he was "convinced…of the ethical need to require free software."

With this inspiration, he began work on GNU. Stallman wrote an essay,"GNU Project" in which he recalls choosing to work on an operating system because it's a foundation, "the crucial software to use a computer." At this time, the GNU/Linux version of the operating system uses the Linux kernel started by Torvalds. GNU is distributed under "copyleft," a method that employs copyright law to allow users to use, modify, copy and distribute the software.

Stallman's life continues to revolve around the promotion of free software. He works against movements like Digital Rights Management (or as he prefers, Digital Restrictions Management) through organizations like Free Software Foundation and League for Programming Freedom. He has received extensive recognition for his work, including awards, fellowships and four honorary doctorates.

Tsutomu Shimomura: Shimomura reached fame in an unfortunate manner: he was hacked by Kevin Mitnick. Following this personal attack, he made it his cause to help the FBI capture him.

Shimomura's work to catch Mitnick is commendable, but he is not without his own dark side. Author Bruce Sterling recalls:"He pulls out this AT&T cellphone, pulls it out of the shrinkwrap, finger-hacks it, and starts monitoring phone calls going up and down Capitol Hill while an FBI agent is standing at his shoulder, listening to him."

Shimomura out-hacked Mitnick to bring him down. Shortly after finding out about the intrusion, he rallied a team and got to work finding Mitnick. Using Mitnick's cell phone, they tracked him near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The article, "SDSC Computer Experts Help FBI Capture Computer Terrorist" recounts how Shimomura pinpointed Mitnick's location. Armed with a technician from the phone company, Shimomura "used a cellular frequency direction-finding antenna hooked up to a laptop to narrow the search to an apartment complex." Mitnick was arrested shortly thereafter. Following the pursuit, Shimomura wrote a book about the incident with journalist John Markoff, which was later turned into a movie.

call-up for Pankaj Singh

2007-12-27T00:04:00.000-08:00

The Indian selectors have sprung a major surprise by recalling Virender Sehwag to the Indian team for the four-Test series against Australia. Although he was not in the list of 24 probables Sehwag has got a recall after Gautam Gambhir was advised three weeks rest with a sore shoulder.

There was also place in the 16-man squad for Pankaj Singh, the young Rajasthan fast bowler. Munaf Patel, who was thought to be a front-runner for a spot has been advised to play more domestic cricket before he will be considered for selection in the future.

All season Pankaj has impressed with his performances for Rajasthan. Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, has spoken highly of Pankaj on more than one occasion. A string of good bowling for Rajasthan Under-19 pitchforked Pankaj into the the first-class team in 2003. But it was in late 2006 that he really showed signs of maturing by leading the Rajasthan attack and taking them to the plate league final. In 2007 he broke into the India A team and was successful in the tour of Kenya and Zimbabwe and then played in the home series against South Africa A.

Sehwag makes his return to the Test team after being ignored after India's tour to South Africa in 2006-07. His last Test was in Cape Town, and since then he has played only ODIs and Twenty20 internationals. Sehwag hasn't been in great touch in the Ranji Trophy, with 66 runs in five innings for Delhi.

Dinesh Karthik held onto his place in the squad, after scoring a half-century on the final day of the drawn third Test against Pakistan. Also included in the squad are Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan, who were included in India's squad for the final Test against Pakistan after a spate of injuries to fast bowlers.

Ishant, who took five wickets in Pakistan's first innings, said he was happy on being selected though he hadn't been mulling over it during the Test in Bangalore. "I didn't think my performance in Bangalore would have played such a part in my selection," Ishant told Cricinfo. "My aim was to bowl properly and I didn't stress myself by thinking ''will I be picked or not. The Australian wickets will surely be an advantage to my style of bowling, with the bounce and pace, and my job now will be to hit the right areas."

From the current squad there was no place for Murali Kartik, the left-arm spinner, but this was expected given the fact that India were only going to take two spinners on a tour of Australia.

With Sreesanth unfit the pace attack is led by Zaheer Khan and backed up by RP Singh, Ishant, Pathan and Pankaj.

Commenting on the selection, Ricky Ponting told Cricinfo in Adelaide that he didn't think were too many surprises. "I must admit I didn't think Sehwag would make the final touring party but he's here and he had some successes against us last time," he said. "A terrific 195 or something. He can be a dangerous player but we will worry about that once we've got this Chappell-Hadlee Series out of the way."

India's Test squad for Australia
Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble (capt), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Pankaj Singh.

Pankaj idolises Kapil Dev and Glenn McGrath!

2007-12-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

JAIPUR, December 12: Paceman Pankaj Singh is elated at his selection in the Indian squad for the Test series in Australia and is looking forward to bowling on the fast and bouncy wickets Down Under.

"Of course I am happy. It's a great honour to represent the country. I had always dreamt of this day. I worked hard and have been rewarded for the consistent performances in the past one-and-a-half years," Pankaj, who already has 26 wickets in five Ranji Super League matches this season said.

He is already licking his lips at the prospect of utilising the pace-friendly conditions in Australia.

"I would love to bowl on Australian wickets which are hard and bouncy. If I get a chance, I would love to bowl and learn on tour as Australia is famous for hard and intense cricket," the 22-year-old, who idolises Kapil Dev and Glenn McGrath, said.

If Pankaj makes it to the playing eleven in a Test, he would be the first player from Rajasthan to represent India after Partha Sarthi Sharma last played Test cricket in 1977. Batsman Gagan Khoda, another cricketer from the state, played two One-day internationals for India.

Pankaj, who impressed with the India 'A' team now wants to concentrate on line and length.

"My stint with the national Cricket Academy and experience with India 'A' came in handy for me. I could learn to bowl at this level and the instructors also helped me to plan for getting any particular batsman out.

"I also wish to increase my pace and have already worked on the use of wrist and how to extract bounce through it," he said after the Ranji Trophy Super League match at Jhalawar against Mumbai.

iPhone will be 'primary target' for hackers in 2008

2007-12-26T23:56:00.000-08:00

11 Dec 2007

Apple's iPhone will be a "primary target" for cybercriminals in 2008, a security company predicted today.

Arbor Network's Security and Engineering Response Team (ASERT) forecast that the iPhone will become "the victim of a serious attack" in 2008. According to the firm, these assaults are likely to be in the form of drive-by attacks – malware embedded into seemingly harmless information, images or other media that actually perform dangerous actions when rendered on the iPhone's web browser.

With the scrutiny the iPhone has received since its launch earlier this year over network lock-in, Arbor believes that hackers will be enticed by the possibility of attacking Apple users and the opportunity to "be the first" to hack a new platform.

The company also predicted a rise in "Chinese on Chinese" cybercrime. In the past year the team has seen a dramatic increase in the attention paid to Chinese-language specific software such as QQ Messenger and a number of malware samples focused on stealing users' credentials. Arbor expects this trend to multiply in 2008 as more Chinese users come online, more software is written for the market and Chinese cybercriminals become increasingly more sophisticated and organised.

"2007 was the year of the browser exploit, the data breach, spyware and the storm worm. We expect 2008 to be the year of the iPhone attack, the Chinese Hacker, P2P network spammers and the hijacking of the Storm botnet," said Jose Nazario, senior security engineer at Arbor Networks.

Microsoft accused on net browser

2007-12-26T23:50:00.000-08:00

A complaint has been filed to the European Commission accusing Microsoft of stifling competition by tying its browser to Windows.

Opera Software said the close ties between Internet Explorer (IE) and Windows made it hard for rivals to be a serious choice for web users.

Opera also said Microsoft flouted web standards, making it much harder for browsers to be interoperable.

Microsoft said putting its browser in its operating system benefited users.

Unfair advantage

The EC confirmed that it had received the complaint from the Norwegian software firm and said it would be studied carefully.

The complaint said the bundling of IE with Windows gave the software giant an unfair advantage and made competition much more difficult.

In a statement Opera said it wanted the Commission to make Microsoft separate IE from Windows and pre-install alternative browsers on new PCs.

It also wants Microsoft to be forced to follow web specifications rather than its own "de facto" standards.

"Our complaint is necessary to get Microsoft to amend its practices," said Jason Hoida, Opera Software's deputy general counsel.

'Free to choose'
In response Microsoft said the company would co-operate with any enquiries and added: "We believe the inclusion of the browser into the operating system benefits consumers, and that consumers and PC manufacturers already are free to choose any browsers they wish."

It added that the IE browser had been part of Windows for more than a decade.

The dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has been dented in recent years by the success of other net surfing programs such as Firefox.

Estimates vary but IE is thought to be used by approximately 80% of web users. Opera is believed to have a 1-2% market share of web users.

The complaint comes after Microsoft lost a long-running competition dispute with the European Commission.

After its final appeal against the ruling over its bundling of its media player with Windows, Microsoft had to pay a 497m euro (£343m; $690m) fine.

Tatas to clinch another overseas acquisition

2007-12-26T23:45:00.000-08:00

As the countdown for the sale of Ford’s iconic brands Jaguar and Land Rover begins, the stage seems to be set for the Tatas to clinch another overseas acquisition in the automobile segment. According to the international media, speculation is rife that the Tata's will walk away with the prestigious brands.

The UK-based Brinhmingam Post has reported that Tata will be named as the preferred bidder for Jaguar and Land Rover on Friday (Dec 21). It has further reported that the TATA group has had its £1 billion bid accepted by Ford, which is selling the luxury carmakers.

Interestingly, the Canadian press has also reported that Ford Motors could name Tata Motors a "preferred bidder" by Friday. It's learnt that deliberations are on with the three potential buyers -- Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and the American buyout group OneEquity. However, a final deal is not expected to be announced till early next year.

Tatas reportedly have made a bid of $2.05 billion for the two brands, thwarting rival Mahindra & Mahindra’s bid of $1.9 billion.

While Tatas successfully managed to take over Corus, however, the company's effort to forge a strategic alliance between one of the group companies -- India Hotels and US-based hotel chain Oriental Express hit a wall.

The US-based hotel chain, in which the Taj Group has 11.5 per cent stake, turned down for the second time Tata’s proposal for a strategic tie-up earlier this month.

How About Online Backup?

2007-12-26T23:42:00.001-08:00

Several hundred million PCs around the world aren't being backed up regularly. Chances are, you're one of the culprits. If and when some kind of disaster strikes, you're going to wish you had some kind of backup regimen in place. Putting together your own backup system can be a chore. Have you ever considered online backup?

Carbonite 3.0 is a simple online backup service. You simply enter your email address and password, and Carbonite does the rest. All data is backed up by default, and you have unlimited storage capacity, so there's no need to pick and choose files. "It's truly a product you won't be afraid to give to your most computer-illiterate friends and colleagues," said David Friend, Carbonite's CEO. "Release 3.0 is by far the simplest online-backup solution on the market today, and our beta testers have been delighted with its clean, easy, and intuitive qualities."

The new interface has a new clean look and many user-suggested refinements. Carbonite, known for its simple installation, now offers enhanced online Help, new account management pages, and an enhanced file-restore process that features a tab showing progress, a recovery log displaying pending and recently restored files, and the option to stop the restore process easily at any point. Carbonite 3.0 also incorporates an adaptive bandwidth-management system that can more than double backup speeds.

There is also good news for Mac users on the horizon, according to Friend, who said a Mac beta version is slated for October. "We get dozens of messages from Mac users every week, begging us for a Mac version of Carbonite," Friend explained. "And we are happy to provide them with their own version soon."

DHgate2008

Apple's iLife '04

2007-12-26T23:34:00.000-08:00

At Macworld San Francisco 2004 last month, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs introduced the company's latest suite of multimedia tools, dubbed iLife '04. Apple markets the $50 product as being "like Microsoft Office for the rest of your life," which is a cute way of saying that you'll need the lifestyle applications in this suite as much as you need products such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel at work. Although iLife '04 isn't perfect, it's a stunning value for the money and a must-have purchase for every Mac OS X user. And if you aren't running Mac OS X, fear not: I also explore some related offerings for PC users.

Apple iLife '04 includes five brilliantly integrated applications, and at least three of them are best of breed:

iTunes 4: digital music organization, sharing, and iPod integration
iPhoto 4: digital photo organization, sharing, and basic editing
iMovie 4: digital video editing and sharing for home movies
iDVD 4: DVD movie creation
GarageBand: new to this version, a music-creation application with limited appeal

Get YourName@mac.com email address

iTunes 4
Apple didn't update iTunes for iLife '04, but this version of the company's excellent media player, which debuted a few months back, is the best yet. Apple iTunes 4 features a simple UI, blazing search speeds, automatic album art (but only for albums you've downloaded from Apple's music store), normal and "smart" playlists, free Internet radio, iPod integration, and—of course—access to Apple's excellent iTunes Music Store, which the company recently updated with a host of useful and fun new features, including Billboard music charts and Audible audio books.

For my money, the best iTunes feature is its sharing capabilities. You can optionally set up your Macintosh- or PC-based iTunes music collection for sharing among any computers in your home, through wireless or wired networking. I use this feature frequently to play music from my home office-based iMac through a laptop while I'm upstairs, which is both handy and surprisingly fast. Also, you can share music you've purchased from the iTunes store with as many as two other computers (again, Mac or PC). You can share music you've ripped from a CD with as many computers as you own.

For Mac users, iTunes is just about perfect, and it's a great example of the fit and finish Apple fans expect from their favorite company. On the interoperability side, things are a little murkier: Although iTunes integrates easily with the award-winning iPod, it doesn't support any of the hundreds of other portable audio players on the market, nor does it support Microsoft's pervasive Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, which most other music stores use. On the PC, you have several media players to choose from, but none are as simple and elegant as Apple's offering, which also ships in a free PC version. For the best music-store experience on the PC, look into either Napster 2.0 or RealNetworks' RealPlayer 10 (currently in beta), which is also a great media player. Windows users who need WMA compatibility will be best off with Windows Media Player (WMP) 9 Series.

Get YourName@mac.com email address

iPhoto 4
Apple's previous iPhoto versions are simple and well designed but suffer from alarming performance problems, particularly for users with large photo collections. The application tries to hide these performance problems by first rendering low-resolution versions of each photo preview, but I think Apple engendered some good will by equipping iPhoto with some killer features—such as photo-book creation, red-eye removal, and a nice slide show--which make many users overlook the performance concerns.

In iPhoto 4, Apple has somewhat addressed the performance problems, although I still find the application hamstrung on my 1GHz 17" iMac. But this version adds a host of small changes that make the product a delight to use. For example, you can now directly assign a photo in iPhoto to the Mac desktop—a capability that's more convoluted in previous versions. And because iPhoto is now more closely integrated with iDVD and iMovie, your photos and photo albums (essentially playlists for pictures) come up directly in these other applications—a nice touch.

Despite these changes, the PC-based competition still handily beats iPhoto. You have two standouts on the PC side to consider: Adobe Systems' excellent PhotoShop Album 2.0 ($50) and Picasa ($29), an inexpensive newcomer that offers lightning-quick performance. Adobe's offering includes better editing tools and killer timeline and calendar views, but either of these applications could show iPhoto the door.

iMovie 4
When Apple shipped iMovie 3 last year, I was shocked by its bugginess, its horrible performance, and the poor execution of its otherwise cool Ken Burns Effect, which lets you create animated photo-slideshow movies. This year's iMovie 4 fixes most of those problems and introduces a bunch of new features that make this release a winner. First, and most important, when you trim clips in the time line, the trimmed pieces aren't confusingly relegated to the trash can. Instead, when you make an editing mistake or simply want to restore cut footage, you can go back to the edited clip in the time line and reexpand it.

Despite some overall performance improvements, iMovie still falls short in a few key areas. Most titles, video effects, and transitions still must be rendered, and that takes a lot of time on my suddenly lowly G4 system. During iMovie testing, I applied the Adjust Colors effect to 7 minutes of digital video (DV), and the application took 45 minutes to render it. Yikes.

In the PC world, we finally have decent and even superior alternatives to iMovie 4. The best is Microsoft's free Windows Movie Maker 2, which includes a remarkable set of titles, video effects, and transitions, and none of them require rendering. Windows Movie Maker 2 also works with a variety of video sources, and not just DV (like iMovie). For a much better take on the Ken Burns Effect, consider Plus! Digital Media Edition (Windows XP only), a $20 download that includes the impressive Plus! Photo Story 2 tool.

iDVD 4
When iDVD first shipped a few years back, it was a shot heard around the world for home-movie fans. Not only could you create home movies on your computer, you could then create your own DVD movies and share them with anyone who owned a standard DVD player. Apple's excellent iDVD has always featured a simple interface, professional themes, and decent integration with iMovie, but with this new edition, Apple has raised the bar. iDVD 4 is a fascinating and fun product, almost without parallel in the PC world.

In version 4, Apple has added the capability to create DVD movies that are as long as 2 hours. Previous versions, and all consumer-oriented PC-based solutions I'm aware of, are limited to just 1 hour of video. Apple achieves this new length by compressing the source video, and the company wisely varies the compression according to the amount of video you need. That is, the more video you have, the more the software will compress it. Also new to this version is support for DVD autoplay, which lets you specify a pre-menu event that occurs when you insert the DVD; a new DVD Map feature, which provides a graphical view of the DVD's layout; better iPhoto integration for in-application slide show creation; and several professional new slide show transitions and DVD themes.

What can I say? I love iDVD and wish something as nice was available on the PC side. However, the PC side does have slightly less elegant but somewhat more full-featured products. The best of the lot are Sonic Solutions' Sonic MyDVD Studio 5 ($100) and Ahead Software's Nero 6 Ultra Edition ($80), both of which feature a wide range of non-DVD movie functionality.

GarageBand
I'm not a musician, so I question the value of including an application such as GarageBand in iLife '04. GarageBand is essentially a low-end software-based recording studio, with dozens of software instruments that you can play together over a moving timeline. Of course, music is a different medium from movies, so the details differ somewhat. For example, you will often want to repeat, or "loop," musical selections (e.g., a drumbeat) over the course of a composition.

I've tooled around with GarageBand a little and don't feel qualified to give it a full review. Furthermore, because I'm not experienced in this area, I can't recommend any PC-based choices, though I'm listening if you have any suggestions. iLife '04 is a great value even without GarageBand, so this application is just icing on the cake.

iLife for Windows?
Apple's iLife '04 isn't perfect, but it's an amazing software value and a must-have application for all Mac users. Run, don't walk, to your nearest Apple Store, CompUSA, or Apple dealer, and pick up this package immediately (or grab a copy from Apple's online store)—assuming your system meets the modern Mac system requirements .

For PC users, the story is a bit murky. Although you can often surpass the features and performance of iLife through separate applications, trying to assemble a software package that rivals iLife '04 would cost many times the iLife price. I've often argued that the Mac is a somewhat expensive proposition, but here's one case in which the Mac has the PC world beat cold. Please add my voice to those clamoring for an iLife for Windows. I'd love to see it happen.

Get YourName@mac.com email address

5 Steps to Home Wireless Security

2007-12-26T23:19:00.000-08:00

Step 1: Change the Router’s Default Administrator Password
Out of the box, most routers contain a default user ID and password. Because this password is well known (i.e., printed in documentation included with the router), you must change the default password. You can easily make this change by running the router’s installation and setup wizard.

If you have a router that doesn’t provide such a wizard, you can connect to the router through an Internet Browser and change the password. For example, to connect to a Linksys router, after powering up the router and connecting the Ethernet cable to the router, open a Web browser and type 192.168.1.1. Use the default user ID and password to log on to the router, then change the default password.

Step 2: Change the Default SSID and Disable SSID Broadcast
All routers are shipped with a Service Set Identifier (SSID) that’s set by the manufacturer. An SSID is a sequence of as many as 32 letters or numbers that comprise a wireless LAN’s (WLAN’s) ID or name. For example, the Linksys router’s default SSID name is Linksys. Default SSIDs are well known and published. Therefore, wireless-router manufacturers advise that you change the default SSID so that it’s unique. Moreover, router manufacturers suggest that you change SSIDs as often as possible: Hackers know that, in order to join a wireless network, wireless networking products first listen for “beacon messages,” which are transmitted unencrypted. These messages contain network information, such as the network’s SSID and the IP address of the network PC or Access Point (AP).

Also by default, a router broadcasts the router's SSID. You should disable this behavior. Although doing so won't provide tight security—a commonly available tool such as NetStumbler can detect hidden SSIDs—disabling the SSID broadcast lets you add one more layer of security against casual eavesdroppers. However, exercise caution if you disable SSID broadcast: Some devices, such as HP Palmtops, might not be able to connect or might drop connections intermittently if the SSID isn't broadcast.

Step 3: Change the IP Address Setting
Router manufacturers set every router with an IP address. Linksys routers, for example, come configured with an IP address of 192.168.1.1. These address settings are well known and published, and thus malicious users can easily discover your IP address if they know the router manufacturer and type. Therefore, you should change the IP address as a part of the setup process. Continuing with the Linksys example, you can change the default 192.168.1.1 IP address to 192.168.10.1. Although changing the IP address doesn't secure the router, it does leave the eavesdropper guessing for the IP address.

DHCP is also enabled by default on every router. DHCP provides IP address information to client machines. By default, the DHCP server hands out IP addresses in the 2-to-254 range. Therefore, 253 client machines can get an IP address from the router. You probably don't have that many systems at home, so it's best to reduce the DHCP range to the number of machines that you expect to have in your network. As a rule of thumb, I set the router to hand out addresses for the number of machines in my network, plus an additional two for visiting friends and family.

Step 4: Set Up Your Router to Use Encryption
A router's default settings don't include encryption. Because encryption provides security to your wireless communication, you must enable it. However, before setting up encryption, you must understand a few facts about wireless encryption and the security that different types of encryption standards—specifically, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and WiFi Protected Access (WPA)—provide.

WEP
WEP is the 802.11 standard’s optional encryption method. It's supported by most wireless NIC and AP manufacturers and is the most common method for securing home wireless networks. However, WEP has two limitations. First, it has a long key that's difficult to remember for a common user. Setting up the network for such a user can therefore be challenging. Second, the more serious problem with WEP is that malicious users can use freely available tools (e.g., AirSnort, WEPCrack) to easily decrypt WEP-encrypted data. By sniffing a heavily used wireless network (i.e., capturing transmitted data packets) for about 5 hours, an intruder—using these tools—can determine the WEP key and gain access to the network.

WEP vulnerabilities are well known and published. In January 2001, UC Berkeley published a white paper about WEP vulnerability, and in March 2001, the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, published a document called Your 802.11 Wireless Network Has No Clothes that lists WEP vulnerabilities.

Although WEP isn't the most secure method available, it's nevertheless better than using no encryption at all. Home networks aren't as heavily used as corporate networks, so it can take an intruder much more time to sniff the home wireless network and gather enough packets to decipher the WEP key than to gather the same information from a corporate network.

WPA
WPA was created as a bandage for WEP security, an intermediate measure to take the place of WEP during the preparation of the 802.11i standard. WPA is designed for use with 802.1X authentication—for example, you might use WPA in conjunction with a RADIUS server that's responsible for distributing keys to each user. You might also use a less secure pre-shared key (PSK) process.

One big WPA improvement over WEP is the addition of the Temporal Key Integrity (TKIP) security protocol that dynamically (i.e., every 10,000 packets) changes the keys used to encrypt the data. This change alone makes WPA more secure than WEP. Another advantage of using WPA is that it takes a pass phrase as a key, which is easier to remember and set up than the long and complicated WEP key. Figure 1 shows the Linksys router's pass phrase key setup.

All this being said, WPA only recently became a standard, in February 2004. Since that time, devices must support WPA to pass certification, but older systems might not support WPA without a firmware upgrade. If you bought your device before February 2004, chances are that you'll need to update the firmware to get WPA support.

Besides the update required for older routers, a client-software update might be necessary. For example, if you aren't running Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), you'll need to download and install the WPA support patch.

Step 5: Use the MAC Address Filter
Every NIC has a unique MAC address. You can configure most wireless routers to filter based on these addresses. To display XP's IP configuration, which includes the MAC address (as Figure 2 shows), simply type

C:\>ipconfig /all

at a command prompt. After you know the MAC (Physical) address, you can log on to the router (at http://router's IP address) and add the MAC address to the filter. Figure 3 shows how to add the MAC address to a Linksys router. However, you will have to add and save the MAC address to your router only once and subsequent visits will be seamless.

Before adding the MAC address, you must enable the MAC filter. Most routers let you either allow only specific PCs to access the network or deny specific PCs access to the network. Figure 4 shows the settings for the Linksys router that allow only listed PCs to access the network. Generally, you might not know who to deny access to; therefore, it’s best to use the Allow only specific clients option.

Filtering MAC addresses isn’t foolproof: An intruder can change a device’s MAC address to circumvent MAC address filtering. However, a hacker would need to know the MAC address of a device on your network before doing so.

Just Like Locking Your Home
Just as you secure your home by locking your doors and windows, you must take the precaution of securing your wireless network by locking it down. By changing
. your router’s default administrator password
. changing the default SSID and disabling SSID broadcast
. changing your IP address settings
. setting up your router to use encryption
. using the MAC address filter
you can easily secure your home wireless network. Although these steps won’t prevent a dedicated intruder who’s intent on hacking your network, they’ll keep most malicious users and eavesdroppers away.

e-jamal

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