FBI offers child safety
smartphone app
The FBI has launched its first
smartphone application,
designed to help parents
store their children's details
in case they ar needed in an
emergency.
The free iPhone app, Child
ID, stores pictures and
physical attributes such as
height and weight in a
format can be easily emailed
to authorities.
"You can [also] show the
pictures and provide physical
identifiers such as height and
weight to security or police
officers on the spot," the FBI
said.
It also offer tips on what to
do in the "first few crucial
hours" after a child goes
missing.
Apparently aware of privacy
concerns that the app might
prompt, the FBI pledged that
"the FBI (and iTunes for that
matter) is not collecting or
storing any photos or
information that you enter in
the app. All data resides
solely on your mobile device
unless you need to send it to
authorities".
Support for other
smartphones such as Google
Android devices will be
added "in the near future",
the FBI said.
British authorities are yet to
release a similar official app.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
'Spam King' arrested for
hacking 500,000 Facebook
accounts
A notorious spammer known
as the “Spam King” has
surrendered to the FBI on
charges of bombarding
Facebook users with
unwanted messages after
breaching the security
500,000 accounts.
Sanford Wallace, 43, also
known as "Spamford
Wallace" and "David
Frederix", was arrested in Las
Vegas on Thursday.
Wallace is accused of
hacking into 500,000
accounts to harvest friend
lists between November 2008
and March 2009. He allegedly
used the compromised lists
to make more than 27
million unsolicited postings
on Facebook walls that
appeared to come from
friends.
If targets clicked on links
within the messages, they
were presented with a
website designed to fool
them into handing over their
full name, email address and
password, prosecutors said.
Finally they would be
redirected to affiliate
websites that would allegedly
pay Wallace “substantial
revenue” for traffic.
The scheme relied on
vulnerabilities that Wallace
discovered in Facebook’s
spam filters, according to the
indictment.
“To accomplish his scheme,
Wallace first tested his
spamming capabilities
between two Facebook
accounts,” it said.
“[He] used a fake Facebook
account of ‘David Frederix’
and his legitimate ‘Sanford
Masterwb Wallace’ account
to test variations of spam
messages in order to evade
Facebook’s filtering
mechanisms.
“Once Wallace evaded
Facebook’s spam filters he
employed an automatic
scripting process to sign into
a compromised Facebook
user’s account, retrieve a list
of all the user’s friends, and
then post a spam message to
each of the user’s friend’s
Facebook walls.”
Wallace is now indicted on a
total of 11 charges of fraud,
intentional damage to a
protected computer, and
criminal contempt.
The contempt charges relate
to an earlier civil case
brought against Wallace
by Facebook itself .
A federal judge awarded the
dominant social network
$711m in damages in
October 2009. The firm did
not expect Wallace to pay,
but the judge also ordered
him not to log in to
Facebook. According to
Thursday’s indictment he
“wilfully and knowingly”
breached that order.
Wallace, who first gained
notoriety as a spammer in
the 1990s and also lost a civil
case brought against him by
MySpace in 2008, was
released on $100,000 bail. He
faces up to three years in jail
and a $250,000 fine for each
of the six fraud charges and
up to 10 years in jail for each
of the three charges of
intentional damage to a
protected computer.
Facebook welcomed the
arrest.
“We applaud the efforts of
the US Attorney’s Office and
the FBI to bring spammers to
justice,” said Chris Sonderby,
its lead security and
investigation counsel.
“Two years ago, Facebook
sued Wallace and a federal
court ordered him to pay a
$711 million judgment for
sending unwanted messages
and wall posts to people on
Facebook. Now Wallace also
faces serious jail time for this
illegal conduct.”
hacking 500,000 Facebook
accounts
A notorious spammer known
as the “Spam King” has
surrendered to the FBI on
charges of bombarding
Facebook users with
unwanted messages after
breaching the security
500,000 accounts.
Sanford Wallace, 43, also
known as "Spamford
Wallace" and "David
Frederix", was arrested in Las
Vegas on Thursday.
Wallace is accused of
hacking into 500,000
accounts to harvest friend
lists between November 2008
and March 2009. He allegedly
used the compromised lists
to make more than 27
million unsolicited postings
on Facebook walls that
appeared to come from
friends.
If targets clicked on links
within the messages, they
were presented with a
website designed to fool
them into handing over their
full name, email address and
password, prosecutors said.
Finally they would be
redirected to affiliate
websites that would allegedly
pay Wallace “substantial
revenue” for traffic.
The scheme relied on
vulnerabilities that Wallace
discovered in Facebook’s
spam filters, according to the
indictment.
“To accomplish his scheme,
Wallace first tested his
spamming capabilities
between two Facebook
accounts,” it said.
“[He] used a fake Facebook
account of ‘David Frederix’
and his legitimate ‘Sanford
Masterwb Wallace’ account
to test variations of spam
messages in order to evade
Facebook’s filtering
mechanisms.
“Once Wallace evaded
Facebook’s spam filters he
employed an automatic
scripting process to sign into
a compromised Facebook
user’s account, retrieve a list
of all the user’s friends, and
then post a spam message to
each of the user’s friend’s
Facebook walls.”
Wallace is now indicted on a
total of 11 charges of fraud,
intentional damage to a
protected computer, and
criminal contempt.
The contempt charges relate
to an earlier civil case
brought against Wallace
by Facebook itself .
A federal judge awarded the
dominant social network
$711m in damages in
October 2009. The firm did
not expect Wallace to pay,
but the judge also ordered
him not to log in to
Facebook. According to
Thursday’s indictment he
“wilfully and knowingly”
breached that order.
Wallace, who first gained
notoriety as a spammer in
the 1990s and also lost a civil
case brought against him by
MySpace in 2008, was
released on $100,000 bail. He
faces up to three years in jail
and a $250,000 fine for each
of the six fraud charges and
up to 10 years in jail for each
of the three charges of
intentional damage to a
protected computer.
Facebook welcomed the
arrest.
“We applaud the efforts of
the US Attorney’s Office and
the FBI to bring spammers to
justice,” said Chris Sonderby,
its lead security and
investigation counsel.
“Two years ago, Facebook
sued Wallace and a federal
court ordered him to pay a
$711 million judgment for
sending unwanted messages
and wall posts to people on
Facebook. Now Wallace also
faces serious jail time for this
illegal conduct.”
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
hands-on
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
is the best Android tablet to
date but is it better than the
iPad? Shane Richmond finds
out.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
went on sale in Britain earlier
this week. If you want a 3G
model then you’ll have to
wait another couple of weeks
but the Wi-Fi version is on
the shelves now.
Would-be buyers in Australia
have not been so lucky. The
imminent launch of the
Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been
postponed there because of
a dispute with Apple.
Samsung has been accused
of “blatant copying” of
Apple’s iPad in the latest
round of a global legal battle
between the two tech giants.
Apple sued Samsung in April
this year for infringement of
patents and trademarks; a
few days later, Samsung
issued a counter-claim.
Patent law is not my purview
but after a couple of days
with the Galaxy Tab 10.1, it’s
hard to ignore the
similarities. Like the iPad 2
it’s exceptionally thin and
unlike some competing
tablets I’ve seen, its edges
are not cluttered with ports
and buttons. There are some
tastefully-designed controls
on top - a sleep/wake
switch, volume controls, a
SIM-card port and a
headphone socket - a
charging socket underneath
and a speaker on each side.
It’s also slightly lighter than
the iPad 2, thanks to its
largely plastic back.
The back houses a 3-
megapixel camera, though
the Galaxy Tab 10.1V has an
8-megapixel camera. The
front is all screen - there
isn’t even an iPad-style
button - and the front-
facing camera is positioned
in the centre of one of the
long edges, making clear that
this is a landscape-first
device, unlike the iPad.
Inside, it offers higher specs
than Apple’s tablet. It has
1GB of RAM - double that of
the iPad 2 - and a slightly
higher screen resolution. It’s
a powerful and very nicely
designed tablet computer.
If I seem to be overly
concerned with how this
compares to the iPad, that’s
because it’s the iPad that
leads the way. The BlackBerry
PlayBook and the HP
TouchPad can’t hold a candle
to the iPad 2. The good news
for Samsung, however, is that
the Galaxy Tab 10.1 also
comfortably beats the tablets
from RIM and HP. It falls very
slightly short of the iPad,
though.
The weakness, which isn’t
entirely Samsung’s fault, is
Android Honeycomb, the
operating system that powers
the Galaxy Tab 10.1. It has
two very noticeable
problems.
The first is the
responsiveness of the
operating system itself. It’s
easily demonstrated by
holding the Galaxy Tab 10.1
in one hand and the iPad 2
in the other. When rotating
them between portrait and
landscape positions, the iPad
2 reacts immediately, almost
as if the contents of the
screen are being tipped and
poured into the new
position. The Galaxy Tab 10.1
takes a moment before it
responds. It’s not a delay that
makes the device unusable
but it is noticeable and it
detracts from the experience
of using the tablet.
The success of the iPad 2 is
that it feels as though you
are manipulating the content
directly with your finger. The
operating system is almost
invisible. On Samsung’s
device, it’s impossible to
ignore the OS. While Android
fans or those who really don’t
like Apple will tolerate that,
casual users will find it off-
putting.
The other problem is with
apps. The iPad has a head
start here, admittedly, but
there are still too few
Android apps. A few minutes
browsing in Apple’s App
Store will leave you almost
overwhelmed with choice.
The Android experience is,
sadly, underwhelming.
Prices for the Samsung
Galaxy Tab are identical to
those of the iPad. The entry-
level model, Wi-Fi-only and
with 16GB of storage, will
cost you £399 - matching
the equivalent iPad. And a
16GB, 3G version starts at
£499, also matching the
equivalent iPad.
This is the question the
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has
to answer: with £399 to
spend on a tablet computer,
why would you buy this one
instead of an iPad? The only
answer I can think of is
because you don’t want an
Apple product. Fair enough,
some people feel that way. If
you want an Android tablet,
this is the best one I’ve seen
to date.
If you want the best tablet,
however, the iPad 2 remains
the one to beat.
hands-on
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
is the best Android tablet to
date but is it better than the
iPad? Shane Richmond finds
out.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
went on sale in Britain earlier
this week. If you want a 3G
model then you’ll have to
wait another couple of weeks
but the Wi-Fi version is on
the shelves now.
Would-be buyers in Australia
have not been so lucky. The
imminent launch of the
Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been
postponed there because of
a dispute with Apple.
Samsung has been accused
of “blatant copying” of
Apple’s iPad in the latest
round of a global legal battle
between the two tech giants.
Apple sued Samsung in April
this year for infringement of
patents and trademarks; a
few days later, Samsung
issued a counter-claim.
Patent law is not my purview
but after a couple of days
with the Galaxy Tab 10.1, it’s
hard to ignore the
similarities. Like the iPad 2
it’s exceptionally thin and
unlike some competing
tablets I’ve seen, its edges
are not cluttered with ports
and buttons. There are some
tastefully-designed controls
on top - a sleep/wake
switch, volume controls, a
SIM-card port and a
headphone socket - a
charging socket underneath
and a speaker on each side.
It’s also slightly lighter than
the iPad 2, thanks to its
largely plastic back.
The back houses a 3-
megapixel camera, though
the Galaxy Tab 10.1V has an
8-megapixel camera. The
front is all screen - there
isn’t even an iPad-style
button - and the front-
facing camera is positioned
in the centre of one of the
long edges, making clear that
this is a landscape-first
device, unlike the iPad.
Inside, it offers higher specs
than Apple’s tablet. It has
1GB of RAM - double that of
the iPad 2 - and a slightly
higher screen resolution. It’s
a powerful and very nicely
designed tablet computer.
If I seem to be overly
concerned with how this
compares to the iPad, that’s
because it’s the iPad that
leads the way. The BlackBerry
PlayBook and the HP
TouchPad can’t hold a candle
to the iPad 2. The good news
for Samsung, however, is that
the Galaxy Tab 10.1 also
comfortably beats the tablets
from RIM and HP. It falls very
slightly short of the iPad,
though.
The weakness, which isn’t
entirely Samsung’s fault, is
Android Honeycomb, the
operating system that powers
the Galaxy Tab 10.1. It has
two very noticeable
problems.
The first is the
responsiveness of the
operating system itself. It’s
easily demonstrated by
holding the Galaxy Tab 10.1
in one hand and the iPad 2
in the other. When rotating
them between portrait and
landscape positions, the iPad
2 reacts immediately, almost
as if the contents of the
screen are being tipped and
poured into the new
position. The Galaxy Tab 10.1
takes a moment before it
responds. It’s not a delay that
makes the device unusable
but it is noticeable and it
detracts from the experience
of using the tablet.
The success of the iPad 2 is
that it feels as though you
are manipulating the content
directly with your finger. The
operating system is almost
invisible. On Samsung’s
device, it’s impossible to
ignore the OS. While Android
fans or those who really don’t
like Apple will tolerate that,
casual users will find it off-
putting.
The other problem is with
apps. The iPad has a head
start here, admittedly, but
there are still too few
Android apps. A few minutes
browsing in Apple’s App
Store will leave you almost
overwhelmed with choice.
The Android experience is,
sadly, underwhelming.
Prices for the Samsung
Galaxy Tab are identical to
those of the iPad. The entry-
level model, Wi-Fi-only and
with 16GB of storage, will
cost you £399 - matching
the equivalent iPad. And a
16GB, 3G version starts at
£499, also matching the
equivalent iPad.
This is the question the
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has
to answer: with £399 to
spend on a tablet computer,
why would you buy this one
instead of an iPad? The only
answer I can think of is
because you don’t want an
Apple product. Fair enough,
some people feel that way. If
you want an Android tablet,
this is the best one I’ve seen
to date.
If you want the best tablet,
however, the iPad 2 remains
the one to beat.
Friday, August 5, 2011
10 Simple ways to keep your
PC safe
1.) Updated your O.S.
2.) Anti Virus is must and
update is important.
...
3.) Use of internet (wifi) or
home network should be
secure.
4.) Always scan your email
attachments (avoid
unnecessary registration and
giving away your personal
information).
5.) Use anti spyware / adware.
6.) It is always advised to use
a firewall.
7.) Avoid going on untrusted
website.
8.) Disk Defrag is must (at
least once in 3 months).
(delete cookies & temp files)
9.) Back-Up your computer
Data Periodically
10.) Encrypt your data where
ever necessary.
PC safe
1.) Updated your O.S.
2.) Anti Virus is must and
update is important.
...
3.) Use of internet (wifi) or
home network should be
secure.
4.) Always scan your email
attachments (avoid
unnecessary registration and
giving away your personal
information).
5.) Use anti spyware / adware.
6.) It is always advised to use
a firewall.
7.) Avoid going on untrusted
website.
8.) Disk Defrag is must (at
least once in 3 months).
(delete cookies & temp files)
9.) Back-Up your computer
Data Periodically
10.) Encrypt your data where
ever necessary.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)