Researchers from security vendor FireEye have uncovered a new advanced persistent threat (APT) that uses multiple detection evasion techniques, including the monitoring of mouse clicks, to determine active human interaction with the infected computer. Called Trojan.APT.BaneChant, the malware is distributed via a Word document rigged with an exploit sent during targeted email attacks. The name of the document translates to "Islamic Jihad.doc." "We suspect that this weaponized document was used to target the governments of Middle East and Central Asia," FireEye researcher Chong Rong Hwa said Monday in a . The attack works in multiple stages. The malicious document downloads and executes a component that attempts to determine if the operating environment is a virtualized one, like an antivirus sandbox or an automated malware analysis system, by waiting to see if there's any mouse activity before initiating the second attack stage.
's Patch Tuesday next week, both by virtue of supporting Internet Explorer 10. The bulletin for the vulnerabilities addresses similar problems in all versions of Internet Explorer from IE6 through IE10. That means affected operating systems include XP, Vista, Windows 7, and
PCs, and do so by a whopping 72 percent, according to the latest projections from analysts at Gartner. In between, PC shipments drop at ever faster rates. Surface Pro. But the PC decline is permanent, reflecting a "long-term change in user behavior," according to the Gartner statement.
Google Fiber’s super fast broadband Internet service may be coming to tech-friendly Austin, Texas, where the likes of Dell, Samsung and Intel have already set up shop. in which it will make “a very important announcement that will have a positive impact on Austinites and the future of the city.” titled “Google Fiber’s next stop: Austin, Texas.” And it’s cheap.
The more information that leaks about Windows 8's expected summer upgrade, dubbed "Blue" by Microsoft, the more questions that pop up, analysts say. And with very few exceptions, customers don't have answers. -- was that the upgrade would be named "Windows 8.1," a convention reminiscent of rival Apple's system of numbering its versions of OS X as, for example, 10.7 for Lion, 10.8 for Mountain Lion. , meaning it has been updated three times since its July 2012 debut.
The Department of Homeland Security has a warning for organizations that post a lot of business and personal information on public web pages and social media sites: Don't do it. Phishers, the agency said in an alert this week, look for such information and use it to craft authentic looking emails aimed at fooling people in large organizations into opening and downloading things they shouldn't. The alert was prompted by an incident last October in which 11 companies in the energy sector were targeted in a sophisticated spear-phishing campaign apparently aimed at breaching their network security. The phishing campaign was made possible to a large extent by information posted publicly by an energy company listing attendees at a recent conference. The employee names, email addresses, organizational affiliations and work titles so helpfully posted by the company was used by spear-phishers to launch customized attacks against energy sector companies.
Remember lifestreaming? ." It started out as something visionary, but was downgraded over time to mean "all of your social media activity in one stream." Lifestreaming is nice. The problem is that your "electronic life" isn't your actual life -- you know, where you go in the physical world, what you do, who you meet and even how you feel? Isn't that the stuff we'd really like to remember? Besides, do we have to share everything? And are the things we share the only things we want to remember?
Facebook has posted a Q&A on its website about the privacy implications of its new for Android phones, though it was unclear if it has addressed all the concerns raised. In a Friday, the company said it had received "a few questions about how Home works with privacy." It then posed several questions to itself about Home and privacy and answered them. Home is essentially a software wrapper for Android smartphones that modifies the home screen, among other things, to put Facebook photos and messages front and center. It was on Thursday. The post on privacy starts out by noting that users don't have to use Home in order to use Facebook, and that users can turn off Home if they install it and then decide they don't want to use it.
Despite all the Microsoft Surface hype, . It’s difficult, after all, to be more expensive than Apple’s ever-cool iPad, yet less usable than a reasonably cheap laptop. So what can the Asus VivoTab Smart—a slim little 10.1-inch tablet with a Clover Trail processor—bring to the table? Well, for one thing, it’s relatively cheap: the VivoTab starts at just $499, and that includes 64GB of built-in storage. It also runs the full version of Windows 8, so you don’t have to settle for Windows RT. Just because it runs a desktop OS doesn't mean it runs like a PC, of course. Compare it to a low-powered Ultrabook, and it's toast. It’s moderately powerful for a tablet, however, scoring higher than similarly appointed models with Intel Pentium 6 CPUs and 2GB of memory, such as the . Battery life is good and long, at 7 hours and 36 minutes in our tests. Of course, the $499 price tag doesn’t include the VivoTab’s accessories: a Smart Cover-esque magnetic screen protector that folds into a stand, and a separate, Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad. The screen protector/keyboard combo costs an additional $130, which means it’s about $629 for the full VivoTab Smart experience. This is still a fairly good deal—the also costs $629, but it has half the built-in storage.
may have technically hit beta 1 a few weeks ago, but at the time there was no beta release to test and try out. Rather, the only variations with actual beta images to see were Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, UbuntuKylin, Ubuntu Cloud, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu. can now get their fill, however, thanks to a second beta release that just came out, complete with software to download and take for a spin. on the Ubuntu site. Here's a rundown of some key highlights.
