Chinese used 'flaws' in Microsoft explorer to hack Google

 The Chinese managed to hack Google accounts of human activists and many businesses thanks to flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser, according to reports Friday.

Google has threatened to close its operations and offices in China after hacking and "phishing'' attempts to break into gmail accounts of US, China and Europe based Chinese human rights activists.

The company, which agreed to censor of Google. cn at its launch in 2006, has also said it is "no longer willing to continue censoring our results onGoogle. cn.''

Reports Friday quoted security researcher McAfee Inc. as saying that Chinese cyber attacks on Google accounts were engineered by using an unknown flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.

According to McAfee, 'phishers' fooled users into clicking on a link to a website. This website then secretly downloaded malicious software onto their computers. The spyware allowed the hackers to take remote control of the computers.

Microsoft has already admitted in its blog that IE browser might be used by hackers to remotely spy on infected computers. It is likely to unveil a software update for the browser.

"We need to take all cyber attacks, not just this one, seriously,'' Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told CNBC.

"We have a whole team of people that responds in very real time to any report that it may have something to do with our software, which we don't know yet,'' he said.

Google has said that "these accounts have not been accessed through any security breach atGoogle, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers.''

It says it will soon hold discussions the Chinese soon whether it can operate an unfiltered search engine. "We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google. cn, and potentially our offices in China," Google warned in a blog Tuesday.

Bono calls for control over net downloads

U2 frontmanBono has slammedinternet service providers for their failure to clamp illegal file sharing over their networks, and warns the film industry not to be dogged like music industry.

Writing for the New York Times, Bono claimedInternet service providers were "reverse Robin Hoods" benefiting from the music industry''s lost profits.

He hinted that China''s efforts prove that tracking net content is possible.

"The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we''re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of ''24'' in 24 seconds," BBC News quoted Bono as saying.

"A decade''s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators... the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business," he added.

Bono further suggested that the feasibility of tracking down file-sharers had already been proven.

"We know from America''s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China''s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it''s perfectly possible to track content," he said.

However, Bono’s editorial has attracted significant criticism, both on its economic merits and for the suggestion of net content policing, with the critics pointing out that U2 topped 2009''s list of top-grossing live acts.

"Bono has missed that even a totalitarian government... can''t effectively control net-content," said Cory Doctorow, a blogger and journalist noted for his study of file-sharing policy.

"If only greed and ignorance could sequester carbon, Bono could finally save the planet," he added

Google challenges China by ending censorship of search results

T

he world''s leading search engine, Google, has said it is no longer willing to censor search results on its Chinese service.

The Internet giant said the decision followed a cyber attack it believes was aimed at gathering information on Chinese human rights activists.

The move follows a clampdown on the Internet in China over the last year, which has seen sites and social networking services hosted overseas blocked – including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube – and the closure of many sites at home. Chinese authorities criticised Google for supplying "vulgar" content in results, reports The Guardian.

Google acknowledged the decision "may well mean" the closure of Google. cn and its offices in China.

Google was in contact with the US State Department before its announcement.

Spokesman PJ Crowley said: "Every nation has an obligation, regardless of the origin of malicious cyber activities, to keep its part of the network secure. That includes China. Every nation should criminalise malicious activities on computer networks."

In a post on the official Google Blog, the company outlined a "highly sophisticated and targeted" attack in December, which it believes affected at least 20 other firms:

"These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered, combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web, have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China,” the statement from Google said.

"We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google. cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all," it added.

Human Rights Watch praised the decision and urged other firms to follow suit in challengingcensorship

Wipro tops list of H-1B visa professionals in 2009

With 1,964 H-1B visas in 2009, Indian IT major Wipro has topped the list of firms that got the coveted US visas for highly skilled professionals.

Microsoft with 1,318 visas came next, with Intel (723) in third place, while Google with 211 in 25th place brought up the rear. IBM India (695), Infosys (440), Polaris Software Lab India (254) and Satyam (219) were the other major Indian visa getters.

At least 200 US and Asia-based technology, financial and consulting companies applied for H-1B visas in 2009. The major technology companies that did not rank in the Top 25, but did rank in the Top 50 include Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and IBM, according to e-week. com.

Some of the leading research universities in the United States also rank in the Top 50 --University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, University of Illinois, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Pittsburgh, Columbia and Baylor College of Medicine.

Here is a countdown of the top 25 companies with the specific number of H-1B visas they were granted by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in 2009:

1. Wipro 1,964, 2. Microsoft 1,318, 3. Intel 723, 4. IBM India 695, 5. Patni Americas 609, 6. Larsen & Toubro Infotech 602, 7. Ernst & Young 481, 8. Infosys 440, 9. UST Global 344, 10. Deloitte 328, 11. Qualcomm 320, 12. Cisco Systems 308, 13. Accenture 287, 14. KPMG 287, 15. Oracle 272, 16. Polaris Software Lab India 254, 17. Rite Aid 240, 18. Goldman Sachs 236, 19. Deloitte & Touche 235, 20. Cognizant 233, 21. Mphasis 229, 22. Satyam 219, 23. Bloomberg 217, 24. Motorola 213 and 25. Google 211.

Computer method ‘distinguishes artistic fakes and imitations’

Researchers have developed a new technique, known as "sparse coding", to differentiate artistic fakes from real ones.

It involves building a virtual library of an artist''s works and breaking them down into the simplest possible visual elements.

Verifiable works by that artist can be rebuilt using varying proportions of those simple elements, while imitators'' works cannot.

Daniel Rockmore of Dartmouth College in the US and his colleagues have developed the method.

They cut each of an artist''s works into 144 pieces, 12 rows and 12 columns.

These elements are altered by a computer until some combination of them can recreate each piece from the original artwork.

Then the elements are refined until the fewest are required to recreate each piece.

Those refined pieces will be unable to reproduce the work of an imitator or a fake.

The experts experimented with the works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, a 16th century Flemish painter, as part of the project.

"Our hope is that it becomes more of what people call technical art history," the BBC News quoted Rockmore, as saying.

He added; "Instead of asking ''was this painting done 40 years after these drawings?'', one might instead ask ''how are these statistics evolving over time and what does that say about the working style?''.

"For many people those are more central questions, and probably more substantial questions." 

Google Nexus One Specifications, Videos and Price

Google’s Nexus One handset is the most advanced Android mobile device available till date, it uses the latest Android 2.1 OS, and is custom built by HTC for Google. The device is dubbed by Google as a ‘Superphone’ which in my opinion is justified by speed provided by a never before 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, coupled with 512 RAM. These specs made it a great multi-tasker which I am sure you will love to operate. Nexus one also comes with a 5MP camera with autofocus and LED Flash and can record videos at 720 x 480 resolution.

Full Specifications of Nexus One:

• 3.7-inch AMOLED Touchscreen
• 1 GHz Qualcomm QSD 8250 processor
• 512 RAM
• 5 Megapixel With Autofocus and LED Flash
• 512 MB Inbuilt memory
• 4 GB microSD Card, upgradable to 32 GB
• Assisted GPS
• Proximity sensor
• Digital Compass
• Accelerometer
• Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
• 1400 mAH battery, up to 10 Hours talk time

It also features voice enabled keyboard that lets you send out your text messages, fill out email or update twitter/facebook by Voice, you can even get driving directions by just speaking into it.

Nexus one is priced at 529$ or around Rs 24,241 when it comes to India. This price is for a unlocked Nexus One, it is also available at $179 with a T-Mobile contract in U.S.

Skiing robot created by scientists can navigate slalom courses

A team of scientistsfrom Slovakia has created a skiing robot capable of navigating slalomcourses.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the robot, around the size of an eight-year-old child, can scoot down a snow-covered hill on a couple of practice runs before taking on a giant slalom course.

It uses a pair of computer systems, one attached to cameras and dedicated to plotting a course down the slope, and one attached to gyroscopes and force sensors which keeps the robot stabilized.

It uses ordinary skis, which Bojan Nemec of the Jozef Stefan Institute bought from a local ski shop.

Nemec doubts that the machine will be able to compete seriously in an actual downhill race against humans any time soon, or to act as a robotic ski instructor.

However, it will be useful for testing ski equipment or modelling skiing for virtual reality systems.

As yet, it is still at an early stage.

Cyber threats in 2010

Acomputer security firm has advised PC owners to keep their computer safe from new security threats in the new year.

The experts revealed that the way people use the Internet and their computers has evolved significantly and so have the cyber criminals.

They have changed their tactics accordingly.

"It really speaks to a Web 2.0 world. People communicate differently today, people transact and pay their bills differently today, and that drives today''s criminals," ABC Science quoted David Marcus, director of security research and communications for McAfee Labs, which this week released its 2010 Threat Predictions report, as saying.

"Bad guys tend to go where the masses go," he added.

Not only has the volume of threats escalated dramatically, the delivery methods have also become more sophisticated, he said.

Cyber criminals increasingly leverage the news of the day to attack unsuspecting consumers.

Whether it is celebrity deaths or natural disasters, Marcus says criminals will find a way to conceal their malware in the headlines you want to read.

According to McAfee, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites -- will become major targets for cyber criminals.

Web users often tend to trust Web links and e-mail messages sent by friends and family.

However, online attackers are learning how to exploit that trust, by delivering malware that appears to come from Facebook friends, Twitter followers and friends'' e-mail accounts.

"When you consider there are 350 million users of Facebook, that''s a pretty target-rich environment," said Marcus.

McAfee also warns that URL shorteners, like those used to accommodate Twitter''s 140-character limit, make the cyber criminal''s task even easier.

Symantec said in its recent report on 2010 threats, URL shortening services will "become the phisher''s best friend."

"Because users often have no idea where a shortened URL is actually sending them, phishers are able to disguise links that the average security conscious user might think twice about clicking on," the company said.

As consumers continue to bank online, Marcus said attacks on financial sites will likely increase in 2010. Some criminals have already learned how to bypass the banks'' second layer of protection.

McAfee noted one new technique that involves interrupting a legitimate transaction to make an unauthorized withdrawal, while simultaneously checking the user''s transaction limits to fly below the radar and avoid alerting the bank.

McAfee said another target for online crooks this year will likely be Google''s new operating system, Chrome. As the "new kid on the block," McAfee predicts attackers will attempt to break the code and prey on consumers.

McAfee expects it to be Adobe products, especially Flash and Acrobat reader.

"It really kind of speaks to Adobe''s popularity," said Marcus. "When you''re searching online for a document, chances are it''s a PDF you''re going to download."

Top Ten Wireless Predictions for 2010

The mobile data traffic is set to experience record growth in 2010, according to a report from Juniper Research.

Such a growth would cause an explosion inmobile data traffic, putting strain on 3G networks and causing network providers to reconsider pricing plans, the report added.

Juniper Research has compiled a list of top tentrends, reports The Independent.

The Top Ten Wireless Predictions for 2010:

1. Mobile Data Traffic Explosion to put strain on 3G Networks

2. Mobile Ecosystem starts to go green

3. Mobile Heads for the Cloud

4. New category of Smartbooks to Emerge

5. Apps Stores All Round

6. Mobile Social Networking to Integrate with other Applications including M-Commerce

7. NFC phones appear in the shops

8. At least 10 LTE networks to be launched into service

9. Smartphones to Get Augmented Reality Makeover

10. Christmas Kindle sales expected to herald the rise of the connected embedded consumer devices

Web addresses become multilingual

Plans are in motion to create fully "internationalized"Web addresses - those completely in non-Latin scripts like Korean or Arabic, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, announced Friday.

"We just made the internet much more accessible to millions of people in regions such as Asia, the Middle East and Russia," Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's president and CEO, said in a statement.

ICANN's board of directors voted to approve the decision before an audience of some 200 attendees of the organization's 36th International Public Meeting in Seoul.

"This decision is very significant and meaningful for not only Koreans, but all those who are not English native speakers," Kang Hye Young, director of the Internet Name Policy Team at the Korea Internet & Security Agency, told the German Press Agency dpa.

KISA is the local host of the Seoul meeting. "It shows that now ICANN is considering seriously the voice of non-native English speakers," she added.

An estimated 60 per cent of the world's 1.6 billion Web users are non-English speakers, according to Internet World Stats.

ICANN, the world's "internet regulator," plans to begin work on the new Web addresses on November 16, when it will begin accepting applications for new endings for domain names.

Initially, the process will be limited to a set range of these suffixes, called internationalized domain names, or IDNs, that involve country codes - such as ".kr" in Korea or ".ae" for the United Arab Emirates.

Organizations like KISA, which manages the ".kr" domain, will be eligible to submit new endings to Web addresses in script such as Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Possibilities include "dot-hangul" or "dot-daehanminguk" in Korean script, Kang said, although no official decisions have been made yet. "Daehanminguk" means Republic of Korea.

The use of IDNs will expand over time to include all types of suffixes, such as ".berlin," ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush said at an opening press conference last Monday.

If regulated by local municipal authorities, such Web addresses would be more credible to consumers, he said.

ICANN, a nonprofit, public-benefit corporation formed in 1998, coordinates the globe's Web addresses and names. Based in Marina Del Ray, California, it holds international conferences three times per year in different regions of the world.

The next gathering is slated for March 7-12, 2010, in Nairobi, Kenya.

PC addiction: when the computer becomes your kid's best friend

At first, Katharina (not her real name) only sat in front of her computer for a few hours at a time. But then she began to spend more and more time, always playing the same game. It wasn't long before her whole life revolved around the game.

"In the game, I could be a completely different person than I am in real life. I liked that," saysKatharina, now 20 and living in Berlin.

What Katharina didn't notice was that she wasn't just playing the computer game because she wanted to do so, but because she was addicted to it. She's not alone. Thousands of youths get so heavily immersed into computer gaming worlds that they lose control and become addicted.

Exact numbers are unknown. Studies provide different numbers. A study by the Criminology Research Institute of the German state of Lower Saxony found 3 per cent of male ninth-graders addicted to computer games. Another study by Berlin's Humboldt University found that 1.4 per cent of 12 to 19-year-olds are addicted to computers.

Oliver Bilke, the chief doctor at Berlin's Vivantes Clinic for Children and Youths, has seen numerous cases like Katharina's. In the spring of 2009, he introduced two special walk-in clinics for youths with computer problems.

But what can an ambulance do for a teenager with a computer problem?

"There are certain criteria for a gaming addiction, just like other addictions," explains Bilke. These include playing intensely, spending an increasing amount of time with the game, continuously thinking about the game and letting virtual relationships become more important that ones in the real world. Other signs include letting real-world duties slide in favour of the games and failed attempts to limit the amount of time playing, according to a gaming ward at the clinic of the University of Mainz.

Of course, not all addicts realize their problem on their own. "Usually, parents or grandparents are the first to notice," says Bilke. "At the clinic, we have an interview to see if we're really dealing with an addiction and whether the child is ready for a change."

Usually, patients are asked to keep a media journal, noting how much time they spend with which technical devices.

"Many aren't aware of how much time they really sit at the computer," says Bilke. But then they'll notice that the checked their emails in the morning, surfed and chatted in the afternoon and then played games all evening.

"It helps a lot of kids, just to identify their problem," says Bilke. Once they see the times in black and white, a lot of kids reduce their computer time themselves. But that's not always the case.

"Sometimes the gaming is compensating for fears, depression or concentration problems," he says. In those cases, therapy can help.

Those who can't break away from gaming can get admitted to the clinic. "We block all access to computer games and offer an intense therapy over weeks or months," says Bilke. "At the same time, we can work with the children on the root of their addiction and develop alternatives to gaming.

New user interfaces could make computer mouse obsolete

Scientists developed the so-called X-Y position display for monitor systems all the way back in the 60s. That breakthrough begat the mouse, which gained dominance in the 80s. It has remained the number one user input device ever since.

Yet new developments are nibbling away at the rodent's lead. More and more displays are designed using touchscreens. Computers are learning to take voice commands. New sensors are even allowing controls to be given via gestures.

"After years of quiet, a series of new user interface technologies have achieved market readiness," say the IT market researchers at Gartner, a US-based technology research firm. That includes Microsoft's Surface computer employing multi touch technology and the controls on Nintendo's Wii console.

Project Natal is Microsoft's codename for a system featuring a camera with a depth sensor, microphone, and built-in processor. It is rumoured to be coming to the Xbox gaming console in the near future. The device will not just be able to interpret gestures, Microsoft has indicated, but will also be able to transfer speech and pantomimed actions onto the screen, regardless of the lighting. Many game developers have already announced plans to work with the new user interface.

"The Natal approach is extremely important," says Franz Koller, general director at the consulting firm User Interface Design in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The system permits a new degree of freedom: "For example, I can point to an object and tell it what I want to do," he says.

The experts warn against overly high expectations, though. "We'll be using the mouse for a while yet," Koller says. Nintendo's Wii remote has also been exceptionally well received by gamers. "Even so it's unlikely I'll ever want to do my bookkeeping using a Wii remote control," says Koller.

Koller believes instead that more and more future devices will offer a user interface tailored for different applications or preferences. "The individual systems should be viewed as integrative," the expert says. An example might be a tablet PC with a multi touch display and full keyboard.

Another example of a new user interface that has found its place in daily life is Apple's mobile phone. "The iPhone has set off a lot of change," Koller says. The concept is so successful because it's both fun to use and practical at the same time. Multi touch systems require almost no learning curve, since the pinch and flick gestures are intuitive.

The same is true for Microsoft's Surface computer, which includes a 30-inch display capable of being operated by several hands at once. "A study has shown that older people also have an easier time using this kind of system," Koller explains. The Surface, which is primarily intended for project work and presentations, allows for scenarios that have been prepared graphically to be discussed and explored. Yet even the Surface still allows for a keyboard to be connected.

It seems like almost every science fiction film nowadays has the hero working with a computer by gesturing freely at a projection within a room. Yet the reality isn't all that far off from the fantasy. Oblong, a US-based company, has created a spatial working environment dubbed G-Speak that can be used to analyze data sets and examine three-dimensional objects among other applications, the company claims. The environment is presented to the user using several large displays controlled by sensor-loaded gloves.

Yet long term use of Natal or G-Speak could end up being ergonomically questionable. "It's very strenuous in terms of posture," Koller believes. Keyboards and mice let the arms rest on a surface, which prevents premature exhaustion. The same applies for Microsoft's Surface, where work is done on a horizontal surface.

Touch functionality is also slowly making its way into laptops that are not designed as tablet PCs. The Dell Latitude Z series for example includes a scroll function on the edge of the display as well as a touch toolbar to call up programs.

Voice control is well established at this point, although usually for special applications like banking, automated customer service lines and car navigation systems. Situations requiring dialogue or interpretation of the meaning of spoken phrases still need more work, Koller says. "We don't have functional voice control like on the Starship Enterprise at present."