12 myths about how the Internet works - Network World

12 myths about how the Internet works - Network World

MINNEAPOLIS – Thirty years have passed since the Internet Protocol was first described in a series of technical documents written by early experimenters. Since then, countless engineers have created systems and applications that rely on IP as the communications link between people and their computers.

Here's the rub: IP has continued to evolve, but no one has been carefully documenting all of the changes.

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Soundsnap.com: Find and Share Free Sound Effects and Loops

Soundsnap.com: Find and Share Free Sound Effects and Loops

Spice up your videos, games, applications or just make system alerts a little more hilarious by downloading sound effects from Soundsnap. Whether you're an electronic musician using Ableton Live or a budding YouTube auteur looking to flesh out the audio on a Final Cut Pro project, libraries of free sound effects, loops and samples are like manna (I'm a longtime fan of The Freesound Project). All the sound effects at Soundsnap are uploaded by creators, so if you've already done some foley work or futzed around with a Moog to produce sci-fi ambience, help out others by contributing. There are already many thousands of audio clips already available. If you're a multimedia maker, what sound effects sources do you use? Sphere: Related Content

USB 3.0 to be Formally Unveiled Next Monday

USB 3.0 to be Formally Unveiled Next Monday

Almost 14 months after Intel announced USB 3.0, the final protocol specification will be formally announced next Monday at the first SuperSpeed USB Developer Conference in San Jose, CA. The specs will then be handed over to early adopters that plan to design products around USB 3.0. The third generation of Universal Serial Bus has been hit by delay after delay, and it's been a very long, difficult and challenging three-year effort. Only several months ago, nVidia, AMD and a few others threatened to create its own USB 3.0 if Intel doesn't share the controller specs with them on time. This fortunately didn't sidetrack the effort to deliver USB 3.0 on time as both sides quickly reached an agreement.

While not formally unveiled, the SuperSpeed USB logo was shown at WinHEC 2008 last week where Redmond engineers held discussions on which OS will support the new USB. Windows 7 RTM unfortunately won't ship with native USB 3.0 support; that is, if the next Windows doesn't encounter delays. Hopefully, USB 3.0 is worth the wait with speed boost to 4.8Gbps, the use of optical cabling, and new power management. WinHEC 2008 has a a brief performance comparison sample for data transfer of 25GB HD movie:

• USB 1.0: 9.3 hours
• USB 2.0: 13.9 minutes
• USB 3.0: 70 seconds

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Tax website shut down as memory stick with secret personal data of 12million is found in a pub car park | Mail Online

Tax website shut down as memory stick with secret personal data of 12million is found in a pub car park Mail Online

Ministers have been forced to order an emergency shutdown of a key Government computer system to protect millions of people's private details.
The action was taken after a memory stick was found in a pub car park containing confidential passcodes to the online Government Gateway system, which covers everything from tax returns to parking tickets. Sphere: Related Content

Using the mobile phone as a credit card | News - Wireless - CNET News

Using the mobile phone as a credit card News - Wireless - CNET News

If you are in Asia, you know what I'm talking about. People there have been making payments with their mobile phones using what's called "near-field communications." Just wave the handset in front of a reader and voila, the transaction is done.

In the U.S., we've had RFID technology embedded in cards. But the long-term goal is to eliminate the need to carry credit cards, building access badges and transit cards and just turn the phone into an all-in-one device.

Well, while the mobile phone has turned into an entertainment device over the last few years, it hasn't become the payment and access device in the U.S. that was envisioned when contactless payment strategies were born back in 2005 and earlier.

And now, with the economic downturn, the near-field communications industry is likely to take even longer to take off. Broad adoption of near-field communications will take longer than expected now, as long as three to four years, predicts Shyam Krishnan, an industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

So, a French company called Inside Contactless has come up with an interim solution that will let people turn their phones into credit cards and transit cards. Inside's MicroPass technology will be embedded into a sticker that can then be affixed to a phone, wallet, or anything else.

The company, which entered the U.S. bank card market with a microprocessor-based chip in 2005 and is backed by Nokia, Motorola and Samsung, recently announced that Colorado Plastics will be producing stickers using the MicroPass technology.

Soon, we may see people waving their mobile phones, iPods, ID badges, or wallets in front of readers to get on the subway or buy coffee at Starbucks.

"It's a cool way to pay; convenient," said Charles Walton, executive vice president of the payments business at Inside. "It turns the phone into a super wallet."

"It's a card in a different format," said Jonathan Collins, principal analyst in ABI Research's RFID and contactless group. "We've had American Express fobs, but they didn't prove to be overly popular. Stickers are more useful."

The MicroPass technology should fare better with regard to security scrutiny than the much-maligned NXP Mifare Classic RFID chip, which has been found to have severe flaws and can be cloned.

"We're using a microprocessor with open-standard security techniques, not a fixed memory, proprietary security scheme" like Mifare Classic, Walton said. The applications implemented using MicroPass "cannot be cloned in that way."

Adoption will depend on how quickly banks, retailers and phone companies can agree on standards and implementation, as well as on whether people are ready to merge their phone and their wallet.
"There has to be a benefit for the end user," Krishnan said. "It all boils down to its convenience, at the end of the day."

I'd be interested in hearing reader thoughts on whether this technology would be useful. Sphere: Related Content

US focusing cybersecurity on backdoors in tech products - Network World

US focusing cybersecurity on backdoors in tech products - Network World:

"As part of a comprehensive cybersecurity push, the U.S. government will focus on improving its network defense capabilities and on revamping acquisition rules to protect against malicious code installed during the manufacturing process of electronic devices.

The National Cybersecurity Initiative, announced by President George Bush in January, will replace the government's outdated network perimeter defense system, officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies said at a Monday cybersecurity conference hosted by the Information Technology Association of America." Sphere: Related Content

Google Chrome set to take on Windows

Last week's unveiling of a new browser is the latest in a series of moves by Google Inc. to rid the world of Microsoft Windows, according to analysts.

In fact, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Wash., the new Chrome browser could be the key component of Google's plan to convince consumers and business users to replace Windows-based software with hosted Web applications.

"This is the potential threat that Microsoft has been worried about since the 1990s," Rosoff said. "This is Google trying to really push applications to the Web and make that the way people do computing."

Google began offering a beta version of the new open-source browser on its Web site last week.
Chrome includes a new high-performance Java-Script engine and Google Gears, which will let users store and access Web applications off-line. The browser is powered by the WebKit open-source rendering engine, also used in Apple Inc.'s Safari browser, and includes unspecified Firefox components.
At a press briefing, Sergey Brin, co-founder and technology president at Google, said he expects Chrome to serve as a strong vehicle for running Web applications. "I wouldn't call Chrome the OS of Web apps," Brin said. "It's a very basic, fast engine to run Web apps."

Google likely won't position Chrome simply as a competitor to established browsers from vendors like Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple and Opera Software, noted Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner Inc.
"It's about the Web apps battle," Valdes said. "It's about having a platform that will support the next generation of Web apps."

Google spent two years making sure its system could overcome the growing inability of current technologies to run new online applications. It was "definitely a strategic initiative," Valdes said.
Earlier steps in Google's long-term plan to kill Windows include the 2006 launch of the Google Apps hosted applications suite. That offering includes the Google Docs collaboration tool, Gmail e-mail software, Google Calendar, the Talk instant messaging and voice-over-IP application, and the Sites wiki service. Google is also expected to soon unveil an online storage offering.

Corporate IT managers have so far been unenthusiastic about replacing packaged software with Google's Web-based offerings. Robert Ford, CIO at Virgin Entertainment Group Inc., said Chrome likely won't change that view, at least at Virgin.

Although Chrome is impressive, "there would have to be astronomical performance improvements for us to switch," Ford said.

He noted that IE is the Los Angeles-based retailer's corporate standard, and developers there are expert in Microsoft .Net-based technologies. "I don't see any reason to challenge our IE standard," Ford said. "I'd have to make sure Chrome worked well with all of our other apps. What is the business value in that?"

In a statement, Dean Hachamovitch, IE general manager at Microsoft, said the company expects most users to continue turning to Internet Explorer, which holds about 72% of the browser market, according to Net Applications Inc., an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Web metrics research firm.
Sheri McLeish, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., said that Chrome "is not compelling enough to erode Microsoft's dominance. Too many IT shops are comfortable with IE."

McLeish noted that persuading users to switch browsers is a difficult task for any vendor. Even Microsoft has faced challenges getting users to upgrade to new versions of IE, she said.
Rosoff added that Google also faces a significant challenge in finding ways to distribute the new browser.
"Google is a powerful brand, but they do need a way to distribute the browser," he noted. PC makers, an obvious potential distribution path, may be wary of replacing Windows with Web-based applications. Sphere: Related Content

Malware infects space station laptops - Network World

Malware has managed to get off the planet and onto the International Space Station, NASA confirmed today. And it's not the first time that a worm or virus has stowed away on a trip into orbit.

The attack code, which space news site SpaceRef.com identified Monday as "W32.Gammima.AG," infected at least one of the laptops used on the station, an international effort headlined by the U.S. and Russia.

NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries declined to identify the malware, saying only that anti-virus software detected a worm on July 25.

The first public report of malware about the ISS was logged earlier this month, on Aug. 11. In NASA's daily status report on the station that day, the agency said. Sergey Volkov, the International Space Station (ISS) commander, was "working on the Russian RSS-2 laptop" and "ran digital photo flash cards from stowage through a virus check with the Norton AntiVirus application."

A week later, on Aug. 21 Volkov "checked another Russian laptop, today RSK-1, for software virus by scanning its hard drives and a photo disk."

The next day, Volkov transmitted antivirus scanning results from the laptop to Earth, and American astronaut Greg Chamitoff scanned another computer for possible infection. NASA also said in Friday's report that all laptops on board the ISS were being loaded with anti-virus software.
"All A31p laptops onboard are currently being loaded with [the] latest [Norton AntiVirus] software and updated definition files for increased protection," said NASA.

W32.Gammima.AG, the name Symantec Corp., maker of Norton AntiVirus, gives the malware, is a year-old Windows worm designed to steal information from players of 10 different online games, some of them specific to the Chinese market. Among the games: ZhengTu, HuangYi Online and Rohan.

The worm also plants a rootkit on the infected system, and transmits hijacked data to a remote server.
Today, Humphries said that the worm poses no threat. "It was never a threat to any command-and-control or operations computer," he said. He refused to detail how the malware snuck aboard, citing "IT security issues," but other sources, including SpaceRef.com, speculated that it might have stowed away on a laptop or a flash card.

In fact, the Aug. 11 ISS log entry hinted at digital camera storage cards as a suspect.

"There have been other incidents," confirmed Humphries, who works at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tex. "I don't know when the first one was, but the station will have been in orbit for 10 years [come] November."

"If there is any good news at all, it's that the malware was designed to steal usernames and passwords from computer game players, not something that orbiting astronauts are likely to be spending a lot of time doing," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with Sophos Plc., in a post to that company's blog today. "After all, with a view like that who needs to play the likes of World of Warcraft?" Sphere: Related Content

NewsFactor Network | Black Hat Hears Security Details as Reporters Booted

The Black Hat Security Conference got off to a fast start with two reporters from a security magazine kicked out for trying to hack the pressroom systems. In other highlights at the Black Hat conference, Dan Kaminsky outlined how to hack DNS, serious holes in Google Gadgets were discussed and Cisco vulnerabilities were on the agenda.

Day one of the Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas got off to a hot start with details about DNS and e-mail flaws, Google gaffes, and Cisco vulnerabilities. And some French reporters were kicked out for trying to hack the pressroom facilities.

The Black Hat conference is the premiere conference for the latest in security news and tools. Nearly 7,000 attendees are listening to presentations on phishing, hacking and malware, and many are taking comprehensive training on the latest security tools and techniques to protect their networks.
Kaminsky Details DNS Flaw

Dan Kaminsky gave an in-depth briefing of the much-reported DNS flaw he discovered, with some startling new wrinkles.

First and foremost, Kaminsky estimated that only 70 percent of Fortune 500 servers have rolled out a DNS patch. Despite the fact that many servers are still exposed, Kaminsky ran through a detailed laundry list of ways to exploit the flaw before a standing-room only crowd. He may have been pushing laggards to fix the problem by releasing details.

By listening to his presentation, a hacker would have a road map to develop multiple exploits. Kaminsky also spoke in detail on how patches prevent such attacks.

Google Gadgets Vulnerable

Next up for security woes was Google's Gadgets. According to conference presenters Tom Stracener and Robert "RSnake" Hansen, Google's popular desktop gizmos are a gaping security hole waiting to be exploited. Gadgets run a variety of small tasks, such as a desktop calendar, news-feed windows, or the latest crossword puzzle.

Stracener and Hansen highlighted some scenarios.

First, a malicious Google gadget could be added to users' desktops without their knowledge, monitoring activities and collecting sensitive information.

A malicious gadget could also be used to collect account information, trigger other malicious gadgets and send users to bogus sites to fill out forms with sensitive information.

They also demonstrated JavaScript hacks of Google gadgets, underscoring their vulnerability. The duo warned that as businesses deploy desktop gadgets, significant business data could be at risk.

When Reporters Hack

InfoWorld reported that reporters from a French security magazine, Global Security Mag, were tossed out of the Black Hat conference after an apparent reporter-led hack of the pressroom facilities. Apparently the French journalists were attempting to snoop on their rivals to determine what stories they were filing.

According to a later report, the victim was a reporter working for eWeek. His password was intercepted by the French journalists using a well-known hacking technique on the unsecured portion of the LAN in the pressroom.

After the incident, eWeek had to reset its online story-filing passwords to protect its system. Sphere: Related Content

Georgia cyberwar overblown - Network World

Last week Russian tanks rolled into South Ossetia while Russian bombers were taking out critical communications infrastructure. But even before the first tank rolled across the disputed borders, another war was brewing in cyberspace. Sphere: Related Content

EASEUS Disk Copy: Free Disk Copy Software. Sector by Sector for hard drive backup tool.

Disk Copy 2.0 is a potent freeware providing sector-by-sector disk/partition copy regardless of your operating system, file systems and partition scheme. The sector-by-sector method assures you a copy 100% identity to the original. EASEUS Disk Copy can be used for copy, cloning, or upgrading your original small hard drive to a new larger drive. Simply speaking, it can copy anything from the old hard drive including the deleted, lost files and inaccessible data Sphere: Related Content

Dutch police, FBI rein in large botnet - Network World

The botnet created by a teenager who was arrested by Dutch police in a sting operation
is most notable for its total reliance on social engineering to spread, computer security
experts said Thursday. Sphere: Related Content

Anti-Georgia spammers building new botnet - Network World

Hackers targeting Georgia in the midst of its conflict with Russia have started sending out a new batch of malicious spam messages, apparently with the aim of building a new botnet network of remote-controlled computers. Sphere: Related Content

Judge refuses to lift gag order on MIT students in Boston subway-hack case

Judge refuses to lift gag order on MIT students in Boston subway-hack case

A federal judge in Boston today refused to lift a temporary restraining order preventing three MIT students from publicly discussing details of several security vulnerabilities that they found in the electronic ticketing system used by the city's mass transit authority. Sphere: Related Content