90,000 Sex Offenders Removed From MySpace
by Joel Borhart on February 4th, 2009 at 11:44 am EDT - 763 views
On Tuesday, February 3, MySpace removed nearly 90,000 of its over 110 million users who were identified as sex offenders. MySpace is a social networking website that has drawn in a younger crowd.
Following the younger crowd is the sexual predators that lie and fake their age in order to lure in the users who are not careful. Both MySpace and Facebook are constantly trying to reduce the number of sexual predators who use their sites but it is almost impossible to root out.
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2 CommentsGoogle Hacked?
by Taylor Flatt on January 31st, 2009 at 11:26 am EDT - 1,557 views
Saturday, all searches on Google resulted in errors saying the site may contain harmful material and that you should pick another website. Webmasters, including ourselves, were going crazy when we noticed this glitch. However, Google has since fixed the “glitch” and is going to be releasing an official statement soon.
There was a fault. We don’t know the nature of it yet. Everything has been solved. We are still making initial enquiries
a Google spokesperson told BBC News. These kinds of “faults” are something that Google isn’t really well known for which has surprised us all. Although they have fixed it, everyone is wanting to know, What happened? Let us hope something worse doesn’t happen if they were truly hacked or if it was just a simple mistake.
Update: Google attributes the fault to human error. The error occured for about 40 minutes when Google accidently flagged all sites as dangerous. Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience had this to say, “What happened” Very simply, human error. We will carefully investigate this incident and put more robust file checks in place to prevent it from happening again”.
Source: BBC
Image courtesy of BBC
Google Earth Pot Bust?
by Nathaniel Ed on January 30th, 2009 at 10:09 pm EDT - 573 views
Apparently in Zurich, Switzerland, Swiss police were using Google’s Google Earth to find the address of a pair of farmers who were suspected of being involved in a drug ring, however, they found more about the farmers than they intended. The bust resulted in 16 arrests and 1.2 tons of marijuana confiscated [two acres worth], plus 900,000 ($775,795.19) Swiss Francs worth of valuables and cash.
I think that this is hilarious. I don’t think that having marijuana is all that bad of an offense, however it’s hilarious that the same technology that the U.S. government wants to stymie because it could compromise security, is also able to help the Swiss government. Maybe our [The United States] police force will take a hint and use this to their advantage.
Sources: MSNBC, PC World
Image courtesy of PC World.
Category: Online, Programs, Security, Software
Tags: Google, Google Earth, Switzerland
Future of Gaming – Where are we headed?
by Andreas Rothbauer on January 27th, 2009 at 9:31 pm EDT - 3,189 views
In these tough economic times when many people use the entertainment industry as an escape from the brutal reality and are looking for affordable family entertainment I thought it was time to reflect on the gaming industry and where we are going. I am sure many of you have probably grown up with the NES and other 8 bit consoles – so have I. Looking back at those days of playing the Super Marios, Zeldas and constantly blowing on the dusty cartridges to get them to work makes me miss my first gaming experiences and the epic struggle of trying to play or should I even dare say beat some of those superhard video games from the early 90s. However, I loved every minute of it and doing it with friends were some of the best times I’ve ever had.
Today, video games take on a new but just as important of a role in our lives as adults. As mentioned before, money is hard to come by in this day and age and many people don’t even have jobs anymore. Still, families are seeking entertainment and the unlikely suspect of a video game console has stepped up to deliver just that. What was once a geeky and negatively looked upon activity has spread into nearly every living room and TV show in the United States and even the entire world – newly elevated to pop-culture: the Nintendo Wii.
Category: Games, Graphic Cards, Online, Operating Systems, Programs, Reviews, Security
Tags: Future of Gaming, Gaming in the Cloud, Nintendo Wii, PS4, Steam Cloud, Xbox 720
Mac Gets New Virus
by Chris Willhite on January 22nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm EDT - 1,197 views
On Thursday Intego, a security software company for Mac OS, sent out a warning to everyone about a new trojan horse virus that is spreading around the internet. Currently the trojan is only found in pirated versions of Apple’s iWork ‘09 software.
The new trojan has been named OS-X.Trojan.iServices and what it does is installs when you install iWork ‘09. On earlier versions of Mac OSX (10.5.1 and earlier) there is no password prompt but on newer versions it asks for the root pass to install. If the user puts in the password and allows the trojan to install then it has complete read write and excecute permissions in root which means it can do anything to your system that it wants. It also has the ability to reach out to other infected macs and even download other components after infection.
Microsoft Updates Windows, Again
by Taylor Flatt on January 13th, 2009 at 6:30 pm EDT - 413 views
Microsoft seems to be having a bad couple of months with their SQL issues and IE troubles. Although this patch was scheduled for their “Patch Tuesday”, it fixes problems in Windows that could allow hackers to inject code into your computer. It had to deal with the SMB protocol that sends requests (information) to controllers such as printers.
The issue was ranked critical mainly due to the fact that the option for it was turned on by default in Windows XP, but turned off by default in Vista giving it a moderate ranking.
While the port is open (settings enabled), it would allow potential hackers the availability to hound the computer with a DOS attack, inject code and/or steal vital (financial) information. Although Microsoft claims that this exploit is not likely to be explored due to the fact that it is “too tough for the average hacker”.
Famous Names Hacked on Twitter
by Nathaniel Ed on January 6th, 2009 at 11:23 am EDT - 294 views
33 famous people and organizations have been hacked on Twitter, a social networking site, including
- Barack Obama
- Fox News
- Britney Spears
Earlier today the hacked accounts spammed malicious messages; one among them, owned by CNN correspondant Rick Sanchez, saying “I am high on crack right now might not be coming to work today”.
Category: General, Online, Security
Tags: barrack obama, britney spears, fox news, phishing, Security, Twitter
5 Reasons Why IE Fails
by Taylor Flatt on December 31st, 2008 at 12:57 am EDT - 2,192 views
Internet Explorer, the gateway to the internet, or so it was back in the day is anything but now. Currently, there are several decent browsers that can get you to the same place faster, safer and easier. With an unbiased approach, I will look into the reasons why IE has and is beginning to fail. From CSS interpretations to memory usage IE has gone downhill.
Over the years Microsoft has prided itself in bringing technology and service to use who aren’t as fortunate to have the resources to do it ourselves. However, over the years, it seems that Microsoft has strayed from this path and has gone down a more adventitious avenue seeking more fame than actual usability and safety.
Category: Industry News, Online, Programs, Reviews, Security
Tags: Apple, Chrome, CSS, Customer Service, Firefox, Google, Hacking, Internet Explorer, Memory Usage, Microsoft, Mozilla, Safari
Google, Microsoft, Apple sued
by Taylor Flatt on December 29th, 2008 at 10:25 am EDT - 409 views
The tech giants are being sued for infringement upon icons used in various programs. These include,
- Google – Chrome
- Microsoft – Vista, IE 8
- Apple – iPhone, Safari, Mac OS X
Cygnus Systems, the suers, are looking to score with this lawsuit. They claim to have had this patent since March 2008. However, they have been applying for it since 2001 but first applied for it 1998. This raises the question, will they (Google, Microsoft, Apple), attempt to settle and get this out of the way, or will they fight it to the end?
That much has yet to be seen. The case was filed in the US District’s Court in Arizona where the CEO of the company, Gregory Swartz, lives. Gregory is seeking to prevent any further infringment upon these preview icons, thumbnails, used by these and other companies. This is leading it to consider accusing other companies and adding them to the stand as defendants to help prevent this and get them all in one swoop.
We will see how this turns out and hopefully it turns out to favor the little guy who seems to have the rights to these icons.
Source: CNet
Image Courtesy of us-japan.org.
Category: Operating Systems, Security
Tags: Apple, cygnus systems, Google, infringement, Microsoft
Christmas Malware is around again
by Joel Borhart on December 25th, 2008 at 5:41 pm EDT - 253 views
Last year, a Malware called storm was spread though christmas cards and other holiday themed cites. It infected thousands of computers but was eventually killed. Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool beat the trojan malware, but hackers have learned from past experience.
Because of the sucess of last years storm malware, a new one has been spread this year. This years Malware has been named by Bach Khoa Internetwork Security Center in Hanoi, Vietnam. They call it “XmasStorm.” This new malware originated from China and has up to seventy-five domains registered with christmas names to encourge the unsuspecting internet surfers to browse. Examples of these domains are superchristmasday.com and funnychristmasguide.com.
Be careful in your internet surfing at this time a year. Don’t open emails from unknown senders, keep to known sites, and make sure to watch what you download. Keep your computer clean and have a happy holiday season.