WARNING! Your Flash Player may be out of date.

Adobe Flash Malware driven by infected "Router" The Moon Malware

Few days ago, I started to receive a pop-message "WARNING! Your Flash Player may be out of date". Please update to Continue., when I was trying to access websites like Facebook, YouTube, Google, etc.

If you're receiving a similar message then continue to read but make sure you don't click on anything nor try to update the flash player from the pop-window. You may check your current version of the "Adobe Flash Player" by visiting "Adobe" official website. If you're using Google Chrome browser, it already includes Adobe Flash Player built-in. Google Chrome will automatically update when new versions of Flash Player are available.

You will also notice that the same message is poping-up on all the devices which are connected to the same router (mobile phones, laptops etc.).

Now even the dumbest person should know it is not coming from computer but from the network which means your router is infected. It's commonly happening with Linksys, Asus and few other manufacturers.

How to fix this?

• Reset your router (by holding down the reset button under the router for 6 seconds). Note after restart all your ISP settings will be lost.
• Configure your router again with the ISP settings (username and password also required).
• Clear your browsers cache and pop-up message will not appear again.

Refer here for some basic tips on hardening your router to avoid such things happening again.

The Internet of Things

"The Internet of Things" is now finding its way into mainstream conversation!

Once a term used mostly by MIT professors and those steeped in the privacy and security field, "The Internet of Things" is now finding its way into mainstream conversation. Loosely defined as the practice of equipping all objects and people in the world with wirelessly connected, identifying, computing devices, the term represents what could be a hugely transformational way of life.  

At one time, "The Internet of Things" probably sounded like science fiction; but today, it's becoming very real. Here are a few examples of where you can literally see, hear and almost feel this phenomenon occurring in some very ordinary places:

• TRENDnet marketed its SecurView video cameras as "secure." In fact, the cameras had faulty software that allowed anyone with the cameras' Internet addresses to hear and see what the cameras were capturing. In fact, more than 700 were hacked, creating live-streams of private locations and private moments online for the world to hear and see.      
• Google possesses possibly more data about consumers' online activities than any other organization (Facebook, Microsoft, IBM would probably be close behind.). Now it seems, the Internet giant is on track to know as much about your offline behavior. The company recently purchased Nest, which makes "smart" thermostats and smoke/fire alarms that track indoor-activity data. They have stated they plan to create many more of these types of smart gadgets. How much personal information will Nest share with Google, and how will that information be used?
• A range of smart-home and smart-car technology allows consumers the ability to control access and features of their houses and vehicles. But who else might gain the same level of control? And what will happen when "smart" cars and appliances can function on their own without human intervention? As this Guardian article contends, they will certainly be tempting to hackers.

Beware of Gumtree Scam: Scammer Targeted More Than 300 People on the Gumtree

Reports have emerged of series of scams, affecting people across Australia with similar scams on Gumtree

A male scam artist searches the wanted advertisements on site and then contacts the poster to say he has the item they are seeking.

The man then asks where the buyer lives and states he also lives nearby, but is working interstate so is unable to drop the goods off in person. Once the money is transferred to his account he ceases contact.

The scams have involved the attempted purchase of goods including mobile phones, iPads, electronic tablets and gift cards from stores including Coles, Myer and JB Hifi.

Reports of online scams can be made to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission via www.scamwatch.gov.au or your specific country scamwatch website.

Protecting Your Personal Info Online

Try Spokeo to find out how much your information is available online!

If you want a good litmus test for how much of your personal information is available on the Internet, try Spokeo.com. The site even compiles personal information on children. Spooky.

Thankfully, you can easily opt out of Spokeo. This won't remove all of your information from the Internet, obviously. But it will make it less simple for someone to find your information all in one place. Hayley Kaplan put together a great step-by-step process on her "What is Privacy?" blog to make it even easier.

This is one example of a great way your company or organization can contribute to the greater privacy good. If you have tips or tricks on how to opt-out of your own or another entity's data-collection processes, publish them and make them easy for your customer or client community to find and follow.

Gartner: 2012 Information Technology Predictions and Trends

Gartner has issued a full report titled "Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2012 and Beyond: Control Slips Away"

Gartner, Inc. issued a press release announcing it’s 2012 list of top predictions and trends for IT organizations and users. Highlighted are key trends like Cloud Computing, Social Business, Big Data, Security, and Mobile. The predictions and trends made by Gartner align closely with the research I am conducting for my HorizonWatching 2012 Trends report due out in early January.

The eleven predictions from Gartner are as follows

Cloud Services: By 2015, low-cost cloud services will cannibalize up to 15 percent of top outsourcing players' revenue.

Social & Collaboration Platforms: In 2013, the investment bubble will burst for consumer social networks, and for enterprise social software companies in 2014.

Enterprise Email: By 2016, at least 50 percent of enterprise email users will rely primarily on a browser, tablet or mobile client instead of a desktop client.

Mobile Apps: By 2015, mobile application development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4-to-1.

Cloud Security: By 2016, 40 percent of enterprises will make proof of independent security testing a precondition for using any type of cloud service.

Public Clouds: At year-end 2016, more than 50 percent of Global 1000 companies will have stored customer-sensitive data in the public cloud.

IT Budget Management: By 2015, 35 percent of enterprise IT expenditures for most organizations will be managed outside the IT department's budget.

Asia Sourcing: By 2014, 20 percent of Asia-sourced finished goods and assemblies consumed in the U.S. will shift to the Americas.

Cybercrime: Through 2016, the financial impact of cybercrime will grow 10 percent per year, due to the continuing discovery of new vulnerabilities.

Cloud & Sustainability: By 2015, the prices for 80 percent of cloud services will include a global energy surcharge.

Big Data: Through 2015, more than 85 percent of Fortune 500 organizations will fail to effectively exploit big data for competitive advantage.

Gartner has issued a full report titled "Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2012 and Beyond: Control Slips Away," which is available on Gartner's website at www.gartner.com/predicts. The report apparently has links to more than 70 Gartner ‘predicts’ reports broken out by topics, industries and markets.

Top Skimming Trends to watch in 2012

2012: Year of the Skimmer

Fraud losses linked to card skimming are quickly hitting epidemic proportions. So what are the top card-skimming trends financial institutions and financial-services providers should be on the lookout for in 2012? Industry experts weigh in to offer their domestic and global perspectives.

The top six trends to watch:

• ATM attacks;
• Network hacks;
• Crime rings aiming for retail;
• Skimming at self-service points of sale;
• International fraud migration; and
• EMV in the U.S.

ATMs: The No. 1 Target

In 2011, debit fraud losses for the first time outpaced losses associated with credit fraud. The reason for tipping of the fraud-loss scales: skimming.

ATM Skimming

ADT Security Solutions in early 2010 estimated financial losses per ATM-skimming incident averaged $30,000. Now, as the average loss to ATM skimming has jumped $20,000, it's clear card fraud and skimming are increasing. And the industry can expect more fraud losses in 2012 as global crime rings enhance their networks and improve their techniques to exploit lingering magnetic-stripe technology.

ATMs are typically the last to be upgraded from a hardware perspective.

More Network Hacks

Institutions and retailers need to focus more attention on locking down their networks. Now that more networks and systems are connected, as institutions and businesses work to achieve enterprise-level data management, they increase their risk of exposure. If a system is compromised, fraudsters can easily access every server, POS device, ATM, PC and network that's connected to that system.

The widespread deployment and use of common and well-known operating systems, such as Windows, compounds the problem. Fraudsters know how to get in, and with evolving malware, it's getting easier for them to wage successful attacks.

Advances in wireless communications also will reap greater skimming crime rewards in 2012. Network security holes aside, skimming schemes themselves will become easier, as wireless communications and Bluetooth technology have made it increasingly easier for fraudsters to remotely transmit card data once it's been skimmed.

Crime Rings Aim for Retail

Pointing to 2011's skimming breaches at Michaels and Save Mart/Lucky Supermarkets, open communication between retailers and card issuers kept fraud losses and card compromises in check. Once the fraud starts to occur, it just makes everyone's job easier when the retailers take a transparent and proactive approach.

Those attacks have illustrated how critical the need for retailers to invest in real-time fraud monitoring is. The incidents also prove retailers have an incentive to move toward the Europay, MasterCard, Visa standard. At least 50 percent of the card-present fraud is charged back to the merchants. They are now motivated to make a move to EMV because they won't see those chargeback charges. And there is more authentication with the chip, so that will help fraud as well.

A Security Soft Spot

As the Lucky's breach and countless others that target self-service payments devices, including pay-the-pump gas terminals, prove, any terminal that accepts credit and debit cards will be targeted by fraudsters. Even ATM vestibule doors, which read debit swipes for entry, are compromised with ease.

But despite the fact that EMV and anti-skimming measures have displaced ATM attacks in those markets, ATM fraud continues. During the last six months of 2011, Europe saw upticks in low-tech ATM-fraud schemes, such as cash-trapping. Cash trapping, like it sounds, prevents bills from being dispensed. European ATM deployers are addressing the trend with physical ATM inspections and investments in enhanced tampering-detection technology.

Geo-Blocking and International Backlash

Despite innovative moves to curb card fraud in Europe, skimming remains a global problem. Even as fraud migrates and different global regions progress in their adoption of EMV, losses associated with skimming continue to escalate.

This year, more fraud migration and increasing losses, especially in the United States. Part of that migration will be spurred by steps European countries are taking to shut off mag-stripe acceptance as a way to reduce financial losses associated with skimming.

Migrating Fraud

The United States can expect skimming to increase. Why? Fraud will migrate from other parts of the world, where card security is more sophisticated.

Compliance with EMV in western Europe and parts of central and eastern Europe over the last five to 10 years initiated the migration of fraud. Now that EMV is the standard in neighboring Mexico and Canada, hits to U.S. card issuers and acquirers will be substantially higher. Card fraud linked to skimming will be the catalyst.

EMV in the U.S

Movement toward EMV compliance, to address growing card fraud, is not far off for the United States. Visa and MasterCard have both issued soft dates for a U.S. movement toward EMV. MasterCard set an April 2013 deadline for all U.S. ATMs to be EMV compliant; and Visa announced compliance dates of 2013 and 2015 for U.S. merchants.

Last week, Visa provided EMV guidance and suggested EMV adoption best practices for U.S. merchants and card issuers.

In 2013, the responsibility for fraud losses will shift from the EMV card issuer to the acquirer. Given that stipulation, 2012 will see an increase in EMV activity.

What does it really take to exploit a printer?

Printer Hack: Researchers Can Set Media’s Pants on Fire

In the past couple of weeks, there has been quite a bit of press and blogging about a security vulnerability in HP printers that was discovered by researchers in the Intrusion Detection Lab at Columbia University.

In a nutshell, the researchers found a way to replace the operating firmware on an HP printer with firmware of their own design that can do bad things, and they also found a way to do it to a printer that is on a private network behind a firewall.

MSNBC ran an “exclusive” story about it calling it a “devastating attack” to which “millions of printers” could be subjected. Its lede suggested that hackers could cause the printer to catch fire, or be used for identity theft, or be used to take control of entire networks.

In practice, this isn’t an easy vulnerability to exploit on a large scale.

Let me explain:

First, you need to target a printer that supports PJL and its largely undocumented remote firmware update (RFU) function. Many printers support PJL, but RFU is less commonly supported. Many printers don’t have any mechanism for remote updates, and many others use something other than PJL’s RFU function for remote updates.

Once you've found a printer that supports PJL and its RFU function, you'll need to make sure that it will apply a firmware update without checking its authenticity. I can’t speak for other manufacturers, but my employer’s products have been using digital signature verification for firmware updates for at least the seven plus years that I have worked for them.

Next, you need to be able to create new firmware to do your bidding. To do that, you need to know what is the manufacturer and model of your target. The researchers demonstrated exploitation of a victim’s printer that was on a private, firewalled network, but didn’t mention how they determined which make and model of printer would be used by a particular victim. They would need to know that in order to send the correct firmware image to the victim.

And then there is the matter of reverse-engineering printer firmware. It is certainly possible, but not very practical when you consider that there are thousands of different printer models to contend with.

The researchers say that “rewriting the printer’s firmware takes only about 30 seconds”, but they are referring to the time it takes for the printer to update its flash memory and not how long it takes for someone to reverse-engineer a printer to do something malevolently useful.

Next, you need to get the victim to print a document that contains the firmware update code, and of course they need to print it on the printer that you targeted. I don’t know if it is possible to embed an RFU in a printable document in such a way that isn’t obvious when the document is viewed, as most people do before they print something. Perhaps they will disclose that detail at the Chaos conference.

Now, finally, you own the victim’s printer.

Air traffic system vulnerable to cyber attack

Next-generation global air traffic control system is vulnerable to malicious hacks that could cause catastrophe

An alarm blares in the cockpit mid flight, warning the pilot of an imminent collision. The pilot checks his tracking display, sees an incoming aircraft and sends the plane into a dive. That only takes it into another crowded air lane, however, where it collides with a different plane. Investigators later discover that the pilot was running from a "ghost" - a phantom aircraft created by a hacker intent on wreaking havoc in the skies.

It's a fictional scenario, but US air force analysts warn that it could be played out if hackers exploit security holes in an increasingly common air traffic control technology.

At issue is a technology called Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B), which the International Civil Aviation Organisation certified for use in 2002. Gradually being deployed worldwide, ADS-B improves upon the radar-based systems that air traffic controllers and pilots rely on to find out the location and velocity of aircraft in their vicinity.

Conventional ground-based radar systems are expensive to run, become less accurate at determining position the further away a plane is, and are slow to calculate an aircraft's speed. Perhaps worst of all, their limited range means they cannot track planes over the ocean.

So instead of bouncing radar signals off aircraft, ADS-B uses GPS signals to continuously broadcast a plane's identity, ground position, altitude and velocity to networks of ground stations and other nearby aircraft. This way, everyone knows where everyone else is.

ADS-B transmits information in unencrypted 112-bit bursts - a measure intended to make the system simple and cheap to implement. It's this that researchers from the US air force's Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio are unhappy with. Donald McCallie, Jonathan Butts and Robert Mills warn that the unencrypted signals could be intercepted and spoofed by hackers, or simply jammed.

The team says the vulnerabilities it has identified "could have disastrous consequences including confusion, aircraft groundings, even plane crashes if exploited by adversaries" (International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcip.2011.06.001).

Most notable threats and trends of 2010

Crimeware-as-a-Service on the rise

In the new report from CA Technologies Internet Security team, researchers identify more than 400 new families of threats--led by rogue security software, downloaders and backdoors.

Trojans were found to be the most prevalent category of new threats, accounting for 73 percent of total threat infections reported around the world. Importantly, 96 percent of Trojans found were components of an emerging underground trend towards organized cybercrime, or "Crimeware-as-a-Service."

"Crimeware isn't new, but the extent to which a services model has now been adopted is amazing," said Don DeBolt, director of threat research, Internet Security, CA Technologies.

"This new method of malware distribution makes it more challenging to identify and remediate. Fortunately, security professionals and developers are diligent about staying one step ahead of these cyber criminals."

The most notable threats and trends of 2010 to-date include:

Rogue or Fake Security Software: Also known as "scareware" or Fake AV, the first half of 2010 saw this category of malware continue its dominance. Google became the preferred target for distribution of rogue security software through Blackhat SEO, which manipulates search results to favor links to infected websites domains. Rogue security software displays bogus alerts following installation and will coerce users to pay for the fake product/service.

An interesting trend observed recently is the prevalence of rogue security software cloning, whereby the software employs a template that constructs its product name based on the infected system's Windows operating system version, further enhancing its perceived legitimacy.

Crimeware: 96 percent of Trojans detected in H1 2010 functions as a component of a larger underground market-based mechanism which CA Technologies Internet Security has termed "Crimeware-as-a-Service." Crimeware essentially automates cybercrime through collecting and harvesting of valuable information through a large-scale malware infection that generates multiple revenue streams for the criminals.

It is an on-demand and Internet-enabled service that highlights cloud computing as a new delivery model. This crimeware is primarily designed to target data and identity theft in order to access user's online banking services, shopping transactions, and other Internet services. <

Cloud-Based Delivery: Research revealed cybercriminals' growing reliance on using cloud-based web services and applications to distribute their software. Specifically, cybercriminals are using web and Internet applications (e.g. Google Apps), social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Wordpress), online productivity suites (Apple iWorks, Google Docs, and Microsoft Office Live), and real-time mobile web services (e.g. Twitter, Google Maps, and RSS Readers).

For example, recent malicious spam campaigns are posing as email notifications targeting Twitter and YouTube users, luring targets to a click on malicious links or visit compromised websites. The Facebook ecosystem has been an attractive platform for abusive activity including cyberbullying, stalking, identity theft, phishing, scams, hoaxes and annoying marketing scams.

Social Media as the Latest Crimeware Market: CA Technologies recently observed viral activities and abusive applications in popular social media services such as Twitter and Facebook the result of a strong marketing campaign in the underground market.

CA Technologies Internet Security has observed a black market evolving to develop and sell tools such as social networking bots. Underground marketers promote new social networking applications and services that include account checkers, wall posters, wall likers, wall commenters, fan inviters, and friend adders. These new crimeware-as-a-service capabilities became evident as observed from the latest Facebook viral attacks and abusive applications that are now being widely reported.

Spamming Through Instant Messaging (SPIM): One new vector used to target Internet users is SPIM, a form of spam that arrives through instant messaging. CA Technologies Internet Security observed an active proliferation of unsolicited chat messages on Skype.

Email Spam Trends: When examining email spam trends, the Internet Security team tracked the usage of unique IP addresses in an effort to determine the source of the most prevalent spam bot regions. Based upon its observation, the EU regions ranked as the number one source of spam recording 31 percent, followed by 28 percent in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), 21percent in India (IN), and 18 percent in the United States (US).

Mac OS X Threats: Attackers gaining interest remains during the first half of 2010, the ISBU witnessed Mac-related security threats including traffic redirection, Mac OS X ransomware 'blocker' and notable spyware 'OpinionSpy'.

Beware - New, Improved Trojans Target Banks

Malware Variants Seek Corporate Accounts

Security researchers are warning financial institutions about the Qakbot Trojan, a rare kind of malware that is allegedly infiltrating large banks and other global financial institutions. It's unlike other types of malware because it has the ability to spread like a worm, but still infect users like a Trojan.

The Qakbot Trojan, named for its primary executable file, _qakbot.dll, is not new, but its qualities and difference in attack set it head and shoulders above other more well-known Trojans, such as Zeus, in that it can infect multiple computers at a time.

In another disturbing find, security researchers at TrustDefender Labs have found a new Gozi Trojan variant that shows a zero percent detection rate. The Trojan targets financial institutions and is invisible to the most used anti-virus software.

Gozi has been attacking banks for three years, but has managed to stay low and undetected. TrustDefender researchers warn that by targeting specific financial institutions, mainly business and corporate banking, Gozi has avoided wider attention from businesses as the Zeus Trojan has grabbed the headlines.

The new Gozi variant has many of the same characteristics of its earlier variants that were researched a year ago. Gozi developers evade signature patterns so much that the history of the Trojan is mostly unknown. TrustDefender's CTO Andreas Baumhof states that an increasing number of Trojans are using SSL and HTTPS to hide their presence. Gozi is also using client-side logic to go around two-factor authentication, as are other Trojans including Zeus, Spyeye and Carberp.

NIST Scientists Offer Tips to Defeat Keyloggers

How to Beat Keyloggers

Keyloggers monitor and record keyboard use, including the information typed into a system, which might include the content of emails, usernames and passwords for local or remote systems and applications, as well as financial information like credit card numbers, Social Security numbers or PINs.

Some keystroke loggers require the attacker to retrieve the data from the system, whereas others actively transfer the data to another system through email, file transfer or other means.

NIST scientists identify three main types of keyloggers:

Hardware -- Tiny inline devices placed between the keyboard and the computer. Because of their size, they can go undetected for long periods of time. These devices have the power to capture hundreds of keystrokes, including banking and email username and passwords. But for the criminal, the threat of being caught breaching the machine is a deterrent.

Software -- This type of keylogging is done by using the Windows function SetWindowsHookEx that monitors all keystrokes. The spyware will usually appear packaged as an executable file that initiates the hook function, plus a DLL file to handle the logging functions. An application that calls SetWindowsHookEx is capable of capturing even autocomplete passwords.

Kernel/driver -- This kind of keylogger is at the kernel level and receives data directly from the input device (typically a keyboard). It replaces the core software for interpreting keystrokes. This type of keylogger can be programmed to be virtually undetectable by being executed when the computer is turned on, before any user-level applications start. Since the program runs at the kernel level, one disadvantage to this approach it that it fails to capture autocomplete passwords, as this information is passed in the application layer.

Defending Against Keyloggers

There are several kinds of defenses that can be used to spot or prevent keyloggers from embedding on machines:

Physical Security -- The physical protection of the computer must be considered. Whether the computer is at home, in an office or during traveling, keeping the computer secure and making sure no one has access to it is a primary concern.

Application whitelisting -- is a way to prevent any software that isn't already approved or on the "white list" from being downloaded on to the computer. This is an emerging approach in combating viruses and malware. Application whitelisting tells the computer a list of software considered safe to run, and the machine is instructed to block all others.

Some experts see this approach as superior to the standard signature-based, anti-virus approach of blocking/removing known harmful software (essentially blacklisting), as the traditional approach generally means that exploits are already in the wild.

Detection Software -- Be careful where you go to on the Internet. Drive-by downloads from ads that have been laced with malware are being found now even on popular news sites - not just on the fringes.

At a minimum, at least have anti-virus and anti-spyware loaded, and make sure they're kept up to date. Again, buy from a reputable vendor. Consider operating a "virtual" machine environment to browse the Internet.

Virtual machines -- are separated into two major categories, based on their use and degree of correspondence to any real machine. A system virtual machine provides a complete system platform that supports the execution of a complete operating system. The other type, a process virtual machine, is designed to run a single program. An essential characteristic of a virtual machine is that the software running inside is limited to the resources and abstractions provided by the virtual machine -- it cannot break out of its virtual world.

Future Trends

"Moving forward in the next 12-18 months, the major computer manufacturers will begin offering virtual machine technology. "We're going to see more consumer-friendly operating systems being designed by vendors that will limit malware by having the user on a virtual machine while on the Internet, and the 'home' environment separate.

Cloud-based whitelisting will also become more popular, making whitelisting more available.

Another advancement in the fight against keyloggers and other types of malware is the move by anti-virus vendors to set up reputation-based systems, which checks programs and tells the user whether it is legitimate or malicious.

The addition of a third component in the fight against malware is the use of operating systems and browsers that don't allow the malicious programs to be pushed down in the first place. By isolating and "sandboxing" the user's specific browsing session, no software is downloaded to the user's computer.

IBM X-Force Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report

2010 Mid-year highlights

The IBM X-Force 2010 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report reveals several key trends that demonstrate how, in the first half of 2010, attackers seeking to steal money or personal data increasingly targeted their victims via the Internet. The IBM X-Force Trend and Risk Report is produced twice per year: once at mid-year and once at year-end. This report provides statistical information about all aspects of threats that affect Internet security, including software vulnerabilities and public exploitation, malware, spam, phishing, web-based threats, and general cyber criminal activity.

Summary

Attackers are increasingly using covert techniques like Javascript obfuscation and other covert techniques which continue to frustrate IT security professionals. Obfuscation is a technique used by software developers and attackers alike to hide or mask the code used to develop their applications.

Reported vulnerabilities are at an all time high, up 36%. 2010 has seen a significant increase in volume of security vulnerability disclosures, due both to significant increases in public exploit releases and to positive efforts by several large software companies to identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities.

PDF attacks continue to increase as attackers trick users in new ways. To understand why PDFs are targeted, consider that endpoints are typically the weakest link in an enterprise organization. Attackers understand this fact well. For example, although sensitive data may not be present on a particular endpoint, that endpoint may have access to others that do. Or, that endpoint can be used as a practical bounce point to launch attacks on other computers.

The Zeus botnet toolkit continues to wreak havoc on organizations. Early 2010 saw the release of an updated version of the Zeus botnet kit, dubbed Zeus 2.0. Major new features included in this version provide updated functionality to attackers.

Vulnerabilities and exploitation highlights

=> Advanced persistent threat—What concerns X-Force most about these sophisticated attackers is their ability to successfully penetrate well defended networks in spite of significant advances in network security technology and practices. In particular, we are concerned about increasingly obfuscated exploits and covert malware command-and-control channels that fly under the radar of modern security systems.

=> Obfuscation, obfuscation, obfuscation—Attackers continue to find new ways to disguise their malicious traffic via JavaScript and PDF obfuscation. Obfuscation is a technique used by software developers and attackers alike to hide or mask the code used to develop their applications. Things would be easier if network security products could simply block any JavaScript that was obfuscated,but unfortunately, obfuscation techniques are used by many legitimate websites in an attempt to prevent unsophisticated Web developers from stealing their code. These legitimate websites act as cover for the malicious ones, turning the attacks into needles in a haystack.

=> PDF attacks continue to increase as attackers trick users in new ways. To understand why PDFs are targeted, consider that endpoints are typically the weakest link in an enterprise organization. Attackers understand this fact well. For example, although sensitive data may not be present on a particular endpoint, that endpoint may have access to others that do. Or, that endpoint can be used as a practical bounce point to launch attacks on other computers.

=> Reported vulnerabilities are at an all time high—2010 has seen a significant increase in the volume of security vulnerability disclosures, due both to significant increases in public exploit releases and to positive efforts by several large software companies to identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities.

=> Web application vulnerabilities have inched up to the 55 percent mark, accounting for fully half of all vulnerability disclosures in the first part of 2010.

=> Exploit Effort versus Potential Reward—What are attackers really going after? With the number of vulnerability announcements rising and vendors scrambling to provide patches and protection to problem areas, how can enterprises best prioritize the efforts of IT administrators to provide adequate coverage? The Exploit Effort versus Potential Reward Matrix provides a simple model for thinking about vulnerability triage from the perspective of attackers.

Please refer here to download or view the report.

New Computer Interface Goes Beyond Just Touch

Manual Deskterity combines a touch with the trusty pen

Microsoft researchers have developed Manual Deskterity, a computer interface that combines touch input with the precision of a pen. The prototype drafting application, designed for the Microsoft Surface tabletop touchscreen, enables users to perform touch actions such as zooming in and out and manipulating images, but they also can use a pen to draw or annotate those images.

Manual Deskterity also allows users to touch an image onscreen with one hand while using the pen in the other hand to take notes or perform other actions that pertain to that object. Users need to learn more tricks to use Manual Deskterity, but the natural user interface should ease the learning curve by engaging muscle memory.

"This idea that people just walk up with an expectation of how a [natural user interface] should work is a myth," says Microsoft research scientist Ken Hinckley. The researchers also plan to adapt the interface for use with mobile devices. Incorporating only touch input into devices is a mistake, according to Hinckley, who believes that pen and touch interactions can complement each other.

Refer here for more details.

Putting the Touch Into Touchscreens

How a person's brain interprets the sense of touch?

Researchers are studying new haptics technologies and how a person's brain interprets the sense of touch. For example, Marie Curie University researchers are developing a system that uses surface vibrations to generate sensations of texture. By changing the frequencies of the vibration, the researchers are able to make the surface feel rougher or smoother.

Meanwhile, Mexican computer engineer Gabriel Robles De La Torre is using vibrating surfaces to simulate sensations of sharpness by using motors to create lateral movement to a smooth, flat surface. The technique produces a change in the resistance a user's finger feels as it moves across a certain part of the screen, which is perceived as a sharp edge. Northwestern University engineer Ed Colgate is using vibrations to make objects feel more slippery. His system vibrates their surface at a very high frequency with an amplitude of about two micrometers.

University of Exeter's Ian Summers uses a force-feedback system featuring pressure-sensitive nerves instead of stretch-sensitive ones. The system is able to simulate the feel of several materials. And McGill University's Yon Visell has developed a novel surface designed to simulate walking on different types of ground, such as solid ground, gravel, or sand.

Refer here to read more details.

Film's opening-weekend can be predicted by monitoring tweets.

Twitter: A new box-office oracle?

HP Labs researchers have developed a way to use Twitter to gauge real-time interest in movies and accurately predict how they will perform at the box office on opening weekend. HP Labs' Sitaram Asur and Bernardo Huberman developed computational formulas that analyze Twitter feeds and use the rate at which movies are mentioned in Twitter updates to predict the first-weekend returns.

The research also showed Twitter could be used to predict other events, such as how major products will be received and the outcomes of elections, according to Huberman. HP Labs studied nearly 3 million Twitter updates that mentioned 24 major movie releases over the course of three months. The researchers factored in the release date and the number of theaters the movie would be shown in, to predict the opening weekend box office performance with 97.3 percent accuracy.

They also developed a system that evaluates the sentiments of Twitter updates as positive, negative, or neutral, to predict the following weekend's returns with 94 percent accuracy.

Refer here to read more details.

10 Fool-proof Predictions for the Internet in 2020

Researchers expect more users, sensors. But will the `net be more secure?

Network World offers 10 “surefire bets” about what the Internet will look like in 10 years.

They include:

1. As computer scientists work to improve the Internet's design, the global network is expected to change dramatically over the next 10 years. The Internet currently has about 1.7 billion users, but the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) expects the Internet will have nearly 5 billion users by 2020
   
   
2. The Internet also will be more geographically dispersed in 10 years, spreading to more developing regions.
   
   
3. Ten years from now, the Internet will be a network of things, not computers. Today, the Internet has approximately 575 million host computers, but the NSF expects infrastructure sensors alone to surpass the number of host computers by several orders of magnitude
   
   
4. The Internet also will carry more content. Cisco estimates that global Internet traffic will increase to about 44 exabytes per month by 2012.
   
   
5. In 2020, the Internet will be wireless. In the second quarter of 2009, the number of mobile subscribers hit 257 million, representing an 85 percent increase year-over year for high-speed data networking technologies. By 2014, approximately 2.5 billion people will subscribe to some form of mobile broadband, according to Informa.
   
   
6. More services will use cloud computing. The NSF is encouraging researchers to develop better ways to map users and information in a cloud-computing infrastructure.
   
   
7. Ten years from now, the Internet also will be greener. Future Internet architecture needs to be more energy efficient, as the amount of energy used by the Internet doubled between 2000 and 2006, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
   
   
8. Network management will be more automated in 2020. The NSF is researching new network management tools for the future Internet, including automated reboot systems, self-diagnosis protocols, finer-grained data collection, and better event tracking.
   
   
9. The Internet will not rely on constant connectivity. Researchers are studying communication techniques that can handle delays or easily forward information to different users.
   
   
10. The Internet will attract more hackers, and computer scientists will work to make it more secure.

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5 New Technologies That Will Change Everything

3D TV, HTML5, video over Wi-Fi, superfast USB, and mobile "augmented reality" will emerge as breakthrough technologies

Five new technologies are on their way that will give users unprecedented access to data thanks to new high-speed connections and user interfaces.

First, USB 3.0 is a new standard that preserves backward compatibility by allowing older cables to plug into new jacks, but features an extra pin that boosts the data rate to 4.8 Gbps. USB 3.0, dubbed SuperSpeed by the USB Implementers Forum, can transfer a 30 GB video in just over a minute.

Second, by 2012, two new wireless protocols--802.11ac and 802.11ad--should be able to provide over-the-air data transmissions of 1 Gbps or faster. The faster wireless data rate will enable users to stream multiple high-definition videos throughout a room or house.

Third, the next wave of next-generation TVs will allow viewers to experience three-dimensional (3D) videos at home. 3D TVs are likely to rely on alternating left-eye and right-eye views for successive frames. Many HDTVs already operate at 120 Hz, so the ability to alternate left and right eye images far faster than the human eye can see is already available. This type of 3D viewing will require glasses that use rapid shutters to alternate the view to each eye, but TV manufacturers also are working on 3D sets that do not require glasses.

Fourth, augmented reality in mobile devices will become increasingly popular as consumers expect to be able to receive information on any subject in any location. Researchers also are developing contact lenses capable of projecting images into someone's sight.

Finally, HTML5 promises to do away with browser conformity issues and the need for audio, video, and interactive plug-ins. HTML5 will enable designers to create Web sites that work the same on every browser and give users a better and faster Web experience.

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By 2040 You Will Be Able to Upload Your Brain...

"a person's entire personality, memory, skills and history", by the end of the 2030s

Inventor and visionary Ray Kurzweil has drawn admiration and scorn in equal measure for his prediction of imminent revolutionary innovations such as the overtaking of human intelligence by artificial intelligence, three-dimensional printers that can fabricate physical objects from a data file and cheap input materials, and an indefinite lifespan free of senescence.

He anticipates that it will be possible to upload the human brain from a computer by the end of the 2030s, while human intelligence will evolve through technological enhancement to the point where it will start to expand outward to the universe in the 2040s. Kurzweil is the author of a book, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, in which he envisions a singularity, or what he calls "a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed."

The singularity hinges on the exponential rate at which technology is advancing, according to Kurzweil. He is a director of the nonprofit Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which is touted as "the only organization that exists for the expressed purpose of achieving the potential of smarter-than-human intelligence safer and sooner."

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Doing What the Brain Does--How Computers Learn to Listen

Interesting - computer will understand what's happening around the world.

Researchers at Germany's Leipzig Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging in London have developed a mathematical model that could significantly improve computers' ability to automatically recognize and process spoken language.

The researchers say their new language processing algorithm could eventually imitate brain mechanisms and help machines perceive and understand the world around them. The researchers created a mathematical model that was designed to imitate, in a highly simplified manner, the neuronal processes that occur during human speech comprehension. The neuronal processes were described by algorithms that processed speech at several temporal levels. The model was able to recognize individual speech sounds and syllables and was able to process accelerated speech sequences.

Additionally, the system had a brain-like ability to predict the next speech sound, and if the prediction was incorrect because the speaker made an unfamiliar syllable out of familiar sounds, the system could detect the error. "The crucial point, from a neuroscientific perspective, is that the reactions of the model were similar to what would be observed in the human brain," says the Max Planck Institute's Stefan Kiebel.

Future cars will communicate to avoid collisions

Robotic cars to communicate with each and avoid collisions

The recent First Rim Mathematical Association (PRIMA) conference in Sydney featured a demonstration of how the flocking technique could be used to control cars. Bhibhya Sharma and Utesh Chand, researchers at the University of the South Pacific's School of Computing, Information, and Mathematical Sciences, presented a computer simulation of how merging traffic would be controlled by a centralized brain and a series of algorithms. The researchers say that flocking, inspired by biology, is a common robotics strategy. "One of the advantages of flocking is that robots can work together and achieve what would take individuals far longer," Sharma says. The centralized brain would tell cars how to move in formation together, and the algorithms would create targets that they must move toward and maintain to avoid moving outside of their lanes and crashing into each other. The team is testing the technique on two-wheel robots.

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