Tech News

[yid4eva]

Firefox releases security patch

Mozilla has released Firefox 3.6.2 almost a week early after security issues were found in earlier versions.

Firefox 3.6.2 was originally due to launch at the end of March, but is available to download now from the Mozilla website.

The security hole had led the German government to issue a warning about Firefox 3.6.

The Federal Office for Information Security made a similar ruling on the safety of Internet Explorer in January.

It warned that the Firefox vulnerability, confirmed by Firefox makers, could allow hackers to run malicious programs on users' computers.

Germany's official cyber-security response team - BurgerCERT - had recommended that users stop using Firefox until the tested fix was released.

It was a move remarkably similar to the January announcement, in which France followed suit just days later.

Fox swap?

The original Firefox vulnerability was confirmed by maker Mozilla last week on its security blog, when it promised that the next official release would address the issue.

It is only the current version that is affected but, given that prior releases have different vulnerabilities, reverting to an older version of the browser is ill-advised.

Switching to a different browser may not be a good solution either, said Graham Cluley, senior technologist at security firm Sophos.

"Switching your web browser willy-nilly as each new unpatched security hole is revealed could cause more problems than it's worth," he said.

"What are you going to do when your replacement browser itself turns out to contain a vulnerability?

"My advice is to only switch from Firefox if you really know what you are doing with the browser you're swapping to. If you stick with Firefox, apply the security update as soon as it's available."

A Mozilla spokesperson said: "Last week we informed our users that the upcoming security release of Firefox 3.6.2 would include a fix for an exploit that was disclosed to us just over a week ago.

"Mozilla is aware of the BergerCERT recommendation to avoid using Firefox 3.6, and encourage users to download... Firefox 3.6.2."

[yid4eva]

Well it was bound to happen and will defo happen when they pass the bill in the UK...


French pirates 'dodge' tough laws

Some forms of piracy are on the rise in France despite the passing of a tough anti-piracy law, suggests a study.

In late 2009, France adopted a "three-strikes law" which means persistent pirates can be thrown offline.

A small-scale study shows that some French people are changing their habits and getting pirated music and movies from sources not covered by the law.

Overall, found the study, illegal behaviour has increased by 3% since the law was passed.

The anti-piracy legislation was passed in October 2009 and means that those suspected of sharing pirated material online, such as movies and music, will be warned to stop or face action.

Persistent pirates who ignore the warnings will be cut off for up to a year if a panel of judges backs a call for disconnection. Alternatively, pirates can be fined or given a prison sentence.

Despite being passed in October, the law is not yet being enforced.

A preliminary study of more than 2,000 net users in Brittany by researchers Sylvain Dejean, Thierry Penard and Raphael Suire from the Marsouin unit at the University of Rennes suggests many people have changed their behaviour following the passing of the law.

The Hadopi law, named after the agency set up to police net connections, only covers piracy committed by file-sharing systems. In response, suggests the study, pirates have turned to streaming services and download sites use of which is not covered by the legislation.

The study showed that use of peer-to-peer (P2P) or file-sharing services fell among those questioned 17.1% to 14.6% since October. By contrast, the use of sites and services not covered by the Hadopi law grew by 27% over the same period.

Download services are relatively straight-forward to police as they tend to use centralised servers but, said the report, it was also seeing greater use of virtual servers and closed forums to swap pirated material.

The survey also pointed out that the vast majority of net users, 70%, do not engage in any piracy at all. However, half of those who said they were regular buyers of digital content also said they pirated material too.

[yid4eva]

BT announce a further 300 exchanges for fibre broadband upgrades

The latest push by BT to roll out super-fast broadband to their telephone exchanges has been announced with 303 exchanges to be enabled between Autumn 2010 and Summer 2011. The list focuses largely in the south of the country, particularly London, and encompasses approximately 4 million lines. This is a big step up toward the 10 million (40% of the UK) which they are aiming to connect by Summer 2012. They expect to have 4 million premises connected by the end of 2010.

[yid4eva]

Microsoft gears up for Windows 8

Windows 7 might still not be officially complete. And Microsoft is laying people off. But the company's already gearing up to launch its next operating system: Windows 8.

Early job postings indicate at least one focus for Windows 8 will be systems and data management.

Microsoft gears up for Windows 8 ? The Register

[yid4eva]

Super-fast broadband tax scrapped

The broadband tax has been scrapped in the last-minute scramble to rush key legislation through before Parliament is dissolved next week.

The tax was a key part of Labour's strategy to ensure all parts of the country get super-fast broadband.

BBC News - Super-fast broadband tax scrapped

[yid4eva]

Porn virus publishes web history of victims on the net

A new type of malware infects PCs using file-share sites and publishes the user's net history on a public website before demanding a fee for its removal.

The Japanese trojan virus installs itself on computers using a popular file-share service called Winni, used by up to 200m people.

BBC News - Porn virus publishes web history of victims on the net

[yid4eva]

Banking virus is back

Zeus, a virus that steals online banking details from infected computer users, is more powerful than ever, warns a web security company.

Trusteer says it has spotted the Trojan virus in one of every 3,000 of the 5.5m computers it monitors in the US and UK.

BBC News - Zeus banking virus is back warns security firm


Now is a good time to consider installing a decent Antivirus pogram and on top of that a Keyscrambler. This is well worth installing to ensure you don't get caught out as it scrambles your keys strokes. I use the free version on XP, Vista and Win 7 with no problems.

QFX Download



In the image above i typed a name...the result you see is the keystrokes being scramled and how a keylogger will see my keystrokes.

As you type keyscrambler ensures that your keystokes are scrambled before they pass through the keyboard driver. Once keystrokes get past the keyboard driver they are unscrambled. Any keylogger software will then just see the jumble of letters and numbers instead of what you actually typed. The majority of keylogging software is installed within the keyboard driver kernell that allows it to capture your keystrokes without your knowledge.