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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 09 Issue 27
Volume 9, Issue 27 Atari Online News, Etc. July 6, 2007
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2007
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Pierre Ton-That
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0927 07/06/07
~ Old HDs Are Vulnerable ~ People Are Talking! ~ Litchi Final Version!
~ Trojan Says "Bye Bye"! ~ New Xbox 360 Warranty! ~ No PS3 Price Cuts!
~ Missile Command On 360 ~ New GPL Is Finalized! ~ Wii Outsells PS3!
-* Internet Radio Gets Reprieve? *-
-* "Cyber Jihadis" Are Jailed In London *-
-* Hackers Target Corporate Execs and Family! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, summer activities have gone into high gear. The weather has been
more summer-like, including the heat and humidity, as well as all of the
typical pop-up thunderstorms! Around my neighborhood, we had our annual
4th of July block party. Now, I'm not a patriotic zealot, but this year's
celebration was unusually patriotic. Because of the threat of a few
passing thunderstorms, the tents and canopies were set up. People were
milling around, enjoying a few cold drinks, fresh-popped popcorn, and
whatever else. Some of us were tossing around some horseshoes, and
listening to a variety of music blasting from one neighbor's stereo.
Shortly before both ends of the street were barricaded to block off the
traffic, someone took the microphone announced that the party was about
to begin. To make this year's party officially start, someone was going
to sing The Star Spangled Banner. Okay, so I was expecting that whoever
was manning the music was going to put on a tape of this patriotic tune.
But about 15 minutes later, one of my neighbor's young daughters came
over to the microphone, and belted out one helluva rendition! Sure, she
made a few mistakes - it's a tough tune to sing - but she proudly sang.
As if we were at a ball game, the crowd roared with cheers and applause
as this young girl finished. It felt good. There were also a few
patriotic announcements made, paying tribute to our troops overseas, as
well as thanking the number of vets from the neighborhood that were in
attendance.
When all of that was finished, the festivities continued throughout the
night. This year's celebration ended fairly early, earlier than past
years due to inclement weather. While we had a little rain for most of
the night, it didn't dampen most of the partying. Even the fireworks
survived.
Little by little, the crowd dispersed, and non-resident visitors went
home. It was an enjoyable celebration again this year. It felt good
to see (and hear) some patriotic things occur. Many of us take our
patriotism and the reason for the 4th of July celebrations for granted.
Being reminded once in awhile of why we celebrate this holiday is a
terrific thing. I hope that you all (at least those of you who live in
the U.S.) had an enjoyable holiday, regardless of how you chose to
celebrate. For all of its faults, it's still great to be an American!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Litchi 1.0
Bonsoir :)
Now final version. Voilà !
Litchi is a new FTP client, running with tcp/ip stack STiK2, STinG or
compatible.
Download on my homepage or directly in the folder:
http://ptonthat.club.fr/files/ <- litchi10_uk.zip (100 KB)
New features, since the beta3 release:
- bugfixes:
- automatic opening of newly created local folder (final "\" was
forgotten)
- remaining space on correct disk (bad parameter in Dfree())
Thanks Cooper/Paradize
- alert #254 and exit, when listing a file more than 2 GB length
The files more than 1 GB length are now skipped from downloading
Thanks JL.CECCOLI
- the Console did not open with the menu item
- display problem of Console window is not topped
+ recursivity for local files and folders contents deletions
+ recursivity for files and folders contents uploads
My goal was to have the same functionalities of aFTP, so I could
delete it on my hard disk. Development is finished. There may be some
fixes and enhancements, if people want.
Hope you'll enjoy.
-- Pierre TON-THAT - Rajah Lone / Renaissance
http://ptonthat.club.fr
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, it's going to be another short
column. First and foremost, that's because there are only 50 new
messages this week.
Second, I seem to be suffering from some sort of minor allergic
reaction. Nothing serious or life-threatening, just annoying. Have you
ever had a mild allergy to something, and end up with your skin
crawling and feeling like you've got spiders all over you? Well that's
the way I've felt for the past two days. And to make matters even more
interesting, Benadryl seems to make it worse!
That raises an interesting question: What do I do if I'm allergic to
Benadryl? [grin]
Well anyway, I've had a rather interesting week. The server that hosts
the mailing list for A-ONE was mistakenly shut down by some corporate
drone who failed to grasp even remedial English. By the time we got
someone in charge to understand that we needed that puppy up and
running for at least long enough to grab the most current versions of
things, it was already quite late in the week. That may be why, if you
subscribe to A-ONE, it came to you from a different email address this
week. The server is due to be shut down again shortly, and it is
currently unknown if we will have the new server fully configured and
running in time for this issue.
Okay, now on to other stuff. Ever since I was a kid, I've been in the
habit of grabbing an encyclopedia volume at random (my first
encyclopedia was the "World Book" that my mother won by sending in 10
labels from Bosco or something like that) and opening it to any old
place and just start reading.
Well, with the internet now, it's even easier to do. I'll be watching
television and a commercial or show will mention something that'll
catch my attention. It'll usually be something minor that no one else
would ever think twice about.
Of course, I've usually got my trusty laptop sitting on the couch right
next to me, so it's easy enough to fire up a browser window and go to
Google or Yahoo! or Wikipedia and type in whatever word happened to
catch my attention.
This time, it was Scientology. Yep, the sci-fi religion that's grabbed
the likes of Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirsty Alley and Leah Remini. I
don't even remember what the reference was now, but for some reason I
dove into Scientology info from several different sources. I'm not
going to get into what I might think about any of the above-mentioned
people or of Scientology itself... that's not the point I want to make.
What I DO want to point out is that I'd already made my mind up about
Scientology a long, long time ago, and I still took a few moments to
look over the available info. I learned a few things that I had either
not known before or had forgotten.
Now, at the mention of Scientology you may have rolled your eyes or
perhaps stopped reading completely. If the latter is the case... well,
I guess that if the latter was the case you wouldn't be reading this
now, and whatever I say is unimportant. But if you rolled your eyes,
simply substitute something you hear in the next few minutes...
something a spouse or child says, a nearby town mentioned by the
weather forecaster on the news, a strange reference made on your
favorite sitcom, or something you've "always wondered about".
More than anything else, this is a kind of mental exercise. But its not
so much that you learn a huge amount this way (even though you do), but
that it keeps your mind nimble and keeps you accustomed to the fact
that there's always something to learn.
It's my considered opinion that, if you can do this on a regular basis,
you'll remain young forever!
Okay, let's get to the news, hints, tips and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Gerhard Stoll posts this about an application called Fiffi:
"Fiffi make it possible to access an FTP server. FTP stands for
file transfer protocol and makes the transmission of files between
computers of all kinds of operating systems and system architectures
possible. On FTP servers are often the interesting software archives
on the Internet.
Furthermore, it is possible to upload files on your website.
This Fiffi version based on the source from Jorgen Koneczny.
You need the following programs for using Fiffi:
- MagiC (Atari, Mac, PC) v4.5 or better and
- IConnect v1.0 or better.
Changes between version 1.3 and 1.50b:
- NEW: When clicking on the path display, the popup is now aligned to
the mouse cursor position.
- NEW: Keyboard control of the FTP window completed:
<Return>: Selected file/directory will be loaded/
opened.
<Control>+<A>: Selects all files/directories.
<Control>+<Delete>: Deletes the selected file, and only these!
- FIX: While Dragging&Dropping of directories to the FTP window,
there is no more halt of the system.
Download program and source:
<http://home.ewr-online.de/~gstoll/>
Thanks to Sascha Uhlig, who translated the doc."
Jean-Luc Ceccoli asks Gerhard:
"Just wondering... wouldn't it be more sensible to use MagX-Net,
instead of iConnect, as MagiC! is required?
Why so many stacks for so many apps running on the same
environment? Why not allow the apps to behave accordingly to the stack
that is already present in the system? There is MiNT-Net ? so it
switches to the correct stack and uses it.
There is STinG? OK, let's use its protocol. And so on for others.
That isn't meant as a pure criticism, but just an attempt to
understand why so many wheels that need to be reinvented so
many times. That's rather disappointing for me.
As of today, among the many internet apps that I use, I know
only 2 that don't rely on a specific stack (unless I'm wrong,
of course!) : MyMail and CAT. For all others, I need GlueSTiK, that
slows the system down and sometimes causes crashes."
Gerhard replies:
"Fiffi is from 1997. At the moment I'm happy to get source. Maybe I make
it that is possible that it can use MagiCNet or MiNT-Net. The next
problem is that it run only with MagiC, because it use the threads from
MagiC. I saw that there are some change so it can work with N.AES, but
I never test it.
I must support four stacks: IConnect, Sting/StiK, MagiCNet/MiNT-Net and
Draconis."
Derryck Croker asks Gerhard:
"If I remember correctly, all of those stacks except one have a gateway
that allows their use with MagiCNet. The exception is the IConnect
gateway, which was never publicly released (that I know of). If someone
could rescue that from Vassilis and, with his permission, release it
into the wild?
By the way, as a matter of interest, are you using the DDP Translations
resource file from fiffi 1.30 as a basis for 1.50b?"
Carey Cristenson tells Derryck:
"I use an Iconnect gateway with my MagicNET setup. If anyone is
interested and wants to have this setup on there computer let me know.
I will review what it took to get it going and send the appropriate
files and explanation on where all the files are to be placed. As far
as the sources are concerned. I don't have those but I have contacted
the author just this week to see if he would be willing to hand over
all sources including Iconnect, Draconis and MagicNET so continuing
support can be achieved."
Derryck replies:
"Someone with the initials MB at the Cheshunt Computer Club should be
pricking his ears up at this time!
I had a very similar setup to yours, Carey, and it worked very well.
Blessed if I could recall what one had to do to get it working though.
Some years back, someone posted a very comprehensive guide on setting
all this up, including support for multiple news servers if I remember
correctly.
I guessed that there must have been some unsurmountable problems (with
the IConnect gateway)."
'Phantomm' asks about GhostScript:
"If I recall, GhostScript could read some .PDF files on the Atari
ST-Falcon. I may have the name wrong. Is it still available?
Also, has it ever been updated in the last few years? And is there any
other Atari ST-Falcon program that will read/create .PDF files?"
Fidel-Sebastan Hunriches-Lara tells Phantomm:
"<http://the.zorro.free.fr/zview.html> is your friend! "
Phantomm replies:
"Thanks for the info, Looks Cool!!
I should have everything needed to run it here.
Will it work with just Plain TOS 4.04 with a FPU or does one need to run
Mint and or Magic?
I still like using Geneva, have nothing against Mint / Magic.
However, I don't like to use a lot of Stacks just to work a program,
if ya know what I mean."
Fidel-Sebastian tells Phantomm that he...
"Don't know! I don't have any original hardware anymore - I mostly use
MM on a Quadra840 or a G3-MT (with PowerFPU) and there it simply
works! I've also M_PC but Zview don't run on vulgar MC68000..."
Hallvard Tangeraas asks about ST-Labs:
"Anyone heard from ST-Labs (http://stlabs.free.fr/) lately?
They have some very interesting hardware projects in the works, but
none of my emails have been replied to. Are they still in business?"
Rob Mahlert of Atari-Users.Net tells Hallvard:
"It took him a while to reply to my first e-mail(months I think).
The last response I got was He will have the price and availability of
TTRAMIDE in June. The e-mail was on May 7th and I've heard nothing
since."
Well folks, that's it for this week. Tune in again next week, same time,
same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Nintendo Wii Outsells Sony PS3!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" No Plan for PS3 Price Cuts!
Missile Command HitsXbox 360!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Nintendo Wii Outsells Sony PS3
Nintendo's Wii video game console outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 six to one
in June in Japan, a Japanese publishing company said Monday.
Although the Wii has been on sale since late last year, they're selling so
briskly supply still hasn't caught up with demand and long lines form when
shipments arrive at stores.
The latest numbers suggest that Nintendo's lead is widening. Wii outsold
PS3 just four to one in April and five to one in May, according to
Enterbrain.
Enterbrain Inc., the publisher, found that Wii also outsold Microsoft
Corp.'s Xbox 360 in Japan in June.
Nintendo, the maker of "Pokemon" and "Super Mario" games, sold 270,974 Wii
consoles in Japan in June, while Sony sold 41,628 PS3 machines, and
Microsoft sold 17,616 Xbox 360 consoles, it said. Overseas sales were not
available.
The Wii, with its motion-sensitive remote control wand - called a
"Wiimote" - that can be used as a sword, tennis racket or fishing rod
depending on the game, has helped make the game a surprise hit around the
world, widening the appeal of games to far beyond the usual niche target
of young males.
"The Nintendo's game console is catching on not only among children but
also adults and singles," said Enterbrain spokeswoman Yuko Magaribuchi.
The availability of more game software for the Wii was another factor
adding to its popularity, she said.
Nintendo has said it sold 5.84 million Wii machines worldwide in the five
months since its release in November, 2.37 million in the Americas, and
2.0 million in Japan. The Kyoto-based company said it expected to sell 14
million more Wii machines in the fiscal year ending in March 2008.
Sony has shipped 5.5 million PS3 machines in the fiscal year through
March.
Nintendo has also marked robust sales with its Nintendo DS portable
machine, while Sony has struggled with its offering, the PlayStation
Portable.
Sony: No Plans for PlayStation 3 Price Cuts
A "Study Break" promotional sales flyer, reportedly leaked to a Web site,
is clever and to the point. The "Study" side shows an HP computer and its
sale price, and the "Break" side shows a Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3), with
$100 off. Sony is denying that the flyer is accurate, even as the rumor
is running rampant around the Internet.
The flyer, reported on DVD Talk's forums, has a Circuit City logo and,
according to the report, is intended for that retailer beginning the week
of July 15. The PS3's lower price would become available just after the
close of the big E3 2007 consumer electronics trade show.
Whether the price would be applied to other retailers was not clear.
GameDaily BIZ quoted an anonymous merchandising manager as confirming that
the new price will take effect on July 12, just before the ads begin on
July 15.
Sony President Ryoji Chubachi told Reuters that "at present" there are no
plans for such a price cut. "We have no immediate plans," he said, adding
that pricing on the PlayStation 3 is a matter for the company's game
subsidiary, Sony Computer Entertainment, to decide.
Among next-generation consoles, the PS3 is stuck in third place, behind
Nintendo's innovative Wii in first place and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in
second. But the Xbox might have just handed an opening to a
reduced-priced PS3, as Microsoft acknowledged on Thursday that the Xbox
360 has a high failure rate because of hardware problems.
Additionally, a new Blu-ray promotion promising five free Blu-ray movies
with any new player also is expected to help the PlayStation 3, which is
eligible for the free movie offer. The promotion began July 1 in the U.S.
Whether the Blu-ray promotion and a possible PS3 price cut represent an
"act of desperation" is being debated on forums around the Internet,
including DVD Talk.
Sony is "running in third behind the Wii and 360," a commenter called
DirkBelig wrote. With game titles being released that were formerly only
for the PS3, he noted, Sony knows that "if they don't slash prices and
give away the store now (at a monumental per-unit loss), they'll be iced
out" for the "rest of the generation."
Gartner analyst Van Baker said that he wouldn't be surprised by such a
price cut to counteract slow sales. "Clearly," he noted, "Sony is going to
have to strengthen PS3 in the market, and a major cut is reasonably
likely."
In May, Sony announced that its video game business would lose about $413
million for the fiscal year, and that it won't recover until there are
more PlayStation 3 games.
At the end of April, Sony Computer Entertainment Chairman and CEO Ken
Kutaragi, who spearheaded the game console's development, announced his
retirement. His announcement was not unexpected by industry observers,
given that the PS3 had been delayed multiple times in launching and
criticized for its high price.
Missile Command Fires Onto XBLA
Atari's arcade classic has all systems go for Xbox 360 launch this
Wednesday.
When Atari announced it would be bringing six of its classics to Xbox
Live, it didn't take a rocket scientist to predict which Wednesday the
publisher would choose to light up the skies with ballistic missile
explosions. Today the publisher sends word that its arcade classic
Missile Command will launch onto Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, July 4,
at 2 a.m. Pacific.
Like its arcade original, Missile Command forces players to man three
antimissile batteries to defend six cities from a barrage of incoming
ICBMs. Players will be able to team up to repel the invasion locally or
over Xbox Live. And as with many other XBLA games, Missile Command will
feature updated visuals, music, and sound effects, as well 200 achievement
points.
Missile Command is rated E for Everyone and will sell for 400 Microsoft
points ($5).
Video Games Rob Reading, Homework Time
Boys who play video games on school days spend 30 percent less time
reading and girls spend 34 percent less time doing homework than those who
do not play such games, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
But they said video games do not appear to interfere significantly with
time spent with family and friends.
"Gamers did spend less time reading and doing homework. But they didn't
spend less time interacting with their parents or their friends, nor did
they spend less time in sports or active leisure activities," said Hope
Cummings of the University of Michigan, whose study appears in the
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
The study comes as U.S. doctors voice growing concern about the long-term
effects of video games.
Prior studies have linked prolonged video game play with attention
difficulties and poor academic performance. And some doctors have
suggested the games interfere with social development and might be
addictive.
Cummings and Elizabeth Vandewater at the University of Texas at Austin
wanted to see how these games affect academic pursuits and social
relationships.
They gathered data from a nationally representative sample of kids aged 10
to 19 in 2002 who tracked their activities on a random weekday and a
random weekend day.
Of the 1,491 who participated, 534 adolescents or about 36 percent played
video games. About 80 percent were boys.
They found boys spent an average of 58 minutes playing on weekdays and one
hour and 37 minutes playing on a weekend day. Of those sampled, girls
spent 44 minutes playing on a weekday and an hour and four minutes on a
weekend day.
Cummings and colleagues found video game use resulted in less time spent
reading and doing homework, and these trade-offs fell along gender lines.
"The reading was just for the boys. For the homework, it was just the
girls," she said in a telephone interview.
Gaming did not seem to affect time spent doing homework among boys or
reading among girls, the study found.
Also, gamers did not spend less time with friends and parents.
"These findings do not support the notion that adolescents who play video
games are socially isolated," the authors wrote.
They also said the findings indicate that video game play can be a
distraction from school-related activities, but that may not hurt grades.
"Although gamers spend less time reading and doing homework, there have
been some studies that show that high academic achievers spend less time
doing homework," Cummings said.
"Gamers may actually be more effective in completing homework assignments,
and as a result, they spend less time doing homework. We need to look
deeper into what is going on," she said.
Microsoft Extends Xbox 360 Warranty
Microsoft on Thursday extended the warranty on its Xbox 360 video game
console and said it will take a charge of more than $1 billion to pay for
"anticipated costs."
Under the new warranty, Microsoft will pay for shipping and repairs for
three years, worldwide, for consoles afflicted with what gamers call "the
red ring of death." Previously, the warranty expired after a year for U.S.
customers and two years for Europeans.
Microsoft said it should take two to four weeks to repair damaged
consoles.
The charge will be $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion for the quarter ended
June 30. Microsoft reports its fourth-quarter results July 19.
The announcements come amid customer complaints and speculation among
bloggers that Microsoft was running out of "coffins," special
return-shipping boxes Microsoft provides to gamers with dead consoles.
Microsoft acknowledged "an unacceptable number of repairs." It said it
had investigated the sources of hardware failures indicated by three red
flashing lights. The software giant has made manufacturing and production
changes to reduce the hardware failures, says Robbie Bach, president of
the entertainment and devices division.
"There isn't one certain problem; it's a combination of a number of
different factors," Bach said in an interview.
Bach declined to say what Microsoft fixed, nor would he say how many
gamers sent in machines for repair. The percentage is "a meaningful
number, and it has our attention," he said.
Microsoft shipped 11.6 million Xboxes through June, compared with a target
of about 12 million, CFO Chris Liddell said in a conference call Thursday.
"The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their
console and have from Day One," Bach added.
Analysts said the scope of the problem, plus nagging concerns about the
reliability of the Xbox 360 - introduced to much fanfare in November 2005
- forced Microsoft to take drastic actions.
"Microsoft is finally acknowledging that there's a serious problem and
doing what it has to do to keep existing customers happy and buying
games," says Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft.
But the charge and change in warranty could hinder sales as Microsoft
dukes it out with Sony and Nintendo in the $12.5 billion console market,
he says.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
London Court Jails 'Cyber-Jihadis' for Online Terror
Three "cyber-jihadis" who used the Internet to urge Muslims to wage holy
war on non-believers were jailed for between six-and-a-half and 10 years
Thursday in the first case of its kind in Britain.
Tariq Al-Daour, Younes Tsouli and Waseem Mughal had close links with
Al-Qaeda in Iraq and thought there was a "global conspiracy" to wipe out
Islam, the Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London was told.
Moroccan-born Tsouli, 23, was jailed for 10 years; UAE-born Al-Daour, 21,
received a six-and-a-half year sentence; and 24-year-old Mughal, who was
born in Britain, was given seven-and-a-half years.
Sentencing them, Judge Charles Openshaw said the men had engaged in
"cyber jihad", encouraging others to kill "kuffars" or non-believers.
"It would seem that Internet websites have become an effective means of
communicating such ideas," he said, although he added that none of the men
had come close to carrying out acts of violence themselves.
Referring to Tsouli, whom he recommended for deportation to Morocco after
serving his sentence, he said: "He came no closer to a bomb or a firearm
than a computer keyboard."
Al-Daour, from west London, on Wednesday admitted "inciting another person
to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the United Kingdom
which would, if committed in England and Wales, constitute murder."
Tsouli, also from west London, and Mughal, from Kent, southeast England,
admitted the same charge on Monday.
The guilty pleas came part way through a trial which had run for two
months.
Al-Daour, Tsouli and Mughal also pleaded guilty to a 1.8-million-pound
(2.7-million-euro, 3.6-million-dollar) conspiracy to defraud banks, credit
card and charge card companies.
The trial was told the computer experts spent at least 12 months trying to
encourage people to follow the extreme ideology of Al-Qaeda chief Osama
bin Laden, using email and radical websites.
Films of hostages and beheadings were found among their possessions,
including footage of British contractor Ken Bigley, who was killed in
Iraq in 2004; and US journalist Daniel Pearl, killed in Pakistan in 2002.
Compact discs containing instructions for making explosives and poisons
were also found, with other documents giving advice on how to use a
rocket-propelled grenade and how to make booby traps and a suicide vest.
Police who trawled through a mass of data and websites also discovered
online conversations in which Al-Dour talked of sponsoring terrorist
attacks, becoming "the new Osama," and justifying suicide bombings.
After the sentencing, the head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit,
Peter Clarke, said in a statement: "These three men, by their own
admission, were encouraging others to become terrorists and murder
innocent people.
"This is the first successful prosecution for inciting murder using the
Internet, showing yet again that terrorist networks are spanning the
globe.... "Their terrorist tradecraft was sophisticated, but nevertheless
defeated by this investigation."
Hackers Target Corporate Execs and Their Families
Hackers appear to have stepped up their efforts to trick corporate
executives into downloading malicious software programs that can steal
company data over the past year, according to new data released Monday.
MessageLabs Ltd., a security vendor that offers e-mail filtering services
to catch spam and malicious attachments, caught an average of 10 e-mails
per day in May targeted at people in senior management positions, up from
just one a day a year prior, said Mark Sunner, chief security analyst.
Those 10 e-mails are a very small percentage of the 200 million e-mails
that MessageLabs scans every day, but the composition of those messages
is what's alarming, Sunner said.
Many of the e-mails contained the name and title of the executive in the
subject line, as well as a malicious Microsoft Word document containing
executable code. The hackers are trying to trick the victim into thinking
the messages comes from someone they know, in the hope that the victim
will willingly install, for example, a program that can record
keystrokes.
MessageLabs won't reveal what companies have been targeted of late, but it
has contacted executives who have been targeted and heard their family
members have also received messages on their own, non-corporate e-mail
accounts, Sunner said.
Those methods suggests that hackers may be researching victims and culling
data from social networking sites such as Linked In, MySpace or Facebook,
Sunner said.
"If you really want to work out somebody's background... you can actually
find out a lot," Sunner said.
Tricking a relative into installing malicious code would offer the hacker
another way to collect sensitive data, if an executive decides to do some
work on a home computer, Sunner said.
During June, MessageLabs picked up more than 500 of these targeted
messages, with some 30 percent aimed at chief investment officers - a
position that can include handling acquisitions and mergers. Other
positions targeted include directors of research and development, company
presidents, CEOs, CIOs and CFOs.
Another danger is that the targeted messages are often just single
messages sent to a single person, rather than a mass spam run. When
hackers send out millions of messages, security companies often either
update their software or change their spam filters to trap the bad
messages.
But single messages have a higher chance of slipping through, although
Sunner said MessageLabs' filtering service catches the messages by
analyzing the e-mail's attachment and determining whether it is
potentially harmful. Other security companies catch malware by updating
their software with indicators, or signatures, to detect harmful code or
block code from running based on what it does on a computer, a technology
called behavioral detection.
Tracing where the messages come from is difficult, since the sender's
name is always fake, Sunner said. The IP address from which the messages
were sent indicate computers that are located around the world. Hackers
often use networks of computers they already control, called botnets, to
send e-mails.
"Certainly, people need to raise the level of vigilance," Sunner said.
Talking Trojan Says 'Bye Bye' To Victims' Data
A newly identified malicious program not only messes up its victims'
computers, it taunts them too.
The program, called the BotVoice.A Trojan was first spotted by security
vendor Panda Software last week. It is a Trojan horse program, which the
victim must download first. But once installed, it gets nasty.
The Trojan soon sets to work trying to delete everything from the
victim's hard drive, while at the same time endlessly repeating an
audible message, apparently designed to taunt the victim.
"You have been infected; I repeat, you have been infected and your system
files have been deleted. Sorry. Have a nice day and bye bye," the Trojan
says.
It does this by using a text-reading program that is part of the Windows
operating system, Panda said. Users of Windows 2003, XP, 2000, NT, ME, 98,
and 95 are all at risk.
Unlike a virus, BotVoice.A does not jump from computer to computer on its
own, but spreads via p-to-p (peer-to-peer) networks or storage devices
such as CD-ROMs or USB memory drives.
The Trojan is unusual because unlike most malware written these days, it
appears to be designed to perform mindless vandalism, said Roger Thompson,
chief technology officer with Exploit Prevention Labs. "I haven't seen
brainless vandalism like that for years," he said via instant message.
"The good news is that such a Trojan will never be widespread, because
everything is profit-oriented now, and there's not a lot of money in
taunting someone."
Sensitive Data Left on Old Hard Drives
Lenovo has launched software to comprehensively delete data on PC hard
drives, after surveys revealed a widespread failure to remove sensitive
data from hard drives on PCs slated for disposal.
With the now-in-force WEEE directive, PC disposal and recycling will be
more organized. A Lenovo-sponsored survey suggests that up to 30 percent
of discarded PCs may contain sensitive data. An earlier BT-sponsored
report reached much the same conclusion.
Reports of sensitive data being left on old PCs are set to persist as
companies continue to expose themselves to the potential risks of data
getting into the wrong hands. Many companies erroneously think that
formatting a hard disk removes and destroys its data. In fact this data,
which can be highly confidential, can still be retrieved from these
drives. Systematically writing meaningless bit patterns to every disk
block is a more effective way to actually remove such data.
Lenovo supplies a software product to do this. Called Secure Data
Disposal, by using it customers can be confident that all data will be
removed from a hard drive before it is redeployed or disposed. Lenovo is
encouraging all its customers to use the tool to minimize their exposure
to exposure of sensitive data.
Secure Data Disposal is available for download free on all Lenovo
notebooks and desktop PCs and can easily be installed by users or network
managers.
Chris Wells, Lenovo's VP for U.K. and Ireland, said: "It is essential for
organizations to consider secure data disposal when refreshing
end-of-life computers in order to avoid becoming susceptible to
potentially immeasurable business risk."
New Version of the GPL Is Finalized
While many consumers are standing in line to get their hands on a $500
iPhone, Apple's new toy is not the only major release in the technology
world today. Indeed, Friday also marks the release of version 3 of the
GNU General Public License (GPL).
The GNU GPL is the most widely used free software license worldwide:
Almost three quarters of all free software packages are distributed under
this license. Version 3 of the GPL brings to a close 18 months of public
outreach and comment, but it might not answer all of the open-source
community's concerns over Microsoft's patent deals with Novell and
others. And it opens questions about the iPhone's software.
The primary author of the GPL is Richard Stallman, president and founder
of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and creator of the GNU Project.
With his first revision of the license in 16 years, version 3 of the GPL
fights what Stallman sees as the most recent attempts to take the freedom
out of free software.
Specifically, version 3 attacks what Stallman called "tivoization," which
he said could be a problem for Apple and the iPhone.
"Tivoization" is a term coined by the FSF to describe devices that are
built with free software, but that use technical measures to prevent the
user from making modifications to the software. GPLv3 promises to put a
stop to the practice.
The FSF is posing questions about the iPhone, chiefly whether it
contains software governed by the GPL. Peter Brown, executive director
of the FSF, said Steve Jobs and Apple released a product crippled with
proprietary software and digital restrictions - crippled, he argued,
because a device that isn't under the control of its owner works against
the interests of its owner.
"We know that Apple has built its operating system, OS X, and its Web
browser, Safari, using GPL-covered work," Brown said in a statement. "It
will be interesting to see to what extent the iPhone uses GPLed
software."
Tivoization aside, the bottom line is that version 3 of the GPL is going
to cause a period of confusion for many developers, according to Dana
Gardner, principal analyst at Interabor Solutions and former Linux
analyst at Yankee Group.
"I suppose this may increase the complexity and cost of dealing with
open source because here's yet another license," he explained.
"Developers will now have to determine if, by default, they are under
this license and understand what its implications are."
GPLv3 could add considerably more hours to a lawyer's billing cycles,
Gardner added, but there are some upsides. The compatibility with the
Apache Foundation license is a benefit that will simplify issues
surrounding Apache and GPL licensing. That is a long-term plus, Gardner
said.
The issue that remains is the Microsoft-Novell alliance in light of the
new GPL, which covers such partnerships with commercial software
vendors. If the Microsoft-Novell deal is impacted by the new license,
Gardner said, it could remove some of the impetus for Microsoft to
engage in its Linux alliance deals and free up open-source users from
any concern about litigation.
A Reprieve for Internet Radio?
As the July 15 deadline for increased fees for Internet radio stations
looms ever closer, groups on both sides continue negotiating. But if last
week's press-release exchange is any indication, there's still a lot of
ground to be covered.
SoundExchange, the organization that collects royalties for copyright
owners in the music business, last week extended a compromise offer aimed
at allaying the fears that sites like Pandora and Live 365, which offer
multiple streams, would be forced out of business when the new fees go
into effect later this month.
According to regulations set by the Copyright Board, these sites, and
others like Rhapsody and Radio@AOL, would have to pay a fee of $500 per
station or channel per year, regardless of the number of stations. Live365
has thousands of stations; Rhapsody claims to have offered 400,000 in the
last year alone. The combined fees would have leveled prohibitive costs
against the stations, forcing them out of business.
SoundExchange's proffered solution is to offer a price cap. According to
the press release issued last Friday, June 29, the organization "proposed
capping such advance payments at $2,500 per service."
While the proposed cap would limit the fees Internet radio stations would
have to pay, SoundExchange's offer doesn't apply for the full term of the
Copyright Board's (CRB) ruling about fees, which expires in 2010. Instead,
under SoundExchange's terms, the cap would expire in 2008. While several
reports speculated that the cap wouldn't last more than six months,
SoundExchange spokesperson Richard Ades claims it would have a longer
shelf life.
Ades said SoundExchange management hadn't named a specific month in which
the deal would expire. "But I would guess it's through 2008, through the
end of 2008," he said.
Still, Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media
Association (DiMA), a trade organization devoted the online audio and
video industry, quickly replied in a press release from his organization,
calling SoundExchange's proposed temporary cap "simply a stay of
execution for Internet radio."
"DiMA would agree to a $2,500 per-service cap for the entire term of the
CRB ruling (through 2010)," said Potter via the DiMA press release, "but
not the partial-offer presented to us in writing, which would terminate
in 2008."
Phone calls to DiMA's office for further comment were not returned.
DiMA has previously requested that negotiations be kept private. DiMA's
Ades, however, claims attorneys for the webcasters never brought the
issue about multiple channels up before the Copyright Board before the
decision on fees was made.
"As a matter of fact, they didn't bring it up for a while after the
original decision," said Ades. "When they did bring it up, we looked at
it, we took a long, hard look at it, and then we came up with this
proposal."
Clearly, the people at DiMA would like SoundExchange to look a little
longer. According to the association, "DiMA, like thousands of artists
and millions of consumers, wants a solution that promotes long-term
industry growth. A billion-dollar 'minimum fee' is equally absurd in
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 or 2010. It should be eliminated - period."
The two organizations obviously have a lot of ground to cover if they
hope to meet in the middle by July 15. But SoundExchange's Richard Ades
thinks there's still some chance an agreement will be made. "It's hard to
say," said Ades. "We're hopeful."
=~=~=~=
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