MacBook Spying Case | Image Source : Appleinsider.com

FBI investigates, federal prosecutors subpoena documents in MacBook spying case, say reports.

The parents of a Pennsylvania high school student have asked a federal judge to bar school district personnel from switching on cameras in school-issued MacBook laptops, calling the security feature “peeping tom technology.”

In their motion Friday, Michael and Holly Robbins of Penn Valley, Pa., asked U.S. District Court Judge Jan DuBois to issue a restraining order preventing the district from remotely activating the webcams on student notebooks. They also requested that the judge block the district from recalling the laptops from students, saying that they believe school officials will then wipe the MacBooks’ hard drives to delete evidence of any camera activation.

“There can be no assurances that the School District will disable the use of the remote webcam or, once deactivated, make an internal decision to reactive the webcam,” the motion argued.

Elsewhere in the motion, the Robbins labeled the camera functionality “peeping tom technology,” and disputed the district’s account that cameras had been activated only when a notebook was reported lost or stolen. “[Blake Robbins] was at home using a school issued laptop that was neither reported lost nor stolen when his image was captured by Defendants without his or his parents’ permission and while he was at home,” the motion said. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Identity Theft | Image Source : Hiteidtheft.com

A new study shows that banks, not consumer victims, are increasingly feeling the pain of digital fraud.

Identity theft often feels less like a random act of fraud than a personal breach of a victim’s secrets. But while consumers feel the sting from having their private data stolen, it’s their banks that are increasingly picking up the bill.

That’s one finding from an identity theft study released Wednesday by fraud analysis firm Javelin Research. The study, which surveyed around 5,000 Americans last year about their experiences with identity theft, calculated that ID fraud had cost around $54 billion in 2009, a significant jump from the $48 billion it estimated for 2008. That higher cost was driven by a greater number of fraud incidents that affected 11.2 million consumers in 2009, compared with 9.9 million in 2008.

That means financial services are absorbing a much larger chunk of fraud losses, says Javelin president James Van Dyke. “Businesses are really stepping up,” he says. “Even as the cost of fraud mitigation becomes higher, they’re bringing the out-of-pocket expense for victims closer and closer to zero.”

And why are banks willing to cover a larger percentage of those fraud costs? Van Dyke posits that the firms are dealing with consumers’ increasing impatience regarding data security issues and the growing problem of losing customers after fraud incidents. In about one out of five cases, according to Javelin’s research, a victim of identity theft switches banks. “Acquiring a new customer can costs hundreds of dollars, and banks are becoming more and more sensitive to the cost of losing that relationship,” he says . Read more ……

Identity theft is a term used that is to refer to fraud that involves someone pretending to be someone else in order to steal money or get other benefits. The term dates to 1964[1] and is actually a misnomer, since it is not inherently possible to steal an identity, only to use it. The person whose identity is used can suffer various consequences when he or she is held responsible for the perpetrator’s actions. In many countries specific laws make it a crime to use another person’s identity for personal gain.Identity theft is somewhat different from identity fraud. However, the terms are often used interchangeably. Identity fraud is the result of identity theft. Someone can steal or appropriate someone’s identifying information without actually committing identity fraud. The best example of this is when a data breach occurs. There has been very little evidence to link ID fraud to data breaches. Source : Wikipedia

More news at KRISARU News

Image Source : Silicon.com

London: A group of computer scientists have come up with a system that deciphers the templates a botnet uses to create spam, and these templates are then used to teach spam filters what to look for. This can be used to block the most common kind of spam.

Most spam messages originate in networks of compromised computers, called botnets, and owners are unaware that the machines quietly run malicious software in the background that pump out spam, reports New Scientist. But researchers have now come up with a system that deciphers the templates a botnet is using to create spam, and these templates are then used to teach spam filters what to look for.

The system, developed by a team at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California, and the University of California, San Diego, works by exploiting a trick that spammers use to defeat email filters. As spam is churned out, subtle changes are typically incorporated into the messages to confound spam filters. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Technical institutes in India churn out around six lakh students every year but none of their innovative projects are considered worthy of patent. Projects like the ‘black box’ system installed in cars in U.S. and UK to detect a genuine accident is also done by a group of students from Latur-based Women Polytechnic Institute in Maharashtra but was not recognized, reports Times of India.

“Did these Latur students not deserve recognition for their idea? This project was not considered worthy enough for an auto show here,” said Anil Gupta, IIM-A professor and founder of National Innovation Foundation (NIF) and Sristi.

Technical member of intellectual property appellate board (IPAB) S Chandrashekhar, added, “We have managed to upload almost two lakh innovations on our website for access for the public. Today one of our prime concerns is the process of ‘evergreening’ where major pharmaceutical companies by making minor changes in their present products apply for patents.”

To trigger innovation spirit of students in India, SiliconIndia has launched All India Engineering Project Innovation Contest (AIEPIC, pronounced as eye-pic) which aims to identify, promote and reward outstanding engineering talent across India. 30 thousand students have already registered for AIEPIC. This contest is expected to bring together more than six lakh students from 3000+ colleges across India to showcase their projects. Next week onwards we will bring you one innovative project every day as we start a new series to recognize various innovation project done by Indian students.

You can check more information about this unique platform at http://www.siliconindia.com/aiepic/   Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday released a patch to protect Internet Explorer users from attacks like “Operation Aurora” which targeted Google Inc.’s China business and caused widespread Internet panic.

“This security update resolves seven privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer,” the world’s largest software company said in a statement on its Web site.

This security update includes all supported versions of the Internet Explorer browser, and will be automatically installed for the majority of customers who have enabled automatic updating. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Dr Jeegajeeva, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, received the Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Endeavour Awards worth RM630,500 to pursue a doctorate in medicine.

UiTM vice-chancellor Datuk Prof Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar said Dr Jeegajeeva, one of the university’s excellent service award recipients last year, had vast experience in his field in several countries including Malaysia, Britain, Indonesia and Australia.

“UiTM is proud of Dr Jeegajeeva’s achievement. He is one of 10 individuals in Asia chosen for the scholarship,” he said at the presentation of the scholarship here Wednesday.

Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Penny Williams presented the award. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Google China Hacking | Image Source : technology.timesonline.co.uk

A coordinated hacking campaign targeting Google, Adobe Systems and more than 30 other companies raises serious concerns, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

In a statement released late Tuesday night, Clinton said that the U.S. government is taking the attack — which Google said came from China — very seriously. “We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions,” she said. “We look to the Chinese government for an explanation.”

Sources familiar with the situation say that more than 30 U.S. companies, including Adobe Systems, were hit by this targeted attack, which Google first discovered in mid-December. Using an attack that exploited an unpatched bug in widely used software, the attackers were able to gain footholds in these companies and siphon out valuable intellectual property.

In Google’s case the attackers also gained access information about the e-mail accounts of Chinese dissidents.

Google apparently feels strongly that China is behind the attack because the company said Tuesday that the event helped convince the company that it “should review the feasibility of our business operations in China.”

The company now says it will no longer censor search results on Google.cn, a move that could put it out of business in China.

Google’s competitor, Yahoo, also condemned the attacks. “We stand aligned with Google that these kinds of attacks are deeply disturbing and strongly believe that the violation of user privacy is something that we as internet pioneers must all oppose,” the company said in a statement.

A company spokeswoman declined to say whether or not Yahoo had been hit by the attack as well.

Yahoo doesn’t directly do business in China. It sold its Yahoo! China business to Alibaba.com in 2005, but it is a major shareholder in that company. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Body Scanners | Image Source : Privacylover.com

The full-body scanning technology being adopted and discussed since the attempt to take down a passenger plane on Christmas Day isn’t a “magic machine” that will solve aviation security issues, experts say.

“Regardless of the sophistication of the piece of technology, if you can collect the information on how it works and what its technical parameters are, then that machine is not going to deter a [sophisticated] terrorist operation,” said Dr. Richard Bloom, director of terrorism, intelligence and security studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Full-body screening and other security measures are more effective in detecting threats from an increasing number of unsophisticated, mentally troubled suspects acting alone, he said. The technology is “only a piece” of aviation security.

Security technologist Bruce Schneier believes that the body scanning machines are a waste of money. Investigation and intelligence gathering is where the money would make a difference, he said.

“Stop trying to guess. You take away guns and bombs, the terrorists use box cutters. You take away box cutters, they put explosives in their shoes. You screen shoes, they use liquids. You take away liquids, they strap explosives to their body. You use full-body scanners, they’re going to do something else,” said Schneier, who is the author of a number of security-related books, including “Beyond Fear.”

“In general, the odds are really stacked in the terrorists’ favor … because they only have to be successful one time and the government has to be successful all the time.” Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Happy New Year | Image Source : Fotolia.com

KRISARU.com team wishes HAPPY NEW YEAR to ALL !!! Thank you for the support given throughout the year 2009 and incoming years !!!

A wishful way to greet people as the New Year begins. Slowly and steadily Year 2009 is creating space for year 2010 to step in.

This is the time to say good bye to 2009 and welcome 2010. All the world celebrate this day each year. Parties are going on in various parts of the world. People exchanging new year greetings and new year wishes to each other to welcome New Year 2010.

People are ready to cherish the memories of 2009, learn from their mistakes and make resolutions of not repeating them in the coming year.

Dear ALL. Take note on the importance of your name or your preferred name. The name / Your name is an Intellectual Property. Secure it in various forms. One of it is as a Domain Name. Secure your Name as a Domain Name. Search for Domain Name at KRISARU.net / More info at KRISARU.com

More News at KRISARU News

Image Source : Techcrunch.com

Internet giant Google.com has lost an arbitration case over the domain name Groovle.com. In a decision released today, The National Arbitration Forum, dismissed Google’s complaint which claimed that it was entitled to the domain name Groovle.com. Google claimed that the domain name  is “confusingly similar” to its trademark for “Google”.

The unanimous three person panel ruled that Groovle.com “is not confusingly similar” to Google’s trademark, “Google”.  Google has commenced 65 similar domain name disputes and this is only the second time that it has ever lost. Domain name lawyer and Internet law expert, Zak Muscovitch is responsible for successfully defending the “little guy” against the mega-corp Google.

The domain is owned by Canadian entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon, who launched Groovle.com in 2007. As Fuller explains, “Groovle was created to provide users the ability to upload photos and customize their Internet start page. We thought it would be a cool feature to have a nice photo of friends, family etc., every time you launch your web browser”. Says Fitzgibbon, “since we launched Groovle in 2007, Google, Bing and Ask.com have each come out with something similar”.

The pair are elated with the decision. “We were stunned when Google launched the domain name dispute as we have great respect for Google and have always had a good relationship with them”, said Fitzgibbon. Fuller added that, “Google never had anything to fear from our web site. The arbitrators’ decision that the two domain names are sufficiently different should put Google at ease and we look forward to a renewed positive relationship with Google”.

Muscovitch concluded “Google clearly miscalculated here however my clients are prepared to put this behind them”.

Source : Google News

More News at KRISARU News

Image Source : Kaspersky.com

Our phones are becoming more like computers with every passing day. The good news is that we can take our data anywhere and work wherever we’d like. The bad news is that our phones are becoming more vulnerable to spyware, viruses and other attacks.

A start-up called Lookout is trying to make phones safer and views itself as the “Symantec or McAfee of the mobile space.” In 2010, the company will offer software that can scan phones to determine which apps are safe and which are not. “Applying PC solutions to a mobile problem just won’t work,” says Lookout Chief Executive John Haring.

Here’s how Lookout’s technology works: You download the software, sign up for an account and configure the options you want to enable. The software offers anti-virus, data backup and device location. Then, when you download a new app from, say, the Android Marketplace, Lookout’s software automatically scans the app and alerts you to take action if an app contains spyware or other malware. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Image Source : Siliconindia.com

The millions of Twitter buffs are at dismay as Twitter gets hacked for the fourth time consecutively, this year. The last time it was hacked in August this year, Twitter said in its status blog that it was ‘defending against a denial-of-service attack,’ in which hackers command scores of computers to a single site at the same time, preventing legitimate traffic from getting through. This time the site seems to be hacked by an Iranian Cyber Army.

It marks an already difficult week for Twitter. Its application Twitterfeed had a data migration only this weekl, leaving many users with a reduced service. The new hack is nothing but an added woe. The problem started around one hour back. The site, which has been hacked for the fourth time this year, is offline and the message reads, “This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army.

The message at the bottom of the hacked page, which has been translated by Tech Crunch, goes on to say, “U.S.A. Think they are controlling and managing Internet by their access, but they don’t. We control and manage Internet by our power, so do not try to stimulation Iranian peoples to… NOW WHICH COUNTRY IN EMBARGO LIST? IRAN? USA? WE PUSH THEM IN EMBARGO LIST Take Care.”

Image Source : PcWorld.com

Look for Google’s lightweight, browser-based operating system to debut on mobile systems sometime in 2010.

Google unveiled what it’s hoping will be the new standard in netbook operating systems: Chrome OS. Based on Linux, Chrome OS is a fast, low-overhead OS that boots directly into a Web browser to get you online with as little waiting as possible. We’ve been running an early version of Chrome OS on our test systems since Google released the code to the open-source community. Here’s a peek at what you can expect to see when preinstalled systems debut for the 2010 holiday season.

Chrome OS runs exclusively on solid-state drives, it boots extremely quickly. The early build we played with took as little as 7 seconds to reach a login screen, and then snapped almost instantly into the browser.

Web-app bookmarks in Chrome OS unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS offers few controls that you can’t already find in Google’s Chrome Web browser. The most significant difference is the Chrome icon in the upper-left corner, which reveals a list of bookmarked Web apps. It’s as close as Chrome OS gets to installing software. While the inability to install apps as Windows does can be a limitation, it’s also a safeguard against viruses and malware: If apps can’t install, neither can Trojan horses and other nasty bits of code. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Image Source : 3mobileshop.co.uk

Apple and Nokia are getting into the holiday spirit this year by suing one another over a patent dispute.

The fun started this past October when Nokia sued Apple for allegedly infringing on 10 of its patents that covered a wide range of mobile data technologies, including speed encoding and decoding, security and encryption. At the time, the Finnish smartphone manufacturer accused Apple of trying to get a “free ride” off of its intellectual property.

Apple accused Nokia of allegedly infringing on 13 of its patents and pointedly told Nokia that “other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours.” Apple did not detail what patents Nokia allegedly violated but instead provided a long list of the company’s accomplishments, such as “igniting” the “personal computer revolution.”

The Apple-Nokia spat is the second high-profile tech-related lawsuit to generate headlines in the past few weeks. In November, AT&T filed a lawsuit against Verizon alleging that the carrier’s “There’s a Map for That” ads falsely assert that AT&T has major gaps in its wireless coverage. In Verizon’s response filed with the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia, the company eschewed standard legalese and instead launched into a bombastic broadside against its rival. AT&T decided to drop the suit earlier this month after its initial efforts failed to get Verizon to take its ads off the air.  Read more ……

Source : b2net.co.uk

IT security firm Sophos has announced its latest probe into how easy it is to steal identities via Facebook and found that user negligence is worst in 2009. It is assumed things would be better in 2009 but the situation is worse. This really is a wake-up call,” said Paul Ducklin, head of technology, Sophos Asia-Pacific (Sydney).

Ducklin, who led the Facebook probe, said they created two fictitious users with names based on anagrams of the words “false identity” and “stolen identity.” He said 21-year-old “Daisy Felettin” was represented by a picture of a toy rubber duck bought at a US $2 shop; 56-year-old “Dinette Stonily” posted a profile picture of two cats lying on a rug. Each sent out 100 friend requests to randomly-chosen Facebook users in their age group.

Within two weeks, a total of 95 strangers chose to become friends with Daisy or Dinette — an even higher response rate then when Sophos first performed the experiment two years ago with a plastic frog. Worse still, Ducklin said, in the latest study, eight Facebookers befriended Dinette without even being asked.

Ducklin said 89% of the 20-somethings and 57% of the 50-somethings who befriended Daisy and Dinette also gave away their full date of birth.

“Nearly all the others suppressed their year of birth, but this is often easy to calculate or to guess from other information given out,” he said, adding that even worse, just under half of the 20-ish crowd, and just under a third of the 50-ish crowd, gave away personal information about their friends and family.

The following top tips for users who want to protect themselves from identity thieves on Facebook:

• Don’t blindly accept friends. Treat a friend as the dictionary does, namely “someone whom you know, like and trust.” A friend is not merely a button you click on. You don’t need, and can’t realistically claim to have, 932 true friends.
• Learn the privacy system of any social networking site you join. Use restrictive settings by default. You can open up to true friends later. Don’t give away too much too soon.
• Assume that everything you reveal on a social networking site will be visible on the internet for ever. Once it has been searched, and indexed, and cached, it may later turn up online no matter what steps you take to delete it.

Honeymoon period with social networking sites ought to be over by now — but many users still have a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude to their personal data. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Source : Topnews.in

A family business is a business in which one or more members of one or more families have a significant ownership interest and significant commitments toward the business’ overall well-being. In some countries, many of the largest publicly listed firms are family-owned. A firm is said to be family-owned if a person is the controlling shareholder; that is, a person (rather than a state, corporation, management trust, or mutual fund) can garner enough shares to assure at least 20% of the voting rights and the highest percentage of voting rights in comparison to other shareholders.

Family businesses may have owners who are not family members. Family businesses may also be managed by individuals who are not members of the family. However, family members are often involved in the operations of their family business in some capacity and, in smaller companies, usually one or more family members are the senior officers and managers. Many businesses that are now public companies were family businesses.

Family participation as managers and/or owners of a business can strengthen the company because family members are often loyal and dedicated to the family enterprise. However, family participation as managers and/or owners of a business can present unique problems because the dynamics of the family system and the dynamics of the business systems are often not in balance.  Read more ……

Too often, the wrong person with the right last name gets the corner office.

What are the chances that, out of thousands of candidates for the CEO spot, the son or daughter of the company founder is the most competent of the bunch? Slim to none.

Say you are a member of the Ford family, and your financial security lay in family trusts stuffed with Ford Motor stock. Who would you rather bet on, William Clay Ford Jr. or Alan Mulally, the former Boeing exec now at Ford’s wheel? In this case, Mulally had the presence of mind to secure $24 billion in funding prior to the recent economic collapse and thus avoided becoming a ward of the federal government, like GM and Chrysler.

The same can be said of the Walton clan at Wal-Mart. When founder Sam Walton died, much ink was spilled over fears that the culture, and thus performance, of the giant retailer would deteriorate. In fact, transition to professional management has yielded relentless revenue growth and profitability.

To be clear, I have met many family-member executives who were excellent leaders. But to be fair, the odds are heavily stacked against them. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Source : eMarketer

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has followed up on its 2007 and 2008 studies of social media usage by the Inc. 500. Adoption and awareness continue to trend upward, with 91% of firms using at least one social media tool in 2009 and three-quarters describing themselves as “very familiar” with social networking.

Social networking and blogging have seen the most growth in adoption, while other technologies have flattened or even declined in use, including wikis and online video. Twitter usage, of course, has caught on quickly—more than one-half of businesses reported tweeting in 2009.(Source: emarketer.com)

Please look into to optimize the social media tools for your self identity growth and also your business growth.

For more news on Social Networking, feel free to visit http://news.krisaru.com

If require any assistance, email : admin@krisaru.com

More News at KRISARU News

We all want to enable organizational velocity. We know that as we lead, we not only need to make right decisions ourselves, but we need to help our teams make good decisions as well. But how often do we step in, make the decision and then wonder why our team is not “engaged?”

Many a leader sees himself in this scenario: “Lucas,” a general manager at a major media services company, told me he wanted his team to step up and figure out how to tackle a huge growth opportunity for his business unit. He had the vague sense his people were somehow holding back. At the same time, he gave more specific direction than made sense, given the talent of the people reporting to him. Employees strive to understand the unwritten rules that their boss operates by. Lucas didn’t recognize how his actions signaled to the team that their ideas were not valued.

We often treat collaboration as the cherry on top of the cake, but a better metaphor is the yeast that lets innovation rise. Collaboration doesn’t work as an afterthought; it must be baked into the process for the organization to rise. It is just as important as the “what” of a big idea that garners so much focus. Both the “what” and the “how” are needed to create the vital organizational context that can enable the rise.

Nilofer Merchant, CEO, strategist and author, is a leading authority on creating business strategy to achieve success. She has honed her unique, collaborative approach to solving tough problems while working with and for companies like Adobe, Apple, Nokia,   HP and others.  A sample chapter from her book, The New How: Creating Business Solutions through Collaborative Strategy will be published in December. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Source : Forbes.com

As the world’s biggest file-sharing sites clean up or shut down, all eyes are on Isohunt.

The world of peer-to-peer piracy is in turmoil. In April, copyright-flouting icon the Pirate Bay was ordered by a Swedish court to shut down its file-sharing service, and last week the second largest file-sharing destination, Mininova, announced that it would comply with a court order to remove all of its copyright-infringing files.

That leaves Isohunt, a peer-to-peer file-sharing search engine with 30 million unique monthly visitors and 10 million daily searches, as the biggest remaining magnet for the Web’s pirate population. It’s also attracting the same legal troubles: The Vancouver-based site is being sued by both the Motion Picture Association of American and the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

But Isohunt founder Gary Fung argues that his site won’t be the next to fall under the legal guillotine. Isohunt, he argues, uses a different model: Unlike Mininova or the Pirate Bay, the site functions as a search engine for the “torrent” files that map connections in peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, rather than a host of those files or a forum for downloaders. Read more ……

More News at KRISARU News

Source : SiliconIndia.com

The new worm is affecting iPhone users in the Netherlands. The worm is redirecting users from a legitimate banking website to a fake site. The worm has been identified by security experts at security solutions firm F-Secure, and appears to be predominantly affecting Dutch iPhone users attempting to log on to their ING Bank accounts on the device.

Users visiting the legitimate home page of the bank are unconsciously redirected to an imitation site by the worm, leaving them vulnerable to cybercriminals, who could capture their username and password and use this information to commit fraud. Only ‘jailbroken’ iPhones, a hack that allows the device to run software and services not approved by Apple, are affected by the worm.  Read more ……

More news at KRISARU News