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

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 : 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 : 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 ……

If there was a disclaimer on every piece of media that received a bit of digital “help,” our images here in the US would be nothing but disclaimers. In France, however, lawmakers are concerned about the effect that Photoshopping has on people’s body images. As a result, one such member of parliament, Valerie Boyer, has proposed a law that would require “enhanced” images to sport a warning, making it clear that viewers are not looking at an unretouched image.

Magazines and advertisements around the world are filled to the brim with airbrushed imagery portraying not-quite-real people living in a fantasy world filled with diamonds, puppies, Louis Vuitton bags, and lots and lots of great sex. Men’s and women’s magazines are equally guilty, and it’s not exactly a secret that impossibly hot people help make effective advertisements.

It’s also no secret that these images can warp how normal people see themselves, especially teenagers who are particularly prone to developing body issues. That’s the group that Boyer is most looking out for with this proposition. A proponent of anorexia and bulimia awareness within the French government, Boyer believes that the disclaimer would help bring youngsters back to reality and promote a healthier body image for all. “These photos can lead people to believe in a reality that does not actually exist, and have a detrimental effect on adolescents,” Boyer said in a statement this week. “It’s not just a question of public health, but also a way of protecting the consumer.”  Read more ……

The required warning would be needed in newspaper and magazine advertising, press photos, product packaging, political campaigns and art photography, according to the Telegraph. The language will reportedly be: “Retouched photograph aimed at changing a person’s physical appearance.”

The proposed law comes from French MP Valerie Boyer and is inspired by a recent report she authored on anorexia and bulemia. She points to the deterimental effect that unrealistic body images can have on adolescents: “Many young people, particularly girls, do not know the difference between the virtual and reality, and can develop complexes from a very young age. In some cases this leads to anorexia or bulimia and very serious health problems.”

More than 50 French politicians have voiced support for the law. If passed, advertisers who break it would be subject to a fine of £30,000 (about $48,200 USD), or 50 percent of the campaign cost.

What do you think: should this law pass? Is Photoshopped body imagery a public health issue?

Read more [via Ars Technica]

The software company filed a civil lawsuit last week in King County Superior Court in Seattle against Funmobile, Mobilefunster, and several individuals. Microsoft alleges that they are responsible for the intentional misuse of the service to gain the personal information of its users.

In the suit, Microsoft cites a multitude of attacks, including IMs that appear to be coming from users the victims know. It also describes phishing attacks that mimic the look and feel of an outside service, or an official Microsoft support page.

Microsoft says that the successful use of these tactics has let third parties obtain these users’ personal account information, then exploit it by sending mass spam and phishing messages to the contacts of users whose accounts have been breached.

In a post on the Microsoft on the Issues blog, Tim Cranton, Microsoft’s associate general counsel of Internet safety enforcement, said the company hopes the suit will accomplish three things. One is to stop companies and individuals from continuing the attacks through injunction. Microsoft also intends to “recover monetary damages”, and to send a message to other parties that would try similar tactics, Cranton wrote.

Microsoft counts the number of its Windows Live Messenger users at more than 320 million, although the suit makes no mention of how many of those users have been affected by the privacy attacks. However, it does say that the attacks have put a strain on the servers that run the service, as well as on its security teams, which have to monitor and combat incoming attacks.

As a consequence of the attacks, Microsoft is urging users of its Live Messenger service and other Live services not to give other people their log-in information.

This article was first published as a blog post on CNET News.