Break

We haven't made a post in a pretty long time now, but our blog will be posting soon again. We're taking a small break from posting since Frollo is on vacation in Turkey and I don't have a stable internet connection. So stay tuned for further updates!

Cheers :-)

Tasty cookies - Internet Exporer

It has discovered that there is a new way for hackers to steal their victims' online credentials - stealing the session cookies from whatever site a victim is visiting. The stolen cookies can then be used to get victims' computers to download malware, forge clicks or send messages.

The attack, "cookiejacking," works on all versions of Internet Explorer across all versions of the Windows operating system, the researcher contends.

And apparently, Microsoft is working on it. Although a spokesman says that "there is no real reason for haste because this is a "moderate flaw" ", so you might want to keep your cookies cleaned if you're using IE.

My advice to people that are using Internet Explorer: Don't use it. There are lots of web browsers that are much faster and a lot more secure. Personally, I use Firefox 4, and I think it's great.

A small list of other available web browsers that I think are worth checking out:
- Chrome
- Firefox
- Opera
- Rockmelt (Requires Facebook though)
- Iron

Finally, I would like to ask you guys:  what kind of web browser you use?

Mac, not so safe!

Does Mac Defender, Mac Security or Mac Protector sound familiar to you? Have you perhaps even installed it to prevent viruses to eat your computer? Well congratulations, you have successfully installed a virus.

Just a few days ago, Apple acknowledged yesterday the problems with Mac Defender and promise to release a security update soon.

Mac Defender tells users that their computer has been infected with a virus and offers to remove it if the user enter their credit card number, and pay for the full version of the program.

The security update will automatically find and remove the program and will also add a function that will warn the users if they try to install any of the "antivirus" programs.

Apple is actually confessing that there is problems with OS X.

Shortly after Apple spoke about the update, a new version of the programs was released. It is now called Mac Guard and does not require the users to type in their password when they are installing it.

Mac Guard is split into two parts, the first part is a downloader which download the second part, Mac Guard.

One way to protect yourself from Mac Guard is to unselect "Run Safe Files" in Safari.

Android Security

Android have been suffering from an unknown security problem, where users who log in to different services on unknown networks could get their personal information stolen by hackers! But Google have now come up with a solution to all this, and is releasing a global update that will, hopefully, eliminate the security problems.

It's in particular three applications that have been triggering these problems; Google Contacts, Google Calendar and the image service called Picasa. This update that Google is supposed to release is calculated to reach all Android users within a week, and it fixes the problems in the apps Google Calendar and Google Contacts. Picasa is still however still risky, because of technical reasons. They are working on the fix for it though.

Note: This update does not require you to do anything, it will be done automatically!

I think this is cool, even though I don't really use Android :)

Dropbox drops the lies.

Dropbox has been found to publish misleading info regarding the security of the files you upload to the service. Dropbox has earlier always stated that the files the users synchronize are strongly encrypted and that not even employees can access the files.

But. The PhD and blogger Christopher Soghoian recently discovered that Dropbox uses a function which control that the files you upload doesn't already exist, and therefore saves lot's and lot's of space.

He then questioned how it could work if Dropbox couldn't access the users failes, he got the answer:

Employees at Dropbox doesn't have any access to the users files. They can only be unlocked with the users mail and password.

Only a few day after Christopher recieved the mail, Dropbox changed the information on their website to:

The ones hired at Dropbox are not allowed to view the information you upload to Dropbox. We have a small staff of employees who must have access to your information because of legal reasons and only happens in very rare cases.

Another week passed and Dropbox edited the information in their User Agreement. It now said:

Under certain circumstances the users information may be shared with a thirdhand part if we feel that are good reasons to do so. It can involve the following situations; a) to maintain laws; b) to protect a person from harm or death; c) to prevent frauds or misuse of Dropboxs services; d) to protect Dropbox property.

Simply said, Dropbox can decrypt your files and share them with a thirdhand party if they feel it fitting. Dropbox doesn't specifie if they only share with the police or if they share with other authorites or corporations.

Christopher has filed a 16 pages long complaint to the American Chamber of Commerce. He want Dropbox to admitt that the users file is not safe like they've said before, and that Dropbox send an email to the 25 million users with an excuse which cleary explains this.

Limewire sued, artist gets nothing.

The file sharing program Limewire has been sued by RIAA for a billion dollar, but only have to pay 105 million dollars in compensation. Of which the pirated artist doesn't receive a dime.

All the money we are receiving will be spent on campaigns for further piratehunting says RIAA's spokesman Jonathan Lamy to Torrentfreak.

RIAA haven't yet made any official statement about how exactly the money will be spent.

See, nothing good comes from anti-piracy, the artists doesn't get any money at all when the companies sue file sharers.

Failbook

Your personal info may have been stolen.

A bug in Facebook's handling of applications has resulted in millions of Facebook users password may be in wrong hands. It's the security company Symantec who has discovered the bug and is warning the users of the security breach.

About 100 000 applications where enabling this leakage at april 2011

Symantec recommend you to change password immediately so no third-hand-partys can use them.

Microsoft wants the money!

After weeks of speculation, Microsoft announced this morning that it bought Skype for a staggering $8.5 billion. While Skype lost $6.9 million last year and is in $686 million of debt according to their SEC filings, Microsoft was reportedly attracted to the company's loyal 663 million user base, $8.8 million of who pay for the service. Skype will be thrown into the Microsoft systems mix which includes Xbox, Kinect, and Outlook. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer headed up the deal, which closed on Monday night.

Better safe than Sony

An american investigation has revealed that Sony knew about the securityflaws -and chose not to fix them.

Apparently security experts discovered several forumtopics which discussed PSN's lacking security.
These forums showed that PSN used Apache Web Server software, which either was patched or had firewalls installed, and the forums was monitored by Sonys employees for two to three months without taking any actions.

The investigators even saw posts on criminal forums which said that the value on information from Sony had sunk because it was too easy to obtain.

Goodbye charging times?

Tired of your cell phone battery dying after a few hours?
It is said  that you soon can charge them in less than 30 seconds.
Researchers have developed new "superbatteries" which is 100 times faster than the ones we have today. 

It's usually one day, then the batteries in todays smartphones are dead. And it's not a long time until the long charging times could be history. Researchers at the University of Illinois have for the first time succeded to create a new kind of electrode in a so called lithium-ion battery, says the swedish newssite Nyteknik.se. And the result is most effective to say the least. By using a tridimensional foam made out of lithium treated manganese oxide, with lower temperatures than normally, the moveability of the electrodes and ions increase. 
 

Are you following? Relax. The reaserchers results pretty much means that you will be able to charge a phone in 30 seconds or charge a laptop in a couple of minutes. If or when the batteries will be commercialized is yet to be seen.

Seems pretty sweet if you ask me. No waiting times :)

Playstation h4ck3d!!! -Again

It's almost two weeks since Sony was hacked and perhaps millions of peoples information was leaked. Now Sony is hacked again.

It wasn't until this weekend that Sony held a press conference and apoligized for the security breach.
Kazuo Hirai said that it is not clear if the users credit card information is endangered but as much as ten million players credit cards may be in danger. He also said that they are rebuilding Playstation 3's securitysystem with more firewalls, better and faster ways to encrypt data and discover hackerattacks.

At monday, we got to know that Sony had been hacked again, this time Sony Online Entertainment was the target. Station.com was shut down and up to 24 million users can be affected.
Sony says that the hackers managed to lay their hands on old databases from 2007 where almost 13 000 users credit card information was stored. These accounts are from Holland, Germany, Austria and Spain, at this moment it's unsure if the main database is affected.

As a bribe, Sony is gifting "special selected content" which can be downloaded for free. Also a free month of Playstation Plus will be awarded.

OSAMA BIN LADEN DEAD

What do you think, is bin Laden really dead, or is this just something that USA wants us to think?

Sony: We're sorry!

Sony announced on Sunday that parts of the PlayStation Network will be back online this week and gamers will receive compensation for not being able to log on, due to the hacking of PSN.

Sony executives also apologized for the breach, and they're conducting a thorough and ongoing investigation into the matter and once the PlayStation Network is restored online, users will have to change their account passwords before being able to log into the service. The update will require users to change their passwords on the PS3 on which the account was activated, or through e-mail validation.

To thank customers for their patience and loyalty, Sony announced they would offer PlayStation Network users 30 days free membership in the PlayStation Plus service, which provides access to exclusive games, beta trials for games and other nice stuff.

Current subscribers to the PlayStation Plus service, don't worry. You will receive an additional 30 days for free. :)

It's Valborg (Walpurgis) today. What are you going to do? Get drunk, fire rockets or just watch a bonefire? :D

Firefox goes Fastfox

Mozilla has begun to work on a new motor for their browser Firefox. The new motor is designed to increase the prestanda and is designed to work with webb applications, also known as webblications, faster then it is today.

The competition between the big browsers today has increased and it's very important to have a lead advantage.

The new motor contains of the new compilator IonMonkey which is designed to take care of JavaScript, and Azure which will handle rendering. Joe Drew on Mozilla works with Azure and says that Firefox already handles rendering in a effective way, but the authors of the browser found that the current renderingmotor Gecko has flaws in the code that decreases the prestanda.

The flaws will be corrected with Azure and is meant to give Mozilla a lead.

IonMonkey will also contain a new interface for developers who wants to review the code.

Both IonMonkey and Azure will be optimized to minimize interference with the memoryhandling.

The changes probably wont come for FX5 but will be released for later versions. Next big update is scheduled to June 21.

Ocarina of Time 3DS

The trailer for the new OoT is here, check it out:





Its announced that the game will release in the United Kingdom on June 17, in the United States on June 19 and in Japan on June 16.

It is also confirmed to contain the Masters Quest mode and a new "Boss Challenge" mode that allows you to fight all of the bosses one at a time!

Sounds pretty sweet.

Cheers.

Playstation h4ck3d!!!

17th to 19th April some Playstation networks and Qriocity services got hacked and user information was stolen.
Information that may have been stolen:

• Name
  
• Profile information
• Adress (City, state and zip)
• Country
• Email
• Birthday
• PSN password and login
• Securityquestion and answer

Sony says on their official blog that you should keep and eye out for hightened risks for frauds due to the breach.
Sony won't contact you in any way, including email, and ask for credit card information and such.

Change password and wait for further updates from Sony.

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Welcome to our blog. Here we will write about funny stuff, internet news and so on.


Have a great day,
Internet'n stuff crew.