Microsoft Has Big Plans For Bing’s Entity Engine

In the early days, search was about helping to find more, but now, he argues, “it’s moved from ‘find more’ to ‘know more.’”

How Dropbox Knows When You’re Sharing Copyrighted Stuff

What was going on? Was Dropbox suddenly doing something sketchy? Were they suddenly lurking around their users folders, digging for copyrighted material hiding amongst personal files?

Facebook’s plans to deliver internet to everyone

"Today, we're sharing some details of the work Facebook's Connectivity Lab is doing to build drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the internet to everyone"

Security Essentials Updated to Show XP EOS Warnings

Microsoft is really keen on killing Windows XP on April 8 and in addition to notifications displayed right on the desktop to tell users that support is coming to an end, the company has also updated Security Essentials to display upgrade warnings.

China blames US for a third of all hacks on its computers

Almost 11 million computers had been compromised by overseas-based servers, mostly from the US

Windows Malware using Powershell

Most significantly, instead of creating or including executable code, CRIGENT uses the Windows PowerShell to carry out its routines. PowerShell is a powerful interactive shell/scripting tool that is available for all current versions of Windows (and is built-in from Windows 7 onwards);

Top of skull replaced with 3D "printed" partial cranium

Due to chronic bone disease the patient required a partial replacement, do not follow the link if you are squeamish.

Office for the iPad Review

As I had expected, Office for iPad fills a useful niche between Office Mobile for smart phone handsets and the more full-featured Office we see in Windows and on the Mac

Microsoft Windows 0-day, Don't open unexpected RTF documents.

The in the wild exploit takes advantage of an unspecified RTF parsing vulnerability combined with an ASLR bypass, which depends by a module loaded at predictable memory address.

How Much Microsoft Charges the FBI for User Data

Long story short, Microsoft charges the FBI (read: taxpayers) hundreds of thousands of dollars a month for access to information about you. And their rates are on the rise.

Megaupload loses bid to see more US evidence

New Zealand's Supreme Court found the U.S. does not have to provide full documents in its extradition bid

Facebook HACK language

a programming language we developed for HHVM that interoperates seamlessly with PHP

WPA2 wireless security cracked

However, it is the de-authentication step in the wireless setup that represents a much more accessible entry point for an intruder with the appropriate hacking tools. As part of their purported security protocols routers using WPA2 must reconnect and re-authenticate devices periodically and share a new key each time.

 

Microsoft in hot water over email search

Microsoft is in hot water over its privacy policy after it emerged that the software firm looked through a French blogger’s Hotmail account to find the source of leaked code for Windows 8.

Netflix blasts Internet providers: 'Consumers deserve better'

they effectively control access to millions of consumers and are willing to sacrifice the interests of their own customers to press Netflix and others to pay

$1 million phone scam 'largest ever'

The impostor claims to be an Internal Revenue Service representative and tells "intended victims they owe taxes and must pay using a pre-paid debit card or wire transfer," an IRS inspector general office said.

Internal Gmail traffic to always use https

Starting today, Gmail will always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send email. Gmail has supported HTTPS since the day it launched, and in 2010 we made HTTPS the default.

Google, Yahoo and others all knew about NSA data collection, claims NSA lawyer

De asserted that the NSA collected "upstream data" from the companies with their "full knowledge and assistance".

Linux worm Darlloz targets Intel architecture to mine digital currency

a new Internet of Things (IoT) worm was discovered last November. Dubbed Linux.Darlloz, the worm targets computers running Intel x86 architectures, as well as devices running the ARM, MIPS and PowerPC architectures, such as routers and set-top boxes.

Firefox and Thunderbird Updates

Mozilla has released critical patches for Firefox and Thunderbird.  All users should update, current versions will auto patch.

Android Wear

Today we’re announcing Android Wear, a project that extends Android to wearables. And we’re starting with the most familiar wearable—watches.

Google sued for data-mining students' email

Google admitted to Education Week that it automatically "scans and indexes" the email of Apps for Education users even though ads are off by default.

Google free public DNS services were briefly corrupted

For some South American users, Google's free public Domain Name System servers were corrupted for less than a half hour.

Hacker crashes Google Play -- twice

New Android apps and updates were blocked from appearing in Google's Play Store on Monday, after a hacker attacked Google's app publishing system.

Amazon's Pod Highway

Robots and organization

3D printers, bioink, and the future

They’ve made a machine with multiple printer heads that each extrudes a different biological building block to make complex tissue and blood vessels.

Google patches $310K worth of Chrome, Chrome OS bugs

Google on Friday patched several vulnerabilities in Chrome and Chrome OS within 48 hours of their disclosures at last week's Pwn2Own and Pwnium hacking contests.

Pwn2own Results

The second and final day of Pwn2Own 2014 saw successful attempts by seven entrants against five products, with $450,000 paid to researchers. This brings the two-day payout total to $850,000, not including charitable donations or the value of the laptops, ZDI points, and other prizes given to winning researchers.

Google Drive Gets A Big Price Drop

Google today significantly dropped the prices for its Google Drive online storage service. The first 15GB of storage remain free, but 100GB now costs just $1.99 per month instead of $4.99.

Precise Eye-Tracking Software

Eye-tracking could be the next big thing when it comes to motion-sensing technology, and it seems that Israeli startup Umoove is on its way to incorporating it in lots of future tech.

Samsung Galaxy backdoor discovered by developer

he and his team discovered the Samsung programme running on the applications processor in charge of handling the communication protocol.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday

A summary of the patches released today from Microsoft.

iOS 7.1 released

The new update provides a variety of security and stability fixes, some speed improvements, and UI tweaks that refine the new design introduced back in December. The update is available for all devices that can run iOS 7: the iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S; the iPad 2, both Retina iPads, both iPad minis, and the iPad Air; and the fifth-generation iPod touch.

Experian Lapse Allowed ID Theft Service Access to 200 Million Consumer Records

Court records just released last week show that Ngo tricked an Experian subsidiary into giving him direct access to personal and financial data on more than 200 million Americans. 

DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 549, 10 March 2014

More on Linux.

Microsoft imagines the whole room as a display

Microsoft has proposed new technology which would allow displaying of web content on multiple flat surfaces and devices such as phones or tablets in a room.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday

Tuesday brings  two critical patches.

Sony, Panasonic develop 300GB optical discs for enterprise storage

Dubbed the Archival Disc, it will have the same dimensions as current Blu-ray discs and will also be readable for at least 50 years.

Hackers allege Mt. Gox CEO still controls 'stolen' Bitcoin

Now embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings, Karpeles and Mt. Gox staff have gone quiet, but this hasn't stopped other parties from trying to get to the bottom of the issue.

"Gameover" malware gets itself a kernel-mode rootkit

Currently, the most widespread Zbot derivative is the Gameover bot, also known as Zeus P2P because of its use of peer-to-peer network connectivity for command and control.

Dendroid makes it easier to create Android malware

A new commercial tool designed to allow cybercriminals to easily transform legitimate Android applications into malicious software has hit the underground market, paving the way for cheap and easy development of sophisticated Android malware.

 

ComiXology suffers security breach, requires password reset

Digital comic book retailer ComiXology is asking all of its customers to reset their passwords, as a precautionary measure following an intrusion.

Getty Images Makes 35 Million Images Free For Non-Commercial Use

Anyone will be able to visit Getty Images' library of content, select an image and copy an embed HTML code to use that image on their own websites

Microsoft is a “2.5-trick pony” according to Steve Ballmer

"You are a genius in the industry if you are a one-trick pony."

 

How to keep your PC secure when Microsoft ends Windows XP support

Nearly 30 percent of Internet-connected PCs still run Windows XP, and no, they won't die that day.

Windows XP will continue receiving security support in China

Among China’s Internet users, about 57 percent rely on Windows XP systems to go online

Apple’s CarPlay

a system for converting your vehicle’s in-car entertainment system into an iOS-powered dashboard fed content and brains by your phone

Meet the seven people who hold the keys to worldwide internet security

What these men and women control is the system at the heart of the web: the domain name system, or DNS. This is the internet's version of a telephone directory – a series of registers linking web addresses to a series of numbers, called IP addresses

Uroburos: Espionage Rootkit Allegedly Created by Russian Intelligence Agency

The threat, which works on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows systems, can execute arbitrary commands, hide system activities, steal files, and capture network traffic. It’s designed in a way that allows its creators to extend its functionality by adding new modules.

Office 2013 Service Pack 1

Microsoft writes that the compatibility pack includes fixes for Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11.