Tech News

On December 31st, 2006, the HD that hosts the bot crashed. The bot will be down until I can raise enough money to cover the cost of taking the drive to a data recovery center. The cost is going to be $200, once I can raise half ($100), I will cover the rest. Send a donation via PayPal to aefe@adelphia.net or contact ahmedc123 on AIM to donate and get the project running again. If I cannot get enough donations, I\'m afraid that this will be the end of MD5 Library. - Jake

Computer security analysts are studying reports of a worm that may be circulating via a feature in Skype\'s popular Voice over IP service. Security vendor Websense said the worm spreads through Skype\'s chat feature. Users receive a message asking them to download a file called \"sp.exe.\" The executable is a Trojan horse that can steal passwords. If a user runs the Trojan it triggers another set of code to spread itself. The first infected PCs appeared in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in Korea, Websense reported on its blog today. It said it was still investigating the issue. The rest of the article can be found here -ZTB

Mozilla is calling on developers to help it ensure that the next version of the open source web browser is solid. And it has released an alpha version of Firefox 3 for developers to play with. The superstructure of Firefox 3 alpha is built around Gecko 1.9, an updated layout engine. The browser, tentatively scheduled for delivery in May 2007, is also due to include features held back from Firefox 2, such as the revamped Places system for storing bookmarks and a re-jigged history function. Read more about it here. -BluMoose

Computer hackers will open a new front in the multi-billion pound \"cyberwar\" in 2007, targeting mobile phones, instant messaging and community websites such as MySpace, security experts predict. As people grow wise to email scams, criminal gangs will exploit new ways to commit online fraud, sell fake goods or steal corporate secrets. \"The attacks are becoming more sophisticated,\" said Dave Rand, of Internet security firm Trend Micro. \"It\'s all about making money. And they\'re making a lot of it,\" he told Reuters. In 2007, hackers will be scouring social networking sites such as MySpace to gather information for more targeted attacks on people\'s computers. \"It is definitely an area that is ripe for more exploitation by malware (malicious software),\" said Ed English, Trend Micro\'s Chief Technology Officer for anti-spyware. People could find their computers infected with viruses that secretly record all their keystrokes or send out millions of spam email messages. CLICK READ MORE Source here. Posted by tancurrom

The US government has given its blessing to a controversial deal over the future of the lucrative .com net domain. The deal gives .com administrator Verisign control over the domain until 2012. The US Department of Commerce retains some oversight of Verisign and has final approval of any price rises to renew .com net addresses. Critics said the deal gave Verisign a monopoly hold on the iconic domain. The .com domain is by far the most popular of the net\'s addresses and currently there are 59 million domains registered which use the suffix. Verisign maintains the address books of who owns which .com domain and runs the computers that direct web users\' computers to the right place. Source here Posted by tancurrom

Victor Faur, a 26-year-old Romanian national, has been indicted by the United States on charges that he led a group of hackers dubbed “WhiteHat Team” to illegally break into upwards of 150 government computers from agencies including NASA, the Department of Energy and the Navy, the Associated Press reports via MSNBC.com. Faur, of Arad, Romania, will be charged with nine counts of computer intrusion and a single count of conspiracy, and he could be sentenced to as many as 54 years in prison if found guilty of all charges, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said, the AP reports. Posted by tancurrom