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Brad Pitt tops list of Internet malware lures

Movie star Brad Pitt has shovedParis Hilton off the top of a list neither wanted to be on. A fan entering Pitt's name in a search engine now has a startling one in five chance of finding a malware-hosting site instead, says security products companyMcAfee Inc.

Pitt is on top of the fake Web site malware league, just ahead of a collection of pop and film stars that reads (in descending order) Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Heidi Montag, Mariah Carey, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Cameron Diaz, George Clooney and Angelina Jolie.

Hilton no longer even makes the fake Web site top 10, but can perhaps take some solace from her continued popularity with spammers.

If you've never heard of some of these people, then it's a fair bet that you are not the intended target of a technique that for some years has been one of the most common ways to infect a PC. But still it persists, driven by an apparently insatiable appetite among some Internet users for computer screensavers, wallpaper and ringtones that feature their favorite stars, at whatever risk to themselves.

"Cybercriminals employ numerous methods, yet one of the simplest but most effective ways is to trick consumers into infecting themselves by capitalizing on Americans' interest in celebrity gossip," said McAfee spokesman Jeff Green. "Tapping into current events, pop culture or commonly browsed sites is an easy way to achieve this."

Reading the latest statistics, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that malware writers think that the celebrity-obsessed are as recklessly naive as they are star-struck. Most malware-infection techniques have shown some evolution over the past two years, but the fake Web site ploy just goes on and on.

In fact, a deeper problem is the way users interact with search engines, as was pointed out by McAfee itself only a year ago. McAfee's motives for publicizing the issue may not be entirely neutral; at least one search engine,Yahoo, recently began using McAfee's SiteAdvisor tool to filter the Web sites it returns in search boxes.

And for those users who visit only Web sites they know are legitimate, there is also bad news. The biggest hack trend of the last year has been compromising perfectly legitimate Web sites to serve malware -- witness this week's large attack on the Web site of BusinessWeek magazine.

For Internet users, there is no easy escape, only the awareness of the growing number of pitfalls.

source: John E. Dunn

Google rolls out audio search for YouTube videos

 Google Inc. has launched a test ofan audio search indexing system that's designed to allow users to find words that are spoken in videos and jump to the portion of the video where the words are used.

The Google Audio Indexing (GAUDI) tool, developed by the company's Google Labs project, uses the same internally developed underlying speech technology as the Elections Video Search Gadget that the company rolled in July. The GAUDI tool will initially be available only forYouTube election videos, though Google said it plans to eventually offer it for use with other videos.

"As more and more video content is being created every day, Google Audio Indexing tries to make it easier for people to find and consume spoken content from videos on the Web,"Google noted in an online FAQ. "We see it as an experimental platform where we can learn what features make the best user experience for people looking for spoken content on the Web."

GAUDI works like this: A user types a query into a search box, and then he can refine search results using channel filters, which correspond to one or more YouTube channels. For example, a user could choose videos from the John McCain channel, the Barack Obamachannel or from all YouTube political channels.

The search results include a thumbnail of the video, its title, the time since it was published, the duration and the number of times the query terms are spoken in the video, Google said. Users can click on a result to display the video itself. Mentions of the query terms are shown as yellow markers on the YouTube player timeline. Users can mouse over a yellow marker to read the transcript of the words. Clicking on the marker will play the audio.

The technology also lets users query inside a video and share results with other people. Users can send a URL to friends, who can click on it and be redirected to the same page, the same query and the same video from the original search, according to Google.

GAUDI uses speech technology to transform spoken words into text, and then indexes the text using Google's search technology. Google crawls YouTube political channels for new content, and as new videos are uploaded, they are processed and made available to GAUDI for indexing.

Ionut Alex Chin, a blogger at Google Operating System, noted that theGAUDI interface is attractive because it allows users to find all of the mentions of their keywords and jump directly to the appropriate sequence in the video.

However, he also noted that the service does have hiccups. For example, "in the video 'Obama on the 40th Anniversary of the Prague Spring,' the word Czechoslovakia is incorrectly detected as tech also but there," Chin wrote. Moreover, "free is replaced by forty, and there are many other mistakes," he added.

source:  Heather Havenstein

Android Winners

Late last year, Google Inc. announced that it would give $10 million in prizes to software development companies with plans for the most innovative and useful applications for its open-source mobile Android platform.

Roughly nine months later, Google has announced the winners. The applications it has selected help users do everything from calling the nearest taxicab or comparing sale prices at different stores to calculating their carbon footprints. Here are the winners:

Cab4me

Using Android's Google Maps application, cab4me lets a user call a cab to her location with a single click. By using GPS capabilities to locate not only the user's current location, but also the location of the nearest cab company, the application can initiate a call to the cab company with a mere click on the map. The application was developed by Konrad Huebner and Henning Boerger.

Locale

Ever get embarrassed at a company meeting when your cell phone unexpectedly goes off? With Locale, you can make sure your device knows to switch to vibrate mode the minute you step into your office. With Android's GPS capabilities, Locale adjusts your phone's settings to wherever you are. Thus, your phone will forward calls to different numbers based on whether you're at work or home, or it will send out a status message on Twitter letting people know where you're located. This application was developed by Carter Jernigan, Clare Bayley, Jasper Lin and Christina Wright, with additional contributions from Jennifer Shu.

PicSay

Essentially a drop-and-drag picture editor for your mobile phone, PicSay lets users spruce up their pictures with color correction, highlighting, word bubbles and distortion effects. It also can be used to create event invitations or holiday greeting cards that can be sent out to friends, family and associates. This application was developed by Eric Wijngaard.

Softrace

This application actually lets you set up real, live races with your friends and track their progress in real time while the race is going on. Whether the racers are on foot, bicycles or skis, Softrace uses Google Maps' location application programming interface to track each user's progress, and it can store statistics of the race on Android's SQLite database. This application was developed by Staffan Kjellberg and Thomas Kjellberg.

TuneWiki

An open-source music-based social network, TuneWiki lets users share what they're listening to with one another. They can also use Google Maps to find what users around the world are listening to. TuneWiki also plays audio and video for songs while scrolling synchronized lyrics as they play. The application creates a virtual library of songs that connects to the Internet and suggests similar-sounding songs or artists. This application was developed by TuneWiki, with additional help from Rani Cohen, Chad Kouse, Zach Jobbs, Jared Fleener and Amnon Sarig.

Wertago

Billing itself as "the mobile application nightlifers have been waiting for," Wertago is a social networking application that lets users coordinate social events with their friends, rate current hot spots and create personalized social networking profiles for users to share their favorite locations. Like many other Android applications, Wertago uses Google Maps' API to map out clubs, restaurants and theaters. This application was developed by Kelvin Cheung, Teresa Ko, Peter Ree, Robert Sarvis and Douglas Yeung.

Life360

This is a neighborhood-centric social networking application that keeps users up to date with their families and local communities. Life360 users can send or receive neighborhood emergency alerts. Whether you're holding a backyard barbecue or looking for help to find a lost pet, Life360 gives you quick access to your neighbors and your family. This application was developed by Chris Hulls Dilpreet Singh, Luis Carvalho, Phuong Nguyen and Steve Potell.

GoCart

The goal of GoCart is to help shoppers gather as much information as they need to make smart, informed decisions. Using GPS and Android's built-in camera to scan bar codes, the application will search both the Web and local stores to compare prices of any product. The application also lets users read other users' reviews of products and can set up price alerts whenever prices go down. This application was designed by Rylan Barnes, with contributions from Noah Labhart and ZXing Developers.

Ecorio

An application destined to warm Al Gore's heart, Ecorio uses Android's GPS capabilities to track a user's carbon footprint while driving. It also gives suggestions for carpooling and public transportation, and it lets users invest in carbon-reduction projects and purchase carbon credits over their phones. This application was developed by Jeff Kao, Gary Pong, Robert Lam and Taneem Talukdar, with additional contributions from Jason Wong

Compare Everywhere

This application is very similar to GoCart because it uses Android's built-in camera to scan bar codes and compare prices for products at different retail outlets. It also lets customers rate products and create shopping lists like those on Amazon.com. This application was created by Jeffrey Sharkey.

source: Brad Reed

Google concedes it misclassified an old story as breaking news

 Google Inc. is to blame for publishing a 6-year-old news story that caused the stock of UAL, the parent company of United Air Lines Inc., to drop sharply on Monday,Tribune Co. said in a statement.

The problem started when Googlebot, the software program that Google News uses to index news sites, mistook one of the most popular stories on the Web site of the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for breaking news. The story, "United Airlines Files for Bankruptcy," was then posted on Google News as a new story, even though the original news story was published on Dec. 10, 2002.

"Google provided a link to the old story on Google News and dated it September 6, 2008. Google's dating the story on Google News made it appear current to Google News users," Tribune said in a statement.

The appearance of the bankruptcy story on Google News was blamed for a steep drop in UAL's stock price, leading the airline to issue a clarification.

"Reports that the company filed for bankruptcy are completely untrue and were caused by the irresponsible posting of a six-year-old Chicago Tribune article by the Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper Web site with the date changed," the airline said, noting it exited bankruptcy in 2006.

But Tribune, which publishes several major U.S. papers, including theChicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, said Google was responsible.

"On September 7, at 1:36:03 ET ... a user of the Sun-Sentinel's Web site, viewing a story about airline policies regarding cancelled flights, clicked on the link to the old story under the 'Popular Stories Business: Most Viewed' tab. Fifty-two seconds later, at 1:36:57 ET ... Googlebot visited the Sun-Sentinel's Web site again and crawled the story," Tribune said.

"This time, despite the fact that the URL to the old story hadn't changed, despite the fact that Googlebot had seen this story previously, it was apparently treated as though it was breaking news," it said.

Tribune said it had asked Google "months ago" to stop using Googlebot to crawl its Web sites after it identified problems with the program. But Google denied such a request was ever made.

"The claim that the Tribune Co. asked Google to stop crawling its newspaper Web sites is untrue," it said.

However, Google did not dispute that Googlebot misclassified an old story as breaking news. In a lengthy blog post, the search company said the story was indexed by Googlebot and appeared on Google News because it appeared in a list of popular business stories on the site, not because it was listed as breaking news.

The Numbers

911

Look at this:  It's very strange....

The date of the attack:   9/11 -  9 + 1 + 1 = 11
September 11th is the  254th day of the year:   2 + 5 + 4 = 11
After September 11th there are 111  days left to the end of the year.
119  is the area code to Iraq/Iran.  1 + 1 + 9 = 11
Twin Towers - standing side by side, looks like the number 11
The first plane to hit the towers was  Flight 11

But ....There's  More.......

State of New York - The 11 State added to the Union New York City - 11
Letters
Afghanistan  - 11 Letters
The Pentagon - 11 Letters
Ramzi Yousef - 11 Letters (convicted of orchestrating the attack on the
WTC in 1993)
Flight 11 - 92 on board - 9 + 2 = 11
Flight 77 - 65 on board - 6 + 5 = 11

P-to-P network administrator sentenced to 18 months in prison

WASHINGTON -- An administrator of a peer-to-peer network focused on distributing movies has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Daniel Dove, 26, formerly of Clintwood, Va., was an administrator for EliteTorrents.org, a site focused on releasing pirated movies, the DOJ said. Judge James Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia fined Dove $20,000 in addition to the prison sentence, the DOJ said Tuesday.

A jury found Dove guilty of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement on June 26.

Before it closed in May 2005, EliteTorrents.org offered movies to other P-to-P users, often before the movies were in general release at theaters, the DOJ said.

Dove was an administrator of a small group of EliteTorrents members known as "uploaders," who were responsible for supplying pirated content to the group, the DOJ said. Dove recruited members who had high-speed Internet connections to become uploaders, and he operated a high-speed server, which he used to distribute pirated content, the DOJ said.

Dove's conviction is the eighth resulting from Operation D-Elite, a federal crackdown against the illegal distribution of movies, software, games and music over P-to-P networks using BitTorrentfile-sharing technology. Operation D-Elite focused on the EliteTorrents P-to-P network, which at one point had more than 125,000 members and shared 700 movies. The network also offered pirated software, video games and music to its members, the DOJ said.

source: Grant Gross

One of my projects

This the one of the projects I have been maintaining for a while now. it will turn 10 years early next year and basically is the biggest Burmese/Myanmar community online..

Click to join Myanmar Burmese Group

Nokia admits security flaws in Series 40 OS

Widely used operating system could allow activation of stealth applications

August 21, 2008 (IDG News Service) Nokia Corp. confirmed today that its widely used Series 40 operating system has security vulnerabilities that could allow stealth installation and activation of applications.

But the company was evasive on whether it paid nearly $30,000 to researcher Adam Gowdiak of Security Explorations, who wanted payment for effort spent finding the flaws.

"For obvious reasons of security, we will not comment further on the detail of our activities with Security Explorations," wrote Nokia spokeswoman Kaisa Hirvensalo, in an e-mail.

Gowdiak, a researcher in Poland, said earlier this month he had found problems with Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), an application framework for mobile devices, as well as the Series 40 OS. Nokia claims Series 40 is the mostly widely used mobile device platform.

Gowdiak has done research on the Java Virtual Machine and wrote on his Web site that he worked at one time for its developer, Sun Microsystems Inc.

Vendors typically steer clear of paying researchers for vulnerability information and alternatively encourage what they term is "responsible disclosure," or a discrete notification before vulnerability information is made public. Otherwise, users of a particular software are at risk while a vendor tries to develop a patch.

Nokia said some of its Series 40 products are vulnerable to an attack that could result in the secret installation of applications. The company said it has also found earlier versions of J2ME could allow privilege escalation or access to phone functions that should be restricted.

"Our testing has been concentrating on products that might have both of the claims present," according to a Nokia statement.

Nokia said it isn't aware of attacks against Series 40 devices, and the problems do not represent a "significant risk."

While details on the vulnerabilities are limited, Gowdiak has said an attack could be mounted by sending maliciously crafted messages to a particular phone number.

Gowdiak could not be immediately reached for comment.

IDG.net
Story copyright 2008 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Tropic Thunder cracks into No 1 spot after 4 straight weeks by The Dark Knight

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The action comedy "Tropic Thunder" grabbed the top spot at the box office with $25.8 million, knocking the Batman tale "The Dark Knight" into second-place after four weekends on top.

With a $16.4 million weekend, "The Dark Knight" raised its domestic total to $471.1 million to pass "Star Wars" as No. 2 on the all-time charts behind "Titanic" at $600.8 million.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Media By Numbers LLC are:

1. "Tropic Thunder," Paramount, $25,812,796, 3,319 locations, $7,777 average, $36,845,588, one week.

2. "The Dark Knight," Warner Bros., $16,379,293, 3,590 locations, $4,562 average, $471,082,150, five weeks.

3. "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," Warner Bros., $14,611,273, 3,452 locations, $4,233 average, $14,611,273, one week.

4. "Mirrors," Fox, $11,161,074, 2,664 locations, $4,190 average, $11,161,074, one week.

5. "Pineapple Express," Sony, $9,808,295, 3,072 locations, $3,193 average, $62,740,789, two weeks.

6. "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," Universal, $8,205,720, 3,363 locations, $2,440 average, $86,245,775, three weeks.

7. "Mamma Mia!", Universal, $6,096,250, 2,771 locations, $2,200 average, $116,013,715, five weeks.

8. "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," Warner Bros., $5,785,250, 2,714 locations, $2,132 average, $32,002,712, two weeks.

9. "Step Brothers," Sony, $4,807,904, 2,648 locations, $1,816 average, $90,695,938, four weeks.

10. "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," MGM, $3,755,575, 692 locations, $5,427 average, $3,755,575, one week.

11. "Journey to the Center of the Earth," Warner Bros., $3,348,341, 1,405 locations, $2,383 average, $88,002,999, six weeks.

12. "Fly Me to the Moon," Summit, $1,900,523, 452 locations, $4,205 average, $1,900,523, one week.

13. "WALL-E," Disney, $1,836,332, 1,403 locations, $1,309 average, $214,129,943, eight weeks.

14. "Hancock," Sony, $1,720,241, 1,277 locations, $1,347 average, $225,022,587, seven weeks.

15. "Swing Vote," Disney, $1,137,385, 1,281 locations, $888 average, $14,687,549, three weeks.

16. "Henry Poole Is Here," Overture Films, $805,219, 527 locations, $1,528 average, $805,219, one week.

17. "Space Chimps," Fox, $775,152, 768 locations, $1,009 average, $27,568,802, five weeks.

18. "Brideshead Revisited," Miramax, $740,030, 501 locations, $1,477 average, $4,650,150, four weeks.

19. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," Universal, $541,150, 481 locations, $1,125 average, $74,616,780, six weeks.

20. "Bottle Shock," Freestyle Releasing, $392,440, 117 locations, $3,354 average, $837,155, two weeks.