Bill Gates Wants Arfa Karim to be Treated in US

10:42 in News

Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, has reportedly approached parents of Arfa Karim, world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP, to offer her treatment in United States at billionaire’s expense.

Arfa Karim became youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at the age of 9 when she cleared certification exams back in 2004.

Arfa Karim at 16 is suffering from a serious medical condition after a heart attack on December 28, 2011.

Amjad Karim Randhawa, the father of ailing Arfa, while speaking with media men, said that Bill Gates has contacted the family over telephone to express his urge to get Arfa Karim treated in US on his expenditures.

However, doctors in CMH Lahore are of the view that Arfa is on ventilator, therefore, it will be hard to shift her into any other hospital, but they were considering different options regarding Arfa’s shifting to US.

In the first step, Gates has directed his doctors to adopt every kind of measure for the treatment of young genius Microsoft professional. Gates’ doctors contacted Arfa’s Pakistani doctors and received details about the illness through internet.

On the other hand relatives and family members of Arfa have lauded Bill Gates for contacting to bear her treatment expanses. They also expressed their dissatisfaction over Pakistan government attitude which despite repeated claims did not pay any head towards the issue.

Via The Nation

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Ireland Will Implement Website Blocking

11:26 in News

Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner has ordered a halt on the “three-strikes” regime because of its conflicts with privacy policies and the failure of the country’s Internet service provider Eircom to properly apply the “graduate response system”.

The issue dates back to 2009, when the Irish Recorded Music Association had reached an agreement with one of the largest ISPs in the country on the issues of unauthorized file-sharing. Under this agreement, the ISP, supervised by the outfit members (EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner), had to introduce the graduated response system.

A year ago, Eircom promised that it would be proceeding with implementation of the protocol which might lead to the suspension and ultimately disconnection of Internet service for those subscribers who deliberately and persistently violate copyright legislation.

Nevertheless, something went wrong when the ISP sent 300 notification letters to the wrong people. This failure wasn’t taken easy by the country’s Data Protection Commissioner that launched an investigation to establish the legality of the “three-strikes” regime. A report was released, saying that the authorities have decided to put a halt to the practice.

The industry experts agree that today both the courts and the official Data Protection Commissioner are starting to understand the fundamental right of users to access the web, and not to be tracked while doing so. Despite the fact that things looked bleak for the entertainment industry, one more report was released recently, revealing that website blocking can be considered as an alternative solution.

According to the local media, Seán Sherlock (Minister of State for Enterprise) is going to publish an order early next year which will allow copyright owners, after obtaining a court order, to deny access to violating services with the help of broadband providers. However, it is still unclear which websites will be classified as infringing.

The decision of the minister was mainly influenced by EMI’s threats to sue Ireland if it fails to find a feasible solution against digital piracy. In response, the Department of Enterprise, Innovation and Jobs said to EMI that the order is expected to be published and applied as law in January 2012.

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Online War With China

11:22 in News

It seems that World War III has been playing out with China taking on everyone. The latest company that had been attacked is iBahn, providing broadband business and entertainment access to Marriott International and other hotel chains, as well as multinational organizations holding meetings on site.

This company was made a target for Chinese intruders who have managed to break into the service in order to try and see all private e-mails, even those that have been encrypted, ranging between executives from Dubai to New York.

Business Week has published an extensive report into Chinese intrusion recording that 760 organizations, research universities, ISPs and government agencies have suffered from the same elite group of Chinese hackers. Organizations have included RIM and Boston Scientific to some of the largest companies, to niche innovators in such areas as semiconductors, aerospace, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Of course, the United States couldn’t be very happy about this.

A chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, who was believed to have quite a tricky job, complained that the Chinese intruders had been nicking everything that wasn’t bolted down, and such behavior was getting exponentially worse. For example, according to the last month’s intelligence report, the Chinese had conducted industrial espionage as an integral part of their economic policy.

While the American cyber warriors track down the foreign governments and foreign military, the Chinese hackers focus on corporates, and the politicians of the United States don't believe it is fair. Anyway, the Land of the Free seems to be a corporate oligarchy pretending to be Republican. The report made by fourteen American intelligence agencies indicated China as the #1 hacking threat to the companies of the United States. The problem is that the United States is not really able to counter attack against Chinese businesses since they simply do not have anything it needs. In case they get too angry, Chinese might simply stop exporting to the United States for a few weeks to cause collapse of its economy.

The situation is not just controversial, it looks like an alarming one already…

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Chinese Hacked American Chamber of Trade

11:19 in News

A number of Chinese intruders has knocked over the American top business-lobbying group, and in result nicked everything in its system, including sensitive data about its 3,000,000 members.

According to the local media reports, the hack of the American Chamber of Commerce was the latest in a round of neo-military style hacker attacks on the United States. It indicates that the Chinese aren’t actually interested in digging for military technology, but rather more interested in the business operations of the United States.

Indeed, there seems to be no point stealing military technology if you virtually own the country. If the Chinese ever decide to war with the United States, all China would have to do is stop shipments of its goods and the country would simply grind to a halt. Discovering the technology of American corporations means that the Chinese are able to give their own companies the edge without wasting any money on research, so if any American companies cause a problem the Chinese can always knock them out of business with their own technology.

Recently the news of the hack has come out – it seems that it apparently was a complex operation that involved 300 online addresses, which was discovered and quietly shut down back in May last year. The Chamber representatives claimed that the intruders had focused on 4 Chamber employees working on Asia policy. The hackers managed to steal 6 weeks of their email, and the Chamber only learned of the intrusion after the FBI told them servers in China were stealing its data! Meanwhile, the experts assume that the group of hackers had access to the network for over a year before the intrusion was uncovered.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy denied that the attack in question was incited by the government. He also claimed that the allegation that the hack originated in China actually lacked proof and evidence and was at least irresponsible, adding that the issue of online intrusion shouldn't have been politicized.

Apparently the US Chamber of Commerce dealt with the hack by unplugging and destroying some of its PCs and overhauling its security system. It was timed for a thirty-six hour period over the only weekend when the attackers, who kept regular working hours, weren’t really expected to be working so wouldn’t be inconvenienced.

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UK Cities Will Get Better Broadband

11:16 in News

They have announced a list of cities eligible to bid for super-fast broadband funding. However, the experts think that the cash might make no difference to a lot of British cities.

After the authorities have announced that the 4 capital cities in the United Kingdom will be awarded part of a £100 million fund created for developing high speed broadband, they revealed a list of cities who’ll scrap it out for broadband cash.

The permit to grab the remaining money and find themselves a part of the super-fast broadband project was given to Birmingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, and Bradford. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is currently taking bids from the towns able to plead the best case for receiving the money, which will involve explanation of how they are going to use the 80-100 Mbps speeds to push growth. Meanwhile, the broadband will be supplied by ISPs BT and Virgin.

As you understand, the competition will mean that some cities will lose out on the cash. However, it still seems to make it easier to allocate the resources more fairly. Industry observers think that there are still doubts about the ability to make a difference to 10 cities taking into account the amount on the table. By limiting the funding to 4 pre-selected capital cities, and adding 6 out of the 10 cities only going to get into the project, the UK will least have an idea of how far the money will have to spread. The authorities pointed out that a lot of cities are already approaching existing targets for 2015, like Cardiff, despite the fact that such steps might have been made prior to any knowledge of further funding.

Mainly, the cities have been working towards improving Internet connection, though it is not clear whether some of their projects were going ahead with the prior knowledge that government funding might be available. However, experts agree that the offered amount is little in comparison to the scale of the task in improving broadband systems, but if the authorities will carefully target the worst served locations, it might make a difference. Nevertheless, the best people can expect is that the project will ensure broadband at speeds well above the 2 Mbps available everywhere.

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Sky ISP Blocked Newzbin Too

11:07 in News

Long time ago the story emerged about the Newzbin portal and the entertainment industry’s attempts to block access to this website. The latest news were that the UK Internet service provider BT was forced by court order to block access to this online service due to the MPA’s decision to file a lawsuit. The MPA did that on behalf of its members, including Warner Bros, Fox, Disney and Paramount Pictures.

After the entertainment industry won the case against the largest UK provider, its goal was for other intermediaries to follow suit. Now it looks like the outfit’s dream may come true – recently, another Internet service provider – Sky Broadband – was court ordered to also block access to Newzbin portal. The ISP representatives admitted that they are working with the rest of the industry over implementing a sustainable framework for tackling piracy. If the ISP is presented with clear and robust evidence of copyright infringement, it promised to take the appropriate action in respect to website filtering, as they have with Newzbin 2 now.

Other UK broadband providers, including Virgin Media and TalkTalk, are considering the industry’s solution in the near future as well. For example, TalkTalk admitted that the company has received a letter from the anti-piracy outfit, asking whether it would legally object to an order to block access to the news portal. Currently TalkTalk is considering its position, as there are a number of objectionable elements to the proposed injunction. The ISP claimed it would only block access to a service if ordered to do so by a court. Meanwhile, Virgin Media said that as a responsible provider, it would comply with any court order. However, the company strongly believes that such deterrents should be accompanied by compelling legal alternatives like its agreement with Spotify, providing consumers with access to entertainment content at the adequate price.

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Stuxnet Wasn’t the Only Malware of Its Kind

11:01 in News

According to the Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab, the Stuxnet virus, known worldwide for damaging Iran's nuclear program, was most likely one of at least 5 cyber weapons based on the same platform.

Kaspersky experts have tracked the development of the malware back to 2007. As you may remember, Stuxnet has already been linked to another malware called Duqu. However, the research conducted by Kaspersky Lab suggests that the cyber weapons software which has targeted Iran might be much more sophisticated. According to Kaspersky's director of global research, Costin Raiu, the platform used to build both Stuxnet and Duqu was also used to design at least 3 other pieces of malware. This platform was made up of software modules developed in such a way that they were locked together, each with different functions. In other words, developers are able to create new cyber weapons by easily adding and removing modules.

Kaspersky explained that the platform used to create Stuxnet is similar to Lego. They called it "Tilded", because most of the files in both Duqu and Stuxnet had names starting with the tilde symbol "~" and the letter "d". Thus far, Kaspersky Lab hasn’t discovered any new types of malware built on this platform, but it is fairly clear that they do exist somewhere. Shared parts of the malware look to link up with their relatives. The search they perform uses at least 3 other unique registry keys, which means that the developers of both Stuxnet and Duqu also created at least 3 other pieces of malware based on the same platform. Kaspersky experts think that Tilded platform traces back to at least 2007, as a part of its code was compiled in the end of the summer 2007.

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Who Was the First Hacker?

10:53 in News

New Scientist has recently revealed the name of the world's first hacker, who managed to discover a security hole in Marconi's wireless telegraph and managed to show the inventor up.

It turned out that a stage magician named Nevil Maskelyn wrecked a public demo of Marconi's wireless telegraph over a century ago, in 1903, – he sent insults in Morse code down the wire. The crowd was really amused when the physicist John Ambrose Fleming has been adjusting arcane apparatus while preparing to show the long-range wireless communication system created by his boss, the Italian radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, who was several hundreds miles away trying to send the message.

However, before the show could start, the apparatus in the lecture theater started to tap out a message – it appeared to be a poem accusing Marconi of "diddling the public". Fleming's assistant found out that beaming powerful wireless pulses into the theater were strong enough to be able to interfere with the electric arc discharge lamp of the projector. The apparatus began spelling "Rats" repeatedly and after this ripped into the poem.

That’s how Maskelyn proved that Marconi's item was insecure, and the others could easily eavesdrop on private messages as well. Meanwhile, Fleming fired off a missive to the Times, calling the hack “scientific hooliganism” and asking the readers to help him find the hacker. Nevertheless, Maskelyn, whose family earned money by making "spend-a-penny" locks in pay toilets, outed himself 4 days later. He tried to justify his actions by the security holes it discovered for the public good. He used Morse code in his mind-reading tricks and managed to send wireless messages between a ground station and a balloon located 10 miles away. Nevertherless, Maskelyn was stuffed up by the fact that Marconi had patents on his technology but failed to develop it.

It later appeared that he was hired as a spy for the Eastern Telegraph Company that was worried that Marconi could stuff up its business.

The first hacker built a 50-metre radio mast somewhere on the cliffs in order to find out if he could eavesdrop on messages beamed by Marconi Company to vessels. As a result, Maskelyn pointed out that Marconi’s security was a doddle to hack. Although Maskelyne's name had been forgotten, he is now again in the history books as the world's first hacker.

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GoDaddy Stopped Supporting SOPA

10:49 in News

An online boycott that started last week on reddit proved successfull and spred across the Internet. Thanks to it, domain registrar GoDaddy had taken a decision to drop its support for SOPA, according to media reports.

The press announced that GoDaddy was no longer supporting SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), which is currently working its way through the American Congress. Since addressing digital piracy is the most important issue, GoDaddy has been working to help craft revisions to the proposed law, but decided that it can clearly do better. The newly appointed CEO of GoDaddy claimed that it’s very important to make all online stakeholders working together on this. If they get it right, it would worth the wait. The service will support it when and if the online community supports it, according to the announcement the company made in press.

After the boycott took life last Thursday, GoDaddy’s competitors had begun providing special deals with promo codes, such as “SopaSuck”, in order to lure GoDaddy switchers. That’s when GoDaddy claimed that the servie has received some emails looking to stem from the boycott prompt, but they hadn’t seen any impact to the business. But considering the fact that the customers of the service weren’t pleased much with such response, the impact on the service’s business appeared to be considerable.

According to the company’s claims during the negotiations over the proposed legislation, GoDaddy tried to express the concerns of the entire online community and to improve the legislation by pushing to make the law’s provisions not so aggressive. Nevertheless, the company reconsidered the entire situation and announced that in changing its position, the service remains steadfast in its promise to support security and stability of the web.

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American Police Refused to Hand Over Hackers to France

10:43 in News

The US cyclist Floyd Landis had a go at cracking the PCs of the anti-doping lab that found him cheating during Tour de France 6 years ago. He was charged by the court in Paris, which heard how he and his former coach refused to show up in court. In addition, they both were helped by the government of the United States that refused to co-operate against the US hackers.

It turned out that Landis was similar to a UK hacker looking for UFOs or an Australian who published secret tapes of the US helicopter pilots who laughed as they gun down Reuters journalists. Anyway, the authorities seem to be reluctant to hand over American sporting heroes when they do the same sort of thing.

In fact, the French did have enough evidence to convict both Landis and Baker after a Trojan horse spy program was used 6 years ago to poke into the lab's servers to extract data about Landis' file, several months after he tested positive. After this, Landis admitted that he took drugs in his career. Meanwhile, the police explained that they couldn’t turn up who exactly ordered the hacking, thanks to the American authorities sitting on their hands. The data received during the hack was later used in an unsuccessful appeal to sports authorities. It was supposed to prove that Landis was clean and that the lab work was actually faulty. The court decided that Landis' role was limited to the knowledge that he had about the fraudulent origin of the laboratory data used by him and his defense team.The court also ruled that Landis knew that these lab results were really accurate, because he would admit 4 years later that he had taken drugs since 2002.

While Landis didn’t comment the trial, Baker insisted that the charges weren’t true. He said that he had nothing to do with any hacking and as far as he knew, the lab papers he received while serving as an expert consultant to the legal team were received in a legal way. He believes that everything is part of a plot to protect the laboratory, which appears to be a national French institution. As a result, they were both given a year's suspended sentences, which means that there’s probably nothing to worry about unless they ever commit another crime in this country again.

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