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May |
Newsletter |
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Issue
66 |
Included in this months issue:
35m Google Profiles dumped into private database
Vodafone lets customers use their mobiles to pay taxi fares
35m Google Profiles dumped into private database
Proving that information posted online is indelible and trivial to mine, an academic researcher has dumped names, email addresses and biographical information made available in 35 million Google Profiles into a massive database that took just one month to assemble.
University of Amsterdam Ph.D. student Matthijs R. Koot said he compiled the database as an experiment to see how easy it would be for private detectives, spear phishers and others to mine the vast amount of personal information stored in Google Profiles. The verdict: It wasn't hard at all. Unlike Facebook policies that strictly forbid the practice, the permissions file for the Google Profiles URL makes no prohibitions against indexing the list.
By Dan Goodin
Fake Chinese hard drive has a flash drive inside
128MB flash card pretends its 500GB
A Russian hard drive repair shop near the Russian-Chinese border encountered an astounding fake external hard drive fitted with a measly 128MB solid state flash drive.
The 500GB fake Samsung drive was bought by a customer in China at a suspiciously low price and at first appeared to work but the customer reportedly found the drive would just play the last five minutes of a film according to Jitbit Blog.
By Mat Bettinson
Amazon Cloud Player on iOS becomes a lot more usable
Amazon beat Apple to the punch when it released its digital content locker and player, Cloud Drive and Cloud Player. Cloud Drive lets users store media to stream to a device, which, until recently, was only available for Flash-capable browsers and Android devices. However, now Amazon’s Cloud Player is available on iOS devices, despite there being no announcement from Amazon.
Apple is rumored to be working on its own cloud service, supposedly called iCloud, and the delay is said to be from Apple’s attempts to get licenses from music and movie companies to be able to stream the content on Apple’s service. Amazon, on the other hand, just went for it without getting licenses from each publishing company. iOS owners were Cloud Player-less for over a month, but it appears that iPad and iPhone owners can now use the service… kind of.
By Jennifer Bergen
The Queen Wants an iPad 2
Her Royal Highness has apparently been so impressed by the Apple iPad 2 after a hands on demonstration by her grandsons, that she has asked her staff to get one for her, a device which will come handy on long trips abroad.
According to The Sun, the 85-year-old monarch was offered a crash course by Harry and William when they brought their iPad 2 to Buckingham palace.
The Sun quotes an insider saying that the Queen was particularly impressed by the ease of use of the device and that she is no stranger to Apple products.
She already has two iPods, one which was purchased six years ago and one which was given to her by President Obama two years ago when she visited the United States.
by Desire AthowWindows 8 to arrive next year and will understand your voice
Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer confirmed that the next version of the firm's desktop operating system Windows 8 will appear some time in 2012.
Speaking at a developers conference in Japan, Ballmer said the market can "expect to hear a lot" about Windows 8 this year and that the this would include a variety of form factors including PCs and tablets.
New interface options continued to be a theme following on from recent videos product by Microsoft's research team and widely expected to relate to Windows 8. Ballmer said 'natural language' would be a 'big area of innovation.'
By Mat Bettinson
Cloud computing after Amazon & Sony: ready for primetime?
Cloud computing is more secure than on-premise solutions, say its fans
Cloud computing may be the hottest thing in corporate computing right now, but two IT disasters - at Amazon and Sony - beg the question: Is cloud computing ready for primetime business?
It's a nightmare moment. You are under pressure - to meet customer orders, finish a project, execute a deal - and nothing. Your computers, servers or network are down. If you are lucky, a few nail biting hours and a reboot or three later, you and your IT team have restored services.
By Tim Weber
Vodafone lets customers use their mobiles to pay taxi fares
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Vodafone is equipping more than 500 black cabs with chargers for a range of mobiles, including iPhones and Blackberrys. Photograph Helmut Meyer zur Capellen/Corbis
You can navigate with it and do your shopping with it. But now you can add paying for a cab to the things you can do with your phone. Vodafone is introducing a scheme that allows customers of London black cabs who find themselves short of cash for the ride home to send a text with the vehicle's licence number to a central code and the amount owed is charged to their phone account.
Vodafone is also equipping more than 500 branded cabs with chargers for a range of mobiles, including smartphones such as iPhones and BlackBerrys.
Taken from The Guardian
TalkTalk launches network-level security protection
Internet service provider TalkTalk has launched a network-level security service for its home broadband customers.
The service, called HomeSafe, uses a blocklist system to alert TalkTalk customers if they are connecting to a web page infected with malware. It also provides parental control tools to stop minors from accessing inappropriate content.
HomeSafe works by scanning the network's traffic and assigning websites to a whitelist or blacklist. The lists are recorded in temporary memory and are permanently deleted every 24 hours.
By Ben Woods
Exploited Hotmail bug stole email without warning - attacks targeted email contents and contacts
Microsoft has patched a bug in its Hotmail email service that attackers were exploiting to silently steal confidential correspondences and user contacts from unsuspecting victims.
The vulnerability was actively being exploited using emails that contained malicious scripts, Trend Micro researcher Karl Dominguez said Monday. Successful attacks required only that a Hotmail user open the malicious email or view it in a preview window. The commands embedded in the emails uploaded users' correspondences and user contacts to servers under the control of attackers without requiring the victim to click on links or otherwise take any action.
By Dan Goodin
HP: ‘Touchpad will be better than number one’ tablet
HP talks up forthcoming Touchpad tablet ahead of European launch later in the year and announces first app partners
HP will emulate its PC market success in the tablet world when it launches the Touchpad over the summer, the company’s European head Eric Cador has claimed.
Speaking at a press conference in Cannes, Mr Cador said that “In the PC world, with fewer ways of differentiating HP’s products from our competitors, we became number one; in the tablet world we’re going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus.” Apple’s iPad is currently the best-selling tablet around the world.
By Matt Warman
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