If annoying users and wasting their time wasn't bad enough, spam emails are also responsible for clogging our atmosphere with carbon dioxide, a gas that shoulders much of the blame for global warming, according to a report commissioned by antivirus vendor McAfee.
"When you look at it from an individual user perspective you're only talking about 0.3 grams of carbon dioxide per spam message," said Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications at McAfee’s Avert Labs. "When you extrapolate the math out to the larger numbers, it definitely is significant."
The McAfee report, which was written by consulting company ICF International, said the estimated 62 trillion spam emails that get sent each year consume 33 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power 2.4 million homes. In addition, spam email releases as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 3.1 million cars consuming 2 billion gallons of gasoline.
Spam has long been a target of antivirus vendors but McAfee wanted to reframe discussions of the problem in environmental terms, rather than the annoyance that spam causes users or its links to malware and cybercrime.
"This really gives people a different way of looking at it. Aside from the nuisance factor, it actually has a quantifiable impact on the environment," he said.
More Here: PC World India
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Windows XP Support Ends Today
| Microsoft will drop Windows XP out of mainstream support today, with the ageing OS moving into extended support as previously announced. Microsoft's mainstream support, which is usually offered for only five years, actually ran for seven-and-a-half years because of Windows Vista's long delay. Two years ago, Microsoft also extended mainstream support for XP Home and XP Media Center until 2009, and the deadline for the follow-up phase, dubbed 'extended support', until 2014, to match the dates that had been set earlier for the business-grade XP Professional. According to Microsoft, the transition from mainstream to extended support for Windows XP means that it will only provide paid support - on a per-incident basis, or through its various pre-paid support programmes - and will only offer non-security hotfixes for a fee, and then only to customers who have purchased the Extended Hotfix Support plan. Microsoft will continue to generate free security updates for Windows XP, and release them via Windows Update, until April 8, 2014. Windows XP's shift into the first phase of support retirement comes at a time when the operating system remains extraordinarily popular, especially among business users. According to a recent survey by Dimensional Research, 97 percent of the more than 1,100 IT professionals surveyed said that their companies and organisations are still running XP. The move out of mainstream and into extended support also comes just days after a leaked Microsoft memorandum spelled out a relaxation of the rules for computer makers that want to continue selling new PCs with the aged OS. OEMs will be allowed to advertise new systems as XP PCs, something that hasn't been allowed since June 2008, and can 'downgrade' a licence for Windows 7 - the operating system that hasn't yet been released - to XP for at least six months after the former's launch. A Microsoft spokeswoman said that support for XP on a new machine is provided by the computer maker, not Microsoft. "Customers who purchased Windows XP pre-installed on their machines will receive support from their Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) per the OEM support policy at time of purchase," she said. |
Via: PC World India
Conficker's Back and Attacking More PCs
Security researchers say the Conficker worm has been reprogrammed to strengthen its defences while also trying to attack more machines.
Conficker, which takes advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft's software, has infected at least 3 million PCs and possibly as many as 12 million, making it into a huge botnet and one of the most severe computer security problems in recent years.
Botnets can be used to send spam and attack other websites, but they need to be able to receive new instructions. Conficker can do this two ways: it can either try to visit a website and pick up instructions or it can receive a file over its custom-built encrypted P2P (peer-to-peer) network.
Over the last day or so, researchers with Websense and Trend Micro said some PCs infected with Conficker received a binary file over P2P. Conficker's controllers have been hampered by efforts of the security community to get directions via a website, so they are now using the P2P function, said Rik Ferguson, senior security advisor for the vendor Trend Micro.
The new binary tells Conficker to start scanning for other computers that haven't patched the Microsoft vulnerability, Ferguson said. A previous update turned that capability off, which hinted that Conficker's controllers maybe thought the botnet had grown too large.
But now, "it certainly indicates they [Conficker's authors] are seeking to control more machines", Ferguson said.
The new update also tells Conficker to contact MySpace.com, MSN.com, Ebay.com, CNN.com and AOL.com apparently to confirm that the infected machine is connected to the internet, Ferguson said. It also blocks infected PCs from visiting some websites. Previous Conficker versions wouldn't let people browse to the websites of security companies.
In another twist, the binary appears to be programmed to stop running on May 3, which will shut off the new functions, he said.
More Here: PC World India
Conficker, which takes advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft's software, has infected at least 3 million PCs and possibly as many as 12 million, making it into a huge botnet and one of the most severe computer security problems in recent years.
Botnets can be used to send spam and attack other websites, but they need to be able to receive new instructions. Conficker can do this two ways: it can either try to visit a website and pick up instructions or it can receive a file over its custom-built encrypted P2P (peer-to-peer) network.
Over the last day or so, researchers with Websense and Trend Micro said some PCs infected with Conficker received a binary file over P2P. Conficker's controllers have been hampered by efforts of the security community to get directions via a website, so they are now using the P2P function, said Rik Ferguson, senior security advisor for the vendor Trend Micro.
The new binary tells Conficker to start scanning for other computers that haven't patched the Microsoft vulnerability, Ferguson said. A previous update turned that capability off, which hinted that Conficker's controllers maybe thought the botnet had grown too large.
But now, "it certainly indicates they [Conficker's authors] are seeking to control more machines", Ferguson said.
The new update also tells Conficker to contact MySpace.com, MSN.com, Ebay.com, CNN.com and AOL.com apparently to confirm that the infected machine is connected to the internet, Ferguson said. It also blocks infected PCs from visiting some websites. Previous Conficker versions wouldn't let people browse to the websites of security companies.
In another twist, the binary appears to be programmed to stop running on May 3, which will shut off the new functions, he said.
More Here: PC World India
Twitter traffic up 700%, boosted by older users
Worldwide visitors to Twitter approached 10 million in February, up a massive 700% compared with a year ago, according to new data.
The research, from comScore, follows a blog post from Reuters reporter Alexei Oreskovic that indicates that it is the 25-54 year old crowd that is actually driving this trend, rather than younger users that are traditionally associated with social media audiences.
The past two months alone have seen worldwide visitors climb more than 5 million visitors, according to comSCore.
US traffic growth has been just as dramatic, with Twitter reaching 4 million visitors in February, up more than 1,000% from a year ago.
More Here: http://netimperative.com/news/2009/april/twitter-traffic-up-700-boosted-by-older-users/view
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Apple begins countdown to 1 billion iPhone apps downloaded
The countdown has begun. Apple posted a Web page on Friday counting down (or actually counting up) to the one billion app downloaded milestone on the App Store.
That's a significant goal for a couple of reasons. First, you have to be amazed that people have downloaded one billionapplications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Second, you can win some cool stuff if you download an app between now and the time that Apple reaches the one billion mark.
All you need to do to enter the contest is go to the App Store and download an app. You are automatically entered to win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro. You can enter up to 25 times per day, according to the contest rules. You can also enter the contest without a download.
In addition to the one billionth app countdown, Apple posted alist of the top 20 paid and free apps of all time on the App Store. The top paid app is Vivendi Games $5.99 Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D and the top free app is Facebook.
Apple's counter currently reads 927, 700, 795 apps download and it's moving fast.
Via: Ixplora
Twitter hit by StalkDaily worm
Twitter has been hit by spam attacks before, but not like this. The latest threat to everyone’s favourite microblogging service is StalkDaily. If that word looks familiar to you, chances are it’s already too late. If not, there’s still time to safeguard yourself. Read on for all the warnings, and how to keep yourself safe.
StalkDaily is a website designed to infect computers that visit it. For that reason, we can’t advise strongly enough against Googling it or guessing at the URL. Unfortunately, it’s now turned against Twitter users, with accounts hijacked by the malevolent worm sending masses of tweets to ask followers to visit a link. Yep, you guessed it, that link points directly to the StalkDaily site.
Worse still, the StalkDaily worm appears to be altering the Twitter biographies of infected accounts to insert its own link and, according to some blogs, even visiting the profile page of an infected twitter account could compromise your computer.
Twitter’s own spam account is already warning Twitter users not to link directly to the StalkDaily site.
To stay on the safe side it’s best to avoid any suspicious looking links from pals on your Twitter follow list, even those that have been shortened, and for extra security use a third party Twitter application, rather than visiting profile pages directly. We recommend TweetDeck or Twhirl.
StalkDaily is a website designed to infect computers that visit it. For that reason, we can’t advise strongly enough against Googling it or guessing at the URL. Unfortunately, it’s now turned against Twitter users, with accounts hijacked by the malevolent worm sending masses of tweets to ask followers to visit a link. Yep, you guessed it, that link points directly to the StalkDaily site.
Worse still, the StalkDaily worm appears to be altering the Twitter biographies of infected accounts to insert its own link and, according to some blogs, even visiting the profile page of an infected twitter account could compromise your computer.
Twitter’s own spam account is already warning Twitter users not to link directly to the StalkDaily site.
To stay on the safe side it’s best to avoid any suspicious looking links from pals on your Twitter follow list, even those that have been shortened, and for extra security use a third party Twitter application, rather than visiting profile pages directly. We recommend TweetDeck or Twhirl.
Via: ElectricPig
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