New Kernel Vulnerabilities Affect Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

New Kernel Vulnerabilities Affect Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

Canonical announced on the first day of May, in a security notice, that a new kernel upgrade for its Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system is available. 

Images Credits: Ubuntu

These are the kernel vulnerabilities found in the kernel packages: CVE-2011-4086, CVE-2011-4347, CVE-2012-0045, CVE-2012-1090, CVE-2012-1097, CVE-2012-1146, and CVE-2012-1179.

As usual, you can click on each one to see how it affects your system, or go here for in-depth descriptions, as it affects other Linux operating systems as well.

The security flaws can be fixed if you upgrade your system(s) to the linux-image-3.0.0-19 (3.0.0-19.33) package(s). To apply the update, run the Update Manager application or follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades

All users are urged to upgrade immediately. Don't forget to reboot your computer after the upgrade!

ATTENTION: Due to an unavoidable ABI change, the kernel packages have a new version number, which will force you to reinstall and recompile all third-party kernel modules you might have installed. Moreover, if you use the linux-restricted-modules package, you have to update it as well to get modules which work with the new Linux kernel version.

Android Malware Is Pushed via Twitter and Facebook - AVG

AVG: Android Malware Is Pushed via Twitter and Facebook

AVG Technologies released its Community Powered Threat Report for the first quarter of 2012. One of the most interesting parts of the study reveals that social media networks have become great mediums for cybercriminals to push their pieces of malware onto mobile devices.

Images Credits: AVG

“We detected a big increase in the use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to target Android users. Cyber criminals are finding it very convenient to distribute their malware straight to a mobile device via these networks,” said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at AVG.

“The growth of the Android platform has been phenomenal, which has not gone unnoticed with cyber criminals who have discovered it to be a lucrative target for their malware. In 2011, Google had to remove over 100 malicious apps from the official Android market, Google Play.”

The hundreds of millions of Android owners, combined with the hundreds of millions of social media customers allow cybercriminals to easily monetize their operations.

All they have to do is set up fake Facebook and Twitter profiles, which they can use to post links to their malicious sites.

When it comes to web threats, the report shows that the Blackhole toolkit was the most popular in the past period. Because of its power, complexity and ability to adapt easily, it has recorded a considerable growth in popularity.

The report also covers spam sources. However, in this sector there’s a discrepancy between the AVG study and the one released by Sophos a few days ago. The Sophos “dirty dozen” study named India as being the number one spammer, but AVG appoints the US as still being in the lead.

Actually, the spam sources charts look completely different. The only explanation we found was that Sophos made the top based on the countries that relay spam, while AVG doesn’t detail how the measurements were done, so they may be taking a different approach.

Flashback Mac OS X Trojan Earns Its Masters $10,000 (€ 7,600) Each Day

Flashback Mac OS X Trojan Earns Its Masters $10,000 (€ 7,600) Each Day

Symantec experts decided to take a better look at the Flashback Trojan that recently cause havoc among hundreds of thousands of Mac OS X users. The malware has been analyzed before, but this examination was conducted with the purpose of finding the cybercriminals’ motivation for launching this campaign.

Image credits: 401K / flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6757871357/sizes/z/in/photostream/

 To determine the approximate sum of money earned by the creators of Flashback, the researchers compared it to the W32.Xpaj.B ad-clicking Trojan that was making the rounds in August 2011.

If Xpaj made around $450 (342 EUR) per day with a botnet that totaled 25,000 bots, the 650,000 machines that were overtaken by Flashback at its peak may have generated a sum that exceeds $10,000 (7,600 EUR).

The large amounts of money were generated by an ad-clicking element that was downloaded by the initial OSX.Flashback.K component.

“The Flashback ad-clicking component is loaded into Chrome, Firefox, and Safari where it can intercept all GET and POST requests from the browser. Flashback specifically targets search queries made on Google and, depending on the search query, may redirect users to another page of the attacker's choosing, where they receive revenue from the click,” experts explained.

“Flashback uses a specially crafted user agent in these requests, which is actually the clients universally unique identifier (UUID) encoded in base64. This is already sent in the ‘ua’ query string parameter, so it is likely that this is an effort to thwart "unknown" parties from investigating the URL with unrecognised user-agents.”

A closer look at one of the samples revealed that, for instance, when users searched for “toys,” they were forcefully redirected to a third-party URL. By writing this URL into the browser, the victim would be directed to the arbitrary domain, hijacking the ad click that was originally meant for Google.

This means that the Flashback campaign not only generated considerable revenues for the cybercriminals, but also significant losses for Google.

Microsoft Details Mac OS X Malware That Exploits Office Vulnerability

 Microsoft Details Mac OS X Malware That Exploits Office Vulnerability
Malware that targets Mac OS X machines is becoming widespread and most major companies have come to realize that Apple products are not as safe from malicious viruses as they were once. As expected, Microsoft also came forward to provide an example of a Mac OS X threat.

Image Credits: Microsoft

This particular malware, identified as Exploit:MacOS_X/MS09-027.A, leverages a remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office, which was addressed by the company back in 2009.

Although the infection rates are not as widespread as in the case of the now-infamous Flashback Trojan, the company’s security experts reveal that there are still a number of computer owners who have failed to apply the security update, thus putting their assets at risk.

So how does the infection work?

First of all, it has been determined that the exploit works only on Snow Leopard or earlier versions of the operating system because starting with Lion, the memory address targeted by the malware is read–only.

As the diagram shows, the stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability is used to corrupt a local variable, which is later utilized to deploy the “stage 1” shellcode to a specific area.

This “stage 1” shellcode then leads to the “stage 2” shellcode, which is the location in the memory where the actual infection occurs.

“Stage 2” creates a number of three files: tmp/launch-hs, /tmp/launch-hse, and /tmp/file.doc. The first file actually contains a shell script or an executable which launches /tmp/launch-hs and and opens /tmp/file.doc.

The latter is actually a decoy document that’s designed to trick users into believing that there’s nothing malicious involved.

/tmp/launch-hse is the main payload file that, once it’s executed, starts communicating with the malware’s command and control server.

“Statistically speaking, as this operating system gains in consumer usage, attacks on the platform will increase. Exploiting Mac OSX is not much different from other operating systems. Even though Mac OSX has introduced many mitigation technologies to reduce risk, your protection against security vulnerabilities has a direct correllation with updating installed applications,” Jeong Wook Oh of the MMPC concluded.

Kaspersky: Apple Is 10 Years Behind Microsoft in Security

 Kaspersky: Apple Is 10 Years Behind Microsoft in Security
Eugene Kaspersky says Apple needs to wake up and smell the roses. Security has become a top priority for the Cupertino giant, and it should act accordingly, considers the security expert.

Image credits: dantri.com.vn

Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab has been heavily involved in the discussions regarding the Flashback Trojan targeting Apple’s Mac OS X in the past few months.

It was only recently that a botnet managed to infect hundreds of thousands of machines, prompting action from Apple and major security vendors worldwide. Kaspersky, for its part, documented the findings, analyzed the risk level, and issued malware removal tools.

However, it’s the engineers at Apple who have to be most vigilant starting now.

“I think [Apple] are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security,” Kaspersky told CBR in an interview.

“For many years I’ve been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It’s always been possible to develop Mac malware, but this one was a bit different. For example it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms.”

Kaspersky says Apple needs to buckle up and prepare for a bumpy ride filled with “updates, security patches and so on.”

“We now expect to see more and more because cyber criminals learn from success and this was the first successful one. They will understand very soon that they have the same problems Microsoft had ten or 12 years ago,” he said.

The Kaspersky Lab boss expects Apple to make drastic changes in their update cycles and product refreshes.

“They will have to make changes in terms of the cycle of updates and so on and will be forced to invest more into their security audits for the software,” he said, pointing out to Microsoft’s situation after incidents like Blaster and various worms that infected millions of computers.

“They had to do a lot of work to check the code to find mistakes and vulnerabilities. Now it’s time for Apple [to do that],” said Kaspersky.

Download Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac

Sophos: One in Five Macs Carries Malware

Shocking discovery from security vendor Sophos today - according to the company headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK., one in five Macintosh computers carries malware.

A press release issued by the security company today cites new research that has churned up a disturbingly high level of malware on Mac computers.

Both Windows and Mac threats have been discovered, which makes matters even worse for work environments that harbor both Macs and Windows PCs.

After analyzing a snapshot of 100,000 Mac computers running its free anti-virus software, Sophos discovered that “one in five machines was found to be carrying one or more instances of Windows malware.”

Sophos explains that “although Windows malware on Macs will not cause symptoms (unless users also run Windows on their computer), it can still be spread to other computers.”

The Mac is still far safer than Windows PCs, as only 2.7 percent (one in 36) of Macs were found to be carrying malware executable on Mac OS X.

"Some Mac users may be relieved that they are seven times more likely to have Windows viruses, spyware and Trojans on their Macs than Mac OS X-specific malware, but Mac malware is surprisingly commonly encountered," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "Mac users need a wake-up call about the growing malware problem."


Cluley points out to the recent Flashback botnet, which infected more than 600,000 machines, as the dominant figure on the chart of Mac-based threats.

"Mac malware can spread via USB stick, email attachments, website download, or even a silent drive-by installation where the user doesn't realize their Mac's security has been subverted," continued Cluley.

"Cybercriminals view Macs as a soft target, because their owners don't typically run anti-virus software and are thought to have a higher level of disposable income than the typical Windows user. Mac users must protect their computers now or risk making the malware problem on Macs as big as the problem on PCs."

Some of the malware discovered on the 100,000 Mac computers dated back to 2007. These machines would have been easily cleansed, had users run an anti-virus products, said Sophos.

"The simple fact is that you can scan your Mac for infection from your armchair. The test is painless and free; you just download an anti-virus product and allow it to check your computer and protect it against infections in the future," explained Cluley.

Features:
1. Full protection from viruses, Trojans and worms
2. Stops all threats, familiar and unfamiliar
3. Quarantines and removes the threats it finds
4. Business-quality antivirus, backed by SophosLabs
5. Easy installation and painless maintenance
6. It's free - 100%, totally, absolutely, completely free. Yes, really!

Download Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac

Download Avast - Antivirus for Mac

Macs Running avast! Antivirus Didn’t Catch the Flashback Flu

The folks at Avast are really proud to announce in a blog post that Macintosh computers running the beta version of avast! Free Antivirus for Mac have not been infected by the Flashback Trojan.

Jiri Sejtko, director of AVAST Virus Lab operations, says “We’ve confirmed our app’s detection abilities for Flashback within the test lab and with reports from our beta testers.”

Avast says the Flashback Trojan behind the Mac botnet that infected 600,000 Macs is a derivative of last year’s DevilRobber Trojan targeting Mac OS X.

“The AVAST Virus Lab now has 18 variants of this malware in its antivirus database,” says the company. avast! Free Antivirus for Mac is currently in the late beta stage.

Requirements:

· 128 MB Ram (256 MB pref)
· 50 MB free space


What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Program update capability (so this should be your last manual update!)
· Huge amount of bug fixes and minor enhancements everywhere.

Download avast! Free Antivirus for Mac

New Mac Trojan Discovered - Flashback.S

 New Mac Trojan Discovered - Flashback.S
Mac security specialist Intego has discovered a new variant of the Flashback Trojan which leverages a Java vulnerability that Apple has patched.

Flashback.S doesn’t require a password to install. The malware places its files in the user’s home folder, at two distinct locations and avoids detection or sample recovery by deleting all files and folders in ~/Library/Caches/Java/cache to remove the applet from the infected Mac.

The Austin, Texas-based security vendor has several samples of this new Flashback variant which, it claims, “is actively being distributed in the wild.”

Should the targeted computer have Intego VirusBarrier X6, Xcode or Little Snitch installed on the Mac, this variant of the Flashback Trojan will not install.

Intego stresses that its VirusBarrier X6 with malware definitions dated April 23, 2012 or later, will detect and remove all variants of the Flashback malware.

Warning: Flashback Trojan Still Alive and Kicking

 Warning: Flashback Trojan Still Alive and Kicking
Doctor Web, the Russian company that originally sounded the alarm on the dangerous Flashback Trojan infecting hundreds of thousands of Macs worldwide, is contradicting reports from competing security vendors which said the number of infected machines was on a decline.

Actively monitoring the largest Mac botnet ever discovered, Doctor Web's virus analysts have put together new botnet statistics which contradict recently published reports indicating a decrease in the number of Macs infected by BackDoor.Flashback.39.

According to Dr. Web, “the number is still around 650,000.” The company explains:

“According to Doctor Web, 817 879 bots connected to the BackDoor.Flashback.39 botnet at one time or another and average 550 000 infected machines interact with a control server on a 24 hour basis."

"On April 16, 717004 unique IP-addresses and 595816 Mac UUIDs were registered on the BackDoor.Flashback.39 botnet while on April 17 the figures were 714 483 unique IPs and 582405 UUIDs. At the same time infected computers, that have not been registered on the BackDoor.Flashback.39 network before, join the botnet every day.”

The chart above (click to enlarge) shows how the number of bots has been changing from April 3rd to April 19th.

Dr. Web says that, despite the fact that recent publications found in open access report a reduction in the number of bots, they are erroneous.

The reason: “these materials are based on analysis of statistics acquired from hijacked botnet control servers.”

Doctor Web's conducted a research and discovered that the bots do not communicate with some command centers registered by information security specialists.

So, even though Symantec and Kaspersky Lab reported a significant decline in the number of BackDoor.Flashback.39 bots, Dr. Web indicated “a far greater number of bots which didn’t tend to decline considerably.”

“Doctor Web once gain warns Mac OS X users of the BackDoor.Flashback.39 threat and strongly recommends you to install Java updates and scan the system to determine whether it has been infected,” the company states.

The company recommends that people document themselves about BackDoor.Flashback detection and neutralization at https://www.drweb.com/flashback/.

Dr.Web also offers a free Flashback removal tool for customers who believe they have an infected Mac.

Download Flashback Malware Removal Tool 1.0

 Download Flashback Malware Removal Tool 1.0
The first iteration of Apple’s official Flashback Malware Removal Tool is out for OS X 10.7 Lion users. The tool is a 356 KB download and Apple recommends it to everyone running Lion without Java installed.

A technical note on Apple’s Support site details the contents of Flashback malware removal tool stating “This Flashback malware removal tool […] will remove the most common variants of the Flashback malware.”

The Mac maker explains that, “If the Flashback malware is found, a dialog will be presented notifying the user that malware was removed.”

“In some cases, the Flashback malware removal tool may need to restart your computer in order to completely remove the Flashback malware.”

“This update is recommended for all OS X Lion users without Java installed,” Apple concludes.

The Flashback Trojan (and its many variants) has been the biggest malware threat ever, as far as Macintosh computers are concerned.

Initially discovered by security software vendors months ago, and subsequently patched by these companies way ahead of Apple, the malware originally disguised itself as an Adobe Flash installer (hence its name).

Since then, multiple variants of the Trojan have emerged, all of which can be killed with Apple’s Flashback malware removal tool, according to the Cupertino, California-based computer giant.

Flashback Malware Removal Tool 1.0 should be the first of many iterations to come as cyber-criminals are beginning to eye Mac OS X as a profitable platform to hack.

While the Mac has been virus-free for most of its existence, this can no longer be said about Apple’s computers, as the platform gains more and more market-share with each passing year.

Because of this, some of Apple’s ads in the old “Get a Mac” campaign are starting to look ridiculous now (embedded below). Apple likely foresaw this when they ended the campaign.

See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5246 for more details about this update.
See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222 for information about the security content of this update.

Download Flashback Malware Removal Tool (Free)

Install Avast for Ubuntu 11.04/10.10/11.10

 Antivirus software for Ubuntu Users – is it optional ? If you want to get protected from virus attacks or malwares, spywares..

Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) or 11.10 (Few alpha versions has arrived, the stable will be released after few months) or 10.10 or any Linux based distributions are very less prone to virus attacks or malwares, spywares (or any similar *wares). The reason is pretty straight forward – First Linux based operating systems are highly secure and the second reason is that Microsoft Windows (XP, Vista, 7 ..) has been the targeted systems for crackers / hackers or malicious programmers (may be due to the fact that most of the common users uses Microsoft Windows operating system).

Therefore, in general, you don’t need to install any antivirus software on Ubuntu; it’s OK!
If you want to try Avast then you need to download the debian package and install it – either from command line or using Ubuntu Software Center.

How to install Avast on Ubuntu (11.04/11.10/..)

step 1 : Download the debian package.
Download Free Avast Antivirus for Ubuntu

step 2 : Install the *.deb package by Right Click -> Open with Ubuntu Software Center, and click on install button and relax! or just enter the following command -

cd move_to_target_directory
sudo dpkg -i file_name.deb

step 3 : To start using avast antivirus software, You need to Register with avast to get a free license key (Don’t worry it’s free!). The license key will be delivered to your email address within 24 hours (usually withing a couple of hours).

step 4 : Start the program and enter the license key. That’s all!

Get The best security for your Ubuntu! :)

OS X Lion Gets Extra Layer of Security from Intego

Mac security expert Intego has confirmed that all of its software offerings are now fully compatible with OS X 10.7 Lion. In light of the new release, the Austin, Texas based software vendor is offering all existing and new customers a 10% discount on any product.

Intego has reached us via email to inform that the following versions of its software applications are fully compatible with Mac OS X Lion (single versions or part of Dual Protection or Internet Security Barrier bundles):

Intego X6 software:
- ContentBarrier, 10.6.4
- FileGuard, 10.6.2
- Personal Antispam, 10.6.7
- Personal Backup, 10.6.2
- VirusBarrier X6, 10.6.13

Intego X5 software:
- ContentBarrier X5, 10.5.7
- FileGuard X5, 10.5.4
- NetBarrier X5, 10.5.7
- Personal Antispam X5, 10.5.11
- Personal Backup X5, 10.5.9
- VirusBarrier X5, 10.5.13

Other software:
- Washing Machine, 2.4
- Remote Management Console, 2.0.3
- VirusBarrier Server, 3.2.

Existing users of one or multiple Intego programs will not be required to manually download standalone updates, but rather use Intego NetUpdate, an auto-update tool provided with all Intego programs.

Users simply run NetUpdate and download and install the latest versions of their Intego software, at which point they'll be ready to use them in OS X Lion, the company said.

“We recommend that users update their Intego software before installing or upgrading to Lion to ensure full compatibility,” says intego.

As noted above, the security firm is offering a 10% discount on any product, as long as it’s purchased from the Intego online store.

Whether you choose a standard pack, a family pack, Dual Protection software, or a full upgrade, the discount applies.

Customers will, however, need to punch in a code as they check out of the Intego online store before August 20, 2011. The code is: X6LION-107.

"We're very happy to see Lion released, and Mac users will be too," said Jeff Erwin, president & CEO of Intego.

"We have updated our software to make sure that our users will be able to continue to protect their Macs and remain safe from the dangers of the Internet. As always, our software is compatible with the latest version of Mac OS X on the day of its release," added Erwin.

Download Antivirus for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

Mac security expert Intego has released an antivirus application for iPhone and iPad, in light of recent talks that Apple’s mobile OS is safer jailbroken.

Exploiting a vulnerability in the way iOS handles certain PDF fonts, a team of hackers has been able to compromise the software for jailbreaking purposes.


Implicitly, they sounded the alarm on a bug that may be leveraged by others to steal information from a user’s device.

Security experts have gone as far as to suggest that iPhones are now in need of an antivirus solution.

While Intego doesn’t mention any of this, we find it interesting that the Austin, Texas-based security vendor is now announcing an VirusBarrier iOS, a malware scanner for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Based on the Mac OS X anti-malware tool VirusBarrier X6, VirusBarrier iOS allows users to scan files attached to e-mail messages for malware that could subsequently affect Macs or Windows PCs.

The security software vendor itself admits that “While there is no known malware for iOS, files can flow through your device into your computers at home and at work, by e-mail, or via remote locations such as MobileMe or Dropbox.”

They advertise VirusBarrier iOS, saying it “lets you easily scan e-mail attachments, other files you have access to on your iOS device, or files on remote locations such as MobileMe and DropBox, web servers or WebDAV shares […] to detect and eradicate all known malware affecting Windows or Macs: viruses, worms, Trojan horses, fake antiviruses, and other types of malware that might otherwise pass through undetected.”

VirusBarrier will be unable to scan files automatically or to run scheduled scans.

This is due to “the secure design of iOS”, Intego said, adding that VirusBarrier iOS is an "on-demand" detection system that lets you do the scanning.

It supports formats like Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, PDFs, HTML files, JavaScript files, Windows executables (.exe), and Windows .dll files.

For $2.99, VirusBarrier iOS includes 12 months of malware definition updates that are “updated regularly,” according to the developers.

VirusBarrier iOS is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad and requires iOS 4.0 or later.


Here are some key features of "VirusBarrier":

· On-demand scans of files received by e-mail, on remote locations, or on iOS devices
· Scans files for Mac, Windows and Unix viruses and malware
· Scans files for spyware, Trojan horses, adware, hacker tools, dialers, keyloggers and more
· Scans ZIP archives
· Repairs infected files
· Scans email attachments, files downloaded from Safari, and files accessed by apps supporting inter-app file transfers.
· Scans remote locations, such as DropBox, iDisks and WebDAV shares
· Scan websites for known phishing URLs, web threats, and malware hosting
· Automatically updates malware definitions
· Completes scans in the background
· Keeps logs of scans
· Includes a 1-year subscription to malware definitions


Requirements:

· iOS 4.0 or later
· Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad


Download Antivirus VirusBarrier iOS  for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

Get Your Friends a Google+ Account Without an Invite

Google+ has raised quite a lot of interest these past couple of days. The initial reactions have been very positive and this may be Google's first competitive social project, so people are at least intrigued.

When Google enabled existing users to send invitations to their friends, the surge in activity promptly led Google to shut down invitations.

But if you have a friend on the inside, you can get an invite of sorts quite easily.

Anyone with a Google+ account can share something, be it a status update, a photo or anything else, with the people in their circles, or even with friends who don't have a Google+ account.

In this latter case, the friends will receive an email notifying them that the user shared something with them and a link to "Learn more about Google+".

All they have to do is follow that link and they'll be able to sign up for a new account within seconds. There's no limit on the number of people you can 'send an invite' like this and the process is hardly complicated.

Once you manage to get your hands on a brand new account, you can share something with whomever you like and they will be able to sign up as well, so you could build up a circle of friends in no time at all, as long as they're the early adopter types that are going to be excited about Google+.

Granted, this is not a sure fire way, Google may move to block this like it did previous ways of sending out invitations or getting people inside. For the time being it seems to be working so all you need to do is to find a friend with a Google+ account.

TL;DR: If you already have a Google+ account, write something and share it with anyone you want by typing in their email addresses. They'll receive an email notification and a link to sign up.

Google+ More Private than Facebook but Not Perfect

Google's new privacy-oriented social network, Google+, has captured everyone's attention since it launched earlier this week, but people have already begun to discover flaws in the implementation.

One of Google Plus' primary features is called "Circles," groups of people that users can create under their accounts and which are a fundamental part of the social network.

Circles allow users to share some information only with certain categories of users, allowing for a fine-grained experience that is closer to the real life where, for example, not everyone you know is your friend and not everything you share with friends you want your family to see.

However, it wasn't long until bugs that break this chain of trust surface. First, it people discovered that after information is shared with a circle, they have no way of controlling what those users do with it.

Sharing a post without disabling the "resharing" feature for it from the beginning was a done deal. Users couldn't go back and change their mind. However, Google reacted quickly and enabled a menu for already posted items that allows resharing to be disabled.

Another reported privacy bug involved photo tagging. For example, if a user shared a photo with a particular circle and someone in that circle tagged an outside person into that picture, that person could have reshared it with anyone they wished.

This was fixed and resharing is now impossible if the original poster disables it, however, tagging outside persons into the picture in order to give them access to it still works.

This is because sharing and tagging work independently. One possible fix would be to give users the power to disable tagging for photos too, but it remains to be seen how Google will choose to address the problem.

Google+ is still in a closed beta phase and users need an invitation to join. This means that bugs like these will continue to be identified and fixed until the network is opened to everyone. Therefore, if you do join at this stage, be cautions about what kind of information you share.
Google+ Google+ Google+

In Wake of Mac Defender Frenzy, Intego Slashes VirusBarrier X6 Price

With the recent discovery of a Trojan targeting Mac OS X, security firm Intego based in Austin, Texas is the first to capitalize on this ordeal by offering a discount on its VirusBarrier X6 Mac antivirus program.

The Mac user base has been targeted lately by a piece of malware that portrays itself as a legitimate antivirus program, whereas it actually tricks users into handing over their credit card information.

The malware is distributed via a method called SEO (search engine optimization) poisoning, and the resulted application is either called Mac Defender, or Mac Guar and may come in different versions but its ultimate purpose is the same.

Intego has been the first to report on the existence of this piece of malware, by providing comprehensive security advisories that document its particularities, how to avoid it and / or how to remove it from an infected system.

Apple itself has issued a note on its Support site outlining the standard procedure from ridding an infected computer of Mac Defender and its variants, and has promised to issue a free software update to address the matter.

“With the many recent fake antiviruses targeting Mac users, Intego has decided to offer a special discount on VirusBarrier X6, the company's anti-malware and network protection program, so you can boost your Mac's protection on this Memorial Day weekend,” Intego tells Softpedia.

The security software vendor says only VirusBarrier X6 provides comprehensive protection from malware and network threats on the Mac.

Whether or not that’s the case, VirusBarrier X6 is indeed known to be the only antivirus Mac app that includes full anti-malware protection together with firewall, network protection, anti-phishing, and anti-spyware features.

To benefit from the discount, users must go to Intego's Buy Now page, choose a copy of VirusBarrier X6, and click on Continue Order.

On the next page, users must enter the following coupon code: FAKEAV-20. The offer is valid through Tuesday, May 31, 2011, Intego said.

NetQin Mobile Anti-virus Sees Increased Adoption in the Ovi Store

Among the mobile applications that owners of Nokia devices can enjoy through the Ovia Store, we can count the NetQin Mobile Anti-virus, which was only recently added to the storefront, but which already enjoys increased adoption among users.

The development team behind the application notes that the software has seen an increase in daily downloads of around 700 percent since launch, and that the user rating for it is of four stars out of five.

At the same time, they note that the increase in downloads was observed after the app was listed next to a popular game, Angry Birds.

The success this application sees in the Ovi Store is equaled by the popularity of NetQin Mobile Anti-virus on the Android OS, where it is one of the top 10 hot applications in the AppBrain.com.

The NetQin Mobile Anti-virus is already available on a wide range of mobile operating systems, including Symbian, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.

The mobile application is based on Cloud-security technology, and was designed so as to protect mobile phones from viruses and malware through providing a fast and accurate scan.

Some of the main features of this software would include:

Anti-virus: With the original double-engine technology, NetQin Mobile Anti-virus completely deletes the latest viruses, Trojans, spyware and malicious fee-deduction software to protect mobile devices as well as users' privacy and property.

Contacts backup/restore: A backup account allows users to backup and restore contacts seamlessly between different operating systems so that the contacts will never get lost.

Real-time protection: Real-time protection detects all kinds of threats in time, such as viruses, malicious links, Trojans; protects accounts with QQ, MSN, etc.; and ensures the safety of mobile devices during file transmission, network connection and application installation.

Anti-lost: Anti-lost with remote control feature provides worldwide protection for mobile devices and prevents financial losses and privacy leakage.
 
Currently, the NetQin services are being used by a number off over 85.97 million users in over 100 countries all around the world. Symbian users can download the application from the Ovi Store here.

PlayStation Network Comes Back Online - Sony Faces New Hacks

 PlayStation Network Comes Back Online - Give a new smile for everyone. :)
About a month after Sony's PlayStation Network was hacked, exposing the account information of 100 million users, Sony faces a series of smaller hacks across the company's systems.

So-net Entertainment Corp, a subsidiary of Sony, discovered that a hacker stole about $1,225 worth of customers' redeemable gift points, according to the Wall Street Journal. That same day, security firm F-Secure found that Sony's Thailand server was running a live phishing scam.

So-net does not believe the breach on its systems was connected to the PSN hack. The company reported that an intruder tried 10,000 times to access the So-net point service, which gives customers gift points that can be exchanged for products. So-net said that the intruder likely had usernames for accounts and proceeded to use software that generated passwords in the attempts of finding the right one. Points were redeemed from 128 customer accounts, and another 73 accounts and 90 email accounts were accessed.

In the case of Sony Thailand, The Next Web confirmed that the phishing site hosted on the hdworld.sony.co.th URL was the result of a hack, likely through some security weakness in the server's infrastructure.

Earlier this week, Sony was forced to take down sign-ins across the PlayStation Network due to a vulnerability in the password reset page that allowed hackers to get into user accounts using only an email address and a date of birth.

While none of these breaches near the magnitude of the original PlayStation Network breach, it seems perhaps that such vulnerabilities are only now being discovered because of the scrutiny the company and its systems have come under following the PSN hack. Experts believe that Sony is only one of many companies that must improve its security to prevent further attacks, and that without such measures, similar hacks will happen again.

"It's a realization that we all had, that no system is 100 percent safe," Kazuo Hirai, the Sony exec managing the breach said at a briefing earlier this week. "This requires constant monitoring and constant vigilance."

PSN Possibly Back Up For Developers

 PSN Possibly Back Up For Developers

The PSN has been down for nearly an entire month and a lot of gamers, including me, are getting bored with playing through their back catalogue of single-player games. According to rumors, the PSN may start restoring some of its functionality soon.

A few members of the NeoGAF forum, who claim to work with video game developers, have posted that some PSN services were back up. User BY2K claimed,

PSN was working at my work today, we could play co-op. (Not saying what game, I can’t anyway.) Everybody was clueless but, somehow it was working.

Another member went on,

Okay, so this was mentioned in the old thread by a QA tester and since then I have had other developers confirm to me that this is the case. The internal PSN developer network is online again, at least it seems for some, although things are still a bit shaky at the moment such as lack of new account sign up. Looks like the full network, at least the online play/account part of it, will be back soon.

One of the NeoGAF moderators, Kagari, has reported that several developers have posted on the forums that the PSN was up and working for them. In addition to the postings on NeoGAF, the official PlayStationNL Twitter account has confirmed that select groups are testing the PSN. Gamers Mint translated the following tweet:

@snickel86 at this moment a select group is testing the network . Territories= Japan (Asia), Europe & America.

Sony has not made any further comments about the state of PSN, but if they are testing reintroducing the PSN with developers, then restored functionality for regular users shouldn’t be far behind

Keeping Busy Until PSN Back Up Online

The PlayStation Network has been down for coming up to a month now and if recent reports are anything to go by, we could be looking at another 3 weeks until it’s up and running again. With that it mind, we thought we would take a look at ways of keeping busy until PSN is back up online.

Luke Westaway from the crave.cnet.co.uk website has provided a list of different things that PlayStation 3 owners could possibly do while they are waiting for PSN to come back online. For example, if they’ve got a decent enough laptop / desktop computer, they could try PC gaming.

They could even try a bit of social gaming, or simply reconnect with old school friends on Facebook. There are a few decent social games on Facebook, including the hugely popular FarmVille. Another suggestion is to finish off all your leftover games.

You can see what other suggestions Luke came up with via the cnet.co.uk website. What have you been doing to keep yourself busy while the PlayStation Network has been down?