अब अश्लील साइट ब्लक

इन्टरनेटको अश्लील साइटमा रमाउनेको संख्या अस्वाभाविक रूपमा बढेपछि सरकारले यस्ता साइट ब्लक गर्ने भएको छ । इन्टरनेट सेवा प्रदायक सबै कम्पनीको मुख्य द्वारबाटै यस्ता साइट नखुल्ने बनाइन लागेको हो ।

अश्लील भिडियो, फोटो र अन्य सामग्री भएका साइटको प्रयोग बढिरहेकाले दूरसञ्चार नियामक निकाय नेपाल दूरसञ्चार प्राधिकरणले यस्ता दृश्य आउने सबै प्रकारका साइट ुब्लकु गर्ने तयारी गरेको हो । मुलुकमा ४१ आईएसपी कम्पनी, नेपाल टेलिकम, युटिएल र एनसेलका लागि यो व्यवस्था लागू हुनेछ । टेलिकमले एडीएसएल र जीपीआरएस तथा एनसेलले जीपीआरएस इन्टरनेट सेवा दिँदै आएका छन् ।

यसपछि इन्टरनेट सेवा प्रदायक कम्पनीले अश्लील साइटमाथिको पहुँच अवरुद्ध गर्नुपर्ने छ । आईएसपी कम्पनीको नियमन गर्ने प्राधिकरण आउँदो साता यस्ता साइट बन्द गर्न निर्देशन दिने तयारीमा छ । ुहामी छिट्टै यसबारे निर्णय गरेर आईएसपी कम्पनीलाई निर्देशन दिँदै छौं,ु प्राधिकरणका प्रवक्ता कैलाशप्रसाद न्यौपानेेले भने, ुविद्युतीय कारोबार ऐनले यस्ता साइट चलाउन नपाउने व्यवस्था गरेको छ ।ु यस्ता साइट खुला रूपमा साइबर क्याफे र घर-घरमा प्रयोग भएको अवस्थामा समाजमा नकारात्मक असर परेको र आपराधिक क्रियाकलाप बढेको उनले बताए । आईएसपीलाई लाइसेन्स जारी गर्दा अश्लील वेबसाइट बन्द गर्नुपर्ने सर्त भने छैन । अब लाइसेन्स दिँदा सर्त परिमार्जन गर्ने प्राधिकरणले तयारी गरेको छ । ुविद्युतीय कारोबार ऐनअन्तर्गत रहेर लाइसेन्समा अश्लील साइट भित्र्याउन नपाउने सर्त थप्न लागेका हौं,ु न्यौपानेले भने । यसका लागि एक महिना अघि सुरु भएको प्रक्रियामा बुधबार गृह मन्त्रालय, प्राधिकरण, विज्ञान तथा प्रविधि मन्त्रालय र इन्टरनेट सेवा प्रदायकबीच सहमति भएको छ । छलफलमा सहभागी प्रहरी प्रधान कार्यालयका आईटी प्रमुख एसएसपी महेश सिंह कठायतले सबै सहमत भएकाले अब नियामनकारी निकाय प्राधिकरणको निर्देशनपछि यस्ता साइट बन्द हुने बताए ।
स्रोत : कान्तिपुर समाचार

Cars hacked through wireless tire sensors

The tire pressure monitors built into modern cars have been shown to be insecure by researchers from Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina. The wireless sensors, compulsory in new automobiles in the US since 2008, can be used to track vehicles or feed bad data to the electronic control units (ECU), causing them to malfunction.

Earlier in the year, researchers from the University of Washington and University of California San Diego showed that the ECUs could be hacked, giving attackers the ability to be both annoying, by enabling wipers or honking the horn, and dangerous, by disabling the brakes or jamming the accelerator.
The new research shows that other systems in the vehicle are similarly insecure. The tire pressure monitors are notable because they're wireless, allowing attacks to be made from adjacent vehicles. The researchers used equipment costing $1,500, including radio sensors and special software, to eavesdrop on, and interfere with, two different tire pressure monitoring systems.
The pressure sensors contain unique IDs, so merely eavesdropping enabled the researchers to identify and track vehicles remotely. Beyond this, they could alter and forge the readings to cause warning lights on the dashboard to turn on, or even crash the ECU completely.
Unlike the work earlier this year, these attacks are more of a nuisance than any real danger; the tire sensors only send a message every 60-90 seconds, giving attackers little opportunity to compromise systems or cause any real damage. Nonetheless, both pieces of research demonstrate that these in-car computers have been designed with ineffective security measures.
The Rutgers and South Carolina research will be presented at the USENIX Security conference later this week.

The “M” Word – Protecting Yourself from Malware

In this year, 2010, malware seems to be as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. While computer users today are much more savvy against the threat of malware, there’s still more that we can do. In this Tech Tipwe’ll look at some very practical things to do to keep yourself protected as well as some things that you can do if you have inadvertently picked up some malware on any of your PC computers.

Protecting Your Computer

In a nutshell this is what you’ll need to keep your computer humming along:

1. Have some kind of anti-malware protection on your computer and keep it current. While many newnotebook computers and PCs come with trial anti-malware software, it is up to you to keep it current (for a price). There are, however, free alternatives.The foremost among them is Microsoft’s own Security Essentials. It doesn’t come with Windows, but can be easily downloaded and installed. Other free programs include the popular AVG; AVast,Avira and BitDefender (they have paid versions as well) while the usual suspects round up the paid products: MCAfee, Norton,Panda, Kaspersky and Trend Micro. This is not an exhaustive list by any means as there are many other free and paid programs that can be used.


2. Keep your computer up to date.You can rely on automatic updates, but to be sure that nothing is being missed you may want to manually run updates from time to time – particularly on the Operating System and the Web Browser.For example, in Windows Vista and 7, click on Start button and in the search box type in Windows Update – the first program listed will be the Windows Update program. Click on this and check if you have any updates to run. In XP, go into the Control Panel and click on Windows Update there.With the browser, if you are running Windows Explorer, your Windows Update will update that. With other browsers, check their help files for how to update them. Besides that, also be sure that you have your firewall up and running.


3. Don’t fall for bogus phishing scams, fake anti-virus scans, software from “nowhere.” Because of increased protection, malware programmers are hitting the most vulnerable target in the chain – you. If they can get you to install the program from a fake anti-virus scan that pops up while you’re surfing,a bogus link in your e-mail, in your messenger or on a website then they get by all those protections that have been carefully laid in place. Just don’t do it.

OK – you got “something” – Now what?

No computer is perfect – even with all your protections in place, something may slip through. If something does, there are things that can be done to minimize damage and risk.

1. If you have access to a second computer, download onto a flash drive some tools to scan and hopefully fix your PC. Typically you can grab one or two antivirus programs available (I’d recommend AVG or AVast mentioned earlier) and a good, free anti-spyware program (I highly recommendMalwarebytes). Install these on the infected computer and run a full scan on the computer. Depending on how bad the infection is, you may need to pull the computer off the Internet while running these scans.If you can get to the Internet, then be sure to get the latest updates for these programs. You may also look into running either Panda’s orTrend Micro’s online scanner programs. Be sure to scan ALL drives.


2. If you have second computer or the infected computer has access to the Internet – then simply look up your computer’s symptoms online to see what other people are seeing and possible ways to fix it. There will be some dead ends, but often you can find out what is causing you the problems as well as how to fix it.


3. After all the scans, run the more advanced tool, HijackThis from Trend Micro (a free tool) to see exactly what is running. HijackThis also gives you the ability to manually remove items as well.While you are at it, you can also run Trend Micro’s other free tools, RUBotted and RootkitBuster. If you cannot make heads or tails of the log files from HijackThis, there are many sites out there that will help you with it.


4. If all else fails, you can always format and restore your PC back to the original configuration.

What about everyone else?

What about other Internet connected computers and devices that aren’t Windows based? Are they vulnerable to malware? You bet that they are!This includes Linux; FreeBSD; OSX and UNIX based computers; Android; BlackBerry; iOS; Microsoft and Symbian based SmartPhones/devices. Is there anything that you can do to protect yourself here?There is.

Besides making sure that you are up-to-date on all the latest software patches, just know what kind of software and apps you are loading. Many companies, such as Symantecand others, are now making security software for these other non-Windows based operating systems and devices.

While there hasn’t been widespread infections in the past – it doesn’t mean that they won’t be the target in the future – remember, there is no such thing as a perfect, invulnerable OS.Of course, it’s up to you if you to do this if you think you may need protection on these other items.

Wrapping it up

Keeping your PC safe isn’t rocket science. It involves keeping your security software, operating system and other software up-to-date; watching what gets installed on your computer and knowing what to do if something gets through. When it comes to security, no one tip can possibly cover everything. So, we open this up to you too - what do you use personally to keep your computer safe.

Windows® 8 Roadmap Revealed

A couple of weeks ago, an Italian Windows® site, Windowsette, released some presentation slides that revealed Microsoft’s plans for the next version of Windows®. I generally ignore announcements such as these as they tend to turn out to be fakes, but these seem to be the real deal. With that being the case, I feel they’re worthy of a look. It’s never too soon to get excited about what could be in store for the future of Windows®. There is a lot of information contained in these slides, so I’m going to highlight the things I found most intriguing. The planned release for Windows® 8 in these slides is 2012, but I don’t expect that date to be a concrete one. It’s still very early in the development cycle and many of the things outlined in the slides might not make the final cut, so don’t expect them all to be concrete either. If fact, when these slides were created, they were still in the Planning phase, which comes before the Development phase. Some slides include disclaimers noting that this is only discussion and not an actual plan of record. The PCs of the Future Among the slides was Microsoft’s plans for three main form factor categories; slate, laptop, and all-in-one. They included a mock up of what a Windows® 8 all-in-one machine will be as well as a brief outline of the specifications. It’s a good thing it’s only a mock up and they’re still in the Planning stage, too, because the mock up looks like a bloated iMac. The all-in-one’s specifications call for things you’d see in many modern desktop PCs, but with a few notable exceptions. The items most of you will recognize include things that are present in many notebook systems already; a DirectX-compatible GPU, a webcam, integrated microphone and speakers, wireless LAN and Bluetooth, and of course, a keyboard and mouse. The slides claim that webcams integrated in PCs will ubiquitous by 2012. The notable exceptions include a 17 to 30-inch touchscreen display and an infrared proximity sensor. The touchscreen display isn’t so surprising as Windows® 7 has paved the way for it with multi-touch support, but the proximity sensor definitely is. Another slide discusses how this will be used in tandem with an integrated webcam to recognize users’ faces and whether or not the user has left the machine. Connect the dots to another slide that discusses the realities of managing all your online user names and passwords, calling for simplification, and your face could be the only password you need. A good portion of the form factor presentation details what using a Windows® 8 slate will be like, so you can assume Microsoft is still looking at tablet options to compete with the iPad and eBook reader markets. Delicious Apps Also among the slides is one that looks at what Apple does well and how Microsoft can duplicate their successes. They discuss simplicity and the user experience in many places. One of the ways they plan to implement this is by opening what they’ve named the Windows® Store. The Windows® Store will be basically what the Apple App Store is. As a consumer, you’ll have a one stop shop for Microsoft-approved software that, along with your settings, will follow you as you change PCs. I don’t know about you but that makes me drool a little bit. Developers will be encouraged to get their products into a store that every Windows® user will have. The application submission process aspires to be “transparent and predictable,” giving investors a little more certainty know that, if they follow whatever guidelines there may be, their products will make it to market. For me, the Windows® Store can’t happen soon enough as Windows® Marketplace is a far cry from what it could be. Help! Microsoft wants to make PCs easier to manage. They want you to understand your PC better and have the tools to fix yourself and they want to change the Windows® troubleshooting process from rebooting or reinstalling the OS to just making a few tweaks in the task manager to “restore performance.” Part of me is excited about this; I wish everyone fully understood their PCs. On the other hand, they’re trying to make me obsolete! Who is going to come calling with computer troubles anymore? What use will you have for me when you can just reset your Windows® machine back to factory settings while retaining all your data and settings? Make It Faster! Finally, it just wouldn’t be a new version of Windows® if they didn’t talk about faster boot times. Microsoft is aiming for “instant-on” and quick shutdowns. This is also tied to a section on being more energy efficient. This also can’t happen soon enough. Many people simply leave their computers on at all times because of slow boot times. Others simply must leave their systems on all the time for other reasons, and this two-prong approach will help to alleviate a lot of energy waste. There is plenty more in the leaked presentation slides to discover and if you’re interested, have a look at the slides yourself. Slides link: http://www.hotshare.net/file/269729-118718472d.html Windowsette article (in Italian): http://www.Windowsette.com/2010/06/sfuggite-slide-segretissime-sullo.html

50 arrested in smartphone spyware dragnet

Romanian authorities have arrested 50 individuals accused of using off-the-shelf software to monitor cellphone communications of their spouses, competitors, and others, according to news reports.
The Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism also arrested Dan Nicolae Oproiu, a 30-year-old IT specialist who allegedly sold the spyware for as much as $580 over the internet. Officials claim his software was available for handsets running the iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile operating systems, and came in Light, Pro, and Pro-X versions that offered varying levels of services.

According to Softpedia, Oproiu's customers included businessmen, doctors, and engineers, in addition to a judge, government official, police officer and former member of Parliament. They were rounded up earlier this week in simultaneous raids throughout the country. There is evidence that detective agencies and private investigators also illegally used the spyware.

The publication goes on to speculate that Oproiu was reselling FlexiSPY, a package that's long been marketed to people who want to catch cheating spouses, stop employee espionage, protect children, and bug meeting rooms. The Pro-X version allows a user to listen to calls in real-time, surreptitiously read SMS, call logs, and email, and convert the targeted phone into a remote bugging device that can secretly capture the sounds in its immediate vicinity.

More about the arrests are in garbled Google translations here.

एक्जुकेटिभ ल्यापटप : सोनी भायो जेड ११७

कुनै समय पर्सनल कम्प्युटरको पर्याय बनेको डेस्कटप कम्प्युटरको स्थान अहिले ल्यापटप कम्प्युटरले लिन थालेको छ । एक दशकअघिसम्म डेस्कटप कम्प्युटर उच्च अधिकारीहरूको सान बन्थ्यो भने अब ल्यापटपले सो स्थान ओगट्न थालेको छ । उच्च क्षमताका ल्यापटपको विकाससँगै डेस्कटपको स्थान ल्यापटपले लिन थालेको छ । बजारमा विभिन्न खालका ल्यापटप आएका छन् । ल्यापटपको भीडमा आफूलाई चाहिने ल्यापटप छान्न निकै कठिन बन्दै गएको छ ।
विशेषगरी आफ्नो अधिकतम समय व्यावसायिक गतिविधिमा बिताउने उच्च अधिकारीहरूलाई यस्तो समस्या पर्ने गरेको छ । उनीहरूको यही समस्या समाधान गर्ने प्रयासस्वरूप सोनीले एक्जुकेटिभलाई उपयुक्त हुने ल्यापटप बजारमा ल्याएको हो । सन् २०१० देखि बजारमा आएको सोनीको भायो जेड ११७ मोडलको ल्यापटप एक्जिक्युटिभलाई अति उपयोगी हुने कम्पनीको दाबी छ । कार्बन फाइबरबाट बनेको कालो रंगको यो ल्यापटप निकै आकर्ष छ ।
१३ दशमलव १ इन्चको डिस्प्ले भएको यो सोनीको भायो ल्यापटपको डिजाइन पनि उच्चकोटिको छ । १ दशमलव ४१ किलो तौल भएको यो ल्यापटपमा डिभिडी राइटर पनि छ, जसको मद्दतले तत्कालै डिभिडीमा राइट गर्न सकिन्छ । एलइडी ब्याकलाइट भएको किबोर्ड भएकाले राति पनि मज्जाले टाइप गर्न सकिन्छ । किबोर्डको तुलनामा टचप्याड भने त्यति आकर्ष छैन ।
ल्यापटपमा तीनवटा युएसबी पोर्ट, मेमोरी कार्ड रिडर, एचडिएमआई आउट, इथरनेट ज्याक, हेडफोन ज्याक र फिंगर रिकग्नेसन (आैठाछाप चिन्ने) प्रविधि रहेको छ । यो प्रविधिले कम्प्युटरलाई अनधिकृत प्रयोग गर्नबाट जोगाई सूचना सुरक्षित गर्न सहयोग पुर्याउँछ । ल्यापटपको दाहिने भागमा समेत युएसबी पोर्ट भएकाले माउस राख्न सहज हुन्छ । यो ल्यापटपमा इन्टेलको कोर आई ७६२० एम प्रोसेसर प्रयोग गरिएकाले यसको गति सामान्य ल्यापटपभन्दा छिटो हुन्छ । यसको दोहोरो ग्राफिक भएकाले डिजाइनिङ गर्न पनि कुनै समस्या हुँदैन । यसैगरी, यसमा तीन मोड- स्टामिना, स्पिड र ओटोपनी जसले गर्दा आफ्नो आवश्यकता र शक्ति-सञ्चयका आधारमा मोड छान्न सकिन्छ । दुर्इवटा ग्राफिक सिस्टम र तीन मोड यो ल्यापटपको महत्त्वपुर्ण फिचर हो । सामान्य काम गर्नु छ भने अटोमोड छान्नुहोस्, अनि भिडियो हर्ने हो भने स्टामिना । त्यसैगरी, ग्राफिकको काम गर्नु छ भने स्पिड छान्नुहोस् । अटोमा सबैभन्दा कम ऊर्जा खपत हुन्छ भने स्टामिनामा सबैभन्दा धेरै । यसैगरी, यो ल्यापटपले तपाईंको ऊर्जा स्रोतका अनुसार ग्राफिक्स सिस्टम प्रयोग गर्छ । भिडियो हेरिरहनुभएको छ अनि बिजुलीको लाइनबाट चलाइरहनुभएको छ भने एनभिडियाको ग्राफिक्स सिस्टम चल्छ भने ब्याट्रीबाट चलाउँदा इन्टेलको ग्राफिक्समा चल्छ । यसका लागि तपार्इंले कुनै एडजस्टमेन्ट गर्नुपर्दैन, अटोमेटिक हुन्छ । पछि तपार्इंले लाइन जोड्नुभयो भने पुनः एनभिडियाको ग्राफिक्समार्फ भिडियो चल्न थाल्छ । अटोमेटिक स्विचिङ प्रविधिकै कारणले गर्दा यसको ब्याट्री न्यूनतम साढे तीन घन्टासम्म मज्जाले चल्छ । १०८० पी एनडीको सपोर्ट गर्ने भएकाले यसमा भिडियो पनि राम्ररी चल्छ ।
सोनी भायोको यो मोडलमा २ सय ५६ जिबीको हार्डडिस्क छ, जुन उच्चपदस्थ अधिकारीका महत्त्वपुर्ण कागजात राख्न पर्याप्त हुन्छ । समग्रमा भन्दा यो ल्यापटक उच्चपदस्थ अधिकारीका लागि हलुका, विश्वसनीय एवं भरपर्दो ल्यापटप हो । यसको डिजाइन र लुक दुवै आकर्ष भएकाले सबैको मन जित्न सक्षम हुन्छ । डेस्कटपको राम्रो विकल्प बन्न सक्ने यो ल्यापटपको मूल्य भने केही महँगो छ । भारतीय बजारमा यसको मूल्य नेपाली रुपैयाँ २ लाख ८ हजार पर्छ । नेपाली बजारमा भने यसको मूल्य २ लाख पचास हजारको हाराहारीमा पर्न सक्छ ।
- नविन

माइक्रोसफ्टलाई सेन्ट्रल डेस्कटपको चुनौती

विश्वभर लोकप्रिय माइक्रोसफ्टको अफिस प्याकेज डकुमेन्टलाई व्यवस्थित गर्ने गैरमाइक्रोसफ्ट कम्पनीले नयाँ सफ्टवेयर तयार गरेको छ । अफिस प्याकेजभित्र माइक्रोसफ्ट वर्ड, एक्सेल तथा पावरप्वाइन्ट पर्छन् ।
'सेन्ट्रल डेस्कटप' नाम दिइएको सो एप्लिकेसन अमेरिकाको सान फ्रान्सिस्कोमा आयोजना भइरहेको वेब २ दशमलव ० एक्स्पोमा प्रदर्शनका लागि राखिएको छ । 'अफिस २०१० विना नै अफिस २०१० को सुविधा प्राप्त गर्नुहोस्' भन्ने नाराका साथ प्रर्दर्शन गरिएको सो एप्लिकेसनबाट माइक्रोसफ्ट वर्ड, एक्सेल तथा पावरप्वाइन्टका २००३, २००७ वा २०१० जुनै पनि भर्सनमा तयार गरिएका डकुमेन्ट, प्रिजेन्टेसन तथा स्प्रेडसिटहरू इडिट तथा परिवर्तन गर्न सकिन्छ ।
सफ्टवेयर केही दिनमै बजारमा उपलब्ध हुने कम्पनीले जनाएको छ । माइक्रोसफ्टले यसै वर्षो अन्त्यतिर र्सार्वजनिक गर्ने तयारी गरिरहेको 'माइक्रोसफ्ट अफिस २०१०' को मुख्य विशेषता यही नै हो । जसमा अनलाइन वा अफलाइन जुनसुकै माध्यमबाट पनि अफिस प्याकेजका प्रोग्रामबाट बनेका डकुमेन्टलाई व्यवस्थापन गर्न सकिन्छ ।
माइक्रोसफ्ट कर्पारेसनको नाफामा मुख्य हिस्सा ओगट्दै आएको अफिस प्याकेजको नयाँ संस्करणमा भएको मुख्य विशेषतासहितको सफ्टवेयर गैरमाइक्रोसफ्ट कम्पनीले तयार गर्दा कम्पनीको व्यवसायमा नकारात्मक असर पर्न सक्ने विश्लेषण गरिएको छ । अफिस २०१० मा हुने भनिएजस्तै सेन्ट्रल डेक्सटपमा पनि एउटै डकुमेन्टलाई धेरैजनाले एकैपटक सम्पादन तथा परिवर्तन गर्न सकिने सुविधा छ । 'अफिसिन्क' प्रविधिबाट तयार गरिएको 'सेन्ट्रल डेस्कटप फर अफिस' अफिस प्याकेजका सफ्टवेयरका लागि प्लग इनसरह हो, जसबाट सेन्ट्रल डेक्सटपको र्सभरमा भएका फाइललाई व्यवस्थित गर्न सहयोग पुग्छ ।
केही विश्लेषकले भने अफिस २०१० मा भएका सबै सुविधा नभएकाले माइक्रोसफ्टलाई कुनै असर नपर्ने विश्लेषण गरेका छन् । तर, कोहीले भने अपडेट प्रक्रियालाई भन्झटका रूपमा लिने प्रयोगकर्ताले भने यसको प्रयोगबाटै नयाँ भर्सनको सुविधा लिन सक्ने भएकाले कम्पनीलाई असर पर्ने दाबी गरेका छन् ।
माइक्रोसफ्टको व्यावसायिक प्रतिस्पर्धीका रूपमा देखिएको सेन्ट्रल डेक्सटप फर अफिस आगामी महिनामा र्सार्वजनिक हुँदै छ । कम्पनीका अनुसार यो एप्लिकेसन प्रयोग गरेबापत प्रयोगकर्ताले मासिक दुइ डलर शुल्क तिर्नुपर्नेछ ।
-नविन