Harry's Blog

Karbonn SmartTab 1, Android 4.0.3 ICS-based tablet coming soon in Indian market.

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:28:00 +0000

Karbonn SmartTab 1, Android 4.0.3 ICS-based tablet coming soon in Indian market.

Hot Summer Makes People Worst

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:58:00 +0000

Summer brings out the worst in people; some days it feels as if the temperature rises one more degree. A seasonal raise in violent crime may be due to discomfort and irritability, but can the weather actually drive you crazy?

It depends on how hot it is, and whether you're mentally stable to begin with. Intense heat increases the risk of dehydration, and even mild dehydration can affect the brain. As per experiment and study done with two dozen college-age men has found that a loss of 1 percent body mass via exercise-induced sweating (replaceable with three glasses of water) decreased their cognitive performance and increased levels of anxiety.

Dramatic overheating can also lead to heatstroke, symptoms of which progress from confusion and irritability to hallucinations, violent behavior. In animal models, overheating causes some neurons to become more excitable, which might underlie the psychiatric effects. Most of these are transient—cool off and they go away—but heatstroke may lead to long-term brain damage. (It can also kill you.) You won't keep hallucinating for years to come, but you might end up a little clumsy or slur your speech. Case reports of long-lasting personality changes (similar to those caused by traumatic brain injury) also exist, but this complication appears to be rare.

Easing into the muggy weather makes heatstroke less likely, this may be why sudden hot snaps have been specifically linked to increased suicide rates. In South Australia, it has been found that hospital admissions for mental disorders increased at temperatures of 80 degrees or above, with schizophrenics being at especially high risk.

Letter Jokes

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:01:00 +0000

Humorous jokes in writing a leave letter

1. Infosys, Bangalore: An employee applied for leave as follows:
Since I have to go to my village to sell my land along with my wife, please sanction me one-week leave.

2. This is from Oracle Bangalore: From an employee who was performing the "mundan" ceremony of his 10 year old son:
"as I want to shave my son's head, please leave me for two days.."

3. Another gem from CDAC. Leave-letter from an employee who was performing his daughter's wedding:
" as I am marrying my daughter, please grant a week's leave.."

4. >From H.A.L. Administration dept:
"As my mother-in-law has expired and I am only one responsible for it, please grant me 10 days leave."

5. Another employee applied for half day leave as follows:
"Since I've to go to the cremation ground at 10 o-clock and I may not return, please grant me half day casual leave"

6. An incident of a leave letter
"I am suffering from fever, please declare one day holiday."

7. A leave letter to the headmaster:
"As I am studying in this school I am suffering from headache. I request you to leave me today"

8. Another leave letter written to the headmaster:
"As my headache is paining, please grant me leave for the day."

9. Covering note:
"I am enclosed herewith..."

10. Another one:
"Dear Sir: with reference to the above, please refer to my below..."

11. Actual letter written for application of leave:
"My wife is suffering from sickness and as I am her only husband at home I may be granted leave".

12. Letter writing: -
" I am in well here and hope you are also in the same well."

13. A candidate's job application:
"This has reference to your advertisement calling for a ' Typist and an Accountant - Male or Female'...
As I am both(!! )for the past several years and I can handle both with good experience, I am applying for the post."

Sum and count IF in same Function (CountIFS)

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:36:00 +0000

This can be use more in cricket stats to identify the count of 50's & 100's made by the player, while using the countif only the value greater then 50 comes, to ignore the score more than 100's.

Formula for counting 50's and 100's :
For 50's and not counting 100's : = COUNTIFS(F4:F135,">=50",F4:F135,"<100") for 100's : = COUNTIF(F4:F135,">=100")

COUNTIFS Explaination:
The COUNTIFS function, similar to Excel's COUNTIF function, counts up the number of times data in two or more ranges of cells meets multiple criterion.

The syntax for the COUNTIFS function is:
=COUNTIFS( Criteria_range-1, Criteria-1, Criteria_range-2, Criteria-2, ...)

Criteria_range - the group of cells the function is to search.
Criteria - determines whether the cell is to be counted or not.
Note: Up to 127 range/criteria pairs can be entered into the function.

The ranges must be of identical size, and the function only counts instances where the criterion for each range is met simultaneously - such as in the same row.

Circle the Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:25:00 +0000

Circle The Cat flash game

Murphy's Laws on Women !!

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:32:00 +0000

Murphy's Laws on Women !!:

"Hope you have a good laugh after reading this.. I am quite sure all the guys will like this post.

1. Chances are - If you think that a woman is beautiful, she will always have a husband, or a boy-friend - to prove it !

2. Chances are - The more beautiful a woman is, the greater the chances that, she may dump you !

3. Chances are - The more make up - a woman wears - she may look proprtionately uglier !

4. Chances are - the man standing next to a beautiful woman and chatting with her, may not be her brother !

5. Chances are - if the woman whom you like, likes you back, she may let you know about her interest in you, after you are married to another lady !

6. Chances are - The more you ignore a woman, the more she would be interested in you !

7. Chances are - The more you chase a woman, the faster she may run away from you !

8. Chances are - The more you like a woman, the more her father will dislike you !

9. Chances are - the number of bullets in the gun owned by the father of the woman you like, maybe directly proportional to the extent of your interest in his daughter !

10. Chances are - when you get a woman to be alone with you, her friend will come to meet her !

11. Chances are - when you get a woman to be alone with you, her friend who comes to meet her, will be a handsome and very exciting male hunk !

12. Chances are - the day, the woman whom you like comes to talk to you, that may be the day when, you are most badly dressed !

13. Chances are - the day, the woman whom you like comes to talk to you, that may be the day when, you forgot to brush your teeth !

14. Chances are - the day, the woman whom you like comes to talk to you, that may be the day when, you forgot to wear body deodarant !

15. Chances are - the day, the woman whom you like comes to talk to you, that may be the day when, you have an itch problem !

16. Chances are - the day, the woman whom you like comes to talk to you, that may be the day when, you have a gas problem in your tummy !

17. Chances are - the day, the woman whom you like comes to talk to you, that may be the day when, your ex-girl friend comes to re-concile with you !

18. Only 35 % of the women in this world are supposed to be beautiful. Chances are that, it is only the balance 65 %, who may be in your company !"

My First Bowling Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:45:00 +0000

Yesterday we had match against Mohawks in the WPL tournament. My captain asked me whether I will be able to bowl today… I said yes and he said I will be bowling in the second spell. I was very excited and nervous too... since for the first time am gonna bowl in mat pitch using stitch ball for Spartans… I have bowled many times in nets but in center of the pitch this is the first time…

My team was very much supportive and they gave me a chance… the first spell was bowled by Ganesh, Kamal, they bowled really well and the match in our control… In the second spell, Guru started the over and he also bowled very well… I was asked to bowl the sixth over.

I was very nervous and excited wen I bowled my first ball… it was a gr8 experience… second ball I made a wide away the line in half… I made myself relaxed and bowled the next ball… I took a wicket in my first over with a full toss ball caught in short covers, taken by Dilip… I gave 6 runs in my first over… then again in the second over… I went gr8 and gave only 2 runs… its was a nice over…

My third over came and keeper was behind the stumps and fine leg was brought inside the ring… I made two stupid balls in the leg side and the ball went wide and four… which cost 10 runs… other than tat two stupid balls I gave only 4 runs…

Over all my performance was three overs 22 runs and 1 wicket … but I got tired after my last over and made few misfield… Finally the match was cancelled due to bad light and bad umpiring decisions.

I learned tat I need to improve my stamina a lot and concentrate more on bowling and especially fielding. A special thanks to my friends Vijay, Ganesh, Guru for trusting me and giving an opportunity to bowl.

Computer Pranks

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:21:00 +0000

Computer Pranks:

Today , I will show you 3 great computer pranks that will frustrate the victims very much.

1)Make over 1,000 folders in few seconds

Here I will teach you simple prank that will make an unlimited amount of folders in any place you want.

Step 1

Open notepad and type :

@echo off :top md %random% goto top

@echo off makes it so that it appears to be a blank screen but actually its making hundreds of folder.

md %random% is command that creating folders with random names.

goto top – return to label :top , infinite loop

Step 2

Save it as 1000folders.bat

After that you will get icon that looks as show below

People probably not going to click on an icon that looks like this picture so to make it better (funnier and easier to prank people with) make a short-cut to it

Step 3

Right click on icon and click Create Shortcut

Step 4

Right click on shortcut and click properties , then click on Change Icon and rename icon

tell the person that you found the music they wanted and downloaded it on there computer, that way they will think its a shortcut to the music and they will click on it then they will think its loading so they wont exit right away when they finally realize its not going to load or so many errors have came up they realized

somethings wrong it will be to late) also just something to know its impossible to delete them using cmd you HAVE to find all of them and delete them manually…

2)Microsoft Word Prank

Here , I will show you great microsoft word prank that will frustrate the victims very much, whenever they type a certain word, another word appears! This prank is great for office and schools.

Step 1

Launch microsoft word

Step 2

Go to Tools -> AutoCorrect Options…

Step 3

In the space where it says Replace , type a real common word such as the, and, a,I, you etc. In the space that says With , type in a crazy word such as fdgfdhkihyob45, whatever you want! Then , click on Add

3) Cool Windows Prank

This will make it to where your friend cannot click on anything on the screen.

Step 1

Take a screenshot of the desktop. You can use windows printscreen or one of the many printscreen software. I prefer to use PrtScr.

Step 2

Make your printscreen picture as desktop background.

Step 3

Right click on desktop , then click View->Show Desktop Icons

That is it , when you click on the “icons”, nothing will happen!

Excellent Short Story! ... Superb.......!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:41:00 +0000

Really very Interesting. Must Read. This could happen to u.
A short story contest in a Software Company

There was a contest in an Indian Software Company, to write a fictional story for 500 words max which would start with the line “On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Chennai station ”

This is what a guy wrote for the contest……. and surprisingly, it was adjudged the best short story.

On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Chennai station. At once I was held back to see someone in that position during midnight with no one around. With curiosity taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to investigate it. There was blood all over the body which was lying face down. It seemed that a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused the end of this body which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age. Amidst the gory blood flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was fluttering in the midnight wind. Carefully I took the blood stained envelope and was surprised to see the phrase “appraisal letter” on it. With curiosity rising every moment, I wasted no time in opening the envelope to see if I can find some details about the dead guy. The tag around the body’s neck and the jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that he might be a software engineer.

I opened the envelope to find a shining paper on which the appraisal details where typed in flying colors. Thunders broke into my ears and lightening struck my heart when I saw the appraisal amount of the dead

guy!!!!! My God, it was not even, as much as the cost of the letter on which the appraisal details were printed…. My heart poured out for the guy and huge calls were heard inside my mind saying “no wonder, this guy died such a miserable death”… As a fellow worker in the same industry, I thought I should mourn for him for the sake of respect and stood there with a heavy heart thinking of the shock that he would have experienced when his manager had placed the appraisal letter in his hand. I am sure his heart would have stopped and eyes would have gone blank for few seconds looking at the near to nothing increment in his salary.

While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see the employee’s name in the appraisal letter…hey, what a strange co-incidence, this guy’s name is same as mine, including the initials. This was interesting. With some mental strength, I turned the body upside down and found myself fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name, but also looked exactly like me. Same looks, same built, same name…. it was me who was dead there!!!!!!!! While I was lost in that shock, I felt someone patting on my shoulders. My heart stopped completely, I could not breathe and sprung in fear to see who was behind……… Splash!!! Went the glass of water on my laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to see my manager standing behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying, “Wake up man! Come to meeting room number two. I have your appraisal letter ready”.

How to Test the Working of your Antivirus – EICAR Test

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:28:00 +0000

How to Test the Working of your Antivirus – EICAR Test

Have you ever wondered how to test your Antivirus software to ensure it’s proper working? Well here is a quick and easy way to test your antivirus. The process is called EICAR test which will work on any antivirus and was developed by European Institute of Computer Antivirus Research. This process can be used by people, companies and antivirus programmers to test the proper functioning of the antivirus/antimalware software without having to deal with the real computer virus which can cause damage to the computer. Here is a step-by-step procedure to test your antivirus.

1. Open a notepad (New Text Document.TXT) and copy the following code exactly onto it, and save the notepad.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

2. Rename the file from New Text Document.TXT to myfile.com

3. Now run the antivirus scan on this myfile.com file.

If the antivirus is functioning properly on your computer, then it should generate a warning and immediately delete the file upon scanning. Otherwise you may have to re-install your antivirus.

NOTE: Most antivirus will pop-out a warning message in the Step-1 itself.

You can also place the myfile.com file in a ZIP or RAR file and run a scan on it so as to ensure whether your antivirus can detect the test string in the compressed archive. Any antivirus when scanning this file will respond exactly as it will do for a genuine virus/malicious code. This test will cause no damage to your computer even though the antivirus will flag it as a malicious script. Hence it is the safest method to test the proper functioning of any antivirus.

How to Hack Windows Administrator Password

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:14:00 +0000

This hack will show you how to reset Windows administrator password (for Win 2000, XP, Vista and Win 7) at times when you forget it or when you want to gain access to a computer for which you do not know the password.

Most of us have experienced a situation where in we need to gain access to a computer which is password protected or at times we may forget the administrator password without which it becomes impossible to login to the computer. So here is an excellent hack using which you can reset the password or make the password empty (remove the password) so that you can gain administrator access to the computer. You can do this with a small tool called Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. This utility works offline, that means you need to shut down your computer and boot off your using a floppy disk, CD or USB device (such as pen drive). The tool has the following features.

You do not need to know the old password to set a new one
Will detect and offer to unlock locked or disabled out user accounts!
There is also a registry editor and other registry utilities that works under linux/unix, and can be used for other things than password editing.

How it works?

Most Windows operating systems stores the login passwords and other encrypted passwords in a file called sam (Security Accounts Manager). This file can be usually found in \windows\system32\config. This file is a part of Windows registry and remains inaccessible as long as the OS is active. Hence it is necessary that you need to boot off your computer and access this sam file via boot. This tool intelligently gains access to this file and will reset/remove the password associated with administrator or any other account.

The download link for both CD and floppy drives along with the complete instructions is given below

Offline NT Password & Reg Editor Download

It is recommended that you download the CD version of the tool since floppy drive is outdated and doesn’t exist in today’s computer. Once you download you’ll get a bootable image which you need to burn it onto your CD. Now boot your computer from this CD and follow the screen instructions to reset the password.

Another simple way to reset non-administrator account passwords

Here is another simple way through which you can reset the password of any non-administrator accounts. The only requirement for this is that you need to have administrator privileges. Here is a step-by-step instruction to accomplish this task.

1. Open the command prompt (Start->Run->type cmd->Enter)

2. Now type net user and hit Enter

3. Now the system will show you a list of user accounts on the computer. Say for example you need to reset the password of the account by name John, then do as follows

4. Type net user John * and hit Enter. Now the system will ask you to enter the new password for the account. That’s it. Now you’ve successfully reset the password for John without knowing his old password.

So in this way you can reset the password of any Windows account at times when you forget it so that you need not re-install your OS for any reason. I hope this helps.

High Profile Twitter Hacker Arrested in France

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:06:00 +0000

High Profile Twitter Hacker Arrested in France
Questioned, released and ordered to appear in court

The hacker credited with pulling off the most damaging hack against Twitter to date, which resulted in the leak of thousands of confidential corporate documents, was arrested by authorities in France. However, the Frenchman was questioned about an earlier attack involving unauthorized access to several high profile Twitter accounts, including that of Barack Obama.

At the beginning of May last year, someone calling himself "Hacker Croll" took credit for obtaining unauthorized access to a Twitter's administrative backend. In order to sustain his claim, the hacker released screenshots and private information taken from accounts belonging to the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Lily Rose Allen and Barack Obama.

The hacker explained at the time that he used nothing more than social engineering to hijack the e-mail and password of a Twitter employee named Jason Goldman. This gave him access to information from any account on the micro-blogging platform.

"Hacker Croll" repeated the feat a few months later, in July, but on a much larger scale. Starting by hacking into the personal e-mail account of a different Twitter worker, he eventually managed to access the company's Google Apps account, where thousands of internal corporate documents and communications were hosted.

Many of those files were later leaked and published online. Private information collected from them also allowed the hacker to social-engineer his way into the Gmail, AT&T, Amazon, PayPal, iTunes, MobileMe and GoDaddy accounts of multiple Twitter employees, including the company's founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone.

The French police finally caught up with "Hacker Croll" on Wednesday in the city of Clermont-Ferrand, after an investigation that lasted several months and involved a strong collaboration with the FBI. AFP reports that the 25-year-old unemployed hacker was released from police custody after being questioned in regards to the first incident and admitting to his involvement.

"He was a young man spending time on the Internet. He acted as a result of a bet, out of the defiance of the hacker. He is the sort who likes to claim responsibility for what he has done," prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat commented for the French news agency. He is scheduled to appear in court on June 24 and could face a sentence of two years in jail.

XP Smart Security Removal

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:47:00 +0000

XP Smart Security Removal / ComboFix
 
The virus which attacked my laptop last weekend… I just removed it from the Task manager. But when ever my laptop connect to the WEB, it get started again…
I just referred some site and found that below registry code can be used to remove the same…
1. Click Start->Run (or WinKey+R). Input: "command". Press Enter or click OK.
2. Type "notepad" as shown in the image below and press Enter. Notepad will open.
3. Copy and past the following text into Notepad:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.exe]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassessecfile]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTsecfile]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.exeshellopencommand][HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTexefileshellopencommand]
@=""%1″ %*" 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.exe]
@="exefile"
"Content Type"="application/x-msdownload"
I tried the same but no use… the XP smart Security still pop-up again and irritated me… As usual my final and the best malware fix which can remove all these F$%$% things is ComboFix… I just went to http://www.combofix.org and downloaded the file and ran it in my laptop and got it fixed…
 
Main Things to be considered while using ComboFix are
1, This is a freeware and every day it gets updated, so you need the latest version to fix your laptop/desktop.
2, Its extremely a powerful program, which could even CRASH your computer. So pls be careful while using this.
3, b4 running this in your comp, don't 4get to disable the antivirus or firewall in your desktop/laptop.
4, It may take some time to clean up your system, but after the full clean up. Your system performance will be great.
 
I strongly recommend ComboFix to clean up your computer, if you have enough knowledge in using the same… 

Research Highlights Top 25 Programming Errors

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:19:00 +0000

A group of renowned security researchers led by the MITRE Corporation, also including the National Cyber Security Division (US Department of Homeland Security) and the SANS Institute, have updated their one-year-old findings, and republished the list of the top 25 most dangerous programming errors.

The list is broken down into three major categories as follows: Insecure interaction between components, Risky resource management and Porous Defenses. The entire list of programming errors is comprised of:

1. Failure to Preserve Web Page Structure ('Cross-site Scripting')
2. Improper Sanitization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
3. Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input ('Classic Buffer Overflow')
4. Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
5. Improper Access Control (Authorization)
6. Reliance on Untrusted Inputs in a Security Decision
7. Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
8. Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
9. Improper Sanitization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
10. Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data
11. Use of Hard-coded Credentials
12. Buffer Access with Incorrect Length Value
13. Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP File Inclusion')
14. Improper Validation of Array Index
15. Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
16. Information Exposure Through an Error Message
17. Integer Overflow or Wraparound
18. Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size
19. Missing Authentication for Critical Function
20. Download of Code Without Integrity Check
21. Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
22. Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
23. URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect')
24. Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm
25. Race Condition.

The list was voted during a period of ten days by representatives of various organizations, the votes being cast for a vast category of metrics, the most important being critical importance and widespread prevalence. To avoid organizations being biased to one or more errors, only one vote per organization was allowed. The nominees list was then sorted based on the aggregate scores received by each error.

The authors didn't limit themselves to only listing these errors but went on record and encouraged customers to insert special security and application anti-hacking protection clauses in future contracts, providing a draft for those interested. The researchers' conclusions tend to blame in equal part the developers and IT educational institutes.

While few IT and programming courses really tackle the subject of product and code security, the main problem to the recent recorded hacks remains the programmer's reduced security knowledge base. The MITRE report tries to offer a solution by encouraging customers to contractually force either employees and freelancers into foul-proofing their code.

“As a customer, you have the power to influence vendors to provide more secure products by letting them know that security is important to you,” says the MITRE report. “Use the Top 25 to help set minimum expectations for due care by software vendors. Consider using the Top 25 as part of contract language during the software acquisition process.”

The complete report, with technical details, code samples, detection methods, references and interpretation guidance can be found on the MITRE page or the SANS Institute page.

New Banking Trojan Discovered in the Wild

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:54:00 +0000

New Banking Trojan Discovered in the Wild - Used to perform ACH and wire fraud - Softpedia

Researchers from Atlanta-based security vendor SecureWorks have discovered a new information-stealing trojan facilitating ACH and wire fraud. The trojan has all the capabilities of malware commonly used to steal money from SMBs and non-profits.

An unprecedented wave of Automated Clearing House (ACH) and wire fraud started in 2009, resulting in small and medium-sized companies, public institutions and non-profit organizations losing millions of dollars to cyber-criminals. The problem prompted the FBI and the American Bankers Association torecommend that online banking operations be performed from dedicated computers only.

These attacks start by infecting computers on an organization's network with the purpose of stealing online banking credentials. The Clampi and Zeus (Zbot) families of trojans have so far dominated this aspect of cyber-crime and positioned themselves as the leading information-stealing computer trojans.

However, it seems other groups are willing to challenge that supremacy, especially since antivirus products are getting better at generically detecting modified Clampi and Zeus variants, which significantly reduces their success rate. The trojan discovered by SecureWorks back in January, which was dubbed Bugat, appears to be one of these new competitors.

"In mid-January, the installer for Bugat had moderate coverage (20/40), according to VirusTotal. The most commonly identified name (Bredolab) corresponds to a family of trojan downloaders. However, its runtime behavior did not match what one would expect from Bredolab. The installed mspdb30.dll file had almost no AV recognition (2/41)," Jason Milletary, SecureWorks' technical director for malware analysis, explains on the company's research blog.

Bugat is capable of capturing information entered in Web forms, altering the content of targeted websites or stealing browser cookies, as well as FTP and POP3 credentials. Additionally, the malware can function as a SOCKS proxy server, upload files from the infected computer to a remote server or download and execute programs.

The trojan communicates with a command and control (C&C) server from where it receives instructions and updates to the list of financial websites it targets. This communication can be encrypted in order to thwart traffic inspection tools.

"The emergence of Bugat reinforces that there is a strong demand for new malware to commit financial credential theft and that ACH and wire fraud remains a profitable venture for criminals," Mr. Milletary concludes. Indeed, just last week, Symantec warned of a new Zeus-like crimeware toolkit called SpyEye.

Taiwan man dies after watching 'Avatar'

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:24:00 +0000

AFP: Taiwan man dies after watching 'Avatar':

"TAIPEI — A 42-year-old Taiwanese man with a history of high blood pressure has died of a stroke likely triggered by over-excitement from watching the blockbuster 'Avatar' in 3D, a doctor said Tuesday.

The man, identified only by his surname Kuo, started to feel unwell during the screening earlier this month in the northern city of Hsinchu and was taken to hospital.

Kuo, who suffered from hypertension, was unconscious when he arrived at the Nan Men General Hospital and a scan showed that his brain was haemorrhaging, emergency room doctor Peng Chin-chih said.

'It's likely that the over-excitement from watching the movie triggered his symptoms,' he told AFP.

Kuo died 11 days later from the brain haemorrhage, and the China Times newspaper said it was the first death linked to watching James Cameron's science-fiction epic 'Avatar'.

Film blogging sites have reported complaints of headaches, dizziness, nausea and blurry eyesight from viewers of 'Avatar' and other movies rich in 3D imagery."

McAfee Will Offer Free Six-Month Subscriptions to Facebook Users - McAfee becomes Facebook's main security service provider - Softpedia

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:49:00 +0000

McAfee Will Offer Free Six-Month Subscriptions to Facebook Users - McAfee becomes Facebook's main security service provider - Softpedia:

"Facebook and McAfee announced on January 13, 2009 a partnership through which over 350 million Facebook users will benefit at no cost of a free six-month subscription to McAfee's Internet Security Suite security software. After this six-month period, Facebook users will have the possibility to extend their license at a special discount price.

Besides the free software, Facebook users will benefit from a whole range of new tools built to enhance their and Facebook's security at the same time providing a safer and virus-free environment on the social networking platform.

Users who had their account infected or compromised now have the possibility to employ a new and innovative tool developed by Facebook and McAfee, which will help them re-secure their account. Custom McAfee technology will scan and clean the user's computer before allowing them to log on Facebook again. This tool incorporates McAfee technology and will be provided at no costs for the user.

Facebook has declined to financially capitalize on its users and will provide (alongside McAfee) a series of tutorials and educational materials to help them raise their security knowledge.

McAfee was chosen as the premiere software security provider after Facebook spent serious time on a review process of major security companies. Products like McAfee SiteAdvisor (website rating technology) and McAfee Active Protection (technology for almost instantly blocking known and unknown online threats) have been critical in the reviewing process.

It is unsure whether these products will be included in Facebook's new security measures aimed at detecting and blocking suspicious activities in real-time.

Regarding this topic, Jake Brill, Facebook representative and Project Manager in Facebook's Integrity Team, had this to say, “We invest in dedicated teams and advanced technical systems that detect and block suspicious behavior. When we find a message with a link to a fake login page or other malicious website, we prevent it from being sent and delete all instances of it from the site.” He added that “We also work with third parties to get malicious sites added to browser blacklists or removed completely.”

Users can learn more on this offer by visiting McAfee's Facebook page and clicking on the “Protect Your PC” tab.

Facebook has set up a Security Page for updates and tutorials on issues and topics concerning the site's security."

Aayirathil Oruvan - Review

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:37:00 +0000

Aayirathil oruvan (ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவன்)

An another extra-ordinary movie by Selvaraghavan, The story starts with the Chola Dynasty… Last prince of Chola is taken away from the kingdom to save him from the Pandiya’s. Also with him they take the God Statue of the Pandiya’s.

The place where the Chola Prince is taken is a secret and also there are 7 major traps in the way. Andrea’s father Prathap pothan goes over and finds the Place but he gets disappeared. Then Reema Sen, Andrea, with military people and some porters, in which the Karthik is person who leads the porter’s gang, goes over to the place to find Prathap Pothan and the lost prince city. How they find the chola prince and Prathap pothan is the story & what happens to the Pandiyas Statue.

I was very much excited in watching the movie…. The first half goes on with lots of fun and excitement, the song ‘Oh Easa’ and ‘Un mela Asai’ are awesome and the picturing was excellent.

Second half totally changes the pace of the movie and there are lots of pure tamil conversations, which I very hard for us to understand. Performance of Parthiban, Reema Sen was excellent in the second half. Karthi rocks in the first half.

This movie is really a 1 in 1000 movie. No one can think like this… Must to watch... Also to be noted the movie contains all bad words in Tamil and English, also the movie can’t be enjoyed by all type of audience, mainly you can’t watch the movie with family for sure.

I liked the movie a lot… Except the last 20 mins which was little odd for the pace of the movie.

Pakistani National Response Center for Cyber Crimes Website Defaced

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:15:00 +0000

Pakistani National Response Center for Cyber Crimes Website Defaced - Hackers claim they downloaded the e-mail database too - Softpedia:

"The website of the Pakistani National Response Center for Cyber Crimes was defaced yesterday and hackers mocked the institution through a message on the first page. Furthermore, the attackers claim to have downloaded the database and emails stored on the server.

The National Response Center for Cyber Crimes (NR3C) is operated by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Pakistan's equivalent of the FBI. The NR3C is similar to the FBI's Internet Crime Complain Center (IC3) as it provides a single point of contact for organizations to report matters related to cyber-crime. It also offers information security training to government, as well as private sector organizations.

The attack was claimed by someone associated with a hacking group called 'PAKbugs.' According to Web defacement archive Zone-H, during 2009, this group was responsible for similar attacks against 1,720 websites, some of them belonging to the Pakistani government.

'Your whole database and e-mails are leaked .... i was really excited to read, see what the [expletive] is private in here lOl,' part of the message left on the NR3C reads. 'I Guess, Federal Investigation Dept of Pakistan is in Wrong, Untalented Hands !!' the hacker says.

In a post on the pakbugs.com forum, a user named ZombiE_KsA, who identifies himself as one of the founders of the PAKbugs-Crew, has posted some screenshots to substantiate his claims. One of the pictures shows him logged into the cPanel Webmail administration interface on nr3c.gov.pk. Zone-H attributes a total of 168 defacements to ZombiE_KsA, out of which 62 are on high-profile websites.

'It seems that from an amateur penetration test a hacker has access at least to the full email database and possibly the backups, of a National Response Center for Cyber Crimes in a highly politically sensitive country. […] To say this hack has national security implications would not be overstating the matter,' writes Rik Ferguson, solutions architect at antivirus vendor Trend Micro.

It is worth pointing out that pakbugs.com was hacked too, back in September 2009. At the time, an unknown hacker made public a list containing the usernames, e-mail addresses and hashed passwords of all forum members. The PAKbugs forum is a well known cyber-crime hub where people exchange illegal information and programs."

Zoozoo Calender

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:57:00 +0000

Zoo zoo Official Calender - Nice one

Zoozoo Calender

Twitter Decides to Take Password Security Seriously

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:12:00 +0000

Twitter Decides to Take Password Security Seriously - Bans the use of 370 common words as access codes - Softpedia:

"Twitter has hard-coded some 370 words in its sign-up page that are not allowed to be used as passwords for new accounts. The list is a good addition to the password strength algorithm already implemented, but it raises several questions about its source.

There is no secret that many Internet users still employ dictionary words and easy to guess names as passwords, even for their important accounts. Back in September, we reported that an analysis performed by a security enthusiast on a database of over 850,000 accounts revealed highly insecure passwords habits.

The aforementioned study showed that 3.5% percent of people used their first name as password, while 1.6% used their last one. The notorious '123456' string was chosen by 2% of users and 0.5% settled for 'password' as their access code. Fortunately, Twitter's list of banned passwords includes both of them.

Rejected password on Twitter sign-up form
Enlarge picture
In addition to common dictionary words, the list also includes the names of popular TV shows, characters, sports teams, brands, places. However, security researchers note that it is quite different from other similar lists used for brute force attacks.

'It's not clear yet where the folks at Twitter got their list of banned passwords from but it occurred to me that it might be interesting to compare it to another list of common passwords, this time a list that the bad guys are using, the 246 passwords used by Conficker,' wrote Richard Wang of SophosLabs US. The result was that the two lists only have 29 passwords in common.

After removing the strings under six characters from the Conficker list, which wouldn't be accepted as passwords on Twitter by default, the researcher concludes that there are still '117 passwords that malware authors think are common but apparently Twitter does not.'

Others like TechCrunch, which reported about the list, wondered if the company compiled it by analyzing the history of password use on its own service. If that was the case, then they missed at least one, which they most certainly shouldn't have - 'happiness.'

This word was used for authentication by a Twitter support staffer named 'Crystal,' whose account was compromised through brute force by an 18-year-old hacker at the beginning of this year. This allowed the attacker to hijack 33 high profile Twitter accounts, including the ones of Britney Spears, Barack Obama, Rick Sanchez, or Fox News. Ironically though, the word 'crystal' made it to Twitter's list.

The complete list can be viewed by searching the source code of Twitter's sign-up page for 'twttr.BANNED_PASSWORDS.'"

Talented Programmer Gets Two-Year Prison Sentence in TJX Case

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:43:00 +0000

Talented Programmer Gets Two-Year Prison Sentence in TJX Case - For supplying the credit card theft gang with special software:

"Stephen Watt, a 25-year-old software developer, was sentenced to two years in a federal prison for the role he played in the TJX hit, one of the largest credit card thefts in history. The programmer was also ordered to pay the company $171.5 million in restitution for the harm caused.

The man befriended notorious hacker Albert Gonzales, the mastermind behind the TJX attack, while he was still in highschool. The two met online and were driven by their passion for computers. The programmer went on to work as software engineer for financial institutions dealing in the securities market, including Morgan Stanley.

Watt assisted Gonzales and his friends by creating a hacking program called 'blabla,' which was used to sniff out credit card information passing through the TJX computer network. This program was found by authorities on two separate servers in Latvia and Ukraine, along with the stolen details of millions of credit cards.

The programmer was indicted in November 2008, and the prosecutors said that 'On diverse dates, Watt modified for Albert Gonzales and provided him a sniffer program used by the conspirators to monitor and capture data traveling across corporate networks.' According to Wired, when authorities caught up with him, Watt worked at Imagine Software, a company developing real-time trading programs, where he earned around $130,000 per year.

The hit on TJX, or 'Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin' as Gonzales himself called it, involved stealing credit card information from the networks of major retail stores like T.J. Maxx, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority or Forever 21. The authorities called it 'the largest identity theft in our nation’s history' and TJX, the parent company of the retail chains, estimated its losses at $200 million.

Albert Gonzales, who at one time operated as an informant for the Secret Service, is also awaiting sentencing and could face as much as 17 years in prison for his role in the operation."

Unhide Friend in FaceBook

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:40:00 +0000

      
In FaceBook
  
Go down to the bottom, where it says "Show older posts", near that click the link "Edit Options."
  
Click on that and it should pop up any hidden friends, ask if you want to add them back to your news feed.
Just hit yes and you should be able to view the feeds from the friends too.

Heartland Settles with AMEX for $3.6 Million

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:55:00 +0000

Heartland Settles with AMEX for $3.6 Million - CEO calls the agreement equitable - Softpedia:

"Heartland Payment Systems has reached a settlement with American Express, following the major security breach suffered by the company last year. According to the agreement, the payment processor will pay $3.6 million to the card brand.

Heartland Payment Systems is a Princeton-based provider of payment processing services for over 250,000 companies. In January 2009, it announced that its computer network had been breached and transaction data including credit card details had been stolen. The company found data sniffing applications installed on its computer systems during a 2008 audit.

In March, Visa removed Heartland from its list of providers compliant with the payment industry's security standards, PCI DSS. The firm has worked hard to get re-certified and has since been an active advocate for the use of end-to-end encryption across the payment industry.

Heartland's CEO, Robert Carr, previously announced that the company had set aside $12.6 million to be used to cover all costs related to the incident. This latest settlement with AMEX will be paid off from that reserve. Over half of the sum was claimed by Mastercard alone, but Carr noted at the time that it would challenge their fines in court. Meanwhile, Visa only fined the company for $1 million.

'We are pleased to have reached an equitable settlement with American Express,' commented Carr. 'This settlement marks the first agreement with a card brand related to the intrusion,' he added. The sum resolves all intrusion-related issues between the two parties, such as the costs incurred by AMEX to cancel and re-issue millions of credit cards.

It has also faced a class-action lawsuit filed by shareholders, who claimed that the management had lied about the state of security at the company in a conference call following the incident. The lawsuit was dismissed this month by Judge Anne Thompson of the New Jersey U.S. District Court."

German Government to Help Rid Computers of Malware

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:46:00 +0000

German Government to Help Rid Computers of Malware - ISPs will identify infected customers and direct them to a special website - Softpedia:

"The German government plans to launch a major botnet-cleaning operation in the country in 2010. ISPs will identify and contact the owners of infected computers and a specialized call center will be created to offer assistance with cleaning the malware.

The project is a joint initiative of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and eco, the Association of the German Internet Industry. The plan was announced on December 8, during the fourth national IT-Summit in Stuttgart and the advisory center is scheduled to go live in 2010.

The strategy is aimed at moving Germany out of the top 10 countries harboring malware. According to recent studies, the country currently occupies the third spot on a list that ranks countries by the number of infected hosts and the planners estimate that one in four German computers is currently infected.

If the project becomes a reality, the German ISPs will take it upon themselves to detect infected computers, most likely by watching connections to known botnet command and control servers. The owners of the compromised systems will first be notified via telephone or post and directed to a special website, which contains tools and advice for removing malware.

If the user fails to resolve the problem using the information on this website, they will receive a code to use when calling a specialized call center. This center will be funded by the government and will employ 40 IT specialists. No costs have been revealed so far.

The plan raises some concerns, as it is illegal in Germany to intercept Internet communications. However, the country's Telecommunications Act does allow ISPs to do it if the traffic represents a threat to their systems. Some bloggers go as far as calling it a subsidy for Microsoft, because it discourages users from looking into more secure operating systems such as Linux.

ISPs taking a pro-active role in the fight against malware is seen as something good by the infosec community, which has long criticized their passive approaches. Comcast, one of the largest Internet providers in the U.S. is testing an in-browser notification system, which automatically alerts infected customers and directs them to a website with malware-cleaning instructions and tools."

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High Profile Twitter Hacker Arrested in France

High Profile Twitter Hacker Arrested in FranceQuestioned, released and ordered to appear in court

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McAfee Will Offer Free Six-Month Subscriptions to Facebook Users - McAfee becomes Facebook's main security service provider - Softpedia

Aayirathil Oruvan - Review

Pakistani National Response Center for Cyber Crimes Website Defaced

Zoozoo Calender

Twitter Decides to Take Password Security Seriously

Talented Programmer Gets Two-Year Prison Sentence in TJX Case

Unhide Friend in FaceBook

Heartland Settles with AMEX for $3.6 Million

German Government to Help Rid Computers of Malware

High Profile Twitter Hacker Arrested in France
Questioned, released and ordered to appear in court