Time to Hack

Google Android 5.0 coming soon in Q2

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:21:52 PST

Even as Google's Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system is yet to fully take off, the news of its successor is already doing rounds.

According to a report in Taiwan's DigiTimes,Google is readying the launch of Android 5.0 dubbed Jelly Bean in the second quarter of this year.

The report, quoting Taiwan-based supply chain makers, reveals that Google is reportedly asking users to adopt Android 5.0 and Windows 8 in the same tablet PC. Software giant Microsoft is scheduled to unveil a test version of its Windows 8 operating software later this month.

While Android 4.0 brings a bunch of new features for tablets as well as smartphones, Android 5.0 is likely to be further optimized for tablet PCs. The report states that Google plans to integrate its Chrome system functions to push dual-operating system designs.

The report further claims that Google will let vendors add Android 5.0 to a Windows 8-based tablet or notebook, giving them the option to switch between the operating systems without a reboot.

While most of the Android phone manufacturers have updated their Ice Cream Sandwich release schedules, it is yet to see how the OS climbs in popularity in comparison to its closest rival Apple's iOS 5.

Among other things, Android 4.0 offers a brand new font system called Roboto; lets users take screenshots without rooting the smartphone or installing any third-party apps and transcribes words instantly into text.

The current OS also features Android Beam, based on NFC (Near Field Communication) which allows two Android smartphones to securely exchange Web pages, contacts, media or even applications.

8 Tech Jobs Companies Want to Fill Right Now

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:27:56 PST

As the possibilities of the Internet continue to increase, tech start-ups will soon be searching for people well-versed in new information technology specializations. For those who want to beat the competition to these hot job openings, develop a solid expertise in a sector of IT — now.

Discussion with a panel of successful young entrepreneurs to predict the IT skills tech startups will be looking to hire throughout the coming year.

1. SEO Experts

Having a great idea is not enough to succeed in this competitive market. You need to be found by your potential customers, and the best way to do this is through search engine optimization. Having an expert in SEO allows you to target your core market through keyword research, and guarantees that every piece of content created enhances your brand and the web presence of your company.

- Andrew Saladino, Just Bath Vanities.

2. Data Specialists

Today’s startups are deluged with data from all sides — web analytics, advertising performance, sales data, etc., and the move towards marketing automation at many companies further exacerbates this problem. Having a dedicated analytics specialist will ensure that company data is being transformed into useful, actionable insights, instead of creating a burden on the employees.

- Arjun Arora, ReTargeter.

3. Communication Experts

While IT folks are still in incredibly high demand, it’s becoming more and more important to hire tech-savvy personnel that is comfortable and efficent in communicating directly with the client. By cutting out the middle man and bringing on IT personnel that’s comfortable with communication, you greatly enhance your efficiency and productivity.

- Matt Cheuvront, Proof Branding.

4. Dev-Ops

Tech startups will be looking to hire more dev-ops specialists. Dev-ops employees combine expertise in application development and systems administration. Because consumers are becoming more tech-hungry, and startups are using “lean methodologies” to build fast, new startups are looking for people who can combine the skills that help to scale businesses intelligently.

- Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc..

5. Mobile Developers

As more consumers shift to mobile devices, companies are going to continue wanting to exploit that trend with new apps for smartphones and tablets. This market is only going to evolve and become more and more advanced.

- Ben Lang, EpicLaunch.

6. Business IT Specialists

A lot of startups have a lot of technical abilities built in by virtue of early partnerships and hiring. But it’s not as common that a startup has business support in its DNA. That means that there is an ongoing need for IT specialists who are used to working with project management, accounting and other business software.

- Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting.

7. User Experience Specialists

Quality UX or “user experience” specialists are becoming increasingly sought after. These individuals help to streamline processes while working towards maximizing return for their clients. Mobile apps, online stores, brick and mortar stores, airline terminals, etc. — all can benefit from exceptional UX design.

- Benjamin Leis, Sweat EquiTees.

8. Cloud Specialists

For most startups, it’s no longer is necessary to build servers off of physical racks — it’s all going into the cloud. Managing a strong, cloud-based server infrastructure requires some special skills and management. I expect that a lot of startups will be looking for people who know how to user cloud services like Amazon AWS and Rackspace this year.

- Eric Bahn, Beat The GMAT.

Source:
Mashable

Microsoft's India Store Hit By Hackers

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:17:43 PST

Microsoft's online store in India was hit by hackers over the weekend and is currently offline.

Visitors to microsoftstore.co.in are met with the following message: "The Microsoft Store India is currently unavailable. Microsoft is working to restore access as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

The hack, first reported by wpsauce.com and picked up by the Times of India, occurred last night. The website was replaced with an image of a hooded individual wearing a Guy Fawkes mask - the symbol of hacker collective Anonymous - with the line "Evil Shadow Team" at the bottom.

A Chinese member of Evil Shadow Team known as 7z1 posted on his blog that he was a "patriotic" hacker.

Wpsauce.com later said that 7z1 and his partner, Ancker, accessed the site's database, including passwords. They later uploaded a file titled evil.html with the data.

In a statement, a Microsoft spokeswoman said the company is "investigating the limited compromise of the company's online store in India. Customers have been notified and provided with guidance to reset their passwords. We are diligently working to remedy the incident and keep our customers protected."

Rite now the site is showing this message till posting this blog post:

In October, Microsoft's YouTube account was hacked and advertising-themed videos were uploaded.

Google testing ‘next generation personal communication device’

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 04:09:46 PST

Google’s Home Entertainment System testing isn’t the only prototype hardware the company is putting through its paces; filings with the FCC also reveal a “next generation personal communication device” in the pipeline.

Details on the new Google gadget are sparse, though the FCC request does confirm both WiFi and Bluetooth, with the search company requesting permission to trial 102 units in different locations across the US.

Google is listed as the manufacturer of the devices, described as “in the prototyping phase”, and says that they will be connected to home internet connections via WiFi. Staff in Mountain View, Los Angeles, Cambridge and New York will all be involved, using the gadgets at work and at home. It’s also possible that the device is Google’s HUD Smart Glasses project, being tested in the wild.

Although the Home Entertainment System was immediately connected with the Android@Home, there are other possibilities for these latest filings. Google has also requested permission to test a “fiber residential gateway” including WiFi and Bluetooth wireless options as part of its 1Gbps Google Fiber project that recently broke ground in Kansas City.

This next-gen personal communication device, therefore, could be related to Google Fiber – perhaps linking wirelessly to the residential gateway, as some sort of portable Google Voice or Google Talk comms gadget – or it could be an element of the home entertainment system. Although talk so far has positioned that system as a Sonos rival, Android@Home supports a broad range of functionality thanks to the underlying app support, and personal communications could easily be an aspect of that.

Google demonstrated Android@Home at Google I/O 2011 last year; it’s entirely possible the new hardware could be prepared for the same show this year, which is expected to take place in late June 2012.

Research says Google wallets can be hacked

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:32:13 PST

Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.

Zvelo Labs researcher Joshua Rubin was featured in a video at the company's website demonstrating software that quickly figures out a Google Wallet personal identification number (PIN), provided the crook has the smartphone.

Rubin said that Google has been alerted to the vulnerability and is moving swiftly to fix it. He has not made his wallet "Cracker" application public.

"Google Wallet allows only five invalid PIN entry attempts before locking the user out," Rubin said in a blog post.

"With this attack, the PIN can be revealed without even a single invalid attempt," he continued. "This completely negates all of the security of this mobile phone payment system."

Google declined an AFP request for comment.

"Once attackers get your PIN, they have full access to any credit card information stored in the app and they can use your phone to make purchases," McAfee security firm researcher Jimmy Shah said in a blog post.

"As a user of Google Wallet, the main security you see is the PIN," McAfee added.

"What makes Wallet easy for you to use now makes it easy for attackers to use; they can now spend your money and credit just as if your phone were an ATM card."

Rubin dismissed the threat of hackers picking Google Wallets remotely, explaining that physical access is needed to get priority access to controls in a process called " rooting."

Security specialists advise Google Wallet users not to "root" smartphones, and to enable security features such as full-disk encryption and screen locks.

Google Wallet is available only on Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus smartphones. Google said it planned to expand the feature to more Android phones.

Anonymous Takes Down CIA Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:21:10 PST

Anonymous has ended a rather busy week with a hack of the CIA website, which is currently offline.

"CIA TANGO DOWN: https://www.cia.gov/ #Anonymous," the @YourAnonNews feed tweeted around 3:30pm Eastern.

The CIA.gov website has been unresponsive for about an hour. Anonymous did not release details about the attack, but the group usually uses distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to take down its targets.

Last month, in the wake of the Megaupload shutdown, Anonymous also took down the websites for the Department of Justice, the Copyright Office, and the FBI.

Just last week, meanwhile, it also leaked a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard in which agents discussed ongoing hacker cases. Anonymous reportedly accessed the call because a foreign police official who received the conference call invite forwarded it to a personal account, where it was intercepted by Anonymous.

This week, the hacker collective focused its attention on overseas issues. It leaked emails from the office of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which included prep material for a recent Barbara Walters interview. It also released emails from the legal team who represented Frank Wuterich, the U.S. staff sergeant who led an assault on the Iraqi city of Haditha that left 24 unarmed civilians dead.

Also this week, a hacker loosely affiliated with Anonymous posted code from security firm Symantec on The Pirate Bay. The hacker had reportedly demanded a $50,000 ransom in exchange for keeping the code offline, but negotiations broke down.

CEO Zuckerberg cannot build 'another' Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:20:30 PST

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, along with his three top leutinants, will get about $2 million in just salaries and bonuses, but cannot work on creating a rival to the social networking giant.

This has been disclosed in Facebook's amended registration document for its upcoming IPO, filed with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last night.

As per Zuckerberg's employment agreement with Facebook, his job can be terminated "at any time for any reason or no reason", either by him or by the company.

Besides, the company's employment agreement does not allow Zuckerberg to "assist any person or entity in competing with the Company, in preparing to compete with the Company or in hiring any employees or consultants of the Company."

Similar clauses apply to Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) David Ebersman and Vice President (Engineering) Mike Schroepfer, for the period these people are rendering their services to Facebook.

The agreements are silent on whether these people, including Zuckerberg, can help create a rival of Facebook after leaving the company.

In addition to in-cash salary and bonus, the pay package of the top four Facebook executives includes millions of dollars in form of stock options, performance pay and other payments.

Besides, the value of shares owned by Zuckerberg and many others at the company could also make them billionaires after the listing of Facebook, which is currently in the process of its USD five billion IPO (Initial Public Offer).

The company said that Zuckerberg, as President and CEO, would get USD 500,000 of base salary and up to 45 per cent of this amount as bonus every year. While the basic wage would be paid in two equal payments a month, he can "over-achieve" the bonus target pursuant to the company's bonus plan.

Sandberg and Ebersman would get an annual base salary of USD 300,000 each, while the same for Schroepfer would be USD 275,000. All the three executives would be entitled for a bonus payment of up to 45 per cent of their base earnings.

The collective base salary and bonus of the four executives stand at USD 1.99 million (about Rs 10 crore).

In addition to generally common no-conflict obligations, Zuckerberg cannot bring with him to Facebook, or disclose to any person associated with the company, any confidential or proprietary information belonging to any former employer or any other third party.

Noting that his job at Facebook was not any specific period time, the agreement says that the employment would be on an "at will" basis, meaning that either Zuckerberg or Facebook can terminate the employment at any time for any reason or no reason.

While the job duties, title, compensation and benefits, as well as the company's personnel policies and procedures, might change from time to time, the 'at will' nature of Zuckerberg's employment can be changed only after a written agreement approved by the Facebook board.

The employment agreement of Sheryl Sandberg also carries an 'at-will' clause.

Deleted Facebook photos still accessible online: Report

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:04:12 PST

Facebook has been repeatedly criticized for not respecting the privacy rights of its users. Of late the social networking has taken a number of measures in this regard.

However, the privacy issues have continued to haunt the largest social networking site. According to a technology site Ars Technica, the photos that have been deleted by Facebook users months or years ago may still be present on the site. The “deleted” Facebook photos can still be accessed via direct link. This means, a photo (later deleted) that was circulated by e-mail could possibly be still there if anyone clicks the link.

Unfortunately, Facebook has also confirmed that its older systems for storing uploaded content "did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site.” The company, however, added that it is working on a newer system to speed up the process.

Technology site Ars Technica further said that Facebook has failed to fix the problems with its systems used for removing photos in spite of a number of users pointing out this problem. “We have been working hard to move our photo storage to newer systems which do ensure photos are fully deleted within 45 days of the removal request being received,” the paper quoted a Facebook spokesman, as saying.

The spokesperson also added that the process is almost complete and only a very small percentage of users may be affected. The revelation comes days after Facebook drew heat over making its controversial 'Timeline' profile format mandatory for its users. The social networking site gave seven days to 'tidy up' their timelines by deleting pictures and posts they didn't like.

Google and Facebook to Adopt IPv6, the Future of Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:11:02 PST

The entire web is shifting their base to IPv6, the new Internet Protocol, as Internet Society is organizing the World IPv6 launch on June 6, 2012, a follow on event to the original World IPv6 day which was held last year.

Many websites and ISPs including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, At&T and Comcast have committed to enable IPv6 on their products and services from the day. Several ISPs also agreed to make IPv6 available automatically in their networks and make 1% of the wireless residential subscribers under IPv6 before the launch date.

Facebook has announced its participation in the event today. So from June 6, Facebook will support access through IPv6 and IPv4, which is the current protocol.

According to John Donovan, CTO of AT&T, "We've seen unprecedented growth in network traffic over the past several years, and IPv6 is critical to the continuation of that growth.”

IPv6, which was earlier called as IP Next Gen (IPng), will be a replacement to IPv4 which allows 2^32 addresses which is around 4.3 billion. IPv4 is currently running out of address space. Ipv6 allows 2^128 address spaces which can support billions of devices to connect to internet and it will also improve the QoS (Quality of Service) parameters in services including video and audio.

The big problem with IPv6 is its backward incompatibility towards IPv4. So network and website operators should upgrade their hardware and software to support it.

“As there are more IPv6 services, it becomes increasingly important for companies to accelerate their own deployment plans”, stated Leslie Daigle, Chief Information Technology Officer of Internet Society.

Indian Wi-Fi Networks Under Threat

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:06:08 PST

Indian computer security analysts have detected and alerted Wi-Fi users in the country against a possible virus attack that could lead to crashing and hacking of secure networks.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), country's national agency to respond to computer security incidents, has found that the "Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) contains a design error that could allow a weaker-than-expected defense against brute-force attacks, which could allow an attacker to gain unauthorized access to the affected system."

A brute-force attack, in computer terminology, is a programme that is used to crack and stealthily enter into an encrypted and password protected system while WPS is a popular method for setting up a new wireless router for a home network.

"The virus is streaming in the Indian Internet networks with a high severity. The combat mechanisms are being deployed," a computer security analyst with a government agency said.

"An un-authenticated, remote attacker within range of the wireless access point could use the PIN (password) to gain unauthorized access to the device to retrieve the password for the wireless network or change the configuration of the device.

"Failed attempts to exploit the vulnerability could lead to a denial of service condition," the CERT-In said in its alert to Wi-Fi users.

The agency also said that reports (with the agency) indicate that some WPS devices "do not implement any kind of lockout policy for brute-force attempts, which greatly reduces the time to perform a successful attack."

Source: PTI

'Anonymous' hackers briefly hijack French Elysee website

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:02:06 PST

The shadowy online hackers group Anonymous briefly hijacked the French presidential website on Friday in apparent retaliation for the US shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload.

The slogan "We Are Legion," the group's online rallying cry, was inserted into the navigation bar of the official Elysee site's (www.elysee.fr).

Before the end of the day, the site had been restored to normal.

The group's action appeared to be linked to France's stance on the US clampdown on file-sharing.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand on Friday denounced those behind the file-sharing site Megaupload.com as delinquents, backing the US decision to shut it down.

"It is delinquency, it is theft," the minister said in an interview with BFM TV, denouncing what he called the site's massive violations of copyright law.

"The truth is that they are stealing on a large scale," he added.

The US Justice Department and FBI indicted seven people for "massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works, through Megaupload.com and other related sites".

Washington wants the extradition of four of the company's senior figures from New Zealand to face prosecution for online piracy, racketeering and money laundering that could carry jail time of up to 20 years.

The Anonymous group had earlier shut down the FBI and Justice Department websites for several hours.

Chinese Supercomputer Officially Begun Operations

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:55:34 PST

China's Sunway BlueLight supercomputer, which was built with domestically-produced microprocessors and is capable of performing around 1,000 trillion calculations per second, has officially begun operations.

The computer began working Thursday at the National Supercomputing Centre in the easten city of Jinan in Shandong province, Xinhua reported.

The computer was installed in September 2011 and underwent a three-month trial period before going into official use, making China the third country in the world -- after the US and Japan -- to produce such a supercomputer with domestically-produced processors.

Developed by the National Research Centre of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology, the Sunway BlueLight marks a great technological leap for China's indigenous innovation in development and utilisation of high-performance computers, the centre said.

The Sunway BlueLight will promote scientific and economic development of Shandong in fields of ocean utilisation, biopharmacy, industrial design and financial risk prediction.

The computer will also serve as a node in China's national computing grid, contributing to scientific and economic development of the whole country.

As a product of a combination of high-density packaging and low energy consumption technologies, the Sunway ranks among the world's leading supercomputers in terms of comprehensive performance.

The Sunway BlueLight will be used to help increase the accuracy of climate simulations conducted by Chinese scientists and assist them in ocean monitoring, according to oceanology experts.

"It allows scientists to simulate water movement more than 5,500 metres below the ocean's surface," said Pan Jingshan, assistant director of the centre.

Comprising nine three-metre-high boxes and equipped with a total of 8,704 homegrown Shenwei 1600 microprocessors, the Sunway is among the 20 fastest supercomputers in the world.

It is about 74 percent as fast as the Jaguar Supercomputer in the US, which ranks as the third fastest computer in the world, although it is less power-hungry, Pan said.

The Sunway's power consumption is as low as one megawatt, much lower than the Jaguar's seven megawatts, thanks to its innovative use of liquid cooling system.

Steve Wallach, a consultant to the US Department of Energy Advanced Scientific Computing programme at Los Alamos National Laboratory, told Xinhua that the most impressive part of the Sunway BlueLight was that "most of the technology, especially the microprocessors, were homegrown", unlike some other Chinese supercomputing system which uses foreign-made processors.

Source: IANS

Koobface computer virus gang unmasked

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:50:41 PST

Online security researchers claimed Tuesday to have identified the members of a Russian gang of cyber criminals behind the Koobface computer virus which has attacked Facebook and other sites.

Facebook said meanwhile that its security team had helped knock out a computer server which controlled a Koobface "botnet" of malware-infected personal computers.

According to Jan Droemer, an independent computer security researcher, and Dirk Kollberg of security firm SophosLabs, the five members of the Koobface gang live in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In a blog post, Sophos said evidence and the identities of the five Koobface suspects has been handed over to law enforcement.

The Koobface virus first emerged in 2008, spreading in the form of messages with subject lines such as "You look just awesome in this new movie."

Users who clicked on the message were informed their Flash player was out of date and were prompted to download Flash software, exposing their computer to Koobface malware.

Koobface tricked some owners of infected personal computers into buying anti-virus software and enlisted their machines into a botnet made up of hundreds of thousands of infected computers.

"Koobface was able to perform these actions by communicating with a central 'Command & Control' server, which directed the compromised computers to do the gang's bidding," Facebook said.

"This remained the case until last March, when Facebook Security was able to perform a technical takedown of this 'Command & Control' Mothership," it said.

"Since then we have had no new sightings of Koobface for over nine months and our teams are working hard to keep it that way," Facebook said.

"While we have been able to keep Koobface off Facebook, we won't declare victory against the virus until its authors are brought to justice," it said.

"To this end, we will be sharing our intelligence with the rest of the online security community in the coming weeks in an effort to rid the Web of this virus forever," Facebook said.

IBM developing storage device of just 12 atoms

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:37:54 PST

Researchers at IBM have stored and retrieved digital 1s and 0s from an array of just 12 atoms, pushing the boundaries of the magnetic storage of information to the edge of what is possible.

The findings, being reported Thursday in the journal Science, could help lead to a new class of nanomaterials for a generation of memory chips and disk drives that will not only have greater capabilities than the current silicon-based computers but will also consume significantly less power. And it may offer a new direction for research in quantum computing.

"Magnetic materials are extremely useful and strategically important to many major economies, but there aren't that many of them," said Shan X Wang, director of the Center for Magnetic Nanotechnology at Stanford University. "To make a brand new material is very intriguing and scientifically very important."

Until now, the most advanced magnetic storage systems have needed about 1 million atoms to store a digital 1 or 0. The new achievement is the product of a heated international race between two elite physics laboratories to explore the properties of magnetic materials at a far smaller scale.

Last May, a group at the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Hamburg in Germany reported on the ability to perform computer logic operations on an atomic level.

The group at IBM's Almaden Research Center here, led by Andreas Heinrich, has now created the smallest possible unit of magnetic storage by painstakingly arranging two rows of six iron atoms on a surface of copper nitrite atoms. The cluster of atoms is described as anti-ferromagnetic - a rare quality in which each atom in the array has an opposed magnetic orientation. (In common ferromagnetic materials like iron, nickel and cobalt, the atoms are magnetically aligned.)

Under the laboratory's founder, Don Eigler, IBM has explored the science of nanomaterials far smaller than the silicon chips used in today's semiconductors. Eigler recently retired from the company but is a co-author of the Science paper.

The researchers now use a scanning tunneling microscope, which looks like a giant washing machine festooned with aluminum foil, not only to capture images of atoms but to reposition individual atoms - much the way a billiard ball might be moved by a pool cue with a sticky tip.

Although the research took place at temperatures near absolute zero, the scientists wrote that the same experiment could be done at room temperature with as few as 150 atoms.

As part of its demonstration of the anti-ferromagnetic storage effect, the researchers created a computer byte, or character, out of an individually placed array of 96 atoms. They then used the array to encode the IBM motto "Think" by repeatedly programming the memory block to store representations of its five letters.

Moreover, Heinrich said, smaller groups of atoms begin to exhibit quantum mechanical behavior - simultaneously existing in both "spin" states, in effect 1 and 0 at the same time. In theory, such atoms could be assembled into Qbits - the basic unit of an experimental approach to computing that might one day push beyond the capabilities of today's most powerful supercomputers.

"If you do this with two atoms, then they behave more like a quantum mechanical object," Heinrich said. "This is why science is interested in this work more than the technology."

In an interview in a small laboratory office here, he said he was planning to knock out a wall to create room for an expanded effort in exploring the quantum mechanical properties of the anti-ferromagnetic effect.

"This is really where we live," he said. "If you step outside of the press release, we are trying to control the quantum mechanics of this spin behavior to coax them to do whatever we want them to do."

Computer industry analysts said the IBM effort heralded a new direction for nanotechnology and that it might offer a route to new kinds of nanomaterials.

"Nanotechnology labs are going to begin asking, 'What else is going on down there?"' said Richard Doherty of Envisioneering, an industry consulting firm based in Seaford, NY. "The information storage side of this is fantastic, but this truly changes our ideas of the behavior of materials at molecular levels."

Currently, anti-ferromagnetic materials are instrumental in two different types of data storage products. They are essential for the manufacture of the phonograph-needle-like recording heads used in today's hard-disk drives. They are also used in a new type of memory chip known as spin-transfer-torque RAM, or STT-RAM, which is viewed by some as a future competitor for both DRAM and Flash memory chips.

Heinrich said that the tiny devices built with scanning tunneling microscopes would never be more than laboratory experiments. However, he noted that many research groups are exploring different ways of designing novel materials using self-assembly methods ranging from mechanical to biological approaches.

Industry executives said that as the semiconductor industry draws closer to exhausting the ability to scale down today's circuits using lithographic tools that etch patterns on the surface of silicon wafers, an intense international hunt is under way for a manufacturing technology beyond microelectronics.

"The nation that discovers the next logic switch will lead the nanoelectronics era and reap the economic rewards associated with it," said Ian Steff, vice president for global policy and technology partnerships for the Semiconductor Industry Association.

PHP vs Ruby vs Python

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:46:01 PST

The entire web world is built with a few programming languages which slightly vary in their taste and features.

The silent war between languages is strengthening with the introduction of new ones into the scenario and this also provides the programmer, a variety of choices.

An infographic study by Udemy compared 3 modern day programming languages: PHP, Ruby and Python, based on various criteria to find their priorities in the web world.

PHP version 5.3.8: PHP was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995. It is primarily designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. The design is influenced by languages like C, Java, Perl and C++. Sites like Facebook and Wikipedia is built with PHP.

RUBY version 1.9.3: Ruby was created by Yukihiro Matz Matsumoto in 1995. It was designed to make the programming simple and flexible for the programmer. Languages like Lisp, Perl, ADA, Dylan and C++ influenced its design. Sites like Twitter and Groupon is built with Ruby.

Python version 3.2.2: Python was created by Guido Van Rossum in 1991. It was designed to emphasize productivity and code readability. The design is influenced by languages like ABC, Lisp, Perl Java, C++. Sites like Youtube and Google is built with Python.

Usability and Ease of Learning

Ruby tops the usability section by its principle of least astonishment, enforced to minimize confusion for users. The most readable language, Python comes second followed by the extensively documented PHP.

In ease of learning, python leads section with PHP on the second followed by Ruby.

Popularity

Popularity is based upon the languages preferred by programmers each year. According to the TIOBE programming community index, PHP is the most popular language with 6 percent of programming, followed by Python with 3.5 and Ruby with 1.5 percent. The ranking of PHP had come down from 4^th in Dec 2010 to 6^th in Dec 2011. Python also lost 2 positions making it on 8^thwhile Ruby continues to be in the 11^thposition for the two consecutive years.

Most Discussed Language

The IEEE spectrum used the data obtained from the internet relay chat to find the most discussed language. According to the data, Python is most popular with 11 percent followed by PHP at 7 and Ruby with 4 percent. The “other” languages contribute to a 29 percent.

Marketability

The marketability of a language is measured by considering the availability of jobs and the number of developers working on a specific platform. In both the cases, PHP leads the list. According to Craiglist.com, most companies are looking for PHP developers. Monster.com also has the most openings for PHP developers, followed by Ruby and then Python. The number of PHP developers in Linkedin reach to 19,000 followed by Python at 1316 and Ruby at 720 as of Dec 2011.

Speed

Based on the benchmark tests, the languages are compared for speed in terms of lines of code and average run time. In lines of code, Ruby leads the list followed by Python and then PHP.

In the average run time, PHP comes in a range of 3.8 to 4.1 seconds, Ruby with 2.8 to 2.9 seconds and Python with a range of 1.7 to 1.8 seconds.

Source:
SiliconIndia

Phone with 15 years of battery life!

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:42:34 PST

SpareOne mobile phone comes with a battery life of 15 years, whether you charge it or not and is designed for emergencies.

It runs on one AA battery, and claims to keep its charge for up to 15 years, something unthinkable for feature-laden phones with batteries that last only a few days.

The SpareOne can be programmed for instant access to phone numbers of key contacts, including emergency services in any location.

As the phone's developer, XPAL Power, says: "It's essentially designed to make and receive the most important calls, no matter what."

The SpareOne is also able to automatically transmit its location via its mobile ID, plus has a built-in torch -- and unlike so many of today's gadgets, it even comes with the AA battery included.

The new phone, unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is designed as a 'backup' phone you can keep in the glove compartment for emergencies.

Source:
The Times of India

Symantec: parts of antivirus source code exposed

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:04:59 PST

Symantec Corp, the top maker of security software, said hackers had exposed a chunk of its source code, which is essentially the blueprint for its products, potentially giving rivals some insight into the company's technology.

The developer of the popular Norton antivirus software said the hackers stole the code from a third party and that the company's own network had not been breached, nor had any customer information been affected.

The software maker would not confirm the claim of a group called the Lords of Dharmaraja, who said that they had obtained Symantec's source code by hacking the Indian military.

Some governments ask their security vendors to provide their source code to ensure there is nothing in the code that could act as spyware, said Rob Rachwald, director of security strategy at data security firm Imperva.

Microsoft Corp, for example, in 2003 began allowing governments including Russia and international organizations such as NATO to look at the source code for its Windows operating system to dispel rumors that it had a secret "back door" built in to let the U.S. government spy on its users.

Symantec downplayed the risks, saying the exposed code was several years old.

"Symantec can confirm that a segment of its source code used in two of our older enterprise products has been accessed, one of which has been discontinued," Cris Paden, a spokesman for Symantec, said in an email on Friday.

Symantec, which reported $1.68 billion in sales in the third quarter, has benefited from heightened concern over hacking in the wave of high-profile attacks on Google Inc, Lockheed Martin and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.

A software maker's intellectual property, specifically its source code, is its most precious asset. Symantec's Norton Internet Security is among the most popular software available to stop viruses, spyware, and online identity theft.

The code that was exposed for Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) 11.0 - which is used to block outgoing data from being leaked - was four years old and had been updated regularly since, Paden said.

The code for Symantec Antivirus 10.2 was five years old and had been discontinued, he said, adding that while it was not on sale anymore it was still being serviced.

"There are no indications that customer information has been impacted or exposed at this time," Paden said.

Rachwald said it was likely that Symantec's source code had been overhauled and that there was not much in the exposed code that the hackers did not know before.

"The workings of most of the anti-virus' algorithms have also been studied already by hackers in order to write the malware that defeats them," Rachwald said in a blog on the Imperva website.

Unlike hackers who aim to get around firewalls and software protection, rivals could be more interested in having the source code to study the market leader's software, Rachwald said.

On Thursday, the Lords of Dharmaraja said on the information-sharing website pastebin that it would soon list a Norton antivirus source code package. A person using the handle "Yama Tough" posted several items in an effort to prove the group had accessed the code.

"...we are sharing here one technical documentation file from Symantec Soruce (sic) Code transferred to Indian Military Intel and located at MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) servers we owneed (sic) recently," Yama Tough posted.

Hackers developing satellite system for ‘uncensorable Internet in space’

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:00:03 PST

The threat of Internet censorship has spurred some to seek refuge in space. Hackers at the Chaos Computer Club’s Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin this year proposed an initiative called the Hackerspace Global Grid (HGG).

This initiative aims to create and freely make available satellite based communication as a fallback or to bypass stuffy legislation.

The bunch of “hobbyist hackers, tinkerers and part time scientists” are predominantly based in Stuttgart, Germany. They say their ultimate goal is to put a hacker on the moon in 23 years, but right now they’re keeping their goals small. They want to keep their freedoms safe from threats like the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), by creating an “uncensorable Internet in space.” The project builds off of an earlier idea by Nick Farr in August for a Hacker Space Program.

The BBC interviewed 26-year-old Armin Bauer from Stuttgart who is working on the communications infrastructure for the project with his team. Bauer is currently working with Constellation, which is a platform that uses Internet-connected computers for aeropsace related research. The team is developing an idea for a network of low-cost ground stations for when the project gets those low-orbit satellites up there. The stations would be there to pinpoint satellites and facilitate sending data back to earth.

Bauer said, “It’s kind of a reverse GPS. GPS uses satellites to calculate where we are, and this tells us where the satellites are. We would use GPS coordinates but also improve on them by using fixed sites in precisely-known locations.”

Three prototypes are in development, and the team hopes to have them in place in the early half of 2012. Prices for individual ground stations will be 100 euros ($129). The team is exploring other sources for time and position data such as Galileo, GLONASS and ground-based surveying, but they are starting with GPS because it is simple and reasonably priced.

As the project is in the early stages, the hackers stress that they will have to deal with problems as they occur. “We’re trying to concentrate on reasons why this will work, not why it won’t,” they say on the HGG page.

Anonymous exposes data from neo-Nazi hunt on new ‘Nazi-Leaks’ site

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:44:01 PST

Anonymous hacktivists continue to wage war on neo-Nazi, creating WikiLeaks based 'Nazi-Leaks' portal to expose data from the hunt.

Anonymous hacktivists in Germany have renewed their assault against neo-Nazis in the new year. The effort, which began early last year, was dubbed “Operation Blitzkrieg,” or #OpBlitzkrieg. Anonymous’ crusade against bigotry and hatred has mainly taken the form of a WikiLeaks-esque website which exposes information about alleged neo-Nazis.

The website is called nazi-leaks.net, and contains a number of names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of people who have donated to Germany’s extreme-right National Democratic Party (NDP), shopped at far-right websites like Thor Steiner or who written for the Junge Freiheit (Boys Freedom) newspaper. The Anonymous group has also been busy over the past weeks disabling a number of websites which have been associated with the NDP.

The list of neo-Nazis isn’t relegated to Germany either. Apparently there are names and data on bigots from many countries, including the UK, Canada, Italy and Brazil according to msnbc. Our very own ‘merica is on the site as well, with a member list from extremists groups like the Ohio White Pride, Imperial Klans of America, Blood and Honour and the American Nazi Party.

Deutsche Welle points out that the attacks are not being received well in Germany, a country that is fiercely protective of its privacy if you remember the Facebook data controversy. Apparently critics have a problem with the “misuse of anonymity” and the fact that the Anonymous attacks are violating civil liberties, though the victims may be bigots. Deutsche Welle interviewed Simone Rafael from an anti-Nazi from who said it was “good to remove the [Nazi] filth from the Net for the few days,” however, Rafael criticized the tactic of publishing personal data without permission.

The Nazi Leaks website has even drawn criticism from fellow Hamburg-based Anonymous members who believe that the Nazi problem should instead be dealt with “ridicule and education,” rather than destroying reputations. Along with it’s Nazi crusade, Anonymous waged war against ‘darknet’ hidden pedophiles in October.

Source:
DigitalTrends

Researcher claims all GSM phones vulnerable to hijacking

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:35:22 PST

Security expert Karsten Nohl says all GSM phones are potentially vulnerable to eavesdropping and hijacking that would enable attackers to send texts or make calls.

Speaking at the Chaos Communications Congress in Berlin, noted mobile security expert Karsten Nohl claims that all GSM mobile phones—that means about 80 percent of all mobile phones on the planet—are potentially vulnerable to attacks that can let others eavesdrop on conversations, as well as send texts and place calls from other people’s phones—potentially ringing up exorbitant changes to premium phone and text services. Although Nohl has not revealed the specific details of his method, he did note that hackers usually replicate the code needed for most mobile attacks within a few weeks.

“We can do it to hundreds of thousands of phones in a short timeframe,” Nohl told Reuters before his presentation. Nohl is the head of Germany’s Security Research Labs.

The exploit involves older 2G technology still widely deployed on many mobile operators’ networks. Nohl studied the operations of mobile carriers in 11 European countries using a seven-year-old Motorola phone, and was able to tap into both voice and text messaging from GSM users. Nohl also noted that, while it is possible for carriers to take steps from their GSM network’s command protocols from being misused, implementations vary widely between carriers, and even across regions. For instance, Nohl found that Vodafone’s British network was reasonably well locked down, its network in Germany was less secure. Germany’s T-Mobile and France’s SFR topped Nohl’s rankings.

A new Web site, gsmmap.org enables consumers to see how their carriers stacked up, and will soon enable interested users to participate in testing the security of their operators.

Mobile users in the United States may, ironically, be less vulnerable to these attacks than mobile users in many parts of the world since only two of the U.S.’s four major carriers—AT&T and T-Mobile—use GSM technology. Verizon Wireless and Sprint both use CDMA technology, which is not subject to this particular vulnerability.

Hackers Steal 45,000 Facebook Passwords & Logins

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:19:48 PST

A rampant worm by the name of Ramnit has stolen login and password information for 45,000 Facebook users, mostly in the UK and France. Prowling the 800-million-strong social network, the worm eats user names, passwords and browser cookies.

It also acts as a backdoor, meaning a hacker can attack any computer that has already been infected. According to the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, Ramnit infects Windows executables, Microsoft Office and HTML files. The Ramnit worm initially transformed into financial malware in August 2011, according to reports from Trusteer.

"What was once malware designed to steal data from financial institutions has evolved into a social network threat," says John Weinschenk, CEO at Cybersecurity company Cenzic. "Bank account numbers and Facebook log-in credentials seem very different, but to hackers, they are equally as lucrative."

The current composite Ramnit worm is like a Mogwai that has been hit with water, eaten food after midnight, stepped out into the sun and transformed it into a hyper-evil gremlin.

Once Ramnit joined forces with the leaked ZeuS source-code in May, the Seculert blog says it became a "Hybrid creature."That is, it took on ZeuS' financial-data investigative nature and gained access to financial institutions. As a result, it compromised online banking sessions and also attacked a few corporate networks. The Ramnit worm burrows through Facebook, spreading malware to the walls of thousands of innocent Facebook users.

"To combat these types of threats, consumers need to be vigilant about changing passwords often," says Weinschenk. "Avoid clicking on unknown links, and alert their friends to a potential malicious link they might have posted."

Facebook spam attacks like this are nothing new. A recent attack that was caused by a browser vulnerability filled users' walls with photos of the Biebs in compromising sexual situations. Not long after, football-loving spammers nailed the Facebook community forum.

Users should keep an eye on their Facebook profiles as social network worms continue spreading.

Facebook says it blocks 200 million malicious actions per day, which include messages that send users to malware. Even still, Facebook spam is growing faster than its user base.

10 New Experimental Programming Languages

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:52:41 PST

Programming is constantly evolving and to add to this, new languages are added to the bandwagon as frequently as apps being created for android and iOS. Below is a list of ten experimental languages which were developed either to make up for a shortcoming in existing code or fulfill certain requirements that were not previously addressed .

These languages which will remain a breakthrough for many more years and will suit the latest technology like mobile computing, multicore CPUs, distributed architectures and cloud computing.

Dart

A product of Google has inherited major characters of Java, JavaScript and C and is expected to reduce the weakness developed due to increase in codes while developing Web Applications. Dart is found to be maintenance free, bug free and programmer friendly.

Ceylon

Third party people from Red Hat blame ‘Ceylon’ to be the “Java Killer”. Gavin King denies their accusations as Ceylon is created only to fix the problems of java though it runs on Java Virtual Machine (JVM).Java meant for enterprise computing will see improvement and flawlessness under his support.

Go meant for easy programming is developed by Google Engineers led by Robert Griesemer and Bell Labs legends Ken Thompson and Rob Pike .The general purpose programming language is designed in such a way from developing Application to system programming. It inherits the characters of C and C++ with the modern features of garbage collection, runtime reflection and currency support.

Pronounced as F-sharp is a Microsoft language designed to be both functional and practical and is comprised of some interesting syntax which aids scientific computation to support asynchronous I/O, CPU parallelization. Its trial version is released which can also be used in Mac and Linux enabled PC’s under Apache open source license.

Opa

Opa, an open source platform has introduced a new pattern to control the Web development (said to be a web of codes for a single app). Opa will now completely discard the earlier technologies used and is available for trial use.

Fantom

Do you want to switch platforms midstream while coding on Java and .Net then Fantom specially meant for cross platform portability is the right choice. Fantom-to-JavaScript compiler is already available, and future targets might include the LLVM compiler project, the Parrot VM, and Objective-C for iOS.

Zimbu

Zimbu is a compiler, a cocktail programming language which has the properties of almost all the pre existing languages. Portability is said to be its advantage which uses its own data types and key words which said to be unique. Zimbu is fast, easily read programming language and is used to code from a GUI App to OS kernel which was created by Bram Moolenaar.

X10

IBM research developed X10 for modern parallel architectures as the rise of multi core CPUs and distributed computing blocked its way to growth. Concurrency is handled by X10 with Partitioned Global Address Space Programming (PGAS) Model whose run time code is available as similar to class files of JVM. Interoperability with java is its long term goal and now it can be used in Linux, Windows and Mac enabled OS.

haXe

haXe (pronounced as hex) is more than a portable programming language, also called a multiplatform language used in different operating environments from native binaries to interpreters and virtual machines. Developers can write programs in haXe and then compile them into object code, JavaScript, PHP, Flash/ActionScript, or NekoVM bytecode today; attemts to add additional modules for outputting C# and Java are in the works.

Cascade High Productivity Language (Chapel)

Cascade High Productivity Language (Chapel) is a parallel programming language developed by Cray which increases the programmability of parallel computers. It allows code reuse through C++ and generic programming features. Chapel is part of Cray's Cascade Program, a high-performance computing initiative funded in part by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). As quoted by Infoworld ‘Among Chapel’s goals are abstracting parallel algorithms from the underlying hardware, improving their performance on architectures, and making parallel programs more portable’.

Facebook: Hack away and win a Cup!

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:15:25 PST

Facebook launched the Hacker Cup for the first time in 2011, in an attempt to test hacking skills so algorithmic problems could be solved. Hacking, according to Facebook, is essential to how they build, as it serves to find a better solution to existing problems.

Keeping that perspective fixed in mind, this year’s Hacker Cup is open for registration, for programmers who can solve the given algorithmic problems within the least amount of time. The competition consists of five rounds, with the first four rounds being held completely online.

A 72-hour exclusively online qualification round on January 20, 2012 (at 4PM PT), marks the beginning of the competition. All registered contestants who solve at least one of three complex algorithms correctly, by January 23, 2012, at 4PM PT will move to Online Round 1.

Online Round 1 will last for 24 hours, from 10AM PT on January 28, 2012 to 10AM PT on January 29, 2012. Participants will be given a number of online problems out of which they are expected to solve a minimum of one, correctly. In case more than 500 people solve at least one problem correctly, Facebook, on its page for the 2012 Hacker Cup, said the top 500 would advance to the next round. All those who solved the same number of problems as the contestant in the 500^th place would also qualify for the next round.

The next couple of rounds are expected to be a lot tougher as they last only for three hours.

Online Round 2 will be from 1:00 PM PT to 4:00 PM PT on February 4, 2012, during which contestants are expected to solve the given sets of algorithmic problems in order to qualify for the next round. The top 100 participants who score the highest will qualify to the Online Round 3 and will be notified via email. They will also receive an Official Hacker Cup t-shirt.

Online Round 3 begins at 1:00 PM PT and ends at 4:00 PM PT on February 11, 2012. The 25 contestants who make it to the last round on March 17, 2012, will be notified via e-mail, and will be flown to Facebook’s Headquarters in California.

The final 25 contestants are expected to obtain their own passports and entry visa for their entry into the USA. Facebook, however, promises to reimburse up to $100 USD for the travel expenses and visa application fee for the finalist.

Last year’s Hacker Cup along with $5,000 USD was won by Russian “world champion” Petr Mitrichev. Anh Tuan Mitrichev won $2,000 USD for the second place, and Tiancheng Lou, a PhD student won $1,000 for coming third.

Hackers disclose Israelis' credit card information

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:16:46 PST

Hackers claiming to be Saudis posted credit card information of thousands of Israelis on the Internet, credit card companies said Tuesday, in what appeared to be a politically motivated attack. One expert played down its scope.

The Israeli Ynet news website said the hackers, identifying themselves as Group-XP, called the cyber attack a "gift to the world for the New Year" that they hoped "would hurt the Zionist pocket."

They claimed to have compromised 400,000 credit-card holders, but Israel's central bank said only about 15,000 active cards were affected.

"Group-XP is a known Saudi hacking group that seeks to propagate Wahhabism," the strict form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, said Gadi Aviran of Terrogence Ltd., an Israeli web intelligence company.

"The fact that the hackers offered the credit card details for free and admitted to using the cards in order to expand their activity and cause more damage to Israelis in the future shows that they were not motivated by criminal intent or greed," he said. "This event is less cyber warfare than cyber terrorism."

Another cyber expert, Gadi Evron, told The Associated Press that it would be almost impossible to verify the attackers were Saudi.

Evron, who once oversaw security for the Israeli government Internet provider, said the attack was "nothing special" technically and was mundane, given the millions of credit card numbers stolen online daily.

"Potentially, such attacks could be devastating," he said. "This is not one of them."

It focused attention again about potential dangers for consumers in using electronic commerce services, he said, and demonstrated how relatively simple attacks could affect an entire country.

Ynet said the information was posted on an Israeli sports website and removed shortly after it appeared. Credit card companies said they blocked Internet purchases on the compromised cards and would issue replacement cards soon.

Israeli security officials said Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency has a special unit that advises sensitive sectors considered vital to security, like public utilities, about Internet security. It recently added banks and cell phone companies.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss security matters.

Evron said Israel, a high-tech powerhouse, is one of the most frequently hacked countries in the world, though the attacks generally are not sophisticated. Many of the attacks are linked to pro-Palestinian or pro-Arab hackers, he said.

"As a rule, whenever there is some sort of ethnic or political tension around the world...you can guarantee that two days later or an hour later, for at least a few weeks, there are going to be some kind of online attacks going on," Evron said.

There have been no confirmed reports of sensitive Israeli government sites being hacked. Several weeks ago, websites of Israeli spy services and other official sites briefly went down, but the government denied pro-Palestinian hackers were to blame and characterized the event as a technical malfunction.

Source:
AFP.

Hackers attack Philippine vice president's website

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Patel) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:02:25 PST

Hackers launched a series of New Year's day attacks that temporarily shut down several Philippine government websites including the office of the vice-president, officials said Monday.

Vice President Jejomar Binay said hackers calling themselves the PrivateX group brought down his official website for 15 hours Sunday and denied access to mostly migrant Filipinos checking on his office's activities.

The website provides information on the programmes, projects and services of his office, which also serves as a portal for country's more than nine million overseas workers to air their concerns and grievances.

"On January 1, 2012 at about 4 p.m., the official website of the Office of the Vice President was hacked by the PrivateX group, which caused the site to be down by more than 15 hours," Binay said in a statement.

He said his website was hosted by the state-run Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) which had already launched an investigation into the incident.

"We have been informed that ASTI is looking into the incident and will put in place the needed safeguards," he said.

The same group had also defaced the websites of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, the anti-piracy Optical Media Board and two others run by small government agencies.

Little is known about the PrivateX group, but in a message it left on the defaced websites, which Binay's office had taken down, it said its purpose was to show how vulnerable Philippine websites were to such attacks.

The emphasis of its attacks was to call out "the government's action toward cyber security."

"We are anonymous. We are legion, we don't forgive. We don't forget. United as one, divided by zero. Expect us," the statement said.