Logging The Cyber World

Tags: 3PAR, antivirus, chip-maker, intel, mcaffe, software deal

Intel Corp will acquire security software company McAfee Inc. in an all-cash deal worth USD 7.68 billion that will bolster the world’s largest chip-maker’s computing portfolio, especially in wireless mobility offerings.

The chip-maker will purchase all the common shares of McAfee at a price of USD 48 per piece, valuing the deal at USD 7.68 billion, Intel said in a statement today.

Both the companies have a good presence in India.

In the backdrop of improving economic conditions, there have been a slew of deals worldwide in recent months. Earlier this week, computer-maker Dell on Monday had announced that it would acquire data storage company 3PAR Inc. for USD 1.15 billion.

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Tags: botnet, botnet masters, mariposa network, ring network, virus infected computers

SAN FRANCISCO – Authorities have smashed one of the world’s biggest networks of virus-infected computers, a data vacuum that stole credit cards and online banking credentials from as many as 12.7 million poisoned PCs.

The “botnet” of infected computers included PCs inside more than half of the Fortune 1,000 companies and more than 40 major banks, according to investigators.

Spanish investigators, working with private computer-security firms, have arrested the three alleged ringleaders of the so-called Mariposa botnet, which appeared in December 2008 and grew into one of the biggest weapons of cybercrime. More arrests are expected soon in other countries.

Spanish authorities have planned a news conference for Wednesday in Madrid.

Read more at Yahoo News

Tags: erasing history, internet, online tracks, privacy, private browsing

Apple calls it “Private Browsing.” Microsoft calls it “InPrivate.” Google’s new Chrome browser calls it “Incognito.” And yes, practically everyone else calls it “Porn Mode.”

Chrome’s launch on Tuesday confirmed a new feature as a must-have in Web-browsing software: a cloak of invisibility that hides the user’s path around the Web. Incognito browsing, like a similar setting in a new version of Internet Explorer released last week, is designed to erase any trace of the sites you’ve recently visited, wiping away cached pages and browsing history from your hard drive and turning off the browser’s autocomplete function, which can reveal what you’ve recently typed into text boxes.

That private mode can be used for hiding indiscretions in the Web’s red-light district, or, as Google innocently suggests, for planning “surprises like gifts or birthdays.”

Read the complete article at Forbes.com (Technology)

Tags: fedora, hacking, Linux, Open Source, red hat, security

Linux distributor red Hat has issued a critical security update after its servers were hacked last week.

The organisation has acknowledged the attack, and one on the Fedora servers as well. It says that it is investigating to see if data was stolen or malware introduced to its systems.

“In connection with the incident, the intruder was able to get a small number of OpenSSH packages relating only to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (i386 and x86_64 architectures only) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (x86_64 architecture only) signed.

More at vnunet.com

Tags: botnets, facebook worms, koobface, myspace worms, network worms, networking sites, networms

Kaspersky Labs has detected two variants of Networm that attack MySpace and Facebook users. The worms transform victim machines into zombie computers to form botnets.

Kaspersky analysts are warning users that the worms, Win32.Koobface.a. and Networm.Win32.Koobface.b, are designed to upload additional malicious modules with other functionality via the Internet. “It is highly probable that victim machines will not only be used for spreading links via these social networking sites, but the botnets will also be used for other malicious purposes,” the analyst firm said in a statement.

Complete story @ Yahoo! News

Tags: aliens, government, hackers, NASA, UFO

“One of these people was a Nasa photographic expert, and she said that in building eight of Johnson Space Centre they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. What she said was there was there: there were folders called “filtered” and “unfiltered”, “processed” and “raw”, something like that.” – Full interview @ BBC News

Tags: hackers, personal computer, security, thumb drives, usb drives

Hackers always are on the lookout for the most vulnerable spot on your personal computers. These days, that weakest link might be your flash thumb drive.

Thumb drives — which can fit gigabytes of documents, music and video on a stick about the size of a pack of gum — are a convenient way to shuffle files among different computers. They plug into your computer’s universal serial bus port and appear as a hard drive on your PC.

Their growing popularity, huge storage capacity and ability to load a computer’s essential system files makes them an inviting target for hackers, too.

ThreatSense.Net, the malware monitoring site run by antivirus software maker Eset, found that 10.3% of recent malware detections involved programs trying to take advantage of thumb drives and other removable media.

Read more from Yahoo! News