TechBlog

gHacks: One “by-product” of the rapid release cycle of the Firefox web browser is the version number increase that goes along with every new release of the web browser. Firefox this year jumped from Firefox 3 all the way to the latest version Firefox 8, and we are not even at the end of the year. Mozilla interestingly enough plans to hide the version number in the Firefox web browser. Asa Dotzler added an entry to Bugzilla to remove the version of the browser from the about Window dialog in the browser. ...

Mashable: Firefox 6 isn’t scheduled to be released until Tuesday, but Mozilla has uploaded installation files to a FTP server for those who want to get their hands on the upgraded browser early. Although the new version doesn’t sport any major UI changes, the browser is reportedly 20% faster than Firefox 5. Startup time has been improved, especially for those with lots of tabs and groups. Users can now determine whether they want to load their tab groups when launching the browser, or load them within the Panorama grouping tool. ...

BetaNews: Google thoroughly rocked the smartphone world on Monday morning by announcing it will be acquiring Android phone maker Motorola Mobility for approximately $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility has existed as a standalone entity for just 8 months, and has produced some of the most successful Android smartphones such as the first Droidwith Verizon Wireless. Most importantly, though, Motorola Mobility holds one of the most valuable wireless patent portfolios in the business, and this acquisition serves as a follow up to the Nortel Patent auction where Google placed bids, but lost out to a consortium of bidders that included Apple, EMC, Microsoft, Ericsson, Research in Motion, and Sony. ...

Sophos Labs: Twitter users are being hit today by messages claiming to link to a new app from Twitter which will track your stalkers. However, the messages are really designed to steal your Twitter usernames and passwords. Here’s a typical message that users are seeing: Twitter finally released an app that tracks your “Stalkers” get it here [LINK] If you click on the link you are taken to what appears to be a legitimate Twitter page, asking you to confirm your username and password before the “Stalkers” app can access your account. ...

This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that Google post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights” and subscribe to the series. This week we have news from the Gmail and Google Docs teams, which both made interface changes to streamline how you use those applications. We also introduced some new keyboard shortcuts and made improvements to spreadsheet charts and functions. New preview pane in Gmail Labs The Gmail team has heard requests from many of you for an inbox preview pane, and last Thursday we introduced this option as a Gmail Lab. Now you can quickly scroll through a list of messages and see their contents, marking mail as “read” as you go. Once you enable this feature from the Labs area in Settings, you can choose between a vertical or horizontal split in your Gmail window. ...

H-Online: Officially, Adobe’s current update for Flash Player has closed only 13 holes, but unofficially it is said to have closed several hundred. Security specialist Tavis Ormandy, who works for Google, claims that he discovered 400 holes and notified Adobe of them. The specialist has now complained that, while the holes have been closed, they haven’t been mentioned in the official advisory, and he hasn’t been given credit for their discovery. ...

Posted by the Stop. Think. Connect. Campaign on Homeland Security Cyber predators are real. They use the anonymity of the Internet to target victims, especially today’s youth, with unwanted solicitations, harassment, and fraud. It’s important that parents discuss ways to stay safe online with their children, particularly before they use social networking sites. US-CERT offers the following tips for parents to help ensure their children stay safe online: Monitor computer activity – Keep your computer in an open area and be aware of what your children are doing, including who they’re talking to and what websites they’re visiting. Inform children of online risks – Discuss appropriate Internet behavior that is suitable for the child’s age, knowledge, and maturity. Talk to children about the dangers and risks of the Internet so that they recognize suspicious activity and secure their personal information. Keep lines of communication open – Let your children know that they can approach you with any questions or concerns about behaviors or problems they may have encountered on the Internet. Stop. Think. Connect. Protect yourself and help keep the web a safer place for everyone. For more information on Stop.Think.Connect., please visit www.dhs.gov/stopthinkconnect.

SOFTPEDIA: According to statistics gathered by cloud security provider Zscaler, 56.4% of enterprise users have out of date Adobe Reader plug-in versions inside their browsers. The company gathered statistics about browser plug-ins and presented the results in its “State of the Web” report [pdf] for the second quarter of 2011. “Nearly every browser is running some combination of plug-ins, add-ons or extensions. As with most software, older versions of plug-ins typically have more security vulnerabilities. This adds up to a tempting target for hackers,” the company warns. ...

H-Online: Security specialist Sophos reports that it has discovered new spam email messages that claim to be an advisory related to an update to the open source Firefox web browser. The fake advisory asks users to update their Firefox installations, “for security reasons”, and includes a download link to the supposed update. According to Graham Cluley of Sophos, the download leads to an executable file that bundles an installer for the Windows version of Firefox 5.0.1 and a password-stealing trojan (Troj/PWS-BSF). As noted by Cluley, users should always exercise caution when clicking on links in emails. ...

The Hacker News: Microsoft has announced that it will release 13 bulletins to address 22 vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, .NET and Visual Studio on its next Patch Tuesday. Another “critical” bulletin affects Windows server operating systems, and addresses a code-execution risk on unpatched systems. Also of note is an update restricted to newer versions of Windows (Windows 7 and Windows 2008) that tackles a potential, though difficult to exploit, code-execution risk. ...