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This Depression is Great

Author: Omid Farhang Published: June 1, 2012 Reading Time: 4 min

They told me look at everything positive, so I’m gonna do it: “This Depression is Great!” I believe many of the solutions advised by psychologist out there is kind of “fooling oneself” fooling and fooling, so many stupid things in a row to do best phantasy to make hell look beautiful for the person and make him believe everything is cool and be happy while he is in hell!, that’s the reason I never wanted meet one of them, they don’t know anything about your life and then they want to decide about your life and saying what’s right and what not. ...

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FAQ: Flame, the "super spy"

Author: Omid Farhang Published: May 31, 2012 Reading Time: 4 min

Copied from H-Online: Source The spyware worm Flame is being billed as a “deadly cyber weapon”, but a calmer analysis reveals it to be a tool by professionals for professionals that doesn’t actually have that many new features compared to, say, the widespread online-banking trojan Zeus. What is Flame? Flame is the code name for a spyware program that is built to be very modular and which is also known as Flamer and sKyWIper. Flame was just recently discovered, and it will be some time before all of its components are analyzed. Anti-virus software companies estimate that Flame has infected about 1,000 computers, mostly in the Middle East. ...

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Painting a Picture of W32.Flamer

Author: Omid Farhang Published: May 31, 2012 Reading Time: 1 min

Symantec Connect: The number of different components in W32.Flamer is difficult to grasp. The threat is a well designed platform including, among other things, a Web server, a database server, and secure shell communications. It includes a scripting interpreter which allows the attackers to easily deploy updated functionality through various scripts. These scripts are split up into ‘apps’ and the attackers even appear to have something equivalent to an ‘app store’ from where they can retrieve new apps containing malicious functionality. ...

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Google's reCAPTCHA briefly cracked

Author: Omid Farhang Published: May 30, 2012 Reading Time: 2 min

H-Online: Hackers developed a script which was able to crack Google’s reCAPTCHA system with a success rate of better than 99 per cent. They presented the results of their research at the LayerOne security conference in Los Angeles last weekend; however, their demonstration was somewhat frustrated as, just an hour before the presentation, Google made improvements to its CAPTCHA system. Of the various CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) systems, Google’s reCAPTCHA is considered to be one of the most reliable for differentiating man from machine. By requiring users to enter visually distorted alphanumeric sequences, web service providers can, for example, ensure that their registration forms are not flooded by spam bots. Rather than trying to analyze these distorted characters, the script, code-named “Stiltwalker”, analyzed the audio version of the CAPTCHAs, which Google provides for individuals who are visually impaired. ...

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AVAST software blocked its services for embargoed countries

Author: Omid Farhang Published: May 29, 2012 Reading Time: 1 min

Petr Chocholous in response to Iranian users contacting avast saying they are unable to open website or update their antivirus said: AVAST Software a.s. is currently blocking access to port 80 (that effectively means websites and updates of avast! software) of its servers from following countries: Iran, Sudan, Cuba, Syria, North Korea and Burma/Myanmar. AVAST Software a.s. [and its subsidiaries/sister companies] must not provide any services in these countries because of policies and regulations that are applicable to AVAST Software a.s. ...

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Freedom is not free: Memorial Day

Author: Omid Farhang Published: May 28, 2012 Reading Time: 1 min

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” -Joseph Campbell Photo: Wikipedia.org

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Text message provider to pay out for Android malware

Author: Omid Farhang Published: May 28, 2012 Reading Time: 1 min

H-Online: UK regulator PhonepayPlus (fomerly known ICSTIS) has imposed a fine of £50,000 on a payment provider used for an Android malware-based fraud and forced it to reimburse customers’ losses. Last December, unknown perpetrators posted fake versions of popular applications on Google’s Play store (formerly the Android Market) which sent out expensive premium rate text messages. According to Android virus experts Lookout, the applications in question were based on the RuFraud malware and were customized to disguise themselves as 30-plus titles such as Angry Birds, Assassins Creed and Cut the Rope. These apps were downloaded an estimated 14,000 times, and sent out three premium rate text messages, costing £5 each, every time the user tried to open the app. Total losses to customers in the UK were estimated at £27,850. ...

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Flame worm – Iran claims to discover new Stuxnet-like malware

Author: Omid Farhang Published: May 28, 2012 Reading Time: 1 min

Naked Security wrote: The Iranian Computer Emergency Response Team (MAHER) claims to have discovered a new targeted malware attack attacking the country, which has been dubbed Flame (also known as Flamer or Skywiper). In a statement, researchers say that they believe the malware is “a close relation” to Stuxnet, and claim that Flame is not detected by any of 43 anti-virus products it tested against, but that detection was issued to select Iranian organizations and companies at the beginning of May. ...

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Facebook and Opera: Facebook Browser Is Imminent

Author: Omid Farhang Published: May 27, 2012 Reading Time: 2 min

Mashable: Are you ready for a Facebook browser that integrates the social networking behemoth into your online life more than ever? That’s exactly what could be on the way soon, according to one report. A Friday Pocket-lint report cites a “trusted source” that Facebook wants to buy Opera Software — manufacturers of the Opera web browser, which claims more than 200 million users worldwide. The Facebook browser would include default menu bar plugins, further permeating Facebook into users’ general web experience, according to the report. ...

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A technical analysis of Adobe Flash Player CVE-2012-0779 Vulnerability

Author: Omid Farhang Published: May 25, 2012 Reading Time: 1 min

Microsoft Malware Protection Center wrote: Recently, we’ve seen a few attacks in the wild targeting a patched Adobe Flash Player vulnerability. The vulnerability related to this malware was addressed with a recent patch released by Adobe on May 4th. On the Windows platform, Flash Player 11.2.202.233 and earlier is vulnerable. If you’re using vulnerable version, you need to update your Flash Player now to be protected against these attacks. We had a chance to analyze how the malware (sha1: e32d0545f85ef13ca0d8e24b76a447558614716c) works and here are the interesting details we found during the investigation. ...

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