TechBlog

SophosLabs: Steve Jobs has now done what many of us thought would happen sooner or later – stepped off the very prestigious CEO plinth, taking a less taxing role as chairman of the Apple board. The new CEO will be Jobs’ right-hand man Tim Cook. Despite Jobs having been on medical leave since January this year, the markets were all a tumble once the news of his resignation hit the markets, with Apple share prices dipping at one point by 5%. ...

Java™ SE 6 Update 27 The full internal version number for this update release is 1.6.0_27-b07 (where “b” means “build”). The external version number is 6u27. Highlights This update release contains important enhancements for Java applications: Improved performance and stability Certification for Firefox 5 Update release notes: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/6u27-relnotes-444147.html Complete bug fix list: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/2col/6u27bugfixes-444150.html

Windows 8 News Blog: The recently created Building Windows 8 blog seems to be up in full swing, with new articles about the upcoming operating system being released regularly. Steven Sinofsky revealed in “Improving our file management basics: copy, move, rename, and delete” that Microsoft intents to improve file management processes under Windows 8. According to Steven, Microsoft had three goals to improve the copy experience: One place to manage all copy jobs: Create one unified experience for managing and monitoring ongoing copy operations. Clear and concise: Remove distractions and give people the key information they need. User in control: Put people in control of their copy operations. Consolidating the copy experience is a great idea. This means that you won’t have to deal with multiple copying windows when you run multiple copy or move operations in the operating system. All copy jobs are now consolidated in one screen. ...

This article is originally posted at Norman Security Blog, Credit to my friend ‘Pondus’ for sharing. Introduction During recent months, we have seen several examples of attempts and suggestions to restrict access to different types of net resources, and in some cases the Internet itself. Is this a method that accomplishes its end, or is it more of a “shooting the messenger” type of action? We shall give some examples and discuss different issues in this article. ...

H-Online: The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is warning of online shops which infect users with malicious software by exploiting security vulnerabilities in the user’s browser, operating system or applications. The affected shops have themselves been hacked by attackers exploiting security vulnerabilities in outdated versions of open source online shop software osCommerce. As reported by The H two weeks ago, osCommerce shops are currently being hacked en masse. The vulnerabilities used for the hack were fixed in November last year with the release of osCommerce 2.3, but many companies running online shops have yet to update to a secure version. ...

Google Operating System Blog: Google found a way to solve the problem of Android patents and it’s only three times more expensive than acquiring the Nortel patents: buying Motorola for $12.5 billion. “Motorola has a history of over 80 years of innovation in communications technology and products, and in the development of intellectual property, which have helped drive the remarkable revolution in mobile computing we are all enjoying today. (…) In 2008, Motorola bet big on Android as the sole operating system across all of its smartphone devices. It was a smart bet and we’re thrilled at the success they’ve achieved so far,” says Google’s CEO, Larry Page. ...

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. ...