Microsoft must think beyond the PC if it is to weather the changes due to hit in the next five years.
Read full story at http://www.nemark.co.uk
Wednesday 27 October 2010
Thursday 21 October 2010
Apple marries iPad with laptops in new MacBook Air
Apple is cashing in on the popularity of its iPhone and iPad to boost demand for its oldest product, the Macintosh. The company announced that its popular app store for the iPhone and the iPad
would soon be coming to its laptops.
Read at our main site http://www.nemark.co.uk
would soon be coming to its laptops.
Read at our main site http://www.nemark.co.uk
Wednesday 20 October 2010
Microsoft bets to win in the cloud and rival Google
Microsoft
has ramped up its battle with Google in wooing business customers with its next
generation cloud-based product.
has ramped up its battle with Google in wooing business customers with its next
generation cloud-based product.
Read more at our main site http://www.nemark.co.uk and go to the news section
Cyber attacks and terrorism head threats facing UK
Attacks on computer networks are among the biggest
emerging threats to the UK, the government has said in its new national
security strategy.
The report highlights cyber crime, alongside
terrorism and a flu pandemic, among the key dangers to UK security
emerging threats to the UK, the government has said in its new national
security strategy.
The report highlights cyber crime, alongside
terrorism and a flu pandemic, among the key dangers to UK security
read more at our main Nemark Website, http://www.nemark.co.uk
Thursday 14 October 2010
Google are developing a self-drive car!
Two Million PC infected with Botnets
Two Million PC infected with Botnets
2010-10-14
The US leads the world in numbers of Windows PCs that are part of botnets, reveals a report.
More than 2.2 million US PCs were found to be part of botnets, networks of hijacked home computers, in the first six months of 2010, it said.
Compiled by Microsoft, the research revealed that Brazil had the second highest level of infections at 550,000.
Infections were highest in South Korea where 14.6 out of every 1000 machines were found to be enrolled in botnets.
The 240-page Microsoft report took an in-depth look at botnets which, said Cliff Evans, head of security and identity at Microsoft UK, now sat at the centre of many cybercrime operations.
The research was undertaken, he said, to alert people to the growing danger from the malicious networks.
Malicious herder
"Most people have this idea of a virus and how it used to announce itself," he said. "Few people know about botnets."
Hi-tech criminals use botnets to send out spam, phishing e-mails and launch attacks on websites. Owners of botnets also scour infected machines for information that can be sold on the underground auction sites and markets found online.
Botnets start when a virus infects a computer, either through spam or an infected web page. The virus puts the Windows machine under the control of a botnet herder.
"Once they have control of the machine they have the potential to put any kind of malicious code on there," said Mr Evans. "It becomes a distributed computing resource they then sell on to others."
Some, he said, were being worked very hard by their owners.
Microsoft's research revealed that a botnet called Lethic sent out 56% of all botnet spam sent between March and June even though it was only on 8.3% of all known botnet IP addresses.
"It's phenomenal the amount of grip that thing has," said Mr Evans.
Evidence of how botnets were growing, he said, could be found in the number of infected machines Microsoft was freeing from the clutches of botnets.
In the three months between April and June 2010, Microsoft cleaned up more than 6.5 million infections, he said, which is twice as much as the same period in 2009.
The statistics in the report were gathered from the 600 million machines that are enrolled in Microsoft's various update services or use its Essentials and Defender security packages.
Despite the large number of people being caught out, Mr Evans said that defending against malware was straightforward.
He said people should sign up for automatic updates, make sure the applications they use are regularly patched, use anti-virus software and run a firewall.
Microsoft has just issued its largest ever list of fixes for flaws in Windows, Internet Explorer and a range of other software.
This month's update issued patches for 49 vulnerabilities, including one that plugs a hole exploited by Stuxnet, the first-known worm designed to target real-world infrastructure such as power stations, water plants and industrial units.
"With the significant number of holes identified on the same day, businesses will be racing against time to fix them all," said Alan Bentley, senior vice president at security firm Lumension.
"Not only is this Microsoft's largest patch load on record, but 23 of the vulnerabilities are rated at the most severe level," he added.
Article courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk
Mark Warren
Monday 7 June 2010
Google hits trouble down -under
Google Hits Trouble Down Under
Google’s StreetView team appear to have landed the organisation in hot water with the Australian Authorities recently, with police there having been ordered to investigate a possible privacy breach that occurred during the taking of its famous StreetView 360-degree photos. The allegation centred on the issue that personal data had been collected from unencrypted Wi-Fi services.
It turns out that this allegation was short-lived, as Google subsequently (and apologetically) admitted doing so, claiming that it had been done “in error”.
This begs a (to us) fairly obvious question, then; how does one “accidentally” or “erroneously” collect personal information from unencrypted Wi-Fi sources? We have all been, we are sure, in an area with a Wi-Fi device that has found unencrypted sources, but don’t we have to physically, consciously, attempt to connect and then infiltrate? We don’t know of any device, from any manufacturer, that automatically connects to such sources and then, just as automatically, collects personal data! When we consider that the StreetView team was, ostensibly, simply taking pictures, the question is then begged on a substantially higher level.
We are not asserting, here, that Google has NOT collected the data in error, but do believe that the firm needs to be rather more forthcoming in explaining how this happened, whether it happened in any other countries, and also how and why it will never happen again.
The problem of perception is hugely exacerbated by the fact that Google is a trader of information, and has admitted wrongly collecting, wait for it, information. We would have thought that the firm would be going to great pains to provide answers and assurances in order that its reputation is protected, as well the personal data of its potential customers.
Mark Warren
Nemark IT Support
Google’s StreetView team appear to have landed the organisation in hot water with the Australian Authorities recently, with police there having been ordered to investigate a possible privacy breach that occurred during the taking of its famous StreetView 360-degree photos. The allegation centred on the issue that personal data had been collected from unencrypted Wi-Fi services.
It turns out that this allegation was short-lived, as Google subsequently (and apologetically) admitted doing so, claiming that it had been done “in error”.
This begs a (to us) fairly obvious question, then; how does one “accidentally” or “erroneously” collect personal information from unencrypted Wi-Fi sources? We have all been, we are sure, in an area with a Wi-Fi device that has found unencrypted sources, but don’t we have to physically, consciously, attempt to connect and then infiltrate? We don’t know of any device, from any manufacturer, that automatically connects to such sources and then, just as automatically, collects personal data! When we consider that the StreetView team was, ostensibly, simply taking pictures, the question is then begged on a substantially higher level.
We are not asserting, here, that Google has NOT collected the data in error, but do believe that the firm needs to be rather more forthcoming in explaining how this happened, whether it happened in any other countries, and also how and why it will never happen again.
The problem of perception is hugely exacerbated by the fact that Google is a trader of information, and has admitted wrongly collecting, wait for it, information. We would have thought that the firm would be going to great pains to provide answers and assurances in order that its reputation is protected, as well the personal data of its potential customers.
Mark Warren
Nemark IT Support
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