[bbmf]

The variant, classified as Win32.GpCode.ae, is currently spreading across the internet in Russia.
Once downloaded, the virus encrypts data on the victim's PC. The data is decrypted only when the virus writer's demands for money are met.
"This is the latest in a series of GpCode variants and we are seeing growth in this type of cyber-blackmail," said David Emm, senior technology consultant at Kaspersky Lab.
Even though the virus is confined to Russia at this stage, Emm warned UK users to be on the lookout.
"Since we have seen isolated incidents of 'ransomware' in the UK, users should be on their guard against this potential threat," said Emm.
Win32.GpCode.ae differs from earlier variants in that it encrypts the user's data using RSA 260-bit encryption, which is much harder to crack than the RSA 67-bit encryption used in previous versions.

Source Article: http://www.pcw.co.uk/vnunet/news/215...-variant-prowl

[bbmf]

Filesharers hit back as Swedish police probe web attacks

Swedish filesharers' group condemned Sweden's "repressive" Internet laws as police searched for hackers who allegedly disabled government and police websites over the weekend.
The cyber-attack is believed to have have been retaliation for the government's move to close a website called The Pirate Bay, which allows users to share copyrighted files such as movies and music.
Swedish Justice Minister Thomas Bodstroem has emerged as a possible target after hackers redirected web users to a picture on the Swedish government website showing Bodstroem, who has been criticised by filesharers.

"He has introduced a lot of repressive legislation, which makes him an obvious target," Tobias Andersson, spokesman for The Pirate Agency which represents filesharers, told AFP while also condemning the hackers.
Sweden last year passed a law banning the sharing of copyrighted material on the Internet without payment of royalties, in a bid to crack down on free downloading of music, films and computer games. Violators can face a two-year prison sentence.
Media in the Scandinavian country also have suggested Swedish police acted at the behest of US authorities and Hollywood studios in their move to close Pirate Bay. Bodstroem has vehemently denied the allegations.
Sweden's intelligence service Saepo was heading the search for the hackers, which has led to 50 police officers conducting raids in several cities and seizing some 200 servers. Three people were arrested, but later released.

A 17-year-old told a Swedish newspaper over the weekend that he launched Friday's strike on a police website as revenge for authorities closing The Pirate Bay, but this has not been confirmed.

Source Article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060605...internetpiracy

[bbmf]

ECS and ATI show off RS600 and RD600 boards

DailyTech previously reported ATI was set to introduce new Conroe supporting chipsets in the near future. Motherboards based on the upcoming RS600 and RD600 have been sighted at Computex 2006. ECS has a mATX RS600 board at its booth—the RS600T-M. The purple motherboard has one PCI Express x16, one PCI Express x1, two PCI slots, four SATA II ports and four 240-pin DIMM slots. It looks pretty standard except what’s hidden under the silver ATI heatsink—a Radeon X700 derived graphics core. Those expecting a home theater PC board will be thoroughly disappointed as the RS600T-M lacks a HDMI output.
ATI has been showing off the new RD600 at its booth running a pair of X1900 class graphics cards in CrossFire. The new chipset is expected to have a DDR2-1066 MHz supporting memory controller capable of locking asynchronously from the front-side bus to allow greater overclocking potential. It is expected the RD600 will receive the Radeon Xpress 3200 Intel Edition moniker with its two full speed PCI Express x16 slot capability. RD600 has what ATI calls XpressRoute which appears to be the ATI equivalent to LinkBoost.
Pricing and availability is unknown at the time but expect RS600 boards to be south of the $100 range and RD600 boards around the $150 range.

Source Article: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2723

[bbmf]

New Laptop Computer, coming later this month, will also feature a 20.1-inch screen.

Source Article: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/arti...RSS,RSS,00.asp

[bbmf]

Company won't offer a barebones Media Center PC, saying it requires special training to configure the systems.

SA: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/arti...RSS,RSS,00.asp

[bbmf]

Drive, coming later this year, will be able to read and write CDs and DVDs.

SA: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/arti...RSS,RSS,00.asp

[bbmf]

Malware arrives in German spam that claims to contain an update from Microsoft.

SA: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/arti...RSS,RSS,00.asp

[bbmf]

Intel's Santa Rosa platform, which is due out in Q1 2007, supports Merom-based Core 2 Duo processors. Santa Rosa will also use a new wireless networking chip codenamed Kedron to replace the venerable Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG card. Kedron will be based on the 802.11n networking protocol and will be backwards compatible with 802.11a/b/g. The Santa Rosa platform will also feature Robson technology. Robson allows NAND flash memory to be used on the motherboard to cache critical OS system files. As a result, boot times are decreased 4-5 times that over current systems.

SA: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2724

[bbmf]

In an interesting bit of speculation, Forbes.com has posted an article noting a prediction that processor maker AMD may be looking into the idea of purchasing graphics chip maker ATI. The prediction, made by analyst Apjit Walia, is based on recent stock performances as well as the long-running idea that processor makers would eventually start looking to merge with graphics chip makers.
"The synergies of this seem consistent with the recent announcements by AMD to significantly increase capacity over the next few-years," wrote analyst Apjit Walia in a note to investors Wednesday. "We believe ATI is a rare-buy in the semiconductor space right now given the near-term tie-up dynamics."
Interestingly enough, Walia believes such a move would not be in rival Intel's best interest, citing an over-focus in the PC market and not enough interest in areas such as communications.
Folks getting ready to panic or cheer should remind themselves that the above information is just a prediction by a noted tech market analyst at RBC. However, it should also be noted that such predictions typically aren't plucked out of thin air, so the possibility is worth considering. From a Mac standpoint, it would be interesting to see the impact, if any, such a move would have on Apple's current lineup of machines, in which ATI GPUs are mostly a standard feature.

SA: http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=13524

[bbmf]

Microsoft and AMD have an agreement to jointly support flexible business models for emerging markets powered by Microsoft FlexGo technology. The initiative reflects both companies' efforts to bring affordable access to technology to consumers around the world.
At the 2006 Microsoft Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle, the companies stated their commitment to support the initiative through a pilot program that provides consumers the opportunity to purchase PCs through a combination of innovative technology and a pay-as-you-go computing model. Microsoft's FlexGo technology will also be incorporated within key AMD microprocessor products.
The pay-as-you-go computing model enabled by Microsoft's FlexGo technology allows customers to have a fully featured PC at home by paying only for the time as they use it through the purchase of prepaid activation cards or tokens. Microsoft has been running trials of the program in Brazil for more than a year and will soon be expanding to select markets in India, Russia, China, and Mexico. As Microsoft's lead technology partner, AMD intends to develop processors designed specifically to support Microsoft FlexGo technology.
AMD Athlon 64 now available
AMD has also announced the immediate availability of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 dual-core processor and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+dual-core processor compatible with AMD's new socket AM2 platform.
Socket AM2 from AMD is designed to enable next-generation platform innovations such as AMD Virtualization and high-performance, unbuffered DDR2 memory to the AMD64 architecture. Additionally, socket AM2 streamlines the work for motherboard manufacturers.
OEMs shipping systems with socket AM2 processors include Alienware, Fujitsu-Siemens, HP, and Lenovo, as well as more than 40 system builders worldwide. Through an open standards approach, AMD offers customers the ability to build differentiated solutions that meet commercial and consumer end-user needs.

SA: http://cgw.pennnet.com/Articles/Arti...p=18&cat=NEWSP

[bbmf]

http://ads.hardocp.com/Asymmetric_Ph..._CrossFire.zip

[bbmf]

[bbmf]

This article will preview Vista and give you a broad look at what Vista has to offer. Keep in mind that this is a beta and some of the characteristics detailed later on in this article can and probably will change between now and the release of Vista. Also note that this is not a full review of the OS. While we believe an overview is warranted at this time, we're not going to delve deeply into every issue due to the fact that we're dealing with a beta. To give you a better idea of what this article covers, I've included an outline of its contents:

SA: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/vistab2.ars

[bbmf]

During a speech at Computex today, Intel's executive Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager, Sales and Marketing Group, introduced products and technologies that will surround the company’s upcoming family of Intel Core 2 Duo processors.
Today’s news comes in advance of Intel’s plans to begin shipping server, desktop and laptop processors based on the company’s new Intel Core microarchitecture in June, July and August, respectively.
Chandrasekher officially introduced the Intel P965 Express Chipset, formerly code-named “Broadwater,” and said future versions, including one with graphics built in, will ship over the next two months.
The chipset incorporates Intel Fast Memory Access, an updated Memory Controller Hub backbone architecture that optimizes the system’s memory bandwidth. It also supports DDR2 memory with data transfer speeds up to 800 MHz.
Chandrasekher also discussed a future integrated graphics chipset, called the G965 Express Chipset. This product will include a new feature called Intel Clear Video Technology, which enhances high-definition video playback including those from personal video recorders and digital camcorders for sharper image viewing quality. All of the 965 Express chipsets enable users to add a second external drive to a PC for extra data protection, Intel High Definition Audio, and Intel Quiet System Technology to reduce system noise and heat.
These chipsets will form the basis of systems supporting the Intel Viiv Technology and Intel vPRO Technology platforms that will be increasingly powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Chandrasekher also disclosed that Intel will introduce the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor at speeds of 2.93 Gigahertz in July, and a faster 3.2 Gigahertz version later in the year.
Chandrasekher also said that Intel will continue to enhance the Intel Viiv technology platform with new features and the forthcoming Intel Core 2 Duo processors. He also announced that Intel recently released an Intel Viiv technology software update that helps the PC better manage and share digital media and Internet-based services with a variety of connected consumer electronic devices throughout the home. The new features will appear in PCs in various countries as manufacturers update their systems in the coming months.
For small to medium businesses, Intel today also introduced the Intel 600SM PCI Phone Adapter that allows businesses to make VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls easily and seamlessly from desktop PCs using existing telephones.
Intel has extended the energy saving feature of its mobile architecture for Intel Centrino mobile technology-based laptops by providing a sneak peek of a new ultra low voltage Intel Core Duo processor, notebook processors that will only consume a median average of less than a watt (.75 watts). Chandrasekher said the processor will be available from OEMs such as Dell and HP and resellers starting this summer.

SA: http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?06/24/23

[bbmf]

These days, with wireless Internet access, students toting laptops to class, and web-based forms for everything, security has become a major issue on campus. According to statistics compiled in the United States based on media reports, there have been 29 major security failures on college campuses since January, which compromised information from as many as 845,000 students and staff. This represented 30 percent of all reported security breaches according to ChoicePoint, a data collection firm based out of Georgia. Ironically, ChoicePoint itself has been the victim of data theft in the past.

Of course, what these statistics don't tell you is the number of security breaches that go unreported. Many large commercial firms, particularly financial institutions whose business could crumble in the face of public distrust in their security measures, often try to cover up major breaches. However, one thing almost everyone can agree upon is that university campuses are becoming attractive targets for hackers.
"There are so many examples within the last year demonstrating that these universities are just real, true, vulnerable targets," said Michael C. Zweiback, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles who prosecutes hackers. "All of a sudden, it seemed like we were adding on another university every week to look into."
Part of the reason for this is the fact that universities, by their very nature, tend to be centers where openness of information is encouraged, and convenience of access to this information is seen as a positive thing:

"Students want to be downloading MP3s. Professors want a system for general research," FBI Special Agent Kenneth McGuire said. "Whenever you have such large portals to information open, you're going to have vulnerability to attacks."
So is this just a US-specific problem, or is it happening all over the world? To find out, I contacted a friend of mine, Richard Sullivan, who is in charge of server administration for the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia, home of the first ever Unix installation in Canada. He agreed that attacks were on the rise, but did not seem to think that widespread data theft was occurring:

"What I usually see are ssh probes, but those get cut off quickly. More than two-thirds of the incoming mail is rejected as spam with a few viruses thrown in for good measure. Keeping ahead of that is a never-ending task.
The university is also very quick to detect machines that are not patched correctly (say when someone is reinstalling Windows) or are virus infected. Most of the attention and effort is expended to protect the Windows environment.One thing that I am concerned about is the recent capability for staff and faculty to self-maintain their payroll and benefits via a web-login."

So for those currently attending university or who have children who are, is there any cause for concern? Despite the ominous-sounding statistics, it seems as if universities are adapting to a new security-conscious landscape, just as the rest of the world has been forced to do in recent years. Still, don't forget to keep checking your credit card statements carefully.

SA: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060607-7012.html