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Security

Mystery Malware Affecting Linux/Apache Web Servers 437

Posted by Zonk from the duck-and-cover-like-tommy-the-turtle dept.
lisah writes "Reports are beginning to surface that some Web servers running Linux and Apache are unwittingly infecting thousands of computers, exploiting vulnerabilities in QuickTime, Yahoo! Messenger, and Windows. One way to tell if your machine is infected is if you're unable to create a directory name beginning with a numeral. Since details are still sketchy, the best advice right now is to take proactive steps to secure your servers. 'We asked the Apache Software Foundation if it had any advice on how to detect the rootkit or cleanse a server when it's found. According to Mark Cox of the Apache security team, "Whilst details are thin as to how the attackers gained root access to the compromised servers, we currently have no evidence that this is due to an unfixed vulnerability in the Apache HTTP Server." We sent a similar query to Red Hat, the largest vendor of Linux, but all its security team could tell us was that "At this point in time we have not had access to any affected machines and therefore cannot give guidance on which tools would reliably detect the rootkit."'"
Science

Teen Takes On Donor's Immune System 231

Posted by Zonk from the you-will-be-assimilated dept.
Leibel writes "The Australian ABC News is reporting that a 15-year-old Australian liver transplant patient has defied modern medicine by taking on her donor's immune system. Demi-Lee Brennan had a liver transplant. Nine months later, doctors at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital were amazed to find the teenager's blood group had changed to the donor's blood type. They were even more surprised when they found the girl's immune system had almost totally been replaced by that of the donor, meaning she no longer had to take anti-rejection drugs. 'Dr. Michael Stormon says his team is now trying to identify how the phenomenon happened and whether it can be replicated. "That's probably easier said than done... I think it's a long shot," he said. "I think it's a unique system of events whereby this happened. "We postulate there's a number of different issues - the type of liver failure that she had, some of the drugs that we use early on to suppress the immune system and also that she suffered an infection with a virus called CMV, or cytomegalovirus, which can also suppress the immune system."'"
Portables

Submission + - TuxMobil Now Offers 7,000 Linux Guides for Laptops (tuxmobil.org)

Submitted by
wehe
wehe writes: "The TuxMobil project covers all aspects concerning Linux on laptops and notebooks. The number of free guides and how-to's has more than doubled in less than three years, and more than 7,000 links to Linux laptop and notebook installation and configuration guides are now listed at TuxMobil. TuxMobil recently announced the publication of 7,000 Linux installation and configuration guides for laptops and notebooks on its Web site. The number of free guides and how-to's available through TuxMobil has more than doubled in less than three years. In the Linux community, it's common tradition to help other members by publishing free guides on many different aspects of the open source operating system. These guides and how-to's are suitable for newbies as well as experts. Most of the guides are in English, but special TuxMobil sections are dedicated to other languages. TuxMobil indexes the guides by manufacturer and model as well as by processor type, display size and Linux distribution. Almost any laptop manufacturer (more than 220) is covered. All major Linux distributions (Redhat, Fedora, Gentoo, Debian, Novell/SuSE, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Knoppix) and many not-so-well-known distributions are present. Besides Linux, the site includes sections that cover other Unix derivatives like BSD, Minix and Solaris."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - 'w00t' named 2007 Word of the Year

Submitted by bukharin
bukharin writes: 'w00t', the "small word that packs a pretty big punch", has been named Word of the Year for 2007 by dictionary gurus Merriam-Webster. Visitors to the Merriam-Webster website were asked to vote for one of 20 commonly searched words and phrases. Facebook was the runner-up. Previously honoured geek words include google (runner-up in 2006) and blog (winner in 2004).
Microsoft

Microsoft Giving Away Vista Ultimate, With a Catch 495

Posted by kdawson from the no-free-lunch dept.
Opinari writes "In case you haven't heard, Microsoft is giving away copies of Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit or 64-bit DVD), Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, Microsoft Money Plus Premium, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008, or Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 — you can choose any one. The caveat is that you have to let them monitor your use of the program."
Security

Submission + - DNS attack ushers in new era of Phishing 2.0 (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Bergkamp10
Bergkamp10 writes: Researchers at Google and the Georgia Institute of technology are studying a new virtually undetectable form of attack that exploits 'open recursive' DNS servers, which are used to tell computers how to find each other on the Internet by translating domain names like google.com into numerical Internet Protocol addresses. Some 17 million open-recursive DNS servers are on the Internet, and unlike other DNS servers they answer all DNS lookup requests from any computer on the net, making them the perfect target for would be hackers and attackers. Criminals are apparently using these servers in tandem with new attack techniques to develop a generation 2.0 of phishing. Here's how an attack would work. A victim would visit a Web site or open a malicious attachment that would exploit a bug in his computer's software. Attackers would then change just one file in the Windows registry settings, telling the PC to go to the criminal's server for all DNS information. If the initial exploit code was not stopped by antivirus software, the attack would give attackers virtually undetectable control over the computer. Once they'd changed the Windows settings, the criminals could take victims to the correct Web sites most of the time, but then suddenly redirect them to phishing sites whenever they wanted — during an online banking session, for example. Because the attack is happening at the DNS level, anti-phishing software would not flag the phoney sites.
Linux Business

Submission + - Linux Foundation's Desktop Linux Survey Results 2

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: While the Linux Foundation's third annual desktop Linux survey doesn't officially end until November 30th, the number of daily respondents have shrunk to a trickle and the Foundation is working on analyzing the results. This is an early look at the raw data. For starters, almost 20,000 self-selected users filled out this year's survey compared to fewer than 10,000 in 2006's survey. Not surprisingly, the Ubuntu family of Linuxes is the most popular among organizations, at 54.1 percent. This was followed by the Red Hat family — RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux/Fedora/CentOS) — with 50.2 percent. The Novell SUSE group — SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) and openSUSE — came in third, with 35.2 percent.
Novell

Has the Novell/Microsoft Deal Made a Difference? 120

Posted by Zonk from the only-to-healdline-writers dept.
willdavid writes "The deal between Microsoft and Novell was announced a little more than a year ago, and it's hard to judge what impact the deal has really had on the marketplace (if any). The two groups claim to have signed up 30 new customers (including heavyweights like Costco and Southwest Airlines), but it will still be some time before any real changes will be felt. 'Regardless of what impact the deal has triggered in the marketplace over the past year, ultimately it's about meeting market requirements. "The fact is that the vast majority of businesses do not want homogeneous IT infrastructures," Pund-IT analyst King said. "Instead, they want to be able to better and more easily manage their IT assets no matter what hardware or OS platforms they buy. Microsoft and Novell deserve congratulations on their one-year anniversary, but the needs of Linux and Windows customers are as much responsible for the partnership as the companies themselves."'"
Sony

God of War III PS3 Bound, Barlog Leaves Sony 37

Posted by Zonk from the heading-to-the-nice-side-of-town dept.
Gamespot is reporting big news in the God of War world today. Fans of the series will be happy to know that the company has confirmed the next game will be released on the PlayStation 3. At the same time, the company also announced that God of War II producer Cory Barlog is no longer with SCEA. "Barlog's departure remains shrouded in mystery. So far, he has shared no information about his future plans on his personal blog, where he last posted in mid-October. His exit comes just under four months after God of War series creative director, David Jaffe announced he was leaving SCEA's employ after 14 years."

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