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Security

Submission + - Nearly a third of all computers are infected with malware (net-security.org)

Orome1 writes: "PandaLabs released its annual security report which details an extremely interesting year of data theft, social networking attacks and cyber-warfare. The most devastating news? 31.98 percent of all computers scanned around the world had malware. In 2012, Trojans dominated the threat landscape more than ever before. Three out of every four malware infections were caused by Trojans (76.56 percent). One of the reasons for this growth was the increased use of exploit kits such as Black Hole, which are capable of exploiting multiple system vulnerabilities to infect computers automatically without user intervention. Viruses came second (8 percent), whereas worms dropped to third place accounting for 6.44 percent of all infections."
IT

Submission + - Kaspersky outage 2-4-2013. Update causes XP machines to drop off Internet (kaspersky.com)

DrStoooopid writes: "At approximately 5pm EST on 2/4/2013, a virus engine update caused the majority of XP machines worldwide to spontaneously drop off the internet.

A poorly executed update failed to cater to the numerous Windows XP computers all over the world. Call volumes were so intense that Kaspersky's phone systems ground to a screeching halt.

A new patch was pushed the following morning forcing many IT employees to physically touch all the machines in their care, rather than use the administration kit to deploy the new patch."

Crime

Submission + - Cybercrime ring stole $200M, invented 7,000 fake IDs, thousands of credit cards (networkworld.com) 1

coondoggie writes: "The FBI today said it broke up what it called one of the largest credit card, cyber-fraud schemes in its history — a $200M scam that created more than 7,000 false identities and tens of thousands of fake credit cards. The FBI said it arrested 13 people involved in the scam the agency said maintained more than 1,800 "drop addresses," located across the country including houses, apartments, and post office boxes, which they used as the mailing addresses of the false identities."
Medicine

Submission + - New anatomical structure discovered and described in human spine (utexas.edu)

mkortsha writes: Researchers at The University of California, San Francisco have discovered a new anatomical feature of the human spine. Using micro-CT imaging technology the scientists were able to clearly image the presence of a secondary endplate layer in some spinal specimens. The double layer appears to provide additional support to the spinal endplate, which may help protect the vertebral body in case of endplate damage.
Science

Submission + - Humans smell in Stereo (nature.com)

Xemu writes: "Humans can locate an odour source thanks to a feature called stereo sniffing, says researchers in an article just published in Nature Communications. To further enhance odorant location capabilties, mammals combine serial sampling with bilateral nasal cues. Much like your average teenager in a dark basement would locate that smelly sock. Blocking one nostril makes it harder."
Iphone

Submission + - iPhone causing headaches on speakerphone. (apple.com)

ralfalot writes: I thought it was only me, but I went ahead and Google'd this problem anyway. It seems that there are least a few other people with similar problems.

Specifically, for me, when on speakerphone the iPhone 4S causes a weird resonance in my ear (regardless of volume or person). I can tolerate it for about 30min, but on a longer call it starts to give me a headache in both of my temples.

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

Android

Submission + - Android App infects PCs running older Windows (securelist.com)

tlhIngan writes: "In an interesting turn of events, a couple of apps found the Play Store was found to contain a payload designed to infect the SD card and thus infect any older PC when the Android device was connected in drive mode. It doesn't appear to be designed to infect the Android device itself, just install an old exploit on the SD card that will infect the PC when connected. It relies on AutoRun, which while disabled in all modern versions of Windows, may still be on by default on older versions."
Science

Submission + - Glasses That Cure Colorblindness? (txchnologist.com)

MatthewVD writes: "In 2006, researcher Mark Changizi came up with a novel theory for why humans evolved with color vision: to detect social cues and emotions in others. He built glasses called 02Amps to enhance perception of blood pooling. Some hospitals have tried using the glasses to see bruising that's not visible unaided, or help nurses find veins. But it turns out now that the glasses might be able to fix some forms of colorblindness, too."

Submission + - Monty has last laugh as distros abandon MySQL (itwire.com)

An anonymous reader writes: When the community GNU/Linux distributions Fedora and openSUSE recently announced that they would be switching their default database management system from MySQL to MariaDB, one man in Finland would have had a very hearty laugh.That man is Ulf Michael Widenius, better known as Monty, one of three founders of the original MySQL company, and the man who created MariaDB as a fork of MySQL back in 2009.
Piracy

Submission + - Russian eBookseller LitRes Gets Competing eBook Apps Booted from Google Play (the-digital-reader.com)

Nate the greatest writes: The developer of the popular Android app Moon+ Reader was surprised to discover this weekend that he is a filthy stinking pirate. Google informed him via an automated email that Moon+ Reader had been removed from Google Play because the app had switched to using pirate sites as the main sources of ebooks. Or at least, that's what LitRes claims, but when they complained to Google LitRes didn't tell the whole truth. What was really happening is that users of the app are enabling piracy, not the app itself. Thanks to the way Moon+ Reader is designed to let users share links to ebook sources some of the sources are indeed pirate sites (less than your average Google Search). In reality the app was no more a source of pirated content than your average web browser. What do you say when an ebook distributor's anti-piracy plan involves going after app developers rather than pirate sites? Something printable, IMO.

Submission + - SPAM: SCO wants to destroy business records

An anonymous reader writes: SCO, now calling itself TSG, has just filed a motion [PDF] with the bankruptcy court in Delaware asking it to authorize "the abandonment, disposal, and/or destruction of certain surplus, obsolete, non-core or burdensome, property, including, without limitation, shelving, convention materials, telecommunications and computer equipment, accounting and sales documents, and business records."
Link to Original Source
Java

Submission + - Oracle Responds to Java Security Critics with Massive 50 Flaw Patch Update (esecurityplanet.com)

darthcamaro writes: Oracle has been slammed a lot in recent months about it's lackluster handling of Java security. Now Oracle is responding as strongly as it can with one of the largest Java security updates in history. 50 flaws in total with the vast majority carrying the highest-possible CVSS score of 10.
Will this finally be the patch that makes Java secure?

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