Apple Releases Flashback Fix for OS X Leopard

“After issuing similar fixes for Lion and Snow Leopard in April, Apple has now released an Flashback removal security update for OS X Leopard.

Apple describes the update as follows: “This update removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware. If the Flashback malware is found, a dialog will notify you that malware was removed. In some cases, the update may need to restart your computer in order to completely remove the Flashback malware.”

Flashback is a malicious program which uses a Java vulnerability to track Mac users. At one point, more than 600,000 Macs were estimated to be infected.”

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Cost of a Cyberattack: $100,000 Per Hour for Some Retailers

“If your business has ever been targeted by a cyberattack, you’re not alone: more than 300 businesses reported being the target of such an attack, according to a new study.

Performed by Neustar, an Internet-analytics company, the study says businesses across many industries were targeted. IT professionals in the telecommunications, travel, finance, and retail industries all reported they were hit by some form of cyberattack.

Cyberattacks come in many varieties, but among the most common is the DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service attack, wherein a site is overloaded with traffic from thousands or millions of different sources, overloading servers and forcing a site outage. Such attacks can be controlled and managed for hours or even days.

Ted Swearingen, director of information security operations at Neustar, says the number of cyberattacks and the variety of industries affected have increased dramatically.

“We’ve seen a game change in last two years,” Swearingen told Mashable. “It’s significant. The damage that comes with one of these attacks — the thought of being down for a day, not being able to sell goods or services online is just amazing in terms of monetary cost.”

The costs can indeed be high. 65% of businesses said a site outage would cost them up to $10,000 an hour, 21% said it would run them $50,000 an hour, and 13% of businesses would lose $100,000 every hour if their site went down.”

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Chrome 19 Launches, Now Features Built-In Tab Syncing

“Google today launched version 19 of its Chrome browser for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame to its mainstream stable release channel. Besides the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, the highlight of today’s release is the addition of tab syncing to Chrome. With this, Chrome users can now have their open tabs synced across all of their devices, including tablets and phones that run the Ice Cream Sandwich-only Chrome for Android beta.

This feature will allow you to just pick up your browsing sessions on any other computer or device you log in to. One nifty aspect of this is that Chrome will also sync your browsing history, so even your back and forward buttons will work.

Adding tab syncing is just the latest syncing feature Google is adding to Chrome. The browser can already sync your bookmarks, apps, history, themes, extensions and other settings between machines as well (assuming you signed in to Chrome with your Google account, of course).”

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Google Search Just Got 1,000 Times Smarter

“The Google Search of the future is here. Now. Today. The long-talked-about semantic web — Google prefers “Knowledge Graph” — is rolling out across all Google Search tools, and our most fundamental online task may never be the same again.

Starting today, a vast portion of Google Search results will work with you to intuit what you really meant by that search entry. Type in an ambiguous query like “Kings” (which could mean royalty, a sports team or a now-cancelled TV show), and a new window will appear on the right side of your result literally asking you which entity you meant. Click on one of those options and your results will be filtered for that search entity.

To understand the gravity of this change, you need to know about the fundamental changes going on behind the scenes at Google Search. As we outlined in our report earlier this year, Google is switching from simple keyword recognition to the identification of entities, nodes and relationships. In this world, “New York” is not simply the combination of two keywords that can be recognized. It’s understood by Google as a state in the U.S. surrounded by other states, the Atlantic Ocean and with a whole bunch of other, relevant attributes.

As Ben Gomes, Google Fellow, put it, Google is essentially switching “from strings to things.”

To build this world of things, Google is tapping a variety of knowledge databases, including Freebase, which it bought in 2010, Wikipedia, Google Local, Google Maps and Google Shopping. Currently, Google’s Knowledge Graph has over 500 million people, places and things and those things have at least 3.5 billion attributes.”

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Moonfruit Finally Exits For $29 Million In Cash To Re-energize Yell

“In the white heat of the current tech market it’s sometimes easy to forget that some companies, although taking their time, simply become viable businesses – instead of waiting for a call from Facebook or Twitter that may never come. I’ve been covering web site and shop builder Moonfruit for longer than I care to remember (they launched in 2000), but along the way husband and wife team Joe and Wendy White kept on pushing the company until it was one of the most innovative of its kind out there. Today that hard work is rewarded in Moonfruit’s acquisition by directories giant Yell for $29 million (£18m) in cash.

Unusually for a UK acquisition announcement, Yell has also made the golden hand-cuffs explicit for the founders. Retention bonuses of £5.2m (£2.7m grossed up) will be paid to Moonfruit’s executive management team of Joe White, Eirik Pettersen and Wendy Tan-White after two years, provided that they remain exclusively employed by Yell.

Most people know Yell as a yellow pages directory for its 1.3 million SME customers. Clearly what it must become to survive in the era of Google is a online marketplace providing not just listings but business tools for that market.

Over 5 million sites and 230,000 shops have been built using Moonfruit, which is now the no. 1 hosted site builder in the UK, and has seen over 1.5 million sites built in the US. It’s also build a very sticky Facebook integration.”

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Adobe Creative Cloud is out now

“Adobe Creative Cloud has just launched to let anyone using CS6 or Adobe Touch, on iOS and Android, store their work online and access a host of online applications.

The Creative Cloud will give online access to CS6 installation files, HTML 5 apps for code-free design, and Adobe Edge Preview (for animations and interactive treats). But probably most important is the use of Adobe Touch on tablets and mobiles which will now have 20GB of online storage for anything created. Plus if you’re upgrading to CS6, Adobe is offering a cut-price offer.

The Adobe Creative Cloud will cost a hefty £47 per month in the UK or US$50 in the US. Still interested? Head over to Adobe Creative Cloud to sign up.”

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OS X Lion Flaw Exposes Login Passwords in Plain Text

“An Apple programmer has accidentally left a debug flag in the most recent version of OS X Lion, which under certain conditions can cause login passwords to appear in a plain text debug log file, reports ZDNet.

The flaw affects users who have used Apple’s encryption software FileVault prior to upgrading to 10.7.3, while FileVault 2 is unaffected.

To make matters worse, Apple has not issued a fix for the matter, so changing your user credentials right now does not help, as those credentials might end up in a debug log file as well.

The flaw, which was originally spotted by a security researcher David Emery, potentially enables anyone with an admin password to retrieve other user’s credentials.

“This is worse than it seems, since the log in question can also be read by booting the machine into firewire disk mode and reading it by opening the drive as a disk or by booting the new-with-LION recovery partition and using the available superuser shell to mount the main file system partition and read the file. This would allow someone to break into encrypted partitions on machines they did not have any idea of any login passwords for,” claims Emery.”

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Rdio takes on Spotify with UK launch

“Fed up of Spotify’s complete and utter dominance of music streaming in the UK? With the exception of brave attempts from Pure Music and quasi-integration of last.fm (via Spotify apps), there’s not really much choice. And now Spotify has a Retina Display-optimised iPad app with AirPlay support it seems its master plan is almost complete.

Or is it? Rdio has just bounced over the Atlantic from the US – and since it’s popular in America, has more than 15 million songs and apps for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry and Sonos, it’s definitely worth a look. There’s no free option but you can try out Rdio with a seven day free trial – after that it’s £5 a month for desktop use (PC and Mac) and £10 a month for the Unlimited plan.”

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UK High Court: ISPs Must Block Access To The Pirate Bay

“The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) finally got its will today. According to a ruling by Britain’s High Court, UK Internet providers must now block access to Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. The BBC reports that the BPI had asked British ISPs to voluntarily block access to the site in November 2011. At that time, though, the ISPs said they wouldn’t do so unless ordered by a court. That court order has now arrived. Five UK ISPs (Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media) have already announced that they will comply with this order. BT asked the court for more time to consider its position.

According to the BPI’s chief executive Geoff Taylor, “the High Court has confirmed that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive scale. Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting music and other creative works without paying a penny to the people who created them.” A number of studies, though, have questioned this line of reasoning and instead found that sites like The Pirate Bay actually have a positive impact on overall music sales.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media told the BBC that it will comply with the ruling, but that the company also “strongly believes that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, to give consumers access to great content at the right price.””

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Microsoft HomeOS

“I can buy a Microsoft house?
Stop flashing your cash – HomeOS, Microsoft’s “operating system for the home,” is still firmly in the testing phase. But we’re still jumping up and down in anticipation of the day we can set our Xbox 360 to load up Mass Effect 3 the second we walk in the door.

Will I need one of those WinPho things?
It doesn’t look like Microsoft Research has rewired Windows to talk to your light switches – but we wouldn’t be surprised if HomeOS was built on top of a Windows kernel. And you won’t be locked down to one ecosystem – the plan is to support all the gadgets you already own.

How will I survey my empire?
From the video below, it looks like you’ll be able to access apps like Remote View on your smartphone – so that if you get a notification from your doorbell you can check in-house cameras to check it’s not a burglar coming to call. And everything from your printer to your air conditioning will talk to one PC hub.

Sounds paranoid.
Got better things to do than stalk your own house? It’s not all about monitoring. You can also start up a whole room – lights, TV, everything – with one click, and add extra security with face recognition via apps from what Microsoft is calling the HomeStore. We still don’t know when we’ll be able to place our online order for motion detectors and whatnot – but Microsoft Research has been working on this since 2010, so we’d quite like some dates and prices before the year is out.”

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Samsung overtakes Nokia as world’s leading phone manufacturer

“New figures from the Strategy Analytics reveal that Samsung has overtaken Nokia as the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer, according to the WSJ.

Nokia held its position atop the smartphone pile after overtaking Motorola in 1998, but thanks to phones like the immensely popular Galaxy S II (which won Stuff’s Phone of the Year award in 2011), Samsung now rules the roost. Apple sits comfortably in third place – which is nothing to be sniffed at, especially when you consider that its handest roster is limited to just the iPhone 4S, 4 and 3GS.

Will Nokia turn its fortunes around with the Lumia 900? Will the Samsung Galaxy S III live up to all the hype? Only time will tell – so kick back and enjoy watching the turbulent ups and downs of the smartphone wars.”

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July 9: Doomsday for Your PC or Mac If It Has This Malware

“There’s a trojan out there that tricks computers — both PCs and Macs — into redirecting all their Internet traffic through malicious servers. Even though the trojan’s creators have been stopped and arrested, millions of PCs could still be infected. For those machines, the Internet will cease to exist on July 9.

The reasons are technical, and they go back to 2007. That was the year the trojan first surfaced, according to PC World. The malware, which can infect both Windows and Mac computers, essentially creates a botnet by changing how the machine accessed DNS.

DNS (Domain Name Service) is how the web organizes its addresses. It’s the system that lets you simply type in “mashable.com” instead of some kind of long and incomprehensible IP address filled with letters, decimals and numbers. Your computer talks to a DNS server operated by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to find all the websites that you visit every day.

The trojan, called DNS Changer, redirects your computer’s DNS queries from your ISP’s server to one created by the trojan’s creators — essentially hijacking all Internet traffic from your machine. That way, the bad guys can send you to hacker-created websites filled with ads whenever they want.

The good news: The FBI shut down the operation, called Rove Digital, last November when they arrested six Estonian nationals behind the botnet and shut down their malicious servers. To ensure infected computers wouldn’t be cut off from the Internet entirely, the FBI set up its own DNS servers.

The bad news: Those friendly servers will soon be shut down. They were originally going to run only four months, but a judge ordered an extension of their operation until July 9 since it’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of computers are still infected.”

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Next Big Thing – interactive kitchen

“A Microsoft Surface? Yawn.
Cover your mouth and listen up. This isn’t the Microsoft Surface – at least not like you’ve seen it. This is a Samsung-powered kitchen tabletop with an interactive touchscreen baked straight into it, serving up the freshest news, videos and web content for you to peruse while stuffing your face.

Looks snazzy
Indeed it does. We’re big fans of the sleek polished black and red minimalist design as well as the built-in stand for your more conventional tablet. The best part? You can access unlimited online recipes to counteract your culinary ineptitude. Or you can just stick to slicing up virtual fruit as you lament the meal that could have been.

Is this the part where you tell me this is…
… just a concept? We’re afraid so for now, though technically the Prisma kitchen is up and running as part of a display at Eurocucina in Milan, along with five other Toncelli kitchens. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to look at our faux granite worktops with disdain.”

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Adobe Launches $50-a-Month ‘Creative Cloud’ With CS 6

“Adobe has announced a significant switch to a cloud-based version of Creative Suite alongside the launch of the latest version of its popular line of design software.

Unveiled at an event in San Francisco on Monday, Creative Cloud represents a shift for Adobe after years of simply selling packaged software. Now users have a subscription option to download Photoshop and other programs, save work online and share projects more easily.

“It is a really big day in Adobe’s history,” CEO Shantanu Narayen said Monday, later calling CS6 and Creative Cloud “our most ambitious offering ever.”

Narayen framed the launch as a necessary move for Adobe. As more and more people explore digital creativity, casual users and professional designers alike increasingly expect multi-device access to their work.

Creative Cloud subscriptions will start at $50 per month with a one-year commitment, or run $75 for a month-to-month contract. Owners of previous Creative Suite versions can access the new cloud-based service for $30 per month for their first year.

Adobe executives said the monthly pricing plans will save users from having to pay four figures up front — and will make Creative Suite programs accessible and appealing to a wider audience.

CS6 includes updated versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash Pro, Premiere Pro, InDesign and other programs, along with a pair of new post-production apps.

Versions of the suite range from $1,299, or $299 as an upgrade, to $2,599, or $549 as an upgrade. CS6 is purchasable by download as well as in traditional shrink-wrapped form.

Creative Cloud includes all the CS6 programs, plus the Edge and Muse web-development tools. The service also comes with 20 gigabytes of free cloud storage.”

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Google Drive goes live

“Google Drive has gone live. The online cloud locker, starting with a 5GB freebie, is where Google wants you to park your files so you can share them with colleagues, friends and – quite possibly – strangers.

We’ll leave the Big G to explain its latest offering in the short video below while we go and explore what’s new, what’s cool and what might want fixing. Then we’ll be back with a bagful of opinions.”

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Check out the video:

Firefox 12 is out now

“Firefox 12 is out, and it’s arrived with a simpler updater and over 85 other improvements. Although they’re mainly for all you developers out there.

The updater will now only need your permission once to make changes on your computer, from then on it will be automated, making the process less hassle filled, while remaining secure.

The other 85 improvements for developers include no need to reload the page to see messages in the Web Console, and Scratchpad adds Find and Jump to Line commands to the editor. Alright it might not be great fun but it’s good to see Mozilla is keeping everyone busy working on making Firefox the best browser it can be. ”

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Google Drive detailed: 5 GB for free, launching next week for Mac, Windows, Android and iOS

“5 GB of storage, and it launches next week, likely on Tuesday at http://drive.google.com

Now let’s talk details. It’s no surprise that it will roll out for free. What’s interesting though is that Google is planning to start everyone with 5 GB of storage. Of course you can buy more, but that trumps Dropbox’s 2 GB that is included with every account. Dropbox does make it easy to get more space, including 23 GB of potential upgrades for HTC users.

What’s also interesting is the wording related to how the system will work. It’s been long-thought that Windows integration will come easy, but that getting the Google Drive icon into the Mac a la Dropbox would be a bit harder. From what we’re reading, Google Drive will work “in desktop folders” on both Mac and Windows machines, which still leaves the operation question unanswered.

GD1 520×355 Google Drive detailed: 5 GB for free, launching next week for Mac, Windows, Android and iOS”

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Mobile Payments May Replace Cash, Credit Cards by 2020

“Experts believe that cash and credit cards could be a thing of the past by 2020, a new study suggests.

A new study conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center revealed that the majority of survey respondents believe swiping mobile phones could replace cash and credit cards both online and in stores by smartphone and tablet users within the next decade.

The study was conducted among a non-random sample of 1,021 technology stakeholders and critics in the mobile payments industry, from executives and Google and Microsoft to professors at distinguished universities nationwide.

About 65% of respondents said they believe that by 2020 most consumers will have embraced and fully adopted the use of smart-device swiping for purchases they make, nearly eliminating the need for cash or credit cards. They also agreed that people trust and rely on personal hardware and software for transactions, and cash and credit cards will have mostly disappeared from many of the transactions that occur in advanced countries.

However, about 33% said they do not trust devices with Near Field Communications technology (NFC) that allow users to swipe their phones to make a payment at checkout and believe mobile payments will not gain a lot of traction by 2020.”

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Microsoft announces three Windows 8 editions

“Considering some people still aren’t quite sure how well Windows 8 works on a PC (even a touchscreen all-in-one), it’s no surprise that Microsoft has detailed plans for a whole load of Windows 8 editions which we should be able to buy before 2012 is out.

Well, OK that’s a lie because Windows RT, the version for devices running on ARM processors – like tablets – will come pre-installed on these gadgets and, according to Microsoft, won’t be able to buy separately.

Windows RT won’t include Windows Media Player or any business-inclined features but it does get the Microsoft Office treatment and, fingers crossed, tons of Metro apps.

Otherwise, you’re looking at a choice of the flagship Windows 8 edition or Windows 8 Pro with extra PC management features and added encryption for paranoid businesses and tech-heads. Plus Windows Media Center will be available as an add-on to Windows 8 Pro.”

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Another Mac Trojan Detected, Potentially Bigger Than the First

“Fresh off the news that more than 650,000 Mac computers have been infected with a nasty Trojan horse virus called “Flashback,” another Apple threat is on the prowl.

According to anti-virus software provider Kaspersky Lab, a Trojan called SabPub — or more formally, Backdoor.OSX.SabPub.a — has recently been spreading via Java and could be infecting computers when people open email messages with suspicious links that direct users to malware.

“The Flashback and the SabPub Trojans are totally different,” Alex Gostev, chief security expert of Kaspersky Lab, told Mashable. “SabPub is classic backdoor Trojan, so it opens full access to a victim’s system for attackers. Flashback and its known variants is downloader and clickjacking bot, which means it conducts click fraud scam by hijacking people’s search engine results inside their web browsers.”

That said, the latest malware has the potential to reach far more computers than the Flashback Trojan.

“The latest version of the SabPub Trojan can infect more people than previous versions of this malware, which appeared earlier this year,” Gostev said. “In February, SabPub was exploiting a Microsoft Word vulnerability, which was fixed long time ago. The latest version of SabPub uses the Java exploit to spread infection in a more effective way because the Java exploit is delivered via a drive by download, which occurs when people click on URLs with malware via email.”

Gostev also noted that SabPub is also being used to attack specific targets: “It would seem that the attackers have an extremely select list of victims that is not very large.”

Although Mac users may think they are safe from viruses, Kaspersky Lab noted that before 2012 about 300 variants of Mac malware had been detected. Now, however, more than 70 have been detected in the past three months.”

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