New PC viruses target banks, social networks

Cyber criminals are increasingly focusing their attacks on the hundreds of millions of users of social networks and on loopholes in bank security systems, security software vendors said on Wednesday.

At the same time, spam e-mail messages rose sharply in the third quarter, Symantec Corp said. And as Facebook reached 300 million accounts in September, social networks and social media continued to attract criminals, smaller research firm F-Secure said in its quarterly virus report.

“As Twitter has grown in popularity, it has been increasingly targeted by worms, spam and account hijacking,” F-Secure said.

Cyber criminals choose targets that are widely used, allowing them to go after the largest number of potential victims. “Cyber criminals continue to follow the money,” said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, technology chief at a small security software vendor Finjan, who on Wednesday revealed a new method criminals use to steal money from bank accounts and hide their tracks.

Finjan said it expects a growing trend of using new software that forges on-screen bank statements, concealing the true transaction amount to dupe account holders and their banks, and then sends the stolen money to money mules accounts.

“With the combination of using sophisticated Trojans for the theft and money mules to transfer stolen money to their accounts, they minimize their chances of being detected,” Ben-Itzhak said.

Spam, spam and spam

The amount of spam in all e-mail traffic rose to 88.1 per cent in the third quarter from 81 per cent a year ago, said Symantec’s MessageLabs.

MessageLabs said botnets are now responsible for sending 87.9 per cent of all spam. Hackers take advantage of the PC vulnerability by booby- trapping websites with a malicious code that loads onto computers.

Infected PCs are commandeered into a botnet, a network of hijacked computers. They are used for identity theft, spamming and other cyber crimes.

“Over the past year, we have seen a number of ISP’s (Internet service providers) taken offline for hosting botnet activity resulting in a case of sink or swim and an ensuing shift in botnet power,” MessageLabs analyst Paul Wood said in a statement.

“However, this won’t always be the case as botnet technology has also evolved since the end of 2008 and the most recent ISP closures now have less of an impact on resulting activity as downtime now only lasts a few hours rather than weeks or months as before,” Wood said

Chandrayaan-1 finds traces of water on moon

In a discovery hailed as path-breaking, India’s maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has found evidence of water on the moon.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) late on Thursday confirmed that Chandrayaan-1 has detected presence of water on the moon.

“Excellent quality data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had clearly indicated the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface extending from lunar poles to about 60 degrees latitude,” ISRO said in a statement on its website.

Earlier in the day, M3 principal investigator Carle Pieters in a paper published in Science Express, in the September 24 edition said that Chandrayaan-1 found evidence of water on the lunar surface.

M3 was one of the 11 scientific instruments onboard Chandrayaan that ISRO launched on October 22, 2008, but the moon mission had to be aborted on August 30 after Chandrayaan-1 lost radio contact with the earth.

Acknowledging that analysis of the data from M3 had led to a path-breaking finding, ISRO quoted from the paper that hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, was also found in the lunar soil.

“The confirmation of water molecules and hydroxyl molecules on the moon’s polar regions raises new questions about its origin and its effect on the mineralogy of the moon,” the space agency pointed out.

The findings from M3 show a marked signature in the infrared region of 2.7-3.2 micron in the absorption spectrum, which provided a clear indication of the presence of hydroxyl and water molecules.

The analysis of the huge volume of M3 data was carried out by a joint team of scientists from the US and India.

The scientific team was led by Pieters, a planetary geologist at Brown University in Rhode Island, and Principal Scientist of Chandrayaan-1 from Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) of the Indian Department of Space, J N Goswami.

The team had concluded that there were traces of hydroxyl (OH) and water (H2O) molecules on the surface of the moon closer to the polar region.

The experts also concluded that traces of OH and H20 were in the form of a thin layer embedded in rocks and chemical compounds on the surface of the moon and the quantity were extremely small – of the order of about 700 parts per million (ppm).

“These molecules could have come from the impact of comets or radiation from the sun. But most probable source could be low energy hydrogen carried by solar wind impacting on the minerals on lunar surface. This in turn forms OH or H2O molecules by deriving the oxygen from metal oxide,” the statement explained.

With these findings, the team revisited the data from NASA’s Deep Impact Mission of 2005, which carried an instrument similar to M3.

The Deep Impact Probe observed the moon for a week June 2-9, 2009.

“This data, along with some laboratory tests carried out from samples brought from Apollo missions, confirmed that the signature is genuine and there is a thin layer of surface mineral which contains traces of hydroxyl and water molecules,” ISRO reiterated.

The M3 observations are strengthened by results obtained from the analysis of archived data of lunar observation in 1999 by another NASA mission, Cassini, on its way to Saturn. This data set also revealed signatures of both OH and H2O absorption features on the lunar surface.

The NASA payload also found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon’s surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon’s higher latitudes.

“We’ve made a very important step with this discovery, and now there are some very important steps to follow up on,” Pieters said.

Crediting ISRO for its role in the findings, Pieters said: “If it were not for them (ISRO), we would not have been able to make this discovery.”

Scientists have speculated that water molecules may migrate from non-polar regions of the moon to the poles, where they are stored as ice in ultra-frigid pockets of craters that never receive sunlight.

Though the abundances are not precisely known, about 1,000 water molecule parts per million could be in the lunar soil, the paper noted.

“Harvesting one ton of the top layer of the moon’s surface will yield as much as 32 ounces of water,” scientists involved in the discovery said.

Chandrayaan-1 Project Director M Annadurai said the discovery of water on the moon was one of the scientific achievements of the country’s maiden lunar mission.

“The baby has done its job by finding water on the moon,” Annadurai told IANS.

The scientific feat has been termed a landmark event in international space cooperation between India and other countries.

“It is one of the milestones. We have to quantify it. It was a combined team effort. Finding out presence of water or ice has been one of the mission’s scientific objectives apart from terrain mapping and mineral mapping,” Annadurai recalled.

India launches OceanSat-2, six others in 20 mts

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Wednesday successfully launched seven satellites in 1,200 seconds with the help of its most trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh coast.

The launch was carried out as per schedule at 11.51 am and ended at 12.06 pm.

India placed its second Ocean observation satellite Oceansat 2, along with six other nano satellites including two German two Rubinsats Rubin 9.1 and Rubin 9.2, and four cubesats — the Beesat (assembled by Technical University, Berlin), UWE-2 (University of Wuerzburg, Germany [ Images ]), ITU-pSat (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey) and SwissCube-1 (Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Switzerland [ Images ]).

Vice President Hamid Ansari, who was present at the Satish Dhavan Space Centre, congratulated the scientists and technocrats over this splendid achievement for the nation.

Earlier, in April 2008, ISRO had launched 10 satellites in one go.

Oceansat-2 is carrying an Ocean Colour Monitor and a Ku-band pencil beam Scatterometer, besides a Radio Occultation Sounder for Atmospheric Studies, developed by the Italian Space Agency.

The Ku-band pencil beam Scatterometer with a ground resolution cell of 50 KMs X 50 KMs is expected to provide the wind vector range of four to 24 metres per second with better than 20% accuracy in speed and 20 degree in wind direction.

The on-board Scatterometer is a very good instrument for getting surface wind on the sea. It is required for sea state forecasting. And for maritime navigation, the wave height and disturbance is also important.

The eight-band OCM is similar to the one in Oceansat-1 with appropriate spectral bandwidth modifications based on the previous experience.

The OCM, with 360 metres spatial resolution and a swath of 1,420 kilometres would provide extensive communication links.

Since Oceansat-2 is a continuity mission to Oceansat-1, the same polar sun synchronous orbit of 720 kilometres has been retained.

However, unlike the Oceansat-1 that could essentially look at only the colour of the ocean, the Oceansat-2 is a comprehensive system and would look at surface winds and temperature, among other things.

The satellite is intended for identification of potential fishing zones, weather forecasting and other trends of the sea, coastal zone studies and providing inputs for general meteorological observations.

Google acquires reCAPTCHA

reCAPTCHA, another one of the internet’s most innovative projects in now in Google’s grasp.

Not only is reCAPTCHA an effective device for security against spam, it also manages to accomplish a mission, to convert a large volume of printed literature to text.

While most such services generate distorted letters programatically, making them difficult for anyone but a human to discern, reCAPTCHA goes about it a different way.

With reCAPTCHA, every time you prove that you are a human you are effectively helping the process of digitizing printed documents. Instead of using better and better algorithms to generate better distortions which can only be recognized by humans, reCAPTCHA instead uses portions of scanned documents which failed to get recognized by the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) algorithms used to digitize it. Many times these can easily be recognized by humans.

With the support and resources of Google, behind reCAPTCHA, it is possible for the project to reach an even higher gear. With all Google services using reCAPTCHA, and with more resources from Google to make reCAPTCHA more easily available and implementable, it is bound to see in increase in adoption.

Projects like Google Books and Google News Search already use reCAPTCHA to help in digitizing a great volume of scans of old books, magazines and newspapers. Word by word, reCAPTCHA aims to digitize a large part of past documents which right now only exist in print, making more and more of our history indexable, searchable, and accessible to a greater public.

For more information read the post on the Official Google Blog.

Bharat Sanchar, HCL Tie-up For Rural Broadband Services

State-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and software solutions provider HCL Infosystems Wednesday signed an agreement to work together on the National Broadband Penetration Programme (NBPP), a nationwide initiative to accelerate spread of information technology in rural India.

In order to implement the project, BSNL will leverage the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) set up by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which has granted subsidy to the state-owned company for providing broadband services in rural areas at cheaper rates.

USOF will provide a subsidy of Rs.4,500 per broadband connection that BSNL will roll out through its 27,789 rural and remote telephone exchanges.

A customer can avail the service by paying Rs. 2,250 followed by Rs. 300 per month for the computing device and subsidised broadband package at Rs. 99 or Rs. 150 per month.

Personal computers will be available at HCL’s Touch outlets that has a network across more than 4,000 towns.

“This is indeed one of the major initiatives to bridge the digital divide by offering personal computers plus broadband at subsidised rates to our customers,” said BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal.

HCL will set up two call centres for enquiry and technical support each

Nokia to Enter PC Industry With First Netbook

The world’s top cellphone maker Nokia will start to make laptops, entering a fiercely competitive but fast-growing market with a netbook running Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Nokia had earlier this year said it was considering entering the laptop industry, crossing the border between two converging industries in the opposite direction to Apple, which entered the phone industry in 2007 with the iPhone. Nokia has seen its profit margins drop over the last quarters as handset demand has slumped, and analysts have worried that entering the PC industry, where margins are traditionally razor-thin, could hurt Nokia’s profits further. “We are fully aware what has the margin level been in the PC world. We have gone into this with our eyes wide open,” Kai Oistamo, the head of Nokia’s phone unit, told Reuters. “There’s really an opportunity to bring fresh perspective to the PC world,” he said, adding that Nokia would introduce extended battery life and continuous connectivity. Nokia has produced PCs before, but divested the unit in 1991 when it started to focus on the mobile phone industry. But Nokia’s first netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G, will use Microsoft’s Windows software and Intel’s Atom processor to offer up to 12 hours of battery life while weighing 1.25 kilograms. Netbooks are low-cost laptops optimised for surfing the Internet and performing other basic functions. Pioneered by Asustek with the hit Eee PC in 2007, netbooks have since been rolled out by other brands such as HP and Dell. “The question is: How will Nokia differentiate? This is already a crowded market. If they manage to differentiate it’s going to give them competitive advantage,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Research firm IDC expects netbook shipments this year to grow more than 127 percent from 2008 to over 26 million units, outperforming the overall PC market that is expected to remain flat and a phone market which is shrinking some 10 percent. “Nokia will be hoping that its brand and knowledge of cellular channels will play to its strengths as it addresses this crowded, cut-throat segment,” said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight. “At present we see Nokia’s foray into the netbook market as a niche exercise in the context of its broader business.” Nokia’s choice of Windows software surprised some analysts who had expected the company to use Linux in its first laptop. Analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics said the technology choices were a good win for the U.S. companies. “We believe ARM and Symbian are among the main losers from the Nokia Booklet announcement,” he said. Shares in ARM were 0.2 percent lower at 1400 GMT, underperforming slightly firmer DJ Stoxx European technology shares index. Shares in Nokia were 1.6 percent stronger at 8.91 euros, while Microsoft was 0.6 percent firmer. Nokia said it would unveil detailed specifications, market availability and pricing of its new device on Sept 2.

A source close to Nokia said the new netbook would use the upcoming Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft says a stripped-down version of Windows 7 will be introduced to netbooks the same time as its general release on Oct. 22. Local media reports in Taiwan have said that Compal, the world’s No. 2 contract laptop PC maker, has pitched netbook models to Nokia, but there has been no official confirmation from either side. Nokia declined to comment on the manufacturer it uses. Most of the world’s top electronics brands typically do their own design work, but outsource the manufacturing process to contract manufacturers such as Compal and its larger rival Quanta.

Minister has a dream: Rs 450-laptop for India’s students

India’s technology institutes should work to develop low-cost laptops not costing more than $10 for students, according to Minister of State for Higher Education D Purandareswari.

“It is a challenge but we have the potential and the capacity to overcome challenges. Who would have thought Ratan Tata would develop a car for Rs 1 lakh?” Purandareswari said in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

The minister was addressing e-India 2009, the country’s largest information and communication technology (ICT) seminar which began on Tuesday.

“We need to put our heads together to bring down the cost of laptops. Power supply is another problem. We have to think how can we ensure schools use laptops and bring technology closer to children,” she said.

Purandareswari said the National Mission on Education through ICT to be launched by the ministry of human resources development would also focus on achieving technological breakthrough by developing low-cost and low-power consuming access devices.

The mission will leverage the potential of ICT, in providing personalised and interactive knowledge modules over the internet for higher education institutions.

“Some people have suggested that a laptop be provided to every student. The government needs to provide subsidy for laptops which cost $100-200, but given the huge challenges the country faces, it can’t afford such huge subsidies,” Purandareswari said.

The minister said developing content for children in their mother tongue would be another major challenge.

“It is through ICT and distance education mode that we can improve our gross enrolment ratio (to higher educational institutions) from 10 percent to 15 percent, a goal set by the Planning Commission. Even this is not comparable to developing countries where the ratio is 60 percent,” she said.

Purandareswari also underlined the need to remove fear of technology among the teaching community.

“Many of our teachers are first generation graduates, who are scared of failing in front of a computer in a class room. They also fear that technology will replace them and there is a need to take them into confidence,” the minister said.

According to her, her ministry is working out a national ICT policy framework.

The government is also in the process of implementing a secondary education scheme called Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan during the 11th plan at a cost of Rs 20,120 crore.

“This aligns with efforts of the ministry of human resources development to assist states to build ICT infrastructure in secondary schools through the scheme ‘ICT in schools’,” Purandareswari added.

Organised by Centre for Science Development and Media Studies, the three-day international conference and exhibition is a platform for knowledge sharing in different domains of ICT among governments, industry, academia and civil society organisations of various countries.

India Gets Its First Cyber Court!

The Indian Government has inaugurated its first cyber regulation court in New Delhi to deal with cyber crimes. The new Cyber Regulation Appellate Tribunal will help prevent all possible cyber contraventions, according to A. Raja, cabinet minster, ministry of communications and information technology, Government of India.
The Tribunal is destined to a path-breaking work to check cyber fraud, cyber crime and even cyber terrorism, says the Government.

Speaking on the occasion, K.G. Balakrishnan, chief justice of India, said, “While administrating the regulations, the Tribunal will face a challenge to strike a balance between the interests of the Government and end users of Internet.”

Speaking on its role, the Department of Information Technology (DIT) said, “It will facilitate and support the functioning of the Tribunal. In view of intermixing of legal and technical issues, a multi-member Tribunal has been constituted to look into the cyber contraventions.”

The Tribunal has been established under Section 48 of the Information Technology Act. The Information Technology Act 2000 came into force on 17 October 2000. The definition of the ‘Information Technology Act’ provides as under: ‘Computer’ means any electronic, magnetic, optical or other high speed data processing device or system which performs logical, arithmetic, and memory functions by manipulations of electronic, magnetic or optical impulses, and includes all input, output, processing, storage, computer software, or communication facilities which are connected or related to the computer in a computer system or computer network.

Section 3 of the Act provides with regard to digital signature and the authentication of electronic records. Section 4 provides the legal recognition of electronic governance in short known as e-governance. For adjudicating of the dispute under the Information Technology Act, Section 46 was enacted which has given the power for adjudication of the crimes. The power has been give to the secretary, Information Technology, and he has power to adjudge the quantum of compensation under Sections 46 and 47 of the Act.

Section 46 provides for appointment of an adjudicating officer not below the rank of a director to the Government of India. Every adjudicating officer shall have the powers of a civil court, which are conferred on the Cyber Appellate Tribunal under Section 48. The Act provides for penalty for damage to computer, computer system etc: penalty for failure to furnish information return; residuary penalty and publishing information which is obscene in electronic form etc.

Infosys Becomes First Corporate To Get CISF Cover!

Infosys Technologies and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) have announced the deployment of CISF personnel at the Infosys campus in Electronic City, Bengaluru. This marks a historic event as Infosys becomes the first corporate organisation in India to be provided security cover by the security force. The security cover will be rolled out in three phases.
On receiving the CISF cover, Mohandas Pai said, “The CISF is India’s premier security force, entrusted with the security of India’s key assets, including government organisations, nuclear power plants, space installations, industrial organisations, airports and heritage sites. As an organisation committed to protecting our employees, premises and honouring client commitments, we are confident that the protection offered by the CISF will enhance security on our campuses.”

Earlier this year, Infosys and other companies had approached the Home Ministry with a petition for a protective cover over and above the capabilities of their own private security wings and agencies.

To mark the commencement of the CISF deployment on the Infosys campus, Infosys hosted an event at its Bengaluru headquarters which saw participation from R. K. Mishra, IPS, inspector general, CISF and senior Infosys management including N. R. Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor and Mohandas Pai, member of the board. The programme included the hoisting of the CISF flag by N. R. Narayana Murthy, followed by the Ceremonial Guard of Honor by CISF and the official handing over of the ’security key’ by Infosys.

Speaking on the occasion, R. K. Mishra said, “This is the first time, since its creation in 1969, that the CISF will be providing security cover to a corporate organisation in India. We are pleased and proud to be entrusted with the responsibility of security at Infosys.”

It’s Official: Microsoft Joins Forces With Yahoo!

The two companies have announced a 10-year advertising and search agreement to give the Internet search giant, Google, a viable competitor.

To battle Internet search giant Google for online customers and ad sales, Yahoo!’s Carol Bartz and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer have joined hands to change the search landscape. The two companies have announced a 10-year agreement to improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers.
Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10-year licence to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms. In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ search advertisers.

Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.

“Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company,” said Microsoft’s chief Steve Ballmer. “Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.”

Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force. Under the agreement, Yahoo! will innovate and ‘own’ the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology. Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites. Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.

Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 per cent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first five years of the agreement. Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country.

“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development,” said Carol Bartz, chief executive officer, Yahoo!. “Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences.”

The agreement does not cover each company’s Web properties and products, e-mail, instant messaging, display advertising, or any other aspect of the companies’ businesses. In those areas, the companies will continue to compete vigorously.

At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million.

The transaction will be subject to regulatory review. The companies expect the deal to close in early 2010.