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Tuesday the 2nd of March 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Tuesday the 2nd of March 2010

1. Virus Warnings
2. Daily Technology News
3. Latest Shareware and Freeware
4. FAQ for the day
5. Advice of the day

This is a free service provided by Helpforce.com, to unsubscribe please visit http://www.helpforce.com
For free technical support, visit us at http://www.helpforce.com

1. Latest Virus Alerts From Sophos
---------------------------------------
Mal/StartPA-E on 2 March 2010 11:50:18 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malstartpae.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Inject-LZ on 2 March 2010 11:50:18 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojinjectlz.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zbot-MR on 2 March 2010 11:50:18 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzbotmr.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zbot-MS on 2 March 2010 11:50:18 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzbotms.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MPI on 2 March 2010 08:54:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmpi.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/FakeAV-AYL on 2 March 2010 08:54:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojfakeavayl.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Hosts-L on 2 March 2010 08:54:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojhostsl.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zbot-MQ on 2 March 2010 08:54:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzbotmq.html?_log_from=rss
W32/AutoRun-AZV on 2 March 2010 08:54:37 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32autorunazv.html?_log_from=rss
W32/QakBot-J on 2 March 2010 06:41:49 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32qakbotj.html?_log_from=rss

2. Latest Technology News From Slashdot
-----------------------------------------------

-- Recovering Data From Noise
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/q7OaINRogxI/Recovering-Data-From-Noise)
An anonymous reader tips an account up at Wired of a hot new field of mathematics and applied algorithm research called "compressed sensing" that takes advantage of the mathematical concept of sparsity to recreate images or other datasets from noisy, incomplete inputs. "[The inventor of CS, Emmanuel] Candès can envision a long list of applications based on what he and his colleagues have accomplished. He sees, for example, a future in which the technique is used in more than MRI machines. Digital cameras, he explains, gather huge amounts of information and then compress the images. But compression, at least if CS is available, is a gigantic waste. If your camera is going to record a vast amount of data only to throw away 90 percent of it when you compress, why not just save battery power and memory and record 90 percent less data in the first place? ... The ability to gather meaningful data from tiny samples of information is also enticing to the military."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Scalpers Earned $25M Gaming Online Ticket Sellers
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/TrJ1wCOQXW8/Scalpers-Earned-25M-Gaming-Online-Ticket-Sellers)
SeattleGameboy writes "An indictment has been issued for online ticket brokers known as 'Wiseguy Tickets and Seats of San Francisco.' From 2002 to 2009, they used bots, server farms, and CAPTCHA hacking to buy vast number of premium tickets (Springsteen, Miley Cyrus, NFL, MLB playoffs, etc.) and made $25 million in profits. 'They wrote a script that impersonated users trying to access Facebook, and downloaded hundreds of thousands of possible CAPTCHA challenges from reCAPTCHA. They identified the file ID of each CAPTCHA challenge and created a database of CAPTCHA "answers" to correspond to each ID. The bot would then identify the file ID of a challenge at Ticketmaster and feed back the corresponding answer. The bot also mimicked human behavior by occasionally making mistakes in typing the answer, the authorities said.' I guess you can break any system like CAPTCHA if you want it badly enough."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- UK Police Promise Not To Retain DNA Data, But Do Anyway
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/0Cln5iV-nEE/UK-Police-Promise-Not-To-Retain-DNA-Data-But-Do-Anyway)
redalien writes "In 2008 I invited two policemen into my home and voluntarily gave them a DNA and fingerprint sample to help with a murder investigation, as they'd promised it would only be used for that investigation. I was never under any suspicion and could just as easily have said no. Almost a year after the investigation closed they have now confirmed that they've retained my samples and at my request have begun an investigation to see if there are sufficient 'exceptional circumstances' to remove them. I'm not the only one who was told samples would be removed, so if you've had such a promise from the police I recommend contacting their data protection registrar immediately."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- New I/O Standard Bids To Replace Mini PCI Express
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/7qbczhpwlyw/New-IO-Standard-Bids-To-Replace-Mini-PCI-Express)
DeviceGuru writes "LinuxDevices reports that a group of companies today unveiled — and demonstrated products based on — a tiny new PCI Express expansion standard. Although it's somewhat larger than the PCI Express Mini Card, the tiny new 43mm x 65mm FeaturePak card's high density 230-pin edgecard connector provides twice the number of PCI Express and USB 2.0 channels to the host computer, plus 100 lines dedicated to general purpose I/O, of which 34 signal pairs are implemented with enhanced isolation for use in applications such as gigabit Ethernet or high-precision analog I/O. While FeaturePaks will certainly be used in all sorts of embedded devices (medical instruments, test equipment, etc.), the tiny cards could also be used for developing configurable consumer devices, for example to add an embedded firewall/router or security processor to laptop or notebook computers, or for modular functionality in TV set-top-boxes and Internet edge devices." The president of Diamond Systems, which invented the new card, said "Following the FeaturePak initiative's initial launch, we intend to turn the FeaturePak specification, trademark, and logo over to a suitable standards organization so it can become an industry-wide, open-architecture, embedded standard" (but to use the logo you have to join the organization).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earth's Day
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/sQzQl8-Fiq0/Chilean-Earthquake-Shortened-Earths-Day)
ailnlv writes "Days on Earth just got shorter. The recent earthquake in Chile shifted the planet's axis by about 8 cm and shortened days by 1.26 microseconds 'The changes can be modeled, though they're difficult to detect physically given their small size... Some changes may be more obvious, and islands may have shifted... Santa Maria Island off the coast near Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, may have been raised 2 meters (6 feet) as a result of the latest quake...'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Google Awarded Broad Patent For Location-Based Advertising
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/FUBbJMO3yqw/Google-Awarded-Broad-Patent-For-Location-Based-Advertising)
Mashable has a report of a patent that just issued (6-1/2 years after filing) — apparently Google now has a lock on location-based advertising. It's not clear that the search company intends to assert the patent against any other companies (such as emerging rival Apple), but it's useful as leverage. Here is the patent.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Aurora Attack — Resistance Is Futile, Pretty Much
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/94cdaLTpYV8/Aurora-Attack-mdash-Resistance-Is-Futile-Pretty-Much)
eldavojohn writes "Do you have branch offices in China? iSec has published a new report (PDF) outlining the severity of the attacks on Google.cn, allegedly by the Chinese government, dubbed 'Aurora' attacks. Up to 100 companies were victims, and some are speculating that resistance to such attacks is futile. The report lays out the shape of the attacks — which were customized per-company based on installed vulnerable software and antivirus protection: '1. The attacker socially engineers a victim, often in an overseas office, to visit a malicious website. 2. This website uses a browser vulnerability to load custom malware on the initial victim's machine. 3. The malware calls out to a control server, likely identified by a dynamic DNS address. 4. The attacker escalates his privilege on the corporate Windows network, using cached or local administrator credentials. 5. The attacker attempts to access an Active Directory server to obtain the password database, which can be cracked onsite or offsite. 6. The attacker uses cracked credentials to obtain VPN access, or creates a fake user in the VPN access server. 7. At this point, the attack varies based upon the victim. The attacker may steal administrator credentials to access production systems, obtain source code from a source repository, access data hosted at the victim, or explore Intranet sites for valuable intellectual property.' The report also has pages of recommendations as well as lessons learned, which any systems administrator — even those inside the US — should read and take note of."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Newborns' Blood Used To Build Secret DNA Database
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/R-TC8yvRRto/Newborns-Blood-Used-To-Build-Secret-DNA-Database)
Kanel notes a summary up at New Scientist of an investigation by a Texas newspaper revealing that Texas health officials had secretly transferred hundreds of newborn babies' blood samples to the federal government to build a DNA database. Here's the (long and detailed) article in the Texas tribune. From New Scientist: "The Texas Department of State Health Services routinely collected blood samples from newborns to screen for a variety of health conditions, before throwing the samples out. But beginning in 2002, the DSHS contracted Texas A&M University to store blood samples for potential use in medical research. These accumulated at rate of 800,000 per year. The DSHS did not obtain permission from parents, who sued the DSHS, which settled in November 2009. Now the Tribune reveals that wasn't the end of the matter. As it turns out, between 2003 and 2007, the DSHS also gave 800 anonymized blood samples to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory to help create a national mitochondrial DNA database. This came to light after repeated open records requests filed by the Tribune turned up documents detailing the mtDNA program. Apparently, these samples were part of a larger program to build a national, perhaps international, DNA database that could be used to track down missing persons and solve cold cases."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- "Patent Markings" Lawsuits Could Run Into the Trillions
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/yA7Ux1krURQ/Patent-Markings-Lawsuits-Could-Run-Into-the-Trillions)
bizwriter writes "The latest legal bugaboo facing manufacturers is the false patent marking suit. Using what has been until recently an obscure type of legal action, individuals and enterprising law firms have targeted large manufacturers with lawsuits that can easily run million of dollars — in a case involving a drink cup manufacturer, over $10 trillion — for incorrectly including patent numbers on products. Some companies named in such suits are 3M, Cisco, Pfizer, Monster Cable, and Merck. Even expired patent numbers can be actionable." Sounds like a perfect opportunity for some enlightened appeals court to inject some sense into the debate. What do you think the chances are? Note: if ever there were a page that cries out for the Readability bookmarklet, this is it.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Google Acquires Online Image Editing Tool Picnik
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Jene6MQ0dy8/Google-Acquires-Online-Image-Editing-Tool-Picnik)
Many different sources are writing to tell us about Google's acquisition of online image editing tool Picnik. "And all this leads us to today’s exciting news: we’ve just been acquired by Google! What does this mean for Picnik? It means we can think BIG. Google processes petabytes of data every day, and with their worldwide infrastructure and world-class team, it is truly the best home we could have found. Under the Google roof we’ll reach more people than ever before, impacting more lives and making more photos more awesome. What does this mean for you Picnikers? Nothing is changing right away, but Picnik now has more potential than ever before. The team that built Picnik from the grass up will continue making advanced and powerful photo-editing easier, more intuitive and more fun, so stay tuned to hear about all the cool new stuff we’re working on."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- US Military Surrenders To Social Media, Changes Access Restrictions
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/tbvs-OVkBmA/US-Military-Surrenders-To-Social-Media-Changes-Access-Restrictions)
Thanks to a new policy by the Department of Defense, members of the US Military will now have limited access to social media sites. "According to the memorandum, members of military departments and all authorized users of the Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNET) can now use the publicly accessible capabilities of various social networking and user-generated content sites, instant messaging, forums, and e-mail. This includes YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and others. Access to porn, gambling, or hate crime sites will remain restricted, however, and commanders can cut down on social media use if they feel the need to 'preserve operations security.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Another ACTA Leak Discloses Individual Country Data
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/u8cKEy23IPM/Another-ACTA-Leak-Discloses-Individual-Country-Data)
An anonymous reader writes "On the heels of the earlier leak of various country positions on ACTA transparency, today an even bigger leak
has hit the Internet. A new European Union document [PDF] prepared several weeks ago canvasses the Internet and Civil Enforcement chapters, disclosing in complete detail the proposals from the US, and the counter-proposals from the EU, Japan, and other ACTA
participants. The 44-page document also highlights specific concerns of individual countries on a wide range of issues including ISP liability, anti-circumvention rules, and the scope of the treaty. This is probably the most significant leak to date since it goes beyond the transparency debate to include specific country positions and proposals."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Another Study Attacks Violent Video Games, Claims To Be "Conclusive"
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/_NmFRz9FSU4/Another-Study-Attacks-Violent-Video-Games-Claims-To-Be-Conclusive)
Killer Orca is one of many to tell us about a new study on the effects of violent video games on kids. The latest meta-study that analyzed research from 130 different reports claims to have "conclusively proven" that violent video games make more aggressive, less caring kids. "The team used meta-analytic procedures — the statistical methods used to analyze and combine results from previous, related literature -- to test the effects of violent video game play on the behaviors, thoughts, and feelings of the individuals, ranging from elementary school-aged children to college undergraduates. [...] Anderson says the new study may be his last meta-analysis on violent video games because of its definitive findings."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- New Type of Dinosaur Unearthed
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/nHiO3F_icCk/New-Type-of-Dinosaur-Unearthed)
MileHighScience writes to mention that a new type of sauropod has been discovered by scientists from Utah's Brigham Young University. Dubbed Abydosaurus mcintoshi, the new addition to the long necked dinosaur family was discovered at Dinosaur National Monument. "The circumstances of its discovery were both unusual and dramatic. The researchers stumbled on four skulls in a quarry at the preserve. Two were still intact. Sauropod skulls are rarely found in the fossil record because the soft tissue from which they are constructed is unlikely to be preserved after death. 'Their heads are built lighter than mammal skulls because they sit way out at the end of very long necks,' Brooks Britt, a BYU paleontologist said in a news release. 'Instead of thick bones fused together, sauropod skulls are made of thin bones bound together by soft tissue.' Of more than 120 known species of sauropods, there have been only eight instances in which scientists have been able to recover intact skulls."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Microsoft Behind Google Complaints To EC
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/NK3QDXy9IYk/Microsoft-Behind-Google-Complaints-To-EC)
justice4all writes to share that some of the recent complaints to the European Commission about Google have apparently been coming from Microsoft. "A lawyer for Microsoft confirmed that the software giant told the US Department of Justice and the European Commission how Google’s business practices may be harming publishers, advertisers and competition in search and online advertising. [...] 'Google’s algorithms learn less common search terms better than others because many more people are conducting searches on these terms on Google. These and other network effects make it hard for competing search engines to catch up. Microsoft’s well-received Bing search engine is addressing this challenge by offering innovations in areas that are less dependent on volume. But Bing needs to gain volume too, in order to increase the relevance of search results for less common search terms.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

3. Latest Shareware from Planet-Shareware
-----------------------------------------------

4. FAQ of the day from Helpforce
-----------------------------------------------

-- I have lost my BIOS password - Help!
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: I have windows2000 [pro]I can't remember the password for BIOS Setup - I can't get my keyboard etc to work without the password.HELP!!!!

Answer: I assume you have a desktop tower.If i read your post correct, it is the bios password you cannot remember.Dig out your system documentation.Somewhere in the mb docs will be a section on clearing your cmos. this will get rid of any passwords.If you have a laptop, like a Toshiba or a Dell, this is a anti-theft protection. You can't clear the password. You muxst call the manufacturer with all the pertinent info.Post your MB type, make and model. Through this we can help get rid of the bios password.George

5. Advice of the Day from ask-leo
-----------------------------------------------

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