Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Here is the list of Keyboard Shortcut combinations which you could try in Facebook by using Firefox.

Shift+Alt+1 : Return to Home
Shift+Alt+2 : To view the Wall tab
Shift+Alt+3 : To pull down the Friends Requests list
Shift+Alt+4 : To retrieve the Messages list
Shift+Alt+5 : To call out the Notification list
Shift+Alt+6 : Account setting page
Shift+Alt+7 : Account privacy configuration.
Shift+Alt+8 : Facebook fans group page
Shift+Alt+9 : Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities
Shift+Alt+0 : Facebook Help Center
Shift+Alt+m : Create new message
Shift+Alt+? : Cursor in the Search Box
Here is the list of Keyboard Shortcut combinations which you could try in Facebook by using Google Chrome.
Alt+1 : Return to Home
Alt+2 : To view the Wall tab
Alt+3 : To pull down the Friends Requests list
Alt+4 : To retrieve the Messages list
Alt+5 : To call out the Notification list
Alt+6 : Account setting page
Alt+7 : Account privacy configuration.
Alt+8 : Facebook fans group page
Alt+9 : Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities
Alt+0 : Facebook Help Center
Alt+m : Create new message
Alt+? : Cursor in the Search Box

Monday, July 4, 2011


A list of 27 user names and encrypted passwords apparently for an Apple website was posted to the Internet over the weekend along with a warning from hacker group Anonymous that the Cupertino-based computer maker could be a target of its attacks.

The list was posted to the Pastebin website, a hosting site for text files, by an unidentified user under the title "Not Yet Serious." It wasn't immediately clear if the user was allied with the Anonymous hacking group, but the existence of the file became widely known after Anonymous linked to it in a Twitter message.
"Not being so serious, but well," the message read before linking to thePasteBin page. "Apple could be target, too. But don't worry, we are busy elsewhere," the message said.
The data appears to be a set of user names and encrypted passwords from an SQL database for an online survey at the Apple Business Intelligence website. The site is currently offline.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an apparently unrelated posting, a Lebanese grey-hat hacker called idahc_hacker said he had found vulnerabilities on another Apple website. The SQL injection and iFrame code attacks can be used by hackers to gain unauthorized access to data.
Grey hat hackers do not typically hack for malicious purposes and the Lebanese hacker did not post and data obtained from the site.
In pointing out the hacks, he said he was not part of Anonymous or LulzSec, an allied group that disbanded recently.
The Anonymous hacking group has been running an operation "Antisec" against government, law enforcement and corporations for some weeks now. A supporter of the group recently encouraged workers in "corrupt" companies and governments to also leak data. A website called HackerLeaks has been set for the purpose by Peoples Liberation Front, an ally of Anonymous. It is styled on the lines of whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks.

Saturday, July 2, 2011


Google+, now available to a limited number of people, won't likely ever overtake Facebook as the Web's premier social networking service. That's a shame, because after putting it through it's paces, I've found that it's superior to Facebook. Here are reasons Google+ beats Facebook.



It abandons Facebook's 'one-message-fits-all' approach to social networking

Facebook treats all of your "friends" alike. With it, you essentially have the same online relationship with someone you've absent-mindedly accepted as a friend, but never met, as you do with your spouse or friend of 15 years.
Not so with Google+. With Google+, you create separate "circles" for your online acquaintances, and then post separate messages to each circle. Want to make plans the July 4 weekend with your five best friends? Then post a message just for them. Phony Facebook "friends" won't see them.

It sparks conversations

One of Google+'s niftier features is Sparks, which combines the power of Google search with social networking. Powered by Google search, Sparks delivers a stream of blog posts, news, and videos about any topic in which you're interested. When you want to share any of that with others, click the Share link, and you can share it with your circles.

It integrates with other Google services

If you use multiple Google services, you'll especially welcome Google+. Conversations in it show up in Gmail. You can share photos from Picasa using it. It has direct links to Google Talk. Expect more links as well.

It's better for mobile

Unlike Facebook, Google+ was built from the ground up with mobile in mind. So it works far better with your smartphone. (There's an Android app for it now, soon to be followed by one for iOS, according to Google.) You can do group texting via the "Huddle" feature, for example. Uploading photos and geotagging is a snap. You can get text messages whenever there's new activity on Google+. While it's true that Facebook can do some of these things, it simply doesn't do them as well as does Google+.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Criminals recently spent more than a week siphoning e-mail messages from Hotmail users' accounts.

The flaw gave hackers a way to read and steal e-mail messages from Hotmail users, and according to security vendor Trend Micro, that's exactly what they did, sending specially crafted e-mail messages to several thousand victims.

On May 12, Trend Micro found a message sent to a victim in Taiwan that looked like a Facebook notification alert. The Chinese-language e-mail seemed to be warning victims that someone had accessed their Facebook accounts from a new location.

In fact, it was a ruse. Buried inside the e-mail message was a specially written script that forwarded the victim's e-mail messages to the hacker.

For the attack to work, the victim had to be logged into Hotmail, but the script would run even if the victim simply previewed the message. The attack worked because Microsoft had a common Web programming error, called a cross-site scripting flaw, on its website.

"The script triggers a request that is sent to the Hotmail server," Trend Micro wrote in a blog post describing the issue. It then "sends all of the affected users email messages to a certain email address."

Cross-site scripting flaws are easy to find on the Web, but they're rare in important, widely used websites such as Windows Live Hotmail.

Trend Micro reported the issue to Microsoft immediately, and it was finally fixed on Friday, according to Microsoft. It's not clear how many Hotmail users were hit by the attack.

According to Trend Micro, the attack doesn't seem to have been widespread. The company was able to count between 1,000 and 2,000 victims after discovering the issue, said Jamz Yaneza, a Trend Micro research manager. However, Trend Micro has no way of knowing how long the flaw was there before it was uncovered, he added.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Facebook Will Not be Free Anymore
This comes as a shocker to us. Facebook has announced that it will charge users for holding an account on the website. Users will get two account options - Free and Pro. Free accounts will let users post photos and links, but will have size limited to thumbnail only, big banner ads and popups. Moreover, users will have to take a paid survey for each login. However, Facebook reassures that the entire process won't take more than 10 minutes. The Pro account will let users post, share and view videos without worrying about the size and quality. Facebook said that starting next month, all users will be migrated to free accounts if they do not pay an amount, which is not disclosed as yet. Reports suggest it won't be more than $10 (Rs. 450 approx.) per month.

As per the information available, the new paid account roll out will start with a pilot testing in U.S. wherein users will be given unlimited cloud storage to upload photos and videos. Following that, Facebook will start rolling out the paid account options across the globe.

Facebook has been drawing attention of loads of users, advertisers, companies, game developers and more. The social network already has several addictive games and lets advertisers post ads. Games will be free but can only be played if you buy a special gaming pack at an undisclosed price.

We know that maintaining such a heavy user base and implementing innovation for masses isn't really a cost-effective strategy. However, charging users for holding accounts is a bit too much we think. Leave us a comment and let us know your reaction. 

A lot of people have heard of computer rentals. If you are going on the road or heading to a trade show or convention and you need a computer, you can simply rent one. Whether it be a laptop, notebook or a full-fledged desktop system, renting a computer is easy. But, would you ever consider renting out your own computer to a complete stranger like computer rental companies do? Your answer is most likely no, however, hackers are making that nightmare a reality for some.
If a hacker needs a remote PC to fulfill his hacking needs, then all he has to do is turn to underground, invitation-only services that rent out computers owned by normal people like you and me who are completely oblivious to the fact that their simple home computer is being rented out for services that they probably don't want performed on it.
In a recent story from Krebs on Security, it was reported that the PC renters can pick and choose their "rentals" through extremely sophisticated systems. The author of the post tried one of these services and found an astonishing 4,100 computers available in 75 countries and a majority of the computers were located in the United States.
The author noted that he could look for a computer by searching for things like city, IP range, ISP and connection speed. The price was also very alarming. The price for this particular site was only $1 a day after paying an initial $150 fee.
If you happen to find out that your computer is being rented out to cyber-criminals, what do you do? Well, some of the victims in the Krebs on Security post enlisted the help of professional IT service providers. That seems to be your best bet if you are lucky enough to find out that your computer is at risk. Other than that, you just have to hope you are not a victim and pray that if you are, you find out before any serious damage is done.

2011 Offshore Technology Conference
Attendance at this year's Offshore Technology Conference reached an impressive 29-year high, bringing in 78,150 people, an 8% increase from last year's show. The Offshore Technology Conference is the world's largest event for the development of offshore resources.
Attendance for the show surpassed the total for 2010, a mere 72,025, and the sold-out exhibition was the largest show since 1982 totaling 603,000 square feet. A new feature to this year's show was the OTC Parkway that spanned from Reliant Center to Reliant Arena allowing an increase in outside exhibition space. OTC had 2,520 companies from 40 different countries attend the event as well as 306 new exhibitors. Exhibitors were also added from Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines.
According to Susan Cunningham, Chairman of the 2011 Offshore Technology Conference, "The outstanding attendance underscores that OTC is the show to attend, and reflects the economic recovery as well as the importance of global offshore resource development in meeting world energy demand. This is an industry that rises to and meets incredible challenges, and the best minds from around the world come together at OTC to share our knowledge, to learn about technological advances and innovative approaches, to solve problems and to discuss important issues that affect the entire planet."
This year's show offered one of the strongest technical programs in the event's history with speakers from every major global producing area. One of the primary focuses of the show was the impact on deepwater drilling of the Macondo accident in the Gulf of Mexico, with 11 sessions presenting government as well as energy leaders discussing the lessons learned to take forward across the globe. The Spotlight on New Technology program at the show also highlighted 15 innovative technologies that are already making the industry more effective.
The Offshore Technology Conference continues to see growth with two new conferences in 2011. The OTC Arctic Technology Conference was held in February and focused on offshore technology for arctic exploration and development. OTC Brazil, which will be focusing on global deepwater projects with a special emphasis on Brazil, will be held in Rio de Janerio in October. The 2012 OTC will take place on April 30th through May 3rd, 2012 at Reliant Park.


As it promised last week, Skype today began serving up an update to Mac users of its chat and Internet phone software, fixing a dangerous bug that a researcher said could be used to build a worm.

A new version of Skype marked as 5.1.0.935 is now being offered to Mac users when they launch older editions of the program.

"We recommend that everyone upgrade to the newly released build," Skype said on a company blog today.

The update patches a vulnerability disclosed last week by Australian researcher Gordon Maddern, who had reported the issue to Skype more than a month before.

"The long and the short of it is that an attacker needs only to send a victim a message and they can gain remote control of the victim's Mac," said Maddern on his own blog. "It is extremely wormable and dangerous."

On Friday, Skype said it had already patched Maddern's vulnerability in version 5.1.0.922, which it had released on April 14. The company had not automatically offered that version to users or publicized the flaw, however, saying, "As there were no reports of this vulnerability being exploited in the wild, we did not prompt our users to install this update." Instead, users were required to update manually to receive the patch.

Skype clients for Windows and Linux do not contain the vulnerability, the company said last week.

Version 5.1.0.935 can be downloaded and installed by clicking the "Update" button in the dialog that appears when Mac users launch the program.


Scammers looking to flog cheap software have hacked Web pages on high-profile websites, including those belonging to NASA and Stanford University.
NASA, just a week away from its penultimate space shuttle launch, has now removed dozens of Web pages that popped up on its Jet Propulsion Laboratory website. They were used to flog low-cost versions of Adobe’s Creative Suite and other products, according to cached versions of the pages, still viewable on Google.
The scammers loaded up the Web pages with nonsense text (a sample: “Edit buy adobe premiere pro cs4 some callouts and balloons to make this time it took you and saved you a long time”) and links to many other hacked pages.
Affected sites included those for NASA, Stanford University, Syracuse University and Northeastern University. NASA had cleaned up its site Monday, but others, including Stanford, had not. Visitors to those sites could encounter the hacked pages even if they weren’t looking for cheap software.
Jane Platt, a spokeswoman for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the NASA site was safe to visit, but she declined to comment on the hacking incident because NASA’s policy “is not to discuss security matters.”
Some of the sites seem to have been hacked so that they pop up in the top results when Web surfers are looking for cheap Adobe software.
It looks like the scammers are trying to make money by generating Web traffic for online retailers, said Mary Landesman, a security researcher with Cisco’s ScanSafe group. On some of the sites, visitors who arrive following a Google search are automatically redirected to online retailers.
Google awards a higher ranking to Web pages hosted on trusted, high-profile websites, so by hacking NASA and Stanford’s pages, the scammers can generate more traffic for their clients and earn themselves more money in referral fees, she said. “Someone searching for cheap Adobe products is more likely to get those results,” she said.
This type of search engine poisoning has been around for years. Hackers often use a Web hacking technique called SQL injection to break into websites, but they can also do this by stealing or guessing passwords.
With NASA set to launch the Space Shuttle Endeavor next week, a lot of people are visiting the space agency’s website — something that makes it only more valuable to hackers, according to Chester Wisniewski, a security researcher with Sophos. Although none of the sites examined Monday contained malicious software, that could easily have been the case, Wisniewski said. “If they were to get malicious code inserted into those pages, it could hurt a lot of people,” he said.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Hackers today stepped up their use of Osama Bin Laden's death by shoving malware into PCs when users fall for phony claims of photographs and video, security researchers said .

"It's not really surprising," said Mikko Hypponen, the chief research officer of Helsinki-based F-Secure. "We were expecting to see related malware."

The shift to direct attacks follows Monday's campaigns to push fake security software, dubbed "rogueware," to both Windows and Mac users.

 F-Secure warned users to steer clear of spam that included the "Fotos_Osama_Bin_Laden.zip" archive attachment. The messages claim the file contains photos of Bin Laden after he was shot and killed by U.S. special forces during a 40-minute firefight in his compound in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

Running the resulting Windows executable file doesn't display photographs, but instead launches a new banking Trojan horse belonging to the three-year-old "Banload" line, said Hypponen. The malware sniffs out online banking sessions and then tries to redirect payments to other accounts.

Other security companies have also snared malware packaged with Bin Laden spam.

Symantec said it had found email messages touting photos and video of the U.S. attack's aftermath. The messages, which so far have been written in French, Portuguese and Spanish, lead users to a fake CNN Web site where they're told to download video.

As in the F-Secure instance, the download is, in fact, a "dropper" that in turn downloads malicious code to the Windows PC.

Bin Laden scams are also spreading quickly on Facebook, Hypponen and others said.

The latest scam plays on the reputation of Wikileaks, the organization that has leaked thousands of U.S. military and diplomatic messages during the last year.

"Osama is dead, watch this exclusive CNN video which was censored by Obama Administration due to level of violence, a must watch," claims the Facebook spam. "Leaked by Wikileaks."

According to U.K.-based Sophos, the Facebook messages don't play video of the al-Qaeda leader's death, but actually dupe users into copying and pasting a line of JavaScript into their browser's address bar.



"Any time you paste a script into your browser's address bar, you're effectively running code written by the scammers without the safety net of protection," said Graham Cluley, a Sophos senior security technology consultant, in a post to his company's blog Tuesday. The JavaScript shares the bogus news of the video with all of a user's Facebook friends by posting it to their "walls."

The criminals make money, said security firm Commtouch, by eventually shunting to users a marketing page that generates pay-per-click revenues.

Hackers and scammers are able to rapidly ramp up attacks whenever a major news story breaks because they're simply tweaking existing malware or schemes, said Hypponen. And some of their processes are even automated.

"The [search engine poisoning] is fully automated," Hypponen said, referring to the tactic where hackers and other cyber criminals pollute search engine results with pages containing links to malicious sites.

"They automatically generate pages with worthless content, or sometimes with no content at all," said Hypponen. "This works especially well when the news hasn't yet been covered by a normal site. It's possible for anybody to get their page within the top 10 [results] by being fast enough."

Hypponen expected that cyber criminals will continue to exploit Bin Laden's death for some time to come. "They usually keep trying longer than it actually works," he said. "Most people won't be falling for [such scams] for very long, but the video might work for a while, because I wouldn't expect the U.S. to release a real video."

Also part of the Bin Laden campaigns, experts said , was the first attempt by online crooks to push Mac-specific rogueware to Apple's customers.

Friday, April 15, 2011


 Hackers have compromised several servers that support WordPress and may have obtained source code, according to the founding developer of Automattic, the company behind the popular blogging platform.



Matt Mullenweg wrote on the WordPress blog that Automattic has been reviewing log records to determine how much information was exposed and re-evaluating "avenues to gain access."
"We presume our source code was exposed and copied," Mullenweg wrote. "While much of our code is open source, there are sensitive bits of our and our partners' code. Beyond that, however, it appears information disclosed was limited."
Mullenweg wrote that the company had no specific advice for WordPress users besides using strong passwords, not using the same password for multiple sites.
In the comment section of the blog post, a user asked if WordPress stores passwords in plain text or stores hashes of passwords. Mullenweg wrote that WordPress uses the Portable PHP password hashing framework.
"Our investigation into this matter is ongoing and will take time to complete," he wrote. "As I said above, we've taken comprehensive steps to prevent an incident like this from occurring again."
The intrusion follows what Automattic described as its worst distributed denial-of-service attack in its history last month, although the attack was thwarted soon after it started.

Thursday, April 14, 2011







FEATURES

1. Dimensions
The Figo is one of the longest, widest and shortest in height in its segment. This contributes to the best aerodynamic design and its spacious interiors.
Overall Length – 3795 mm
Overall Width – 1680 mm
Overall Height – 1427 mm

2. Wheelbase
With a 2489 mm wheelbase, the Figo clearly offers the most spacious interiors in its category.

3. Leg Room

Smart designing makes the Figo one of the most spacious cars available.

Front Leg Room- 1084 mm
Rear Leg Room- 860 mm
Rear Shoulder Room- 1300 mm

4. Boot Space

The Figo has 284 litres of boot capacity – again, the largest among all hatchbacks.

5. Air-Conditioning

The Figo boasts of the most powerful air conditioner in its segment. With the largest compressor and the best air speed, the Ford Figo offers the fastest-in-class time to comfort.

6. Bluetooth

Plug and unplug mobile phones to make and receive calls and hear the other person's voice over car speakers, access your complete phonebook on the audio unit without reaching for the phone, browse the last 10 dialed numbers, the last 10 missed and received calls, redial a particular number and swap, hold, mute and transfer calls from audio to phone. Smart audio allows you to stream songs from mobile phones to the car audio via Bluetooth and enjoy music over the car speakers without transferring files.

7. Intelligent Features

• Programmable keyless entry
• Intelligent safety locking features (central locking, drive away, crash unlock, ignition off    auto unlock, and auto relock)
• Distance to empty display
• RDS capable audio
• Speed sensing volume controls
• Electric boot release
• Lane change indication
• Hazard deceleration warning
• Variable (6 Speed) intermittent wipers
• Intelligent PATS

8. Styling

The Figo is designed in line with Ford's Global Kinetic Design philosophy. Streaky side repeater lamps, raising belt line, door lines, grille-less front, wide open trapezoidal lower grille, wrap-around head lamps and stylish tail lamps make it stamp a style statement.

Interiors: The Figo sports a unique coral theme on the inside, along with colour coordinated instrument panels and stylized door boards with pull cup type handles.

Vibrant Instrument Panel: The Figo is the first in its segment to make a style statement with colour infused vibrant interiors. The coral Instrument panel makes for the most vibrant looking Interiors available in its segment.

Ford Figo petrol price starts at 3,59,500* and Diesel price at 4,58,500*