http://www.broadsoundtech.com/blog.php Feed Description. en-us Copyright BroadSound Technologies 2011 Wed, 9 Mar 2011 13:43:53 EST Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:47:27 EST rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=110 On Friday, more than 1,300 employees of London-based Aviva Investors walked into their offices, strolled over to their desks, booted up their computers and checked their emails, only to learn the shocking news: They would be leaving the company. The email ordered them to hand over company property and security passes before leaving the building, and left the staff with one final line: 'I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and wish you all the best for the future. 'This email was sent to Aviva's worldwide staff of 1,300 people, with bases in the U.S., UK, France, Spain, Sweden, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Finland and the Netherlands. And it was all one giant mistake: The email was intended for only one individual. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/332138/20120423/aviva-investors-accidentally-fires-company-email-text.htm rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:47:27 EST id_0110 http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=109 A Flashback variant dubbed Backdoor.Flashback.39 has infected over 600,000 Macs, according to Russian security firm Dr Web. The virulent Flashback trojan infecting Apple machines sparked interest earlier this week after it was seen exploiting a Java vulnerability, although it was actually first discovered back in September last year. The Trojan has a global reach after Dr Web found infected Macs in most countries. More than half of the Macs infected are in the US (56.6 percent), while another 19.8 percent are in Canada. The UK has 12.8 percent of infected Macs.Malware authors have targeted the Mac OS for quite some time; however, the recent OSX.Flashback.K infections indicate a very significant shift to the current threat landscape, which is dominated by malware on the Windows operating system. What sets this threat apart from typical Mac Trojans is the sheer size of Mac computers that have been infected. Initial estimates according to Dr. Web report OSXFlashback.K infections to be in the region of 550,000.http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/flashback-cleanup-still-underway-approximately-140000-infections rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:38:56 EST id_0109 http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=108 Cyber investigators from Microsoft, joined by a team of United States marshals, raided offices in Pennsylvania and Illinois Friday to disrupt a global network of more than 13 million infected computers that they said helped cyber criminals steal $100 million in the past five years.The coordinated seizure of computer servers at two hosting centers in Scranton, Pa., and Lombard, Ill., was "our most complex effort to disrupt botnets to date," Richard Boscovich, a senior attorney at Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit, said in a blog post.Botnets are global networks of infected computers that allow cyber criminals to steal consumer financial data. They grow in size as computer users accidentally click on a malicious link or file, and their PCs begin performing automated tasks that help cyber criminals commit identity theft.Microsoft, whose aim is to secure its Windows operating system that still dominates the market, alleges that botnets infected with the so-called Zeus malware can record users' computer keystrokes to steal usernames and passwords linked to online bank accounts. In addition to stealing more than $100 million, the botnet operators have sold hundreds of versions of Zeus -- with various levels of sophistication -- for between $700 and $15,000, Microsoft said.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/03/26/microsoft-botnet-bust-raids-marshal_n_1379718.html rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:28:23 EST id_0108 http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=107 "Researchers have established a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and the degree to which you are a "socially disruptive" narcissist, confirming the conclusions of many social media sceptics.People who score highly on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire had more friends on Facebook, tagged themselves more often and updated their newsfeeds more regularly."http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/17/facebook-dark-side-study-aggressive-narcissism rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:13:17 EST id_0107 http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=106 Catching a flight in the U.S. isn't a great experience anymore due to the security checks involved. You have to remove your shoes, your belt, get your laptop out, be scanned and subjected to radiation in the process. Hundreds of other people are doing the same thing, meaning it takes 40 minutes instead of four. Now, the TSA has come up with a clever, money-making alternative. Instead of scaling back security or speeding it up, you can instead pay $100 and bypass it completely!http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303863404577281483630937016.html rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:36:23 EST id_0106 http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=105 The Justice Department is defending the government's refusal to discuss — or even acknowledge the existence of — any cooperative research and development agreement between Google and the National Security Agency. The Washington based advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center sued in federal district court here to obtain documents about any such agreement between the Internet search giant and the security agency. The NSA responded to the suit with a so-called 'Glomar' response in which the agency said it could neither confirm nor deny whether any responsive records exist. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington sided with the government last July.http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2012/03/doj-asks-court-to-keep-secret-any-partnership-between-google-nsa.html rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:54:27 EST id_0105 http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=104 While everyone's always waxing like Lord Tennyson about nature being 'red in tooth and claw,' neuroscience and psychology are quietly telling us that we may be innately nicer than we think. Sure, we're not cuddly little bunny rabbits, but many lines of evidence over the past few decades have pointed toward some distinctly physical underpinning of basic morality and aversion to violence, implying that humans (and probably many other animals to) have a strong built-in 'try-not-to-punch-that-dude' mechanism. A recent study published in the journal Emotion, by psychologists Fiery Cushman, Allison Gaffey, Kurt Gray, and Wendy Mendes, provides some further evidence for the link, as the authors put it, 'between the body and moral decision-making processes.' http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/3/8/humans-are-nicer-than-we-think rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:04:06 EST id_0104 http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=103 The largest solar storm in 5 years smacked Earth early this morning. Charged particles flying at 4 million MPH struck us right on the nose. These kinds of storms have been known to break parts of our aging power grid as well as disrupt mobile phone service. Another set is ready to aim at Earth currently as well. http://news.yahoo.com/solar-storm-headed-toward-earth-may-disrupt-power-162508973.html rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:14:50 EST id_0103 http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=102 Almost 30,000 WordPress blogs have been infected in a new wave of attacks orchestrated by a cybercriminal gang whose primary goal is to distribute rogue antivirus software, researchers from security firm Websense say. The attacks have resulted in over 200,000 infected pages that redirect users to websites displaying fake antivirus scans. The latest compromises are part of a rogue antivirus distribution campaign that has been going on for months, the Websense researchers said. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/030612-30000-wordpress-blogs-infected-to-256993.html rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:34:21 EST id_0102 http://www.broadsoundtech.com/display_post.php?post_id=101 Microsoft on Wednesday made the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 available for download to the general public. Built with touch computing and apps in mind, Windows 8 is crucial to Microsoft's efforts to make inroads against Apple and Google in the red-hot tablet market, where the company is significantly behind rivals. Windows 8 marks the biggest change to the OS since the aforementioned 95 flavor (which, shockingly, turns 17 this year). With Windows 8 comes the introduction of a Metro-style interface, inspired by the lovely and intuitive presentation found in Windows Phone. In it, apps and functions are pinned to tiles and, to interact with those apps, you simply tap those tiles. The former Start Menu has been replaced by a full-screen view of tiles that you can scroll through horizontally. You can pin applications, shortcuts, documents, webpages and any number of other things, customizing the interface in any way you like — so long as what you like is rectangular and only extends from left to right. rgrey@broadsoundtech.com (Rex Grey) Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:23:18 EST id_0101