Ban on Bulk SMS-es and MMS-es Withdraw by indian govt

The government has withdrawn with immediate effect the ban on sending bulk SMS-es and MMS-es, a notification issued by the Home Ministry said today.

The ban was imposed on August 17, after reports emerged that threatening SMS-es were being sent to students from the North-East in cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad. It was aimed at checking the spread of rumours, which had fuelled panic.

The government had then said that for 15 days, cellphone users would be allowed to send only five messages a day. Later on August 23, the limit was increased from five to 20.

According to the government, since the clashes in Assam, misleading information and hate messages were being spread through SMS-es and MMS-es. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter were also reportedly used to circulate morphed images.

Along with the restrictions on SMS-es and MMS-es, the government had also banned hundreds of web pages.  Source-NDTV

(With Inputs from PTI)

Sony launched Xperia tablet after mobile success

Sony Corp released an upgraded version of its Android tablet on Wednesday, branding its rival to Apple Inc's iPad and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy as "Xperia" in a bid to unify its mobile devices under one name.

Sony has identified its mobile devices unit, which also makes Xperia smartphones, as one of its key units as it tries to overcome losses from televisions that contributed to an overall record net loss of 455 billion yen ($5.8 billion) in the year ended March 31.

Featuring a 9.4 inch screen and loaded with the Android 4.0 operating system, the Xperia is the second tablet from Sony, which released its first models in April last year.

At the time, Sony said it wanted to claim second spot in the increasingly competitive tablet market ahead of Samsung, but failed to ignite enough consumer interest in the devices.

The iconic Japanese consumer electronics brand also wants to boost sales of digital cameras and games consoles, while nurturing new businesses including medical devices.

Though more powerful than its predecessors, the new tablet from Sony also faces a more crowded marketplace. In June, Microsoft Corp introduced its first tablet, dubbed Surface.

Signs of a turnaround for Sony are yet to emerge.

On August 2 it cut its full-year operating profit forecast to 130 billion yen from 180 billion, and slashed its combined sales target for Vita and PSP handheld games consoles to 12 million from 16 million.

The Xperia tablet will retail in the U.S. from September 7, costing $399 for a 16 gigabyte version and $599 for a 64 gigabyte model, the company said in a press release. Like Microsoft's device it is also available with a keyboard that doubles as a cover, for which consumers will be asked to pay an addition $99.99.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly in TOKYO; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:47am EDT Source-Reuters

Lava launches budget E-Tab Z7H ICS tablet at Rs. 5,899

Lava has launched the E-Tab Z7H, a 7-inch budget ICS tablet, priced at Rs. 5,899.

The company hopes to compete with the host of other budget ICS tablets in the market, with its support for a majority of 3G dongles, a bouquet of content, and its Flick technology.

Lava Mobiles says the E-Tab Z7H is the first of a series of strategically priced tablets. It runs Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich on a 1.2GHz Cortex-A8 processor. It features Wi-Fi and USB connectivity, a 3.5mm jack, a G-sensor, and built-in storage of 4GB, along with microSD expandability up to 32GB.

The Lava E-Tab Z7H weighs in at 350 grams, and features the following dimensions: 122x204x11.9mm. Lava has bundled a number of apps with the tablet as well, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TOI, Nimbuzz, Google Search, Flyte Flipkart Music App, Gmail, Google Latitude and Google Voice Search.

Other preloaded and bundled content includes a few games, and even 14 ebooks (in partnership with McGraw-Hill Education), such as Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s Envisioning an Empowered Nation, Word Power and Dhiru Bhai Ambani’s Biography.

Lava has also partnered with Meritnation, and offers free Vedic math’s content and a discount of Rs 750 on any of meritnation.com package. LAVA has also tied up with Hungama.com, to offer the movie ‘3 Idiots’ bundled, choices worth Rs 1,250 to stream up to 6 movies from Hungama.com website, for free. Lava is also offering a Tata Photon+ dongle bundle with the tablet.

Source-thinkDigit

Saudi Oil firm says 30,000 computers hit by virus

Saudi Arabia's oil company, Saudi Aramco, says its main internal network is back up after a virus affected 30,000 work stations in mid-August, but the source of the attack remains unclear.

Saudi Aramco said all of the affected workstations have all been cleaned and restored to service and normal business resumed on Saturday when employees returned to work following the Muslim Eid holidays. The primary enterprise systems of hydrocarbon exploration and production were unaffected because they are kept on isolated network systems. Meanwhile, remote Internet access to online resources has been restricted, the statement said.

Saudi Aramco blamed a "malicious virus that originated from external sources" and said it was continuing to "investigate the causes of the incident and those responsible for it," in a statementreleased yesterday. There was no direct mention of hackers who had claimed responsibility for attacking the energy company.

"Saudi Aramco is not the only company that became a target for such attempts, and this was not the first nor will it be the last illegal attempt to intrude into our systems, and we will ensure that we will further reinforce our systems with all available means to protect against a recurrence of this type of cyber-attack," Khalid A. Al-Falih, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, said in the statement.

At least one main Aramco Web site remained down today.

A group calling itself Cutting Sword of Justice posted a message on the Pastebin site on August 15, the same day Saudi Aramco started having problems, claiming to have sent a malicious virus to destroy 30,000 computers in the energy company. The group said it was targeting Aramco, "the largest financial source for Al-Saud regime," because it supports "crimes and atrocities" against citizens in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and other neighboring countries.

There have been a series of posts, from that group, as well as Arab Youth Group, and possibly a third. The next day another Pastebin post claimed that data and operating system files were wiped out on the client computers and that 2,000 servers were affected, while another post listed what it said were the IP addresses supposedly from Aramco's internal network.

A subsequent post referred to the "Shamoon attack." Shamoon is malware that destroys data, according to a Symantec report on August 16. The malware was being used in targeted attacks including against at least one energy company in the Middle East, but researchers have not named the victim.

Security expert Jeffrey Carr, CEO of Taia Global, speculates in a blog post today that the attack was orchestrated by Iran to retaliate against Saudi Aramco for committing to make up for cuts in Iran's oil exports as a result of the U.S.-European Union embargo.

by Elinor Mills

  August 27, 2012 11:15 AM PDT CNET

Samsung Ordered to Pay $1 billion to apple over lawsuit

Apple won a decisive victory on Friday in a lawsuit against Samsung, a verdict that will give Apple ammunition in a far-flung patent war with its global competitors in the smartphone business.

The nine jurors in the case, who faced the daunting task of answering more than 700 questions on sometimes highly technical matters, returned a verdict after just three days of deliberations at a federal courthouse in San Jose, California.

They found that Samsung infringed on a series of Apple’s patents on mobile devices, awarding Apple more than $1 billion in damages.

That is not a big financial blow to Samsung, one of the world’s largest electronics companies. But the decision could essentially force it and other smartphone makers to redesign their products to be less Apple-like, or risk further legal defeats.

Philips India introduces new range of lifestyle Products

Philips India launched a new range of products that included home theatre systems, docking speakers, MP3 players and headphones to expand its lifestyle entertainment portfolio.

Speaking on the sidelines of launching of the new products Philips India, President Consumer Lifestyle (Indian Subcontinent) ADA Ratnam said it is looking at posting a double digit growth in its consumer lifestyle segment this fiscal year by adopting new business strategies.

"Philips Consumer Lifestyle has posted a strong double digit growth in past seven months and we intend to maintain it," said Ratnam.

"We are changing our market strategy and the focus is on to go to the market. We are also targeting tier II and tier III cities for some of our products," he added.

Phishing emails targeting BlackBerry, iPhone users

BlackBerry users are being targeted in a new round of phishing emails that try to infect computers with malware.

The messages claim that the recipient's "BlackBerry ID" has been created, and to retrieve it, they need to click on an attachment included in the email, according to Websense Security Labs, which detected the threat. But doing so results in the installation of malware.

“The binary that [victims] load with this attack is a backdoor, which could download another malicious binary meant to steal your bank card details, or to attack websites, or whatever they can do by getting into your computer,” Chris Astacio, manager of security research at Websense, told SCMagazine.com on Friday.

A similar email campaign in targeting iPhone users, according to Astacio.

The malware being used has gone undetected by many anti-virus programs, he said.

Danielle Walker August 24, 2012    source- Scmagazine

Microsoft launch first new logo in 25 years

Microsoft Corp unveiled its first new logo in 25 years on Thursday as it looks to unify its branding ahead of a clutch of new product releases this year.

The world's largest software company is introducing a dash of color in its first logo redesign since 1987, using a new multi-colored square next to a plain rendering of its name, replacing its well-worn italic style logo.

Microsoft is rolling out its new Windows 8 operating system along with new Office and phone software this autumn, and is hoping the new logo unifies customers' experience of the company, much like rival Apple Inc's distinctive logo has for its consumers.

"It's been 25 years since we've updated the Microsoft logo and now is the perfect time for a change," said Jeff Hansen, general manager of Microsoft's brand strategy, in a blog on Microsoft's website. "This wave of new releases is not only a reimagining of our most popular products, but also represents a new era for Microsoft, so our logo should evolve to visually accentuate this new beginning."

The new design, which resembles the existing logo for Windows, its most important product, is already in use on Microsoft's website and is being unveiled at its latest store opening in Boston on Thursday.
 Source-Reuters
(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

 SEATTLE | Thu Aug 23, 2012 12:19pm EDT

Naked Prince Harry photos published by UK's Sun newspaper

Aug 24 (Reuters) - The Sun tabloid on Friday published photographs of Prince Harry naked in Las Vegas, becoming the first British publication to defy a request from the royal family's lawyers.

On Thursday, newspapers in Britain did not publish the images of Queen Elizabeth's grandson naked with an unnamed woman while on holiday in Las Vegas, following a request from St James's Palace, the official residence of the prince, through the Press Complaints Commission to respect his privacy.

But, almost half of the front page of Friday's Sun newspaper shows a photograph of the naked prince covering up his genitals with his hands while an apparently naked woman hides behind his back in a Las Vegas hotel room.

The Sun, part of the British arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, said millions of people around the world had already seen the pictures and its readers had a right to see them.

David Dinsmore, managing editor of the Sun, said in a video on the paper's website that the decision to publish was not taken lightly, but the issue had become one of "the freedom of the press."

"This is about the ludicrous situation where a picture can be seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world on the Internet but can't be seen in the nation's favourite paper read by eight million people every day," Dinsmore said.

"This is about our readers getting involved in the discussion with the man who is third in line to the throne - it's as simple as that," he said.

Two pictures of the naked prince, who has a reputation as a partying playboy, were first published on the celebrity gossip website TMZ on Wednesday.

Their publication has since caused an ethical dilemma for British editors reeling from a judge-led inquiry into press conduct.

St James's Palace had contacted the Press Complaints Commission on Wednesday over concerns about the prince's privacy being intruded upon, in breach of the editors' code of practice.

"We have made our views on Prince Harry's privacy known. Newspapers regulate themselves, so the publication of the photographs is ultimately a decision for editors to make," the BBC quoted a spokesman for the royal family as saying on Friday.

Thursday's edition of the Sun carried a mocked up photo using their features picture editor and an intern in place of Harry -- son of heir-to-the throne Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana -- and the unnamed woman.

By Stephen Mangan

LONDON | Fri Aug 24, 2012 5:56am IST

Prince Harry’s naked pics surface online

Aug 22 (Reuters) - Pictures of a naked Prince Harry, grandson of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, cavorting with a nude young woman in a hotel room in Las Vegas were published on a U.S. website on Wednesday, in a potential embarrassment to him and the royal family.

A royal source confirmed to Reuters that it was Harry in the photos.

One photo published on the celebrity gossip website TMZ shows Harry, an Apache helicopter pilot in the British army, covering up his genitals with his hands while an apparently naked woman hides behind his back.

The other shows the 27-year-old prince, third in line to the British throne, pictured from the back hugging what appears to be the same naked woman.

Govt.Increases SMS Limit 20 Per Day

The government today increased the SMS limit per day from five to 20 with immediate effect, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Communication. From today, the mobile customers in the country, which is more than 930 million, can send a maximum to 20 SMS-es in one go and more than 25 KB of data through mobile phones.

Mobile users were restricted to sending only 5 SMS-es per day from last Saturday to check spread of rumours, which fuelled panic among people from the North-East.

"We have banned bulk SMS-es and MMS-es for 15 days," Union Home Secretary RK Singh had said last week.

According to the government, since the clashes in Assam, misleading information and hate messages were being spread through SMS-es and MMS-es that led to panic among the people from the North-East. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter were also reportedly used to circulate morphed images.

Along with the restrictions on SMSes and MMS-es, hundreds of web pages have been banned by the government since last week.  Source-NDTV

Pirated Android apps three sites seized, DOJ says

                                                      The Justice Department's site warning.

                                                        (Credit: U.S. Department of Justice)

The U.S. Department of Justice has taken aim at three sites that allegedly pirated Android apps.

According to the Justice Department, it seized three Web sites -- applanet.net, appbucket.net, and snappzmarket.com -- that were allegedly offering copies of copyrighted Android apps. It marked the first time that sites were seized over allegedly pirating copyrighted mobile apps.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the sting operation by downloading "thousands of copies of popularity copyright apps" from the sites, the Justice Department said. The agency didn't specify the apps, but the servers hosting them were based overseas, leading the FBI to call on international law-enforcement partners for help.

On Facebook, Gopla Kanda is still a minister

Former Haryana home minister Gopal Kanda may have resigned from the state Cabinet after Geetika Sharma named him in her suicide note, but Kanda is still a minister - on Facebook.

Kanda's Facebook account continues to describe him as minister of state for home, industries and urban local bodies (independent charge).

Following Geetika Sharma's suicide on August 5, only three of his friends on Facbook -- out of 4,721 - commented on his profile photo, extending their support. No posts, however, are visible on his Facebook "wall".

Top politicians, government officials, academicians, journalists and relatives feature in his long list of friends.

Kanda has uploaded three profile photos on his account, which are "liked" by 10 of his friends.

A day after the registration of FIR for abetment to suicide on August 6, one of his friends, Nishant Jindal (Sirsa), commented: "Sir aap sahin h .... mujhe vishwas h... .m with u... (Sir, I am confident that you are right. I am with you)."

However, a deluge of hate comments was posted on a "community page" made on Kanda. While Siddarth Munjal says, "Shame on you Kanda," Amrit Oza says: "Fansi de do" (hang him).

A disgusted Ranveer Hooda says, "uff ek or Rathore, ek or Ruchika."

"Now, you will be destroyed .." says Varun Singhal, while Ruby Agrawal says anybody in his place would have ended his life by now. Hours after Geetika's suicide, a comment by one Mohit Lathar said he is a "killer."   Source-TOI

 Sukhbir Siwach, TNN | Aug 22, 2012, 06.11AM IST 

Nude wallpaper Apps infect of Android devices with Malware

Thousands of Android devices are thought to have been infected by a strain of Chinese Malware which sends costly SMS messages to earn cash for its creators.

Some reports have claimed that over 500,000 Android devices are infected with the malware, which is detected by Sophos's free Android anti-virus as Andr/SMSZomb-A.

Users are tricked into believing that they are installing GIF wallpaper onto their Android device, and a provocative message is shown suggesting that a secondary app is installed that would allow permanent use of the images.

VMware virtual machines targeted by Crisis Malware

Single piece of malware targets both Windows and OSX users and is capable of spreading to VMware virtual machines and Windows Mobile devices.

Security researchers have discovered a single piece of malware that is capable of spreading to four different platform environments, including Windows, Mac OSX, VMware virtual machines, and Windows Mobile devices.

First uncovered last month by security company Integro, Crisis was originally described as a Mac Trojan capable of intercepting e-mails and instant messages and tracking Web sites visited.Additional scrutiny by Symantec has found that the malware targets both OSX and Windows users with executable files for both operating systems.

Twitter may face govt axe in India

Twitter might face legal action if the popular microblogging site does not comply with Indian government's demand to censor objectionable content posted by its users. 

Stung by the misinformation campaign thatspread like wildfire through SMS, Facebook,YouTube and Twitter in past weeks, the Indian government now seems to be moving ahead with its initial threat to tighten the noose around social media. 

Indicating this, a senior government official has said that Twitter has already been told that legal action may be taken against it as it had failed to cooperate with the Indian government in its efforts to find the source of and curtail the inflammatory messages against north-east citizens.

India’s web culture is all about Facebook, social networking

ComScore, has just released some interesting data on how India’s digital citizens are spending time online. The report states that  social networking accounted for 25.2 percent of all time spent online in June. The biggest beneficiary of the social networking boom in India is, of course, Facebook.

The report also states that Indians spend nearly 1 out 4 minutes online indulging in social networking, amounting to a significant 25.2 percent of total time spent online.

Other content that occupies a significant amount of time for Indians is

• Entertainment sites – accounting for 10 percent of minutes (up 1.2 percentage points from the previous year).

• Portals accounted for 8.8 percent of total minutes.

• Time spent on Retail sites grew 0.5 points in the past year to a total of 2.0 percent of total minutes.

So which are the top used sites by Indians?

Google and other sites run by the search-engine ranked as the top destination in June 2012 reaching nearly 95 percent of the online population, or roughly 57.8 million people aged 15 and older

Facebook came in second followed with 50.9 million visitors (83.4 percent reach),

Yahoo! Sites (65.5 percent reach) and Microsoft Sites (48.1 percent reach) are next on the list.

So what does this web survey reveal about India?

The first is the tremendous rise of social networking among Indians. The second is of course the rise of Facebook. All of this is particularly noteworthy data, coming as it does at a time when the government is blaming social media aiding in the spread of rumours against North-eastern people, which led to a mass exodus of these people from various South Indian cities.

The government has alleged that Facebook, YouTube, etc were used to upload inflammatory content that led to the mass hysteria. The latest exodus is also being used by the government to bolster its argument that social networking sites ought to pre-screen content before it is uploaded.

Facebook and YouTube have added that the content was uploaded from Pakistan and have admitted that it was indeed incendiary in nature.

There’s no doubt that censorship of the web will now become a hotly contested issue with the government using the North-east as a classic example of how social media was misused.

But the larger question is that whether Indians who are evidently addicted to social networking would be okay with their online rights being curbed. Most would be uncomfortable with any sort of censorship. As far as users are concerned, the government seems to be displaying a blithe ignorance of how effective and useful social media can be.

In case of bomb attacks and accidents,  people very often turn to social media such as Twitter or Facebook,  to get more information or even reach out to those who have been affected. In July 2011 in Mumbai for instance, the Indian Twitter community took it upon themselves to offer rides and other assistance to those stranded as a result of a series of bomb explosions in the city.

Social media has also become a very effective tool of criticising the government.

For India’s online citizens, who are only over a  100 million or so in number, the battles are going to get tougher with the government arguing for more control. There’s no doubt that as far as social media concerned nobody is willing to budge an inch, neither the users nor the government.

Source-Firstpost

80 Internet Sites including Facebook, Google and Twitter accounts to be banned for inflammatory content

The Government has reportedly ordered 80 or more Internet pages and user-accounts on social networking sites including Facebook, Google and Twitter to be banned to avoid panic among people of the North-Eastern region living across India.

All these sites were found hosting inflammatory and hateful content, spreading rumours and inciting violence targeting the people from the North-East, government sources said.

Yesterday, the government had issued instructions to block 76 Internet sites, which included web-pages and some websites, and had said that bulk of the rumours that triggered panic among people of North-eastern states in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were sourced from Pakistan.

Facebook Helping Police to Check Crime

HUBLI: A social networking site is helping Haveri police track down criminals and streamline traffic.

Police had a tough time getting public support to control crime but are now getting it through their Facebook account. The site is also helping police discipline some errant police personnel and keeping a tab on them.

Superintendent of police Chetansingh Rathod mooted the plan to use the site and opened an account in the name of 'SP Haveri' ten months ago. The efforts to get information and assistance from members of the public have paid off.

The account has 3,500 followers and most help the SP improve the law and order situation in Haveri by posting their complaints, grievances and giving tips about crimes in their areas. Based on these, police are taking action and improving the system. Rathod told STOI, "We targeted educated youths and students and received a good response. With the help of tips and complaints posted online, we disciplined errant constables who were harassing people, particularly motorists, to cough up bribes and those who were not handling traffic at crowded places efficiently. Many are giving tips about errant police personnel, traffic problems in city and other crimes."

He said "We cracked a racket which involved duping people, gambling, and other cases after getting tip-offs. When we got an alert about traffic snarls, we fixed them." Police also cracked a money-doubling racket in Guttal village after an alert on the site. Source-TOI

Basavaraj F Kattimani, TNN | Aug 19, 2012, 07.49AM IST

websites with provocative content blocked:Assam violence

MUMBAI: The cyber crime investigation cell (CCIC) of the city police has blocked three websites that were showing provocative videos of violence against Muslims in Myanmar. The police have also identified at least 25 videos on various websites that show killing of Muslims in Assam and Myanmar.

The duration of the videos is between six minutes and 10 minutes. Investigators believe the provocative content of the videos had fanned anger, resulting in violence in south Mumbai on August 11.

Additional commissioner of police (detection, crime branch) Niket Kaushik said, "We have gone through all the videos and clippings and found that some of these were doctored. The images used were not of the violence in Assam or Myanmar. We have also blocked several blogs that were discussing these issues."

Kaushik said the police have written to service providers and sought information on internet protocol (IP) addresses of websites from where these videos were uploaded. "Until we get the information, it will be difficult to say where the videos were uploaded from," said Kaushik.

"These provocative clippings were sold in the form of an MMS for Rs 10 each a few days before the riots. We are also keeping tabs on some mobile memory card dealers who had upload videos in the cards. If found guilty, action will be taken against them," said a crime branch officer.

Sources said a clipping titled "Muslim being burnt in Burma" is actually that of a Tibetan protestor who had set himself ablaze two years ago. Source-TOI
Mateen Hafeez, TNN | Aug 19, 2012, 01.54AM IST 

Indian government banned bulk SMSes and MMSes for 15 days

5 SMS per day limit comes into effect.The restriction does not apply on the transaction SMS related to Banking, Financial Institutions and Railway alerts.

 

NEW DELHI: To check spread of rumours which has led to exodus of northeastern people from certain states, government banned from today bulk SMSes and MMSes for 15 days across the country.

"We have banned bulk SMSes and MMSes for 15 days," Union Home Secretary RK Singh told PTI.

The decision was taken after reports of widespread circulation of SMSes and MMSes containing misleading information about Assam violence, threats to people of northeastern origin living in other parts of the country and doctored videos.

The Home Ministry has asked Department of Telecommunications to implement the order through the telecom operators.

From today onwards, no one will be able to send more than 5 SMSes in one go and more than 20 KB of data through mobile phones during the ban period. Though the limit on SMS is on bulk messages, some operators have reportedly levied this cap on person-to-person SMSes as well.

The ban came into force after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that spread of rumours by miscreants had led to people belonging to the north east to flee from Bangalore, Pune and some other parts of the country.

Noting that the guilty should be brought to book, the Prime Minister said that at stake was not just unity and integrity of the country, but also communal harmony.

"Any miscreant fanning rumours should be brought to book," he said.

PTI | Aug 18, 2012, 02.16PM IST

Source-TOI

Facebook, Twitter to be shut in India? North-East exodus

Aug 17: It seems that the central and state governments' appeal to North East people not to leave Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and other cities fell on deaf ears. The exodus of North Eastern people continue to leave for their home states, despite assurances. Amid the grave situation, many have started demanding to shutdown social networking sites in the country for some time to prevent the spreading of such rumours.

Joining Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil, a Samajwadi Party MP, Ramgopal Yadav also stated in Rajya Sabha that social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter should be closed for a few days to prevent the spreading of rumours that are prompting thousands of Northeastern students and people to flee to their home.

The MP along with many other officials believe that social networking sites were being misused to spread rumours on ethnic clashes between the Bodos and Muslims in Assam.

Earlier, Mr Patil was quoted as saying, "We are requesting the central government in helping shut down social networking sites found involved in spreading rumours."

"I have asked police to set aside routine work if need be and concentrate on providing security to people from North East who live in Maharashtra," added Mr Patil.

According to rumours, some unidentified group allegedly circulated some SMSs and emails threatening North-East people to leave the cities before Ramazan. They allegedly have been threatened of attack in metro cities.

Here arises a question for the government and other officials who have been urging to shutdown the social networking sites in the country - can such move really assure the safety of people from North-East who have so far been neglected in their own country?

Mass exodus continued for the second straight day on Friday with three more packed trains leaving for Guwahati. There was a commotion in the Bangalore railway stations with police trying hard to pacify the North Eastern citizens.

Similar kind of hullabaloo was seen in Hyderabad, Chennai and Mysore as well. However, assuring about their security, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday stated, "At all cost we will ensure peace and harmony in the country. We would like all state governments to work with local communities to this effect." Source-Oneindia

Nairita  Friday, August 17, 2012, 14:18 [IST  

Facebook settlement over ad feature rejected by Judge

A U.S. judge rejected Facebook Inc's proposed legal settlement to resolve allegations that the social networking company violated its members' rights through the its 'Sponsored Stories' advertising feature.

In an order on Friday, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco listed several concerns with the proposed settlement, including a request for more information on why the agreement does not award any money to members.

Seeborg said the company and attorneys for the plaintiffs could try to modify their agreement to address his concerns.

"We continue to believe the settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. "We appreciate the court's guidance and look forward to addressing the questions raised in the order."

Representatives for the plaintiffs could not immediately be reached for comment.

Facebook is finally Delete Your 'deleted' photos

it looks like the whole Facebook-not-deleting-your-photos-when-it-said-it-had saga might be coming to an end.

Back in February, we reported that the "Delete this photo" button wasn't actually deleting the photo from Facebook's content delivery networks, at least not for a long while anyway.

So despite the photo disappearing from your profile, if you plugged the image url straight into your browser you could still see it.

It's less shutting the door on the photo and more masking it with a beaded curtain.

Now the problem has been fixed, as Frederic Wolens from Facebook told Ars Technica:

As a result of work on our policies and infrastructure, we have instituted a 'max-age' of 30 days for our CDN links.

However, in some cases the content will expire on the CDN much more quickly.

MMS on Assam riots was doctored to create panic, say Pune Police

Pune: The MMS depicting purported footage of violence in Assam, which was in circulation in the city for the last few days, was bogus, police said here on Thursday.

The police also said that no untoward incident had taken place in the city after attacks on students from the North East on August 8 and 9.

"The voice and the narration in the MMS are clearly altered. Now we have confirmed that this MMS is bogus. People need not panic....The situation in Kondhwa, Pune Camp (where students were attacked) is under control," said Prasad Hasabnis, Senior Police Inspector.There was no threat to people from the North East, he added.

Police have arrested a few men following the attacks. In Mumbai, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan assured earlier in the day that protection would be given to students from the North East, and they need not panic. There were some reports of students fleeing to their home states.

Sunil Kamthan, Station Master, Pune Railway Station, said that Railways had arranged two extra coaches for Howra-bound Azad Hind Express.

PTI | Aug 17, 2012, 01:30AM IST

Source-Daily Bhaskar

Internet protocol address not of Pakistan, says Himanshu Roy

MUMBAI: The Cyber Crime Investigating Cell (CCCI) probe into the SMSs and the uploaded morphed pictures circulated among theminority community which led to provocation, has so far not found any internet protocol (IP) to suggest that it had originated from Pakistan.

"Most of the clippings are morphed and so far investigations we have found that it has been generated from within India itself. We have not come to conclusion to pinpoint any links with any foreign country though our investigations are still going on,'' said Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (crime).

The police were probing how these morphed pictures showing atrocities on minorities were uploaded on the facebook and youtube which police believes instigated the mobs to protest at Azad Maidan on Saturday.

Potential Security Risks You Can't Ignore

Information security is not just about privacy, secrecy, and confidentiality. With cyber criminals taking over the malspace, law makers also need to be closely involved. Steve Durbin, the Global VP of Information Security Forum Ltd, describes the potential security risks that might cost a lot if overlooked -Hiren Mehta Thursday, August 16, 2012

Given the way security threats are evolving, there can exist only two kinds of organisations in cyberspace: Those who have already been attacked; and those who WILL be attacked. Hence, the question to ask is not whether you will be attacked but WHEN you will be attacked next. We attended Threat Horizon 2014, an event aimed to help CISOs understand the security threats landscape and what should be done about it. It was conducted by the Information Security Forum Ltd in Mumbai in July. Here are the major findings.

Most Malware is Coming from Malspace

Cybercrime is a typical external security threat. The Information Security Forum calls it Malspace, to denote the realm of cyber criminals, their network, malware, methods, tools and data. Phishing and spamming are only indicative examples of the methodologies that they use. The malspace is maturing very rapidly and the coordination, planning and determination seen between cyber criminal networks and gangs these days is unmatched even by the discipline of the most revered law enforcement agencies. Crowd-sourcing is a rising phenomenon used in malspace.

To combat malspace, organizations need to implement a baseline security model as their first line of defence. Further, organisations need to improve their cyber resilience. Since malspace has cyber criminals involved, they must also connect with law enforcement agencies to share information and work better rather than plan defences in an isolated manner.

Airport virtual private network hacked using Malware

The pervasive Citadel trojan, typically reserved for financial theft, was used to beat two-factor authentication and hack into the virtual private network (VPN) of a major international airport, researchers revealed Tuesday.
Security firm Trusteer discovered the attack, which launched a two-step assault on its victims in order to compromise the airport's VPN.
The man-in-the-browser (MITB) assault first used form-grabbing malware, which steals data entered into web forms before it is passed over the internet, to steal the airport employees' VPN usernames and passwords, Amit Klein, Trusteer's chief technology officer, said in a blog post on Tuesday. Next, screen-capturing technology was employed to take a snapshot of an image created by the VPN's strong authentication product.

Google to cut 4,000 Motorola Mobility jobs, shares rise

Google Inc will slash 20 percent of the workforce of Motorola Mobility in the Internet search giant's largest job cuts ever as it moves to make more smartphones and fewer simple mobiles.

The news sent Google's shares up nearly 3 percent but analysts said it was unclear if the cuts were enough to restore the fortunes of Motorola, whose last hit was the Razr flip-phone launched eight years ago.

"I think it's still going to be challenging to navigate the waters (of the handset business); how do you keep your partners happy and how you push your own smartphone devices at the same time," Morningstar Inc analyst Rick Summer said.

"This is the obvious step. The things that are harder are how do you drive profitability, how do you carve out a niche for Google devices, how to end up delivering solid returns on capital."

Google bought the money-losing cellphone maker for $12.5 billion last year - its largest acquisition ever - aiming to use Motorola Mobility's patents to fend off legal attacks on its Android mobile platform and expand beyond its software business.

By pairing Motorola's smartphone hardware business with its Android software, Google may have a better chance of mounting a direct challenge to Apple Inc's popular iPhone, technology market observers believe.

Facebook slapped by FTC for failing to meet security promises

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finally agreed its settlement with Facebook.

In November 2011, The FTC published its investigation findings, listing eight issues that raised privacy and security concerns.

One issue in particular seems to have caught the security media's eye.

The FTC say that Facebook invited developers to submit their apps to its verification program, which promised to review and certify that apps were secure.

Facebook of course charged developers for this service. Fees were between $175 and $375 per application submitted. The social media comonay awarded the badge to approximately 254 platform applications, according to the FTC.

Facebook received up to $95,000 USD from developers who wanted their apps certified, reported The Guardian.

Sony Xperia P to get ICS upgrade from Aug 19

New Delhi: The much awaited Android Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for Xperia P smartphone will be rolled out between 19 and 25 August, the electronics giant has announced through its Facebook account.

Notably, Sony had earlier announced the roll out of the Android Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for its Xperia P smartphone in the second week of August itself.

Sony Mobile has also officially confirmed that the ICS upgrade for the Xperia S will be arriving later this month and not any later than that.

Low-cost tablets gain market share

New Delhi: Low-cost sleek tablets, some with exceptional features, have flooded the price-conscious Indian market in recent months, challenging expensive brands.

According to Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst, Gartner Research, there has been a significant uptake of tablets in the market as compared to last year.

"The demand for such devices from the enterprise verticals has gone up. Sectors such as insurance have started using tablets for front-end customisation. Even the education sector has started showing keen interest in these devices," Tripathi told IANS.

The tablet shipment for the quarter ended March 31 stood at 3,00,000 and is expected to grow 25 per cent annually.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the Indian tablet market would grow to 23.38 million units by 2017.

"Tablet is a smart competing device that is fast catching up and will be driven further by seemless connectivity options and thus enhanced user experience," said Milan Seth, partner and technology practice leader at research firm Ernst & Young India.