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02 May 2011 13:08

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Tech: Protip: Be careful when searching for anything Bin Laden-related

  • cause Whenever a story comes out of nowhere to be a major news story — say, Japan’s earthquake or Osama bin Laden’s death — it tends to draw a lot of search traffic overnight to new terms that come up based on the story.
  • effect Now that anything Bin Laden-related is SEO platinum, malware creators are using the opportunity to load your computer with a virus — using such mechanisms as Google Image Search. Be careful out there, guys. source

16 Jan 2011 12:14

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World: Wikileaks, Stuxnet collide to create awesome article about Iran

  • Iran doesn’t have the bomb yet. But they’ve been trying really hard to get it, according to the latest round of data released from Wikileaks. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, which reportedly has all 250,000 diplomatic cables, has been releasing them slowly but surely, and the latest one is kinda sorta a big deal. The cables portray it as kind of last-gasp attempt for Iran to jump-start its diplomatic prowess. “A race exists between the bomb and financial collapse,” one French nuclear expert explained in the cable. Some quick numbers:
  • 350 Iranian companies and groups were reportedly involved in the pursuit of nuclear technology
  • 30+ countries that have contacts Iran is trying to use to make this bomb thingy happen
  • no Iran doesn’t have much in the way of its own uranium, making their job tougher source
  • » Oh, and remember Stuxnet? That computer worm seemingly designed to damage Iran’s nuclear program was reportedly a American-Israeli joint, according to this here article by The New York Times. It was reportedly so effective at causing a malware ruckus that it set Iran’s nuclear program back by several years. Favorite line: “The computer program also secretly recorded what normal operations at the nuclear plant looked like, then played those readings back to plant operators, like a pre-recorded security tape in a bank heist, so that it would appear that everything was operating normally while the centrifuges were actually tearing themselves apart.” Class.

13 Sep 2010 10:24

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Tech: “Here You Have” hacker doesn’t like the U.S. very much

  • I could smash all those infected but I wouldn’t. I hope all people understand that I am not negative person!
  • Haker “Iraq Resistance” • Regarding his status as the guy behind the “Here You Have” worm, which made many corporate IT department not-fun places to be on Thursday. He’s an anti-U.S. type, if you didn’t figure it out by the handle. He also has a video where he notes his actions are not as bad as those of Koran-burning-wannabe Terry Jones. Considering that his worm was responsible for as much as 10 percent of the spam on the entire Internet on Thursday morning, we’re sure some network engineers would disagree. source

10 Sep 2010 10:52

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Tech: “Here you have”: Evil non-cat-related virus taking over the world

  • whatA bunch of big companies have had their e-mail systems brought to their knees thanks to a new worm called “Here you have.”
  • howThe virus pretends to be a PDF encouraging people to click on it. In reality, it’s a big bad piece of malware. Boo. source

19 Aug 2010 11:08

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Culture: Wanna get a virus? Do a search for “Cameron Diaz.” Seriously

  • If you do a search for her, there’s a ten percent chance you’ll land on some malware. We did a search for her to find this image. We took our chances. For you guys. source

01 Feb 2010 09:34

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Tech: Social networking no longer immune to the advances of spam

  • 57% of social networking users have been spammed in the last year
  • 70% increase in social networking spam from 2008 to 2009
  • 39% of social networking users have been offered malware in 2009 source

23 Jan 2010 10:52

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Tech: Internet Explorer 6 fans get a taste of a major in-the-wild exploit

  • It’s the same one that led to Google’s Gibson getting hacked. It’s been warned about for weeks, and Microsoft patched Internet Explorer ahead of its normal release cycle to prevent it, but it’s official – the hack exploited by the Chinese is out in the wild. The exploit was bad enough, but what might be worse is the fact that Microsoft reportedly knew about it in freaking September and only patched it this week. Massive fail. source
 

12 Jan 2010 21:39

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Tech, World: Who’s bigger, Google or China? We’re about to find out quickly

  • china The country, known for limiting free speech as well as economic power, was apparently behind a large cyber-attack that hit Google and many other companies, and tried to access sensitive information about human rights activists.
  • google They noticed the hack, did their research and found the hack went far beyond them. They’re uncensoring their search results and considering leaving China altogether. Pardon our French, but this is fucking massive. source

19 Sep 2009 11:05

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13 Sep 2009 23:34

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Tech: Protip: Don’t click on that New York Times antivirus ad

  • Some NYTimes.com readers have seen a pop-up box warning them about a virus and directing them to a site that claims to offer antivirus software. We believe this was generated by an unauthorized advertisement and are working to prevent the problem from recurring.
  • A note from the New York Times • Informing readers of a malware ad that the site was offering up. Mac users obviously weren’t affected, but some pretty nasty, scary stuff happened to PC users. • source