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South Korean websites come under further attack (AP) : Technet |
- South Korean websites come under further attack (AP)
- Tweet Viewer Worm Crawling Around Twitter [WARNING] (Mashable)
- S.Korea websites hit by fresh cyber attack (AFP)
- The Kinect Hack Compendium! (PC World)
- These 20 Android apps shine on the Motorola Xoom (Appolicious)
- Angry Birds to break through to Facebook (Digital Trends)
- Feds probing NY beach corpses eye laptop computer (AP)
- New Yorker cartoonist explains why he’s doing emoticon apps (Appolicious)
- Pay TV battle turning bitter; no agreement reached (AP)
- How To Deal with Buyers' Remorse as iPad 2 Arrives (NewsFactor)
| South Korean websites come under further attack (AP) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 12:33 AM PST SEOUL, South Korea – Unidentified attackers targeted more than two dozen South Korean government and private websites Saturday, a day after two waves of similar attacks, but officials reported no serious damage. A total of 29 websites were hit Saturday in so-called "denial of service" attacks, in which large numbers of "zombie" computers try to connect to a site at the same time in an attempt to overwhelm the server, the Korea Communications Commission said. Commission official Lee Sang-kug said the attacks were "so weak that no actual damage was detected so far." Lee said the commission would keep a close watch on the situation in coming days, but that the fallout was likely to remain limited because the government and computer security companies were well prepared. Saturday's attacks on sites including South Korea's presidential office, the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, some financial institutions and U.S. Forces Korea followed two rounds Friday in which damage was also limited. Lee said that 40 websites were originally targeted Friday, though only 29 came under actual attack. A total of 29 were targeted Saturday, he said. The National Police Agency said the attacks originated from 30 servers in 18 foreign countries or territories including the United States, Israel, Russia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, India, Brazil and Iran. "We may find more servers behind this attack as it is only the beginning of the investigation," said Jung Suk-hwa, head of the agency's Cyber Terror Response Center. "Generally, there is someone else who controls all of these servers and we are working to figure out who it is." In 2009, some government websites in South Korea and the U.S. were paralyzed by a similar type of attack that South Korean officials believed was conducted by North Korea. But U.S. officials have largely ruled out North Korea as the origin, according to cybersecurity experts. South Korean media have previously reported that North Korea runs an Internet warfare unit aimed at hacking into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather information and disrupt service. Park Kun-woo, a spokesman for South Korean computer security company AhnLab, said Friday that China is also pointed to as a source of cyberattacks because a large amount of malware, or malicious software, originates from there. |
| Tweet Viewer Worm Crawling Around Twitter [WARNING] (Mashable) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 10:33 AM PST Be careful what you click on when you're using Twitter, because there is a "Tweet Viewer" worm afoot. Under the guise of revealing who's been visiting your Twitter profile, when you click on its link it asks for your Twitter authorization, and then tweets that same message to more unsuspecting users. Keep in mind that merely clicking on the link is not going to automatically authorize anything -- that only happens if you click the Authorize button after clicking the link. So, like many viruses, worms and scams, you have to actively give it to yourself, rather than having it attack you as you stand by innocently. The worm appears like this (notice the tweetviewer link):
What to do if you've been caught up in this? It's easy enough to go to Settings/Connection/Revoke Access, and then you're free of it. Here's the help page if you need more info. And now, link shortener Bit.ly has stopped the unpleasantness for now by blocking domains hosting those scam links. However, if the app you're using to access Twitter still has permission to do so, it could keep spreading this nuisance with a different shortened link. The burning question now: Why? According to TechCrunch, "It's not clear that it's doing anything behind the scenes." So all morning, it was spreading like wildfire, at the rate of about 159 tweets per minute, just because it could. |
| S.Korea websites hit by fresh cyber attack (AFP) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 12:15 PM PST SEOUL (AFP) – The web sites of South Korea's key government agencies and financial institutions came under cyber attack for a second day, suffering minor damage, communications authorities said. The Korea and Communications Commission (KCC) said the "distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)" attacks resumed Saturday morning against 29 websites including those of government agencies, Internet portals and banks. "The homepage of parliament momentarily underwent delays but currently all the websites are operating normally," a KCC official told AFP. The attacks were fended off as antivirus software was downloaded as a precaution and most "zombie computers" that were inadvertently used to carry out such attacks were turned off on Saturday. The government and local antivirus firms, however, maintained an alert status for further attacks. South Korean police have isolated 30 overseas servers that were ordering more than 34,000 zombie computers to carry out DDoS attacks, Yonhap news agency said. These servers have been traced to 18 countries and territories around the world, including the United States, Russia, Italy, Mexico, Israel and Hong Kong. Police have contacted overseas law enforcement agencies in attempts to trace the origin of the attacks. Seoul on Friday issued a cyber security alert as the 29 websites came under DDos attacks. They included those of the presidential Blue House, the US forces, the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, the ministries of foreign affairs, defence and unification, which handles relations with North Korea, parliament and the tax office. A DDoS attack often uses viruses planted in "zombie" computers. These seek simultaneous access to selected sites and swamp them with traffic. In July 2009 a major cyber-attack temporarily shut down 25 sites domestically and in the United States, including those of the State Department, the White House and the Pentagon. South Korea's spy chief reportedly blamed North Korea's telecommunications ministry for that incident, although US officials reached no conclusion. In July last year, on the anniversary of the first incident, a number of websites suffered similar DDoS attacks because some contaminated PCs had not been fixed. |
| The Kinect Hack Compendium! (PC World) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 12:15 PM PST Since Microsoft released its Kinect accessory for Xbox 360, it's become the "it" gadget for hackers. And we've seen so many hacks for it since its introduction that, well, we've kind of lost count. So to better keep track of it all, we've put together this catalog of all the Kinect hacks we've covered here on GeekTech. Feel free to bookmark this page; it'll be updated regularly as we cover more Kinect hacks. It's listed in reverse-chronological order, so the newest items will appear at the top. Enjoy. Last Updated: March 5, 2011 Kinect Hack Class Project Makes You See Ghosts Mar 3, 2011: Over the course of about two weeks, Nisha Kurani, John Horstman, and their fellow students in Carnegie Mellon's Special Topics in Interactive Art & Computational Design course hacked Microsoft Kinect cameras. Not for fun, mind you, but for class credit. Comic Kinect Turns Human Interaction Into a Comic Book Fight Scene Mar 2, 2011: Life would be better with flashy comic book sound effects. At least, that's what one group of students thinks. Four students at Carnegie Mellon University worked together to create "Comic Kinect," a Kinect hack that adds comic book-esque sound effects to ordinary contact. The software tracks users' skeletons, and then adds graphics where they contact each other to simulate the look of a fight. Kinect Powered Robot Could Help Earthquake Victims Mar 1, 2011: A Kinect-powered robot could soon be helping locate earthquake victims, thanks to the engineering ingenuity of a group of U.K. students. The rescue-robot, developed at the University of Warwick by the geeky Warwick Mobile Robotics (WMR) team, could help significantly reduce the costs involved in earthquake rescue attempts. Kinect Hack Prints Miniature Caricatures in 3D Feb 28, 2011: There have been plenty of cool Kinect hacks since Microsoft released the motion-sensitive device, so it's no surprise that the hacks are coming thick and fast, like this really cool 3D printout puzzle piece of yourself. Kinect Hack Lets You Impersonate An Octopus Impersonating Humans Feb 25, 2011: Despite Microsoft's initial disapproval of amateur hackers tampering with the Kinect software and developing custom drivers, the developers behind indie game OctoDad have managed to hack their quirky physics-based puzzle game to allow full motion control; given that OctoDad is all about acting like an uncoordinated octopus strapped inside a human suit, we thought it might be fun to showcase the game in action. Despite blizzard conditions in Illinois the development team at DePaul University were kind enough to record a short video for us of their hack in action. Android, Kinect Hacked to Work Together: Match Made in Geek Heaven or an Unholy Comingling? Feb 17, 2011: Using openFrameworks and an Armadillo 500 FX Android tablet, HirotakaSter got the table to show the video feed from the Kinect's camera. While this setup isn't doing much more than display video at the moment, we're pretty excited at the prospect of having a portable Android/Kinect system for hacks while on the run. Go Super Saiyan, Dragonball Z-Style With Kinect Hack Feb 3, 2011: Thanks to a new Kinect hack you too can now re-enact scenes from Dragonball Z--all from the comfort of your very own home. Dubbed the Kinect-Kamehameha, the new hack makes use of the Kinect's motion tracking abilities, enabling you to get your Super Saiyan on in style - complete with oversized hair and energy balls. Kinect Used to Shoot Music Video, Results Slightly More Normal Than Next Lady Gaga Video Feb 2, 2011: Dan Nixon and Don Jones recently shot a video for the band Echo Lake, featuring its song Young Silence. The video itself it pretty cool, and seems to fit the song's almost dream-like sound well. But the most impressive part? It was filmed using a Microsoft Kinect. The Fast, Fun Guide to Three Microsoft Kinect Hacks Jan 27, 2011: We follow the latest emerging trends in tech here at PCWorld, so we've been hooked on the Microsoft Kinect hacking scene. We decided to try some projects for ourselves and show you how easy it is to get started with Kinect hacks. Holographic Kinect Hack From a Galaxy Far, Far Away Jan 24, 2011: What can you hack a Kinect to do? What can't you hack a Kinect to do? Control a robot? Check. Model the human skeleton? Check. Now MIT Media Lab researchers used a Kinect to capture holographic video, which they then were able to stream over the Internet. Kinect Hack Makes Robot Mimic Its Master Jan 17, 2011: This humanoid robot has been programmed to copy your every move via the Kinect. It does this by using the Kinect (connected to a PC) to map the human body; it then sends that data to Japanese robot Website V-Sido. Thanks to the Kinect and V-Sido, the robot-to-human coordination is pretty flawless. Kinect, Wii Used to Play 'Call of Duty' in Epic Gadget Mashup Hack Jan 11, 2011: So, you want to play some Call Of Duty on your PC? You could do that the old fashioned way, or you could spice things up a little by hooking your PC up to Microsoft's Kinect and Nintendo's Wii Remote for some added FPS awesomeness, One avid gamer has done just that, sharing the impressive results on YouTube for all to see. Magic Mirror Shows You Your Own Skeleton Jan 3, 2011: Another day, another Kinect hack. The Microsoft motion-control camera is fast becoming the go-to Augmented Reality accessory for the geek set. This week's demo has a decidedly medical bent; the magic mirror project lets you see a real time view of "your" skeleton like a real-time x-ray. World Of Warcraft Meets Kinect, WoW Players Get a Serious Workout Dec 31, 2011: Here's a Kinect hack via OpenNI (an open source framework tool for Kinect) constructed by Evan Suma, a researcher at the University of Southern California and his team. It's called FAAST (Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit), and it allows for basic commands and movement to be done via body motion and sound in the game. 'Minority Report' Meets Kinect Thanks to MIT Dec 9, 2010: I've wanted a Minority Report-esque way to control my computer for years, especially since a lot of my astronomy image-processing workflow involves countless mouse clicks and there's no way to automate the process. But I shouldn't have to wait much longer, thanks to a team at MIT that has created a hand-detection system out of Microsoft's Kinect camera. By detecting where your palms and fingers are, the Kinect lets you scroll through images, select them, and even enlarge them at will, using one or both hands. No clumsy gloves required! Nov 29, 2010: Kinect hacking is taking off at blinding speed. Microsoft's Kinect motion controller for XBox 360 is less than a month old, and it's been barely two weeks since Adafruit announced a winner in their Open Kinect competition. Since the, Microsoft has tacitly endorsed opening up the Kinect as a platform, and it seems like there's a new Kinect hack every couple of hours. It can be tough to keep up with a phenomenon that's gone from nothing to a full blown scene in less than a month, so as a service to you we're rounding up GeekTech's favorite Kinect hacks. Kinect Hacked to Work With Windows 7 Nov 8, 2010: Kinect, Microsoft's motion gaming accessory has been hacked--mere days after its release. Get your GeekTech on: Twitter - Facebook - RSS | Tip us off This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| These 20 Android apps shine on the Motorola Xoom (Appolicious) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 04:00 AM PST |
| Angry Birds to break through to Facebook (Digital Trends) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 05:57 PM PST
According to the Angry Birds Facebook page, the game will be launching on Facebook in a month's time. Angry Birds — which has been out for less than a year — has already surpassed more than 75 million downloads on mobile platforms, which inlcude devices running iOS, Android, Symbian and WebOS. And the game is said to be on course to pass 100 million downloads sometime soon. But an expansion to Facebook could bring the game's dominance to an all-time high. So how will a Facebook-based version of Angry Birds be changed from the mobile version? According to the game's publisher, Rovio, the Facebook iteration of Angry Birds will give the pigs their moment to shine. There will be completely new aspects to [the Facebook version] that just haven't been experienced in any other platform," Rovio CEO Mikael Hed told Develop Online. He added that, because of the "collaborative nature" of Facebook "the pigs will have a more prominent role." If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Angry Birds-Facebook news, all you have to do is "Like" the Angry Birds page, and they promise to help further your AB addiction.
The expansion to Facebook represents only the latest of Rovio's growth plans for the game. This month Rovio will release Angry Birds Rio, which is tied in directly to the Disney animated film. And on top of that, Rovio "Mighty Eagle" Peter Vesterbaka announced at this year's recent Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco that they have begun planning a movie based entirely on Angry Birds. With a game this addictive, there's no question on our minds that a Facebook version of Angry Birds would launch the game — already one of the best-selling games of all-time — to galactic levels. |
| Feds probing NY beach corpses eye laptop computer (AP) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 10:11 AM PST NEW YORK – The FBI has asked a court for permission to search a computer belonging to a man under scrutiny for his ties to a prostitute whose body was discovered along with three other corpses near a Long Island beach. An agent filed an application Thursday seeking access to a laptop belonging to Akeem Cruz, of Brooklyn. Cruz is one of the last people to have been with 22-year-old Megan Waterman, of Maine, the weekend she disappeared after traveling to a hotel in Hauppauge to meet clients for sex. Months later, she and three other prostitutes were found dead, their remains scattered along a beach road. In the court filing, agents didn't mention the killings, but said they were seeking evidence of sex trafficking. Cruz is currently jailed in Maine on an unrelated drug charge. |
| New Yorker cartoonist explains why he’s doing emoticon apps (Appolicious) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 02:00 PM PST |
| Pay TV battle turning bitter; no agreement reached (AP) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 01:08 PM PST PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A battle over fees between Dish Network and television station owner Lin TV Corp. caused 27 local stations to go dark for Dish subscribers Saturday. The two companies faced a deadline that came and went at 2 a.m. EST Saturday without a resolution. The stations were still unavailable Saturday afternoon. The companies traded accusations and gave conflicting versions of which pulled the plug. Dish Network Corp. said Lin pulled its channels down at midnight, "holding viewers in 17 markets ... hostage" to coerce Dish to submit to Lin's demands for higher rates and that it refused to negotiate during the final hours. Lin said it has "worked tirelessly" to negotiate with Dish. Lin also said that Dish removed the signals over its objection. Both companies said negotiations were ongoing Saturday. Neither side has said how many subscribers are affected. Lin stations are affiliates of CBS, Fox, NBC, ABC and the CW in 17 cities including Indianapolis; Providence, R.I.; and Buffalo, N.Y. Such disputes have become increasingly common. In October, a breakdown in negotiations between Cablevision Systems Corp. and News Corp.'s Fox network left 3 million Cablevision subscribers in the New York area without Fox programming for 15 days — including through two World Series games — after the broadcaster pulled its signal. Lin is based in Providence. Dish Network Corp. is headquartered in Englewood, Colo. |
| How To Deal with Buyers' Remorse as iPad 2 Arrives (NewsFactor) Posted: 05 Mar 2011 10:21 AM PST The iPad 2 will find its way onto store shelves on March 11. When it does, there's almost certain to be a line out the door of Apple stores to be among the first to get the device that CEO Steve Jobs said "moves the bar far ahead of the competition and will likely cause them to go back to the drawing boards yet again." Apple introduced the iPad 2 with all the hype and fanfare that has characterized its product launches for decades, especially in the mobile-device age. The promise of owning what the company calls a "magical device" for browsing the web, reading and sending e-mails, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books, and more is enticing -- and that's the problem. The Buyer's Defense Michael Tsiros, chairman of the marketing department at the University of Miami School of Business Administration, is familiar with consumer behavior, including the role of customer satisfaction and regret in decision-making. As he sees it, consumers may not want to rush out to buy the latest iPad. "People get too tied up with these purchasing decisions," Tsiros said. "There are clusters of people who want to be the first to buy something -- early adopters -- and those who wait until all of the bugs are worked out and it is safe to jump in -- laggards." His research shows that every consumer is susceptible to regret and the defense mechanism will protect them regardless of what they choose. For example, if consumers bought the iPad and the iPad 2 comes out with great reviews, consumers will discount those new features. The same goes if consumers choose to wait and the new version doesn't live up to its hype. "We are geared to recover quickly and to repair our threatened self-esteem due to poor decision-making. The best thing to do is to just do it, whatever it is," Tsiros said. "You will be glad you did, whatever you did. And for those who are cursed to regret everything they do or don't do -- where their repairing mechanism is faulty-- it doesn't matter, either. No matter what you do, you will wish you didn't." A Charitable Cause If you do decide to become one of those in line at an Apple store to win bragging rights about your new toy, here are some justifications: The iPad 2 is 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter than the original iPad. The iPad 2 offers a faster dual-core A5 processor and now includes two cameras -- a front-facing VGA camera for FaceTime and Photo Booth and a rear-facing camera that captures high-definition video. And if you want another reason to justify your purchase, Apple is giving you one: The Smart Cover that gives back to charity. You can buy a Smart Cover that protects the iPad 2 and also folds into a stand for typing or viewing videos. Prices and colors vary, but the red cover helps support the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. |
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