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Koobface Virus Still Making The Rounds On Facebook

- 4 hours and 18 minutes ago

Yesterday, reports started circulating about a virulent piece of worm spreading through Facebook. The malicious code isn’t exactly new (it started surfacing in August), but has now been altered to strike social networking websites only and is currently making the rounds on Facebook pretty quickly, it seems. The virus can spread fast because they travel through messages which appear to come from your friends.

The Koobface messages carry subject lines like “You look so funny on our new video” or something similar, and contain a link to a video site that appears to contain a movie clip. If the user tries to watch it, a message appears saying that he or she needs the latest version of Flash Player in order to play the clip. This tricks users into downloading a file carrying the malware. An earlier version of the virus targeted MySpace users earlier this year but was quickly eliminated after new security measures were put in place.

Facebook only says on their Security page that users should use the latest antivirus software and change their password if they’ve been affected. The company also appears to be resetting passwords pro-actively and notifying users per e-mail about the possibility of having a virus on board. It’s unclear how many of the social network’s 120+ million users have been hit with the virus.

Best advice remains never to open unexpected e-mail attachments to reduce the risk of infection, even if they come from people you trust.

More information and screenshots can be found here.

(Image courtesy of MaximumPC)

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Adobe admits new PDF password protection is weaker

InfoWorld: Top News

- 5 hours and 2 minutes ago

div class="rxbodyfield"p page="1" class="ArticleBody"Adobe made a critical change to the algorithm used to password-protect PDF documents in Acrobat 9, making it much easier to recover a password and raising concern over the safety of documents, according to Russian security firm Elcomsoft./pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Elcomsoft specializes in making software that can recover the passwords for Adobe documents. The software is used by companies to open documents after employees have forgotten their passwords, and by law enforcement services in their investigations./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"b[ Learn how to secure your systems with Roger Grimes#39; a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/securityadviser/?source=fssr"Security Adviser blog/a and a href="http://www.infoworld.com/newsletter/subscribe.html?source=fssr"newsletter/a, both from InfoWorld. ]/b/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"For its Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 products, Adobe implemented 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption, up from the 128-bit AES encryption used in previous Acrobat products./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"The original 128-bit encryption is strong, and in some cases it would take years to test all possible keys to uncover a password, said Dmitry Sklyarov, information security analyst with Elcomsoft./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"But Elcomsoft said the change in the underlying algorithm for Acrobat 9 makes cracking a weak password -- especially a short one with only upper and lower case letters -- up to 100 times faster than in Acrobat 8, Sklyarov said. Despite using 256-bit encryption, the change to the algorithm still undermines a document#39;s security./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Adobe acknowledged the a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.adobe.com/security/2008/12/acrobat_9_and_password_encrypt.html"encryption algorithm change/a on its security blog. The company said brute-force attempts -- where tens of millions of password combinations are tried in hopes of unlocking the document -- could end up figuring out passwords more rapidly using fewer processor cycles./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"The changes were made to increase performance, Adobe said. But Sklyarov said that even with the 128-bit encryption algorithm used in Acrobat 8, the application responds quickly to both correct and incorrect password entries./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"quot;There is no rational reason why they did that,quot; Sklyarov said./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Despite the change, there is a way to keep documents secure: When setting a password, people should use a combination of upper and lower case letters and other special characters, such as quotations marks, Sklyarov said. If special characters are used, the password should be no less than eight characters. If only letters are used, it should be at least 10 to 12 characters, he said./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Adobe imparted the same advice. quot;With a longer phrase and more diversity of characters, there are many more permutations to guess,quot; according to the blog. The company also recommended that the security of documents can also be enhanced by additional access controls such as smart cards and biometric tools./p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=840446746905fb94e671b355e50e6ac4p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=840446746905fb94e671b355e50e6ac4p=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=840446746905fb94e671b355e50e6ac4 style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

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Brightkit.com - A Toolbox For Twitter

KillerStartups.com - all

- 10 hours and 39 minutes ago

br /In their own wordsbr /br /“BrightKit is the ultimate Twitter toolbox. With BrightKit, you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, pre-schedule tweets, and measure your success.”br /br /Why it might be a killerbr /br /Hardened twitterers from all over the globe are certain to appreciate having different services centralized and available via a supple interface.br /br /What it doesbr /br /Touted as “the ultimate Twitter toolbox”, Brightkit is a solution that intends to make life easier for Twitterers everywhere. Essentially, it makes for managing multiple Twitter profiles and pre-scheduling tweets. Moreover, statistics and analytics that will let you measure your Twitter standing are featured as part of the package. br brUpon registering, you will be asked to add as many profiles as you wish. During the existing beta period the first profile can be added at no cost â€“ later on, you will have to pay, so now it is a good chance to try this solution for yourself at no cost. br brOther than that, the website features a blog that includes not only future plans for the application but also related industry news and insight. br brAs a conclusion, Brightkit offers an attractive package that takes several concerns into account and which provides a practical solution via a neat interface. I would advice you to check it out and see how it can make things smoother if you deem yourself as a tweetaholic.br /br /Some questionsbr /br /When is the next update coming along?br /br /Link: a href='http://www.brightkit.com'http://www.brightkit.com/abr /Our Review: a href='http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/brightkit-com-a-toolbox-for-twitter'http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/brightkit-com-a-toolbox-for-twitter/abr /br / nbsp;div class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=bmbEDYUf"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=fM0rrE73"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=Zm3uq8ML"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?i=Zm3uq8ML" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=DgwLZkWj"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?i=DgwLZkWj" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=rffwjSdn"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?d=43" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?a=iVv7fLTn"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/killerstartups/BkQV?i=iVv7fLTn" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/killerstartups/BkQV/~4/deIf5sjYWu8" height="1" width="1"/

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Echoing media theme, Wash. Times' Lambro offers falsehood to support claim that Obama is making Dem "antiwar base very unhappy"

Media Matters for America

- 16 hours and 43 minutes ago

Amid considerable media discussion of President-elect Barack Obama's plans for the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq -- The New York Times, for example, published an article on December 4 with the headline "Campaign Promises on Ending the War in Iraq Now Muted by Reality" -- Washington Times chief political correspondent Donald Lambro falsely suggested that Obama has reversed himself on the need for residual forces in Iraq. In his December 4 column, Lambro wrote that Obama's "wiggle-room talk is making his party's hard-line, antiwar base very unhappy and there is growing anger in the leftist blogosphere." As evidence to support his characterization of "wiggle-room talk," Lambro wrote that Obama "now says the U.S. will have 'to maintain a residual force to provide potential training for the Iraqi military, logistical support to protect our civilians in Iraq' " [emphasis added]. In fact, contrary to Lambro's suggestion that Obama only "now" supports a residual force, Obama talked throughout the presidential campaign about the likely need for such a force to remain in Iraq.

In a September 12, 2007, campaign speech in Clinton, Iowa, Obama said that after a withdrawal from Iraq, the United States "will need to retain some forces in Iraq and the region. We'll continue to strike at al Qaeda in Iraq. We'll protect our forces as they leave, and we will continue to protect U.S. diplomats and facilities. If -- but only if -- Iraq makes political progress and their security forces are not sectarian, we should continue to train and equip those forces." Additionally, Obama's campaign website states: "Under the Obama-Biden plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and to protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel." According to the Internet Archive, a similar statement was on Obama's website in October 2007. Also, as Media Matters for America has previously noted, in January 2007, Obama introduced legislation that provided for U.S. forces to remain in Iraq after combat troop withdrawal was completed "[t]o protect United States personnel and facilities in Iraq" and "[t]o provide training for Iraqi security forces."

From Lambro's December 4 Washington Times column:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates' decision to remain in his job presented different challenges. He had been the chief proponent of President Bush's surge that rescued the Iraq war from certain defeat and gave the Iraqis time to train their military. He opposed Mr. Obama's troop withdrawal timetable and said so publicly and still believes the Iraqis need more time before they can go it alone.

Mr. Obama gave him assurances that as the lone Republican on the team he would be in on all national security decision-making and the future of the Iraq war. At the same time, Mr. Obama assured Mr. Gates that his own 16-month pullout timeline was not set in concrete, that the United States would not leave the Iraqis high and dry and that he was willing to seek a compromise on any future withdrawal.

He acknowledged Monday that the policy terrain regarding the length of time that combat troops would remain in Iraq had already changed as a result of the Bush administration's security agreement with Iraq that called for U.S. troop withdrawal in three years.

There is a lot of room for compromise between 36 months and 16 months, and Mr. Obama was sending signals this week that he was prepared to leave U.S. troops in Iraq longer than he envisions if his military commanders say they need more time to secure the country.

Thus, the man who made pulling out of the Iraq war his No. 1 foreign policy campaign issue now says the U.S. will have "to maintain a residual force to provide potential training for the Iraqi military, logistical support to protect our civilians in Iraq." That was the behind-the-scenes advice his Iraq war advisers gave him early this year and apparently he is taking it.

Notably, Mr. Obama now says his "No. 1 priority is making sure that our troops remain safe in this transition phase and that the Iraqi people are well- served by a government that is taking on increased responsibility for its own security."

"I will listen to the recommendation of my commanders," he reaffirmed Monday.

Not surprisingly, all of his wiggle-room talk is making his party's hard-line, antiwar base very unhappy and there is growing anger in the leftist blogosphere. It is suddenly dawning on them that we are going to be in Iraq a little longer than they had been led to believe.

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School closures and road chaos after heavy snow

Guardian Unlimited

- 17 hours ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/30502?ns=guardianpageName=UK+news%3A+School+closures+and+road+chaos+after+heavy+snowch=UK+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Weather+UK+%28News%29%2CTravel+and+transport+environmental+impact%2CEnvironment%2CUK+news%2CTransport+UKc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Livingc6=Helen+Carterc7=2008_12_05c8=1129110c9=articlec10=GUc11=UK+newsc12=Weatherc13=c14=h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FWeather" width="1" height="1" //divpHeavy snowfall caused traffic chaos and prompted more than 300 school closures in the north yesterday as central and southern areas of England were deluged with rain. /ppUp to 10cm (4in) of snow fell in north-east England and south-east Scotland as a wet weather front from the Atlantic met cold air which has been sitting over the country. /ppStrong winds caused drifting snow on higher ground, forcing roads to shut, or lane closures on dual carriageways. There were numerous road accidents in North Yorkshire and County Durham./ppAround 15cm of snow fell in the Scottish Borders, and hazardous conditions were reported on roads in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and across Yorkshire. /ppConditions on the M62 across the Pennines at Huddersfield were appalling, and parts of the A1 in Northumberland were down to one lane. Police said the A66 transpennine road was closed westbound from North Yorkshire to Cumbria./ppIn Greater Manchester 86 schools in Rochdale were closed, 15 in Bury did not open, and nine in Oldham were closed. A Rochdale council spokeswoman said: "Decisions to close schools are not taken lightly, but health and safety has to be the priority." A further seven schools were shut in Bolton. In neighbouring Lancashire there were 70 schools shut for the day, and 34 were closed in Cumbria. /ppThe Met Office warned that there were frosty and icy surfaces in many northern and central areas. There was misery for air travellers, Leeds Bradford airport was badly affected, with 13 flights cancelled./ppLancashire police urged drivers to travel prepared with enough fuel for their journeys, de-icer and warm clothing as "even routine journeys can spell disaster if you are caught out by bad weather", said Inspector Phil Cottam, of the force's motorway unit. /ppThe army was mobilised to rescue 70 people trapped in their vehicles by heavy snow early yesterday morning, according to Lancashire police. They were called in when 50 vehicles got stuck on one of east Lancashire's busiest roads - the Grane Road. /ppThe road was closed between Helmshore and the M65 at Blackburn at around 7.30am as snow ploughs could not get through. Lancashire police and council workers assisted two army off-road vehicles to assist the stranded motorists. The road was re-opened after four hours./ppPolice warned motorists in certain areas to only make necessary journeys. The road between Greenfield in Oldham and Holmfirth had been shut after gritters failed to keep it clear./ppIn parts of east Lancashire and Bury many cars had been abandoned by motorists earlier in the week. William Hill said it had taken a record number of white Christmas bets for this time of year. /ppHills currently offer 2/1 for snow in Edinburgh, Aberdeen Glasgow and 4/1 for the major English cities./pp"White Christmas betting is normally a fun festive flutter, sadly it will be anything but fun for us should the forecast snow fall," said its spokesman, Rupert Adams. /ppOfficers in Greater Manchester and Merseyside are warning drivers not to leave their cars running while they defrost them. There have been 20 vehicle thefts reported in Greater Manchester since the cold snap began on Monday. /ppChief Inspector Chris Gloster, of Greater Manchester police, said: "People can be tempted to leave their car engine running on a frosty morning while they keep nice and warm inside their house. However, it only takes a few seconds for a thief to steal a car when the keys have been left in the ignition. /pp"It is not only high-powered vehicles that are targeted and so our advice to all drivers is to stay in their vehicle when defrosting and if at any time they need to leave the car to make sure they lock it, remove any valuables and take the keys with them." He said motorists may not be insured if the vehicle was left unattended with the keys in the ignition./ppTemperatures are expected to rise over the weekend./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/weather"Weather/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/travelandtransport"Travel and transport/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/transport"Transport/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ClqPLB8JZyFc8JXWJUF20dml4Hk/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ClqPLB8JZyFc8JXWJUF20dml4Hk/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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Lapland park closes after angry parents demanded refunds

Guardian Unlimited

- 17 hours and 2 minutes ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/83664?ns=guardianpageName=Life+and+style%3A+Lapland+park+closes+after+angry+parents+demanded+refundsch=Life+and+stylec3=The+Guardianc4=Christmas+%28Life+and+style%29%2CChristmas+and+New+Year+%28Travel%29%2CLife+and+style%2CTravel%2CUK+news%2CConsumer+affairs+%28Money%29%2CMoneyc5=Personal+Finance%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CChristmasc6=Paul+Lewisc7=2008_12_05c8=1129121c9=articlec10=GUc11=Life+and+stylec12=Christmasc13=c14=h2=GU%2FLife+and+style%2FChristmas" width="1" height="1" //divpA Lapland theme park that sparked outrage from parents who complained that it looked nothing like the arctic home of Father Christmas has been closed, police said yesterday./ppTrading standards received more than 2,000 complaints about Lapland New Forest, which promised to make "Christmas dreams come true for children of all ages". Parents had scheduled a protest tomorrow at Matchams Leisure Park, near Ringwood, Dorset, the site of the "mini Lapland", to demand their money back. /ppVisitors dubbed the park a "glorified car boot sale" after they said the ice rink was broken, log cabins resembled BQ sheds, huskies were found chained to the ground and "going berserk", and a "tunnel of light" turned out to be a line of trees with a few strings of fairy lights. /ppThe "bustling Christmas market" resembled a white marquee with four small stalls and a few piles of boxes, parents said. /ppTwo elves and a Father Christmas were reportedly attacked by furious parents, who had spent up to pound;100 for entry for a family of four, and then spent hours waiting in queues. Tickets cost pound;30 for individuals, pound;25 for each person for families of four or more, and pound;10 for children under two years old. /ppThey were also charged extra for food, fairground rides and even a photograph with Father Christmas. One child allegedly found him smoking a cigarette behind the grotto./ppA spokesman for Dorset police said: "We have been told that the Lapland New Forest attraction has this morning been closed permanently and that contractors and stall holders are leaving the site."/ppThe spokesman added that police were called yesterday morning over fears there would be a breach of the peace because some contractors had alleged they had not been paid. He said no one was arrested and police did not close the site. /ppSeveral networking website pages have sprung up to lambast the Dorset Lapland, which is not connected to another themed-Lapland in Kent. Facebook groups include photographs of the muddy site, a bare-looking grotto and distraught children. "The so-called gorgeous huskies were going berserk chained up!" wrote one contributor./pp"The face painting consisted of a red nose and black lines for whiskers, the girl doing it said she had never done face painting before," said another. "Hardly anything that was advertised was there ... I knew it was bad when even the catering staff were moaning."/ppThe Lapland website has appeared inactive most of the week, and the organisers have declined to speak to the press. /ppHowever, speaking before the site was closed, Henry Mears, the advertising manager, blamed the complaints on a small number of troublemakers and said the ice rink had been fixed. "Like all people they like to get into queues and just generate a bit of aggravation," he said./ppHe recently added: "Everything that could go wrong did go wrong at the weekend. The weather wasn't in our favour. But on the advice of our solicitors we will not be talking to any press. It is disgusting and scandalous what they have done as it is stopping other people from enjoying themselves." /ppFew visitors have been to the attraction in recent days, after irate parents vented their fury on national television. Yesterday the entrance was coned off with a "closed" sign in place./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/christmas"Christmas/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/christmasnewyear"Christmas and New Year/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/consumeraffairs"Consumer affairs/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9oCyOOw_XU8MEHW0PiuILo4ur7E/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9oCyOOw_XU8MEHW0PiuILo4ur7E/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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