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Number of DDos attacks on the rise
Both the number and volume of distributed denial-of-service attacks are increasing, according to new reports from DDoS mitigation companies Prolexic and Arbor Networks.
During the fourth quarter of last year, Prolexic detected 45 percent more DDoS attacks compared to the similar period of 2010 and more than twice the number of attacks observed during the third quarter of 2011.
There's a trend toward a shorter attack duration, but a bigger packet-per-second attack volume, said Paul Sop, Prolexic's chief technology officer.
The average attack bandwidth registered in the fourth quarter of 2011 was 5.2G bps (bits per second), 148 percent higher than what it was during the third quarter. The year over year increase for attack bandwidth in 2011 was 136 percent.
This trend is also reflected in a new report from Arbor Networks which surveyed 114 representatives of different market segments about their experience with DDoS attacks in 2011. Over 40 percent of respondents said they experienced attacks that exceeded 1G bps in bandwidth last year, while 13 percent said they were the target of at least one attack that exceeded 10G bps.
Based on the Prolexic's statistics for the last quarter of 2011, Paul Sop believes that 2012 will be one of the most challenging years for online businesses, because they are one of the primary targets of DDoS attacks.
Both Prolexic and Arbor Networks recorded an increase in the number of so-called layer-7 DDoS attacks, which target particular Internet facing applications rather than load balancers or Internet gateways.
DDoS attacks on applications focus on sending bad traffic using those applications' protocols, said Darren Anstee, solutions architect for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Arbor Networks. The attacks are very effective using relatively low bandwidth and just a few hosts, he said.
The number one motivation for DDoS attacks in 2011 was rooted around political and ideological conflicts, said Roland Dobbins, an Arbor solutions architect for Asia and co-author of the company's report.
Japan was the primary source of DDoS attack traffic for the last quarter of 2011, according to Prolexic. This comes as a surprise because the country rarely even makes it into the top 10 and doesn't have a large concentration of botnets.
Prolexic believes that the surge of DDoS attacks originating in Japan might be the result of local companies setting up impromptu communication networks with lax security in the aftermath of last year's natural disasters. Poor network security could have led to a larger number of botnet-compromised computers in the country.
Source: http://www.computerworlduk.com
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Wednesday, February 8, 2012|
Surbhi Verma
India a key source for future growth: Facebook
Social networking giant Facebook, which plans to raise $ 5 billion through an IPO, has said India is a key source for its future growth and its user base in the country has more than doubled in the past one year.The growth of 132 per cent in India has been higher than many other countries, including the home market of the US.
It has also acknowledges that Facebook platform faces competition from internet giant Google's social media platform Orkut in India, among other rivals in different countries.
The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange after its Initial Public Offer (IPO), which could value the company as high as USD 100 billion.
Facebook monitors its user base through the number of Monthly Active Users (MAUs), among other metrics. An MAU is a registered Facebook user who logs in and visits Facebook, shares content or indulges in other activities in the last 30 days as of the date of measurement.
"As of December 31, 2011, we had 845 million MAUs, an increase of 39 per cent from December 31, 2010," Facebook said in the regulatory documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its IPO.
"We experienced growth across different geographies, with users in Brazil and India representing a key source of growth," it said.
"... we had 46 million MAUs in India as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 132 per cent from the prior year," Facebook said, while adding that the growth in the US was 16 per cent and 268 per cent in Brazil for the same period.
It had 161 million MAUs in the US and 37 million in Brazil as of December 31, 2011.
Listing out its strategy, Facebook said it would "continue to focus on growing our user base across all geographies, including relatively less-penetrated, large markets such as Brazil, Germany India, Japan , Russia, and South Korea."
"We compete broadly with Google's social networking offerings, including Google+, and also with other, largely regional, social networks that have strong positions in particular countries, including Cyworld in Korea, Mixi in Japan, Orkut (owned by Google) in Brazil and India..."
It said there are estimated to be over two billion global Internet users and Facebook aimed to connect all of them.
"We have achieved varying levels of penetration within the population of Internet users in different countries," it said, while noting that its penetration rate in India was estimated to be 20-30 per cent.
"... in China, where Facebook access is restricted, we have near zero penetration. We continue to invest in growing our user base, particularly in markets where we are relatively less penetrated," it added.
Facebook said it has operations teams to provide support for users, developers, and advertisers in four regional centers, including one at Hyderabad in India.
Source: http://www.rediff.com/business/report/india-a-key-source-for-future-growth-facebook/20120202.htm
It has also acknowledges that Facebook platform faces competition from internet giant Google's social media platform Orkut in India, among other rivals in different countries.
The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange after its Initial Public Offer (IPO), which could value the company as high as USD 100 billion.
Facebook monitors its user base through the number of Monthly Active Users (MAUs), among other metrics. An MAU is a registered Facebook user who logs in and visits Facebook, shares content or indulges in other activities in the last 30 days as of the date of measurement.
"As of December 31, 2011, we had 845 million MAUs, an increase of 39 per cent from December 31, 2010," Facebook said in the regulatory documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its IPO.
"We experienced growth across different geographies, with users in Brazil and India representing a key source of growth," it said.
"... we had 46 million MAUs in India as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 132 per cent from the prior year," Facebook said, while adding that the growth in the US was 16 per cent and 268 per cent in Brazil for the same period.
It had 161 million MAUs in the US and 37 million in Brazil as of December 31, 2011.
Listing out its strategy, Facebook said it would "continue to focus on growing our user base across all geographies, including relatively less-penetrated, large markets such as Brazil, Germany India, Japan , Russia, and South Korea."
"We compete broadly with Google's social networking offerings, including Google+, and also with other, largely regional, social networks that have strong positions in particular countries, including Cyworld in Korea, Mixi in Japan, Orkut (owned by Google) in Brazil and India..."
It said there are estimated to be over two billion global Internet users and Facebook aimed to connect all of them.
"We have achieved varying levels of penetration within the population of Internet users in different countries," it said, while noting that its penetration rate in India was estimated to be 20-30 per cent.
"... in China, where Facebook access is restricted, we have near zero penetration. We continue to invest in growing our user base, particularly in markets where we are relatively less penetrated," it added.
Facebook said it has operations teams to provide support for users, developers, and advertisers in four regional centers, including one at Hyderabad in India.
Source: http://www.rediff.com/business/report/india-a-key-source-for-future-growth-facebook/20120202.htm
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Monday, February 6, 2012|
Surbhi Verma
Beware: Bug in Apple iMessage allows others to spy on your convorsation
For iPhone users, the iMessage platform is quite a popular alternative to traditional SMS text messaging. But did you know there’s a glitch that allows a third party to sneak in, view, and even participate in your iMessage conversations? It doesn’t matter if you reset your password, disable your iMessages app, or even perform a remote wipe of your phone. On the flip side, though, it also isn’t exactly an easy glitch to exploit.
Okay, so here’s the deal. When you register your iMessages app, it look at the phone number on your SIM card and then apparently never looks at your SIM card again. It never ties this information to your Apple ID or anything else that registers the app to your actual phone. As such, some iPhone users have found out that if you use iMessages from one iPhone, and then put the SIM card in another iPhone, the same iMessages account appears in both phones.
That’s right. Even the original phone, without a SIM card, still has an active iMessages app. And even if the SIM card finds its way back to the original iPhone, any other iPhone it had contact with will have access to the same iMessages conversations. So if you let your friend borrow your iPhone, or you happen to lose it, or you take it in for repairs at a shady store, anyone who had access to your SIM card can infiltrate your iMessages account.
Even if you perform a remote wipe, it won’t change the fact that the third-party iPhones have registered your SIM card. The only way to cut off access to those “spying” iPhones is to call your carrier and completely deactivate your SIM card. The third-party phones see everything, including message you send and messages you receive. And they can even pretend to be you and send out messages of their own. Now of course, this requires someone else to physically have access to your SIM card and have an extra iPhone lying around without its own SIM card. Chances are that won’t happen to the average iPhone owners. But it is a glitch, and something as private as text messaging conversations will always be a hot button issue. For now, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of software fix on the way.
Source: http://www.slashgear.com/
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Sunday, February 5, 2012|
Surbhi Verma
Trojan that breaks CAPTCHA automatically
A new banking Trojan variant can bypass CAPTCHA, as demonstrated by a video posted today by security firm Websense on their Security Labs blog.
Once downloaded to the machine, Cridex, a data-stealing Trojan, will track content from various web forms. Cridex also downloads a ‘spamming module’ to the infected machine that enables the botmaster to send malicious e-mails to boost infection rates. This module, as shown in the video, utilizes a CAPTCHA-breaking server that helps the botmaster circumvent any CAPTCHA after a few tries, allowing the attacker to create a new Yahoo e-mail account.
The CAPTCHA attempts are sourced from a series of challenge images (embedded in HTTP) that have been gathered from the e-mail registration form and uploaded to the remote CAPTCHA-breaking server.
For more on the methods used by Cridex and the exact steps of the CAPTCHA-breaking process, head to Websense.
source:http://threatpost.com
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Wednesday, February 1, 2012|
Surbhi Verma
Enjoy FREE premium features of Picnik: Closing Offer!
When i woke up, opened my gmail, there was a mail having subject "Picnik is closing". I thought its a joke, but after checking the website i found, no, its not a joke. Google is shutting down picnik soon.
In the mail, Google announced that Picnik, its online photo editor, is shutting down on April 19. Until then, everyone is eligible to receive all of the premium features for free. If you were an existing premium member, you'll be refunded your full membership fee. They have not given any official reason for closing picnik, but it seems like they want to do something more awesome.
Here is the mail:
In the mail, Google announced that Picnik, its online photo editor, is shutting down on April 19. Until then, everyone is eligible to receive all of the premium features for free. If you were an existing premium member, you'll be refunded your full membership fee. They have not given any official reason for closing picnik, but it seems like they want to do something more awesome.
Here is the mail:
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Sunday, January 22, 2012|
Surbhi Verma
Wikipedia will go shut down on Wednesday for SOPA Protest
Protesting against SOPA and PIPA bills, Wikipedia will blackout the english version of its website for 24 hours, worldwide beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18. The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate—that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.
This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. The banner on the site says “Please note: In less than X hours, the English Wikipedia will be blacked out globally in protest of SOPA and PIPA.” [source]
Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia has made the announcement of this blackout via Twitter today also had advised the student to finish homework on time :P
Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia has made the announcement of this blackout via Twitter today also had advised the student to finish homework on time :P
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012|
Surbhi
Lenovo Yoga: Tablet come Laptop
Lenovo unveiled its IdeaPad Yoga recently at CES, showing off a notebook with a 360 degree hinge designed to be used in a variety of ways in addition to the conventional laptop style.
The Ultrabook, which will run on Windows 8, can be opened and folded back on itself to be used as a tablet or e-reader with touchscreen capabilities. It can also be propped up like a tent for a better video watching experience, for example, or used as a traditional laptop.
Convertible tablets aren't a new idea, but on the Yoga, the hinges are designed to be sturdier than the swivels used in the past. When it's flipped and used as a tablet, the keyboard deactivates, so it can be placed on a flat surface or used on the go without worrying about hitting a key. The palm rest has a leathery surface so it can rest firmly and easily while being used as a tablet, and the whole device has a rubbery coating for durability.
The device is .67 inches thick, weighs 3.1 pounds and has a 13.3 inch screen, with a battery life of up to 8 hours. It will come with as much as 256 GB of SSD and 8GB of RAM. It's expected to start around US$1,199 sometime in the second half of 2012.
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Sunday, January 15, 2012|
Surbhi
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