Fake antivirus is 15 percent of all malware: Google

Fake antivirus--false pop-up warnings designed to scare money out of computer users--represents 15 percent of all malware that Google detects on websites, according to 13-month analysis the company conducted between January 2009 and February 2010. A rise in fake antivirus offerings on Web sites around the globe shows that scammers are increasingly turning to social engineering to get malware on computers rather than exploiting holes in software, Google's study suggests, according to CNET. 



Google says fake antivirus scams represent half of all malware delivered via advertisements, which is becoming a problem for high-profile sites that rely on their advertisers and ad networks to distribute clean ads. Google analyzed 240 million Web pages and uncovered more than 11,000 domains involved in fake antivirus distribution for the study, which Google is set to unveil at the Usenix Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats.

"As early as 2003, malware authors prompted users to download fake AV software by sending messages via a vulnerability in the Microsoft Messenger service. We observed the first form of fake AV attack involving Web sites, e.g. Malwarealarm.com, in our systems on March 3, 2007," the report says. "At that time, fake AV attacks employed simple JavaScript to display an alert that asked users to download a fake AV executable."

"More recent fake AV sites have evolved to use complex JavaScript to mimic the look and feel of the Windows user interface," the report continues. "In some cases, the fake AV detects even the operating system version running on the target machine and adjusts its interface to match."

Fake antivirus is easy money for scammers, Niels Provos, a principal software engineer at Google said. "Once it is installed on the user system, it's difficult to uninstall, you can't run Windows updates anymore or install other antivirus products, and you must install the [operating] system," rending it unusable until it is cleaned up, he said.

Hackers turn employers! Will pay you to spread more spam

After facing stricter rules in the U.S, Spammers over there have started outsourcing the work to in India, Bangladesh, China and other developing countries to tackle the simple tests known as captchas, which ask web users to type in a string of semiobscured characters to prove they are humans and not a spam-generating robot. 



According to online exchanges like Freelancer.com, where dozens of such projects are bid on every week, these spammers are paying 80 cents (Rs.35.43) to $1.20 (Rs 53.14) per 1,000 deciphered boxes.

Luis von Ahn, a Carn egie Mellon computer science professor who was a pioneer in developing captchas, estimates that thousands of people in developing countries, primarily in Asia, are solving these puzzles for pay. But internet firms like Google say that they do not worry a lot about people being paid to decode captchas because they are one of several tools that websites use to secure themselves. Some sites, for instance, might also send confirmation codes as text messages to cellphones, which then have to be entered into a separate verification page before new email accounts are activated.

An All-Around Yoga Exercise: 12-Step Salute to the Sun


An All-Around Yoga Exercise: 12-Step Salute to the Sun
One of the all-around yoga exercises is the 12-step salute to the sun. Do it once or twice when you get up in the morning to help relieve stiffness and invigorate the body. Multiple repetitions at night will help you to relax; insomniacs often find that six to 12 rounds help them fall asleep.
1. Stand with your feet slightly apart, palms together, thumbs against your chest.

2. Inhale deeply while slowly raising your hands over your head, and bend back as far as possible, while tightening your buttocks. Hold for three seconds.
3. Slowly exhale and bend forward, keeping your knees straight, until your fingers touch the floor outside your feet. (If you can’t touch the floor, go as close as you can.) Bring your head in toward your knees.
4. Slowly inhale, bend your knees, and if your fingertips aren’t outside your feet on the floor, place them there. Slide your right foot back as far as you can go, with the right knee an inch or so off the floor, (a lunge position). Now look up as high as possible, arching your back.
5. Before exhaling again, slide your left foot back until it is beside the right one, and with your weight supported on your palms and toes, straighten both legs so that your body forms a flat plane. Make sure your stomach is pulled in.
6. Slowly exhale, bend both knees to the floor, bend with your hips in the air, lower your chest and forehead to the floor.
7. Now inhale slowly and look up, bending your head back, then raising it, followed by your upper chest, then lower chest. Your lower body – from the navel down – should be on the floor, and your elbows should be slightly bent. Hold for three to five seconds.
8. Exhale slowly and raise your hips until your feet and palms are flat on the floor and your arms and legs are straight in an inverted V position.
9. Inhale slowly and bring your right foot forward as in position 4. The foot should be flat on the floor between your fingertips. The left leg should be almost straight behind you, with its knee slightly off the floor. Raise your head, look up, and arch your back.
10. Slowly exhale and bring your left foot forward next to your right one. Straighten your legs and stand, trying to keep your fingertips on the floor, and try to touch your head to your knees as in position 3.
11. Slowly inhale, raise your arms up and stretch back as in position 2. Don’t forget to tighten your buttocks. Hold for three seconds.
12. Slowly exhale, lowering your arms to your sides. Relax. Repeat the series.

Sachin Tendulkar was born to play cricket: Dhoni

Paying tributes to Sachin Tendulkar who turns 37 on Saturday, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said besides his batting exploits the veteran cricketer was a good fielder who is fitter than his age.

"He was born to play cricket. I won`t speak about his batting because everyone knows about it but he is a very good fielder and his fitness is such that you won`t feel he is 37," Dhoni said on the sidelines of a    Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar turns 37                     promotional event here today.

"Even in the dressing room he ensures that the newcomers feel comfortable around him," he added.

On Virender Sehwag, who has been ruled out of Twenty20 World Cup due to a shoulder injury, Dhoni said, "I don`t know anything about the injury. It happened during the IPL but I don`t know when and how the injury happened. He is a class player. But I have always said that injuries are part and parcel of sports."

"He and Gambhir have been doing a great job at the top of the innings. We just hope that Murali Vijay ensures that we won`t miss Sehwag much," he added.

On whether IPL nights were too much off a stress, Dhoni said, "All players are smart. You need to rest your body, especially an Indian cricketer needs to be very careful with the recovery in such a packed schedule. If you don`t take care, it will show immediately or a month later."

"I think all players know their body well. I don`t want to speak for other players but I am sure they make sure they are at their best," he added.


Commenting on his IPL side Chennai Super Kings reaching the semifinals for the third time, Dhoni said, "Any captain will like to get to semifinals early. But then we have managed that in all three editions and I am happy about that."

Dhoni said the most difficult aspect of being a captain was to maintain calm in pressure situations.

"If I stay cool and calm it helps the bowler. He looks up to me when things are not going right and if he finds me cool and calm then he gets more confidence. It doesn`t help if I go and yell at the players. In international cricket, body language is very important and I try and keep my emotions under check," he said.

The Indian skipper said that he is planning to establish a sports academy in Ranchi which was currently at a conceptual stage.

"I want to start a sports academy in Ranchi. It`s just in the planning stage. The land is still to be acquired. But sponsors are already coming forward," he said.

IPL - Tendulkar most googled Player, Deccan Chargers most googled Team

Google India announced its second IPL Zeitgeist for 2010 - an insight into the most searched teams and players during the third season of the Indian Premier League. Sachin Tendulkar emerged as the most searched Indian cricketer, followed by Sourav Ganguly. Shane Warne continued to be the most searched international player at the IPL, for the second year running.



Conspicuous by their absence were popular names such as M.S. Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and 'the Fake IPL Player', who moved off the top 10 this year. Adam Gilchrist, Ryan Harris and Praveen Kumar made their debut on the list at number 7, 8 and 9 respectively. Among the teams, Deccan Chargers ousted the Mumbai Indians from the top slot, who emerged as a close second. Chennai Super Kings rounded up the top 3 teams, as Kolkata Knight Riders dropped to number four this year.

'Super Over' emerged as the most searched IPL related query on YouTube followed by Chennai Super Kings. Yusuf Pathan, who did not make it to the IPL Zeitgeist on Google Search, emerged as the most searched player on YouTube.

To compile the 2010 IPL Zeitgeist, Google studied the aggregation of queries pertaining to IPL that people typed into Google search during the IPL season 3. It used data from multiple sources, including Insights for Search, Google Trends and internal data tools. It also filtered out spam and repeat queries to arrive to a list which captured the essence of the series. Google said that the entire search queries studied was anonymous - no personal information was used.

Videocon to invest Rs.14,000 Crore in mobile services

The Videocon group envisages investment of Rs.14,000 crore in its mobile services over the next three years and plans an investment of around Rs.1,000 crore for its 2.75G EDGE GSM venture in Gujarat.

This was announced by group chairman Venugopal Dhoot at the launch of Videocon's GSM mobile services in Ahmedabad Sunday.




"We target to cover 100 percent of the urban population in the state and 50 percent of the rural population in subsequent months with a retail presence in 20,000 outlets in the state at launch and plans to cover 45,000 outlets over the next two months," he said.

Two tariff plans were unveiled at the launch. Under the Rs.399 monthly recharge plans subscribers can make unlimited free local calls both on their own service and to other service providers networks while under the Rs.149 monthly recharge plan, subscribers can make one hour of local calls free every day.

"All the pricing plans are powered by a one paisa per call tariff on STD calls to any network across India," he added.

Dhoot said that the company, which had set itself a target of a 100 million users over the next three years, had partnered with global telecom and IT industry majors like Nokia, Siemens, Cisco, IBM, Gemalto, Amdocs, Comverse, Comviva, Avaya, Wipro, Oracle, Unisys and Huawei.

Indian Embassy's website hacked by Chinese hackers

The website of the Indian Embassy has been attacked twice by Chinese hackers. According to Reliable sources in the Indian Embassy said at least two cyber attacks were traced to Chinese servers, but denied leakage of any confidential information, which is processed by "standalone" computers.

The embassy's Local Area Network (LAN) also has no direct internet access and the firewall has been fortified, they said, adding the only hacking victim was the official website, maintained by the information wing. The website allows for online filling of visa and passport applications. 




"The indianembassy.ru website in the public domain was affected to some extent that e-mail IDs of the senior officials were cloned in the .com or gmail domains to spread the malware," the sources said.

"For example for the legitimate 'infowing@ indianembassy.ru', IDs like 'infowing@indianembassy. com' and 'infowing@gmail.com' were used to spread spam with malware," the sources said.

In a recent incident, the 'Daily Media Digest' issued by the Information Wing in the evening was received by its recipients, including Moscow-based Indian journalists, early morning and instead of word document, it had RAR archive arrangement.

The prompt warning circulated by the embassy not to open the attachment saved many computers from the fresh lot of malware.

The incident assumes significance in the wake of a report about alleged Chinese cyber espionage which has infected scores of Indian government and defence related sites.

U.S. and Canada based Information Warfare Monitor and Shadowservers Foundation in their report 'Shadows in the Cloud' had traced China's Chengdu based servers of ex-filtering sensitive information from the Indian computers, including Indian diplomatic missions in Moscow, London and Washington.

Commenting on the report, Russian media had raised concerns about sensitive and secret information about Moscow and New Delhi's defence cooperation falling into the Chinese hands.

Now see 3-D movies without glasses

The huge success of 3-D movies like "Avatar", "Clash of the Titans" and "Alice in Wonderland" has led scientists to explore possibilities of developing 3-D technology that does not require glasses.

Japanese companies supplying 3-D technology and services to Hollywood production houses have said they hope to see their goods having an impact on people's day-to-day lives within the next few years, and that further development in the technology will lower prices and makes the experience affordable for commoners, Xinhua reported Saturday. 



However, before that happens, there are still a few problems that need to be solved. A 'glasses-free' 3-D technology produced by a Japanese company has induced headaches, even if they were impressive.

The latest technology sends different signals to each eye, creating the illusion of 3-D images, and a company representative has argued that future developments will lead to sharper images and less eye fatigue. "In may be five years, when the technology has further advanced and the price of the hardware has become more affordable, I think you will see 3-D sets in households," Kazuo Kaneyama was quoted as saying.

At present, the technology boasts of a 65-inch set at around 3 million yen ($32,000) - about three times more than the price of a 2-D television of the same size.

There are also problems for people with visual impairment. If one eye is stronger than the other, then the 3-D image will suffer.

"People with visual impairment will not be able to enjoy 3-D using this technology," Kaneyama said. Over the next few years, television sets are likely to be installed at exhibitions, department stores and on streets that grab our attention like never before, with the images seeming to jump out of the screens and at passers-by.

"I believe 3-D is just around the corner," said Kiyoto Kanda, representative of another company. "Photo frames that use the technology are already available at an affordable price, and other equipment is going to get cheaper in the near future."With Hollywood already beginning to invest in fully developing 3-D entertainment, opportunities to test out the new way of watching movies, sport and other programmes are likely to increase.

In Britain, a recent football game between Manchester United and Chelsea was made available in 3-D. Though these experiments have used the glasses technology, people have not looked favourably at the idea of wearing uncomfortable glasses for two or more hours at a time, opening up huge potential for companies offering glasses-free technology.

Why can't India have its own 'patriotic hackers'?

Revelations by Canadian investigators that a cyber spy ring based in China specifically targeted India's defence establishment are expected to set off a major cyber security overhaul by New Delhi.

Privileged information suggests the Indian government could seriously consider creating the position of a cyber security czar whose mandate would be to fundamentally overhaul cyber security and bring the currently fragmented networks under a clearly defined structure. 




The overhaul will demand a whole new approach outside the bureaucratic confines considering that it necessarily requires tapping the cyber security community constituted by young professionals in their 20s and 30s. Since this community is used to working in a highly non-hierarchical environment with a great deal of personal freedom the government will have to use the office of the cyber security czar as its interface with the young professionals.

Although cyber security had already been coming under government focus for some time now, a 10-month-long investigation by the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, Canadian security firm SecDev Group and US-based cyber sleuthing organisation Shadowserver Foundation has added extra urgency to the task. The investigators have issued a report titled "Shadows in the Cloud: An investigation into cyber espionage 2.0" which highlights how India's defence establishment was seriously penetrated by cyber attackers based in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwest China.

The report exposes widespread penetration of computer systems at the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), which is part of the Prime Minister's Office, Indian diplomatic missions in Kabul, Moscow, Dubai and Abuja, Military Engineer Services, Military Educational Institutions, the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, the National Maritime Foundation and some corporations. It is hard to quantify the damage the information obtained by the hackers can cause, but it could be potentially significant.

The report has served to highlight serious flaws and vulnerabilities in India's official information networks. Those who know how the systems work point to a "lack of discipline" in even seemingly trivial details such as senior government officials in sensitive positions still using email addresses on Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail. They say inasmuch as no email system can be made foolproof, these free accounts are even less so. Even the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are known to be prone to systematic attacks.

Apart from the inherent interest in India's defence and other establishments because of its rise as a major power, there is also another reason why the country has emerged as an important target. Its position as home to large IT companies which are in turn repositories of vast global information also makes India particularly attractive to hackers. In a sense hacking India could lead to a great deal of diverse economic, financial, health and other forms of valuable intelligence.

One of the primary mandates of any future cyber security czar would be to create a multi-layered security system around its national assets in a manner that no single successful penetration would yield a treasure trove of information in one place. The cyber security czar could also be mandated to lay down standards and code of conduct for those in the government handling data of certain sensitive nature. Informed sources say the czar would report to the National Security Advisor and would often end up operating outside the traditional command and control structure of the Indian bureaucracy because of the kind of monitoring the office would be expected to do.

One specific approach that the Indian government might have to consider adopting relates to what in industry parlance are known as defensive and offensive hackers. While the former's job would be to ensure strong defences against all attacks, that of the latter would be to actively be part of hackers worldwide who perform the role of flooding malware or malicious software codes used to infiltrate large systems. Such participation is crucial to pre-empting attacks. It is in this context that the Canadian investigation makes an interesting point.
Bangalore: Revelations by Canadian investigators that a cyber spy ring based in China specifically targeted India's defence establishment are expected to set off a major cyber security overhaul by New Delhi.

Privileged information suggests the Indian government could seriously consider creating the position of a cyber security czar whose mandate would be to fundamentally overhaul cyber security and bring the currently fragmented networks under a clearly defined structure. 




The overhaul will demand a whole new approach outside the bureaucratic confines considering that it necessarily requires tapping the cyber security community constituted by young professionals in their 20s and 30s. Since this community is used to working in a highly non-hierarchical environment with a great deal of personal freedom the government will have to use the office of the cyber security czar as its interface with the young professionals.

Although cyber security had already been coming under government focus for some time now, a 10-month-long investigation by the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, Canadian security firm SecDev Group and US-based cyber sleuthing organisation Shadowserver Foundation has added extra urgency to the task. The investigators have issued a report titled "Shadows in the Cloud: An investigation into cyber espionage 2.0" which highlights how India's defence establishment was seriously penetrated by cyber attackers based in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwest China.

The report exposes widespread penetration of computer systems at the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), which is part of the Prime Minister's Office, Indian diplomatic missions in Kabul, Moscow, Dubai and Abuja, Military Engineer Services, Military Educational Institutions, the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, the National Maritime Foundation and some corporations. It is hard to quantify the damage the information obtained by the hackers can cause, but it could be potentially significant.

The report has served to highlight serious flaws and vulnerabilities in India's official information networks. Those who know how the systems work point to a "lack of discipline" in even seemingly trivial details such as senior government officials in sensitive positions still using email addresses on Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail. They say inasmuch as no email system can be made foolproof, these free accounts are even less so. Even the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are known to be prone to systematic attacks.

Apart from the inherent interest in India's defence and other establishments because of its rise as a major power, there is also another reason why the country has emerged as an important target. Its position as home to large IT companies which are in turn repositories of vast global information also makes India particularly attractive to hackers. In a sense hacking India could lead to a great deal of diverse economic, financial, health and other forms of valuable intelligence.

One of the primary mandates of any future cyber security czar would be to create a multi-layered security system around its national assets in a manner that no single successful penetration would yield a treasure trove of information in one place. The cyber security czar could also be mandated to lay down standards and code of conduct for those in the government handling data of certain sensitive nature. Informed sources say the czar would report to the National Security Advisor and would often end up operating outside the traditional command and control structure of the Indian bureaucracy because of the kind of monitoring the office would be expected to do.

One specific approach that the Indian government might have to consider adopting relates to what in industry parlance are known as defensive and offensive hackers. While the former's job would be to ensure strong defences against all attacks, that of the latter would be to actively be part of hackers worldwide who perform the role of flooding malware or malicious software codes used to infiltrate large systems. Such participation is crucial to pre-empting attacks. It is in this context that the Canadian investigation makes an interesting point.

Nokia Siemens start manufacture of 3G products in India

Chennai: Nokia Siemens Networks has commenced manufacture of 3G products locally at its Chennai facility and announced investments of Rs. 105 crore over the next two years. With this move, Nokia Siemens Networks has become the first Telecommunication infrastructure vendor to manufacture 3G products locally, company officials said.


The first batch of 3G enabled 'base stations' from the facility were rolled out from the facility recently the firm's Operations-Head Herbert Merz said at the inauguration of 3G equipment manufacturing at their Oragadam facility, near Chennai, reports PTI. The company in June 2008 entered into a MoU with Tamil Nadu government for setting up a facility at Oragadam at an investment of Rs. 300 crore to manufacture 2G communication infrastructure for local and global customers.

The firm would initially manufacture radio frequency modules and system modules, and also ramping up production for both these products in the later half of this year, he said. With the proposed additional investments, the company would ramp up its existing facility. "The products manufactured at the facility are mostly targeted for the domestic market but we also plan to focus on exports from here", he said. 

Dravid is India’s greatest


Sachin Tendulkar fans won’t like this. Even as the dust settles around the ICC ratings that did not rate Tendulkar too highly, an in-depth study into the Top 20 Indian Test cricketers of all time puts him at No. 4.

Rahul Dravid, 36, is No. 1 and when you look at the rationale you will struggle to disagree. When you take into account his contribution in Test matches won, especially overseas, there’s a lot going for him.

The exercise, dubbed the Holding Willey Report, resulted in more than 30,000 pages of data being generated.
Hindustan Times has access to this study and the results are bound to spark off a debate.What makes this exercise different are the parameters the players were judged on.

The second aspect that differentiates the study from others is that the logic is completely transparent. Whether you agree with the findings or not, you'll know how they were arrived at.

Jaideep Varma, one of the architects of the study, said the findings were a bit unexpected  even for them: “This combination of parameters determines a player’s value in a collective context, which is bizarrely missing in evaluations about cricketers, especially in India where individual records and milestones get more attention than they sometimes