Must Read Articles on Technology

· Key-loggers the new phisherman's friend - Phishing attacks are increasingly using key-loggers as another method to steal personal information, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG).
· Ticket trap snares Windows users - Windows users are being warned not to open a virus that poses as a message from football body Fifa.
· Apple plugs 20 Mac OS X vulnerabilities - Apple released security patches to correct 20 vulnerabilities affecting its Mac OS X operating system on Wednesday. The flaws could be exploited by remote or local attackers to execute arbitrary commands, cause a denial of service or obtain elevated privileges.
· Appeals court rejects ‘broadcast flag’ rules - Washington: Hollywood studios and television networks were dealt a blow yesterday when a federal appeals court rejected an earlier federal ruling that required the coming or 'next' generation of digital apparatus like TVs, personal computers, DVD recorders to contain anti-piracy technology.
· Google steps up fight for the China market - SHANGHAI - Web services leader Google Inc. has won a license to operate in China and has bought a Web address as it battles Yahoo Inc. in the world's second-largest internet market.
· Microsoft to expand MSN in China - SEATTLE/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it would form two new ventures for its MSN Internet service in China, becoming the latest player to expand in the crowded market.
· Microsoft to expand MSN in China - SEATTLE/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it would form two new ventures for its MSN Internet service in China, becoming the latest player to expand in the crowded market.
· Microsoft plans to give some pirates a break - As part of its growing antipiracy campaign, Microsoft is testing a program that offers free licensed versions of Windows XP Professional to some customers whose copies are found to be bogus.
· Apple launches four new European iTunes stores - LONDON (Reuters) - Apple Computer (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) has expanded the European reach of its market-leading iTunes online music store, launching in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland on Tuesday.
· Microsoft to sound early alert for flaws - The pilot program of Microsoft Security Advisories will strive to issue an alert within one business day of the company becoming aware of a problem and offer ways to mitigate it, a Microsoft representative said.
· Hacking phishing sites - Call them modern Robin Hoods, hackers who use their skills to take down Web sites used in phishing scams. Several sites that at one point hosted fraudulent Web pages designed to trick usres into giving out personal data have been defaced, according to Netcraft, an Internet services company in Bath, England.
· AOL Botches Netscape Security Makeover - blamed an unnamed third-party security vendor for the embarrassing release of its Netscape 8 Web browser with several publicly known security flaws.
· Morgan Stanley $1.45B Judgment Points to E-Mail Peril - MIAMI (Reuters)—The $1.45 billion judgment against Morgan Stanley for deceiving billionaire Ronald Perelman over a business deal has a lesson all companies should learn—keeping e-mails is now a must, experts say.
· Thieves hit Internet with sneakier software - SAN FRANCISCO — Online swindlers are using crafty new software to exploit security holes in computer programs and corporate networks to extend their enterprises, tech-security experts say.
· Movie rental battle rages - NEW YORK — The online DVD rental war intensified Thursday as Netflix (NFLX) and Blockbuster (BBI) scrambled to claim subscribers who now use a service run by Wal-Mart (WMT)— which announced that it will exit the DVD rental business June 16.
· Wind potential; instinctive tunes; man's first travels - IT'S A BREEZE: Wind has plenty of potential energy to exceed worldwide demand for electricity, a study finds. If only 20% of the Earth's "wind-power potential" were tapped, humanity could meet all of its electricity demand seven times over, according to a new study.
· VoIP systems must offer full 911 services - Federal regulators addressed a growing safety concern Thursday by voting to require Internet-based phone services to provide full-featured 911 service this year just as wireline phones do.
· Google gets personal - MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Taking direct aim at rival Yahoo, Internet search giant Google (GOOG) on Thursday introduced a personalized search page that mirrors Yahoo's (YHOO) popular My Yahoo page.
· Natural-Gas Diesel May Cut Smog - RAS LAFFAN INDUSTRIAL CITY, Qatar -- The rat's nest of pipes and columns snaking across the desert harbors a secret process that will use cobalt to turn natural gas into a powerful, clean-burning diesel fuel. By next year, rulers of this tiny desert sheikdom hope, these gas-to-liquids, or GTL, reactors under construction will bring in billions of dollars while clearing big city smog belched by trucks and buses.
· Super Water Kills Bugs Dead - A California company has figured out how to use two simple materials -- water and salt -- to create a solution that wipes out single-celled organisms, and which appears to speed healing of burns, wounds and diabetic ulcers.
· VOIP in Public-Safety Showdown - WASHINGTON -- Internet phone providers are facing static over alleged public-safety failings, with federal regulators poised to unveil new rules that could drive up prices and crimp growth.
· Tyke's Trike Becomes a Bike - A new dual-mode tricycle-cum-bicycle promises to make learning to ride a bike truly easy, according to its inventors.
· Stem Cells Made to Order - Korean scientists have used cloned human embryos to derive tailor-made stem cells, a breakthrough with dramatic implications for the development of useful therapies that could help shift the debate over human cloning.
· Internet Attack Called Broad and Long Lasting by Investigators - SAN FRANCISCO, May 9 - The incident seemed alarming enough: a breach of a Cisco Systems network in which an intruder seized programming instructions for many of the computers that control the flow of the Internet.
· Information Leaks Too Fast for Microsoft - SAN FRANCISCO - The difficulty of keeping secrets in the instantaneous age of the Internet and digital cameras should come as no surprise to the world's leading technology company, Microsoft Corp. But this week, the behemoth software maker apparently was caught off guard.
· Malicious Bots Hide Using Rootkit Code - Computer viruses and remote control programs called bots are adopting features from stealthy programs called rootkits to avoid detection, according to researchers at Finnish anti-virus software company F-Secure.
· Government says Wi-Fi networks not secure - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A hacker on a park bench could log onto dozens of U.S. government computer networks thanks to slipshod security standards at many agencies, according to a congressional report released on Tuesday.
· New TCP/IP Flaw Haunts Windows - Microsoft on Wednesday issued a prepatch advisory to counter the publication of exploit code for a newly discovered vulnerability in its implementation of TCP/IP.
· Hacker Shuts Down Japanese Site For Over A Week - A hacker attack that hit a Japanese price comparison site forced it to temporarily shut down operations, Kakaku.com said this week. The closure will cost it approximately 40 million yen ($372,000) in lost revenues, the company said in a news conference Wednesday.
· U.S. House votes to give cyber chief more clout - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government's top computer security official would have more authority to shore up the nation's technology defenses under a measure passed by the U.S. House of Representatives late on Wednesday.
· Hackers Circulate Fake Microsoft Security Update - Hoping once again to fool security-minded users, malicious hackers have released a fake Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) security update, claiming that it is an update to Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and Outlook.