Windows 8: Is It Worth The Upgrade?

Windows 8 has been at the forefront of discussion for the weeks leading up to its launch on Friday. The company says that Windows 8 is the future – a world where traditional desktop computing and touch computing can live in harmony. A future where all your content is at your fingertips at all times. So is the future worth it?

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Internet & 'muslims' cupid service!

Half Our Deen Offline

Published on Oct 24, 2012 by ummahfilms : The reality is that Muslim Single events that use the speed dating process just don't work. Half Our Deen takes a revolutionary approach at helping Muslim get married. Instead of playing a game of musical chairs like other events, HOD Offline uses a series of activities to allow it's participants to learn about each other in a deeper way. The results speak for themselves.

U.S. thinks Iran behind cyberattack in Saudi Arabia

Panetta referred to the “shamoon” virus for the first time publicly, saying it erased critical files on about 30,000 computers at Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company.

The United States believes Iran was behind a major cyberattack on Saudi Arabia’s state oil company and a Qatari gas firm, a former U.S. official who has worked on cybersecurity issues said Friday.

In a major cybersecurity speech on Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a veiled warning to Tehran that Washington is ready to take preemptive action to protect U.S. computer networks, the former official said.

U.S. government agencies have concluded that Iran orchestrated the “shamoon” virus that disabled tens of thousands of computers at Saudi Aramco and struck Qatari natural gas firm RasGas as well, said James Lewis, who has worked for the State Department and other government agencies on national security and cyber issues.

American officials had “more than a suspicion” that Iran was to blame for the August attacks, that also possibly included recent denial of service attacks on some U.S. banks, said Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

“There’s generally a conviction that it was Iran,” he told AFP.

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Scary Facebook setting you have to change now!

Privacy concerns just never seem to end on Facebook. Earlier this week, a security researcher found what seemed to be a glaring flaw in Facebook's security. In many cases, it could allow a total stranger to find you and your mobile phone number.

All the person has to do is search for any mobile number using the site's mobile search function. If you have your number on Facebook - or have the Facebook app on your phone - your name will pop up.

When the security researcher went public with this information, Facebook said it's a feature, not a bug. That means it probably won't be fixed. Though Facebook might not care about your privacy, I do. So, I'm going to tell you how to stop it.

The problem lies with a simple privacy setting. By default, Facebook allows anyone to search for your profile by your mobile number. You can change this so strangers can't look you up.

Click the upside-down triangle in the right corner of your profile. Go to Privacy settings and then How You Connect. Set "Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided?" to Friends.

You can remove your phone number from Facebook as well. However, this prevents you from using two-factor authentication on your Facebook account, which I do recommend. Plus, if you use the Facebook mobile app, your number is permanently attached to your account.

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Be Prepared for Ransomware Virus!

Oct 11, 2012  : After historic Internet protests in January the SOPA anti-piracy bill was defeated. However, this week several reports have pointed to a rather unfortunate SOPA comeback. Not in Congress, but as a nasty cryptovirus that locks up people’s computers and accuses them of distributing copyright infringing files. Infected users can get their data back after a payment of $200 – at least, that’s what the virus makers promise.

The Stop Online Piracy ACT (SOPA) was a major threat to the Internet. The bill introduced draconian censorship tools for the Government and copyright holders, that worried the public and many key Internet companies including Reddit, Google and Wikipedia.

After months of protest, the bill was eventually killed off following the Internet Blackoutearlier this year.

But that doesn’t mean SOPA is no longer a threat. This week ‘the bill’ was resurrected by a virus maker, who has been warning users of infected computers that their IP-address is on a blacklist after it was discovered distributing illegal content.

SOPA Ransomware

As a result, the SOPA virus holds all files on the host computer ransom.

“Your computer is locked!” the splash screen above warns, adding:

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New Android virus could wipe out all of user's information

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WASHINGTON  |  1 Oct 2012  -- A security researcher says cell phones equipped with Google’s Android operating system are at risk of being disabled or wiped clean of their data, including contacts, music, and photos.

Opening a link to a web site or application embedded with malicious code can trigger an attack capable of destroying the memory card in Android-equipped handsets made by Samsung, HTC, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. That from Ravi Borgaonkar (BOR-gahn-car) of Germany’s Technical University Berlin. He wrote that another code that can erase a user’s data appears to target only the top selling Galaxy S III and other Samsung phones.

Borgaonkar says he informed Google of the vulnerability in June. A fix was issued quickly, he says, but it wasn’t publicized, leaving manyphone owners unaware the problem existed.

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Old Facebook posts haunt users - how to deal with it?

Published on Sep 26, 2012 by CNETTV : CNET's Sumi Das talks to reporter Donna Tam about the privacy fears Facebook users are experiencing as the social network continues the worldwide rollout of its Timeline feature.