Sunday, October 22, 2006
Bank Suffers from DoS attack
The National Australia Bank has confirmed that their websites suffered from a DoS attack, which was first detected at 6am. The attack saw the blocking of access to the NAB’s site and slow log-ons for the bank’s internet banking customers occured intermittently throughout the day NAB was not aware of the source or motivation of the attack and event had been referred to the Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC) - a section of the Australian Federal Police.
A DoS attack is called a denial of service attack, which is caused when an offending computer pings or floods a network node with useless information or data requests. Often a DoS attack is created when several thousand computers are infected with viruses and then send useless requests to the one machine on the internet.
A DoS attack is called a denial of service attack, which is caused when an offending computer pings or floods a network node with useless information or data requests. Often a DoS attack is created when several thousand computers are infected with viruses and then send useless requests to the one machine on the internet.
Flash ram to replace hard drives say experts
It appears the days of mechanically driven hard drives are numbered as flash ram is becoming more and more easily produced in large storage sizes. A company in the US claims it will soon be able to produce hard drive replacements using flash ram that can store up to 160gb on each unit. Flash ram has the distinct advantage of being faster to access data than mechanical units.
Internet explorer seven released.
Microsoft has just recently released its news internet explorer and it appears that numbers users have expressed their opinions or possible distaste on the internet blogs that they write to. I have downloaded an installed the program and found it works well unless you want to look at the Telstra.com website which ends up looking like an absolute jumble of buttons. It appears that a lot of the website designers will have to create their websites for legacy browsers and the new Microsoft IE7. This type of complications and misreading of website code will force more people towards the open source firefox browser. Most of the comments of the bloggers that are writing about IE7 seem to think that the news firefox 2.0 will eat further into the internet browser market. One quote which everyone seems to indicate that “It’s Microsoft and its not firefox!”
Video IPOD Owners warned about Virus, Apple blames Microsoft for virus!
Owners of Ipods are possibly quaking in their boots when it was discovered that their was an IPOD virus floating around on the internet. Some of the symptoms showed on ipods infected by this virus were loss of control of a number of functions like the play and turn off commands. However, the ipod can also be spread the virus as the user connects it to other machines to synchronize and download or exchange more files.
The virus is a major concern to apple, which has laid the blame directly at their competitor Microsoft. A claim o of industrial espionage has been made against Microsoft by Apple. The RavMonE.exe virus is rated a low risk by anti-virus companies but the virus is causing several headaches.
Apple discovered the RavMonE.exe virus on video iPods as they were being dispatched from one of its contract manufacturers. It is believed it effects units retailed purchased after Sept. 12, 2006. Apples says that iPod nanos, shuffles and Mac OS X operating system are unaffected.
The virus propagates using mass storage devices connected to Windows machines, such as external hard drives, digital cameras, removable media and USB flash drives. The good news Is that most antivirus programs will detect it easily
The virus is a major concern to apple, which has laid the blame directly at their competitor Microsoft. A claim o of industrial espionage has been made against Microsoft by Apple. The RavMonE.exe virus is rated a low risk by anti-virus companies but the virus is causing several headaches.
Apple discovered the RavMonE.exe virus on video iPods as they were being dispatched from one of its contract manufacturers. It is believed it effects units retailed purchased after Sept. 12, 2006. Apples says that iPod nanos, shuffles and Mac OS X operating system are unaffected.
The virus propagates using mass storage devices connected to Windows machines, such as external hard drives, digital cameras, removable media and USB flash drives. The good news Is that most antivirus programs will detect it easily
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Girls are gamming more and more
New research has claimed that over two thirds of online gamers are women, in a survey conducted by Nielsen Entertainment. Called the Active Gamer Benchmark Study reports, it says 64 per cent of US internet gamers are female.
The research also shows that, although teenagers continue to comprise the largest percentage of active gamers, more than 15 million of these gamers, almost eight per cent, are now 45 or older.
While women make up nearly two-thirds of all online gamers, men still outnumber women in the overall video game universe by more than two to one.
Although older females make up the largest percentage of casual gamers, active gamer teens and young adults also comprise a considerable portion of this market, with more than half playing casual games an hour or more a week.
Full story at http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2165826/online-gaming-girl-geeks-beat
The research also shows that, although teenagers continue to comprise the largest percentage of active gamers, more than 15 million of these gamers, almost eight per cent, are now 45 or older.
While women make up nearly two-thirds of all online gamers, men still outnumber women in the overall video game universe by more than two to one.
Although older females make up the largest percentage of casual gamers, active gamer teens and young adults also comprise a considerable portion of this market, with more than half playing casual games an hour or more a week.
Full story at http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2165826/online-gaming-girl-geeks-beat
Vista comming in November
In a news article on the web it seems like Microsoft does mean business! Announcing that its upcoming Windows Vista OS will include anti-piracy controls.
Such an inclusion of anti-piracy controls in Vista does highlight a growing world-wide concern regarding software piracy.
Upcoming Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn releases will ship with a module that requires users to register their software. In the event users fail to register, the software will operate in "reduced functionality mode," and going further, if they do not register within 30 days, the software will "cease to function".
Users of unregistered/pirated Vista will be able to access critical security updates, but not other very important functions. The corporate version of Vista will ship in November this year - exactly as envisioned by Microsoft.
Such an inclusion of anti-piracy controls in Vista does highlight a growing world-wide concern regarding software piracy.
Upcoming Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn releases will ship with a module that requires users to register their software. In the event users fail to register, the software will operate in "reduced functionality mode," and going further, if they do not register within 30 days, the software will "cease to function".
Users of unregistered/pirated Vista will be able to access critical security updates, but not other very important functions. The corporate version of Vista will ship in November this year - exactly as envisioned by Microsoft.
Wireless Woes
A Listener was speaking to me about wireless networking the other day and how much trouble she was having utilizing her network. They had gone wireless to allow their kids and other members of the family to use the internet around the house but the investment of 450 dollars worth of wireless equipment was almost down the drain.
The network would work ok for about 4 to five minutes then it would fail completely. So what could be causing it? Was it faulty equipment? Well I didn’t think so, however, I have had some experience with RF (radio frequency) interference. I went looking for devices in the house that use wireless communications.
Most wireless communications works on the 2.4 gigahertz and looking for devices in the house that might also be using this spectrum might well be a worth while exercise. On investigation we locate no more than 3 devices.
• . Cheap alarm system – that uses the 2.4ghz frequency spectrum to communicate between its sensor devices. This alarm system is basically crap because it would cause interference to the wireless network, secondly all the wireless devices require their own independent power supply so batteries are going to cost you a mint.
• 5 station cordless phone – the family used this rather than having cables installed in the house with extra outlets, whilst this is a highly advanced unit and very good at what it does it tends to interfere with the wireless networking.
• Cordless Video Sender – because they had a paytv set in the house the family wanted thr abilities to share it across the house so they purchased a couple of video senders that transmit it to tv is the house. However, they recon this never worked after they got the telephones.
All of these items will interfere with the wireless networking. Whilst you can adjust the routers channel settings to use a specific channel on the 2.4ghz spectrum it often has no effect in resolving the issues.
Well this family has a decision to make, sell off the wireless gear on ebay and cut their losses or sell off the telephone system and upgrade the alarm system. Either way they have lost money. This highlights you need to do research before going wireless.
The network would work ok for about 4 to five minutes then it would fail completely. So what could be causing it? Was it faulty equipment? Well I didn’t think so, however, I have had some experience with RF (radio frequency) interference. I went looking for devices in the house that use wireless communications.
Most wireless communications works on the 2.4 gigahertz and looking for devices in the house that might also be using this spectrum might well be a worth while exercise. On investigation we locate no more than 3 devices.
• . Cheap alarm system – that uses the 2.4ghz frequency spectrum to communicate between its sensor devices. This alarm system is basically crap because it would cause interference to the wireless network, secondly all the wireless devices require their own independent power supply so batteries are going to cost you a mint.
• 5 station cordless phone – the family used this rather than having cables installed in the house with extra outlets, whilst this is a highly advanced unit and very good at what it does it tends to interfere with the wireless networking.
• Cordless Video Sender – because they had a paytv set in the house the family wanted thr abilities to share it across the house so they purchased a couple of video senders that transmit it to tv is the house. However, they recon this never worked after they got the telephones.
All of these items will interfere with the wireless networking. Whilst you can adjust the routers channel settings to use a specific channel on the 2.4ghz spectrum it often has no effect in resolving the issues.
Well this family has a decision to make, sell off the wireless gear on ebay and cut their losses or sell off the telephone system and upgrade the alarm system. Either way they have lost money. This highlights you need to do research before going wireless.
