Hacker

The spread of malicious software, also known as malware or computer viruses, is a growing problem that can lead to crashed computer systems, stolen personal information, and billions of dollars in lost productivity every year. One of the most insidious types of malware is a “rootkit,” which can effectively hide the presence of other spyware [...]

As if computer viruses and worms aren’t enough of a nuisance, malicious hardware, which will be much more difficult to detect, could soon become a threat too.
Today, computer viruses, which are programs downloaded either as an email attachment or when someone visits a website, are responsible for most computer attacks. Hackers use them to gain [...]

In this Bleeding Edge Byte episode, Nate True shows why the Walit doesn’t work when used in the real world, and instead creates his own better, brighter version. The Walluminate is made using a standard folding wallet, bright LEDs, and some other miscellaneous electronic components. The result is a wallet that brightens up your cash, [...]

“This may be the worst security flaw we have seen in touch screen voting machines,” says Open Voting Foundation president, Alan Dechert. Upon examining the inner workings of one of the most popular paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United States, it has been determined that with the flip of [...]

Like guerilla librarians defending the free flow of information across all borders, the Canadian creators of a particular software designed to bypass governmental censorship mean business! Nestor E. Arellano of ITWorld Canada writes:
The arms race over Internet censorship is escalating.
A new weapon is being developed to help dissidents gain free access to the Web.
A [...]

Keeping computer files private requires only the use of a simple encryption program. For criminals or terrorists wanting to conceal their activities, however, attaching an encrypted file to an e-mail message is sure to raise suspicion with law enforcement or government agents monitoring e-mail traffic.
But what if files could be hidden within the complex digital [...]

If you missed all the uproar last year about the Sony rootkit that was installed when a user played certain Sony BMG music CDs on his computer, Technology Review has done a cover story on it that reprises events very well. It’s in three parts:

Part One is here

Part Two is here

Part Three is [...]

One would think that military institutions in a country of vast resources like the United States would shape up their security in the decade since their computer systems had been breached by a young hacker. But, nope, it’s happened again. What is the defense department up to with our tax dollars, anyway? Mark Ward of [...]

Yan Fortin of RealTechNews writes:
The guys at GeeksAreSexy (Hey, that’s me!) made the experiment of freezing a defective hard drive for a few hours in the hope of being able to recover some data out of it. So, what do you guys think? Is this a myth or is it reality? While there, you might [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
As we reported in late January, Colin Nederkoorn started a contest, purportedly because he told his boss that the Intel Mac would replace his IBM desktop and he could boot Windows XP on it. Well, hackers dubbed “narf2006″ and “blanka” have managed to do solve his problem.
The solution was [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
It’s new terminology, at least. Although the first thing that came to mind when I saw the term was the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers“. A U.S. security expert has created an application that can fill an iPod with business-critical data in a matter of minutes. The [...]

We’ve all had it happen at least once - that moment when your cell phone slips from a pocket or your hands and crashes to the ground. Most phones survive, but apparently many more make the fall into a liquid surface - like into the water of a toilet bowl.
Gross!

MySpace is popular, but not everyone likes the look of the profile. Today I found a guy who came up with a clever hack that will hide ads, clean up white space, and remove scroll bars, and so on.
We Say: Of course, this is not a hack like the guy who made himself the [...]

Not long ago we did a piece on how hybrids while great did not actually save you money - mostly because of their cost compared to a basic Honda Civic. But the Prius has become more than just a way to save money, for many techies and celebrities, it’s “the” cool car because it’s small [...]

Today, Fortune has a piece on plans by retail giants, Costco, Target, and Wal-Mart to move to fingerprint biometric technology as a way of cutting down on fraud and to expedite check-out line time. Sounds good, but it turns out that a simple “finger” molded from Play-Doh can foil 90% of these systems. We say: [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
As we said in our earlier article, word was that Windows XP would not boot on an Intel Mac, due to the use of the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) instead of BIOS. That information hasn’t changed yet, but an enterprising person, who apparently fibbed a little and told his [...]

This shouldn’t surprise me, but it does. For years people have been using the Internet to buy up pre-written essays and term papers on various topics. Before that, many term papers services advertised in print publications like Rolling Stone. But outsourcing your actual homework to India? Turns out the popular coding-for-hire website, Rent A Coder [...]

This is a bit stalker-y for my tastes, but I do love technical work-arounds. Case in point: how to see if someone is set to invisible mode in Yahoo! Messenger.
Why: Because we can.
Why Not: Because it helps to take a hint.
Read more about finding invisible Yahoo! Messenger users here.

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
LiveCDs (bootable self-contained CDs) are great. I have some utility CDs that I use for image recovery like this, and I also love the LiveCDs that they produce for Linux installations, so that I can test compatibility without having to install software on the hard drive.
At ShmooCon last [...]

A super worm, well that sounds postive! Actually, based on what I have been hearing as well, this would not surprise me all that much.