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ZoneAlarm Security Suite blocked access to port 21 on your computer No breach in your security has occurred. Your computer is safe. What happened? ZoneAlarm Security Suite prevented a remote computer from connecting to port 21 on your computer. This connection attempt was probably a port scan trying to find unprotected FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers. To learn more about port scans, see the Details tab. Should I be concerned? No. ZoneAlarm Security Suite blocked the connection attempt, so no harm can come to your computer from it. Port scans are very common on the Internet and are not usually...

Sasser kid blamed for viral plague By John Leyden A staggering 70 per cent of viral activity in the first half of this year can be linked to just one German teenager, according to anti-virus firm Sophos. Sven Jaschan, 18, the self-confessed author of the NetSky and Sasser worms is blamed by Sophos for the vast majority of viral reports it recorded during the first six months of 2004. Just two of Jaschan's viruses - the infamous Sasser worm and NetSky-P - account for almost 50 per cent of all virus activity seen by Sophos up until the end of...

In the last few minutes, when attempting to access the web via Netscape with Free Republic designated as my home page, it freezes. I changed my homepage to another site and I had no problems. I accessed the internet via Internet Explorer with FR as my homepage and no problem. Is this a Netscape or FR problem? My cache files are cleared and I do not have a problem with other sites.

In a move that surprised many video game industry officials, the children’s toy manufacturer Nerf filed a slander lawsuit against every major marketer of massive online games. In a press release Nerf stated that they were suing for monetary compensation for profits lost as a result of the slander perpetrated by the gaming companies. Online game companies have long been in the habit of reducing the capabilities of characters, weapons, spec lines, and other game related mechanics while increasing the capabilities of their billing computers. This situation lead to the creation of the Internet slang term “nerf” which has come...

I downloaded Red Hat version of Linux last night. I am having trouble even get started installing the software. Before I invest any more time, is it worth me installing Linux on my home computer? I do not write my own software. However, I am attracted that the system is free, and the applicable software is cheap Lindows office, $29. I would like your thoughts. Also, will all my Windows based software work with Linux?

Mine is the generation that will say they saw the fiery tragic demise of the clunky indestructible rotary-dial telephone and the instant tsunami-like skull-crushing advent of the beeping screaming yammering cell-phone culture like some sort of rabid brilliant must-have disease.

I have 2 problems with my computer. When I boot up, after icons appear, I get a box that states "shortcut problem" with MORZE2.lnk. If I click OK to get rid of the box, another immediately appears with a different .lnk extension and if I click OK again, I get another one, another one, and so on with different names. I've attempted to locate these stupid links and even when into dos to try and delete them without success. The other problem is I know I have spyware because I downloaded two different spyware killers which scanned my machine and...

NETWORK-CENTRIC WARFARE What’s the Point? Edward A. Smith, Jr. (Nevermind the numbers interspersed throughout the paper. I didn't feel to remove them.) What is network-centric warfare? What’s the point? Many attempts to answer these questions emphasize the “network” and the new technologies used to create more effective sensor and communications architectures. These architectures, it is argued, will enable us to create and exploit a common situational awareness, increase our speed of command, and “get inside the enemy’s OODA [observe, orient, decide, and act] loop.”1 Yet such descriptions of technologies and capabilities can leave us asking the same questions: What is...

SEATTLE - As a vice president at security software leader Symantec Corp., Matthew Moynahan applauds Microsoft Corp.'s effort to make its Windows operating system safer from attack. But Moynahan is not so excited about the flood of help-desk calls almost certain to come when Microsoft releases a comprehensive security overhaul of Windows XP next month. His company's Norton antivirus software runs on about 100 million desktop computers. To make the new Microsoft system work smoothly with Norton, customers will need to download a Norton update. The company is already bracing for the change, working with its customer support staff and...

Serious defects hit cell phone batteries, computer parts From wire reports July 18, 2004 Hundreds of thousands of computer parts and cell phone batteries have been recalled in recent weeks because of serious defects. No. 1 PC maker Dell recalled 38,000 Auto/Air Power Adapters connecting laptops to power outlets in cars and planes. Users may get shocked if they plug the wrong cord into the adapter. No. 2 PC maker Hewlett-Packard is recalling the memory component of 900,000 laptops over a problem that can make them crash or lose data. H-P blames memory-makers Micron Technology, Samsung, Infineon Technologies and Winbond....

Chinese Hacker May be PLA The Ministry of Foreign Affairs send an urgent message to the Korean Embassy in Beijing instructing it to confirm whether the recent hacking of computers at major national institutions is connected with the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. Ahead of this, as the Foreign Ministry was protesting Chinese state-run media distortions of Goguryo history to Chinese Ambassador Li Bin on Wednesday, the ministry requested China's active cooperation in solving the hacking problem. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Shin Bong-kil said Li stated he would relay the request to Beijing and would work hard to see that the facts...

A team of computer scientists and mathematicians at Palo Alto, CA-based Artificial Development are developing software to simulate the human brain's cortex and peripheral systems. As a first step along the way, the company recently disclosed that it has completed the development a realistic representation of the workflow of a functioning human cortex. Dubbed the CCortex-based Autonomous Cognitive Model ('ACM'), the software may have immediate applications for data mining, network security, search engine technologies and natural language processing. The first ACM computer 'persona,' named 'Kjell' in homage to AI pioneer Alan Turing, was activated last month and is in early...

Thousands of students, staff and alumni of a tony Upper East Side design school were put at risk of identify theft and possible bankruptcy after school computers containing their personal info were dumped on the sidewalk. As many as 10 computers were found abandoned outside the New York School of Interior Design on East 70th Street on June 17 and handed over to The Post. One hard drive revealed files containing more than 15,000 Social Security, credit-card and phone numbers plus staffers' salaries, academic transcripts, dates of birth and student ID photos. -----snip-----

Rated E for Everyone: New Company Unveils Family-Friendly Computer GamesFeature by Jenni ParkerJuly 2, 2004 (AgapePress) - A new Silicon Valley company has formed to produce electronic games that are both high-quality and family-friendly, without the violence and other negative content found in many popular videogames. And now the Christian computer game developer called Digital Praise has partnered with Focus on the Family to bring out a new line of interactive games based on the popular Adventures in Odyssey radio series.Today's video and computer game market is flooded with fantasy games featuring shootouts, car crashes, kicks and punches, all...

WASHINGTON, June 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A new report out today reveals that the FBI will not be able to fully deploy a long- awaited computer upgrade to manage the bureau's case files before the end of the year as promised, and that the bureau cannot predict when the entire system would be in place. The FBI's computer problems were a major factor in the intelligence failures that led to 9/11. (NY Times, 6/26/04) Kerry Spokesman Phil Singer said: "The FBI's outdated computer system contributed to the intelligence failures that led to the 9/11 attacks. But three years later,...

IIS 5 Web Server Compromisesadded June 24 US-CERT is aware of new activity affecting compromised web sites running Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) 5 and possibly end-user systems that visit these sites. Compromised sites are appending JavaScript to the bottom of web pages. When executed, this JavaScript attempts to access a file hosted on another server. This file may contain malicious code that can affect the end-user's system. US-CERT is investigating the origin of the IIS 5 compromises and the impact of the code that is downloaded to end-user systems.Web server administrators running IIS 5 should verify that there is...

Government and industry experts are reporting a mysterious, large-scale Internet attack against thousands of popular Web sites. The virus-like infection tries to implant hacker software onto the computers of all Web site visitors. Industry experts and the Homeland Security Department are studying the infection to determine how it spreads across Web sites and find adequate defenses against it. A government warning says even Web sites trusted by users may contain the potentially malicious code. The infection appears to target at least one recent version of Microsoft's Internet Information Server, which is popular among businesses and organizations. The United States Computer...

A tiny prototype fuel cell the size of a thumb has been developed by Toshiba. The Japanese electronics giant said the methanol fuel cell could power a gadgets such as a digital music player for 20 hours. Fuel cells generate electrical power by catalysing substances such as hydrogen and methanol. Toshiba hopes that by 2005, the fuel cells could be used in handheld electronic devices instead of lithium-ion batteries. Size matters Fuel cells have been touted as a green power source for the future as they produce electricity by converting hydrogen and oxygen into water. Many companies are working on...

<p>Florida state officials are considering taxing home networks that have more than one computer, under a modified 1985 state law that was intended to tax the few businesses that used internal communication networks instead of the local telephone company.</p> <p>Officials from Florida's Department of Revenue held a meeting on Tuesday to see whether the law would apply to wired households, and exactly who would be taxed. About 200 people attended, including community and business representatives.</p>

Teleportation breaks new ground 16 June 2004 Physicists in Austria and the US have independently demonstrated quantum teleportation with atoms for the first time. Until now, teleportation had only ever been observed with photons. The results could represent a major step towards building a large-scale quantum computer. In quantum teleportation, the sender, normally called Alice, instantaneously transfers information about the quantum state of a particle to a receiver called Bob. The uncertainty principle means that Alice cannot know the exact state of her particle. However, another feature of quantum mechanics called "entanglement" means that she can teleport the state to...