Free Republic

AMERICA needs to pay a heckuva a lot more atten tion to the cyberthreat. Now. Sure, the Pentagon is refuting a Wall Street Journal report last week that hackers pinched loads of data on the military's newest, high-tech fighter aircraft from contractors' computer networks via the Internet. But even if the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program wasn't actually penetrated by cyberspies, it's still a chilling wake-up call for the United States. The computer systems of the F-35 Lightning were penetrated "repeatedly," according to the newspaper, allowing cyber cat burglars to "copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to...

WASHINGTON — Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project — the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever — according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks. Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force's air-traffic-control system in recent months, these people say. In the case of the fighter-jet program, the intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft. The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up...

Several months ago, my computer crashed on me. Wouldn't even get to the beginning stages of boot up. Lights flickered if you hit the button, but beyond that, nothing. So, I took it to Best Buy where I bought it and where it was still under warrantee. They determined it was a fried motherboard. Consistent with the warrantee, the Geek Squad replaced it. Ever since that time, it takes about 2-3 minutes to boot up. Everything else seems to run fine, but boot up is excruciatingly slow. Any ideas why what normally took 30 seconds or so now takes 5...

A mystery electronic spy network apparently based in China has infiltrated hundreds of computers around the world and stolen files and documents, Canadian researchers have revealed. The network, dubbed GhostNet, appears to target embassies, media groups, NGOs, international organisations, government foreign ministries and the offices of the Dalai Lama, leader of the Tibetan exile movement. The researchers, based at Toronto University's Munk Centre for International Studies, said their discovery had profound implications. "This report serves as a wake-up call... these are major disruptive capabilities that the professional information security community, as well as policymakers, need to come to terms with...

A China-based cyber spy network has hacked into government and private systems in 103 countries, including those of many Indian embassies and the Dalai Lama, an Internet research group said here Saturday. The Information Warfare Monitor (IWM), which carried out an extensive 10-month research on cyber spy activities emanating from China, said the hacked systems include the computers of Indian embassies and offices of the Dalai Lama.

I'll have this as link only.

Yet another embassy web site is falling victim into a malware attack serving Adobe exploits to its visitors. As of last Friday, the official web site of the Embassy of Portugal in India has been compromised (embportindia.co.in). Who's behind the attack? Interestingly, that's the very same group that compromised the Azerbaijanian Embassies in Pakistan and Hungary earlier this month. Assessing this campaign once again establishes a direct connection with the Rusian Business Network's pre-shutdown netblocks and static locations.

Name These Connectors! Run All Your Essential Apps on a USB Stick Straighten the Pins on an Older CPU Know the 13 Basic HTML Tags Get Through to Executive Customer Service Beat Quake in Under an HourBuild a Hackintosh Watch TV Shows on the Internet (Legally!) Get Around the Content Filter on Public Computers Recite pi to 23 Decimal Places Replace the Controller Board on a Hard Drive Benchmark Your ComputerDecorate Your Room Using Only Printer Paper Securely Erase Your Data So it Can't be Recovered Get into a Windows Computer if you Forgot Your Password Hide Porn from Your...

http://www.covertradioshow.com # The Daily Blast for March 23, 2009 PodCast Link: http://covertradioshow.com/podcast.cfm?pid=159 SNIPPET: “CHINA Chinese Hackers Target Senate Computers Cyber hackers believed to be based in China have tapped three times into the computer network in US Sen. Bill Nelson’s office, the Florida Democrat said Friday. Two attacks on the same day this month and another one last month targeted work stations used by three Nelson staffers — a key foreign-policy aide, the deputy legislative director and a former Nelson NASA advisor, according to Nelson’s staff.”

"What is PIFTS.exe?" or How Symantec Turned A Simple Mistake Into Corporate Disaster.First posted: March 9, 2009Updated: March 10, 2009 On March 9, 2009, Norton Internet Security users around the world encountered a suspicious message which indicated that an unsigned program, PIFTS.exe, was trying to connect to the Internet. Users quickly turned to Google where they only found other users looking for the same answers. Next they began posting questions on the official Norton Internet Security message board. Here is where the situation quickly deteriorated. Forum moderators began pulling every single post which mentioned PIFTS or merely alluded to...

Sorry to post a vanity but I got the parite virus that somehow got on my laptop. I rarely use it for too much and rarely surf the web with this laptop. I lost my desktop icons and was stumped. I have AV programs I have bought for my other machines like Spybot and PC Tools and Iolo System Mechanic to name a few. I was just lazy on this machine because it came with Norton. The machine is about 2 years old so my mistake.

An Internet security company claims that Iran has taken advantage of a computer security breach to obtain engineering and communications information about Marine One, President Barack Obama's helicopter, according to a report by WPXI, NBC's affiliate in Pittsburgh. Tiversa, headquartered in Cranberry Township, Pa., reportedly discovered a security breach that led to the transfer of military information to an Iranian IP address, according to WPXI. The information is said to include planned engineering upgrades, avionic schematics, and computer network information. The channel quoted the company's CEO, Bob Boback, who said Tiversa found a file containing the entire blueprints and avionics...

PITTSBURGH -- Target 11 has learned a Cranberry company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks discovered what it said is a potentially serious security breach involving President Barack Obama’s helicopter. Tiversa employees found engineering and communications information about Marine One at an IP address in Tehran, Iran. Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, said, ”We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One,which is the president's helicopter." The company was able to trace the file back to its original source. "What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD had a file sharing program on one of...

Think about how much time you spend switching from one application to another, searching for windows that are hidden behind other windows, or opening and re-opening applications. It adds up. And depending upon the type of work you do, it can add up to a lot - a lot of frustration and a lot of lost productivity. The solution may be to add a second monitor. With today's PCs, adding another monitor to your setup is fairly easy, and the advantages are manifold. Not only will you be able to give an entire application - such as your e-mail program...

I need some expert technical advice, fellow Freepers, and you have never failed me before. So I will appreciate any insights you can provide. I'm embarking on a project that will require me to make some short but professional looking videos -- incorporating original digital video footage, music, tasteful text, and nice but simple visual effects including soft fades from one clip to another. I am looking for a video editing tool that will enable me to do that. I want it to cost nothing, and give me the capability to make Superbowl ad-quality videos of 2-10 minutes in duration....

Anyone else experiencing weird things with FR or is it just my computer?

Can someone recommend a program to convert html to gif or jpg? I was hoping for an online converter but would do a download shareware etc.

BLOG: Note: The following blog entry is a quote: http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/13152.htm Report: New Iranian Remote-Control Mini-Submarine A report was released in Iran about a mini-submarine operated by remote control, with a GSM system or onboard computer, that can reach a depth of eight meters and carry eight kg of explosives. The submarine's planners say that the sub is invisible to radar, and that the robot on board will sense when a diver approaches the sub and will release hormones to attract schools of fish, thereby concealing it from diver. Source: Fars, Iran, January 21, 2009 Posted at: 2009-01-23

The firmware update released by Seagate yesterday is apparently bricking 500GB hard drives. There are hundreds of people complaining in the Seagate forums that, after “successfully” updating their drives, they no longer work. If you own a Seagate drive, you might want to hold off on any firmware updates until this whole thing is ironed out. We’ll keep you posted.

Sorry to post a vanity but I am looking at VOIP for the small office. I was going to go with Packet 8 where you buy the phone at Office Depot. $24.95 a month and you can add more lines at $4.95 a month. I do not like the people behind Vonage - the Citrons. The family got fined heavily by the SEC in their last venture with their online brokerage. A relative has magic Jack for $40. $20 for the jack, $20 for the first year. $20 a year after that. It is for the office. I also need...