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Bad implementation of the low-level code hooking technique by Microsoft and third-party security vendors has left millions of users open to attacks that bypass mitigation measures - some for up to a decade, researchers have found. Hooking is used by different kinds of software to monitor as well as to intercept and change the behaviour of operating system functions, and if needed, to inject code. Security software uses code hooking extensively to check for malicious activity on systems. EnSilo researchers Tomer Bitton and Udi Yavo said they looked at the hooking engines and injection techniques used by more than 15...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal appeals court delivered a victory to U.S. companies housing customer data overseas, ruling Thursday that prosecutors cannot force Microsoft to reveal content from a customer's email account stored in Ireland. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned a lower court order finding the company in civil contempt for not handing over the data. Microsoft offers storage through its "public cloud," which places data from over 1 billion customers and over 20 million businesses on servers in over 40 countries, the court noted.

Symantec enterprise and Norton security product users are being urged to patch their applications immediately after multiple dangerous vulnerabilities were discovered. The security firm has advised that 17 enterprise security products and nine Norton consumer offerings are affected. Google Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy discovered the flaws. The most serious is that the products unpack compressed executables in the operating system kernel to analyse them for malicious code. He said this dangerous practice means the vulnerability can be exploited by simply sending a link or an email - users don't need to do anything to activate an attack.

The script is disguised as a document Security researchers have discovered a new strain of ransomware coded entirely in Javascript, which could increase its chances of being activated. Unlike executable program files, Javascript documents do not always trigger a security warning on Windows or require administrator access to run. Named RAA, the malware is disguised as a document and starts encrypting files immediately when opened. One security expert said the approach was likely to fool many victims. "It's an interesting approach to ransomware," said Ken Munro of security company Pen Test Partners. "Using Javascript as an attachment to an email...

Adobe has released an update for Flash that addresses three dozen CVE-listed vulnerabilities. The update includes a fix for the CVE-2016-4171 remote code execution vulnerability that is right now being exploited in the wild to install malware on victims' computers. Adobe is recommending that users running Flash for Windows, macOS, Linux, and ChromeOS update the plugin as quickly as possible, giving the update the "Priority 1" ranking, a designation reserved for flaws that are, according to Adobe, "being targeted, or which have a higher risk of being targeted." Adobe credited security researchers at Cisco Talos, Google Project Zero, FireEye, Microsoft...

The Intel Management Engine (ME) is a subsystem composed of a special 32-bit ARC microprocessor that's physically located inside the chipset. It is an extra general purpose computer running a firmware blob that is sold as a management system for big enterprise deployments. When you purchase your system with a mainboard and Intel x86 CPU, you are also buying this hardware add-on: an extra computer that controls the main CPU. This extra computer runs completely out-of-band with the main x86 CPU meaning that it can function totally independently even when your main CPU is in a low power state like...

Schrödinger's cat now has a second box to play in, thanks to an international team of physicists that has created a two-mode "Schrödinger's cat state" for the first time. The experiment brings together two purely quantum properties, in that the "cat" (i.e. the photons) is simultaneously "alive and dead" (in a superposition of states) while also in two locations at once (the two boxes are entangled with one another).

About six months ago I downloaded SNAPFISH thinking it was something I wantedI soon learned it was not and went into my programs, uninstalled and everything was OK until todayI am getting a constant annoying popup saying, "We are unable to authenticate your acct." etc I've been everywhere I know and can't find this annoyance to remove ithelpW7 w/chrome

The 6502 CPU is a fondly-remembered CPU* for good reason: along with chips from Motorola, Intel and Zilog, it helped create the personal computer business in the 1980s. However, this project is affection on a grand scale: some US enthusiasts are creating a transistor-for-transistor replica of the chip's design using discrete components. It's a good thing we're in the era of surface mount components, because even with small components the 3,218 transistors, 1,019 resistors and various other bits of the MOnSter 6502 need a four-layer PCB measuring 12” x 15” with components mounted on both sides. Because a big, slow,...

I'm seeking an external (USB) CDR/DVD burner that is HIGHLY accurate. Any recommendations is most welcomed and appreciated.

Intel Corp. said Tuesday it will cut about 11 percent of its global workforce, or up to 12,000 positions, as the world’s largest chipmaker grapples with plunging global sales of desktop computers. The aggressive cost-cutting campaign will include the loss of executive staffers at the Santa Clara, California, company and will be completed by the middle of next year, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company also said it will book a one-time charge of $1.2 billion in the second quarter. The planned job losses come as Intel shifts its focus toward mobile applications, data centers and connectivity...

Linux is all grown up. It has nothing left to prove. There's never been a year of the Linux desktop and there probably never will be, but it runs on the majority of the world's servers. It never took over the desktop, it did an end-run around it: there are more Linux-based client devices accessing those servers than there are Windows boxes.Linux Foundation boss Jim Zemlin puts it this way: "It's in literally billions of devices. Linux is the native development platform for every SOC. Freescale, Qualcomm, Intel, MIPS: Linux is the immediate choice. It's the de facto platform. It's...

Apple reached its 40th anniversary this month, no mean feat in a tech industry littered with the names of long-gone giants. Here's a look at the 12 products that defined the company, and changed what we know as computing in the process.

Heat doesn't kill hard drives. Here's what does"Free-cooled" datacenters use ambient outside air instead of air conditioning. That lets us see how environment affects system components. Biggest surprise: temperature is not the disk drive killing monster we thought. Here's what is. At last months Usenix FAST 16 conference, in the Best Paper award winner Environmental Conditions and Disk Reliability in Free-cooled Datacenters, researchers Ioannis Manousakis and Thu D. Nguyen, of Rutgers, Sriram Sankar of GoDaddy, and Gregg McKnight and Ricardo Bianchini of Microsoft, studied how the higher and more variable temperatures and humidity of free-cooling affect hardware components. They reached...

Ok good linuxian folks, Here's what I'd like to do IF possible- Dual boot windows 10 and linux mint cinnamon BUT have windows 10 run again in linux under a virtual machine (yes I know it sounds redundant, but i have a reason for this setup if possible) I'm not sure if I coudl install windows 10 twice on one machine or not, but let's for now just assume i could- (windows 10 is 'free' and you can download the iso for it and use it without activating it legally- the iso is direct from MS- and while I don't...

SlySoft Inc. is a software company registered in the Carribean country of Antigua and Barbuda. For the past few years, the firm has been a thorn in the side of Hollywood studios and game makers by creating and releasing software that would circumvent DRM and copyright protections on CDs and DVDs. Its product line includes tools like AnyDVD, AnyDVD HD, Clone CD, CloneDVD mobile, Virtual Clone Drive, Game Jackal, and Game Jackal Enterprise. With no doubt, the company's most known product is AnyDVD, a device driver used by many movie, game, and software piracy groups (and even home users) to...

They broke in like it was nothing. They could have wiped my hard drive, stolen my files, or practically anything nefarious you can do with a computer. All because I had a wireless mouse dongle plugged into my laptop. And all they needed was a simple antenna that costs as little as $15 at Amazon. Thankfully, "they" were a pair of security researchers from a company called Bastille, and every company that builds wireless mice and keyboards has already been alerted to the issue. If you have a Logitech Unifying receiver, there's already a fix. (Here is a link to...

I'm looking to purchase a new computer and would like some advice.

54 models affected. Toshiba has issued a recall for Li-Ion battery packs sold with certain models of its laptops and notebooks due a risk of the device catching fire. The hardware company yesterday advised customers to immediately turn off their PC and remove their battery to check whether their device was affected. The vendor is offering free replacement battery packs for customers with affected units. Around 54 different PC models are affected, sold nationally from retail stores like Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi from June 2011 to September 2015. A full list can be found here. "There is a risk...

Unmanageable deadlines and disastrous IT wrecked this top US retailer's attempt at international expansion. The moral of the story: IT drives the enterprise. Business school case studies tend to fall into two categories: epic wins and oh-my-gosh-how-could-they-possibly-have-been-so-stupid epic failures. This article discusses a real-world billion dollar story that falls into the second category. As epic failures go, this one is worthy of the history books. . . EVERYTHING WENT TERRIBLY, TERRIBLY WRONG . . .