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OGI, Nigeria — Whatever secrets the turgid brown depths of the Sacred Pond of Ogi may keep, there is one they betray quite easily: why it is so infuriatingly hard to wipe even one disease off the face of the earth. Ogi is one of the last areas of Nigeria infested with Guinea worm, a plague so ancient that it is found in Egyptian mummies and is thought to be the "fiery serpent" described in the Old Testament as torturing the Israelites in the desert. For untold generations here, yardlong, spaghetti-thin worms erupted from the legs or feet — or...

Haven't seen a thread concerning this yet. I've got 10 e-mails unopened.

Successful assaults by viruses and other malware on the Mac operating system are rare as it has better security and attackers are less keen Ilya van Sprundel writes: In this article about the Mac Mini (see BW, 2/14/05, "And For Steve Jobs's Next Trick...") you say, "The Mac does have inherent security advantages, and it is much less prone to the sort of mysterious glitches that often make Windows a challenge." I was wondering what "inherent security advantages" OS X has and why it is "much less prone to the sort of mysterious glitches." The only reason I can think...

Parasites were the inspiration behind the creature that terrified moviegoers in Alien. Now sci-fi screenwriters may have a new role model—parasitic worms that brainwash their victims. Scientists say hairworms, which live inside grasshoppers, pump the insects with a cocktail of chemicals that makes them commit suicide by leaping into water. The parasites then swim away from their drowning hosts to continue their life cycle. A team of French biologists made the discovery after monitoring grasshoppers that became trapped in a swimming pool in southern France. Postmortems of the grasshoppers suggest that worms triggered the insects' death leaps by sabotaging their...

Irish scientists are investigating parasitic worms to try to find new ways to prevent asthma and reduce allergies.Dr Padraic Fallon, from Trinity College Dublin, and colleagues have already managed to cure asthma in lab mice by infecting them with the tiny creatures. The team now has to explain how the parasites achieve this feat at a molecular level. If they can do that, they should then be able to synthesise a new drug compound to treat asthma in people. On the riseAsthma and other allergies have increased almost threefold over the last 30 years in many developed countries, including...

Firefox's 'retreat' ensures Microsoft excels Open source web browser Firefox has lost the momentum it has steadily gained since it was unleashed last year, according to Web analysts at Net Applications. The online portal’s unique Hit List service reveals a slump in the Mozilla browser’s market share, falling from 8.7% to 8.1 % in July. Coinciding with its demise, was the advance of Microsoft's IE that has gained some of the ground surrendered in June, climbing back from 86.6 % to 87.2% last month. The revival for the dominant browser comes on the back of average monthly losses of between...

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about the Zobot worm, eWeek is reporting that multiple exploits are circulating for the vulnerability outlined in bulletin MS05-039. Researchers at eEye Digital Security also raised the alarm after testing the published exploits. "Upon discovering two instances of exploit code online, [we] conducted thorough testing to confirm that both present a legitimate threat to Windows 2000 systems (completely patched SP 4 with all hotfixes). One exploit, released by an anonymous author, will bind a command prompt to TCP port 8721," the company warned. Get patched folks! The entire article can be viewed here

Hackers, viruses, worms, spam, spyware and phishing sites have proliferated to the point where it's nearly impossible for most computer users to go online without falling victim to them. Last year, the Carnegie Mellon University CERT Coordination Center logged 3,780 new computer security vulnerabilities, compared with 1,090 in 2000 and 171 in 1995. Computer security firm Symantec Corp. over the past decade has catalogued 11,000 vulnerabilities in 20,000 technologies, affecting 2,000 vendors. "I'm very pessimistic about it all," said Haugsness, who has worked for the storm center for two years. "There are huge problems and outages all the time, and...

......................''It's a very huge outbreak," Joseph Elkinton, an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said yesterday. ''The main thing going on is winter moths. Most of the defoliation you see on the South Shore and on Cape Cod is winter moths, and that caterpillar has finished its feeding." ......The infestation is not as severe in the Boston area as it is to the south, and it is not quite as bad as in the 1980s, when gypsy moth caterpillars were more widespread and were found everywhere from sidewalks to screen doors. Robert Childs, also an entomologist at UMass-Amherst,...

Microsoft Gives Details on Windows Release Microsoft's Plan to Hardwire Computer Security in Chip to Debut in Next Windows Release SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp.'s ambitious plan to keep data safe on PCs will make a scaled-down debut in the next release of Windows, though the operating system's most anticipated improvements in graphics appear to mirror what's now available from rival Apple Computer Inc. The long-delayed Windows upgrade, now expected in December 2006, has been touted as the most significant update to the ubiquitous operating since Windows 95 launched in 1995. In a speech Monday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates...

If Microsoft Corp. doesn't do more to stem Internet attacks, the company risks further alienating customers unhappy with the multitude of threats already facing its ubiquitous software. Sell its own security products, on the other hand, and Microsoft faces a potential backlash from some of its allies _ the companies that now provide an extra layer of security for its Windows operating system, Internet Explorer browser and other products. With a powerhouse like Microsoft becoming a direct competitor, they could get squeezed out. What a quandary. Last week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates confirmed plans to sell antivirus products to both...

Windows worm weaves its way with search engines A new worm that uses Internet search engines to spread rapidly was detected Thursday, according to antivirus software maker Panda Software, a private company based in Bilbao, Spain, which operates in the U.S. as PandaLabs of Glendale, in Southern California. Called "MydoomAO," the worm uses Mountain View-based Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Altavista, Sunnyvale-based Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Lycos to search for e-mail addresses to which to send itself. In order to trick users, the worm pretends to be a mail delivery error message. In this way, a single infected computer can distribute thousands...

Gates speech to crown RSA show Analysts: Microsoft chairman may unveil antivirus push LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- As a host of information-technology security experts and professionals descend upon the RSA Conference, the industry sector's largest annual gathering, many are awaiting with bated breath a scheduled keynote speech by Microsoft's Bill Gates. Gates, who also serves as chairman and chief software architect of the world's biggest software firm, is set to officially kick off the conference in San Francisco with a keynote speech Tuesday morning. Analysts widely expect Gates will use his speech, entitled "Security: Raising the Bar," as an...

It is the ethical dilemma that for decades has troubled the rich and aspiring the world over: when you place a live lobster in a pot of boiling water, does it feel pain? Norwegian scientists were asked to investigate pain, discomfort and stress in invertebrates and claim now to have discovered that the answer is no. Their conclusion applies also to crabs and to live worms on a fish hook. None of these feel a thing. Which is good news for Norwegian fishermen at least. Their government was considering a ban on live worms as fish bait under revisions to...

A malicious script that spies on Apple Mac users was discovered over the weekend. The malware, which has been dubbed ‘Opener’ by Mac user-groups, disables Mac OS X’s built-in firewall, steals personal information and can destroy data. Security experts say these traits are common among the thousands of viruses targeting Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system but are virtually unheard of amongst the Apple Macintosh community. Paul Ducklin, Sophos’ head of technology in the Asia Pacific, told ZDNet Australia that the malware, which Sophos calls Renepo, is designed to infect any Mac OS X drives connected to the infected system and...

Mobile phone security is bad now, but it is only going to get worse, a security firm said Wednesday as it laid out this year's attack timeline to demonstrate the quickening pace of exploits. Finnish anti-virus vendor F-Secure listed 2004's attacks against smartphones, particularly those running the popular Symbian operating system -- Nokia is a one of the phone makers whose devices use the OS -- starting with the spring's Mosquito "trojanized" game and running through this week's similar threat, another Trojan masquerading as a popular cell phone game, Metal Gear Solid. In between, the Cabir worm spread, which first...

ADL slams racist remarks by Likud backbencher Hazan Maariv international The Anti-Defamation League has condemned the " inappropriate and prejudicial remarks" made by Likud MK Yehiel Hazan at the Knesset earlier this week. MK Hazan repeated likened the Palestinians to "worms" and stated that the Palestinians are a nation of "murderers" and "terrorists." (2004-12-15 18:41:47.0)

An Israeli Knesset member from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ruling Likud party has described all Arabs as worms in a parliamentary debate.Yehiel Hazan, parliamentary leader of the biggest lobby group for Jewish colonists illegally settling in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, said on Monday: "The Arabs are worms. You find them everywhere like worms, underground as well as above." Hazan continued: "Until we understand that we're doing business with a nation of assassins and terrorists who don't want us here, there will be no let up. These worms have not stopped attacking Jews for a century."    The Knesset...

A man who either fell or jumped off the roof of his moving Mercedes-Benz in Scottsdale has been identified as an acclaimed chief financial officer for Phoenix whose struggles with a parasite might have caused his behavior Wednesday. Kevin Keogh, 55, died about 3 p.m. after he climbed onto the roof of the car he was driving east on Camelback Road with arms outstretched, similar to actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie “Titanic.” Police haven't determined if the death was suicide or accidental, Scottsdale detective Sam Bailey said. Keogh contracted the illness a couple of years ago while on vacation...

Windows XP users could be excused for feeling a little less safe this week. Security tools maker Finjan Software warned on Wednesday that it found as many as 10 security flaws in the last update to Microsoft's flagship operating system, Windows XP Service Pack 2. In a statement that contained few details, the U.K. company claimed that the vulnerabilities could enable attackers to remotely access a victim's files, remove security measures aimed at Internet threats and run programs without any notification to the user. Windows XP SP2 "suffers because it is still basically the same operating system and has some...