Google’s Orkut Hit by Data Stealing Worm

So just a few days about there was a new MSN Worm - BlackAngel.B, before that the Yahoo! e-mail worm, long before that of course the MySpace worm and a few others not notable enough to mention.

And of course plenty of nasty Trojans.

A new Internet worm capable of stealing bank details and other personal data from users is circulating via Orkut, Google Inc.’s social networking service, a computer security company warned on Monday.

Instant-messaging service provider FaceTime Communications said its software security lab had detected the spread of the electronic virus, the third such threat to disseminate itself via messages posted on Orkut users personal Web pages.

Google’s service, while available globally, is wildly popular among Brazilians which make up the bulk of its users.

The malicious program, dubbed by FaceTime as “MW.Orc,” works its way onto users’ personal computers when they click on infected links on Orkut scrapbook pages. The link is followed by a message in Portuguese that entices the user to click.

It seems this is not the first time Orkut has been hit, this one however goes after personal details of a more valuable nature.

Once the link is activated, a file is uploaded to the PC, according to a description of how the worm works contained in a statement by the Foster City, California-based company.

When infected Orkut users using Microsoft Corp.’s widely used Windows XP operating system to find personal files on their PCs through their “My Computer” icon, that triggers an e-mail back to the creator of MW.Orc creator filled with personal information stored on the PC, FaceTime said.

The earlier attempt seemed to be more of a phishing affair.

The new threat to Orkut follows an earlier worm, Banker-BWD, which was uncovered by Sophos, an anti-virus company.

That malicious software also disseminated itself through Orkut’s scrapbook pages, but automatically transferred the victims to fake Web pages of banks in order to entice the users to enter personal data that can then be stolen by the hackers.

Source:Darknet

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Google Announces limited API support for OpenID 2.0

Google announced it’s support for OpenID 2.0 protocol. So now with your existing Google account you can login and use other sites. I think this move was made after Microsoft announcing that they will give an OpenID for all its Windows Live users. This new log-in offering is not available to all site owners. But you can apply for it using the sign-up form. Zoho, Plaxo and Buxfer are the launch partners for this new API.

Google’s OpenID implementation doesn’t directly give your OpenID identifier to other sites, instead it acts as a middleman, authorizing you through it before it hands it over. Now a wide range of largest web service providers like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, MySpace etc are using OpenID.

Google had announced that it is planning to combine the OAuth and OpenID protocol so that a service can not only request a user’s identity through OpenID, but also “request access to information available via OAuth-enabled APIs such as Google Data APIs as well as standard data formats such as Portable Contacts and OpenSocial REST APIs.”

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Google Funded Satellites to provide High Speed Internet by 2010

Now Google is on a new mission to provide high speed internet access to all even those who are not connected till now in the world. In venture with HSBC and Liberty Global it has come up with a startup named O3b networks which clearly means for Other 3 billion people who still can’t have proper access to the Internet. This will be accomplished with an equipment of 16 satellites which are of low cost in order to provide access that can be afforded mainly for the growing markets and upcoming parts of the world like Africa, Middle East, Asia and Latin America. It will be made available to use by 2010 with service being provided and is a good substitute for global networks which used fiber networks even in case of developed nations.

There will direct connectivity to WiMax 3G supportive devices and towers for areas with no option now. There will be access to Telecom carriers and service providers of respective regions directly and even to the Internet service providers, enabling them to provide broadband based services to all of them.Speed will definitely be relatively close to that of the America and with much better cost effective way for the growing markets. The motive for this mission was idea from a similar kind of Mission accomplished in some part of Africa. The system will support all future expansions and is by one of those who were responsible for introduction of 3G fiber networks in Africa and a member of O3b. All backward areas were kept in mind by Google for this project and will be globally beneficial in all the ways.



This development is interesting and will make many political conversations and collaborations easier where no proper person to person communication exists mainly in case of borders. There are some critical issues needs to be addressed and even its impact. One such is government interventions, regulations, classes and accessibility. 03b is anyhow positive about this mission since it eliminates the distance between people which used to be in the past and often read in the books.

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Send Pictures Easily Using Your Gmail account With iPhoto2Gmail

iPhoto2Gmail is an iPhoto plug-in that will help you to easily send Images using your Gmail account. This plugin works with iPhoto 5, 6, 7 and 08. You dont even need to Install or configure an email application. You can send your original Images or you can also resize the pictures and send them as JPEG’s. This will help you to save your time. iPhoto2Gmail integrates Gmail Contacts. So you can easily select your desired contacts and send them your Images.

The latest version retrieves the contacts using Google’s GData framework. Now you can also cancel in-progress email sending. It works with Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

Download iPhoto2Gmail

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Recover GMail, AOL, Yahoo or Windows Live Passwords

MessenPass is a free password cracking tool that will easily reveal passwords of your AOL, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, MSN or any other instant messenger clients.



Since most messengers (like Google Talk or Yahoo! Messenger) require the same username / password combination to login as the mail account, MessenPass can effectively be used to recover your (or someone else's) Google Account, AOL or Yahoo! Mail password.



And it works like a charm. [I was absolutely shocked to see my GMail password on the screen the moment I ran this 47 kb utility]



MessenPass works only if you have selected the "Remember Password" setting while logging into your messenger program. It detects the Instant Messenger applications installed on your computer, decrypts the passwords they store, and displays all user name/password pairs in a text or Excel file.



This may be a useful but quite dangerous tool as well - it's so small that it can run off your USB drive and requires no installation - imagine while you are on a trip to the pantry for a cup of coffee and anyone can access your login credentials by plugging in the USB drive.



The only workaround is to deselect the "Remember password" while starting your IM client. MessenPass doesn't crack Skype or Hotmail passwords yet.



Download MessenPass [IM Password Recovery Software]

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New Gmail SMS feature delayed for two weeks

An exciting feature for Gmail was announced today, but it turned out to be a false alarm for now. Google announced they will be adding SMS capability to Gmail so you can text people from right from there. Additionally, getting a response from the person is just as simple.

When a someone receives a text message from you (that you sent from Gmail), replies are simply delivered to your Gmail account — this makes it very easy to communicate with people that are offline, but through a familiar interface.

How does this work? Well, when you send a message to someone, it will be sent from one of 1000 phone numbers Google has reserved for this purpose. Gmail will then reserve that phone number for you to communicate with that single person. Each person you contact will be assigned a different phone number from the pool. This works because any one person will probably never need to contact 1000 different people like this.

Once it’s officially launched, the SMS feature will be available in Gmail labs — just like most of the new features they have added recently — including adding your Google calendar to your Gmail account. Just click on the labs icon beside the “settings” link, and go from there.

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23 hidden windows apps

To run any of these apps go to Start > Run and type the executable name:



1) Character Map = charmap.exe (very useful for finding unusual characters)



2) Disk Cleanup = cleanmgr.exe



3) Clipboard Viewer = clipbrd.exe (views contents of Windows clipboard)



4) Dr Watson = drwtsn32.exe (Troubleshooting tool)



5) DirectX diagnosis = dxdiag.exe (Diagnose & test DirectX, video & sound cards)



6) Private character editor = eudcedit.exe (allows creation or modification of characters)



7) IExpress Wizard = iexpress.exe (Create self-extracting / self-installing package)



8 Mcft Synchronization Manager = mobsync.exe (appears to allow synchronization of files on the network for when working offline. Apparently undocumented).



9) Windows Media Player 5.1 = mplay32.exe (Retro version of Media Player, very basic).



10) ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32.exe (something to do with databases)



11) Object Packager = packager.exe (to do with packaging objects for insertion in files, appears to have comprehensive help files).



12) System Monitor = perfmon.exe (very useful, highly configurable tool, tells you everything you ever wanted to know about any aspect of PC performance, for uber-geeks only )



13) Program Manager = progman.exe (Legacy Windows 3.x desktop shell).



14) Remote Access phone book = rasphone.exe (documentation is virtually non-existant).



15) Registry Editor = regedt32.exe [also regedit.exe] (for hacking the Windows Registry).



16) Network shared folder wizard = shrpubw.exe (creates shared folders on network).



17) File siganture verification tool = sigverif.exe



18 Volume Contro = sndvol32.exe (I've included this for those people that lose it from the System Notification area).



19) System Configuration Editor = sysedit.exe (modify System.ini & Win.ini just like in Win98! ).



20) Syskey = syskey.exe (Secures XP Account database - use with care, it's virtually undocumented but it appears to encrypt all passwords, I'm not sure of the full implications).



21) Mcft Telnet Client = telnet.exe



22) Driver Verifier Manager = verifier.exe (seems to be a utility for monitoring the actions of drivers, might be useful for people having driver problems. Undocumented).



23) Windows for Workgroups Chat = winchat.exe (appears to be an old NT utility to allow chat sessions over a LAN, help files available).



Note:- Some of them might not run in Windows XP Home edition

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