Duqu, the 'Son of Stuxnet' Virus said to target Specific Organizations and Assets

There has been some Malware recently discovered that is said to be based on the infamous Stuxnet virus which is considered one of the world's most sophisticated viruses. In a detailed report, Symantec says the malware was discovered in an organization in Europe. Its called Duqu because it creates files with the file name prefix ~DQ.

"Our telemetry shows the threat has been highly targeted toward a limited number of organizations for their specific assets. However, it's possible that other attacks are being conducted against other organizations in a similar manner with currently undetected variants," the report Symantec says.

The original Stuxnet virus delivered a highly specific payload that attacked control systems found in Iranian nuclear processing plants. Duqu is different because it doesn't spread from machine to machine. "It has been specifically targeted at systems with the goal of getting in, compromising them, and then exfiltrating information." Duqu tricks Windows into allowing it to execute by exploiting a stolen digital certificate, taken from a company with headquarters in Taiwan.

Once Duqu has been planted, it starts to communicate with a server based in India. It manages to obtain additional code able to record keystrokes and collect other system information that it then sends back to the control server.

No more Google Buzz

Google launched its first social networking site Google Buzz in February 2010 to try to compete with Facebook and other social media sites. Buzz never really caught on and had its share of problems so now Google is calling it quits. Google Buzz will be shut down in coming weeks so Google can turn its attention to its other social network, Google+.

Google Buzz had its share by privacy and security issues and never had the features that Facebook had. Buzz users won't be able to create new posts after Buzz is offline but they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout.

Google also plans to tweak iGoogle to make way for Google+. Google will remove the iGoogle social features that it added to iGoogle several years ago.

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9.0.3 to fix security holes

Microsoft is making available by way of Windows Update an updated version of its Internet Explorer 9 web browser that incorporates a number of recently released security fixes. Your computer will be updated automatically if you have Automatic Updates turned on. Internet Explorer 9.0.3 resolves a number of privately reported vulnerabilities in IE 6, 7, 8 and 9.

The most severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Microsoft has said, If exploited, the bugs in Internet Explorer would expose the user to drive by download attacks just by merely browsing to a booby trapped site.

Windows 8 Could Use Less Memory Than Windows 7

The upcoming Windows 8 operating system is shooting to minimize a computer's memory usage through efficient design so it can run on hardware originally designed for Windows 7. This will allow you to keep your current Windows 7 hardware if you decide to upgrade.

This memory saving is accomplished by several methods. The first way is by combining memory which allows Windows to identify duplicate memory being used for identical tasks and then retain a single copy. If a program etc needs some freed up memory, Windows provides what's called a private copy. This process can make anywhere from 10s to 100s of megabytes available. Windows 8 will also move some services to a start on demand model saving even more memory. One other thing Microsoft has done is removed 13 different services and has changed a number of others from automatic to manual

These tweaks will also allow for longer battery life for Windows tablets and phones that don't hold much physical RAM. This is necessary because Windows 8 will be running on these devices as well.

Google Chrome May Hit 20% Share By 2012

Google's Chrome Web browser could break the 20% market share by 2012 if it keeps up its current rate of growth. Chrome browser reached 16.2% in September which is up from its 15.5% share in August. Since January, Chrome's browser market share has climbed roughly one percentage point per month. Safari is also on the rise with a 5% increase while Internet Explorer and Firefox have lost some market share. IE fell to 54.4% from 55.3% and Firefox dropped to 22.5% from 23.6%.

Google's market share increase may have come from its advertising Chrome on TV. The ads started airing in May, and the two following months saw Chrome's largest market share increases of the year. Researcher StatCounter estimates Chrome at a 23.6% share and says Chrome will overtake Firefox as the second most popular Web browser by December.

Microsoft security program deleted Google Chrome from Windows PCs

Many Google Chrome users found their favorite browser removed from their Windows computers on Friday after Microsoft deleted the the Chrome web browser. Microsoft said in a statement that the Chrome removals took place due to a mistake on the part of its Microsoft Security Essentials software for Windows.

The software mistakenly identify Chrome as malware and removes it from the computer. Users who try to reinstall Chrome only found out that the software removes the browser again. There has been an update to Microsoft Security Essentials that has been pushed out to the Web and fix this problem.

Facebook Vows to Fix Major Privacy Breach

Facebook has said they will fix a major privacy breach that allowed them to collect members browsing information after they had logged out. Australian blogger Nik Cubrilovic revealed on his blog that Facebook kept its browser cookies active after a user has logged out. He revealed that the information Facebook collected made it possible for them to personally label computer usage information that it collected from PCs and that Facebook merely alters its tracking cookies when you log out, instead of deleting them.

Facebook defended the practice on The Wall Street Journal blog Digits. They said the collection was part of a system to prevent improper logins and that the information was quickly deleted. A Facebook spokesman said "no information we receive when you see a social plug-in is used to target ads." A Facebook engineer said that Facebook uses the data from logged out cookies only to prevent spamming, phishing and other security risks.

To block Facebook from following you, you need to delete all Facebook-related cookies after logging out.

Yahoo News Gets Integrated With Facebook

Yahoo News has now been linked with Facebook to make it possible for users of the two sites to share with their Facebook friends the articles they have read on the Yahoo site.

For the integration features to work, Yahoo News visitors need to be logged into their Facebook accounts. If they are, they'll see a Facebook "facebar" placed horizontally near the top of Yahoo News with the profile photos of friends. Users will be able to see which Yahoo News stories those friends have clicked on, as well as make available their own Yahoo News reading activities to their friends. People's Yahoo News activities will also be reflected back on their Facebook profiles.

To activate, go to Yahoo News and click the Facebook button to log-in. Click "add to timeline" and you'll see friends who have also joined. Click their photos and a drop-down menu will display recently read articles.