UK VPN Service Will Disclose Users’ Details

British VPN service called Hide my Ass confirmed that it will hand over the details of its subscribers to the FBI if they show up with a court order.

This may be something new for those believing that using the VPN service would ensure them certain a degree of anonymity, even if they were carrying out cyber attacks on others. The news emerged after Hide my Ass began receiving letters from the users that said its services were used by large hacker groups like Lulzsec. On its official page, the company told that when Lulzsec IRC chat logs had been released, Hide my Ass turned out to be in the list of the VPN services they used for cyber attacks.

However, the service did nothing about this fact, because there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the wrongdoing, as well as to identify which particular accounts were used. But later the organization got a court order asking for data regarding to one of the accounts allegedly involved in the leak. The company’s terms of service and privacy policy state that their services are not to be used for unauthorized activity. Consequently, being a legitimate firm, Hide my Ass will cooperate with the law enforcement provided they receive a court order.

The company clarified that its VPN service, as well as VPN services in general, are not designed to be used for any kind of unauthorized activity. That’s why it is naive for hacktivists to believe that by paying a small subscription fee to a company providing VPN service they may feel free to violate the law without fearing consequences. Meanwhile, Hide my Ass pointed out that it’s true not only for them, but even hardcore privacy services, advertising their service as the one that would never let identify you, will most likely to have their network tracked and tapped by the police.

Hide my Ass was founded back in 2005 as a way to bypass filtering of the Internet, and it still believes that the web shouldn’t be filtered. In case the FBI shows up with a court order, the company will only provide them with the logging times that users connect and disconnect from the VPN network. Although the service doesn’t monitor the traffic once it is running, it is still possible to locate abusive users.

Hide my Ass added that it is a company residing in the United Kingdom, and therefore it will only obey British laws. So, if any other government wants log details, it will have to prove the subscribers violated British laws, not its own.

Read More >>

Read More

Download Windows 8

Windows 8 Developer Preview

Developer Preview particularly interesting, because in the package, Microsoft has placed development tools that let you program the apps to the new Metro-interface.but its only important if you are developers.there is still a long way to go before we see the finish product.a good idea is to install Windows 8 on a separate hard drive or partition if you have important stuff on your PC
Download Here >>

Read More

Planned 4G Network Draws Fire From House Science Panel

A multibillion dollar proposal to create a 4G wireless broadband network in the United States could interfere with several scientific services that use the Global Positional System (GPS), including forecasting the weather, monitoring climate change, and tracking volcanic activity, U.S. federal officials told a Congressional panel yesterday. Their concerns are the latest in a crescendo of objections raised against the proposal by federal agencies and providers of GPS-based services.

LightSquared, a company based in Reston, Virginia, has already spent over $4 billion to set up the network, which would provide improved cell phone and Internet connectivity across the country. The network would be supported by LightSquared's geostationary satellites and some 40,000 ground transmitters operating in a frequency band adjacent to the band used by GPS, a satellite-based navigation system used the world over.

That plan is awaiting a final green light from the Federal Communications Commission. In the meantime, however, it has run into considerable opposition from the government and the private sector. The Federal Aviation Administration has pointed out that the LightSquared network will intrude upon its Next Generation Air Transportation System, impinging on the FAA's efforts to make flying safer. Commercial providers of GPS services have raised concerns that LightSquared's transmitters will cause problems for millions of GPS devices used in everything from car-navigation systems to fishing boats. These concerns have been validated by tests conducted earlier this year by a technical working group that included representatives from LightSquared and the GPS industry.

At a hearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, officials from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) expressed concerns about LightSquared's impact on federal science activities. "NASA relies on GPS technology to monitor and improve our understanding of earth science, including climate change and solid Earth hazards, such as earthquakes and volcanic activity," Victor Sparrow, director of NASA's Spectrum Policy and Planning Division, told the committee. David Applegate, USGS associate director for natural hazards, said LightSquared's proposal would jeopardize the operations of several "high-precision GPS stations" that are used for "earthquake monitoring for at-risk urban areas in southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Pacific Northwest."

The results of tests by the technical working group, submitted this summer to the Federal Communications Commission, found that 31 out of 33 high precision GPS receivers were significantly affected by LightSquared's signal. In response, LightSquared has proposed to operate its transmitters in a frequency band farther away from the GPS spectrum, a step it says will correct the problem. In addition, it has offered to share with the owners the cost of upgrading any GPS receivers still affected by LightSquared's signal.

Federal officials testifying yesterday were not convinced that LightSquared's modified plan would address their concerns. Lawmakers on the panel seemed equally skeptical. "Unfortunately, no testing has been done on this modified plan," remarked the committee's chairman, Representative Ralph Hall (R-TX). "Additional testing should be required before the FCC allows LightSquared to begin commercial service," he added.

The ranking Democrat on the panel, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), hoped that a compromise would be worked out between GPS users and LightSquared. The question before the FCC was "whether GPS can thrive side-by-side with a ground-based broadband network," she said. "I sincerely hope that they can coexist."
Read More >>

Read More

Windows 8 Boot Time Will Wow, Microsoft Says

Tired of being cast as the laggard in the computer boot time contest, Microsoft says that its forthcoming Windows 8 operating system will start quickly.

In a post to the Building Windows 8 blog, Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows division, acknowledged the importance of boot time. "[N]o feature gets talked about and measured more," he wrote, which is surprising considering that boot time is only loosely related to the performance and utility of the operating system.

It ought to be possible to ignore boot time, to turn on one's computer and go get a cup of coffee while the necessary files are loaded into memory. But the real world doesn't work that way. Waiting for a computer to boot engenders the same frustration as waiting for the driver in the car in front of you to recognize that the light has turned green. A few seconds can feel like an eternity.

Microsoft's competitors haven't wasted any time hammering that point home. What's the first feature Google mentions about its Chromebooks? "Chromebooks boot in 8 seconds and resume instantly." For those running Windows XP, with boot times measured in minutes, that's a major selling point.

The mobile workforce is one of the fastest growing threats to security.
Discover 7 tips to combat this threat.

Windows 7 has narrowed the boot time gap substantially, thanks to techniques like parallel driver initialization, but Microsoft wants the process to be faster still. A video demonstration shows Windows 8 booting in ... 8 seconds.

In the blog post, Gabe Aul, a Windows director of program management, characterizes Windows 8's fast startup mode as "downright amazing."

Part of the speed improvement can be attributed to the fact that the Windows 8 demo laptop uses a solid-state drive, or SSD. That's what you want if you're after rapid boot times. That's what Google uses in its Chromebooks. An SSD-equipped MacBook Pro running Mac OS X Lion clocks in at a few seconds more, but some users report sub-10 second boot times.

Yet Windows 8 isn't simply relying on fast storage hardware. Microsoft has also been working on software improvements to make Windows computers boot more quickly. Aul, for example, describes how Windows 8's fast startup mode combines the traditional cold boot process with hibernate mode. In addition, the company has been working with manufacturers to promote the use of Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) hardware, which is faster than traditional BIOS.

The change has been a long time coming, and for Windows users, it probably can't come fast enough. Expect further details to be revealed at Microsoft's BUILD conference next week.
Read More >>

Read More

Google Urges Iranian Users to Secure Accounts After Hack

In the wake of a digital certificate hack that potentially allowed hackers to gain access to the Google accounts of 300,000 Iranians, the search giant this week urged those users to take certain steps to secure their data.

"While Google's internal systems were not compromised, we are directly contacting possibly affected users and providing similar information below because our top priority is to protect the privacy and security of our users," Eric Grosse, vice president of security engineering at Google, wrote in a blog post.

First of all, Google urged users in Iran to change their passwords. Second, the company suggested people verify their account recovery options: are the secondary email addresses, phone numbers, and other information provided still accurate? Third, Google urged users to double check the Web sites and apps that have access to their accounts, and revoke any that are unfamiliar. Gmail users were also asked to check settings for suspicious forwarding addresses or delegated accounts.

Finally, Google told users not to click through to Web sites if a warning appears before they load.

At issue is Netherlands-based DigiNotar, which issues certificates that validate Web sites as legitimate. It recently disclosed that it had been hacked, and an investigation into the effect of the intrusion found that, among other things, the hack possibly compromised the Google accounts of more than 300,000 Iranians.

What this means is that when users in Iran and elsewhere navigated to certain Web sites, they might actually be visiting spoofed sites that stole personal information when users logged in. Browser makers like Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla quickly moved to block DigiNotar digital certificates; Apple took some heat for not doing the same on Safari. Adobe is the latest company to also block certificates from DigitNotar.

A hacker known as Comodo Hacker, who got his name thanks to a March hack of Comodo, has also taken credit for the DigiNotar job. He also claims to have accessed GlobalSign, prompting the company to temporarily stop issuing digital certificates.
Read More >>

Read More

Music Industry Will Pursue YouTube Users

After a Britney Spears concert that took place at the MGM Grand in L.A. was uploaded to the Internet for everyone to see by some YouTube user, the music industry was doing its best to find more information on the user’s identity by starting a criminal investigation.

The Britney Spears concert was uploaded in high-quality YouTube back in July. After the incident, the Recording Industry Association of America requested a subpoena against YouTube. In fact, this was the first time when music industry targeted the online video service.

Mark McDevitt, Vice President of Online Piracy for the music group, made a declaration to the court, where he requested a subpoena ordering video website to offer information on the identity of the unknown user, responsible for uploading the concert, like his e-mail address, IP address, and whatever else the site could know that might lead to his identification.

Meanwhile, the RIAA’s representatives rejected to provide any comments over the issue when contacted by industry observers. Despite the fact that the original video was removed from the streaming website, its copies could still be found on YouTube and everywhere else on the Internet. At the same time, online service may not be held responsible for copyright violation as the filling is for a DMCA subpoena.

The media reported that according to the court’s record of proceedings, the lawsuit was filed back in July, but the case was closed after just 7 days. The lawyers confirmed that this may only mean that the court granted a subpoena. In response, YouTube might have agreed on its terms by offering the required information.

Earlier in 2011, Box.net’s users were pursued by the Recording Industry Association of America after the latter filed a similar declaration at a federal court in California. That time, the suspected pirates were supposedly storing pre-released songs on their accounts. Like YouTube, Box.net agreed on the terms if the subpoena was to be granted by the court, saying that it took the confidentiality of its users’ information very seriously, but like any other business, the company was legally demanded to comply with court orders. Thus far, no criminal suits were launched as a result of hunting down those suspected copyright violators. We’ll what will happen to the YouTube user if any is found.
Read More >>

Read More