Hacker Looking For US Military Documents Finds VMWare Source Code

Members from the hacktivist group “LulzSec” are at it again, as source code from VMWare’s ESX hypervisor technology has been leaked to a website used to anonymously host hacked files. According to a company blog, VMWare has said a “single file” from their ESX source code had been leaked and posted to Pastebin. The company also went on to say the source code is 8-9 years old. Lain Mulholland, director of VMware’s security response center said the source code was publicly posted on Monday and said more code could be posted in the future.

“The fact that the source code may have been publicly shared does not necessarily mean that there is any increased risk to VMWare customers,” Mulholland noted in the company’s blog. “VMWare proactively shares its source code and interfaces with other industry participants to enable the broad virtualization ecosystem today.” VMWare is pointing the finger at LulzSec hacker “Hardcore Charlie” as the culprit of the source code leak. It appears Charlie wasn’t looking for the code specifically, however. In March, Charlie had attacked a Chinese import-export company, the China National Electronics Import-Export Corporation (CEIEC).

During these attacks, Charlie had copied a terabyte of data from the CEIC’s database. According to The Guardian, anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab had engaged in an IRC chat with Charlie, wherein the hacker claimed to have 300 MB of VMWare’s source code. This chain of events suggests that the CEIEC had the source code originally. Other documents have leaked online which show what appear to be internal VMWare documents on CEIEC letterhead. When asked why he was trying to hack into the CEIEC database, Charlie said he was trying to find information about the US involvement in Afghanistan.

According to The Guardian, Charlie claims to not have strong political affiliations, but was concerned the CEIEC had access to internal documents about the US involvement. Charlie told Kaspersky he was able to break into the CEIEC after targeting email hosting firm Sina.com. Once he and his partner, known as YamaTough, stole hundreds of thousands of credentials, they were able to crack specific accounts which they found interesting. Some of these accounts belonged to workers at the CEIEC. With this information, Charlie and Tough were able to steal a terabyte worth of data. Just how serious is a leak of VMWare’s source code? Mulholland may have tried to downplay the seriousness of this attack, but not everyone agrees.

Vice president at Voltage Security Mark Bower said in a statement: “The real pain for the industry in this case is … the intimate knowledge attackers may now possess of possible vulnerabilities in a critical virtualization tool that is the foundation for many enterprise data centers, clouds, and applications,” according to wired.com. In addition to the source code, Charlie and Tough also posted documents detailing US Military transport information and internal reports on business matters. As hackers like Charlie and Tough continue to pummel large corporations and governments with their attacks, security is becoming an ever increasing issue of importance. Source: Michael Harper for RedOrbit.com Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1aajO)  Read More >>

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President Obama's tax rate was 20.5%, lower than his secretary's

The White House says it underscores the argument for his 'Buffett rule' on taxing wealthier people.

Their tax form for 2011 shows that President Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid a 20.5% federal tax rate on $789,674 in adjusted gross income. (Daniel Acker, Bloomberg / April 13, 2012)

By Kathleen Hennessey and Michael A. Memoli, Washington Bureau

April 13, 2012, 4:50 p.m.
WASHINGTON — As President Obama mounts an aggressive campaign on what he calls tax fairness, his own tax burden has fallen to the lowest of his time in the White House, lower than many who make far less — including his secretary.

The president and first lady reported a joint adjusted gross income of $789,674 last year and paid $162,074 in federal taxes, or about 20.5%, according to the tax return released Friday by the White House. That income keeps the Obamas in the top 1% of taxpayers.

The Obamas' overall tax rate is slightly lower than the average for people in the top tier — largely because he made significant donations to charity. Data compiled by the Tax Policy Center show the average income tax rate for those making more than $532,000 is 24%. Obama's rate was closer to the average for household earning more than $210,000 — 19.2%

The Obamas' overall rate was still much higher than that of most middle-income Americans. Households making between $60,000 and $100,000 paid on average 8% of their income in federal incomes taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center. Polling consistently has shown that most people think they pay much more in income taxes than they do, in part because people focus on their marginal tax rate — the tax they pay on the last dollar they earn — not their average tax rate.

Obama's rate is also notably higher than the one paid by his presumed Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire investor who paid about 14% of his income in federal income taxes last year, according to a summary of his tax return that he disclosed earlier this year.

But the Obamas' tax bite was slightly lower than the rate paid by the president's secretary, Anita Decker Breckenridge, who makes a $95,000 salary, the White House confirmed on Friday.

The White House would not disclose what Breckenridge paid, saying only that it was a "slightly higher rate" than her boss'. That "is exactly why we need to reform our tax code and ask the wealthiest to pay their fair share," said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage.

The annual disclosure of the Obamas' taxes was punctuation to the president's call for the so-called Buffett rule, legislation named after Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who famously complained that he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary. The Senate is due to vote next week on the rule, which would require those making more than $1 million to pay at least 30% in federal taxes. It is all but certain to be blocked by Senate Republicans.

The rule, however, would not have affected Obama's taxes had it been in place last year, because his income in 2011 fell below $1 million. The Obamas earned more in the previous few years —as much as $5.5 million in 2009 — because of sales of Obama's books.

Spokesman Jay Carney said that the president believed he should pay more in taxes and noted that he would pay more under other proposed policies, notably the administration's proposal to endPresident George W. Bush's tax cuts for couples earning more than $250,000. In 2003, before the second Bush tax cut, Obama paid about the same federal income tax rate as he did this year, even though his income this year was about three times as high.

The Obamas donated $172,130 to charities in 2011, or about 22% of their adjusted gross income. The largest beneficiary was the Fisher House Foundation, which received $117,130 — the after-tax proceeds of the president's children's book, "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters."

The Obama campaign used the returns to push Romney to disclose more of his financial records.

"Gov. Romney has yet to provide tax returns from the period in which he made hundreds of millions as a corporate buyout specialist, or as governor of Massachusetts, the experience he says qualifies him to be president," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement. "Mitt Romney's defiance of decades of precedent set by presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle, including his own father, begs the question — what does he have to hide?"

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul described the Obama campaign complaint as a "sideshow" and a distraction from the issues important to voters. Romney has released his 2010 return and an estimate of 2011 taxes, she said. Romney has filed for an extension of the deadline for his 2011 tax return, as he has done in past years, and will release it "sometime in the next six months and prior to the election," she said. "He will release his full 2011 return when it is filed."

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, reported an adjusted gross income of $379,035, and they paid $87,900 in federal tax. The Bidens' tax burden, at 23%, was higher than the Obamas'. They donated $5,540 to charity.

kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

michael.memoli@latimes.com

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

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Tell Facebook: Withdraw Your Support For CISPA

What is Facebook thinking?  They've signed on in support of CISPA -- the new bill that would obliterate online privacy, give the military crazy new abilities to spy on the Internet, and potentially let ISPs block sites and cut off users accused of piracy.
First, please help push this viral on Facebook by using this link -- you'll be sharing the campaign, along with the photo of Mark Zuckerberg at right:

If you're already on Facebook, click here to share with your friends.

Then please sign add your name to our open letter.

---

The Center for Democracy and Technology says, "CISPA has a very broad, almost unlimited definition of the information that can be shared with government agencies and it supersedes all other privacy laws."
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

An ISP could even interpret this bill as allowing them to block accounts believed to be infringing, block access to websites like The Pirate Bay believed to carry infringing content, or take other measures provided they claimed it was motivated by cybersecurity concerns.

Internet users were able to push GoDaddy to withdraw its support of SOPA.  Now it's time to make sure Facebook knows we're furious.
First, please help push this viral on Facebook by using this link -- you'll be sharing the campaign, along with the photo of Mark Zuckerberg at right:

If you're already on Facebook, click here to share with your friends.

Then please sign on at right to add your name to our petition:

PETITION TO MARK ZUCKERBERG: What is Facebook thinking?  You're encouraging Congress to obliterate online privacy -- Even as your users express increasing concern about the privacy of their accounts on your site.  Please withdraw your support for CISPA right away.

Please add your name at right to sign our open letter to Facebook.

Here's CDT's resource page on CISPA.  Here's the EFF on IP implications.

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eBay resellers cash in on iPad shortages

Average selling price for third-gen 16GB Wi-Fi iPad is $92 above list, says auctioneer

Computerworld - eBay resellers are asking an average price of $591 for the base model of Apple's new iPad, or nearly $100 above list, the online auction site said today.

Although Apple charges $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi new iPad, the wait time for new orders now stretches two to three weeks.

eBay sellers are taking advantage of the tight supply by trying to flip their pre-ordered 16GB Wi-Fi tablets at an average price of $591.

"Selling my iPad 3 pre-order," said a seller identified as "resqbobby" in an eBay Marketplace listing. "Auction is for one white iPad 16GB WiFi. Don't wait in line for hours for a sold out product, get yours here now!"

Resqubobby listed the incoming iPad for $1,250, more than double the average cited by eBay.

Others used the same reasoning to pitch their pre-ordered iPads.

"The new iPad 3rd generation are already being back ordered, why wait to get the best? No lines, no rain, buy from us!" read the description of a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad with an asking price of $959.99 Canadian, or $966.25 U.S.

People who don't want to wait weeks before seeing their iPads wend their way to them have options, including Apple's retail stores, or other outlets, including Best Buy and Radio Shack in the U.S. The new iPads are to go on sale at retail on Friday, March 16.

U.S. mobile carriers AT&T and Verizon, which will sell the higher-priced iPads that support 3G and LTE data networks, are only taking customers' email addresses for later notification when the tablet is available.

Another alternative is the iPad 2, which Apple has retained in its sales line-up. Last week, Apple dropped the price by $100 for the two remaining models, the 16GB Wi-Fi and the 16GB 3G. The iPad 2 ships in one to three business days, according to Apple's online store.
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IPhone Failing to Gain Market Share in China as Samsung Lead Triples

Apple Inc. (AAPL) got a second partner in China to sell the iPhone in the world’s biggest mobile-phone market. The deal may be too late to catch Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), with a market share that’s three times larger and growing.

China Telecom Corp. (728) began selling the iPhone last week as Apple tries to build on its 7.5 percent share of the country’s smartphone sales. Samsung controlled 24.3 percent of the market for phones that can play videos and games, according to Gartner Inc., using a strategy of allying with all three of the nation’s third-generation networks since such services started in 2009.

ucceeding in China is important for Apple as shipments of smartphones in the country are projected to jump 52 percent this year to 137 million units, overtaking the U.S. for the first time as the world’s biggest market. Unlike Samsung’s strategy of partnering with all carriers, Apple has limited its own success by not making a device compatible with the nation’s biggest operator, China Mobile Ltd. (941)

“I don’t expect Apple to replace Samsung any time soon,” Gartner analyst Sandy Shen said in an interview. “China Telecom is the nation’s smallest carrier, so the extent to which they can help Apple is quite limited.”

The 16.8 percentage-point gap in China between Cupertino, California-based Apple and Samsung almost doubled from the third quarter. While Samsung is No. 1 and Apple No. 5 in China, the global story is different: Worldwide, Apple passed its Suwon, South Korea-based competitor to become the biggest smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter, according to Gartner.
China Mobile

Apple’s partnerships with China’s second- and third-largest carriers give it access to about 34 percent of the nation’s 988 million mobile users, while Samsung targeted the whole market. iPhones aren’t sold to China Mobile’s 655 million subscribers, a number almost equal to the combined population of the U.S., Brazil and Mexico.

“Having access to more subscribers gives vendors like Samsung an advantage,” said Teck Zhung Wong, a Beijing-based analyst with IDC China, who forecast the 52 percent jump in smartphone sales this year. “If Apple is going to continue to grow in the Chinese market, it has to consider very seriously a handset with China Mobile.”

China Telecom had a total of 129.3 million wireless users at the end of January, including 38.7 million 3G subscribers.

Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007 in the U.S. exclusively with AT&T Inc. (T) and added a second carrier partner last year in Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ)
Pelting Eggs

Apple chose not to make a phone with China Mobile because the operator had a unique 3G standard called TD-SCDMA, even after the Chinese company’s Chairman Wang Jianzhou met with the then Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs in early 2010. Wang told the company’s annual meeting in May that he didn’t expect Apple to introduce an iPhone until the carrier rolled out the fourth- generation TD-LTE network by end of this year.

China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (762) was the nation’s first carrier to offer the iPhone with a service contract in October 2009.

Even though Apple trailed Samsung, Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp (000063) in China’s smartphone market, people still crave an iPhone.

Apple’s oldest store in China was pelted with eggs from a crowd of customers on Jan. 13 when the shop, in Beijing’s Sanlitun district, failed to open on the first day of sales for the iPhone 4S. After police sealed off the area to remove more than 500 people, Apple said it would suspend sales of iPhones at all its stores.
‘Didn’t Bet High Enough’

The maker of iMac computers and iPad tablets underestimated the “staggering” demand for the iPhone 4S when it started sales in China in January, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said. “We thought we were betting bold,” Cook said Jan. 24. “We didn’t bet high enough.”

The iPhone 4S has been “an incredible hit” with customers around the world, Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said in an e-mail. Apple “can’t wait to get it into the hands of even more customers in China,” Wu said, declining to comment further on the company’s handset strategy in China.

Samsung’s approach to China is “the same” as other markets, Juha Park, senior vice president of product strategy, said in an interview in Barcelona.

“We make product innovation and make our brand very desired in the market,” Park said. “That’s what we do to become a major player. We have been doing quite strong growth in the China market.”
Unlocked IPhone

Even without an agreement with Apple or a device that’s compatible with its high-speed 3G network, China Mobile still has 15 million iPhone users, spokeswoman Rainie Lei said. Those China Mobile users buy unlocked devices and surf the web at slower 2G speeds, or else connect to Wi-Fi hotspots for a faster connection.

China Telecom projects that the iPhone will “significantly enhance its long term sustainable growth and value creation despite the short term pressure on its profitability,” spokeswoman Lisa Lai said in an e-mail.

“For China Telecom, its 4S launch comes late and the low- hanging fruit may already be exhausted,” said Lisa Soh, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd.

The egg pelting also resulted in Apple losing one advantage it had over Samsung -- its own retail stores stopped selling iPhones. Apple said at the time the move was “for the time being.” Apple’s Wu said the phones remain available through Apple’s online store in China, and declined to provide an update on when the shops would resume sales of the devices.

That leaves Samsung free to further widen its gap.

“It’s just one country, but it’s such a big market and its portion in the global market is huge, so Samsung is trying to act fast to capture the market,” said Kim Young Chan, a Seoul- based analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp. “Dealing with different network standards will give them a pretty valuable competitive edge.”
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Anonymous Got Hacked While Hacking

Anonymous might be the pre-eminent group of hacktivists on the internet, but they aren’t immune to a little hacking themselves.

Security software company Symantec discovered that a piece of Anonymous-recommended DDoS software called Slowloris contained an insidious Trojan that was stealing financial info from people using it.

Anonymous recommended the software during the fallout from the Jan. 20 raid on Megaupload, and the beginning of one of the biggest DDoS sprees in the group’s history, hitting The Universal Music Group, The Department of Justice, the FBI, the RIAA and more.

DDoS software is easy to use without much computer knowledge., meaning that an untold number of people could have opened up their info to the hackers. Anonymous’ wide open way of crowdsourcing DDoS attacks might be an extraordinarily effective way of remaining moving targets and blending into the internet, but it might be getting people into games a little tougher than they’re ready to play.

Writes Symantec:

Not only will supporters be breaking the law by participating in DoS attacks on Anonymous hacktivism targets, but may also be at risk of having their online banking and email credentials stolen. The joining of malicious financial and identity fraud malware, Anonymous hacktivism objectives, and Anonymous supporter deception is a dangerous development for the online world.

Egg on your face comes off with a little soap and warm water.
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