The Zeus Botnet is under Microsoft Attack

Microsoft has been targeting botnets for some time now, and their latest venture is against the Zeus Botnet. If you don’t know what a botnet is, it is a system of computers or servers that deliver malware to the public. The key, however, is that the computers or servers are highjacked and unknowingly distribute spam and malware to other computers via the Internet. In highjacking, the computer continues to operate in its normal mode, but it becomes a distributer of programs or spam. The owner may not even be aware of this occurring.
Operation b71

The Zeus botnet is just another of the botnets that Microsoft has been pursuing, offering assistance to various law enforcement organizations. In operation b71, the focus is on botnets using Zeus, SpyEye and Ice-IX variants of the Zeus family of malware. It is estimated that the Zeus malware is responsible for nearly half a billion dollars in damages. The focus is not to bring down the botnet, instead it is to boomerang the malware back to the cybercrime organization. In effect, the idea is to cause long-term damage to the cybercriminal organization that relies on these botnets for illicit gain.

Zeus Botnet

What the Zeus Botnet Does

At the heart of the Zeus malware a program called keylogging, is instituted. This program records a person’s every computer keystroke to monitor online activity and gain access to usernames and passwords in order to steal victims’ identities, withdraw money from their bank accounts and make online purchases. Once a computer is infected with Zeus, the malware automatically starts the keylogging. So when a person types in the name of a financial or e-commerce institution, that information is forwarded back to the cybercriminal and they use it to gain access to people’s online accounts from that point forward.

Zeus Botnet In Context

To make matters worse, according to a legal complaint filed by Microsoft against the Zeus botnet, this action is more dangerous because the information is sold in the criminal underground as a crime ware kit. This allows criminals to set up their own command and control servers and create their own individual Zeus botnets. These crime ware kits sell for anywhere between $700 to $15,000, depending on the version and features of the kit. The investigation is ongoing with more details to follow.

Source: Microsoft

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Microsoft Connected Home Videos

If you believe companies like Microsoft or Apple, the so called connected home will be the next big thing when it comes to teching-up your living space. Microsoft’s vision puts several Microsoft and Microsoft-partner products on center stage, including the company’s Xbox system with Kinect, Windows Phone and Windows Server.

The first video is a quick walk through Microsoft’s Connected Home in Munich, Germany. This presentation room uses technology that is available today, including Windows 7, Windows Phone or the Xbox 360 with Kinect.

You will see how phone apps control different elements of the room, like the room’s lighting for instance or temperature. There is also a lot of interconnectivity going on, like controlling the Xbox interface with a Windows Phone, or using a Windows 7 Tablet PC to send videos to multiple screens in the home.

Microsoft put a lot of technology into that room to make life easier and more comfortable at the same time. With these technologies becoming more mainstream, prices will go down as well, which will make those solutions more affordable for a larger audience.

The second video looks at the Microsoft Home. This is the vision that Microsoft has of the home of the future. The Home is located on the Redmond campus and only accessible by invitation.

It demonstrates how a home could look like in five, ten or even fifteen years from today on. This for instance includes a watch that is acting has a health reading device that you can place on a specially prepared tablet to transfer the readings to an app that is displaying charts and other information about your health then.

One of the impressive technologies in the house is a program that can detect items and elements on screen when watching videos for instance. This includes shop signs, but also items that people carry around with them like a backpack for instance.

How would you envision the connected home of the future?

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Meet Fu Chunli, The Lucky Winner Of Apple’s 25 Billionth App Download Competition And A $10,000 iTunes Gift Card

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When the iOS App Store was first launched in 2008, not even Apple themselves could have predicted the store’s meteoric rise to become the undisputed heavy-weight champion of the app distribution world. At the beginning of 2011 Apple launched a competition, offering a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the lucky App Store user who downloaded the 10 billionth app from the store. The Cupertino company has since repeated that offering by giving away a gift card of the same value to whoever downloaded the twenty-fifth billionth app.

That competition has been and gone, with the lucky winner being announced as Fu Chunli, a Chinese citizen from the city of Qingdao in the Shandong Province of Eastern China. The contest was open to App Store users from all over the world, but Chunli managed to beat all of the competition by downloading a free copy of the popular Where’s My Water? app. What makes the story even more compelling is that when downloading the app; she actually had no idea about Apple’s competition and was still at the stage of getting used to using the App Store’s interface.

As a competition winner, Apple have presented Fu Chunli with an iTunes gift card worth a whopping $10,000, allowing her to download apps, music, movies and TV programs from across Apple’s range of offered content. To celebrate the victory, Apple invited her to attend a special event at the Beijing Apple Store to collect her prize, view the company’s in-store products and pose for the obligatory press pictures. Apple could have simply posted the gift card to her or credited the amount to her Apple ID but in typical Apple fashion they chose to offer the winner a warm reception and gain some positive exposure in the process which will no doubt put them in good light in one of the world’s emerging markets.

The local media in Qingdao now refer to Fu Chunli as the ‘Apple Girl’, but the story could have been so different considering that she actually believed the original call from Apple was nothing more than a hoax. Even the congratulatory calls from friends and family members wasn’t enough to convince her the competition was genuine, and it wasn’t until she received an email from Apple Inc. then the news eventually began to sink in. The iPhone was responsible for downloading the 25 billionth app is Chunli’s first Apple product, but we are pretty sure it won’t be her last.

(via M.I.C Gadget)

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Get A True And Accurate Visual Representation Of Your iPhone Signal Strength Using Bars For iOS

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The iPhone is a bit of an all rounder, that it handles its core purpose extremely well, while managing to carry out a whole host of other tasks. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its fair share of issues.

In the past we have seen Apple push out point releases of their iOS operating system in order to fix slight issues such as battery life, Wi-Fi connectivity problems and also signal issues. Back in July of 2010, Apple released iOS 4.0.1, with the only change mentioned being an improvement to the algorithm used to display the signal bars on the device which was welcomed with fury over the so-called antennagate scandal.

The company announced that the issues that some users were experiencing with the drop of signals was largely exaggerated due to the fact that the calculations used to display the signal strength in iOS 4.0 was erroneous, leading users to see a larger drop in visual indication than what was actually happening.

The signal bars issue is something that has pretty much been put to bed over the last twelve months, but for those who wish to have an accurate visualization of just what is happening with network strength, then iOS developer Paul Griffin has released a little side project he has had lying around for quite some time called Bars. The purpose of the Bars tweak is to give a better, and more accurate understanding of the iPhone signal strength by using stepped indicators that accurately portray what is happening. Signals are still represented by the familiar five vertical bars in the top left hand corner of the device, but Bars make a slight adjustment by making the last bar full or half depending on the strength. As an example, if a particular iPhone had 3.5 bars of real world signal, the last vertical bar would be displayed as a half bar to reflect that.

Bars is free of charge tweak, available to download from the BigBoss repository and requires iOS 5.0 or higher.

Of course, you will need to jailbreak your device to install this tweak. For jailbreaking the latest iOS 5.1 (tethered), follow the instructions posted here to jailbreak using Redsn0w, or here for Sn0wbreeze. For jailbreaking iPhone 4S and iPad 2, you can simply follow our step by step tutorial posted here to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 using Absinthe on Windows or Mac. Those of you with an iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1, and iPod touches can use Redsn0w or Sn0wbreeze to untether jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1.

Be sure to check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

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HoverBar For iPad [REVIEW]

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If you are the type of person who repeatedly purchase Apple products, specifically the iPad 2 and the new iPad, then the chances are you recognize quality when you see it. Regardless of what public opinion may be about Apple, it is extremely difficult to argue against the quality of their products, with each one offering the build you would expect from a premium priced consumer gadget. Products such as the iPad and iPhone are built to offer extensive functionality, but also stand the test of time which is highly evident when you consider the fact that the iPhone 3GS and original iPad still perform better than a lot of newly released competing devices.

So if you own an iPad 2, or even the new iPad, what is the next step? The iDevice accessory market is a rapidly expanding industry, with peripherals and add-ons being thrown at the consumers left, right and center. Products such as cases, stands, screen protectors, docks and cables are available from a multitude of suppliers; catering to all price bands ranging from the budget-end, all the way up to super-premium, and everything in between. One such provider of accessories are Twelve South, who create unique and innovative accessories exclusively for Apple products. One such accessory that has been gaining serious traction on the world wide web is the HoverBar, designed for the iPad 2 but as my tests show that it does also work on Apple’s latest Retina-toting iPad. The HoverBar is essentially a sturdy, adjustable arm that can pretty much clamp to anything up to one inch in thickness and hold the iPad in place for secure viewing.

One of the major benefits of such a product is that it can make itself perfectly at home clamped to the ‘L’ stand of an iMac, allowing the iPad to be used as a secondary touch-screen whilst working. Perfect for flicking through iBooks with a reference manual, playing a movie or watching some television whilst working. That isn’t the only use, and the fact that the attached clamp can grip pretty much anything that is one inch thick or less means that the HoverBar can provide some iPad viewing goodness in a wide range of situations. The official Twelve South page shows that the HoverBar can be attached to a standard work desk and in the kitchen to flick through your favorite recipes but it could pretty much be used in any situation you can think of as long as it stays within the product’s technical constraints.

Upon delivery, the HoverBar jumps right out at you as a premium product. The product comes delivered in a custom made, sturdy box that is fitted out with shaped black and red foam to protect the device. Each component which makes up the final bar has its own home in the box, just waiting to spring into life. The box itself contains the adjustable arm, the clamp, the actual iPad holder, an Allen key to tighten the clamp as well as four cable clips to attach a USB cable along the arm itself. The packaging is very ‘Apple-esque’ with no space being waste, every inch used for purpose.

So everything sounds great. It looks good, is packaged well and feels like a quality product, but is it? Well the simple answer is yes, yes it is. The attached instructions allow the HoverBar to be setup in less than five minutes, with video tutorials being available if required. I have purchased previous products of similar nature that come with warnings such as "Don’t suspend your device higher than you are willing to keep it from falling" which is something you really don’t want to read on a product whose prime purpose is to suspend your device. Fortunately, Twelve South don’t feel the need to offer such warnings with the HoverBar, and after feeling the metallic quality of the adjustable arm you can see why. The clamp that provides the main support is like something you would find in an engineer’s workshop, but still manages to look elegant and fits in with the design of Apple products.

The one issue that I did have with the HoverBar was actually adjusting the arm to give me the perfect angle when attached to the iMac. Every time I attempted to adjust it, I seemed to only succeed in unscrewing the arm from the clamp. The setup of the product took me less than two minutes, achieving the right angle for my iPad took about ten minutes. I entirely concede however, that the angle issue could be entirely down to my own incompetence, so let’s not dwell too much on that. One thing to note is that the official site just say that the HoverBar is designed for use with the iPad 2. All of my tests of the product, and the images shown, were carried out with the new Retina-ready iPad which seems to fit in the holder without any issue whatsoever.

At $79.99, the HoverBar may seem expensive to some, but when you consider the longevity of the product, how well it is actually manufactured and packaged and the fact that it will more than likely become as important in your gadget loving world as the iPad itself, it doesn’t seem like such a high price to pay. HoverBar is available directly from Twelve South with free shipping to the United States and flat rates to a host of additional countries.

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New iPad ‘Overheating’ Claims Exaggerated, New Tests Proves It To Be On Par With Other Tablets On The Market

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Although the first ten days of the new iPad have been relatively successful – particularly regarding initial sales – it hasn’t passed without its usual dose of hitches and gripes.

Although the weak Wi-Fi situation remains, recent tests by a number of tech outlets appear to confirm that concerns regarding overheating appear somewhat exaggerated. While the new iPad is indeed a little warmer than its predecessor, it doesn’t heat up enough to cause any lasting damage or – more importantly – any risk of injury.

PCWorld magazine tested temperatures of a variety of different tablets, with the results suggesting the hysteria about overheating in the new iPad needn’t be dwelled on. The tests were carried out using infrared thermometers, and the third-generation iPad reached temperatures of between 2 and 7 degrees Fahrenheit (less than 4 degrees Celsius) hotter than the iPad 2.

It does seem as though the tech world has become engrossed in comparing the iPad 2 and the new iPad, and forgotten that there are of course other tablets on the market. It makes sense – since no tablet from competing vendors has come close to Apple’s offering. However, devices such as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime and Samsung Galaxy 10.1 were found to be of around the same temperature bracket of the new iPad, confirming that there isn’t anything to worry about.

The news will certainly bring a sigh of relief among the millions of early adopters – many of which queued for hours on end to get their hands on the device. The site also noted that although temperatures rose during charging, playing a computationally intensive game for an hour while plugged into a power adapter, the highest reading they could capture was 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius), within 2 degrees of the Galaxy tablet.

With the overheating fallacy now dealt with, one suspects attentions will turn to the weak Wi-Fi complaints of many users. Again, the concerns are mainly drawn from users comparing the new iPad with the iPad 2, but surely – especially given the fact that the 3rd-gen offering is 4G compliant – users have every right to expect Wi-Fi connectivity to be as efficient as they’re used to – if not better.

We hope – as was the case with similar complaints when the initial iPad released in 2010 – that Apple will rectify the issue with a future software update.

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Facebook Messenger For Windows Released – Download Now!

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Personally speaking, I am not a big Facebook fan, but there are millions upon millions of people all over the globe who can’t go a day without logging into the world’s largest social network and checking out what kind of sandwich their old school friend had for lunch, or poking their best friend in an act of online bullying. Although already wildly popular, the whole Facebook experience may be a distinctly better one for a large portion of users if they didn’t need to be constantly signed into the web service with a browser running all the time.

In a technology driven world that is being overrun by all kinds of apps on various platforms, it seems that the Facebook team has cottoned on to the fact that user engagement might increase if they could use some of the more core Facebook services from within a dedicated desktop client. With that in mind, we are officially seeing the launch of Facebook Messenger for Windows Desktop Chat Client, although a number of you might already be using the client due to its leak back in December. Some of you may remember in December when an Israel-based blogger was given access to the Facebook Chat test group and trusted with an unprotected link to download the software. Rightly or wrongly, he quickly made the link public, given early access to the software to anyone who wanted it.

On the back of the leak, Facebook decided to make the link publicly available via official means through their help center, but didn’t exactly make song and dance about the client’s existence. That is all changing today with the company officially launching the chat client, which features nothing more than bug fixes and some fine-tuning over the leaked version. The client is available now for the Windows 7 operating system, and will be coming soon to Mac OS X, featuring the ability to receive and view notifications, read the news feed and send and receive chat messages without the need for web a browser being open, all the time.

Perhaps a somewhat unknown fact about the company is the existence of their Gatekeeper infrastructure which allows Facebook to test new features and products out on users without their knowledge. It is often the case that engineers behind the scenes can turn functionality on and off at will, granting or denying users access to new features without them actually knowing that they are testing something new. Whether or not this method of using registered members as guinea pigs is the right way to go about gathering usage data is entirely a different story.

TechCrunch have noted a couple of ways that they believe the chat client will help Facebook:

• Persistent access to Chat will increase engagement of the primary user, and also draw their friends to spend more time on Facebook
• Persistent access to notifications, messages, and friend requests that launch Facebook.com may lead to more return visits than users haphazardly stopping by the website to check for these alerts.

With users already spending a record breaking amount of time on Facebook, the creation and release of dedicated chat clients which allow the use of core features will no doubt go some way to increasing that active time.

You can download Facebook Messenger for Windows by heading over to this link.

You may also like to check out:

• It’s Official! Facebook Files For $5 Billion IPO

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Download And Install Leaked Official Android 4.0.3 ICS ROM For AT&T Galaxy S II Skyrocket [How-to Tutorial]

AT&T Galaxy S II Skyrocket users rejoice! An Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich ROM (official) has been leaked for the device which can be flashed in a few simple steps. Those of you interested can check out our easy-to-follow step-by-step guide right after the jump!

DISCLAIMER: Redmond Pie will not be held responsible if you lose data or your device gets damaged in the following of this guide. Proceed at your own risk.

In case you’re wondering, this procedure doesn’t require rooting. ODIN is able to flash a new firmware without requiring root access. Just be sure to do this with a sufficiently charged device and remember to backup all your sensitive data since this procedure, according to reports we’re hearing, will completely delete data such as contacts, texts, photos/videos, music, apps and their data and system settings.

Step 1: Download the .exe file from here [RootzWiki Thread]. It is a one-click solution which includes ODIN, the popular firmware flashing tool for Samsung devices.

Step 2: Once download is complete, double-click the .exe to launch ODIN.

Step 3: Turn off your AT&T Galaxy S II Skyrocket, take out the battery and put it back in again.

Step 4: Press and hold Volume Up + Volume Down and simultaneously connect the phone with your PC. Do not let go of the buttons while connecting the phone or it won’t boot into Download mode.

When your phone goes into Download mode, it should be detected by ODIN.

Step 5: Click Start in ODIN and let the flashing commence!

If you followed the steps correctly, your AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket will now boot into a leaked version of the official Android 4.0.3 ICS ROM.

As far as I can tell from the screenshots, it’s similar to the Android 4.0.3 ICS upgrade for the International Version of the Galaxy S II which looks more-or-less exactly like the stock Android 2.3 Gingerbread ROM that the device comes with. This is both a good and a bad thing: you get the familiarity of Gingerbread, but the delicious functionality of Ice Cream Sandwich.

Be sure to let us know what you think of Ice Cream Sandwich on the Skyrocket by leaving a comment over on our Facebook and Google+ page.

(via KnowYourDroid)

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Azure Cloud – A Summary of Posts

The Azure Cloud is Microsoft’s latest operation at making data available to companies all over the world, regardless of their location. Microsoft has been working hard on making the Azure Cloud one of the standards in the Cloud technology industry. Over the past several months I have written about the companies that have moved to the Cloud or about some of the technologies that make Cloud operations possible. Here is a summary of some of those posts. They show how much effort is taking place to make the Azure Cloud the standard for data support and analysis.

Microsoft adds Hadoop for Large Data Processing

Summary: If you are an open source user of database structures, you are probably familiar with Hadoop. That is the Azure Cloud database framework that scales huge datasets over multiple clusters, distributed under the Apache v2 open source license.

The Movideo Move to Microsoft’s Azure Cloud

Summary: Microsoft’s continues to make headway in attracting customers and partners to the Azure Cloud. The latest is Movideo an online video platform, with a focus on delivering business outcomes through an end-to-end video solution

Azure Cloud

Cloud Technology…Is it the Next Technology Bubble?

Summary: Microsoft commissioned IDC to analyze the impact that Cloud technology will have on jobs and economies.  The figure below shows that job growth will reach a high level in three more years. But more than that this says something about the economies that will be created.

Azure and Office 365 for Government Operations

Summary: While Microsoft has recently cut prices on Windows Azure Storage, Microsoft also intends to add a government Cloud offering to its Office 365 line-up of services.

Microsoft Cuts Pricing on Windows Azure Storage and the Small Compute System

Summary: A month ago, Microsoft announced that it was lowering the price of SQL Azure and introducing a 100MB database option.

Active Directory on the Cloud?

Summary: Active Directory on the Cloud? Yep. That is Microsoft’s new move to make Cloud services more secure.  

Microsoft’s New Cloud Promotional Offer

Summary: Microsoft’s push to getting more companies onto the Cloud met with another success. Techstars Cloud, and Microsoft announced an agreement whereby new entrepreneurial companies would be participating in Cloud operations.

Underwriters Laboratory is now using Office 365 Cloud services

Summary: How important is the Azure Cloud for business? For Underwriters Laboratory, the answer is very. They have begun deploying Microsoft Office 365,

 Linux on the Microsoft Azure Cloud

Summary: Linux may not be dead after all. Microsoft is looking for software engineers to make Linux available on Azure, Microsoft Cloud system.

Azure Cloud Commercial Services

More Companies Enter Azure – Office 365

Summary: Office 365 continues to grow in business circles. According to Microsoft over 90 percent of their Office 365 customers have less than 50 employees.

Will Azure Cloud Services be Microsoft’s New OS?

Summary: Microsoft makes the most popular OS in the world. That’s been true for over 30 years. But could it be that their best new market is the Cloud?

Linux and Azure Cloud Operations

Summary: Linux users will have something to cheer about vis-à-vis Microsoft Cloud. While Microsoft has been pushing many changes to its software and Cloud operations, it has not done much, if anything, about Linux.

Azure Cloud Services Updated

Summary: Microsoft Updates to Azure Cloud Services were released on December 12. Azure is the Cloud service available to anyone or company that wants to move some operations to the Internet.

Viewing these posts should give you an idea of how widespread the Azure Cloud system is and how much it has grown.

See: Microsoft Azure and download the software…3 month free trial.

Windows Launches Windows Azure

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