Editorial

Sophos – “USA Worst for Malware & Spam Relaying”

Sophos, has published its Security Threat Report 2007, examining the threat landscape during the previous twelve months, and predicting malware and spam developments for 2007. The report reveals that the U.S. hosts more than one third of the websites containing malicious code identified during 2006, as well as relays more spam than any other nation.

Notable findings from Sophos’s Security Threat Report include:

With the U.S. and China representing nearly two-thirds of such threats, the top ten countries hosting web-based malware during 2006 were:

“The U.S. market is undeniably a target for online criminal activity. More and more, organizations with U.S.-based websites are falling victim to targeted attacks,” said Ron O’Brien, senior security analyst for Sophos. “Anticipating this trend, Sophos released the first all-in-one web control platform, the WS1000, earlier this year in an effort to give companies the ability to provide trusted content security, application control and URL
filtering in a single appliance solution.”

DIRTY DOZEN SPAM-RELAYING COUNTRIES
In addition to hosting the largest number of malicious websites, the U.S. continues to top the list of worst spam-relaying nations. While the U.S. has made progress in its efforts to reduce spam-relaying statistics, there was still more spam sent from U.S. computers in 2006 than any other single nation.

The top twelve spam-relaying countries during 2006 were:

Sophos experts note that up to 90% of all spam is now relayed from zombie computers, hijacked by Trojan horses, worms and viruses under the control of hackers. This means that they do not need to be based in the same country as the computers being used to send the spam.

The full report can be found HERE.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): sophos, spam, malware, Email Relay, Tracy & Matt]

Calls to make CD copying legal

Many people are not aware that copying CD’s that they own to their MP3 player is actually illegal in the UK. Despite there being a wealth of software tools, such as iTunes, that are designed to do just that.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a “private right to copy”.

It would decriminalise millions of Britons who break the law each year by copying their CDs onto music players.

Making copies of CDs and DVDs for personal use would have little impact on copyright holders, the IPPR argues.

Copyright issues have, in the past, been steered too much by the music industry, the report said.

Source: BBC News

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): mp3 players, Pocket PC, copyright, media players]

Blogging from Florida

Tracy and I are in Florida for 8 nights so we are blogging from the hotel room!

Having just arrived both of us are totally knackered. Just went over to McDonalds for something to eat but we’re off to bed now.

We leave you with a photo of the plane we went on and a pic of the view out of the window, as you can see, not much to look at all the way. Normal blogging service will continue once we have had some sleep!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): aviation, 747, Florida, Disney, Virgin Holidays]

Vista Install Marathon

I registered for and downloaded Windows Vista Beta 2 a while ago and last weekend I finally got round to installing it.

I had a spare laptop that had Windows XP pre-installed so I thought I would use that for trying out Vista. The first thing that bothered me about Vista was that it comes on a DVD. Just how big does an operating system need to be?

I put in the DVD and it spins up and I get a Window popping up asking me if I would like to install Vista. I say yes and choose an upgrade install, put in the serial key and sit back and wait.

It was a long wait. A very long wait. Copying files from the DVD, expanding files, locating files(?), multiple reboots.

Total install time: 4 HOURS. 4 hours to install an OS?! You have to be kidding me. I know it’s a Beta and my laptop isn’t ultra spec. but really?

So was it worth the effort? Not really, my laptop doesn’t have the 128mb graphics card that seems to be required for all the nice stuff and my 2.4ghz coupled with 1gb Ram still mean that Vista runs like a wounded dog. To cap it all off Media Centre cant play any of my videos although strangely Media Player can?

Good job I took a backup before I installed Vista!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): microsoft, windows, vista, operating system]

Chimp plays PacMan

This is one of the funniest things, a chimp playing PacMan. As a big fan of PacMan I think it’s time to challenge him to a competition. I think we should ban the coaching though!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): chimp, PacMan, Funny Video, monkey, gaming]

Sony Poos?

I might be a bit slow with this blog entry, it may not be that ‘new’ but having heard about it I just had to comment:

Surely Sony isn’t serious, it has to be that they are poking fun at Nintendo’s Wii but the word on the street it that Sony has trademarked the controller for the upcoming PS3, PooS!

Does this mean that kids are going round their friends houses to play with their Wii and PooS? Console manufacturers are just going Potty!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): sony, PooS, playstation, PS3, Wii]

Nintendo makes you Wii in the dark!

Just read this article over at Gizmodo.

Apparantly if you have halogen lights in your house you may not be able to use the Wii wireless remote control. According to sources at Nintendo this problem only affects your Wii if you are directly in a halogen beam.

Read more HERE

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): Nintendo, Wii, Gossip, Wiimote]

Xbox 360 Overheats

My friend was lucky enough to be able to get hold of a new Xbox 360. I use the word ‘lucky’ quite loosely as after just about 20 minutes of continuous play the system freezes up and reboots as it get too hot. It doesn’t matter which of the six titles he owns that he is playing at the time, its happens over and over again.

Naturally he is going to be returning his console for replacement but is anyone else experiencing the same problem?

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): xbox, 360, Xbox 360, microsoft]

Recall of Slim PS2 adapters

Sony is recalling 3.5m faulty power adapters which were sold with the black PlayStation 2 slimline version between August and December 2004.
It said the power adapter could overheat, causing damage or injury.

The free-standing adapters were sold for the special slimline version of the successful games console. Sony had 40 complaints in the US about them.

Sony said it would replace returned adapters for free. Two-thirds of the affected consoles were sold in Europe.

About 960,000 of the units were sold in the US, 210,000 in Asia and 60,000 in Japan, according to Sony.

More than 50,000 slimline PlayStation 2s were sold in the UK during its first week on sale in November.

Matt

(Source: BBC News)

[Technorati tag(s): sony, ps2, recall]

Galaxy Pictures?

I was watching a program on TV this morning about astro physics. In one part they were talking about the size of our galaxy and went on to say ‘Here is a photograph of our galaxy’. Surely it cant be a photograph, it must be a digital impression of what we think it looks like?

How do scientist know what it looks like? Voyager 1 is the farthest man made object but she hasn’t left our galaxy has she?

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): galaxy, voyager, Space, milky way, Science, Hubble Space Telescope]