computers

A reward of $250,000 has reportedly been offered by Microsoft to find who is behind the Downadup/Conficker virus. Since its inception last October, the Conficker worm has infected millions of computers worldwide. Microsoft is offering a cash reward ... because they view the Conficker as a criminal attack and believe the people responsible for writing it have to be held accountable. As noted by Sophos, Microsoft's reputation is badly shaken whenever a computer virus causes widespread problems for its users, so it's not surprising that they would offer a reward. (Source: sophos.co.uk ) George ... (view more)

David Gewirtz, author of 'Where Have All the Emails Gone?' reportedly wrote an open letter to President-elect Obama asking that his administration please treat the White House computers like crime scene evidence. By failing to preserve official ... emails, the Bush White House has technically committed a federal crime by violating the Presidential Records Act and The Federal Records Act. The first few weeks of the Obama Administration taking office are going to be critical in preserving that information. Forensic evidence needs to be gathered before it's lost in the flurry of incoming activity. ( ... (view more)

Despite the efforts of the computer security industry, malicious software is reportedly spreading faster than ever and security researchers have acknowledged that they cannot seem to get ahead of the onslaught. Internet security is broken and it ... appears that nobody knows quite how to fix it. This so-called malware surreptitiously takes over a PC then uses it to spread more malware to other machines exponentially. (Source: informationweek.com ) A conservative estimate by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says that as more businesses and people move onto the Web, criminals ... (view more)

No matter how protected we think our computers are, no matter how much money we invest in acquiring the latest antivirus software, hackers still find a way to target our computers. While computer viruses are almost as old as computers themselves, a ... new type of spam has surfaced that not only victimizes computers, but shames the good name of the innocent end-user. If you have experienced "undeliverable" email messages that bounce back into your inbox, or if you notice this happening in the near future, it may be the result of "backscatter". The latest rave in the field of spamming is the ... (view more)

The crowd of about one hundred reporters didn't know what to expect as they clamored inside of the small auditorium for a Tuesday afternoon Apple unveiling. Many were excited to finally make sense of the recent terms such as "solid" and "brick" that ... the company was throwing around prior to the scheduled demonstration. While almost everyone in attendance anticipated a new line of computers to be rolled out with one of these likenesses, they soon discovered that the terms referred not to the interior of the "new" computers, but rather, the exterior. Apple CEO Steve Jobs not only announced that ... (view more)

Businesses' internal networks are becoming increasingly less secure, a new study shows. A scan of 100,000 corporate PCs and servers found that every single organisation was facing some form of security threat. The industries studied included ... healthcare, insurance, finance and manufacturing, with Promises Inc warning that the risk might extend outside the networks and out into the public domain among customers and clients. Security firm Promises Inc carried out the study between January and June this year. The research found even the most secure networks had at least three threats: the two ... (view more)

Today's fresh software picks were provided courtesy of Bob Helmer at Shell Extension City. Please note that the below software descriptions are provided solely from the developer and are absent from any guarantee or warranty. You are encouraged to ... review the Shell Extension Software Policy for more details. How Computers Boot Up Booting is an involved, complicated, even 'hacky', multi-stage affair -- hard to understand, but once you learn the basics it can be fun stuff. Here's an outline of the process to help you figure out what's going on 'under the hood'. http://duartes.org EasyNetMonitor ... (view more)

Intel has gained the upper hand once again in its continuing battle with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) by launching a new line of chips specifically designed for laptop computers. Intel promises that its new batch of chips will have better ... graphics-enabling abilities and a longer battery life. Manufacturing chips that require less power and offer crisper high-definition video playback has proved to be a difficult balancing act for most processing companies in the past, especially since many new notebook computers are being released in smaller models. The new chips will be packaged as part of ... (view more)

When you stop to think about it, the evolution of technology in the modern classroom is truly amazing. Schools have gone from having only a few computers in the entire building to having a few computers in each classroom to using computers as an ... educational tool when teaching everyday material. At Boston's Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School, over 650 students are given an Apple laptop each day. The teacher simply tells the students which applications to click on, and the class departs on an electronic learning adventure geared specifically to their own unique levels of understanding. The ... (view more)

June 30, 2008 is the day Microsoft is slated to discontinue Windows XP to make way for a new era in operating systems -- start bars will give way to wonky buttons and a refreshed design, stable operation will give way to frequent crashing, and XP ... will die at the hands of a misguided killer: Microsoft. (Source: itworld.com ) While Microsoft will have you believe Vista isn't so bad and it's the next successor to Windows XP, it's really not. Many feel that Vista is an over-bloated mess of code that features too many overzealous security prompts thanks to the 'security' feature known as User ... (view more)