access

A group of hackers has gained access to an Australian medical center's electronic patient records. Until they receive a cash payout, the hackers say they won't relinquish control of the information. It's relatively common for hackers to access ... sensitive data and then threaten to expose it unless a victim pays up. There have been several cases where scammers have remotely installed viruses on computers, then threatened to wipe the hard drive of all its stored data unless they receive hefty payments. But this case, involving the Miami Family Medical Center (MFMC), is different. Rather than ... (view more)

We have received several technical inquiries much like this one from a long-time Infopackets subscriber: "Dear Infopackets: I have converted to Windows 8 and am getting along OK. But I'm worried about losing my data if this new operating system ... should contain a bad bug that hasn't yet been discovered. I knew what to do for data recovery in Windows 7, now I'm lost. You offered me lots of good information in the past, so I'm hoping now you can tell me how to do data recovery in Windows 8. Thanks, Charlene F." My Response: Few people have reported major problems with Windows 8 so far ( ... (view more)

A federal court has ruled that major cellphone carriers must let their smaller rivals use their data networks. This could mean more competitive deals and better coverage for smartphone and tablet owners, as well as those accessing mobile broadband ... on a laptop. The United States Court of Appeals has rejected a challenge by Verizon, thereby upholding an earlier ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The original ruling primarily covered data roaming, the technique by which customers of one cellphone carrier access the data services of another carrier. The FCC had said that ... (view more)

Pricing has been announced for a new version of Microsoft Office 365 tailored specifically to university students, staff, and scholars. Microsoft says the software is available as a four-year subscription for $79.99. That works out to about $1.67 ... per month. Microsoft also says any student who continues their education beyond four years (say, by entering a graduate program) can renew their subscription to the software for four more years at the same price. Documents Automatically Saved to the Cloud Office 365 University automatically saves its documents to Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage ... (view more)

Iran's government has removed its block on Gmail in that nation, claiming it didn't mean to restrict access to the service. It now says the block was an unintended result of a deliberate effort to stop Iranians from viewing YouTube. These new claims ... contradict an earlier comment from an Iranian official who said last week: "Due to the repeated demands of the people, Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide. They will remain filtered until further notice." Another government official now says: "Unfortunately, we do not yet have enough technical know-how to differentiate between these two ... (view more)

The Iranian government has blocked its citizens' access to Gmail and a secure version of Google. The move appears to be the first part of a larger plan to control exactly what Internet sites Iranians can access. An Iranian official who is part of a ... government group in charge of controlling Internet content says that "due to the repeated demands of the people, Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide. They will remain filtered until further notice." (Source: com.au ) The official did not make clear exactly who made these demands. Insiders, however, note that many Iranian businesses use ... (view more)

A U.S. senator wants to close a legal loophole that allows law enforcement officials to read private emails without first obtaining a warrant. If successful, the change would mean users of webmail services, such as Gmail and Hotmail, will receive ... extra protection against prying eyes. Private email content is currently protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. However, email usage is far greater today than it was then, and new procedures leave open the opportunity for officials to read private emails in secret. Years ago most email users downloaded their messages, which ... (view more)

The man convicted of infecting 72,000 computers has been sentenced to two and a half years behind bars. Joshua Schichtel created a network of hijacked machines and then -- for a fee -- allowed others to control them. Schichtel first came to the ... attention of authorities in 2004. At the time, he was part of a group charged with using infected computers to carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Earlier DDoS Attack Goes Unpunished Under a DDosS attack, a hacker uses many computers to send service requests to legitimate website servers. Because servers are set up to respond to all ... (view more)

Update 2012/11/13: Save $150 with this special, limited-time version of Windows 7 that is licensed for / can be installed on up to 3 separate PCs. Low stock warning! As expected, stock for the discounted Windows 7 Family Pack is quickly diminishing ... as we inch closer to the Holiday season, and as more unfavorable reviews of Windows 8 are being published online. More about that, plus why this special Windows 7 discount is an excellent bargain is below. First, here's what you need to know. After much research, we firmly believe Amazon is currently offering the best deal for the Windows 7 Family ... (view more)

Imagine waking up one day and finding that the digital contents of your smartphone, laptop, and tablet computer have all been wiped out by hackers. This nightmare recently became reality for Wired.com writer Mat Honan, who later discovered that ... major holes in Apple and Amazon security had allowed the hack to occur. The hackers did a lot of damage. Not only did they wipe the contents of Honan's iPad, MacBook, and iPhone, but they infiltrated his Gmail account (and deleted it) and his Twitter account, where they posted a number of unseemly comments. (Source: venturebeat.com ) Amazon's Swiss ... (view more)