data

The next time you complain about a slow broadband connection or a lengthy file upload time, remember the people of Durban, South Africa. In an attempt to circumvent their slow broadband connection, a financial service company recently let their ... time-saving creativity take flight... literally. The experimental, but surprisingly evenly-matched, competition pitted a homing pigeon bearing a 4GB USB stick against the local Durban broadband connection to determine once and for all which form of data transfer was the fastest. The estimated distance between the two offices was 80 km. (Source: pcpro. ... (view more)

Ever wonder how poorly Windows Vista fared after reading all the bad press since its launch? Real-world PC usage data from the exo.performance.network (EPN) suggests just how much of a flop Windows Vista has been for Microsoft. Despite Microsoft's ... claims about Windows Vista's deployment , PC sales were counted as Windows Vista sales by Microsoft, despite the fact that many users and enterprises were 'downgrading' to Windows XP. In fact, two years after Vista's release, not even 30 per cent of PCs are actually running it. (Source: infoworld.com ) Those that are running Vista are almost ... (view more)

Update 2012/06/26: Save 50%! This special deal expires July 9th, 2012 at 11:59PM EST. Note that this version of the product is Windows 7 compatible. This week's special is a mind-blowing 50% off Acronis Disk Director Suite v11: a unique product ... brought to you by Acronis, the same software company that makes True Image -- the disaster recovery / backup program capable of backing up personal data plus MS Windows. Already Own Acronis True Image? Pay Attention! If you already own Acronis True Image you will want to pay special attention to this Disk Director Suite bargain because it is the ... (view more)

The security technology used to protect information stored on the UK's prospective national ID card was reportedly hacked and the data cloned by a computer expert in just 12 minutes. The Daily Mail newspaper hired computer expert Adam Laurie to test ... the security that allegedly protects the information on the chip that is embedded in the card being issued to foreign nationals. Laurie was able to copy the data on the card in minutes with a Nokia mobile phone and a laptop computer. Data on Chip Easily Manipulated With the help of another technology expert, Laurie was able to create a cloned card ... (view more)

Malware planted on web servers belonging to Network Solutions LLC, a hosting company and domain registrar, reportedly compromised more than a half a million credit card accounts belonging to customers of its e-commerce merchants. The company said it ... found unauthorized code on servers that support some of its e-commerce merchants' websites. It's reported that transaction data for about 4,343 of its merchant websites was stolen and redirected to outside servers. (Source: techtarget.com ) Half a Million Cardholders Affected Approximately 573,928 cardholders were affected by the breach that ... (view more)

Alternate Data Streams Shell The Alternate Data Streams Shell is a utility for working with NTFS alternate data streams. It represents the streams as files and exposes its functions through the Windows shell facilities. http://evilapp.com Kill Keys ... Kill Keys disables specified keys, preventing programs from picking them up. The default behavior is to disable both windows keys and the menu key when in full screen windows to prevent accidentally pressing them when playing games. http://www.ghacks.net Today's fresh software picks were provided courtesy of Bob Helmer at Shell Extension City. ... (view more)

Researchers at security firm Inverse Path plan to demonstrate how standard power sockets (used in a home, for instance) can be used to eavesdrop on what is being typed onto a computer keyboard. They plan to make a presentation at the Black Hat ... Security conference taking place in Las Vegas from July 25-30 this year. The researchers found that poor electrical shielding on some keyboard cables can result in data being leaked into power circuits. Analyzing such information allowed the researchers to see what was being typed on a keyboard. So far, demonstrations of the attacks have worked at ... (view more)

The company responsible for creating a database containing thousands of identities collected at U.S. airports has shut down. And so, the question remains: what happens to your personal information when a government-sponsored National ID scheme like ... 'Clear' suddenly shuts down? The fate of more than a quarter million people whose fingerprints, social security numbers, home addresses and other revealing personal information allegedly designed to help hasten traveler clearances at airports is hanging on that question, and even the government doesn't know the answer. (Source: yahoo.com ) Who ... (view more)

Banks are being warned of trouble ahead after approximately 20 ATMs, mostly in Eastern Europe, were compromised. The ATMs running Microsoft's Windows XP operating system were infected with malware that captures magnetic strip data and PIN codes. ... According to a report from Trustwave's SpiderLabs, the malware uses the strip data and PIN codes to access the private memory space of transaction-processing applications. Advanced Management Functionality Built into the Malware Attackers gain control over the ATMs by inserting specialized controller cards into the ATM's card reader. (Source: tgdaily. ... (view more)

Microsoft plans to roll out its new search engine code-named " Kumo " that reportedly improves search results by suggesting more targeted searches capable of bringing users closer to the information they seek. The Kumo team's technology reportedly ... uses open-source software if it's available . (Source: cnet.com ) Kumo to Compete with Google's Storage Engine According to their blog , Kumo developer Powerset decided to turn to hadoop , a Lucene subproject that runs data-intensive applications on large clusters of commodity hardware. Unfortunately, there was no Hadoop equivalent to Google's ... (view more)