Carlo Orlando

Hackers have taken notice of the worldwide H1N1 hysteria and, in an effort to catch people reading up on the virus, have begun flooding email inboxes with messages promising "swine flu" news. These messages instead deliver malware and dubious ... advertisements promoting anything from herbal medications to male enhancement pills. The "hot topic" of the past few weeks has been the worldwide spread of the H1N1 virus, more commonly referred to as "swine flu". All across the globe, analysts and experts have urged people to help stop the global outbreak by reading up on the virus, and if any symptoms ... (view more)

Apple has made a move towards constructing its own line of chips by acquiring the services of several IBM and Nintendo designers. It's believed the move is meant to help the company save money in the future. Ask any number of people to name the ... makers of the Mac, iPhone or iPod and expect almost everyone to say " Apple ". However, the truth is that there are many other additional companies needed to manufacture such small, yet complex devices, and so simply answering "Apple" does not tell the whole story. When Apple purchased chipmaker P.A. Semi back in April 2008, many viewed the acquisition ... (view more)

McAfee has launched a new website designed to help the victims of various cybercrimes fight back against Internet deviants. Dubbed the " Cybercrime Response Unit," it acts a lot like an "Online 911". A victim of an online hacking is left with very ... little options following an attack. On one hand, the thought of calling the police to report a random computer virus is comical, but if the virus is comprehensive enough that it affects a great number of people, the party responsible for its creation should be held accountable. In the U.S., online crimes can be prosecuted by ... (view more)

Security specialists who monitor the behavior of cybercriminals are now reporting a disturbing trend among online scammers: paying "captcha-breakers" to solve random blocks of text, to supersede anti-fraud and anti-spam measures. Humans Versus ... Computer Programs Catpcha stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Captchas are most prevalent online blogs that require a user to enter a series of numbers or letters in order to post a comment online. While sometimes an inconvenience, websites and online forms that require captchas are critical ... (view more)

The Pirate Bay scandal has brought worldwide attention to the existence of numerous illegal filesharing websites, while dividing the populace into pro- and anti-copyright camps. Although the recent one year jail sentences doled out by the Swedish ... courts would make others behind torrent tracking sites a little nervous, these people will get some added assistance in the form of a fund intended to help pay for legal defense. The three Swedes behind the fund are Maria Ferm (Green Party of Sweden Youth Branch), Lage Rahm (Green Party of Sweden and Member of the Swedish Parliament) and Peter Sunde ... (view more)

In the aftermath of the Pirate Bay verdict , many are now on the lookout for other forms of online piracy. Among the latest batch of uncovered copyright-snubbing websites is a Google-based search platform called Torrent Search. Want to watch a hot ... new theater release, but are unwilling to pay the price of admission? Type in the movie title on Torrent Search and you can be instantly directed to thousands of popular piracy websites. Google Fueling Pro-Piracy Campaigns While the search platform was probably not created by someone working for Google, seeing as how almost anyone can create a page ... (view more)

A mix of dwindling profits and fussy consumers is causing Microsoft Corp. to take extra precautions when planning the release of their forthcoming Windows 7 operating system. The current economic meltdown presents a dual challenge for Microsoft: on ... one hand, the company knows that consumers are likely to flock towards the less expensive netbook computer models that offer only the most essential features. When the consumer opens their new netbook computer for the first time, Microsoft wants to ensure that one of their operating systems is running on it. On the other hand, Microsoft wants to ... (view more)

We all hate spam for the same reasons: it is annoying and wastes time that could be better spent doing something else. Now, a new study claims that spam not only affects our Internet routines, but is also hazardous to the ozone layer. The report was ... issued by McAfee Inc., creators of anti-virus and computer protection software. The popular security tech company claims that the energy used to transmit, process and filter spam emails wastes a total of 22 billion kilowatt hours each year. Every Spam Message is a Carbon Footprint Spam emails create a large amount of unneeded carbon emissions that ... (view more)

A trio of undergraduate students at the University of Richmond have developed a custom search engine that will be used to help feed those in the developing world . The three students have created Hoongle.org, a custom Google search engine that ... promises to donate 20 grains of rice per search to schools located in impoverished countries. The search engine has already generated more than 8.5 million grains of rice (about 4,000 meals) since it was introduced this past September. (Source: nytimes.com ) Of course, online clicks alone cannot put food in the mouths of people overseas. The Hoongle ... (view more)

While many people were expecting the arrival of Easter Bunny greeting e-cards over the weekend, an unwelcome "Twitter bug" hopped onto many systems, too. According to reports, the worm was still mutating and affecting countless user profiles well ... into Monday. Initial reports of the "Mickeyy" worm began on Saturday morning at around 2 a.m., as users were hit with a barrage of questionable messages. As is becoming the norm for most malware attacks (ie. Koobface ), users were enticed to click onto an infected page posted by another user. The clicks then set off a chain reaction that posted ... (view more)