John Lister

Around 4.5 million computers have been caught in a botnet that some experts are calling as good as indestructible. Others, however, say that's an exaggeration. The botnet in question is named the TDL-4. In many senses, it's like any other botnet: ... once a computer becomes infected with malicious software, it is now controlled by remote and used for nefarious purposes. Many times the zombie PCs in a botnet (also known as a " botnet army ") are used to send bogus page requests to websites in an attempt to knock them offline --; referred to as a " denial of service attack ", or ... (view more)

With huge annual revenues, Google has the spare cash to try out all sort of different (often high-cost) experimental ventures. That's been demonstrated by the company's decision to dabble in health records and home energy. In both cases Google says ... the problem was a failure to scale: in other words, not getting enough users to make the fixed running costs sustainable. In Google's case, scale isn't just a financial issue though: as its search success has shown, more users means more data and thus more lessons that can be learned. (Source: blogspot.com ) Medical Records Tracked Interactions ... (view more)

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are all reportedly bidding to buy out online video service, Hulu.com. But they all have different reasons for considering the move. For those who aren't aware of it, Hulu is one of the most popular legal video streaming ... services. It allows users in the US to see recent and archived programming from several major American networks and cable channels, with viewing available on computers, smartphones, tablets and directly on some TV sets. It had appeared Hulu was going to join several other tech companies over the next few years by cashing in through public share ... (view more)

Microsoft has released a software development kit (SDK) for its hands-free Xbox 360 peripheral, Kinect, on Windows. It means software developers of all kinds will be able to use the Xbox 360 motion control system on PC applications. Kinect was ... originally designed as Microsoft's answer to the Nintendo Wii games console, which became popular with family audiences by letting them use simple hand gestures rather than complex button combinations. Microsoft Kinect Uses Motion without Controller Unlike the Nintendo Wii, and a similar system developed by Sony called 'Move', Kinect did away with ... (view more)

Microsoft is reportedly planning to integrate Skype into the online edition of the Microsoft Office suite. But there's controversy over a Microsoft patent that would allow government officials the ability to monitor calls made by Skype users. ... Microsoft Office 365 Launches June 28, 2011 Office 365 officially launched this week. It works the same way as the traditional Office package but the software runs on Microsoft servers and is accessed via an Internet connection (this is an example of " cloud computing ", which uses the " centralized computing " model to share ... (view more)

The Supreme Court recently reached a ruling that will be seen by many as a victory for makers of violent video games. At least seven states have passed legislation that bans the sale of violent games, but in every case that legislation was ... overturned by a lower court. California, which passed such a law in 2005 and was immediately blocked from enforcing it, was the first to appeal to the Supreme Court. The California law caused immediate controversy: while it only banned sales where the content was "patently offensive," the threshold also required prosecutors to show a game lacked "serious ... (view more)

The number of people using Facebook has dropped in several major countries, according to a recent report. It's not enough to stop an ongoing rise in the global total, but the growth rate worldwide has notably slowed. The figure comes from a firm ... named Inside Facebook, which takes its figures from Facebook's own advertising tools. It notes that measures may vary from source to source and can depend on exactly what is counted. With these figures, only active users are counted, rather than those who leave accounts dormant. National drops include the US falling from 155.2 million to 149.4 million ... (view more)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has made two announcements about successful operations against online bandits. The first is a near-complete takedown of a widespread virus, while the second is a series of arrests and seizures relating to ... two separate cybercrime gangs responsible for scareware scams. The virus in question had allowed criminals to set up a botnet . In short, a botnet is a large network of virus-infected PCs which is remotely controlled by one or a few individuals. The infected PCs are typically used to attack websites, send spam (unsolicited bulk email) to users around ... (view more)

Microsoft has unveiled several changes to its online storage service, SkyDrive. It should mean very noticeable improvements to the speed at which it responds to commands. Share, Access up to 25GB of Free Online Storage SkyDrive offers users 25 GB of ... free online storage, meaning files can be accessed from any machine. Users can decide whether to make files publicly available, in which case the service can be used as a simpler alternative to running a website to host documents or media files, or to make them private and only accessible with a Windows Live log-in. There's some debate over ... (view more)

Two major hacking collectives have announced they've forged a partnership. Anonymous and LulzSec say they are targeting high-profile classified information. The two groups do not carry out hacking in order to make money, either by stealing card ... details or selling bogus security software. Instead, they carry out a blend of hacktivism (a portmanteau of hack and activism), attacks made for a political purpose, or simply for amusement. The Anonymous group has carried out several politically-motivated operations in recent months. Among its most famous activities have been attacks on the homophobic ... (view more)