Want to launch your own DDoS attacks on a website? $200 will get you everything you need
Cybercriminals don’t have to make their own malware these days, they can simply purchase ready-made kits. They don’t need to take out a bank loan to do so either -- malware is more affordable than you might think.
Trustwave’s security researchers did a little digging and found that depending on the type, malware can cost as little as two hundred dollars on the black market, and the tools on offer are pretty sophisticated too. Got your wallet ready? Here’s a price list of just some of the currently available malware:
I cut cable's cord again and mean it this time
Overnight, AT&T U-verse went dark in the Wilcox household. We're cord cutters once more. A year ago, we let the service go for about two weeks but returned after Cox Internet failed to deliver constant connection. When going back to AT&T for just the Net, the company made an offer I couldn't refuse: Hundreds of channels, HD, DVR, and Internet for $99 a month. Cost would be $69 without the television service.
But with Game of Thrones and Walking Dead behind, and the 12-month contract expired (yesterday), streaming is once again high on the thrifty list. I made several phone calls looking for an AT&T deal that would keep us customers, but no offer matched Cox, which guarantees pricing for a year without locking me into any commitment. We set up service about 10 days ago, hoping the Internet would stop yo-yoing around.
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Today in Tech History
Seagate Central comes to Roku -- pirates rejoice!
In the olden days, people used to collect CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays (some still do). Buying physical media loaded with content was commonplace. However, the spread of legal streaming caused many to abandon their collecting and instead opt for services like Netflix, Hulu and Beats Music to name a few. Devices such as Fire TV and Roku have made the process far easier.
Of course, some people still download media illegally rather than pay for a subscription or rental. These people fill large hard drives with files from The Pirate Bay and other nefarious sites. Some pirates also like the convenience of streaming to their living room, though. Today, Seagate announces an option that may appease both pirates and honest home users alike -- a channel for Roku.
Amazon unveils massive database expansion for Prime Music service
Just a few weeks ago, Amazon added one more perk to its Prime service, gifting customers with a music streaming service. The launch was a bit clumsy, as many of the songs and artists searched for were not available. However, as I wrote at the time, I expected that to improve.
Today the first leap forward takes place. The retailer is adding hundreds of thousands of new songs to the service, and also promising hundreds of new playlists.
Kingston's new solid state drive almost cracks 1TB barrier
A new 1TB solid state drive [SSD] is on the horizon after Kingston Digital began shipping high-speed flash drives with a capacity that closes in on the significant milestone.
The Kingston SSDNow V310 SSD comes with a 960GB memory size that allows an entire hard drive to be migrated onto a new system at high speed and is capable of 450Mbps read and write speeds.
CyberDuck restores Windows Azure support, adds new SSH/SFTP protocol implementation
Bern-based developer iterate GmbH has released CyberDuck 4.5, a major update to its Windows and Mac FTP and cloud-storage browser tool. This open-source tool provides users with a user-friendly means of browsing FTP/SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage and Rackspace Cloud Files servers.
Version 4.5 restores support for Microsoft’s Azure Blob Storage connections, adds a new SSH/SFTP protocol implementation and adds support for updating Windows users via the Taskbar’s Notification area.
Do NOT buy a Blackberry Passport until you read this
BlackBerry’s got a new device, the Passport. It’s sleek, with a polished industrial design that exudes quality. It’s funky, with a non-standard size and shape that challenges the status quo. And it’s cool, with lots of innovative features you won’t find on competing devices.
In fact, BlackBerry’s new Passport is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Which is why you absolutely, positively should not buy one.
Self-destructing content service ensures shared data stays private
When you send a file to someone else there’s always a risk that it could be copied or forwarded, even if it's intended to remain private -- as many a snapper of naked selfies has found to their cost.
There have been attempts to solve this problem in the past of course with services like Snapchat and Yahoo's Blink, that allow content to be viewed for only a short time, but none of these are aimed at business users.
Internet Explorer vulnerabilities have increased more than 100 percent since 2013
Bromium Labs today issued its "Endpoint Exploitation Trends" report that shows Internet Explorer set a record high for reported vulnerabilities in the first half of 2014, and also leads in publicly reported exploits.
According to Bromium, "Internet Explorer took the cap for historic high number of security patches in over a decade, and that feat was accomplished in the first six months of 2014!" It's not all bad news for users of Internet Explorer though. While the browser was easily the most exploited tool, Microsoft has been reacting much quicker to plug vulnerabilities. The company took more than 90 days to release its first patch for IE9, yet IE11’s first critical patch emerged just five days after the new browser was generally available.
AVG killed LiveKive, but is offering a 'free' data transfer to SpiderOak
AVG got into the cloud storage business with its LiveKive offering. I won't go into the gory details but the service did not work so well. Now the anti-virus maker has elected to kill off the product, and perhaps it was a merciful death.
Users began receiving warning messages in their email before the shutdown took place. Customers could grab their data, though depending on how much was there, the download could have been painful.
Forget.me now handles 'right to be forgotten' requests for Bing as well as Google
Back in May, the EU Court of Justice ruled that people have a "right to be forgotten" from search results. Google fairly quickly set up an online form to allow complainants to put forward their case for censoring their appearance in results. It didn’t take long for Microsoft to follow suit, and Bing users were soon afforded the same option.
Forget.me was one service that offered to take care of Google removal requests for people, and at the time CEO Bertrand Girin promised that "if Bing and Yahoo get their Right to be Forgotten forms in order, we’ll be able to provide you with the possibility of submitting your URL to all three search engines at the same time." For Microsoft, that day has come.
Microsoft confirms it was working on Surface Mini
It stopped short of actually naming the device, however Microsoft has admitted it was planning to add a second new Surface to its line-up.
Although leaks and rumors are usually best viewed with a heavy dose of skepticism, when they are as insistent as the talk regarding Surface Mini was, it’s safe to assume there’s at least some fire under all that smoke. We were fully expecting to see a seven inch version of the tech giant’s slate rolled out alongside Surface Pro 3, but there was no sign at all of it at the New York launch event two months ago. So what happened?
Comodo SecureBox always assumes the worst to strengthen endpoint security
Cybercriminals are constantly targeting end users via phishing and social engineering attacks in attempts to access sensitive information or corporate data and bypass traditional endpoint security. Often these attacks are delivered from devices outside the enterprise, belonging to customers or suppliers for example.
Internet security specialist Comodo is launching a new product aimed at plugging the security gap and guarding against, keylogging, SSL sniffing, remote screen viewing, memory scraping, man-in-the-middle attacks, zero-day malware and more.
Microsoft's Q4 FY2014 earnings by the numbers
Microsoft has released its earnings results for the fourth fiscal quarter of the year (that is Q2 CY2014), posting revenue of $23.38 billion, gross margin of 15.79 billion and operating income of $6.48 billion. As a result, earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.55 (below analyst expectations of $0.60).
Revenue, gross margin and operating income are higher than a year before, when they reached 19.89 billion, 14.29 billion and 6.07 billion, respectively. However, EPS is lower, dropping from $0.59. "We are galvanized around our core as a productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world, and we are driving growth with disciplined decisions, bold innovation, and focused execution", says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "I'm proud that our aggressive move to the cloud is paying off -- our commercial cloud revenue doubled again this year to a $4.4 billion annual run rate".
IObit unveils Driver Booster 2.0 Beta -- promises faster downloads for all
IOBit has unveiled Driver Booster 2.0 Beta, a preview of the next major version of its driver update tool for Windows. The utility offers simple updating to free users, while a paid-for Pro version adds the ability to back up drivers along with faster download speeds and other enhancements.
Version 2.0 opens with an overhauled user interface, designed to make the program even simpler to use. Users also gain the ability to make the program semi-translucent via a Transparency slider in the program’s Settings menu.