Google shocked Web users on Tuesday when it announced that it might pull out of China after Chinese human rights activists' Gmail accounts were targeted by hackers. Now, security experts have revealed that those attacks were part of a far larger campaign of state-sponsored corporate espionage.
Silicon Valley-based security firm VeriSign iDefense says computers at more than 30 U.S. companies -- including, according to The Washington Post, Microsoft, Yahoo, Dow Chemical and defense giant Northrop Grumman -- were penetrated during the same operation.
Execs at iDefense, which analyzed the spy software sent to one firm, say there's strong evidence of Chinese government involvement in the strike. "The IP addresses used to launch the attacks are known to be associated with previous attacks from groups that are either directly employed agents of the Chinese state or amateur hackers that are proxies for them that have attacked other U.S. companies in the past," Eli Jellenc, head of international cyberintelligence at iDefense, toldcnet.com.
Web criminals cracked their way into the company computers with a scam known as "phishing." It works like this: An e-mail, disguised to look like a message from a friend or co-worker, is sent to an employee at the target firm. The employee unsuspectingly opens it and downloads an attachment, possibly disguised as a photo or pdf file, containing a "sleeper" program. Once installed, the program lets the attacker remotely control the PC, giving him access to e-mails and important documents, and even allowing him to switch on webcams and microphones.
It's not unusual for U.S. companies to be targeted with these sorts of attacks. But security experts say this wave of hacks, which exploited multiple flaws in different software programs, showed a new level of sophistication. "Usually, it's a group using one type of malicious code per target," Jellenc told The Washington Post. "In this case, they're using multiple types against multiple targets -- but all in the same attack campaign. That's a marked leap in coordination."
The attack also revealed the growing threat posed to the U.S. economy by Chinese hackers. Several experts believe the operation's main goal was the theft of intellectual property (IP) -- such as the source code that powers software programs, or blueprints for new technologies. That kind of top-secret information would allow China to speed up its transition from an export-based economy, which simply manufactures goods designed by other nations, to one based around cutting-edge research and development. Indigenous firms could then start to challenge the Western competition.
"If you're having trouble [innovating] or if you want to prime the pump, the best way is to go out and steal cutting-edge IP," James Mulvenon, director of Defense Group Inc.'s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, Computer World. "It's a plausible explanation for why they would go after Silicon Valley companies on such a broad scale, because they're really trying to jump-start IT innovation in China."
Google hasn't explicitly blamed the Chinese government for the hack, which saw dozens of gmail accounts used by activists in the U.S., Europe and China "routinely accessed" by "third parties" located in the People's Republic. However, the company announced that it would stop censoring search results on Google.cn. That move was widely seen as designed to embarrass Beijing, which stops its citizens from accessing any site that mentions "Tiananmen Square," "Tibetan independence" and dozens of other phrases.
That action, along with its threat to quit the country, suggests the Internet giant suspects state involvement in the hacking attack. "They wouldn't be taking an action suggesting that they cannot operate in China ... if it was not related to the Chinese government," Leslie Harris, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, told Computer World.
The Obama administration has taken a hard line on China's alleged involvement. In a statement Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the government to explain itself and said that Google's allegations "raise very serious concerns and questions."
But answers may be hard to come by. At a Thursday press conference, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu simply noted that hacking was illegal in China. That same day, State Council Minister Wang Chen implied that Beijing wouldn't allow an uncensored Google.cn. "Properly guiding Internet opinion is a major measure for protecting Internet information security," Wang said, according to the BBC.
While Google is not the largest search engine in China -- Baidu.cn has cornered 60% of the search market -- its absence would be sorely felt. The search engine indexes millions of Chinese Web sites and digitally connects the country to the rest of the world. Without Google, China's Internet will essentially exist in a bubble. And for a country determined to become a high-tech player, that's a definite step back.
Chinese Google Hack Part of Broader Effort
Search Maya -The ultimate file sharing search engine.
Welcome to Search Maya.
Search Maya is one of the best file sharing search engine across
the web which allows you to search files from different file sharing sites.
File sharing site is a place where people store their files to share it with
the world.These files may include videos,music,games,movies,
documents,ebooks,slide shows,projects etc.
The search crawler performs a real time search from the file sharing sites and gives you real time results.For better searching,other third party file sharing search engine sites are also indexed under search maya.Some of the major sites indexed are Rapidshare,Megaupload,Depositfiles,Hotfile,Ifile,Badongo,Mediafire,
Ziddu,Filefront,Esnips,4shared,Uploaded,Megashares,Gigasize,Easy-share,
Sendspace,Uploading,Netload,Vip-file and many more.
Please do visit the site :
http://www.searchmaya.com/
Thankyou.
Website discriminates against ugly people
A dating website has kicked out 5,000 of its members simply because they gained weight over the festive season, but the good news for Indians, who form a substantial chunk of beautifulpeople.com, is that they were spared the chop.
The site has created quite a stir in the virtual world, after disowning members because they put on weight after Christmas and New Year festivities and no longer qualified for membership. The company said it expelled 1,520 users from the US, 88 people from Russia, 832 from the UK, 176 from Turkey, 533 from Canada, 220 from Denmark, 510 from Poland, 323 from France, 425 from Germany and 402 from Italy. No one from India was ousted.
Beauty Meter
So how beautiful do you have to be to qualify? Beautifulpeople.com has a running meter which decides your attractiveness after you upload your picture. And for those “too ugly” to make it, there’s an option to tour the website as a guest. The existing members vote in new ones, who qualify if they get a certain number of votes. The site declares that its members never have to “filter through unattractive people on mainstream sites” and ‘guarantees’ that “your date will always be beautiful”.
Offended visitors
“Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded,” the site’s founder Robert Hintze reportedly said in a BBC interview. With 5,40,000 members from 16 countries and a traffic of 4 million visitors per day, the site also has a fair share of critics and anti-groups on social networking sites . Writes Laila Masiqbal, on Facebook group Say no to BeautifulPeople.com, “It is definitely not the sexiest website nor the most elite.” Max Randall, on Antibeautifulpeople.com writes, “What ignorance!” while Igor Zanetti from Croatia says, “It is pretty
stupid. Frustrated freaks.”
A blogger on iamugleeee says, “I hate this website. It’s like going back to the dark ages. Somebody please spam them!!!!” Shom Ray, director, eMakerz: E Branding Solutions, a Delhiite says, “They are discriminating on the basis on looks. Such sites should be banned.”
How to convert your videos to iTunes format for free?
Recently I have been asked similar questions that how to convert the videos to iTunes format for free. There are lots of video converter tools on the market which could convert videos, but not free. I've been looking everywhere all of the free video converters I found either convert part of the videos or leave a huge watermark logo on the video. After spent a couple of days on this, finally I found one called Aneesoft Free Video Converter which has perfect video quality for converting videos to iTunes MP4 video format for free.
It just takes some clicks to convert videos to iTunes format using this free video converter. Let me show to how to convert your videos to iTunes format step by step.
Step 1: Download & install Aneesoft Free Video Converter
We'll be using the very nice video converter software called Aneesoft Free Video Converter for converting videos to iTunes format, head over here and download the free trial version. Next step is to install the program.
Step 2: Run Free Video Converter and add videos
Now run Free Video Converter and click the big button "Add..." to add videos from your hard disk, you may add as many videos as you want to convert to iTunes format. Only the titles you checked will be converted.
Step 3: Edit & merge videos: trim, crop, add effect, add watermark
This video converter program has two versions. The free version is function-limited. If you'd like to edit and merge your videos, you need to upgrade to the pro version.
Step 4: Set the output iTunes format
iTunes supports MOV, MP4(MPEG-4), M4V, MPEG video formats. So we set the output format to "MP4-MPEG4 Video File(*.mp4)" for iTunes. You may also find a wide range of preset video formats for iPod, iPhone, PSP for pro version.
Step 5: Start converting videos to iTunes format for free
Now you may click the big button "Start" to begin converting videos to iTunes compatible video files. An "Upgrade to Aneesoft Video Converter Pro" window will pop up. If you wouldn't like to upgrade, just click "No, thanks" to continue converting your videos to iTunes format.
Once the convert is complete, Aneesoft Free Video Converter will place on your Desktop a new iTunes format version of your video that will play on the iTunes. Double-click the new file and play it to make sure it looks as you expect. I bet you'll surprise at the video quality, just like me.
How to protect your passwords?
Hi,
I found this new website which offers a program to encrypt your passwords.
http://www.lockidpass.com
Once you are on the website, you will need to take the following next steps to start using this program.
That’s it. This is the easiest way to protect your passwords. When you click on this button, your password is encrypted and locked to your computer
This means even if your password is compromised, it cannot be used from a different computer.
Hide an archive inside a picture with no special programs
Firstly you'll need to find two things: the first is a picture that you'll use to hide your file in, the second is the actual file you want to hide.
Put both in the same folder, open a command prompt and navigate there.
Once there you'll need to put your file that you want to hide inside a zip file (rar or zip will work just fine, put a password or whatever if you want too). After this type the following into the command prompt:
Code:copy /b display.png + secret_message.rar fake.png
where display.png is the picture in which you want to hide the file, secret_message.rar is the file you want to hide and fake.png is the file name that you want the result to be created as.
After this is done open the newly created image file in your paint package and verify that it opens correctly. To see the hidden file all you need to do is open it in your favorite compression program and your done! One hidden file that can be uploaded to image sites and so forth.
As I said you can also put a password on the rar hidden rar file in order to add extra protection.
Enjoy!
Download Youtube Videos by Simply using the "OK" Word
If you wanna move this - move - but I think it's fun stuff 
Download Youtube Videos by Simply using the "OK" Word
Hi all....
Download videos from youtube by typing "OK"
yeah,it's not a joke...
type "OK" between WWW. and youtube...
eg ..
Code: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2axRGjAW6bo
to
Code: http://www.OKyoutube.com/watch?v=2axRGjAW6bo
then Press enter...
you will be guided to download...
How to Keep Your PC Virus Free
Install a antivirus program on your computer. Norton and McAfee are two of the more popular software programs. When you purchase a computer one of these programs will be installed on the computer. The license will only last one year. You will need to pay for renewal after one year. The cost of the renewal is worth the security knowing your computer is safe from a virus. If you have more then one computer in your home then select the multiple pc for multiple years option. You will save money over the long run.
Run a malware program on your computer. There are plenty free versions on the internet. The program will search your computer for any malware that needs to be removed.
Set up Windows Internet Explorer to take advantage of some built in features.
- Delete browsing history on exit every time.
- Turn off pop-up blocker
- Review Microsoft security center. Is firewall turned on. Is automatic updates turned on. Is virus protection turned on.
An optional step is to install a utility program that helps keep your computer organized and running effectively. There are several products on the market. These programs help remove any unnecessary files that may remain on your computer, help fix errors that occur over time from using your computer daily, help improve system performance.
Develop a habit to run these programs on a daily/weekly basis. Virus and malware are always looking for opportunities to infect a computer.
How to prevent your pen drive from getting infected with Virus ?
Friends many of your PC/laptop's normally gets virus because of Pen Drives or USB devices (Even PC's who are not connected to network ). Some Virus like Ravmon Virus , Heap41a worm which are not detected by anti virus normally spreads mostly by the Pen Drives . In such a case what can you do to prevent your PC from getting infected with Virus that spreads through USB devices or Pen Drives ?
You can protect your PC by just following the simple steps below . It won't take much time.
* Connect your Pen Drive or USB drive to your computer .
* Now a dialogue window will popup asking you to choose among the options as shown in the figure.
* Don't choose any of them , Just simply click Cancel .
* Now go to Start--> Run and type cmd to open the Command Promt window .
* Now go to My Computer and Check the Drive letter of your USB drive or Pen Drive. ( E.g. If it is written Kingston (I
* In the Command Window ( cmd ) , type the drive letter: and Hit Enter .
* Now type dir/w/o/a/p and Hit Enter.
* You will get a list of files . In the list , search if anyone of the following do exist .
1. Autorun.inf
2. New Folder.exe
3. Bha.vbs
4. Iexplore.vbs
5. Info.exe
6. New_Folder.exe
7. Ravmon.exe
8. RVHost.exe or any other files with .exe Extension .
* If you find any one of the files above , Run the command attrib -h -r -s -a *.* and Hit Enter.
* Now Delete each File using the following Command del filename ( E.g del autorun.inf ) .
* That's it . Now just scan your USB drive with the anti virus you have to ensure that you made your Pen Drive free of Virus .
Now Unplug your Pen Drive or USB device and Plug it again to your Laptop/PC . Before removing your Pen Drive from others Computer , Don't forget to search for .exe files using the Windows search and remove them .
