Monthly Archives: January 2012

Massive Android malware op may have infected 5 million users

The largest-ever Android malware campaign may have duped as many as 5 million users into downloading infected apps from Google’s Android Market, Symantec said today.

Dubbed “Android.Counterclank” by Symantec, the malware was packaged in 13 different apps from three different publishers, with titles ranging from “Sexy Girls Puzzle” to “Counter Strike Ground Force.” Many of the infected apps were still available on the Android Market as of 3 p.m. ET Friday.

“They don’t appear to be real publishers,” Kevin Haley, a director with Symantec’s security response team, said in an interview today. “These aren’t rebundled apps, as we’ve seen so many times before.”

Haley was referring to a common tactic by Android malware makers to repackage a legitimate app with attack code, then re-release it to the marketplace in the hope that users will confuse the fake with the real deal.

Symantec estimated the impact by combining the download totals — which the Android Market shows as ranges — of the 13 apps, arriving at a figure between 1 million on the low end and 5 million on the high. “Yes, this is the largest malware [outbreak] on the Android Market,” said Haley.

Android.Counterclank is a Trojan horse that when installed on an Android smartphone collects a wide range of information, including copies of the bookmarks and the handset maker. It also modifies the browser’s home page.

The hackers have monetized the malware by pushing unwanted advertisements to compromised Android phones.

Although the infected apps request an uncommonly large number of privileges — something that the user must approve — Haley argued that few people bother reading them before giving their okay.

“If you were the suspicious type, you might wonder why they’re asking for permission to modify the browser or transmit GPS coordinates,” said Haley. “But most people don’t bother.”

Android.Counterclank is a minor variation on an older Android Trojan horse called Android.Tonclank that was discovered in June 2011.

Some of the 13 apps that Symantec identified as infected have been on the Android Market for at least a month, according to the revision dates posted on the e-store. Symantec, however, discovered them only yesterday.

Users had noticed something fishy before then.

“The game is decent … but every time you run this game, a ’search icon gets added randomly to one of your screens,” said one user on Jan. 16 after downloading “Deal & Be Millionaire,” one of the 13. “I keep deleting the icon, but it always reappears. If you tap the icon you get a page that looks suspiciously like the Google search page.”

Android users have hammered one of the infected apps with low review scores, calling it ‘crap.’

All 13 suspected apps are free for the downloading.

Symantec’s researchers have told Google of their discovery, said Haley. Google, however, did not immediately reply to questions and a request for confirmation on the security firm’s claims.

Haley said Symantec’s researchers are still “peeling back the layers of the onion,” and added that the company would publish more information on the threat as it unearthed details. “What’s interesting here is that instead of taking legitimate apps, [malware authors] have created apps similar to legitimate ones,” said Haley. “That, and the big numbers of downloads, of course.”

Symantec has published a list of the 13 infected apps on its website.

http://computerworld.com.ph/massive-android-malware-op-may-have-infected-5-million-users/

News from Computerworld , Philippines.

Google Slammed for Tainting Search to Hype Google+ Social Networking

Google’s attempt to force its social network, Google+, upon search users is backfiring, as tech pundits and tech companies slam the search giant for neglecting its core mission.

Most complaints stem from Search Plus Your World, a new feature that shows Google+ data alongside generic search results. So for example, if you search for “restaurant,” you might see pictures of food and status updates about dining out from people in your Google+ circles.

The new feature has angered other social networks, who feel like they should be represented in search results alongside Google+. Earlier this week, engineers from Facebook and Twitter–in conjunction with other social networks–released a tool called “Don’t Be Evil.” The tool inserts results from other networks into Search Plus Your World.

It’s Good to Make Google Look Bad?

Of course, Facebook and Twitter have competitive reasons for making Google look bad. The bigger problem, as MG Siegler argues, is that Google is sacrificing its own search relevance by putting Google+ on a pedestal. “If you search for Hugh Jackman, you may be looking for a lot of things, but you’re almost certainly not looking for his Google+ profile page,” Siegler writes. “And yet, that’s exactly what’s shoved in your face.”

PandoDaily’s Sarah Lacy takes this idea a step further, arguing that Google’s core mission of providing the best possible search results has changed. As evidence, she points to an interview with Google co-founder and current CEO Larry Page, published in Playboy before the company went public:

“Most portals show their own content above content elsewhere on the web. We feel that’s a conflict of interest, analogous to taking money for search results,” Page said. “Their search engine doesn’t necessarily provide the best results; it provides the portal’s results.”

As Lacy points out, Google has become the kind portal Page once spoke out against, by promoting its own social network results above all others.

Meanwhile, Slate’s Farhad Manjoo argues that Google shouldn’t be combining social network data with generic search results in the first place. “While my friends are thoughtful and knowledgeable people, their views on the tens of thousands of large and small inquiries that I bring to Google every year are almost always irrelevant,” Manjoo wrote. Again, Google’s relevance is being questioned.

Fortunately for users like Manjoo, you can disable Google’s Search Plus Your World results by clicking the globe icon near the top-right corner of the screen. (It says “Hide personal results” when you float the cursor over it.)

Google Losing Sight of Core Job: Search Results?

Still, Google’s relentless focus on Google+ may be distracting the company from improving core search results, SearchEngineLand’s Danny Sullivan argues. Sullivan points out how a recent search for “Santorum” includes a spammy YouTube video as Google’s top video pick, appearing on the first page of search results. This is despite the existence of much more relevant videos about presidential hopeful Rick Santorum elsewhere on the Web.

Although this bad result has nothing to do with Google+, “this type of relevancy screw-up feels like another bit of evidence that Google’s original core mission, delivering awesome search results, is being forgotten,” Sullivan writes.

Strangely, Google has met these attacks only with silence. That’s quite a difference from a year ago, when pundits were attacking “content farms,” and Google promised to work on the issue. It’s easy to address search relevance issues when they’re being caused by outside sources. But when Google itself is under fire for sabotaging its own search relevance, the company is short on answers.

http://computerworld.com.ph/google-slammed-for-tainting-search-to-hype-google-social-networking

News from Computerworld , Philippines.

PCs Are Selling Just Fine, Thank You

With tablets and smartphones generating so much buzz these days, it’s easy to write off the good old personal computer as a dying platform. However, the latest numbers from the NPD Group show that the PC market is doing “pretty well.”

Last year, the number of PCs sold, which includes both laptops and desktops, increased by 20 percent, while revenues jumped 14 percent, according to the market watch group. Shipments for the period also increased by 20 percent.

Within those numbers, however, are some interesting nuggets that further point to a healthy PC market, according to NPD Vice President for Industry Analysis Stephen Baker.

For example, the average selling price for laptop PCs was $764 in 2011. That’s a five-percent drop from 2010, but $4 higher than 2009, which was the height of the recession.

Desktops did even better. Average selling price was $638, down three percent from 2010 and up $13 from 2009.

While sellers prefer the prices of what they’re selling to increase rather than decrease, Baker maintains PC prices are a positive story for computer makers. “Finding stable pricing anywhere in the IT hardware marketplace is a difficult task but in such a high-profile market as the PC market it is impressive,” he said.

Outlook Better for 2012?

If last year was a decent year for PCs, this year has the potential to be even better. That’s because both the laptop and desktop markets will see some hot new products.

Slim, sleek, eye-catching Ultrabooks will try to entice consumers to upgrade from their clunky laptops.
On the desktop side, all-one-computers with the same kind of design pizzazz as their Ultrabook counterparts will tantalize keyboard jockeys who are tired of tangles of cables and space-hogging tower boxes.

And tying it all together will be a new operating system from Microsoft, Windows 8, which promises to bring to the PC a lot of what makes mobile devices so popular.

All that adds up to a PC revival and disappointment for writers of PC epitaphs.

http://computerworld.com.ph/pcs-are-selling-just-fine-thank-you/

News from Computerworld , Philippines.

Twitter’s country-specific blocking brings hazards and hope

SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter’s move to comply with government requests and block tweets in specific countries could blunt its edge as a political tool, but there may be an upside in helping to unmask censorship, some privacy experts said Friday.

Twitter now has the ability to remove a tweet from its users’ feeds in a particular country, according to a company blog post on Thursday. Twitter said it hasn’t done so yet but might act on a government’s request. Previously, Twitter could only block a message all over the world.

After Twitter’s role in helping protesters in Egypt and other countries to organize revolts that overthrew dictators, the prospect of the company complying with foreign governments’ speech restrictions has alarmed some observers.

The danger of making Twitter conform to the contours of local expression, as drawn by national governments, is that the very freedom that has made the service such a powerful tool for change in the past may not be there next time, said Craig Newman, an attorney at the New York law firm Richards Kibbe & Orbe.

“It is going to make it a lot more difficult for people to use Twitter to get information out of countries if that information violates the country’s content restrictions,” Newman said.

However, Twitter also said it will notify users when a tweet or account has been blocked and will disclose the source and details of the request on the website of Chilling Effects, a project that tracks constraints on online content.

Its openness could make the new policy a double-edged sword, according to Newman. “This could create a window into censorship in other countries,” he said.

“It’s a mixed bag,” said Eva Galperin, an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet civil rights group that has long advocated for freedom of expression online. EFF helped to establish Chilling Effects, though it’s no longer involved in its operation. Twitter’s transparency may help to balance out the danger of suppressing voices, she said.

“By giving activists a way to track Internet censorship on Twitter, they are giving us a tool with which to go after the real culprits, which are the governments that have these censorship laws,” Galperin said.

On Friday, Twitter defended the new steps in an update to its blog post.

“In short, we believe the new, more granular approach to withheld content is a good thing for freedom of expression, transparency, accountability — and for our users. Besides allowing us to keep Tweets available in more places, it also allows users to see whether we are living up to our freedom of expression ideal,” Twitter said.

EFF encouraged Twitter to start disclosing that information last year. The company follows in the footsteps of Google, which notifies users when it has blocked a search term in response to a legal request. Some other social media companies, such as Facebook, don’t mark where information has been removed.

“Most companies approach this issue by preventing certain content from being shown to users in the countries where it is illegal. That is our approach as well,” Facebook said in a statement sent via email Friday.

Twitter already removes some tweets in response to requests based on copyright issues. It now provides the text of those requests on a Twitter section of the Chilling Effects site.

Twitter’s expansion into other countries, with actual operations on the ground, is at the heart of the issue, according to Newman and Galperin. Twitter currently has operations in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan.

“Once Twitter starts opening offices in other countries, it is bound by their laws, including their somewhat different ideas about what you can and can’t publish online,” Galperin said. Once the company has employees in a given country, defying the government could put their employees at risk, she said.

“This creates a hugely difficult ethical question for Twitter and for Internet companies in general,” Newman said.

http://computerworld.com.ph/twitters-country-specific-blocking-brings-hazards-and-hope/

News from Computerworld ,Philippines

Industry has been slow to respond to Apple’s Macbook Air: Juniper

SYDNEY – The tablet market is going to face some stiff competition from Ultrabooks over the next five years, according to analyst firm, Juniper Research.

The new report, titled Ultrabooks & Mobile Computing – Strategies & Forecasts 2012-2016, predicts that shipments of Ultrabooks will grow three times compared to tablets over the next five years. While 178 million Ultrabooks are expected to be shipped in 2016, the fact is that this number is still expected to be dwarfed by shipments of 253 million tablets.

An interesting finding the report made was that despite the glut of tablets competing for Apple’s iPad crown, vendors have been slow to respond to the release of the ultra thin Macbook Air in 2008.

“Leading vendors only launched the first Ultrabooks, a new category in mobile computing driven by the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, Intel, in late 2011,” report author, Daniel Ashdown, said.

While the industry is buzzing after the reveal of new products at CES, the report still foresees a number of challenges that need to be overcome by the industry.

“As we have seen in the tablet market, without products which are significantly differentiated from those of Apple in terms of price and features, gaining traction for its competitors is a difficult value proposition,” Ashdown added.

Intel’s Ultrabook branding has helped the thin and compact notebooks stand out from traditional ones, though Juniper’s report has discovered that vendors still need to come to grips with the product strategy.

Specifically, the issue vendors have stems from Intel’s specification and how it helps to secure brand status and funding, and how it has made many of today’s Ultrabooks too expensive for many consumers.

Other key discoveries in the report include vendors augmenting solid state drives in Ultrabooks with hard disk drives or cloud storage in the long term for superior performance at a price, and that Microsoft’s latest operating system refresh, Windows 8, will be the catalyst to drive mass market Ultrabook adoption thanks to features such as extended battery life and always-on-always-connected capability.

As for the future outlook of Netbooks, Juniper has foreseen shipments to only comprise a third of today’s volumes by 2016.

The popularity of Tablets, as well as low-cost, high performance notebooks, is expected to further cannabalise the segment which experience a brief spate of popularity a few years ago.

http://computerworld.com.ph/industry-has-been-slow-to-respond-to-apples-macbook-air-juniper/

News from Computerworld ,Philippines

E-tag system for buses, jeeps eyed

MANILA, Philippines – The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is now considering the use of an electronic tagging (e-tagging) system for public utility vehicles.

This, after transport groups like 1-UTAK, Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines (FEJODAP), Pasang Masda, Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (ACTO), the Association of Taxi Operators, South Luzon Bus Operators Association (SOLUBOA) and several others made the proposal to use e-tagging on their units instead of the paint tagging scheme.

According to transport groups, e-tagging will only cost them P480 per unit, while paint tagging costs P1,500 to P2,000 for jeepneys and P3,000 to P4,000 for buses.

Ten vehicles were used to test the electronic tagging technology on Wednesday at the EDSA-Orense loading bay.

The tags were connected to a database which will show vehicle information such as the plate number, the name of the driver, vehicle owner and a date/time stamp.

But according to technology provider Lightspeed, the information can still be customized based on the requirements of the MMDA.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said he wants other information, like the franchise number and violation records, to be detected as well.

The transport groups will be the ones to shoulder the expenses and donate some 20 to 40 fixed and handheld readers to the MMDA. The MMDA will be the custodian of the database.

However, the proposal has yet to be approved by the Metro Manila council. Once approved, the tagging may be started within 2 weeks and may last up to 6 months.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/01/25/12/e-tag-system-buses-jeeps-eyed

News from ABS|CBN News.com

US bill on outsourcing will have impact on PH: Palace

MANILA, Philippines – A bill in the US Congress discouraging American companies from outsourcing call center operations would have an impact on the business process outsourcing industry (BPO) in the Philippines, a Palace spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said she has not yet read a draft of the proposed measure in US Congress, but its implications would be discussed.

“Obviously magkakaroon ng impact ‘yan sa atin because BPO is one of the major industries now in the Philippines and we have a large part of companies coming from not just in other countries but mainly from the United States,” Valte said.

“We would have to discuss possibly the implications as well as the concurrent actions that will have to be done. I will speak to our counterparts in the Department of Foreign Affairs for this mainly also in DTI (Department of Trade and Industry.”

The US bill proposes to make companies that have call centers overseas ineligible for grants and guaranteed loans from the federal government.  It also proposes a $10,000 a day penalty on US call centers that fail to report its relocation to an offshore location within 60 days to the Labor department.

Also under the bill, call center operators will be required to identify their location. Callers will also be allowed to choose an operator who is based in the US.

The country is now the world’s second destination of BPO services next to India.

The Philippine BPO industry has grown to a $10 billion industry over the last decade, employing over half a million people in financial services, human resources, IT and software development, management services, engineering design, animation and other sectors.

Last year, revenues from the BPO and Information Technology industry reached $9 billion. -

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/01/04/12/us-bill-outsourcing-will-have-impact-ph-palace

Report from Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News

Assumption alumna is new head of IBM Phils

MANILA, Philippines – A Fordham University graduate and Assumption College alumna has been named IBM Philippines’ first female country manager.

Mariels Almeda Winhoffer started her career in IBM 26 years ago. Born and raised in Manila, she studied elementary and high school at Assumption College. She earned a double degree in Finance and Computer Science cum laude from Fordham University.

She succeeds James Velasquez, who was appointed Director for Maintenance and Technical Support, IBM Global Technology Services IBM ASEAN.

Almeda Winhoffer said she is excited to be back in her home country, especially as the company celebrates its 75th anniversary in the Philippines.

“Leveraging its rich natural resources and talent, many markets seek the Philippines as an extension and expansion of their operations.  IBM is committed to support and ensure that the Philippines is prepared to embrace these opportunities and achieve sustainable growth through its Smarter Planet agenda,” she said.

Almeda Winhoffer has held various executive posts within IBM including Vice President and Business Development Executives leader for the Industrial Sector, Client Relationship Executives leader for Global Technology Services (GTS) Strategic Outsourcing, as well as Services leader for Electronics and Automotive accounts – all based in the USA.

She was named one of the 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business in 2009 by the Asian American Business Development Center.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/01/09/12/assumption-alumna-new-head-ibm-phils

News form ABS|CBN News.

 

Lawmaker wants free SMS alerts during disasters

MANILA, Philippines – In the hopes to avoid calamities similar to what struck the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan almost 2 weeks ago, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño sees proposed House Bill No. 5660 as a possible solution.

The bill, otherwise known as the Free Mobile Alerts Act, seeks to mandate telecommunication companies to provide free alerts through short message systems (SMS) to people in areas that may be affected by impending natural disasters.

In a phone interview, Casiño said that the bill ensures that localized alerts will be sent to subscribers of telecommunication companies free of charge.

“The information relayed by these companies will come from disaster authorities, either from regional councils or national coordinating councils on disaster,” he said.

He added that expenses incurred for the free text alerts will be shouldered by different telecommunication companies and their franchise, saying that “it is their obligation to provide such free service in areas affected by calamities.”

He also explained that funds will not seem to pose an issue as areas prone to natural disasters are selected. “The more important matter for discussion here is coordination and the seriousness of companies in providing public service.”

However, in a separate interview with Globe Telecoms vice-president for Public Relations, Yoly Crisano, she disclosed that a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between all telecommunication companies and the National Disaster Risk Reduction Committe (NDRRMC) exists.

Signed this year, the MOA saw the activation of a text hotline with number 1456 to be used for disaster preparedness.

“What the NDRRMC does is they use this four digit number to be able to send text messages to people who are actually endangered and allow them to prepare for disasters,” Crisano explained.

Unfortunately, the last time the hotline was utilized was during the surge of tropical storm Quiel which caused massive flooding in Bulacan, Pampanga and other Luzon provinces.

Casiño’s bill, on the other hand, does not limit information from the NDRRMC alone.

Should the bill be enacted into law, it would also include alerts from other agencies including the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astornomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Siemology (PHIVOLCS) and other relevant agencies.

He also said that despite telecommunication companies saying that an existing MOA exists, the latter is not being fully utilized.

“The way I see it, this is not objectionable. In fact they consider this as part of their corporate social responsibility. We want to make this their obligation,” he added.

Crisano expressed their company’s support to the bill especially if it means being able to help Filipinos in typhoon prone areas.

“We have been very supportive of the moves of government to help countrymen, especially those in the provinces,” she said.

Crisano added that once information about the bill has been relayed to them, their first course of action is to study the bill and take into consideration public service.

The Free Mobile Alerts Act will be given priority come January 16 when Congress will resume session.

Casiño said that the bill will be one of those given priority by the Committee on Information and Communication Technology especially now that Visayas and Mindanao are threatened by another typhoon.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/12/28/11/lawmaker-wants-free-sms-alerts-during-disasters

News form ABS|CBN News.com