P2P-Zone - Oct 13, 2005

Police deactivate network of 100,000 'zombie' PCs

Three men have been arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of controlling a vast illegal computer network made up of more than 100,000 "zombie" personal computers.

The colossal scale of the network indicates the growing sophistication of computer crooks, whose motivation is to make money via spam email, online extortion and identity theft.

Hmm, I know of one Duchie....

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8145

A good day in space for China’s taikonauts

The two Chinese taikonauts who blasted into orbit on the Shenzhou VI spacecraft on Wednesday have successfully completed the first of a planned five days in space.

Former fighter pilots Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng blasted off on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in north-west China at 0900 local time (0100 GMT).

About nine hours later, they moved from the re-entry capsule at the centre of the craft into the front orbital module, where they will spend most of their mission, according to the country’s official news agency, Xinhua.

They have already surpassed China's first crewed spaceflight in October 2003 in both flight time and onboard activities. In the previous Shenzhou V flight, taikonaut Yang Liwei spent the entire 21-hour flight strapped into the re-entry capsule, eating cold food and essentially using a diaper to relieve himself.

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8148

Microsoft plugs Windows worm holes

Microsoft on Tuesday issued fixes for 14 flaws in Windows, including a security hole that one expert says is ripe for exploitation by a major worm.

The majority of the vulnerabilities addressed in nine security bulletins from Microsoft require some user interaction for an attack to succeed. That means an attacker would have to trick people into visiting a malicious Web site, clicking on a bad link or opening a malformed file to exploit the security holes.

However, the vulnerabilities rated "critical" may allow a system to be compromised remotely without any user interaction. One such flaw, described in Microsoft's MS05-051 security bulletin, lies in a Windows component for transaction processing called the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator, or MSDTC.

"Time for an updatd." ----> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../MS05-051.mspx
More:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5893344.html

Apple unveils video iPod

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Apple Computer Inc. introduced an iPod capable of playing videos on Wednesday, evolving the portable music player of choice into a multimedia platform for everything from TV shows to music videos.

Videos will now be sold online alongside songs on Apple's iTunes store.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/1....ap/index.html

EU seeks online music license

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Union called on Europe's music industry Wednesday to create EU-wide copyright licenses for online music, saying this would boost demand for legal downloads.

"These licenses will make it easier for new European-based online services to take off," EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said.

Music copyrights are currently collected by national agencies, but the emergence of online music services such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes means there is growing demand for a license that covers all 25 EU nations.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/interne....ap/index.html

New AT&T Comcast Information Raises Concerns About Future of the Internet

Comcast and AT&T Refuse to Reveal Terms of AOL ISP Agreement
Washington, DC -- In an article released 9/16 in Electronic Media magazine, Diane Mermigas raises new concerns about the AOL agreement with AT&T Comcast to gain access to its high-speed Internet network. At stake now is not only the Internet service provider's ability to create a relationship with its subscribers, but to offer the very services that distinguish broadband from dial-up Internet access. A dangerous precedent is being set that will have negative implications for the future of the Internet and the public interest

http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/...TTComcast.html

Google, Comcast in talks to invest in AOL

Google and Comcast are in discussions to buy a minority stake in Time Warner's America Online, two sources close to the deal said Wednesday.

The combination would marry Time Warner's trove of programming and Google's popular search and e-mail services with Comcast's high-speed Internet portal and experience in cable video distribution and telecommunications.

http://news.com.com/Google%2C+Comcas...l?tag=nefd.top

Microsoft-Yahoo alliance is food for IM worms

The planned bridge between MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger has one drawback, experts warn: It could act as a conduit for a massive IM worm outbreak.

On Wednesday, Microsoft and Yahoo announced that they would make their instant-messaging services interoperable. By the middle of next year, users of both are expected to be able to exchange instant messages, see if their contacts are online, share emoticons, add friends from either service and make PC-to-PC voice calls.

But the partnership has a flipside, an instant-messaging security expert said. "As Microsoft, Yahoo and others connect their global IM networks, IM worms will spread faster and attack a larger population of end-users," said Jon Sakoda, chief technology officer at messaging security company IMlogic.

http://news.com.com/Experts+Microsof...l?tag=nefd.top