YouTube became unavailable to the whole wide web for two grueling hours last Sunday due to a Pakistani government policy. The BBC has reported that Pakistan Telecom and national ISP, PCCW were directed by the Pakistani Government to block local access to video site, youtube.com for it’s offensive content. Pakistan Telecom disabled local users to access the said site while redirecting them to another site.

One way or another, the blocking leaked from Pakistan to other ISPs around the globe, hence the unavailability of the whole world to view precious youtube videos. ISPs cannot do anything to fix this mess as they don’t have control over it (OpenDNS).

Owner of Google, YouTube’s parent company said that “Traffic to YouTube was routed according to erroneous Internet protocols, and many users around the world could not access our site,” it said. “We have determined that the source of these events was a network in Pakistan. We are investigating and working with others in the Internet community to prevent this from happening again.”

By Lisa Vaas

An attacker could exploit the flaw with a malicious MP4 file to trigger the buffer overflow.

Even as Microsoft prepared to release critical updates for flaws in multimedia frameworks and APIs, proof-of-concept exploit code came out over the weekend that shows how an attacker can target the Winamp multiformat media player, a media player from Nullsoft that runs on Windows and is second only to Windows Media Player in worldwide popularity.

Symantec on Dec. 8 produced a security advisory warning that attackers can take over systems due to a vulnerability in how Winamp processes some MP4 files. Nullsoft has since addressed the issue, which boils down to a buffer overflow problem, in Winamp 5.35. The problem affects Winamp 5.02 through 5.34.

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Just go to your preferences menu: Tools > Options for PC users or Cmd + , for Apple users, and go to the privacy tab. Just click on the radio button “Only people whom I have authorized” button to the “Allow instant messages from” option. And if you’re really in to it, why not click it for all the categories!

Let’s see if these spammers get past this trick! Just some note for reference, by enabling this feature, it will disable people that you haven’t added to message you. Add them up for you to be able to Skype away!

In an FBI press release, Assistant Director of the agency’s Cyber Division, Jana Monroe says, “Bogus e-mails that try to trick customers into giving out personal information are the hottest, and most troubling, new scam on the Internet.

The FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) has seen a steady increase in complaints that involve some form of unsolicited e-mail directing consumers to a phony “Customer Service” type of web site. Assistant Director Monroe said that the scam is contributing to a rise in identity theft, credit card fraud, and other Internet frauds.

“Spoofing,” or “phishing,” frauds attempt to make Internet users believe that they are receiving e-mail from a specific, trusted source, or that they are securely connected to a trusted web site, when that is not the case.

Continue reading from:� usgovinfo.about.com

BitDefender was an excellent performer among security suites, but it’s best for experts who don’t need guidance regarding security extras and pop-up alerts and who don’t mind through interface.

BitDefender Internet Security 2008 ($40 for one PC, $50 for three PCs) pairs shining success with disappointing failure. It outperformed every other suite in crucial malware detection tests, unmasked every rootkit sample, and finished second among the eight suites evaluated for our “All-in-One Security Suites: Tried and Tested” roundup on a separate spyware and adware detection test.

But this stellar performance behind the scenes was seriously marred by an unpleasant user experience. From aggravations with the initial installation to difficulties with warning pop-ups, BitDefender’s flaws are hard to brush off.

Continue reading more from: PCWorld.com

It is apparent that support costs will continue to increase in direct proportion to the concurrent services offered still as carriers look to add more and more services to their portfolios. The number of support calls increases in proportion as the number of services increases. For the communications providers these increased problems come at a time when call centers are trying to increase service levels and first call resolution ratios. Using a web conferencing solution is one simple way to achieve these goals.  Through the use of Web Conferencing, I learned what Motorola is doing to help service providers and call centers of various sizes with the support issues.

The society ranges from prehistoric times to the fall of Rome (476 C.E) and it includes Western and non-Western cultures and civilizations. There is sixty-nine articles that cover the wealth of relevant topics such as art, economy, government, military, religion, scandals and writing.  With an introductory survey, each well-crafted piece begins, and then views developments in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. Meticulous cross-references and further-reading lists that include accurate Web sites should be appended in the Articles. The additional highlights are the primary-source documents, sidebars with supplementary instructive material, numerous black-and-white photos and illustrations, and clear maps.

According to Websense, there are a lot of reasons for spammers to favor using GMail:

“…that from the spammers’ perspective, there are four main advantages to this approach. First, signing up for an account with Google allows access to its wide portfolio of services. Second, Google’s domains are unlikely to be blacklisted. Third, they are free to sign up. And fourth, it may be hard to keep track of them as millions of users worldwide are using various Google services on a regular basis.”

There are actions made by GMail to fix this problem as they come up with different methods in preventing such scam. GMail has invited certain users to have their closed beta test to intensify their security system

By Ryan Narain

A hacker finds a way to use a booby-trapped Web page to trick Google Toolbar users into adding malicious buttons to the browser.

A dialog spoofing vulnerability in the popular Google Toolbar could be exploited by malicious hackers to execute malicious files or launch identity theft attacks, according to a warning from security researcher Aviv Raff.

Raff, a well-known hacker who regularly finds and reports software vulnerabilities, figured out a way to use a booby-trapped Web page to trick Google Toolbar users into adding malicious buttons to the toolbar.

In an IM interview with eWEEK, Raff said multiple versions of the toolbar allows spoofed information to be presented to the user when adding a new browser toolbar icon/button.

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Mi5 Networks’ Webgate appliance provides URL filtering, antivirus scanning, malware protection, and limited file leakage protection.

By Adam Ely

The internet can be a great productivity tool. It’s also a prime source of trouble. From Web-based malware to inappropriate use of the Internet at the office, today’s enterprises need to protect themselves from Internet misuse.

Mi5 Networks, named after Britain’s domestic security service, offers a single-appliance approach to solving the problems the Internet creates. Providing URL filtering, antivirus scanning, malware protection and cleaning, and limited file leakage protection, the Webgate Web security appliance advertises zero latency while protecting systems and company data. We tested the Webgate 005 model.

Webgate is a competent URL and malware filter that does its job without adding latency to network traffic. It detects and blocks inbound threats. It’s also useful for blocking outbound traffic, such as botnet or spam activity. And it includes a malware cleaning tool to remove infections.

Continue reading from� InformationWeek.com