Gizmodo Finds Microsoft’s Lauren….. Surprise, She’s An Actress

You might remember Lauren, you know the strangely cute in a quirky way woman who I’d screw into the mattress if given the chance was in a Microsoft commercial buying a 17″ laptop for under a $1000? Well, it turns out she’s an SAG eligible actress (which means that she is pretty established in the industry) according to Gizmodo:

According to her official website, “Lauren” (who is really Lauren De Long) “booked what she thought was a “Market and Research” job regarding laptops. But that’s not all she booked…actually Lauren found out they were shooting a national commercial! Tears, laughter and excitement greeted this new development.”

Paging through her website is an interesting experience. She looks hot way better on the web than in the Microsoft commercial which makes me want to bang her even more. So I wonder why they made her look kind of quirky for the commercial which in no way detracted from my desire to bang her.  In any case, this just crushed what little credibility the Microsoft ad had (Yeah, I know. Microsoft and credibility in the same sentence is an oxymoron). In the process, a star has been born….. At least for the next 15 minutes.

Oh by the way, she can’t talk about her experiences with the HP laptop because according to this post, she signed an NDA. How, convenient….

iPhone And BlackBerry To Get Skype

Surprise! The iPhone version of Skype will be hitting the streets tomorrow and the BlackBerry version will be hitting the streets in May. It only works over WiFi and requires you to have a headset to use it (rather than using the phone’s internal microphone and speaker), but it is interesting.

News.com took a good look at it and they do point out some missing features:

Skype left a few more skills out of its maiden iPhone voyage. SMS, setting up a conference calling group, purchasing SkypeOut credit directly, and being able to field a second incoming Skype call are a few. File transferring and getting Skype voicemail native on the phone are two more. We expect to see at least two of these added in the next version, but we’ll hope for more.

If anybody tries this out, please leave a comment and let us know.

Couple Sues Acer….. Says 1GB For Vista Isn’t Enough

A couple in Ohio has sued Acer America claiming that it deceived buyers by offering laptops with 1GB of RAM with Windows Vista on it:

“Acer’s defective notebooks are inherently defective in that they do not contain enough RAM to properly run Vista Premium despite being promoted and sold as a bundled product of both a notebook computer and a premium operating system,” the Wolphs’ lawsuit alleged. “As a result, the defective notebooks experience serious problems, including, but not limited to, freezing during use, crashing, requiring frequent restarts and experiencing slow load times.”

The Wolphs said they had to upgrade the Aspire to 2GB of RAM at an out-of-pocket cost of $157 to make the notebook usable.

Though this might sound weird, they do have a point…. Sort of. Vista only really starts to run decently if you throw 1.5GB of RAM or more at it from my experience. I will give them that. But even I wouldn’t call the machine defective because it only came with a gig of RAM. I think that to be a bit over the top considering that most computer companies that play at the $1000 or less end of the price spectrum put a barely passable amount of RAM in the computer to keep the price low. Besides, even when I purchased my MacBook Pro two years ago (which is hardly a low end computer), I bumped the RAM up to 4GB from the 2GB it came with in rather short order. In my experience, the stock amount of RAM is never enough.

I would expect this lawsuit to be dismissed rather quickly…. Although these days you never know.

Chinese Espionage Network Is Out For Your Bits [UPDATED]

According to the CBC, a group of Canadians have discovered a massive espionage network based in China that has “pwned” the computers of governments and private organizations in 103 countries:

The researchers said the spy network, dubbed GhostNet, infiltrated at least 1,295 computers, many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centres in India, Brussels, London and New York.

“Significantly, close to 30 per cent of the infected computers can be considered high-value and include the ministries of foreign affairs in Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan,” the researchers said.

Other compromised computers were discovered at embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan.

The list continues with the network infiltrating economic organizations in Southeast Asia, news organizations, and an unclassified computer located at NATO headquarters.

Although almost all the hackers were based in China, the researchers could not say whether they are working for the government.

Given that there’s very little that can be done in China without the approval of the government, it seems to me that it would be highly unlikely that the Chinese government isn’t somehow involved in this. But according to their sock puppet spokesperson, that’s not the case:

The spokesman, Wenqi Gao, told The New York Times these are “old stories” and “nonsense.”

Sure. As if we really expected you to say anything else.

In any case, the victims get marware installed on their computers via an e-mail. Once the marware has set up shop, the hackers have full control of the infected computers. They can look at e-mails, documents, and even turn on a webcam or microphone. Oh by the way, there’s currently no way for you to detect this marware.

Scary stuff!

I hope that the research team releases what it knows on this marware to anti-virus makers so that we can be fully protected against this threat. I also hope that serious attempts are made to bring this network down.

UPDATE: Meet the guys who discovered this threat. You can also get more details about how they got the 411 on this threat as well, including the use of a very elite tool to track down the hackers: Google.

Firefox 3.0.8 Hits The Streets To Fix Zero Day Exploits…. That’s Fast!

It’s only been a short amount of time since Firefox 3.0.7 hit the streets and there’s a new update available to download. Firefox 3.0.8 fixes two zero day exploits. I wonder if these exploits have anything to do with the fact that Firefox was “pwned” in the recent Pwn2Own competition. I checked the official Mozilla blog and it doesn’t say. In any case, the release notes that explain what was fixed are here. You can download the latest version by going to Help and choosing Check For Updates or by going here.

Microsoft Goes After Apple In A Big Way….. The Fanbois Strike Back

Microsoft who is likely sick of getting punted around in Mac vs. PC ads has launched this ad last night. The premise: A cute in a quirky sort of way woman who I wouldn’t mind getting into bed is sent to look for computer with a 17″ screen for under $1000.  If she can find it, Microsoft will pay for it. Here’s the ad:

It’s an interesting premise and already it’s generated a reaction from the Apple Fanbois. One fanboi via Gizmodo has offered Lauren his 17″ Mac Powerbook laptop:

I recently watched the new PC ad on television the other night about “Lauren” purchasing a laptop for under $1000.00. It was a great advertisement targeting everyday PC users. My only concern is that I feel the computer “Lauren” chose will not provide an overall positive experience. I am asking for your assistance to help me locate “Lauren”. I am willing to give her my 17″ Mac laptop “FOR FREE” so she can decide which laptop is superior without putting a price tag on it.

Good luck with that dude. It looks like she’s gone to the PC side of the fence.

Oh, the assault on Apple continues online as well. I took a surf to the New York Times website and saw this:

Note the banner ad above the masthead. Web surfers can spin a wheel and compare what they can buy for the same amount of money. In each case, users can get a Mac and, say, pocket lint, or they can get a PC and two other things of value.

That’s very agressive.

Expect an Apple ad out shortly to counter this as acting God CEO Tim Cook is unlikely to let this go unchallenged.

Conficker: Everything You Need To Know

On April 1, a malicious piece of code called Conficker (A.K.A. Kido or Downup) is expected to try to connect to a control center and do “something.” Nobody knows what yet, but whatever it is, it can’t be good. Estimates say that as many as 10 million PCs are infected with this piece of code.

How do you protect yourself? I’d do the following:

1. UPDATE YOUR COMPUTER! This is vital as the code gets in via unpatched computers. So run Windows Update ASAP.
2. Scan you computer with an online virus scanner such as Trend Micro’s Housecall to make sure you’re clean.

What happens if you are infected? I would recommend calling a computer professional or checking these links from Symantec for removal instructions:

W32.Downadup.A writeup
W32.Downadup.B writeup
W32.Downadup.C writeup

There’s also this removal tool that I have mentioned previously.

If anybody has any other advice that can be helpful to users, please leave a comment and share your wisdom.

Winner Of Pwn2Own Says Macs Are Still Safer Despite The Fact That He Hacked One In Seconds…. Fanbois Jump For Joy

Charlie Miller who won the Pwn2Own contest at CanSecWest this year by cracking a MacBook wide open in seconds sat down for an interview with Tomshardware.com recently. In that interview, he stated the following:

” I’ll leave Linux out of the equation since I know my grandma couldn’t run it. Between Mac and PC, I’d say that Macs are less secure for the reasons we’ve discussed here (lack of anti-exploitation technologies) but are more safe because there simply isn’t much malware out there. For now, I’d still recommend Macs for typical users as the odds of something targeting them are so low that they might go years without seeing any malware, even though if an attacker cared to target them it would be easier for them.“

That’s sure to make the fanbois out there really happy. But I would hardly call that a ringing recommendation.

Oh what’s his recommendations about security? I think you might find his comment interesting:

For all OS’s, make sure you keep your system up to date. That’s the best thing you can do. On a PC, I’d recommend running some AV software to help clean up when things go bad. Otherwise, just be smart, pay attention, and hope for the best. It is possible to really lock down your computer (running noscript for example) and make it safer, but in my opinion it’s not worth the trouble and the loss of functionality you experience.

That’s not exactly comforting. But at least you can reduce your chances of getting “pwned.”

I would recommend reading the rest of the interview as it contains a ton of interesting insights.

BlackBerry Is The Smartphone Of Choice For Criminals Says CBC

According to the CBC, if you’re up to no good and you need to make sure that the cops can’t find out about your evil activities, there’s only one thing to do. Go out and get yourself a BlackBerry along with BlackBerry Enterprise Server:

The problem is that BlackBerry smartphones, designed by Waterloo, Ont.-based Research In Motion initially for corporate clients, run software called the BlackBerry Enterprise Server that creates a secure and private network and encrypts data.

Police say criminals are using additional layers of encryption with other types of software, bringing the encryption level up to military grade.

As a result of this. Canadian cops want backdoors put into the software and devices so that they can spy on the “evil doers” when required:

Liberal MP Marlene Jennings said police have been asking for years for legislation that would force internet and wireless providers to use technology that can be tapped.

“Law enforcement needs it, Canadians need it; it’s an essential tool for the battle against crime,” she told CBC News Tuesday.

This really sounds like a rehash of the India vs. RIM circus from last year. Besides, the reason why people love the BlackBerry is that besides being like a powerful drug that gets you addicted to e-mail, it is secure. People who care about that will ditch the Blackberry if backdoors are added to the devices and software:

“There’s obviously many businesses that are willing to use these devices because they’re comfortable with the security attached to them,” said [Michael] Geist, who holds a Canada Research Chair of internet and e-commerce law.

“Many individuals, as well, I think, would be reluctant to use mobile email devices if there was concern that third parties might be able to access it.”

The Canadian government better think long and hard about how best to handle this, or they may end up killing a big Canadian success story.

Apple Releases Fix For 17″ MacBook Pros With Graphics Issues

If you’ve got one of the 17″ MacBook Pros that has the Nvidia 9600M graphics chipset that has been known to be problematic, then run to Software Update as fast as you can. Apple has released a update that apparently fixes this issue:

This firmware update is recommended for all 17-inch MacBook Pro (Early 2009) users and addresses the appearance of vertical lines or distorted graphics on the notebook display.

Wow! There’s more detail in that one sentence than I’m used to seeing from Apple. I guess they couldn’t keep saying that their updates contain “bug fixes” without bloggers like me writing about how craptastic that is. In any case, we’ll see if fixes the issues with the 9600M in these notebooks. I’ll be monitoring the Apple Discussion Boards for that info.