An extremely dangerous flaw dubbed Stagefright, has been discovered within the Multimedia Text Message (MMS) capabilities on Android phones running OS 2.2 and later. This appears to affect about 95 per cent of android phones.What Does Stagefright Do?If you have Auto Download capabilities enabled on your text messaging application on your Android phone, an attacker can send an MMS, which can be a photo, video or other piece of media to the device containing malicious code, allowing the exploit to be executed without the users’ knowledge. Stagefright can then bypass the permissions on the phone, allowing the attacker to access other parts of the phone such as SD cards, cameras and anything containing personal data. All an attacker needs is a phone number, and once the text is sent, the vulnerability is then silently executed without any knowledge on the users’ part.What Can I Do To Be Protected?Visit your cell phone manufacturers’ website for details on whether a patch for this vulnerability is available.You can also disable Auto Retrieve MMS based on which application is being used for text messages, such as Google hangouts or Google Messenger (which is the default messenger for Android phones). If you are using Google Messenger as your text messaging app, you can turn off Auto Retrieve by going into the settings of the app, advanced, and turn off Auto Retrieve. To ensure this is off, make sure the blue button is grey.If you are using Google Hangout as your text messaging client, go to settings, advanced, SMS and uncheck Auto Retrieve SMS.It is important to keep in mind, this is only a partial, temporary solution. Even with auto-retrieve MMS turned off, it is possible for a user to accidentally download a malicious message. Therefore, it is extremely important for a user to make sure their phone manufacturer has plans to patch this vulnerability by checking their website. For users on older phones where the manufacturer is no longer providing updates, users should consider upgrading to a newer device.While Norton Security does not protect against this particular vulnerability from being exploited, it does offer protection for a variety of other threats.Norton Mobile Security’s App Advisor provides proactive protection from malicious apps before you download them. App Advisor scans apps in the Google Play Store looking for features that can invade privacy; display annoying/intrusive behaviors such as pop up ads or excessive battery usage, and unnecessary data usage. It will also detect if an app contains malware or is malicious in nature. Norton Mobile Security is available from the Google Play Store.
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Facebook Inc announced on Thursday it has completed building its first full-scale drone, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 737 and will provide Internet access to the most remote parts of the world. The company said it will test it in the United States later this year. The plane will weigh about 880 pounds (400 kg), said Yael Maguire, the company's engineering director of connectivity. It will hover between 60,000 feet and 90,000 feet (20 and 30 km), above the altitude of commercial airplanes, so that it is not affected by problematic weather. "Our mission is to connect everybody in the world," said Jay Parikh, vice president of engineering. "This is going to be a great opportunity for us to motivate the industry to move faster on this technology." The drone, which was built in 14 months, is able to fly in the air for 90 days at a time, Maguire said. Helium balloons will be attached to the plane and float it up into the air. The drones have a wingspan of 42 meters (46 yards). Because the planes must constantly move to stay aloft, they will circle a three-km (two-mile) radius, Parikh said. During the day, they will float up to 90,000 feet (30 km) and at night will drift down to 60,000 feet (20 km) to conserve energy. The drones are part of a programme called Aquila, which is geared towards the 10 percent of the population that does not have any Internet access, executives said. Separately, Facebook a year ago launched Internet.org, an initiative to provide Internet access to the two-thirds of the world that do not have a reliable connection. Parikh said Facebook is not planning to sell the drones but will use them to expand Internet access. Although Facebook does not immediately face policy or legal hurdles in testing its drone in the United States, Maguire said, it is the first company to fly at such altitudes. It has a team working with policymakers to help set guidelines. (Reuters)
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Microsoft announced the rollout for its newest operating system, Windows 10, just yesterday and confirmed that the new upgrade is available free of cost to Windows 7 and Windows 8 users for one year. The new update improves and refines the features of Windows 8 and definitely feels much more organized than the previous version. In case you are wondering how to get your free upgrade, here is a quick and easy way to get the new version.If you are running a Windows 7, 8 or an 8.1 PC or a tablet, you must have got a notification on the bottom right panel asking to reserve a copy of the new update. If you have already done so, just open the notification and it will guide you on how to update. All devices including laptops, desktops and tablets that support Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 are compatible with Windows 10, so make sure you check the system requirements when you reserve a copy from the notification.The new update will be downloaded as a system update, so in case you have turned it off, you will have to enable them and update your current system updates. The new update will download onto your system only after your current system is up to date and will take about an hour or two to download (depending on the internet speed) the 2.7GB update. While the update process doesn’t prompt you to back-up your files, it is recommended that you do in case your update process goes bad. Once the download is complete, the system will automatically process the downloaded update and in about an hour or so the process will be complete. Your files, programs and settings will remain intact so no need of re-installing everything.If you have reserved a copy and the update process doesn’t start, then it might just take a little longer depending on your region, so keep checking daily. If you have an unlicensed copy of Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 chances are that you will be able to upgrade as Microsoft mentioned that the upgrade is free for all. However your machine will be marked as non-genuine and you will be constantly notified to opt for a proper license from Microsoft.
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There’s so much at stake for Microsoft as it launches Windows 10 as a rebirth of the company in the mobile age, writes Mala Bhargava Today is a big day for Microsoft. Every three years, the company launches a new version of its operating system, Windows. Right on cue, today sees the worldwide unveiling of Windows 10. But what a different event the launch is from the previous generations of Windows launches. What would normally have been a tremendous unforgettable stage ceremony is a worldwide rollout in which Microsoft tries to connect with fans, influencers and the tech media on an up-close level. This is something Microsoft really needs to do as, from being a company that was once synonymous with monopoly, the tech giant was ever so slowly brought to its knees by the mobile revolution. Look at Microsoft’s most recent troubles: It reported fourth-quarter earnings earlier this month that included a $7.5 billion writedown related to its failed acquisition of Nokia's phone and services business. It’s also cut 7,800 jobs this month. At the same time, despite its troubles, Microsoft is still among the top handful of tech companies in the world and it’s one that is still very innovative. Under Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft for over a year now, Microsoft has taken aggressive and bold steps to change its thinking and strategy and stay relevant in a mobile-first and cloud-first age before it’s too late. Increasingly, Microsoft insiders and Microsoft watchers are convinced that if anyone can execute a 180 degree change in strategy at Microsoft, it’s Satya Nadella who today has headed to Kenya for the launch of Windows 10 and millions in donations to HIV charities rather than a stage event in New York. There’s so much at stake for Microsoft as it launches Windows 10 as a rebirth of the company in the mobile age. Satya Nadella recently said that Microsoft had made a big mistake by assuming that the world revolved around a PC. A changed world crept up on Microsoft and it finally tried hard to align itself with mobility with the acquisition of Nokia and Windows 8, a product so different it was a culture shock to users, most of whom refused to upgrade, clinging tenaciously to Windows XP and then Windows 7, leaving Windows 8 to see little adoption specially from corporate. With Windows 10, Microsoft is making an ambitious and admirable move to go beyond PCs without leaving the PC behind. The new operating system instantly scales to fit any device, desktop, laptop, hybrid, tablet, or phone and other products in the making. If you were to be working on a notebook but lift away the screen to change to tablet mode, the system would adjust and optimise immediately. With this, Microsoft will try to do better what it didn’t manage with Windows 8 – be device agnostic. The idea is to let users move naturally from one device to the other and take up where they left off without having to think of the operating system or the change. To help with this is Cortana, Microsoft’s virtual assistant who learns the way you work and what you need and responds to natural language requests for assistance like, “Cortana, show me the presentation I was working on yesterday.” The other remarkable thing is that Windows 10 is free to upgrade to. “Upgrade Your World” is the tagline for Microsoft’s call to join in with moving ahead. The fact that the once expensive and much-pirated Windows is being offered free is a reflection of how much the company has accepted reality. Microsoft is hoping that users will eventually opt to buy some of its services. Windows 10 actually looks immediately familiar yet refreshed. The Start button that caused so much outrage with its disappearance is back while the tiles that were the signature look of Windows 8 are not abandoned and can be pinned to the desktop with apps that are most-used. Windows was once a given – there were no other options unless you changed guard to Linux or Apple’s OS. Today, Microsoft has to work hard to make Windows relevant and friendly to users. Chances are users will upgrade – but the next few days will tell what success Microsoft’s new direction is likely to achieve.
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Microsoft had announced earlier that it will be officially rolling out its newest platform for tablets, desktops and laptops on the 29th of July, and well, the company has kept its word. Windows 10 is now official and will be available to consumers from today across 190 nations around the world. The new version will be available as a free update to consumers and will be loaded with an all new look and a bunch of new features.Windows 10 will ditch the tile mode which included all the apps on Windows 8 and 8.1 and will have the desktop mode as default. The Start button will remain and will open a new menu which will include all the app tiles which can be expanded if the user wishes to. Apart from that Microsoft has deeply integrated its own voice assistant ‘Cortana’ into Windows 10 which in simpler terms acts like Google Now. The demo at the launch event showed that Cortana is fast and quite intuitive and will definitely improve the whole user experience. Other features include the Xbox One app which will be a dashboard for all your gaming needs and the brand new internet browser called Microsoft Edge. There have been improvements in security as company claims it’s the most secure Windows version ever thanks to enhancements to Windows Defender and SmartScreen both of which help in protecting against viruses, malware and phishing.Vineet Durani, Director – Windows Business Groups, Microsoft India quickly went through some of the new features of Windows 10 at the launch and gave a quick glimpse of what the user can expect with this new update. He also confirmed that non-genuine or unlicensed copies of Windows will be eligible for the new Windows 10 update, but once a user updates his or her pirated Windows, the machine will be marked as an unlicensed user and will be notified to get a genuine copy.The launch event saw a variety of new and old devices running on the new update and also the new Xbox One. Microsoft also invited gamers with their own gaming desktop PCs, and a special round for a number of selected fans. While this is one of the biggest launches for the computing era, somehow the launch event didn’t have the energy. Hopefully the new update will be more promising than the official announcement.
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Video is everywhere! Right from the time you search for something on Google, to the moment you log into your Facebook account; videos are flashed before your eyes relentlessly! If this is any indication of what the future will hold, you can be rest assured that videos will dominate online advertising and marketing in the coming days. Of course traditional and direct consumer advertising will still have a substantial presence in the marketing world; but brands will slowly start shifting their focus to creative video content to engage with their fans online; especially on social media. Sample this- two of the biggest image sharing social platforms Instagram and Pinterest also had to diversify their strategy from just image to video also!The Beginning of the Video Race:The race for the top crown in the video marketing arena was quite boring till a few years ago. YouTube was the unquestioned master of the space and every video marketer or video content creator wanted a piece of the action on YouTube. This year however is quite special! YouTube is finally being challenged in its own territory!Two of the biggest names in the Social Network realm - Facebook and Twitter have launched a full-fledged attack on YouTube. Facebook recently announced its video advertising model and Twitter is fine tuning its video strategy everyday with innovative additions like Amplify making the race all that more exciting! And for video marketers, advertisers and content creators; it might be quite easy to get lost in all this chaos. In this blog, we try to decipher the nuances of each of these platforms so that each stakeholder in the video marketing field can get a bird's eye view of what to expect from these developments.Facebook and Twitter - How they upped their ante:In the vast expanse of Online Marketing, one of the biggest news items this year was Facebook's announcement of its Video Ad Revenue Sharing Model. Right now, this feature is available only in the US for big advertisers like Nike and Coca-Cola, but it's just a matter of time before smaller advertisers are also welcomed with open arms. Twitter also raised the stakes by aggressively brandishing its Promoted Video feature and a new product called Amplify aimed at TV media brands. Oh, and not to forget their well covered acquisition of Periscope . In all probability, these new additions to their arsenal will bring about a huge difference in the world of online video in the near future.But Twitter still has some straits to cross till it reaches a stage where it can really challenge Facebook or YouTube in the video domain. Hence, in the next segments of this article, we will concentrate more on Facebook and YouTube.YouTube and Facebook - Understand the differences:For years, brands have predominantly relied on the YouTube video views counter to judge the effectiveness of their video since it was the core platform for distributing and watching video content on the web. But Facebook's entry is changing the trend. Now, brands can't rely just on one platform to promote its content. They need an all-round strategy.Before blindly carpet bombing each platform with videos, one should understand the nuances behind the working of each of these platforms and strategize accordingly. Facebook's content discovery relies on newsfeeds which show what the user's friends are sharing. Hot content spreads like wildfire! YouTube on the other hand is like a video library and viewers go there to discover new videos. That gives YouTube content a much longer shelf-life. If something is hot at the moment or is a cultural phenomenon, Facebook and Twitter are incredibly effective for driving the spread of timely content due to the trending nature of their newsfeeds. 1. YouTube creators post on average five times more video on YouTube than Facebook. 2. 65% of Facebook's video views come from mobile whereas it is just half of the overall views on YouTube. 3. YouTube is still the second largest search engine in the world behind Google. 4. YouTube has already built an ecosystem of application partners and can even be played on Television! Facebook still needs time to be considered a viable TV platform.Here's an interesting factoid - Facebook campaigns reach 85 per cent of their total viewership in the first week after launch, while YouTube campaigns only reach 63 per cent of their total viewership by the first week.But one shouldn't neglect the effectiveness of YouTube in continued viewership. Facebook still falls far behind when it comes to long-term views and total video viewership. If it really wants to challenge YouTube on its home turf, it needs to ramp up its video discovery and search options. Here are a few more pointers to ponder:Revenue model - What content creators need to know:YouTube follows a 55/45 revenue split where the content creator gets 45 per cent of the ad revenue. It offers two types of videos ads - Skippable and non skippable. Skippable ads allow viewers to skip ads after 5 seconds and they can be inserted before, during, or after the main video. Non-skippable video ads must be watched before the video can be viewed. These ads may be up to 30 seconds long and they can appear before, during, or after the main video. Do note that allowing non-skippable ads in your videos may increase the viewer abandonment rate.Here's how the ad serving works on Facebook - When a user clicks on a video in their regular news feed, the 'Suggested Videos' feed will surface and it will offer relevant videos that the user might like. These videos will be interspersed with autoplay advertisements. And just like YouTube, Facebook will take a cut of 45 per cent of the ad revenue generated from the feed. The remaining 55 per cent will be split among the creators of the videos that were watched in the feed, based on the amount of time spent watching the respective videos.Click here to view graphic Subrat Kar, the author, is the CEO & Co-founder at Vidoolyinbox@businessworld.in
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Earlier this year, the second largest health insurance provider in the US publicly disclosed that it had been the victim of a major cyberattack. The attack against Anthem resulted in the largest known healthcare data breach to date, with 80 million patient records exposed.Symantec believes that the attackers behind the Anthem breach are part of a highly resourceful cyberespionage group called Black Vine. The Anthem attack is only one of multiple campaigns that Symantec has attributed to this group.Symantec’s latest whitepaper documents multiple Black Vine operations that have been occurring since 2012. Black Vine’s targets include gas turbine manufacturers, large aerospace and aviation companies, healthcare providers, and more. The group has access to zero-day exploits, most likely obtained through the Elderwood framework, and uses custom-developed back door malware.By connecting multiple Black Vine campaigns, we traced how the attack group has evolved over the last three years.Black Vine compromised legitimate websites that were of interest to its targets in order to serve exploits to the sites’ visitors. If the zero-day exploits successfully worked against the vulnerable software on the victim’s computer, then they dropped Black Vine’s custom malware, providing the attackers with remote access to the computer. In addition to watering-hole attacks, Black Vine also sent spear-phishing emails that disguised its threats using technology-themed lures.Black Vine has compromised companies in the following industries: aerospace, healthcare, energy (gas & electric turbine manufacturing), military and defense, finance, agriculture and technology.Black Vine’s targets are spread across several regions, based on the IP address locations of the compromised computers. The vast majority of infections affected companies in the US, followed by China, Canada, Italy, Denmark, and India.(BW Online Bureau)
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Government of Maharashtra, Cyber Crime Wing, Mumbai Police, IIT Bombay and Asian School of Cyber Laws organised Cyber Awards in Mumbai on 28 July.The cyber experts were awarded with the ‘C4 Awards 2015’ for their contribution to securing cyberspace and controlling cyber crime.K.M.M. Prasanna, Additional Commissioner of Police - Crime, said, "These awards are to identify, recognise and promote people to acknowledge, appreciate and encourage their extraordinary efforts in creating awareness about cyber security by reaching out to maximum no of people through their own methods ."The top notch corporate such as Reliance Industries, PriceWaterCooper, KPMG, ICICI, Flipkart ,SBI, Citibank, Deloitte, Ace, Tata Consultancy Services, E&Y, Vodafone and many others have been seen the delegation and panelists.K.P. Bakshi (Additional Chief Secretary Home, Maharashtra), Atulchandra Kulkarni (IPS Joint Commissioner of Police Crime Mumbai), Madan Mohan (Deputy DG Dept of Telecommunications Govt of India), Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap along with Cyber Celebrity Awardee-TV Actress Kritika Kamra were present at the conference.Ranjit Patil, Minister of State for Home - Urban, said, "This is a wonderful initiative taken up by the Cyber Crime Wing, Mumbai Police in association with Asian School of Cyber Laws and IIT Bombay, which ensures that the digital world today and in the future shall remain safe."This is the first time when government, corporate, educational institutes and media came together to create awareness on Cyber Crime Control.(BW Online Bureau)
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