According to this article on SecurityFocus, new ATM machines can be vulnerable to the same Windows Virus’s and Trojans that are plaguing normal Windows users. The problem stems from the new machines using Windows embedded instead of the OS2 operating system the older units had.

This is not mere idle speculation, it has already happened at least once when the Nachi worm infected ATM’s at two different financial institutions. And we have this quote from the above mentioned article:
“Last year’s Slammer worm indirectly shut down some 13,000 Bank of America ATM’s by infecting database servers on the same network, and spewing so much traffic that the cash machines couldn’t processes customer transactions. ”
These Virus’s were not even designed to target ATM’s, what happens when they actually start going after these things intentionally to collect user financial data?

So, Microsoft is moving their software into places it was never designed to run, namely mission critical places like ATM’s and Naval ships. I suspect that this is just the start. Perhaps it is time to go back to keeping your cash in your mattress. It might be safer.

Franki

Google has a calculator built into it’s search engine. I never knew that. If you type “meters in mile” for example, it will give you the answer. You can also type typical math problems such as (2*4)+9 and the answer will appear.

You can also ask it to return definitions. Type “define: google” for example, and you get the answer. It appears as though a “:” is mandatory to see the results in the “definition” format.

Because I use firefox browser I always have the google seach bar on my browser … so I doubt I will “reach” for start/programs/accessories/calculator much in the future … and I never did reach for the dictionary, just ask my teachers.

A fascinating article on the use of WiFi networks to relay messages via remote control cameras in high crime neighborhoods. New Orleans reports significant drops in crime. Of course then the question is how much standard monitoring do we as a free society tolerate? Do we have an expectation of privacy when we look around and don’t see anyone near us? Does crime prevention override issues of freedom from scrutiny? It might be one thing to kick on the cameras when they get a call, but to keep them running continuously … it has some downsides it might seem.

Microsoft-Watch have an article detailing the possibility of Microsoft releasing update plugins for Internet Explorer before the release of Longhorn sometime in 2006/2007. Ironically I predicted this about a week ago. Guess what folks? If it happens, it will be the pressure exerted by Firefox that will have caused it. After all, before Firefox, IE had stagnated for about 4 years, virtually abandoned except for security patches. See? Competition really is good for consumers. 🙂

In other news, Microsoft has been paying off companies that are suing them for anti-trust and other issues at an alarming rate. So far Sun, Linspire, Novell, several US state cases and the “Computer and Communications Industry Association” have all received specified or unspecified payments to drop the lawsuits against the software behemoth. Novell plans to re-instigate litigation over anti-trust issues related to Novell’s previous office suite programs and Microsoft office, and the EU still plans to continue its anti-trust proceedings as well, however it now has to do it without the backing of Novell and the CCIA. Nokia have quit the CCIA in disgust over the settlement. Personally, I understand Nokia’s disgust, these companies have just agreed either to lose a potentially significant part of their business to Microsoft and its “tactics”, or to forgive them for having taken it already. And they did it all for what in the grand scheme of things is a tiny little pay-off that hardly affects MS’s profit figures at all.

Franki

If you are running a version of Windows other then XP SP2, then you REALLY need to download Firefox and stop using IE. The reason? Well apart from the extra features and stuff, it’s a security thing. Namely with IE you have none.

A new version of Mydoom has surfaced that will affect any and all fully patched versions of IE prior to XP SP2. Don’t take my word for it, read this Eweek article for the details.

Franki

SMS is currently in the same place email was about five to ten years ago. It’s an open system with no real filtering methods on place to stop spamming. Worse it doesn’t even have a real subject line by which you can determine whether to read or delete it. So it is hardly a surprise that some enterprising blackhat has created a Trojan horse program that uses infected PC’s to send SMS spam to unsuspecting mobile users in Russia.

This is going to be a growth “industry” before long, because e-mail SPAM is slowly reaching the point where it’s hardly worth the spammers effort. New laws and technologies are starting to make a dent in the spammers profit margin so you can bet they are looking at now markets to pester with Viagra and penis enlargement ads.

TheRegister has the story here.

Franki

The first real non beta release of the Firefox web browser is now available if you know where to look for it. Ironically the beta releases have about as many users now as the actual stable Mozilla suite has. Having a official release should boost that even more.

There are now millions of Firefox users around the world now who just got sick of constant IE security flaws and Microsoft’s refusal to update IE’s stagnant feature set (that has not changed much in about 4 years.) Even SP2 has been withheld from 50% of Windows users that are not running Windows XP.

Anyway, the official download link has not been updated to point to the new 1.0 release, but my searching turned up the download file here.

Enjoy.

Franki