Hi-tech criminals target Twitter

Micro blogging site Twitter is the latest target of cyber criminals who are increasingly finding fertile ground on social networks.

A fake Twitter profile with a malicious payload has been spotted by security firm Kaspersky.

It purports to link to a pornographic video but downloads a fake version of Adobe Flash which installs programs capable of stealing data.

The attack is believed to be the first to target Twitter.

Social net

The attack is believed to have originated in Brazil because of the language it uses, the servers it calls on to download trojans and the e-mail address used to collect stolen data.

The fake profile has a name that means "pretty rabbit" in Portuguese. It tries to convince users to download the fake Flash video viewer in order to watch the associated video.

It comes as Kaspersky also releases details about two worms that target social networking sites MySpace and Facebook. More variants of these worms are also starting to turn up.

The worms transformed victims' machines into zombie computers, used by criminals to send spam, launch phishing attacks and harvest data.

They were disguised as a link to YouTube which also installed a fake version of Flash Player.

"Unfortunately users are very trusting of messages left by friends on social networking sites so the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high," said Alexander Gostev, a senior virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab.

Only those using Microsoft Windows are vulnerable to infection from these malicious programs.

BY-BBC NEWS

Intel unveils graphics chip line

Intel has unveiled details of the chip that will spearhead its move into computer graphics.

It has revealed blueprints for the Larrabee chip that is scheduled to first appear in finished products in late 2009 or early 2010.

Larrabee will be a stand-alone graphics processor unlike the onboard chips it produces for many PC makers.

The move will bring Intel into direct competition with graphics specialists Nvidia and the ATI division of AMD.

Cheap supercomputer

Intel is aiming to put Larrabee into graphics cards for PCs that help show games and video in very high detail.

Like existing graphics chips from Nvidia and ATI, Larrabee is expected to have many separate processing cores onboard.

So far Intel has not said how many processing cores Larrabee will have onboard at launch or in subsequent generations. Future Nvidia and ATI graphics chips are expected to be made up of several hundred cores.

While Intel will initially target the PC graphics card market, it expects the raw computer power in the chip to help with oil and gas exploration, medical imaging and financial services in the future.

Many scientists and researchers already use coupled graphics cards as a desktop supercomputer that helps them carry out simulations far faster and cheaper than on a larger dedicated machine.

"Intel is showing its cards, but will have to deliver the products that live up to an attractive architecture," said Peter Kastner, an analyst with research firm Scott-Page.

Intel said it would release more details about Larrabee at the upcoming Siggraph computer graphics conference due to be held in Los Angeles from 12-15 August.

BY-BBC NEWS

Getting at Apple's core problems

We need more details about the security fixes Apple is releasing, says regular commentator Bill Thompson.

Apple is now as much about consumer electronics as it is computers

The computer manufacturer formerly known as "Apple Computer" changed its name to Apple Inc eighteen months ago, reflecting the growing importance to its profitability of consumer gadgets like iPods, shiny toys like iPhones and of course music sales from iTunes.

It was a sensible move, since the real money is no longer in powerful multi-processor servers for high-end graphics, video and music production but in laptops for the Vista-resistant masses, phones to keep workers connected to corporate servers and music devices for the kids.

Being a cool brand really helps in this, of course.

Apple's reputation may be built on high design, functionality and usability, but a big part of its current success comes not from the quality of its products but careful control of all aspects of the message.

New product launches get a lot of press attention partly because they are genuinely newsworthy.

There are very few leaks and those that do occur are stamped on with such legal force that anyone tempted to talk to a journalist will be deterred, while journalists who write things that Apple does not like might find that they do not get as good access in the future.

Building system security is a collaborative activity, and Apple is not currently playing as a member of the team. Bill Thompson

Most of the time the lack of advance information doesn't matter, and it provides an entertaining diversion for technology commentators as they try to guess whether the new MacBook will have rounded corners like the Air or come with a non-Intel chipset.

Whether or not the next iPod nano will revert to the stick format from its current fat instantiation is really about as important as the latest celebrity diet or David Beckham's career plans, but it offers some entertainment in the technology pages.

The design and launch of new products is Apple's business, and while I think the paranoid fear of anything that might spoil the next Steve Jobs keynote is a sign of weakness rather than strength it is clearly up to Apple, and the law of commercial confidence is on its side.

BY-BBC NEWS

Do they really think the earth is flat?

If you're a flat-earther, this image is a fake

By Brendan O'Neill

In the 21st Century, the term "flat-earther" is used to describe someone who is spectacularly - and seemingly wilfully - ignorant. But there is a group of people who claim they believe the planet really is flat. Are they really out there or is it all an elaborate prank?

Nasa is celebrating its 50th birthday with much fanfare and pictures of past glories. But in half a century of extraordinary images of space, one stands out.

WORLD VIEW 330 BC Aristotle provides evidence of spherical earth 240 BC Eratosthenes of Cyrene accurately calculates circumference of globe 8th Century AD work by Bede shows acceptance of sphere idea

On 24 December 1968, the crew of the Apollo 8 mission took a photo now known as Earthrise. To many, this beautiful blue sphere viewed from the moon's orbit is a perfect visual summary of why it is right to strive to go into space.

Not to everybody though. There are people who say they think this image is fake - part of a worldwide conspiracy by space agencies, governments and scientists.

Welcome to the world of the flat-earther.

Our attitude towards those who once upon a time believed in the flatness of the earth is apparent in a new Microsoft advert.

Photos such as this one are deemed fakes by flat-earthers

Depicting an olden-days ship sailing on rough seas, presumably heading towards the "edge of the world", the advert is part of a $300m campaign aimed at rescuing the reputation of Windows Vista by comparing its critics to flat-earthers.

Satellite era

But are there any genuine flat-earthers left? Surely in our era of space exploration - where satellites take photos of our blue and clearly globular planet from space, and robots send back info about soil and water from Mars - no one can seriously still believe that the Earth is flat?

Circumnavigation is a case of travelling in a very broad circle across the surface of the Earth James McIntyre Flat-earther

Wrong.

Flat earth theory is still around. On the internet and in small meeting rooms in Britain and the US, flat earth believers get together to challenge the "conspiracy" that the Earth is round.

"People are definitely prejudiced against flat-earthers," says John Davis, a flat earth theorist based in Tennessee, reacting to the new Microsoft commercial.

"Many use the term 'flat-earther' as a term of abuse, and with connotations that imply blind faith, ignorance or even anti-intellectualism."

Mr Davis, a 25-year-old computer scientist originally from Canada, first became interested in flat earth theory after "coming across some literature from the Flat Earth Society a few years ago".

"I came to realise how much we take at face value," he says. "We humans seem to be pleased with just accepting what we are told, no matter how much it goes against our senses."

Mr Davis now believes "the Earth is flat and horizontally infinite - it stretches horizontally forever".

"And it is at least 9,000 kilometres deep", he adds.

James McIntyre, a British-based moderator of a Flat Earth Society discussion website, has a slightly different take. "The Earth is, more or less, a disc," he states. "Obviously it isn't perfectly flat thanks to geological phenomena like hills and valleys. It is around 24,900 miles in diameter."

Mr McIntyre, who describes himself as having been "raised a globularist in the British state school system", says the reactions of his friends and family to his new beliefs vary from "sheer incredulity to the conviction that it's all just an elaborate joke".

So how many flat-earthers are around today? Neither Mr Davis nor Mr McIntyre can say.

BY-BBC NEWS

Video game's user content spawns naughty Web 'Sporn'

By Mallory Simon
CNN

(CNN) -- When makers of one of the most anticipated video games of the year invited users to help design part of the game, the gamers jumped at the chance to create animated characters.

Users will have the option to incorporate other people's "Spore" designs or choose to block them all.

But some took it upon themselves to create something entirely different: a new kind of Internet porn.

It started when the makers of "Spore" released a Creature Creator program that allowed users to develop their own characters to drum up hype before the game's scheduled release in September.

The game, a joint venture from "Sims" creator Will Wright and Electronic Arts, allows users to create a unique creature and then control its evolution from a single cell into a complex cultural civilization.

Within 24 hours of the Creature Creator's release, gamers had gone creature-crazy, designing millions of critters that were all thrown into a database and shown on a YouTube channel for the public to see.

But scrolling through the database -- past the three-legged sea horse, past the seven-eyed wildebeest and the half-motorcycle-half-pig -- revealed something many users didn't expect. Buried among the more wholesome attempts were two-legged dancing testicles, a "giant breast monster" and a four-legged "phallic fornication machine," for starters.

Olympic official feels like 'fall guy' over Web ban

BEIJING, China (AP) -- An Olympic official said Thursday he felt like the "fall guy" after promising reporters at the games they would have uncensored Internet access, only to find that the Chinese had blocked certain Web sites.

Reporters were startled to find certain Web sites blocked at the Olympics Main Press Center in Beijing.

Kevan Gosper, the press commission head of the International Olympic Committee, also said he suspects the IOC leadership probably knew about the change.

Gosper said he was startled to find out earlier this week that Web sites for Amnesty International or others dealing with Tibet, the 1989 protests at Tiananmen Square or the spiritual group Falun Gong would be blocked to reporters at the Olympics Main Press Center in Beijing.

China's communist government routinely filters its citizens' access to the Internet. But for months Gosper, IOC President Jacques Rogge and others have publicly said Beijing agreed to unblock the Web during the games, and they touted the shift as a sign of the Olympics' liberalizing effect on China.

"I have to accept that I appear to be the fall guy and may be the fall guy," Gosper said in an interview with AP Television News.

Astronaut's son spending his fortune to fly

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- The world's next space tourist, a computer game wizard, said Wednesday he's spending the bulk of his fortune on his $30 million adventure this fall.

Computer-game wizard Richard Garriott says he's spending millions on his space adventure.

Richard Garriott will make history as the first child of an American astronaut to rocket into orbit, and his dad will keep in touch with him during his time in space.

Garriott is set to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the international space station Oct. 12. Speaking at a news conference in Houston on Wednesday, he said: "To be frank, this price tag is the majority of my wealth."

The 47-year-old Garriott said space flight was a goal he'd been working toward for much of his life. Poor eyesight ruined whatever shot he might have had at becoming a professional astronaut.

"But versus being crushed and giving up on that dream, that just set me on the path of saying, 'Oh, wait a minute, you can't tell me no,"' he said. "Literally, throughout my entire professional career, I've been investing in the privatization of space. ... so my father, he was not shocked at all to see me pursuing this."