Hack & Hackers

[Rasputin]

Home Office: Fight Off New Viruses and Trojan Horses

Here we go again: There's a new round of nasty viruses floating around the Web--and into many e-mail in-boxes. The killer is that some of them are brilliantly designed, so much so that you could be duped into infecting yourself.

Well, actually not you; and no, I'm not being snide. My hunch is the majority of the people reading my newsletter are smart and reasonably well protected. That's primarily because you do the right things: You update your antivirus program, guard against e-mail attachments, and keep yourself aware by reading PC World and other magazines.

Despite all these accolades, I'm going to spend some time this week and next telling you about the latest threats and revealing more of my tricks to help you avoid spending a day untangling a virus mess.

Important Windows Patch News
But first, you need to know that Microsoft announced a serious Windows "remote code execution" vulnerability that affects everyone running NT, 2000, XP, and 2003 Server. Read about it in "Microsoft Plugs 'Critical' Windows Hole." Microsoft's site provides information to help you understand the three updates and figure out which ones you need. The two that most users need are Security Update 832894 and Security Update 828028

Some of you may feel a little apprehensive when the site asks which of a seemingly half dozen versions of Windows you have installed on your PC. (Most XP users should download "Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack.") Here's how to find out for sure: Click Start, Run, type winver into the field, and click OK. Easy, eh?

If you want to bypass all this, just go to the Windows Update site--it'll scan your system, advise you of the necessary updates, and do the installation.

And listen, on the off chance you have any trouble installing the patch, Microsoft is offering free tech support. Contact Microsoft Product Support Services at 866/PCSAFETY (that's 866/727-2338

Dig This: To boost sagging sales, Microsoft has started selling ad space on its Blue Screen of Death.

Novarg, and Mimail.R, and Mydoom, Oh My
And now you need to get up to speed on the latest virus threats.

I recommend you start with "How to Kill the Worm," a comprehensive piece by PC World Senior Editor Peggy Watt. You'll learn which worm is which, get insight into how they do their dastardly deeds, and find out where to go for removal tools.

Now let's get to specifics: You'll want to know about Mydoom, for sure, so be sure to read "Mydoom Takes Down SCO Site" and "Mydoom Attack Continues." Then read a report on what the Mimail virus has been up to lately: It's been very busy, masquerading as a message from PayPal. Lincoln Spector has some advice on handling the e-mail in "New Virus Appears as PayPal Scam."

Dig This: Many years ago a whale landed on a beach in Oregon and went to whale heaven. Apparently the authorities didn't have much experience removing dead whales, so they decided to, well, blow it up. Man, the blubber did fly.

Wanted, Virus Writers
Bounties and rewards are the latest in an industry attempt to cut off virus and Trojan-horse writers at the knees. The biggest kid on the block, Microsoft, is offering a $250,000 reward for helping to identify the jerk who wrote the Mydoom-B worm. I understand Bill will also send a team of Microsofties to fine-tune your version of Windows.

Microsoft's motivation to offer a reward for the Mydoom writer may be that the worm has specific targets. In addition to attacking the Unix vendor SCO Group, Mydoom tried nailing Microsoft itself; see "Mydoom Variant Targets Microsoft."

Unfortunately, even with rewards and bounties, and Windows XP Service Pack 2 in the wings, the news for the rest of the year isn't so good. We're bound to see more annoying viruses and worms. For some predictions of what's to come, read "Viruses, Worms Will Worsen in 2004"--and make sure to upgrade your antivirus program.

Quick Windows News: If you're still stubbornly using Windows 98, your luck just got better. You have until 2006 to use it and expect support from the Redmond Empire. Read "Microsoft Extends Win 98 Support" for details.

Dig This: The Vodafone site may be commercial, but its Flash animations are really cool, enough so that you'll easily kill a half hour poking around. My favorite? Scroll over Quick Launch, then select Entertaining. My second favorite is Working, also in the Quick Launch list.

[Rasputin]

Internet Fixes

The latest viruses spread through everything from your instant messaging client to your file sharing program. Annoying new ads hijack your browser without your even clicking them. Spam greeting cards send themselves to everyone in your address book. Next-generation auction swindles exploit what's supposed to be one of the safest ways to do business online. But you can turn the tide against these pernicious pests.

What follows is our field guide to the newest threats to your PC--from hackers to sneaky adware--and the tools you need to send them packing. We'll direct you to the most important fixes for Windows and common applications. We also point out where you need to be careful about otherwise good patches that may introduce more bugs.

The year 2002 marked a sharp uptick in the volume of new virus discoveries: Researchers and antivirus outfits cataloged more than double the number of new viruses recorded in 2001. And as 2003 rolls along, the breakneck pace of new virus and worm development shows no signs of abating. Meanwhile, the most persistent and resilient nasties of 2002, such as Klez, still plague our in-boxes and infuriate our associates over the Internet.

Virus writers continue to find new and ever-more-clever ways to deliver malicious code to our PCs efficiently and with potentially devastating consequences. Tantalizing e-mail attachments are still the most favored vector for attacks, but some worms target any widely used program that lets you download files, such as an instant messaging application or a file sharing tool.

Vincent Weafer, senior director at Symantec's Security Response Center, says virus makers are using worms and viruses as a way to plant Trojan horses that in turn allow their creators to exercise full control over your computer, surreptitiously record passwords you type, or steal other information you might value.

Smarter, Quieter Intruders
Historically, viruses targeted only a single vulnerability--a security hole in your copy of Internet Explorer or in your Outlook Express application, for instance.

The Slammer/Sapphire worm attack is a well-known example. It took advantage of a widely known security hole; a patch had been made available for it months earlier, but many computer operators (including some at Microsoft) had not applied the fix.

"It's no longer enough to install an antivirus program and personal firewall," Weafer says. "Users need to keep current with [operating system] patches, configure browser security settings to high, and turn off application features they don't use." Experts recommend that you turn off Windows file sharing (in the Networking control panel) if you don't need to use it, and that you use your firewall to block file sharing on TCP ports 139 and 445. (For more suggestions to lower your risk, see this month's Internet Tips.)

Newer viruses are getting more sophisticated. While the infamous Klez worm relied on Outlook Express to reproduce, Weafer says, worms with built-in mail engines are the future direction of malicious code. Such variants spread independently of e-mail programs, and they can scout for victims anywhere on your hard drive, looking for addresses even in the Web browser cache.



Stealth is becoming a watchword for virus writers. With the notable exception of Slammer, worms and viruses increasingly do their dastardly deeds quietly. When viruses infect lots of computers in a short time, they are quickly detected and eliminated. The new breed waits patiently to strike at new victims. But don't confuse a low-key approach with a low risk: Your infected machine can still be used to plunder your data, attack other PCs, and wreak havoc on a network of connected computers in a home or office.

Home users who think the data on their hard drive is too insignificant to merit a hacker's attention may not realize that the computer itself is often a more attractive target than its contents.

Some intruders take control of PCs for use as a "dead drop" for potentially incriminating data, Weafer says. In these instances, the hacker gains access to a number of PCs and uses each victim's computer as a holding tank for illegal material--such as child pornography or a company's stolen files or passwords. Operating from a PC free of damaging evidence, the hacker can view the files on the victim's machine at a convenient time and in relative safety. If the victim has a broadband connection and leaves the PC powered on day and night, all the better. Simply shutting off your PC when you're not using it is probably the easiest thing you can do to avoid becoming a victim.

Pop Star Virus
Viruses and worms that activate themselves are still in the minority. Most worms require you to open a file attachment or preview its e-mail message before they become active and infect your PC. One recent example: The Avril Lavigne worm (named after the 17-year-old Canadian pop sensation) made its way into the less auspicious top 10 virus charts in January. It spreads via e-mail, IRC, instant messaging, and file sharing networks, scanning for a wide range of vulnerabilities on your system.

Opening the Lavigne worm's executable file or previewing its e-mail message in Outlook Express is all it takes to infect yourself. Its core program, a block of code named Lirva, disables antivirus programs, installs the BackOrifice 2000 Trojan horse on your system, and plants itself all over your hard drive, making it more difficult to remove. It then sends itself to everyone in your e-mail address book, to your entire ICQ contact list, to anyone who downloads your files over Kazaa, and to everyone in your IRC chat rooms. Not connected to the Internet? No problem for Lirva: It will dial up your ISP for you (in the middle of the night).

And someone went to all this trouble just to force you to view the pop singer's home page three days a month? Well, less benignly, the worm also steals the dial-up user names and passwords saved on your hard drive, and it e-mails them to the virus author. And since it installs a Trojan horse remote-control program, any hacker who has the same software can take control of your computer later on. If your PC was infected, use the free Lirva Removal tool to fully restore its health.

The Lavigne worm should serve as a warning to complacent computer users. If Lirva had been programmed to do real harm to the PCs it infects, to spy more closely on the infected user's computer, or to alter data on the hard drive more subtly, the result could have been devastating instead of merely infuriating.

Hackers also take advantage of computers left unattended to send worms through file sharing networks such as Kazaa. A specific vulnerability in Kazaa's pop-up ad program could allow a hacker to execute malicious code directly on your computer. A hacker who manages to pass a malicious ad to Kazaa (or to crack into its ad-serving network) can gain access to your local Windows security zone--and have free rein over your computer. (You can download a workaround.)

The interconnectedness of machines on the Net means that due diligence applies equally to home users and to corporate users, says Weafer, who likens securing a home or business computer to wearing seat belts and obeying traffic laws as you drive.

"We're living in a global community," Weafer explains. "[Computer security] is not only about protecting ourselves, but about protecting everybody else who's living around us."

[donsaeid]

با هدف اخاذي 30 ميليوني از سوي هكر جوان صورت گرفت

تهديد به انتشار عكس*هاي خصوصي دختر ايراني مقيم آلمان


تحقيقات پليس آگاهي براي دستگيري پسر جواني كه با تهديد دختر ايراني مقيم آلمان به انتشار عكس هاي شخصي*اش تقاضاي 30 ميليون تومان پول كرده بود آغاز شد.



صبح امروز عموي اين دختر 20 ساله با مراجعه به دادسراي جنايي تهران با طرح شكايتي خواستار رسيدگي به اين پرونده شد.

وي در شكايتش به جعفري معاون دادسرا گفت: برادرم بازرگان است. او حدود 14 سال قبل از كرمانشاه به آلمان رفت و مقيم آنجا شد.دختر برادرم كه 20 سال سن دارد هرچند وقت يك بار از آلمان با بستگانمان از طريق اينترنت صحبت مي كرد. حدود يك ماه قبل كه او در حال چت بود پسر جواني موفق شد از طريق هك كردن مسنجر او، وارد اطلاعات كامپيوترش شود.جوان هكر با اين روش موفق شده بود عكس هاي خانوادگي و شخصي برادر زاده ام را پيدا كند.

عمي دختر جوان افزود: سه روز قبل جوان هكر در تماس با برادر زاده*ام او را تهديد كرد با كمك فتوشاپ عكس هاي مستهجني از او تهيه كرده است. او براي اينكه عكس هاي برادرزاده ام را منتشر نكند از او خواسته بود يا با او ازدواج كند يا 30 ميليون تومان بدهد.

ابتدا ما اين تهديدها را جدي نگرفتيم اما در ادامه جوان مزاحم عكس هايي مستهجن از دختر برادرم براي ما فرستاد.ديدن اين عكسها و تهديدهاي جوان مزاحم باعث شده است برادرزاده ام دچار بيماري روحي و افسردگي شود.با افزايش تماس هاي جوان هكر، من كه مقيم سوئد هستم براي كمك به برادرم كه هم اكنون در ايران است به تهران آمدم.

وي ادامه داد: در بررسي هاي خود متوجه شديم پسر جوان ساكن تهران است و در تماس با برادر زاده ام ادعا كرده بود مدير يك آموزشگاه در سعادت آباد است.روز گذشته به بهانه پرداخت پول با پسر جوان در ميدان فردوسي قرار گذاشتيم اما او با ديدن برادرم از محل فراركرد.با فرار جوان مزاحم تصميم گرفتيم موضوع را از طريق پليس پيگيري كنيم.

با طرح اين شكايت، جعفري به گروهي از مأموران پليس آگاهي دستور داد تلفن همراه جوان مزاحم رديابي و او را دستگير كنند.

[Rasputin]

Beh hich kas nemisheh digeh e'etemad kard beh Khoda... !

Thx Saeid jan for article.

[donsaeid]

ur welcome

[Ahmaad]

Alan ke adamaye cherti mesle eena be Orkut o Hi5 o ena ham residan!
mian axaye ye dokhtar ro az album va gheyre barmidaran o ye profile eynesh va be esmesh mizanan o chert o pert minivisan!!

Jeddan adama ta che hadi mitonan past beshan ?!!

[donsaeid]

be hamon haddie ke tonestan zendegie yek bazigare javoono be lajan bekeshan!

jaye taasof dare!

bi marefati! bi marami va na mardi shode ghanone rozegar!

[Rasputin]

Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT

Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT (ISBN 0-262-66137-3) is, as the title implies, a history of the best-known hacks and pranks which have taken place at MIT. Hacks are a form of flamboyant practical joke, and MIT is one of the most selective universities in the United States with a famous hack tradition.

Nightwork is based on an earlier book entitled The Journal of the Institute for Hacks, TomFoolery, and Pranks at MIT.

Several excerpts from Nightwork are available online from the MIT alumni website:

Where No Cow Has Gone Before: Accessing the Inaccessible

Hacking Ethics

Hack, Hacker, Hacking

IHTFP

The Case of the Disappearing President's Office

Where the Sun Shines, There Hack They

[Rasputin]

Holiday for Hackers?

There wasn't a lot of holiday cheer for Microsoft's Security Response Center late last year.

Just a few days after Christmas 2005, criminals had found a new way to attack. By taking advantage of an unpatched bug in the way Internet Explorer processed an obscure graphics format, called WMF (Windows Metafile), they were able to install unauthorized software on PCs.

Holiday Duty
Soon reports started coming into Microsoft of malicious Web sites that were taking advantage of this bug to spread adware and spyware.

"Within 15 minutes, we were all on the phone and people were coming in and discussing it through the holidays," said Mark Griesi, senior program manager with Microsoft.

"People were literally here 24 hours a day," he said. "I really hand it to those guys. They came in and worked through the holidays ... It's a side of Microsoft that folks don't see."

A week later, Microsoft took the unusual step of issuing an emergency patch for the WMF problem. Still, critics said that the software giant had waited too long, given the scope of the attack.

Pending Attack?
So will there be another WMF-style outbreak next week?

Nobody really knows the answer to that question, of course, but recent patterns of attacks seem to suggest it may be likely. The Sobig, Blaster, and Zotob worms were all released in August, for example, the end of summer holidays in Europe and the U.S., and attackers seem to be getting better lately at timing the release of their malicious software in order to have maximum effect.

IT administrators are harder to reach, and less likely to patch software or issue workarounds during the holidays. And college-age hackers have more time on their hands to work out new attacks, or so the thinking goes.

No Seasonal Trend
Security experts generally agree that another WMF-style attack is no more likely to occur next week than any other, however.

The idea that attacks somehow spike during the holidays is "more of a fallacy than anything else, said David Marcus, security research and communications manager with McAfee's Avert Labs. "Most enterprises I've dealt with have just as much coverage during the holidays as any time of year."

Microsoft's Griesi agreed that the traditional holiday business slowdown in the U.S. does not apply to security professionals. "The holiday season doesn't affect our ability to respond," he said.

Though enterprises may be prepared for cyberattacks, the December rush of online shopping does spur certain types of online scams, Marcus said. "You'll see certain techniques become prevalent at certain times of the year," Marcus said. "You'll see some holiday spam or some charity spam."

Contingency Plans
Nevertheless, Susan Bradley plans to be a little extra-cautious over the next week, monitoring a well-known computer security discussion list for any signs of trouble. "I will be looking at the Full Disclosure list like crazy" said Bradley, chief technology officer with Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn and Braun, Accountancy.

And like Microsoft, many businesses are prepared to quickly mobilize their IT teams, in the event of an attack.

At the Port of Seattle, for example, security monitoring will continue as normal over the holidays, according to Ernie Hayden, chief information security manager with the port.

He isn't sure whether next week will bring another WMF-style outbreak, but he said he was holding to a simple mantra over the holiday season. "Be prepared. Just be a good old-fashioned Boy Scout," he said. "Don't expect that everything you're doing is going to be perfect."

[Rasputin]

Santa's Web Site Hacked

With Christmas fast approaching, Santa Claus reached out for a little help from Stopbadware.org this week.

The consumer advocacy group said it was approached by an Incline Village, Nevada, man who had legally changed his name to Santa Claus, who asked them to help figure out why his Web site was being flagged by Google's Web site filters.

It turned out that Santa's Web site had been hacked.

Hacked Again
On Friday, the Web site was still downloading malicious software, according to Roger Thompson, chief technology officer with Exploit Prevention Labs. It exploits a bug in Internet Explorer that Microsoft patched last August, meaning that people running older versions of the browser could be at risk, Thompson said via instant message.

"The site is hacked," he said. "If you are not patched, it uses an exploit to silently install a huge amount of adware and spyware."

The original problem was soon resolved by Stopbadware.org, but on Friday malware had again cropped up on the Web site.

Elves Have No Answers
Claus is a children's advocate who has traveled across the U.S. meeting with legislators, according to his Web site. He also makes seasonal appearances as Saint Nick.

"He had consulted local experts, which we can only assume were elves, but they were unable to identify anything wrong with his site," wrote StopBadware.org Developer Jason Callina, in a Thursday blog posting.

"Nestled all snug in the bottom of his homepage was a nice little bit of code containing a badware link," he added.

The problem was soon resolved "and the workshop is once again a safe place," Callina said.

Blame The Grinch
Stopbadware.org was founded earlier this year, with funding from Google, Lenovo, and Sun Microsystems as a community watchdog organization to help protect consumers from malicious software like spyware and viruses.

Callina said he's learned something from the Santa Claus experience.

"The moral of the story is that the Grinches who are looking to spread their unsafe software are willing to hack even Santa's Web site."

[Rasputin]

Symantec Warns of New Zero-Day Word Attack

Hackers are exploiting a new, unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Word that could allow them to take control of a victim's computer, Symantec has warned.

The zero-day vulnerability is the fourth in Microsoft's widely-used Word 2000 software that has not yet been patched, the security company said in its Security Response Warning.

A zero-day vulnerability refers to a security hole for which exploits are already available when it was discovered. This latest one affects most versions of Windows running Word, Symantec's advisory said.

"Extremely Critical"
Danish security vender Secunia ApS also reported the vulnerability, and rated it as "extremely critical," its highest-level warning. Microsoft, however, said the attacks are "very limited."

The attack comes via an infected Word document, a method increasingly used by hackers for targeted attacks. If the document is opened, it installs a Trojan horse program, called Trojan.Mdropper.W, onto the computer, Lau wrote. The Trojan also puts other files on a computer that enable a hacker to control it.

Microsoft released three sets of critical patches on Jan. 9, including ones for Outlook, PowerPoint and Windows, but not for Word.

Word Widely Used
Users can avoid trouble by not opening unexpected Word documents attached to e-mail. Hackers often spam out thousands of messages with harmful attachments, such as Trojan horse programs, hoping unsuspecting victims will open them.

Trojans often look harmless and can quietly install themselves on a computer with no visible signs. The use of Word to mount an attack can be particularly effective since the file format is so widely used.

[Rasputin]

Hackers Sift Gaming, Social Networking Sites for Victims

Insecurely written software still looms as one of the greatest threats to Internet commerce, and user-generated Web content is becoming a vast new vulnerability hackers want to exploit, according to experts at RSA Conference.

Cross-site scripting attacks on Web sites can lead to malware taking over the browsers of machines that use the sites, said Caleb Sima, a member of the Secure Software Forum and co-founder of SPI Dynamics.

“If you’re a business where users browse the Web [legitimately] and hackers take over a browser, they can use it as a tool to look at the internal network and send data outside the network,” Sima said.

Similarly, this can lead to hackers stealing from individual users, he said. For instance, once a browser is commandeered, a hacker can learn passwords and activities an individual uses on the Internet. “They can go to stocktrader.com and trade your stock while you’re logged in. It will do it and you won’t know it,” Sima said.

Gaming sites and social networking sites are ripe for attacks because they have such large numbers of users who are routinely sending content to and from the sites. “If [hackers] find a vulnerability in a site, they can broadcast phishing attacks. They’ll have millions and millions of victims available,” he said.

“It’s really getting rather scary,” said David Cullinane, CISO for eBay Marketplaces, a place ripe for such exploits. “It’s really getting very sophisticated.” Professional hackers looking to make as much money as possible are jumping on vulnerabilities faster than ever, he said.

In 2004, exploits using man-in-the-middle attacks to replay one-time user passwords were seen as a coming threat that would hit in volume in 2008, but they came in 2006, Cullinane said. Network protection technologies that shield Web applications could be put in place, but if hackers find ways around them, they can be too expensive to use, he said.

“If I spend $1 billion on security that’s good for six months, what’s the [return on investment] for that?” he asked.

Cullinane said insecure applications are put into production perhaps before they are thoroughly secured because customers using corporate Web sites for business want new Web interactions with the company.

“We want code that’s written properly, but other factors matter. The rate of change [in Web business applications] is amazing, and the throughput is mind-boggling. If you do too much security, you bog down the Web site,” he said.

Some businesses accept the risk of attacks because they can’t tightly secure their networks, instead waiting for fixes from security vendors that can block specific exploits using signature-based blocking, said William Geimer, a consultant with Open System Sciences, which is working on a project to secure Web sites for the U.S. Agency for International Development. “You’re hoping someone else gets burned first,” he said.

One possible cure is writing more secure software, which is still proving difficult because software designers aren’t trained to write securely; they’re trained to write programs that perform functions, Sima said. Security is an afterthought, he said.

Better frameworks for how software is written could help, said William Scherlis, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. That includes looking at the software as it is being written using a hacker’s perspective to find potential vulnerabilities. “We should try to find patterns of behavior against the application that might damage the site,” he said.

Sima wasn’t very hopeful about that approach -- thinking like hackers is tough, he said. Hackers’ strength is thinking outside the box, he said, and it’s not possible to identify all the places they might attack an application. “Things like threat modeling are hard to create.”

He encouraged audience members to make sure that programmers have all their applications verify every piece of input they accept before acting on it. Just that one step, if followed religiously, could eliminate 80% of attacks, he said.

[Rasputin]

با گذشت كمتر از دو ماه از انتشار نسخه نهايي ويندوز ويستا و به*رغم تمام طراحي*هايي كه برنامه*نويسان اين سيستم عامل براي جلوگيري از كرك شدن آن انديشيده بودند، هكرهاي ايراني موفق شدند از پس ترفندهاي ضد كپي مايكروسافت برآيند و نسخه كاملاً كرك شده اين ويندوز جديد را به مشتريان ايراني خود، ارايه دهند.

نسخه كپي ويستا از شركت ت... ، اين امكان را فراهم مي*كند كه كاربر در شركت مايكروسافت صاحب يك شماره سريال (Serial Number) خصوصي شود و به اين ترتيب ويندوز خود را قانوني نمايد. اين محصول در بازار كامپيوتر ايران به قيمت 8 هزار تومان عرضه مي*شود، در حالي كه قيمت آن در بازارهاي جهاني نزديك به 650 دلار است.

اين نسخه ويندوز، نخستين نسخه*اي است كه كاربر را قادر مي*سازد به صورت كاملا قانوني ويندوز خود را در سايت شركت مايكروسافت ثبت و از امكانات پس از فروش اين شركت استفاده كند. به اين ترتيب هر كاربر ايراني با نصب اين ويندوز بيش از 640 دلار به صورت غير قانوني سود مي*برد.

هنوز از عكس*العمل مسوولان شركت مايكروسافت درخصوص كرك شدن نسخه نهايي ويستا در ايران اطلاعي در دست نيست.

[Rasputin]

Skype Hampered by New Trojan Horse

DUSSELDORF, GERMANY -- Another Trojan horse is spreading through the Internet telephone network of Skype.

The malicious code, known as both Warezov and Stration, is similar to an earlier version detected in February, but with a new URL (uniform resource locator) and a new version of the malicious code, according to an alert posted Thursday by Websense.

Websense warns Skype users to watch for the message "Check up this," with a URL containing a hyperlink. The code itself isn't self-propogating but when it runs, the URL is sent to everyone on the user's contact list.

What Happens Next
When users click on the link, they are redirected to a site that is hosting a file named file_01.exe. Users are then prompted to run the file and if they do, several other files are downloaded and run. The downloaded files are other versions of the Waresov/Stration malicious code.

Once the Trojan is installed in a system, it tries to connect to a Yahoo Inc. mail server to send an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) message.

However, that server doesn't appear to be operating, according to Websense.

Skype, a division of eBay, offers a number of Internet-based services, including VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and instant messaging.

[Rasputin]

Scientists Hack Quantum Encryption

A team of researchers from MIT have been able to hack into a quantum encryption-protected network. The team were able to develop a sort of quantum-mechanical wiretap and "listen in" to quantum encoded messages.

MIT physicist Jeffrey Shapiro admitted however that "It is not something that currently could attack a commercial system." Quantum encryption is used so safely, as a hack can easily be detected by a spike in the transmission error measurements.

The method developed by the MIT group is a part work-around to this detection. Approximately 40% of the encoded data was extracted before the spike was shown.