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First the setup: Computer is a Dell Dimension E521 running Windows Vista Home Premium. My antivirus software is AVG free edition. The other day, I ran the AV, using the "Rootkit scanner". The PC was acting slower than usual, even after a few complete scans. The rootkit scan showed a file that was possibly malware. I chose to remove that file. The AV then prompted me to restart for the change to take effect. Now, Windows will not start. A black screen appears with this message: "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause....

Hackers break into Senate computersDiane Bartz and Thomas Ferraro Reuters 7:28 a.m. EDT, June 14, 2011 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate's website was hacked over the weekend, leading to a review of all of its websites, in the latest embarrassing breach of security to hit a major U.S.-based institution. The loosely organized hacker group Lulz Security broke into a public portion of the Senate website but did not reach behind a firewall into a more sensitive portion of the network, Martina Bradford, the deputy Senate sergeant at arms, said on Monday. Despite the breach, the Sergeant at Arms Office, which...

MOSCOW — Russia’s biggest retail bank is testing a machine that the old K.G.B. might have loved, an A.T.M. with a built-in lie detector intended to prevent consumer credit fraud.

Somali officials confirmed today that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, al Qaeda's leader in East Africa and a senior Shabaab commander, was killed at a Somali military checkpoint in Mogadishu earlier this week. Fazul is one of the most wanted terrorists in East Africa for his role in attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as well as his role within Shabaab. Somalia's minister of information confirmed Fazul's death, according to The Associated Press. "We've compared the pictures of the body to his old pictures," he said. "They are the same. It is confirmed. He is the man and he is...

The theoretical physicist and author of 'Physics of the Future' talks about how nanotechnology will change our lives.Will the future bring us the teleportation devices of "Star Trek" or the sinister machines of "The Matrix"? Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku of the City College of New York says that many of the things that were once the domain of science fiction — cars that navigate rush-hour traffic on their own, wallpaper that can switch colors when you remodel, an elevator that takes you into outer space — are already here, or well on their way. His book "Physics of the Future,"...

This week, Microsoft revealed a little of what to expect from the next Windows operating system. With its Windows Phone look and touch - literally - and tiles everywhere, it will be a major refresh, but there's a still a number of unanswered questions. Here are my top five: Can Microsoft keep desktop users happy with Windows 8? In demonstrations this week, Windows 8 is shown running legacy applications like Office side-by-side with the hip new OS. But the version of Windows 8 that runs on the ARM processor won't have legacy support. That creates an OS quandary. While Microsoft...

The White House on Thursday is expected to unveil its proposal to enhance the nation's cybersecurity, laying out plans to require industry to better protect systems that run critical infrastructure like the electrical grid, financial systems and nuclear power plants. The Obama administration also is insisting that companies tell consumers when their personal information has been compromised. According to cybersecurity experts familiar with the plan, the administration's proposed legislation also would instruct federal agencies to more closely monitor their computer networks. Several House and Senate committees have been working on cybersecurity legislation for the past two years, while waiting for...

If nothing else, last month's 62,000 minimum wage, part time-job expansion program by McDonalds generated lots of commentary on whether it should or should not be counted in the April NFP number. While paying a bunch of janitors (sub) minimum wage will have precisely 0.00% impact on GDP, the possibility that America could convert even more full-time into part-time jobs, generating a few more press opportunities for the teleprompter was certainly bullish, sure generated a lot of contradictory blog posts. Alas, even paying minimum wage appears to be too much of a chore for the world's largest burger chain. Enter...

Good day. We are on the verge of investing in a laptop for our child. Our child will be heading off to college and will be using this tool especially for composing music. We are not particularly concerned about the gaming capabilities. Our family's considering either a Mac or Dell. If money were no object, we would purchase the MacPro, but that is unlikely. Here are the main issues were are concerned about: 1. reliability 2. customer assistance 3. durability 4. expansion options Would any of you recommend purchasing a refurbished laptop? If so, why? If not, why? Is there...

Attackers are now using Google's image search to distributed malware, security experts say. Thousands of sites have reportedly been compromised by code injection--the malicious code redirects users to fake antivirus applications. Internet Storm Center researcher Bojan Zdrnja writes that the attackers are mostly targeting Wordpress sites, and are injecting PHP code that generates pages with images based on highly-searched content. Google then indexes these pages, and the images show up on Google's image search. > What can you do in the meantime to protect yourself if you feel that you have visited a malicious site via Google Images? Security experts...

OK when I type in a term to search on in Yahoo/Google/Dog Pile doesn't matter what one I use and hit search/enter I get a TOTALLY different result. It is getting pretty irritating.

Intego has discovered a rogue anti-malware program called MACDefender, which attacks Macs via SEO poisoning attacks. When a user clicks on a link after performing a search on a search engine such as Google, this takes them to a web site whose page contains JavaScript that automatically downloads a file. In this case, the file downloaded is a compressed ZIP archive, which, if a specific option in a web browser is checked (Open “safe” files after downloading in Safari, for example), will open. The file is decompressed, and the installer it contains launches presenting a user with the following screen:...

SNIPPET: "According to one of my most trusted sources, the blurry image seen on the tape is indeed Osama bin Laden. One of the reasons that this is convincing is that the blurry image remains in the video. As Sahab, which produces al Qaeda's propaganda, is very selective in the information it releases, and rarely leaves garbage in its videos. As Sahab intentionally leaves in this clip, for reasons unknown. Does al Qaeda want to generate a buzz? Is this a hidden message? Perhaps this is a precursor to a new bin Laden tape?"

In an unusual move, federal authorities will be contacting computer users with systems infected by the Coreflood botnet Trojan and asking them to agree to allow them to send commands to the malware so it will delete itself. The move comes in the in the wake of a coordinated takedown earlier this month by the FBI and other authorities, in which the U.S. government essentially substituted its own command-and-control servers in place of those used by Coreflood and issued commands telling the program to shut down on infected PCs. The move reduced activity from the Coreflood botnet by about 90...

Dell laptops designed for Spanish-language speakers are selling briskly for BrandsMart USA at the company’s South Florida stores, which makes plenty of sense given the area’s high numbers of Hispanic residents. The Dell Inspiron M5030 sells for $498.88 at BrandsMart USA stores in West Palm Beach, Deerfield Beach, Sunrise and Miami and features a keyboard with keys labeled in Spanish and special characters like the ñ. In addition, it operates on Windows 7 – the Spanish version used by manufacturers in Latin American countries. And of course, the manual is in Spanish.

So, an older relative wants a laptop so he can surf the web from his recliner. His computer skills consist of being able to turn the computer on, open his browser, and do simple word processing/printing. He's tired of viruses and malware. I've been talking up the Macbook. He's decided on the Macbook pro with 17 inch monitor, Way more computer than he needs, but he likes the big monitor because it will be easier on his eyes. All sounds good, right? That is, until I go online and look at the price. Yikes! Nearly $2500. He can afford it...

I started friday night having problems with all search engines...

Isn't it great? You no longer have to buy your software. Why, it's on the "cloud". Maybe even Cloud 9. Like beer, which you never buy, you rent it. It won't take up valuable space on you 1,024 gigabyte hard disk, no updates to worry about, no fees for updating the damn thing. But wait, something ain't right! Let's say you are using Google Docs (and let's not get into the discussion of Google being Communists, as they all supposedly are according to some here. If they support the RATS it's only because we've allowed the RATS to control the...

Panasonic Corp's Digital AVC Marketing Division will release a rewritable single-sided three-layer Blu-ray disc that is compatible with the Blu-ray Disc Rewritable Format and has a capacity of 100 Gbytes April 15, 2011. The company claims that it is the world's first rewritable Blu-ray disc with a capacity of 100 Gbytes. The new product is a 2x-speed recordable Blu-ray disc compatible with the BDXL Part1 Version3, and its capacity is twice as large as that of an existing single-sided two-layer Blu-ray disc (50 Gbytes). Specifically, it is possible to record about 12 hours of a terrestrial digital TV program in...

A relatively simple hack has been used to compromise at least 500,000 Web sites, and perhaps as many as 1.5 million, in such a way that visitors are tricked into downloading fake PC security software. Dubbed Lizamoon, after the Web site where some users are in some cases redirected, the attack was first documented by the security research firm Websense The hack seeks to trick Web users into believing that their computer has been compromised by viruses and prompts them to download fake security software that itself causes further problems. Among the sites serving up the links to the fake...