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A security hole in Adobe Systems Inc software, used to distribute movies and TV shows over the Internet, is giving users free access to record and copy from Amazon.com Inc's video streaming service. The problem exposes online video content to the rampant piracy that plagued the music industry during the Napster era and is undermining efforts by retailers, movie studios and television networks to cash in on a huge Web audience. "It's a fundamental flaw in the Adobe design. This was designed stupidly," said Bruce Schneier, a security expert who is also the chief security technology officer at British Telecom....

The Indian media are reporting sustained internet-based attacks from China against Indian networks. These attacks, they say, are not just isolated incidents and are sophisticated and broad in scope. Government officials have confirmed off the record that the cyber warfare threat from China is much more serious than attacks carried out from other countries. They believe the Chinese attackers have been scanning and mapping India's networks for around one and a half years. They are primarily using bots – approximately 50,000 of which are currently installed on Indian systems, key loggers and network topology mapping, which allows information to be...

(JHRexclusive) It is without question, the single most degrading spectacle to have emerged from the current political climate being created by the leaders of the "Big Tent" California Republican Party concept. During the recent California Republican Party's State Convention held in Los Angeles, the radical homosexual group, the Log Cabin Republicans, held a party inside of the event. Revelations surrounding the promotion of homosexuality within the GOP at the Log Cabin Republicans' festivities were nothing new. What was new, however, was the blatant attacks on Christian values that occured at this immoral homosexual party, when some of California's most public...

Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have reminded internet users to be on their guard following the discovery of a spyware Trojan horse that displays pictures of a potential Russian love match while secretly stealing information. When first run on a user's computer, the Troj/Keylog-HD Trojan horse displays a slideshow of 3 photographs of a young woman called "Victoria Stasova". Accompanying the photographs is a love heart and an AOL email address. However, while the pictures are being displayed, the malware steals keypresses and information from the infected user's PC which could allow...

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Benjamin Daines was browsing the Web when he clicked on a series of links that promised pictures of an unreleased update to his computer's operating system. Instead, a window opened on the screen and strange commands ran as if the machine was under the control of someone -- or something -- else. Daines was the victim of a computer virus.

LOS ANGELES -- Southern California backup quarterback Mark Sanchez was released from jail early Thursday following his arrest for investigation of sexually assaulting a female student, authorities said. Sanchez, 19, was released shortly after midnight after posting $200,000 bail, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Ban Nguyen. He was arrested around 4 p.m. Wednesday at an apartment complex near campus, Los Angeles police Officer Jason Lee said. No other details were immediately available. USC officials said they will temporarily suspend Sanchez while police conduct their investigation. "The university takes charges of sexual assault seriously," Michael Jackson, USC vice president of...

SPRING VALLEY, Calif. – In this sprawling hilltop community with a breathtaking view of Sweetwater Lake, it was no secret who lived in the 3,000-square-foot house at the corner of Apple Street and Luther Avenue. That home, residents would tell you, was where Reggie Bush's family lived. That is, until this weekend, when the family abruptly packed up and vacated the residence – less than 24 hours after Yahoo! Sports approached Bush's mother about information linking the property to Michael Michaels, a man who is alleged to have tried to play a role in steering Bush toward an agent and...

People tell me I bash Microsoft too much; that Microsoft's products really are great. OK, so I won't bash Microsoft this time around. I'll let Microsoft's own friends do it.

In May 2005, a trojan called PGPcoder was discovered in the wild by Websense Security Labs. The trojan's purpose was to encrypt a user's files, then demand a ransom for their decryption. Although this scheme seemed novel, it is actually predated by over 15 years, by a similar scam in 1989. LURHQ's Threat Intelligence Group has now discovered a third such scheme involving ransomware which we are calling Cryzip. Unlike PGPcoder, which used a custom encryption scheme (which was subsequently reverse-engineered by LURHQ), Cryzip uses a commercial zip library in order to store files inside a password-protected zip. Although the...

I just ran the Yahoo Anti-Spyware program and an item titled, XCP.Sony.Root Kit" came up as a trojan with 53 items. When I hit the delete button, a pop-up appears and says "one item cannot be restored when removed." Should I be concerned with this? AdaWare and my AVG AV programs have not detected this. Running Win XP Home Edition

Rendell, Swann in dead heat By David M. Brown TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, February 10, 2006 Republican challenger Lynn Swann has caught Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, a new Pittsburgh Tribune-Review/WTAE-Channel 4 Keystone poll shows. Swann, who trailed Rendell by 20 points five months ago, has jumped to within three points -- a statistical tossup. More than half -- 54 percent -- of voters questioned believe it is time for a change in the governor's office. About two in five -- 39 percent -- said they believe Rendell deserves re-election.

<p>On January 4, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. (PST) the Rose Bowl Game will host the BCS National Championship, between USC and Texas once again showcasing the best of collegiate football in "The Granddaddy of Them All."® The Rose Bowl will be broadcast exclusively on ABC and on ESPN radio.</p>

Looking forward to the week ahead, I find myself in the very peculiar position of having to say something that I don't believe has ever been said here in the Handler's diary before: "Please, trust us." I've written more than a few diaries, and I've often been silly or said funny things, but now, I'm being as straightforward and honest as I can possibly be: the Microsoft WMF vulnerability is bad. It is very, very bad.

This alert is a follow-up to a post made yesterday on our blog: http://www.websensesecuritylabs.com/blog/ Websense® Security Labs™ has discovered numerous websites exploiting an unpatched Windows vulnerability in the handling of .WMF image files. The websites which have been uncovered at this point are using the exploit to distribute Spyware applications and other Potentially Unwanted Soware. The user's desktop background is replaced with a message warning of a spyware infection and a "spyware cleaning" application is launched. This application prompts the user to enter credit card information in order to remove the detected spyware. The background image used and the "spyware...

Luigi from the "Super Mario Brothers" video games. Richard "Boner" Stabone from the '80s sitcom Growing Pains. Rob Schneider in pretty much any Adam Sandler comedy. USC quarterback Matt Leinart. What do these four men have in common? No, not terrific mustaches. Not wonderful foreign accents either. And certainly not perfect nicknames. No, each one of the above men has proven their capabilities as the ideal friend a guy would want by their side during a moment of need. Team players with utilitarian attitudes and an understanding that one's cronies should always be first on the priority list — Luigi,...

Texas coach Mack Brown has been calling Southern California the No. 1 team all season and it wasn't just talk. Brown voted USC first in the final USA Today coaches' poll, and so did his brother. The ballots were made public Monday, a first for the coaches' poll, which is used by the Bowl Championship Series in its standings formula. The BCS had urged the coaches to remove the secrecy in their poll after the 2004 season, when Texas made a late surge in the polls to earn a Rose Bowl bid over California. The coaches decided to release only...

Are you ready for some football? My predictions Texas by 30 USC by 3 Virginia Tech to be upset

Here are the picks of several college football dignitaries along with Clucko the Chicken. Put down two feed dishes, one representing one team and one representing another and whichever dish the chicken goes to first is the team that's going to win. You'll do just as well. (Really, the pick is a coin flip. Don't laugh; Clucko won the 2000 Bowl Pool among 24 entrants.) You can get to the Expert Picks in the above dropdown under Predictions. The pickers: Pete Fiutak - CFN, Rich Cirminiello - CFN, Matthew Zemek - CFN, Mark Risley - CFN, John Harris - CFN,...

Now this is truly a football game the city of Los Angeles could love. The battle between the Bruins and Trojans is in many ways a bizarre, weird, excessive testosterone festival with big stakes and over-the-top emotions. It's everything the City of Angels is. In a place obsessed with image, trendiness, physical beauty, and maximum entertainment value, this year's battle for the Victory Bell will certainly capture the imagination of Angelino culture. This game is the sort of larger-than-large uber-spectacle that Hollywood thrives on. It's so big a game that it doesn't really feel like a regular-season finale. It's as...

 Top motivator of USC football Ryan Davidson, USC's good luck charm, arrives today. STEVE BISHEFF Register columnist sbisheff@ocregister.com USC fan and cancer survivor Ryan Davidson, center, joined Reggie Bush (5) and LenDale White (21) at the Orange Bowl in January. The 12-year-old regularly corresponds with team members. PHOTOS COURTESY KIRBY DAVIDSON LOS ANGELES – A lot of the pressure and anxiety of Big Game Week will dissipate at USC today. The team's official "Good Luck Charm" is due to arrive on campus from Wisconsin. His name is Ryan Davidson, and he is a skinny, brown-haired, blue-eyed, 12-year-old boy with a...

October 29, 2005 Wash. St. at Southern Cal Recap LOS ANGELES -- Matt Leinart had little trouble picking apart Washington State's secondary. Leinart threw for 232 yards and three touchdowns in the first quarter as top-ranked Southern California extended its winning streak to 30 games with an easy 55-13 Pac-10 Conference triumph over the Cougars, who have lost five consecutive contests. Leinart completed 24-of-34 passes for 364 yards with an interception in less than three quarters of work for the Trojans (8-0, 5-0 Pac-10), who have won 24 consecutive home games and 20 straight conference contests, both school records. LenDale...

USC is No. 1 in the AP, USA Today and Harris Interactive polls, hasn't lost in its last 29 games and is coming off a 51-24 dismantling of Washington. BCS TOP 25 Rk Team BCS Average 1 Texas .9763 2 USC .9756 3 Virginia Tech .9164 4 Georgia .8679 5 Alabama .8513 6 UCLA .7384 So how did the Trojans drop in the latest BCS standings? Texas, which is No. 2 in both the human polls, moved to No. 1 in the standings that will determine who will play in the national championship game, just .0007 points ahead of USC....

Handicapping the Heisman: The road to college football's top award. Heisman Contender of the Week 1. RB Reggie Bush, USC — There is no end to what Bush will do to help his Trojans win. He runs, he catches, he returns kicks….he’ll even push QB Matt Leinart into the end zone if it’ll keep USC unbeaten and atop the polls. As the star of last week’s thriller in South Bend, Bush has ascended like a rocket to the top of many voters’ leaderboards. When Leinart was struggling, it was No. 5 who carried the offense. And when Leinart was struggling...

Firefox's 'retreat' ensures Microsoft excels Open source web browser Firefox has lost the momentum it has steadily gained since it was unleashed last year, according to Web analysts at Net Applications. The online portal’s unique Hit List service reveals a slump in the Mozilla browser’s market share, falling from 8.7% to 8.1 % in July. Coinciding with its demise, was the advance of Microsoft's IE that has gained some of the ground surrendered in June, climbing back from 86.6 % to 87.2% last month. The revival for the dominant browser comes on the back of average monthly losses of between...

Nova Scotia July 19, 2005 -- SpyCop today announced that the use of commercial monitoring spy software is on the rise in Internet phishing schemes, the latest scam used to steal personal information and even entire identities. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, web site at www.antiphishing.org, explains: "Phishing attacks use both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials... Technical subterfuge schemes plant crimeware onto PCs to steal credentials directly, often using Trojan keylogger spyware." The commercial spy software market has made available over 525 payware spy programs which include URL recorders, keyloggers, chat...

A malicious script that spies on Apple Mac users was discovered over the weekend. The malware, which has been dubbed ‘Opener’ by Mac user-groups, disables Mac OS X’s built-in firewall, steals personal information and can destroy data. Security experts say these traits are common among the thousands of viruses targeting Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system but are virtually unheard of amongst the Apple Macintosh community. Paul Ducklin, Sophos’ head of technology in the Asia Pacific, told ZDNet Australia that the malware, which Sophos calls Renepo, is designed to infect any Mac OS X drives connected to the infected system and...

Can someone post updates of the game for those of us still at work? I have a K on SC. Thanks Admin relocate as necessary

O.J. Simpson plans to root like crazy at the Orange Bowl. His attorney, Yale Galanter, monitored the telephone call and wouldn't allow Simpson to say where he'll be sitting inside the stadium.

Auburn beats VA Tech in the Sugar Bowl, 16-13, to finish the season undefeated. 2 days ago Utah whipped Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl to also complete an undefeated season. USC and Oklahoma play tomorrow night in the bogus national championship game, but in truth, once again no one will know who was the best team this season.

Mobile phone security is bad now, but it is only going to get worse, a security firm said Wednesday as it laid out this year's attack timeline to demonstrate the quickening pace of exploits. Finnish anti-virus vendor F-Secure listed 2004's attacks against smartphones, particularly those running the popular Symbian operating system -- Nokia is a one of the phone makers whose devices use the OS -- starting with the spring's Mosquito "trojanized" game and running through this week's similar threat, another Trojan masquerading as a popular cell phone game, Metal Gear Solid. In between, the Cabir worm spread, which first...

LOS ANGELES - For one quarter, Notre Dame was better than No. 1 Southern California. Then the Trojans got serious and the Fighting Irish had no chance. Matt Leinart made a big pitch for the Heisman Trophy, passing for a career-high 400 yards and a school record-tying five touchdowns, and the Trojans overcame a sluggish start to beat Notre Dame 41-10 on Saturday night.

I received the following email today: hi, [my email user name], I have been receiving this email from [my email address] for a long time which has had a virus in it. My anti-virus has detected it and cleaned it but it seems that you are unable to keep your computer clean from this virus. I'm starting to get a little tired of getting viruses from your computer and/or email address. If you do not clean your system soon, your ISP (Internet Service Providor) will be contacted and told about how your computer has been mailing me viruses for weeks....

Windows XP users could be excused for feeling a little less safe this week. Security tools maker Finjan Software warned on Wednesday that it found as many as 10 security flaws in the last update to Microsoft's flagship operating system, Windows XP Service Pack 2. In a statement that contained few details, the U.K. company claimed that the vulnerabilities could enable attackers to remotely access a victim's files, remove security measures aimed at Internet threats and run programs without any notification to the user. Windows XP SP2 "suffers because it is still basically the same operating system and has some...

Microsoft is admonishing those who found the IFRAME vulnerability - the flaw exploited by the bofra virus - for the way they made it public. Microsoft has slammed the people responsible for publishing details of the vulnerability that has lead to the creation of the bofra virus. The software giant, which has yet to release a patch for the flaw, said that the vulnerability was not reported in a responsible fashion. In a prepared email statement from a Microsoft spokesperson, the company said: "Microsoft is concerned that this new report of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer was not disclosed responsibly,...

When I accessed the web today I noticed that my computer automatically had established a link to a site in Russia. I found this out through my new firewall program and a free software program I just downloaded called AA Software from glocksoft.com to check on strange worms and spyware. Obviously, I do not habitually go to Russkie sites; in fact, I have not accessed Pravda for over six months. This was a complete surprise to me and I am a bit concerned because I live in Oregon. My first reaction was that my computer have been infected with a...

Refinements of radiocarbon dates appear to rob the monumental tomb at Gordion of its claim to having been the final resting place of the illustrious King Midas, researchers reported last week in the journal Science. American and European scientists analyzed the effects of the sun's cycles on amounts of radioactivity absorbed from year to year, as recorded in tree rings. They said the research had given archaeologists and historians a more precise chronology for the Middle East and Aegean regions in the Bronze and Iron Ages. One of the researchers, Dr. Peter I. Kuniholm, an archaeologist at Cornell University, said ...

Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh tried every trick in his political playbook to make California the first state in the nation to fine parents caught smoking in cars with small children present. When his bill was killed by fellow lawmakers in public hearings, he gutted an entirely different bill and filled the empty shell with his anti-smoking measure. When that bill failed, the Los Angeles Democrat gutted another one and did it again. "We've killed this bill two or three times already and he keeps pushing it. It's crazy. We've spoken on this issue," said Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks, over the...

One of the major discoveries of the Italian Renaissance, this sculptural grouping was found in Rome in 1506 in the ruins of Titus' palace. It depicts an event in Vergil's Aeneid (Book 2). The Trojan priest Laocoön was strangled by sea snakes, sent by the gods who favored the Greeks, while he was sacrificing at the altar of Neptune. Because Laocoön had tried to warn the Trojan citizens of the danger of bringing in the wooden horse, he incurred the wrath of the gods.

At least one member of the top-ranked Southern California football team is under investigation for sexual assault, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Tuesday. The assault allegedly occurred Monday morning, according to Officer Esther Reyes, a police spokeswoman. "Today the rape special section of LAPD's robbery division began conducting an investigation into the allegation of a sexual assault that may involve a member or members of the USC football team," Reyes told reporters. She declined to elaborate.

Scientists say warfare began after people formed villages By Dan Vergano Gannett News Service From ancient Troy to today's Iraq, warfare forms the backdrop of human history. But anthropologists, archaeologists and other scholars tend to disagree on war's origins: Some see it as an ailment of civilization and others say it has deeper roots. Two anthropologists from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, suggest that although people could have come into conflict before civilization, archaeological remains of burning homes, fleeing refugees and slain captives show simple raids steadily maturing into full-scale warfare as humans settled into villages and society became...

Friday, July 30, 2004Trojans, Sooners top preseason poll There are plenty of familiar faces at the top of the ESPN/USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll. Here's a breakdown of the Top 25. 1. USC(44 first-place votes, 1,500 points, 12-1 and No. 2 in '03 final poll)It's not out of the question the Trojans could become the first repeat national champ since -- and stop us if you've heard this before -- the 1994-95 Nebraska Cornhuskers. After all, this was the season Pete Carroll and crew targeted for a national title run. They have a favorable conference schedule (Cal at home, no...

RANK TEAM RECORD PTS PVS 1. USC (48) 12-1 1,608 1 Last game: Def. Michigan 28-14 (Jan. 1) 2. LSU (17) 13-1 1,576 2 Last game: Def. Oklahoma 21-14 (Jan. 4) Next game: vs. Oklahoma (Jan. 4) 3. Oklahoma 12-2 1,476 3 Last game: Lost to LSU 21-14 (Jan. 4) Next game: vs. LSU (Jan. 4) 4. Ohio State 11-2 1,411 7 Last game: Def. Kansas State 35-28 (Jan. 2) 5. Miami 11-2 1,329 10 Last game: Def. Florida State 16-14 (Jan. 1) 6. Michigan 10-3 1,281 4 Last game: Lost to USC 28-14 (Jan. 1) 7. Georgia 11-3 1,255...

Okay, football fans. Trojans and Wolverines, cheer for your favorite and make your comments here. Will USC remain No. 1 ranked but not be the national champ?

After watching Microsoft stock fall despite this year's tech rally, Microsoft shareholders sharply questioned Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer during the company's annual meeting yesterday in Bellevue. Investors in general are more skeptical after recent corporate scandals and, after three relatively weak years for Microsoft's stock, there were few cheers from the crowd of 1,250 at Meydenbauer Center. Shareholders did not go so far as to throw out any board members, all of whom were re-elected yesterday, and they approved changes to the stock-option plan that Ballmer proposed in July. But they asked when the company will...

Flaws threaten Microsoft SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp.'s offer this week of cash bounties for informants who help it collar virus-writers reflects more than just an escalation of the war on those who would exploit the dominant power in software. The campaign reveals just how much of a threat to Microsoft's bottom line security flaws now represent. When the Blaster worm hobbled hundreds of thousands of computers around the world in August — only the latest plague to exploit a flaw in Windows operating systems — it also hurt Microsoft's ability to book new contracts with corporate customers. For the first...

Earthlink: Your hard drive may be spying on youEarthLink has a word for all of you spam-hating, pop-up-blasting, virus-fearing brethren -- spyware. And you should be scared, computer users, real scared. Experts say as many as 90 percent of all Internet surfers have picked up one brand or another of this soaring spyware, also known as scumware, skunkware and malware. That proportion seems awfully high, but at least a large majority of Internet-connected computer users harbor one or another of the thousands of spyware varieties. EarthLink has more than a passing interest. Last Wednesday, it added to its Internet software...

I have just determined that my computer is infected with a Trojan called "ptsnoop." I looked up this trojan of the Internet and learned that it may reconfigure itslef as a WIN.INI file. I am running eTrust EZ Antivirus software and it has not detected this trojan and has not removed it. According to posts on the Internet I have read, ptsnoop allows people to load it from a web site undetected by most firewalls. I need help to remove it. I have located this Trojan and attempted to uninstall it. No luck so far. Any suggestions?

In a thrashing not seen since 1972, the USC Trojans throttled the hapless Notre Dame Fighting Irish to finish the regular season 10-2. Running up an unprecedented 610 yards in total offense, the Cardinal and Gold ran through the vaunted Notre Dame defense like cr*p through a goose. Heisman trophy candidate Carson Palmer riddled the Irish defense for an unheard of 426 yards in the air. Despite the 13 points spotted by the Trojans by their sloppy first half play, Notre Dame was unable to score an offensive touchdown through four quarters of play. The Fighting Irish were truly pathetic...

My firewall software frequently logs attempted penetrations of my computer. Among the information it captures is the IP address of the offending PC. My question is, can I use this information to counter-attack the hacker, or notify an unwitting computer owner that his PC or server is infected? How do I go about doing this? I've played with tracer programs before, but never really used the information to follow up.