Computeractive! Latest news

Koobface sets sights on Google Reader

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-11-10T01:57:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 01:57:00

Accounts used to host attack videos

The notorious Koobface malware has started using Google's Reader service to spread further.

Researchers say that the new attack uses spammed messages that send users to the compromised pages on the Reader service. When the user clicks on a fake video embedded in the page, traffic is diverted to another site that attempts to run a remote exploit and malware installation.

Trend Micro senior security adviser Rik Ferguson noted that the attacks provided a slight variation on the Koobface attacks that surfaced earlier this year. The company estimates that some 1,300 accounts have already been compromised.

"Cybercriminals are taking advantage of Google's credibility by hiding their malicious links behind Google Reader," said Ferguson.

"This is a new twist on the familiar Koobface infection routine, where victims are asked to install Adobe Flash updates in order to view a video that appears to be shared on the Google Reader website."

The Koobface worm and its associated botnet have gained notoriety in security circles for its longevity and history of targeting social networking sites. First surfacing in 2008 within MySpace and Facebook, the worm later resurfaced in 2009, this time targeting Twitter users.

Nokia recalls 14 million phone chargers

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-11-10T01:44:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 01:44:00

Shock fears lead to massive recall

Handset maker Nokia has kicked off a recall programme that is said to affect some 14 million customers.

The company said that the faulty chargers had been sold in two batches, one running between 13 April and 25 October and another sold between 15 June and 9 August of this year. Nokia said that the chargers were prone to losing part of the plastic casing and exposing components that could cause an electric shock.

The recall reportedly covers as many as 14 million handsets mainly in North America and Europe. So far no major injuries or damages related to the defective chargers have been reported.

Nokia has set up a site to allow users to check their chargers for the possible fault. The company said that the exchange process will be handled through local outlets in the affected regions.

Nokia's is the second major recall to hit the computing industry in recent weeks. In late October Sony issued a recall for 70,000 of its Vaio power adaptors that were said to pose a similar shock hazard.

More service records from World War One go online

Dinah Greek — 2009-11-09T11:36:00.000Z

Dinah Greek, Computeractive, Monday 9 November 2009 at 11:36:00

Surviving details of more than two million soliders of the Great War now available for online search

Ancestry.co.uk has completed digitising the surviving World War One British army service records.

The 32.5 million paper records now online detail the full military careers of more than two million soldiers,who served during the Great War.

Each service record a variety of information concerning all aspects of the army careers of those who completed their duty or were either killed in action or executed.

These latest military records to go online are often called the ‘burnt documents’; being the surviving service documents rescued after the War Office in London was bombed in 1940 and the subsequent fire destroyed 60 per cent of the paper originals.

They complement the British Army World War One Pension Records, 1914-1920, which contain 9.7 million pages of personal information relating to almost one million discharged soldiers.

William Spencer, Military Records Specialist at The National Archives, said: “It is fitting that the digitisation of surviving First World War soldiers’ records of service should be completed at this time.

“With Harry Patch’s death last July [just days after the death of another WW1 veteran and then the world's oldest man, Henry Allingham], any direct living connection to these records has finally been severed and marks the passing of this significant period in British military activity into history.

“Digitising these records makes them accessible to people around the world, many of whom had ancestors who served in the “war to end all wars”, and who will now be able to discover so much more about them.”

Each individual record in the British Army World War One Service Records, 1914-1920 contains an average of 16 pages of personal information; however they can contain as many as 60 pages.

Information available from Ancestry.co.uk includes the soldier’s name, date and place of birth, address, next-of-kin, former occupation, marital status, medical records, service history, regiment number, locations of service and discharge papers.

Together, the service, medals and pension records form the definitive source of information in existence on more than three million ordinary soldiers who fought in the British Army during World War One.

The sheer volume of material has meant that the collection has been digitised in stages in a process that has taken three years.

Among the surviving service records are those of a number of both famous and ordinary, brave soldiers, including actor Basil Rathbone, best known for the portrayal of Sherlock Homes in 14 movies between 1939 and 1946.

The kind of detail contained in the records is highlighted by the information contained by one soldier Henry Mays.

Henry’s service record contains a letter from his sister revealing that he enrolled under a false name to avoid being traced by his mother. This solved a family mystery that had spanned 90 years.

Revenue and Customs puts tax help online

Tom Young — 2009-11-09T17:19:00.000Z

Tom Young, Computing, Monday 9 November 2009 at 17:19:00

Department furthers online engagement with taxpayers

HM Revenue and Customs has launched two online toolkits to help tax agents avoid common errors when filing tax returns.

The kits cover Capital Gains Tax and personal and private expenditure, and include checklists and explanatory notes, and examples of classic errors and how to avoid them.

Three other toolkits are already available to help people navigate Capital Gains Tax for Trust and Estates, marginal small company relief and capital allowances for plant machinery. More toolkits will follow next year.

Brian Redford, Head of HMRC’s agents and employers service improvement programme, said: "The toolkits are based on the most common errors we see and will help agents get returns right first time, which will reduce the need for compliance checks. "

The toolkits are part of a wider HMRC approach to use the internet to engage with those paying tax.

Last week Dave Hartnett, permanent secretary for tax at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), posted a video warning about tax dodging on YouTube.

And the department has encouraged the filing of Income Tax Self Assessment returns online, which saved an estimated £5m in processing costs in 2007-08.

In May a report from the National Audit Office called on HMRC to widen the provision of online tax services to save money and reduce the levels of errors in tax returns.

iPhone worm unearthed by F-Secure

Dinah Greek — 2009-11-09T12:38:00.000Z

Dinah Greek, Computeractive, Monday 9 November 2009 at 12:38:00

Owners of Apple's handsets get Rick Astley themed wallpaper

F-Secure said it has discovered the first iPhone worm, called Ikee.

The security company said that currently the only known infections have surfaced in Australia and affect devices that have been 'jailbroken' by their owners, but who have left the default root login password unchanged. However, it warned people to protect their phones.

Jailbreaking is the jargon for people who have removed iPhone's protection mechanisms, allowing users to run any software they want.

Affected users will find that their iPhone wallpaper has been altered to a picture of Rick Astley (of Rickroll fame) and the message "ikee is never going to give you up".

F-Secure said the worm will search for vulnerable iPhones by scanning a handful of IP ranges — most of which are in Australia. At the moment, F-Secure has no confirmed reports of Ikee outside of Australia.

After Ikee infects a phone, it disables the secure shell (SSH) service, an encyrpted mechanism that gives users access to systems supporting remote connections.

F-Secure advises that in order to protect a jailbroken iPhone, people should change their root password and has outlined steps to do this on its web blog.

Play.com suffers online order problems

Phil Muncaster — 2009-11-08T09:15:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Sunday 8 November 2009 at 09:15:00

E-retailer exposes customer information

The perils of running a successful e-commerce business were highlighted again yesterday, after the BBC reported that popular online retailer Play.com had been hit by problems affecting its online ordering system.

It appears that many customers received emails for orders they had not placed. On opening those emails they found the names, addresses and other contact details of other Play.com customers.

Simon Hurley from Clevedon near Bristol said he had received more than 80 Play.com emails, and when he called the customer services line, was told that the firm had a “massive problem”, according to the Beeb.

"I'm a big customer of theirs but not that big," he is reported as saying. " I opened up each individual email and it came up with another customer's name and their order.

"People are being told to shred documents and then you have a big company like Play.com sending out hundreds of wrong emails to their customers.”

Luckily for Play.com, it appears there were no credit card details on any of the emails, however the cause of the problem remains a mystery.

A Play.com statement said that the cause of the incident had now been “identified and resolved”, according to the report.

"We were alerted to an incident that appears to have affected some customers for a short period of time in the early hours of this morning, and the first thing we'd like to say is that we apologise for any inconvenience our customers have experienced as a result,” read the statement.

"We take these matters very seriously and are now investigating how this incident occurred in the first place, so that we can prevent it happening in the future."

However, Play.com appears to have been slow to acknowledge the incident publically or reassure its customers. No messages appeared on either its Facebook or Twitter pages at the time of writing.

Law body set to clarify consumer rights

Dinah Greek — 2009-11-06T14:40:00.000Z

Dinah Greek, Computeractive, Friday 6 November 2009 at 14:40:00

Legal reform body backs fight to keep strong UK consumer rights

The Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission have published recommendations that would simplify, strengthen and clarify laws governing consumer rights for faulty goods.

The proposals from the English, Welsh and Scottish statutory law reform bodies also insist that UK consumers retain some fundamental rights under threat from the proposed European Consumer Rights directive.

Currently UK consumers have some of the strongest protection in Europe under laws such as the Sale of Goods Act, the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers, and the Distance Selling Regulations.

However, the complexity of UK laws, coupled with some areas of legislation being unclear - such as how long is a ‘reasonable time’ in which to reject faulty goods - has led to confusion.

The proposed European directive would also weaken UK consumer law by removing the right to reject faulty goods within a reasonable time, and for goods to be free of minor defects such as imperfections in appearance, finish or small malfunctions.

The UK law commissions have said these rights should be retained. Their proposals also pin down what the law considers a ‘reasonable time’ to 30 days. Although it said there must be flexibility for some goods.

David Hertzell, the Commissioner leading the project for the Law Commission of England and Wales, said: “We believe that the right to reject should be retained in the UK as a short-term remedy of first instance. It is a simple, easy-to-use remedy which inspires consumer confidence.”

Other recommendations include allowing consumers to ask for a refund or price reduction after one failed repair or one failed replacement. The proposals now go forward as part of the debate on the proposed EC directive.

Illegal file sharers promised 'fair' hearing

Dinah Greek — 2009-11-05T16:55:00.000Z

Dinah Greek, Computeractive, Thursday 5 November 2009 at 16:55:00

Governments get green light to impose three-strikes rule providing alleged illegal file sharers get a 'fair' hearing.

The agreement by the European Union on the wording of reforms governing the telecoms industry opens the door for the introduction of 'three strikes' internet disconnection rules for illegal file sharers.

MEPs and ministers finally reached agreement on the sticking point of the law; amendment 138/46 of the Telecoms package. This had effectively outlawed proposals that would force internet service providers to disconnect the services of people accused of illegal file sharing.

The so-called 'three strikes and you're out rules' have been introduced in some EU member states and proposed by Peter Mandelson in the UK.

Despite reinstating this amendment twice, the European Parliament finally backed down and reworded it. The watered down version has caused civil liberties groups serious concern.

The Telecoms package's woolly wording now says that restrictions on a user’s internet access may “only be imposed if they are appropriate, proportionate and necessary within a democratic society“, and taken only “with due respect for the principle of presumption of innocence and the right to privacy“ and as a result of “a prior, fair and impartial procedure" guaranteeing “the right to be heard and the right to an effective and timely judicial review“.

Although MEP Malcolm Harbour, ECR chairman of the European Parliament's internal market committee, said consumers will “be guaranteed a prior, fair and impartial procedure in any cases of proposed disconnection”.

Jérémie Zimmermann of La Quadrature du Net warned: “This rather unambitious provision will now be up for interpretation, and it remains to be seen whether it will invalidate internet access restrictions such as 'three strikes' policies."

The whole package of legislative proposals can now proceed to final votes in the European Parliament later this month and in the Council of Ministers.