Cyber Terrorists Hold SurveyGizmo to Ransom

Online survey software tool, SurveyGizmo, is nearly back to normality after days of issues and outage following a serious cyber attack.

The US online survey software tool, which has more than 300,000 customers across the globe, was the victim of a malicious Denial of Service (DOS) attack which started on Wednesday.

The incident prevented users from accessing online forms and surveys – many of which are used, and heavily relied on, by businesses for marketing, lead generation and research projects. It is also a popular tool for students.

While access to surveys has now resumed, the company said intermittent ups and downs with the API can still be expected, and planned email fixes are also set to take place today.

Increasingly common attack

The company’s CEO, Christian Vanek, who admits he even spent a night sleeping in the office during his quest to get the site back up and running, described it as an increasingly common attack against online services used to blackmail business owners into paying for the attack to stop.

The DOS attack began on Wednesday, at SurveyGizmo’s primary data center in Denver, Colorado. At first the attack was intermittent, but then it took its services completely offline.

The company then received an email demanding money to stop the attack on its service.

It might sound like a movie script, but SurveryGizmo experienced just how real cyber terrorism is this week with the site held to ransom by hackers.

“I hope everyone understands why we would never consider paying or even replying to such a demand,” Vanek said.

“People like this should never be rewarded. Besides which, he wouldn’t have stopped and it would have created further incentive for him to attack others.”

Just when SurveyGizmo thought it was making progress on combating the attack, it then announced the attackers had redoubled their efforts

Complaints & support

Users were quick to hop online and complain about issues such as log-in problems and error messages.

User Marc Jansen tweeted: “I’m still dead in the water. can’t access a single survey from Europe. You are not 100% up if 100% of your customers aren’t up.”

Cody DeHaan also tweeted: “Anyone know of a good @surveygizmo alternative? Would like to explore my options after this mess.”

Despite some moans, most users appeared very supportive of SurveyGizmo and appreciated its regular updates.

Attacker watches on

Vanek confessed he regretted not scheduling the downtime to set up CloudFlare, which protects websites from a wide range of online threats, two weeks ago, when a neighboring service was attacked.

He also admitted it was difficult to restore service during the attack itself, but after working with its service provider Viawest, it was able to complete the transition.

SurveyGizmo kept users up-to-date via Twitter, but had to avoid saying too much as the company believed the ‘attacker’ was reading its posts.

The company said it was down for just over 27 hours in total, but Friday marks the third day of maintenance and work to restore the site to total normality.

[Image via moviemansguide]

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Google Now is Pushed to Chrome For Mac & Windows

As we reported earlier this week, Google Now has finally arrived on desktop. Google announced this week that Now is being pushed to the Chrome stable channel for Windows and Mac.  It will be rolling out over the next few weeks.

Cards will only be visible on your desktop if you use Google Now on your mobile device and if you are actually signed into Chrome. The cards you see are a subset of Google Now’s mobile cards; weather, sports, traffic and event reminders. Some of the cards are based on the location of your device but others will work independent of your location.

Google Now notifications are finally available to desktop and laptop Chrome users, in addition to Android and iOS users.  To activate the feature, all you are required to do is, sign in to Chrome with the same Google Account that you are using for Google Now on a mobile device. Unfortunately at the moment, if you use Google Now on multiple devices, then you will need to manage your location settings for each device separately.

If you want to be signed into Chrome but you want to avoid using Google Now, you are able to deactivate it, by following these steps: 1) If you use Windows OS: Click the bell icon in the lower right corner of your computer screen or if you use MAC OS then click the upper right of your computer screen to open the Notifications Center.  2) In the Notifications Center, click the gear icon on the bottom right corner (on Windows) or the upper right corner (on Mac).  3) Uncheck the box next to “Google Now.”  That’s it!

Google has been working for more than a year to bring Google Now to Chrome for desktop. The rumours that first floated around were due to the hints in Chromium’s code way back in December 2012, which was soon followed by the initial arrival in Chrome Canary in April the following year.

[Image via guplum]

SOURCE: http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/03/24/google-now-arrives-chrome-windows-mac/#!Bl8Rb

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Texting While Driving Could Put Your Face On A Billboard

If you send text messages whilst you drive, then you are at a more significant risk of causing and being involved in a road traffic collision.  Those are the facts.  You cannot concentrate on driving a car and engage in hand-eye coordinated communications via a mobile device at the same time without a loss of concentration.  Most of the time nobody will notice if you text and drive, but if you live in San Francisco and you use your mobile device whilst driving you could discover photographs of yourself plastered on a billboard.

A website has been collecting photos of people texting whilst driving their cars and some of those images have now found their way onto billboards throughout the region.

The project, called Texting While in Traffic (TWIT) is the invention of San Francisco graphic designer Brian Singer, who has agreed to relinquish his anonymity after Gizmodo contacted him regarding the matter.

Singer started the project after he recently started a commute along the 101 Freeway, where he could not believe how often he saw drivers using a cell phone. “I’ve been blown away by the number of people texting while in traffic, on the freeway…For every nose picker, there’s 20 texters. Unofficial estimation by me,” he says.

Singer collected the images of texting drivers at a website, which also includes stats about distracted driving and encourages readers to engage in “TWIT Spotting” by sending their photos as well. Singer requires that contributors to the website are a passenger and not a driver whilst taking their content! The billboards will hopefully show drivers in a very public way that they’re being watched and no doubt judged.

Texting while driving has been proven to be dangerous and is illegal, if caught the offence can carry a minimum $76 fine in California.

But, will the photographs shame people into changing their driving behaviour? Singer tends to think so. “My hope is that it will freak some people out and make them think twice before picking up the phone while driving…My greater hope is that it inspires others to start taking photos, too. If enough people started doing this, it could have a dramatic affect on people’s behaviour.”   Singer continues, “I don’t think people driving on 101 have the expectation of privacy…I could be wrong, but the police need to be able to see them using phones and breaking the law, so all I’m really doing is taking photos in a public place.”

The graphic designer has contacted some distracted driving organizations to try and pay for the billboards, but ended up funding them himself. There are 11 billboards, which are currently up throughout San Francisco, and they will be up until early April.  That is fitting, as April is Distracted Driver Awareness Month!

As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.

[Image via twitspotting]

SOURCE: http://gizmodo.com/text-while-driving-in-the-bay-area-and-you-might-end-up-1550361387

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Google Chrome Extensions And Tweaks

Let’s face it, there are some very good web browsers on the market today; Microsoft’s IE, Apple’s Safari and Google’s offering; Google Chrome.  Chrome is rapidly becoming one of the most widely used browsers across the globe and for good reason.

One of the cool things that make Google Chrome the most loved browser all over the place, is the extensive variety of things that users can add to the browser to augment efficiency as well as effectiveness of browsing the Internet. There are approximately thousands of extensions and Google applications that may be installed easily for absolutely no cost whatsoever. Personally, I use a Chrome and Safari and find both to be awesome browsers. I’d like to share a few tweaks that you can do to your browser so that you will make Internet browsing more suitable to fit your needs and requirements.

Lights Out At The Movies

If you love watching content on your pc/laptop through your browser then Turn Off The Lights is a great extension to have. The entire page will be fading to dark, so you can watch the video as if you were sat in the local cinema.  Just one click on the lamp button, the page will be fading to dark. And then automatic focus is to the video. If you click again, the page will return back as normal!

Pocket Saves Files For Later

Pocket is a Google extension that will allow you to save links to articles, photos and videos, which you see today and want to continue reading or watching later.  With Pocket installed, you can easily click on the extension icon and have access to the files that you saved at an earlier point in time.

Change Your Browser Theme

Chrome has many great and free themes ready for you to install. If you do not want to have the classic Chrome look, then you can browse from among the multitude of themes categories on the Google Chrome Web Store. When you have found one that you love, simply click install and watch it transform the appearance of your browser.

Budding Writer? Then You Need To Install Writebox

Writebox is a perfect application for anyone who loves to write. It is a simple, clean and easy to use application that allows you to type and create documents on your web browser. There is also a sync feature, which allows you to save your document in your cloud storage facility or saved directly on to your computer.

So there you have it, a few simple suggestions to make your Chrome experience a little better.  Enjoy.  As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.

[Image via chrome.blogspot]

SOURCE: http://culturemob.com/google-chrome-download-free-tweaks-extensions-browsing

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Appbucket Founders Convicted

The leader of a piracy group and a co-conspirator, that was engaged in the illegal distribution of copies of copyrighted Android apps have pleaded guilty for their roles in the plot that distributed more than a million copies of copyrighted apps.  The total retail value of these apps was over $700,000.

Nicholas Anthony Narbone, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and Thomas Allen Dye, 21, pleaded guilty to the same change.  Sentencing is scheduled for July 8, 2014, and June 12, 2014, respectively.

The announcement was made by Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia and Special Agent in Charge J. Britt Johnson of the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office.

Acting Assistant Attorney General O’Neil said, “These mark the first convictions secured by the Justice Department against those who illegally distribute counterfeit mobile apps…These men trampled on the intellectual property rights of others when they and other members of the Appbucket group distributed more than one million copies of pirated apps.  The Criminal Division has made fighting intellectual property crime a top priority, and these convictions demonstrate our determination to prosecute those who undermine the innovations of others in new technologies.”

U.S. Attorney Yates said, “Copyright infringement discourages smart, innovative people from using their talents to create things that the rest of society can use and enjoy…Theft is theft, whether the property taken is intellectual or tangible – and we will continue to prosecute those who steal copyrighted material…The wholesale theft of intellectual property as seen in this case cannot and will not go unaddressed,” said FBI SAC Johnson.  “The FBI will continue to work with its various law enforcement partners in identifying, investigating and presenting for prosecution those individuals and groups engaged in such criminal activities that involve the attempt to profit from the hard work and the developed creative ideas of others.”

Narbone, Dye and others were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.  According to the information received, Narbone and Dye identified themselves as the Appbucket group, with Narbone as the leader and from August 2010 to August 2012, they conspired with other members of the Appbucket group to replicate and dispense more than one million copies of copyrighted Android mobile device apps through the Appbucket alternative online market.  They did this without permission from the copyright owners of the applications.

As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.

[Image via pcpro]

SOURCE: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/March/14-crm-303.html

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INTERESTING : MS-DOS Source Code Now Available To The Public

Surprise, surprise! It does seem that Microsoft is really going through major changes. Not only have we heard about rumors about a free version of Windows 8.1, but now, Microsoft has released the MS-DOS source code to the general public. Free AND Microsoft? Strange bedfellows, huh?

Arguably, MS-DOS is the foundation that Microsoft built its world on, and I suppose no one really ever thought that the company would make the MS-DOS source code public, but yes, it is not an early prank for April’s Fools Day. And not only that, in addition to the MS-DOS source code, the same thing has been released for Word for Windows.

Specifically, the source codes for MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0, as well as Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a are now accessible to anyone who wants it. There are, of course, “rules” to follow. The source codes are under a non-commercial license, and re-publication anywhere online is not allowed.

Microsoft engineer and director of Research Roy Levin is quick to highlight just how important this is – not that we don’t realize that, do we?

“It’s mind-boggling to think of the growth from those days when Microsoft had under 100 employees and a Microsoft product (MS-DOS) had less than 300KB (yes, kilobytes) of source code. From those roots we’ve grown in a few short decades to become a company that has sold more than 200 million licenses of Windows 8 and has over 1 billion people using Microsoft Office. Great things come from modest beginnings, and the great Microsoft devices and services of the future will probably start small, just as MS-DOS and Word for Windows did.

Thanks to the Computer History Museum, these important pieces of source code will be preserved and made available to the community for historical and technical scholarship.” (Source)

Indeed, if you think about the good old days of MS-DOS, the green font against a black background, and the blinking cursor…that makes one nostalgic, doesn’t it?

You can check out the MS-DOS source code (and Word for Windows) here.

[Image via extremetech]

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Infrared Contact Lenses Could Be Here Soon

A contact lens with infrared vision capabilities might seem like something that comes from a Sci-Fi writers’ mind or maybe the mind of an engineer?  In fact a group of engineers at the University of Michigan have utilised graphene to create an ‘infrared sensitive graphene sandwich.’

As a whole, science is just scratching the surface regarding the multiple uses of graphene.  It can do almost everything, from removing salt molecules from water to becoming super-thin body armour.  One of the really interesting properties of graphene is that it also does something really cool with light: it readily absorbs light energy and then fires off multiple electrons. Unfortunately, graphene is also extremely thin, in fact it is as thin as a strand of human hair, so it is unable to actually absorb a lot of light.

The researchers at Michigan have calculated a way to alter that, by using two layers of graphene with a dielectric amid them. It works like this: When light hits the top layer of graphene, the electrons that are generated travel to the bottom layer through the dielectric material. This process increases the number of electrons, by a factor of approximately 100.  This makes a phototransistor that has sensitivity about the same as a standard digital camera.

‘What about the super spy contact lens?’ I hear you say. Well, graphene is sensitive to multiple wavelengths of light, which are outside of the visible spectrum, including infrared. The graphene sandwich created by the Michigan team is currently sensitive to visible light and infrared and because of its thin properties, the team has suggested that integrating it with a contact lens would be a high-quality use of this new technology. Not only could this be, and probably will be, used by the military, but it also has applications in medical science as well.

If you have any sensible comments regarding this story, please leave your comments in the section below.

[Image via cyberdog]

SOURCE: http://www.dvice.com/2014-3-18/coming-soon-contact-lenses-infrared-vision

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