THE 'NEW' FEATURES ON MICROSOFT'S BING

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PASSWORD BREACH AT CUSTOMS LEADS TO HUGE REVENUE LOSS

Chennai: Theft/unauthorised third-party use of customs officials' password for accessing the computer network (Customs Electronic Data Interchange or EDI) used by both the customs staff and the merchant community is causing loss of revenue, says an internal communication circulated to the offices at the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).

On a number of occasions there have been frauds reported in the various Customs EDI locations involving "compromise of password by officers. Such frauds have led to revenue loss of crores of rupees", the communication said.

The Directorate of Systems has repeatedly issued detailed instructions on password security. These instructions set out the basic steps that should be followed by all the users to eliminate the possibility of 'compromise of passwords'.

Dismaying factor

"However, despite such instructions being reiterated repeatedly it is dismaying to notice that instances of password compromise continue to recur with unfailing regularity. It is evident that officers are not taking these instructions seriously and there is also a failure on the part of supervisory officers to effectively monitor the performance of their subordinates," it says.

"The biggest threat to security of an electronic system comes from password compromise and sharing of password. In effect, when an officer shares his password with anybody, he has to, without doubt, be regarded as being in collusion in the fraud that results," it says.

Important reason

Enquiries with the customs officials revealed that a typical instance of an unauthorised access of officer's password is that of the information about a particular case being investigated by the department being leaked to the concerned importer/exporter.

It could also lead to the information being revealed to some other establishment resorting to a similar trade practice that has come to their notice.

The merchant establishment could rearrange its affairs to escape levy of penalty, besides prosecution. The fact that only a few officers have been punished and that too, not adequately for password breach may be an important reason why such breaches continue to recur, sources in the department said.

The Central Excise and Service Tax, Directorates and other formations will increasingly be required to work on applications requiring conformity with password security guidelines. The board would like to ensure that all the security-related instructions issued by the Directorate of Systems are complied with by all officers, including supervising officers, and those violating them are brought to account without loss of time.

Further, whenever any case of 'password compromise' comes to the notice, it has to be thoroughly investigated and proceedings for inflicting exemplary punishment should be undertaken and concluded expeditiously.

It should be made clear to all the officers that maintenance of password security is the sole and individual responsibility of each officer and any breach will make them liable to disciplinary action resulting even in dismissal from the Government service, the CBEC has said.

MICROSOFT'S ZUNE HD TO TAKE ON IPOD

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MICROSOFT UNVEILS NEW INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE

San Francisco: Microsoft has unveiled a new search engine named Bing, renewing its efforts to challenge the dominance of Google in the Internet search market.

The company said the new service will begin to roll out over the coming days and will be fully deployed worldwide June 3.

"Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find," Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they've found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions," he added.

Microsoft said the Bing service, billed by the company as a Decision Engine, will initially focus on shopping, travel, local business and information, and health-related research - areas in which people want more assistance in making key decisions.

FACEBOOK GETS $200 MILLION BOOST FROM RUSSIA

New York: Social networking site Facebook has received a $200 million investment from Digital Sky Technologies, an internet investment group, in exchange for a 1.96 per cent stake in the company.

Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which has significant stake in Eastern European and Russian internet businesses, has picked up 1.96 per cent in Facebook, valuing the enterprise at $10 billion, the company said in a statement.

In addition, DST has indicated plans for an offer to buy at least $100 million of Facebook shares from existing shareholders to facilitate liquidity for current and former employees' vested shares in the company.

However, consistent with Facebook's practice with other recent investors, DST would not be represented on the Facebook board or hold special observer rights, the statement added.

"This investment demonstrates Facebook's ongoing success at creating a global network for people to share and connect," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

"A number of firms approached us, but DST stood out because of the global perspective they bring-– backed up by the impressive growth and financial achievements of their internet investments," Zuckerberg added.

Iran restores access

Meanwhile Iran has restored access to Facebook after blocking it reportedly to prevent supporters of a moderate in the presidential race from using it for his campaign, the Ilna news agency said.

Ilna is considered close to reformist candidates standing in the June 12 election.

The agency said the Internet social networking site had been blocked after a decision "by a committee of representatives from the ministry of interior, intelligence, judiciary, parliament and some other ministries".

On May 23, it said access was blocked because "supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi were using Facebook to better disseminate the candidate's positions".

Mousavi, a moderate, is emerging as the main rival to conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is seeking a second term in office in next month's poll.

When asked about the ban at a news conference yesterday, Ahmadinejad said he was "unaware and would investigate" the matter.

The authorities have not given any reason for initially banning access to the site and then restoring it. They closely monitor access to Internet, especially political and pornographic sites.

A DEADLY VIRUS CALLED CONFICKER

Virus on the prowl

It is testing times for computer security experts. They are at their wits' end over what to do with Conficker, a worm that has infected about 10 million computers across the globe.

Making its appearance around October-November last year, it has caused substantial damage to unsuspecting computer users. In impact, it has rivalled the 'I Love you' virus and the 'Slammer' worm that one saw a few years ago.

While no major disruption of the Internet has resulted from this aggression, many affected machines (bots) have been converted into what one observer calls 'junk mail-spewing robots'. A few weeks ago, one bot alone sent more than 40,000 spam messages in less than 12 hours!

Complete disruption

Conficker, also known as Downadup, has displayed an awesome power to take control of computers from remote locations and manipulating them at will.

It is widely believed that the worm made its first appearance by exploiting an MS Windows vulnerability. Two other methods of attack figure in experts' speculation. One possibility is that some weak passwords had been neutralised. Stronger ones had been violated through methodic labour based on guesswork.

Another line of thinking is that a few USB devices had been infected so that these in turn infected other machines. It is these theories that have prompted some experts to assert that, ultimately, it is a lax security regimen in some companies that has facilitated Conficker's onward march.

What about home computers? Generally speaking, these are relatively free from danger because of their isolation from huge systems that one sees in private industry and public offices.

Worst is yet to come

Whatever be the means used by Conficker, one thing is clear. The resolve of the authors remains unbroken. Their ingenuity and daring are unprecedented. There is a fear therefore that the worse is yet to come.

Actually, some dramatic action was expected on April 1 when the miscreant program writers were believed to be planning an escalation of their offensive. Nothing of the sort, however, happened, until a few days ago when they successfully installed the Spyware Protect 2009, a fake anti-virus program, in infected machines. We do not know how many fell prey to this ruse.

The tactic here is to go on issuing a warning that Conficker would destroy your system and that you need to install Spyware Protect 2009. Even if you say 'no' several times when the pop-up appears on your screen, out of sheer exasperation, you are bound to cough up $50 for spurious software that offered to rid you of the menace of Conficker.

Researchers say that the object of the malware writers has now become very clear, viz., one of making money. This is, therefore, no longer an innocent prank but an unadulterated cyber crime. The FBI has rightly stepped into tracking down the offenders. The CBI needs to follow suit, if only to establish its credentials as a cybercrime-savvy organisation on whom both government and the private sector could depend, if the occasion arose.

East Europe in focus

There is suspicion that those behind Conficker are from East Europe. This cannot be dismissed as mere guesswork because that region had in the past come to the adverse notice of police agencies in the UK several times for a wide spectrum of crimes.

Apart from this, a basis for this suspicion is, in a particular case the rogue program checked whether the computer that was being attacked had a Ukranian keyboard lay-out. The inference was that if the machine did have a Ukranian background, Conficker would not do any harm! Many experts admit that Conficker's authors are smart and skilled.

New variant

They have issued many updates without any challenge whatsoever. For instance, on April 10, they floated a new variant, C.e, which not only restored Conficker's ability to spread but in fact strengthened its defence against even the best of anti-virus software. One feature that has worked to its advantage is that Conficker comes with a strong encryption mechanism that hides its internal dynamics.

It is against this backdrop that we must consider two recent reports of security breach from the US. A Wall Street Journal report that says some hackers have embedded software in the country's electricity grid, and this could facilitate a frontal attack on the power system whereby a massive blackout in most parts of the country could be engineered at will.

Vital infrastructure

The newspaper adds that this was detected a few years ago. The US Homeland Security officials have, however, not confirmed this report. It, nevertheless, raises a big question mark on the country's ability to protect its vital infrastructure. Significantly, the 60-day review ordered by President Obama is ending in the next few days, and that would reveal the chinks in the country's cyber security preparedness.

There is another report which refers to the damage done by miscreants to the fibre optic cables in the Bay Area of California on April 10. Here, a miscreant went down a manhole to physically cut a communication cable which resulted in a major breakdown of cell and land phones and Internet services. It took several hours for the AT&T staff to identify the point of sabotage and restore services.

Strengthen surveillance

This incident highlights the fact that physical security is as vital as computer security if we are to ensure uninterrupted communication between systems.

The Bay Area happening bares our dependence on wired links, notwithstanding whatever we have achieved in the area of wireless systems.

Here is something to ponder for policy makers and law enforcement officials in India. The latter, in particular, will have to strengthen surveillance of areas through which vital cables pass, either over ground or under ground.

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DOWNLOAD INTERNET EXPLORER 8

I have found another link other than MSN from where the INTERNET EXPLORER 8 can be downloaded.The link is from yahoo.Either get it from the previous link of MSN which I gave last month or get it from here also.
The link is here:

http://downloads.yahoo.com/in/internetexplorer/