Software piracy opens doors for hackers

A study has shown that cybercriminals are employing malware embedded in PCs running pirated software and sold to unsuspecting consumers or companies.

Rather than hacking consumer PCs and home and business networks, cybercriminals are starting to rely on the software piracy industry to leave the 'security backdoor' open, enabling them to more easily steal identities, passwords and your banking login details.

A new study entitled The Link Between Pirated Software and Cybersecurity Breaches has revealed that industrious cybercriminals are employing malware embedded within PCs that are running pirated software, which have been sold to unsuspecting consumers or companies.

This global study conducted by IDC and the National University of Singapore (NUS) surveyed 1 700 consumers, IT workers and chief information officers, as well as government officials in countries ranging from Brazil to the United States. In addition, IDC and the NUS analysed 203 computers purchased in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and the US. These computers were infected before being sold with unsafe malware, including Trojans, worms, viruses, hack tools, rootkits and adware.

The study was released as part of Microsoft's Play It Safe campaign, which is a global initiative to create greater awareness of the connection between malware and piracy.

Economic implications
According to the study, global enterprises are expected to spend almost $500-billion in 2014 to deal with issues caused by malware deliberately loaded on to pirated software. The majority of this amount, around $364-billion, is expected to be used to deal with data breaches, while the remaining $127-billion will be spent on security issues.

When it comes to consumers though, clients are expected to fork out $25-billion and waste a whopping 1.2-billion hours this year alone as a result of security threats as well as costly computer fixes, which stem from malware on pirated software.

The study revealed that 60% of consumers surveyed said their greatest fear stemming from infected software is the loss of data, whether files or personal information. Following the fear of data theft was that of unauthorised internet transactions (51%) and hijacking of email, social networking and bank accounts (50%). 

But 43% of those same respondents do not install security updates, meaning that despite their fears, they are leaving their computers vulnerable to attack by cybercriminals.

Government officials expressed concern about the potential impact of cybersecurity threats to their nations. The primary areas of concern were the loss of business trade secrets or competitive information (59%), unauthorised access to confidential government information (55%) and the impact of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure (55%). It is estimated that governments could lose more than $50-billion as a result of having to deal with the costs associated with malware on pirated software. 

Avoid buying a malware-infested PC
Whether you are an individual user, a small business, enterprise or even a government institution, you are encouraged to buy new computers from reputable sources to ensure they are loaded with genuine software.

Microsoft has made a commitment to protect unsuspecting consumers from downloading or purchasing non-genuine software that exposes victims to malware which can lead to identity theft, loss of data and system failures.

Microsoft South Africa chief operating officer Zoaib Hoosen says: "At Microsoft we appreciate that victims of software piracy are often regular customers simply looking for a deal, who are often paying nearly full price for what turns out to be malware-laden pirated software. Microsoft reminds customers to 'play it safe'. Ask questions, investigate the packaging, watch out for 'too good to be true' prices and demand genuine software – to ensure you get what you pay for and protect your family or your business from the threat of malware associated with pirated or counterfeit software. For more information go to www.howtotell.com http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/howtotell/default.aspx."

Microsoft has an online safety and security centre http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx where consumers can learn more about malware and ensure that their PCs are not infected. If malware is found on their PCs, users can access tools that remove the infection. – Gadget.co.za

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Red Hat adds Nginx and MongoDB to Software Collections update

Version 1.1 of Red Hat's package for developers who want the latest is available as a beta

The next version of Red Hat's Software Collections package includes Apache httpd and Nginx Web servers, Ruby 2.0, and NoSQL database MongoDB. They are all part of version 1.1 of Software Collections, a beta of which can now be downloaded, Red Hat said in a blog post Thursday.

The idea with the package, which was first announced last year, is to give developers access to new features faster than they would with the regular releases of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform).

In October and December, Red Hat invited users to vote for what additions they'd like to see in future versions of Software Collections, and version 1.1 is based on the results.

Red Hat has also included Ruby 2.0 and Rails 4.0.2, which are now available on their own, allowing developers to get an updated version of Ruby without requiring the installation of Rails.

Version 2.x of Ruby was the winner in Red Hat's surveys. Version 2.0 provides substantial performance and reliability improvements, and includes a number of new features as well as improved debugging capabilities, according to Red Hat.

There are two new open-source Web server options in the form of Apache httpd 2.4.6 and Nginx 1.4.4, which came in second and fourth place. For now, Nginx is only a technology preview. Another newcomer to the family that users wished for is the MongoDB NoSQL database, which was the fifth most-wished-for addition.

The only thing missing from the top five is Boost, a set of C++ source libraries that came in third place.

Red Hat's surveys showed that Python and PostgreSQL were the most popular components in the first version, followed by Ruby and PHP. They also showed that many users were moving to version 3.3 of PHP and that the MariaDB database was becoming more popular.

The beta is available for use with RHEL 6 to users and partners with the right subscriptions. For users who want to delve into the details, Red Hat has published release notes on how to install and use the package and all the included parts.

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Google and VMware advance plans for the death of the desktop

VMware's Horizon View partners with Google's Chromebooks as both outfits seek to make the most of the waning desktop PC

No question about it, the PC is taking a backseat to mobile tech in both the consumer and business worlds. But some companies can't part completely with Windows because of issues like legacy apps or existing workflows.

Google and VMware have proposed a solution:Give those people Chromebooks, and virtualize their Windows desktops and apps to those devices via HTML5 by way of VMware Horizon View's desktop as a service.

It's pretty clear why Google joined forces with VMware for this. After all, both companies stand to gain plenty from the death of the desktop as we know it. For Google, Chrome is becoming its version of the desktop, so it's looking to make Chrome available in as many venues as possible. But this particular move comes off mostly as a ploy for Google to push Chromebooks for businesses -- right on the heels of yet another of its enterprise-related debuts, the $999 Chromebox videoconferencing bundle.

Google is hoping that companies opt for the Chromebook/Horizon combo as a way to replace aging Windows XP devices but still keep running the legacy desktops and apps they need. That's the scenario painted by Caesar Sengupta, vice president of product management, Chrome OS, when I spoke to him earlier today.

"What we've found," he told me, "is that a lot of companies are adopting Chromebooks for cloud deployments because they're easy to manage and very secure. But those companies still have some legacy applications left over, and they want to figure out how to get these legacy apps to their users. We make it very easy to transition from where they are right now to move to a cloud world without having to make too many changes."

But if businesses have their pick of devices that support HTML5 for mobile workloads, would they necessarily pick Chromebooks? Maybe not exclusively, but it's clearly Google's hope that Chromebooks become part of the same arsenal of mobile tools as Android -- to give people the choice of a keyboard or no keyboard and without the legacy overhead that a keyboarded device has typically been associated with.

That's where this plan faces its biggest challenges. Google and VMware alike were able to quote me figures about Chromebook sales and notes about individual companies adopting them (such as Softbank). But the majority of companies could simply opt for Android or iOS as their mobile experiences, in big part because their mobile workloads may no longer be keyboard-centric.

Google's tenacity with Chromebook has been striking, and while it may not have paid off to the extent that Android has, all Google might need is the right combination of niche use cases to make it a success, or at least Google's idea of a success. There's still a long way to go before this proves to be one of them.

This story, "Google and VMware advance plans for the death of the desktop," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, followInfoWorld.com on Twitter.

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Mozilla plans to place ads in new Firefox tabs

Mozilla wants to diversify its sources of revenue that now mainly comes from Google, the company said

Mozilla is going to show advertising to Firefox users to increase its sources of revenue that now mainly comes from Google, the company said Wednesday.

Firefox will show sponsored links in some of the nine tiles users see when they open a blank new tab in the browser, said Darren Herman, Mozilla's VP of Content Services in a blog post. Other tiles will continue to show frequently or recently used sites.

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For new users those tiles are empty, and to fill the void Mozilla's new Directory Tiles project will start suggesting pre-packaged content for them, Herman said.

"Some of these tile placements will be from the Mozilla ecosystem, some will be popular websites in a given geographic location, and some will be sponsored content from hand-picked partners to help support Mozilla's pursuit of our mission. The sponsored tiles will be clearly labeled as such, while still leading to content we think users will enjoy," he said.

Mozilla is going to start showing advertising in Firefox because it is looking to diversify its revenue resources, a Mozilla spokeswoman said in an email.

"The majority of Mozilla's revenue comes from a single search partner and we would like to expand our resources to keep up with the evolution of the Web," she said. The Content Services team was formed to explore additional revenue opportunities, she said.

"Our search relationship with Google remains beneficial for both parties," she said.

Google provides the majority of Mozilla's revenue in return for it making Google the default search engine in Firefox.

With Directory Tiles, Mozilla hopes to shift the industry towards more user-centric approaches to digital marketing, and deliver a better user experience, she added.

Mozilla has not worked out the whole roadmap for Directory Tiles yet, but will begin to talk to possible content partners, Herman said, adding that Mozilla will start showing Directory Tiles to new Firefox users as soon as it has the user experience right.

Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com

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Adobe patches two critical vulnerabilities in Shockwave Player

The flaws could allow attackers to execute malicious code on computers remotely

Adobe Systems released a security update for Shockwave Player in order to address two vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to remotely take control of affected systems.

The new Shockwave Player version released Tuesday is 12.0.9.149 and is available for Windows and Mac.

[ InfoWorld's expert contributors show you how to secure your Web browsers in a free PDF guide. Download it today! | Learn how to protect your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and Security Central newsletter, both from InfoWorld. ]

The update fixes two memory corruption vulnerabilities identified as CVE-2014-0500 and CVE-2014-0501 that could lead to code execution, Adobe said in a security advisory. The vulnerabilities were reported to the company by researcher Liangliang Song of Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs.

The Shockwave Player update comes one week after Adobe broke out of its regular patching cycle to release an emergency update for Flash Player that addressed an actively exploited vulnerability. Unlike the Flash Player flaw, there are no reports that the Shockwave Player vulnerabilities are being exploited in attacks.

Shockwave Player is needed to display online content like games, product demonstrations, e-learning courses and simulations created with Adobe's Director software. It's not as widespread as Flash Player, but it is deployed on over 450 million desktop computers according to Adobe, which makes it a potential target for hackers.

Shockwave Player installs a plug-in in Web browsers which means it can be attacked with drive-by download exploits loaded from maliciously crafted or infected websites.

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IBM’s CEO visits China for trust-building talks with govt leaders -sources

By Matthew Miller
BEIJING (Reuters) – A slide in IBM Corp’s sales in China amid a broad backlash against claims of U.S. government spying has triggered a rare visit to Beijing by Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty.
The head of the world’s biggest technology services company arrives in China’s capital on Wednesday for three days of meetings with government leaders, according to people familiar with her visit. The visit comes as U.S. firms like IBM and Cisco Systems Inc seek to restore trust with Chinese regulators and reverse slumping sales.
Beijing has encouraged state-owned companies to buy China-branded products since last year’s revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden of spying. That has undercut business at some U.S.-based multinationals operating in the world’s second-biggest economy.
In Beijing, Rometty will have meetings with Chinese officials including Vice Premier Wang Yang, responsible for helping to formulate China’s economic policy. The IBM chief also is expected to meet officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and top state-backed customers.
The precise agenda for the meetings couldn’t be ascertained immediately.
“IBM doesn’t talk about or confirm our executives’ travel plans,” said New York-based company spokesman Edward Barbini.
Though IBM books only about 5 percent of its sales in China, it has been operating there for 30 years, tapping into the country’s rise as an economic power. China sales fell more than 20 percent over the second half of last year, dragging down the company’s emerging markets business overall.
It’s an unwelcome distraction for the Armonk, N.Y.-based firm as it continues to embrace higher-margin software and technology services while moving away from hardware. Last month, IBM agreed to sell its low-end server business to Lenovo Group Ltd., the Chinese firm that acquired IBM’s ThinkPad business nearly a decade earlier.
The $2.3 billion deal was struck at about one-half the reported asking price a year earlier, after the low-margin server business posted seven quarters of losses as clients moved to cloud computing.
SECOND VISIT
Rometty is the second top IBM executive to travel to Beijing in the last four months to meet Chinese officials.
In November, IBM dispatched its head of governmental programs, Christopher Padilla, the former Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Commerce Department, following announcement of the company’s third-quarter earnings.
Padilla met with Wang Chao, China’s Vice Minister for Commerce, along with officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to people familiar with his visit.
Rometty, in her meetings, is expected to emphasize the tech giant’s commitment to local partnerships, future cooperation, and information security.
In the aftermath of Snowden’s revelations, U.S. technology companies, including IBM, “face an uphill battle proving their equipment is not compromised”, A.M. Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research wrote last month.
The U.S. cloud computing industry alone may lose as much as $35 billion in worldwide sales over the next three years, according to estimates by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit think-tank.
In December, Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension & Relief Fund sued IBM at U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accusing the firm of concealing how the U.S. spying scandal would reduce its China business. IBM had lobbied Congress to pass legislation allowing it to share personal data of customers in China and elsewhere with the NSA, the lawsuit claimed.
“These allegations are ludicrous and irresponsible and IBM will vigorously defend itself in court,” IBM spokesman Doug Shelton said in an e-mail.
In China, IBM is uncharacteristically reliant on hardware sales, primarily to state-owned enterprises. While sales of mainframe computers, servers, and storage account for about 15 percent of IBM’s worldwide revenue, in China hardware comprises 40 percent of local revenue.
“China is going through a very significant economic set of reform,” IBM’s chief financial official Martin Schroeter told analysts on the company’s earnings call last month.
“While there is more clarity on the overall plan, we continue to believe that it will take some time for our business in China to improve,” he said.
(Reporting By Matthew Miller; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

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Software firm paid millions in state job-creation incentives to lay off hundreds

A real estate software company paid millions in state incentives to create jobs is laying off up to 744 workers statewide.
Digital Risk disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it is laying off up to 251 workers in two locations in its Maitland headquarters, along with 30 workers in Boca Raton, 148 in Jacksonville, and 315 in Lake Mary. The cuts are effective April 12.
The company, known for its mortgage risk analysis software embraced by lenders during the real estate bust, said in its filing that the layoffs are expected to be permanent.

A spokeswoman, however, said the firm anticipates shifting an unspecified number of affected workers back to full-time or on contract, part-time or temporary status after analyzing business conditions over the next 60 days.
"It's not a straight layoff," Digital spokeswoman Brandie Young said, calling it a "hybrid" workforce model. "What we're doing is restructuring a portion of the workforce … to support (our clients') fluctuating demand."
Young said she couldn't predict how many employees may be called back, even part time, if market conditions improve.
In its letter to the state, Digital Risk blamed the layoffs on "substantial, abrupt and unforeseen residential mortgage events," including a large decline in mortgage refinancings. With credit quality improving, "demand for Digital Risk services has materially decreased," the company said.
Currently, Digital Risk has 1,765 employees statewide, state officials said.
Enterprise Florida, the state agency that oversees doling out job-creation incentives, said Digital Risk has been paid $2.17 million so far in incentive awards for three different job-creation projects announced since 2009.
During its heyday in 2012, Digital Risk announced plans to add 1,000 more jobs statewide, triggering the latest round of government incentives.
Tampa Bay was poised to benefit from Digital Risk's expansion, potentially bringing up to 600 jobs here paying an average of $50,000. At the time, the company was considering opening a facility in the general downtown area, lured by an incentive package from Tampa and Hillsborough officials worth $900,000.
That never happened. The company does not have any employees in Tampa, Young said.
Gray Swoope, Enterprise Florida's CEO and president, said Digital Risk has successfully created about 1,000 jobs over the past several years and "demonstrated a commitment to the state" by investing $15 million in capital expenditures.
"Despite today's actions, Digital Risk is ahead of all of its performance requirements and has indicated a continued commitment to adhere to all incentive agreements with the state," Swoope said. "We will continue to hold them accountable to their commitment."
Swoope said his agency will work with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to monitor the company's performance measurements.
If Digital Risk fails to meet performance requirements by the end of 2014, it could face sanctions under its contract with DEO, he said.
Asked whether the company expects to meet job creation incentives, Young said: "Absolutely. They've been on target and fully expect to be on target at the end of this year as well."

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TCS planning reusable software platforms

TCS is aiming to launch several reusable software packages as part of a push to adapt to the changing business and technology landscape

MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services is aiming to launch several reusable software packages as part of a push to adapt to the changing business and technology landscape, chief executive & managing director Natarajan Chandrasekaran said. 

India's largest software company is readying reusable software platforms, which can be customised, for areas such as telecommunication , financial services and data analytics, Chandrasekaran said in an interview. 

"There are multiple things we are trying and everything we are not announcing because we have to try (it out) first. It's not just an intellectual capability to create a platform, it is market readiness as well," he said on Friday, a day after the company announced that its third-quarter revenue grew by 3%, slightly below analysts' expectations. 

The company already has software platforms in human resources, finance, analytics and procurement. The Mumbai-based company, which has been setting the pace for India's software sector, has said it will grow faster than the 12-14 % projection for the industry. 

With expected fiscal 2014 revenue of over $12 billion (Rs 75,000 crore),TCS is about one-third larger than its nearest Indian competitor Infosys. Information technology companies are turning to software platforms that can be tailored to suit customers' needs as a way of improving revenue productivity. 

But building these platforms requires significant initial investment and success is not guaranteed. Chandrasekaran, 50, was of the view that firms will not want to move core processes to platforms, but non-core processes will do so. 

iON may go global 

"There may be a stage where core processes will find a different model but that is a long way away," he said. iON, a TCS initiative to offer no-frills technology solutions to small businesses in a pay-asyou-go model, is being considered for a global launch, he said. 

The company is debating whether to take it first to emerging markets or developed markets, as well the manner in which it will be sold. 

"We are not going the whole hog; we will start with targeting one or two companies. We will go to specific countries," he said. By far and away the market leader in India, TCS is starting to draw comparisons with its global rivals, particularly Accenture. 

In a report last year, JPMorgan drew attention to the incremental revenue added by Accentureand TCS, pointing out that the latter was growing at a much faster pace. Although at $28.6 billion, Accenture is more than twice the size of TCS, it added only some $700 million in revenue in fiscal 2013 which ended in August. 

TCS ended fiscal 2013 in March with incremental revenue of more than $1.4 billion. Chandrasekaran, however, declined to be drawn into comparisons. "I wouldn't want to comment I think I would rather be focused on what we need to do." 

On the ongoing debate in the US about changes to that country's immigration system , he said it is unlikely to have a debilitating impact. Indian software firms individually as well as their grouping Nasscom have stepped up interactions with US. 

"I don't think there is a situation that will come which is a complete risk to the business model, because if that is the case, it will also affect customers."

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