[+]d'ZheNwaY's Blog[+]: Microsoft dumps partner over telephone ...

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One of Microsoft's Gold Partners has had its relationship with the software giant unceremoniously terminated, after being revealed to be orchestrating a telephone support scam.

Comantra, based in India, are said to have cold-called computer users in the UK, Australia, Canada and elsewhere, claiming to offer assistance in cleaning up virus infections.
The bogus support calls came from Comantra employees who claimed to be representing Microsoft, and used scare tactics to talk users into opening the Event Viewer on Windows, where a seemingly dangerous list of errors would be seen.

Once terrified by what appears to be a worrying collection of warning messages, and believing this was evidence of a malware infection, users would be tricked into allowing Comantra technicians to gain remote access to their computer, and hand over their credit card details to fix any "problems".
In the past, vulnerable elderly people have even been told by scammers that heavy rain may have caused a computer virus infection.

What makes the scam particularly audacious is that during the scam campaign, Comantra were a certified Gold partner of Microsoft, and when quizzed by skeptical computer owners would use their status to trick potential victims into believing the call was legitimate.

A search for "Comantra" on the internet finds a large number of posts and complaints about the scam telephone calls, stretching back over 18 months. Some users have even asked on Microsoft's own message forums how it is possible for the firm to have "Gold Partner" status.

As PC Pro reports, a Microsoft spokesperson has now confirmed that Comantra has at long last been struck off their Gold Partner list:

"We were made aware of a matter involving one of the members of the Microsoft Partner Network acting in a manner that caused us to raise concerns about this member's business practices. Following an investigation, the allegations were confirmed and we took action to terminate our relationship with the partner in question and revoke their Gold status."
"There are no circumstances under which we would ever allow partners or any other organisations to pose as Microsoft. We view matters such as these extremely seriously and take immediate action if such behaviour is brought to our attention and found to be the case."

Hmm.. Maybe someone should tell Comantra to update their website and remove that Gold Partner logo?

Listen to this great podcast by Sophos experts Paul Ducklin and Sean Richmond where they discuss the problem of fake tech support calls, and the ways in which you can avoid falling for scams like this yourself:

(Duration 6:15 minutes, size 4.5MBytes)

Also, make sure that your family and friends are on their guard against suspicious tech support calls telling them about infections on their computer - even if the callers do claim to be from Microsoft. It only takes a lapse of common sense for you to hand your credit card details straight down the line to a criminal.

nb : nakedsecurity.sophos

Source: http://dzhenway.blogspot.com/2011/09/microsoft-dumps-partner-over-telephone.html

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[+]d'ZheNwaY's Blog[+]: Adobe adding security, privacy goodies to ...

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Summary: Adobe’s new Flash Player 11 will include support for 64-bit exploit migitation and support for SSL socket connections.

Battling to cope with the hacker bullseye on its back, Adobe plans to add new security and privacy features to the next iteration of its ubiquitous Flash Player, including  support for SSL socket connections and the introduction of 64-bit ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization).

Adobe said the new Flash Player 11, expected in early October, will include the SSL socket connection support to make it easier for developers to protect the data they stream over the Flash Player raw socket connections.

[ Adobe to rush out Flash Player patch to thwart zero-day attacks ]

Flash Player 11 will also include a secure random number generator.

Adobe’s Platform Security Strategist Peleus Uhley explains:

Flash Player previously provided a basic, random number generator through Math.random. This was good enough for games and other lighter-weight use cases, but it didn’t meet the complete cryptographic standards for random number generation. The new random number generator API hooks the cryptographic provider of the host device, such as the CryptGenRandom function in Microsoft CAPI on Windows, for generating the random number. The native OS cryptographic providers have better sources of entropy and have been peer reviewed by industry experts.

[ Adobe admits to 80 'code changes' in Flash Player patch ]

The company is also adding 64-bit support in Flash Player 11, a move that Uhley says will bring some security side-benefits.

If you are using a 64-bit browser that supports address space layout randomization (ASLR) in conjunction with the 64-bit version of Flash Player, you will be protected by 64-bit ASLR. Traditional 32-bit ASLR only has a small number of bits available in the memory address for randomizing locations. Memory addresses based on 64-bit registers have a wider range of free bits for randomization, increasing the effectiveness of ASLR.

On the privacy side, Adobe is adding a private browsing mode to allow users to stay incognito while viewing Flash files.   A mobile control panel is also being added to Android devices to easier for users to manage their Flash Player privacy settings on their Android devices.

Source: http://dzhenway.blogspot.com/2011/09/adobe-adding-security-privacy-goodies.html

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[+]d'ZheNwaY's Blog[+]: Secure Boot in Windows 8 Worries ...

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Windows 8, like Windows 7 and Vista before it, is being touted as the most secure version of Windows ever. In past releases, many of the security improvements have come through exploit mitigations such as ASLR and DEP and better software security practices during development. In Windows 8, however, one of the major changes is the addition of UEFI, a BIOS replacement that will include a secure boot sequence to help prevent low-level malware infections. That change, however, is not sitting well with everyone.

The way that Windows 8 client machines will boot is going to be quite different from the way that current Windows PCs do. Instead of a BIOS, Windows 8 PCs will include an implementation of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), which is more flexible and programmable than BIOS is. UEFI will sit between the firmware and the Windows operating system and Microsoft is reportedly going to require that any client machine that runs Windows 8 have a secure boot sequence enabled by default. That sequence will require that whatever software is loaded during boot be signed by one of the keys included in the firmware. If the firmware or software isn't signed by a trusted certificate authority, Windows 8 will not load it.

The impetus for this change in the boot process is that attackers have become proficient in recent years at finding methods to load malware into the BIOS and firmware that underlie the OS. In some cases, rootkits, bootkits and malware that infects the master boot record can not be removed from the machine without re-installing the operating system. Microsoft and security vendors have been trying to find ways defeat these attacks for several years now, and the move to UEFI and secure boot is one of the results of that effort.

It's been a long journey for Microsoft to arrive at this destination. The company has been pushing various versions of a hardware-based security system for nearly a decade now. An early version, originally known as the Windows Next Generation Secure Computing Base and later Palladium, generated quite a bit of controversy when it was first discussed. Many of the elements of the Palladium system are now included as part of some laptops and the Windows 8 UEFI implementation: hardware security modules, secure boot, signing of software, encrypted storage of files. While some portions of what Microsoft has implemented in Windows 8 won't require the use of a TPM (Trusted Platform Module), others will, including support for encrypted hard drives.

These security additions to Windows 8 have some benefits, but there also are some potential drawbacks that worry security and privacy advocates. Ross Anderson of the University of Cambridge worries that there is the potential for hardware-based lock-in included with the Windows 8 changes.

"The extension of Microsoft’s OS monopoly to hardware would be a disaster, with increased lock-in, decreased consumer choice and lack of space to innovate. It is clearly unlawful and must not succeed," Anderson said in a blog post.
There also has been concern in the open-source community that the changes in Windows 8 will prevent users from loading alternate operating systems on Windows-based PCs. There may be some ways for users to circumvent the UEFI implementation and find a method for loading a separate OS, but it would likely be difficult.

"There's no indication that Microsoft will prevent vendors from providing firmware support for disabling this feature and running unsigned code. However, experience indicates that many firmware vendors and OEMs are interested in providing only the minimum of firmware functionality required for their market. It's almost certainly the case that some systems will ship with the option of disabling this. Equally, it's almost certainly the case that some systems won't. It's probably not worth panicking yet. But it is worth being concerned," wrote Matthew Garrett, a developer at Red Hat, in a blog post on the Windows 8 changes.

nb : threatpost

Source: http://dzhenway.blogspot.com/2011/09/secure-boot-in-windows-8-worries.html

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Ash Owen Davies: Touch Enabled Desktops

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Today I got the chance to try out the new Developer Preview of Windows 8, something I've been looking forward to since the first announcement of the project some time ago. After initially attempting to load it onto my VMWare 7 setup, I was presented with a new style blue screen, a refreshing remodel of the classic. Through some forum trawling I had found that the release only works on the most recent version 8 of VMWare. A trial version of VMWare is available from the publishers website, like most trials it lasts for 30 days, and requires an arduous license request process, but the end result is a good solid sandbox environment.

Windows Metro UI

The installation was fairly quick, despite only sharing a portion of the computers resources, but that doesn't really hold much necessity bearing in mind you only need to install once. Now disregarding the numerous benefits and improvements brought about in Windows 8, such as ARM processor support, Windows to Go, and the rumours of a new file system, there were many changes that I felt simply were not welcome for a desktop. Being that my own specialities lie in the design of user interfaces this is generally what I focus my attention to first, biased or not I think that the new Metro UI is probably the largest change to be brought about in any revision of Windows.

Many believe that we are now in the post-pc era, with the sudden evolution and adaptation of touch enabled devices such as tablets, smart phones and laptops, eclipsing the use of desktops. However I believe that desktop computers still make up a huge proportion of computer users and are still the workhorses that drive the industry. In anticipation of this operating system manufacturers are keen to develop a platform that works for all devices, whilst I can see this is a beneficial feature, I've always believed that something that boasts an ability to perform many tasks does so poorly in comparison to something that delivers a single purpose.

Microsoft isn't the only company to show this, Google's upcoming version of Android (code-named 'Ice Cream Sandwich'), also attempts to shoe-horn the facilities relevant to touch enabled devices into an all-rounder operating system. Whilst I believe that Google will do a better job (this being down to my own preferences) I still feel its the wrong outlook to have.

Though I hold a personal resentment towards Apple and their following, they have achieved one thing correctly, the IOS/OSX holds the same style of user interface across all platforms, whilst keeping the features relevant to the capabilities of the device, this is however one benefit of being able to manufacture the target device along with operating system, a benefit that is not shared amongst it's competitors.

I don't boast to know the ideal solution, should manufacturers segregate the versions of their operating systems to allow for multiple devices? Would this create resentment towards the feature set or a compulsion to own the latest version? Unifying operating system versions may even be the correct solution

In short, desktops aren't touch enabled (or at least they shouldn't be) and trying to fit a solution around that just won't work, Microsoft learn't a big lesson in the wake of Windows Vista, and that showed just how capable they were at listening to user feedback with Windows 7.

Source: http://ashowendavies.blogspot.com/2011/09/touch-enabled-desktops.html

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Latest Windows Phone 7 News in Google News | Twitter | Facebook ...

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I'm back in the office after a brief hiatus between March 22 and March 27. Here is what happened while I was gone:


Firefox 4. Mozilla released the new version of its free Web browser, Firefox 4 last week. It came a week after Microsoft released the competing browser Internet Explorer 9.


So far Firefox appears to be leading the pack with downloads. Firefox 4 was downloaded 7.1 million times in the first 24 hours. Internet Explorer 9 was downloaded 2.3 million times on the first day. In the first 48 hours, 15.85 million copies of Firefox 4 were downloaded.


The popularity of Microsoft's browser is hampered by the fact that it does not run in Windows XP -- it is only available for Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft has said in a statement it does not support XP with the latest browser because, "The browser is only as good as the operating system it runs on and a browser running on a ten-year-old operating system tethers the web to the past."


Also, the team that builds Internet Explorer is in the Windows division at Microsoft, which wants to drive upgrades to Windows 7.


Here is where you can download Firefox 4.


Problems with Windows Phone 7 updates. Microsoft acknowledged that it's having problems delivering updates to Windows Phone 7 users. Many people who bought Windows phones since they started selling in the fall have been anxiously awaiting this update because it adds the ability to copy and paste text.


Microsoft posted a video featuring Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore, who also posted this comment on its website, "We know it’s been frustrating to wait for features/fixes and (probably worse) to hear little from us on specific dates. We are sorry the process has been rocky."


If you are a Windows Phone 7 user and you are still wondering dude, where's my update, Microsoft has also posted a frequently asked questions for Windows Phone 7 users about the update.


Observers are watching how Windows Phone 7 performs because Microsoft's smartphone operating system is so far behind Google's Android and Apple's iPhone in market share. Windows Phone 7 began selling on phones in the fall.


Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/2014620261_whileiwasgone.html

Source: http://wp7windowsphone7.blogspot.com/2011/03/while-i-was-gone-firefox-4-windows.html

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On5 Games releases Quizarium 1.01 for the iPhone – Intellect Wins

Small minds discuss “people”, average minds discuss “events”, great minds play Quizarium. Do you think those guys from TV quiz shows are full of themselves? You could show them all, but can’t be bothered to get there? Well, now you can take a quiz alone or fight other quizzees even while taking a bath. And win substantial prizes! Meet the new free app for iPhone – Quizarium, created by On5 Games studio, the developers of the enthralling Charadium app.

Enjoying yourself, sharing fun and information with friends – that’s what multiple iPhone apps are about. iPhone is full of features that bring gaming to a whole new level. No wonder multiple game apps available for this device enjoy a booming popularity. If you fancy something more intellectually challenging than online shooting, then Quizarium for iPhone is bound to stimulate your brain.

Source: http://minmol.blogspot.com/2010/08/on5-games-releases-quizarium-101-for.html

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wuonm introduces DisCover 1.0 for iPhone

wuonm just released DisCover 1.0, their one tap music player for iPhone, iPod and iPad devices. DisCover allows anyone to add icons onto the home screen using artwork from their music library. The album can be played by simply tapping the created icon on their springboard.

Feature highlights include:
* Unlimited number of icons
* Play the album with just one tap
* Integrated with the iPod app
* Music keeps playing even when you exit the application

DisCover automatically searches for all the music on the device. Users scroll to their favorite artist and select the album they want to add as icon. Following onscreen instructions the user will be able to create the artwork icon in seconds. Perfect for always having users favorite albums on hand.

Source: http://minmol.blogspot.com/2010/08/wuonm-introduces-discover-10-for-iphone.html

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Windows Phone 7 Will Be a Platform for Video Games

Windows Phone 7 Will Be a Platform for Video Games

Microsoft will have Windows Phone 7 users rockin' and rollin' by integrating 50 video games into the mobile platform. The Windows Phone 7 games will interact with Microsoft's Xbox Live universe. Microsoft's Kevin Unangst said the software maker is approaching Windows Phone 7 "as we would a console" to ensure success.

If people chatting or texting on their smartphones on the railroad get you annoyed, wait until you see them rocking out to Guitar Hero 5 during the morning commute. Betting big on mobile Relevant Products/Services gaming to stand apart from rival operating systems, Microsoft on Tuesday announced 50 games it will integrate into its Windows Phone 7 Series devices in time for this year's holiday season.

The games run the gamut from family-style fare like Bejeweled and Uno to Xbox classics like Rocket Riot, which will make its mobile debut with Windows 7. The phone-based games will interact with Microsoft's Xbox Live universe so users can update their avatars, keep track of their game score, and add achievements to their profiles. They can also access Halo:Waypoint, a Live hub where they can watch videos and interact with other players, though the hot game itself apparently isn't going mobile.

Pushing the Envelope

"We're really approaching this as we would a console, so we have to deliver the breadth of games and the quality people expect from Xbox," said Kevin Unangst, Microsoft's senior director of PC and mobile gaming, in a posting on the Microsoft News Center site. "To have this quantity and quality of games committed this far ahead of launch, with even more to come, is a statement of support that says Windows Phone 7 will be a big success."

Other notable games announced at this year's GameCon in Cologne, Germany, include Digital Chocolate's 3D Brick Breaker Revolution, Protégé Games' Armor Valley, i-Play's Fast & Furious 7, Konami's Frogger, Gameloft's Assassins Creed, and Arkedo's O.M.G. Additional titles will be named before the Windows 7 launch in October, with more titles to be added every week, Microsoft said.

"Windows Phone 7 is the launch of a major gaming platform Relevant Products/Services for Microsoft," said Matt Booty, general manager of mobile gaming for MGS. "Just like we've done with Xbox 360, our charter is to push the envelope and deliver definitive games that maximize the platform."

Strongest Play

Consumer-devices specialist Avi Greengart of Current Analysis says that while Windows 7 allows Microsoft to utilize all its diverse assets, including the Bing search Relevant Products/Services engine, SharePoint, Outlook, Office and Zune Marketplace, "Xbox Live is arguably Microsoft's strongest play -- if you'll pardon the pun. [It] has performed extremely well in the living room, and mobile gaming is an area where Microsoft can differentiate itself from other mobile operating systems with a rich, connected experience."

Also, Greengart added, the competition is weak. "Android and RIM badly lag in games, HP/Palm does have some 3-D games but doesn't have much of an installed base, and Nokia's n-Gage never took off. Apple dominates 99-cent casual games, but it hasn't rolled out its game network Relevant Products/Services yet and has no ties to the living room."

Greengart said the Windows 7 gaming emphasis is a smarter pitch for the younger demographic than its earlier, disastrous line of Kin phones, geared heavily toward the social-media obsessed. The low-selling phones, powered by the Windows CE operating system, were distributed by Verizon Wireless but pulled off the market in July just a few months after their release in April.

"It's hard to argue whether Microsoft did or didn't understand younger consumers with the Kin, given how lousy the Kin was," Greengart said. "It failed in its most basic social-networking tasks, it lacked apps, and it was priced like a smartphone."

Source: http://worlds-tech-news.blogspot.com/2010/08/windows-phone-7-will-be-platform-for.html

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