ATM Vendor Halts Researcher’s Talk on Vulnerability

An ATM vendor has succeeded in getting a security talk pulled from the upcoming Black Hat conference after a researcher announced he would demonstrate a vulnerability in the system.

Barnaby Jack, a researcher with Juniper Networks, was to present a demonstration showing how he could “jackpot” a popular ATM brand by exploiting a vulnerability in its software.

Diebold did not respond to a call for comment.

Earlier this year, Diebold released an urgent alert (.pdf) announcing that Russian hackers had installed malicious software on several of its Opteva model ATMs in Russia and Ukraine. A security researcher at SophosLabs uncovered three examples of Trojan horse programs designed to infect the ATMs and wrote a brief analysis of them. Last month another security research lab, Trustwave’s SpiderLabs, providedmore in-depth analysis of malware used to attack 20 ATMs in Russia and Ukraine of various brands.

Read the full story at wired.com.

VirtualBox 3.0.0 for Linux Brings 3D and OpenGL 2.0 Support

"VirtualBox, the popular, amazing, open-source, virtualization software from Sun Microsystems, reached version 3.0.0 a few minutes ago. This major update brings lots of new features, many bugfixes and improvements over previous 2.x versions. The big and breathtaking news is that users can now use Direct3D 8 and 9 games or applications! Moreover, with VirtualBox 3.0.0, support for OpenGL 2.0 (only for Linux, Solaris and Windows guests) has been implemented. Another important feature is the new SMP (Symmetrical Multiprocessing) guest support with no more than 32 virtual processors. Without any further introduction, let's have a look at the main fixes/additions in VirtualBox 3.0.0 for Linux"

Read the full story here.

Many Computer Users Skip Routine Maintenance

"It probably comes as no surprise, but it seems most people ignore routine computer maintenance and only think about it when disaster strikes. You know, like falling victim to more than 3,000 viruses. At once."

Read the full story at http://hothardware.com.

Firefox 3.5 released, ready to "upgrade" the Web

"Mozilla has officially released Firefox 3.5, the next major version of its popular open source Web browser. Ars takes a close look at the new version and evaluates its enhancements. Support for HTML 5 video and other important emerging Web standards make this one of the most significant Firefox releases ever.

Mozilla has announced the official release of Firefox 3.5, the next major version of its popular open source Web browser. The new version boosts performance, introduces useful new features, and delivers strong support for emerging Web standards.

Mozilla aims to "upgrade the Web" by improving the Firefox user experience and expanding the range of tools that are available to Web developers. The company boasts that Firefox 3.5 includes over 5,000 enhancements that span nearly every aspect of the browser's functionality and behavior. Among the most compelling advancements in this release is support for the HTML 5 video element, which enables native video playback in the browser without requiring proprietary plugins such as Flash."

Read the full story at arstechnica.com.

IPhone 3GS Handsets Overheat, Turn Brown

"Reports are coming in that the new, million-selling iPhone is suffering from overheating issues. The handsets are getting so warm, in fact, that the plastic cases of the white models are discoloring to pink. The picture above is from Ben on the French site Le Journal du Geek."

Read the full story on wired.com.

Look Ma, I created a botnet!

"The abstract concepts of "botnet" and "Trojan" just became a lot more concrete for me.

In less than an hour on Thursday, I was able to use programs readily available on the Internet underground for as little as $300 to infect several Windows clients and take complete control of them in a test environment.

In contrast to the real world, the McAfee Malware Experience event, which was akin to a Malware 101 class (or, in my case, Malware for Dummies), served up printed step-by-step instructions for us nonhacker journalists. But McAfee researchers said the programs used--real samples of malicious code from the wild--were not particularly sophisticated and any script kiddie could manage them easily."

Read the full story by Elinor Mills

Recycling Contamination

Radioactive Metals Found in Recliners, Handbags Due to Recycling Contamination

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Cheese graters, handbags, fencing and recliners are just some of the thousands of consumer products that have been manufactured with radioactive metals, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) records.

* A China-made kitchen grater, found in a Flint, Mich., scrap plant, that was laced with the isotope Cobalt-60, giving off the equivalent of a chest X-ray over 36 hours of use.

* About 900 women's handbags made in India and found in the Netherlands that had metal rings laced with Cobalt-60 on each bag's shoulder strap.

Read the full article by GreenerDesign Staff