Symantec Tells Customers to Pull the Plug on pcAnywhere Following Code Theft

                The theft of code related to Symantec security products has compelled the vendor to warn customers, urging them to take various measures up to and including disabling the application pcAnywhere. New versions of the application will receive patches, but customers who can't upgrade may need to shut off the software to avoid the risk.

Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) is sounding the alarm for users of its pcAnywhere remote access software following threats from a hacker. In some cases, said the security software maker, they might want to turn off and disable the application entirely.

The hacker, who goes by the handle "YamaTough," might be a member of the hacker collective Anonymous.

The hacker claimed last week to have released pcAnywhere source code to the wild, where it could be exploited by malicious hackers.

"Customers of Symantec's pcAnywhere product may face a slightly increased security risk as a result of this exposure if they do not follow general best practices," Symantec spokesperson Brian Modena told TechNewsWorld.

YamaTough's Loot YamaTough's claim sparked an investigation by Symantec, which says the code was stolen back in 2006.

The code for that year's versions of Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton SystemWorks (consisting of Norton Utilities and Norton GoBack) and pcAnywhere were taken by YamaTough, Modena said.

Also in 2006, source code for two other Symantec security applications, Symantec End Point (SEP) 11 and Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) Corporate Edition, were stolen by a local branch of Anonymous calling itself "Lords of Dharmaraja." It was posted on the Web earlier this month.

It's not clear whether the two thefts are indeed related.

Since 2006, Symantec has implemented policies and procedures to prevent a repetition of the theft, Modena remarked.

Who's at Risk?

Symantec contends that, due to the age of the exposed code for SAV and SEP, customers shouldn't be in any increased danger of cyberattacks.

All they have to do is adhere to best practices, according to the company, because current out-of-the-box security settings will suffice to protect them. Those best practices include ensuring the latest patches have been implemented.

However, users of pcAnywhere 12.0, 12.1 and 12.5 or earlier are at increased risk of cyberattacks. So are users of various products in Symantec's Altiris family that are bundled with pcAnywhere. Further, a remote access component of pcAnywhere called the pcAnywhere Thin Host is also bundled with several Symantec backup and security products.

What Symantec's Doing

On Monday, Symantec released a patch that eliminates three known vulnerabilities in pcAnywhere 12.5 running on Windows.

It plans to release patches for pcAnywhere 12.0, 12.1 and 12.5 during the week of Jan. 23, and it will continue to issue patches until it releases a new version of pcAnywhere that addresses all currently known vulnerabilities.

Symantec has also put up a white paper for pcAnywhere users in which it recommends disabling the product until Symantec releases a final set of software updates.

What Users Need to Do

Customers using pcAnywhere should upgrade to pcAnywhere 12.5 and make sure all the updates available are installed, Symantec's Modena said. They should run the application on a secure and protected network. Lastly, customers should make sure that all of the machines that they're communicating with via pcAnywhere have endpoint protection.

If customers can't upgrade to version 12.5 and download the latest patches, they should reach out to Symantec and develop a remediation plan, Modena stated.

However, if customers can't follow any of these recommendations, "we advise [them] to disable the version of pcAnywhere that they're using," Modena remarked.

"In this case, the risk of a problem resulting from not using the tool is far lower than the risk of someone using the tool against you," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld.

"Remote access tools are often used in cases where you need to login into a remote administration terminal, and there's a very real risk that, if some of these systems are exploited, the companies that use them could be terminally damaged," Enderle explained.

Life Without pcAnywhere

Enterprises using pcAnywhere should "have a plan B in place," said independent security consultant Randy Abrams said.

Turning off pcAnywhere "can effectively shut down a business," Abrams told TechNewsWorld. On the other hand, "users who log on from hotel business computers or other public computers put a business at far greater risk than some potential product vulnerabilities."

Multitasking hinders youth social skills

         

         FaceTime, the Apple video-chat application, is not a replacement for real human interaction, especially for children, according to a new study.

        Tween girls who spend much of their waking hours switching frantically between YouTube, Facebook, television and text messaging are more likely to develop social problems, says a Stanford University study published in a scientific journal on Wednesday.

         Young girls who spend the most time multitasking between various digital devices, communicating online or watching video are the least likely to develop normal social tendencies, according to the survey of 3,461 American girls aged 8 to 12 who volunteered responses.

The study only included girls who responded to a survey in Discovery Girls magazine, but results should apply to boys, too, Clifford Nass, a Stanford professor of communications who worked on the study, said in a phone interview. Boys' emotional development is more difficult to analyze because male social development varies widely and over a longer time period, he said.

"No one had ever looked at this, which really shocked us," Nass said. "Kids have to learn about emotion, and the way they do that, really, is by paying attention to other people. They have to really look them in the eye."

The antidote for this hyper-digital phenomenon is for children to spend plenty of time interacting face-to-face with people, the study found. Tweens in the study who regularly talked in person with friends and family were less likely to display social problems, according to the findings in the publication 

Developmental Psychology. "If you eschew face-to-face communication, you don't learn critical things that you have to learn," Nass said. "You have to learn social skills. You have to learn about emotion."

The Stanford researchers were not able to determine a magic number of hours that children should spend conversing per week, Nass said. Social skills are typically only learned when children are engaged and making eye contact, rather than fiddling with an iPod during a conversation, he said.

FaceTime and Skype are not replacements for actual face time because other studies have found that people tend to multitask while on video calls, Nass said.

Nass is a self-described technologist of 25 years, who has worked as a consultant with many major electronics firms, including Google and Microsoft. He said the findings disturbed him.

A few years ago, Nass worked on a study about how multitasking affects adults. He found that heavy multitaskers experience cognitive issues, such as difficulty focusing and remembering things. They were actually worse at juggling various activities, a skill crucial to many people's work lives, than those who spent less time multitasking.

Graphene reveals yet another extraordinary property

Dr Nair shows his one micron thick graphene oxide film research sample  

Graphene has already proven to be the thinnest known material in the universe, strongest material ever measured, the best-known conductor of heat and electricity, and the stiffest known material, while also the most ductile. But it seems the two-dimensional lattice of carbon atoms just can't stop showing off.Ever since University of Manchester scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov first isolated flakes of graphene in 2004 using that most high-tech pieces of equipment - adhesive tape - the one-atom sheet of carbon has continued to astound researchers with its remarkable properties. Now Professor Sir Andre Geim, (he's now not only a Nobel Prize winner but also a Knight Bachelor), has led a team that has added superpermeability with respect to water to graphene's ever lengthening list of extraordinary characteristics.

Stacking membranes of a chemical derivative of graphene called graphene oxide, which is a graphene sheet randomly covered with other molecules such as hydroxyl groups OH-, scientists at the University of Manchester created laminates that were hundreds of times thinner than a human hair but remained strong, flexible and were easy to handle.

When the team sealed a metal container using this film, they say that even the most sensitive equipment was unable to detect air or any other gas, including helium, leaking through. The team then tried the same thing with water and, to their surprise, found that it evaporated and diffused through the graphene-oxide membranes as if they weren't even there. The evaporation rate was the same whether the container was sealed or completely open.

"Graphene oxide sheets arrange in such a way that between them there is room for exactly one layer of water molecules. They arrange themselves in one molecule thick sheets of ice which slide along the graphene surface with practically no friction, explains Dr Rahul Nair, who was leading the experimental work. "If another atom or molecule tries the same trick, it finds that graphene capillaries either shrink in low humidity or get clogged with water molecules."

Professor Geim added, "Helium gas is hard to stop. It slowly leaks even through a millimetre -thick window glass but our ultra-thin films completely block it. At the same time, water evaporates through them unimpeded. Materials cannot behave any stranger. You cannot help wondering what else graphene has in store for us."

Although graphene's superpermeability to water makes it suitable for situations where water needs to be removed from a mixture without removing the other ingredients, the researchers don't offer ideas for any immediate applications that could take advantage of this property. However, they did seal a bottle of vodka with the membranes and found that the distilled solution did indeed become stronger over time. But they don't foresee graphene being used in distilleries.

However, Professor Geim adds, "the properties are so unusual that it is hard to imagine that they cannot find some use in the design of filtration, separation or barrier membranes and for selective removal of water."

The University of Manchester team's paper, "Unimpeded Permeation of Water Through Helium-Leak-Tight Graphene-Based Membranes," appears in the journalScience.

Osim's new USB-powered US$170 uPixie uses EMS to massage and tone while you work

There are four pre-programmed massage routines plus you can make and record your own on uPixie's 2GB external memory card.

OSIM, better known for its advanced massage chairs, has begun selling a US$170 thumb-sized USB massager which uses Electronic Muscle Stimulation (EMS - the same technology you first witnessed in biology when your teacher made a dead frog's leg twitch using electrical current), to deliver a suite of specialized massage programmes from your laptop. It's a pretty good fit of technologies because you can synch the massage to your computer's music player and massage away stress, and tone up using the tapping, squeezing and kneading of the uPixie on specific muscle groups ... while you are working.

• 
• 
• 
• 

There are four set programmes on the uPixie, but you can also write and develop your own routines, opening up a whole host of possibilities.

The Osim uPixie is actually fairly rudimentary as far as EMS machines go.

I picked up a full blown TENS machine while I was at a Chinese Consumer Electronics Fair last year, paying US$20 for a machine that quite amazed me - through different electrical signals to the same muscles via gel-pads, the machine could induce a range of different responses - tapping, squeezing and kneading ... even a feeling that felt like scraping. The slightest current could produce an extraordinary response from the body - pain could be induced at the slightest increase of intensity (electrical power).

The $20 machine had four gel-pad electrodes, ran on a single AA battery and had many more massage routines than the uPixie, plus the same ability to write your own programs. If you can produce a self-powered device that's more complex for $20, with its own brain, then it's fairly obvious that there's plenty of potential in this marketplace.

I played with the lightweight handheld device through a half dozen countries before I lost it, and I never replaced a battery during my ownership. It's energy requirements were minimal.

The uPixie is likely to be the first of many of this genre of product - it has connected the dots - the benefits of EMS, the minimal need for electrical power and additional hardware and the interface and brain of a computer have all been connected, and there must surely be a lot of activity in this area in the near future.

Indeed, an iPad/Android app must surely be in the works somewhere.

Humanity has known about the basics of EMS for more than two centuries. Italian physician and physicist Luigi Galvani discovered in 1791 that the muscles of dead frogs legs twitched when an electric charge is applied.

Since then, bioelectricity has been used in many ways to induce positive health effects.

The Communist Bloc used EMS to supplement the training of its elite athletes during the Cold War, documenting many cases of additional endurance and strength resulting from EMS.

It was found that electrical stimulation caused long-term changes in the muscles and that different types of EMS activated different outcomes in different muscle groups.

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation has also been used successfully in the treatment of sports injuries and in rehabilitation from surgery.

TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator) has been used for decades in pain therapy, and the Medical Times and Register (Volume 16) of 1886, wrote that "Dr Hardaway has remarked the wide usefulness of electrolysis in cosmetic manipulations."

So theoretically, while you're working at your computer (which is at least half your life if you're anything like people around here), the uPixie could be used to massage away stress, exercise, strengthen specific muscle groups, produce more toned facial muscles (non-invasive cosmetic facelifts), and maybe even strengthen atrophied muscles following surgery and mishap.

It all depends on how it's programmed.

And I think an iPad massager would sell well, particularly if people could share massage routines.

New smartphone accessory digitizes your LomoKino movies

The LomoKino Smartphone Holder is a smartphone accessory for digitizing your LomoKino movies without need of an app

Remember Lomography's LomoKino we featured back in November? It's an uber-faux-retro film camera that can shoot about a minute of 3-5 frames-per-second footage using any old 35 mm stills film. Well, Lomography have now released the LomoKino SmartPhone Holder which, though you mightn't have guessed by the name, is a means of digitizing your LomoKino movies using only your smartphone (*cough* by which they mean iPhone *cough*). Cunningly, it's done without need of an app. Just one question, though: why?

• 
• 
• 
• 

The principle couldn't be simpler. The LomoKino SmartPhone Holder attaches your LomoKinoScope viewer (sold separately, small print-watchers) to your smartphone, so that your phone's camera lens looks into the LomoKinoScope's viewfinder. Hit record in your cameraphone's video mode, turn the crank and hey presto - you've a digital version of your analog video sitting in your smartphone's memory.

After all, why shoot 50 seconds of crisp, high-def video at 30-frames-per-second directly on your iPhone when you can shoot 50 seconds of crappy 5-frames-per-second film, then digitize it with your phone with the use of a US$24.90 bit of plastic - resulting in a video of identical file size? Other than time, money, common sense and pride, I can't think of a single reason not to snap one up.

Even if this does sound like a bit of fun, it's worth considering you'll need both a LomoKino camera and LomoKinoScope viewer if you don't have one already. Along with the LomoKino SmartPhone Holder, these can be had, packaged, for $111.45. And then there's the additional expense of buying and developing film.

If that still sounds like a good deal, I suggest you buy now, before Instagram gets round to launching an update for video which will retro-fy your digital movies sans hardware (and probably for free) thereby rendering this thing even more obsolete than it's supposed to be. I'm all for analog technology, and am even begrudgingly partial to the faux-retro aesthetic - but this feels like a lot of work (and not to mention a lot of physical stuff) for relatively little gain. Once you make the decision to digitize, it's pixels all the way down whichever way you jump

The Pirate Bay launches “Physibles” category for 3D printable objects

The Pirate Bay's 'Physibles' category enables the sharing of 3D printable objects such as this printable 3D Pirate Bay logo by tblatt

In announcing the move on its blog, The Pirate Bay describes physibles as "data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical." Like many, the site believes that 3D printers and scanners are just the first step along a rapidly moving road towards a future where people commonly create physical objects from a digital source file. According to the blog post by WinstonQ2038, such a future would see huge benefits in terms of savings on shipping and (child) labor, with users even able to literally print food to feed the hungry.Consumer-level 3D printing technology has moved ahead in leaps and bounds in recent years with the release of devices such as the Thing-o-Matic, the Replicatorand Cubify 3D printers. Proponents of the technology envision a not-too-distant future where users will be able to download designs and print everything from car parts to ... well, a new and improved 3D printer. The folks at The Pirate Bay are obviously on board with this idea. The file-sharing site better known for allowing users to share multimedia, games and software via BitTorrent has now added a new "Physibles" category. The new category will contain digital files for objects that can be physically created using a 3D printer.

While 3D printing technology is definitely progressing rapidly, there still aren't too many such devices that have made it onto the desks of the average consumer. When the numbers increase, the sharing - and selling - of object designs is likely to be a big business. By staking its claim early, The Pirate Bay, which has been called "one of the world's largest facilitators of illegal downloading" by the LA Times, is obviously hoping to be a play a part if not in the selling, than at least in the "sharing."

At the time of writing, the Physibles category on The Pirate Bay hosts just 12 "data objects," including a 3D printable version of its own pirate ship logo.

Bootstrapper recognizes tabletop computer users by their shoes

Bootstrapper uses depth cameras to capture images of a user's shoes to compare against a database of known shoe images

Facial recognition might be all the rage in giving computer systems the ability to ascertain the identity of individuals - what with most people having different facial features and all. But a team from the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, has taken a different approach to identify users of touch-based tabletop computers like Microsoft's Surface. Instead of focusing on the face, the team has looked in the opposite direction to develop a system known as Bootstrapper which distinguishes between users based on their footwear.

When a user interacts with the tabletop computer, the Bootstrapper system, which consists of one or more depth cameras mounted to the table's edge, observes their shoes and matches them to a database of known shoe images that are associated with specific user profiles. When multiple users are interacting with the table at the same time, the system also takes into account the hand orientation of the touch inputs so they aren't mismatched.

The team, which includes Patrick Baudisch, a professor of computer science, and graduate students Stephan Richter and Christian Holz, has developed a prototype of the Bootstrapper using a Kinect and claim that it can recognize individuals from a database of 18 users with 89 percent accuracy.

Obviously the system has some shortcomings. Two people wearing the same type of shoe or one person wearing different shoes at different times will render the system useless. However, the team says it chose such an approach because shoes offer distinct features - color, texture, design, etc. - and, because shoes are generally aligned with the ground, they are easier to track.

Additionally, the system isn't intended to act as a gatekeeper to secure systems, but rather for things such as keeping track of the progress of students in a classroom environment.

The team from the Hasso Plattner Institute will present their Bootstrapper research project at the CHI 2012 conference being held in Austin, Texas, in May 2012.

The SpareOne mobile phone runs on a single AA battery

What if you could power your phone on a single AA battery? The SpareOne is a mobile phone that can to do just that. Designed as a back-up that you keep in a glovebox or emergency kit rather than a phone you keep in your pocket everyday, the SpareOne claims to deliver you up to 10 hours of talk time on one AA battery and it has an isolator that prevents current discharge so that (depending on the shelf-life of the battery you're using) it can hold charge while unused for up to a whopping 15 years.

• 
• 
• 
• 

The SpareOne comes unlocked and requires a SIM card in order to make calls, with the idea being that you swap the SIM card from your regular phone when the power is drained and there's no way to recharge it.

The phone could come in handy in situations where you're traveling away from power for long periods of time, or for emergencies like a flood or earthquake. If you stored the handset in a glovebox with a pack of batteries, you could be chatting for weeks in an emergency situation long after your smartphone loses its juice.

The SpareOne will be available in two different GSM versions (850/1900 MHz and 900/1800 MHz), meaning it should work pretty much worldwide (here's a GSM coverage map ) and it also features an always-on 911 feature that works without a SIM and an LED on the top that could pass for an emergency flashlight.

The SpareOne is expected to start shipping in March at a cost of around US$50.

Concept Fujitsu Lifebook comes with removable smartphone, tablet, and digital camera

These days, your average tech enthusiast typically has at their disposal a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, and a digital camera; and that's listing the bare minimum. That's quite a bit of processing power and storage space spread out among different gadgets. What if it were possible to link all those devices together into one convenient package that uses all that computing power at once? That's the idea behind one designer's concept for a Fujitsu Lifebook, which would come with slots for a smartphone, digital camera, and tablet, for them all to all work together as one super device.

The unique concept, dubbed "Lifebook 2013," comes from designer Prashant Chandra, who submitted the design to a competition held by Fujitsu. The laptop would feature fitted slots for various smart devices, but those aren't for your standard connectivity. Attaching a gadget to the Lifebook would bring all it's functions to the computer, including using its own processor to run some of the laptop's functions.

Fitting the digital camera to the front would mean pictures could be downloaded to the computer or other devices. Sliding in the smartphone/mp3 player would allow music to be played and other data to be shared across devices. The Lifebook 2013 concept doesn't have a keyboard itself, since an tablet becomes the keyboard once slotted into place. The tablet can also be used as a second display (like a larger Nintendo DS) or as a digital sketchpad with a stylus. Aside from potentially reducing the overall cost, another advantage to this setup would be that all the devices can be synced and updated simultaneously from the same hub.

"The proposed Lifebook is a laptop computer concept based on the principle of 'shared hardware,'" explains Chandra. "Currently a lot of hardware is wasted when we use separate devices, as there is often a lot of 'repeat' of data stored and features. For example if I have my songs on my music player, why do I have to block the same amount of storage on my laptop? Similarly, if I have a processor sitting in my tablet, why can it not also run/assist my laptop? If I have a fully functional camera with its own memory and image processing power, why do I need to have it repeated in my laptop?"

Put this way it sounds like a logical step forward for the next generation of laptops, though there is the obvious question of being limited to the concept's constituent devices, which would clearly be a bit limiting for the consumer.

• 
• 
•