So You Think You Qualify For The Microsoft Certified Master Program

For many years the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification had been the top-tier, so to speak, of Microsoft certifications. However, compelled to compete with other vendor’s top certifications like Cisco’s CCIE or the CISSP, and recognizing that the MCSE was no longer perceived as a “top-tier” certification, Microsoft added a great deal of depth to their certification programs in the last year or so.

Readers may recall the Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA), which set a new benchmark for Microsoft certifications. With the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) program Microsoft has added another key component to their certification roadmap and hopes to establish a new benchmark for high-end certifications.

News Source: TechRepublic
View: Full Story

DNS Exploit Comes Back To Haunt Researcher

Researcher HD Moore is seeing firsthand what a DNS exploit he helped develop can do. An attack on a local ISP resulted in traffic redirections for Moore’s company in Texas.

Moore, who crafted the original DNS exploit module, said in a blog posting that an attacker managed to run the cache-poisoning attack on a server belonging to AT&T’s internet service in Austin, Texas.

As a result of the attack, servers at BreakingPoint Systems, the network security firm which employs Moore as director of security research, redirected employee machines from the google.com site to a third-party site loaded with advertisements.

News Source: vnunet.com
View: Full Story

Via’s Nano Processor Tops Intel’s Atom In First Feviews

Performance comparisons of Via Technologies’ Nano processor and Intel’s Atom chip conducted by several hardware-enthusiast sites confirmed what many industry observers have long suspected: the Taiwanese processor company has produced a chip that outperforms Intel’s offering for low-cost computers.

“Both the VIA Nano and Intel Atom processors and platforms have their own positives and drawbacks but it was really the Via Nano L2100 processor that impressed me the most,” wrote Ryan Shrout, editor-in-chief of PC Perspective, in a review of the two processors.

“Coming from a very small CPU design team here in the U.S., the Isaiah architecture is able to outperform Intel’s similarly priced and placed Atom processor while offering a much more open platform design,” he wrote.

News Source: InfoWorld
View: Full Story

Bell Throttles Traffic, Stifles Competition, Canadian ISPs Say

Bell Canada is stifling competition by throttling peer-to-peer (p2p) traffic of its wholesale customers, says the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP).

The Association says Bell should have to prove its network is congested before it engages in traffic shaping.

CAIP’s comments are the latest development in the ongoing controversy over traffic or “packet shaping” – the practice of limiting the amount of available bandwidth for certain services such as peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing applications.
Bell Canada Enterprises and Rogers Communications Inc. have both admitted to doing this. They argue that managing traffic flow in this way is needed so the bulk of Internet surfers don’t suffer from slower service.

News Source: IT Business
View: Full Story

My Country Let Me Down, Says Hacker McKinnon

“I feel let down by my country,” said the man accused of the biggest military hack in history, Gary McKinnon.

The self-confessed hacker today lost his appeal in Britain’s highest court against extradition to the United States where, if convicted, he could be sentenced to spend the next 60 years in jail.

McKinnon told Computer Weekly he would now ask the European Court of Human Rights to consider his case on two grounds - first, that the original plea bargain that US officials offered was an abuse of the extradition process and threatening behaviour, and second, that he might be tried by a military tribunal rather than a court.

News Source: ComputerWeekly
View: Full Story

Golden Shellback Coatings Protect Electronics From Water

You can currently protect things like your cell phone from water, but typically, that requires bulky cases that obscure screens and controls in the name of protection. Sid Martin, Director of Technology at Northeast Maritime Institute (NMI), started a quest to find a way to protect electronic devices from water without adding bulk to the devices.

Martin’s quest led to the development of Golden Shellback Coatings. The coating protects electronics exposed to water and can resist rain and humidity as well. Items protected with Golden Shellback Coatings are able to continue operating when submerged and can operate afterwards as well.

News Source: DailyTech
View: Full Story

British Hacker Loses Extradition Appeal To US

A British hacker has lost his appeal against extradition to the United States. 42-year-old Gary McKinnon is accused of wreaking havoc on US military computer systems back in 2001 and 2002 by hacking into systems with a simple dial-up modem and off-the-shelf software. US prosecutors want to try him in the states and McKinnon, along with his solicitors, have been fighting extradition for several years. Now it appears time is running out for the unemployed IT administrator as Britain’s highest court, the House of Lords, has rejected his appeal.

According to court documents, McKinnon is accused of scanning over 73000 government computers belonging to the Department of Defense, Army, Air Force, Navy and even NASAand actually gained access to 97 computers with his dial-up modem. During his exploits, he managed to take 2000+ computers offline for 24 hours at the US Army Military District of Washington and a similar hack attempt disabled 300 computers at a New Jersey naval weapons station. The government estimates that McKinnon caused approximately $900,000 in damage.

News Source: TG Daily
View: Full Story

Olympic Organizers Cut Deal To Censor Net Access

Allowing journalists access to an uncensored Internet apparently isn’t on the International Olympic Committee’s list of things to do before the Beijing games begin next week.

A day after journalists learned their Internet activities would be limited, a senior IOC official admitted to Reuters on Wednesday that committee members had cut a deal to let the Chinese government block sensitive Web sites, despite promises of unrestricted access.

“I regret that it now appears BOCOG has announced that there will be limitations on Web site access during games time,” IOC press chief Kevan Gosper told Reuters, referring to Beijing’s Olympic organizers. “I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered games related.”

News Source: C|Net News
View: Full Story

Microsoft’s Plans For Post-Windows OS Revealed

Microsoft is incubating a componentized non-Windows operating system known as Midori, which is being architected from the ground up to tackle challenges that Redmond has determined cannot be met by simply evolving its existing technology.

SD Times has viewed internal Microsoft documents that outline Midori’s proposed design, which is Internet-centric and predicated on the prevalence of connected systems.

Midori is an offshoot of Microsoft Research’s Singularity operating system, the tools and libraries of which are completely managed code. Midori is designed to run directly on native hardware (x86, x64 and ARM), be hosted on the Windows Hyper-V hypervisor, or even be hosted by a Windows process.

News Source: SDTimes
View: Full Story

iPhone 2.0 Outrage Tearing Up Apple Discussion Boards

On the heels of the MobileMe meltdown, it’s now appearing that Apple’s iPhone 2.0 software update is meeting with, er, more support issues than one would have expected. In fact, the outcry on Apple’s own discussion boards has reached a crescendo, with numerous unhappy iPhone customers complaining that they’re getting no comfort from Cupertino. Here’s what they’re saying.

First off, I have to say that, personally, I haven’t experienced any serious problems with the 2.0 software update on my own iPhone. The things I’ve noticed are a slightly longer boot-up time for the phone itself, and a noticeably longer syncing time, when you connect the phone up to iTunes. (Syncing takes maybe 3 minutes more than previously, mostly because backing up the phone takes longer.) Also, the phone’s “settings” page takes longer to load, which is a pain since I frequently check to see how long it’s been since the last charge, and to view my Wi-Fi connection.

News Source: InformationWeek
View: Full Story