Silicon Valley welcomes Obama

Many believe that his understanding and use of social networking tools to reach voters gave him a distinct advantage over other candidates.

He is well known as a fan of technology. He is an avid Blackberry user, the first president to air his weekly address via video websites and the first to have an official portrait taken with a digital camera.

So Silicon Valley leaders hope that the arrival of President Obama in the White House will mean a new enthusiasm for tech on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Eric Schmidt, boss of Google said: "During the Bush presidency there was not a lot of focus on technology.
"It was not an administration that particularly focused on science, science policy, and investment in research and development. They focused on other issues.

"We've got a new president now, who has got a completely different agenda."

He said the change would have "a big impact globally on America".

Open network

There's no doubt that President obama 2008 has a long hi-tech 'To Do' list. It was published on his campaign website and top of the list was net neutrality.

He is against allowing broadband suppliers to prioritise network traffic and charging a fee to websites and services for doing so because, as he said: "Once providers start to privilege some applications or websites over others then smaller voices get squeezed out and we all lose".

He said: "The internet is perhaps the most open network in history and we have to keep it that way."

With competition among ISPs almost non-existent in the US, broadband speeds and penetration are other issues the new President will have to look at.

As he put it: "It is unacceptable that the US ranks 15th in the world for broadband adoption.

"Here in the country that invented the internet, every child should get the chance to go online."

He will also be the first US president to have a chief technology officer staff who will oversee a massive effort to make government more transparent via the internet.

But that is just the beginning as far as Silicon Valley is concerned.

Windows worm -Three million hit

The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008.

Although Microsoft released a patch, it has gone on to infect 3.5m machines.

Experts warn this figure could be far higher and say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft's MS08-067 patch.

According to Microsoft, the worm works by searching for a Windows executable file called "services.exe" and then becomes part of that code.

It then copies itself into the Windows system folder as a random file of a type known as a "dll". It gives itself a 5-8 character name, such as piftoc.dll, and then modifies the Registry, which lists key Windows settings, to run the infected dll file as a service.

Once the worm is up and running, it creates an HTTP server, resets a machine's System Restore point (making it far harder to recover the infected system) and then downloads files from the hacker's web site!

Most malware uses one of a handful of sites to download files from, making them fairly easy to locate, target, and shut down.

But Conficker does things differently.

Anti-virus firm F-Secure says that the worm uses a complicated algorithm to generate hundreds of different domain names every day, such as mphtfrxs.net, imctaef.cc, and hcweu.org. Only one of these will actually be the site used to download the hackers' files. On the face of it, tracing this one site is almost impossible.

Speaking to the BBC, Kaspersky Lab's security analyst, Eddy Willems, said that a new strain of the worm was complicating matters.

"There was a new variant released less than two weeks ago and that's the one causing most of the problems," said Mr Willems

"The replication methods are quite good. It's using multiple mechanisms, including USB sticks, so if someone got an infection from one company and then takes his USB stick to another firm, it could infect that network too. It also downloads lots of content and creating new variants though this mechanism."

Microsoft says that the malware has infected computers in many different parts of the world, with machines in China, Brazil, Russia, and India having the highest number of victims.


INFECTED IPs WORLDWIDE

China 38,277
Brazil 34,814
Russia 24,526
India 16,497
Ukraine 14,767
Italy 13,115
Argentina 11,675
Korea 11,117
Romania 8,861
United States 3,958
United Kingdom 1,789
Source: F-Secure


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Protecting PC data

Encryption is important because without it, anyone can read and steal information from your personal or even corporate files.

However, Bitlocker is only available on Windows Ultimate, which is the most expensive version of Vista.

To find out about encryption for all to use, I want start by pointing out that the difference between encryption and password protection.

Password Protection Software

For instance, when you log in to your computer, a login password is a quick and simple barrier to the files on this system. But this only applies when they are on this system.

If I have stolen your computer, this password is no barrier at all because if I want to find out what data you have, I simply remove this disc and plug into a system that I do know the password to.

But if your files are also encrypted, then if I put this disc into another computer all I will see are nonsense bits and bytes.

Encrypted Folder Hide Password Protection

So, how to encrypt your files? It is important to know before you start that you are going to make changes to the contents of your disc, so back-up that data first.

But keep the back-up secure, otherwise encrypting your first drive will be a waste of time.

First download TrueCrypt.

It is free, it is open source and there are versions for Windows and Mac OS 10.4 and greater, a couple of Linux distributions and Ubuntu as well. You can get it from TrueCrypt.org

If you are a small business owner then you should consider encrypting everything which could leave your premises, because encryption is confidentiality.

Because of this, some hard disc companies like Seagate.org have begun including encryption hardware straight in to their laptop hard discs.

Mobile computers are more likely to get stolen.

Disadvantages

There are some disadvantages to encryption. Here are a couple to think about.

Having to encrypt everything as it comes on and off the hard disc is a complicated process which increases the amount of time it takes to access your files. In other words, your computer runs more slowly.

The second is forgetting your password, or losing the USB drive with the key files. This is a disaster, as the chances of you getting the data back is close to zero.

It is as if your disc crashed or that you wiped it just by forgetting the password. Drive encryption is powerful stuff to get wrong.

So back-up data, keep copies of USB keys in a safe place and leave yourself password reminders.

Million dollar phone
And for the really rich and paranoid you can get your phone data encrypted.

Pictured on the right is the Diamond Crypto Smartphone.

It costs $1.3m (£857,000), but that is largely because it is absolutely jammed with gold and diamonds.

It is a phone for the rich and paranoid.

But if individually hand made phones are your bag, you probably have contacts worth protecting.

Technology+Articles

Hard drive destruction 'crucial'

Which? Computing magazine recovered 22,000 "deleted" files from eight computers purchased on eBay.

Criminals source old computers from internet auction sites or in rubbish tips, to find users' valuable details.

Freely available software can be used to recover files that users think they have permanently deleted.

The only solution, according to Which?, is complete destruction - and it recommends using a hammer.

A number of recent cases have shown the dangers in disposing of second-hand equipment, from which details as well as other personal files can be retrieved.

"PCs contain more valuable personal information than ever as people increasingly shop online, use social networking sites and take digital photos," said Sarah Kidner, editor of Which? Computing.

"Such information could bring identity thieves a hefty payday."

"It sounds extreme, but the only way to be 100% safe is to smash your hard drive into smithereens."

Because those smithereens contain environmentally harmful materials, they should be recycled - for instance at the vendor from whom a new hard drive is purchased.

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