Security analysts have detected a new piece of malware that appears to run as a Microsoft program used to detect unlicensed versions of its operating system.

Sophos is calling it W32.Cuebot-K, a new variation in the Cuebot family of malware. The worm has a range of malicious functions. After it’s installed, the worm immediately tries to connect to two Web sites, a sign it may try to download other bad programs on the machine.

If installed on a computer, Cuebot-K is registered as a new system device driver service named “wgavn.” When a list of services running on the computer is summoned, the worm appears as “Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Notification” Sophos said.

Source: PCWorld

The Myanmar government has blocked the Google search engine and its mail service Gmail, say Internet users.

An official from Bagan Cybertech, the country’s only Internet service provider, confirmed that both Google and gmail were inaccessible but declined to comment further.

In an effort to control the flow of information in and out of the country, the military government has banned several websites, including Yahoo and Hotmail.

Source: indiatimes

The new web 2.0 netscape site is out of beta.

Visitors to www.netscape.com will now see the new site.

MySQL, the open source database firm, is to receive Microsoft marketing support along with Visual Studio technical integration.

The company has paid $3,000 to become a member of Microsoft’s Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program in a move that will help cement the database’s use on Windows. MySQL joins more than 240 other ISVs also working with Microsoft.

MySQL says 40 per cent of its downloads are for Windows, and VSIP membership will provide greater integration between the database and Microsoft’s development environment. Using a plug-in, developers will be able to build forms and objects inside Visual Studio with Microsoft languages lsuch as C# and Visual Basic, browse data and records, and perform basic data management.

Source: TheRegister

Western Digital Corp. this week agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit filed against it by allowing consumrs to download free backup and recovery software from the company’s web site.

For those customers who purchased Western Digital hard drives between March 22, 2001 and February 15, 2006, the company will provide free backup and recovery software, valued at about $30. Customers must go to the settlement web site and register. The offer expires July 15.

Source: extremetech

Firestar Software has filed a patent claim against Red Hat for infringing on a patent Firestar filed in 2000 covering O/R mapping.

The complaint centers around Hibernate 3, and the patent claims that JBoss was given prior notice that marketing, distribution, and support services violates Firestars patent, and that Firestar “has suffered and will continue to suffer substantial damages.” Firestar produces the ObjectSpark, an transactional object mapping engine which appears to not have had a new release since May 2003, according to the Firestars press release page.

Source: infoq

Napster has quietly begun offering customers a branded digital music player when they subscribe to Napster’s service for a year, according to the company’s Web site.

Those who join the “Napster To Go” service can receive a 256MB flash memory MP3 player for free, or pay an additional $50 to get a 1GB flash player.

Source: News.com

A vulnerability has been reported in Apple iTunes, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user’s system.

The vulnerability is caused due to an integer overflow error within the parsing of AAC media files (e.g. “.M4A” and “.M4P” file extensions). This can be exploited to cause a memory corruption when a malicious AAC file with a specially crafted “sample_size_table” value is opened.

Security web site secunia rates this vulnerability as highly critical and recommends to update to version 6.0.5.

rench lawmakers gave final approval Friday to legislation that could force Apple Computer Inc. to make its iPod and iTunes Music Store compatible with rivals’ music players and online services.

Both the Senate and the National Assembly, France’s lower house, voted in favor of the copyright bill, which some analysts said could cause Apple Computer Inc. and others to pull their music players and online download stores from France.

The final compromise asserts that companies should share the required technical data with any rival that wants to offer compatible music players and online stores, but it toned down many of the tougher measures backed by lower-house lawmakers early on.

It also maintained a loophole introduced by senators, which could allow Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple and others to dodge the data-sharing demands by striking new deals with record labels and artists.

Source: AP

A new open source application server is available for download from WSO2 Inc., a little known but highly regarded Sri Lankan firm of open source developers. It’s Tungsten 1.0 application server is designed to handle Ajax and other scripting based applications more efficiently.

The WSO2 stands for Web Services Oxygenation, perhaps an alchemist’s way of saying it’s time to activate a new generation of Web applications. Nevertheless, WSO2 is bringing a fresh set of concepts and standards to the notion of an application server, software that gives a Web site its ability to scale across many users.

Source: TechWeb

China’s Internet regulators are stepping up controls on blogs and search engines to block material it considers unlawful or immoral, the government said Friday.

“As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the blog and search engine, we will take effective measures to put the BBS, blog and search engine under control,” said Cai Wu, director of the Information Office of China’s Cabinet, quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency.

The government will step up research on monitoring technology and issue “admittance standards” for blogs, the report said, without providing any details.

Source: AP

Data storage provider EMC Corp. said Thursday it will buy RSA Security Inc. for nearly $2.1 billion, paying a hefty premium to overcome rivals who also were eager to snap up RSA’s encryption software and computer authentication products.

EMC will pay $28 for each share of Bedford-based RSA Security, or a 22 percent premium above the $22.88 price at which RSA’s shares closed Thursday on the Nasdaq before the deal was announced.

Source: AP