Carlo Orlando

As hundreds of thousands of children write their letters to Santa this holiday season, Infopackets.com weighs in on two possible phish-friendly tools that would top the wish list of any hacker. These particular tools of interest are able to scour ... the Internet and collect snippets of personal information from people via social networking sites and other public sources. The end result is a detailed profile with information voluntarily provided. Hackers May Look To "Bigger Picture" Rather than target certain people, hackers could use this stolen information as part of a bigger " spear-phishing ... (view more)

When Chinese officials warned Internet users of a new worm inching around online earlier this week, little was known about the virus. The source of the worm has now been identified as a direct descendant of the "Panda Burning Incense" virus which ... had infected millions of Chinese PCs almost three years ago. Also called Fujacks, the original Panda worm was initially launched during a time when public knowledge about computer security was lesser known than it is today. Not surprisingly, national panic ran wild as users sat back and watched in vain as the image of a panda bear holding three ... (view more)

With the limited number of hacks being reported for popular smartphone models like the Apple iPhone , many owners feel an added sense of safety when pressing the "on" button. However, according to a statement made by computer security firm F-Secure, ... people need not worry about protection against viruses, so much as protection against spying tools. F-Secure stressed their concern over the ever-increasing number of companies selling spyware products that target smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry, where users could manually install the spyware themselves. Phone Spyware: Infects in Two ... (view more)

For the past few months, Samir Meghani has been the proverbial "thorn in the side" of Microsoft. First, the co-founder of price comparison search engine Bountii.com posted ways in which users could exploit the Bing cashback rewards program . Now, ... Meghani is claiming that this same promotion is responsible for making some products appear more expensive on the web than their actual retail price. Bing 'Negative Cashback' Rewards Acccording to Meghani, Bing has a hidden feature that he refers to as 'negative cashback'. It is his belief that the program, and more specifically, vendors associated ... (view more)

When Intel was recently asked about their plans for future development, the world's largest semiconductor chipmaker retorted with a rather unusual answer. According to Intel, by the year 2020, people will no longer need a keyboard or mouse to ... control a computer. Rather, users will able to surf the Internet and open files using nothing more than their brain . Intel researchers are currently finding new ways to read human brain activity to be used in the manipulation of computers, television sets and cell phones. If the research proves to be successful, many brain waves could soon be harnessed ... (view more)

Google appears on the verge of releasing software capable of starting up a PC as fast as a television set. The speedy start up software is said to be linked with the Google Chrome operating system designed for computers that perform the bulk of ... their workload over the Internet. According to Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management for Google's Chrome OS, netbooks running the Chrome OS will be able to start in less than 7 seconds. (Source: reuters.com ) Imitating the TV Experience The idea is to mirror that of the television set experience. "From the time you press boot you want it ... (view more)

There is some fear circulating among industry insiders over a domain name on sale right now. While wpad.cn might be of little significance to the average end-user, cybercriminals would rejoice over its acquisition. Duane Wessels, the president of ... Measurement Factory, knows how important the wpad namesake is. Wessels is the owner of five wpad domains: wpad.com, wpad.net, wpad.org, wpad.biz and wpad.us. While not a popular domain for Google searches, the sites are frequented by Windows computers erroneously searching for network configuration information, due to a decade-old Windows bug that ... (view more)

Since the " Swine Flu " can infect a person at any moment, many companies have beefed up their remote access capabilities to enable their employees to work from home in the case of sudden illness. More specifically, remote access technologies ... provide companies with secure access to applications from any location. These applications can be retrieved using a number of Internet-ready devices and enable IT administrators to enforce security and information usage policies. These policies are then used to ensure that the devices connected to a corporate network from a remote location meet internal ... (view more)

Thus far, Windows 7 is getting some fantastic reviews. However, that doesn't mean Microsoft will be resting on their laurels, and it appears the company is already readying for Windows 8. How do we know that? There's evidence in a secret job posting ... unveiled for the recruitment of Windows 8 developers. Neowin.net discovered the odd posting in reference to the "next newest" Microsoft operating system. The listing, which has since been removed from the original recruitment site, revealed that the company was seeking qualified personnel for the planning and preparation of the Windows Update ... (view more)

If you have yet to make the switch to Windows 7 , perhaps because of financial reasons, then you are wise. There are a number of ways to get your hands on the upgrade for a discounted price, proving once again that good things will come to those who ... wait. Here are some deals to help combat the "new release" sticker prices. 3-for-1 Windows Family Pack The first deal is the Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack. Here, prospective buyers will receive up to 58 per cent off of the suggested retail price, if there are two or more PCs making the upgrade. The bundle consists of two ... (view more)