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Now that Facebook has secured Microsoft with a lucrative advertising agreement, there's reason to believe the social networking site is ready to do some serious business. One pesky Canadian company hoping to hack the page recently found out just how ... serious that business really is. According to reports, Facebook recently filed a lawsuit against a Canadian company that attempted to hack Facebook's servers. Given the content of the company's page -- it displays explicit adult images -- there's reason to believe the Canadians hoped to splash the social site with a plethora of nudies. It's a case ... (view more)

The Ask.Com search engine now offers users the ability to search without any records being collected. Anyone using the site can, with just two clicks, make sure details such as their IP address (which identifies the particular computer they are ... using) and the phrase they are searching for are not stored by the site. (Source: irconnect.com ) The service is titled AskEraser. Some critics have noted that the name is slightly misleading; rather than erasing data, it simply makes sure the information is never written in the first place. It only applies to future searches and it isn't possible to ... (view more)

Renowned photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand has entered into an arrangement with Google to display his work in the web portal's Google Earth. Close to 500 photographs are included in the free program, as well as on a gadget made for the search ... company's customizable home page iGoogle. Accompanying the pictures are facts and figures about issues and challenges across the globe. (Source: google.com) Google Earth's innovative and highly popular program uses a layer system which allows users to see separate categories of data, such as roads, terrain, hotels, restaurants, and building information ... (view more)

Security experts have found a way to intercept information from Microsoft's wireless keyboards, and warn that other brands could also be at risk. The affected keyboards don't use the popular Bluetooth technology, but instead broadcast on a very ... short radio frequency. Most surprisingly, the encryption appears to be shockingly weak. It turns out that much only the keystrokes themselves are encrypted, not any of the background information such as that used to synchronise the keyboard and computer. Shockingly, the same encryption key (the code needed to decipher the data) is used for the entire ... (view more)

The British government has admitted losing a compact disc containing the personal details of 25 million people. The scandal has led to concerns that criminals could use the information for identity fraud or to access online bank accounts. The disc, ... which contains details of every family receiving child benefit (a form of social security paid for all children), was produced by a junior official at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the British tax department. The official put two passwords on the disc, but did not encrypt the information. They then sent the disc to another government ... (view more)

Do you think you've been a victim of a phishing scam? First of all, don't call or write us here at Infopackets! Unfortunately, we can't do anything for you, other than tell others to be careful! But here are some things you can do that will help ... ... Phishing is done through email and it is a big problem. In the past year alone, I have received thousands of emails that included huge lottery winnings from just about everyone in Europe, folks that were dying from cancer, car and plane crashes, and, of all things, tooth decay, part time job offers, and all sorts of "official" messages from ... (view more)

Since the introduction of Windows Vista, a lot of the emphasis has been on Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and little has has been mentioned regarding Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows XP. It was originally assumed that Windows XP SP3 would simply ... be a rolled up collection of bug fixes and patches but there reportedly seems to be more to it than that. Recently, Microsoft released a beta of Windows XP SP3 to a select group of testers reportedly labeled as build 3205, weighing in at 334.92 MBs. Originally reported by NeoSmart , XP SP3 contains 1,073 hotfixes and patches released since XP SP2 ... (view more)

When Windows Vista was released to the public in January of this year, it was expected to replace Windows XP. Unfortunately for Microsoft, businesses and consumers have been avoiding Vista like the plague for a wide variety of reasons, and it seems ... the over-priced, overrated operating system won't be improving a whole lot in the near future. A recent article from Tech Blorge listed four signs indicating Microsoft will continue to support Windows XP for a while to come. After the four reasons given by Tech Blorge, I've added a few other reasons as well. Here are the four signs given by Tech ... (view more)

We've noted in the past how easy Windows Vista makes it to track your computing habits and all the information it maintains. Joe Wilcox from Microsoft Watch has a disturbing article that shows how dangerous the Windows Vista registry can be. After ... searching his Windows Vista registry he found some disturbing personal information such as his name, address and phone number, online account user names, software registration codes and some information that identified some of his online accounts. Needless to say, coming across that information didn't give him a warm and fuzzy feeling. This time, ... (view more)

After coming across the information from the "Does Windows Vista Send Information to the Government?" story , I decided to do a little research on Microsoft, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Security Agency (NSA). What I found was ... very interesting, and it raises some serious questions. It's not clear what software was being used by my source as I wrote that previous post. He may be using some sort of file sharing or peer 2 peer (p2p) program. He posted pictures of a log from the peerguardian 2 program, software that isn't listed as compatible with Windows Vista. Just because ... (view more)