Adobe investigates alleged customer data breach
Adobe said Wednesday it is investigating the release of 230 names, email addresses and encrypted passwords claimed to have been stolen from a company database. The information was released on Tuesday on Pastebin by a self-proclaimed Egyptian hacker named “ViruS_HimA.” The hacker, who claimed the database accessed holds more than 150,000 records, posted links to several websites hosting a text file with 230 records.
Google Transparency Report 2012: Demands For Data And Content Removal Rising
A British law enforcement agency demanded that Google remove a video from YouTube criticising the force of racism. Google said that the request was made by a “local law enforcement agency” but was not complied with. It was not clear which police force made the request. It puts the UK in the company of despotic regimes and other governments in requesting content be removed for criticising authorities. The request was revealed as part of Google’s latest transparency report. Globally, authorities made 1,789 requests for removals, usually for reasons of privacy, defamation or security.
Businesses should start using Windows 8 now
Many businesses appear to have got the transition from Windows XP to Windows 7 wrong, which has almost certainly cost them significant sums in lost productivity and increased support costs. The question now is whether they’re going to make the same mistakes again when it comes to making the transition from Windows 7 to Windows 9 or possibly 10.
Q3 mobile sales generally down but smartphones still bucking trend
Overall mobile phones sales are continuing to slow but Apple and Samsung remain in the lead and accounting for almost half of worldwide purchases, latest third quarter figures from Gartner reveal. As might be expected smartphones bucked the trend with sales up nearly 47 per cent over Q3 2011 though Nokia, despite its new Lumia handsets, still only managed to sell 7.2 million phones in this segment. The Finnish maker’s sales generally fell nearly 22 per cent as fewer Symbian handsets were sold – with Canadian BlackBerry maker taking up most of the slack with its operating system now boasting the No.3 slot after Android and Apple.
Nintendo Wii U set to out-sell predecessor at launch
Nintendo will shift more Wii Us in the first three months of release than it managed with the console’s predecessor, analysts claim. But an estimated 53 million sales by the end of 2016 puts projected long-term success of the tablet-inspired console quite some way behind. Nintendo is said to have 5.5 million Wii U units in stock ready to allow it to continue selling consoles to punters through until the end of April 2013. However, market watcher IHS ScreenDirect reckons Nintendo would do better if it had even more to hand. When the original Wii hit shelves in 2006, Nintendo shifted 3.1m units in the run up to Christmas, a figure predicted to reach 3.5m over the same time frame with Wii U.
Huawei is closing Irish RF design centre
Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is closing down its RF IC design center in Cork, Ireland. The 10-person RF design team was acquired by Huawei in 2010 as part of the purchase of M4S from Option NV (Leuven, Belgium), which gave Huawei access to a 40-nm CMOS multimode software-defined radio, originally developed at the IMEC research institute. A source said the RF IC design team is now seeking other opportunities.
Nokia launches new HERE brand for mapping service
Nokia has unveiled a new cloud-based map service called HERE, which will be available for free across multiple mobile operating systems, including an HTML5 version for Apple’s iOS. The handset manufacturer said it “aims to inspire a new generation of location services and devices that make the mobile experience more personally significant for people everywhere.”
Samsung Galaxy S3 security issue stores unencrypted passwords
A new Samsung Galaxy S3 security issue has been discovered with the leading Android handset found to store user’s passwords in plain text form within the Samsung S-Memo app. Discovered by a recognized XDA Developers forum moderator, the latest Samsung Galaxy S3 security concern sees owners’ Google account passwords stored in an unprotected and unencrypted form within the files of the handset’s popular note-taking application.
Black Ops 2 writer looks to next gen consoles
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 may be in the stores, but head writer on the game, David S Goyer – the scribe behind The Dark Knight and Blade franchises – says his ambitions for the game remain slightly unfulfilled. In an interview with T3, Goyer said he had ideas for the game that couldn’t be realised on current gen tech.
Skype hack steals accounts with nothing more than your email
A Skype security flaw could allow rogue users to seize control of your account using nothing more than your email address, thanks to subpar recovery policies that can be easily gamed. The exploit depends on Skype’s policy of reminding new sign-ups of any existing usernames they have previously registered, when they attempt to re-register using the same email address.