Cell phone users, beware. The FBI can listen to everything you say, even when the cell phone is turned off.

A recent court ruling in a case against the Genovese crime family revealed that the FBI has the ability from a remote location to activate a cell phone and turn its microphone into a listening device that transmits to an FBI listening post, a method known as a “roving bug.” Experts say the only way to defeat it is to remove the cell phone battery.

“The FBI can access cell phones and modify them remotely without ever having to physically handle them,” James Atkinson, a counterintelligence security consultant, told ABC News. “Any recently manufactured cell phone has a built-in tracking device, which can allow eavesdroppers to pinpoint someone’s location to within just a few feet,” he added.

View: Full Story Via: ABC News Blogs

Google revealed a glitch in what may be its second-most successful service, ranking only behind search.

The company confirmed Friday that some users of Gmail, its popular email service, had their email accounts wiped out, with messages and contact information being permanently deleted.

The glitch affected about 60 users, who “lost some or all of their email received prior to Dec. 18,” Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne wrote in a prepared statement. “We have extensive safeguards in place to protect email stored with Gmail and we are confident that this is a small and isolated incident.”

View: Full Story Via: TheStreet.com

An explosion of spam has security Relevant Products/Services vendors salivating over potential sales of filtering products this coming year, with levels of the insidious mail clogging inboxes expected to grow at unprecedented levels.

In the closing months of 2006, the volume of spam jumped enormously, according to e-mail filtering firm Postini, with an increase of 73 percent in just the three months leading up to December.

Spam now represents nearly 93 percent of all e-mail throughout the world — the highest level ever recorded by Postini — further driving the need for businesses to find solutions.

View: Full Story Via: CIO Today

Microsoft Corp. has started linking users’ search habits with other personal information as it prepares to show more personalized advertisements.

With the use of small data files known as cookies, Microsoft can link information users provide when they sign up for Hotmail e-mail and other services with data on what they view and search for on various Microsoft sites, such as those for maps, Web journals and finance.

Microsoft uses that information to build a profile for a certain class of users – women over 30 who read financial news, for example – and sell marketers the opportunity to reach that targeted group as they surf Microsoft properties.

View: Full Story Via: MecuryNews.com

More than four out of five people admit to telling little white lies at least once a day and the preferred way of being “economical with the truth” is to use technology such as cell phones, texts and e-mails, a survey on Thursday said.

The research by UK pollsters 72 Point found that “techno-treachery” was widespread with nearly 75 percent of people saying gadgets like Blackberrys made it easier to fib.

Just over half of respondents said using gadgets made them feel less guilty when telling a lie than doing it face to face, the study on behalf of financial services group Friends Provident found.

View: Full Story Via: Reuters

Swarms of online shoppers armed with new iPods and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed Apple’s iTunes music store over the holiday, prompting error messages and slowdowns of 20 minutes or more for downloads of a single song.

Frazzled users began posting urgent help messages Monday and Tuesday on Apple’s technical forum for iTunes, complaining they were either not allowed into the store or were told the system couldn’t process their request to download songs and videos.

It was not immediately clear how many people were affected by the slowdowns, and Apple Computer Inc. would not immediately comment Wednesday on what caused the slowdown and whether it had been fixed.

View: Full Story Via: Newsvine.com

Google, the search engine company, displaced Yahoo as the world’s second-most-visited Web site in November and closed in on the leader, Microsoft, a market researcher said yesterday.

Visitors to Google’s sites rose 9.1 percent, to 475.7 million in November from a year earlier, while those to Yahoo sites rose 5.2 percent, to 475.3 million, the researcher, ComScore Networks, said. Both sites trail Microsoft, which had 501.7 million visitors, ComScore said.

It was the first time that Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., attracted more visitors than Yahoo, reflecting Google’s growing popularity outside the United States. Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is still the most-visited site within the United States, ComScore said. Microsoft’s visitors increased 3.3 percent from a year earlier.

View: Full Story Via: NY Times

Despite being pounded by the Holiday Blizzard of 2006, North American Aerospace Defense Command remains on alert for the nation and ready to track Santa Claus, according to NORAD officials. “NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center is schedule to begin operations as scheduled at 2 a.m. Christmas Eve,” said Michael Perini, Director of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command Public Affairs.

More than 800 Santa tracking volunteers will cycle through the center answering telephone calls and e-mails from children around the world wanting to get a fix on Santa Claus’ whereabouts.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command annually “tracks” the flight of Santa Claus and associated reindeer across the skies on Christmas Eve, posting sighting data and imagery of the icon on its website.

View: NoradSanta.org
View: Full Story Via: Playfuls.com

I can’t count how many times people have asked me if Windows XP would be available on new PCs following Vista’s release.

In the near term, the answer is as much a factor of user demand and OEM and system builder policies. That said, Microsoft will make Windows XP available for from 12 to 24 months after Vista’s general availability, depending on the sales channel.

According to Microsoft’s Life-Cycle Policy Web site, Windows XP Home, Professional, Tablet PC, Media Center and 64-bit editions will be available in direct OEM and retail licenses for 12 months following the beginning of Windows Vista’s general availability, which is scheduled to be Jan. 30, 2007. System builder licenses will be available for another 12–or total 24–months from Vista’s general availability, it said.

View: Full Story Via: Microsoft-Watch

Computer security experts say 2006 saw an unprecedented spike in junk e-mail and sophisticated online attacks from increasingly organized cyber crooks. These attacks were made possible, in part, by a huge increase in the number of security holes identified in widely used software products.

“The bulk of the fraud attacks we’re seeing now are coming in Monday through Friday, in the 9-5 U.S.-workday timeframe,” said Vincent Weafer, director of security response at Symantec. “We now have groups of attackers who are motivated by profit and willing to spend the time and effort to learn how to conduct these attacks on a regular basis. For a great many online criminals these days, this is their day job: They’re working full time now.”

Criminals are also getting more sophisticated in evading anti-fraud efforts. This year saw the advent and wide deployment of Web-browser based “toolbars” and other technologies designed to detect when users have visited a known or suspected phishing Web site. In response, many online scam artists place phishing Web sites targeting multiple banks and e-commerce companies on the same Web servers, then route traffic to those servers through home computers that they have commandeered with bot programs.

View: Full Story Via: The Washinton Post