Top 5 Server and Admin Applications for Android and iPhone

No matter what is the nature of your work, whether you are a webmaster, server administrator or an IT professional, the ability is to deal with your admin tasks and the server is your utmost priority. In this article, we are going to discuss the top five server and admin applications that is suitable to your iPhone, and Android mobile gadgets.

1. AndFTP

For those who are not yet familiar about AndFTP it serves as an SCP, FTP, and SFTP and FTPS client. Moreover, AndFTP let the user to handle number of FTP configurations; as well it provides features like download and upload and sharing management. As well AndFTP allows the user to delete, rename, open, or update permissions, and also to run custom commands.

2. ConnectBot

ConnectBot act as a Secure Shell client intended for Android users, as well it creates secure connection through using a shell even the gadget is in the remote distance to transmit files and data back and forth to your phone. Furthermore, ConnectBot let the user to handle numbers of SSH sessions, as well allow them to copy and paste between other applications, and to build protected tunnels.

Jack Wallen an award winning writer of Linux.com stated that ConnectBot is a must have app, in fact he recommend this app to the Linux admin who are using Android phone.

3. ServerMonitor

ServerMonitor is an app intended for iPhone users, it uses SSH protocol to link machines remotely to assists with your workstation and server monitoring requirements. The multi-protocol supports include the following: FTP, SMTP, HTTP, IMAP, MySQL, HTTPS, DNS, POP3, Ping and SSH.
Although there is no much review regarding this app but the general response seems to be optimistic. Based on the feedback from the users one thing they want to be added in this app on the next update is the ability to view all list of running processes and to view how much memory they occupy.

4. iSSH – SSH / VNC Console

The iSSH – SSH / VNC Console for iPhone is an SSH and Telnet emulator that is fully featured with ANSI, VT102, VT100, and VT220 incorporated with tunneled X server, RDP client and VNC client. As well this app has the ability to carry simultaneous connections with total terminal compatibility, intuitive user interface, and configurable macro and key options.

5. Network Utility

Network Utility let the user to check the status of their server or websites through their Apple device or iPhone anywhere. Network Utility is fully featured with TCP/IP Port Scan, ping (ICMP Echo), IP address information, Whois Query, GeoIP Lookup, and more.

For me this another iPhone app that seems to be gathering mixed reviews. Some user approved its efficiency and its user friendliness, but other user rising complaint that this app causes their device to freeze up that can only be fixed through restarting the device. Users as well object about the absence of subnet scans. The decision is still out on this app. But the best thing we need to do is to try this and experience how it holds up.

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About the Author:
Stacy Carter is a tech writer and freelance blogger laying out for tech news via online exposures. She is the author of the site: iPhone Spy where you can get valuable information about spy software program on your cell phone.

Google plans to start sales of second-gen Nexus 7 tablet from July

Google Inc will launch a new version of its Nexus 7 tablet powered by Qualcomm Inc's Snapdragon processor around July, as the software giant pushes deeper into the cut-price mobile hardware market.

Google is aiming to ship as many as eight million of the Asustek-made tablets in the second half of the year, throwing down the gauntlet to other low-end tablets such as Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire and Apple Inc's iPad mini, the sources with knowledge of the new product said.

This is the first time details about the timing and sales targets for Google's new tablet have been unveiled, although the company has not publicly released any information.

Google, which gets almost all of its revenue from online advertising, wants the aggressively priced Nexus tablets to be a hit as more Nexus users would mean more exposure for Google's ads.

The latest version will have a higher screen resolution, a thinner bezel design and adopt Qualcomm's chip in place of Nvidia Corp's Tegra 3, which was used in the first Nexus 7s released last year, the sources said, declining to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

In a blow to Nvidia, Google weighed both U.S. chipmakers' processors but finally decided on Qualcomm's for power reasons, one of the sources added.

Qualcomm and Nvidia are competing aggressively in the tablet market as they seek to expand from their traditional strongholds of cellphones and PCs respectively.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on its new tablet. Qualcomm and Nvidia also declined to respond to questions.

Google and other traditionally non-hardware companies like Amazon and Microsoft Corp have begun making inroads into mobile devices as consumers increasingly access the Web on the go.

Google introduced its first tablet last June, hoping to replicate its smartphone success in a hotly contested market now dominated by Kindle Fire and iPad.

The Nexus 7 joined the ranks of smaller, 7-inch tablets popularized by Amazon and Samsung Electronics, among others.

Pricing is yet to be determined and Google's plans are fluid, the sources said. Market leader Apple is expected to launch new iPads this year as well, possibly forcing its competitors to change their assumptions.

Google may choose to sell the new gadget for $199, the same as the first generation rolled out last June, while the old model may be discounted, one of the sources said. Alternatively, the new tablet could be priced more competitively at $149 and the previous model discontinued, the source added.

The cheapest iPad mini goes for more than $300.

CORE STRENGTHS

Though pricing has not been finalized, discounting could play to Google's and Amazon's strengths by getting cheaper hardware into more consumers' hands to drive revenue from their core Internet-based businesses.

"This is the 'zero margin strategy'," said Fubon Securities analyst Arthur Liao. "Ninety-seven percent of Google's revenue comes from advertisement, so it needs to sell more mobile devices in order to reach more consumers."

The Internet search giant, which has never disclosed tablet sales, plans to ship six to eight million of the new Nexus 7s in the second half of this year, the sources said. That compares to an estimated 4.6 million Nexus 7s sold in the same period last year, according to Enders Analysis mobile industry analyst Benedict Evans.

The large volume could help to accelerate development of tablet-specific applications for its Android operating software.

Asustek, a netbook PC pioneer, will continue to co-brand with Google on the new Nexus 7. The Taiwanese company has said it aims to ship over 12 million tablets this year, almost double last year's shipments.

11 Security Holes Addressed by Google in Chrome 26

Chrome 26 is officially out and, as always, the latest stable channel update comes with a number of improvements in the security section. However, on this occasion, only 2 high-severity vulnerabilities have been addressed.
One of the high-severity flaws has been uncovered by Atte Kettunen of OUSPG. The expert has been rewarded with $1,000 (780 EUR) for a use-after-free issue in Web Audio.

By fixing the other high-severity bug, Google ensures that isolated websites run in their own processes.

Of the four medium-severity vulnerabilities, one – a use-after-free with pop-up windows in extensions – affects only the Linux variant.

Five low-severity bugs have also been identified.

Most of the issues have been found by the Google Chrome Security Team and members of the Chromium development community.

Subho Halder, Aditya Gupta, and Dev Kar, all three of xys3c, and “t3553r” have also been credited for finding security holes.

ID Analytics Launches eCommerce Fraud Detection Solutions

Fraud detection solutions launched by ID AnalyticsID Analytics has launched a series of solutions designed to help online retailers in their fight against fraud, a problem that costs companies around $3.4 billion (2.6 billion EUR) a year.

The eCommerce suit offered by ID Analytics can be used not only to stop fraudulent transactions before any money or time is wasted, but it can also reduce the number of false positive results reported by automated fraud detection systems.

The solutions include Transaction Protector, a score card that can identify over 80% of fraud charge-back losses in the riskiest two percent of transactions; Transaction Advanced Intelligence, which provides real-time risk insight based on a series of attributes; and Transaction Takeover, which detects when an account is overtaken by a fraudster.

“Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and eCommerce retailers still encounter too many false positives when screening for potential fraud,” explained Aaron Kline, director of eCommerce at ID Analytics.  

“ID Analytics partners with merchants to help them fight fraud while ensuring that no additional friction is introduced into the online customer experience.”

Saudi Arabia Government Threatens to Ban Skype, WhatsApp and other VOIP Services

VoIP services regularly get into trouble in countries where governments like to keep a solid grip on what people are talking about and with whom.

No, not the US this time, Saudi Arabia is the latest to join the anti-Skype brigade as it threatens to ban essentially all VoIP communications in the country unless those communications fall within the regulations.

Regulations that involve the government being allowed to snoop in on communications, which can't be done practically if the communications are encrypted.

While the government hasn't said exactly why these apps are being targeted, it did mention Skype, WhatsApp and Viber as falling outside the rules. All three are very popular VoIP services, the latter two mostly on mobile phones.

Saudi Arabia has a history of going against communication methods it can't control, it banned BlackBerry's built-in messaging service temporarily a few years ago over the use of encryption.

The Biggest DDos Attack in History, Disrupts Global Internet

Anti-spam organisation Spamhaus has recovered from possibly the largest ‪DDoS‬ attack in history.

A massive 300Gbps was thrown against Spamhaus' website but the anti-spam organisation was able to recover from the attack and get its core services back up and running. CloudFlare, the content delivery firm hired by Spamhaus last week to guard against an earlier run of DDoS attacks, was also hit, forcing it into taking the highly unusual step of dropping London as a hub in its network - as a Twitter update by CloudFlare on Monday explained.

Our peering in London has been dropped due to a large attack. Modifying routes to avoid degradation.Affecting location: London, GB
— CloudFlareStatus (@CloudFlareSys) March 25, 2013

Spamhaus supplies lists of IP addresses for servers and computers on the net linked to the distribution of spam. The blacklists supplied by the not-for-profit organisation are used by ISPs, large corporations and spam filtering vendors to block the worst sources of junk mail before other spam filtering measures are brought into play.

Spammers, of course, hate this practice so it's no big surprise that Spamhaus gets threatened, sued, and DDoSed regularly. Those affected by what they regard as incorrect listings also object about Spamhaus' alleged vigilante tactics.

The latest run of attacks began on 18 March with a 10Gbps packet flood that saturated Spamhaus' connection to the rest of the Internet and knocked its site offline. Spamhaus's blocklists are distributed via DNS and widely mirrored in order to ensure that it is resilient to attacks. The website, however, was unreachable and the blacklists weren't getting updated.

The largest source of attack traffic against Spamhaus came from DNS reflection, launched through Open DNS resolvers rather than directly via compromised networks. Spamhaus turned to CloudFlare for help and the content delivery firm was able to mitigate attacks that reached a peak of 75Gbps, as explained in a blog post here.

Things remained calm for a few days before kicking off again with even greater intensity - to the extent that collateral damage was seen against services such as Netflix, the New York Times reports.

Spamhaus' site remains available at the time of writing on Wednesday. Steve Linford, chief executive for Spamhaus, told the BBC that the scale of the attack was unprecedented.

"We've been under this cyber-attack for well over a week.But we're up - they haven't been able to knock us down. Our engineers are doing an immense job in keeping it up - this sort of attack would take down pretty much anything else," he said.

Turning up the volume of DDoS attacks

A blog post by CloudFlare, written last week before the latest run of attacks, explains the mechanism of the attack against Spamhaus and how it can be usde to amplify packet floods.

The basic technique of a DNS reflection attack is to send a request for a large DNS zone file with the source IP address spoofed to be the intended victim to a large number of open DNS resolvers. The resolvers then respond to the request, sending the large DNS zone answer to the intended victim. The attackers' requests themselves are only a fraction of the size of the responses, meaning the attacker can effectively amplify their attack to many times the size of the bandwidth resources they themselves control.

In the Spamhaus case, the attacker was sending requests for the DNS zone file for ripe.net to open DNS resolvers. The attacker spoofed the CloudFlare IPs we'd issued for Spamhaus as the source in their DNS requests. The open resolvers responded with DNS zone file, generating collectively approximately 75Gbps of attack traffic. The requests were likely approximately 36 bytes long (e.g. dig ANY ripe.net @X.X.X.X +edns=0 +bufsize=4096, where X.X.X.X is replaced with the IP address of an open DNS resolver) and the response was approximately 3,000 bytes, translating to a 100x amplification factor.

CloudFlare reckons 30,000 unique DNS resolvers have been involved in the attack against Spamhaus.

"Because the attacker used a DNS amplification, the attacker only needed to control a botnet or cluster of servers to generate 750Mbps - which is possible with a small sized botnet or a handful of AWS instances," it explains.

Advance SystemCare Pro 6 Latest Version for 2013 License Key

Advanced SystemCare PRO provides an always-on, automated, all-in-one PC Healthcare Service with anti-spyware, privacy protection, performance tune-ups, and system cleaning capabilities. This powerful and award-winning precision tool fixes stubborn errors, cleans out clutter, optimizes Internet and download speeds, ensures personal security, and maintains maximum computer performance automatically. Key benefits include:

1) Keeps your PC running at peak performance: Fully optimizes Windows for ultimate system performance and top Internet speed by unleashing the built-in power of your system, based on how you use your PC and your network configuration.

2) It turns your PC into a business PC, a productive workstation, an entertainment center, a game machine, or a scientific computing PC.

3) Defends PC security with extra protection: Detects and analyzes Windows security environment. Scans and removes spyware and adware using up-to-date definition files. Prevents spyware, hackers and hijackers from installing malicious programs on your computer.

4) Erases and updates your PC's activity histories. One click to solve as many as 10 common PC problems: Advanced SystemCare 5 inherits the ease-of-use from previous versions, with more powerful capabilities. With one click, it scans and repairs ten PC problems and protects your PC from hidden security threats.

5) Real-time optimization with ActiveBoost function: ActiveBoost, technology that actively runs in the background intelligently managing system resources in real-time, constantly detecting inactive resources and optimizing CPU and RAM usage.

What’s New in Advanced SystemCare 6

• Brand New User Interface – The New One-Click Solution Provides Maximum Convenience to Conduct a Comprehensive PC-Care with Just a Click of a Button.
• New Web Surfing Protection – Creates a Safer Online Environment by Detecting Risky Websites and Other E-threats that May Harm Your PC.
• New Internet Boost Technology – Provides Smoother Online Experience by Accelerating Internet Downloading, Web Surfing, Online Video and Gaming up to 300% Faster.
• New Generation Disk Defragment Engine – Makes Disk Scanning and Optimization Much Faster by Intelligently Organizing Drive Data for Maximum Performance.

 License Key

4A639-FD966-C5435-512C4 (4 months from now)

65792-57FC4-5CEC1-677C4 (not sure)

AT&T Hacker Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison

Andrew Auernheimer – aka “Weev,” the Internet activist found guilty in November 2012 of hacking into the systems of AT&T and stealing the details of around 120,000 iPad owners – has been reportedly sentenced to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

Tweets are being posted from the courthouse where the trial is taking place.

Tim Pool of Timcast, who has been following the trial from the court, says Auernheimer and his co-defendant Daniel Spitler will also have to pay $73,000 (56,000 EUR) in restitution to AT&T.

“Judge stated the sentence she administered would help weev down a ‘positive path’ and give him ‘respect for the law’,” Pool wrote.

One noteworthy aspect is the fact that the prosecution apparently used Auernheimer's Reddit AMA (ask-me-anything) to justify the sentencing.

In addition, at one point in the trial, court agents asked Weev to hand over his phone. He gave the device to his lawyer instead, after which he was “quickly grabbed, pinned, and cuffed.”

Auernheimer maintained his innocence up until the last minute. He has highlighted on numerous occasions that he wasn’t trying to cause any harm.

His tweet just before the trial.

No matter what the outcome, I will not be broken. I am antifragile.
— Andrew Auernheimer (@rabite) March 18, 2013

Download SSLyze v0.6 – SSL Server Configuration Scanning Tool

SSLyze is a Python tool that can analyze the SSL configuration of a server by connecting to it. It is designed to be fast and comprehensive, and should help organizations and testers identify misconfigurations affecting their SSL servers.

Key features include:

• SSL 2.0/3.0 and TLS 1.0/1.1/1.2 compatibility
• Performance testing: session resumption and TLS tickets support
• Security testing: weak cipher suites, insecure renegation, CRIME and THC-SSL DOS attacks
• Server certificate validation
• Support for StartTLS with SMTP and XMPP, and traffic tunneling through an HTTPS proxy
• Client certificate support for servers performing mutual authentication
• Scan results can be written to an XML file for further processing

While v0.5 saw the addition of a server side check for the CRIME attack, that uses SSL Compression, v0.6 also has significant improvements. New in v0.6:

• Added support for Server Name Indication; see –sni
• Partial results are returned when the server requires client authentication but no client certificate was provided
• Preliminary IPv6 support
• Various bug fixes and better support of client authentication and HTTPS tunneling

ou can download SSLyze v0.6 here:

Linux/OSX – sslyze-0.6_src.zip
Windows 7/Python 32-bit – sslyze-0.6_Windows7_Python32.zip
Windows 7/Python 64-bit – sslyze-0.6_Windows7_Python64.zip

Read more here.

Pwn2Own ends with Oracle Java, Reader and Adobe Flash exploits

Day two of the Pwn2Own competition at CanSecWest was again successful for French Vupen security, as they succeeded in exploiting Adobe Flash on Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7 by chaining together three zero-days (an overflow, a ASLR bypass technique and a IE9 sandbox memory corruption) and earning themselves another $70,000.

George Hotz exploited Adobe Reader XI (also on IE 9 on Win7), and Ben Murphy - the last contestant to target Java - has also managed to earn a prize even though he wasn't there, because James Forshaw, a winner from the previous day, agreed to serve as proxy and demonstrate the attack.

All in all, ZDI has awarded over half a million dollars in cash prizes and, of course, the compromised laptops and ZDI reward points.

The Google financed Pwnium hacking contest - also held at CanSecWest - this year requires contestants to "break" Chrome OS but has so far not witnessed a successful exploitation.

In the meantime, Mozilla has already fixed the use-after-free zero-day flaw exploited yesterday by Vupen Security, and Google has issued a Chrome update that fixes the flaws discovered by the MWR Labs team.

Windows 7 Commands Every Administrator Should Know

PC troubleshooting is becoming less common in larger organizations, but consultants and techs in smaller shops still have to get their hands dirty identifying and fixing desktop problems. Oftentimes, troubleshooting Windows 7 means delving into the command line. Here are 10 fundamental Windows 7 commands you might find helpful.

1: System File Checker

Malicious software will often attempt to replace core system files with modified versions in an effort to take control of the system. The System File Checker can be used to verify the integrity of the Windows system files. If any of the files are found to be missing or corrupt, they will be replaced. You can run the System File Checker by using this command:

sfc /scannow

2: File Signature Verification

One way to verify the integrity of a system is to make sure that all the system files are digitally signed. You can accomplish this with the File Signature Verification tool. This tool is launched from the command line but uses a GUI interface. It will tell you which system files are signed and which aren’t. As a rule, all the system files should be digitally signed, although some hardware vendors don’t sign driver files. The command used to launch the File Signature Verification tool is:

sigverif

3: Driverquery

Incorrect device drivers can lead to any number of system problems. If you want to see which drivers are installed on a Windows 7 system, you can do so by running the driverquery tool. This simple command-line tool provides information about each driver that is being used. The command is:

driverquery

If you need a bit more information, you can append the -v switch. Another option is to append the -si switch, which causes the tool to display signature information for the drivers. Here’s how they look:

driverquery -v

driverquery -si

4: Nslookup

The nslookup tool can help you to verify that DNS name resolution is working correctly. When you run nslookup against a host name, the tool will show you how the name was resolved, as well as which DNS server was used during the lookup. This tool can be extremely helpful when troubleshooting problems related to legacy DNS records that still exist but that are no longer correct.

To use this tool, just enter the nslookup command, followed by the name of the host you want to resolve. For example:

nslookup dc1.contoso.com

5: Ping

Ping is probably the simplest of all diagnostic commands. It’s used to verify basic TCP/IP connectivity to a network host. To use it, simply enter the command, followed by the name or IP address of the host you want to test. For example:

ping 192.168.1.1

Keep in mind that this command will work only if Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) traffic is allowed to pass between the two machines. If at any point a firewall is blocking ICMP traffic, the ping will fail.

6: Pathping

Ping does a good job of telling you whether two machines can communicate with one another over TCP/IP, but if a ping does fail, you won’t receive any information regarding the nature of the failure. This is where the pathping utility comes in.

Pathping is designed for environments in which one or more routers exist between hosts. It sends a series of packets to each router that’s in the path to the destination host in an effort to determine whether the router is performing slowly or dropping packets. At its simplest, the syntax for pathping is identical to that of the ping command (although there are some optional switches you can use). The command looks like this:

pathping 192.168.1.1

7: Ipconfig

The ipconfig command is used to view or modify a computer’s IP addresses. For example, if you wanted to view a Windows 7 system’s full IP configuration, you could use the following command:

ipconfig /all

Assuming that the system has acquired its IP address from a DHCP server, you can use the ipconfig command to release and then renew the IP address. Doing so involves using the following commands:

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

Another handy thing you can do with ipconfig is flush the DNS resolver cache. This can be helpful when a system is resolving DNS addresses incorrectly. You can flush the DNS cache by using this command:

ipconfig /flushdns

8: Repair-bde

If a drive that is encrypted with BitLocker has problems, you can sometimes recover the data using a utility called repair-bde. To use this command, you will need a destination drive to which the recovered data can be written, as well as your BitLocker recovery key or recovery password. The basic syntax for this command is:

repair-bde -rk | rp

You must specify the source drive, the destination drive, and either the rk (recovery key) or the rp (recovery password) switch, along with the path to the recovery key or the recovery password. Here are two examples of how to use this utility:

repair-bde c: d: -rk e:\recovery.bek

repair-bde c: d: -rp 111111-111111-111111-111111-111111-111111

9: Tasklist

The tasklist command is designed to provide information about the tasks that are running on a Windows 7 system. At its most basic, you can enter the following command:

tasklist

The tasklist command has numerous optional switches, but there are a couple I want to mention. One is the -m switch, which causes tasklist to display all the DLL modules associated with a task. The other is the -svc switch, which lists the services that support each task. Here’s how they look:

tasklist -m

tasklist -svc

10: Taskkill

The taskkill command terminates a task, either by name (which is referred to as the image name) or by process ID. The syntax for this command is simple. You must follow the taskkill command with -pid (process ID) or -im (image name) and the name or process ID of the task that you want to terminate. Here are two examples of how this command works:

taskkill -pid 4104

taskkill -im iexplore.exe

Turn Windows 8 PC into Wi-Fi Hot Spot

In Windows 8, Microsoft quietly removed a useful networking feature: ad-hoc networks.
In Windows 7 (and previous OSes), the tool could turn your PC into a Wi-Fi hot spot, allowing it to share its Ethernet or other Internet connection with other devices by broadcasting its own network.

So, if you paid for Internet access at a cafe, or you're at work, and want to share your PC's Internet with your phone or tablet, this feature would let you do that.

It is very possible to do this in Windows 8, but the built-in method requires fiddling with the command prompt. And for some of us, walking into that black abyss is daunting.

Instead, check out Virtual Router Plus. It's a free, open-source program that does the geek work for you, allowing you to quickly fire up an ad-hoc network whenever you need one.

Once you've downloaded the file, extract it, and launch the VirtualRouterPlus file within that folder. There's no real installation here -- the program will simply launch.

At this point, setup is easy. Enter a name for your network, then choose a secure password with at least eight characters. Finally, choose the connection you want to share (there will most likely only be one choice), and click Start.

To test it out, grab your phone or tablet and connect to your newly created Wi-Fi network. If it doesn't show up, stop the connection on your computer, and hit Start again.

Also remember that your computer needs to stay awake and running to keep its ad-hoc network alive. So, tweak your power settings if need be.

LulzSec Hacker Sabu’s Sentencing Postponed

The sentencing of Hector Xavier Monsegur – better known as Sabu, the leader of the infamous LulzSec hacker collective – has been postponed once again without any explanation.

According to The Guardian, Monsegur was scheduled to appear at a Manhattan federal court on Friday where he should have been sentenced for 10 counts of hacking, one count of identity theft and one count of bank fraud.

This is not the first time when the hacker’s sentencing is postponed. Back in August, 2012, authorities requested a six-month adjournment because Sabu was still cooperating with the government.

Cooperation with the government is what made Monsegur become the symbol of treason among hacktivists. In March 2012, the alleged members of the LulzSec group were arrested after being ratted out by Sabu.

He was first arrested in June 2011, but the FBI released him in exchange for his assistance in apprehending other hackers.

Pakistani Cyber Army Defaces 7 Indian Government Website

Hackers of the Pakistan Cyber Army (PCA) have breached and defaced 7 websites owned by the Indian government.

The affected websites are the ones of the Bihar Tourism from Ministry of Tourism India (bihartourism.gov.in), Mitigating Poverty in Western Rajasthan (mpowerraj.gov.in), the Directorate of Medical Education of the Government of Kerala (nurses.kerala.gov.in), the Salary Revision Commission of Government of Kerala (src.kerala.gov.in).

Other victims are the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal in New Delhi (cdrcestat.gov.in), the Works Information & Monitoring System (pwddelhi.gov.in) and the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (sameer.gov.in)

The hack comes in response to the attacks launched by Indian hackers against Pakistani websites. According to the deface message.

Here u g0 KiDs! Indian Government Servers Own3D! Hello GaY HinD People! Now Where’s SecuritY? ;) Listen U Fucked Up Indishell Kids! We Were Trying To Be in Peace! BuT We Don’t Think U Want It to Be Like That Anymore! So Here comes The Fuck From Us.

U abused All Pakistanis ( Which Includes Our Parents as Well )..I Had Told U AlreadY We have access to more than 50% of Indian GOV servers! BuT U ThoughT We MighT Be Kidding & U KepT Trying ur Lame ShiTs on .PK siTeS! When I see ur lame ShiTTy defaces on .PK SiTeS, It Drives me Real CrazY..Shame on U kids! :D

I Also Told U noT To Hack .PK Otherwise U will see Zone-h Full Of StarWhite Indian FLAG :D..Now Is The Time For Doing ThaT ShiT! In Other Words! We have Done this ShiT..

At the time of writing, three of the websites were restored, two of them were still defaced, while the last two were taken offline altogether.

It appears the site’s administrators haven’t patched the vulnerabilities, since the sameer.gov.in has been defaced for the second time.

Hacking Books for Serious Beginners Learning The Art of Hacking

Learning to hack, is a vague word that has been misunderstood by so many. You see people buzzing around with phrases like "Teach me how to hack facebook", "I need to hack my girlfriends gmail account" bla bla bla, not having the slightest clue about what they are taking about.

Like I tell folks close to me, hacking involves so many things, and it requires an open minded individual with abundance of patience to succeed in this field, and believe when I say the road is not always pleasant. It's not always about using that point and click tool to ddos a web server or hijacking a user session or even installing backtrack thinking you've setup hacker's lab like any other hacker.

A hacker is a know all specie, an addicted reader with a logical frame of mind. I present this books that will help any motivated individual who is ready to explore the world of hacking.

The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Made Easy

The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing serves as an introduction to the steps required to complete a penetration test or perform an ethical hack. You learn how to properly utilize and interpret the results of modern day hacking tools; which are required to complete a penetration test. Tool coverage will include, Backtrack Linux, Google, Whois, Nmap, Nessus, Metasploit, Netcat, Netbus, and more. A simple and clean explanation of how to utilize these tools will allow you to gain a solid understanding of each of the four phases and prepare them to take on more in-depth texts and topics. This book includes the use of a single example (pen test target) all the way through the book which allows you to clearly see how the tools and phases relate.

Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition

Hacking is the art of creative problem solving, whether that means finding an unconventional solution to a difficult problem or exploiting holes in sloppy programming. Many people call themselves hackers, but few have the strong technical foundation needed to really push the envelope.

Rather than merely showing how to run existing exploits, author Jon Erickson explains how arcane hacking techniques actually work. To share the art and science of hacking in a way that is accessible to everyone, Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition introduces the fundamentals of C programming from a hacker's perspective.

The included LiveCD provides a complete Linux programming and debugging environment-all without modifying your current operating system. Use it to follow along with the book's examples as you fill gaps in your knowledge and explore hacking techniques on your own. Get your hands dirty debugging code, overflowing buffers, hijacking network communications, bypassing protections, exploiting cryptographic weaknesses, and perhaps even inventing new exploits.

Hackers are always pushing the boundaries, investigating the unknown, and evolving their art. Even if you don't already know how to program, Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition will give you a complete picture of programming, machine architecture, network communications, and existing hacking techniques. Combine this knowledge with the included Linux environment, and all you need is your own creativity.

Hacking Exposed 7: Network Security Secrets & Solutions, Seventh Edition

The first version of Hacking Exposed came out in 1999. The book was a game changer that made penetration and vulnerability testing available to the masses. Needless to say that in the ensuing 13 years, there has been a huge amount of change in the world of information security.

With the release of Hacking Exposed 7: Network Security Secrets & Solutions, authors Stuart McClure, Joel Scambray and George Kurtz (along with over 10 contributing authors) provide an up to date version to the original classic. The book builds on the fundamentals of the first edition, and does include essentials of hacking on topics such as enumeration, foot printing, scanning, operating system detection and a lot more.

The latest edition gets into current threats and details the new menace of APT (advanced persistent threats), embedded hacking, database hacking, and significant coverage of mobile devices.

Bolster your system’s security and defeat the tools and tactics of cyber-criminals with expert advice and defense strategies from the world-renowned Hacking Exposed team. Case studies expose the hacker’s latest devious methods and illustrate field-tested remedies. Find out how to block infrastructure hacks, minimize advanced persistent threats, neutralize malicious code, secure web and database applications, and fortify UNIX networks. Hacking Exposed 7: Network Security Secrets & Solutions contains all-new visual maps and a comprehensive “countermeasures cookbook.”

How to Bypass the Lockcode Screen on iOS 6.1 and Use Anyone’s iPhone

Apple has had a few problems with its latest iPhone and iPad software update.

Released just last month, iOS 6.1 was meant to be a relatively significant update bringing enhanced Siri capabilities, LTE support to more countries, and more iTunes Match features.

But it seems as if the update is doing more harm than good.

The Verge reports that a new bug, "lets anyone bypass your iPhone password lock and access your phone app, view or modify contacts, check your voicemail, and look through your photos (by attempting to add a photo to a contact)."

The instructions are pretty simple. First you have to pretend to turn the phone off, then make an aborted emergency call, then a quick bit of off button and cancel pressing. That boots you into the full phone app where you can pretty much call or message anyone you like, or edit phone contacts.

Besides allowing anyone access to your phone, Apple's latest software update also drains your battery much faster than usual, and Microsoft recommended users not upgrade because of an Exchange bug, which causes iPhones to continuously loop when syncing a recurring calendar meeting invitation to Microsoft Exchange.

Apple has not issued a statement on this latest bug but here is a video of it in action:

Google Drive can now host your Static Webpage

Google Drive has turned on a feature that lets the cloud storage service become a limited web host.

It's long been possible to allow others to access data stored in the service, which can produce a URL for files. The new tweak means it's possible to ask for a “Preview” of an HTML file stored in Google Drive. Doing so renders the page and produces a URL that, once copied and pasted, can be used by anyone to access the page.

The feature is sophisticated enough that a quick bit of coding produced this page, with a lengthy JavaScript and graphics stored in the same Google Drive folder appearing just as the code intends. We've not tested the promised ability to handle CSS.

The Cloud Storage provider's have not said how far the service will scale, but it seems unlikely that will be much of a problem given this is hardly a heavyweight hosting platform. Google's not alone in offering a simple service: Amazon Web Services allows users of its simple storage service to serve static HTML from the “buckets” it uses to contain files.

Amazon charges for the privilege of doing so. Google does not, unless one uses paid versions of its Apps.

In these days of widget-populated free blogging platforms and Facebook it is hard to imagine a stampede towards this new service. Developers, however, may appreciate the extra collaborative opportunities it presents.

Completely Hack Facebook News Feed Appearance

Are you the type that's not scared of trying out new stuffs? Do you think Facebook design is becoming too boring and not challenging the likes of Google Plus or Pinterest? Roll up your sleeves. Wonderful designers at Thinktek Studio just rolled out a new extension that alters some significant part of facebook. It's tagged NewGenBook 'Facebook the way it should've been'.

Once you have the extension installed and visit Facebook, you'll notice a considerable amount of change in the newsfeed. The top right menu where you have access to logout, change privacy settings and advertise have been moved to the left hand side close to the logo but the layout still maintains the same 3 column.

This extension is available for all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari & Opera) except Internet Explorer and plan to release Iphone version is on the way, according to the developer.

You must note that this extension adds nothing to Facebook's functionality. It only re-arranges certain items and changed the overall look, the chat box design was also altered. The only part of the site that remains untouched so far is the fan page and timeline i.e. profile.

NB: If you noticed any discomfort after installing this extension while browsing you can remove and restore previous experience.

How to Jailbreak iOS 6.1 with Evasi0n 1.0 – OS X, Including iPhone 5

Evasi0n is finally here to enable all iDevice owners to break the shackles and install mods, themes and tweaks on their iOS 6 iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch players. This guide here will show you how to do that.

Before we begin, we need to stress that Apple doesn’t condone jailbreaks. In the offset chance that something goes wrong with your device in the future, the company may refuse service on the count of your hacking it.

With that out of the way, the team responsible for Evasi0n (the evad3rs) also has some important notes for would-be jailbreakers.

“Backup your device using iTunes (or iCloud) before using evasi0n. If something breaks, you'll always be able to recover your data.

Here are some important notes from Evasi0n’s release notes:

Those who use backup passwords in iTunes must disable them for now. After doing so, iTunes makes a brand new backup. Please wait for that backup to complete before proceeding! Feel free to re-enable your backup password after jailbreaking.

Please disable the lock passcode of your iOS device before using evasi0n. It can cause issues.

Avoid all iOS and iTunes related tasks until evasi0n is complete. Why not just enjoy a brief break from the computer to stretch your legs?

If the process gets stuck somewhere, it's safe to restart the program, reboot the device (if necessary by holding down Power and Home until it shuts down), and rerun the process.”

With that out of the way, here are the actual steps required to jailbreak an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad running iOS 6.0 through iOS 6.1 using Evasi0n.

How To Jailbreak

Step 1: Once you’d downloaded the Evasi0n tool, drag it onto your desktop. Open it and plug in the iOS device you wish to jailbreak.

Step 2: Evasi0n will recognize your device, and then it’s safe to click the “Jailbreak” button. Sit back and relax while Evasi0n does its thing.

Step 3: The tool will do its magic, and along the way it will ask you to unlock your device and tap a new “Jailbreak” icon that has been miraculously added to your Home screen.

Step 4: Let Evasi0n install the rest of the jailbreak, and your device will reboot. Cydia should now be sitting there next to your other app icons. This is really one of easiest jailbreaks ever.

Disclaimer
Prohackingtricks provides this tutorial solely for informational purposes. We take no responsibility should your device malfunction as a result of using Evasi0n.

Wine Making It Possible to Run Windows Apps on Android Platform

The man behind Wine, the not-an-emulator which runs Windows applications on Linux, has been showing off an early version for those desperate to run MS Office on their Android device.

It was, according to Phoronix - who witnessed the demo - "horrendously slow", and running on a Mac which was itself running an Android emulator. Nevertheless, he added, the demonstration at the FOSDEM open source meeting in Brussels did show Windows applications running on an Android platform, which is technically impressive even if difficult to justify.

This is a step forward for Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") as it would extend its capability of running Windows applications on other operating systems. At the moment, it can load them on Linux, Mac OSX, & BSD. It achieves this by real-time translation of Windows API calls into POSIX calls.

Wine is funded largely by CodeWeavers, which makes money selling a supported version branded CrossOver, though Google has been known to send money Wine's way and other companies have been involved when getting their Windows applications ported to Linux.

The idea of Wine isn't to provide a Windows desktop, but to support the single killer application which is keeping someone from switching... of course, the problem is that everyone has a different reason not to switch. If Android proves popular on tablets then Windows apps could be similarly sticky, and CodeWeavers could make money selling CrossOver for Android.

But that's for the future. What we have now is a very flaky demo which proves it can be done. While CodeWeavers sponsors some staff, the majority of Wine is the usual open-source mix of hobbyists and fanatics (sign up here), so future development will depend on that community, as well as the commercial potential of running Windows apps on Android devices.

Linux Kernel 3.4.29 LTS Is Available for Download

Linux kernel 3.4.29 introduces a lot of various fixes, as well as driver improvements and improved Arch support.

Greg Kroah-Hartman announced the immediate availability for download of Linux kernel 3.4.29 LTS (long-term support).

Highlights of Linux kernel 3.4.29 LTS:

• Incorrect strncpy() has been fixed in hidp_setup_hid();
• A typo in PCIe adapter NULL check has been fixed;
• DMAR has been disabled for g4x integrated gfx;
• Pass a proper identity mapping in efi_call_phys_prelog;
• A fixup for Packard-Bell desktop with ALC880 has been implemented.

A complete list of changes and fixes can be found in the official mailing list.

“I'm announcing the release of the 3.4.29 kernel. All users of the 3.4 kernel series should upgrade or risk being turned into pumpkins.”

“The updated 3.4.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-3.4.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git,” said Greg Kroah-Hartman in the email announcement.

Users of the Linux kernel 3.4.x branch are urged to update to the new version as soon as possible.

Download Linux kernel 3.4.29 LTS right now from Softpedia.

Anonymous Compromises Alabama Government Site, Details of 4,000 Bankers Exposed

Anonymous hackers continue Operation Last Resort (OpLastResort). In the latest phase of the campaign, the hacktivists have leaked the details of more than 4,000 bank executives.

It’s interesting that the hackers haven’t used Pastebin or other similar websites to publish the data. Instead, they have hacked the website of the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (acjic.alabama.gov) and have posted the information in its “documents” folder under the name “oops-we-did-it-again.”

The file published by Anonymous contains names, titles, email addresses, physical addresses, fax numbers, mobile phone numbers, login IDs, IP addresses, password hashes, and other details. The information appears to belong to presidents, vice presidents, managing officers, CEOs, SVPs, and others.

ZDNet has analyzed the list of names and has learned that most of them show up as current employees on the banks’ websites.

Reddit users have also studied the leaked information.

“OK, I called a few of them. What must be so problematic for the Federal Reserve is not the information so much as this file was stolen from their computers at all. The ramifications of that kind of loss of control is severe,” one user noted.

Others, on the other hand, don’t agree with Anonymous.

“#OpLastResort has shown up out of nowhere to leak the have personal information of a lot of innocent people and should not be regarded as part of 'Anonymous'. There is no reason for what they did and they didn't even attempt to justify or even give meaning to their actions. They are simply destructive,” another user argued.

Operation Last Resort, a campaign that comes in response to the suicide of Aaron Swartz, was initiated around one week ago with a hack which targeted the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC).

Twitter Hacked, 250,000 Email and Password Compromised

If you find that your Twitter password doesn't work the next time you try to login, you won't be alone. The service was busy resetting passwords and revoking cookies on Friday, following an online attack that may have leaked the account data of approximately 250,000 users.

"This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data," Bob Lord, Twitter's director of information security, writes in a blog post.

According to Lord, Twitter was able to shut down the attack within moments of discovering it, but not before the attackers were able to make off with what he calls "limited user information," including usernames, email addresses, session tokens, and the encrypted and salted versions of passwords.

The encryption on such passwords is generally difficult to crack – but it's not impossible, particularly if the attacker is familiar with the algorithm used to encrypt them.

As a precaution, Lord says Twitter has reset the passwords of all 250,000 affected accounts – which, he observes, is just "a small percentage" of the more than 140 million Twitter users worldwide.

If yours is one of the accounts involved, you'll need to enter a new password the next time you login. Lord reminds all Twitter users to choose strong passwords – he recommends 10 or more characters, with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols – because simpler passwords are easier to guess using brute-force methods. In addition, he recommends against using the same password on multiple sites.

Lord says Twitter's investigation is ongoing, and that it's taking the matter extremely seriously, particularly in light of recent attacks experienced by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal:

This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident. The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked. For that reason we felt that it was important to publicize this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the Internet safer for all users.

Although the attack took place this week, it seems to have no relationship to the outage that took Twitter offline for several hours on Thursday. On the other hand, however, Lord's post does make rather cryptic mention of the US Department of Homeland Security's recent recommendation that users disable the Java plug-in in their browsers. He mentions Java twice, in fact.

While it's true that the Java plug-in contains multiple known vulnerabilities and that numerous security experts have warned that it should be considered unsafe, the connection between Java and the attack Twitter experienced isn't clear and twitter is yet to respond to our request for clarification.

Advance DDOS Tools: Encrypted Layer Attacks and Server-Based Botnets

Application security solutions provider Radware has released its 2012 Global Application and Network Security Report. According to the study, distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks are becoming more sophisticated and more severe.

In addition, cybercriminals have started deploying new attack tools, such as server-based botnets and encrypted layer attacks, to make their campaigns more effective.

While server-based botnets make the attacks more powerful, by weaponizing the encryption layer, cybercriminals can ensure that their operations escape detection and remain hidden.

The recent DDOS attacks launched by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters against US banks are a perfect example of how efficient these new tools are.

Besides the new attack tools, the report also highlights the fact that the number of DDOS and DOS attacks lasting more than one week doubled in 2012.

On the other hand, organizations are still not investing enough resources to ensure that they’re protected against such attacks.

While it’s becoming more and more difficult for organizations to protect their networks against cyberattacks, cybercriminals can turn to all sorts of relatively cheap services and kits that can help them achieve their goals.

“The Radware ERT sees hundreds of DoS/DDoS attacks each year, and we’ve found attacks lasting more than one week have doubled in frequency during 2012. Through empirical and statistical research coupled with front-line experience, our team identified trends that can help educate the security community,” noted Avi Chesla, chief technology officer at Radware.

“Through highlighting significant trends found in this report, our goal is to provide actionable intelligence to ensure organizations can better detect and mitigate these threats that plague their network infrastructure.”

The complete report is available here.

Cloud Data Storage Providers that Offers Freemium Service

Probably you've got important documents, videos, music or other stuffs that needs to be shared across multiple devices, using cloud storage technology is for now the easiest option you've got and the number of people it are increasingly by day.

Cloud Storage has come to say and with so many cloud service providers, you may be wondering which one could be right for you. The list below will help you based on general summary of each popular cloud service.

First, let look at what cloud storage is for the benefit of those that don't know what it is. According to wikipedia

Cloud storage is a model of networked online storage where data is stored in virtualized pools of storage which are generally hosted by third parties. Hosting companies operate large data centers, and people who require their data to be hosted buy or lease storage capacity from them. The data center operators, in the background, virtualize the resources according to the requirements of the customer and expose them as storage pools, which the customers can themselves use to store files or data objects. Physically, the resource may span across multiple servers.The safety of the files depends upon the hosting websites.
Cloud storage services may be accessed through a web service application programming interface (API), a cloud storage gateway or through a Web-based user interface.

1. Mega

Mega is a cloud storage provider and successor to Megaupload. The website was launched on 19 January 2013 to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the seizure of Megaupload. After the Gabonese Republic denied the new company the domain name me.ga, Kim Dotcom, the don in-charge announced it would instead be registered in his adopted home of New Zealand under the domain name mega.co.nz.

Currently, free users will get 50 GB of free storage space and total bandwidth will be limited, from 1 to 8 TB per month, for paid accounts. Free account bandwidth is not currently disclosed.

2. SkyDrive

SkyDrive (officially Microsoft SkyDrive, previously Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live Folders) is a file hosting service that allows users to upload and sync files to a cloud storage and then access them from a Web browser or their local device. It is part of the Windows Live range of online services and allows users to keep the files private, share them with contacts, or make the files public. Publicly shared files do not require a Microsoft account to access.

The service offers 7 GB of free storage for new users. Additional storage is available for purchase. Users who signed up to SkyDrive prior to April 22, 2012 could opt-in for a limited time offer of 25 GB of free storage upgrade. The service is built using HTML5 technologies, and files up to 300 MB can be uploaded via drag and drop into the web browser, or up to 2 GB via the SkyDrive desktop application for Microsoft Windows and OS X.

3. Google Drive

Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service by Google that was released on April 24, 2012. Google Drive is now the home of Google Docs, a suite of productivity applications, that offer collaborative editing on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. Rumors about Google Drive began circulating as early as March 2006.

Google Drive gives all users 5 GB of cloud storage to start with. A user can get additional storage, which is shared between Picasa and Google Drive, from 25 GB up to 16 TB through a paid monthly subscription plan ($2.49 US per month for 25 GB).

4. Box

Box Inc. (formerly Box.net) is an online file sharing and Cloud content management service for enterprise companies. The company has adopted a freemium business model, and provides 5 GB of free storage for personal accounts. A mobile version of the service is available for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, WebOS, and Windows Phone devices. The company is based in Los Altos, California.

5. MediaFire

MediaFire is a free file and image hosting web site that started in 2005 and is located in Shenandoah, Texas, United States. MediaFire include 50 GB of cloud storage and a limit of 200 MB per file (250 GB of storage and 4GB of file size limit for Pro users and 1000 GB of storage and 10 GB of file size limit for Business users).MediaFire provides users with the ability to create image galleries from folders of images and view and share common document, presentation, and spreadsheet file types inside the web browser. MediaFire's free account service does not require download activity in order to preserve files, and is thus often suitable as a temporary or secondary backup solution although MediaFire does not officially support free data warehousing (long-term storage for inactive accounts).

Android Botnet Infects Over 1 Million Phones in China

A piece of mobile malware believed to be hidden in around 7,000 Android applications has infected the devices of over 1 million users from China. Experts say that this may be the largest Android botnet the country has ever seen.

According to Chinese publication Xinhua, the Trojan that powers the botnet is Android.Troj.mdk, a threat first discovered back in 2011.

Once it’s installed on a device, the Trojan allows its master to take complete control of it. The malicious element can be used to harvest messages, phone numbers, contact details, geo-location data and even media files.

Bitdefender experts note that the Trojan also downloads additional applications that slow down the phone’s performance, generate aggressive adware, and drain the device’s battery.

With over 420 million mobile users, China has become an important target for malware developers.

Top 5 Best Free VPN Service Providers 2013

If you're of the mindset that what you do with your BitTorrent client is your business and not that of people snooping, sniffing, and prying at your packets along the way, then you'll need a VPN to keep your traffic encrypted and secure. Even so, which free VPN service is the best, and which offers the best combination of reliability, features, security, and affordability? We'll be looking at the top five free VPN service providers based on our test.

1. SecurityKiss

SecurityKiss is a popular free VPN service available for use on PCs only. The paid version available for use on Mac, Linux, and smartphones.

The free package includes a 300MB daily limit, and an unspecified bandwidth speed cap of less than 12.5 Mbps, and basic packages start at about $6 per month.

Software installation is required.

2. Its Hidden

ItsHidden uses 128-bit encryption on the secure tunnel created between you and the ItsHidden servers. Based out of the Netherlands, ItsHidden takes advantage of the legal climate there and doesn't log any activity passed through its servers.

Available on Mac, PC, and Linux, and requires no software installation.

3. CyberGhost

CyberGhost VPN is a free utility that encrypts, anonymizes, and offshores your internet use when you're using public Wi-Fi at an airport or coffee shop, or you're worried someone on your network is running a tool like Firesheep to gather credentials

Cyber Ghost is limited to PCs only, and software installation is required.

4. Hotspot Shield

Hotspot Shield is a free program that allows you to secure your connection while surfing WiFi hotspots and to access sites not normally available outside of the USA, like Huluand Pandora.

Everything is done in an extra tab open in your browser, so there's no need to configure anything. A green and red shield in your system tray indicates when Hotspot Shield is or is not connected. The VPN is encrypted with 128 bit SSL encryption so you can surf safely without worrying about others intercepting your data.

It works on Mac and PCs along with Android and iOS devices.

5. Your Freedom

Your Freedom services makes accessible what is unaccessible to you, and it hides your network address from those who don't need to know. Just download the client application and install or just run it on your PC; it turns your own PC into an uncensored, anonymous web proxy and an uncensored, anonymous SOCKS proxy that your applications can use, and if that's not enough it can even get you connected to the Internet just as if you were using an unrestricted DSL or cable connection -- just like the firewall suddenly went boom! You can even make your PC accessible from the Internet if you like.

Hackers Develops Start Button for Windows RT Tablets

The lack of a Start button in Windows 8 is considered one of the main reasons why people choose to stay away from the new operating system, but several third-party solutions are now available in this regard.

A Start button application is now available on Windows RT too, allowing consumers to make their tablets a bit less confusing in case they can’t get used to the new Modern UI.

The ClassicStartMenu app posted on XDA Developers forum is available for Windows RT users who have decided to jailbreak their devices and is based on the popular Classic Shell application compatible with the desktop version of Windows 8.

Keep in mind that this application requires a jailbroken Windows RT tablet and it doesn’t ask for a reboot. In case you restart your device, the jailbreak is completely lost.

Click here to download ClassicStartMenu for Windows RT (the file is delivered as a ZIP package, so a compression tool for Windows RT is needed).

For more information on the Windows RT jailbreak, check out this article.

Foxit Reader Vulnerable to Critical Remote Code Execution Flaw

Foxit Reader, a PDF viewer application often used as an alternative to the more popular Adobe Reader, contains a critical vulnerability in its browser plug-in component that can be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary code on computers.

Details about the vulnerability and how it can be exploited were publicly disclosed last week by Andrea Micalizzi, an independent security researcher from Italy.

No official patch is yet available, according to an advisory from vulnerability intelligence and management company Secunia. The security firm rated the flaw as highly critical because it can be exploited remotely to gain system access.

Foxit's developers have identified the cause of the vulnerability and are working on creating a patch, a Foxit sales and service representative said Friday via email. The patch is expected to be released within one week, she said.

"The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error in the Foxit Reader plugin for browsers (npFoxitReaderPlugin.dll) when processing a URL and can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow via e.g. an overly long file name in the URL," Secunia said. "Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary code."

The vulnerability has been confirmed in npFoxitReaderPlugin.dll version 2.2.1.530, which is installed by Foxit Reader 5.4.4.1128—the latest version of the program. However, older versions might also be affected, Secunia said.

By default, Foxit Reader installs the plug-in for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari Web browsers.

Reputation as secure alternative reader
In the past, Foxit Reader has been suggested by some people in the security community as a more secure and less attacked alternative to Adobe Reader. In fact, Foxit, the company that develops the application, claims on its website that Foxit Reader is "the most secure PDF reader" and is "better than Adobe PDF Reader and Acrobat." According to the company, the program is used by over 130 million users.

"We have confirmed the vulnerability using Firefox, Opera, and Safari," Chaitanya Sharma, advisory team lead at Secunia, said Thursday via email. "At the moment the best mitigation is to disable this add-on in browsers and use other software e.g. Adobe Reader."

The Foxit representative, too, recommended avoiding using the Foxit browser plug-in for Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari, but instead suggested using Internet Explorer to view online PDF files.

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