German hacker Thomas Roth's announcement that he used Amazon.com's cloud service to crack a wireless network security standard has left some security researchers scratching their heads. Others are merely shaking them in disbelief. That attack was launched against the SHA-1 hash algorithm. Roth's conclusions are that the SHA-1 algorithm is not fit for password hashing, and the compute power offered by cloud services makes it cheap and easy to launch brute-force attacks on passwords.
2. Lawyer fears Assange could face death penalty in US
A defense attorney for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims his client could face the death penalty if he’s extradited to Sweden and if that country then passes him to US authorities.
Defense attorney Mark Stephens made the assertion in a 35-page document (PDF) released Tuesday, which forecasts the arguments Stephens intends to make in a London court next month to fight Assange’s extradition to Sweden in an ongoing sex-crimes investigation. Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning in the case, though he has not been charged with a crime.
4. iPad 2: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
The original iPad was pretty much awesome, although it was missing some features that clearly should have been included. After some design leaks, it is fair to say that some of these issues are going to be resolved with the iPad 2. For starters, there is going to be a camera. It is amazing to me that Apple, of all companies, would decide to leave one of its products devoid of a camera. When one thinks of Apple, built-in cameras are one of first things that come to mind.
5. Google Apps highlights – 1/7/2011
This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.
It’s a new year, and we have new reasons to celebrate what’s possible with Google Apps. Since our last update, we’ve made it easier to track spreadsheet revisions and work with videos in Google Docs, added two new security features for organizations using Gmail and introduced new capabilities to make migrating to Google Apps even easier.
Revision history for spreadsheets
A few months ago we added better revision history tools for documents in Google Docs, and we just added a similar revision history tool for spreadsheets. Spreadsheet changes made by each co-author are marked by a different color, and you can easily see all of the changes made to your spreadsheet cell-by-cell.
Video player in the document list
Google Docs lets groups collaborate simultaneously on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings, but you can also use it to upload and share a wide range of file types. Previously, if you uploaded and shared a video file, people you shared with could only download the file. Yesterday we released an update which lets youplay many videos right from Google Docs, no file download required.
A safer email environment for customers
Organizations using Google Apps usually provide unrestricted email access to their users, but some organizations—like K-12 schools—want to prevent outsiders from interacting with a subset of their users over email. On Tuesday, we released a feature enabling an email “walled garden,” so organizations can meet this requirement. K-12 schools can help protect youngsters, and other types of organizations can provide limited email accounts to select employees, like contractors.
DKIM email authentication for improved email delivery
Yesterday we made it possible for customers to easily validate their outgoing email with DKIM digital signatures. DKIM allows many receiving email systems to verify whether an incoming message truly originates from the domain in the message’s “sent from” field. Spam filters can then use the reputation of the sender’s domain to help separate good mail from spam. For customers, using DKIM authentication means their outgoing mail is less likely to get caught up in their recipients’ spam filters.
Chrome browser for organizations
Google Chrome is built for speed, security and the ability to run the most sophisticated web-based applications. Until recently, it was tough for businesses to deploy Chrome as a successor or alternative to traditional browsers, but last month we added capabilities to Chrome so IT administrators can efficiently deploy and manage Chrome across their organizations. We’ve also made it possible for businesses to centrally deployChrome Frame to improve the performance of Internet Explorer®.
Improved tools for moving existing data to Google Apps
Customers are already moving data from legacy systems to Google Apps at an astounding rate, and we’ve just made improvements to our data migration tools. Whether you’re moving from Microsoft® Exchange, Lotus Notes® or other IMAP-based email systems, it’s now even easier to move email, calendar and contacts data into Google’s cloud.
Who’s gone Google?
Tens of thousands of businesses, schools and other organizations took advantage of the holiday break to move over to Google Apps. Some of the noteworthy additions include Compositites One, Broadway Maylan and BI-LO. We also heard some great stories from Traffic Konzept + Film GmbH a team of explorers and filmmakers on a first-ever expedition to sail both North Pole passages in a single season. You can learn more about their adventure and how they use Google Apps here:
I hope these product updates and customer stories help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For details and the latest news in this area, check out the Google Apps Blog.
6. Some Mac App Store apps already hit by easy piracy trick
We're only one day into a brave new world with the Mac App Store, and users have apparently already downloaded more than 1 million apps. But not all is smooth sailing in Apple Land—a simple trick has beenposted on the Web that details how users can pirate a number of paid apps from the Mac App Store.
The instructions were uploaded midday on Thursday, hours after the Mac App Store made its debut. They instruct the user to download a free app and open up the package contents to access three files—one of which is the Mac App Store receipt for downloading a legitimate app.
Then, if the user can find a non-legit copy of a paid app (the example uses the popular game Angry Birds), he or she can then delete those three files from that app's package contents and replace them with the ones copied from the free app. After that, the pirated app should work as if it was actually purchased through the Mac App Store.
Indeed, it is a pretty straightforward—if not evil—hack. However, as noted by Daring Fireball, the trick doesn't work for all paid apps from the store. Developers who followed Apple's instructions for validating App Store receipts should be unaffected; it's only those who don't check at all, or don't do the right kind of check, that are finding themselves being taken advantage of.
It's a little disappointing that Apple would allow such a simple check to slip through the cracks on paid apps. Undoubtedly, we'll see those developers rush to fix up their apps and resubmit them to the store, but it seems that what's done is done when it comes to the current releases.
7. Motorola offers first taste of Honeycomb with Xoom tablet
During a press briefing at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Motorola officially unveiled its much-anticipated Xoom tablet. Available exclusively on the Verizon network, Xoom will come with Android 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb, a new version of Android that brings substantial improvements aimed at boosting the platform's suitability for tablets.
Motorola intends to ship the Xoom during the first quarter of 2011, and update it in the second quarter to add support for Verizon's nascent LTE network. It will likely be the highest-profile Honeycomb launch device and will serve as Android's answer to the iPad. The device is powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 2 SoC, with a dual-core 1Ghz Cortex A9 processor. Motorola says that the Xoom will deliver a "console-like" 3D gaming experience and support for playing high definition video. The Xoom's 10.1-inch display renders at a resolution of 1280x800, edging past the iPad's 1024x768 resolution.
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