By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

So ironic, I had to post it. Of course McAfee isn’t in the business of ID Theft prevention per se, threats like phishing scams are in their purview, and that can lead to ID theft. Of course, it wasn’t McAfee themself that lost the data, it was an external auditor, Deloitte & Touche USA.

The disc contained personal details on all current U.S. and Canadian McAfee workers hired prior to April 2005 and on about 6,000 former employees in the same region, (McAfee spokeswoman Siobhan) MacDermott said. (The security company currently has approximately 3,290 employees worldwide.) The information wasn’t encrypted and potentially includes names, Social Security numbers and stock holdings in McAfee.

Deloitte & Touche confirmed the incident. “A Deloitte & Touche employee left an unlabelled backup CD in an airline seat pocket,” a representative for the professional services firm said. “We are not aware of any unauthorized access to this data in the two months since the CD was lost.” Source: ZDNet

We Say: It’s amazing … and scary how often this sort of thing happens. I recall UPS losing some data not that long ago and someone leaving a laptop in a car. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. It happens too often. It’s this sort of thing that has made me subscribe to a credit monitoring service by one of the three credit bureaus. So much of this happens, free reports aren’t enough. I want real-time monitoring.

By Chief Gizmateer
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

iPods are perfect gizmos for getting through the drudgery of workouts allowing your mind to wander to the music, but what if your workouts consist of water sports or swimming or anything more extreme that a stationary bike and treadmill? Otterbox says they have the solution with their line of waterproof iPod cases for the extreme and active geek. Combined with waterproof headphones, the Otterbox should allow you to swim while listening to your tunes. The Geeks think that’s pretty cool, but do the Otterbox cases actually work? Check out the rest of the review to see if my Mini or Nano get ruined testing the Otterbox cases and to see what we think of Otterbox’s products.

Check out the full iPod Otterbox review on Gizmos for Geeks.

By Chief Gizmateer
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

According to the Bay of Plenty Times newspaper, Garry Leonard Muzyka, 46, from Cambridge Heights, built a James Bond-style gizmo on his motorcycle to hide his license plate at the flip of a lever. The gizmo tilts his motorcycle license plate to foil police and speed cameras but he “was left shaken but not stirred after crashing into a patrol car.”

He was fined nearly $1700 after pleading guilty on one count of speeding and has lost his driving privileges for six months. Amazingly he received no charges for the Bondish gizmo he used.

Source: Gizmos for Geeks

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Canon is on a roll with some new and smaller video projectors including the first XGA projector based on LCOS technology on the market. Actually, that’s technically on the market in May 2006, but we’ll just sit quietly and drool until then. LCOS stands for Liquid Crystal On Silicon and Canon claims LCOS combined with its proprietary AISYS light engine technology make it the sharpest and most affrodable small projector yet. And the support for WXGA (or wide screen laptops) makes it a double winner in my laptop’s widescreen book.

The affordable X600 is the world’s first LCOS XGA projector. It features new, advanced AISYS technology - with improved light efficiency, uniformity, and expanded color space. At 3500 ANSI lumens, it is one of the brightest, most ultra-portable projectors Canon makes. It also boasts a wide variety of features that make it a versatile and powerful performer in both classroom and conference settings. Its 1.7x Ultra-Wide Zoom Lens with Auto Focus gives you the widest zoom range of any of Canon’s projector lenses. And, its DVI-I terminal lets you project high quality video from satellite and digital cable boxes, as well as DVD players.

The X600’s XGA gives you the crispness of 1024×768 lines of resolution. The REALiS X600’s VGA input supports WXGA (1366×768) which is used in today’s wide screen laptops. This unit also supports High Definition video sources.Source: Canon via Engadget

We Say: When and How Much? And what a waste for boring PowerPoints.

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

When you think of internet porn (and I know you do!) the desktop PC or the laptop in a hotel room far far away springs to mind. This is why many cell phone providers doubted that cell phone porn would catch on. After all, who wants to sit in an airport and get caught watching grainy adut movies or racy stills?

Turns out - a lot of people do. The cell phone is becoming the preferred platform for adult Web searches for a number of reasons. The biggest one is privacy. Company-owned hardware can trace where you surf and what you look at, while home PCs are where the kids often are and it’s easier to pop in a DVD if you are…alone.

The cell phone on the other hand, with increasingly bigger and brighter screens allows the mobile traveller a way to view video and still content without anyone being the wiser. And the numbers as Google recently admitted are starting to add up.

Nowadays the cellphone is the device of choice for those seeking out porn on the web, according to research by Google. Computer scientists Maryan Kamvar and Shumeet Baluja analysed 1 million searches made using the firm’s mobile search software. They found that “adult” material constituted 20 per cent of the searches on cellphones, but only 5 per cent on PDAs. Just 8.5 per cent of searches on desktop computers are for adult material. The Google team say that people regard their phones as intensely personal devices and so “may feel more comfortable querying adult terms” on them, perceiving a smaller chance of others discovering their activities. Source: New Scientist

We Say: The porn theory of technology states that if there’s a porn angle the device will succeed. This should make cell phone carriers with new 3G/TV offerings happy, but with Google’s recent legal setback with Perfect 10, this may be a bigger headache down the road.

Before you go:
–Cool New Canon Video Projector
–Samsung’s Mobile TV Phone– < --In case you want Sports and uhhh News
–Video Game Helps Soldiers Learn Iraqi Culture
–Poor Cell Reception? Get Your Own Tower
……More RealTechNews Already

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

According to Microsoft, a test of the Windows Vista help system resulted in a webpage being released which included details about the Windows Vista OS. There will be six primary versions of the OS, with two variations for Europe that do not include Windows Media Player to comply with the European Union’s past antitrust rulings.

Included in those listed offerings was Windows Starter 2007, a stripped-down version for emerging markets to offer an alternative for pirated software. There was also a basic and premium edition for the home as well as versions for both businesses and large corporations, according to the reports. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

We Say: Here’s the version for me: Windows Vista Ultimate, that targets gamers and heavy multimedia users. On the other hand, I wonder how much that mega-OS will cost.

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Apple must really feel picked on right about now. The 3rd security flaw in six days was discovered on Tuesday. This one targets the Safari browser, and depending on who you ask, may be very critical.

The vulnerability, discovered by Michael Lehn of the University of Ulm in southern Germany, affects Apple’s Safari web browser. Current versions of the program include a feature that automatically opens so-called “safe” files—photos, movies, and compressed data, which can be exploited by those with malicious intentions.

Software disguised to look like these safe files could cause a serious problem for unsuspecting Safari users. Those who download such files from a web site or even an email could have them automatically opened by the program, leaving their computer open to attack.

Danish security company Secunia, one of the first firms to announce the discovery, describes the flaw as “extremely critical.” The company has set up a web page where Safari users can get more information and test their software to see if it is affected. Source: Red Herring

We Say: To protect yourself, you can go into Safari preferences and disable the “Open safe files after downloading” option. Some say this is a wake-up call, but others, such as this Wired News writer, say they will still not run an antivirus program on their Macs. They say the MacOS is inherently more secure, and that this is all a tempest in a teacup. I guess we’ll wait and see.

By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

In case you didn’t read it, I posted about 180Solutions still allowing nonconsensual installs as discovered by Ben Edelman, if you want to read their response, and a REALLY funny press release, then check out 180solutions Shuts Down Software Hacker. You know, I can just see Keith Smith, CEO of 180Solutions, standing there with his hands on his hips like Superman after saving the world.

180solutions, Inc., the leading provider of Internet search marketing solutions, today became aware of a publisher with an online name of “Sniper84″ who hacked its software in a way that caused the company’s notification and consent process to be automatically
accepted, denying users the ability to make that choice for themselves.

It was very complicated, he just had to write a script that clicked the finish button, I’m sure it took him a minute at least.

Despite an unprecedented effort by some industry critics to keep secret the critical information that would have led to a quicker shutdown of the fraudulent behavior, the company, through its own policing mechanisms, was able to track down the nefarious actor responsible and shut him down.

They are so wonderful, we’re lucky to have them around!

“No software is ever hack-proof,” said Keith Smith, co-founder and CEO of 180solutions. “Thanks to our recently-developed S3 technology, we were able to identify the rogue publisher, immediately shut down the channel, and implement our re-messaging efforts in which every user involved in this exploit will be required to re-opt in to the download of our programs if they wish to keep the software.”

We Say: I sure hope Ben left the software on his computer so he can let us know for sure if it at least asked him if he really wanted to install their crap “software”. They go on to chastise Ben and everyone who withheld the url from them, I wonder if the people that work at 180 are proud of this and the things they do, or do you think they all enter the building from the back? Oh, and liked this nugget where they admit their fraud department consists of the guy who hit’s the delete key in the accounting department.

To make matters worse, this time, not only was the issue not reported to 180solutions prior to it being made public, but key information, such as the URL visited, was purposely hidden by these “consumer advocates” after the fact, which hindered the company’s fraud
detection process, exposing more consumers to harm.

Added: Ben has indicated on his website, as has Sunbelt, that they have not recieved this re-messaging that was supposed to have taken place, nor have the popups stopped, as 180 said they would when they said they would disable all advertisements to all installs from this publisher.