By CrunchGear, on 2010.02.28, 08:00.10 pm
Here’s some troubling news for my fellow World of Warcraft players. It seems that hackers, account thieves, and other miscreants have now embraced man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks to further their evil ways. Blizzard says it’s not a widespread issue, and it’s rather difficult to pull off, but it’s something y’all should be aware of.
The deal is that WoW hackers are able to infect your PC—this is a PC-only problem, mind you, so Mac players can more or less ignore all of this—with a bit of malware that’s then able to initiate the MITM attack. The purpose of this is to intercept your login name, password, and authenticator number so that they can log into your account. Once online, they can do whatever it is you’d be able to do inside the game world: sell items, mail gold to other players, etc. They cannot, it should be noted, delete your actual account or anything like that. Still, it’s potentially devastating, selling all your epics for fast gold, then turning around and selling that gold for real money to someone else.
MITM attacks aren’t new or anything. There’s plenty of programs out there can initiate them rather easily, letting people intercept passwords, instant messages, you name it. They work in that they sit in between your PC and the server you’re trying to connect to. So, if you’re playing WoW, instead of your username and password and authenticator number going directly to Blizzard’s servers, they first go to the hacker’s rogue server, which then passes the info onto your intended server, capturing the information in the process. It’s essentially invisible to you, the end-user, which is why the attacks are so dangerous.
Blizzard has already identified the piece of malware that initiates the MITM attack, so be on the lookout for emcor.dll. Be sure to keep your anti-virus software up to date.
One final bit: the odds of you being a victim of such an attack are quite low, if only because it requires so much work for the hacker to pull off; you’d have to be hacked a the very moment he wants to break into your account, and that’s something that simply doesn’t happen. Rather, your account will be compromised on, say, Monday, but it won’t be until the following Saturday that the hacker actually access your account. And again, the worst thing that could happen with this kind of attack would be for someone to sell off your character’s items and gold, then, for good measure, delete your character—your actual account cannot be tampered with. That may be a distinction without meaning, yes.
So yeah, just be sure to keep your anti-virus software up to date, and keep your wits about you. Stay away from the shady parts of the Internet!
via wow.com
By CrunchGear, on 2009.11.23, 05:00.46 pm
 Several airlines have been offering Wifi for a while now. United Airlines wants to ensure that people are actually trying it out and so through the end of the year, you can get one free session if you create a new account with Aircell’s Gogo Inflight. The offer is only good on United’s 757-200 flights between New York Kennedy and the airline’s Los Angeles and San Francisco hubs.
Of course this is aimed at getting more people to pay for the service, which costs $12.95 per flight. But hey, you can’t turn down free Internet. Your boss will love it.
United Airlines Introduces Try-Before-You-Buy Wi-Fi Promotion
Gogo ® Inflight Internet now available on all p.s. flights
CHICAGO, Nov. 23, 2009 – Just in time for the busy Thanksgiving holidays, United Airlines customers on transcontinental p.s. (SM) flights can enjoy a complimentary
onboard Internet session with the new Try-Before-You-Buy promotion, offered in conjunction with airborne communications provider Aircell.
Through Dec. 31, first-time users of Aircell’s Gogo ® Inflight Internet service will be offered one free session upon creating a new account.
Gogo enables customers with Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs to surf the Web, check e-mail, send and receive instant messages, and access a corporate VPN.
The service is available on all of United’s p.s. flights between New York Kennedy and the airline’s Los Angeles and San Francisco hubs.
“Gogo Inflight Internet service on our p.s. flights provides our customers with an even more productive and enjoyable travel experience,” says Allen Will, managing director of strategic aircraft programs. “With Gogo Inflight Internet and an AC power port at every seat, p.s. customers will get more accomplished in the air this holiday season, leaving time for more holiday cheer on the ground.”
For more information on United’s inflight Internet service, visit united.com/Wi-Fi.
About United
United Airlines (Nasdaq: UAUA) operates approximately 3,300* flights a day on United and United Express to more than 200 U.S. domestic and international destinations from its hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C. With key global air rights in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and Latin America, United is one of the largest international carriers based in the United States. United also is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides connections for our customers to 1,071 destinations in 171 countries worldwide. United’s 47,000 employees reside in every U.S. state and in many countries around the world. News releases and other information about United can be found at the company’s Web site at united.com.
*Based on United’s forward-looking flight schedule for October 2009 to October 2010.
By PC World, on 2009.11.09, 12:00.23 pm
By Neowin, on 2009.08.24, 06:11.32 am
Microsoft Research in partnership with USCD are working on a USB device, called the "Somniloquy" (which by definition means to "Talk in one's sleep") which allows your computer to carry on performing network processes while it is asleep or in a low power state. The Somniloquy allows a computer to process network traffic, even if the computers CPU, hard disk, display and I/O buses are powered down, without losing network connectivity. As described in the research paper, the interface could manage many network-related tasks such as maintaining a remote desktop connection, receiving instant messages, torrenting and managing a VOIP account, while the computer itself is asleep. Read full story...
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