The new design will apparently still bear the “MacBook Pro” name but will more closely resemble an Ultrabook — thin, light and affordable PC laptops. It will supposedly feature a high-definition screen similar to the ones found on iPhones and iPads. Perhaps most importantly, the new product wouldn’t compromise battery life or memory for the sleeker design. Flash memory for fast startup and long battery life will also purportedly be found in Apple’s upcoming notebook refresh, which is expected to appear at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June. The new product could preview as early as the worldwide developers conference Apple will host in June.

The decision to go thin is in line with customer demand, Ben Bajarin, director and founder of Creative Strategies, told MacNewsWorld.

“As things like UltraBooks and thin-and-lights become more pervasive, consumers will be used to seeing these thin designs as the only things available,” he said. “So it would seem likely that Apple, with the MacBook Pro, lines would look for hardware designs that press the envelope with thin and light as well.”

A MacBookPro that’s just as powerful as before and yet more mobile would be appealing to a certain crowd, and the groups that Apple targets with their notebook lines are specific enough that there will be a market for all types of customers, he added.

Read full story from source : http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/75123.html

The security team ran its Mac antivirus software on 100,000 Mac computers. It found that most of the malware found is directed at Windows PCs, so Macs harboring the infections don’t show any symptoms, unless perhaps the Mac is also running Windows. However, those computers can also spread malware to Windows PCs.

Sophos also found that one in 36 Macs, or 2.7 percent, were carrying Mac OS X malware. Of those, 75 percent harbored the Flashback malware. Numbers vary on Flashback’s spread, but some estimates pegged the number at 650,000 Macs infected over the past few months. It’s installed when it tricks users into downloading a fake version of Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Flash Player. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) issued a Java update for Mac OS X to help remove the infection.

Another 18 percent of the Mac computers analyzed by Sophos were found with MacDefender scareware. The remaining threats included fake antivirus attacks, which can obtain credit card information from users.

Read full story from source : http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Macs-Crawling-With-Windows-Malware-Study-Finds-74962.html

Here is an exclusive picture from inside the Wembley Stadium where our Chris Pickard is giving a speech at a Security Conference which is being held there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16812064

Chris Pickard, Methodology & Research director of MRG Effitas and CEO of the Effitas Group has worked with Spencer Kelly, presenter of BBC Click in creating the programme which is to be broadcast worldwide on the BBC News channel on Seturday the 4^th of February.

The programme features a test by MRG Effitas demonstrating that a custom piece of crimeware is able to bypass a range of security suites and capture the username and password entered in to a banking website.

You can hear Spencer Kelly discussing the upcoming programme here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9692312.stm

We will be publishing a follow up report on Saturday to coincide with the broadcast of the programme.

Product: IKARUS virus.utilities

Product Version: 2.0.74

Operating System: Windows 7 32-Bit

Amount of samples used: 50

Results Table:

System Status: Secure

Legend:

Green – Passed

Red – Failed

Damage: Unknown

Attacker(s): Hacktivist Group Anonymous

The malware is a new configuration of the Carberp Trojan, according to security firm Trusteer. Carberp replaces any Facebook page the user navigates to with a fake page notifying the victim that his or her Facebook account is “temporarily locked”.

The user is then asked to enter their name, email address, date of birth and password, followed by the number of a €20 Ukash voucher to “confirm verification” of their identity and unlock the account. Ukash is an e-money network that allows customers to anonymously exchange cash for vouchers that can be spent online.

The page claims the cash voucher will be “added to the user’s main Facebook account balance”. However, the credit is instead transferred to the Carberp bot master, who is able to use it as a cash equivalent.

”This clever man-in-the-browser (MitB) attack exploits the trust users have with the Facebook website and the anonymity of e-cash vouchers,” said Trusteer’s CTO Amit Klein.

“Unlike attacks against online banking applications that require transferring money to another account which creates an auditable trail, this new Carberp attack allows fraudsters to use or sell the e-cash vouchers immediately anywhere they are accepted on the internet.”

Klein told Techworld that Trusteer does not have a concrete idea of how many users have been affected. “However, we’ve seen botnets ranging in size from thousands to millions, so it’s safe to say it’s somewhere in between,” he said.

With the growing adoption of e-cash on the internet, Trusteer expects to see an increasing number of these types of attack, and social networks like Facebook provide cybercriminals with a large pool of victims that can be fairly easily tricked into divulging confidential account information.

Like card-not-present fraud, where cybercriminals use stolen debit and credit card information to make illegal online purchases, e-cash fraud is a low risk form of crime, explains Trusteer. With e-cash, however, it is the account holder who assumes liability for fraudulent transactions, rather than the financial institution.

Klein recommends using browser-based security tools that can secure communication between the computer and target website to block MitB attack methods like HTML injection, and prevent keylogging from grabbing data.

Carberp was first discovered in October 2010 by several security companies and noted for its ability to steal a range of data, as well as disguise itself as legitimate Windows files and remove antivirus software. It has been billed as a rival to Zeus, another well-known piece of malware.

Context Information Security warned yesterday that financial malware of this kind is becoming increasingly difficult to detect and eliminate, as it uses multiple layers of obfuscation and encryption to remain hidden and prevent analysis.

- TechWorld

Damage: Surce code stolen

Attacker(s): Dharmaraja group (India)

2. Target: South African Postbank

Damage: $6.7 million

Attacker(s): Unknown

3. Target: Zappos.com

Damage: 24 million customer details compromised

Attacker(s): Unknown

4. Target: Japanese Space Agency

Damage: Login information to gain access to a cargo shuttle that carries food and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS) has been stolen

Attacker(s): Unknown

Product: Symantec Norton Antivirus 2012

Product Version: 19.2.0.10

Operating System: Windows 7 32-Bit

Amount of samples used: 50

Results Table:

System Status: Compromised

Legend:

Green – Passed

Red – Failed