If you put pit laptops running on the Mac OS, Windows Vista, and Linux against hackers, which OS do you think would last the longest? Apparently, it's Linux. In this year's PWN 2 OWN contest, no one was able to hack the laptop running on the Linux OS. Which of the other two went down first? Better read the full article to find out.

Sick and tired of being vulnerable to numerous hacker attacks, the U.S. Army decided that they needed a revamp on their computer systems and started integrating Apple computers into their network. More details in the full article!

If you enjoy your iPhone and iPod Touch but you wish you could install third-party applications in them, there's an easy way to do so now. A group of hackers have come up with an easy way to jailbreak these Apple units and it really works.

Jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod Touch allows you full access to the disk, enabling you to do pretty much anything you want to with it. The hacker group responsible for this exploit includes hdm/metasploit, rezn, dinopio, drudge, kroo, pumpkin, davidc, dunham, and NerveGas.

Installing jailbreak can be done either via wi-fi or EDGE, though most users prefer wi-fi due to higher success rates. If you want to jailbreak, the first step is done by visiting their site through Safari and confirming that you want it in your system.

Once you do that, read the directions and tap Install Appsnap. Safari should disappear and you'll end up on the main Home screen. That means you're good to go.

There are instances that Safari would hang and you'll have to quit and hold home, then try again. After that, you'll be guided to some pretty simple steps and you're home free. Your iPhone or iPod Touch has been unlocked and you can have fun with all the third-party applications you can get hold of.

 

Big, big news update for those of us with an iPhone in our pockets - hackers have recently achieved a major breakthrough in the effort to "unlock" the nifty little gadget from the oppressive clutches of the AT & T  Galactic Empire and into sweet, joyous, happy-happy freedom. Many a cup of coffee - and chinese takeout - has been digested to bring us this information.

Well, not really sure on the coffee and chinese takeout bit. But what we do know is that the hacker team currently in charge of unlocking the iPhone's many secrets have finally managed to extract the full content of the radio memory. This means that they've practically stole a whole bunch of keys - the lick here now is to find the right one.

Interested parties - whether hack-savvy or not - can help the efforts of the iPhone Dev team by either contributing directly, or by donating through PayPal. So if you're in favor of unleashing Apple's latest gadget in its fullest potential, feel free to click on the read link to find out the ways you can help.

Good things, iPhone Dev team, and good luck.

With the release of the iPhone, a lot of people have been trying to find a way to crack the AT&T lock on the product. The iPhone Dev Wiki hackers have been able to partially unlock the iPhone using a new application called iASign.

This program doesn't fully unlock the iPhone for use with all service providers, but the hack will allow you to use any existing Cingular/AT&T Pre-paid/MVNA SIM in the phone to place calls.

Currently, the hackers working on this project have been gearing up for a final assault on the unit with the ultimate goal of completely cracking the iPhone and giving it full functionality regardless of the network.

Certain issues have been blocking their attempts. The main problem of cracking the iPhone lies in the baseband or the radio chipset for the iPhone. The iPhone only has one lock which is a network personalization lock which is located in the baseband firmware itself.

The AT command to do the unlock is 'AT+CLCK="PN",0,"xxxxxxxx"'. The big problem is finding out what those x's are. Brute force is out of the question since there is a limit of 3-10 unlock attempts per phone, after which the firmware will "hard-lock" itself to AT&T.

Patching the firmware at /usr/local/standalone/firmware/ICE03.12.06_G.fls is difficult as well, considering that it's signed. The signature is checked in the baseband bootloader while the updater program, bbupdater, only checks a checksum, which can be changed. The update will take, but then the phone will refuse to boot because the signatures don't match.

The hackers have already worked two solid days in their attempt to disassemble the radio fw and have found a few backdoors. So far, none of these lead to an unlock, s the hunt is still on for a way to crack the code.

Most if us are already familiar with the standard mobile phone deal where you sign a two-year subscription with a service provider and you get a nice handset with either a large discount or totally free of cost.

There were some rumors being passed around, however, that Apple's hyped-up iPhone just might carry some different options.

Instead of the usual post-paid service where you rack up bills and get charged at the end of the month, the Pay As You Go and Pick Your Plan options could soon be made available.

The pre-paid Pay As You Go option allows subscribers to purchase credits and use them up as they go without having to worry about exceeding budgets and hidden charges.

The Pick Your Plan option on the other hand, lets users choose their own monthly allowable credit set, where they pay a fixed bill at the end of each 30-day cycle. The only drawback is that the phone of their choice may not come free. As a matter of fact, users will have to pay for the handset's full price.

Click on Full Article to read more on this rumor, plus the source of it all.

Much to the disappointment of many, Apple has recently made the announcement on their website that around 1% of Video iPods which were out for the public by September 12 carried a virus known to affect Windows-equipped computers. However, they go on to comfort the new iPod consumers, and state that the said virus, which goes by the name of RavMonE.exe, can easily be taken care of by any up-to-date virus scanner.

The people over from Apple have also issued an apology: "We are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it." Aww...

It would have been nice if it ended at that, but according to the security experts at Sophos, Apple may have not really identified the name of the virus, which in turn, will cause virus scanners to miss this piece of malware completely. According to them, RavMonE.exe is a common or generic name that hackers use in order to disguise their programs. Also RavMonE.exe is a program that comes from a legitimate application, RAV Anti-Virus, which may be another factor for virus scanners to not see this infected file.

So, to cut the long story short, Apple has accidentally released a Windows-based virus to the public and they may not actually know what it is, hence making it more difficult to find and remove.

Sophos has noted, however, that they will look into it and provide the necessary information to the public once they've correctly identified the sneaky little virus. It may only be a Windows-based infection, but who knows?

How nice of them, don't you think?

You can never be too rich or too thin, but one sure can overload on passwords! So how do you make it hard for hackers and ID thieves to crack into your accounts without overwhelming your brain cells? You can use the same password for all your web-based accounts, which is the Dodo bird's way of doing things, since you can just imagine the damage if someone got hold of that single password.

1Passwd for the Mac OS X frees your mind from memorizing hundreds of user IDs and passwords. The app manages all your passwords for you with just a single password to unlock all your accounts. But isn't that the same thing as the Dodo way?

Not at all. 1Passwd stores all information into its built-in Keychain. This allows you to switch between browsers without divulging your information. You can also synchronize 1Passwd keychain to your Mac to manage your passwords across machines.

The app is the first password manager and form filler for the Mac OS X platform and it is designed to work with

• Safari
• Firefox
• Camino
• Flock

If you want to test drive 1Passwd, download the free version. Drag the 1Passwd.app file into the Applications folder and run it from there. If you like it, you can purchase the license code. Single user retails for US$ 29.95. The Family License costs US$ 39.95 and can be used by up to three users in the same household.

Download: [1Passwd Free Version]

This new update, aside from containing fixes for Microsoft Entourage 2004, also includes all of the previously released improvements on Office 2004. But the highlight of this nifty download is that it covers Microsoft Office 2004's vulnerabilities, including a potential security breach that hackers may capitalize on, where they can overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code.

This update is applicable to Office 2004 Standard Edition, Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition, Office 2004 Professional Edition, Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac, Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac, Microsoft PowerPoint 2004 for Mac, Entourage 2004. You must have  Mac OS X 10.2.8 (Jaguar) or a later version of Mac OS, Mac OS X-compatible processor that is a model G3 or a later and 256 MB of RAM.

A complete and detailed how-to is available upon clicking on the read link just below the article.

Download: [English Version]