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Brit Spies Spoof LinkedIn Pages to Track Targets

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<div class="story-summary">
Officially, no one knows anything, but if the 
latest revelations from Edward Snowden's storehouse of inside 
information on global surveillance activities can be believed, then it's
 highly likely Britain's counterpart to the NSA has been hacking into 
telecoms. GCHQ apparently redirected network engineers to spoofed 
LinkedIn pages and loaded their computers with malware to gain access.</div>
<div class="story-body">
British intelligence agency 
<a href="http://www.gchq.gov.uk/Pages/homepage.aspx" target="_blank">GCHQ</a>
 (Government Communications Headquarters) has spoofed LinkedIn profiles 
of employees at mobile communications companies and mobile billing firms
 to gain access to their corporate networks, <em>Der Spiegel</em> reported.</div>
The first known attack was on Belgacom, a telecom firm partly owned 
by the Belgian government, according to a top secret GCHQ presentation 
revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. That attack was among 
projects launched by GCHQ to infiltrate foreign networks.<br />

The British intelligence agency also targeted international mobile 
billing clearinghouses, which process international payment transactions
 between wireless companies.

</div>
<h2 class="subhead">
Hitting US Companies
</h2>
<a href="http://www.syniverse.com/home" target="_blank">Syniverse</a> 
and Mach, a company it acquired in July, are high on the list of 
clearinghouses GCHQ has targeted for such penetration, according to <em>Der Spiegel</em>.<br />

GCHQ  apparently has targeted three network engineers at Mach, using the Quantum Insert method.<br />

Syniverse provides solutions that let different mobile technologies 
interoperate around the world. With its acquisition of Mach, it serves 
more than 1,500 mobile service providers, enterprises, ISPs and app 
providers in nearly 200 countries.<br />

"There have been no known breaches of the Syniverse or Mach data 
centers by any government agency," Syniverse spokesperson Bobby Eagle 
told TechNewsWorld. "Privacy and confidentiality are essential 
priorities for Syniverse, and we take these matters very seriously."

<br />

<h2 class="subhead">
The Essence of GCHQ's Attack
</h2>
The British intelligence service is, basically, redirecting traffic to 
and from targets to a server between them so it can intercept 
communications.<br />

This is known as a "man in the middle" attack.<br />

Such attacks are commonly used on the banking sector. iMessages 
<a href="http://www.technewsworld.com/story/79230.html" target="_blank">are vulnerable to MITM</a>, Quarkslab disclosed in October.<br />

"Man-in-the-middle attacks are one of the oldest kinds of attacks out there," Daniel Castro, senior analyst at the 
<a href="http://www.itif.org/" target="_blank">Information Technology and Innovation Foundation</a>, told TechNewsWorld.

<br />

<h2 class="subhead">
We Are the (Tainted) World
</h2>
GCHQ's techniques are strikingly similar to the ones used by 
cybercriminals when they launch targeted attacks, such as spearphishing.<br />

The agency first determines who works for a target company using 
publicly available data such as the victim's LinkedIn profile. It 
apparently focuses on IT personnel and network admins because they have 
extensive access privileges on their computers.<br />

The agency then gathers all available information about its victim --
 in one case, even gaining access to cookies on a victim's PCs -- then 
develops what are essentially viruses in payloads customized for the 
victim's computers.<br />

One method of attack involved concealing the malware payloads on 
spoofed versions of victims' LinkedIn pages. Pulling up the fake profile
 would launch the malware into the victim's computer.<br />

"We have never cooperated with any government agency, nor we have any
 knowledge, with regard to these actions," LinkedIn spokesperson Julie 
Inouye told TechNewsWorld.<br />

"To date, we have not detected any of the spoofing activity that is 
being reported," she said. "LinkedIn takes the privacy and security of 
our members very seriously, and when we're made aware of any activity 
that may be considered problematic, we work to quickly shut it down."

<br />

<h2 class="subhead">
The Sincerest Form of Flattery
</h2>
It appears that GCHQ borrowed heavily from the United States' National Security Agency.<br />

The NSA 
<a href="https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/how_the_nsa_att.html" target="_blank">places secret servers</a>,
 codenamed "Quantum," at key places on the Internet backbone as part of 
its so-called "Turmoil" system, according to security specialist Bruce 
Schneier.<br />

Turmoil is part of the NSA's 
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbulence_%28NSA%29" target="_blank">Turbulence</a> program.<br />

Once the Quantum servers are in place, a query to a website they are 
spoofing hits them before it hits the legitimate site. The query is then
 redirected to another set of secret Internet servers, codenamed 
"FoxAcid," Schneier said.<br />

The FoxAcid servers then inject malware into victims' PCs to compromise them.<br />

It's not clear whether the UK agency is using the same technology as the NSA, although <em>Der Spiegel</em> uses the term "Quantum Insert" in its description of the GCHQ attacks.<br />

"Capturing large amounts of Internet traffic and redirecting it like that should be off limits," the ITIF's Castro remarked.</div>

Brit Spies Spoof LinkedIn Pages to Track Targets

Officially, no one knows anything, but if the latest revelations from Edward Snowden's storehouse of inside information on global ...

8:18:00 PM

How to Make Windows 8 Look Like Win 7 on Your PC

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<div class="story-summary">
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the 
old saying goes, and that's just as true for operating systems as it is 
elsewhere in life. Not thrilled with Windows 8's lack of a Start button,
 for example? Not to worry. You can take matters into your own hands and
 bring it back -- along with the Windows Desktop and a number of other 
comfortingly familiar features.</div>
<div class="story-body">
Windows 8's blah reception 
from many computer users may have been due at least in part to a 
peculiar trait that we humans have, and that's our obsession with 
improvement.</div>
Improving our lot has been a fixation throughout virtually all of 
human history, so it shouldn't come as any great surprise that Microsoft
 couldn't help itself when it became time to update its OS -- an OS that
 we had all learned to use expertly over the last 20 years or so.<br />
That obsession, along with a need to keep about 100,000 employees 
occupied, resulted in Windows 8's improvements over Windows 7 -- the 
strange omission of the Start button and the hiding of the Windows 
Desktop, that icon-studded screen we used to launch into.<br />
Well, if you don't like improvement, are simply a Luddite or just 
fondly miss the Windows Desktop, you can take matters into your own 
hands. Here's how to start Windows 8.1 into Desktop mode -- bypassing 
the new, improved tile-based look -- plus a couple of other tricks.
<br />
<div class="story-advertisement">
</div>
<h2 class="subhead">
Update Windows 8 to Free Windows 8.1 (If You Haven't Already)
</h2>
<b>Step 1:</b> Make a backup of your personal files by swiping
 in from the right edge of the screen and choosing Search. Enter the 
term File History Settings and then click on the results and follow the 
instructions to perform the backup.<br />
<i>Tip:</i> You'll need an external drive, like a USB memory drive.<br />
<b>Step 2:</b> Touch or click on the Store tile on the Start page.<br />
<b>Step 3:</b> Choose the free Windows 8.1 Update and 
select Download. Allow the update to proceed and complete. Then restart 
the PC and sign in.
<br />
<h2 class="subhead">
Configure the Desktop Startup
</h2>
<b>Step 1:</b> Launch the Desktop from the Start page by clicking on the tile labeled Desktop.<br />
<b>Step 2:</b> Right-click on the Taskbar.<br />
<i>Tip:</i> The Taskbar is the solid-colored strip below the wallpaper.<br />
<b>Step 3:</b> Choose Properties and then the Navigation tab in the resulting box.<br />
<b>Step 4:</b> Scroll down to the dialog, "When I sign in 
or close all apps on a screen, go to the Desktop instead of Start," and 
check the checkbox. Click on OK.<br />
The next time you restart your computer, the Start tile-based page 
will be skipped, and you'll launch into a Windows 7-style desktop 
instead. Hooray for the Luddites.<br />
<i>Tip:</i> While you're on the Desktop page, check out the 
new-in-Windows 8.1 Windows icon in the bottom-left corner. It's a Start 
button of sorts, and clicking on it alternates you between the 
tile-infested Start page and the lovable classic Desktop page.
<br />
<h2 class="subhead">
Launching Into the App Page
</h2>
Adding insult to injury in the Windows 8 environment, you may have 
noticed that the Start page -- the one with all of the newfangled tiles 
-- doesn't include all of the apps that you've painstakingly searched 
for and downloaded.<br />
The full listing of apps are in a page called Apps, not Start. You 
can get to the Apps page by clicking on the new-in-Windows 8.1 Down 
arrow in the bottom-left corner of the Windows 8.1 Start page if you 
want to see that page.<br />
Here's how to launch straight into Apps from Desktop, bypassing Start.<br />
<b>Step 1:</b> Launch the Desktop from the Start page by clicking on the tile labeled Desktop.<br />
<b>Step 2:</b> Right-click on the Taskbar.<br />
<b>Step 3:</b> Choose Properties and then the Navigation tab in the resulting box.<br />
<b>Step 4:</b> Scroll down to the dialog, "Show the Apps view automatically when I go to Start," and check the checkbox. Click on OK.<br />
The next time you click on the Windows icon in the bottom left corner
 of the Desktop, you'll go to Apps instead of Start. Now that's an 
improvement.
</div>

How to Make Windows 8 Look Like Win 7 on Your PC

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the old saying goes, and that's just as true for operating systems as it is elsewhere in ...

8:13:00 PM

Getting Closer to 3G: PTA Selects Consultant for Spectrum Auction

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Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, after evaluating technical and 
financial bids, has hired “Value Partners Management Consulting Limited”
 for consultancy services during upcoming auction of next generation 
3G/4G licenses.<br />

PTA said that out of <a href="http://rexhacker.blogspot.com/2013/11/moving-towards-3g-7-firms-bid-for-3g.html" target="_blank">seven firms that submitted bids</a>, VPMC was selected for best technical and financial feasibility.<br />

<a href="http://www.valuepartners.com/" target="_blank">VPMC</a>, 
with its head office in Milan, Italy, has presence in seven countries 
across Europe, Asia and South America. Pakistan’s spectrum auction will 
be overseen by company’s Singapore Office.<br />
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After selection of consultant in due time, PTA has achieved one phase
 of its target of meeting the deadlines for auctioning 3G licenses.<br />

Hired consultant will now prepare the Information Memorandum for 
auction of next generation licenses. It is said that preparation of IM 
may take from 30-45 days.<br />

After finalization of IM – around mid-January – it will be floated 
into the market for telecom operators to get themselves prepared for the
 3G auction.<br />

Expected date for auction of 3G licenses is around last week of February 2014.</div>

Getting Closer to 3G: PTA Selects Consultant for Spectrum Auction

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, after evaluating technical and financial bids, has hired “Value Partners Management Consulting Lim...

8:01:00 PM

Pakistan May Block Etisalat-Warid Deal for Non-Payment of $800 Million

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High-ups at Pakistan Government are considering its options to block 
possible buyout of Warid Telecom of Pakistan by Etisalat of UAE, sources
 familiar with the development told RexHacker.<br />
<a href="http://rexhacker.blogspot.com/2013/10/ptcl-submits-non-binding-offer-to.html" target="_blank">Etisalat and VimpelCom of Russia have submitted bids</a>
 for buying Warid Telecom of Pakistan with its 12 million subscribers. 
While outcome of the bid is yet to surface, Etisalat is ranked favourite
 to take away the Warid Telecom.<br />
The decision to block Etisalat-Warid deal came at a time when UAE’s 
state run telecom giant has straight-forwardly told Pakistan government 
that it <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/24/pakistan-etisalat-idUSL5N0J42O420131124" target="_blank">will not pay remaining USD 800 million</a> against buyout of 26 percent shares in PTCL due to property dispute between the two parties.<br />
Etisalat has held USD 800 million for around 8 years because Pakistan
 government has failed to transfer the ownership of around 100 – out of 
3,000 – properties due to legal limitations.<br />
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Pakistan has repeatedly offered Etisalat to deduct the value of disputed 100 properties – around USD 73 million – and clear the remaining amount it owes against the deal that happened in 2005.<br />
Etisalat, on the other hands, maintains that it will not pay a single
 penny unless all the properties are not transferred as a whole.<br />
Pakistan has tried almost every possible option to get the issue 
resolved, however, the remaining properties – the bone of contention – 
are confined due to legal limitations and are likely to not get 
transferred anytime soon.<br />
As a result, now Pakistan government is considering options to block the possible buyout of Warid Telecom by Etisalat.<br />
Sources familiar with the situation said that it is still unclear 
that how the Etisalat-Warid deal will be blocked or even if there is any
 legal room available to achieve this, but government is definitely 
ready to take up the situation to give Etisalat a tough time.</div>

Pakistan May Block Etisalat-Warid Deal for Non-Payment of $800 Million

High-ups at Pakistan Government are considering its options to block possible buyout of Warid Telecom of Pakistan by Etisalat of UAE, so...

7:58:00 PM

QMobile Announces Two New Top-of-the-Line Quatro Phones

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Despite the quality constraints, QMobile has been able to leave a 
mark against established rivals such as Nokia and Samsung. The pace at 
which they’re moving forwards, coupled with their competitive pricing 
has proved to be a recipe of success and now they’ve announced two new 
top-of-the-line handsets.<br />

The Z4 and Z3 are the first phones in the Quatro series, while the Z4 is the new flagship of the company.<br />

<h4>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Quatro Z4</span></h4>
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The Quatro Z4 is a tempting package but its price is unheard for a brand like QMobile.<br />

To start with, it is arguably the best looking phone from QMobile. 
Sporting a unibody design, the phone is just 7.7mm thick, quite an 
achievement for any phone. The iPhone 5s, for instance, is 7.6mm thick.<br />

At the front, sits a 5 inch Full HD Super AMOLED display with 1080 x 
1920 resolution and anti-reflection coating. The bezels are also just 
2.54mm wide. Above the display is a 5 megapixel front-facing camera.<br />

The internals of the phone include a 1.5Ghz quad-core “turbo” 
processor which is infact a Cortex A7 with PowerVR Series5XT, 2 GB RAM 
and 32 GB expandable storage. This processor sure is aging but should be
 just fine for handling normal tasks.<br />

Around the back, sits a 13 megapixel autofocus camera with Full HD 
video, along with a single LED Flash. The camera is also capable of 
panorama photos and burst shots, capturing as much as 99 snaps in 21 
seconds, supposedly. Dual-mic noise reduction should also aid while 
shooting videos.<br />

The Quatro Z4 comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean pre-installed and 
we’re not quite sure it will get updated to 4.4 KitKat in the future.<br />

Since QMobile has tried to make this phone feel just like any other 
modern flagship, the phone even comes with several software tricks of 
its own. Those include sweeping hand just above the phone to answer 
calls and directly calling a person by taking the phone near your head 
from the messaging app.<br />
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The phone is powered by a non-removable 2000 mAh battery, 
substantially less than what we’re used to seeing in flagships and we’re
 a bit skeptical about it. Connectivity options of the phone include 
Wi-Fi 802.11, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, 3G and microUSB.<br />

Now, for the price. The Quatro Z4 comes at a price of Rs. 35,000. 
That’s more than any other device in the company’s history and not many 
people would’ve seen this coming but for a phone with specs like these 
(at least on paper), it seems quite reasonable to us.<br />

<h4>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Quatro Z3</span></h4>
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The Quatro Z3 is the more modest offering of the two. Packing a 4.8 
inch Super AMOLED Display upfront, the screen comes with HD resolution 
of 720 x 1280 pixels.<br />

Just like its bigger brother, the Z4, the Z3 also comes in a unibody design, which is even thinner at just 6.85mm thick.<br />

On the hardware side of things, the Z3 comes with a 1.5Ghz quad-core 
Cortex A7, PowerVR Series5XT GPU, 1 GB worth memory and 16 GB internal 
storage, expandable via a microSD card slot.<br />

Right at the back is an 8 megapixel autofocus camera with Full HD video recording, along with a 5 megapixel front-facing camera.<br />

The phone’s connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, 
3G and microUSB. Just like the Z4, the Z3 too comes with a 2000 mAh 
battery which again, for an HD display smartphone, doesn’t sound quite 
enough but if optimizing has been done underneath and through software, 
it may be just fine.<br />

The operating system running on the phone is Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, 
which again, has rather slim chances of ever getting updated.<br />

Since this phone isn’t QMobile’s flagship, it comes with a much, more
 cheaper price, at Rs. 26,500. Given its feature set which, undoubtedly,
 isn’t that different from the Z4, we really believe that the Z3 may 
find a larger audience.<br />

With these two phones, we really hope that QMobile has upped its game
 even further, and that along with respectable specs on paper, it has 
also worked hard to provide a better experience with these phones.</div>

QMobile Announces Two New Top-of-the-Line Quatro Phones

Despite the quality constraints, QMobile has been able to leave a mark against established rivals such as Nokia and Samsung. The pace at ...

7:53:00 PM

LG Smart TVs Collect Your Personal Data and Other Information

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After the revelation of NSA’s PRISM program, it now seems as Spying is the new trend and everyone is in fashion.<br />

Few days back a UK based developer and Linux enthusiast <a href="http://goo.gl/oxmTt8" target="_blank">DoctorBeet</a>
 revealed on his blog about his latest discovery on how LG Smart TVs are
 logging your personal data including the channel you watch and USB data
 that you connect to your TV.<br />

Ever since his findings, the story has gone viral and had been 
reposted on various security blogs and webpages, and just few hours 
back, the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/security/compliance/lg-admits-smart-tvs-spied-on-users/d/d-id/1112755" target="_blank">InformationWeek</a> has reported that LG has admitted its Smart TVs were spying on users’ data.<br />

LG TVs comes with an option to grant its users with an option if they want to enable the feature to collect their data.<br />

This option meant to be used for LG Smart Ad analyses to offer users 
ads based on their favourite programs, online behaviour, search keywords
 and other information, but according to the DoctorBeet’s discovery, 
regardless of whether this option is set to On or Off, your private data
 is still sent to LG Servers.<br />

He also claimed that, each time a user switch the channel, the data 
is logged and sent to the LG servers. This user data is sent as a plain 
text with no encryption algorithm applied whatsoever. DoctorBeet wrote,<br />

<blockquote>
“This information appears to be sent back unencrypted and
 in the clear to LG every time you change channel, even if you have gone
 to the trouble of changing the setting above to switch collection of 
viewing information off.”</blockquote>
He also had demonstrated how poorly LG is gathering data from your USB devices <a href="http://doctorbeet.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/lg-smart-tvs-logging-usb-filenames-and.html" target="_blank">here</a> on his blog.<br />

After the evidence collected, DoctorBeet approached LG to catch their
 views regarding breach, and wrote LG an e-mail, to which LG replied,<br />

<blockquote>
Good Morning<br />
<div class="adsxpls" id="adsxpls1" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
</div>
Thank you for your e-mail.<br />

Further to our previous email to yourself, we have escalated the issues you reported to LG’s UK Head Office.<br />

The advice we have been given is that unfortunately as you accepted 
the Terms and Conditions on your TV, your concerns would be best 
directed to the retailer. We understand you feel you should have been 
made aware of these T’s and C’s at the point of sale, and for obvious 
reasons LG are unable to pass comment on their actions.<br />

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you. If you have 
any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us again.<br />

Kind Regards<br />

Tom<br />

LG Electronics UK Helpdesk<br />

Tel: 0844 847 5454<br />

Fax: 01480 274 000<br />

Email: cic.uk@lge.com</blockquote>
DoctorBeet had also presented a simple solution to avoid this 
unnecessary spying by blocking various domains for outgoing traffic from
 your Router, you can read this solution and his discovery with more 
technical details on his official blog <a href="http://doctorbeet.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/lg-smart-tvs-logging-usb-filenames-and.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>

LG Smart TVs Collect Your Personal Data and Other Information

After the revelation of NSA’s PRISM program, it now seems as Spying is the new trend and everyone is in fashion. Few days back a UK bas...

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LG Smart TVs Collect Your Personal Data and Other Information

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