Personal Web Sites Are New Hacker Target
The explosion of personal Web sites is creating new opportunities for hackers bent on taking advantage of Internet vulnerabilities, computer experts say.
As the public gains greater access to sophisticated Web services allowing non-technical people to start up very complex Web sites, hackers increasingly identify weak points in the Web sites to find various ways to harm users, LiveScience.com reported.
"Web sites are the next battleground in the war for computer security," computer scientist Michalis Faloutsos says.
"We are in the early stages of this war, and any Web site is vulnerable," Faloutsos says.
The number of vulnerable sites is growing with the popularity of companies that offer -- often at low prices -- to host pages with simple directions and only basic technical support.
The Web site-building customers do not have the training necessary to adequately protect their pages, leaving the sites exposed to malware and infiltration, LiveScience reported.
The only way to stop the damage from Web site attacks is to start sufficiently protecting Web sites now, Faloutsos said.
"Five years from now, it will be commonplace for Web sites to have protection," he said. "This is just the beginning; this is not a problem that will just go away."
Read more [FreeNewsFeed.com]
Tablet Computer for $35 or Less Developed in India
A tablet computer for $35. That's the estimated retail price of a prototype basic touchscreen tablet developed by the government of India.
The device, which uses the open-source Linux operating system, was unveiled Thursday by Kapil Sibal, India's human-resource development minister. "This is our answer to M.I.T.'s $100 computer," he told the Economic Times.
$10, Eventually
His reference is to the $100 laptop that M.I.T. Media Lab cofounder Nicholas Negroponte set as a goal when he founded One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) in 2005. The main idea was to build an innovative, inexpensive computer to be used by children in developing countries.
But the Indian government thought that even $100 was too expensive, so it started developing its own. In the meantime, OLPC's laptop was developed and released, but at an eventual price of about $200. OLPC announced in the spring that it would develop and launch a basic tablet computer for $99.
The Indian tablet was developed by researchers and students at the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science at Sibal's urging. He has told news media that the goal is to eventually get the price closer to $10. The Indian government, which is undertaking a major educational technology initiative, will subsidize the tablet, bringing the near-term price down to $20.
The prototype has no hard drive but uses a memory card, can run on solar power, and incorporates open-source software. The government said it supports web browsing, word processing, video conferencing, and other applications.
A previous effort by the Indian government, announced last year, to develop a $10 laptop ended with a prototype handheld device that has apparently been abandoned.
'Have a Few on Hand'
The government has said that at least one Taiwanese manufacturer, in addition to other computer makers, is interested in building the device, although no arrangements have been made....
Read more [FreeNewsFeed.com]
