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Week in Geek: Official 64-Bit ‘Nightly Builds’ of Mozilla Firefox have been Discontinued

Our last edition of WIG for November is filled with news link coverage on topics such as how Microsoft gave Windows 8 Pro to pirates by mistake, Nintendo warns against interrupting the Wii U update, a new trojan is using Google Docs to communicate with its control server, and more.

Original wallpaper by hackSkillz, available at deviantART.

Weekly News Links

Original wallpaper by hackSkillz, available at deviantART.

Security News

Original image courtesy of Linux Ceon.

  • New Linux Rootkit Emerges
    A new Linux rootkit has emerged and researchers who have analyzed its code and operation say that the malware appears to be a custom-written tool designed to inject iframes into Web sites and drive traffic to malicious sites for drive-by download attacks.
  • Default WPA2 password on Belkin routers is easily worked out
    Jörg Schneider and Jakob Lell from TU Berlin have discovered that there is a simple means of working out the default WPA2-PSK password on some Belkin routers. They found that the default password can be calculated from the device’s WAN MAC address using a substitution table.
  • Windows 8 Update Fails on KB2770917
    Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday updates were supposed to fix several issues in Windows 8, but there’s one patch that actually does more harm than good.
  • Trojan uses Google Docs to communicate with its control server
    IT security firm Symantec has discovered a trojan called Backdoor.Makadocs that hides in Rich Text Format (RTF) and Microsoft Word documents and injects malicious code via Trojan.Dropper. Apparently, it uses the Google Docs service’s Viewer feature to communicate with its command-and-control (C&C) server.
  • Beware Card- and Cash-Trapping at the ATM
    Many security-savvy readers have learned to be vigilant against ATM card skimmers and hidden devices that can record you entering your PIN at the cash machine. But experts say an increasing form of ATM fraud involves the use of simple devices capable of snatching cash and ATM cards from unsuspected users.
  • Professional trojan targets SEPA transactions
    Cyber-criminals are targeting the European SEPA payments network, according to a report from security specialist McAfee. Within the EU, SEPA transactions are uncomplicated because they make no distinction between domestic and cross-border transactions. In this case, that also benefits the online crooks who usually transfer money from the victim’s account to foreign bank accounts.
  • If You’re Greek, Someone Probably Just Stole Your Identity
    Potential math-test question for Greek children: If someone steals nine million computer files containing the personal data of Greek citizens, and the population of Greece is 11 million, what percentage of Greek citizens have had their personal data stolen?
  • Yahoo Email-Stealing Exploit Fetches $700
    A zero-day vulnerability in yahoo.com that lets attackers hijack Yahoo! email accounts and redirect users to malicious Web sites offers a fascinating glimpse into the underground market for large-scale exploits.
  • Lost+Found: Photo glitch, a wardriving bike, radio problems
    Too short for news, too good to lose; Lost+Found is a roundup of useful and interesting security news. In this edition: a revealing UK MOD photo, a custom wardriving motorcycle, libraries for reverse engineering, exploit toolkits, and radio troubles.
  • Mat Honan leading you out of digital hell
    The Wired senior reporter is taking up the case against passwords – and with good reason.
  • Small businesses still underestimate cost of security breaches
    The good news is that more SMBs are shoring up cyber-security defenses, but many worry the measures they are taking won’t be adequate.
  • U.S. ‘used malware and Facebook’ to hack French president’s team
    The staff of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy fell victim to a hack attack while he was still in office, and the finger of blame is being pointed at the U.S.

TinyHacker Links

How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap

Geeky Goodness from the ETC Side

One Year Ago on How-To Geek

How-To Geek Comics Weekly Roundup

How-To Geek Weekly Trivia Roundup

Comments (5)

  1. November 25, 2012
    pbug56

    Ah, 2 fun stories. First, the WII WII U idiots who think that if they unplug their WII WII during a firmware update that they will still have a working game console. You’d think, you’d hope that with so many people with PCs and STUPIDPHONES etc. warning people to keep hands off during such updates that WII WII (yes, I’m calling it something like a wee wee) would know better then to unplug them during an update, thus creating a very cute looking plastic brick!

    2nd good story; HP saying that if you get a new PC, it is Windoze 8 or no support! Hopefully that will net HP the even poorer sales that their devalued junk merits. Sure, their PC’s look nice, but with fans designed to burn out, with wifi cards that work at about 802.11 B levels while pretending to be N cards, USB 3 ports that you can’t identify as such, etc., this decision fits their overall strategy of gutting their PC and laptop sales!

    Oh, I forgot, the 3rd story of MS accidentally giving away Win Pro 8 valid keys… Maybe the only way to get IT pros (not wannabees) to use this disaster.

  2. November 25, 2012
    nt0xik8ed

    looks like someones kid (pbug56) got past the parental controls.

  3. November 26, 2012
    Cody

    Just because he is unprofessional and sarcastic with his presentation of these facts does not mean he is a kid. Most of this knowledge would not be known by kids and kids would make comments like your own because they don’t know any of those facts.

  4. November 26, 2012
    John

    #Cody

    Unprofessional? Sarcastic? Stop being politically correct and dancing the “government two-step”.

    BTW, have you used/bought/owned one of those HP craputers? pbug56 is correct!

  5. November 27, 2012
    Erik

    You guys rock :)

Akemi Iwaya (Asian Angel) is our very own Firefox Fangirl who enjoys working with multiple browsers and loves 'old school' role-playing games. Visit her on Twitter and .

  • Published 11/25/12

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