Our latest edition of WIG is filled with news link coverage on topics such as 2012 set a new record for reported data breaches, Minecraft: Pi Edition is available for free on Raspberry Pi, Oracle is due to release a new Java patch this week, and more.

Weekly News Links

• Opera commits to Chromium and WebKit
  Opera Software, the company behind the proprietary Opera browser, announced that it will stop developing its own Presto rendering engine in favour of a switch to a WebKit-based solution over the course of this year. The announcement comes as the company celebrates 300 million monthly users of its browser products on the desktop, mobile devices and TVs.
• Opera buying Skyfire for mobile-video technology
  To boost its business with mobile network operators, the Norwegian browser maker is spending up to $155 million for the Silicon Valley startup.
• Firefox with Windows 8 UI arrives in Nightly channel
  After having published a first preview version of the Firefox edition for the Windows 8 “Metro” user interface in October 2012, Mozilla’s Director of Firefox Asa Dotzler has now announced its release to the browser’s Nightly release channel. Users of the Firefox Nightly channel will therefore get the “Metro” version of the browser on their Windows 8 devices.
• Chrome stops declaring Linux systems obsolete
  Badly chosen warning messages caused some consternation with Google recently as its Chrome browser began declaring supported Linux systems such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 obsolete.
• Do Not Track browser standard: Back on the rails
  A logjam held up a standard designed to let people tell Web sites not to track their online behavior, but the co-chair of the group that’s coordinating the effort now expects progress to resume.
• Windows 7 users: Move to SP1 to continue receiving Microsoft support
  The end of support date for Windows 7 without Service Pack 1 installed is April 9, 2013.
• Microsoft Fails to Repair a Three-Month-Old Bug Once Again
  Microsoft promised to fix the Surface RT Wi-Fi connectivity bug with this month’s Patch Tuesday updates but, as far as users are concerned, the released fixes make no difference on the affected devices.
• Service packs are not a thing of the past for Microsoft Office
  Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 2 is in private beta. Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 just arrived this week.The Office team is not moving away from the service-pack model the way that Windows is.
• Samsung UEFI bug: Notebook bricked from Windows
  Linux developer Matthew Garrett, who does a lot of research into UEFI topics, writes in a blog post that by storing a large amount of data in UEFI variables, he managed to disrupt a Samsung notebook running Windows to such a degree that it subsequently refused to start.
• iOS 6.1.2 reportedly will roll out next week to squash 6.1 bugs
  The update, which would fix the Exchange syncing issue and the passcode hack in iOS 6.1, could come before Wednesday, claims a German blog site.
• Android 4.2.2: A better Jelly Bean rolls into the wild
  The upgrade is being released to Nexus device owners first and reportedly addresses a Bluetooth bug.
• Ubuntu Phone Downloads To Be Released Next Week
  Installable Ubuntu Phone images for the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 handsets will be available to download from next week, Canonical has announced.
• Minecraft: Pi Edition Released for Free on Raspberry Pi
  Mojang has just finished their Minecraft: Pi Edition port and have made it available for free to anyone who owns a Raspberry Pi.
• Dropbox courting IT admins with new console, sharing controls
  Dropbox is further tackling the consumerization of IT with new controls designed to please administrators.
• Skype rolls out video-messaging beta for non-Microsoft platforms
  Skype has added a new video messaging capability to Skype on iOS, Mac and Android. Windows support is coming too…some day.
• EA exec: Backward compatibility unlikely for next console generation
  CFO also hints used games won’t be around long in this world. – Those of you hoping to sell off your old Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 if and when you upgrade to the next generation of systems might need to hold on to that hardware. Electronic Arts Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen recently said he doesn’t think the new consoles expected this year will be able to play software from their predecessors.
• Report: Google to open U.S. retail stores later this year
  Google plans to open its own retail stores across the United States, according to a new report, giving the increasingly hardware-focused company a place to show off its growing number of physical products.
• Adobe releases source code for 1990 version of Photoshop
  All 128,000 lines of code for the first version of the pioneering software released 23 years ago are available for free download from the Computer History Museum.

Security News

Broken glass image effect via PhotoFunia.

• Zero-day attack exploits latest version of Adobe Reader
  A previously undocumented flaw in the latest version of Adobe Systems’ ubiquitous Reader application is being exploited in online hacks that allow attackers to surreptitiously install malware on end-user computers, a security firm said. You can read the official Adobe bulletin here.
• Oracle to re-release Java SE patch with extra helping of fixes
  Oracle didn’t have time to fix all the Java bugs when it released its out of band patch earlier this month, so now there’s a redux on the way.
• iOS 6.1 brings back bug that gives anyone access to your contacts, photos
  An old vulnerability in the iPhone’s lock screen and Emergency Call feature appears to have resurfaced for a third time in iOS 6.1. With the right sequence of button clicking, it’s possible to get to an iPhone user’s voicemails, contacts, and photos—even if the iPhone is locked and password protected.
• Frosty attack on Android encryption
  Two researchers at the University of Erlangen in Germany have demonstrated a way of accessing an encrypted Android smartphone using a freezer. To access the cryptographic key stored in the phone’s memory, they placed the phone in the freezer compartment for an hour, with the result that the memory content remained – almost literally – frozen.
• Google Play Store’s “privacy problem” is taxing
  Google’s Play Store is giving out email addresses, post codes and full names to the seller of an Android application whenever an app is purchased, according to an Australian developer’s report. Calling it a “massive, massive privacy issue”, Dan Nolan says “Google. Fix it. Immediately”.
• JavaScript expert: WebKit, get your bug-ridden house in order
  Dave Methvin, a leader of the influential jQuery programming tool, says WebKit is plagued with old bugs. He’s not optimistic Opera will help improve the browser situation.
• Yahoo! Pushing Java Version Released in 2008
  At a time when Apple, Mozilla and other tech giants are taking steps to prevent users from browsing the Web with outdated versions of Java, Yahoo! is pushing many of its users in the other direction: The free tool that it offers users to help build Web sites installs a dangerously insecure version of Java that is more than four years old.
• Facebook computers compromised by zero-day Java exploit
  Facebook officials said they recently discovered that computers belonging to several of its engineers had been hacked using a zero-day Java attack that installed a collection of previously unseen malware.
• Google Engineers Reported More than Half of Patch Tuesday Bugs
  Microsoft rolled out this month’s Patch Tuesday updates this past week, trying to fix a total of 57 vulnerabilities discovered in several products such as Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer. It’s very interesting to note that more than half of these bugs have been reported by Google engineers, including important bugs in the Windows operating system.
• Linux trailed Windows in patching zero-days in 2012, report says
  Zero-day flaws in the Linux kernel patched last year took on average more than two years to fix, twice as long as it took to fix those affecting current Windows OS, a report by security researchers has found.
• Crooks Net Millions in Coordinated ATM Heists
  Organized cyber criminals stole almost $11 million in two highly coordinated ATM heists in the final days of 2012, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. The events prompted Visa to warn U.S. payment card issuers to be on high-alert for additional ATM cash-out fraud schemes in the New Year.
• Anatomy of a vulnerability – cURL web download toolkit holed by authentication bug
  You may not have heard of cURL, but you’ve probably used software that uses it. It’s an open-source programming toolkit that helps you deal with writing client-side code that deals with URLs. – The Naked Security blog looks at a recent vulnerability that was introduced into cURL.
• When is a file not a file?
  Sometimes it is easy to examine a file and to tell what it is. Many files carry a tell-tale format marker in their header bytes. Such markers are quaintly known as “magic numbers”. Other file formats have no official magic, but are still recognisable. But what of encrypted files? How can you tell if a file is encrypted?
• 2012 Sets New Record for Reported Data Breaches
  Risk Based Security’s 2012 Data Breach QuickView report shows that 2012 broke the previous all-time record for the number of reported data loss incidents. With 2,644 incidents recorded through mid-January 2013, 2012 more than doubled the previous highest year on record (2011).
• Android security suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
  Android’s overwhelming popularity may be its undoing. Malware against Android exceeds threats against Windows. The threats are bigger and more is at stake than ever before.
• Hardware-based security more effective against new threats
  Securing hardware components would prove more effective in today’s security environment, given that many online threats are delivered via software or network vulnerabilities.
• 6 threats facing BYOD
  While there are numerous benefits to BYOD, there are also risks. It’s no wonder that in security circles BYOD is referred to as “Bring Your Own Danger,” or “Bring Your Own Disaster.”
• Lost+Found: Angry ATMs, atmospheric entropy and virtual ShmooCon
  Too small for news, but too good to lose, Lost+Found is a compilation of the other stories that have been on The H’s radar this week. In this edition: Angry Birds where they shouldn’t be, the search for a new hashing scheme, atmospheric noise, the ShmooCon live stream, and more jailbreak details.

TinyHacker Links

• A Brave, New World or the More Things Change?
  An interesting infographic with predictions about the types and amount of internet traffic that we will see in 2015.
• End of Life Roadmap for Windows 7
  Details about the end of support dates for Windows 7 RTM and Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
• Getting Started Guide for Surface
  A free download from Microsoft, this primer is 68 pages and chock full of useful information on all things Surface.
• Safe!
  Safe for now…

How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap

• How to Switch to VoIP and Ditch Your Home Phone Bill Forever
• 50+ File Extensions That Are Potentially Dangerous on Windows
• HTG Explains: Why You Don’t Need a Full Internet Security Suite
• How to Prolong the Life of Your Hard Drive
• How to Automatically Shut Down or Restart Your PC (or Do it Remotely From Your Phone)
• 6 Ways the Linux File System is Different From the Windows File System
• How to Create a Bootable DOS USB Drive
• How to Add “Scan with Windows Defender” to the Context Menu in Windows 8
• The Best Free Programs and Websites for Converting Units and Currency
• How To Overwrite Free Space Securely in Windows

Geeky Goodness from the ETC Side

• Desktop Fun: Valentine’s Day 2013 Wallpaper Collection [Bonus Edition]
• New Security Hole Found in Adobe Reader and Acrobat: Here is How to Enable Protection Against the Exploit
• Five ‘Sweet’ Facts about the Chemistry of Chocolate
• The Ridge is a High-Tech, RFID-Blocking Card Holder and Wallet
• Reminder: Windows Live Mesh Service Shutting Down Tomorrow
• A Defense of Comic Sans
• New Free ‘Getting Started Guide’ for Microsoft Surface Pro Available for Download

How-To Geek Weekly Trivia Roundup

• Apollo Astronauts Saw Streaks Of Light Caused By What?
• What Was the First TV Show to Be Rerun?
• What Electronic Device Needs To Be Factory-Calibrated To The Earth’s Magnetosphere?
• What Was The First SPAM Email About?
• Douglas Adams Originally Wrote For Which Sci-Fi Series?
• Early Rural Telephone Systems In The U.S. Relied On What?
• Where Did IBM’s Super Computer Watson Learn To Swear?

One Year Ago on How-To Geek

• How To Sync Your Browser Data with Firefox Sync
• How to Find Which Tab is Making a Noise in Google Chrome and Mute It
• Beginner: How to Clear Your Web History in Chrome, Firefox and IE9
• Find Hidden Features and Easter Eggs on Firefox’s About: Pages
• Find Hidden Features On Chrome’s Internal Chrome:// Pages
• Find Hidden Features on Opera’s Internal Opera: Pages