Chromebox: Google's First Real Desktop

Google chrome became the number one web browser beating IE recently. Cashing in on this success they are all set to promote Chrome OS as an alternate operating system for desktops targeted at business users. Google in association with Samsung today launched the Chromebox, a mini PC running on Google’s browser based OS. The device is designed for people who want some screen flexibility in their Chrome OS experience.

The Chromebox is ‘thin client’ device. Users can plug in their monitor, keyboard and mouse to access applications stored elsewhere. It gives users a change from windows and OS X and an opportunity to try a brand new cloud connected, Linux based OS.

The Chromebox comes with more ports than the Chromebook, though it is missing an SD card reader. Apart from this the device is just a ‘box’ version of the new Chromebook 550. Users are comparing the Chromebook with Apple Mac Mini, which is ideally used for home theatres. But in reality the makers have launched the device to compete with the Mac and Windows PCs.

Chromebox is prices at $329. Google gives users added administration tools, hardware warranty, and lifetime support including 24-hour phone support for the retail price plus $150. This clearly indicates that the device has been launched keeping businesses and educational institutions in mind. It will cost an institution $479 plus the cost of desktop and keyboard to have a fully functioning desktop. Since more than one user can use the same desktop it makes for a smart buy for management.

What makes Chromebox work is the OS is runs on. With Google providing newer updates on short intervals with the latest Chrome OS 19 being desktop like. It is a smart buy when various users use a single unit, but it is more on the pricier end for an individual user. Let us hope Samsung is listening.

New Era Of Internet Started: Welcome IPv6

The internet has seen an unprecedented network growth in the recent past. But According to the standard protocol there is a limitation in the number of IPs that can be supported. This hinted at a possibility that with the increasing number of devices the internet is about to run out of IP addresses very soon. The proposed solution is about to be implemented next week.

On June 6 all major Internet service providers (ISPs), home networking equipment manufacturers, and web companies around the world are coming together to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services. It is the Internet Protocol version 6 which will allow 2^128 address spaces that can support billions of devices to connect to internet and it will also improve the QoS (Quality of Service) parameters in services including video and audio. The list of companies to shift to IPv6 includes Facebook, Google, Yahoo, AT&T, Cisco, and Akamai to name a few.

On June 8 2011, some companies tried out the IPv6 addresses for a day. The check was done to look for any issues that may crop up when the final transition from IPv4 to the new protocol is made. "Last year’s industry-wide test of IPv6 successfully showed that its global adoption is the best way to keep web devices communicating in the future.” said Jay Parikh, VP of Infrastructure Engineering at Facebook.

This change to IPv6 is not going to affect end users too much. The 4 digit IP addresses will change to 6 digit addresses and there will a large number of IP addresses available for users.

 “The Internet has grown to be an essential part of our daily lives. It connects our devices to our apps; more importantly, it connects us to each other. Yahoo! is proud to be a part of the World IPv6 Launch – an event that marks the next chapter of our Internet. IPv6 enables the Internet to grow, while remaining open and accessible to new applications and new ideas.

World's Most Complex Virus Exposed; Rescue In Progress

The world’s “largest” cyber attack has been uncovered with the discovery of the most complex computer virus ever- ‘Flame,’ which is set to destroy the mass data of businesses, universities and governments.

According to the security researchers report, the ‘data-vacuuming’ virus has already infected a handful of computers around the world and is mainly targeted at a number of Middle Eastern countries including Iran and Israel. Kaspersky’s report states Flame as “most complex threat,” much bigger than its counterparts. The virus can sniff network traffic and has the ability to take screenshots, record conversations by microphones that are plugged in or embedded to the PC, and key logs input data and so on.

Compared to the 500 KB payload of its counterpart Stuxnet virus, which attacked Iranian nuclear systems in 2010, Flame is a massive 20 MB in size. Researchers were not yet able to identify how it gets into network. The malware, which mostly affects Windows System is unique that it has the ability to steal so much data in so many different ways, allowing a complete overview in “eyes and ears” of anything and everyone in the vicinity of the infected machine.

The National Computer Emergency Response Team of Iran has ordered an emergency review of official computer installations. Iran and Israel are the most infected, along with Sudan and Syria, revealed Kaspersky’s Alexander Gostev. “The size and sophistication of the virus likely makes it to be a Government backed project,” he added.

Gostev explained in Kaspersky’s blog: “Currently there are three known classes of players who develop malware and spyware: hacktivists, cybercriminals and nation states. Flame is not designed to steal money from bank accounts. It is also different from rather simple hack tools and malware used by the hacktivists.”

“By excluding cybercriminals and hacktivists, we come to conclusion that it most likely belongs to the third group. In addition, the geography of the targets (certain states are in the Middle East) and also the complexity of the threat leaves no doubt about it being a nation state that sponsored the research that went into it.”

Iran was attacked with Stuxnet virus in 2010 followed by Duqu in 2011 which infiltrate networks and stole the government and corporate data. The Flame is said to be 20 times more powerful than the previous ones.

Facebook Will Disappear By 2020

Well, everybody hoped Facebook’s stock slide will stop today or tomorrow. But things are getting worse day by day and some hedge fund managers’ even start predicting after analyzing the situation that the world’s largest social network is going to disappear by 2020.

Eric Jackson, founder of Ironfire Capital told on CNBC’s show Squawk on the Street: “In five to eight years they are going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared. Yahoo is still making money, it's still profitable, still has 13,000 employees working for it, but it is 10 percent of the value that it was at the height of 2000. For all intents and purposes, it's disappeared."

And the big reason Jackson list for Facebook’s fallout will be the failure in monetizing mobile platform, the same reason that investors accused and sued Facebook for hiding from them. The lawsuit which filed two weeks after IPO stated: “the true facts at the time of the IPO were that Facebook was experiencing a severe and pronounced reduction in revenue growth due to an increase of users of its Facebook app or website through mobile devices.

Jackson includes Facebook in second generation companies those capitalized on an emerging social web. The first generation companies including Google and Yahoo had trouble moving to the second “social” generation. In the same way Facebook will experience trouble moving towards the third generation companies whose sole goal is leveraging and monetizing mobile users.

"Facebook can buy a bunch of mobile companies, but they are still a big, fat website and that's different from a mobile app," says Jackson.

 “When you look over these three generations, no matter how successful you are in one generation, you don’t seem to be able to translate that into success in the second generation, no matter how much money you have in the bank, no matter how many smart PhDs you have working for you,” Jackson says.

Facebook shares, which went on sale for $38 on its IPO day closed at $26.90 on Monday.

Is IPv6 a Security Risk in India?

It was a milestone in internet’s history. Last week, the world eagerly witnessed the grand launch of IPv6, as this paved path for the internet which aims at replacing current IPv4. Along with web giants like Facebook and Google, some of the Indian websites also joined hands in stepping to the new platform. The Telecom Department of India reports that about 27 Indian websites have already made the big leap. But now a question is raised- How about the security? Has this new system or platform given importance to security? The interesting part is that most of them are skeptical about the issue.

According to Steve Santorelli, who is with Team Cymru, an Internet security research company, after quitting the jobs from the US Scotland Yard's Computer Crime Unit and Microsoft’s Internet Crimes Investigation Team, “To most developers, security comes as a distant afterthought and so is the case with IPv6? IPv6 is not a security fix, and if we're not careful, it might be the opposite as the global attack surface will grow with people having a false sense of security over IPv4.”

Santorelli also warns that the shift to IPv6 from IPv4 is just like changing numbers. So if the firms are really not thinking about the security then they really should from now on. The reason behind this is that IPv6 wasn’t developed with security as its main core. So now or never, we me might be on the verge finding new and harder security issues.

Another major issue is that IPv6 doesn’t support Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) which is the used for securing communications and for end to end security. The reason said behind this is that the launch of IPv6 was so abrupt that its integration wasn’t possible. Deepak Rout, Director at ISACA Delhi chapter, explains that “The integration didn’t happen because of the rapidity of the rollout. So, today IPv6 will be deployed largely without cryptographic capabilities. CIOs will have to deploy encryption technologies over the protocol to make point to point security possible.”

Owen Delong, director of professional services for global Internet backbone Hurricane Electric reasons out, “Yes, there are some unknowns and some other challenges with the migration towards dual stack and eventually the replacement of IPv4. The concerns include translation/transition/tunneling mechanism for attacks, new types of reconnaissance attacks and some new twists on header manipulation and fragmentation attacks.”

But these issues will never keep organizations from shifting to the new platform because IPv4 has already exhausted in the number of IP addresses and enterprises will have to pay more if they are willing to stay in IPv4 that has slower web hosting and connections.