Ce's Articles - Daedalus Teks

Australia joins US, Canada to foil major online scams

By Amy McNeilage @ The Sydney Morning Herald

Australian, American and Canadian authorities have joined forces to foil a major international phone scam, known as the Microsoft Imposter scam.

The scam, which involves people pretending to be Microsoft employees offering to fix computer viruses, is thought to have ripped off tens of thousands of people in six countries.

US authorities this week won court orders to close down and freeze funds of alleged US-based parties involved in the scheme.

Details of the action were to be revealed this morning in a joint media conference in Washington DC with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

“With new scams appearing more frequently, our citizens need to be vigilant and not respond to insidious trickery,” ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman, said in a statement.

“The best way for people to protect themselves from these types of scam calls is to simply hang up and never give an unsolicited caller access to their computer or their credit card details.”

The ACMA first became aware of the scam in 2009 via its Do Not Call complaint line. It generated nearly 10,000 calls to the line over the past two years.

Australia was one of the first targets of the scam, which subsequently spread to other countries. The ACMA had been tracking the scammers for three years, in collaboration with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the FTC.

How the scam works (source: ACMA)

A caller claims to work for Windows or Microsoft and says they have detected a virus or ‘issues’ with your computer.

To confirm the diagnosis, they ask you to open Windows Event viewer to check if it is infected.

Several error messages are listed, even though errors are common and often harmless.

The caller says the errors are of great concern and offers to refer you to a technician for a fee.

The technician asks you to log on to a third-party website so they can remotely access your computer.

The scammer then might:

• Install an antivirus program (often one that you can download for free) for up to $250

• Ask for your credit card details but install nothing

• Install malware so your computer can be controlled remotely

• Access and steal personal and financial details from your computer

Posted By: Ces Garcia Original Article by Amy McNeilage @ The Sydney Morning Herald Original article can be found by clicking "Australia joins US, Canada to foil major online scam"

Atom Split Into Two And Then Put Back Together Using Quantum Mechanics

On a topic unrelated to computers, I figured that everyone should know that this has happened.

An atom has been split into halves, separated, and then put back together, in new research from the University of Bonn. The word “atom” literally means “indivisible,” yet quantum mechanics allows an atom to be split and put back together in a way similar to rays of light.

The researchers are doing this work because they want to build quantum mechanics bridges, by letting the the atom being pulled apart touch adjacent atoms, forming a bridge between them.

In this experiment, the researchers succeeded in keeping a single atom in two places more than 10 micrometers apart, that’s a one-hundredth of a millimeter. That is an enormous distance for an atom. Afterwords, the atom was put back together undamaged.Dividing atoms brings to mind things like nuclear fission and radiation. However, this is a completely different process. The laws of quantum mechanics allow something to exist in several different states at once. This is what the “double-slit” experiment is based on, an object going to two separate slits at once.

These quantum effects can only occur at the lowest temperatures and with very careful handling. One method is to cool a cesium atom using lasers just slightly above absolute zero and then using another laser to move it. The laser is the key to this method because atoms have a spin that can go in two directions. Using the spin, the atom can move to the left of the right like a conveyer belt. The key to this is that the atom’s spin can be in both directions at once.

–>You may also like: Quantum Computers Will Be Capable Of Simulating Particle Collisions

“The atom has kind of a split personality, half of it is to the right, and half to the left, and yet, it is still whole,” explained Andreas Steffen, the publication’s lead author.

This isn’t visible directly, though. If you shine a light on the atom, the split will collapse. If imaged, the atom sometimes shows on the left, the right, or in the center, but the split can be proved by putting the atom back together.

10 Biggest Computer Security Myths Busted

By: ANGUS KIDMAN GIZMODO AU MAY 9, 2012 1:20 PM

Keeping your computer secure can be confusing, so it’s not surprising that mistaken beliefs often end up taking root. Here are the ten biggest myths about computer security, busted once and for all.

Picture by Niels Heidenreich

We’ve run posts in the past covering common virus myths, but viruses are just one small part of the overall security equation. Here are some widespread beliefs that are (for the most part) flat-out wrong.

Myth #10. Computers represent the biggest security risk

While many criminals and scammers use email, web sites and other electronic tools, they haven’t abandoned more traditional methods. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, phone scams remain more common than any other type. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take appropriate precautions when you’re online. Rather, it serves as a reminder that a questioning attitude is wise whenever you interact with people in any forum.

Atom-Sized Transistor Foretells Quantum Computer, Scientists Say

By Ian Paul, PCWorld Feb 20, 2012 9:48 AM

Scientists say they have created the first transistor from a single phosphorous atom using near-atomic precision, which could keep development of processors on track with Moore's law until at least 2020 and offers the possibility of a general-purpose quantum computer that processes data significantly faster than current devices.

To create the transistor, scientists at the University of New South Wales, Australia used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to manipulate atoms on the surface of a crystal inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber. The newly created transistor was then covered with a non-reactive layer of hydrogen and encased in silicon.

Tiny atom-sized transistors have been created before, but were often built by chance, according to the researchers. “This is the first time anyone has shown control of a single atom in a substrate with this level of precise accuracy," says Professor Michelle Simmons, a group leader and director of the ARC Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at the University of New South Wales.

Moore's Law Upheld

Moore's law, first postulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, says the number of transistors -- the main component of a microchip -- that can fit on a chip doubles about every 24 months. To keep pace with Moore's law, transistors would have to reach the atomic level by 2020.

Australia joins US, Canada to foil major online scams

Atom Split Into Two And Then Put Back Together Using Quantum Mechanics

10 Biggest Computer Security Myths Busted

Atom-Sized Transistor Foretells Quantum Computer, Scientists Say

Moore's Law Upheld

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