Find out more details about the acquisition here.

Gizmodo recently posted a huge scoop with photos and video for the next iPhone. But the police are questioning how editor Jason Chen acquired the iPhone prototype for his written review.

Last Friday night, California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team raided Chen’s home (while he was away, but with a search warrant) and confiscated four computers and two servers. There’s a lot of information regarding the situation and questions of legality are being thrown to both sides of the action.

According to TechCrunch, Gizmodo admits to paying $5000 for the alleged iPhone 4g prototype, but “contended the device was found at a bar, not stolen.” Gizmodo also contests, “the search warrant to remove these computers was invalid under section 1524(g) of the California Penal Code.” This code, sometimes referenced in part of the Shield Laws, states “no warrant shall issue for any items described in Section 1070 of the Evidence Code.” Basically, it protects journalists from having to reveal their source(s) and includes any unpublished information. Does that apply to online blogs, such as Gizmodo? Well, the DA has currently halted the police investigation as they thoroughly mull over Gizmodo’s defense statements.

Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch asked Stephen Wagstaffe, Chief Deputy at San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, if it was “typical for the DA to evaluate the relevance of these shield laws after removing evidence.” Yep, “Wagstaffe did concede that it was unusual.”

The Business Insider says Chen may face up to one year in prison if “convicted of a felony for receiving stolen property or aiding a thief.” SND Readers, what do you think? Was Chen in the wrong? Were the police too quick to raid?

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McAfee KnowledgeBase Article

If you are a small-medium sized business, and have a server/network, click on this link for the remedy. This will allow you to use an Altiris Deployment Solution to remotely fix systems that have not been rebooted:

McAfee Virus Definition Defect (Corporate)

For networked systems that have already been rebooted:

McAfee Corporate KnowledgeBase

Now, there’s isn’t a given day where I don’t check my email, stalk my friends on Facebook, track the weather (for biking preparedness), chat with other online addicts friends or just surf the web at least once. Okay, granted, working online and writing a blog doesn’t help…  But, when I see half my friends on their smart phone obsessively replying every constant ding from a new email or text message… or when any vacation I take with friends or family entails at least one person bringing their laptop… or when I dine at a restaurant and see the entire table next to me typing away on their data-capable phones rather than actually conversing with each other… I start to wonder. Is the Internet more of a hindrance than it is helpful? We were just fine without it before, but does that mean we could do it again?

The internet has definitely become the stem of many controversial issues — take Australian censorship or the ethical usage of Internet regarding patients for example. What we thought was already a small world (after all), has been made even smaller and more accessible through the world wide web. Email. Instant message. VoIP. Streaming media. Technology has evolved and zipped light years past the days of the Pony Express and Morse code.

Of course, with the good, comes the bad — there’s always that balance, right? Internet has caused a rise in negligence and violence. The Sydney Morning Herald notes a couple of instances:

Last month, a couple let their three-month-old starve while they raised a virtual child in an online game, spending most of their days at an internet cafe instead of caring for their newborn, police said.

That baby died of malnutrition. Oh, and hold on, there’s another one:

In February, a 22-year-old bludgeoned his mother to death for “nagging” him about playing internet games, police said. He then played games online for hours, paying with his mother’s credit card, a police statement said.

In South Korea, where these two instances occurred, more than 90% of households have broadband internet access. In addition, 24-hour internet cafes are abundant in Asia. As an alternative to staying the night at a hotel, much of the younger population partying late hours in Japan opt to spend the night at a 24-hour internet cafe until the train systems start back up in the morning. In Taiwan, internet cafes have become a popular hangouts — even ranging from cheap, affordable facilities to ritzy, expensive surroundings. Dr. Kim Tae-hoon, a psychiatrist who treats teenagers for internet addiction says, “In South Korea, it’s easier for citizens to play online games than to invest in their offline personal relations through face-to-face conversations.” He continues by noting, “People are becoming growingly numb to human interaction.”

The University of Maryland conducted a study asking 200 students to give up all media (Internet, cellphones, television, music, etc.) for one day. Is it surprising that, according to the New York Times, they found “many showed signs of withdrawal, craving and anxiety along with an inability to function well without their media and social links” after just 24 hours? One student confesses, “I clearly am addicted and the dependency is sickening.”

Although the American Psychiatric Association has yet to recognize Internet addiction as a disorder, South Korea has already decided to take action against the estimated 2 million people classified to be an addict. The South Korean government will be “restricting access to popular online games, and is sending counselors to elementary schools to teach children about healthy internet usage.”

The United States’ first in-patient treatment center for Internet addiction opened for business last summer near Redmond, Washington. The center, called reSTART, gives various examples of students who have become largely in debt or even dropped out of college due to internet addiction. But erm… the $14,000 price tag for treatment could be cause for self-help in of itself — or perhaps another reason to continue on(line)?

Stanford University’s School of Medicine estimates that one in eight Americans show at least one sign of internet overuse. A Huffington Post article by therapist Lisa Haisha, even takes internet addiction one step further by examining specifics, Facebook addiction. “Since the term Internet Addiction is broad, some psychologists have identified and classified sub-categories of Internet addiction,” says Haisha.

Director of I Will Center, a government-funded counseling center in South Korea, Park Hye-kyung says, “It’s a little ironic that what was invented to make our lives better has come to make it worse for some.” Could you do without Internet? Has it harmed your way of living more so than helped it? I’m stuck; I have no idea…What do SND readers think?

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For a full list of products affected, users should visit the Oracle Critical Patch Advisory page. Here they will also learn how to obtain and apply the patches, get a summary of the security vulnerabilities, and links to other important documents. You will also find a risk matrix, possible workarounds and information about unsupported product versions. Products not listed under “Supported Products and Components Affected” do not require new patches.

As always, as an Oracle Gold Partner, SoftwareMedia.com is your source for Oracle Software. Please contact us with any questions you may have.

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3. AVG Internet Security 9.0 | SoftwareMedia.com
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7. McAfee Internet Security 2010 | SoftwareMedia.com
8. Panda Internet Security 2010 | SoftwareMedia.com
9. Webroot Internet Security Essentials | SoftwareMedia.com
10. Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2010 | SoftwareMedia.com

Head over to PCWorld to read the full report of their findings.

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A BitDefender spokesperson assures the public that “Substantially less people have been affected than people think.” Although, those that have been hit with the malfunction, have been hit fairly hard. Read the IDG Connect article for more.

Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced — it’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China.

What does China have to say about it? Well, Xinhua, the official press of the People’s Republic of China, has a very brief comment on the matter…

Not too long after that comment, Xinhua got a bit more defensive and issued this brief article…

Could China be censoring Google by blocking the redirect anyway? It’s possible. SND readers, what do you think? Share your thoughts!

Mozilla confirmed

Currently, this only affects the latest Firefox release, version 3.6. This release came out just a couple of months ago in January.

Although developers have already fixed the issue, they are currently undergoing quality assurance testing before releasing the patch. The patch is scheduled to come out with Firefox version 3.6.2 on March 30. In the meantime, Mozilla suggests download the beta build which already contains the fix.

The Register reports that “half the roster of Fortune 1000 companies harboured machines infected by Mariposa at one time or another.” In fact, Christopher Davis, chief exec at Defence Intelligence in Canada, says, “It would be easier for me to provide a list of the Fortune 1000 companies that weren’t compromised, rather than the long list of those who were.”

After Davis first discovered Mariposa in May 2009, he teamed up with Georgia Tech Information Security Center, PandaLabs and law enforcement personnel to form the Mariposa Working Group. After months of collaboration, Panda Security, other security experts and law enforcement were able to shut down Mariposa on December 23, 2009.

In a panic to gain back control of Mariposa, botmaster Netkairo (aka “hamlet1917″), made a connection to the network using his home computer. Past connections had almost always been through a VPN (virtual private network) to mask IP addresses from the authorities. Netkairo’s mistake left a digital trail for investigators to follow, which then led to a string of arrests two months later.

In a press release today, Panda Security senior research advisor Pedro Bustamante tells us, “Our preliminary analysis indicates that the  botmasters did not have advanced hacking skills.” It just goes to show “how sophisticated and effective malware distribution software has become, empowering relatively unskilled cyber criminals to inflict major damage and financial loss.”

Defence Intelligence and Panda Security are making their way through a list of affected organizations to contact. If you would like to find out whether your organization has been compromised, email compromise@defintel.com or info@pandasecurity.com.