http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (AP)—An Algerian man has pleaded not guilty to helping develop and market a computer program that drained millions of dollars from bank accounts around the world. http://phys.org/news286809091.html Technology Fri, 03 May 2013 14:11:40 EST news286809091 A security solution which protects against the most serious threat to online banking customers, responsible for millions in annual losses, is being rolled out across Europe by a Cambridge University spin-out. http://phys.org/news285490818.html Technology Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:00:42 EST news285490818 (Phys.org)—Just what you never wanted. Mac-based malware, just ponder that phrase alone, not Windows-based but Mac-based, that tricks users into paying subscription fees. The malware masquerades as an installer for various software titles. The caper lies in the trick installer, which will tack fees on to the user's mobile phone account, so that the victim is stuck with unintended bills. The Trojan targeting Macs was discovered by Russia-based security company, Dr. Web. Its alert went out that this is malware targeting OS X systems. The Trojan is known as Trojan.SMSSend.3666, and Dr. Web said it was the first program of its kind to go after Mac OS X. http://phys.org/news274679805.html Technology Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:00:01 EST news274679805 Coaxing a humble skin cell to become a jack-of-all-trades pluripotent stem cell is feat so remarkable it was honored earlier this month with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Stem cell pioneer Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, showed that using a virus to add just four genes to the skin cell allowed it to become pluripotent, or able to achieve many different developmental fates. But researchers and clinicians have been cautious about promoting potential therapeutic uses for these cells because the insertion of the genes could render the cells cancerous. http://phys.org/news270397466.html Biology Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:40:07 EST news270397466 (Phys.org)—Three Simon Fraser University scientists are among six researchers who've made a discovery that could help revolutionize antibiotic treatment of deadly bacteria. http://phys.org/news269868124.html Biology Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:22:36 EST news269868124 (Phys.org)—Scientists using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, have uncovered new clues in the ongoing mystery of the Jovian Trojans—asteroids that orbit the sun on the same path as Jupiter. Like racehorses, the asteroids travel in packs, with one group leading the way in front of the gas giant, and a second group trailing behind. http://phys.org/news269540929.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:29:06 EST news269540929 Chinese telecom giant Huawei is perplexed at its treatment in the West, with the United States fearful it is a Trojan horse for cyber warfare even as Europe eagerly courts its business. http://phys.org/news267160819.html Technology Tue, 18 Sep 2012 04:40:01 EST news267160819 Australia's hopes of blocking a controversial super-trawler from fishing in its waters looked uncertain with the opposition speaking out against the move and a key independent lawmaker expressing reservations. http://phys.org/news266641264.html Biology Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:01:16 EST news266641264 (Phys.org)—Man-made structures such as harbours, tourist facilities, oil rigs and aquaculture farms provide ideal sanctuaries for jellyfish polyps to flourish and may explain an apparent increase in jellyfish blooms in many coastal waters around the world. http://phys.org/news266218004.html Biology Fri, 07 Sep 2012 06:40:01 EST news266218004 (Phys.org) -- How to lose friends and de-influence people: An app called "Find and Call" has been passing itself off as a mobile phone-book helper but has been discovered to be a Trojan which, once downloaded, has all the user’s address book contacts uploaded to a remote server where it proceeds to fire off SMS messages posing as the user. Find and Call was found both on the iOS App Store and Google Play store. Kaspersky Lab sounded the alarm on Thursday in a report from Kaspersky Lab expert Denis Maslennikov. http://phys.org/news260768061.html Technology Fri, 06 Jul 2012 05:10:01 EST news260768061 (Phys.org) -- No joke. A proof-of-concept application for phones running Android pretends to be a fun challenge asking the user to identify identical icons from a bunch of images. All the while the app monitors sensors to identify user information such as PINs and SS numbers. In brief, you are looking at a Trojan that can track what you type into your phone using your phone's motion sensors. The Trojan’s final feat is uploading the info on to the attacker’s controlled computer. The sensor-snooping app is called TapLogger and it was designed to prove a point: Android has yet another security design weakness that allows installed apps free access to motion sensor readings. http://phys.org/news254508270.html Technology Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:20:01 EST news254508270 (Phys.org) -- Three compelling reasons that Mac loyalists say justify their love for Macs have been that Macs are 1) the prettiest computers around (2) ideal for any new-age brain that prefers visually rich knowledge work and (3) their systems are far safer than Windows-based PCs, which have been sneered at as malware magnets. This year, life has got Mac-Liter as now they only have to brandish two good reasons. Researchers at major security companies such as Kaspersky Lab and Sophos say that the Mac has yet another Trojan attacker, following Flashback, that can steal information from a system once infected. http://phys.org/news253853326.html Technology Tue, 17 Apr 2012 05:10:01 EST news253853326 A new study describes how bacteria use a previously unknown means to defeat an antibiotic. The researchers found that the bacteria have modified a common "housekeeping" enzyme in a way that enables the enzyme to recognize and disarm the antibiotic. http://phys.org/news251378174.html Chemistry Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:16:57 EST news251378174 Just as U.S. companies are coming to grips with threats to their computer networks emanating from cyber-spies based in China, a noted expert is highlighting what he says is an even more pernicious vulnerability in smartphones. http://phys.org/news249309126.html Technology Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:32:16 EST news249309126 Rice University physicists have gone to extremes to prove that Isaac Newton's classical laws of motion can apply in the atomic world: They've built an accurate model of part of the solar system inside a single atom of potassium. http://phys.org/news246642619.html Physics Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:51:22 EST news246642619 An Israeli hacker published details of what he claimed were more than 200 Saudi-owned credit cards online overnight in a revenge attack after a similar move by "Saudi" hackers earlier this month. http://phys.org/news245481158.html Technology Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:20:01 EST news245481158 (AP) -- Data from Norway's oil and defense industries may have been stolen in what is feared to be one of the most extensive data espionage cases in the country's history, security officials said Thursday. http://phys.org/news240767713.html Technology Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:56:03 EST news240767713 The heated debate surrounding the German "state Trojan" software for the online monitoring of telecommunication between citizens shows that the concealed observation of our private decisions provokes public disapproval. However, as a recent experimental study has revealed, observing and being observed are integral components of our social repertoire. Human beings show a preference for social partners whose altruistic behaviour they have been able to confirm for themselves. http://phys.org/news240492602.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:30:20 EST news240492602 Personal computers at the head office and local branch offices of the Japanese Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry have been infected with computer viruses and have repeatedly been accessed by servers abroad, according to the ministry. http://phys.org/news239862734.html Technology Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:50:01 EST news239862734 (PhysOrg.com) -- Governments all over the world are wrestling with the legalities of computer snooping in their efforts to catch people doing illegal things, or to prove that wrongful acts have been committed after the fact. Now comes a blog posting by a well-known hacker group that calls itself the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), accusing the German government of overstepping its bounds by infecting suspected criminal’s computers with a Trojan horse program that allows it to do more than has been granted by law. http://phys.org/news237544005.html Technology Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:27:04 EST news237544005 (AP) -- So far, no company has been able to even come close to rival the success of Apple's iPad, but with the expected unveiling of its version of a tablet computer Wednesday, analysts say Amazon has a real chance. http://phys.org/news236358380.html Electronics Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:06:37 EST news236358380 (PhysOrg.com) -- Just days after celebrations marking the 20th birthday of Linux, the operating system revered around the globe as a rock-solid open source triumph, news surfaced that key servers used to maintain and distribute the operating system were hacked. Malware had gained root access. System software had been modified. The attack was confirmed in a note on Wednesday, August 28, posted on the Linux Kernel Archives www.kernel.org , the main distribution site for the Linux kernel. Though discovered on the 28th, the security breach possibly took place some time before, possibly no later than August 12. By Sunday, the 28th, it was obvious to admins of the web site that things had gone wrong. Files belonging to ssh (openssh, openssh-server and openssh-clients) were modified. A trojan startup file had been added to startup scripts. http://phys.org/news234328884.html Technology Sun, 04 Sep 2011 04:22:36 EST news234328884 Mucosal epithelia do not have any receptors on the outer membrane for the absorption of viruses like hepatitis C, herpes, the adenovirus or polio, and are thus well-protected against pathogenic germs. However, certain viruses, such as the human immunodeficiency virus HIV, still manage to enter the body via the mucous membrane. Just how this infiltration occurs on a molecular level has been a mystery. Three hypotheses were discussed: firstly, that it's caused by mechanical damage to the mucous membrane; secondly, the presence of previously unknown receptors on the mucous membrane cells; and, thirdly, that the viruses are smuggled in via a kind of Trojan horse. Now, for the first time, cell biologists from the University of Zurich have succeeded in identifying the infection mechanism for adenoviruses. http://phys.org/news230463088.html Biology Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:31:44 EST news230463088 (PhysOrg.com) -- A security official at the Department of Homeland Security recently released a statement that confirmed the idea that some foreign-made computer components are actually being designed to make the job of launching a cyber attack against a U.S. company or consumer easier to do. http://phys.org/news229611337.html Technology Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:55:59 EST news229611337 (PhysOrg.com) -- Plutonium gets taken up by our cells much as iron does, even though there's far less of it to go around. http://phys.org/news229610302.html Chemistry Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:38:41 EST news229610302 (PhysOrg.com) -- Lookout Security Firm as identified a new android Trojan named GGTracker that is downloaded to a user’s phone after visiting a malicious webpage that imitates the Android Market. The Trojan then proceeds to sign up the user to premium SMS services without their knowledge. http://phys.org/news227870382.html Technology Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:20:00 EST news227870382 Two young hackers were convicted in Germany Thursday of stealing new songs from stars such as Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey and offering them for sale on the Internet, a court said. http://phys.org/news227441811.html Technology Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:17:00 EST news227441811 (PhysOrg.com) -- The idea that someone can get into your car without your permission isn't a new one. It's about as old as the coat hanger, but that was back in the days when you locks had a pull up button. We tend to think that digital car locks are safer, because it takes a higher level of sophistication to get into them, when Physorg reported on it in January, it was security professionals who were stealing the cars, but now it may be easier to boost you car, with the most innocuous of devices. http://phys.org/news219676776.html Technology Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:20:50 EST news219676776 (PhysOrg.com) -- As new platforms make their way into the market there will always someone who is looking to exploit them for illegal or unethical ends. More proof of that fact has come today when Google was forced to removed a large number of apps from the official Android App Market. http://phys.org/news218296314.html Technology Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:52:15 EST news218296314 (PhysOrg.com) -- Macs have, for the most part, been considered to be more secure than their PC counterparts due to the lack of developments of viruses and other malicious codes that are created for them. Most of the authors of malicious code are playing a numbers game, in order to get the best results they need to hit the largest number of machines possible with each piece of code. As Mac operating system-based machines have become more and more popular, they have become increasingly attractive to the writers of malicious code. http://phys.org/news218132121.html Technology Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:15:50 EST news218132121