May 2012

A complex computer virus has been pilfering confidential information from computers in the Middle East for at least two years, according to a security report. The virus, called Flame, has been infecting computers in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

It has been grabbing images of users’ computer screens, recording their instant messaging chats, remotely turning on their microphones to record their audio conversations and monitoring their keystrokes and network traffic, according to a report by Kaspersky Labs, a Moscow-based security research firm. If the report’s findings prove to be true, Flame would be the third major Internet weapon to have been discovered since 2010. The first, named Stuxnet, was intended to attack software in specialized industrial equipment, and was used to destroy centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010. The second virus, called Duqu, like Flame, performed reconnaissance. Security researchers believe Duqu was created by the same group of programmers behind Stuxnet.

Developments in web browsing technology have in recent years largely consigned the irritating pop-up advertisement to internet history. But European rules aimed at protecting the UK’s internet users from intrusive advertising have in the last week led to a new crop of pop-ups appearing on websites based in the UK.

This weekend saw the long-heralded implementation of new regulations in the UK around “cookies”, digital morsels of data that can track surfing behavior across the web, and an accompanying last-minute rush from several popular websites to comply, with many using small pop-up messages on their homepages. But several surveys of both consumers and companies show that most remain confused about the 2009 European e-privacy directive, which requires website owners to obtain the consent of their visitors to the use of cookies.

A just-completed report from a presidential advisory committee urges President Obama to adopt new computer technologies to make better use of a huge swath of the radio spectrum now controlled by federal agencies.

The shift, which could be accomplished by presidential signature — and without Congressional involvement — would relieve spectrum congestion caused by the popularity of smartphones, and generate far more revenue for the federal government than auctioning spectrum to wireless carriers, according to the authors of the report. Making better use of the spectrum for cellphones would allow for more services, more competition and possibly lower prices for consumers using cellphone data services. The new plan, which calls on the government to electronically rent or lease spectrum for periods of time as short as seconds using newly available computerized radio technologies, was presented publicly May 25 to a meeting of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST. The authors of the report included Eric E. Schmidt, the chairman of Google, Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer and Silicon Valley venture capitalists Mark P. Gorenberg and David E. Liddle, among others. The report is scheduled to be presented to the president in June after final editing.

Mobile Web browsing continues to take off, with smartphones and tablets accounting for 20 percent of Web traffic in the U.S. and Canada, according to a new report. The analysis, from online advertising network Chitika, finds that those stodgy old PCs still produce just under 80 percent of Web traffic, with smartphones accounting for 14.6 percent and tablets making up 5.6 percent. Other findings of note, Windows Phone now accounts for a third as much traffic as BlackBerry devices. Undoubtedly its market share is far less than that, but its more powerful browser and larger screen likely make it more conducive to Web surfing.