Smartphones 'new El Dorado for computer criminals'

http://martik-scorp.blogspot.com/2011/01/best-mobile-antivirus-2011.html

http://martik-scorp.blogspot.com/2011/01/best-mobile-antivirus-2011.html

What is the mean by El Dorado? This word El Dorado (Spanish for "the golden one") is the name of a Muisca tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and, as an initiation rite, dove into the lake Guatavita.Imagined as a place, El Dorado became a kingdom, an empire, the city of this legendary golden king.So, this mean that computer criminals have found their new kingdom as at smartphones!!!

According to the news on 17 Feb 2011 in Barcelona, Smartphones are the new El Dorado for computer criminals and many owners are unaware of the risk or what to do about it, security experts warn.

As sales of smartphones and Tablets have started to outpace those of personal computers, criminals are increasingly targeting the devices, security companies say.

It is a menace for both consumers and businesses because many people use their smartphones or tablets to access corporate networks without authorisation.

"We all do something to protect our computers and personal information from hackers," he said. "In mobile computing we need this as well."

Mobile devices increasingly hold personal and financial information, he warned. "I believe, I contend that security is one of the most important features," the Intel boss said.

There are already some 1,000 different pieces of malware circulating that target smartphones, according to Kaspersky Lab, a leading computer security firm.

One of the most prevalent is malware which has the phone make surreptitious calls or send text messages to premium numbers, landing the criminals fat fees and phone owners with fat bills.

Nowadays, many people are using smartphones for work and study instead of bringing the larger netbook or notebook around. Malaysian also not excluded, so there is a few new antivirus program launch that can be use as references to those who are using smart phones. Remember, Prevention is better than cure！！！

For more information about this news, you can go to http://techcentral.my/news/story.aspx?file=/2011/2/17/it_news/20110217155243&sec=it_news

Smartphone Security Solutions

Smartphone users running Symbian and Windows Mobile seem to be the most vulnerable to smartphone viruses and malware, and the industry has responded with several antivirus solutions to choose from if you are running these systems.  These include:

ESET Mobile Antivirus

Delivers comprehensive protection for your Windows Mobile and Symbian smart phone by defending against the latest threats to keep your personal information safe.


Key features:
1. On-Access and On-Demand Scanning
2. Intelligent Firewall
3. SMS/MMS Antispam
4. Enhanced Security System
5. Remote Wipe
6. SIM Matching
7. Quarantine
8. Security Audit


Platforms:
- Windows Mobile 5.0, 6.0, 6.1 and 6.5
- Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 or 2, S60 5th Edition

http://www.coolcomputing.com/article.php?sid=2420

Kaspersky Mobile Security

Kaspersky is one of the most trusted Anti Virus for Computers. They now have antivirus software for smartphones as well, known as ‘Kaspersky Mobile Security’.


Key Features:
1. Privacy Protection: Make contacts, SMSs, call logs etc private.
2. Locate a lost or stolen smartphone via GPS tracking
3. Encrypt folders and files and remotely wipe or block your phone if it gets stolen or lost.
4. Protect you smartphone from malware and network attacks.
5. Block unwanted calls and SMSs.


Platforms:
- Symbian OS (Nokia smartphones only)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, 6.0, 6.1, 6.5

http://endemisi.com/application/kaspersky-mobile-security-version-9-for-smartphones

AVG Antivirus

ANTIVIRUSfree from DroidSecurity (Now a Part of AVG) is the most popular Antivirus for Android Devices.


Key features:
1. Whole device scan and virus removal in one click
2. Check apps for malware before downloading them from app stores
3. Check website content, emails and SMS for malware before downloading them
4. Theft protection by locating the lost device via GPS
5. Create and display message on screen remotely
6. Lock device and wipe out all data remotely.
7. Protection from SMS spammers


Platforms:
- Only Android

http://www.techmynd.com/avg-antivirus-android-free/

Norton Smartphone Security

Protect your privacy and the personal information on your mobile device with Norton Smartphone Security Version for Symbian™/Microsoft® Windows® Mobile. It stops hackers and prevents cybercriminals from stealing your information or spying on you when you use public networks. It eliminates annoying text and multimedia spam messages. And it detects and removes viruses and other mobile threats before they can cause you problems.


Key features:
Protects Against
- Theft of Your Private Information
- Text and Multimedia Spam
- Cybercriminals
- Mobile Threats
Protects your privacy and your personal information on your mobile device
- Eliminates text and multimedia spam messages
- Stops cybercriminals from stealing information from your mobile device
- Prevents strangers from spying on you and seeing your private information on public networks
- Detects and removes mobile threats before they can cause you problems
Fast, light, and easy-to-use to use
- Downloads and installs on your mobile device with just a few clicks
- Checks for updates every week to ensure you have the most up-to-date protection
- Won’t affect your mobile device’s performance or slow down your web browsing


Platforms:
- Symbian OS
- Windows Mobile

http://tecnoflash.blogspot.com/2010/06/norton-everywhere.html

For more type of best mobile antivirus 2011, you can go to http://martik-scorp.blogspot.com/2011/01/best-mobile-antivirus-2011.html. 

Citation:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado 

2.http://techcentral.my/news/story.aspx?file=/2011/2/17/it_news/20110217155243&sec=it_news

3. http://martik-scorp.blogspot.com/2011/01/best-mobile-antivirus-2011.html

Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Network Topologies

1. Bus Topology

http://www.ciscorouting.com/networkbasic.html

Advantages of Bus Topology

• It is easy to handle and implement. 
• It is best suited for small networks.

Disadvantages of Bus Topology

• The cable length is limited. This limits the number of stations that can be connected.
• This network topology can perform well only for a limited number of nodes.

2. Ring Topology

http://doit.ort.org/course/networks/32.htm

Advantage of Ring Topology

• The data being transmitted between two nodes passes through all the intermediate nodes. A central server is not required for the management of this topology.

Disadvantages of Ring Topology

• The failure of a single node of the network can cause the entire network to fail.
• The movement or changes made to network nodes affects the performance of the entire network.

3. Star Topology

http://doit.ort.org/course/networks/30.htm

Advantage of Star Topology

• Better performance: star topology prevents the passing of data packets through an excessive number of nodes. At most, 3 devices and 2 links are involved in any communication between any two devices. Although this topology places a huge overhead on the central hub, with adequate capacity, the hub can handle very high utilization by one device without affecting others.
• Isolation of devices: Each device is inherently isolated by the link that connects it to the hub. This makes the isolation of individual devices straightforward and amounts to disconnecting each device from the others. This isolation also prevents any non-centralized failure from affecting the network.
• Benefits from centralization: As the central hub is the bottleneck, increasing its capacity, or connecting additional devices to it, increases the size of the network very easily. Centralization also allows the inspection of traffic through the network. This facilitates analysis of the traffic and detection of suspicious behavior.

• Easy to detect faults and to remove parts.

• No disruptions to the network when connecting or removing devices.

Disadvantages of Star Topology

• High dependence of the system on the functioning of the central hub
• Failure of the central hub renders the network inoperable
• The performance and scalability of the network depends on the capabilities of the hub
• Network size is limited by the number of connections that can be made to the hub
• Other nodes may see a performance drop if traffic to another node occupies a significant portion of the central node's processing capability or throughput.
• Wiring up of the system can be very expensive.

4. Tree Topology

http://www.wifinotes.com/computer-networks/network-topology.html

Advantage of Tree Topology

• Central hub (repeater) increases the distance a signal can travel between devices.                 

Disadvantage of Tree Topology

• Entire network collapse if central Hub fails.

 5. 

Hybrid Topology

http://www.mcmcse.com/glossary/h.shtml

Advantage of Hybrid Topology

• · t   Provides a better result by it.
• ·  It can be designed in many ways for various purposes.

Disadvantage of Hybrid Topology

• Difficult to identify the problem if the entire network shuts down.

6. Mesh Topology

http://www.mcmcse.com/glossary/h.shtml

Advantage of Mesh Topology

• The arrangement of the network nodes is such that it is possible to transmit data from one node to many other nodes at the same time.

Disadvantage of Mesh Topology

• The arrangement wherein every network node is connected to every other node of the network, many of the connections serve no major purpose. This leads to the redundancy of many of the network connections.

Citation: 

1. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Advantages_and_disadvantages_of_topologies

2. http://www.bukisa.com/articles/114886_network-topology-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-tree-  bus-and-ring-topology

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_network

4. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-different-network-topologies.html

Systems Development Life Cycle

Model of the Systems Development Life Cycle with the Maintenance bubble highlighted.

The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), or Software Development Life Cycle in systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, is the process of creating or altering systems, and the models and methodologies that people use to develop these systems. The concept generally refers to computer or information systems.

In software engineering the SDLC concept underpins many kinds of software development methodologies. These methodologies form the framework for planning and controlling the creation of an information system: the software development process.

Systems development phases

A Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) adheres to important phases that are essential for developers, such as planning, analysis, design, and implementation, and are explained in the section below.

 A number of system development life cycle (SDLC) models have been created: waterfall, fountain, spiral, build and fix, rapid prototyping, incremental, and synchronize and stabilize. 

The oldest of these, and the best known, is the waterfall model: a sequence of stages in which the output of each stage becomes the input for the next. These stages can be characterized and divided up in different ways, including the following:

• Project planning, feasibility study: Establishes a high-level view of the intended project and determines its goals.

• Systems analysis, requirements definition: Refines project goals into defined functions and operation of the intended application. Analyzes end-user information needs.

• Systems design: Describes desired features and operations in detail, including screen layouts, business rules, process diagrams, pseudocode and other documentation.

• Implementation: The real code is written here.

• Integration and testing: Brings all the pieces together into a special testing environment, then checks for errors, bugs and interoperability.

• Acceptance, installation, deployment: The final stage of initial development, where the software is put into production and runs actual business.

• Maintenance: What happens during the rest of the software's life: changes, correction, additions, moves to a different computing platform and more. This, the least glamorous and perhaps most important step of all, goes on seemingly forever.

Strength and Weaknesses of SDLC
Strengths	Weaknesses
Control.	Increased development time.
Monitor Large projects.	Increased development cost.
Detailed steps.	Systems must be defined up front.
Evaluate costs and completion targets.	Rigidity.
Documentation.	Hard to estimate costs, project overruns.
Well defined user input.	User input is sometimes limited.
Ease of maintenance.
Development and design standards.
Tolerates changes in MIS staffing.

For more information, you can go to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_Development_Life_Cycle

Citation :

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_Development_Life_Cycle

HEAD CRASH

What is head crash???

A serious disk drive malfunction. A head crash usually means that the head has scratched or burned the disk. In a hard disk drive, the head normally hovers a few microinches from the disk. If the head becomes misaligned or if dust particles come between it and the disk, it can touch the disk.

When this happens, you usually lose much of the data on the hard disk and will need to replace both the head and the disk. For this reason, it is important to operate disk drives, particularly hard disk drives, in as clean an environment as possible. Even smoke particles can cause a head crash.

A head crash in a modern drive. Note circular mark on the platter.

For more detailed information, you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_crash

                                                                    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard-disk_failure

A Hard Drive Crash Can Be Bad... Trying To Fix It Yourself Can Be Worse !!!

We rely on our computers more than ever, and when a hard drive crash occurs, years of data can be gone in the blink of an eye. In most cases the data is fully recoverable, but there are some common mistakes people make when attempting to do the job themselves.

If you experience a hard drive crash, it doesn't take much to make a bad situation even worse. In the event of a hard drive crash, in most instances, the data is completely recoverable at first. However, as part of human nature, we often try to avoid the high costs associated with hard drive data recovery in order to find some sort of "quick fix" to a very serious problem. In this report we will go over some of the symptoms of a hard drive crash and the things you can try in the event of a suspected hard drive crash, along with things you should avoid.

 

What Noise Is The Drive Making???

The first thing to take into account is whether or not the hard drive is making any unusual noises. Often times when there is a problem with the read/write head within the drive or a firmware issue in the logic board a "clicking" sound will be heard. If this is the case, then you should immediately power down the system and refrain from reapplying power. Same thing goes for any unusual sound, whether it's grinding, squealing, our sounds like a "laser gun". If any of these occur you should immediately power the system down, just pull the plug from the wall.

Unfortunately in the situations listed above, there is little that you can do to recover the data yourself. Actually, unless you have a clean room, fully equipped with the right tools and a trained technician there is nothing that can be done. Even hard drive manufacturers avoid this line of work, and many who do offer data recovery services are only sub-contracting the work out to an established data recovery firm.


Never Ever Open Your Hard Drive !!!
 If the data on a hard drive has even the most minimal value to you, then it is imperative that you do not open the drive. Data recovery companies often get calls or e-mails from people who felt they had the right equipment and know-how to perform something as serious as a head replacement. Once they've removed the hard drive's protective case, more often than not, the damage is irreparable.


Working with the internal components of a hard drive requires at least a Class-100 clean room. A clean room does not mean a room that you just vacuumed and dusted (believe it or not people say that to us all the time). A clean room is a special work area in which air quality is heavily controlled and it is vital to hard drives during the manufacturing or assembly process.

 The air in the room is regulated in term of air particles, temperature and humidity. A Class-100 clean room means there exists no more than 100 particles that are larger than 0.5 microns in one cubic foot of air. Opening a hard drive in air meeting anything less than the standard listed above will mean certain death for your hard drive and any data contained therein.


The Freezer Method

There has been a long running myth about putting your hard drive in the freezer when it crashes in order to revive it just long enough to pull your data off of it. ACS Data Recovery has run this test for fun on many occasions in different scenarios with junk test drives that they have in the lab.

So far they have yet to see this actually produce any positive results. In fact, in one instance they actually began to see the formation of tiny microscopic ice crystals on the platter themselves, which is a definite crash waiting to happen.
See the problem with this theory is, drives are not completely sealed.

Regardless of what you've heard or read, all hard drives have a tiny breather hole (usually marked with a label that says "do not cover"). This hole not only aids in cooling but it also helps to equalize air pressure in the drive when the platters are spinning. On the other side of this hole is a filter, which keeps dirt and debris from getting inside the drive.

However, this filter does not stop heavy amounts of moisture (especially in flood situations) or moisture vapor (such as found in a freezer). This moisture vapor has been known to settle on the platters and when a system is powered up, the read/write head would resemble an airplane flying into a mountain.

For more infomation, you can surf to tis website~ http://www.beststuff.com/computers/a-hard-drive-crash-can-be-bad-trying-to-fix-it-yourself-can-be-worse.html 

http://www.ibas.com/espana/noticias/pictures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoVBHG4kajA&feature=related

Citation :

1. http://www.howstuffworks.com/question60.htm
2. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/head_crash.html
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_crash
4.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard-disk_failure
5. http://www.beststuff.com/computers/a-hard-drive-crash-can-be-bad-trying-to-fix-it-yourself-can-be-worse.html 



SURFACE MICROSOFT

-- Provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural hand gestures, touch and physical objects.
-- Surface computing breaks down traditional barriers between people and technology, changing the way people interact with all kinds of everyday information — from photos to maps to menus.
-- We will offer on this site regularly updated versions of the media kit, which includes press releases, background material and images.
Touch the PossibilitiesHow can you use the Surface platform in your organization? The only limit is your imagination. Whether you’re in hospitality, retail, healthcare, professional services, or the public sector, you can change the way people interact with information and with each other.
--Touch the Possibilities :

• Make content more engaging. Give your customers immersive and collaborative ways to engage with photos, videos, documents, maps, custom applications, and more.
• Plan and simulate. Bring to life real-time "if/then" modeling and visualization, simulations and calculations—perfect for financial services, healthcare, and other consultative environments.
• Make learning more fun. Breathe new life into the education process with rich visualizations that encourage teamwork and enhance learning.
• Transform the shopping experience. Make shopping more immersive by connecting customers with more options, recommendations, product and service comparisons, and personalized service.
• Connect with customers through games and pastimes. Have some fun by putting Surface in restaurants, bars, hotel lobbies, and other venues, associating memorable experiences with your brand.
• Communicate and connect. Give people an efficient and intriguing new way to get the information they’re looking for—like maps and tourist destinations in a hotel lobby. Or use it to help them exchange personal information so they can connect with each other and to your business.

--For more informations, please refer to http://www.microsoft.com/surface/whatissurface.aspx

                                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awUvEZNDHkQ

CHAPTER 8 = SECONDARY STORAGE

  SOLID-STATE STORAGE 

• Solid-state storage is a nonvolative, removable storage medium that employs integrated circuits (ICs ) rather than magnetic or optical media.
•  It is the equivalent of large-capacity, nonvolatile memory.  
• Examples include flash memory Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices and various proprietary removable packages intended to replace external hard drives.   
• Solid-state storage media lags behind electromechanical drives in terms of storage capacity.  
• Solid-state storage devices have no moving parts and are more reliable and require less power than hard disks. 
• For more information about solid-state storage refers to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive  

                                                        
                                          http://viroptics.pancamo.com/2008/01/bitmicro-832gb-solid-state-soft-drive.html  


 FLASH MEMORY  

• Flash memory refers to a particular type of EEPROM, or Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory.  
• It is a memory chip that maintains stored information without requiring a power source.  
• It is often used in portable electronics, like MP3 players, and in removable storage devices. 
• Flash memory differs from regular EEPROM in that EEPROM erases its content one byte at a time. 
• Flash memory can erase its data in entire blocks, making it a preferable technology for application that require frequent updating of large amounts of data as in the case of a memory stick. 
• Flash memory is used in digital media players like the iPod to store and play music and video files. 
• Flash memory is also used to store images captured from digital cameras and then to transfer the images to desktop and other computers.  
• For more information about flash memory can refers to http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-flash-memory.htm   

                                         
                               http://www.blendsblog.com/guide/what-is-flash-memory/  
                                          

USB DRIVES DRIVES

• A USB flash drive consists of a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus ) interface. 
• USB flash devices are typically removable and rewritable and physically much smaller than a floopy disk. 
• They are smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are more durable and reliable because of their lack of moving parts.
• There are typically four parts to a flash drive:   

1. Male type-A USB connector – provides a physical interface to the host computer. 
2. USB mass storage controller – implements the USB host controller. The controller contains a small microcontroller with a small amount of on-chip ROM and RAM. 
3. NAND flash memory chip – stores data. NAND flash is typically also used in digital cameras. 
4. Crystal oscillator  – produces the device's main 12 MHz clock signal  and controls the device's data output through a phase-locked loop.    

• Advantages of USB Drives : 

1. Data stored on flash drives is impervious to scratches and dust, and flash drives are mechanically very robust making them suitable for transporting data from place to place and keeping it readily at hand. 
2. Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class so that most modern operating systems can read and write to them without installing device drivers.   

• Disadvantages of USB Drives : 

1. USB flash drives do not include a write-protect mechanism, although some have a switch on the housing of the drive itself to keep the host computer from writing or modifying data on the drive. 
2. USB flash drives are more expensive per unit of storage than large hard drives, but are less expensive in capacities of a few tens of gigabytes as of 2011. 

• For more information refers to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive  

                                          
                             http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/18/one-128mb-tomago-kudasai/
Citation :

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive 
• http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-flash-memory.htm 
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive  
• Computing Essentials Complete 2010