The internet security website Matasano accidentally posted on Monday details of a potentially dangerous internet flaw; it was quickly taken down, but not before being found and circulated by hackers, who believe that writing an exploit to attack the bug will be easy and are ready to benefit from it. According to Wired Magazine’s security and privacy blog “Threat Level,” “[h]ackers are furiously working on an exploit to attack the vulnerability. HD Moore, creator of the Metasploit hacking tool, says one should be available by the end of the day.”

The flaw is in the DNS, Domain Name Service, often called the “internet phone book,” which translates URLs from text-based (www.atelier-us.com, for example) into numerical IP addresses. The exploit makes tying malicious IP addresses to legitimate URLs much easier. Attacks could potentially hijack users to create sites that imitate legit ones, which will download malware to users’ computers or steal information entered into a dummy site. This has been called “phishing without email.” Read the rest of this entry »

Does anyone know how many times Twitter’s been down since their launch? nearly 200 times?

A survey released last week by Goldman Sachs & Co. reports that IT jobs will drop in 2009. The survey reveals potentially dramatic cutbacks for both in-house and contract employees.

The number of respondents reporting that they would be cutting in-house staffers has risen drastically from last October’s 0%, jumping to 11% in the June 2008 survey. The number peaked in April at 15%, so it remains to be seen where this trend is going. These numbers are in line with Goldman Sachs’ 2007 predictions.

The outlook is grim for contract workers: “48% of the respondents said that those staffers would be cut. And 30% of the responders said on-site third-party service provider staffers would also be cut for application-related development or maintenance work. Twelve percent of the managers said they would cut employees from offshore third-party service providers.”

The sample size is 100 respondents, “mainly CIOs at multinational Fortune 1,000 companies.”

The Australian IT site iTWire has noted a growing drop in Australian IT jobs in 2008, and that “there are ominous indications that the deteriorating IT jobs market may be a long term trend.”

Goldman Sachs also predicts that the overall U.S. unemployment rate will hit 6.4% in 2009. It is currently 5.5% after a large spike from 5.0% between April and May.

Most viral marketing on YouTube tends towards pomo chic or the cynical, like an extension of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” hosted by a Mission hipster. But Matt Harding’s “Dancing Man” videos – underwritten by the gum company, Stride – are a reminder that simple is not always stupid, that beauty and innocence are not always naïve. Now, after dancing his way across the world and becoming one of the most-viewed YouTube stars, Harding is committing his efforts to charity, raising money for laptops for children in Rwanda.

According to Reuters, Harding, “met United Nations officials this month and talked to the sponsor of his video, Stride, about raising money to buy and donate laptops to the poor in Rwanda where he danced with locals and plans to go to teach them himself.” Read the rest of this entry »

The judge hearing the “YouTube Divorce” has ruled against Tricia Walsh-Smith, the woman who famously posted brutal – and loopy – rants about her soon-to-be ex-husband on her YouTube account, finding the videos “cruel and unusual treatment.”

In the first video (see below), posted in April, Walsh-Smith mocks her husband for their sexless marriage, calls up his assistant and asks what to do with her husband’s stash of Viagra and condoms, gives us a tour of her Upper East Side apartment, and, as an added bonus, does her own Tarot reading. Walsh-Smith’s rant had over 3 million viewers on the video sharing website. Read the rest of this entry »

In an interview with the BBC, Steven Prentice, analyst for the information technology research and advisory firm Gartner, says that the mouse will largely be replaced with other means of interface within the next five years. The mouse’s place will be taken by technology developed for entertainment, video games, and computer access for the disabled.

“You’ve got Panasonic showing forward facing video in the home entertainment environment. Instead of using a conventional remote control you hold up your hand and it recognises you have done that,” Prentice says in the article. Read the rest of this entry »

Apple [AAPL]’s campaign for the iPhone 3G is “Twice as fast. Half the Price.” Both claims should come with caveats. While the symmetry of the slogan is nice, Apple’s so-far-successful attempt to market the iPhone 3G to more mainstream users is, to some, less-than-truthful. Apple’s ad fails to tell the full story about pricing or the speed. Read the rest of this entry »

A few days ago, it was Mahalo. Today, it’s French blogger Loic Le Meur’s turn to see his account suspended from Google’s video sharing site YouTube, along with hundreds of his videos.

Reading his post, where he begs the video sharing site to let him have access to his account, Le Meur has obviously been surprised by YouTube decision to suspend his online presence on the site. On the other hand, Mahalo Daily producer Tyler Crowley tells ValleyWag that “he [Crowley] received a number of violation notices in quick succession, triggering YouTube’s “three strikes, you’re out” account suspension policy — even though Mahalo Daily is part of the YouTube partner program. “ Read the rest of this entry »

On Wednesday Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag posted an article rumoring that TechCrunch is going to be bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Nicholas Carlson reports that a startup founder overheard a group of TechCrunch people celebrating the sale. It’s said that the deal is done, but that TechCrunch will not announce it until August, at the August Capital meet-up event. Another source corroborated this claim. New Corp denied it.

Talks of a possible sale of the nearly 6 milion pages view monthly tech website have been going around for a while. Last week’s sale of PaidContent to the U.K.’s Guardian Media for $30 million fueled speculation that the TechCrunch founder, Michael Arrington is trying sell soon, though it might be more difficult, as he is rumored to be looking for a deal in the $100-million range. Read the rest of this entry »

Didier Lomdard, CEO and Chairman of France Telecom-Orange Group, just released the english edition of his new book, entitled “The Second Life of Networks”, along with co-author Georges Nahon and Gabriel Sidhom. Dominique and I were at the release of the book. Didier Lombard flew directly from Paris to hold his book signing in San Francisco (pictures), “the anchor for technological innovation in Silicon Valley.”

The Book Explains How Upcoming Technologies Will Bring New and Exceptional Opportunities for Human and Social Progress But Calls For Specific Changes and Reforms. Read the rest of this entry »