Software-Programming

F-Secure has released its latest version Mobile Security 7.5, a security offering for mobile devices to provide improved security and parental control capabilities on Android devices to meet the mobile security concerns with young people using smartphones.

F-Secure's anti-virus technologies will be complemented with new cloud-based services that provide immediate information on whether a mobile application is considered safe to install which provides comprehensive protection against spying programs and the full range of other mobile threats.

One enterprising hacker has devised a way to use Siri to start and turn off his car remotely. Here’s how he did it:

I created a new ruby plugin that is used by plamoni’s “Siri Proxy”, a proxy server for Apple’s Siri assistant. This proxy server allows for the creation of custom plugins that can intercept recognized speech and perform virtually any function imaginable (programmable, scriptable).

Siri is one of our favorite new pieces of technology, but sometimes we just wished we could use it for something outside of its Apple widget shell (weather, mail, and the calendar) and Web searching. A group of intrepid hackers are doing just that, starting with setting the thermostat.

In the video (below), Pete (@Plamoni on Twitter) shows off how he can use Siri to set his Wi-Fi thermostat using a proxy server. Using the Siri connected proxy hack, Pete is able use voice commands to pull up information about the current temperature and set a new program for the thermostat.

Mozilla is planning to implement silent background updates in the upcoming version of Firefox 10, which could be very bad news on the security front, according to Philip Lieberman, CEO of Lieberman Software.

While many IT security systems will have to be reconfigured to allow background updates to Firefox – which is not a good thing in the first place – there is danger that hackers could subvert the update system to allow them backdoor access to the users’ computer.

Computational search engine Wolfram Alpha has released a new app for iOS devices. The Password Generator Reference App churns out secure passwords of any length at the touch of a button.

The app will generate passwords in single or multiple batches, with any amount of characters and a set of rules that you define. You can choose from options like letter case, numbers and special characters, setting each to a “no”,”yes” or “must have” setting.

The Tor Project is tapping Amazon's EC2 cloud service to make it easier for volunteers to donate bandwidth to the anonymity network.

Developers with the project have released preconfigured Tor Cloud images that volunteers can use to quickly deploy bridges that allow users to access the service. The new system is designed to take some of the pain out running such Tor relays by reducing the work and cost of deploying and running the underlying hardware and software.

Last last week VMware released Fusion 4.1 an update to its popular virtualization software that adds many improvements and bug fixes. The biggest improvement is the applications ability to run older versions of Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard.

I’ve known for a long time that Fusion can support Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard virtual machines, but Apple’s licensing prohibits this.

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon university – in partnership with Google - have developed a Windows application that can scour the internet, comparing images found online with a submitted picture, and identify you within 60 seconds.

The image analysis technology doesn’t actually operate in under a minute, Infosecurity notes, but harnesses the existing search algorithms that Google uses for its image search. It’s similar algorithms that allow Google to spider-search all aspects of the web on a 24x7 basis, allowing your text searches to return a result in a matter of a few seconds.

Mozilla began an aggressive campaign earlier this year to trim Firefox’s memory footprint with a new initiative called MemShrink. The first fruits of that effort landed in Firefox 7, which was released in September. As a result, Firefox’s memory consumption is now between 20 to 50 percent lower. Building on that success, Mozilla is expanding the scope of its MemShrink initiative and looking to address memory consumption in additional areas.

Google sent the source code for its Android 4.0 system update to developers in early November, and they are now free to tinker with the system and add different features to the customizable operating system. One of those features includes hacking Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and building a version that can be downloaded before the official version is sent out to certain devices.