Top 10 reviews of 2008 Part. 1

Here's our run down of the top 10 reviews of the past 12 months.

By Benny Har-Even, 6 Jan 2009 at 18:11

1.iPhone 3G

Let's get it out of the way straight away shall we? The iPhone 3G was the biggest product of the year. Even though it was the second time around for the iPhone, the launch was even bigger than the original. This was despite the fact that aside from the arrival of 3G, there wasn't a lot new added to the hardware and most of the improvements came from the 2.0 software, which added Exchange support and the ability to add third-party applications via Apple's App store.


Even the lack of some seemingly basic mobile phone features such as MMS and copy and paste haven't been enough to spoil the party and the iPhone 3G rides high as the technology event of the year.

2.MSI Wind U100

Asus started the ball rolling in 2007 with the launch of the first Eee PC, but netbooks really hit their stride in 2008. Indeed, at the beginning of the year the term netbook had still to establish itself as an umbrella term for these small, light, sub notebooks that had just enough power to run a full operating system, be it Linux or Windows XP.

The MSI Wind introduced a 10in screen, fine build quality, a decent - if not quite perfect - keyboard, and Intel's Atom N270 running at 1.6GHz powering along Windows XP with help from 1GB of RAM. Storage is provided by an 80GB conventional disk- and there's nothing wrong with that. Staying power on the standard battery was a little lacking, but overall it was enough to show that netbooks could be a sensible and realistic choice for viewing content on the move.

3.Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 was a landmark release for Microsoft. Forget all the trials and tribulations of Vista, this was a release that demanded the attention of the enterprise world. A component based architecture, enabling more lightweight and resource efficient deployments was central to its philosophy, with Microsoft looking to distance itself from the bloatware reputation that its previous server products were saddled with.

Indeed, a standard base install of Server 2008 offers almost no functionality, requiring you to choose roles to add, and an entirely GUI free version of the product is avaiable too. Virtualisation is also integral to the product, especially since Microsoft released Hyper V.

4.Google Chrome

The appearance of Google Chrome on the scene took almost everyone by surprise. Google releasing a browser is big news but the fact that its existence hadn't even hit the rumour-mill was an achievement in itself.

Even better was that the browser itself was very good indeed. It was noticeably faster than Firefox and stable too. This was thanks to its use of a separate process for each tab, so if any one crashed it wouldn't take any others down with it. We also liked the clean interface and the simplicity of the single search/address bar. As it comes out of beta next year, the sheen from Google Chrome is likely to get even brighter.

5.Boston 3000GP - AMD Shanghai Server

For AMD, a successful launch of its latest server processor 'Shanghai' was crucial. It had been losing out to Intel for some time in the desktop space, and holding on to its server market share would be very important. Shanghai was also its first 45nm part, so a lot could go wrong. Fortunately for the company, the launch went smoothly and the part soon found its way into a review system that thoroughly impressed our erstwhile Dave Mitchell. Job done.

Source : www.itpro.co.uk

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Top 10 security predictions for 2009 Part. 2

By Asavin Wattanajantra

More legitimate website hacking

It arose as a big problem in 2008 and is sure to continue next year, as criminals realise that hacking a legitimate website is a great way to persuade users to click and downloads malicious files.

Many users are still unfamiliar with web-based malware and 2009 could a boom year as cybercriminals look to capitalise on this ignorance. It is a very recent evolution to exploit flaws in browsers and web servers, and new toolkits are now constantly being made to take advantage.


The fact that these toolkits often don’t need users to have a great technical knowledge lowers the barrier for entry for cybercriminals and pushes the threat level even higher than before.

Unemployment creates more cybercriminals

The credit crunch will affect the security landscape in a number of ways. One of the scariest prospects is that the economic downturn will make it tempting for unemployed IT workers to use their technical knowledge to commit internet crime.

It’s a very lucrative business - and as mentioned before - the growth of malware-as-a-service will make it very easy for people to make money on the web, even if they lack the right technical knowledge.

It could also be a problem in developing countries, as the lack of IT jobs could force qualified and skilled technical workers into the arms of criminal gangs, who will exploit their skills in aid of making money over the web.

Security budgets unlikely to grow

Although the threats keep multiplying, most would agree that in the current economic climate, budgets are unlikely to grow significantly.

This means that there will be more consolidation in the security field and means that instead of multiple boxes carrying out single functions, it will be consolidated into single boxes.

In 2008 this has already been happening, but with budgetary pressures there is no doubt this will accelerate.

It will also be interesting to see how the new focus on data security will affect the way businesses work, and whether there will be a change of focus in security to securing the data, rather than protecting the network.

Mobile computing hacks

The growth in popularity of smartphones will make them a bigger target to criminals as they will not have the security protection that PCs have had for years.

Applications and associated data will be accessed from anywhere and make them a big target for hackers. IT administrators need to be on their guard as these threats will have multiple points of entry, targeting different devices and applications.

This is made even more important by the fact that the use of mobile internet will have increased significantly by the end of 2009.

The value of the data that new sophisticated phones will carry will mean that subscribers will expect mobile operators to take greater security measures to protect personal data, especially when mobile commerce takes off.

The new generation of botnets

At the end of 2008 many of the biggest botnets were taken down with the closing of the McColo server. MessageLabs predicted that these will find new hosting services in countries such as Russia or China, improving botnet technology.

A particular sophisticated type of botnet that was described takes the form of hypervisor technology, with malware existing as a virtualisation layer running directly on the hardware and incorporating key operating system calls.

The “real” operating system remains unaware of the existence of underlying malware controlling the computer. Particularly technical attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting will also continue, and become more commonplace in 2009.

Cyber hacking on virtual worlds

Like social networking, hackers are likely to move away from the traditional forms of email spamming and move towards the potential goldmine of virtual worlds.

This could be gaming universes like World of Warcraft, or more social reality-based worlds like Second Life, where stolen virtual goods could be sold for real hard cash.

Users are often more relaxed about their personal details in online worlds, and this means that there could be a good opportunity for criminals to create technology which steal this data.

The increasing use of virtual worlds by businesses will also be a factor, as the value of data that these worlds will carry may grow significantly. This will make it more profitable, and therefore attract more criminals.

Reputation hijacking flourishes

The vulnerability in the design of the Domain Name System (DNS) found by Dan Kaminsky could in theory poison a server’s cache causing people sending emails or requesting a website to be given the wrong IP address.

This could mean victims are sent to a fake website which is looking for personal details, but looks perfectly real. If organised gangs manage to exploit this DNS vulnerability it could mean a whole different set of problems in 2009.

There was a multi-vendor patch deployed in August to protect servers from attack, but it has been made clear that the vulnerability had only been slowed down – not eliminated.

source : www.itpro.co.uk

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