Ascend D quad : World's fastest Android by Huawei

Ascend D quad : World's fastest Android by Huawei

Huawei has introduced what it calls the world's fastest quad-core smartphone, the Huawei Ascend D quad. Powered by Huawei's K3V2 quad-core 1.2GHz/1.5GHz processor the beast comes with Android 4.0. In an aggressive presentation at the Mobile World Congress Show in Barcelona, Huawei repeatedly compared its new product to Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus and Apple’s latest iPhone.

Huawei also unveiled the Ascend D quad XL and Ascend D1. Both devices include 32-bit true color graphic processors, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p full HD video capture and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera with 720p video capture.

The phone also has Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and Audience earSmart voice technology and an 8-megapixel BSI rear-facing camera, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, and 1080p full HD video-capture and playback capabilities. Ascend D Quad is much faster, too- 20 percent to 30 percent faster, in fact, than one running the Tegra 3.

Microsoft adds Enhanced Memory Protections in IE10

Microsoft adds Enhanced Memory Protections in IE10

Internet Explorer 10, the next version of the popular browser from Microsoft will incorporate new protections in terms of memory management. French security firm VUPEN has managed to hack Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 on a fully patched Windows 7 SP1 machine. Internet Explorer 10 introduces significant improvements in memory protections to help make vulnerabilities harder to exploit, helping to keep users safe on the sometimes-hostile Web. These improvements will increase the difficulty and development cost of exploits, making life harder for the bad guys.

As VUPEN founder Chaouki Bekrar claims, the memory corruption bug they used to do that is one of many they found, but he also admitted that the new IE 10 will be much harder to break into as Microsoft has added new protection mechanisms.

Internet Explorer 10 will include two major new features:

• HEASLR (High Entropy Address Space Layout Randomization): functionality addressing random memory areas (ASLR) is improved for 64-bit process. This feature will be available only in Windows 8.
• ForceASLR: This feature will allow Internet Explorer to force 10 support ASLR, including the normally non-compatible modules. Thus, the security vulnerabilities affecting older modules or extensions installed will be much more difficult to exploit. This feature will be available on Windows 7.

Memory protection technologies provide a front line of defense to block attackers from achieving their goals. These technologies exist to make exploiting vulnerabilities more difficult, less reliable, and in some cases impossible. Memory protections aim to safely terminate a browser process under attack before a vulnerability can be successfully exploited to run the attacker’s code

Indian government get access to BlackBerry messages

Indian government get access to BlackBerry messages

After a battle lasting almost two years, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has knuckled under to the Indian government, giving security forces in that country access to private instant messages.

RIM decided to set up Blackberry servers that were stationed in Mumbai, India. If you were thinking that this move could only lead to the Indian government seeking more control over what goes in and out of RIM’s Blackberry servers, you would be right on the money.

Not only has the Indian government gotten their way with the Blackberry servers, but they will now be able to tap into BBM messages. This was confirmed by Indian security agencies who revealed that the process to decrypt the 256-bit encrypted data used by BBM is underway and would be up and running soon, claiming that the interception of BBM messages will be used in case where the government suspects that crimes or terror plots are being hatched.

It should also be noted that the tapping of BBM only affects those on BIS as BES encryption keys are specific to every installation, while BIS’ encryption key is shared. While India may be the first country granted official access to some of RIM’s data.