On the plus side, your router’s mostly secure. Security researcher Stefan Viehbock has just discovered a major security hole which allowed him to use a brute force technique to access a WPS PIN-protected network in about two hours. According to Viehbock, a design flaw allows the WPS protocol’s 8-digit PIN security to fall dramatically as additional attempts are made. With each attempt, the router will send a message stating whether the first four digits are correct while the last digit of the key is used as a checksum and then given out by the router in negotiation. As a result, the 100,000,000 possibilities that the WPS should represent becomes roughly to 11,000.

The US-CERT has picked up on this and advised users to disable WPS on their routers. Viehbock, in turn, claims to have attempted to discuss the vulnerability with hardware vendors such as Buffalo, D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear, but says he has been roundly ignored and that no public acknowledgement of the issue has been released. As a possible final step, Viehbock has promised to release a brute force tool soon, thereby pushing the manufacturers to work to resolve the issue.

SOURCE via The Verge

It wasn’t long ago that HTC’s bootloader unlock utility hit the masses, thereby righting the company’s silly decision to lock its phones down in the first place. Now, continuing its commitment to mod-lovers and those who appreciate freedom, The House of Chou is announcing that its latest lineup of Android phones can find a similar (and proper) fate. The company has released an updated bootloader unlock tool that supports all Android devices released after September of this year. Naturally, this includes such handsets as the HTC EVO Design 4G, Rezound, Rhyme and Vivid. The company has yet to release an updated list of supported devices, but promises to do so in the coming days. While we’re still not crazy about users losing their rights to a warranty, for the moment, that seems to be the price of freedom.

SOURCE via HTC

LG let us know at CES 2011 that it had 4K LCD televisions in the pipeline, but unfortunately they didn’t make it out this year. Expect for that to change in 2012, as the company just announced it’s bringing an 84-inch “ultra-definition” (3840×2160) TV to Las Vegas to go along with its 55-inch OLED. It has all of LG’s Cinema 3D and Smart TV features built-in, including support for that upgraded Magic Motion remote and voice control. There’s no official word yet on when we’ll see these on shelves or at what price, but it certainly looks production ready compared to other prototypes that have been displayed over the years. While we don’t have easy sources of 4K-res video content yet, one of the reasons LG is making the jump first is for 3D. Its Cinema 3D tech uses a Film Pattern Retarder (FPR) screen and passive glasses that result in lowered resolution, but with those extra pixels there’s no question about whether viewers are still getting at least an HD picture. So far 4K at home is the domain of Sony and JVC’s high-priced projectors, but we’ll see if any other companies show off upgrades in size and resolution of their HDTVs this year.

Among those predictions are some that you may expect, including a growing trend toward cyberwar efforts, an increasing focus on mobile computing devices, hacktivism, and attacks on online currencies as well as strategies to place rogue certificates.

However, there were two predictions that stood out in particular. McAfee believes that there will be a trend of advertisers adopting techniques used by spammers. The company expects legal advertisers to be purchasing email lists, including those of companies that are going out of business. The resulting “legal” spam and “snowshoe spamming” are forecast to grow at a faster rate than illegal phishing and confidence scams, McAfee said.

2012 may also see an emergence of attacks on embedded hardware and chips that are an integral part of a larger computer system, for example in cars. McAfee said that proof-of-concept codes exploiting embedded systems will be more effective in 2012, with malware that is much more sophisticated to carry out hardware attacks and set the stage for long-term access to a system.

The security firm also noted that new security features in operating systems will force hackers to find other vulnerabilities outside the operating system. A possibility could be persistent malware in network cards, hard drives and even system BIOS (Basic Input Output System).

Playing a racing game on the big screen can sometimes feel a bit like the real thing, but what happens when the screen is larger than life? Hyundai has created a new iPhone driving game for the Veloster that is interactive on a level that most gamers can only dream of.

If you happen to be in Times Square between now and the end of the year, you can play the game on the massive LED screen on 47th Street and Broadway. In fact, there are a pair of video screens, so up to two players can play at once. We’re guessing this screen beats the two-player setup on most 70-inch LED television screens at home.

Hit the jump to watch Hyundai Race for yourself. And if you will be finding yourself in The Big Apple before New Year’s Day, make sure to download Hyundai Race and get in line… we’re guessing there will be quite a few gamers waiting for a shot at the big screen.

Google is being sued by Buysafe, a secure online transaction provider, which claims that Google maliciously extracted its business information and is now rolling out a technology based on that information.

According to Buysafe, Google’s Trusted Stores program is modeled after Buysafe and has been built using the information of a executive previously employed by a Buysafe partner, which held “extensive” discussions with Buysafe and obtained substantial business information as a result.

Buysafe’s claims are covered by a patent the company filed in 2003 and received in early 2010. Entitled “Safe transaction guarantee” the document describes safe transactions without the use of escrow or bond procedures. According to the allegations mentioned in the lawsuit, Google previously sought to enter a partnership or Jointventure with Buysafe in 2006 and 2008, but the negotiations were unsuccessful. Buysafe noted that Trusted Stores has only seen a limited rollout so far, but it was enough to slow down the company’s growth already.

In a spicy twist, Buysafe also accuses Google of luring Buysafe customers away by confirming that their participation will have a positive effect on how their company surfaces in search results and even offered customers free service if they switch from Buysafe.

Buysafe is asking to be awarded triple damages as well as a ruling that will prevent Google from using and fully rolling out Trusted Stores.

SOURCE via MJ

Intel was able to increase its lead microprocessor sales over AMD in the third quarter of 2011. According to an estimate by market research firm IHS, Intel processors accounted for 83.7 percent of all processors revenues in Q3, up from 82.5 percent in the second quarter and up from 80.9 percent in Q3 of 2010. AMD slipped from 10.5 percent in Q2 and 11.5 percent in Q3 2010 to 10.2 percent in the most recent quarter.

IHS said that the third quarter brought good and bad news for Intel:

“The boom in media tablet sales has packed both upsides and downsides for Intel—hurting its business in netbook microprocessors – but boosting its sales of chips used in data centers to support cloud computing,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms research at IHS. “Because of its broad product line that addresses both the consumer and business side of the microprocessor business, Intel in the third quarter managed to outperform the overall market. Even with the company warning that its fourth-quarter revenue will fall short of expectations, the company still is expected to expand its lead in the global semiconductor market based on its strong performance in the third quarter and the rest of the year.”

It is particularly interesting that Intel has managed to pull itself out of the negative impact of the decline of the netbook market, which is a segment that it fueled with its Atom processors. IHS said that global netbook shipments may drop to 21.4 million units in 2011, down a staggering 33.5 percent from 32 million in 2010. Shipments are expected to fall to 13.4 million units in 2015.