Hacking into a Gmail account proves to be an easy thing. Robert Graham (Ceo of Errata Security) gave a demo of it at Black Hat 2007 yesterday using an unprotected Wifi hotspot. The tools he used — nothing but 2 coded scripts called Ferret and Hamster.

Basically, he used Ferret to capture the Wifi signal Session IDs and Cookies from the victim’s Web browser session and used Hamster to clone the Session IDs/Cookies. The cloned web identity was then used to gain full read/ write access of the Gmail account. The scary part of it all is that one doesn’t need to be a super programmer to hack into an email system i.e. just knowing how to use the scripts would be enough. The term script kiddies comes to mind.

Just shows how much you should be aware of potential exploits within email. George Ou from Znet, posted a good article on security steps to safeguard yourself when using email. You should know however, that there is never a case where it is 100% hacker proof — to think it is would be foolish.

Invisible Secrets 4 not only encrypts your data and files for safe keeping or for secure transfer across the net, it also hides them in places that on the surface appear totally innocent, such as picture or sound files, or web pages.

The encrypted files are a perfect disguise for sensitive information. Nobody, not even your wife, boss, or a hacker would realize that your important papers or letters are stored in your last holiday pictures, or that you use your personal web page to exchange messages or secret documents. Invisible Secrets 4 can be purchased at $39.95 directly from their site.

Invisible Secrets 4 features:
* file and email encryption using 8 algorithms (AES - Rijndael, Twofish, RC 4, Cast128, GOST, Diamond 2, Sapphire II, Blowfish)

* Steganography
Hides your sensitive data into innocent files, so nobody can find them. Features five innocent carriers for hiding: JPEG, PNG, BMP, HTML and WA

* a password management solution that stores all your passwords securely and helps you create secure passwords

* a virtual keyboard created in order to prevent any key logger software from stealing your passwords

* a shredder that helps you destroy beyond recovery files, folders and internet traces

* a locker that allows you to password protect certain applications

* the ability to create self-decrypting packages and mail them to your friends or business partners, you will be able to safely send the self-decrypting packages as zip files

* a tool that allows you to transfer a password securely over the internet

* a cryptboard to help you use the program from Windows Explorer

Company Information

Neobyte Solutions was founded by Alin Merches and Adrian Gheara with a clear aim to set high standards of service, and to deliver imaginative software solutions for the international business community. Its headquartered in Romania and has subsidiaries in the USA - NeoByte Solutions USA and Sharpe Communications.

Neobyte Solutions Company Site
Invisible Secrets Software Site
Invisible Secrets 4 Trial Download

As you may (or may not) have known, Apple released their iPhone software update 1.01 security patch yesterday.

Here are some useful links around the blogosphere:

iPhone software update 1.0.1 released (updated) by Znet
Installation and update process (visual pictures included) by Znet
Tuaw’s analysis of the iPhone update
Information about the security content of iPhone v1.0.1 Update (Official Apple article)
Apple’s Security Download Page

Swedish company Medison has unveiled the first $150 laptop called the Celebrity. It comes with the Fedora Linux Operating System pre-installed and takes 4-6 weeks. The $150 unbelievably includes the shipping and handling too.

Medison Celebrity™ is a high quality laptop for the everyday user. It is adapted to functionality that does not demand the highest performance, but rather to everyday tasks such as e-mailing, surfing the Web, word processing and working with spreadsheet programmes. Built-in Wireless and slim design makes this a truly flexible and mobile laptop for the active user.

Is this likely to be too good to be true? Is it a hoax? Many have asked those questions including Larry Dignan (ZDNet) and Matthew Elliot (CNet Crave). In fact, they did order it last week. We’ll just have to wait and see in 4-6 weeks. Orders are fulfilled through 2checkout.com.

At this price, it is even cheaper than Nicholas Negroponte’s $175 OLPC computer and Intel’s Classmate PC.

Here is Medison’s CEO Valdi Ivancic take on why it is so cheap:

“We see this from a democratic point of view where we believe everyone should be able to afford to have a laptop. The other reason is that we have our own plants where we assemble our laptops.”

As for the computer’s specification:

# CPU - Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 (1.5 GHz, 90nm, FSB400, 1 MB L2 cache, uPGA478)
# DISPLAY - 14.0″ WXGA (1280×768) TFT
# HARD DRIVE - 40 GB
# DIMENSION - 333(W) x 243(D) x 24/33.(H)mm (front/back), 2.2Kg with 6 cells Lithium-lion battery
# MEMORY - 64-bit wide DDR data channel, One 200-pin SODIMM socket, supporting DDR 333/400, 256 MB Expandable up to 1GB, based on SODIMM Modules
# STORAGE - One changeable 2.5″ 9.5mm(H) HDD, Supporting Master mode IDE ATA-33/66/100/133 (Ultra DMA), One changeable 12.7mm(H) CD/DVD Combo
# VIDEO CONTROLLER - VIA PN800 integration, Shared Memory Architecture up to 64MB, 128 bit 3D graphic engine, Support analog monitor pixel resolution up to 1920×1400, Support two displays dual view
# KEYBOARD - A4 size keyboard, Built-in Touchpad with scrolling function
# SOUND SYSTEM - AC’97 2.2 Compliant Interface, 3D stereo enhanced sound system, Sound-Blaster PROTM Compatible, S/PDIF Digital output (5.1 CH), 1x Built-in Microphone, 2x Built-in Speakers
# I/O PORTS - 3x USB 2.0 ports, 1x External CRT monitor output, 1x Headphone jack, 1x Microphone jack, 1x S/PDIF output jack, 1x RJ-45 port for LAN, 1x Line-in jack, 1x DC-In jack
# PCMCIA - 1x Type II PCMCIA socket
# COMMUNICATION - 10/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet on board, 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless LAN
# POWER - Full Range 65W AC adapter - AC input 100~240V, 47~63Hz, DC output 20V, 3.25A, Removable 6-cell Smart Li-ion battery pack, 4000/4400mAh

Company Links:
Medison Corporate Website
Medison Celebrity Product Page

Headquarters Address:

Medison Europe Limited
27 Ruffets Wood
Gravesend, Kent
DA12 5JQ England

Tagging is a good way to increase productivity in reading or looking for something online. As you may know, tagging is an important part of blogs and other informational related sites which help simplify the search process.

Taglocity has applied that very concept to reading emails i.e. particularly to Microsoft Outlook.

If you suffer from email overload, Taglocity software simply tags a key word in your emails, contacts and tasks in an organized manner for you to search for it later. It even arranges your tags into a tag cloud where the tags increase by size according to how popular or important it is.

Key features of Taglocity:

- TagFilters
These reduce the need for folders and folder hierarchies because each tag acts as a virtual folder. Tags can then be dynamically filtered by content as needed, or letting the software create tags automatically.

- TagActions
Automate common tasks with user determined actions that run when tags are set.

- AutoTags
Taglocity learns from how you tag and adds tags automatically to your content.

- TravelingTags
Taglocity allows your tags to travel to other people you send and receive messages from.

- TagSearch
Taglocity advances Microsoft’s Windows Desktop Search with a tag-based query feature.

With Taglocity you will ‘find’ instead of ’search’, manage and organize large amounts of Outlook information efficiently, and free up a lot of your precious time for other things.

Taglocity is easily downloadable. It comes in 2 versions - the free personal (limited tag) version and the professional version ($39) which has unlimited tags and email support.

When I installed the demo of the software, I was impressed as it allowed me to find relevant information seamlessly and almost on-demand, saving me valuable time in trying to dig through the multiple folders that I have created. As organized as I try to keep myself i.e. creating folders and filling emails, I always have the problem of not being able to find that very specific email when I want it. Taglocity seems to make my email search and organization of information more productive.

The software is currently at version 1.1 with the highly anticipated version 2 in the works. Version 2, which they call Email 2.0, promises to further revolutionize the email tagging technology in collaborative environments and to “to solve well known email overload and knowledge transfer problems”.

Taglocity is developed by Terazen Technology, Inc. and is headquartered in Vancouver, BC. They are leading providers of Enterprise 2.0 systems and solutions.