Tweeting into trouble: Worm hits popular site

Using Twitter, the popular microblogging site, could land your computer in trouble. A rogue worm has hit the site, which directs the victim to an IP address, asking to download a fake antivirus.

The cyber security wing of the Department of Information Technology (DIT) has warned users on the online site to beware. It has suggested all Twitter users refrain from downloading any links posted on Twitter.

"Exercise caution while clicking on any link in tweets inside the e-mail message, instant messages or web pages," the Cert-In said.

Twitter is a website offering a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read messages called tweets.

Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user's profile page.

The scam spreads through malicious links abusing the goo.gl URL shortening service. If an unwitting user follows the links, they are directed to a fake anti-virus page after multiple redirections.

From there, the domain redirects the user to an IP address pushing a fake antivirus. Once on the website, the victim gets a warning that his/her machine is running suspicious software.

The user is then invited to remove all the threats from their computer by downloading a fake anti-virus called Security Shield.

Del Harvey, director of Trust and Safety for Twitter, had tweeted that the company was working to remove the malicious links and reset passwords on compromised accounts.

Similar attacks on Facebook, Orkut and other sites had come to light. With their growing popularity the networking sites are a favourite with hackers.

Indian call center exec didn't follow customer's accent

Bangalore: "I was on the phone each time for 10 minutes minimum , I think to people in Mumbai , and got so frustrated because I couldn't understand what some of the people were saying."

"I had to ask their staff to repeat themselves over and over. I felt like throwing the phone out of the window," said 59 year old Brummie Viv Tomkins, a retired paramedic.

Viv had called BT a number of times to resolve some bill issues. Each time she called, she was routed to the Mumbai based call centre.

Viv Tomkins complained in her letter to BT that she was not able to understand the accent of the Mumbai based call centre, which provides customer services to telecom giant British Telecom (BT). BT in turn sent a letter to Viv explaining that the advisers were not able to resolve her issue as they were not able to understand her accent.

Charlene Conway, from BT's correspondence centre in Durham, however, wrote back: "I can certainly understand the difficulty in resolving your inquiries. Whenever you spoke to advisers, to resolve your issue, they had problems understanding you.
The retired paramedic said: "I couldn't believe the cheek of it. I know I've got a Brummie twang but I speak the Queen's English."

BT said "We'd like to apologize. The letter was not intended to cause offence. We have contacted the customer to clarify."

Gartner urges CIOs to harness power of social networking

CIOs need to begin exploiting the potential of social networking technology this year, or risk losing the initiative to other parts of the business, analyst company Gartner warned today.

IT departments face an unprecedented opportunity in 2011 to take ownership of social media, said Ken McGee, vice president and research analyst at Gartner.

The last time an opportunity like this came up was the arrival of the web. That traded away from IT to sales and marketing. Our advice to IT is don't blow it this time," he said.

CIOs will need to understand topics such as cognitive psychology and sentiment analysis, in addition to their traditional technical skills, as social media becomes ubiquitous, Gartner claims.

"There is no greater force on the planet to consumers than the input of people they know or those that are their peers. That cannot be ignored," said McGee.

Social media is only one of a number of technologies that are beginning to transform the IT department from a cost centre into a revenue-generating part of the business.

CIOs will be able to take advantage of context aware computing, pattern recognition technologies and other innovative IT projects, if they want to drive revenue for the business.

"In the past, IT has been a cost centre that helps reduce costs and increase productivity. We have never seen a period where there are as many IT-enabling business drivers that are revenue drivers." he said.

"This is a clarion call to say you better get on board or see the train go by."

McGee advises CIOs to audit their company's top performing products and services, to identify which can benefit from social networking and other revenue-generating technologies.

"This is the year to make a decision whether this applies to you or not. And if it does, you need to start on the path. Apply 50% of your training budget to acquire some of the social science skills needed. Start this year," he said.

By the middle of the decade, companies will be hiring CIOs as much for their ability to generate revenue for the business as for their project skills.

"It is an evolution. As people leave their slots, the CEOs and the boards will say more often than not, we need someone unlike the person who has just left," McGee said.

However, he warns that many CIOs could miss the chance.

"Given the current course and speed, it could go the way of the missed opportunity we saw in the early days of the web. That is why we are offering no apology for getting on the rooftops saying here is an opportunity," he said.

'My Total Facebook Views' scam spreads

NEW DELHI: In case you are curious to know how many people visit your Facebook profile, hold your curiosity. The app 'My Total Facebook Views' which has been doing rounds on the world's most popular social networking site is yet another of those Facebook scams.

The rogue application attempts to trick Facebook users to click a malicious link that tells the number of people who visited their profile. Upon clicking the link, users are asked to fill out a survey and grant them access to their personal information. However, doing this leaves you vulnerable to malware that can be downloaded on your system when you click the link.

The scam, which is spreading virally via status updates, includes a link to the suspicious service and text that reads, "My total facebook views are: 1245 Find out your total profile views."

There are no apps on Facebook to measure profile views currently, or know who visited your profile page. According to Facebook, "The exercise exposes your profile to malware and shares your personal information with an entity that will send you more spam in the near future."

According to reports, the rogue app also runs by the names ProfileSpy and Pro Check. Last year too a similar scam that spread like wildfire had hit Facebook that offered insight into who viewed your Facebook profile.

Last week, another scam was reported to have affected a large number of Facebook users. This viral scam -- My 1st St@atus -- was designed to earn revenue for its perpetrators. In fact, messages claiming to share the users' first ever Facebook status updates are still being posted on users' walls by this rogue application though the number has come down since then.

Typical posts read -- "My 1st St@tus was: '[random message]'. This was posted on [random date]. Find your 1st St@tus @ [LINK]". When users clicked on this link, which appeared to have been posted by a Facebook friend, they were taken to a rogue Facebook application, just like in the case of 'My Total Facebook Views'.

This application would then ask users to give it permission to access their profile. This would give the rogue application the ability to post the same message from the affected account to all in the friends' list. Users were also taken to a webpage which contained a survey.

Microsoft announces new release of CRM platform

Dynamics CRM 2011 to offer improved integration with Microsoft SharePoint and Link Online

Microsoft has announced a new release of Dynamics CRM. The online version costs $34 per user, per month.

The software maker is reportedly competing with other CRM platforms such as Salesforce.com and Oracle CRM On Demand.

Oracle CRM On Demand starts at $75 per user, per month, while the cost of Salesforce.com Professional services start at $65 per user, per month. Enterprise services start at $125 per user, per month.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM director Bill Patterson said the company will provide full sales, service and marketing functionality in its standard service unlike Salesforce.com which does not offer marketing functionality or real-time intelligence unless one uses the Enterprise edition.

He added that Dynamics dashboards are continuously refreshed as compared to competing platform which require users to hit refresh, leading to additional charges when they exceed it twice per hour.

The Web-based interfaces, workflows and related alerts can be developed without coding, Microsoft said of its product.

Dynamics CRM 2011 also offers improved integrations with Microsoft products including SharePoint and Link Online.

The service is available outside of North America for the first time.

Review: HTC 7 Mozart

Windows Phone 7 might not yet have been "officially" launched in India but the first Windows Phone devices are already out in the market. First off the mark was the large-screen HTC HD7, and now comes the second, again from HTC, the MTC 7 Mozart.

Where the HD7 had an almost smallish tablet-like design, with the 4.3 inch screen dominating, the Mozart has a relatively smaller (but still big) 3.7 inch display. Its frame is also less wide but it retains the relative slimness of the HD7, making it one of the most palm-friendly larger touchscreen devices we have seen.

But what really stands out is its design — in the HTC Legend tradition, the Mozart has been crafted out of a single piece of anodized aluminum.

This does not seem to be evident from the front of the phone, which is dominated by the 480 x 800 display, but comes to the fore when you turn the phone over and see the anodized aluminum with the company name engraved on it.

The front has three soft keys (Home, Search and Back), there is a dedicated camera key on the right side and rather unusually, the volume rocker on the left. The innards, like the HD 7, are impressive too — a 1GHz processor, 576 MB RAM and 8GB onboard storage.

However, while the HD7 was very much a professional device, the Mozart is targeted at the multimedia loving crowd. The display is lovely (very good for Web browsing and watching video), there is high-fidelity virtual surround sound which sounds just wonderful, and most significant of all, an 8.0-megapixel camera with autofocus and a Xenon flash, no less.

And this being Windows Phone 7, it is all covered in a brilliant tile interface where you can add any number of tiles (representing shortcuts and/or apps) to a vertically scrolling homescreen, which works with butter-like smoothness with hardly any lags and comes with mail and office apps out of the box. The Mozart is a great-looking phone with a very good looking OS to boot.

Windows Phone 7 looks good and works very fast but is still relatively limited with no real multi-tasking (apart from getting push notifications and playing music in the background), no option to send data over Bluetooth, no support (as yet) for Windows Marketplace for apps and Xbox Live for gaming, no storage expansion, and very limited USB connectivity to a PC (our Windows 7 machine refused to recognise the device, although it did so once we used Zune software to transfer music to it).

The camera is surprisingly disappointing, given the high pixel count and the excellent flash, with HD video being a bit on the jerky side and still images often looking dull, although the excellent Photo Enhancer app did help us improve them no end. Battery life is average; at least one recharge a day is needed.

The Mozart is among the most stylish smartphones we have seen. Unfortunately, it is undone to an extent by Windows Phone 7's shortcomings and its own in the camera department. Still, if looks, sound and interface matter, you will be hard pressed to find a better device.

Apple iPad to land India on January 28

Surprise, surprise… Apple has done it again. While the rest of the world is busy waiting for the official iPad 2 specs and launch date, the Cupertino giant is planning on releasing its predecessor in the Indian market a few days from now on January 28.

According to a Telegraph Kolkata report, the 9.7-inch tablet will be making it to our shores in its full glory, with all its versions available. The 3G-enabled versions will cost between Rs. 33,000 to Rs. 44,000 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions. The Wi-fi versions will cost a more reasonable Rs. 26,000 to Rs. 37,000 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions.

Apple has finally decided to launch iPad officially in India. The company is all set to make the product available in India from January 28. The iPad will only be sold by Apple's premium retailers.

The device will be launched in two versions, the Wi-Fi-only version and the 3G+Wi-Fi version. Both will come in three capacities - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. The 16 GB Wi-Fi version will cost 26,000. On the other hand, the 64GB Wi-Fi version will cost 37,000.

The 3G+Wi-Fi version will be priced at 33,000 for the 16 GB model. The 64 GB model will cost 44,000. The 32 GB 3G iPad will also be available, however, its price isn't known yet.

The trend of dumping predecessors in India seems to be the topic for the day. Motorola announced the Indian launch of their XT800 Glam earlier today, even though China has already gotten its hands on an upgraded XT800+. NowApple has joined in on the fray by releasing the iPad, even though an official announcement is expected in the next couple of weeks.

You’ve got to hand it to them though. If the release does happen as predicted, a lot of people will be in two minds – whether to pick up the readily available version, or wait for one that has had no official announcement yet, leave alone the fact that it might not make it here for another year. It’s an underhanded move, but it’s a smart one.

Either way, you don’t need to plan overseas trips just to get your hands on this tablet, or trawl through online retailers for some good deals. You can just walk into your nearest Apple store in a couple of days to pick it up – and that certainly isn’t a bad thing.