A new backdoor Trojan for OS X is making the rounds, attempting to set up a secure connection for a remote hacker to connect through and grab private information.

The malware, dubbed "Pintsized" by Intego, is suspected of using a modified implementation of OpenSSH to set up a reverse shell that creates a secure connection to a remote server.

During the anti-spam law debates in 2009, copyright lobby groups promoted amendments that would have allowed for expansive surveillance of user computers. Coming on the heels of the Sony rootkit scandal, the government ultimately rejected those proposals (the Liberals had plans to propose such amendments but backed down), leaving in place an important provision that requires express consent prior to the installation of computer software.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce and other business groups want to ensure that the anti-spam law does not block their ability to secretly install spyware on personal computers for a wide range of purposes. In doing so, these groups are proposing to turn the law upside down by shifting from protecting consumers to protecting businesses.

The study found that the most expensive element of FDE is not the hardware or software involved, but the value of user time it takes to start up, shut down and hibernate computing systems while using FDE. Also adding to the cost is the time it takes technicians to complete full disk encryption procedures.

After doing all of the math, Ponemon found that the cost of FDE on laptop and desktop computers in the U.S. per year was $235, while the cost savings from reduced data breach exposure was $4,650.

Several of Ubisoft's biggest titles won't be playable as of next week thanks to a server move by the publisher and the restrictive DRM that was used in their development.

Because Ubisoft thought it would be a smart plan to use always on DRM for even the single player portion of games like Assassin's Creed, even the single player portion of that title won't be playable during the server move.

Those people paid money for your game and they won't be able to play it. If you didn't pay, downloaded illegally, pirated, you'll be able to play fine.

Remember "booting up"? It was the first thing you did every morning-you waited two minutes, three minutes, sometimes even longer while your computer ran through a series of self-tests, loading screens, and an error prompt or two before settling into any kind of useful state.

Apple's MacBook Air loads up in 16 seconds, and machines based on Google's cloud-based Chrome OS boast boot times of under 10 seconds. Even Windows computers are fast-with the right set-up, your Windows 7 laptop can load just as quickly as a MacBook.

Three years ago, the world's 27 million business servers processed 9.57 zettabytes, or 9,570,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of information.

Researchers at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies and the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego, estimate that the total is equivalent to a 5.6-billion-mile-high stack of books stretching from Earth to Neptune and back to Earth, repeated about 20 times.

Government certified security software: the French government's Hadopi wants to spy on everything on your computer, every time you log on, otherwise you cannot defend yourself against breach of copyright allegations.

The measures appear to be 'belt-and-braces' in that the software will be required to monitor all traffic through the Internet access as well as all files on the user's computer and the router configuration.

Sun's Zettabyte File System (ZFS) now has built-in deduplication, making it probably the most space-efficient file system there is.

The deduplication is done inline, with ZFS assuming it's running with a multi-threaded operating system and on a server with lots of processing power. A multi-core server, in other words.

The beauty of ZFS dedupe is that you don't need special storage arrays to deduplicate data. Ordinary arrays are quite acceptable, and its applicability at a data-set level means that you need only to deduplicate the datasets with redundant data and not the others.

China is coming under scrutiny as the possible source of malicious software and Internet attacks directed at foreign governments and other institutions.

Completed separately, both reports--"Tracking GhostNet," from the Munk Centre for International Studies in Toronto, and "The snooping dragon," from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory--address the Chinese government's efforts to monitor the activities of the Dalai Lama and the governing of Tibet.

An electronic spy network, based mainly in China, has infiltrated computers from government offices around the world, Canadian researchers say.

They included computers belonging to foreign ministries and embassies and those linked with the Dalai Lama - Tibet's spiritual leader.

There is no conclusive evidence China's government was behind it, researchers say. Beijing also denied involvement.