Download All of Your Facebook Photos, Posts and Friends List

Facebook has just unveiled the brand-new Groups feature which promises to change the way most people use the social network. But it also introduced a crucial new feature for those seeking for more openness from the social network, the possibility to export and download much of the data you've added to Facebook.

"[W]e've built an easy way to quickly download to your computer everything you've ever posted on Facebook and all your correspondences with friends: your messages, Wall posts, photos, status updates and profile information," Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and cofounder of Facebook, announced.
 

"If you want a copy of the information you've put on Facebook for any reason, you can click a link and easily get a copy of all of it in a single download," he said.

"To protect your information, this feature is only available after confirming your password and answering appropriate security questions. We'll begin rolling out this feature to people later today, and you'll find it under your account settings," he added. 

This has been one of the most requested feature from privacy and advocacy groups but also from individuals. 

You'll be able to get all of the content you've uploaded to Facebook as well as all of the messages, posts and so on in a single archived file. You will also be able to get a list of your friend's names, but, crucially, there will be no contact data, like email addresses, included. 

This is a good privacy measure as it protects the contact data of your friends which they may not want to share with other sites or services. However, it also makes it harder to move to another service since there would be no way of contacting those users or ensuring that your friends come with you. Just their names is not information enough. 

Intel’s Otellini flies through clouds to sign deal with Taiwan government

The Taiwanese government is set to sign a memorandum of understanding with chip giant Intel in a bid to promote the buzz word on everybody’s lips these days – cloud computing.

The Taipei Times said that Paul Otellini, Intel’s CEO, will arrive in Taipei on a wing and a prayer on October 28th to push the development of cloud computing in the prosperous little island.

The Taiwanese government has already signed two MOUs with Intel before, to promote WiMAX, but earlier this year it emerged that these were memories of misunderstanding (MOMs) rather than MOUs.

A number of government quangos, local universities, and vendors will create an R&D centre dedicated to the promotion of cloud computing but it does not appear to be certain that Intel will pitch in to back that initiative.

The Taipei Times said that Big Blue and Microsoft are also likely to set up cloud computing centres in Old Taipei.  Perhaps the vendors would give us a hand and provide us with a memo to help understand what they actually believe cloud computing is.

Botnets: the new battleground of cybercrime

Fast-developing malware

Gone are the days of the lone teenage hacker breaking into computers for fun. Botnets are the only game worth their time now. Serious hackers with rent to pay have abandoned their anarchic principles to build vast global armies of home computers – perhaps even including yours, or that of someone you know.

Cloaked by increasingly sophisticated security, these so-called botmasters dodge justice to claim bragging rights from their peers – and, of course, to make a fortune by renting their creations to hardened criminals.

Stealing your credit card and banking details, spamming, phishing, extorting money through DDoS (distributed denial-of service) attacks and even hosting child pornography can all now be carried out with just a few mouse clicks. Depending on the payload that's downloaded to each of the enslaved 'zombie' computers, these activities are only the tip of a growing iceberg.

While a botnet's zombie software may take only tiny amounts of your CPU's time, individual botnets are becoming so huge overall that some experts are starting to seriously worry about the sheer power that botmasters are making freely available for criminals to rent.

"In terms of power, the botnet utterly blows all of the supercomputers away," says Matt Sergeant of MessageLabs. What's more, sophisticated construction kits are now being packaged into point-and-click products, ready for use by non computer-literate criminals to build their own botnets.

A growing market for add-on packages that can expand a botnet's functionality is also developing, and botnet software that can even replace one infection with its own is already in the wild.

The state of the art in malware design has never developed faster. And yet judging by infection rates and the sheer amount of stolen information available for sale online, home users are oblivious to the risks they run every time they use the internet. Most have never heard of botnets or botmasters, but with an average detection rate currently standing at around 47 per cent for the most widespread type of botnet software, your computer could be infected right now and you wouldn't know it.

So just who is controlling our computers and how exactly are they making money out of doing so? To find out, we sought out the botnet hunters who fight back.

India Looking For Appropriate Way To Monitor BlackBerry Phones

A top government official said that India hopes to find an "appropriate" way to monitor messages and corporate emails sent through BlackBerry smartphones.

India and countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been talking with Research in Motion (RIM) to try and monitor services because they fear that BlackBerry's encrypted messages make it a convenient tool for terrorists to use.

"There are certain categories (monitoring of communication) where things are possible, there are certain categories where the same kind of interception is not possible," Telecommunications Secretary R. Chandrashekhar told AFP late Friday.

India is testing different ways to intercept BlackBerry communications.

Its government said that RIM offered solutions to help access the BlackBerry messenger, Internet, voice calls and short messaging services.

New Delhi threatened to ban the smartphones corporate email service if RIM failed to come up with a solution to help it monitor the service.  It has now said that it will review the situation near the end of October.

India said that RIM will set up a server if it wishes to continue in the country.  It also said it will study the feasibility of services provided through this type of server in India.

Trojans Dominate Malware, Security Firm Reports

More than half (55 percent) of all new malware identified in Q3 of this year were Trojans, said PandaLabs.
The research arm of Panda Security says most of these were banker trojans designed to trick web users into navigating to fake financial sites so cybercriminals can steal login details and passwords.

The use of e-mail in distributing malware, once the most favored method, has declined. Instead, cybercriminals are resulting to social media-related infections, includingClickjacing attacks on social networks such as Facebookand poisoned search results.
Panda also said 95 percent of all e-mail received during Q3 was spam, and 50 percent of this was sent from just ten countries, which included India, Brazil and Russia. For the first time, the UK has fallen out of the list of the world's biggest spam-producing countries.
The security firm also said over the past three months it has a number of attacks onGoogle Android phones, which could be the beginning of a wave of threats targeting smartphones.
"We are also beginning to see legitimate Android apps compressed with self-extracting files, designed to infect when the application is extracted. In other words, Android apps are being used as bait to infect computers with self-extracting files," PandaLabs said.

So, You Don’t Like How iTunes 10 Looks

Responding to a piece posted by Softpedia earlier this week ("How About That New iTunes 10 Icon"), commenters lamented the switch from the old CD-themed logo, even though Apple carefully outlined that the departure was due to iTunes surpassing sales of CDs in the US.

In other words, iTunes is all about digital downloads, therefore an icon containing a CD is suddenly not appropriate anymore.
Softpedia noted that the CD iTunes icon was, in fact, iconic for Apple, therefore the company should have thought twice before changing it.
Although opinions remain divided on the subject, most Softpedia users seem to agree that Apple had better left the iTunes icon just the way it was.

Here are just a few comments from some of our readers:
“The new iTunes icon looks cheap and out of place in Snow Leopards dock. I have replace the icon right away with the old iTunes 9,” Triphase wrote.
“Fugly. The previous wasn't manna from heaven or anything but wow does this seem like something from the mid-90's and poorly executed at that. It's something even Microsoft should be embarrassed by. Sorry Apple, I love ya' but this looks about as good as the new iPhone software works,” said a person identified as 120spaced.
“I find Steve's explanation not very convincing..,” Vic_from_Holland wrote, referring to Apple’s CEO explanation as to why iTunes 10 was shipping with a brand new icon.
“What about that remaining musical note then? iTunes clearly offers more ten music alone. My suggestion for the next iTunes logo: a combination of ear and eye?!!”, he added.
“This might sound weird, but it's too round…,” reader Izzy believes. “There are very few round icons on the dock and I think it looks a little out of place. I'm sure I'll get used to it though!”
Others believe “the new logo is very nice” and that “People seem to be afraid of change..”, according to one comment authored “NewLogo”.
“I totally agree with your point,” British Lex wrote, referring to the iconic nature of the iTunes logo.
He aded: “ever since I first got an Ipod, the symbol is what i've searched for every time I wanted to open my Itunes but I guess we'll eventually get used to this one…”
Apple did another boo boo, users indicate - it removed some of the color from the app’s UI.
“I really dislike the new iTunes logo. As well as the new greyscale itunes... I liked the colors it used to have,” reader Tessa shares with Softpedia.
“And yes I subscribed to Ping, but that doesn't mean I've used it or done anything with it... I'm interested to see what sort of new socializing it will offer….,” Tessa adds
Luckily, for those who don’t like the way iTunes 10 looks, but enjoy the new functionality, there is a way to change the UI and keep the features.
iTunes 109 by Damien Erambert brings the color back to iTunes 10, complete with old CD-styled icon.
iTunes 109 is a simple installer package that will revert the gray iTunes 10 UI back to the colorful version typical to iTunes 9.
Users can choose whether to change the UI of the entire application or just the side bar.

Microsoft buries iPhone and BlackBerry in Windows Phone 7 parade

It’s no secret that Microsoft has high hopes its new Windows Phone 7 operating system will help revive the company’s mobile fortunes, which have certainly taken a battering of late.

But so confident is MS of its success, Engadget reports that it has held a celebration parade for the OS being released to manufacturing in which the company literally buried market rivals. Seriously.

This involved employees dressing up in black, complete with hearses and coffins to depict the burial of the iPhone and BlackBerry by the new great hope which is Windows Phone 7.

There was also a Thriller style zombie dance, no less – with some employees keeping better time than others (yes, we’re talking to you, the guy in the white top who does the overhead hand-clap way too late at the 27 second mark in the YouTube video of the event).

Anyway, what to make of all this? Well, it’s hit a few headlines, which was obviously the intention. Although apparently Windows Phone 7 isn’t burying Android, the OS which overtook Windows Mobile in the global smartphone market this year.

Windows Phone 7 will be out on October 11th, and we shall see whose funeral it is soon enough thereafter.