Microsoft security fix clobbers 2 million password stealers - NetworkWorld.com

Microsoft's June security updates were bad news for online felons who do their life stealing watchword information from
online gamers.

The company's Malicious Software Removal Tool -- a programme that detects and takes viruses and other bad programmes from Windows
machines -- removed game password-stealing software system from more than than 2 million PCs in the first hebdomad after it was updated to
observe these programmes on June 10. Don't Miss!

One watchword stealer, called , was detected on 700,000 computing machines in the first twenty-four hours after the update. That's twice as many infections as were spotted during
the full calendar month after Microsoft began detecting the ill-famed Storm Worm malware last September.

"These are pathetic Numbers of infections my friends, absolutely mind-boggling," wrote Flatness McCormack, a spokesman with
Microsoft's Malware Response Center, in a Related Content

Between June 10 and June 17, Microsoft removed Taterf from about 1.3 million machines, he said.

Microsoft's September sensings seriously hobbled the Storm Worm botnet, once considered a top Internet threat.

Password thiefs such as as Taterf are among the most common types of malicious software system on the Internet. That's because there's
big money to be made merchandising the practical currencies used in online games for real-world cash.

Once a criminal larns a gamer's username and password, he can log into the game and sell the victim's practical possessions
for practical gold coins. Those coins are then handed to another fictional character in the game who sells the gold for real-world dollars
at an online exchange such as as , said Greg Hoglund, chief executive officer of HBGary and a co-author of the book

"There's no manner to scrutinize that money transfer, so effectively they're doing money laundering," he said. "There's almost zero
hazard for the attackers."

The password-stealing programmes are often installed via Web-based onslaught codification that deeds flaws in multimedia system programmes such
as Adobe's Flash Player or Apple's QuickTime Player, Hoglund said.

The onslaughts are often technically sophisticated, exploiting previously unrevealed bugs in Windows software, said Roger Thompson,
main research military officer with AVG Technologies. "The 'World of Warcraft' watchword thiefs have got provided most of the innovation
over the last twelve months," he said via instantaneous message. 1

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

Google Launches Language Translation API - InformationWeek

Google for translating blocks of textual matter in Web pages into multiple languages.

The linguistic communication application scheduling interface can also place a peculiar linguistic communication before translation. The API do usage of the Web 2.0 engineering Ajax and covers 13 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The API also back ups 29 interlingual rendition pairs.

The new API was developed by Google's Ajax Search and Feeds team, which on how the engineering can be incorporated in Web applications.

With the API, developers can interpret and observe blocks of textual matter in a blog or other Web page using Javascript, Google said. The linguistic communication tool is designed to supply interlingual rendition quickly when a more than thorough offline interlingual rendition is unavailable. Google bes after to add more than capablenesses to the new API in the future.

Google is offering a for usage of the API, as well as

Computerized interlingual rendition is an emerging tool in planetary business. In general, however, interlingual renditions be given to be either good when handled by world or fast when conducted by machines. The two rarely come up together in a single software system product.

One illustration of a software system company trying to better the procedure of getting concern stuffs translated is Parlance Technologies. The company last September introduced a new version of its WorldServer software system that includes unfastened APIs, so companies can incorporate Idiom's database for translated footing and phrases into other applications.

Google and security seller Symantec were among the Parlance clients that pushed Parlance to make the APIs.