- apple-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

INTEREST: SKYPE- VOIP for free, VVOIP coming
by billing 21 Jul '05

21 Jul '05

BACKGROUND: SKYPE is a free VOIP program that runs on Macintosh, Windows, Pocket PC, and LINUX. From the Skype web site: http://www.skype.com SkypeOut Gift Days At Skype, we don’t believe you should have to pay for [VOIP] calls. That’s why Skype-to-Skype calls will always be free. But even we have to charge a little bit for SkypeOut calls (our service for calling landlines and mobile phones). That’s where SkypeOut Gift Days come in. On SkypeOut Gift Days you’ll be able to redeem 10 minutes of credit for SkypeOut calls and it won’t cost you a thing. It’s free. How do I know when it’s a SkypeOut Gift Day? We wish every day could be a SkypeOut Gift Day, but that would make us bankrupt. So our accountant says we can have 2 more this month. When one is approaching, we’ll let you know through our website and on Share.Skype.com. We’re planning to have SkypeOut Gift Days throughout July, so keep checking back for details. GLOSSARY: VOIP: Voice Over IP (Internet). In effect, local or long distance telephone call. Note that, with Skype, you need a computer. If you want your call to be free, the person you are calling must also have Skype installed but you can call anyone, for a small per minute charge, even if they have only a regular telephone. VVOIP: Voice and Video Over IP NEWS STORY: Skype: A new, friendly communications monopoly? -Posted by Dan Farber @ 10:01 am Home Software Infrastructure Wired & Wireless Web Technology The first morning session of the AO2005 Innovation Summit was a Skype video call (vSkype correction: vSkype is from a third-party user of Skype's API. The product used for the video call was a Skype internal alpha product that the company said will be the foundation for its video offering later this year) between host Tony Perkins and MarketWatch's Bambi Francisco in Palo Alto and Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom and investor ($10 million in Skype) Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson [...] NOTE: - If you install Skype, you can test your connection by placing a call to user "Echo123". This is an automated service that will let test if you can hear other Skype users and if they can hear you. - this is very similar to what iChat already provides within the Macintosh OSX environment. iChat, however, is not yet available for other operating systems.

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SECURITY: survey of 2, 000 Inet users. Survey says: 81% don't open attachments, 25% won't download
by billing 21 Jul '05

21 Jul '05

STATISTICS, STUDIES & SURVEYS --Study Shows Users are Changing Internet Habits to Avoid Spyware (8 July 2005) A Pew Internet Project survey of 2,000 Internet users (http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Spyware_Report_July_05.pdf) found that more than 90% have altered their on line habits in an effort to reduce their exposure to spyware. More than 80% of those surveyed do not open attachments from unknown senders. http://www.cio-today.com/news/Internet-Users-Change-Habits-for- Spyware/story.xhtml?story_id=020000O5OSBS [Editor's Note (Schultz): I am not sure that the reported figure concerning the percentage of people who do not open attachments they are not expecting is very encouraging. If this figure is true, nearly 20 percent of users open attachments they are not expecting, making their systems prime targets for worm and virus infections. (Shpantzer): The word is out that spyware is a serious threat, and people are paying attention. Ideally there would be integrated tools that really prevent this crud from getting onto our systems. I must say that I'm very disappointed that the antivirus vendors are so late in bringing anti-spywarepyware functionality to their software that spyware has become so prevalent.]

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SECURITY: another breach - 270,000 vulerable at USC
by billing 21 Jul '05

21 Jul '05

ATTACKS, INTRUSIONS & DATA THEFT --University of Southern California Computer Security Breach ( 9 July 2005) The University of Southern California is notifying approximately 270,000 people who either applied to or began the application process for the school over the past eight years that their personal data may have been compromised. The exploited SQL injection flaw was discovered in June. Officials estimate that only about 10 records were exposed; these contain names, addresses and Social Security numbers. USC's Information Services Division has blocked access to the site. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me- hacker9jul09,1,1003945.story?coll=la-news-state

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MACTEL terms: Centrino
by billing 08 Jul '05

08 Jul '05

While no mention of "Centrino" has been made in Apple's announcements in its movement toward the Intel line of chips, the following link does give some insight into Pentium M vs Celeron M (as well as background on Intel's "Centrino" branding for laptop configurations) and talks about some considerations of the two for laptops. ...from: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=1583&tag=nl.e539 Intel chimes in on ZDNet slam of Centrino brand -Posted by David Berlind @ 3:02 pm, July 8, 2005 [...] [Intel spokesperson Barbara] Grimes wrote: Our research has consistently told us that mobile PC users care most about four things: 1) performance, 2) battery life, 3) thinner & lighter form factors, and 4) built-in wireless capability. We conceived of Intel Centrino mobile technology to deliver on those four requirements. The idea of the [Centrino] brand is to give customers a simple, straightforward way to identify laptops that deliver the four things they care about most in buying a mobile PC. My understanding of your objection is that you feel that the wireless component does not contribute to Centrino's great battery life, so it shouldn't be part of the brand. I see a couple flaws in this thinking. First, the wireless component DOES contribute to the platform battery life (certainly not as significantly as the processor or chipset, but it does nonetheless). But just how much does it contribute? In a separate e-mail, Grimes wrote: In an average laptop configuration, the processor and chipset together make up more than 30% of the platform's power consumption, and the wireless LAN makes up 1%. [...] Another interesting revelation that I think challenges Centrino's value proposition is the existence of Intel's Mobile Celeron processor — the Celeron M. In my ongoing debate with Grimes, I've routinely been reminded that buyers of Centrino-branded notebooks have greater assurance than buyers of non-Centrino notebooks that their systems will successfully get a connection in a Centrino- branded Wi-Fi hotspot. (In other words, pairing a Centrino notebook with a Centrino hotspot promises a better shot at a connection then does compliance with good old fashioned wired and wireless networking standards.) [...] Grimes reminded me: The [Centrino] brand is designed to enable consumers or buyers to easily identify systems that deliver the four capabilities or features that they care about most in a laptop: great performance, great battery life, thinner and lighter designs, and built-in wireless capability. After reminding me that the brand stands for all four attributes in combination, she said the Celeron M systems don't qualify because they don't do as well on battery life and performance as the Pentium M systems do. And Pentium M systems with non-Intel radios don't qualify because they're not as wirelessly capable. What's the bottom line? I agree with aforementioned message as long as there's no official implication that you can't have those four things without a Centrino system. You can. System performance and battery life, by the way, are often dependent on other things that the Centrino "requirement" says nothing about (amount of RAM and size of battery for starters). If only HP would give me some idea of how its new Turion-based notebook fares in performance and battery life against the company's most comparably equipped Intel notebook, we might learn that they're equally capable of all four attributes plus one more: the 64-bit capabilities of the Turion's AMD64 architecture. If only it wasn't for that stupid code of silence. So far, Intel hasn't shipped any mobile processors with the 64-bit capability (beyond its servers, Intel has however finally shipped an AMD64-compliant desktop Celeron). [...]

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INTEREST: 40 million account breach: followup
by billing 07 Jul '05

07 Jul '05

--State Attorneys General Demand Information About CardSystems Security Breach (28 June 2005) Attorneys General from 44 states have written a letter to CardSystems demanding that the payment processor inform people whose accounts were compromised in a massive breach. The letter asks that the company be forthcoming with information regarding the breach. 40 million accounts may have been exposed in the breach; at least 200,000 are known to have been stolen. The letter also said that CardSystem's action was unacceptable. The letter gives the company until July 25 to provide detailed state-by-state information about the breach, remediation efforts, and steps to avoid further compromises. http://news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=/ap/o/ 51/06-29-2005/d583001a47792379.html

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INTEREST: iTunes store 500,000,000 counter...
by billing 05 Jul '05

05 Jul '05

Apple, for a bit of fun, has a counter that is showing the rate of iTunes purchases on the way to half a billion. It's at the Apple home page: http://www.apple.com

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INTEREST: Duke-iPod update, Class Action results of security breach, Spammers in court, more
by billing 30 Jun '05

30 Jun '05

...reported on "Silicon.com" at http://hardware.silicon.com/storage/ 0,39024649,39131285,00.htm: Free iPods for students: The verdict June 20 2005 by Jo Best The university that gave all its first-year students an iPod has evaluated the success of the pilot scheme - and come up with mixed results. US institution Duke University gave all its 1,650 freshmen the Apple music player, as well as a voice recorder, in autumn 2004 to "encourage creative uses of technology". One year on, the university has found that over 600 students in both the autumn and spring terms made use of the device. Humanities students, particularly those studying music and foreign languages, were the most forthcoming in their use of the iPods, although the whole first class of engineering students had to use the device in a project for their Computational Methods class. Among the faculties that took part in the experiment were Spanish, where students recorded themselves speaking the language for evaluation on their music players, and electrical and computing engineering, where students used the iPods to record pulse rates. Mostly, however, the students used the devices to record or play back lectures and tutorials. Duke's report into the project said: "Initial planning for academic iPod use focused on audio playback; however, digital recording capabilities ultimately generated the highest level of student and faculty interest." The evaluation found that 60 per cent of the undergraduates involved in the scheme used their iPod to record academic material, while 28 per cent used the device for storage. [...] --Class Action Suit Filed Against CardSystems, Visa and MasterCard for Data Security Breach (27 June 2005) A California attorney has filed a class-action lawsuit against CardSystems Solutions, Visa and MasterCard on behalf of California residents and merchants who accept credit cards. The lawsuit alleges the companies did not appropriately secure their systems and did not inform people in a timely manner about a security breach that exposed data on 40 million accounts. Apparently information on approximately 200,000 accounts was verifiably transferred out the payment processor's computer system, but the credit card companies said they do not intend to notify people of the problem unless the accounts are used fraudulently. The lawsuit asks that the companies notify all people whose data were exposed and provide special notification to the 200,000 whose data were stolen. The suit also asks that chargeback fees and penalties to merchants be waived on transactions where the information was used fraudulently. http://news.com.com/2102-7350_3-5765383.html?tag=st.util.print http://www.techfirm.com/cardsystems.pdf --Alleged Spammer First to be Tried Under Australia's Spam Law (24/23 June 2005) The Australian Communications Authority will try Wayne Mansfield, managing director of Clarity 1, for allegedly sending at least 56 million spam messages since Australia's Spam Act took effect in April 2004. The ACA is also seeking an interim injunction against Clarity 1 to prevent it from sending out more unsolicited email until the court hearing, which is scheduled for July 20. Mansfield maintains he has not broken the law and is looking forward to proving his innocence in court. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/24/ australia_sues_alleged_spammer/print.html http://internet.aca.gov.au/ACAINTER.65636%3ASTANDARD%3A%3Apc=PC_3000 http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=3912 http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,15714808%5E15331%5E% 5Enbv%5E15306%2D15318,00.html --Microsoft Suing German Company for Sending Spam (22 June 2005) Microsoft is suing an unnamed German company for allegedly inundating Hotmail users with spam. The German company allegedly used organizations in the US and the Ukraine to send the unsolicited commercial email. The company's director denies any personal wrongdoing; he says his partners are responsible for the spam and that they are "out of control." Because Germany does not presently have any laws against distributing spam, Microsoft is seeking an injunction in an attempt to shut down the North Rhine Westphalia-based company under German fair trade law. http://www.scmagazine.com/news/index.cfm? fuseaction=newsDetails&newsUID=71539896-5ee5-46b5-b9fe- b72d83d68d83&newsType=News http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2005/0,4814,102670,00.html --Indian Police Need Formal Complaint Before They Can Arrest Alleged Data Thief (24/23 June 2005) A man who reportedly sold data on 1,000 bank accounts of UK citizens to an undercover reporter in India is still at large. The information was reportedly stolen from call centers. Delhi police cannot arrest the man, Karan Bahree, until they receive a formal complaint either from the call centers where the data were stolen or from banks or individuals in the UK affected by the theft. In a BBC interview, Mr. Bahree said he gave a CD to the undercover reporter at the behest of another person and did not know what the disk contained. UK organizations that outsource customer services are liable for security problems that arise; the banks affected in this case could be found to be in violation of the UK's Data Protection Act. http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2005/0,4814,102755,00.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8345423/ http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/offshoring/print.htm? TYPE=story&AT=39131387-3800003026t-39000857cs

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INTEREST: the "tech geek" view of G5 (64 bit, Velocity Engine) & P4 (EM64T, SSE2)
by billing 22 Jun '05

22 Jun '05

Let me say right off that if gory innards, techgeek terms like SPECfp and SPECint, and looking at charts showing how fast a Photoshop tranform happens are not of interest to you, stop reading now. ::-) For those of you brave enough to venture forward, here's one attempt at comparing what difference may exist between the current Apple Macintosh hardware heart and the upcoming Apple Macintosh hardware heart (from that techie/geeky viewpoint ::-). Mostly it'll be just a bunch of existing numbers and graphs but I've also tried to include some of the sources from the manufacturers that explain the numbers and graphs in words as well..... so that you have the numbers.... in.... words...... as well..... (Disclaimers: Due to the nature of the tables, it'll be easier to read if you change to a monospaced font. My apologies for any errors found - please let me know. The following raw numbers do not define the entire picture. How everything gets put together can have a dramatic effect; the work done during a G4 or G5 clock cycle differs from that done during a P4 cycle, etc. Nor does this comment on OS concerns. Source links for this information are given at the end of the message. All Intel CPUs listed below, except for the Celeron, Celeron-M, and Pentium-M can support 64 bit addressing. ***Intel's SSE2 is not available in the Celeron processor.) Very rough guidelines based upon passed usage: Desktops: G4, G5, PXE, PD, P4, Celeron Laptops: G4, Pentium-M (couples the execution core of the Pentium III with a Pentium 4 compatible bus interface - code name "Yonah"), Celeron-M Servers: G5, Itanium 2, Xeon *FS Bus: Front side bus Processor Name/Number | Clock Speed | L2 cache | FS Bus* | Dual Core | | (GHz) | (KByte) | (GHz) | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- IBM/Motorola G4 | 1.25, 1.42, | 512 | .333 | | | 1.33, 1.5, | | | | | 1.67 | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- IBM/Motorola G5 | 1.8, 2.0, | 512 |.600, 1, | | | 2.3, 2.7 | | 1.15,1.35| | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel PentiumXE 840 | 3.2 | 2x1000 | .8 | yes | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel Pentium D 840, 830, | 2.8 - 3.2 | 2x1000 | .8 | yes | 820 | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel P4 571, 570J°, 561, | 2.8 - 3.8 | 1000 | .8 | | 560J, 560, 551, 550J, 550,| | | | | 541, 540J, 540, 531, 530J,| | | | | 530, 521, 520J, 520 | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel P4 670, 660, 650, | 3.0 - 3.8 | 1000 | .8 | | 640, 630 | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel Celeron D 346, 341, | 2.5 - 3.06 | 256 | .533 | | 336, 331, 326 | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel Celeron*** | .95 - 2.8 | 128, 256 | up to . 4| | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel Pentium M 770, 765, | 1.5 - 2.13 |1000 - 2000| .4, .533| Yonah | 760, 758, 755, 753, 750, |Low voltage: | | | coming | 745, 740, 738, 735, 733, | 1.3-1.5 | | | 2006? | 730, 725, 723, 718, 715, |Ultra low | | | | 713 |voltage:1-1.2| | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel Celeron M 383, 373, | 1.2 - 1.5 |512 - 1000 | .4 | | 370, 360, 353, 350, 340, | Ultra low | | | | 333, 330, 320, 310 | volt:.9-1.0 | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel Itanium 2 | 1.0 - 1.6 |256 (1500- | bandwidth| | | | 9000 L3) |6.4GB/ sec| | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Intel Xeon | 2.8 - 3.66 |1000 - 2000| bandwidth| | | | |6.4-14GB/ s| | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Floating Point and Integer Arithmetic: -------------------------------------- Apple/IBM/Motorola AltiVec (Velocity Engine): 128-bit vector registers that can represent sixteen 8-bit signed or unsigned chars, eight 16-bit signed or unsigned shorts, four 32-bit ints or four 32- bit floating point variables. supports a special RGB "pixel" data type Intel SSE2: replacement for MMX and SSE. 128-bit vector registers that can represent sixteen 8-bit signed or unsigned chars, eight 16- bit signed or unsigned shorts, four 32-bit ints or four 32-bit floating point variables. Performance: ------------ SPECfp 2000 (Bigger is better): - Dual 3.66 GHz Xeon EM64T: 28.6 (IBM xSeries 336: 2M L2 cache, 8 GHz FS Bus) - Dual 2GHz G5: 15.7 - Dual 3.06 GHz Xeon: 11.1 - Single 3 GHz P4: 8.07 SPECint 2000 (Bigger is better): - Dual 2GHz G5: 17.2 - Dual 3.06 GHz Xeon: 16.7 - Single 3 GHz P4: 10.3 Adobe Photoshop 7.01 600 MB file: 45-filter function, 2 GB memory (performance of a single P4 3GHz system is "1") - Dual 2GHz G5: 2.2 - Single 1.8 GHz G5: 1.8 - Single 1.5 GHz G5: 1.5 - Dual 3.06 GHz Xeon: 1.1 BLAST DNA sequence matching (in millions of nucleotides per second - higher is better): WORD LENGTH 10 20 30 40 ----------------------------------------------------- Dual 2 GHz G5 | .2 2 2.9 3.1 Single 1.8 GHz G5 | .2 1.5 2.5 2.5 Single 1.6 GHz G5 | .2 1.2 2.1 2.3 Dual 3.06 GHz Xeon| .2 0.5 0.6 0.6 Single 3 GHz P4 | .2 0.5 0.5 0.4 HMMer genome matching sequencing (performance of a single P4 3GHz system is "1") - Dual 2GHz G5: 6.9 - Single 1.8 GHz G5: 4.8 - Single 1.5 GHz G5: 4.2 - Dual 3.06 GHz Xeon: 1.7 Links: ------ G4/G5: http://www.apple.com/ibook/specs.html http://www.apple.com/powerbook/specs.html http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html http://www.apple.com/powermac/specs.html http://www.apple.com/xserve/specs.html http://www.apple.com/lae/powermac/performance/ Intel: http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentiumXE/index.htm http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentium_D/index.htm http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentium4/index.htm http://www.intel.com/products/processor/celeron_D/index.htm http://www.intel.com/products/processor/celeron/index.htm http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentiumm/index.htm http://developer.intel.com/design/Pentium4/prodbref/ http://www.cpuid.org/PentiumM/index.php http://techreport.com/reviews/2003q3/pentiumm-1.4ghz/index.x?pg=1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_M http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/ 0,,30_118_11600_11613,00.html AltiVec: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/A/Al/AltiVec1.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AltiVec http://www.tommesani.com/AltiVec.html SSE2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE2 http://www.tommesani.com/SSE2Intro.html http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/S/SS/SSE22.htm EM64T (Intel's 64 bit addressing technology): http://www.answers.com/topic/em64t http://www.best.de/download/marketing/AMD-Sun-Opteron_I.pd Wayne

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Re: Spyware Floods In Through BitTorrent
by Will Christie 20 Jun '05

20 Jun '05

Just to clarify the article, the title is a bit misleading, and really should read "Spyware Floods In Through Any-Program-You-Use-To-Connect-To-The-Internet-With." It really underscores that you shouldn't be downloading or executing anything off the Internet unless you know where it came from (or are prepared to deal with the consequences). BitTorrent works by creating a torrent file that describes how a file(s) is constructed. Users can download the torrent file, and when run with a torrent program, it will contact other torrent programs on the Internet, looking for the pieces. The torrent program will also share existing pieces that you've collected, but only for the particular torrent file (it does NOT share out your hard drive). Torrents work well in distributing information quickly as multiple sources can give you several pieces simultaneously. You don't need to obtain the file from a single source one piece at a time if you were downloading it via HTTP or FTP. In this case Direct Revenue is creating torrents of files that users want that include their spyware program IN ADDITION TO the original file. They are not co-opting the original file or infecting torrents that are not their own. In fact there is some legality on their repackaging and distributing these torrents. If you download a torrent distribution file for a Linux boot disk from Knoppix.org then there is no way for Direct Revenue to add their spyware into that torrent. If you download a torrent distribution file for the same Linux boot disk from Direct Revenue then there is NO guarantee that you won't have an unwelcome hitch-hiker added to your download. Even then, once their spyware is downloaded to your machine you will need to execute it for the spyware to sink its hooks into your system. Frankly, anyone who obtains (for example) boot disk.ISO and an executable file they don't why it's there, and decides to run the executable, deserves to be thoroughly chastised with the same tone of voice reserved for people who cross the street without looking both ways. Slashdot has a good discussion about this here: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/16/1558229&tid=158&tid=172&tid… -- Will_Christie(a)UManitoba.CA "You probably think Canada's leader Instructional Software Coordinator is called the, uh... Grand Poobah!" Academic Computing & Networking "No, it's the Governor-General." University of Manitoba "WRONG! It's the Prime Minister." 622 Engineering "Technically Hank, it is Ph: 204-474-9475 Fx: 204-474-7920 the Governor-General." --Corner Gas

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INTEREST: Spyware Floods In Through BitTorrent
by billing 20 Jun '05

20 Jun '05

...from: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1828633,00.asp Spyware Floods In Through BitTorrent By Ryan Naraine June 15, 2005 BitTorrent, the beloved file-sharing client and protocol that provides a way around bandwidth bottlenecks, has become the newest distribution vehicle for adware/spyware bundles. [...] "This is the marketing campaign to end all marketing campaigns," said Boyd, the Microsoft Security MVP (most valuable professional) known throughout the security industry by the "Paperghost" moniker. In an e-mail interview with Ziff Davis Internet News, Boyd said rogue files have popped up occasionally in BitTorrent land but those were usually just random executables. "This is the first time I've seen a definite money-making campaign with affiliates, distributors and some pretty heavy-duty adware names," he added. Boyd, widely known for chronicling spyware, hacking and malware exploits, has published details of the BitTorrent distributions and identified Direct Revenue and Marketing Metrix Group as the companies responsible for the rigged files. Boyd said he got the first inkling that BitTorrent was a major adware distribution vehicle while searching for the source of Direct Revenue's Aurora, an adware program that includes the prevalent "nail.exe" component. Sifting through mountains of HijackThis logs posted on security forums, Boyd said the answer was staring him in the face. (HijackThis is a popular freeware spyware removal tool that keeps detailed logs of Windows PC scans). In the logs, he found that "nail.exe" and "aurora.exe" were always listed alongside "btdownloadgui.exe," the user interface that downloads/uploads when using BitTorrent. "I checked hundreds of those logs, and more often than not, [btdownloadgui.exe] was chugging away in the background. No wonder none of the victims (or spyware experts) seemed to know what site Aurora was coming from—there was no site. It would have never occurred to the end users that it could have crept in by another means altogether," he said. Because BitTorrent strips digital files into tiny shreds and reassembles them locally once a user completes a download, it has emerged as the perfect place to bundle adware programs among the bits, without the end user ever knowing. A BitTorrent user downloading a movie clip only becomes aware of the associated adware after the files are reassembled. At that stage, when the user attempts to load the reassembled file, he or she is greeted by an installation notice for an adware bundle distributed by MMG (Marketing Metrix Group), a Canadian company that specializes in P2P network marketing. [...] Direct Revenue admitted to using MMG to push Aurora distributions via BitTorrent, but insisted that the actual adware installation was done with adequate and up-front disclosure. In an interview, Direct Revenue chief technology officer Daniel Doman said MMG is "one of many affiliates" used to distribute Aurora. "They [MMG] specialize in doing content distribution on peer-to-peer channels, and we think they provide an easy mechanism for people like us who want to monetize software or content." Doman, a former director of engineering at DoubleClick Inc., said the increased visibility of Aurora and the "nail.exe" component was not the result of new installations, pointing out that Direct Revenue is auto-updating its file-naming convention to address criticisms that the adware program was hidden on purpose. "We just recently launched a full awareness and campaign to the entire user base, and the fact that those files are showing up in logs shows that we're having success," he said. The campaign, announced on May 17, includes the placement of an uninstall facility within the add/remove panel on Windows for PCs that points users to the previously hard-to-find MyPCTuneUp Web site for adware program removal. "We've taken pains to brand all of our windows so that the source and prominence of the advertising we serve are extremely clear," Doman said. So far, about 90 percent of Direct Revenue's user base has received the branding updates, which happen without any user action. Direct Revenue has been heavily criticized for forcing users to visit the MyPCTuneUp site to complete the program removal, but Doman defended that strategy, insisting the Web-based uninstall utility is the most efficient way to make sure the removal is properly done. He said the company was seeing increased traffic to the site since the launch of the campaign, adding that the daily uninstall count was "in the thousands." Even so, he said, the thousands of daily uninstalls represent only a fraction of a percentage of the entire user count and are not materially affecting Direct Revenue's business. Doman described Boyd's posts on VitalSecurity.org as "misleading" and pointed out that the screenshots provided by the researcher "clearly show full disclosure" before the Aurora program is installed. He acknowledged that a "grey area" exists in the timing of the disclosure, but insisted that it was done in full compliance with existing laws. "We require all our distributors to fully inform end users about what is being installed. It's a clear opt-in procedure," he said. "The user is downloading something through BitTorrent that is ad- supported and [Boyd's screenshot] shows the disclosure that is provided. The idea that somehow the download is surreptitious is wrong. It's very apparent that if the BitTorrent user goes through with the MMG download, they agree to install the ad-supported software." Doman added: "The notion that the user has accidentally found all this software on his machine is false. [MMG] is using a 'pull' technology. Nothing is being snuck in the back door."

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