Peer To Peer File Sharing and Idenity Theft

Experts in security have been warning for years against the hazards of peer-to-peer{P2P} sharing by corporations. The practice of p2p sharing can create security holes allowing malware onto networks and giving access to your sensitive data.

The P2P community may at last be heeding the warnings; next week a company representing P2P file sharing providers will publish a report that purportedly finds P2P software companies are modifying their programs in an effort to make it harder for users to inadvertently share sensitive information.

The problem in corporate America, experts say, is that employees are violating corporate policy by using P2P software at work or on work laptops to download MP3 files, or they take the work laptop home and their children install file-sharing software on it. "Ninety-three percent of P2P disclosures in the enterprise are inadvertent," said Tiversa Brand Director Scott Harrer. "You can't really guard against human error."

The latest version of popular file sharing software, released earlier this year, LimeWire 5, includes a number of the suggested security changes and served as a "poster child for compliance," said Marty Lafferty, chief executive of the DCIA.

It's not just corporations that should fear P2P sharing; home users need to be concerned as well. According to the Identity Theft Assistance Center, throughout this year "criminals will continue to exploit new technologies to commit identity theft." At the top of their list of 'major event' security breaches from 2007 is a case involving a P2P file sharing network.

Even with the public becoming more educated on P2P sharing, the use is steadily on the rise. A large number of people use file sharing to download music, movies and games. What they don't know is doing so can allow access to their personal information, such as business, tax and personal files.

The danger here is clear, as it is commonly acknowledged that criminals now troll file sharing networks for the sole purpose of finding sensitive data that can be used to commit identity theft.One of the steps you can take to protect your files is looking into software like Identity Finder.Identity Finder has the ability to automatically search for personal information inside files, e-mails, and web browsers. It then helps individuals securely delete the data or protect the information with encryption.

The best thing that corporations and the public can do is become educated in P2P sharing and the dangers that exists. For more information on P2P sharing click here.

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Seagate Demos 6Gbs Hard-Drive Transfer Speed

It looks like Seagate and AMD are already planning for the future for SATA drives by showing off their first tech demo of Serial ATA Revision 3.0. That is pretty much a fancy name for SATA 3. The new SATA 3 cables will feature a new transfer rate of six gigabits per second (589.09 MB/s) which is double to the speed of the current generation SATA 2 cables (288.55 MB/s).

Before you get excited though you should know that this will not double the transfer rate of data for your hard drive. Currently no Hard Drive, even the SSDs, have broke the SATA 2 288.55 MB/s data transfer cab, but some are getting close, the Intel X-25M is currently the highest at 250MB/s.

So why bother you may ask, Seagate commented by saying that usually the SATA cable technology always improves a couple of years in advance of the Hard Drives. Also the new spec also includes greater support for streaming operations in its Native Command Queue, so you can do streaming reads/writes without grinding all the rest of your operations to a halt. Even better news is the SATA 3 cables will be fully compatible with all SATA 2 products and will be out by the end of the year.

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2009 will be the worst year ever for PC sales

If 2008 wasn’t bad enough for computer sales according to the research company Gartner, PC shipments will fall 12 percent in 2009. If the analysts report turns out to be true then 2009 will be the worst decline in the industry ever.

"The PC industry is facing extraordinary conditions as the global economy continues to weaken, users stretch PC lifetimes, and PC suppliers grow increasingly cautious," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.

This is already following bad news from the industry with 2008 Q4 pc shipments being down 0.4% and US PC sales being down 3.5%.

According to Gartner PC sales will be hit with a staggering 32% decrease in sales for desktops from the previous year, meanwhile, laptops are expected to grow by 9% due to mainly to the rise in demand for netbooks. Looks like bad news for Dell, HP, and Apple.

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1.5-terabyte External Hard Drive for $112.49 shipped

Wow, seriously 1.5 terabytes. This is enough storage to hold your entire music, movie, and picture collection on and you should still have a ton left over. If you are in dire need for storage this is the deal for you. Dell has just gave out a coupon code that allows you to buy a Seagate External FreeAgent external drive that is holds 1.5 terabytes for the low cost of $112.49 and free shipping.

The coupon code is T4346M$Q6GRJB$, just enter it at the checkout and it is good up until April 4th.

The External Drive is just a simple 7200 RPM USB 2.0 drive. It does not have eSATA, but Seagate backs the drive with an impressive 5 year warranty. their is some bad news though, the FreeAgent is said to be only compatibly with Windows XP and later models of Microsoft's OS, so that means bad news for you guys using a Mac or Linux. Also there has been an Average Review rating of around 3-3.5 on Newegg and Amazon so I would recommend reading the reviews before buying.

The fact is though you are getting a Giant 1.5 terabyte drive at the low cost of 7.5 cents a gig.

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How much does it cost to run a computer in 2009?

Here's something that has always hung around in my mind, but I never got around to looking up the answer. How much will running PCs add to your power bill?

Anandtech posted an article where they calculated the cost of running a PC per hour.

* For a middle of the line system, they figured one year of use is $93.51 for 8 hours a day.
* If you let your PC sit idle 24 hours a day, it will cost you $128.12 a year.
* For a top of the line system that is at full load all day long (like a server) you could spend $440.85.

These prices are calculated at the price of electricity in North Carolina. California PC users will pay almost double.

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Google Book will be up and running again after $125 million settlement

Last October, Google ended up paying a $125 million settlement to the Authors Guild for copyrighted works it had scanned onto its Google Book Search project. The Project seemed like a very great idea, scan every book ever printed so that anyone could view them on the web. Google had scanned over 7 million books before the Author’s Guild said what they were doing was illegal.

Since then the Google has revised their technique and are now offering authors and other copyright holders $60 per scanned book to allow Google to scan their book and add it to their Google Book Search collection. The deal sounds like a terrible one, but there is more to it. Google is only allowed to display snippets in search results, and only 20% of the book will be viewable in preview mode. If a user wants to see the entire book, the user will have the option to buy a digital version of the book. Google has also set up and advertising program on the Google book search results and preview mode. Authors and copyright holders will then receive 63% of all profit that Google has earned on advertising and e-books sold that pertain to the author’s book.

Also worth noting is the settlement is only for the million of out-of-print books that are currently making zero revenues for authors and publishers today. Sounds like a good deal for an author who wants to make some more money off of their book after it has stopped being published and produced.

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Windows Internet Explorer 8

Windows Internet Explorer Version 8 is designed to be faster and more convenient. Some of the features that make it faster are accelerators, enhanced navigation, increased performance, instant search and web slices. For example with web slices it allows you to keep up with frequently updated sites directly from the new favorites bar.

It is also safe and reliable. With tab isolation when a website or add-on causes a tab to crash in Internet Explorer 8 only that tab will be affected. If one or more of the tabs are closed or crash your tabs are automatically reloaded and you are returned to the site you were on before the crash.

You can now visualize your search with pictures. As you type in a search bar an image and text suggestions will appear. And with InPrivate Browsing makes it possible for only certain peopleto see what is searched on the computer which makes it easier to shop for family members without them seeing it on the computer.

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