Adobe hit by Chinese Google attack

Adobe Systems has revealed the cyber attack that hit its corporate network earlier this month is likely to have been connected to the hacking attack on Google, which may lead the Web giant to pull its operations out of China, reports Computing.co.uk.

Commentators speculated that the two incidents were connected after Adobe revealed in a blog posting on Tuesday that it "became aware on 2 January 2010 of a computer security incident involving a sophisticated, co-ordinated attack against corporate network systems managed by Adobe and other companies".

The statement appeared only a short time after Google published its initial blog posting detailing the Chinese hacking activity on its own systems, fuelling the speculation.

One in 20 Britons think Steve Jobs is a Division II footballer, 6% think a virtual hard disk is a sexually transmitted disease, and 10% believe a wireless dongle to be a sex toy, writes The Register.

These surprising insights into the scope of British tech smarts come from a survey recently conducted by Lewis PR of 1 000 Britons that was intended, as the company put it, "to gauge the nation's level of technology knowledge".

The survey also found that 9% of respondents believe Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the head of MI5, 6% think phishing is an angling method used by Eskimos, and 3% identified Bill Gates as an American comedian.

Technology found in computer games and the film industry will be used in the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes, says the BBC.

A unit unveiled this month will allow police and juries to visualise crime scenes without having to go there.

The Scottish Police Services Authority will explain how a crime took place using animation and 3D reconstructions.

Microsoft said in a statement that attackers targeting Google and a host of other US companies recently used software that exploits a new hole in Internet Explorer, states CNet.

"Internet Explorer was one of the vectors" used in the attacks that Google disclosed earlier this week, Microsoft said in a statement. "To date, Microsoft has not seen widespread customer impact, rather only targeted and limited attacks exploiting IE 6," the statement said.

The vulnerability affects Internet Explorer 6, IE 7, and IE 8 on Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP, Server 2003, Server 2008 R2, as well as IE 6 Service Pack 1 on Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Microsoft said in an advisory yesterday afternoon.