Cisco routers open to 'drive-by-pharming'

Cisco warns that 77 of its routers are susceptible to a hack known as "drive-by-pharming", reports Computerworld.

Users are lured to sites where a router's default password is used to redirect it to a sham site. At these sites, identities can be stolen or machines infected by malware.

Cisco listed the susceptible routers in an advisory posted last week, which recommended users change their default username and password on the routers. Users were also advised to change the router's HTTP server feature.

Nurses at the University of California San Francisco Medical Centre will be some of the first to test the tablet PC developed by Intel and Motion Computing, says CNET News.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini and Motion Computing CEO Scott Eckert yesterday demonstrated the tablet, known as the "mobile clinical assistant" or C5.

The C5 is directly connected to other medical equipment used to monitor a patient's pulse or blood pressure, and information received from C5 is transferred to a hospital server.

A hole in Google's desktop search product could have exposed personal files on users' computers to data thieves, reports Wired.

The flaw exists in about 80% of Web applications, but this problem appeared far more extreme, "given the sensitive nature of what Google Desktop is doing," said Danny Allan, a researcher at Waltham.

The hole can be exploited in various ways, one of which is an infected e-mail attachment. A hacker can then use Google desktop to search an infected machine.

Jyve has created a search site that links users to people who can answer their search questions, reports Computerworld.

Described as an "ask engine", searches are responded to by a live chat, instant message (IM) or a phone call from a person with knowledge of the search topic. When a user inputs a question, notices are sent to logged-in members who have acknowledged they are experienced in the topic.

Members can then chat live on the site or have discussions using IM or phone calls, and users can also evaluate the profiles of the experts they have spoken to.