Firefox releases critical patches

Mozilla has released Firefox 3.0.12, an update to the open source browser that fixes five critical security vulnerabilities and fixes a handful of other bugs.

"We strongly recommend that all Firefox 3.0.x users upgrade to this latest release," Mozilla said on its developer blog.

“If you already have Firefox 3, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting 'Check for Updates...' from the Help menu."

Intel is claiming a new line of solid state drives (SSD), which the company hopes will bring costs down significantly, says V3.co.uk.

The company said its new line of SSDs will allow for prices to fall as low as 60% from the current cost.

The drop, according to Intel, is due to the use of new 34nm NAND flash memory chips in place of the older 50nm chips. The smaller die size afforded by the 34nm process allows for a lower production cost, making the drives as a whole cheaper to manufacture, and more efficient.

A young Chinese worker, suspected of stealing a prototype for the fourth-generation iPhone, has committed suicide, says BBC News. Sun Danyong worked for Foxconn, one of Apple's largest manufacturers.

The Taiwanese firm has begun an investigation following claims made by the worker's former classmates that he had been beaten by security staff.

Apple says it is saddened by the death and is waiting for the results of the investigation.

A hacker has discovered a critical vulnerability in open source firmware available for wireless routers made by Linksys and other manufacturers, which allows attackers to remotely penetrate the device and take full control of it, says The Register.

The remote root vulnerability affects the most recent version of DD-WRT, a piece of firmware many router users install to give their device capabilities not available by default. The bug allows unauthenticated users to remotely gain root access simply by luring someone on the local network to a malicious Web site.

"This means someone can even post some crafted [img] link on a forum and a dd-wrt router owner visiting the forum will get owned," a user, named Leka Vecher "gat3way", wrote in this posting to Milw0rm.