Hacker pierces hardware firewalls

On Tuesday, hacker Samy Kamkar demonstrated a way to identify a browser's geographical location by exploiting weaknesses in many WiFi routers. Now, he's back with a simple method to penetrate hardware firewalls using little more than some JavaScript embedded in a Web page, writes The Register.

By luring victims to a malicious link, the attacker can access virtually any service on their machine, even when it's behind certain routers that automatically block it to the outside world.

The method has been tested on a Belkin N1 Vision Wireless router, and Kamkar says he suspects other devices are also vulnerable.

Oracle has expanded its data quality portfolio by acquiring Silver Creek Systems. Financial details were not disclosed, reports Computing.co.uk.

Silver Creek Systems sells a product called DataLens, which it claims has the ability to identify key information regardless of how it is presented.

Data quality is important to businesses because it increases operational efficiency and improves business decision-making, according to Oracle.

Galileo, Europe's much delayed and costly satellite-navigation project, takes a major step forward today, states the BBC.

The first contracts are being awarded to the companies that will start to build the operational network.

The European Commission will purchase spacecraft, rockets and system management in deals totalling more than half a billion euros.

Motorola will introduce more Android handsets as the company aims to offer an array of devices based on the mobile operating system, each targeting different segments of the consumer market, says Computerworld.

Backflip, Motorola's latest Android handset, has a 3.1-inch touch-screen and a keyboard that can be folded back behind the screen.

The handset's unique folding design allowed Motorola to add a bigger keyboard than would otherwise be possible, said Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of the company's handset division, speaking at a press conference ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas.