Thursday, December 20, 2007

Google Ads hacked

Advertisements placed by Google in Web pages are being hijacked by so-called trojan software that replaces the intended text with ads from a different provider, Romanian antivirus company BitDefender says.

The trojan redirects queries meant to be sent to Google servers to a rogue server, which displays ads from a third party instead of ads from Google, BitDefender said in a statement.

Google said, “We have cancelled customer accounts that display ads redirecting users to malicious sites or that advertise a product violating our software principles.”
“We actively work to detect and remove sites that serve malware in both our ad network and in our search results. We have manual and automated processes in place to detect and enforce these policies.”

The trojan, named after the mythic Trojan Horse because of its ability to enter computer systems undetected, attacks Google’s AdSense service, which targets advertisements to match Web page content.

“This is a serious situation that damages users and Webmasters alike,” said BitDefender virus analyst Attila Balazs.

“Users are affected because the advertisements and the linked sites may contain malicious code,” he said. “Webmasters are affected because the trojan takes away viewers and thus a possible money source from their Websites.”

BitDefender on its website (www.bitdefender.com) describes the trojan, which it identifies as Trojan.Qhost.WU, as spreading at a “low” level and causing “medium” damage.
(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan)

BMW Designed 787 VIP Business Jet

Last week at the Hamburg Aircraft Interior Expo, BMW group DesignworksUSA unleashed a few mock-ups of a concept 787 VIP business jet with all the bells and whistles -- and then some.
The design was approached with a fictitious Russian client in his mid-thirties in mind who "spends a significant amount of time traveling across the globe and needs an aircraft that function as a second home."

The end result is an ultra-luxurious interior that looks more like a nightclub than a 787. I was really wishing that strip of glass in the center of the floor looked out of the plane's belly and into the sky, but it looks like it just offers a glimpse into the 3-series BMW garage. Oh well. More pictures after the jump.










World's Highest Escalator in Osaka City, Japan

The Umeda Sky Building is the seventh-tallest building in Osaka City, Japan, and one of the city's most recognizable landmarks. It consists of two 40-story towers that connect at their two uppermost stories, with bridges and an escalator crossing the wide atrium-like space in the center.

The escalater ride is an event in itself as it feels like you are floating up into the sky. This is a cheap way to see the city, less than 10 USD to go up to the observation area.Located in the Umeda district of Kita-ku, the building was originally conceived in 1988 as the "City of Air" project, which planned to create four interconnected towers in northern Osaka . Eventually, practical considerations brought the number of towers down to two.

The 173 m (568 ft) building was designed by Hiroshi Hara. It was constructed by Takenaka Corporation and was completed in 1993.