Obama pays tribute to fallen West Virginia miners

Beckley, West Virginia (CNN) -- President Obama paid tribute Sunday to 29 workers killed in an explosion at a West Virginia coal mine earlier this month, saying they died "in pursuit of the American dream."

"All the hard work; all the hardship; all the time spent underground; it was all for their families. ... It was all in the hopes of something better," Obama said during a memorial service for the fallen miners in Beckley, West Virginia.

Obama and Vice President Biden, who were among a group of dignitaries who spoke at the service, met with the workers' families privately before the ceremony.

In his eulogy, delivered from behind a row of 29 white crosses, Obama sought to comfort those loved ones.

"We have been mourning with you throughout these difficult days," he said. "Our hearts have been aching with you."

Biden offered similar words of comfort, saying the fallen miners "represent, what I believe is the heart and soul and spine of this nation," and adding "a nation mourns them."

The April 5 blast at the Upper Big Branch Mine was the worst U.S. mine disaster in nearly 40 years.

Obama ordered a review earlier this month and blamed mine officials for lax regulation and lack of oversight.

On Sunday, he said: "We cannot bring back the 29 men we lost. ... Our task ... is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy. To do what must be done, individually and collectively, to assure safe conditions underground."

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who was a constant presence during the recovery efforts at the mine, also spoke at the service, telling the crowd of mourners that it was the day "to begin the healing process."

Manchin said each of the 29 men, like their fathers and grandfathers, had not only a strong commitment to their work, but also "a deep, patriotic pride that the work they did and the energy they produced made America strong and free."

He called on Americans to "say a prayer for every coal miner working today," and to "not only thank them -- but to honor them for their work and their patriotism."

He also made a vow: "After today, we turn our focus on their legacy," he said. "I don't have the answers about why this has happened, but I promise you we will find the answers."

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, echoed that vow during his remarks at the service, saying: "We will pass legislation to meet the requirements of those answers. And we will do it for you, the miners of West Virginia and America."

"West Virginia, all of West Virginia, is in pain, and not without some anger," Rockefeller added. "But we will find our solace and bind together as a community because that is what West Virginians do."

The somber service began with Manchin accompanying families as they lay helmets on top of 29 crosses.

A photo of each of the men killed in the disaster was displayed on large screens, and the crowd applauded for each one.

The service closed on a stirring note, as one by one, each of the headlamps on the symbolic helmets were lighted while a chorus sang "This Light of Mine."

Source:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/04/25/west.virginia.mine.obama/index.html

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Drug-dealing spammers hit Gmail accounts

Google is investigating a growing number of reports that hackers are breaking into legitimate Gmail accounts and then using them to send spam messages.

The problem started about a week ago but seems to have escalated over the past few days.

"The Gmail team takes security very seriously and is investigating the reports we've seen in our user forums over the past few days," Google said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement. "We encourage users who suspect their accounts have been compromised to immediately change their passwords and to follow the advice at the following page: http://www.google.com/help/security/."

Gmail accounts are often compromised after phishing attempts or via malicious programs, which can seek out and log online credentials from a hacked computer.

It isn't clear what's behind this wave of Gmail compromises. But in forum posts, Gmail users note that the hackers appear to be sending spam via Gmail's mobile interface -- which gives mobile-phone users a way to check their Gmail accounts -- and wonder if there may be a bug in the mobile interface that is allowing criminals to send the spam.

Most of the victims are reporting that their accounts were accessed via the mobile interface when the spam was sent. They are reporting any security problems on their machines. Gmail users can check to see how their accounts were accessed at a given time by clicking on a "Details" button at the bottom of the Gmail page.

Google says there's no Gmail bug. "Our investigation has not given any indication of a bug in Gmail, either in the mobile interface or otherwise," the company said. "Spammers may sometimes use a mobile interface to access accounts they have already compromised because it's simpler for bots to use this method at large scale."

The New York Times reported Monday that Google's centralized login system, code-named Gaia, was compromised by hackers in late December. But this seems unrelated to the Gmail problem because of the different nature of the two incidents -- the December attack was a sophisticated attempt to steal data and intellectual property from Google; the Gmail spam is hardly sophisticated. It's being used to flog Canadian pharmaceutical Web sites that promise to send cheap drugs to U.S. customers.

For More Read...

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9175857/Drug_dealing_spammers_hit_Gmail_accounts

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Facebook? Twitter? Microsoft tops social media use

Twitter and Facebook are the bane of many bosses, but a new survey has found that employees at Microsoft Corp are the most social media-savvy in the world.

The survey, the first by sales and marketing contact database NetProspex, ranked the top 50 companies based on their social network membership, frequency of social media posts on Twitter and other blogs, and the friendliness or connectedness of a sample of employees for each organization.

The NetProspex Social Index was determined after an analysis of more than 100,000 business executives from the Fortune 1000 companies in the first quarter of 2010.

"This report shows that in today's business environment, employees throughout many of the country's largest corporations are using social networks," Gary Halliwell, CEO of NetProspex, said in a statement.

"This presents a new opportunity for sales and marketing prospecting and lead generation, as strategies adapt to encompass the landscape of social networks."

The survey found that almost half of companies analyzed have employees throughout their organization on social networking sites, with Microsoft leading the way.

Not surprisingly, the list was dominated by technology and software companies, while online retailers such as Amazon.com and eBay claimed two of the top five rankings.

Google and Walt Disney Corp rounded out the top 5, while Microsoft's rival Apple ranked number 10.

Microsoft's tech-savvy ranking comes almost a week after the company launched two new phones -- the Kin One and Kin Two -- aimed at the youth market and which will enable users to use Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts with ease.

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63J1D520100420

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Google sees fake AV threat

Fake anti-virus software is on the rise and currently accounts for about 15 percent of all malware detected, according to a forthcoming report from Google.

Fake anti-virus software purports to be software than can find and remove malware. But in fact it's malware, the very thing it's supposed to eliminate.

Fake AV software typically pretends to scan the victim's computer and to find some form of malware, at which point it seeks payment from the victim to remove the non-existent malware. Whether or not there's a payment, the fake AV software may install more malware.

Computer users often come into contact with fake AV software through spam Web sites and online ads, which explains why Google is interested in the topic.

Beyond its general concern with maintaining user trust and security, Google wants to make sure that online ads don't become such a pervasive means of malware delivery that users reject legitimate marketing as a risk.

In a blog post, Google security engineer Niels Provos said, "[T]he Fake AV threat is rising in prevalence, both absolutely, and relative to other forms of Web-based malware."

Google's forthcoming report, slated for presentation later this month at the Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats (LEET) in San Jose, Calif., says the company found 11,000 domains involved in distributing fake AV software over the past 13 months.

The report, "The Nocebo Effect on the Web: An Analysis of Fake AV distribution," says that fake AV attacks represent 60 percent of the malware found on Web sites that include trending keywords -- popular search terms that generate visitor traffic.

It also says that fake AV software is responsible for 50 percent of all malware delivered via online ads, five times more than a year ago.

In a related note, Google's Postini Q1 spam report indicates that despite several high profile botnet takedowns, spam volume as a percentage of total e-mail volume remains steady.

"This suggests that there's no shortage of botnets out there for spammers to use," said Gopal Shah, from Google's Postini team, in a blog post. "If one botnet goes offline, spammers simply buy, rent, or deploy another, making it difficult for the anti-spam community to make significant inroads in the fight against spam with individual botnet takedowns."

Source:

http://www.informationweek.in/Security/10-04-15/Google_sees_fake_AV_threat.aspx

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