amazing!!! New computer malware communicates via sound waves

Scientists have developed a new malware that transmits information between computers using high-frequency sound waves inaudible to the human ear.

This allows the malware to transmit keystrokes and other sensitive data even when infected machines have no network connection.

The new malware uses high-frequency audio signals to bridge the 'air gap' - a type of security where network is secured by keeping it separate from other local networks and the Internet.

Using just the built-in microphones and speakers of standard computers, the researchers from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing, and Ergonomics were able to transmit passwords and other small amounts of data from distances of almost 65 feet.

Should Microsoft kill Windows Phone?

It's been nearly four years since Microsoft first released Windows Phone, and what it has gotten after many millions of dollars in development and marketing costs, plus its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia, is this: a worldwide smartphone market share of less than 3 percent. And that number has been going down, not up.

Ask any smart businessperson whether that investment is a good one, and you'll get a straightforward answer: no. Over at Microsoft, though, they think differently. Rather than abandoning Windows Phone, they're doubling down and making an even bigger bet on the struggling smartphone operating system. A company with Bill Gates' DNA will never willingly admit defeat, but in this case it may be time to do just that and instead hitch its mobile wagon to Android.

The numbers explain why this might be the best option at this point. They're not pretty. The latest figures from Strategy Analytics show Windows Phone with only a 2.7 percent worldwide share of the smartphone market in the second quarter of 2014, compared to an 84.6 percent market share for Android and 11.9 percent for iOS. That 2.7 percent figure is down from 3.8 percent a year earlier. And even that understates how badly Windows Phone is doing. In the second quarter of 2014, shipments of all smartphones were up 27 percent compared to a year previous -- but Windows Phone shipments fell in that year, from 8.9 million devices in the second quarter of 2013 to 8 million devices in the second quarter of 2014.

CryptoWall, a ransomware program, held over half a million computers hostage, encrypted 5 billion files

A file-encrypting ransomware program called CryptoWall has infected over 600,000 computer systems in the past six months and held over 5 billion files hostage, garnering more than $1 million for its creators , researchers found.

The Counter Threat Unit (CTU) at Dell SecureWorks performed an extensive analysis of CryptoWall that involved gathering data from its command-and-control (C&C) servers, tracking its variants and distribution methods and counting payments made by victims so far.

CryptoWall is "the largest and most destructive ransomware threat on the Internet" at the moment and will likely continue to grow, the CTU researchers said Wednesday in a blog post that details their findings.

The threat has been spreading since at least November 2013, but until the first quarter of this year it remained mostly overshadowed by CryptoLocker, another ransomware program that infected over half a million systems from September 2013 through May.

CryptoLocker asked victims for ransoms between $100 and $500 to recover their encrypted files and is estimated to have earned its creators around $3 million over 9 months of operation. The threat was shut down at the end of May following a multi-national law enforcement operation that had support from security vendors.

CryptoWall filled the void left by CryproLocker on the ransomware landscape through aggressive distribution using a variety of tactics that included spam emails with malicious links or attachments, drive-by-download attacks from sites infected with exploit kits and through installations by other malware programs already running on compromised computers.

Get ready for the Galaxy S5: Could be unveiled in January 2014

Numerous reports have suggested that sales of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4 have fallen well short of the company’s internal projections, and Samsung might not be confident that its universally panned smartwatchand new curiously curved smartphone can pick up the slack. According to a recent report from South Korean news site Naver, Samsung plans to launch its next-generation flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone well ahead of schedule. The site claims the phone could be unveiled as soon as January 2014 ahead of a release in February. Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Galaxy S4 each debuted in the second quarter.

Naver says Samsung is rushing the phone out because Galaxy S4 sales have been weak, and the company hopes the various new technologies in the Galaxy S5 will help turn the slump around. Of course, Samsung just posted record-shattering unaudited third-quarter earnings that included at least $9.2 billion in operating profit, and Galaxy S4 sales certainly had a lot to do with the company’s monster quarter.

The report also makes mention of a 64-bit, eight-core Exynos processor for the Galaxy S5, as well as a 16-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization. Earlier reports suggested that the Galaxy S5 might finally feature a metal housing in place of the flimsy-feeling plastics Samsung typically uses, which would absolutely be a welcome change.

Facebook policy change opens users to the world

Facebook users who prefer to lurk in the shadows will not be terribly pleased to learn of a new change toFacebook’s privacy settings that is currently in the process of being rolled out. Facebook users until now have had the option to hide their accounts from the website’s search service. Enabling the setting would mean that their profiles would not be included in search results even when people search for them by name. This will no longer be the case once Facebook removes the privacy option in question, however. Facebook says that the new change will only impact a single-digit percentage of its user base, but we’re not sure how comforting that is. Considering Facebook is currently home to about 1.2 billion users, that means this change could impact more than 100 million people around the world.

Robot walks, breathes with artificial parts

Indeed, technology can provide aesthetic prostheses for people who have lost parts of their faces

Now, a team of engineers has assembled a robot using artificial organs, limbs and other body parts that comes tantalizingly close to a true "bionic man." For real, this time.

The artificial "man" is the subject of a Smithsonian Channel documentary that airs Sunday, Oct. 20 at 9 p.m. Called "The Incredible Bionic Man," it chronicles engineers' attempt to assemble a functioning body using artificial parts that range from a working kidney and circulation system to cochlear and retina implants.

The parts hail from 17 manufacturers around the world. This is the first time they've been assembled together, says Richard Walker, managing director of Shadow Robot Co. and the lead roboticist on the project.

Walker says the robot has about 60 to 70 percent of the function of a human. It stands six-and-a-half feet tall and can step, sit and stand with the help of a Rex walking machine that's used by people who've lost the ability to walk due to a spinal injury. It also has a functioning heart that, using an electronic pump, beats and circulates artificial blood, which carries oxygen just like human blood. An artificial, implantable kidney, meanwhile, replaces the function of a modern-day dialysis unit.

Although the parts used in the robot work, many of them are a long way from being used in humans. The kidney, for example, is only a prototype. And there are some key parts missing: there's no digestive system, liver, or skin. And, of course, no brain.

The bionic man was modeled after Bertolt Meyer, a 36-year-old social psychologist at the University of Zurich who was born without his lower left arm and wears a bionic prosthesis. The man's face was created based on a 3D scan of Meyer's face.

Beer Fridge Causes Blackout For Mobile Network Service In Australia

A mobile network blackout across several neighborhoods near Melbourne, Australia, and Telstra technicians tracked the interference to a beer fridge in the garage of Wangaratta resident Craig Reynolds.

Technicians believe electric sparks emitted from the refrigerator’s faulty motor generated enough radio frequency noise to knock it out the cell network.

A spark with a large enough magnitude, according to engineers, would interfere with the 850mHz spectrum, which carries mobile voice calls and internet data to smartphones and tablets.

Greg Halley and his crew are black-spot detectors for the telecom company, and tracked the interference using “Mr. Yagi” antennas, named after their Japanese creator. After locating the address, Halley said, they just knocked on the door.

Reynolds was shocked to discover his beer fridge could do such damage. “I’m amazed something like that could knock out part of the network,” he told the Herald Sun. “I’m going to run and see if my fridge is all right next time there’s a problem with the network,” he said.