Symantec says hackers stole source code in 2006 (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Symantec Corp said a 2006 breach led to the theft of the source code to its flagship Norton security software, reversing its previous position that it had not been hacked.

The world's biggest maker of security software had previously said that hackers stole the code from a third party, but corrected that statement on Tuesday after an investigation found that Symantec's own networks had been infiltrated.

The unknown hackers obtained the source code, or blueprint for its software, to Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton Utilities, Norton GoBack and pcAnywhere, Symantec spokesman Cris Paden said.

Last week, the hackers released the code to a 2006 version of Norton Utilities and have said they planned to release code to its antivirus software on Tuesday. It was not clear why the source code was being released six years after the theft.

Source code includes instructions written in computer programming languages as well as comments that engineers share to explain the design of their software. For example, a file released last week from the source code of a 2006 version of Norton Utilities included a comment that said "Make all changes in local entry, so we don't screw up the real entry if we back up early."

Companies typically heavily guard their source code, which is considered the crown jewels of most software makers. At some companies access is granted on an as-needed basis, with programmers allowed to view code only if it is related to the tasks they are assigned.

The reason for all the secrecy is that companies fear rivals could use the code to figure out the "secret sauce" behind their technology and that hackers could use it to plan attacks.

Paden said that the 2006 attack presented no threat to customers using the most recent versions of Symantec's software.

"They are protected against any type of cyber attack that might materialize as a result of this code," he said.

Yet Laura DiDio, an analyst with ITIC who helps companies evaluate security software, said that Symantec's customers should be concerned about the potential for hackers to use the stolen source code to figure out how to defeat some of the protections in Symantec's software.

"What we are seeing from Symantec is 'Let's put the best public face on this,'" she said. "Unless Symantec wrote all new code from scratch, there are going to be elements of source code in there that are still relevant today."

Symantec said earlier this month that its own network had not been breached when the source code was taken. But Paden said on Tuesday that an investigation into the matter had revealed that the company's networks had indeed been compromised.

"We really had to dig way back to find out that this was actually part of a source code theft," he said. "We are still investigating exactly how it was stolen."

Paden also said that customers of pcAnywhere, a program that facilitates remote access of PCs, may face "a slightly increased security risk" as a result of the exposure.

"Symantec is currently in the process of reaching out to our pcAnywhere customers to make them aware of the situation and to provide remediation steps to maintain the protection of their devices and information."

(Reporting By Jim Finkle in Boston, additional reporting by Nicola Leske in New York, editing by Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/wr_nm/us_symantec_hackers

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Oil above $99 in Europe amid Middle East jitters

Oil prices edged above $99 a barrel on Monday amid concerns that tensions in the Middle East could hurt crude supplies, but gains were tempered by jitters over Europe's ratings downgrade.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for February delivery was up 74 cents to $99.44 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 40 cents to settle at $98.70 in New York on Friday.

In London, Brent crude was up 53 cents to $110.97 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Fears of supply disruptions due to ongoing tensions over Iran's nuclear program helped boost prices.

"The war of words between Iran and the West is likely to keep the risk premium on the oil price at a high level," said a report from Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

Asian countries like Japan, South Korea and China, are likely to enact an embargo that would force them to seek alternative supply sources in an already tight market, supporting prices.

However, expectations that the European Union would delay an embargo on oil imports from Iran limited the gains. A decision is expected Jan. 23.

"Retail oil prices in Europe are at an all-time record high and it means that the timing for imposing an embargo on Iranian crude oil is a poor one," said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland. "At this stage it seems that implementation will be pushed back a few months to allow either prices to come off and/or crude oil stocks to rebuild."

A national strike in Nigeria, the largest oil producer in Africa and a key supplier to the United States, helped drive up prices last week, but unions said Monday they would suspend the strike after the government pledged to reinstate subsidies to lower the cost of gasoline.

Prices were also kept in check by headwinds from the declining debt crisis in Europe.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the government debt of nine countries that use the euro including France, Austria, Italy and Spain, making it harder for the European Union to raise funds to overcome massive debts. Germany's rating remained at the coveted AAA level.

A recession appears likely in Europe, and huge spending cuts will likely reduce European energy demand this year.

In other energy trading, heating oil was up 2.7 cents to $3.0542 per gallon and gasoline futures rose 1.88 cents to $2.7530 per gallon. Natural gas fell 10.8 cents to $2.562 per 1,000 cubic feet.

___

Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-16-Oil-Prices/id-0d2fd64a86bd4179a2dedba92b31fb4c

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Worm seeks worm: researchers find chemical cues driving aggregation in nematodes

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Scientists have long seen evidence of social behavior among many species of animals, both on the earth and in the sea. Dolphins frolic together, lions live in packs, and hornets construct nests that can house a large number of the insects. And, right under our feet, it appears that nematodes?also known as roundworms?are having their own little gatherings in the soil. Until recently, it was unknown how the worms communicate to one another when it's time to come together. Now, however, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University have identified, for the first time, the chemical signals that promote aggregation.

"We now have an expanded view of a very fundamental type of communication, which is recognizing other members of the same species and getting together with them," says Jagan Srinivasan, a senior research fellow in biology at Caltech and lead author of the study detailing this process, which was published in the January issue of PLoS Biology.

The researchers looked at the lab-friendly Caenorhabditis elegans worm?a relatively safe version of the phylum, whose parasitic cousins include hookworms, whipworms, and trichinas, which cause trichinosis?to gather data.

According to Paul Sternberg, Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology at Caltech and a corresponding author on the paper, nearly 25 percent of the world's human population is infected with some type of parasitic nematode; animals and plants can fall prey to the nasty worms, too. Since nematode parasites live inside a host and attack it internally, knowing how the worms communicate via chemicals could be very important to the fields of biomedicine and agriculture.

"One of the ways to eradicate them would be to have some sort of a chemical that can attract them in order to kill them more efficiently," explains Srinivasan.

Sternberg and Srinivasan are not new to the idea of chemical signaling among C. elegans. In 2008, their research showed how the worms secrete chemicals as a sexual attractant. This time, they worked to find chemical cues that control the social behavior of aggregation. What they found is a complex "language," in which the worms combine different chemicals into compounds, building a molecular library of signals that regulate behavior. They did this by testing a previously identified family of chemicals in mutant worms?made to not produce the chemicals on their own?to measure the behavioral effects of the different chemical combinations.

"We're starting to get a hold on the chemical 'alphabet' that makes up these words, which have different meanings in different social contexts," says Srinivasan. "It's a modular code that tells us that within the physiology of the organism, there is a lot going on in terms of how the environment is interpreted and read out for social communication."

For example, one class of chemicals the researchers found encourages worm-to-worm company, while a different class of compounds being expressed at the same time keeps other worms away. This suggests that the worms release different amounts of each compound based on what each worm is trying to communicate. If the worm is starting a new colony, it probably just wants a certain number of worms around to find and share food?too many and the colony may not thrive. However, if there is a big piece of fruit, the worm may call on a large group to help access the food source.

"The amazing thing here is that for one chemical, if it's modified even just a little bit, the meaning is changed," says Sternberg, who is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "That's what makes it more like a language. If I say a Chinese word, and my intonation is wrong, the word has a different meaning."

Next, the team will explore whether or not the same chemical compounds are made by other nematodes. They will also work to figure out how the worms' nervous system senses and sorts the different compounds.

"Understanding the worm's language is just a first step," says Srinivasan. "We hope that by learning more about how social recognition occurs in the worm nervous system, we can eventually provide insights into how the human brain encodes social information, too."

###

California Institute of Technology: http://www.caltech.edu

Thanks to California Institute of Technology for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116678/Worm_seeks_worm__researchers_find_chemical_cues_driving_aggregation_in_nematodes

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Khartoum bourse launches electronic trade (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? The Khartoum stock exchange on Sunday launched a long-awaited computer trading system that will bring to an end an era of scribbling stock prices on white boards and also marks Sudan's efforts to attract more investment.

But very thin trading in the first session of the electronic system -- a gift from Oman -- highlighted the need to overhaul regulations and transparency.

None of the 40 stocks listed on the display in the new trading room moved in the first 45 minutes. Trading focused as always on government-issued Islamic bonds, known as shahamas, which changed hands for 114,036 Sudanese pounds ($38,000).

"I think the new electronic system will improve transparency and provide more information so volumes will rise much," said Taha Hussein Yousif, General Manager at local broker HH Stock Exchange Co.

"But we also need more regulation and information on companies. We need a new security law," he said.

He said there was interest in large firms such as telecoms Sudatel (SDTL.AD) or Islamic banks such as Faisal Islamic Bank but with little corporate information on other firms overall liquidity was thin.

Altayeb Musawi Shaigoog, legal expert at the Muscat partner bourse, said the new system was a big step forward to give access to other exchanges and allow more cross listings.

"They now need to develop regulations, the primary market with IPOs and have solid companies," he said.

Officials hope the bourse will attract more investment as the country seeks to overcome a severe economic crisis after losing two-thirds of its oil production to South Sudan.

"This is the beginning of new era. God willing, there will be also trading with gold, minerals and real estate," said the stock exchange's general manager Osman Hamad Khair.

The Khartoum bourse is small by international standards with a market capitalization of just around $2.1 billion. Up to 90 percent of trading is in shahamas because they are guaranteed by the central bank.

The government is in the process of overhauling an existing securities law that dates back to 1994 but no decisions have been made yet.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120108/bs_nm/us_sudan_bourse

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JoeFinder: 44 days to pitchers & catchers. RT @GreggHurwitz Has baseball started yet?

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Swank sushi: Tuna fetches record $736K in Tokyo (AP)

TOKYO ? This tuna is worth savoring: It cost nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

A bluefin tuna caught off northeastern Japan fetched a record 56.49 million yen, or about $736,000, Thursday in the first auction of the year at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. The price for the 593-pound (269-kilogram) tuna beat last year's record of 32.49 million yen.

The price translates to 210,000 yen per kilogram, or $1,238 per pound ? also a record, said Yutaka Hasegawa, a Tsukiji market official.

Though the fish is undoubtedly high quality, the price has more to do with the celebratory atmosphere that surrounds the first auction of the year.

The winning bidder, Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., which operates the Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain, said he wanted to give Japan a boost after last March's devastating tsunami.

"Japan has been through a lot the last year due to the disaster," a beaming Kimura told AP Television News. "Japan needs to hang in there. So I tried hard myself and ended up buying the most expensive one."

Kimura also said he wanted to keep the fish in Japan "rather than let it get taken overseas."

Last year's bid winners were Hong Kong entrepreneur Ricky Cheng, who runs the Hong Kong-based chain Itamae Sushi, and an upscale Japanese restaurant in Tokyo's Ginza district.

This year's record tuna was caught off Oma, in Aomori prefecture and just north of the tsunami-battered coast.

Bluefin tuna is prized for its tender red meat. The best slices of fatty bluefin ? called "o-toro" here ? can sell for 2,000 yen ($24) per piece at tony Tokyo sushi bars.

A Sushi-Zanmai shop in Tsujiki was selling fatty tuna sushi from the prized fish for 418 yen ($5.45) apiece Thursday.

"It's superb. I can do nothing but smile. I am very happy," said Kosuke Shimogawara, a 51-year-old customer, who pointed out that if sold at cost, each piece of sushi could cost as much as 8,000 yen ($96).

"It's unbelievable. President Kimura is so generous. I have to say thank you to him," he said.

Japanese eat 80 percent of the Atlantic and Pacific bluefins caught ? the most sought-after by sushi lovers. Japanese fishermen, however, face growing calls for tighter fishing rules amid declining tuna stocks worldwide.

In November 2010, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas voted to cut the bluefin fishing quota in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean by about 4 percent, from 13,500 to 12,900 metric tons annually. It also agreed on measures to try to improve enforcement of quotas on bluefin.

The decision was strongly criticized by environmental groups, which hoped to see bluefin fishing slashed or suspended.

___

Associated Press writer Noriko Kitano contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120105/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_pricey_tuna

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For Lab Mice, The Medical Advances Keep Coming

Enlarge Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

Takashi Yokoo, head of a project researching kidney regeneration at Tokyo's Jikei University School of Medicine, holds a mouse at his laboratory.

Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

Takashi Yokoo, head of a project researching kidney regeneration at Tokyo's Jikei University School of Medicine, holds a mouse at his laboratory.

When scientists want to test new therapies for cancer or heart disease, they frequently turn to mice for help. For most mice, this isn't the best thing that could happen to them. Being a research subject has definite disadvantages, at least for mice.

But most people prefer a new therapy be tested in a rodent rather than making a human patient the guinea pig ? if you'll forgive the twisted metaphor.

So every year, mice get the latest therapies. And some of the time, they're cured. For example, Richard Vile, a researcher at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., works with a strain of lab mice that are prone to getting prostate cancer.

"What we've done is we've vaccinated mice against tumors," he says.

Vile says the vaccine is made from a special virus containing cancer cell genes. The modified virus energizes the mouse's immune system so it can fight off the cancer. The vaccine doesn't prevent cancer; instead, Vile gives the vaccine to mice that already have tumors.

"In a proportion of the mice, in our best experiments, those tumors would actually go away," Vile says. "It is good news for mice."

The good news doesn't end with prostate cancer. Scientists have reported progress this year in melting away all sorts of tumors, as well as promising treatments for a variety of other ailments.

Lois Smith, an ophthalmologist at Children's Hospital in Boston, has been studying an eye problem that afflicts premature infants and people with diabetes. The problem is caused by abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye that can lead to blindness. She's turned to mice to answer some fundamental questions:

"How do we promote normal blood vessel regrowth?" she asks. "How do we prevent the abnormal new blood vessels from growing?"

This year, she reported that giving mice omega-3 fatty acids ? that stuff you find in fish oil ? was an approach that shows promise.

"It decreases by 50 percent the abnormal new blood vessel growth," she says. This approach only works before the problem develops. It won't be much help for the three blind mice we've all heard so much about.

But just as some therapies are tested in mice before they are tested in humans, some are tested in mouse cells before they are tested in live mice.

Jeffrey Holt, an otolaryngologist, also at Children's Hospital in Boston, has found some genes that have the wrong DNA sequence in people with an inherited form of deafness. So he's working with mice that have the same problem.

"The idea is then to replace those genes with the correct DNA sequence and hopefully restore function," he says. This year, Holt was able to correct that problem in mouse cells.

"That was done in vitro, in a dish. And now we want to do it in the live animal," he says. "We're pretty close. That's something we have planned for the next year or so."

So for that good news, mice still have to wait a while.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/31/143862860/for-lab-mice-the-medical-advances-keep-coming?ft=1&f=1007

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