YouTube's Going 1080p So That You Can Watch Silly Videos In High-Def

Unsatisfied with simple 720p, YouTube is going to a full HD experience with 1080p. They're about halfway through the process of re-encoding the current content, so it shouldn't be long before you can watch Rupe Murdoch rant in high-def. [CNET]

Yet Another "Virus" Attacks Unsecured Jailbroken Phones

The number of ridiculous iPhone viruses, worms and hacks is gradually growing as the number of idiots who refuse to change the default root passwords when running SSH on their jailbroken iPhones remains the same. Secure your iPhones already. Please.[BGR]

USB AM/FM Tuner Made By Company Who Hasn't Heard Of Internet Radio

This USB AM/FM tuner is useless without a computer, but if you've got a computer in front of you odds are good that you also have an Internet connection through which you can access most radio stations. And while it's lovely that it allows you to record broadcast content, it would be a bit more handy if the gadget also had some flash memory on board. [OhGizmo!]

Pirates Decorate Their MacBooks With Crossbones

MacBook decals appear to be turning into a trend as even pirates are getting into the game. Arrr, yo-ho-ho matey, or something like that. [Crunchgear]

Apparently, pedophiles have started using viruses to hide their vile stash on strangers computers. And guess what? Nobody believes that it was a virus that put them there when those pictures are found.

People have ended up going to jail because the exams that courts do on your computer are so expensive, judges don't like paying for them. And people have gone broke clearing their names.

The moral of the story? Use virus-protection software, and don't go to shady sites on the web. Because, yikes. [ABCNews]

The bad guys have released a file that requires you to install a custom video player, which is in fact a Mal/EncPk-IF malware—for PCs—or a OSX/Jahlav-C trojan horse—for Macs. Then again, if you believe that any video file requires a custom video player, you probably should get this and many other viruses. And some nasty bacteria too.

In case you are not a sports follower—like me—or don't know who the hell Erin Andrews is—like me—or don't find her sexy at all—like me—here's a CBS program talking about it:

[PC World]

Well, more accurately, buy: the Newton Virus—which, for those of you who still aren't sure, is harmless—is $5 as a screensaver, $7 as a USB app, as seen in the video, and $10 for the pair. Whether or not that's worth it is up to you, but I think it'll be popular: with Mac users, because the app is undeniably cool; with Windows fanboys, just because it puts the terms "Mac" and "virus" in the same sentence. [Troika via Geek and Hype—Thanks, Joffrey!]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

The actual tech behind Mech Virus, on display at Maker Faire 2009, is pretty simple, it's just a motor and a power supply that allows Mech Virus to waddle and spit out a Norton Anti-Virus CD every 30 seconds or so. The actual motherboard components don't work at all, making Mech Virus more about appearance, and less about action. But still I love it. [Maker Faire 2009]

If there is one bright spot in this whole Swine Flu mess, it's that bacon is not affected. Whew! And I thought I might have to curb my intake. Actually, I might eat more now out of spite.

p.s. Relax people! It's just a joke. [Thanks Italo!]

Since it showed up in November 2008, there have been variants of the virus released. Conficker has begun updating itself, which has been dubbed Conficker.e. Conficker.e is installing Waledac, a spam bot. In turn, it'll spam you to remove it for a certain price. The original Conficker virus was supposed to activate on April 1 with the potential of infected Windows computers everywhere doing its bidding. Instead, it lay dormant. Not all Conficker nodes have been acting the same, so what's really going on? [PC World]

I don't know how I got this thing, but it's bad. I think it's a variant of Vundo and something else, but it's nasty and has made my computer near-unusable.

So who wants to help me out? Anyone in NYC consider themselves an expert on virus removal? If you can clear my computer of the nasties without needing to wipe the HDD and reinstall Windows (did I mention the DVD drive is fried?), you'll become a minor internet celebrity when I do a post extolling my love of you right here on Giz. Anyone? Please? Email me.

Update: A lot of people have suggested MalwareBytes. I've tried to run it, but I think the virus is blocking it. Same with VundoFix and MultiFix.

Update 2: Making progress! Thanks to all the advice, everyone. I got ComboFix to run by renaming it, and after that I was able to get Malwarebytes to install. Now it's scanning and I'll throw some more scans at it from various suggested programs after that. I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel, knock on wood.

Update 3: Well, it seems pretty bad. I've resigned myself to a format/reinstall. Thanks for all your help, everyone! I'm still not switching to a Mac, despite this fucking horrible experience.

Sorry I couldn't reply to all the emails, I got a shitload of them, but I seriously, seriously appreciate all the advice and help. Giz readers rule, for real.

More seriously, the New York Times reports that this gigantic spy system has targeted and exploited computers in governments agencies around the world. Even the Dalai Lama, famed Tibetan exile, has had files corrupted in some way. In fact, the spy system was discovered when the esteemed Dalai Lama asked Canadian firm Munk Center for International Studies to do a little anti-virus work on his computer network.

Which leads us to the source of the ring. Evidence all but proves that China (infamous for its anti-Lama rhetoric) is the country of origin, as pretty much all the controlling computers resided within its borders. Gasp!

More than 1,295 computers in 103 countries were affected in some way by the spynet, and the researchers say it's the largest such ring ever discovered, in terms of the number of countries involved. The Chinese government has not been *officially* fingered as the originator, but I wouldn't fault you a bit if you were a little suspicious:

The electronic spy game has had at least some real-world impact, they said. For example, they said, after an e-mail invitation was sent by the Dalai Lama's office to a foreign diplomat, the Chinese government made a call to the diplomat discouraging a visit. And a woman working for a group making Internet contacts between Tibetan exiles and Chinese citizens was stopped by Chinese intelligence officers on her way back to Tibet, shown transcripts of her online conversations and warned to stop her political activities.

For their part, the Chinese have denounced the ring publicly, and researchers did caution that this could be the work of a private firm of "patriotic hackers."

Other GhostNet highlights include the ability to turn on webcams and microphones remotely, and a browser-based "dashboard" that the spies use to control their network of 1,295 computers. And yes, I mean a dashboard as in what you use to post those American Idol rants to your Wordpress blog. Researchers discovered the spynet using, of all things, a Google search.

The network continues to operate, by the way, which leads me to... Hey Frucci, you haven't been cavorting with the Dalai Lama lately, have you? [New York Times]

They've got a team of superfriends involved with the hunt:

Symantec, F-Secure, VeriSign, Afilias, Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), and the Shadowserver Foundation.

The worm itself is dangerous, although it hasn't done any real damage yet. It has infected 15m PCs so far, setting them up for a yet-to-come malicious payload.

Two hard questions come to mind. Why can't the FBI handle this? And wouldn't that money be better spent on PSAs informing users to install the available patch for the vulnerability? Then again, I suppose that they're sending a message to all hackers. Microsoft will buy off your friends, and at least one of them will sell you out. That, and Microsoft is scared of you. [Yahoo via BBG]

While both companies saw explosive growth from when they were founded (both in 1962) until just a few months ago, when the retail sector imploded, the way in which they expanded was markedly different.

Whereas Wal-Mart spread from a central point like your traditional virus, Target was more like a metastasizing cancer, beginning in the central U.S., like Wal-Mart, and then popping up in targets of opportunity wherever there was good business.

And now, just like Wal-Mart, they to have a Gizmodo writer comparing their stores to something terrible that can invade the human body. Victory! [FlowingData]

Mac OS X, mythically immune to common computer plagues, has actually always welcomed antivirus software. Or, uh, maybe not. Confused? No worries—here's how OS X and Windows differ on resisting viruses and other nasties.

It's not a matter of opinion: OS X is less susceptible to catching a cold than Windows. So is Linux, for that matter. There are two major reasons (and Steve Jobs' pee actually isn't one of them). First, Windows is on 89.6 percent of the world's personal computers, while OS X is on just 8.9 percent of them. Second, the Unix architecture that OS X and Linux are based on is inherently more secure than Windows, particularly pre-Vista versions. (If these reasons are familiar to you, you may not know the subtler side-effects of each reason that strengthen the case even more, so read on.)

There are a few different ways that Microsoft's mammoth market share actually hurts Windows and helps OS X. For one, writing nastiness that the vast majority of the world's personal computers are susceptible to is a more efficient use of resources than writing the same evil for a sliver of the population. In biology, a more homogeneous population is more susceptible to a genocidal plague. Same principle applies to the vast, Windows-powered ecosystem. I don't mean someone could write a virus that wipes everybody out. Just that if everybody's running Windows, the population is a much easier target.

The flipside of this—which you might not have considered—is that most malware writers obviously use Windows. They're going to whip up code for the OS they're familiar with and know best. And more to that point, most of the tools and scripts used to wreak havoc on computers are written for Windows. The same ecosystem that provides the biggest, most susceptible audience also provides the most fertile breeding ground for the nasty executables.

But suppose this was some bizarro world where OS X was king. Would Microsoft run ads about how virus-plagued OS X was? Well, it would still be more prudent to run anti-virus software, since there'd be a lot more crap thrown at the Mac OS, but if malware acted mostly like it does today, it likely wouldn't have the same impact as it did on Windows pre-Vista.

A lot of that is because of the way permissions work in OS X vs. Windows. Basically, Unix-based systems are architected so that they require administrator privileges to modify the OS and are traditionally more strict in enforcing them. Critical areas are walled off from normal users—you see this when OS X asks for a password to install updates or change a system setting. A standard non-admin user account is restricted; bad software can't wreak much havoc at all without that password.

This is precisely what Vista's somewhat-maligned User Account Control attempts to replicate, limiting points of intrusion and requiring explicit user permission to get anywhere deep. On Windows, historically, the enforcement of these restrictions has been lax in the name of convenience.

This is not to say that OS X is invulnerable, by any means. The main applications folder is relatively unprotected, and any running app can write to it and most of what's inside. Coupled with OS X's app-bundling architecture, this makes it easier to replace program executables or sneak in a piggybacking one. Even then, however, the malware would need to elicit elevated permissions to do any hardcore damage to the core OS; it could, unfortunately, nuke your relatively unprotected Home folder though. Another point of vulnerability, or at least a pain point, according to Mac Forensics Lab, is OS X's centralized address book, which also has weak defenses. If the Home folder book did require the same level of permissions, it would be kinda unusable, because you'd have to elevate permissions to make any and every change.

This brings us to OS X's biggest security hole, the one that it actually shares with every operating system: you. It doesn't matter how good baked-in security is if a user throws out the welcome mat for whatever crap comes their way. On the flip side, you're also the first, and best, line of protection. Don't do anything stupid, and you'll be fine, anti-virus software or not—whatever OS you're running.

Something you still wanna know? Send any questions about viruses, VD or the 1995 Dustin Hoffman film Outbreak to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

BSoDs, yeah, those are harder to catch unless you make sure your signage app is bug-free and memory-leak free. Virus alerts, on the other hand, are another story. Seriously, virus alerts? You shouldn't be using this machine for anything else besides displaying this banner, so where the hell did the virus come from? Either the machine's already been infected (a big possibility) or somebody's going to broadcast his Gmail login for prospective customers of Restaurant Basha. [Thanks David!]

- Beer-filled USB flash drives
- Fetus USB flash drives
- Sawed-off USB flash drives
- Carabiner USB flash drives
- USB flash drives shaped like obsolete equipment
- Food-shaped USB flash drives
- Arty meta-storage USB flash drives [AP]

The parish padre, from the town of Strängnas, Sweden—my favorite country in the world—admitted his actions, saying that it was true he spent "a lot of time at work viewing pornographic websites" and he wished his lust would have remained between himself and God instead of infecting the computers with this "lethal computer virus". Well, Mr. Svenssonjohanssoncommandersson, seriously, don't flagellate yourself over a computer virus. This kind of things happens to the best, although archbishop Anders Wejryd is not so understanding as we are:

Priests are people too, but I have no understanding at all for someone sitting and surfing for porn on the parish computers.

Well, archbishop, better watching porn than touching little kids like some of your colleagues elsewhere in the world, that's for sure. Apparently, however, some definitive action was needed with the Strängnas priest after another pastor in my beloved Göteborg "came under scrutiny for moistening post-it notes with his penis and sticking them up in an office." Inexplicably, this one was allowed to keep his job.

And yes, we need video of that. [The Register]