UPDATE! Chinese Military Hack Attacks Might Originate in NORTH KOREAN

Last month we reported that security experts from Mandiant believed a Chinese military unit was responsible for multiple hack attacks on US companies. Mandiant released a report that identified ‘Unit 61398′ as the most likely source of attacks on at least US 141 organisations, “across a diverse set of industries beginning as early as 2006″.

“The nature of ‘Unit 61398′s’ work is considered by China to be a state secret; however, we believe it engages in harmful ‘Computer Network Operations’,” Mandiant said in the report. ”It is time to acknowledge the threat is originating in China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat that threat effectively.”

The Mandiant report said that Unit 61398 is located in Shanghai’s Pudong district, China’s financial and banking hub, and staffed by perhaps thousands of people proficient in English as well as computer programming and network operations.

There are now suspicions that the facility might be shared with North Korean backed hackers? An unnamed source from South Korea’s presidential office was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying the discovery of the IP address indicated Pyongyang was responsible for the attack on Wednesday. A previous attack on a South Korean newspaper that the government in Seoul traced back to North Korea also used a Chinese IP address :: Read the full article »»»»

Overclockers So Smitten With Ivy Bridge

Fast, Faster, Fastest! Overclockers are an odd breed to say the least, taking a perfectly adequate processor, dragging it kicking and screaming to it’s physical limits, often with dire consequence. Overclockers apparently live to push the bounderies that hardware makers set as benchmarks. At a very basic level overclocking is about squeezing that last tiny bit of juice out of what was a  bog standard processor.

At an extreme level, overclocking can mean using liquid nitrogen to obtain speeds that perform set tasks in world record times and doing this has become a globally-competitive ‘sport’. Through establishing which components most-easily break in their quest to push performance boundaries, overclockers have helped make consumer level computers become faster and more stable.

It seems from all the ranting that overclockers are once again in lust with Intel – Intel’s new Platform, Ivy Bridge seems to have them all gaga – Dino Strklevic, an overclocker and abc.net.au contributor says “What an amazing new platform! Intel has finally given overclockers the jackpot! The new king is in town and geeks call it Ivy Bridge – Intel calls it  3rd gen Core processors –  it formally launched in Australia last week :: Read the full article »»»»

Dells Alienware X51 Mini Desktop: Bringing Value Gaming To The Masses

Some may say Dell smells, but we say Dell is the epitome of doing just enough. Working with razor thin margins on one side and competing with the Chinese on the other, we can understand their predicament.

Alienware, Dells house of extreme gaming hardware may be taking a page out of its parent companies book. The X51 Mini Gaming PC , is a full blown mini gaming PC on a budget. With prices starting at $699 this is the Alienware Aurora ALX’s little brother, with the same gaming pedigree and styling of its brethren, the X51 is pure Alienware. Is this the Alienware for everyone?

The case continues the Alienware extreme styling tradition. Wrapping the X51 in Alienware’s black angular casing this new mini-gaming machine is easily identified as pure Alienware. This is the first compact gaming machine from Alienware, it’s just as happy on the desktop as it is nestled with your components next to the TV.

Alienware are aiming squarely at our TV sets and living rooms with the new X51 doesn’t look like a console by accident, the resemblance to the 360 is striking. The machine itself has been designed to operate fast at 1080p resolutions, the maximum resolution available on TV’s at the moment With HDMI 1.4 the X51 is as 3D TV ready as any machine needs to be, 3D playback and Blu-ray 3D ready out of the box :: Alienware Official :: RELATED :: Read More »»»»

A Fist Full of Silicon, Intel’s OEM Engineers To Sample Prison Life

Engineering Samples, these unreleased CPU’s are intended to allow Intel’s partners to perfect the next generation gadgets, they are a rare and treasured beast that are never intended for public sale. Like a classic Clint Eastwood western the double cross is not something that Intel takes lightly, being caught selling Intel’s next generation technology to it’s competitors for Intel is the ultimate betrayal. So as you can imagine when Intel discovered that it had been double crossed by employees of one of it’s OEM business partners in Taiwan it’s wraith was fast and fierce. Working with Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau – CIB – the four suspects were quickly tracked down and taken into custody in the city of Taoyuan.

The four suspects by all accounts were seemingly intelligent engineers working for one of Intel’s major OEM – Original Equipment Manufactures who turn Intel’s chips into the gadgets we all love – Criminal masterminds they were not though. Selling the chips on EBay in full public view doesn’t display the normal criminal flare required for such an operation. Especially when you consider they sold the chips for an average of $400 each, when AMD would have written a blank cheque to get their hands on the samples which included  Intel’s latest 22nm chips which are due for public release later this year. Read the full article »»»»

Medfield: Intel’s New Mobile Processor

Intel’s Medfield processor is a brand new flavor for Intel. Designed from the ground up for the extremely low power requirements of the Smartphone world. Intel hopes Medfield will go places they have never been, in our pockets. Intel has undoubtedly dominated the desktop computer for 30 years but they have consistently failed - had their butts kicked – in the low power world, smart phones and tablets included. The current leader of low power processors is the ARM processor. Designed in England and manufactured by many companies these processors can be found in every smartphone and 99% of tablets. Look out ARM Intel is gunning for your market.

For Midfield Intel has pulled out all the stops and is finally working in the right direction when it comes to low power. Starting with a notebook processor and altering it for ultra low power could be considered working top down, this time Intel has worked bottom up. Starting with the design of each type of transistor, optimizing each to stop current leakage, wasted power that is converted to heat. Working their way up the design ladder the chip itself integrates a new design strategy, System On A Chip. SoC is a process of integrating as much of a system onto one chip. Intel didn’t stop there, with their sights set on the Smartphone world they have built in technology to accelerate common android functions. Read the full article »»»»