Trojans Dominate Malware, Security Firm Reports - PCWorld

More than half (55 percent) of all new malware identified in Q3 of this year were Trojans, said PandaLabs.

The research arm of Panda Security says most of these were banker trojans designed to trick web users into navigating to fake financial sites so cybercriminals can steal login details and passwords.

Artwork: Chip TaylorThe use of e-mail in distributing malware, once the most favored method, has declined. Instead, cybercriminals are resulting to social media-related infections, includingClickjacing attacks on social networks such as Facebookand poisoned search results.

Panda also said 95 percent of all e-mail received during Q3 was spam, and 50 percent of this was sent from just ten countries, which included India, Brazil and Russia. For the first time, the UK has fallen out of the list of the world's biggest spam-producing countries.

The security firm also said over the past three months it has a number of attacks onGoogle Android phones, which could be the beginning of a wave of threats targeting smartphones.

"We are also beginning to see legitimate Android apps compressed with self-extracting files, designed to infect when the application is extracted. In other words, Android apps are being used as bait to infect computers with self-extracting files," PandaLabs said.

Have You Tried Shopping On YouTube? First YouTube Store Launched

UK’s world-renowned fashion retailer, The French Connection, is taking online shopping to a whole new level with the launch of a YouTube boutique. That’s right—The French Connection has launched an online YouTube store, in which viewers can watch fashion videos and click on annotations that lead directly to the French Connection online store where they can actually buy the items in the videos. This is innovating YouTube on so many levels—bringing e-commerce to the video site and providing annotations that actually lead outside of the YouTube site—and fashion divas and shopaholics are sure to fall in love with the whole thing.

The French Connection is calling their YouTube boutique, appropriately, their “YouTique”. In the YouTique you can watch fashion advice videos on all sorts of subjects from how to sparkle at a wedding to how to wow people at work, pack for a perfect weekend away, look elegant every evening and more. Each of the videos in the YouTique showcases items that are now available at the French Connection online shop and at the end of the clip, viewers have the option to click to buy. You can see what it looks like in the screenshot below. Notice the “+Buy” annotations on the video clip. Pretty slick, right?

In addition to incorporating annotations in the videos that lead to the online shop, there are also links in the sidebar of the YouTube channel that lead to the online shop. Viewers (or shoppers) can click to see more dresses, jackets, tops, skirts and knitwear. The links on the YouTube channel page lead straight to the FCUK online shop.

This is the first time a campaign like this has existed on YouTube. Generally annotations are only allowed to links within the YouTube site itself, but now that they have made an exception for the French Connection I will be interested to see how quickly other brands will jump on the YouTube e-commerce bandwagon.

Toshiba shows off glasses-free 3D TVs

Toshiba Regza 20GL1 3D TV.
(Credit: Toshiba)

Toshiba unveiled two 3D TVs today that work without special glasses.

The Regza 20GL1 is a 20-inch flat-panel display with 1,280x720 resolution. The Regza 12GL1 is a 12-inch flat-panel display with 466x350 resolution. Toshiba unveiled the models to coincide with this week's Ceatec electronics show near Tokyo.

Toshiba said that its 3D technology, which is currently best-suited for small displays, provides "nine different perspectives of each single 2D frame." The company added that those perspectives are then "superimposed" by the viewer's brain "to create a three-dimensional impression of the image."

The 3D effect is available within a 40-degree area in front of the set, Toshiba said. According to the Associated Press, viewers must also sit two feet from the 12-inch LCD and three feet from the 20-inch LCD to view 3D content.

The new LCDs are "first step into the 3D future in the consumer home cinema market," Toshiba European marketing chief Sascha Lange said in a statement. "But it will take several years to develop larger 3D TVs without glasses with screen sizes of 40 inches and more at a yet reasonable price point."

The possibility of viewing 3D content sans glasses is something that many consumers will welcome, though.

Last month, a survey about 3D TVs showed that 30 percent of people don't like the need to wear special glasses to view 3D content.

Although Toshiba is trying to make its name in the glasses-free arena, the company is already a player in the 3D TV market. It currently sells the WX800 line of 3D TVs. Both the 46- and 55-inch models of the WX800 require glasses.

Toshiba's 20GL1 and 12GL1, which switch from 3D to 2D mode, are scheduled to be released in Japan later this year. They will retail for about $2,900 and $1,400, respectively. The company has not announced plans for availability outside of Japan.