Advanced Computer Worm Was Specifically Designed to Attack Iranian Nuclear Reactor, Experts Say. The sophisticated computer worm called Stuxnet, which has been targeting industrial operations around the world, was likely designed to take out Iran's new Bushehr nuclear reactor, cybersecurity experts say. It's the first known cyber-super-weapon designed to destroy a real-world target, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Researchers studying the worm say it was built by an advanced attacker with plentiful resources — possibly a nation-state. Initially, experts thought it was designed for industrial espionage, but upon examining its code, they now think it was built for sabotage.
Ralph Langner, an expert on industrial systems security, has been studying Stuxnet since it was first discovered at a Belarus-based security firm in June. In a blog post last week, he said the worm was most likely assembled by a team of experts with heavy insider knowledge: "This is not some hacker sitting in the basement of his parents' house. Cloud Computing: The Truth About What Runs on Amazon. Opinion By Bernard Golden September 24, 2010 11:19 AM ET Action: You should have your operations people evaluate how to take over operational responsibility for external cloud applications. 2. Changes to the applications, or even migration from their initial cloud hosting locations, may be required to bring the applications into conformance with the requirements of governmental and industry laws and regulations.
Action: You should set up a remediation team with skills in these different areas so that you are prepared to respond when an unknown application running on the public cloud surfaces. 3. This change will happen not deliberately, but unconsciously. Action: You should have your finance people looking through expense reports and have others sniffing around to see what use of public cloud computing is being done in other parts of the organization. And by the way, that shibboleth about "no one's going to run SAP up in the cloud"? Overview of Mobile Development Options for the Google Maps API - Google Maps API Family - Google Code. Use Appcelerator Titanium to build mobile apps for iPhone & Android and desktop apps for Windows, Mac OS X & Linux from Web technologies. Google Code Blog. Web Toolkit Downloads - Google Web Toolkit - Google Code. ConnectorLocal.com.
Developer Guide: Java - Google Maps Data API - Google Code. You Are Here: Using GPS and Google Maps in Android. N the previous article in the Android series, you learned how to integrate the Google Maps into your Android application. One of the really neat ways you can use Google Maps is to send GPS data directly into it so that you can view your current location real-time. This article will show you how to programmatically access the data returned by your built-in GPS receiver and then send the data to Google Maps. Using Eclipse, create a new Android project and name it GPS.java. To use GPS functionality in your Android application, you'll need to add the ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission to the AndroidManifest.xml file: In Android, location-based services are provided by the LocationManager class located in the android.location package.
Using the LocationManager class, your application can obtain periodic updates of the device's geographical locations as well as fire an intent when it enters the proximity of a certain location. Developers Can Now Access Locations of 250 Million Phones Across U.S. Carriers. Location Labs today announced a "Universal Location Service" platform that aggregates locations of phones across carriers for developers and centralizes privacy management for end-users.
"Developers can now remotely access the location of over 250MM mobile phones in the U.S. through a single cloud-based API (Application Programming Interface)," according to the press release. The service can locate all types of devices, including smartphones and non-smartphones, and it allows developers to locate them in real-time. Developers can use this information to build apps that run in the background and push location-based alerts to users. Called this tactic is used in automated check-ins and for marketing, tracking and social situations. It is especially helpful for monetizing mobile apps (see Is Geofencing the Next Evolution for Location Apps? The location data comes from national carriers Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile and AT&T. Location Labs has been beefing up its offerings lately. Location Labs :: Developer Portal. Android: Obtaining a Google Maps API Key. Well, I finally decided to start seriously looking at the Google API’s Add-On for Android projects.
Specifically, the Google Map API’s. I was very curious by the fact that the Google Places API’s will be released next month (July, 2010) and am interested in Android apps that are able to locate and display places that are nearby, or in close proximity to your current location. FYI, more information on the Google Maps API Family is found here. Of course, the easy thing was to find code snippets and information that quickly had me comfortable with using the Maps API. But then I needed to obtain a Maps API Key, and things slowed down a bit. So I decided to post a quick example and identify several links that will get you going faster than I got going. Four important things to know are Let’s look at a quick example. In order to obtain a suitable private key, you must create a keystore that contains the one private key as follows: To get the MD5 fingerprint, do the following: Maps API Key. Android Development – Part 2: Using Google’s Places API to Develop Compelling Location Based Mobile Applications.
In Part 1, we discussed how to get started using Google’s Places API, including all necessary registrations. We also delved lightly on the differences between Place searches and Place details. Now let’s actually create something fun and useful. First we need an idea. And I have a good one! Exercising Core Location-Based Features Using the Places API Let’s quickly identify some core location-based features.
Ability to identify and publish current locationSearch for places that are in proximity to a given locationObtain details about a specific place, usually selected from a proximity searchGenerate a proximity alert upon entering a location proximityGenerate a proximity alert upon exiting a location proximity Now, real innovation comes from your ability to enhance those features. Now let’s say you drive by the same store on your return home. That’s real innovation enhancing the core location-based features we discussed earlier.
Use Cases A great place to start is defining the Use Cases. Android Development – Part 1: Using Google’s Places API to Develop Compelling Location Based Mobile Applications. Google released its Places API last month (July 2010) and this is exciting news for developers. Why? Because, as developers, we have access to an extremely important database of information, allowing us to develop compelling mobile applications that publish a mobile user’s location, and provide information on places that are in proximity to that location. This will open up innovative thinking for businesses trying to attract more customers, and enhance the services of existing customers. As developers, we have a great opportunity to move mobile application development from cheap Soundboard applications, to powerful, business savvy applications capable of legitimizing mobile’s presence as a significant business contributor.
I plan to discuss all details required for you to get started developing these truly innovative mobile applications on the Android platform. Let’s get started with Part 1 to identify the items we need to complete before we can develop using the Places API. Next… LocationManager. Register for location updates using a Criteria and pending intent. The requestLocationUpdates() and requestSingleUpdate() register the current activity to be updated periodically by the named provider, or by the provider matching the specified Criteria, with location and status updates. Location updates are received either by LocationListener callbacks, or by broadcast intents to a supplied PendingIntent. If the caller supplied a pending intent, then location updates are sent with a key of KEY_LOCATION_CHANGED and a Location value. The location update interval can be controlled using the minTime parameter.
The elapsed time between location updates will never be less than minTime, although it can be more depending on the Location Provider implementation and the update interval requested by other applications. Choosing a sensible value for minTime is important to conserve battery life. The minDistance parameter can also be used to control the frequency of location updates.