Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Babar Iqbal World’s Youngest MCTS , MCP , CIW-A & CWNA from Pakistan

A 12-year old student Babar Iqbal hailing from Dera Ismail Kahn made a fourth world record in field of computer, Geo News reported Friday.

Earlier, Babar, generally known as genius imagecyber kid, had set up three world records including Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) at the age 9 years, Youngest Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) at the age 9 years and Youngest Certified Web Professional Associate (CIWA) at age 10 years.

While, the recent fourth record he made as Youngest Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) at the age 12 in Dubai.

The participants of this competition were aged from 20 to 35 years. By making this record, young Babar surprised the IT experts from all over the world. He also surpassed his compatriot Irfa Kareem Randhawa, who made this record at the age of 9 years and seven months.

Babar was born in surrounding overwhelmed with computers and monitors on March 2, 1997.

His two brothers and sisters (four in all) are Microsoft Certified Professional.

Website : http://www.babariqbal.com

Blog : http://www.youngestMSP.com

Gallery : http://www.youngestmsp.com/gallery/

Monday, October 5, 2009

Thousands of Hotmail passwords leaked online

More than 10,000 usernames and passwords for Windows Live Hotmail accounts were leaked online late last week, according to a report by Neowin.net, which claimed that they were posted by an anonymous user on pastebin.com last Thursday.

The post has since been taken down.

Neowin reported that it had seen part of the list. "Neowin has seen part of the list posted and can confirm the accounts are genuine and most appear to be based in Europe," said the site. "The list details over 10,000 accounts starting from A through to B, suggesting there could be additional lists."

Hotmail usernames and passwords are often used for more than logging into Microsoft's online e-mail service, however. Many people log onto a wide range of Microsoft's online properties -- including the trial version of the company's Web-based Office applications, the Connect beta test site and the Skydrive online storage service -- with their Hotmail passwords.

It was unknown how the usernames and passwords were obtained, but Neowin speculated that they were the result of either a hack of Hotmail or a massive phishing attack that had tricked users into divulging their log-on information.

Accounts with domains of @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com were included in the list.

Microsoft representatives in the U.S. were not immediately able to confirm Neowin's account, or answer questions, including how the usernames and passwords were acquired. The BBC, however, reported early Monday that Microsoft U.K. is aware of the report that account information had been available on the Web, and said it's "actively investigating the situation and will take appropriate steps as rapidly as possible."

If Neowin's account is accurate, the Hotmail hack or phishing attack would be one of the largest suffered by a Web-based e-mail service.

Last year, a Tennessee college student was accused of breaking into former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's Yahoo Mail account in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee at the time, lost control of her personal account when someone identified only as "rubico" reset her password after guessing answers to several security questions.

David Kernell was charged with a single count of accessing a computer without authorization by a federal grand jury last October. Kernell's case is ongoing.

Shortly after the Palin account hijack, Computerworld confirmed that the automated password-reset mechanisms used by Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Google's Gmail could be abused by anyone who knew an account's username and could answer a single security question.