Ted Samson

A security flaw that exposes iOS and possibly Android smartphone users to identity theft has been discovered in mobile apps for Facebook, Dropbox, and LinkedIn. Smartphone owners would be well served to take extra precautions to protect their devices, as the flaw may well be present in other mobile applications as well.

The flaw exposes users to identity theft by saving user authentication keys in easily accessible, unencrypted plain text files, or .plists. By stealing those files and transferring them to another device -- regardless of whether the device is jailbroken -- a cyber thief could access the victim's associated accounts without having to enter any log-in credentials.

In sync with today's launch of the new iPad, dozens of protestors today joined eager prospective iPad owners at Apple Stores in Georgetown, New York City, and San Francisco to protest the company's alleged worker abuse at overseas factories.

Apple has faced increasing criticism in recent months for the labor practices at the Foxconn and Pegatron locations, where the iPad and other Apple products are built, with some critics going so far as call to boycott the company until it changes its ways.

Companies and home users whose computers or routers are infected by the DNSChanger Trojan risk being unable to access the Web come March 8, 2012. That could represent a substantial number of users, too, as half of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies are infected with the malware, according to a new report.

Back in November, the feds famously took down the DNSChanger botnet network, which a cyber criminal gang was using to redirect Internet traffic to phony websites that existed simply to serve up ads. The feds replaced the criminals' servers with legitimate ones that would push along traffic to its intended destination.

Although Google has not been forthcoming regarding the number of active users on Google+, stats suggest that the site is failing in its bid to take away Facebook's market share. This may not come as a big surprise to anyone who has been watching the social networking space, as Google has stumbled time and again since the debut of Google+, most recently with its lackluster rollout of business pages.

One data source pointing to Google+'s steady decline comes from Net Applications, which tracks from month to month the number of Web referrals coming from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and Google+. Over the past five months, Google+'s share of Web referrals has steadily dropped, while Facebook's has held fairly steady.

At long last, Google+ has rolled out Business Pages, but at first blush, it's tough to figure out the rationale behind the timing. Ideally, organizations should have been able to pimp their brands on the site the day the social network left beta (if not sooner), yet this wasn't the case. An optimistic observer might have thought, "Well, Google must be cooking up something interesting and innovative for businesses, something to give Facebook a real run for its money."

Well, "interesting" and "innovative" aren't particularly apt descriptors for the Google+ business pages. They aren't distinguishable from plain ol' Google+ user pages in any meaningful way. Alas, it looks like Google is paying the price for building a siloed, inflexible social networking platform that's seemingly incapable of integrating with the company's own wealth of apps and services, not to mention third-party programs. Thus, Business Pages offer little in the way of engaging or useful information for users -- and no real reason to linger.

I'll admit it: I had high expectations for Google+ when it was first announced. I imagined Google elevating social networking to the next level by taking the best of Facebook -- a medium for friends, family, colleagues, businesses, and customers to connect and interact -- then adding a cleaner, simpler UI, and tying in other Google products, such as Google Docs, Gmail, and Google Calendar, to inject invaluable collaboration capabilities.

Google has certainly nailed the cleaner, simpler UI; I've seen plenty of praise heaped on Google+ for making the creation of groups a drag-and-drop snap. Facebook does enable users to create groups as well, to control who can see particular posts or messages, but the process is relatively tedious, and the average user may not even realize the functionality exists.

Apple is once again proving just how powerfully influential it is in IT. By effectively cornering the market on CNC (computer numerical control) lathes, the company is forcing its already reeling competitors to move from metal to fiberglass chassis on their Intel UltraBooks.

The CNC lathes in question are a critical component for building the ultrathin unibody-based magnesium-aluminum chassis spelled out in Intel's design guidelines. But those lathes are in short supply; suppliers Catcher and Foxconn both have over 10,000 each, according to Digitimes -- and almighty Apple has dibs.

Mac OS X users who went to sleep Tuesday feeling secure their machines were safe against Mac Defender may be in for a jarring wakeup call: A new variant of the infamous Trojan that can slip past Apple's long-awaited security update has already been spotted in the wild.

IT professionals who spend hours cramming to earn shiny new IT certifications, such MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist) and CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate), are seeing a decline in the extra pay boost they reap for their achievements. Meanwhile, employees with tech skills for which certifications don't exist, such as Tcl and SAS development, VOIP, and business performance management, are seeing increasingly fatter premiums according to Foote Partners' most recent IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index

Geeks of the world, rejoice on this fine Geek Pride Day! Society has come to value your smarts to the point that most people consider the label a compliment and equate geekiness with success, according to a survey conducted by Modis. But if there's any cause for concern, it's that nongeeks tend to view you as socially awkward, which could translate to a barrier in your professional life (and beyond).

Apple has been cashing in on the increased attention it's garnered from the business and consumer worlds in recent years. Unfortunately, the ne'er-do-wells of the technology world continue to step up their attempts to get a piece of the action, targeting malware squarely at Mac users.