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planetrussell says...

Dec 04, 2009

Million-Year-Old Antarctic Lake to Unveil Billions of Secrets …Including Unknown Viruses

Million-Year-Old Antarctic Lake To Unveil Billions of Secrets

13.11.2009

URL: http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/110478-arctic_lake-0

Antarctic ice drilling that would allow scientists to get to Lake Vostok (East) hidden for millions of years, will become one of the most important scientific events equal to the launch of the Large hadron collider. Scientist can only guess what can be found there. Pravda.Ru interviewed Andrey Balashev, a member of the Institute of molecular genetics, to find out what scientists expect to find.

Lake Vostok is located under the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet 4,000 meters (13,000 ft) thick. It has been isolated from the surrounding world for millions of years, so scientists expect to find a unique ecosystem that has no analogies on Earth.

Vostok is the largest of 140 subglacial lakes found under the surface of Antarctica. It covers the area of over 14,000 km2 (nearly 6,000 mi2). Despite the high pressure created by ice, the lake can be populated by microorganisms since the water is warm enough (approximately 50F) and oxygen concentration is high.

In order to obtain preliminary data about habitants of Lake Vostok, the scientists research other hidden bodies of water in Antarctica that are smaller and located under thinner layer of ice. Despite the fact that most of these bodies of water are covered with ice nine months of the year, there is still life in them.

Antonio Alcami, a Spanish scientist, and his colleagues from the National Research Council examined water samples from Antarctica's Limnopolar Lake and discovered several thousand species of microorganisms many of which were not previously known to science.

The findings included numerous viruses from 12 different families. Some of them were found and described for the first time.

Viruses are very important for closed ecosystems with only a few microbiological predators. They are capable of controlling the number of organisms and preventing their excess.

Unfortunately, these viruses are difficult to study in a lab since they do not grow in artificial conditions. However, the technology of allocating and decoding genome allowed scientists to learn many new facts about the biological role of viruses.

Antonio Alcami said that many of the scientific concepts about viruses were wrong. This made the scientists reconsider their thoughts about viruses and the role they play in microbiological systems.

Spanish scientists think that the information about larger variety of species in the Antarctic region is the main result of their research. Multiple unique microorganisms prepared to survive in extreme conditions live in subglacial lakes.

Besides, the scientists discovered that population of viruses in Antarctic lakes depends on a season. As the lakes freeze, only the smallest viruses stay in their liquid areas while bigger species fall into anabiosis in thick ice.

In summer, when a part of the ice melts, large viruses come back to the lakes. Virtually, the lakes are different bodies of water with different water composition in summer and in winter.

The reasons for this are yet unknown, but it is suggested that the number of microweeds in water has something to do with it. Most likely, large viruses wake up when microorganisms start breeding. They infect them and fall asleep again.

Pravda.ru talked to Andrey Balashev, Doctor of Biological Science, a member of the Russian Institute of molecular genetics, to find out what is hidden under the Antarctic ice.

“Lake Vostok and other bodies of water located in Antarctic are unique areas of alien flora and fauna on Earth. Such ecosystems have been isolated from the rest of the world for a long time, and their evolution took its own unique path.

At the moment the drilling is suspended. The scientists are concerned that terrestrial microorganisms that would get into the closed ecosystem of the lake would kill everything alive.

At the same time, we have no idea what is hidden under the ice. It is obvious that the pressure of over 300 atmospheres leaves no opportunity for discovering large multi-celled creatures, but there are many microorganisms and viruses.

By the way, we cannot rule out that the viruses of Lake Vostok might be adaptable to life outside of the lake, but we might not be able to co-exist with them. The researchers have a lot to think about prior to resuming the drilling of the ice above Lake Vostok.”

Pavel Urushev
Pravda.Ru

via english.pravda.ru

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jonmurphy says...

Nov 30, 2009

iPhone Virus-Writer’s New Job: Building iPhone Apps | Threat Level

An Australian youth who created a worm that attacked iPhone users has been hired by a company that creates applications for the iPhone.

At least one security professional expressed displeasure that the malware author has been rewarded for his hack attack.

Ashley Towns, a 21-year-old student who goes by the names “Ikee” and “Ikex,” was hired this month as an iPhone application developer by the Australian firm Mogeneration, after the company learned about his worm, Towns revealed on his Twitter feed.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said the move sends the wrong message to hackers.

“What disheartens me is that Towns has shown no regret for what he did,” Cluley told TechWorld. “Now his utterly irresponsible behavior appears to have been rewarded. There are plenty of young coders out there who would not have acted so stupidly, and are just as worthy of an opportunity inside a software development company, and are actually quite likely to be better coders than Towns who made a series of blunders with his code.”

Towns’ benign worm spread among Australian iPhones in early November and replaced the user’s wallpaper image with a photo of 1980s pop singer Rick Astley and the words “ikee is never going to give you up,” a reference to Astley’s hit song, “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

The worm affected only jailbroken iPhones whose owners installed SSH and neglected to change the default root password, “alpine.” Once a phone was infected, the worm searched for other vulnerable phones in the user’s mobile network but did little else.

A second, more malevolent worm, followed Towns’ creation about two weeks later, however. This one targeted the same vulnerability in jailbroken phones, but instead of simply changing the phone’s wallpaper it commandeered the phone into a botnet, changed the SSH default password on the phone from “alpine” to “ohshit” and attempted to steal the online banking credentials for customers of ING bank.

See Also

First Ever iPhone Worm Rick Rolls Australia

via wired.com

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jenniferangela says...

Nov 27, 2009

prokaryotes possess a unique RNA silencing system

RNA-Guided RNA Cleavage by a CRISPR RNA-Cas Protein Complex

Caryn R. Hale¹, Peng Zhao¹, Sara Olson³, Michael O. Duff³, Brenton R. Graveley³, Lance Wells¹, Rebecca M. Terns¹^,and Michael P. Terns¹^,²^,

¹ Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
² Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
³ Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology, University of Connecticut Stem Cell Institute, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06030, USA

Summary

Compelling evidence indicates that the CRISPR-Cas system protects prokaryotes from viruses and other potential genome invaders. This adaptive prokaryotic immune system arises from the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) found in prokaryotic genomes, which harbor short invader-derived sequences, and the CRISPR-associated (Cas) protein-coding genes. Here, we have identified a CRISPR-Cas effector complex that is comprised of small invader-targeting RNAs from the CRISPR loci (termedprokaryotic silencing (psi)RNAs) and the RAMP module (or Cmr) Cas proteins. The psiRNA-Cmr protein complexes cleave complementary target RNAs at a fixed distance from the 3′ end of the integral psiRNAs. In Pyrococcus furiosus, psiRNAs occur in two size forms that share a common 5′ sequence tag but have distinct 3′ ends that direct cleavage of a given target RNA at two distinct sites. Our results indicate that prokaryotes possess a unique RNA silencing system that functions by homology-dependent cleavage of invader RNAs.

Cell, Volume 139, Issue 5, 945-956, 25 November 2009

http://tr.im/FP6y

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Andy Roberts says...

Nov 27, 2009

Latest H1N1 Virus Swine Flu Season in Full Flow

"DARnet Andy Roberts" - 1 new article

H1N1 Virus – Swine Flu Season in Full Flow

Swine Flu Season in Full Flow – H1N1 Virus check

It’s been more than six months since the swine flu epidemic erupted worldwide and in that time we have seen at least two major waves of illness around the northern hemisphere. The first was in our summer as the new virus spread in pockets after international travellers returned home already infected and affected wider populations in specific areas, particularly noticable when attributed to schools. The second wave started when the schools went back in September, in advance of our real winter which is only just beginning now, but peaked within weeks as the warm autumn weather held the virus in check.

November is traditionally the start of the flu season and this year is no exception apart from the fact that the flu virus in circulation is in most cases much more likely to be the new variant of type A H1N1 rather than the usual human h5n1 seasonal flu virus.

Second UK Swine Flu Wave Peaked?

So this is either a third wave or a reprise of the second wave if you prefer, and the signs are that this has just passed a temporary peak, with the number of new reported cases dropping week on week for the first time (UK estimate 46,000 new cases of swine flu in the last week, down from 53,000 week before.) An important question now is whether or not there are any signs of the virus mutating into a type that is more deadly as has happened previously in history with influenza pandemics caused by new strains. The pattern to look out for is one of successive waves of increasing numbers infected, followed eventually by one or more waves which are not only more deadly to victims but also more easily transmittable. Then eventually once a tragic number of fatalities have been cleared away, the flu virus mutates into a milder form that goes on to infect the rest of the world’s population who haven’t already acquired immunity, but without taking nearly such a bad toll in terms of lives. It is reasoned that it’s for this eventuality that various governments have planned vaccination programmes for whole populations, at present being implemented first only for the most “at risk” demographics - young people, children and those with underlying health problems.

For the UK, another important fear is if the virus becomes resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, since the government has taken the precaution of buying in huge stocks of the tablets, enough to treat one half of the country’s population.

H1N1 Swine Flu in the US after Thanksgiving

thanksgivingswinefluseason

The Thanksgiving holiday is typically followed by at least a modest bump in early seasonal flu cases, according to reports from the past few years. But this, of course, is not a typical year. Swine flu is a new virus that accounts for nearly all flu cases right now. Usually, seasonal flu is just getting going in late November, and holiday get-togethers allow illness to jump from small pockets to other parts of the country. Swine flu, in contrast, has been widespread for months.

“It’s not like we expect to see a bunch of infected people going to uninfected cities and towns”

said Andrew Pekosz, a flu expert at Johns Hopkins University. The swine flu pandemic hit the US in two waves: first in the spring, then a larger wave that started in the late summer.

The World Health Organization said H1N1 flu was moving eastward across Europe and Asia after appearing to peak in parts of Western Europe and the United States.

Reported Mutations of the swine flu type A H1N1 virus

Mutations of the DNA of influenza viruses are typical of any pandemic and world experts are watching carefully for any first signs of a dangerous mutation. So far the indications are that early warning systems are working but that no such mutation with a deadly combination of easy transmission, deadly payload and/or drugs resistance has shown up – yet. Isolated cases of different mutations have been reported from Brazil, Norway and China and drug resistance in a hospital in Wales.

from MetroNews.CA Toronto

WHO’s spokeswoman in Beijing, Vivian Tan, said the agency is aware of three such cases in China that occurred in June and July that were similar to the cases being investigated in Norway. Tan said WHO had no information on the cases mentioned in the Xinhua report Wednesday.

There is no evidence the mutated swine flu virus is circulating widely in the world, Tan said, but since it has been linked to deaths in Norway and elsewhere, investigators are focusing on whether this mutation could be a marker for more severe disease.

“We are concerned, but realize that influenza viruses, including A/H1N1, are relatively unstable and change easily, especially as they infect more people,” Tan told The Associated Press. “Some mutations can have minimal effects on how a virus functions, while other mutations can create important changes with significant public health impact.”

Several troubling outbreaks of drug-resistant H1N1 have been documented but it has been noted they are limited so far and there are no indications yet that the virus is mutating in a sustained way.

Swine Flu Deters Pilgrims to HAJJ

Saudi authorities announced four pilgrims have died of the H1N1 swine flu virus in the days leading up to the pilgrimage which began on Wednesday 26th November 2009. A Moroccan woman, a Sudanese man and an Indian man, all 75, and a 17-year-old Nigerian girl, died from H1N. The Saudi Health Ministry said the four had not followed ”recommended procedures, especially vaccination against swine flu”.

All the victims so far had been suffering from underlying health conditions with 16 other cases of swine flu infection among pilgrims. Health authorities in Saudi have mobilised for the world’s largest gathering since swine flu began spreading across the globe, but the number of pilgrims going on Hajj is likely to be lower this year due to rainstorms, and local officials admitting that fears of swine flu may keep away at least 40 percent of local pilgrims.

Tamiflu resistant swine flu

A Tamiflu resistant strain of the swine flu has spread between hospital patients in Cardiff, Wales. They are thought to be the first confirmed cases of person-to-person transmission of a Tamiflu resistant strain in the world. Five patients at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales appear to have acquired the infection while being treated for other conditions, and these have now been joined by a sixth related case of the drug resistent flu strain.

The H1N1 virus has been remarkably stable since it emerged in April, but virologists had been half expecting new resistant strains to emerge somewhere in the world, and it appears to have happened first at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

Norwegian Swine Flu H1N1 variation

Scientists in Norway announced recently that they had detected a mutated form of the swine flu virus in two patients who died of the flu and a third who was severely ill. The Norwegian mutation could possibly make the virus more prone to infect deeper in the airways and thus cause more severe disease, such as pneumonia. Influenza is a mutable virus, and changes are to be expected, this is typical early in the spread of a pandemic virus.

Some 680,000 Norwegians are estimated to have been infected with swine flu to date, of which 23 have died.

WHO says there have been over 6,750 deaths worldwide so far.

Vaccine programmes, limited and late

Although the world was alerted to the new strain of flu virus spreading in Mexico City back in April, the preparations made for a vaccination programme have been effected later than was originally hoped. Last week in the UK for example, it was announced that more than three million healthy children under five across the UK will be offered the swine flu jab, whereas the announcements back before the summer were that a widespread vaccination programme would begin in September. Over in France, the first cases of a vaccine induced illness have been reported, reviving fears of a repeat of the terrible situation in the US during the 1975 pandemic when a vaccination programme was halted due to large numbers of tragic side effects.

Further Information: Swine Flu H1N1 Virus Symptoms

Click here to view the embedded video.

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H1N1 Virus – Swine Flu Season in Full Flow

Protect Yourself from Drive-By Browser Malware Attacks - Windows - Lifehacker

via lifehacker.com

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gltss says...

Nov 23, 2009

A New iPhone Worm is Here, And This Time it’s Malicious [WARNING]

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A couple of weeks ago, the first iPhone worm appeared, spreading on jailbroken devices with the SSH application installed (vulnerability being the fact that many users haven’t changed the default root password). As far as worms go, this one was quite benign, merely “rickrolling” users; i.e., changing the background image on the device to an image of Rick Astley.

Now, according to early reports of strange activity by Dutch ISP XS4ALL, and later confirmed by Sophos, there’s a new worm in the wild, and this one is far more malicious.

The new worm is called “Duh” or “Ikee.B”, and it uses the exact same vulnerability as the first one. The fix is thus identical – change the root password in the SSH application to something other than the default, which is “alpine”.

Failing to do so might result in very serious consequences. According to Sophos, Ikee.B is “designed to connect to a server in Lithuania and to follow orders from remote hackers.” It can find vulnerable iPhones on a wide range of IP addresses, including IPs in several different countries, for example the Netherlands, Portugal, Australia (
), Austria, and Hungary. Furthermore, it changes the root password on the iPhone to “ohshit” (as discovered by Paul Ducklin, head of technology in Sophos Asia Pacific.)

Users who haven’t jailbroken their iPhone or haven’t installed the SSH application are not affected by this vulnerability.

via mashable.com

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23narchy says...

Nov 23, 2009

New Facebook Worm Spreading Via User’s Walls [WARNING] | Mashable

Anti-virus maker AVG is warning of a new worm spreading on Facebook via user’s walls.

According to one of AVG’s bloggers, the worm spreads as users that are already logged into the social network click on the suggestive photo that is being placed on their walls by infected friends.
Here’s how it works:

“For those unfamiliar with Facebook (is there anyone other than me in that set?) the thumbnail of the worm’s infective page is a link to the page. The worm’s objective, of course, is that others viewing the victim’s wall will click the link, and as they are logged into Facebook, the worm will propagate its link to that victim’s wall, and so on…

This worm uses what is technically known as a CSRF (Cross-site Request Forgery, also called XSRF) attack. A sequence of iframes on the exploit page call a sequence of other pages and scripts, eventually resulting in a form submission to Facebook “as if” the victim had submitted a URL for a wall post and clicked on the “Share” button to confirm the post.”

While this attack seems to cause more embarrassment than it does damage to your computer or account, it also seems like one of the easier ones to fall for since all it requires is “clicking da button, baby.” The long and short of it seems to be: avoid the booty.