Ping 33: Windows Phones are here, Windows 7 party kit, hacking & phishing

Regarding why people try to hack into email accounts, there actually is a huge black market for everything related to online identities. Credit Cards and Bank Accounts are what sell for the most (anywhere from $0.05 to $5,000 a piece), but spammers can also use personal email addresses to send spam or for blackmail/extortion. Sometimes it is just someone wanting to break into a large system for name recognition, but in most cases if you can get a million usernames and passwords you can find someone willing to pay for it. If you want to read more check out these links:

Items on the black market: http://ivebeenmugged.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/09/stolen-card-worth.html

Story about hacking the hackers: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-01/ff_max_butler

Analysis of data collected from a botnet: http://blog.theg2.net/2009/05/torpig-botnet-analysis-when-was-last.html

Keep up the great work!

Laura scares away men, fact! First Max and now Paul...

I hope not.  Laura and Paul have a Scully and Mulder kind of vibe.  Hopefuly they never cross that line with an on-screen kiss.

The nine guy will hunt you in your dreams if you ever throw him or is nephews again!

Seriously,..

It's not a toy,..

Good video, we must live with hackers nowadays.

Good Work Laura and Clint. I like to watch ping every week. Now you cans ay that even from the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta, ther is someone that is a Niner.

It seems to me that certain topics are geared towards mainstream PC users rather than Niners. I doubt anyone here has ever responded to a phishing email. I think there is potential for a show dedicated to stuff like that, perhaps at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx for regular folks who need help using their computers or preventing them from accidently misusing the computers.

I’m looking forward to finally put my hands on a WM 6.5 device. It seems that this month 3 new devices will be available down here in Brazil. Talking about developing for WM 6.5, it would be very interesting to bring some WM GUI experts to the show, because out there you can find a plethora of libraries to develop a “touch driven” interface, but I would love to hear the Microsoft experts recommendations. Should we rely on drawing our own controls? Wait for a official library? Maybe use DirectX and explore hardware acceleration enabled devices? The questions go on and on… At MSDN you can find at least three different approaches to deliver a basic “touch driven / compelling UI” library from where we can start and evolve.

That was a good show. I was wondering what came in the party kit (I hope the people who came up with it weren't serious) and it's great that you guys are actually getting new products to demo on your show because that's a sign that people are actually taking notice of Ping.

By the way, the video quality is back to normal and the audio didn't get too loud

From my experience some tips for getting in "touch" with Windows Mobile phones:

1. Try before you buy

You may be surprised how imprecise and sluggish some WM touchscreen devices actually react to your gestures. Try the features you're interested in - web browsing (try flash websites), photo/video, music playback, keyboard writing text messages or using Office Mobile, connecting to WLAN or to Bluetooth devices, and, of course, making and receiving calls. Try locking the phone so it doesn't switch off or otherwise call somebody when it's in your pocket.

Take your time. Watch the battery life during your test.

2. Clarify support for all the the phone's hardware and software.

Most of it should be provided by your phone company, as the device manufacturer will probably not have more support than "hard-reset the thing and try again" and will in general not support another vendors' headsets or bluetooth devices. Many WM devices are being rushed into the market and will need software updates in the near future. No, Windows Update is usually not provided or does not update anything, so you will need a website to find and download updates or new ROMs yourself. The manufacturer usually releases only one or two ROM versions until the next device is going to market, so include non-official sources in your search, e.g. xda-developers.com.

3. Clarify how you can backup and restore the personal data on your device

MyPhone doesn't quite cut it, but it covers the basics: contacts, calendar, messages, personal files, photos. However, sync-ing the phone with a PC (or two) will do the same thing (except for text messages).

What's left is all your customization, e.g. personal information, alarms, ring-tones, system settings (ActiveSync partners, email accounts, WLAN connections, Bluetooth pairings), preferences for the various built-in apps or the apps you installed, the list goes on. Keep in mind that you will need all this stuff after you sent your phone for repair or installed an updated ROM.

Try to find a backup program that is able to restore reliably on a newer ROM version or a new phone (if the other one is beyond repair).

4. Check the developer tools and the documentation

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsmobile/default.aspx

5. Keep asking for Silverlight for Windows Mobile

hi laura

i am thinking abt making a party as you show us here

what should i do

by the way i am in egypt

so is it possible that i can do it here

it seems im the only one that knows whats goin on.  i am writing a site that will be up soon explaining the hackings.  it will be at www.deepandcrazy.com    i could write a book on whats going on.   here is a sample.  since aug 2008, been fighting this worm.  it was a shaky engine.  to this day, i cant rid it, but traced it up to kernel/bios/firmware(hardware).  this worm is undetectable, laughs at security and is now in every machine from a to z.  when microsoft made a statement on news about apr first worm, i felt falsly relieved.  i seem to be the only one that it was targeting at the time.  it even killed a phone company you can see using keywords "airtel" and "montana"  its a long story. 

this is how the worm works.  apr first came, the conficter worms affected millions.  they used the DNS server to spread.  the thing that caught my eye the most is when i found out they were detectable.  conficter hits, you use antivirus and laught.  backdoor in and undetected.

to this day, microsoft hasnt even addressed the worm.  im still pinging over two thousand IPs an hour 24/7. 

it works in layers.  microsoft focuses on the OS layer.  it has a Harderive layer where it spreads and takes over the first master boot record.  also a memory layer where its cloaked and adapts.   and the worst of all where im working now is the Kernel/firmware/bios layer. 

the bot is a backdoor that monitors packets and strings.  it keeps a backdoor open to the hacker.  its like a paralel virtual machine inside your machine.  the kernel structure uses the cdrom and lan card and audio to run part of it for keyloggers and intercepting. 

if he cant get in, he creates a root certificate from any site of choice making a incoming cooking through port 80.  the bot intercepts the packet and recieves commands.    the dns errors linked to my hubs.  he used telnet programs to alter scripts and caused the dns servers.  im sure hotmail is lagging very bad now.  at first, the lag is horrible and never ends.  its running processes at a kernel level. 

this is just a tiny sample of whats going on.  ill have more on my site once i get control of the parsings.