Google to Launch Hybrid (Android+Chrome) OS called Andromeda

Google's long-rumored Android-Chrome hybrid operating system is expected to debut at the company's upcoming hardware event on October 4.

The company has been working to merge the two OSes for roughly 3 years with a release planned for 2017, but an "early version" to show things off to the world in 2016.

Android + Chrome = Andromeda

The hybrid OS, currently nicknamed 'Andromeda,' could be come on a new Pixel laptop as well as Huawei Nexus tablet from Google by Q3 2017, if not sooner, according to new leaks from 9to5Google and Android Police.

Android + Chrome = Andromeda

The laptop, officially codenamed "Bison" and nicknamed "Pixel 3," is a reference to the "Chromebook Pixel," but since this edition is not running Chrome operating system, one can not call it a "Chromebook" anymore.

Andromeda is separate from the company's Fuchsia OS, which is focused on Internet-of-Thing (IoT) devices. Moreover, the report also makes it clear that Andromeda "is [an entirely] distinct effort from Google's current campaign to bring Android apps to Chromebooks." So, don't get confused.

Rumored specs suggest Bison is expected to pack a 12.3-inch display with a 'tablet' mode and stylus and reportedly powered by an Intel M3 processor like Apple's 12-inch MacBook, or an Intel Core i5.

Bison is expected to have two models with 32GB or 128GB of internal storage, and 8GB or 16GB of RAM.

Other features could include two USB-C ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers, a backlit keyboard, quad microphones, a glass trackpad, and a battery that lasts around 10 hours.

For more details about the new hybrid operating system, you need to wait for two more weeks for Google's October 4 event that is set to launch a Google's new hardware product line, including "Google Wi-Fi" router, Google Home, the refreshed 4K-capable Chromecast rumored to be called Chromecast Ultra, and a "Daydream" VR headset.

Google is Secretly working on New OS called Fuchsia

Rumors have arrived indicating that Google is working on a new OS. And no, it’s not an update to Android or the Chrome OS. In fact, the new system is not even based on the Linux kernel.

The move is surprising because every single operating system developed by Google uses the Linux Kernel. It has powered Google hardware for years.

The new OS is reportedly being called Fuchsia. Although Google hasn’t officially announced anything regarding the OS, it released its details on Github.

Presenting Fuchsia

The allegedly new Fuchsia OS runs on the Magenta kernel which is based on the LittleKernel project on Github. Magenta is being designed as a competitor to commercial embedded OSes such as ThreadX. The Magenta kernel is designed to run on embedded devices, smartphones and desktop computers.

The interface of the new OS is the new Flutter UI and the programming language that is used for the OS is Dart.

The renderer that is being is called Escher, which supports light diffusion, soft shadows, and other visual effects. Soft shadows and light diffusion is also a major part of Material Design so it is possible that both Flutter and Escher are also designed with Material Design UI in mind.

Fuchsia is being designed with support for both 32-bit and 64-bit ARM CPUs and also 64-bit PCs.

Why Is a New OS Being Developed?

Right now, no definite answers exist as to why Google is developing a new OS. The most obvious guess would be that Google plans on replacing either Chrome OS or Android, or even both, with Fuchsia.

Maybe Fuchsia is being developed to cater to the smart home accessories by Google such as the OnHub router and Google Home or Chromecast.

It could also be the case that Google is just using Fuchsia for experimenting. No plans for further development and release have been set for now. Only time will tell what Google has in store for us.

Warning ! Linux Mint Website Hacked & ISO replaced with Backdoored Operating System

Are you also the one who downloaded Linux Mint on February 20th? You may have been Infected!

Linux Mint is one of the best and popular Linux distros available today, but if you have downloaded and installed the operating system recently you might have done so using a malicious ISO image.

Here's why:

Last night, Some unknown hacker or group of hackers had managed to hack into the Linux Mint website and replaced the download links on the site that pointed to one of their servers offering a malicious ISO images for the Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon Edition.

"Hackers made a modified Linux Mint ISO, with a backdoor in it, and managed to hack our website to point to it," the head of Linux Mint project Clement Lefebvre said in a surprising announcementdated February 21, 2016.

Who are affected?

As far as the Linux Mint team knows, the issue only affects the one edition, and that is Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition.

The situation happened last night, so the issue only impacts people who downloaded the above-mentioned version of Linux Mint on February 20th.

However, if you have downloaded the Cinnamon edition or release before Saturday 20th, February, the issue does not affect you. Even if you downloaded a different edition including Mint 17.3 Cinnamon via Torrent or direct HTTP link, this does not affect you either.

What had Happened?

Hackers believed to have accessed the underlying server via the team's WordPress blog and then got shell access to www-data.

From there, the hackers manipulated the Linux Mint download page and pointed it to a malicious FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server hosted in Bulgaria (IP: 5.104.175.212), the investigative team discovered.

The infected Linux ISO images installed the complete OS with the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) backdoor Tsunami, giving the attackers access to the system via IRC servers.

Tsunami is a well-known Linux ELF trojan that is a simple IRC bot used for launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

Hackers vs. Linux Mint SysAdmins

However, the Linux Mint team managed to discover the hack, cleaned up the links from their website quickly, announced the data breach on their official blog, and then it appears that the hackers compromised its download page again.

Knowing that it has failed to eliminate the exact point of entry of hackers, the Linux Mint team took the entire linuxmint.com domain offline to prevent the ISO images from spreading to its users.

The Linux Mint official website is currently offline until the team investigates the issue entirely. However, the hackers' motive behind the hack is not clear yet.

"What we don't know is the motivation behind this attack. If more efforts are made to attack our project and if the goal is to hurt us, we’ll get in touch with authorities and security firms to confront the people behind this," Lefebvre added.

Hackers Selling Linux Mint Website's Database

The hackers are selling the Linux Mint full website's database for a just $85, which shows a sign of their lack of knowledge.

The hack seems to be a work of some script kiddies or an inexperienced group as they opted to infect a top-shelf Linux distro with a silly IRC bot that is considered to be outdated in early 2010. Instead, they would have used more dangerous malware like Banking Trojans.

Also, even after the hack was initially discovered, the hackers re-compromised the site, which again shows the hackers' lack of experience.

Here's How to Protect your Linux Machine

Users with the ISO image can check its signature in an effort to make sure it is valid. 

To check for an infected download, you can compare the MD5 signature with the official versions, included in Lefebvre's blog post.

If found infected, users are advised to follow these steps:

• Take the computer offline.
• Backup all your personal data.
• Reinstall the operating system (with a clean ISO) or format the partition.
• Change passwords for sensitive websites and emails.

You can read full detail about the hack here. The official website is not accessible at the time of writing. We’ll update the story when we hear more.

Linux Foundation Introduces "Zephyr", a tiny OS for Internet Of Things

The 21st century is witnessing a great change over in the daily life of folks with the advent of IoT devices that are capable of talking to each other without any human intervention.

Yeah! Now you do not have to individually cascade an instruction to each of your home devices to accomplish a task. All have gone automated with the actuators and sensors which are infused into the home appliances.

The fact is that your IoT devices would only comply within the family of same manufacturers. For example, if you have a Samsung smart refrigerator, and your wearable device is from Apple or any other vendors, then it couldn't sync as both are from different genres.

No need to worry now!

Zephyr: Future of IoTs

The Linux Foundation has broken all the barriers of compatibility issues by releasing a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) for Internet of Things devices, dubbed "Zephyr". This OS enables connected devices to communicate with the same protocol.

So, no more digital barricades between your thermostat and your wearable devices, as they could communicate with each other using the same protocols.

The Zephyr project is supported by multiple platforms like NXP Semiconductors, Synopsys, and UbiquiOS Technology and is licensed under Apache 2.0.

Why is Zephyr so important?

Zephyr stands out from the crowd as it provides a scalable, customizable, secure and open source operating system to be used across multiple architectures.

Doing so, Zephyr could help solve many of the current limitations that prevent, so far, Internet of Things from becoming really mainstream.

Zephyr is expected to take the best of both sides: low-consumption as well as speed. 

Here's some key points about Zephyr:

• Scalability: Universality of Interconnected devices
• Umbrella Platform: All smart devices could run under a single roof.
• Baby Footprint Kernel: Zephyr kernel can run on 8kb memory devices
• Modularity: Supports to integrate 3rd party modules for additional functions as intended by the developer.
• Licensing: As startups does not have to bother about any licensing clash, as a unique license file would be mailed to everyone.

Apart from the special features, Zephyr also supports technologies including Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, IEEE 802.15.4, 6Lowpan, CoAP, IPv4 and IPv6, NFC, Arduino 101, Arduino Due, Intel Galileo' Gen 2, and NXP FRDM-K64F Freedom board.

Security in Mind

Since connected devices are most hack prone items, these devices may malfunction when gets compromised.

However, Linux is more concerned about the Security of Individuals, and generally open source software is considered more secure, as anyone can inspect flaws and debug the code.

For this, the Linux Foundation is maintaining a dedicated security working group and a delegated security maintainer to be available through IRC Chats, so that anyone could help report the vulnerabilities in open discussions.

Although there are many other alternatives available for Internet of Things RTOS like Brillo from Google, Rocket from Intel, and Ubuntu Core from Canonicals, nothing would be as fascinating as Zephyr.

Just Opening a MS WORD file can HACK every file on your System

If you receive a mail masquerading as a company's invoice and containing a Microsoft Word file, think twice before clicking on it.

Doing so could cripple your system and could lead to a catastrophic destruction.

Hackers are believed to be carrying out social engineering hoaxes by adopting eye-catching subjects in the spam emails and compromised websites to lure the victims into installing a deadly ransomware, dubbed "Locky," into their systems.

So if you find .locky extension files on your network shares, Congratulations! You are infected and left with just two solutions: Rebuild your PC from scratch or Pay the ransom.

Locky ransomware is spreading at the rate of 4000 new infections per hour, which means approximately 100,000 new infections per day.

Microsoft MACROS are Back

It is hard to digest the fact that, in this 2016, even a single MS Word document could compromise your system by enabling 'Macros.'

This is where the point to appreciate hacker's sheer brilliance of tactics.

Locky ransomware is being distributed via Microsoft 365 or Outlook in the form of an Invoice email attachment (Word File that embeds vicious macro functions).

The concept of macros dates back to 1990s. You must be familiar with this message: "Warning: This document contains macros."

Now macros are back, as cyber criminals discover a new way to get internet users to open Microsoft Office documents, especially Word files that allow macros to run automatically.

How Does Locky Work?

Once a user opens a malicious Word document, the doc file gets downloaded to its system. However, danger comes in when the user opens the file and found the content scrambled and a popup that states "enable macros".

Here comes the bad part:

• Once the victim enables the macro (malicious), he/she would download an executable from a remote server and run it.
• This executable is nothing but the Locky Ransomware that, when started, will begin to encrypt all the files on your computer as well as network.

Locky ransomware affects nearly all file formats and encrypts all the files and replace the filename with .locky extension.

Once encrypted, the ransomware malware displays a message that instructs infected victims to download TOR and visit the attacker's website for further instructions and payments.

Locky ransomware asks victims to pay between 0.5 and 2 Bitcoins ($208 to $800) in order to get the decryption key.

One of the interesting note on Locky is that it is being translated into many languages, which heighten its attack beyond English boundaries to maximize the digital casualties.

Locky Encrypts Even Your Network-Based Backup Files

The new ransomware also has the capability to encrypt your network-based backup files. So it's time for you to keep you sensitive and important files in a third party storage as a backup plan in order to evade future-ransomware infections.

A researcher named Kevin Beaumont along with Larry Abrahms of BleepingComputer initiallydiscovered the existence of Locky encrypted virus.

To check the impact of Locky, Kevin successfully intercepted the Locky traffic yesterday and realized that the cryptovirus is spreading out rapidly in the wild.

"I estimate by the end of the day well over 100,000 new endpoints will be infected with Locky, making this a genuine major cybersecurity incident — 3 days in, approximately a quarter of Million PCs will be infected," Kevin said in a blog post.

One hour of infection Statistics:

Among the highly impacted countries include Germany, Netherlands, United States, Croatia, Mali, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland, Argentina and Serbia.

Neverware CloudReady Turns old PCs into Productive use or Chrome OS Rigs

Do you have an old, unusable Windows PC from the 2000s that has become unusable? Want to give it a new lease of life? Then you need to migrate to Chrome OS.  A new startup called Neverware has started to bring the dual boot option with Chrome OS to old systems and laptops for free.

Neverware charges a fee for bringing the same option for enterprise or large buyers. The OS comes as a part of an update in the company’s CouldReady software. The option is not just limited to Windows. If you have a Mac you can still try it out.

As noted by The Verge, the result is quite similar to what you’d expect from a regular Chromebook. The system boots reasonably fast, the performance is understandably acceptable and most of all, the aging machine won’t compel you to tear your hair apart anymore as it’s actually productive.

There are also understandable some caveats with this.  Most notably amongst them is the battery issue which is lackluster to say the least. So if you have an old Windows laptop, you have to have a charger with you to make the most of it.

Yes, Chrome OS isn’t the most fancy but given how well it works on meager hardware, with more storage and RAM, if anything it will work only better with CloudReady.

How To Install

• Get the install file from here. Its 593 MB large for Windows laptops.
• Once the file is downloaded, you’ll need a USB drive of 1GB capacity minimum.
• Check out the guide how to make a bootable USB installer for Neverware here. Once your USB is ready, keep following the instructions provided in the link to install it.
• To run it, you will have to make a partition to install the OS. Don’t forget to read the fine print.

Neverware CloudReady only works with the UEFI mode on Windows 7, 8 or 10 for dual-booting purposes. Even if you are an enthusiast who hasn’t tried anything new in a month, this is a free treat you should take. That is until it is taken down, or anything.

Maru OS : One OS for PC & Android

Good News for Linux Techno Freaks! Do you usually mess with your Android smartphone by trying out the continual ins and outs of various apps and custom ROMs?

Then this news would be a perfect pick for you!

What If, you can effectively carry a Linux computer in your pocket?

Hereby introducing a new Android-based Operating system named "Maru OS" that combine the mobility of a smartphone as well as the power of a desktop on a single device.

Maru OS allows you to turn your smartphone into a desktop when plugging it with an HDMI cable.

Maru custom ROM includes two operating systems:

• Android 5.1 Lollipop for mobile phones
• Debian-Linux for desktop monitor

When you connect your phone (with Maru OS installed on it) via HDMI to a monitor, it will load Debian Linux automatically on your desktop screen in less than 5 seconds.

"Your phone runs independently of your desktop so you can take a call and work on your big screen at the same time," Maru OS official website explains.

Maru is shipped with Zero Bloatware (no pre-installed apps), which facilitates lots of free space for all your apps and your phone runs fast.

Advantages of Maru OS

• Dual OS in phone
• Multi-Tasking
• Lightweight Distro Packages
• Zero Bloatware, except Google Play
• Run a web server from your pocket
• You can set up a portable development environment

And the Best One:

If by chance… your phone get disconnected from your screen, Maru OS will preserve your desktop state in the background, helping you pick up right where you left off.

"Your hardware's capabilities are shared across your mobile device and desktop, so you don't have to context-switch around so much," reads the website.

This latest OS is still in beta stage and currently available only in Nexus 5 devices. We hope this limitation might disappear later on.