Hackers have attempted to topple key parts of the internet’s backbone, in one of the most significant attacks of recent years.

The target was servers that help to direct global internet traffic.

In the early hours of Tuesday three key servers were hit by a barrage of data in what is known as a distributed denial-of-service attack.

There is no evidence so far of damage, which experts are saying is testament to the robust nature of the internet.

Websites unreachable

The so-called root servers involved in the attack act as a kind of global address book for the internet by translating website name information into IP addresses to enable computers to visit particular sites.

The servers involved were each operated by a separate body – the US Defense Department, the net’s oversight body ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and UltraDNS, which manages traffic for websites ending in “org” and some other suffixes.

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Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a couple buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, hugging each other.

“It’s an extraordinary case,” said Elena Menotti, who led the team on their dig near the northern city of Mantova.

“There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging — and they really are hugging.”

Source: Yahoo News

Slideshow: Embracing Skeletons

Take a look, it’s quite amazing.

liquidat and others wrote in with the news that the DNS Root Servers were attacked overnight. It looks like the F, I, and M servers felt the attack and recovered, whereas G (US Department of Defense) and L (ICANN) did less well. Some new botnet flexing its muscle perhaps? AP coverage is here.

Source: DNS Root Servers Attacked

Hackers may have targeted DNS servers that form the backbone of the Internet–but no damage was done, experts believe.

Source: Internet backbone at center of suspected attack

Many Linux apps let you manage your movie collection, or your book collection, or your music collection — but Data Crow is one of the few that handles all of the above, plus software and images. It also puts a lot of import tools at your fingertips that can save you from entering information about your media manually — including importing information directly from online services and text files, and extracting information from music files.

Source: Manage your media library with Data Crow

The ROX Desktop is a lightweight alternative to GNOME or KDE built around the ROX-Filer file manager. The project’s name is an abbreviation of “RISC OS on X.” The ROX Desktop’s performance is reminiscent of IceWM, and it’s noticeably faster opening programs than GNOME or KDE. However, its speed comes at the expense of a needlessly redundant default configuration, and some users may balk at some of the assumptions its design makes about how they prefer to work.

Source: ROX Desktop provides light, quirky alternative to GNOME and KDE

Like the previously featured articles on new KDE 4 technologies for Job Processes or SVG Widgets, today we feature the shiny new multimedia technology Phonon. Phonon is designed to take some of the complications out of writing multimedia applications in KDE 4, and ensure that these applications will work on a multitude of platforms and sound architectures. Unfortunately, writing about a sound technology produces very few snazzy screenshots, so instead this week has a few more technical details. Read on for the details.

Source: The Road to KDE 4: Phonon Makes Multimedia Easier

OpenVZ is a operating system level virtualization solution that lets you run several virtual servers on the same physical machine with very little overhead. EasyVZ is a GUI front end to OpenVZ that makes managing Virtual Private Servers very simple, easy and fun

Source: EasyVZ: An OpenVZ management GUI released under the GPL.

{mosimage}Despite all the talk surrounding its security and beefed up anti-piracy measures we all knew that it wouldn’t take long for hackers to take a stab at Vista’s activation scheme. Cracked copies of Windows Vista started flooding the internet soon after the operating system was released to manufacturing and ahead of its official release.

Source: DailyTech

Full story

Source: Pirates Activate Copies of Vista Over Spoofed Server

Microsoft’s own antivirus software, Live OneCare, is unable to fully protect Vista users against viruses, and one of security firm McAfee’s antivirus software packages also fails to protect users, according to independent research released Friday.

Source: ZDNet