China develops new Operating System

China planning to develop operating system to take on Windows, Android

China could have a new home-grown operating system by October to take on imported rivals such as Microsoft Corp, Google Inc, and Apple Inc., Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. [24^th Aug 2014].

Computer technology became an area of tension between China and the United States after a number of run-ins over cyber security. China is now looking to help its domestic industry catch up with imported systems such as Microsoft’s Windows and Google’s mobile operating system Android.

The operating system would first appear on desktop devices and later extend to smart phone and other mobile devices, Xinhua said, citing Ni Guangnan, who heads an official OS development alliance established in March. Mr. Ni’s comments were originally reported by the People’s Post and Telecommunication News, an official trade paper of industry and Information Technology “We hope to launch a Chinese made desktop OS app stores,” Mr. Ni told the paper.

Some Chinese OS already existed, but there was large gap between China’s technology and that of developed countries, he added. He said he hoped domestically-built software would be able to replace desktop operating systems within one to two years and mobile operating systems within three to five years. In May, China banned government use of Windows 8, Microsoft’s latest OS, a blow to the U.S. technology firm’s business, raising fears China was moving to protect domestic firs. Microsoft is also under investigation for anti-trust violations.

In March last year, China and Google had too much control over its Smartphone industry via its Android mobile OS. Mutual suspicious between China and the U.S over hacking have escalated over the past year following revelation by Edward Snowden that U.S. intelligence planted “backdoor” surveillance tools on U.S.-made hardware.

Onion Virus ( malware )

 A ransomware, is a type of malware which encrypts user data and then demands ransom for decryption. It encrypts every kind of data that may be of value to the user without his or her knowledge. The data can include personal photos, archives, documents, databases and diagrams among others.

 Kaspersky said that “Onion” is a new breed of encryption ransomware that uses a countdown mechanism to scare victims into paying for decryption in Bitcoins. The cybercriminals claim there is a strict 72-hour deadline to pay up, or all the files will be lost forever.

 The ransomware is dangerous because it uses the anonymity provided by the Tor (which stands for The Onion Router) network to mask the location of the criminals behind the attack. It uses the anonymous network Tor to hide its malicious nature and makes it hard to track the actors behind this ongoing malware campaign.

 To transfer secret data and payment information, the Onion communicates with command and control servers located somewhere inside the anonymous network. Kaspersky said that the very latest samples of the malware support a Russian-language interface. This fact and a number of strings inside the body of the Trojan suggest that the malware writers speak Russian, it added.

 The Police ransomware infected mobile phones in over 30 countries, running on Google’s Android, which visited specific porn sites. It purported as a message from local police and demanded a ransom of between $100 and $300 in order to unlock the device.