Hackers breached US defense contractors

Unknown hackers have broken into the security networks of Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and several other U.S. military contractors, a source with direct knowledge of the attacks told Reuters.

They breached security systems designed to keep out intruders by creating duplicates to "SecurID" electronic keys from EMC Corp's (EMC.N) RSA security division, said the person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

It was not immediately clear what kind of data, if any, was stolen by the hackers. But the networks of Lockheed and other military contractors contain sensitive data on future weapons systems as well as military technology currently used in battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Weapons makers are the latest companies to be breached through sophisticated attacks that have pierced the defenses of huge corporations including Sony (SNE.N), Google Inc (GOOG.O) and EMC Corp (EMC.N). Security experts say that it is virtually impossible for any company or government agency to build a security network that hackers will be unable to penetrate.

The Pentagon, which has about 85,000 military personnel and civilians working on cybersecurity issues worldwide, said it also uses a limited number of the RSA electronic security keys, but declined to say how many for security reasons.

The hackers learned how to copy the security keys with data stolen from RSA during a sophisticated attack that EMC disclosed in March, according to the source.

EMC declined to comment on the matter, as did executives at major defense contractors.

Rick Moy, president of NSS Labs, an information security company, said the original attack on RSA was likely targeted at its customers, including military, financial, governmental and other organizations with critical intellectual property.

He said the initial RSA attack was followed by malware and phishing campaigns seeking specific data that would link tokens to end-users, which meant the current attacks may have been carried out by the same hackers.

"Given the military targets, and that millions of compromised keys are in circulation, this is not over," he said.

Lockheed, which employs 126,000 people worldwide and had $45.8 billion in revenue last year, said it does not discuss specific threats or responses as a matter of principle, but regularly took actions to counter threats and ensure security.

"We have policies and procedures in place to mitigate the cyber threats to our business, and we remain confident in the integrity of our robust, multi-layered information systems security," said Lockheed spokesman Jeffery Adams.

Executives at General Dynamics Corp (GD.N),, Boeing Co (BA.N), Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N), Raytheon Co (RTN.N) and other defense companies declined to comment on any security breaches linked to the RSA products.

"We do not comment on whether or not Northrop Grumman is or has been a target for cyber intrusions," said Northrop spokesman Randy Belote.

ACTIONS PREVENTED WIDESPREAD DISRUPTION

Raytheon spokesman Jonathan Kasle said his company took immediate companywide actions in March when incident information was initially provided to RSA customers.

"As a result of these actions, we prevented a widespread disruption of our network," he said.

Boeing spokesman Todd Kelley said his company had a "wide range" of systems in place to detect and prevent intrusions of its networks. "We have a robust computing security team that constantly monitors our network," he said.

Defense contractors' networks contain sensitive data on sophisticated weapons systems, but all classified information is kept on separate, closed networks managed by the U.S. government, said a former senior defense official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

SecurIDs are widely used electronic keys to computer systems that work using a two-pronged approach to confirming the identity of the person trying to access a computer system. They are designed to thwart hackers who might use key-logging viruses to capture passwords by constantly generating new passwords to enter the system.

The SecurID generates new strings of digits on a minute-by-minute basis that the user must enter along with a secret PIN (personal identification number) before they can access the network. If the user fails to enter the string before it expires, then access is denied.

RSA and other companies have produced a total of about 250 million security tokens, although it is not clear how many are in use worldwide at present, said the former defense official.

The devices provided additional security at a lower cost than biometrics such as fingerprint readers or iris scanning machines, said the official, noting that the RSA incident could increase demand for greater use of biometric devices.

The RSA breach did raise concerns about any security tokens that had been compromised, and EMC now faced tough questions about whether "they can repair that product line or whether they need to ditch it and start over again," he said.

EMC disclosed in March that hackers had broken into its network and stolen some information related to its SecurIDs. It said the information could potentially be used to reduce the effectiveness of those devices in securing customer networks.

EMC said it worked with the Department of Homeland Security to publish a note on the March attack, providing Web addresses to help firms identify where the attack might have come from.

Microsoft to showcase new tablet OS next week

Microsoft plans to unveil a new operating system designed for tablets within days, according to Bloomberg.
Citing three anonymous sources, Bloomberg reported yesterday that the software giant will be discussing its plans for tablets at some point in the next week, though they weren't certain where or when it would happen. Bloomberg's sources told the publication that the tablet-friendly Windows version would be running on hardware boasting Nvidia's ARM-based Tegra processor.
If the tablets are, in fact, running a processor based on ARM architecture, the operating system Microsoft would be showing off would not be Windows 7. That operating system currently doesn't support ARM-based processors. However, at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, Microsoft announced that the next version of Windows will support ARM technology.
The timing of any announcement by Microsoft seems to fall in line with speculation over the last several months about the company's plans.
Back in March, technology blog Business Insider cited a source of its own that said Microsoft would demo tablets running Windows 8 by June. That source said at the time that Microsoft was being rather "Apple-like" in its strategy toward tablets and would bring some elements of Windows Phone 7 to the platform. However, Microsoft was tight-lipped at the time on whether it would even discuss Windows 8-based tablets at any point this year.
That quickly changed earlier this week when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said before developers at a conference in Japan that his company plans to outline details surrounding Windows 8 and Microsoft's tablet strategy quite soon.
"We're obviously hard at work on the next version of Windows," Ballmer said before the attendees. "Windows 7 PCs will sell over 350 million units this year. We've done a lot in Windows 7 to improve customer satisfaction. We have a brand new user interface. We've added touch, and ink, and speech. And yet, as we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there's a whole lot more coming.
"As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors," he continued.
Following that statement, Microsoft's public relations team engaged in some damage control, telling CNET earlier this week that Ballmer's comments were a "misstatement."
"We are eagerly awaiting the next generation of Windows 7 hardware that will be available in the coming fiscal year," the company told CNET in response to Ballmer's comments. "To date, we have yet to formally announce any timing or naming for the next version of Windows."
Regardless, Microsoft must do something quickly to break into the tablet market. According to research firm Gartner, Apple's iPad secured nearly 84 percent of the tablet market in 2010, followed by Android's 14.2 percent market share. This year, Gartner sees Apple's share declining to 68.7 percent, followed by Android with 19.9 percent market share. By 2015, Gartner believes Apple's tablets and Android-based devices will own 85 percent of the tablet space between them.

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Adobe Eazel (for iPad)

Adobe Eazel

Adobe Eazel

Adobe Eazel

Adobe Eazel

Adobe Eazel

Adobe Eazel ($4.99) turns your iPad into a blank canvas on which you can virtually draw and paint using your fingers or a stylus. Eazel makes sketching a little more entertaining, and the dynamic interface hides all the controls in a way that gives you an entirely open canvas at all times, yet still makes them quickly accessible. The app connects to Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 ($430, 5 stars) and later the same way a Bluetooth-enabled device would connect to your computer or laptop.
Eazel and two other new apps—Adobe Nav and Color Lava ($2.99, 3.5 stars)—mark Adobe's first foray into app-based plug-ins for Photoshop, and I for one am excited to see more. Because Eazel is a tiny and moderately-priced app, Adobe enthusiasts should keep their expectations in check. The app isn't kitted out features, nor is it very powerful on its own. But it can be a fun companion to Photoshop if you enjoy casual sketching on the go. Note that I got advance code to test—none of Adobe's three new iPad apps are available in the App Store yet. The company says it expects them to be available in May.

Blank Canvas Interface
When you first launch Adobe Eazel, an image of a ghostly hand appears to show you how to use the controls. The image speaks a thousand words, as the saying goes, and is representative how Adobe approached the user interface for this app. There are no tutorials or documentation, and few words.
Tap the screen to clear the image of the hand, and a blank canvas takes over your entire iPad screen. Touch all five fingers to the surface, and five controls appear, as shown in the launch image. Each control mechanism maps to a different finger, with the most often-used controls connected to the most adept fingers, the index and middle fingers. 
To select a control, simply keep the finger connected to it on the iPad, but lift the others. Or, if you remove all five fingers at once quickly, the controls align neatly on the screen so you can see them easier and select them using which ever finger or stylus you want. If you have problems that affect dexterity, like arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome, the touch-and-release function helps tremendously. Eazel detects whether you're using your left or right hand, so the controls always map to the same fingers.
Thumb. he thumb maps to a button that contains three functions: undo (left-curling arrow), redo (right-curling arrow), and clear the canvas ('X'). After testing the Eazel app for a while, I started coaching myself not to go near the thumb button because I kept accidentally deleting my images before I was done with them. That pesky 'X' looks like it might just close the application, when in reality, it deletes your image. Additionally, multiple undos and redos are not supported, which quickly became the bane of my artistic existence while testing Eazel. You can only undo the most recent stroke.
Index finger. The index finger maps to the color picker, which is the most often-used control in Eazel. Selecting the color picker brings up a gradient color wheel. Drag your finger around the circle to select the color you want. Five bubbles sitting off to the side let you store up to five colors so you can reuse them quickly and easily.
Middle finger. The middle finger connects to a sizing tool. Select the tool, then slide your middle finger up or down the screen to increase or decrease the size of the brush. An on-screen circle representing your brush dynamically changes size so you can preview the brush size in real time.
Ring finger. The ring finger maps to the opacity tool, which adjusts the level of transparency of the color. Slide your finger up or down the screen to dynamically change the opacity. A preview of how the paint will look on screen appears in a small circle wherever you last left your finger while you were drawing (or, where you last left your "paintbrush"). Turning the opacity down creates paints that look and react more like watercolors, which run and bleed together more easily than acrylics or oils. A more opaque color sticks in place a little better. You won't find any controls for fine tuning the paint's other variables, like viscosity and weight, or for changing the brush stroke. This little app just doesn't support these more complex features that you would expect from full-sized software, like Corel Painter.
Pinkie. The pinkie gives you access to settings, although there's only two of them, and they aren't really "settings" per se. Rather, the pinkie lets you save the photo locally to your iPad's photo bank, or transmit the image to Photoshop. To take advantage of the later, you'll need to connect Eazel to Photoshop, which can be done via a "PS" button in the lower right corner.
Eazel-eze
Adobe Eazel connects to Adobe Photoshop (CS5.1 and later) the same way any other Bluetooth-enabled device would connect to your computer. The program has a few simple prompts that walk you through the process. Once the two are connected, you can port your Eazel sketches into Photoshop and really do something with them, like layer them on top of each other, animate them, and so on.
When you're drawing, sketching, and painting on the canvas, typical iPad controls like pinch to zoom and dragging the viewable area around using two fingers come into play. Eazel reads and responds to those two kinds of input very well, but, when you paint, there is a noticeable lag. In testing, I dragged my finger across the screen to lay down a color, lifted it, and saw a stuttering application of paint after the fact. But as a tiny app on a mobile device, I don't think Eazel deserves too much heat for not responding at the speed of lightning.
Adobe Eazel and its app siblings (Color Lava and Adobe Nav) are due to hit the Apple App store in May. Of the three iPad apps, Eazel is my least favorite. Adobe Nav, an app that holds your Photoshop tools, is at least utilitarian. And Color Lava, the palette for mixing colors, delivers a richer interactive experience because of the way paints swirl and blend. Paints in Eazel, on the other hand, flow and dry more like water colors. I don't see any reason Eazel and Color Lava couldn't be one app. Combining the paint properties of Lava with the interface of Eazel would make for a much more interesting app. I also think Eazel needs to support at least three "undos" rather than one to be useful. Adobe Eazel is an interesting app, especially its interface, but it needs a little more finesse.

ADOBE EAZEL FOR PHOTOSHOP

What is Adobe Eazel?

With Adobe Eazel, you can use your iPad and your fingertips to paint beautiful works of art. Paint across your entire iPad screen, and easily access the tools you need. Send your artwork directly to Photoshop CS5 from any location—all you need is a network connection between your iPad and computer. Or do all your painting in the app, and share via email.

The designer's touch

Dan Marcolina

Co-founder of internationally recognized Marcolina Design, Dan created the unique five-finger touch interface for Adobe Eazel. He thinks users will enjoy the way the clean, clutter-free UI puts creative power beneath each fingertip.

Expansive canvas

"It's a very pure painting experience with the whole expanse of the screen as your canvas—there are no extraneous palettes or menus in your way."

Particle-stroke painting

"You can paint with your fingers or any stylus—the Nomad Brush is quite magical. The paint spreads out as you go and 'dries' over a couple of seconds, and what's really cool is that—as you draw over the top of an existing stroke—Adobe Eazel knows how to bleed paint into that color."

Five-finger touch UI

"We wanted a unique multitouch solution for navigating the Adobe Eazel tools and functions—something zen-like in its simplicity. The five-finger touch was a breakthrough moment for usability. It takes a bit of learning, but ultimately it's very natural."

Quick tip

"We put the most commonly used tools on your most usable fingers. So you control color with your index finger, brush size with your middle finger, and opacity with your ring finger. You access settings with your pinky finger. Your thumb flicks to undo or redo, and it slides to erase."

Sending to Photoshop

"It's so freeing to send an Adobe Eazel painting into Photoshop CS5 instantaneously. You get a higher-res version to work with, and it retains the alpha channel that gives it that transparent quality."

See The Video To Take A Brief Introduction of ADOBE EAZEL FOR PHOTOSHOP