Apple issues security updates for Mac OS X

The new Java version fixes at least 14 vulnerabilities in the version designed for OS X 10.6 systems
Apple last week pushed an update for Leopard and Snow Leopard systems that plugs a large number of security holes in Apple's version of Java, a package installed by default on those Mac OS X systems that enables a number of multimedia Web applications.
The new Java version fixes at least 14 vulnerabilities in the version designed for OS X 10.6 systems; the package put together for 10.5 Macs corrects more than two dozen security flaws. Mac users can grab the patches via Software Update or from Apple Downloads.
The patch fun continues into Tuesday of next week, when both Microsoft and Adobe are scheduled to issue updates to plug security vulnerabilities of their own. Microsoft said Thursday that it plans to issue at least six security patches (each patch fixes at least one -- but often multiple -- security flaws). Half of those updates will carry a "critical" rating, Redmond's most dire.
Adobe said it plans to issue software updates to nix security flaws in its Flash Player and Adobe AIR applications. The company also confirmed the existence of a flaw in Adobe Illustrator on Windows and Mac systems, amid reports that instructions showing attackers how to exploit the flaw to break into vulnerable systems was circulating online. Adobe said it expects to publish a security advisory on Monday with further information on the Illustrator flaw -- including a schedule for an update to resolve the issue.

Security issues rain on cloud computing

This is a big challenge, and companies are wrestling with it

As more data reside in distant computers connected via the Internet — or the cloud — just where in fact does the data reside, who controls and has access to it, and who is responsible for any legal or other problems that arise?
Answers are in the process of being ironed out in legal settings, corporate boardrooms and the court of public opinion.
"This is a big challenge, and companies are wrestling with it," said John Magee, vice president of product marketing for security software leader Symantec (SYMC).
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Recent case in point: Mobile carrier T-Mobile's service for the Danger Sidekick phone was disrupted in October when systems failed in a cloud computing data center hosted by Microsoft (MSFT). The outage resulted in the loss of contacts, photos and messages for thousands of T-Mobile customers.
Microsoft, which traced the problem to third-party technology providers, said it recovered most and maybe all of the lost data. And T-Mobile sent $100 gift cards to affected customers.
But the Danger episode raised red flags about the dangers of cloud computing.
Can Be Cost-Saving Approach
Cloud computing uses remote data centers for data processing and storage. Companies can cut their tech costs by using cloud computing. Consumers use cloud-type services all the time for things like e-mail and photo-sharing services. Users simply access data and software over the Web.
Companies, though, remain mostly in the dark about how regulatory compliance will play out in the cloud, tech observers say. Problems will start to grow as more corporate data get distributed across the cloud, predicts Symantec's Magee.
"There is an issue here and it's having an impact on a lot of customers I talk to," Magee said. "People are wrestling with these legal points. This is not just about technology."

Teen Internet addicts more likely to self harm

According to a study, 10 per cent of the students surveyed were moderately addicted to the Internet, while less than one percent were severely addicted
Teenagers who are addicted to the Internet are more likely to engage in self-harm behavior, according to an Australian-Chinese study.
Researchers surveyed 1,618 adolescents aged 13 to 18 from China's Guangdong Province about behavior such as hitting themselves, pulling their own hair, or pinching or burning themselves, and gave them a test to gauge Internet addiction.
Internet addiction has been classified as a mental health problem since the mid-1990s with symptoms similar to other addictions.
The test found that about 10 per cent of the students surveyed were moderately addicted to the Internet, while less than one percent were severely addicted.
The students ranked as moderately addicted to the Internet were 2.4 times more likely to have self-injured one to five times in the past 6 months than students without an addiction, said Dr. Lawrence Lam from the University of Notre Dame Australia.
The moderately-to-severely addicted students were almost five times more likely than non-addicted students to have self-injured six or more times in the past 6 months, Lam and his colleagues from Guangzhou's Sun Yat-Sen University reported.
"In recent years, with the greater availability of the Internet in most Asian countries, Internet addiction has become an increasing mental problem among adolescents," the researchers said in their study published in the journal Injury Prevention.
"Many studies have reported associations between Internet addiction, psychiatric symptoms and depression among adolescents."
They said their results suggested a "strong and significant" association between Internet addiction and self-injury in adolescence even after accounting for other variables previously associated with the behavior, including depression, family dissatisfaction, or stressful life events.
They said this suggested that Internet addiction is an independent risk factor for self-injurious behavior.
Experts interpret Internet addiction, among other things, as feelings of depression, nervousness, moodiness when not online, which only go away when the addict gets back online.
Fantasizing or being preoccupied about being online are other signs of Internet addiction.
"All these behaviors may be rooted in some common ... factors that require further exploration," they said.