Review: Process Hacker is task manager on steroids

Process Hacker 2.30 is a powerful replacement for Windows' Task Manager, and serves to provide both information and a way to shut down unwanted processes. It is aimed at users who have a basic understanding of system processes, resource usage, and so on, and may be of little use to users who are unfamiliar with these concepts. Since it allows users to shut down processes that other applications rely on, using it without at least some idea of what's going on could lead to system crashes or unexpected behavior.

The default Task Manager provides basic information, but Process Hacker goes well beyond it, while still keeping the interface clean and usable. Color coding helps identify, at a glance, what category a running process belongs to. Hovering over a process name provides the command line, the disk file, and what services the process is using. The network tab breaks down all processes using the network, their ports, and their bytes sent/received, among other things. The Disk tab shows all disk read/write access, broken down by the process which invoked it. Most of these tabs provide multiple options for fields displayed and how the data is to be sorted.

Process Hacker provides multiple displays of what's going on in your system.

Graphical displays of system resources are in a separate window. Process Hacker allows the user to toggle between a set of graphs showing each resource concurrently, or zoom in on one graph (such as network) in detail, while the others remain visible in minimized form in a side bar. Hovering over a section of the graph provides a pop-up detailing what was active at that point in time, so, if you see a sudden spike in disk activity, you can see what caused it.

Using Process Hacker, it is possible to suspend running processes, or to terminate them. Processes can be run as another user, provided the correct identifying information is given.

Selecting "Properties" on a process opens up a tabbed dialog full of options -- the clean main interface of Process Hacker does a good job of hiding the depth of features, allowing the user to drill down to a specific task instead of being overwhelmed with detail. Everything from the performance and resource usage of the process to what text strings can be found within it is available for display. The information here is extremely useful for debugging or isolating anomalies -- for example, one tab displays the values of all environmental variables as the process sees them, which may not always be the values expected, due to path or user settings.

Obviously, a lot of the information will be of value only to those who know specifically what to look for. Process Hacker doesn't try to guess what a user needs to see; it presents all the data it can, and trusts the user to skip over that which is meaningless. This leads to the only gripe I might have about Process Hacker, which is that documentation is basically non-existent. There's no help file; the user either knows what he's doing or figures it out on the go. There is an active forum and support community, which can help, but it's geared towards helping people with the tool itself, not with providing technical information about DLLs, threads, processes, and so on.

Process Hacker is free and actively supported. If you can't imagine why you'd want or need it, it's probably not for you. But if you regularly fire up Task Manager for any reason, replacing it with Process Hacker is pretty much a no-brainer.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

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Make Distinctive QR Codes With QR Hacker

QR (Quick-Response) codes are those square blocks of black-and-white dots that are popping up everywhere these days. Most of us tend to be on the receiving end of these codes: Manufacturers and advertisers put them into ads, hoping that we will scan them with a smartphone and launch ourselves into their part of cyberspace via the URL they contain. But what if you wanted to create such a code yourself--and give it a little visual pizzazz? That's where web-app QR Hacker comes into the picture. If you're just looking to create a QR code for fun, QR Hacker is free. If you're creating codes for your own business, it's $59 per year, and if you're creating codes for clients, it's $99 per year.

QR Hacker lets you create visually appealing QR codes that still work.This simple Flash-based Web app lets you encode arbitrary text, a URL, phone number, VCard, or even a WiFi access key for Android devices. You pick the data type you wish to encode, and fill in the data you want the QR code to contain. Next, just click the large Generate button, and your QR code will pop on the screen, ready to be scanned by any smartphone.

While a QR code can contain lots of information, it was not designed to be pretty or eye-catching. Half of the QR Hacker interface is dedicated to the task of making your QR code fancier without breaking it. You can round off its pixels, change the background color (or even pick a photo), or change the foreground color. But the feature that really blew me away was the ability to embed a photo or logo right into the QR code: I was able to import the PCWorld logo and place it in the middle of my QR code, and even delete some of the pixels around it to make room for the logo, all without breaking the code. My Android phone kept on recognizing the code instantly, PCWorld logo and all. Impressive. QR Hacker then let me save the QR code either as an image file (PNG) or as a PDF document. The site will soon have a Web Shop for buying merchandise with your code printed on it.

QR Hacker also contains a gallery of codes users created using the application. While many are beautiful, you should exercise reasonable care while scanning them: QR codes can contain URLs leading to risky websites. Just like you wouldn't click any random link on the Web, you shouldn't randomly scan any barcode shown on the QR Hacker website. Still, the showcase serves for seeing what can be done with QR Hacker, and I must admit it features some of the most striking QR codes I've seen yet.

--Erez Zukerman

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Hacker Holds Symantec Source Code For Ransom, Then Posts it to Web

Extortion turns into sting

“We will pay you $50,000.00 USD total,” Thomas told YamaTough on Feb. 1. “However, we need assurances that you are not going to release the code after payment. We will pay you $2,500 a month for the first three months. Payments start next week. After the first three months you have to convince us you have destroyed the code before we pay the balance. We are trusting you to keep your end of the bargain.”

Thomas, despite the Symantec email address that he began the conversation with (he later switched to a Gmail account), was not a Symantec employee, and the $50,000 was bait to reel in YamaTough and any accomplices, according to a Symantec spokesman.

“The email string posted by Anonymous was actually between them and a fake e-mail address set up by law enforcement,” Cris Paden, Symantec’s senior corporate communications manager, told SecurityNewsDaily.

(Paden consistently refers to YamaTough as “Anonymous.” While the hacker has been getting encouragement on Twitter from prominent Anonymous members, there is no independent evidence that he has been actively working with them.)

“Anonymous actually reached out to us first, saying that if we provided them with money, they would not post any more source code,” Paden said. “At that point, given that it was a clear-cut case of extortion, we contacted law enforcement and turned the investigation over to them.”

“All subsequent communications were actually between Anonymous and law enforcement agents — not Symantec,” Paden added.

YamaTough gets frustrated

Those heated emails show YamaTough, using a Venezuelan email address, becoming increasingly frustrated with Symantec’s excuses for why the company couldn’t immediately honor his deadlines.

“If we don’t hear from you in 30m we make an official announcement and put your code on sale at auction terms,” YamaTough wrote on Jan. 25. “We have many people who are willing to get your code. Don’t [mess] with us.”

On Jan. 30, Thomas asked YamaTough to “be patient” and said, “We are really trying to work with you but we can’t meet all the deadlines that you keep throwing at us.” YamaTough replied, “You have 24 hours for a definite answer.”

Late last night (Feb. 6), the law-enforcement sting ran into a wall. YamaTough wrote, “There is no time, yes or no, pcAnywhere is ready to be distributed, 10 min.”

Shortly afterwards, a link to the pcAnywhere source code appeared on the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. Paden confirmed that it is, in fact, the actual code.

Source code hits the Web, Symantec is ready

“We can confirm that the source code is legitimate,” Paden said. “It is part of the original cache of code for 2006 versions of the products that Anonymous has claimed to have been in possession during the last few weeks.”

Symantec, Paden added, had a contingency plan ready.

“Symantec was prepared for the code to be posted at some point, and has developed and distributed a series of patches since Jan. 23rd to protect our users against attacks that might transpire as a result of the anti-virus code being made public,” Paden told SecurityNewsDaily.

He said Symantec has reached out to its customers in the past few weeks, urging them to install version 12.5 of pcAnywhere to reduce the risk of their systems becoming compromised in the wake of the leak.

The pcAnywhere leak may just be the first drop in a coming flood, Paden said.

“We also anticipate Anonymous to post the rest of the code they have claimed [they] have in their possession,” he said. “So far, they have posted code for the 2006 version of Norton Internet Security and pcAnywhere. We also anticipate that at some point, they will post the code for Norton AntivirusCorporate Edition and Norton Systemworks. Both products no longer exist.”

Article provided by SecurityNewsDaily, a sister site to Laptopmag.com.

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U.S. Charges Latvian Hacker in $2 Million Stock Scam

A Latvian man has been charged by the U.S. financial regulator for an alleged online stock fraud that cost investors more than $2million (£1.3 million), and may have enabled him to profit over half a million pounds.

The SEC accuses Igor Nagaicevs, 34, of hacking the accounts of electronic broker-dealer firms and illicitly trading stocks through them as part of a "brazen stock price manipulation scheme."

The regulator alleges the Latvian hacked into the accounts and made unauthorized trades of securities 159 times between 2009 and August 2010, racking up total profits of $874,896 (£557,000) through an operation it says enabled him to "consistently derive quick trading profits" even when prices were only slightly manipulated.

As a result of his activity the prices of over a hundred NYSE and Nasdaq-listed stocks were affected and investors lost large amounts of money.

The SEC complaint, lodged in federal court in San Francisco, claims that Nagaicevs's scheme followed the same pattern on each occasion. This started by establishing a long or short position in a traded security through unregistered brokerage firms, who provided him with anonymous and direct access to the US securities market.

He then hacked into the online accounts of other broker-dealer companies, using their client investors' cash to make unauthorized trades of stocks and securities in order to manipulate market prices. This left him in a position to reap huge gains - in effect by buying back or selling the same stocks at artificial prices, thereby realizing a profit on transactions.

In one such incident it is alleged Nagaicevs generated profits of $14,000 in just 32 minutes by driving up the stock price of a NYSE-listed company before liquidating his position. The losses of all investors who fell prey to his scheme were reimbursed by the broker-dealer firms they held accounts with.

The SEC charge sheet did not however detail exactly how Nagaicevs gained access to the compromised accounts. FINRA, the self-regulatory body for broker-dealers in the U.S., has since warned investors to be viligant of email hack attacks that can lead to theft from investor accounts.

Also facing charges are the four brokerage firms that gave Nagaicevs access to the markets, which the SEC says consequently lent a veneer of legitimacy to his transactions. These are Alchemy Ventures, KM Capital Management, Mercury Capital and Zanshin Enterprises, which are accused of flouting federal rules that require brokerage firms to be registered and of breaching the requirement to gather information on customers and their trading.

Mercury and Zanshin have settled the charges, but Alchemy and KM Capital are understood to be contesting them.

Nagaicevs is charged with obtaining money fraudulently under the Securities Act, and the SEC is seeking restitution plus interest for victims and a civil penalty. Nagaicevs is yet to comment.

The news comes days after a settlement reached by U.S. hedge fund Diamondback Capital in a separate case. Diamondback is paying $9 million to settle groundbreaking charges around the participation of two former employees in the $62 million (£40 million) insider trading of Dell and Nvidia stock.

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