The URLZone Trojan

RSA Fraud Action Research Lab publish an article about a online-banking trojan called URLZone. This trojan has an interesting new feature:

It can determine if whether requests for new "mules" come from a botnet member or a security company. If the request comes from a security company or researcher, the server will respond with account data of innocent people, thus protecting their mules from prosecution.

The accounts are people who received a legitimate transfer from a URLZone victim before.

'Mules' are the people who receive payments from infected PCs and forward them to the gangster's accounts. That's money-laundering, and not only criminal, but also quite dangerous. The fake mule responses will put innocent people under suspicion of money laundering.

Quantum Computer Chip

One popular use for the quantum computer is the factorization of big numbers. If one could factor a big number as quickly as it can be multiplied from its prime components the RSA algorithm would be broken. Theory says that this should be possible, but no practical implementation has been seen so far. The most important obstacle is the quantum noise that leads to random changes in quantum states.

Researchers at the university of Bristol have found a way to cram a complete quantum computer on one silicon chip. However, the largest number they can factor right now is 15. Also, the peripheral devices still fill up a complete desktop.

In order to factor larger numbers the quantum computer needs more degrees of freedom, which are called 'qbits'. Miniaturizing the computer might help with increasing the number of qbits.