If you use pcAnywhere, you should disable it NOW

On Tuesday night, Symantec put up a red flag saying that anyone who’s using pcAnywhere should not only stop using it, they should turn it off.

Seems that one of the Anonymous folks stole a copy of the 2006 version of pcAnywhere, and they are probably looking for security holes right now.

From the Ars Technica article:

“Although Symantec says the theft actually occurred in 2006, the issue did not come to light until this month when hackers related to Anonymous said they had the source code and would release it publicly. Users of the Norton products in question are not at any increased risk of attack because of the age of the source code and security improvements made in the years since the breach, but the vendor acknowledged on Tuesday night that “Customers of Symantec’s pcAnywhere have increased risk as a result of this incident.”

NSF study raises serious concerns about U.S. investment in technology

I’m amazed at how quickly the “Asia-10″ are rising to the top in commiting to science and technology R&D.

And I live there. Er, here….

InfoWorld Tech Watch.

At CES, Ultrabooks take aim at MacBook Air and miss

The Wintel laptop industry is headed for three down – very down – quarters. And it may not recover.

InfoWorld Tech Watch.

Why Google needs Firefox – now more than ever

Google’s paying the bill for Firefox again – although the details are sketchy.

Most analysts don’t seem to realize that its a co-dependent relationship. They both need each other.

InfoWorld Tech Watch.

UPDATE: AllThingsD reports that Google will be paying Mozilla $300 million per year for the next three years, in exchange for top search engine billing. That’s more than three times as much as Google has been paying for the past three years. I, uh, toldja so.

Hard drive prices showing rapid decline

Finally, some sanity returns to the hard drive situation.

InfoWorld Tech Watch.

(And, yes, at the end that’s a legitimate plea for help, on behalf of the Rotary Clubs in Thailand.)

Carrier IQ: A privacy tempest of what size?

I don’t think the Carrier IQ lawsuits have a leg to stand on.

Details in my Windows Secrets Newsletter Top Story.

Firefox may be down, but it’s not out

There’s still a lot of life in the ol’ Fox.

InfoWorld Tech Watch.

Security researchers say HP printers vulnerable to hacks

There’s both more and less to the story than you may have read.

InfoWorld Tech Watch.