Google tech conference, developer fest set for August in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — For the first time, search giant Google is bringing its massive technology conference to the Philippines with the announcement of g|Philippines, an offshoot of Google Day held before in other countries, slated to be staged from August 3 to 4 in Manila.

The annual event, to be held at the Asian Institute of Management Conference in Makati, is geared towards introducing Google technologies to Filipino users. Day one of the conference will cater to businesses and government, while the second day will focus on university offerings of the technology company.

Topics would tentatively include Google Enterprise for Government, YouTube for Content Partners, MapMaker for Businesses, and Google Internships for Students.

Google said it is bringing the conference to the country as “part of [its] ongoing efforts to support innovation in the Philippines.” Aside from key technology seminars, the conference will also feature unique Pinoy creations based on Google’s vast array of software and online products.

Coinciding with the conference is Google Developers Group’s (GDG) DevFest Philippines on the second day, a networking opportunity for local software developers to connect with Google executives and engineers.

“There will be introductory and medium-level sessions on best practices for using Google technologies like App Engine, Web Services, HTML5 and Android,” the company said in a statement.

As a means to boost developer participation in the country, Google has also announced the launch of the Google Apps Developer Challenge, a competition that will seek out the best new applications using Google’s Apps and Drive APIs.

The contest will run from today until August 24, Google said, and winners stand to take home a $20,000 prize during the awarding ceremonies set on November 12.

“Google Apps adoption is growing in emerging markets, and people are asking for extended functionality,” the company said. “It is hoped that this competition will not only generate locally-relevant apps, but also recognize and reward the hard work of the most talented Pinoy developers.”

Interested participants for g|Philippines can register through this link: https://sites.google.com/site/gphilippines2012, while developers can participate at DevFest Philippines by signing up here: http://gdgdevfestph.blogspot.com.

The technology conference is just the latest in the search company’s attempts to broaden its reach and increase its presence in developing countries like the Philippines.

Last year, Google chose the country as the launchpad for its localized YouTube offering in Southeast Asia, topping it off with a YouTube World View interview with President Benigno Aquino, the first Asian head of state to be featured in the series.

Just recently, rumors were rife online that Google will soon establish an official presence in the Philippines following the posting of various job openings for the country, although Google has yet to confirm anything final.

Aside from its regional headquarters in Singapore, Google operates in Southeast Asia in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

source: interaksyon.com

"Green Hornet" actor appointed Kaspersky Lab's new Brand Ambassador

Manila, Philippines - Kaspersky Lab, a leading secure content and threat management solutions developer, is proud to announce the appointment of creative genius Jay Chou as its latest brand ambassador for the Asia Pacific, as part of the unique branding strategies of Kaspersky Lab to protect more than 300 million users globally.

Chou hit the international market with the remake of the Green Hornet, where he portrayed the character of Kato (formerly played by Bruce Lee in the TV series).

The Taiwanese actor is also a film director, singer-songwriter, music and film producer, a one-man entertainment juggernaut, who effortlessly combines Chinese and Western music styles in an eclectic mix of R&B, rock, pop and ethnic music. He is also gifted with a personality that wins fans and friends globally.

With his versatility as an artist, Chou earned the respect of millions of Asian and Western artists and fans.

His popularity has also earned him the spot of becoming the Asia Pacific Brand Ambassador for Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky Lab's award-winning products, services and technologies have exceptionally high and accurate malware detection rates, meeting Jay Chou's needs as an individual user and as a corporate network owner with important personal and corporate information to keep safe.

Under this partnership, Chou will work with Kaspersky Lab to launch new releases of products for home users and corporate users.

“Jay Chou is an amazing multi-talented entertainer and entrepreneur with a uniqueness, innovativeness and creativity that is an ideal match for Kaspersky Lab. As an individual and corporate user of our products who has a great interest in technology, Kaspersky and Jay Chou is an ideal match. We are excited about this partnership and look forward to much great collaborations with Jay,” said Kaspersky Lab Asia Pacific Managing Director Harry Cheung.

Cheung said that the brand works towards achieving ever higher levels of security and threat management for a safer digital environment and is constantly on the lookout for ambassadors who can take the important message of security to a wider audience.

“Kaspersky has been experiencing tremendous growth over the past few years due to our market leading products and innovative campaigns. We are the only security brand working with high profile brand ambassadors who are able to embody the values and benefits of using our products,” Cheung said.

Chou, for his part, said that like the core values upheld by Kaspersky Lab, he also values quality of service and satisfaction of audiences. He understands that protecting one’s investments from a harsh digital crime is paramount and that all Internet users must also be able to put in place all the necessary precautions.

"I trust Kaspersky Lab fully as updates are speedy and constant. There is no downtime, no security breaches and malware gets dealt with quickly and efficiently. I have the peace of mind of the best protection. Kaspersky is my only choice for IT security protection'' Jay Chou said.

source: mb.com.ph

Kaspersky Lab appeals to Global Programmers to help fight DUQU

Manila, Philippines - Kaspersky Lab, a leading secure content and threat management solutions developer, appeals to the programming community to solve the deep mystery in the Duqu saga that sparks theories that it was launched as a way to conduct high-level cyber-espionage and sabotage.

Duqu is a sophisticated Trojan that was created by the same people who created the infamous Stuxnet worm. Its main purpose is to act as a backdoor into the system and facilitate the theft of private information.

In an effort to find out Duqu’s intentions and where it would be going, security experts from Kaspersky Lab ask the vast programming community worldwide to share in the analysis of Duqu.

Kaspersky Lab Chief Security Officer Alexander Gostev said that the help of the programming community would help identify how Duqu was made and to track down its creators. Doing such would prevent attacks that would use it as a weapon.

The big unsolved mystery of the Duqu Trojan relates to how the malicious program was communicating with its Command and Control (C&C) servers once it infected a victim’s machine. The Duqu module that was responsible for interacting with the C&Cs is part of its Payload DLL.

After a comprehensive analysis of the Payload DLL, Kaspersky Lab researchers have discovered that a specific section inside the Payload DLL, which communicates exclusively with the C&Cs, was written in an unknown programming language. Kaspersky Lab researchers have named this unknown section the “Duqu Framework.”

Gostev reveals that Duqu has been found to be using either a totally new or an unknown programming language, unlike most malware that were developed by traditional programming languages like C++ or Visual C++.

Having such a different programming language already points out to the type of sophistication in creating the Duqu malware, which in turn reveals the high-level programming skill sets used by its creators.

According to Alexander Gostev, the creation of a dedicated programming language demonstrates just how highly skilled the developers working on the project are, and points to the significant financial and labor resources that have been mobilized to ensure the project is implemented.

“Given the size of the Duqu project, it’s possible that an entirely different team was responsible for creating the Duqu Framework. With the extremely high level of customization and exclusivity that the programming language was created with, it is also possible that it was made not only to prevent external parties from understanding the cyber-espionage operation and the interactions with the C&Cs, but also to keep it separate from other internal Duqu teams who were responsible for writing the additional parts of the malicious program,” Gostev says.

So far, the majority of Duqu infections have been found in Iran. However, it does not stop its creators to target other newly-industrialized countries, especially those in Asia where many industries are already adopting technology in their business, since the country has already become a major hub for IT outsourcing services.

The Philippines, for one is already a major hub for IT outsourcing services. The spread of Duqu in the Philippines could have dire effects on its multibillion-dollar outsourcing business.

source: mb.com.ph