According to Tom’s Guide, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit partnered up with Symantec to take down the Bamital botnet, two-year-old network that hijacked online searches and, according to the Guardian, has stolen at least $1 million dollars through “click fraud.”

According to Tom’s Guide, the attack began as a Symantec-backed lawsuit against the botnet’s operators. Then, along with a subpoena, the U.S. Marshals Service worked with Microsoft to seize “valuable data and evidence” from the places that acted as the host to the botnet–web-hosting facilities in New Jersey and Virginia. The takedown of the botnet was called “Operation b58,” and was the sixth botnet disruption operation in three years by Microsoft and its MARS (Microsoft Active Response for Security) program. This particular botnet disruption operation was the second one that also involved help from Symantec.

Infected users will most likely notice their search functions are broken now that the botnet has been dismantled. Microsoft has stated that those infected will, when trying to search on the internet, will be directed to an official Symantec and Microsoft webpage that will help them remove the infection and explain more about the infection overall.

Make sure to read more about this amazing story at Tom’s Guide and the Guardian. What do you think about the takedown? Give your opinions in the comments section below.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Botnet-BAmital-Symantec-hijacks-online-searches,news-16731.html

(Photo credit: ph0rk – Flickr/Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic)

According to the site, the latest thing to hit the rumor mill is that the new PlayStation “Orbis” console could cost consumers $427 in the United States (¥40,000 in Japan). This kind of price isn’t out of the norm; the site makes sure to point out that the PlayStation 3 sold for ¥50,000 in Japan ($534) and sold in America for $500. A little cheaper than the original price, but not by much. The rumor states that Sony is “scurrying” to meet the expected demand in the United States and Japan.

Sony could also reveal a global price reduction in the PlayStation Vita. The price reduction might be due to poorer-than-expected sales. As you might already know (especially if you’ve been jonsing to get one) the current price of the Vita is $249.00.

You can read more about this news at Tom’s Guide. I don’t know what to expect from the big reveal Feb. 20, but if you want to get the information right when it happens, you can go to PlayStation’s American site and sign up to get email alerts.

Google once again topped the list by achieving a 65.2 percent share and 114.7 million search queries during the same two months. China’s Baidu, meanwhile, ranked second with 14.5 billion queries and an 8.2 percent share.

Meanwhile, Yahoo ranked third place, with 8.6 million queries and a 4.9 share. Yandex pushed Bing down to fifth place, with 4.4 billion searches and a 2.5 percent share.

Yandex reported in October 2012 that it generated 60.7 percent of all search traffic in Russia, which has a population of nearly 142 million people. The search engine is also available in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey.

Sweeny added that the Impossible team “made a gallant effort, but ultimately it wasn’t working out for Epic. In addition to providing Impossible Studios employees with three months of severance pay, we’ll be giving the team the opportunity to form a new company with the Impossible Studios name and the awesome Impossible logo.” Sweeny also said that the ‘Infinity Blade: Dungeons’ game is on hold, as Epic tries to figure out the project’s future.

In May, developer 38 Studios had to lay off the staff of Big Huge Games, after it ran out of money. The next month, Epic hired most of the staff back for Impossible Games, putting them to work on ‘Infinity Blade: Dungeons,’ the sequel to the iOS action RPG franchise.

“The Hunger Games Adventures version 2.0″ was updated by Lionsgate and Functactix, a worldwide developer and publisher of mobile and social games. The updated app, available in the App Store, allows “The Hunger Games” fans to play on the iPad and, for the first time ever, the iPhone.

“The Hunger Games Adventures version 2.0″ has been basically built from the bottom up to allow for iOS users to experience all of the latest Apple devices such as awesome Retina graphics, improved touch controls, Game Center support with achievements and more. Players can also experience hours of new “Hunger Games” story-based content, which includes over 100 new quests, an exclusive new storyline that shows players a sneak peek at District 1, and, for the first time the reveal of the official Panem map.

This year will be a big year for “Hugner Games” fans, said Danielle De Palma, SVP Digital Marketing at Lionsgate. “This is going to be a tremendous year for The Hunger Games fans.” she said. “The Hunger Games Adventures is a great way for fans to interact with new elements of the Hunger Games universe building up to the release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in November.”

Sam Glassenberg, CEO of Funtactix, said, “Since the initial launch of The Hunger Games Adventures on Facebook in March we’ve made it our mission to give fans of The Hunger Games the ultimate fan experience. This update will allow a new set of fans to step into a beautifully rendered version of the game and dive deeper into the world of Panem.”

Go to TheHungerGamesAdventures.com to learn more. Click here to get the game from the App Store. “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” comes to theaters Nov. 22.

According to Tom’s Guide, The Wall Street Journal has said that the company has increased PR in order to keep everyone appeased about the success of Apple. The company has sent new information about the iOS upgrading to 6.1. According to the article, the company hasn’t released information about a non-major mobile software upgrade unrelated to the launch of new hardware since 2010. And, although sending several press releases isn’t unusual for Apple, states the Journal, the company are also sending along third-party reports, such as Apple being as accepted as Microsoft is at this point in time. While this also isn’t that new, the Journal states Apple has increased such reports through the beginning of 2013. Most of the reports deal with mobile market share.

An unnamed source told the Journal that Apple realizes its competition is getting steep. Apple’s growth has stalled with Google and Samsung are leading in smartphones. Business Insider also puts some of the blame on Apple’s new leader, Tim Cook. Cook isn’t as inspiring of a speaker as Jobs was, and the loss of Jobs seems to now be taking its toll on the company. But, even with the growing apprehension, Apple is keeping mum on the state of the company.

You can read more about this news at Tom’s Guide, Business Insider and at the Wall Street Journal.

The problem drew attention when someone at Vine accidentally placed a hardcore clip at the top everyone’s feed. Twitter responded by making pornographic images harder to find on Vine. The video sharing app also increased the age rating, so that parents will know questionable content can be found on the service. When users download or update the app, it warns that it contains “age-restricted” material, and says users must be 17 or over to download it.

Besides increasing the age rating, the latest Vine update allows users to share their pictures to Twitter or Facebook after they post it to Vine. The update also allows users to report or block an abusive profile and fix bugs.

The app would bear a resemblance to such apps as Foursquare, Highlight, Google’s Latitude and Apple’s Find My Friends. However, many of the related location apps haven’t been adopted by many smartphone users. The Facebook app would likely be the most popular, as the social networking website has over one billion active monthly users.

But Facebook’s monthly mobile users average at 680 million. However, for the first time in the social networking website’s history, the mobile daily active users have exceeded its web daily active users. The company also recently revealed Graph Search, an extremely specific search tool.

So, you probably have heard about an Applebee’s server who got fired for revealing a customer’s receipt Jan. 25. The customer, a pastor, wrote a snarky remark about paying a tip on the receipt. “I give God 10% why do you get 18?” is what the customer wrote on the receipt.

When the server, Chelsea Welch, took a picture of the receipt and posted it to Reddit, Applebee’s fired her because, according to them, she violated the company’s customer privacy policy. That’s when the craziness started.

To make a long story short, Applebee’s engaged in some serious social media PR no-nos after the firing dust-up. While many people were calling for Welch to get reinstated and promoted, especially after it was revealed that Applebee’s themselves violated their own privacy policy since the receipt had a good message about Applebee’s on it, the PR person behind Applebee’s not only responded to the crisis on the company’s Facebook page, but also started responding to the angry comments and even started arguing and blocking Facebook members!

In short, it’s a huge debacle. Click the link above to read the whole story, with screencaps included.

Here’s how to win. Head over to Twitter and Follow @Shockya. Then, tweet them the phrase “@Shockya is giving away an Xbox 360 copy of Dead Space 3! Follow and RT to enter!” Make sure to tweet them every day until Feb. 19. After Feb. 19, Shockya will pick the winner and notify them through Twitter DM. The contest is only open to residents in the United States.

“Dead Space 3″ is already on 25 Best of 2013 lists and has been called “One of the best games of this generation” by Game Informer. Make sure to look out for the limited edition of “Dead Space 3″ on Origin and get exclusive content! Make sure to learn more about “Dead Space 3″ in the trailer below and at its official site!

“Dead Space 3 brings Isaac Clarke and merciless soldier, John Carver, on a journey across space to discover the source of the Necromorph outbreak. Crash-landed on the frozen planet of Tau Volantis, the pair must comb the harsh environment for raw materials and scavenged parts. Isaac will then put his engineering skills to the ultimate test to create and customize weapons and survival tools. The ice planet holds the key to ending the Necromorph plague forever, but first the team must overcome avalanches, treacherous ice-climbs, and the violent wilderness. Facing deadlier evolved enemies and the brutal elements, the unlikely pair must work together to save mankind from the impending apocalypse. For more information, and to purchase the game on Xbox 360, PS3 or PC, visit deadspace.com”