McAfee Releases Free Tools that Help Consumers Identify the Risk of DNS Malware and Modify Their DNS settings

SANTA CLARA, CALIF. – July 5, 2012 – McAfee has released a free tool to help consumers who may be infected by the ‘DNSChanger’ Trojan stay connected after servers are shut down by the FBI on July 9th.  The McAfee tool, available on the McAfee website, helps users easily identify whether they have been affected by the malware and offers a free solution if they have been infected.

Domain Name System, or DNS, converts user-friendly website names into the Internet protocol (IP) addresses that computers use to talk to each other. When users enter a website name into their web browsers, their computers contact DNS servers. If users’ computers have the wrong DNS settings for the servers, they will not be able to access websites, send e-mail or use Internet services.

DNSChanger is a Trojan created by cybercriminals to redirect the Internet traffic of millions of unsuspecting consumers to websites where the thieves have profited from advertisements. All computers still infected with DNSChanger malware will no longer be able to access websites, email, chat, or social networking sites like Facebook after July 9th.

“Identifying and changing these settings manually can be difficult,” said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president, McAfee Labs.  “By providing a free tool that walks them through the process, we’re making it easy for consumers to fix their settings and stay connected. For us, this is part of our relentless focus on protecting and liberating consumers so that they may safely experience everything the Internet has to offer.”

Consumers can easily check if they are infected with the DNSChanger Trojan by visiting www.mcafee.com/dnscheck and clicking a button to see if their computer has been infected. If they are infected, the website will offer them a free solution to restore their Internet settings.

About McAfee
McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), is the world’s largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world, allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the Web more securely. Backed by its unrivalled Global Threat Intelligence, McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. McAfee is relentlessly focused on constantly finding new ways to keep our customers safe. http://www.mcafee.com

Melbourne Australia 5th of July 2012 – Just because his private life is a mess, doesn’t mean his movie career is over. Check out Tom Cruise in his latest action/crime movie, JACK REACHER.

July 4th, 2012 

Nintendo of Europe announced a distribution deal with Square Enix, a leading publisher of video games, for the forthcoming Nintendo 3DS game KINGDOM HEARTS 3D [Dream Drop Distance] across Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Nintendo Australia can confirm KINGDOM HEARTS 3D [Dream Drop Distance] will launch in Australia and New Zealand on the 26th July 2012.

KINGDOM HEARTS 3D [Dream Drop Distance] features new worlds and never-before seen gameplay elements in the KINGDOM HEARTS series that are sure to excite both fans and newcomers. You take control of two of the most famous KINGDOM HEARTS protagonists, Sora and Riku, in an adventure that sees you meet a colourful cast of Disney characters, many of which are making their 3D handheld title debut.

Beloved Disney worlds, such as La Cité des Cloches (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and “The Grid” (TRON: Legacy) also make their series debut.

Enter A Modern Day, Real World, Massively Multiplayer Online Game Where Every Myth, Legend, and Conspiracy Theory Is True
SYDNEY, Australia. – July 4, 2012 – Will you enlist in the Illuminati, the Dragon or the Templars and fight for the power to rule the world? Today, award-winning independent developer and publisher of online games Funcom, and EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ: EA) have opened the doors to the modern-day massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, The Secret World. The game is now available on PC worldwide for $89.99 AUD / $99.99 NZD.

Australian and New Zealand Businesses Still Struggle To Protect Information Efficiently

SYDNEY, Australia. – July 4, 2012 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that information costs businesses worldwide $1.1 trillion annually, according to its first ever State of Information Survey.  The survey  contacted business and IT executives at 4,506 organisations across 38 countries including 200 respondents in Australia and New Zealand with five to more than  5,000 employees.

From confidential customer information, to intellectual property, to financial transactions, organisations possess massive amounts of information that not only enable them to be competitive and efficient – but also stay in business. In fact, the survey revealed that digital information makes up 45 percent (49 percent globally) of an organisation’s total value.

“The vast amount of information that organisations produce today can help them better serve their customers and increase productivity. However,  Australian and New Zealand businesses are struggling with data challenges such as information sprawl,  lost data and the high cost of storage,” said Sean Kopelke, Director, Specialist Solutions, Pacific region, Symantec.  “Organisations can address these challenges by developing an information-centric IT model that more effectively protects their information.”

Information is Skyrocketing and It’s Expensive
Businesses of all sizes are dealing with enormous amounts of data. The total size of information stored today by all businesses is 2.2 zettabytes. Small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) on average have 563 terabytes of data, compared with the average enterprise that has 100,000 terabytes. The survey also reveals that information is expected to grow 67 percent over the next year for enterprises and 178 percent for SMBs.

On average, enterprises spend $38 million annually on information, while SMBs spend $332,000. However, the yearly cost per employee for SMBs is a lot higher at $3,670, versus $3,297 for enterprise. For example, a typical 50-employee small business spends $183,500 on information management, whereas a typical large enterprise with 2,500 employees would spend $8.2 million.

The Business Impact of Lost Information
The consequences of losing business information would be disastrous. “We would have to fold our operations for at least a couple of years before we’d come back again,” noted an IT manager at a large engineering firm when asked about the consequences of losing the enterprise’s information. Respondents highlighted the impact of data loss to their business, including lost customers (47 percent in ANZ versus 49 percent globally), damage to reputation and brand (47 percent in ANZ and globally), decreased revenue (43 percent in ANZ versus 41 percent globally), and increased expenses (44 percent in ANZ versus 39 percent).

Protection Measures are Falling Short
With so much at stake, protecting information should be a top priority, yet businesses are still struggling. In the last year, 61 percent of businesses in ANZ (69 percent globally) experienced some form of information loss for a variety of reasons, such as human error, hardware failure, security breach, or lost and stolen devices. In addition, 74 percent of respondents in ANZ (69 percent globally) have had confidential information exposed outside of the company, and 25 percent of survey respondents in ANZ (31 percent globally) have experienced compliance failures related to information. Another challenge is the amount of duplicate information businesses are storing – an average of 43 percent of data in ANZ is duplicated on par with the global average of 42 percent. Storage utilisation is also low, at only 28 percent within the firewall (31 percent globally) and 14 percent outside (18 percent globally).

All these risks and inefficiencies result in businesses spending more than necessary on storing and protecting their information. A key issue identified by 25 percent of ANZ businesses is information sprawl (versus 30 percent globally) – the overwhelming growth of information that is unorganised, difficult to access and often duplicated elsewhere.

Businesses Need to Put the “I” Back in “IT”
To help businesses more effectively protect their information, Symantec has the following recommendations:

• Focus      on the information, not the device or data center: With BYOD and cloud, information is no longer within      the four walls of a company. Protection must focus on the information, not      the device or data center.
• Not      all information is equal:      Business must be able to separate useless data from valuable business      information and protect it accordingly.
• Be      efficient: Deduplication and archiving      help companies protect more, but store less to keep pace with exponential      data growth.
• Consistency      is key: It is important to set      consistent policies for information that can be enforced wherever it’s      located… physical, virtual and cloud environments.
• Stay      agile: Plan for your future      information needs by implementing a flexible infrastructure to support      continued growth.

About Symantec
Symantec protects the world’s information, and is the global leader in security, backup and availability solutions. Our innovative products and services protect people and information in any environment – from the smallest mobile device, to the enterprise data center, to cloud-based systems. Our industry-leading expertise in protecting data, identities and interactions gives our customers confidence in a connected world. More information is available at www.symantec.com or by connecting with Symantec at: go.symantec.com/socialmedia

Experience bioterrorism on a global scale and get a taste for the scope of this latest and most expansive title in the Resident Evil series to date as the action moves from North America to Europe and China.  This demo features three different missions and distinct gameplay experiences as each mission is taken from one of the full game’s three separate campaigns which features a different protagonist as the lead.

Play as Leon S. Kennedy alongside Helena Harper and explore the dark confines of the Ivy University campus and the zombies that fill its hallways. Select Chris Redfield’s mission and head to China for an intense encounter against the deadly J’avo with BSAA colleague Piers Nivans on the rooftops of Lanshiang. The third mission shifts the action to the war-torn Eastern European state of Edonia and sees Jake Muller and Sherry Berkin trying to escape the relentless pursuit of the Ustanak, one of the new B.O.W.’s being introduced in Resident Evil 6.

The Resident Evil 6 demo is available for download from Xbox LIVE today, exclusively for owners of the Xbox 360 version of Dragon’s Dogma.

Resident Evil 6 will be available globally on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 from October 2^nd 2012 with a PC version to follow.

Based on the ground-breaking and critically acclaimed novel by John Van Du Ruit, SPUD will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD on the 8th August 2012. The film stars Academy Award nominated actor John Cleese as the eccentric teacher and mentor of Spud Milton (played by Australian Troye Sivan), a young man growing up in one of the most turbulent and stirring times in South Africa’s history. Filled with laughs and tear jerking moments, SPUD is a story about a boy and the moulding of his identity against a backdrop of a country coming of age.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – July 4, 2012 – Today ArenaNet have updated their blog with a new post from game designer Ben Miller. This background article gives a greater insight into the key guidelines and themes that were kept in mind when creating the world of Guild Wars 2. The six golden rules of Guild Wars 2 reveal the thought processes of the design team and how they undertook the challenged of creating an online world.

Read the Official Blog Post here: http://www.arena.net/blog/the-golden-rules-of-guild-wars-2

HAWKEN is a first person mech shooter utilizing the Unreal 3 engine. HAWKEN takes place in a dystopian future amongst ruined cities, destroyed by corruption and greed, in which survivors battle for resources. HAWKEN is set to revolutionize digital game distribution as well as the mech genre, by delivering Mech Vs Mech combat and state-of-the-art visuals to hardcore players worldwide on the web through a free-to-play business model. Nearly 300,000 players have already signed up for the closed beta at www.playhawken.com.

HAWKEN is being developed by Adhesive Games, an independent developer in Los Angeles, and will enter open beta 12^th December, 2012.

We’ve also announced a collaboration with Gears of War art director and feature film director Jeremiah O’Flaherty to create a series of digital shorts based on the HAWKEN video game. The first of these shorts, which combine live action and CG, debuted last month at E3 and can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co-j3Is8Y8o.

I’ll have a lot more to share with you over coming weeks, but for now I’ll leave you with this press release for your use and a few videos to give you an idea of how HAWKEN looks and plays. If you have any questions or requests, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line. Otherwise, expect to hear from me again soon!

Customization Walkthrough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWRj4VnMm-E

PAX East Cinematic Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0gI_52XYe4