russia

Though Rustock remains down for the count, according to Microsoft, the hunt goes on for the creators of the infamous botnet.

Rustock was taken down this past March by Microsoft and law enforcement officials who used a combination of legal maneuvers and raids to seize control of the servers that ran the notorious spamming network. Since then, Rustock has remained "dead and decaying," said Richard Boscovich, senior attorney for Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, in a blog published yesterday.

But taking down the network itself is only half the battle in keeping botnets like Rustock offline. Tracking down the … Read more

The kidnapped son of Kaspersky Lab's founder has been freed and five suspects are in custody in connection with the abduction, according to a Russian media report today.

Russian law enforcement officials freed Ivan Kaspersky, the 20-year-old son of Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky, through a special operation with company security forces, according to the Interfax news agency.

"He has been freed without ransom," a spokeswoman for the Moscow-based antivirus company told the news agency.

The younger Kaspersky, a fourth-year student of mathematics and cybernetics at Moscow State University, was kidnapped Tuesday morning on his way to work … Read more

Apple might expand its retail stores into Russia, with a new location situated inside the reconstructed Hotel Moskva in the heart of Moscow.

A report published yesterday by Apple retail store tracker ifoAppleStore cites anonymous sources who say that Apple's senior VP of retail, Ron Johnson, and Bob Bridger, who is the vice president of real estate, were in the area taking a look at the space, though had not yet finalized any paperwork.

If opened, the location would be Apple's first retail store in Russia, filling the gap left with no direct online sales from the company, … Read more

If Russia wants to prove the country is a good trade partner, then the country must be more aggressive in fighting online piracy. That's the message a group of U.S. congressmen wants Vice President Joe Biden to send during his visit to Moscow this week.

In a letter written Friday by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lawmakers reminded Biden that Russia appears to have once again grown soft on copyright violations and the congressmen want him to nudge leaders there back on track.

For more … Read more

Children too sick to go to school are still getting an education--thanks to robots in the classroom that transmit lessons back to the student.

Stepan Supin, 12, of Moscow has been battling leukemia for two years, and his immune system is so weak he can't leave home. However, telepresence technology allows him to go to school via remote-controlled robot.

The R.BOT 100 was developed by Moscow's 3Detection Labs several years ago, and it's been helping Stepan study history, geography, and languages since September.

Priced at roughly $3,000, the R.BOT 100 moves around on a wheeled base and has a display, Web cam, microphone, speakers, and an Internet link so Stepan can interact with his classmates and teacher.

"I can change the robot's speed, to go slower or faster. I can move his head to look left or right. I really feel as if I am in the classroom," Stepan told Australia's Herald Sun.

In Texas, Lyndon Baty also goes to school through a robot surrogate. He suffers from polycystic kidney disease and has a severely impaired immune system, which confines him to home.

Lyndon attends class with the Vgo telepresence robot, which was released last year by Vgo Communications. With two-way video, audio, and a 10-hour battery, Vgo lets Lyndon roam around the halls of Knox City High School and interact with other students (see the video below).

"I never thought when I was sick that I would ever have any interaction, much less this kind. It is just like I am there in the classroom," Lyndon said. … Read more

IBM announced today that nine hospitals across Russia have switched from paper-based medical systems to electronic medical records using IBM Lotus Notes.

Designed to provide fast electronic medical record (EMR) exchange and unified access to many types of health care data, while at the same time meeting stricter medical information requirements and more secure access to patient information in Russia, the automation system was developed by IBM and Complex Medical Information Systems.

"It provides a single electronic tool for control, accounting and planning which leads to improved operation and higher quality of service," says Roman Novitsky, CEO of … Read more

A Russian court has dropped piracy charges against environmental group Baikal Wave due to drastic changes made to Microsoft's licensing program for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) back in October, according to The New York Times.

The case, which centered on the legitimacy of Microsoft software the group had been using, resulted partly in the launch of a new, unilateral software licensing program by Microsoft that would give NGOs free and unrestricted access to various Microsoft software. That program was also designed to keep similar investigations from happening in Russia, where software piracy had been used as a means to begin … Read more

Microsoft will build a major software development center in Skolkovo, Russia's would-be Silicon Valley.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer, signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday with Viktor Vekselberg, the president of the Skolkovo Fund, the software maker said.

In addition to building the software development center for its own efforts, Microsoft will embark on a series of collaborative research projects with Russian and foreign universities, provide further assistance for Russian technology start-up companies, build a technology testing center for companies in Skolkovo, and help to support and develop aspects of the Skolkovo technology university's curriculum.

Read … Read more

Microsoft's top lawyer said on Monday that the company is taking action in the wake of a report that its antipiracy efforts have been used by the Russian government as a means to monitor computers of dissident groups in that country.

In a blog post, general counsel Brad Smith said that the company is hiring an outside law firm to investigate a report in The New York Times that the Russian government has used Microsoft's antipiracy efforts as a pretext to search computers of potential dissidents and, separately, that some lawyers hired by Microsoft have worked with corrupt … Read more