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Microsoft Wireless Desktop 2000 protects that sensitive area between your peripherals

Microsoft's new wireless keyboard-and-mouse duo aims to thwart keystroke spies with full AES 128-bit encryption on over-the-air data -- an improvement on older wireless models that have proven to be easy pickings for hacker-types. You can pick up the Wireless Desktop 2000 now for $40, but that won't buy you protection from more common threats like Shandong phishmongers, nor will it make up for security loopholes in your other peripherals. Speaking of which, are you still using that seemingly innocent USB coffee-cup warmer? Microsoft

Google admits sensitive email accounts have been hacked, some users knew months ago (update: US says no government accounts compromised)

The  Contagio  security blog posted evidence back in February of targeted attacks against government and military officials on Gmail. Today, nearly four months later, Google has finally admitted this is true: hundreds of personal accounts have been compromised by hackers it believes to be working out of Jinan, the capital of China's Shandong province. The accounts include those of "senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists." The hijackers' aim appears to have been to spy on their targets using Google's automatic forwarding function. But unlike the PSN fiasco, Google insists its internal systems "have not been affected." Instead it seems the hackers used a phishing scam, possibly directing users to a spoof Gmail website before requesting their credentials. Google says its own "abuse detection systems" disrupted the campaign ...

StreakDroid 2.0.0 gives the gift of Gingerbread to Streak hackers

If you've been following along, you know that a phone enthusiast named DJ_Steve has kept the Dell Streak fresh, thanks to a series of hacked ROMs, dubbed StreakDroid. The latest version, 2.0.0 (or GingerStreak, if you're feeling cute) brings Gingerbread to the 5-inch smartphone -- expanding on the last ROM, which gave hackers the option of selecting Gingerbread's app launcher. As always, though, dear Steve has noted a handful of bugs in the ROM's early stages, including issues with the Superuser app, less-than-stellar graphics performance, and the fact that both GPS and 720p video recording require an engineering baseband and DSP to be flashed. As of this writing, all of the comments are from Streak owners eager to download this for themselves. We assume you are, too, so let us know how the new ROM works out for ya. MoDaCo

Sony Ericsson's Canadian online store hacked, more than 2,000 customers' data taken

The hackers just won't give poor Sony a break, will they? Following the infamous PSN breach last month and an attack on the company's Greek online music service earlier this week, Sony Ericsson has now seen another intrusion that extracted personal data of more than 2,000 Canadian Eshop customers. Fortunately, the company claims that passwords taken were encrypted and no credit card details were lost, but this is still worrisome nevertheless. Right now, the Eshop service has been taken off line -- for the sake of Sir Howard and his Japanese chums, let's just hope that this will be the last Sony breach we hear about.   The Star ,  BBC

Random Hacks of Kindness brings hackers together for the greater good next month

What could possibly bring hackers in 18 cities around the world together for a weekend next month? Potentially a lot of things, but on June 4th and 5th it'll be the third annual Random Hacks of Kindness (or RHoK), a globally-linked conference that's centered on the idea of "Hacking for Humanity." As with the two previous conferences, this one is community-driven from the ground up, with anyone able to suggest a problem that could have a technological solution of some sort, and everyone welcome to join in helping to solve it (some of the suggestions so far are things like tornado notification and brush fire command systems). Those interested in participating can find all the information they need at the source link below -- and don't worry about not being 1337 enough to make the grade, the definition of "hacker" in this case is a fairly loose one. It seems anyone with a laptop and some ideas is welcome. [ image: RHoK/ Flickr ] Random Hacks of Kindness...

HTC Sensation looks to have signed bootloader, custom ROMs look to be bummed

Did you think maybe HTC would change its ways after locking down the bootloader on the Thunderboltand Incredible S? Sorry, no. The upcoming Sensation looks to have been similarly afflicted, with Android Police  bringing the bad news that its internals are protected by HTC's private key. This will definitely prove to be an issue for those looking to run custom ROMs that are clean as a whistle, but something tells us the hackers shall overcome. They usually do.   Android Police

Google's Arduino-based ADK powers robots, home gardens and giant Labyrinth (video)

Sure, it looks just about like every other Arduino board found at Maker Faire, but this one's  special . How so? It's Google-branded, and not only that, but Google-endorsed. Shortly after the search giantintroduced its Android Open Accessory standard and ADK reference hardware, a smattering of companies were already demonstrating wares created around it. Remote-control robots? Check. Nexus S-controlled gardens? Check. A laughably large Labyrinth? Double check. It's already clear that the sky's the limit with this thing, and we're as eager as anyone to see 'em start floating out to more developers. Have a look in the gallery for close-ups of the guts, and peek past the break for a video of the aforementioned Xoom-dictated Labyrinth. Google's Arduino-based ADK hands-on at Google I/O 2011

Sony misses promised PlayStation Network and Qriocity restoration date, begs for more patience

Whoops. If you'll recall, Sony held what can only be described as an emergency press event in Japan a week ago in order to issue a number of assurances about the resumption of service as it relates to the PlayStation Network and Qriocity. Seven days later, things are still as dead as they were pre-Cinco de Mayo. This evening, the company's Senior Director of Corporate Communications Patrick Seybold punched out a quick update to let the world know that they could actually leave the house and find something else to entertain 'em -- like it or not, PSN isn't coming back online today. The reason? On May 1st, Sony was apparently "unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers," and now, it's spinning its wheels in order to restore security on the network and "ensure" that user data is safe. Mr. Seybold seems to understand that you're overly anxious about getting back into the swing of things, and he's even going so f...