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New screenshots for Star Trek Starfleet Command III, the now-gold 3D tactical starship combat sequel by Taldren, are available.

A tactical starship simulator, Star Trek Starfleet Command III will be the first title in the game series to take place in the Star Trek: The Next Generation timeline. Similar to the earlier games in the SFC franchise Star Trek Starfleet Command III allows gamers to optimize their ship and allocate power to their ship's systems for different types of strategies such as hit-and-run maneuvers, ambushes or direct assaults. However, Star Trek Starfleet Command III simplifies this process by introducing a new interface for system management that reduces the "micromanagement" of starship control, and allows players to focus on combat. Additionally, for the first time in any Star Trek game players can significantly customize their vessel's weapons, engines, shields and other systems. As players progress through the game, they can acquire better phasers and disruptors, stronger shields and outfit their ship with new special weapons. Star Trek Starfleet Command III also pushes the boundary of the genre by incorporating RPG elements into the experience. Over the course of the game, officers under the player's command will gain experience and acquire unique skills which increases the ships overall efficiency and enable the player to employ advanced attacks. Players can also choose to recruit new and more experienced officers to maximize the overall effectiveness of their ship.

News source: 3DGamers

In most situations, the attacker would already need to be on a computer connected to the network to execute an attack. However, if the router has a 'remote management' feature enabled, a malicious hacker could execute an attack from anywhere on the Internet by entering the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the router along with the name of the script into his or her Web browser.

"An attacker could just scan a (network) subnet for IP addresses belonging to Linksys routers. Once they identified the targeted routers, they could bring them down just using their Web browser," said Sunil James, a senior security engineer at iDefense, which is in Chantilly, Virginia.

The vulnerability affects BEFSR41 routers using a version of the router firmware earlier than version 1.42.7.

Other Linksys models including the BEFSR11 and BEFSRU31 routers may also be affected by the vulnerability, according to James. Those models use the same embedded Web server and firmware software as the BEFSR41, James said.

IDefense has not tested the vulnerability on the BEFSR11 or BEFSRU31 router hardware, James said. Aside from losing Internet connectivity, however, James said that iDefense does not believe the vulnerability would allow attackers to place or execute malicious code on an affected network. Following an attack, users would need to reset the router by pressing a reset button on the back of the device to restore it, according to iDefense.

To guard against this vulnerability, iDefense recommends upgrading the router firmware to version 1.42.7 or later (http://www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp). That and subsequent firmware versions appear to eliminate the vulnerability, though Linksys makes no mention of the vulnerability in the release notes that accompany the updated firmware, according to James.

Users are also asked to verify that the router's remote management feature is not enabled.

Denial of service (DOS) attacks are usually associated with coordinated efforts by one or more hackers against high-visibility corporate Web sites such as eBay Inc. and Microsoft Corp. However, the growing popularity of broadband Internet connections in the U.S., Europe, and Asia have made small office and home-based computer networks -- and attacks that target those networks -- common.

A study in 2001 by researchers from the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis at the San Diego Supercomputer Center found that a significant percentage of more than 12,000 DOS attacks the group studied were against home users with broadband Internet connections. Researchers theorized that personal vendettas may have been the motivation for many of those attacks.