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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 13 Issue 25
Volume 13, Issue 25 Atari Online News, Etc. June 24, 2011
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2011
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1325 06/24/11
~ Need Harsher Penalties ~ People Are Talking! ~ National Cyber Range!
~ DuckDuckGo Alternative ~ The .whatever Address! ~ User Online Shields!
~ Firefox 5 Auto-Updates ~ Snow Leopard Update! ~ "Twins" Drop Lawsuit!
~ Penny Auctions Are Not ~ Site Dumps Ugly People ~ Project Featherweight!
-* FBI Targets Scareware Rings! *-
-* China: No Cyber Warfare with U.S.! *-
-* Hackers On Publicity-Seeking Attack Spree! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Welcome home, Whitey!! It appears it's time to "face the music" after
all these years! Being a New Englander all my life, the story of
"Whitey" Bulger and The Winter Hill Gang is a legendary one. There are
books and movies about this mobster from "Southie" (South Boston to those
not in the know!). After on the lam for 16 years, Bulger was finally caught
this week in southern California.
Whitey Bulger follows in similar footsteps of Jesse and Frank James,
Bonnie and Clyde, and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid - all notorious
criminals that were hunted for a long time.
I have to admit, his arrest seems awfully anti-climactic - a quick and
quiet arrest in his home, brought about by a tip from Iceland! Okay,
so that tip sounds farfetched, but the details make sense.
So today, Whitey and his girlfriend are returned to South Boston to face
arraignment, and sees his brother - a prominent Boston politician. And then
he's whisked off to jail to await the next steps.
My guess is that this trial will take a very long time to complete. And,
it's going to be an interesting one. Bulger is a very defiant character,
and he's going to remain so throughout this trial. Stay tuned!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Sony Hacker Formally Charged!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Sonic the Hedgehog Hits 20!
"Duke Nukem" Is A Mess?!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
UK Hacker Formally Charged for Cyber Attacks
U.K. police on Wednesday formally charged a 19-year-old teenager with
violating the country's computer fraud laws for participating in cyber
attacks on various British organizations.
Ryan Cleary violated the Criminal Law Act and Computer Misuse Act when
he helped organize and carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS)
attacks against the U.K.'s Serious Organised Crime Agency, the
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), and the
British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the Metropolitan Police said.
Cleary was arrested at his home in Essex yesterday; he will appear at the
City of Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday morning.
The 2010 attacks on the IFPI and BPI were reportedly orchestrated by
Anonymous offshoot Operation Payback, while the joint Anonymous-LulzSec
project known as Operation Anti-Security took credit for the SOCA hack,
which happened just this week.
The SOCA Web site is hosted by an external provider and does not contain
data from its investigations. Indeed, LulzSec and Anonymous did not post
any info from the SOCA site.
Both groups, however, don't appear to have any love for Cleary.
"Ryan Cleary is not part of LulzSec; we house one of our many legitimate
chatrooms on his IRC server, but that's it," LulzSec tweeted recently.
"We use Ryan's server, we also use Efnet, 2600, Rizon and AnonOps IRC
servers. That doesn't mean they're all part of our group."
LulzSec is "at best, mildly associated" with Cleary, the group said.
Anonymous, meanwhile, got into a battle with Cleary several months ago.
In May, the Italian arm of Anonymous said on its blog that Cleary, a
"fellow helper," had compromised its network. In a May interview with UK
publication Thinq_, Cleary claimed responsiblity for a DDoS on several
Anonymous sites, and said he published the IP addresses of users visiting
the site when he seized control.
Operation Anti-Security, meanwhile, is humming along. "We're hoping to
have Operation Anti-Security Payload #1 ready by Friday," LulzSec
tweeted this afternoon.
Sonic the Hedgehog Gets Anniversary Bundle for 20th Birthday
The Blue Blur has left his teenage years. Today, Sega's trademark
character is celebrating his twentieth birthday.
In celebration, Sega is pushing the latest game in the series, Sonic
Generations, and releasing a 20th anniversary bundle on the PlayStation
Store.
The bundle, according to the EU PlayStation blog, includes the original
Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic Adventure (and the DX Upgrade pack),
Sonic 4: Episode 1, and a theme taken from the world of Sonic 4. It will
be available for 20 days for $19.99.
Sonic Generations, meanwhile, is set to be released later this year, the
game is a blend of old and new, featuring a throwback to the hedgehog's
early years with 2D levels as well as 3D levels from later years.
PCMag software analyst Jeffrey Wilson had some game time with Sonic
Generations back at E3. "It felt like a Sonic game should," he wrote,
"Cartoony, fun, and fast. There are a handful of incredible camera shifts
that show Sonic speeding through loops, launching over chasms, and bouncing
off bumpers. The 2D levels are fast, but the 3D levels (where the camera is
placed behind Sonic) feel even faster - almost too fast."
Sega has released an iOS app for the game, but unfortunately for most,
it's only available in Japan. Andriasang, a Japanese gaming Web site,
writes that the app has one stage (Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1),
weekly wallpaper downloads, a mini-game dubbed "Sonic the Sketchhog," and
a section with the latest Sonic news.
Today, you can download a Sonic Generations demo via the Xbox Live
Marketplace or the PlayStation Network. The demo is only available for 20
days, and it gives players access to the series' most iconic environment,
Green Hill. It will be playable in both classic 2D and stereoscopic 3D.
Sonic Generations will arrive November for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3,
and the Nintendo 3DS.
'Duke Nukem' An Ugly, Mean-Spirited Mess
There's a sequence in "Duke Nukem Forever" (2K Games, for the Xbox 360,
PlayStation 3, $59.99; PC, $49.99) that's destined to be remembered as
one of the all-time low points in the history of video games.
It takes place in the Hive, a sort of alien incubator. The Hive is
filled with naked human women who have been abducted and impregnated by
the aliens. When Duke - the "hero" - accidentally kills one of the
women, he makes an extremely tasteless joke.
Duke eventually stumbles upon two women. They beg for their lives. Duke
responds with an F-word-based pun and watches as the two women explode.
I'm not a squeamish person, but there's a point at which even the
strongest stomach says enough is enough. Unfortunately, I had to keep
playing "Duke Nukem Forever" - and while it never again reaches that
low, there's nothing that justifies that level of sadism and misogyny.
You may be familiar with the long, strange history of "DNF." It had been
in development since the mid-1990s - the adolescent years of the
first-person shooter, before "Halo" and "Call of Duty." Last year, it
was finally rescued from the scrapheap by Gearbox Software, the studio
behind 2009's superb role-playing shooter "Borderlands."
What Gearbox has assembled is a mishmash of poorly paced, archaically
designed chunks of action. Along with the gunplay, "DNF" incorporates
driving, running-and-jumping platform antics and even some rudimentary
puzzle-solving, all of which would be welcome in a modern-day shooter if
they were better executed. Instead, when you finally get to do something
fun - like driving Duke's monster truck, the Mighty Foot - the game
grinds to a halt by forcing you to stop and find gas.
The worst game issues are reserved for the excruciating boss battles. At
the end of the Hive section, for example, you face off against the alien
queen, who can only be taken down by high-powered ordnance. Every time
you score a hit, though, she knocks you off your feet, so you have to
hide from her while your "ego" (this game's equivalent of health points)
recovers.
That's right: During one of the core battles in "DNF," the hero -
established as the toughest, most fearless hero Earth has ever seen -
spends most of the time hiding. And if Duke runs out of ego (which he
will, often), you're subjected to a 30-second-plus loading screen. Pile
up enough of those and you'll eventually decide the limited amount of
"fun" you're having isn't worth the aggravation.
Survive the alien queen and you're treated to a pointless fetch quest in
which you have to find three items in a strip club. Your reward? The
creepiest lap dance ever.
All of which left me wondering: Who is Duke Nukem? The character was
established in the `90s as a parody of two-fisted action heroes like
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme. But during Duke's
decade-and-a-half in limbo, those targets became toothless, and the gags
here about contemporary stars like Christian Bale and Justin Timberlake
fall flat.
So in 2011, Duke is just a parody of his former self, spouting jokes
that are either lifeless or sickening. At one point, the president of
the United States tells Duke he's "a relic from a different era." I wish
he had stayed there. No stars out of four.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
China Says No Cyber Warfare with U.S.
There is no cyber warfare taking place between China and the United States,
a senior Chinese official said on Wednesday, after weeks of friction over
accusations that China may have launched a string of Internet hacking
attacks.
The two countries might suffer from cyber attacks, but they were in no
way directed by either government, Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai
told a small group of foreign reporters ahead of a meeting with U.S.
officials in Hawaii this weekend.
"I want to clear something up: there are no contradictions between China
and the United States" on the issue of hacking, Cui said.
"Though hackers attack the U.S. Internet and China's Internet, I believe
they do not represent any country," he added.
Both countries were in fact already discussing the problem of hacking
during their regular strategic consultations, Cui said.
"The international community ought to come up with some rules to prevent
this misuse of advanced technology," he added.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner declined to comment on Cui's
cyber-war comments, but said the inaugural U.S.-China Asia-Pacific
Consultations in Honolulu had a general regional focus and no particular
cyber warfare agenda.
"My understanding is that it is about the Asia-Pacific region, writ
large," he said in Washington. Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of
state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, would be Cui's counterpart in
the talks, he said.
The accusations against China have centred on an intrusion into the
security networks of Lockheed Martin Corp and other U.S. military
contractors, as well as efforts to gain access to the Google email
accounts of U.S. officials and Chinese human rights advocates.
China has vociferously denied having anything to do with hacking
attacks, saying it too is a major victim.
"Internet security is an issue for all countries, and it is a most
pressing matter," Cui said.
"Of course, every country has different abilities when it comes to this
problem," he added.
"The United States is the most advanced country in the world when it
comes to this technology, and we hope they can step up communication and
cooperation on this with other countries. We also hope this advanced
technology is not used for destructive purposes."
The Internet has become a major bone of contention between Washington
and Beijing.
This month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Washington was seriously
concerned about cyber attacks and was prepared to use force against
those it considered an act of war.
The latest friction over hacking could bring Internet policy back to the
foreground of U.S.-China relations, reprising tension from last year
when the Obama administration took up Google's complaints about hacking
and censorship from China.
Google partly pulled out of China after that dispute. Since then, it has
lost more share to rival Baidu Inc in China's Internet market.
China, with more than 450 million Internet users, exercises tight
control and censorship over the Web at home, and has strengthened its
grip in recent months.
In February, overseas Chinese websites, inspired by anti-authoritarian
uprisings across the Arab world, called for protests across China,
raising Beijing's alarm about dissent and prompting tightened
restrictions over the Internet.
China already blocks major foreign social websites such as Facebook and
Twitter.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, named by President Barack Obama as the
next U.S. ambassador to China, said last week that the United States was
looking into ways to craft trade countermeasures that treat curbs on
Internet commerce as non-tariff barriers to trade.
Brazen, Publicity-seeking Hackers on Attack Spree
Can you be famous if no one knows your name? A new band of hackers is
giving it its best shot, trumpeting its cyber-capers in an
all-sirens-flashing publicity campaign.
Lulz Security has stolen mountains of personal data in a dozen different
hacks, embarrassing law enforcement on both sides of the Atlantic while
boasting about the stunts online.
The group, whose name draws on Internetspeak for "laughs," has about
270,000 followers on the messaging site Twitter. Although LulzSec has
declined interview requests, it has laid out its prankster philosophy in
"tweets" and press releases.
"Vigilantes? Nope. Cyber terrorists? Nope. We have no political motives -
we do it for the lulz," the group said in a message sent shortly after it
emerged in early May.
LulzSec's Twitter mascot is a black-and-white cartoon dandy that looks
like a cross between Mr. Peanut and The New Yorker magazine's monocle
man. Its rambling messages are peppered with references to YouTube
sensation Rebecca Black, the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game and
tongue-in-cheek conspiracy theory.
One of LulzSec's victims says the group sets itself apart from the rest
of the hacker underground with its posturing and bragging on Twitter.
"Most of the hacker groups that are pretty well known out there ...
don't really like to flaunt their findings. They'll do it among their
peers, but not typically the public," said Karim Hijazi, a security
expert whose emails were ransacked by the hacking group last month.
LulzSec made its name by defacing the site of the U.S. Public
Broadcasting Service, or PBS, with an article claiming that rapper Tupac
Shakur was still alive. It has since claimed hacks on major
entertainment companies, FBI partner organizations, a pornography
website and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, whose documents
were leaked to the Web late Thursday.
Many attacks have yielded sensitive information including usernames and
passwords - nearly 38,000 of them, in the case of Sony Pictures. Others
appear to have been just for kicks. In a stunt last week, LulzSec
directed hundreds of telephone calls to the customer service line of
Magnets.com, a New Jersey-based manufacturer of custom refrigerator
magnets.
LulzSec uses a similar technique to temporarily bring down websites,
flooding them with bogus Internet traffic. This is an old hacker standby
that doesn't require much sophistication. Members also break in to sites
to steal data. That requires more skill and often involves duping
employees into revealing passwords.
LulzSec's actions against government and corporate websites are
reminiscent of those taken by the much larger, more amorphous group
known as Anonymous. That group has launched Internet campaigns against
the music industry, the Church of Scientology, and Middle Eastern
dictatorships, among others.
Both are fiercely protective of the secret-busting site WikiLeaks. The
hacking groups' supporters share the same brand of offbeat humor
inspired by Internet catchphrases and viral videos.
LulzSec has repeatedly insisted on its independence.
"We're not AnonOps, Anonymous, a splinter group of Anonymous, or even an
affiliate of Anonymous," the group has said. "We're LulzSec."
An Anonymous member told The Associated Press that he believed LulzSec
was formed by people from Anonymous who got tired of the time it took to
reach consensus and launch hacking projects. He said that they also
wanted to go beyond the ethical boundaries of Anonymous.
"They wanted to go on more adventurous, brazen hacking adventures and
really get their names out there," he said. He spoke on condition that
his name is withheld given the pressure being put on Anonymous members
by law enforcement.
Judging by the timing of its tweets and other communications, he
believes that LulzSec is based mainly in the eastern half of the U.S.,
but a few members are European. The number of members is not known, but
there appears to be no more than a handful, perhaps a dozen.
Anonymous also uses Twitter as a soapbox, but more as a way of
recruiting helpers than publicizing its exploits. It's also been more
selective about its targets. It attacked the Egyptian Ministry of
Information's website during the revolution in the country, but has
shied away from leaks of ordinary user information, for example.
There's every sign authorities are paying attention to the new group,
although it isn't clear how much progress they've made in tracking the
hackers down. On Tuesday, 19-year-old Ryan Cleary was arrested as part
of a joint FBI-Scotland Yard investigation into hackings linked to both
LulzSec and Anonymous.
British Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson described Cleary's arrest as
"very significant," although LulzSec has shrugged off the development - and
promised more spectacular hacks.
The Anonymous member believes law enforcement has little chance of
finding LulzSec. He told the AP that LulzSec likely used such methods as
logging on only from public Wi-Fi hotspots. Police could possibly trace
the attacks to the hotspot, but by the time they get there, any hacker
would be long gone.
Hijazi believes LulzSec harassed him because his firm, Unveillance,
tracks "botnets" - clusters of computers that can be controlled remotely
because they've been infected with malicious software. The botnets, each
of which can have more than a million computers, are usually controlled
by cybercrime gangs.
He speculates that LulzSec wants botnets because it would boost its
power to bring down websites. But the group would be stepping on the
toes of some very dangerous people if members started taking over
botnets, he said.
"It's going to make everyone really mad, both the good guys and some
really big bad guys," he said. "I hope law enforcement finds them first."
FBI Targets Two "Scareware" Rings in U.S., Europe
Police in the United States and seven other countries seized computers and
servers used to run a "scareware" scheme that has netted more than $72
million from victims tricked into buying fake anti-virus software.
Twenty-two computers and servers were seized in the United States and 25
others in France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden
and the United Kingdom, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement
on Wednesday.
The suspects involved in the scheme, who were not identified, planted
"scareware" on the computers of 960,000 victims. The scareware would
pretend to find malicious software on a computer. The goal is to
persuade the victim to voluntarily hand over credit card information,
paying to resolve a nonexistent problem.
Latvian authorities seized at least five bank accounts believed to have
been used by the leaders of the scam, and the Justice Department said
nothing about arrests.
U.S. authorities also said on Wednesday they disrupted a second scam,
charging two Latvians with running a similar scareware scheme that led
to $2 million in losses through an advertisement placed on a Minnesota
newspaper's website.
Peteris Sahurovs, 22, and Marina Maslobojeva, 23, were arrested on
Tuesday in Latvia and face two counts of wire fraud, one count of
conspiracy and one count of computer fraud in the United States, the
Justice Department said.
"Scareware is just another tactic that cyber criminals are using to take
money from citizens and businesses around the world," said Assistant
Director Gordon Snow of the FBI's cyber division.
Law enforcement officials would not confirm whether the seizures were
directly connected to a raid early on Tuesday morning at a web-hosting
company in northern Virginia where they took servers, a move that
disrupted more than 120 websites.
U.S. authorities have been more aggressive this year in trying to stem
cybercrime and have been scrambling to investigate several hacking
attempts on U.S. institutions and corporations.
In March, law enforcement raided servers used by a "botnet," essentially
computers controlled by criminals without the knowledge of the
computers' owners. Authorities severed the IP addresses, effectively
disabling the botnet.
That operation, nicknamed Rustock, had been one of the biggest producers
of spam e-mail, with some tech security experts estimating it produced
half the spam that fills people's junk mail bins.
In April, government programmers shut down a botnet which controlled
more than 2 million PCs around the world to spread a computer virus
named Coreflood, which grabbed banking credentials and other sensitive
financial data. Losses were estimated at about $100 million.
A botnet is essentially one or more servers that spread malicious
software and use the software to send spam or to steal personal
information or data that can be used to empty a victim's bank account.
Pentagon to Prep for Battle Via 'National Cyber Range'
In recent months, groups like LulzSec have shown that no one is safe
from cyber attacks. In an effort to help individuals ward off Web-based
threats in the U.S., the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) is developing a virtual firing range that could be online
as soon as next year, Reuters reports.
The program, dubbed National Cyber Range, will be a sandbox for virtual
warriors to hone their skills. According to Reuters, it will be
operational by mid-2012 - to the tune of $130 million.
The National Cyber Range has been in the works since 2008, when the
Pentagon approached contractors to build the program. In January 2009,
Lockheed Martin, itself a recent cyber-attack victim, was awarded
a $5.4 million contract for the initial development of the National
Cyber Range. The company was then awarded $30.8 million in February 2010
for phase two.
The National Cyber Range will be a collection of "testbeds" that can be
used for standalone drills or as parts of larger operations. Reuters
said one of the major aims of the NCR is to run multiple classified and
unclassified experiments very quickly, requiring a system that can
delete data and reboot as fast as possible after a test.
Reuters pointed to two other cyber-related programs DARPA has in the
works: Clean-slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts (CRASH and
Cyber Insider Threat (CINDER).
CRASH is focused on designing new computer systems that are resistant to
cyber attacks and can adapt over time, while CINDER is focused on
detecting espionage hidden on computer networks. CINDER evolved out of
last year's WikiLeaks scandal in which Army analyst Bradley Manning was
arrested for giving information to the whistleblower Web site.
DARPA is also developing the "Cyber Genome" which will be able to
automatically discover, identify, and analyze malicious code which can
help identify the perpetrator, Reuters said.
Hackers Might Face Stiffer Sentences in U.S.
Even before a loosely organized group of hackers broke into the CIA's and
Senate's public websites, the White House asked for stiffer sentences for
breaking into government and private computer networks.
Last month the Obama administration pressed Congress to pass stronger
cybersecurity measures, including a doubling of the maximum sentence for
potentially endangering national security to 20 years in prison.
While it remains to be seen if the proposal will become law, the
question of how to fight cyber-crime has risen to the fore in recent
weeks with a spate of high-profile, and sometimes, sophisticated, attacks.
The computer break-ins have targeted multinational companies and
institutions, including Sony Corp, Citigroup and the International
Monetary Fund. Sony faces dozens of lawsuits related to the theft of
consumer data from its Playstation network.
Also, in the latest flurry of hack-ins, the loosely organized group Lulz
Security said it broke into the Senate's and CIA's public websites, as
well as Sony and other targets.
"It's been a busy month," said James Lewis, of the Center for Strategic
and International Studies think tank.
Lewis said "hacktivists," who often break into websites to make a
political point or generate publicity, made "a big mistake" in going
after the public websites of the FBI and the CIA. "That bumps it up
immediately," he said. "That could make it a grudge match."
But tackling cybercrime - as well as other kinds of cyberattacks - has
often been complicated by the difficulty of determining who is
responsible.
"Smoking keyboards are hard to find," said Frank Cilluffo, director of
George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute.
"Anonymity of cyberspace, the lack of being able to do 100 percent
attribution makes it difficult from a national security standpoint,
obviously, if you don't know who is behind the clickety clack of the
keyboard, or even if you do, you don't have 100 percent confidence," he
said.
Under current law, for first-time offenders, the Computer Fraud and
Abuse Act sets a maximum of 10-year prison sentences for breaking into a
U.S. government computer if national security is at stake, a maximum of
five years for breaking into a computer in order to steal, and one year
for stealing a password to a financial institution or accessing a
government computer, for example to deface it.
Under the White House proposal, the 10-year maximum sentence for
potentially endangering national security would become a 20-year
maximum, the five-year sentence for computer thefts up to $5,000 would
become a 10-year sentence and the one year maximum for accessing a
government computer - either to deface it or download an unimportant
file - could become a three-year sentence.
At this point, none of the cybersecurity legislation introduced or
circulating in Congress have included those tougher sentences.
And Stephen Ryan, a former prosecutor, said that if the goal is
deterring cybercrime, lengthy sentences won't do the trick as well as
actual arrests and prosecutions.
"There may be people who fully deserve a sentence that's more than five
years. The key to deterrence is prosecution and conviction," said Ryan,
now a partner at McDermott, Will & Emery.
Catching sophisticated hackers is notoriously difficult, which often
means the sloppy and the stupid will end up being prosecuted -- as well
as a few who just have bad luck.
"There's also the question of resources," said a cyber expert who asked
not to be named "So when you're talking about nuisances - like the
Senate and CIA - a lot of this comes across as childish vandalism. In
those cases you have to question whether you devote the resources and
prosecute that."
But the sentences can get longer if other crimes are involved. Alberto
Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010 for hack attacks
into major U.S. companies that led to the theft of more than 40 million
credit and debit card numbers.
PrivateSky Shields Online Exchanges from Prying Eyes
A free service launched on Wednesday called PrivateSky lets Internet users
shield email, Facebook updates, and other online exchanges from hackers or
other unwanted snoops.
The service from startup CertiVox comes as hackers appear to be
rampaging through the Internet, cracking defenses at companies,
attacking public websites, and tricking their way into email accounts to
spy on contents.
PrivateSky works with Internet Explorer (IE) browsers to provide
encryption for whatever people type into message boxes and decodes it
only for those they chose.
Users highlight blog posts, Facebook updates, email messages or other
text then indicate who should be allowed to read them. Missives are
decrypted only for intended recipients.
"It is literally one click encryption and decryption," said CertiVox
founder and chief executive Brian Spector.
Internet security firm Trend Micro warned this month that cyberattackers
have attempted to infiltrate Web-based email services run by Microsoft
and Yahoo! as well as Google.
"There has been a variety of recent attacks on popular Webmail
platforms," Trend Micro senior threat researcher Nart Villeneuve said in
an online post. "In addition to Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail have also
been targeted."
Trend Micro released the news after Google said a cyber spying campaign
originating in China had targeted Gmail accounts of US officials,
military personnel, journalists, Chinese political activists, and
officials in several Asian countries, mainly in South Korea.
Encrypting email is seen as a way to thwart email snooping, but the
process has typically taken a bit of software savvy.
CertiVox set out to make encryption simple with PrivateSky. "This is
kind of like arming the citizenry," Spector said.
The encryption service works on any Web-based email such as Gmail,
Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail as well as posts at social networks.
CertiVox started with IE because of its global popularity but is
adapting the service to other Web browsing software. CertiVox intends to
eventually encrypt photos and other large data files as well as text.
The application for IE browsers is available for download online at
https://privatesky.me.
Coming Soon to The Internet: The .whatever Address
A quarter-century after the creation of ".com," the agency that assigns
Internet addresses is loosening its rules and allowing suffixes named
after brands, hobbies, political causes and just about anything else.
Under guidelines approved Monday, Apple could register addresses ending
in ".ipad," Citi and Chase could share ".bank" and environmental groups
could go after ".eco." Japan could have ".com" in Japanese.
It's the biggest change to the system of Internet addresses since it was
created in 1984.
More than 300 suffixes are available today, but only a handful, such as
the familiar ".net" and ".com," are open for general use worldwide.
Hundreds of new suffixes could be established by late next year,
thousands in years to come.
"This is the start of a whole new phase for the Internet," said Peter
Dengate Thrush, chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers, the California nonprofit organization in charge of Internet
addresses.
The novelty addresses will be costly - $185,000 to apply and $25,000 a
year to maintain one. A personal address with a common suffix such as
".com" usually costs less than $10 a year.
ICANN says it costs tens of millions of dollars to write the guidelines
for suffixes, review applications and resolve any disputes. Even with
the hefty fees, the organization says it plans only to break even. It's
also setting aside up to $2 million to subsidize applications from
developing countries.
The expansion plan, which runs about 350 pages, took six years to develop.
Before 1998, the United States, which paid for most of the early
Internet, was in charge of handing out Internet suffixes. ICANN, which
has board members from every inhabited continent, was a way to take the
administrative burden off the U.S. government.
ICANN was always supposed to expand the number of available Web
suffixes. But the progress was slow because of concerns that new ones
could infringe on trademarks, be obscene or give a platform to hate
groups. Competing interests wrestled with ICANN over guidelines.
ICANN has come up with procedures for any party to object to
applications for trademark, or other reasons.
Internet addresses, technically known as domain names, tell computers
where to find a website or send an email message. Without them, people
would have to remember clunky strings of numbers such as "165.1.59.220"
instead of "ap.org."
But the addresses have grown to mean much more. Amazon.com has built its
brand on one, and bloggers take pride in running sites with their own
domain names, uncluttered by the names of hosting services.
The address expansion could create new opportunities for companies to
promote their brands and allow all sorts of niche communities to thrive
online. But they could create confusion, too.
And they might not make much difference. More and more people online
find what they're looking for by typing a term into a search engine, not
tapping out a full address. Or they use an app and don't type anything.
ICANN will start taking applications for new suffixes Jan. 12. Approval
of individual applications is expected to be quick if there are no
challenges for trademark, morality or other reasons. Proposals that are
challenged would have to undergo more thorough reviews, including
possible arbitration to decide on the merits of claims.
High-profile entertainment, consumer-goods and financial-services
companies will likely be among the first to apply for the new suffixes
to protect their brands.
Canon Inc., the camera and printer company, already plans to apply for
".canon." And Apple could go after not just ".apple," but also ".ipad"
and ".iphone." Apple had no comment Monday.
Groups have already formed to back ".sport" for sporting sites, and two
conservationist groups separately are seeking the right to operate an
".eco" suffix. Trade groups for bankers and financial-services companies
are jointly exploring applications for ".bank," ".insure" and ".invest"
for their member companies.
Smaller companies stand to benefit, too. A florist called Apple can't
use "Apple.com" because the computer company has it. Previously, the
shop might have registered a longer, clunky address. Now it can just be
"Apple.flowers."
Of course, a small florist might not be able to afford an expensive
suffix. But an entrepreneur or a trade group might, and it could sell
individual addresses ending in ".flowers" for $10 or $100 a pop. A
successful suffix owner could make millions, much more than what it pays
in application and annual fees.
When two or more groups have a legitimate claim to an address, ICANN
expects them to work it out on their own. If they can't, the nonprofit
will auction the suffixes.
"Things are going to have to be decided, like 'Who's a better guardian
for .golf?' The PGA or some global group?" said Jeremiah Johnston, chief
operating officer at Sedo.com, which helps companies resell domain names.
Sedo brokered the sale of Sex.com late last year for $13 million, a
record for a domain name. Despite the availability of new suffixes,
Johnston doesn't expect the value of existing ".com" names to diminish.
That's based on the limited number of additions to the system since 2000.
"Even though the new extensions come around, the ones that are most
rooted and most popular in the minds of consumers, their value has only
gone up," Johnston said.
Twins Drop Facebook Lawsuit Detailed in Hit Movie
The Harvard University classmates of Facebook founderMark Zuckerberg are
ending the legal battle made famous by the Hollywood movie "The Social
Network."
In a one-paragraph court filing Wednesday, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
said they would accept a settlement that was worth $65 million when
agreed upon in 2008.
The twins had sought to undo the settlement of $20 million cash and $45
million in stock.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the twins, saying
they had been represented by a squadron of Silicon Valley lawyers and
their father, a noted business professor.
The twins said Wednesday they would forgo a trip to the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Their stock is now worth more than $100 million.
Firefox 5 Begins Auto-Updates, Ends Firefox 4 Support
Mozilla released a new Firefox browser Tuesday as the first fruit of its
commitment to a new fast-track process under which the browser will be
automatically refreshed at eight-week intervals. The vast majority of
the Firefox 5 improvements are under the hood, including support for the
CSS Animations standard and a new privacy feature that lets users opt
out of tracking used for behavioral advertising.
Unlike previous Firefox releases, the launch of Firefox 5 came without
huge fanfare. But with the rollout, the Mozilla Foundation is also
ending security updates for Firefox 4, which received its final
scheduled patch in April.
"Firefox 5 will be the security update for Firefox 4 and delivered as a
minor update," wrote Firefox release manager Christian Legnitto late
last month in a Mozilla developer mail list. "We most definitely reserve
the right to change the plan later due to new information or invalid
assumptions, but we are currently driving to mark Firefox 4 as
unsupported when Firefox 5 comes out."
Some Firefox 4 users may not want to click on the upgrade to Firefox 5
pop-up window when it appears because of concerns about the new
version's compatibility with the plug-ins they are currently using. If
they delay updating or opt out of the process entirely, however, this
will leave them vulnerable to security holes.
On the other hand, Mozilla left the door open should a critical security
flaw arise in Firefox 4 that requires immediate attention. "But that
would be an 'unplanned' emergency release and not a planned one," wrote
Asa Dotzler, community coordinator for Firefox marketing projects.
Mozilla intends to treat Firefox 3.6 users differently from Firefox 4
users "because the jump from 3.6 to 4 is much larger than the jump from
4.0 to 5.0," Dotzler wrote. The goal is to "keep supporting 3.6 with
security updates and increasingly loud prompted updates to our latest
release until that number of users is low enough to make the updates
automatic."
Firefox held 21.74 percent of the global browser market at the end of
May, according to Net Applications, and its market share has hovered
around 22 percent for the past year. According to the web-metrics firm,
Firefox 4 had a 10.08 percent share last month, with Firefox 3.6 holding
9.14 percent.
Microsoft has already moved the majority of its Internet Explorer users
worldwide to IE8, which held 31.28 percent of the market in May,
according to Net Applications. But the software giant's latest IE9
offering has yet to gain much market traction with a tiny 4.19 percent
share. Additionally, 7.04 percent of all browser users worldwide were
still running IE7 at the end of May, and 10.36 percent were using IE6.
Mozilla's goal is to make each future browser release a nonevent for
users like Google's Chrome browser.
"Mozilla's shift to a rapid-release development cycle delivers
cutting-edge Firefox features, performance enhancements, security
updates, and stability improvements to users faster," a Mozilla blog
explained. "The latest version of Firefox includes more than 1,000
improvements and performance enhancements that make it easier to
discover and use all of the innovative features in Firefox."
Opera Lightens Its Desktop Web Browser
Opera, the Nordic company that makes the Web browser of the same name,
today teased a roadmap of improvements to its product, called Project
Featherweight, aimed at making the browser lighter and faster.
Jan Henrick Helmers, a user-experience and graphics specialist at the
company, posted today on Opera's blog the news that phase one of Project
Featherweight, which aims at making the browser "as light, bright, and
user-friendly as possible - without sacrificing power or flexibility,"
has been completed and released. "We want the user interface to match the
speed of our rendering engine," Helmers added.
Major changes that Opera users will notice right off the bat include a
newly designed address bar and status bar, with brighter yet softer
colors for background and borders. The toolbar icons have also been
refreshed. Opera has done away with the borders on buttons in the
address bar and has made the Home and Fast Forward buttons optional. Mac
users will see a new window gradient, too.
Although Helmers indicates that this rollout is "phase one" of the
project, he did not mention what other improvements will follow.
Project Featherweight comes on the heels of yesterday's news from Mozilla
announcing the availability of Firefox 5.0, which some users griped was a
bit of a numbers game, considering version 4.0 was made public just three
months ago.
Opera has been on the market since the mid 1990s. It gained popularity
outside of the United States, notably in the Ukraine, because it offered
support for some non-English language characters much earlier than other
browsers. Opera's mobile browser, Opera Mini, is reportedly the most
downloaded of all mobile browsers. The improvements seen in this first
phase of Project Featherweight appear to only apply to the desktop version
of the product.
DuckDuckGo: The Privacy-centric Alternative to Google
Remember when Altavista was the search engine? Or Yahoo? They stuffed
their search pages with useless, distracting crap, and using them became
unpleasant. And then, bam, along came Google, with a simple, clear search
page and uncluttered search results. However, now that Google has become
this massive behemoth, tracking our every move, and tailoring our search
results, leading to only being fed those pages you agree with - isn't it
time for something new? Something simple? It might be, and you've
undoubtedly heard of them: DuckDuckGo. I'm switching. Update: Just got an
email from Gabriel Weinberg, the guy behind DuckDuckGo. The OSNews !bang
(!osnews) is now live!
DuckDuckGo is a relatively new search engine that has really been gaining in
popularity recently. On OSNews alone several people regularly advise others
to try it out whenever we talk about online privacy. So, what are some of
the reasons you might want to try out DuckDuckGo?
First of all, DuckDuckGo doesn't track you, so you get real privacy when you
search the web. Google tracks pretty much everything you do so they can
better target you with advertisements. I have no problems with targeted
advertising, and I have no issues in and of itself with Google collecting
such information (in the end, I decide what I feed the web).
What does bother me, though, is the fact that I wouldn't be able to protect
myself if the US government ever subpoena'd Google to gain access to that
information. Of course, I am of no interest to them (even my porn habits
are incredibly boring), but it's the principle of the thing. Mind you that
this is not mindless US-bashing; the same concerns apply to my own
government and the EU. However, at least here in The Netherlands or even
the EU I would have some means to defend myself against such government
behaviour - I don't in the US.
That's why I love the idea of a search engine that doesn't track me. God
knows, I might develop some embarrassing illness in the future, and I would
rather keep something like that under wraps. DuckDuckGo is the answer here -
no tracking, no information sharing. DuckDuckGo doesn't send your search
terms to the web sites you visit. It also has various other privacy
features, such as the ability to use POST requests, HTTPS with the ability
to automatically force sites in the search results to also use HTTPS, and
integrated Tor functionality, so you can get completely end-to-end
anonymous and encrypted search.
More importantly though (at least for me) - DuckDuckGo tries to pop
something called the filter bubble. "A filter bubble is a concept developed
by internet activist Eli Pariser to describe a phenomenon in which search
queries on sites such as Google or Facebook or Yahoo selectively guess what
information a user would like to see based on the user's past search
history and, as a result, searches tend to play back information which
agrees with the user's past viewpoint," Wikipedia summarises, "Accordingly,
users get less exposure to conflicting viewpoints." In the below TED talk,
Pariser explains it in more detail.
So, is this all, or are there any other reasons to try DuckDuckGo? Well, I
really like the !bang syntax, which allows for all kinds of CLI-like
commands to be parsed to DuckDuckGo. Of course, things like !youtube query
work, but also something like !safeoff query to perform a single search
without safe search on. The list of !bangs is pretty extensive already, and
yes, I've sent them a request to have !osnews turned into a !bang, too.
Other interesting goodies are listed on the, uh, goodies page. Of course,
there are several browser extensions and smartphone applications for
DuckDuckGo as well.
DuckDuckGo isn't perfect, obviously. It doesn't do image search, for
instance (although you can use the !gi !bang for that), and more
annoyingly, it's kind of a hassle to switch 'locales'. With Google, when I
need to perform a Dutch search, I simply go to Google.nl and search from
there; for international searches, I go to Google.com. With DuckDuckGo, I'd
have to change locales in the settings page - as a translator, that's
incredibly annoying. I might shoot them an email and ask if
locale-switching could be done using !bangs (e.g. !nl query).
I'm starting the process of switching over to DuckDuckGo; it's now my
default search engine in Chrome. It'll take a little getting used to, but
then, I once switched from Altavista to Google without much hassle, so this
should work too. Competition is good, and boy, does Google need it.
Final Snow Leopard Update Paves Way for Mac OS X Lion
Apple has rolled out the final update for the version of Mac OS X known
as Snow Leopard. The 10.6.8 release is designed to pave the way for the
launch of Mac OS X Lion next month as well as deliver a number of
critical bug fixes for Mac stability and security.
Initially released in August 2009, Snow Leopard was primarily dedicated
to improving the performance and efficiency of Macs while reducing its
memory footprint. However, Snow Leopard didn't offer much in the way of
revolutionary new features. Mac OS X Lion promises to be different in
this respect.
Before Mac users can download Lion, however, they must first upgrade to
Snow Leopard 10.6.8, which has been specifically modified to make it
possible for Mac users to download the next generation Mac OS
exclusively from Apple's Mac App Store for $29.95. "By Apple having its
Mac user base running upgraded software, [this] will expose the Mac base
to new features, and increase the likelihood they remain on Mac," noted
Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Andrew Murphy.
Apple's final Snow Leopard update includes security fixes to combat new
variants of a pernicious scareware program that masquerades as
legitimate security software. According to Apple, Snow Leopard 10.6.8 is
able to identify and remove all known variants of the bogus Mac
Defender, which attempts to trick Mac users by pretending to detect
nonexistent viruses that the victim can remove by purchasing the "full
version" of the fake program with credit cards.
Apple released a Snow Leopard update at the end of May that was supposed
to discover and remove the Trojan program from infected Macs. However,
the cybercriminals behind the scam quickly unleashed immune variants
that continue to be a threat. With the 10.6.8 update, Apple hopes to
shut down the bogus Mac Defender for good. "Altogether, 40 bugs are
fixed in this update," according to security software firm Intego.
For example, Snow Leopard 10.6.8 slams the door on the ability of
maliciously crafted fonts embedded into documents to wreak havoc on Mac
machines. And users will no longer be susceptible to images with an
embedded ColorSync profile that were maliciously crafted, or have to
worry about someone with a privileged network position being able to
intercept their credentials or other sensitive information.
Apple's final Snow Leopard update contains improved support for IPv6 -
the next-generation Internet Protocol slated to replace succeed IPv4,
which is close to its ceiling of approximately 4.3 billion Internet
addresses. Apple also said the update will improve the reliability of
virtual private network (VPN) connections.
Still, Apple's 474MB Snow Leopard upgrade is primarily about rolling out
the red carpet for Mac OS X Lion, which will bring many of the features
of Apple iOS for mobile devices to the Mac platform. Among other things,
Lion will feature an intelligently articulated "launchpad" display of
the machine's installed apps as well as a new FileVault 2 program that
automatically encrypts the machine's hard drive.
Lion is designed to run on newer Macs equipped with selected
microprocessors from Intel, such as the Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5 and i7,
or one of the chipmaker's high-end Xeon chips. Other Lion requirements
include a minimum of 2GB of memory and 4G of free disk space. Older Macs
with PowerPC processors will not be able to upgrade to OS X Lion.
Penny Auction Sites Could Cost A Chunk of Change
An iPad for $88.07? An Xbox for $15.33? Sold!
The television commercials for online penny auctions may have viewers
fantasizing about scoring the latest tech gadgets at eye-popping
discounts. But they could be in store for a big letdown.
The issue is that penny auctions aren't as straightforward as the name
might sound. Unlike traditional auctions, participants have to pay to
bid on an item. Every bid they place also adds more time to the auction
clock. Those twists inject a gaming element into the shopping experience
that some say confuses participants about how much they're really
spending.
"It's not a typical auction where consumers can bid and pay only if they
win," notes Becky Maier, a spokeswoman for the Better Business Bureau of
Western Pennsylvania. "They're paying to play."
One class-action lawsuit against a major penny auction site alleges the
auctions are akin to a casino or lottery because the overwhelming
majority of customers end up losing money.
The industry was virtually nonexistent just two years ago, but has grown
to about 135 sites today, according to the research firm Technology
Briefing Centers Inc.
The Better Business Bureau says penny auctions first came on its radar
in 2009. The group issued consumer alerts on the sites shortly afterward
as a result of an unusually high volume of complaints.
Before signing up for one of these sites, here's what consumers need to
know:
How They Work
To start bidding on an item, penny auction sites require users to buy a
package of bids. Each bid typically costs 25 cents to $1, so a pack of
100 bids may cost $25 to $100.
The setup could make it seem like participants are only bidding a penny
at a time, even though the bids actually cost much more. Every bid also
puts another 10 seconds or so on the auction clock, meaning there's a
risk of getting caught up in the thrill of a bidding showdown.
To break down the economics of a sale, consider a flat-screen TV that
ends with a winning bid of $100. If the final bidder placed 20 bids
during the auction, the total cost would be $120 - $20 for the bids
(assuming each bid costs $1) plus $100 for the TV.
Even after tacking on a shipping fee, that's a steal and the winning
bidder comes out looking like a shopping genius. But everyone else who
took part in the auction is left lighter in the wallet with nothing to
show for it.
"It's only enjoyable if you win," says Zachary Schwartz, a 24-year-old
from Markle, Ind.
Schwartz decided to give Beezid.com a try about a year ago. He started
bidding on an iPad but quit after the price reached $100. He used up
about $80 in bids over the next few days without winning anything. He
hasn't gone on the site since.
Schwartz placed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and
ultimately received a refund from Beezid.com.
Another site, QuiBids.com, notes that it tries to soften the blow for
disappointed bidders. The site has a "buy now" feature that lets users
buy an item for its retail price. The amount they spent bidding is
credited toward the purchase.
So how can the sites afford to give such steep discounts? Consider an
item that sells for $100. Bidding starts at $0, so users would need to
have placed 10,000 bids to drive up the price by a penny at a time. If a
bid costs $1, the site would have raked in $10,000 on the sale. That's
not including the $100 the winner has to pay for the item.
Problems To Watch
The nature of the complaints received by the Better Business Bureau
spotlights the potential pitfalls. Most commonly, consumers said they
were automatically charged for free trials or that they couldn't reach
customer support. In other cases, consumers alleged that the sites used
automated programs to drive up bid prices. So before signing up for an
account, check with the BBB and research what users are saying about
their experiences online.
It's also a good idea to carefully read a site's terms and conditions
and understand the return policy. Also pay attention to whether there
are any upfront fees.
Seb Clements, a 25-year-old who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, says he
signed up for SwipeBids.com last year to do some Christmas shopping. The
site requested his credit card information as part of the sign-up
process. As soon as he hit the submit button, he received an email
saying he'd been charged a $175 membership fee. The fee included 100 bids.
He immediately tried to dispute the charge but there wasn't a phone
number on the website. During an online chat with a customer service
representative, he was told the money was not refundable.
"My wife and I ended up counting it as a life lesson," Clements says.
The Federal Trade Commission last month took action against the
operators of the site, alleging they swindled customers of $467 million
through multiple online scams.
Tips on Playing
Despite the many concerns, the BBB notes that there are legitimate penny
auction sites. Consumers who feel confident about giving it a try should
keep a couple strategies in mind.
It's important to be calculated about placing bids because each carries
a price tag. So before jumping into an auction, observe the site for a
few days. Check out the final sale prices and how long bidding typically
lasts for different types of items.
Auctions typically start with 24 hours on the clock. Generally the
bidding won't begin in earnest until around the final 15 seconds, so
it's a waste to place bids any sooner. Because each bid puts more time
on the clock, the "final" 15 seconds will likely stretch on for some time.
It's also good to get your feet wet with a small item. The competition
won't be as intense for a $15 gift card, for example, as for a
flat-screen TV.
Publicity Stunt? Dating Website Dumps 30,000 'Ugly' People
Is this for real?
Dating website BeautifulPeople.com has reportedly removed more than 30,000
members from its site, claiming a virus allowed too many "ugly" people in
last month.
Like the old college favorite HotOrNot.com, Beautiful People is a
members-only site where its half a million members get to vote on who should
be accepted, based purely on their looks. Applicants have 48 hours to be
voted in by members of the opposite sex.
But in a curiously worded press release issued Monday, BeautifulPeople.com
said its rating module had been attacked by the "Shrek" virus that let
thousands of people bypass the voting process. As a result, it had to reject
these members.
Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com, told PCMag in an
e-mail that the "Shrek" virus was time-activated to bring down the
site's rating system around the world. "It started in a few countries
only, then moved on to the entire system until it completely took over
the rating module," he wrote.
The virus has been contained and fixed internally, he said, and no
existing member information was compromised. Most of the rejects came
from the US, Canada, France, and Germany.
The company has also set up a "Removed Member Support Line"
(1-800-791-0662) that connected to voicemail when we tried calling
during its office hours.
Skeptical? So was Sophos Security's Graham Cluely, who called the breach
a "publicity stunt" in a blog post.
Cluely said the story was fishy because A) the company didn't inform any
other security firms about the malware, B) the virus didn't compromise
any private information of existing members, and C) the breach was
contained and being investigated internally.
"So, lots of publicity for the website but nothing for current or future
members to worry about then. How convenient!" Cluely wrote.
It wouldn't be the first time the company has tried to trick the press.
In 2009, BeautifulPeople.com launched an award-winning PR stunt by
convincing media outlets that its members had to re-apply for membership
after Christmas, if they had "let themselves go" during the holidays.
BeautifulPeople.com is headquarted in Los Angeles but its IT operations
are based in Denmark.
=~=~=~=
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