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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 15 Issue 11
Volume 15, Issue 11 Atari Online News, Etc. March 15, 2013
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2013
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 #1511 03/15/13
~ Reuters' Keys Indicted ~ People Are Talking! ~ ESRB PSA Campaign!
~ U.S. To Press China! ~ "Ratters" Are Watching ~ Protecting Privacy!
~ No to SimCity Servers! ~ Nintendo Held Liable! ~ Facebook Hashtags!
-* Cyber Teams To Prevent Attacks *-
-* Wii U Could Be Nintendo's First Flop *-
-* Cyber Attacks Leading Threat Against U.S.! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Happy St. Patrick's Day!! We're hoping that you're all planning to help
celebrate the wearin' o' the green this weekend. Plenty of green beer,
some corned beef and cabbage, and a shamrock or two! Yes, we're all a
little Irish this weekend, so you may as well enjoy it.
Our latest snowstorm is all but a memory now. The accumulated snow is
gone, with just a few small patches of snow sporadically littering the
yard. Finally, we may be seeing some early signs of Spring. Now, if
only the temperatures could stabilize a little higher than the past few
days, I'd be happy!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Wii U Could Be Nintendos First Flop!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" SimCity Servers Not Necessary?
ESRB Will Launch PSA Campaign!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Wii U Could Be Nintendos First Flop
Sales of Nintendos (NTDOY) Wii U gaming console continue to falter,
according to the latest retail figures. The NPD Group on Thursday released
its U.S. video game sales figures for the month of February, which shows
that overall sales of new hardware, software and accessories declined 25%
year-over-year. Individual hardware sales were hit the hardest, dropping
a whopping 36% from February 2012 as consumers wait for the Xbox 720"
and PlayStation 4.
All eyes were on Nintendo, however, following the companys disastrous
January performance. Wii U sales were estimated to have only reached
between 45,000 and 59,000 units during the first month of this year,
marking one of the worst months for Nintendo in recent years.
Gamesultra reports that February sales were affected negatively by holiday
returns when consumers couldnt resell the system at a profit as they
could with the original Wii. But in its third month on shelves, sales of
the Wii U improved slightly. NPD Group revealed that weekly sales on
average increased around 40% in February, which Gamesultra estimates to
mean that monthly sales of around 64,000 units.
Although sales increased, the Wii U continues to fall behind
previous-generation consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Maxis Insider Tells RPS: SimCity Servers Not Necessary
In all the fuss and mess of the disastrous SimCity launch, one refrain has
been repeated again and again. While legions may be begging for an offline
mode, EA representatives have been abundantly clear that this simply isnt
possible. Maxis studio head, Lucy Bradshaw, has told both Polygon and
Kotaku that they offload a significant amount of the calculations to our
servers, and that it would take a significant amount of engineering work
from our team to rewrite the game for single player.
A SimCity developer has got in touch with RPS to tell us that at least the
first of these statements is not true. He claimed that the server is not
handling calculations for non-social aspects of running the game, and that
engineering a single-player mode would require minimal effort.
Our source, who we have verified worked directly on the project but
obviously wishes to remain anonymous, has first-hand knowledge of how the
game works. He has made it absolutely clear to us that this repeated claim
of server-side calculations is at odds with the reality of the project he
worked on. Our source explains:
The servers are not handling any of the computation done to simulate
the city you are playing. They are still acting as servers, doing some
amount of computation to route messages of various types between both
players and cities. As well, theyre doing cloud storage of save games,
interfacing with Origin, and all of that. But for the game itself? No,
theyre not doing anything. I have no idea why theyre claiming otherwise.
Its possible that Bradshaw misunderstood or was misinformed, but
otherwise Im clueless.
People were already perplexed by EAs explanation of the impossibility of
offline play. Kotaku ran a series of tests today, seeing how the game
could run without an internet connection, finding it was happy for around
20 minutes before it realised it wasnt syncing to the servers. Something
which would surely be impossible were the servers co-running the game
itself. Markus Notch Persson just tweeted to his million followers that
he managed to play offline too, despite EAs claims. And now with the
information from our source, it would seem the claims just dont hold
water.
So what are the servers doing? Well, alongside the obvious, of being
involved in allowing players to share the same maps for their cities, and
processing imports and exports between them, theyre really there to check
that players arent cheating or hacking. However, these checks arent in
real-time in fact, they might take a few minutes, so couldnt be
directly involved in your game.
Because of the way Glassbox was designed, simulation data had to go
through a different pathway. The game would regularly pass updates to the
server, and then the server would stick those messages in a huge queue
along with the messages from everyone else playing. The server pulls
messages off the queue, farms them out to other servers to be processed
and then those servers send you a package of updates back. The amount of
time it could take for you to get a server update responding to something
youve just done in the game could be as long as a few minutes. This is
why they disabled Cheetah mode, by the way, to reduce by half the number
of updates coming into the queue.
Clearly an offline game that included a single-player simulation of the
region system derived from multiplayer would be more challenging to
develop, but our source assured us that it was far from impossible.
So how difficult would it be for EA to create a single-player game that
simply did away with the multiplayer-derived aspects and just let us
build? It seems that lies somewhere between easy peasy and Bradshaws
claims of significant engineering. According to our source:
It wouldnt take very much engineering to give you a limited
single-player game without all the nifty region stuff.
EAs claims about the necessity of online play claims that more people
are seeing for themselves not to be true, just by running the game with
the internet cable yanked out seem inexplicable.
Wed obviously be very interested to hear a proper explanation.
ESRB Will Launch PSA Campaign To Educate Parents
A newly introduced national campaign will encourage parents to better
monitor the games their children play by reviewing the Entertainment
Software Rating Boards video game ratings.
The campaign, which will see the development of new Public Service
Announcements in addition to the PSAs already in use by the ESRB, will
also encourage parents to take advantage of the seldom-used parental
controls on video game consoles.
The video game industry makes games for people of all ages, but that
doesnt mean all games are appropriate for everyone, says U.S. Senator
John Thune.
The more parents know about the wealth of dynamic tools the video game
industry has developed for monitoring game play, the more empowered they
will be to make informed decisions about which video games are
appropriate for their family, adds Representative Debbie Wasserman
Schultz.
Currently, 30% of parents do not regularly check the ESRB before making
game purchases for their child. The new PSAs, which will be distributed to
both local and national broadcast networks, will work to reduce this
figure. Work will be undertaken to extend the current ESRB rating system
to smartphone, tablet, and online social games, and game retailers will
be using both their physical stores and their online networks to educate
their customers.
Thune praises heightening the awareness of the ESRB ratings, saying, I
commend the industry for raising awareness of the tools available to
parents that can help them make informed decisions about the games their
children play.
U.S. Jury Finds Nintendo Liable for Patent Infringement
A federal jury in New York on Wednesday found that video game company
Nintendo Co infringed an inventor's 3-D display technology patent with
its handheld 3DS videogame system.
The jury awarded the inventor, Seijiro Tomita, $30.2 million in
compensatory damages.
The patent relates to technology that Tomita developed for providing 3-D
images without the need for 3-D glasses.
In opening arguments last month, Tomita's attorney, Joe Diamante, told the
jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that Nintendo used technology
that Tomita developed for its 3DS. Tomita is a former longtime Sony Corp
employee.
But Scott Lindvall, a defense attorney for the Super Mario Bros franchise
creator, argued that the 3DS doesn't use key aspects of Tomita's patent.
Lindvall also said a 2003 meeting with Nintendo officials that Tomita
cited in his argument was merely one of several the company held with
vendors selling 3-D display technology.
Tomita, 58, sued Nintendo and its U.S. unit in 2011 for patent
infringement. Tomita was not present in the courtroom on Wednesday.
"We are thankful to the jurors for their diligence and hard work,"
Diamante said in an e-mail after the verdict. "It has been a honor to
represent Mr. Tomita and to protect his invention."
Lindvall declined to comment following the verdict. Nintendo officials
were not immediately available for comment.
Violent Video Games Make People Violent. But So Do Pictures of Snakes.
The following blog was, unless otherwise noted, independently written by
a member of Gamasutra's game development community. The thoughts and
opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Gamasutra or its
parent company.
Want to write your own blog post on Gamasutra? It's easy! Click here to
get started. Your post could be featured on Gamasutra's home page, right
alongside our award-winning articles and news stories.
Recently President Barack Obama called for more research into the link
between violent video games and gun violence. More research isnt a bad
thing, it isnt a bad thing at all. Since 1982 there have been 62
mass-shooting events in the United States alone. National tragedies,
senseless acts of violence that each resulted in a tragic loss of life.
News cycles target gun control, violence in films and music, and
inevitably the discussion shifts to interactive media and video games.
For nearly thirty years weve been having this discussion, asking the
question: do violent movies, music or video games make people violent?
Well according to Brad Bushman and Craig Anderson of Iowa State
University, yes. Based on the results of their research they concluded in
2001 that video games and violent media can make people aggressive and
violent. Based upon their data and their conclusions, however, its safe
to say that photos of snakes, crispy bacon, or a particularly rigorous
game of chess can also make people aggressive and violent.
For all the vitriol on both sides of the debate, theres a shocking lack
of attention given to the research and scholarship of the last three
decades. Its a relatively small body of work, but despite its size some
researchers particularly North American researchers have no problems
with making broad, sweeping statements about their findings. Craig
Anderson even likens the causal link between violent video games and
violent behavior to the link between unprotected sex and HIV infection
rates.
In 2004 the United Kingdoms Home Office conducted a meta-analysis of
available and relevant scholarship regarding aggression and violent media,
in particular video games. In the largest behavioral research database in
the United States they found only thirty-five relevant articles that
dealt with aggression and violence in video games, out of one hundred
sixty-four thousand. Only twenty-two of those were from peer-reviewed
journals and only nine of those sources dealt directly with violent video
games.
It took forty years and thousands of studies before scientific communities
within the U.S. could confidently claim that cigarettes were harmful, but
based on a single study Anderson, Bushman and a handful of other scholars
feel comfortable claiming an that there exists an undeniable link between
a single factor in an individuals life and the development of
aggressively violent behavior.
Unfortunately for Anderson and Bushman, the reality is much more nuanced.
The aggression they define in their study is a short-term increase in
heart rate, blood pressure, and aggressive or competitive thoughts and
actions. A reaction familiar to anyone whos ever played a competitive
sport. Its also a familiar physiological response for anyone whos ever
seen a photo of a snake or dangerous predator; its a typical arousal
response enhanced by competitive stimuli and excitement as indicated by
any number of empirical studies on human autonomic responses. Music,
films, TV, even books can elicit such a response from an average
individual.
The BBC series Child of Our Time began in 2000 and set out to document the
lives of several different newborns over a twenty-year span. In 2005, a
BBC film crew caught up with one of the children born at the beginning of
the series. A young boy named Ethan, who was quite fond of violent video
games, but who had an otherwise stable and supportive family life was
observed before and after playing a round of the single player campaign in
Halo.
Afterward, he was excitable, aggressive, argumentative, hyper-active and
had difficulty settling down to go to bed. Clearly, the violence and
excitement of an M-rated game had a negative effect on young Ethan. The
next day at school, he was observed in the schoolyard.
What filmmakers saw was a well-adjusted boy who was very popular, likeable
and played incredibly well with others. He exhibited above average
prosocial behavior for his age and was described by his teachers as a
bright and patient child.
Later, when Ethan played Halo against the inexperienced Professor Robert
Wilson one of the shows creators he was reluctant to hurt his new
friend. Instead he preferred to show Professor Wilson how to interact with
the virtual world and how to play the game.
The discussion should not focus upon violent video games or violent visual
media, it should focus on risk factors that might cause media to affect
different people in different ways. Clearly, Ethan is not a representative
case; he comes from an upper-middle class family, he is physically,
socially and mentally healthy as a result of his surroundings and
upbringing.
Anecdotal evidence is certainly not an adequate alternative for serious
research and scholarship. But in this case, the time BBC filmmakers spent
with Ethan and his family suggests that at the very least, the questions
we need to be asking are not the questions we have been asking. There is
no single cause of violence and likewise no single study that would
provide conclusive proof that violence in visual media is harmful to all
people, or healthy for all people.
Vladimir Nabokovs novel Lolita is the story about a middle-aged man
pursuing a sexual relationship with an under-age girl. Its a story about
modern romantic relations and the dangers of sexual temptation. But with
such provocative subject matter, it becomes a very different story in the
hands of a sexual predator than it is in the hands of a comparatively
low-risk individual. Similarly, researchers like Jeanne Funk of the
University of Toledo suggest that violent video games may provide a very
different experience to children and adults with existing maladaptive
disorders and other psychological risk factors. But because the bulk of
the scientific research to come out of North America focuses upon
experimental and lab-based research, and comes from a very narrow branch
of academic psychology, there hasnt been a substantial effort by the
academic community to re-frame the question in order to find answers that
are more helpful than simply observing physiological responses.
Media does not create appetites or behaviors, but it can attract people
with certain appetites or behaviors for whom the experience may be a very
different thing.
If nothing else, the body of scholarship regarding violent video games and
violent visual media suggests overwhelmingly that more research needs to
be done. As it stands, most North American scholarship finds their
causal and correlational links between violent media and real world
violence in short-term experimental studies conducted in a lab setting.
While European scholarship finds little to indicate any connection between
the two and instead places the emphasis on the social and longitudinal
aspects of how violent video games fit into the lives of their subjects.
Guy Cumberbatch of the Video Standards Council, the leading media watchdog
group in the UK, goes so far as to say:
The evident weakness in the individual studies and the general pattern of
inconsistent findings would not normally lead us to expect researchers to
make any strong claims about video games. However, this is far from the
case. As with other research on media violence, some of the strongest
claims are made on the most flimsy of evidence.
Like any serious matter of public health, the discussion and investigation
of the effects that violent visual media have on children and adults needs
to be carried out with a measured tone, allowing the data to speak for
itself. Unfortunately, too many studies to come out of North America reach
conclusions that are at best incongruent with the data they present.
If the body of existing research is inadequate to fully answer the
question at hand, perhaps then we might find at least some correlational
information in crime statistics over the past fifteen years a period
during which violent video games with exceptional levels of detail have
come to dominate the holiday release cycles.
The worlds three largest markets for video games are the United States,
Japan and the United Kingdom. With that in mind, it stands to reason that
the proportion of homicide or violent crime in the worlds three largest
markets for video games might show some similar trends. The populations
of the US, Japan and UK are very different in both size and composition,
but if violence in visual media in particular, video games had a
tangible effect on the rates of violent crime we could expect to see
similar levels of violent crime in all three nations.
Fortunately, this is not the case. Over the past ten years homicide rates
in the US, Japan and UK have declined significantly. Additionally, in 2012
the United States had 4.8 homicides per hundred thousand people, while
Japan and the UK had .4 and 1.2 respectively. The raw numbers are more
shocking but the proportional estimates are a bit more illustrative: the
three largest consumers of violent visual media have some of the lowest
homicide rates in the world.
Assuming the existence of the causal link suggested by the work of
Anderson, Bushman and others of their school of thought, it would be safe
to assume that the homicide rates of the largest consumers of violent
video games should be proportionally similar, and certainly not a
illustrate decade long downward trend in all reports of violent crime.
Still, the knowledge base that we have is woefully inadequate. More
research needs to be done, if not with the intention of finding a causal
link between violence and violent media then certainly in order to
identify which individuals might be more sensitive to violent media.
However inadequate our current understanding of violent media in modern
society may be, statistics and good, thoughtful, scholarship can point us
in the right direction if we give them the attention they deserve.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Cyber Attacks Leading Threat Against U.S.
Intelligence leaders said for the first time on Tuesday that cyber attacks
and cyber espionage have supplanted terrorism as the top security threat
facing the United States.
That stark assessment, in an annual "worldwide threat" briefing that
covered concerns as diverse as North Korea's belligerence and Syria's civil
war, was reinforced in remarks by the spy chiefs before the Senate
Intelligence Committee.
They expressed concern that computer technology is evolving so quickly it
is hard for security experts to keep up.
"In some cases, the world is applying digital technologies faster than our
ability to understand the security implications and mitigate potential
risks," James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, told the
committee.
In written testimony, Clapper softened his analysis somewhat, playing down
the likelihood of catastrophic attacks on the United States in the near
term - either through digital technologies, or from foreign or domestic
militants employing traditional violence.
But this year's annual threat briefing underscored how, a decade after the
Iraq war began and nearly two years after the killing of al Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden, digital assaults on government and computer networks have
supplanted earlier security fears.
On Monday, White House national security adviser Tom Donilon, citing
complaints from U.S. businesses about alleged Chinese cyber espionage,
said the issue is a growing challenge to economic relations between the
United States and China.
China said on Tuesday it was willing to meet Donilon's request that
Beijing talk with the United States about cyber security.
Last month, a private U.S. computer security company issued a study
accusing a secretive Chinese military unit of being behind hacking attacks
on a wide range of American industries.
China has denied such reports, and says it is a victim of cyber spying by
the U.S. government.
The annual economic loss from cyber attacks is estimated to be in the tens
of billions of dollars.
In a separate hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services
committee, Army General Keith Alexander, head of the U.S. military's Cyber
Command, said cyber attacks on private companies and in particular on the
U.S. banking sector were getting worse. He predicted that the intensity
and number of attacks will grow significantly throughout the year.
Alexander said the military was beefing up its cyber warrior team, adding
troops from across the military as well as civilians. He said there would
be three teams: a Cyber National Mission force which will deploy teams to
defend against national-level threats; a Cyber Combat Mission force in
charge of operational control; and a Cyber Protection force which will
defend the military's information systems.
The goal is to add the new resources to the teams by the end of 2015, but
one third of them are planned to be in place by this September.
Clapper also used Tuesday's Intelligence Committee hearing to give an
alarming account of how U.S. intelligence capabilities will be damaged if
Congress does not move to ease financial pressures caused by automatic
across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration.
Due to funding cutbacks, thousands of FBI employees could face furloughs,
five thousand intelligence contractors could be terminated, cyber
security efforts could be affected and older overhead intelligence
collection systems - spy satellites - could face cutbacks, he said.
Intelligence agencies at a minimum want Congress to give them the
authority to redistribute cuts among programs "to minimize the damage," he
said.
Clapper presented to the Senate panel a 34-page paper that ran through a
wide variety of threats covered by U.S. intelligence agencies, from
continuing Middle East instability to what is predicted to be China's
continuing domination of the world's supply of rare earth elements.
On two of the most volatile global crisis points, the U.S. spy agencies'
assessment was restrained.
While Iran is improving its expertise in technologies including uranium
enrichment and ballistic missiles, which could be used in a nuclear
weapons program, the intelligence community does not believe Iran's
leadership has decided to build a nuclear weapon and does not know if or
when it might do so.
This assessment is consistent with a controversial 2007 finding, known as
a National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded Tehran had "halted its
nuclear weapons program" in fall 2003 and had not restarted it as of
mid-2007, although it was keeping open the option of building nuclear
weapons.
On Syria, U.S. spy agencies assessed that the erosion of the government of
President Bashar al-Assad's ability to defend itself is accelerating.
Assad's forces have stopped insurgents from seizing cities such as Aleppo,
Damascus and Homs, but the agencies say insurgents have been gaining
strength in rural areas. This could ultimately lead to the establishment
of a "more permanent base" for the rebels in Idlib province along the
border with Turkey.
The listing of cyber-related attacks as the top item in the annual threat
assessment is a departure from assessments offered previously. In 2011 and
2012, the first threat listed in the agencies' annual assessment to
Congress was terrorism.
Pentagon Forming Cyber Teams To Prevent Attacks
The Defense Department is establishing a series of cyber teams charged
with carrying out offensive operations to combat the threat of an
electronic assault on the United States that could cause major damage and
disruption to the country's vital infrastructure, a senior military
official said Tuesday.
Gen. Keith Alexander, the top officer at U.S. Cyber Command, warned during
testimony that the potential for an attack against the nation's electric
grid and other essential systems is real and more aggressive steps need to
be taken by the federal government and the private sector in order to
improve digital defenses.
Alexander told the Senate Armed Services Committee that foreign leaders
are deterred from launching cyberattacks on the United States because
they know such a strike could be traced to its source and would generate
a robust response.
But the country is not preventing what Alexander called "low-level
harassment of private and public websites, property and information by
other states." He did not mention any specific countries, even though the
Obama administration is escalating its criticism of cyber thefts by China
that have become intolerable to the international community.
Offensive cyber weapons are growing and evolving, Alexander said, and it
is only a matter of time before tools developed by other nations wind up
in the hands of extremist groups or even individuals who could do
significant harm.
Alexander said 13 cyber teams are being formed for the mission of guarding
the nation in cyberspace. He described them as "defend-the-nation" teams
but stressed their role would be offensive. In comments to reporters after
the hearing, Alexander likened the teams' duties to knocking an incoming
missile out of the sky before it hits a target. He also said the teams
would work outside the United States, but he did not say where.
He also said another 27 cyber teams are being established to support the
military's warfighting commands while others will protect Defense
Department's computer systems and data.
But even as Alexander detailed these moves, he pushed lawmakers to pass
cybersecurity legislation that would make it easier for the government
and the private sector which controls critical infrastructure such as
the electric grid, banking systems, chemical facilities and water
treatment systems to share detailed information about who is getting
hacked and what to do about it.
President Barack Obama signed an executive order last month that relies
heavily on participation from U.S. industry in creating new voluntary
standards for protecting information and expands the government's effort
to provide companies with threat data. But the order doesn't do enough to
address the threat, administration officials said. Unresolved issues
include the legal liability facing companies if they divulge information,
and whether companies should be compelled to meet certain security
standards.
The general also told the committee that there needs to be a clear
consensus on how the nation is organized to protect critical
infrastructure from cyberattacks. "It takes a team to operate in
cyberspace," Alexander said. "But at times I think in talking about the
team approach, we're not clear on who's in charge when."
Another issue that still needs to be settled is what constitutes an act of
war in cyberspace, Alexander said. He does not consider cyberespionage and
the theft of a corporation's intellectual property to be acts of war. But
Alexander said, "I think you've crossed the line" if the intent is to
disrupt or destroy U.S. infrastructure.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee's chairman, noted that Obama
recently issued a classified policy directive to govern cyber operations.
The Pentagon also has developed a list of procedures on how to respond in
"cyber crisis" situations, he added, and the Pentagon is expected to
issue cyber rules of engagement for military commanders.
"The fact that these foundational policy frameworks and planning actions
are just now taking shape serves as a stark illustration of how immature
and complex this warfare domain remains," Levin said.
Alexander said the private sector maintains varying degrees of security
over its computer systems. The financial industry typically is more secure
than companies that operate the electric grid. Still, he said, banks are
vulnerable to being disrupted by what are called denial of service
attacks, a technique that works by overloading a website with traffic.
"The issue that we're weighing is, when does a nuisance become a real
problem?" Alexander said. "And when are you prepared to step in for that?
And that's the work that, I think, the administration is going through
right now in highlighting that."
Alexander's testimony comes a day after Obama's national security adviser
called for "serious steps" by China to stop cyber theft that has become
intolerable to the international community.
The remarks on Monday by Tom Donilon before the Asia Society in New York
underscore the growing concern in Washington over the security risks posed
by cyber thefts and intrusions and the economic costs to U.S. businesses.
American companies are being more vocal about cyber theft emanating from
China "on a very large scale." He said Beijing "should take serious steps
to investigate and put a stop to these activities" and recognize the risk
to international trade and to U.S.-China relations.
The Obama administration last month announced new efforts, including a new
diplomatic push to discourage intellectual property theft abroad, to fight
the growing theft of American trade secrets following the release of a
report that linked China's military to the electronic theft of corporate
trade secrets and U.S. government data.
After analyzing breaches that compromised more than 140 companies, the
private security firm Mandiant has concluded that they can be linked to
the People's Liberation Army's Unit 61398, a secret Chinese military
organization based in Shanghai.
The Chinese government denied being involved in cyber theft, with China's
defense minister calling the Mandiant report deeply flawed. China's
Foreign Ministry said that country has also been a victim of hacking, much
of it traced to the United States.
Levin asked Alexander if U.S. intelligence agencies can determine not only
which Chinese government organizations are stealing U.S. intellectual
property, but also what Chinese companies may be receiving that
intellectual property and using it to compete against U.S. firms.
But Alexander declined to be specific in open setting, saying only that
the intelligence agencies have increased their capabilities in this area
significantly over the last several years.
After the hearing, Alexander said he saw no reason to amplify Donilon's
remarks. "I agree with what Tom Donilon has put out there," he said. "I
think it is absolutely on mark."
U.S. To Press China on Cyber Attacks, Seek Deeper Ties
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will press China to take "serious steps" to
stop cyber attacks directed at the United States and urge the
administration of new Chinese President Xi Jinping to accelerate economic
reforms, a U.S. official said on Friday.
Lew's visit to Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday comes at a crucial time,
the official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "China is
undergoing their once-in-a-decade leadership transition and, of course,
their reform process is at a crossroads."
"It's important to deepen our relationship with China's new leadership
team at this time," the official said.
Lew lacks the international stature of his predecessor, Timothy Geithner,
and is signaling the importance the United States put on its economic
relationship with China by making his first international trip as
secretary to Beijing.
Secretary of State John Kerry in coming weeks will also make his first
trip to China since taking office last month.
Both Kerry and Lew will host their Chinese counterparts in Washington in
the middle of this year for the annual U.S-China Strategic and Economic
Dialogue, the official said.
China's legislature formally chose Li Keqiang as premier on Friday,
installing the English-speaking bureaucrat as the man in charge of the
world's second-largest economy.
President Barack Obama raised U.S. concerns about computer hacking in a
phone call with Xi on Thursday, just days after U.S. intelligence leaders
said for the first time that cyber attacks and cyber espionage had
supplanted terrorism as the top security threat facing the United States.
"We will press China to take serious steps to investigate and put a stop
to these activities and to engage with us in a constructive direct
dialogue to establish acceptable norms of behavior in cyberspace,
recognizing it is a growing challenge for both of us," the senior U.S.
official said.
Lew will also press China to allow its currency to rise further against
the dollar and push on other concerns such as increased market access for
U.S. goods and better protection of intellectual property rights, the
official said.
China's yuan has appreciated 16 percent in real terms against the dollar
since June 2010. "More progress, however, is needed," the official said.
Thomson Reuters Employee Indicted for Aiding Hackers
A federal grand jury has indicted Matthew Keys, deputy social media editor
at Reuters.com, for conspiring with members of the Anonymous hacking
collective to break into the computers of his former employer, Tribune Co.
The alleged incident occurred before he joined Thomson Reuters Corp, the
indictment filed on Thursday indicated.
The indictment charged Keys with three criminal counts, including
conspiracy to transmit information to damage a protected computer. The
indictment said that he promised to give hackers access to Tribune Co.
websites and that a story on the Tribune's Los Angeles Times website was
later altered by one of them.
Keys did not respond to requests for comment. But several hours after the
indictment was handed down, he tweeted: "I found out the same way most of
you did: From Twitter. Tonight I'm going to take a break. Tomorrow,
business as usual." His attorney did not return a phone call seeking
comment.
A Thomson Reuters spokesman said the company was aware of the indictment
and added: "Any legal violations, or failures to comply with the
company's own strict set of principles and standards, can result in
disciplinary action. We would also observe the indictment alleges the
conduct occurred in December 2010; Mr. Keys joined Reuters in 2012."
The company did not comment on Keys's employment status. However, a
Thomson Reuters employee at the New York office where Keys worked said
that his work station was being dismantled and that his security pass had
been deactivated.
The documents in the case paint a picture of a disgruntled former Tribune
employee who fell in with some of the most notorious hackers in the
countryand then worked with them, as well as against them.
The case began in early December 2010, when Fox 40, a Tribune-owned
television station in Sacramento, Calif., received emails saying someone
had claimed to have an internal list of employees, according to an
affidavit for a search warrant submitted by Los Angeles-based Federal
Bureau of Investigation agent Gabriel Andrews.
A former colleague suggested Keys as a suspect, according to the FBI
affidavit, because he had been terminated as an employee in October 2010
and then refused to hand over control of the Facebook and Twitter accounts
he had run for Fox 40.
Within weeks of the first suspicious email, the affidavit said Keys told
the same colleague that he had penetrated an elite chat group used by some
of the most sophisticated members of Anonymous. According to the
affidavit, Keys said he had learned of upcoming attacks on the Tribune's
Los Angeles Times, eBay's PayPal and other companies. Two days later, a
story on Latimes.com was defaced.
When Keys learned that a member of the hacking group had changed the Times
story, Keys responded "nice," according to the indictment.
Transcripts of the electronic chats excerpted in the affidavit and the
indictment show someone using the nickname AESCracked offered to grant
access to Tribune computers to others in the chat group. "Let me see if I
can find some other users/pass I created while there," he wrote after
previous credentials were denied access, the indictment said. The
indictment says Keys used the nickname AESCracked.
The documents appear to show Keys playing a double game for weeks before
getting kicked out of the chat group. As a journalist between jobs, he
took screenshots of the hacking group's chats and sent them to media
outlets, he wrote later on a personal blog cited by the FBI.
He claimed credit for that work in a posting on his personal website in
March 2011, writing: "I identified myself as a journalist during my
interaction."
But others in the chat room were furious at the leaks. The leading figure,
known as Sabu, said on Twitter days later that Keys was AESCracked and
"gave full control of LATimes.com to hackers."
Sabu, subsequently identified as Hector Xavier Monsegur, was arrested
later in 2011 and began cooperating secretly with the FBI while
continuing to lead an Anonymous spinoff called LulzSec, according to court
documents.
The probe of Monsegur, who is awaiting sentencing for more serious
breaches at Sony and elsewhere and is continuing to cooperate with
prosecutors, led to chat transcripts containing evidence against Keys, the
affidavit says.
Keys, now 26 and living in New Jersey, went to work for another television
station before joining Reuters in January 2012 as deputy social media
editor. He was relatively well known on Twitter, amassing more than 23,000
followers for his personal account, apart from his tweets under the
Reuters brand.
He also wrote occasional longer blog entries for Reuters, including at
least two about Anonymous. In a March 2012 entry, after Sabu's exposure,
Keys blogged about how he had gained entry to the elite chat group called
InternetFeds and said Sabu had confided his New York location and other
details.
One Sacramento acquaintance, Mona Vaughn, said Keys had "a pretty
extreme personality." She said she recommended him on LinkedIn before she
found out that he had disparaged a former employer.
At Reuters, where his main mission was to promote journalists' stories
through social media, Keys drew attention last October by covertly
creating a parody Twitter account, PendingLarry, which mocked Google
after a premature release of an earnings report that included a space
reserved for comment by CEO Larry Page. He was reprimanded by Reuters
editors for that incident.
The case against Keys is being prosecuted by Benjamin Wagner, U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern District of California, which includes
Sacramento. Keys could face a maximum of 25 years in prison.
In an interview, Wagner said that Keys appeared to have been acting
against Tribune primarily as an angry former employee.
But because Keys could have claimed he was acting as a journalist, Wagner
said the case was taken to high-level officials at the Justice Department
in Washington for approval multiple times "out of an abundance of
caution." Wagner declined to say whether Keys has been cooperating.
Some online activists used the Keys case to renew their criticism of the
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the anti-hacking law under which
Keys was indicted. Federal prosecutors used the law against Aaron Swartz,
a computer programmer who was accused of illegally distributing scholarly
articles and hanged himself in January.
Hanni Fakhoury, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said
the cases were fundamentally different but both highlighted the
excessively draconian punishments that prosecutors could seek under the
CFAA.
"Aaron's case was about taking information in a way he wasn't supposed to,
and this is about vandalism in its simplest form," Fakhoury said. "But
the similarities are in how the sentencing scheme is so dramatic under
the CFAA that he (Keys) could face 25 years."
Keys is scheduled to be arraigned on April 12 in Sacramento, according to
the court docket.
The case in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, is United
States of America v. Matthew Keys, 13-82.
Proposal Protects Workers' Social Media Privacy
Employers would be prohibited from requesting the username and password
of an applicant or employee's social media account under a measure
presented Thursday to the House Business and Labor Committee.
Bill sponsor Sen. Anders Blewett, D-Great Falls, said the proposal would
fill a void in Montana law to prevent employers from requesting the "keys
to someone's personal life" on social media websites such as Facebook
and personal email accounts.
In 2009, the city of Bozeman requested that potential employees
relinquish their social media and personal email usernames and passwords
before accepting employment with the city. The city abruptly ended the
practice after public outcry.
"I would analogize a private Facebook account, a private Gmail account,
no different than a house with a lock on it," Blewett said.
The measure, Senate Bill 195, wouldn't bar an employer from creating
restrictions that prohibit employees from using Facebook or other
distracting sites during the workday.
The bill also was amended to allow disclosure of usernames and passwords
for business Internet accounts and ensures employers the right to
complete thorough background checks of potential employees.
Opponents argued the measure would curb employers' ability to monitor
their employees' behavior, particularly if the employee posts sensitive
client information on a social media site. Employers also need the
information to conduct internal inquiries into employee harassment and
fraud, they said.
"This bill would prohibit an employer from actually conducting an
investigation into a situation where they suspect that one of their
employees is conducting corporate espionage," said Mark Baker, a lobbyist
representing the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce.
Blewett dismissed the arguments, saying such employers want to do the
jobs of law enforcement officers in cases of criminal activity, and
employers retain the right to establish rules pertaining to Internet use
in the workplace.
"The question is how far does an employer have to go when they are
screening potential employees," Blewett said. "This law would make it
clear that they don't have to go and ask for the keys of someone's
personal life."
The measure passed the Senate with a 48-2 vote and needs the committee's
endorsement to move to the full House.
Ratters They Watch Through Your Webcam
From hundreds of miles away, a man sits at his monitor watching an
unsuspecting woman use her computer, undress and go to sleep. She has no
idea shes being watched. The remote attacker has installed software to
control her webcam. Whats worse, hes recording all of her actions and
posting those videos on YouTube or trading the videos with other voyeurs
online.
This scenario is happening more and more; there are myriad photos and
videos available online indicating the practice is getting easier and
more popular with an online community called Ratters. They use Remote
Access Tools (R.A.T.s) to activate the webcams of compromised computers
and record video of unsuspecting users. They call the owners of these
infected computers slaves, and compromising videos, especially of
female slaves, are openly traded, and posted on YouTube.
The practice of taking over a computer is not new. Hackers have produced
software for years that gives complete control of a machine to a remote
attacker. Aspects of these tools are also common in the IT field for
offering remote tech support. But whats new is the community of remote
attackers who have formed in hacking forums to share or trade access to
the enslaved computers and talk about their exploits.
In a detailed article on Ars Technica, journalist Nate Anderson probes
into the members at hackforums.net, which he says has more than 134 pages
of posts featuring captured images and video of female slaves. Some are
recorded from webcams, and others are videos or images found on the hard
drives of compromised computers that their owners thought were private
and secure.
Beyond invading a victims privacy, Ratters have tools in their software
to scare or annoy remote victims. They can open and close their DVD
drives, display graphic images on screen, have the computer read aloud
using text-to-speech applications, or even hide the start button.
While this type of unauthorized computer intrusion is clearly against the
law, the fight against Ratting is a challenge. There are many free or
low-cost programs already available online, attackers are not usually
local or in close proximity to victims, and while any one forum of Ratters
could be shut down, others could easily pop up elsewhere.
Victims are infected with remote access tools the same way many viruses
spread: opening attachments, drive-by downloads from sketchy sites,
downloading files from torrents or file-sharing sites, or being tricked
into clicking links through social media sites.
The good news is that these tools can be detected and held at bay. First,
pay attention to the little light next to your webcam. If at anytime its
lit and you arent using your webcam, find out why its engaged by
running either an antivirus program or hitting ctrl-alt-del to see what
processes are actively running. If you see anything suspicious, its time
to disconnect from the Internet and disinfect.
Best practices to stay safe include using a firewall, keeping all software
up to date, and using an anti-virus program. Also, staying away from
torrent sites and sketchy websites will add a layer of protection, as many
Ratters seed files on these sites disguised as free videos, music or
software programs. If your paranoia is high and you really want to be sure
your webcam isnt spying on you, some have suggested taping a piece of
paper over the camera, but this does nothing to protect your information
or image/video files already on your computer.
Facebook Plans To Introduce Hashtags
Facebook might become a bit more like Twitter soon. According to reports
from The Wall Street Journal and All Things D, Facebook is experimenting
with using a popular Twitter feature - the hashtag.
According to the reports, Facebook is working on ways to incorporate the
hashtag into the service. Like it does on Twitter, the #+word combination
would group conversations around specific topics. Currently on Facebook
you can tag a topic or person who has a Facebook account or page, but you
cannot simply see what all Facebook users are saying about a specific
topic.
But it might be a while before you start seeing the # symbol showing up
in your feed. "It is unclear how far along Facebook's work on the hashtag
is and the feature isn't likely to be introduced imminently," the Wall
Street Journal reported yesterday. When reached by ABC News, a Facebook
spokesperson said, "We do not comment on rumor or speculation."
Instagram, which was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion last year,
also incorporates the hashtag. Users can tag their photos with hashtags
and they will be grouped together when you select that tag. The
functionality would also keep people on Facebook longer and talking about
specific topics, all which would be a boon for Facebook's advertisers,
the Journal said.
The functionality would also complement Facebook's new News Feed, which
was introduced last week. The new feed allows users to see feeds with
just specific types of content, including photos, games and music. This
week Facebook also rolled out a new design to its Timeline, which groups
status and updates on the left side and content and apps on the right.
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