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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 15 Issue 17
Volume 15, Issue 17 Atari Online News, Etc. April 26, 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 #1517 04/26/13
~ Internet Sales Tax & GOP ~ People Are Talking! ~ Next-gen Xbox Soon!
~ Hacker Suspect Busted! ~ Twitter Credibility? ~ "Do Not Track" Bill!
~ New Xbox & Core Win 8! ~ Cops Nab Lulzsec Boss! ~ McAfee To Block Piracy?
~ Google Makes Concession ~ Net Tax Being Blocked? ~ Social Media Rights?
-* Internet Requirement for Xbox *-
-* Military Grooms for Cyberspace War! *-
-* Facebook: Audit Finds Privacy Practices OK *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
We're still reeling from the tragedy in Boston and surrounding areas last
week. Now is the time for healing, and remembering those who were directly
affected during these events. We're beginning to learn more and more of
the details - of both the suspects and the victims. In order to heal, it's
important that we learn as much as possible - the why and the how, etc. I
don't know if we'll learn everything - probably not.
The city is healing, and the people are beginning move forward. Boylston St.
has re-opened and the people are once again mingling in an area that was
terrorized. And the investigation is moving forward; they're trying to make
sure that there are no stones left unturned.
It's a brief commentary, I know. Be Strong, Be Proud!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Microsoft To Reveal Next-generation Xbox!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Next-gen Xbox Reportedly To Run on Core Win8
ill Games Require Internet Connection?
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Microsoft To Reveal Next-generation Xbox on May 21
Microsoft Corp will unveil its much-anticipated next-generation Xbox on
May 21 following months of speculation the company is gearing up to
announce a new video game console this summer.
The company sent out media invitations on Wednesday, hinting it would be
announcing the successor to its seven-year old Xbox 360. A new console
from the software company will come on the heels of rival Sony's
announcement in February that it will launch the PlayStation4 this
holiday season.
Microsoft's May event will be held at its Xbox campus in Redmond,
Washington, just a month before the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in
Los Angeles, the gaming industry's largest annual convention, where
next-generation consoles will be spotlighted.
"On May 21, we'll mark the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and
entertainment," the company said on its official blog.
The Xbox 360 is the market-leading console that has an installed user base
of 76 million. Gaming blogs have been afire with speculation about what
features a next-generation console might offer, but Microsoft has been
tight-lipped so far.
The current version of the Xbox sports voice- and gesture-command
capabilities.
Next-gen Xbox Will Reportedly Run on Core Windows 8
Even if PC sales continue tanking, Windows 8 could get a significant boost
in adoption later this year just from eager gamers picking up the
next-generation Xbox. Paul Thurrott of WindowsITPro reports that the
next-generation Xbox will release in early November and will run on the
core version of Windows 8 that suggests a common apps platform or at
least one that is similar to that used by Windows 8. Thurrott speculates
that Microsoft could use the common app development platform as a way to
open up this platform to enthusiast developers and encourage more
development of native Xbox apps.
As far as pricing goes, Thurrott says that the Xbox will cost $299 up
front if users sign a two-year service agreement for an Xbox LIVE Gold
membership that will cost $10 per month. If users dont want to pay for a
Gold membership, they can buy the standalone Xbox for $499. Thurrott also
says that the next Xbox will require a connection to the Internet to use,
although he cautions that this feature isnt as Draconian as many seem
to believe. And finally, Thurrott says that Microsoft has for now
ditched the idea of releasing an entertainment-only Xbox that would
function more like a television set-top box and wouldnt have any gaming
capabilities.
Next-gen Xbox To Let Publishers Decide Whether Games Require Internet Connection
The next-generation Xbox is expected to include high-end hardware and a
variety of software improvements when Microsoft announces the system next
month. According to a new report from Polygon, the console will
incorporate the controversial requirement that users will need an Internet
connection to play some games, although the decision on whether a game
will require a constant Internet will be decided by the games publisher.
Polygon warns that Microsofts current guidelines can still change,
however.
The report goes on to claim that the next-generation Xbox will include the
ability to capture gameplay videos that can then be shared across
different social networks, similar to the Share button on PlayStation 4's
controller. Microsoft is said to be working on a DVR-like system that will
allow users to record gameplay, and go back and select highlights. Users
will have the option to disable or enable the function, or even set it up
to automatically capture certain in-game achievements such as making a
headshot or collecting a specific item.
Along with giving developers and publishers more control over copyright
protection of their games, they will also have the ability to add more
achievements to a game after it is launched, without having to add it as
optional downloadable content.
The latest rumors suggest the next-generation Xbox will be released in
early November for only $299. The system is rumored to be equipped with a
1.6GHz 8-core AMD processor, 8GB of RAM, an 800MHz graphics processor, a
Blu-ray Disc drive, Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and support for core
Windows 8 apps.
Microsoft will unveil the next Xbox at a press event on May 21st.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Dutch Cyberattack Suspect Arrested in Spain
Prosecutors say a Dutch citizen has been arrested in Spain in connection
with what experts described as the biggest cyberattack in the history of
the Internet, launched against an anti-spam watchdog group last month.
The Netherlands National Prosecution Office said a 35-year-old suspect it
identified only by his initials, S.K., was arrested Thursday at his home
in Barcelona. Authorities also seized computers and mobile phones.
According to a prosecution statement Friday, the man is suspected of
"unprecedentedly serious attacks on the non-profit organization Spamhaus."
He was held on a European arrest warrant and is expected to be extradited
to the Netherlands to face justice.
The so-called denial-of-service attack on Spamhaus fired a torrent of data
at the organization's servers and was blamed for other disruptions online.
Australian Cops Nab Self-proclaimed LulzSec Leader
The lulz have been few and far between for hacker collective LulzSec
lately since several of its members are facing prison terms, and now
Australias ABC News reports that Australian police have arrested an
unnamed 24-year-old man who is purportedly the self-proclaimed leader of
LulzSec. Police said that the alleged LulzSec hacker, who is known as
Aush0k online, is a senior Australian IT professional who works for the
local arm of an international IT company. The Australian Federal Police
arrested the man for allegedly accessing a restricted computer system and
for altering data with intent to cause harm. If convicted he could face a
maximum of 12 years in prison.
Military Grooms New Officers for War in Cyberspace
The U.S. service academies are ramping up efforts to groom a new breed of
cyberspace warriors to confront increasing threats to the nation's
military and civilian computer networks that control everything from
electrical power grids to the banking system.
Students at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies are taking more courses
and participating in elaborate cyberwarfare exercises as the military
educates a generation of future commanders in the theory and practice of
computer warfare.
The academies have been training cadets in cyber for more than a decade.
But the effort has taken on new urgency amid warnings that hostile nations
or organizations might be capable of crippling attacks on critical
networks.
James Clapper, director of national intelligence, called cyberattack the
top threat to national security when he presented the annual Worldwide
Threat Assessment to Congress this month. "Threats are more diverse,
interconnected, and viral than at any time in history," his report
stated. "Destruction can be invisible, latent, and progressive."
China-based hackers have long been accused of cyber intrusions, and
earlier this year the cybersecurity firm Mandiant released a report with
new details allegedly linking a secret Chinese military unit to years of
cyberattacks against U.S. companies. This year, The New York Times, The
Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post all reported breaches in their
computer systems and said they suspected Chinese hackers. China denies
carrying out cyberattacks.
On Tuesday, hackers compromised Associated Press Twitter accounts and sent
out a false tweet. AP quickly put out word that the report was false and
that its accounts had been hacked. AP's accounts were shut down until the
problem was corrected.
Once viewed as an obscure and even nerdy pursuit, cyber is now seen as
one of the hottest fields in warfare "a great career field in the
future," said Ryan Zacher, a junior at the Air Force Academy outside
Colorado Springs, Colo., who switched from aeronautical engineering to
computer science.
Last year the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., began requiring
reshmen to take a semester on cybersecurity, and it is adding a second
required cyber course for juniors next year.
The school offered a major in cyber operations for the first time this
year to the freshman class, and 33 midshipmen, or about 3 percent of the
freshmen, signed up for it. Another 79 are majoring in computer
engineering, information technology or computer science, bringing majors
with a computer emphasis to about 10 percent of the class.
"There's a great deal of interest, much more than we could possibly,
initially, entertain," said the academy's superintendent, Vice Adm.
Michael Miller.
Since 2004, the Air Force Academy has offered a degree in computer
science-cyberwarfare initially called computer science-information
assurance that requires cadets to take courses in cryptology,
information warfare and network security in addition to standard computer
science. The academy is retooling a freshman computing course so that
more than half its content is about cyberspace, and is looking into
adding another cyber course.
"All of these cadets know that they are going to be on the front lines
defending the nation in cyber," said Martin Carlisle, a computer science
professor at the Air Force Academy and director of the school's Center
for Cyberspace Research.
About 25 Air Force cadets will graduate this year with the computer
science-cyberwarfare degree, and many will go on to advanced studies and
work in their service's cyber headquarters or for U.S. Cyber Command at
Fort Meade, Md., the Defense Department command responsible for defensive
and offensive cyberwarfare.
Almost every Army cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.,
takes two technology courses related to such topics as computer security
and privacy. West Point also offers other cyber courses, and a computer
security group meets weekly. One of the biggest cybersecurity challenges
is keeping up with the head-spinning pace of change in the field.
"You know American history is pretty much the same" every year, said Lt.
Col. David Raymond, who teaches a cybersecurity course. "In this domain,
it's really tough to keep up with how this thing evolves."
In his congressional report, Clapper noted that the chance of a major
attack by Russia, China or another nation with advanced cyber skills is
remote outside a military conflict but that other nations or groups
could launch less sophisticated cyberattacks in hopes of provoking the
United States or in retaliation for U.S. actions or policies overseas.
South Korea accused North Korea of mounting a cyberattack in March that
shut down thousands of computers at banks and television broadcasters.
Gen. Keith Alexander, head of U.S. Cyber Command, told Congress in March
the command is creating teams to carry out both offensive and defensive
operations. A spokesman said the command is drawing cyber officers from
the service academies, officer schools and Reserve Officer Training Corps
programs.
Teams from the three academies compete in events such as last week's
National Security Agency Cyber Defense Exercise, in which they try to keep
simulated computer networks running as an NSA "aggressor team" attacks.
Teams from the U.S. Coast Guard and Merchant Marine academies also took
part, along with graduate students from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
and Canada's Royal Military College.
Air Force won among undergraduate schools. The Royal Military College won
among graduate schools.
That hands-on experience is invaluable, said 2nd Lt. Jordan Keefer, a 2012
Air Force Academy graduate now pursuing a master's degree in
cyberoperations at the Air Force Institute of Technology.
"You can't just go out there and start hacking. That's against the law,"
he said. The competitions, he said, "gave me actual experience defending
a network, attacking a network."
Counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, noting that really high-level
computer skills are rare, suggested the military might have to re-examine
some of its recruiting standards to attract the most adept cyberwarriors.
"Hackers are the 1 percent, the elite and the creators," said Clarke, who
served as White House cybersecurity adviser during the Clinton
administration. "I wouldn't worry a whole heck of a lot (about whether
they) can they run fast or lift weights."
Cyber's appeal was enough to get Keefer to put aside his dream of becoming
a fighter pilot, a job with undeniable swagger. "It's a challenge, and for
people who like a challenge, it's the only place to be," Keefer said.
Google Makes Concessions to EU Antitrust Body
Google is offering major concessions on how it displays search results in
Europe including a better labeling of its own promoted content and
displaying links to its competitors to appease concerns it might be
abusing its dominant market position, the European Union's antitrust body
said Thursday.
Google's search engine, which is the world's most influential gateway to
online information and commerce, enjoys a near-monopoly in Europe. The EU
Commission, which acts as the 27-nation bloc's antitrust authority, has
since 2010 been investigating whether the company is unfairly stifling
competition. It pointed out several areas of concern that Google is now
trying to address through the proposed concessions.
Google has offered to more clearly label search results stemming from its
own services such as YouTube, Google Maps or its shopping search function,
allowing users to distinguish between natural search results and others
promoted by Google. It also agreed to display some search results from its
competitors and links to their services, the EU Commission said.
The Commission has often taken a harder line with U.S. tech companies than
its American counterparts, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice
Department. Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, was able
to settle a similar antitrust complaint on its search business with the
FTC in January without making any major concessions on how it runs its
search engine.
The Commission is now proposing a market test of the concessions for a
month as a test run. That would give competitors the chance to say whether
they deem them sufficient.
Once the Commission accepts them revised or not they become legally
binding for the company for the next five years. Google has worked
closely with the Commission on the concessions' design until formally
submitting them earlier this month.
"The objective of this process is to try to see if we can achieve a
settled outcome in this antitrust investigation," said Commission
spokesman Antoine Colombani.
The Commission said Google will "clearly separate promoted links from
other web search results by clear graphical features" and "display links
to three rival specialized search services close to its own services, in
a place that is clearly visible to users."
Google will also give all websites the option to keep their content from
being used in Google's specialized search services, "while ensuring that
any opt-out does not unduly affect the ranking of those web sites in
Google's general web search results," it said.
In addition, the proposed remedies will give newspaper publishers greater
control over what appears in Google's news aggregator Google News. Google
is also giving marketers greater ability to buy ads on rival networks.
The Commission's investigation was initially triggered by complaints from
Google's rivals such as Microsoft Corp.
Google's web search service has a market share of over 90 percent in the
EU, a bloc of over 500 million people that makes up the world's largest
economy.
Internet Sales Tax Embraced by No-tax Republicans
You don't see this very often: a majority of Senate Republicans voting to
make people who buy stuff on the Internet pay state and local sales taxes.
Anti-tax guru Grover Norquist isn't happy about it, and the conservative
Heritage Foundation is questioning the senators' conservative credentials.
But the issue of taxing Internet sales is getting strong support from
Republicans and Democrats alike.
The Senate could vote as early as Thursday on a bill to empower states to
require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for
purchases made over the Internet. Under the bill, the sales taxes would be
sent to the states where a shopper lives.
On Wednesday, the bill passed a test vote in the Senate, 74 to 23, with 27
Republicans voting in favor. Senators were trying to work out agreements
Thursday on potential amendments and the timing of a final vote.
If they can't reach agreement to vote earlier, Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, the Senate will vote Friday morning to end the
debate. The Senate is scheduled to go on vacation next week, and Reid
vowed Thursday to pass the bill before senators leave town.
"This is a matter of equity and fairness," said South Dakota Gov. Dennis
Daugaard, a Republican. "The same people who are selling the same
products should be paying the same taxes."
Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes
if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many
online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers an
advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.
It is part of GOP orthodoxy to oppose higher taxes, a central issue that
divides Democrats and Republicans. That's why the bill faces an uncertain
fate in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase.
But supporters of the bill insist it is not a tax increase. Instead, they
say, the bill merely provides states with a mechanism to enforce current
taxes.
"This bill has nothing to do with imposing any kind of new tax or revenue
generator," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "What this law does is allow
states that already have laws on the books to carry out the implementation
of those" laws.
In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales taxes when they
file their state income tax returns. In South Dakota, which has no state
income tax, taxpayers are supposed to pay a use tax on out-of-state
purchases. But Daugaard said the law is widely ignored.
"The difficulty is consumers don't understand the law," Daugaard said. "I
think that's true in many other states as well."
The bill's main sponsor is Sen. Mike Enzi, a conservative Republican from
Wyoming. He is working closely with Sen. Dick Durbin, a liberal Democrat
from Illinois. Both senators say the bill is about fairness for local
businesses that already collect sales taxes, and lost revenue for states.
Opponents say the bill would impose complicated regulations on retailers
and doesn't have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with
less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.
Many of the nation's governors Republicans and Democrats have been
lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect
sales taxes from online sales.
The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases
online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up
nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to Commerce
Department estimates.
The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that states lost
$23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state
sales.
Daugaard estimates that South Dakota loses $48 million to $58 million a
year, important revenue for a state that doesn't have an income tax.
The main opposition in the Senate is coming from three states that have no
sales taxes: New Hampshire, Montana and Oregon. Delaware doesn't have a
sales tax, either, but both Delaware senators have voted to advance the
bill.
"We don't like the idea of other states auditing our businesses," said
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. "They don't like the idea of being subject to
both bureaucrats and potential legal action."
Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, says the bill is about
"money-hungry state legislators."
"This is a dangerous road to travel, and sets precedent for further
expansions of state-level tax collection authority," Norquist says in a
letter to supporters. "Take action now to urge your senators to oppose an
Internet sales tax scheme that lets liberal states like California and
Illinois tax across their borders!"
The Heritage Foundation says that "real conservatives" oppose the bill and
that it would hurt online commerce, force small businesses to jump through
new bureaucratic hoops and erode state sovereignty.
But Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former Tennessee governor, said the
bill enhances states' rights because it gives states the authority to
enforce their tax laws.
"Tennessee wants to avoid a state income tax and treat businesses fairly
in the marketplace, and it shouldn't have to play 'Mother, May I?' with
the federal government to do so," Alexander said.
Few Senators Block Vote on Internet Sales Tax Bill
A handful of senators from states without sales taxes are blocking a bill
that would tax Internet purchases.
They don't have enough support to kill the bill, but they can delay a
final vote until Friday or even this weekend if senators don't reach
an agreement to vote earlier.
The bill would empower states to require online retailers to collect
state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. Under
the bill, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper
lives.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is leading the fight against the bill. Oregon,
Montana, New Hampshire and Delaware have no sales taxes, though the two
senators from Delaware support the bill.
"It's coercive. It requires a number of states to collect the taxes of
other states thousands of miles away against their will," Wyden said in
an interview. "It's discrimination because this forces some people online
to carry out responsibilities that brick and mortar retailers do not have
to do."
Wyden said the bill also gives an advantage to foreign retailers.
Supporters say the bill treats foreign retailers the same as domestic
ones, but opponents question the ability of states to enforce state tax
laws on companies based in other countries.
The bill has already survived two procedural votes this week, getting 74
votes in favor each time. If senators don't reach an agreement to vote
earlier, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., threatened to hold a
vote shortly after midnight Friday morning to end the debate.
The Senate is scheduled to go on vacation next week, and Reid vowed to
pass the bill before senators leave town.
"One way or another, we will finish work on this measure before we
leave," Reid said.
Wyden said he doesn't want to inconvenience senators eager to go home.
But, he added, "I don't want to have our constituents rolled over in the
process."
Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes
if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many
online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers an
advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.
Supporters say the bill is about fairness for local businesses that
already collect sales taxes, and lost revenue for states. Opponents say
the bill would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn't
have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1
million a year in online sales would be exempt.
Many of the nation's governors Republicans and Democrats have been
lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect
sales taxes from online sales.
The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases
online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up
nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to Commerce Department
estimates.
The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that states lost
$23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state
sales.
The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online
services such as eBay. The National Retail federation supports it. And
Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it
collect sales taxes, supports it, too.
The bill also gets support from many Republicans who have pledged not to
increase taxes. The bill's main sponsor is Sen. Mike Enzi, a conservative
Republican from Wyoming. He is working closely with Sen. Dick Durbin, a
liberal Democrat from Illinois.
Enzi and Durbin say the bill doesn't raise taxes. Instead, they say, it
gives states a mechanism to enforce current taxes.
In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales taxes when they
file state tax returns. But governors complain that few people comply.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said he supports the bill in part because
tax-free Internet sales are eating into sales by Delaware retailers.
"In our region, we've long benefited from significant commercial sales
from residents of Maryland, of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and elsewhere,
who come to Delaware to shop because we're a tax-free state," Coons said.
"Over time, the benefit of that has eroded as folks discovered that they
could buy the same things online without paying sales tax from home."
He noted that the bill would not require anyone from Delaware to pay
sales taxes.
Senate Chairman Calls for 'Do Not Track' Bill
Warning consumers that industry has failed to protect their privacy
online, a top Senate Democrat said Wednesday that he will press
legislation this year that would create a universal "Do Not Track" option
for consumers and penalize companies that fail to honor it.
"The American people are smart," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.,
chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. "They are going to figure this
out. And as they figure this out, they better like what they see if the
Internet is going to prosper."
Rockefeller's proposal could face an uphill battle in a divided Senate
already consumed with immigration and the budget. But his comments put
renewed pressure on an industry struggling desperately to escape
regulation.
The online privacy debate has mostly stumped Congress and prompted a
tempered reaction from the Obama administration, mindful of consumers'
concerns but reluctant to crush a growing industry in a difficult economy.
Last year, the White House unveiled a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights"
calling on industry to give consumers more control over their personal
information and suggesting Congress pass legislation to enforce it.
But while everyone agrees that people should be given a choice to opt out
of data collection and online tracking, advertising businesses and
privacy groups remain at odds over how to implement it. Much of the
debate focuses on whether consumers should have to click an opt-out
button, or if their browser should automatically do it for them.
Rockefeller said Wednesday that voluntary efforts by industry have fallen
short because some online advertisers ignore consumer requests not to be
tracked. His bill would subject businesses to penalties by the Federal
Trade Commission if they do.
"I do not believe that companies with business models based on the
collection and monetization of personal information will voluntarily stop
those practices if it negatively impacts their profit margins,"
Rockefeller said.
Industry is pushing back. The Digital Advertising Alliance points to its
Web-based icon program that links consumers to an opt-out site of
participating advertisers. They say some 20 million people have visited
their site and only 1 million of those consumers chose to opt out of all
ad tracking. Testifying at the hearing, Mastria said he thinks the
industry has "delivered basically in principle" what Rockefeller proposes
through legislation.
"Consumers are very pragmatic people," Lou Mastria, managing director of
the Digital Advertising Alliance, said in an interview this week. "They
want free content. They understand there's a value exchange. And they're
OK with it."
The Do Not Track proposal is part of a broader debate about online privacy
that includes what sensitive data might be collected from a person's
mobile device. Because a smartphone can divulge a person's location, the
FTC warned in a recent report that detailed profiles of a person's
movements can be collected over time and in surprising ways, revealing a
person's habits and patterns and making them vulnerable to stalking or
identity theft.
Some researchers also say they suspect retailers are engaging in "price
discrimination" the practice of setting a price based on personal data,
such as the average home price in their area or a person's proximity to a
competitor.
Another concern is that companies might determine a person's eligibility
for certain products and services based on information collected online,
potentially violating credit reporting and fair lending laws.
"I think there should be obligations for companies to tell you what
information they have about you" and give you the opportunity to correct
it, said Justin Brookman of the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow at George Mason University's
Mercatus Center, told the Senate panel that he thinks many of the privacy
concerns cited with data collection are worst-case scenarios that
probably won't happen. In the end, he said, data collection is merely
"creepy" and might not warrant legislation.
"I think a lot of my neighbors are creepy, but I don't think they're
harmful," Thierer said.
Missouri Court Rules Against $440,000 Cyberheist Victim
A Missouri court last week handed a legal defeat to a local escrow firm
that sued its financial institution to recover $440,000 stolen in a 2009
cyberheist. The court ruled that the company assumed greater
responsibility for the incident because it declined to use a basic
security precaution recommended by the bank: requiring two employees to
sign off on all transfers.
courthouseSpringfield, Mo. based Choice Escrow and Land Title LLC sued
Tupelo, Miss. based BancorpSouth Inc., after hackers who had stolen the
firms online banking ID and password used the information to make a
single unauthorized wire transfer of $440,000 to a corporate bank account
in Cyprus.
Choice Escrow alleged that BancorpSouths security procedures were not
commercially reasonable. Choice pointed out that the banks most secure
option for Internet-based authentication relied principally on so-called
dual controls, or requiring business customers to have one user ID and
password to approve a wire transfer and another user ID and password to
release the same wire transfer.
Choice Escrows lawyers argued that because BancorpSouth allowed wire or
funds transfers using two options which were both password-based, its
commercial online banking security procedures fell short of 2005 guidance
from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC),
which warned that single-factor authentication as the only control
mechanism is inadequate for high-risk transactions involving the movement
of funds to other parties.
But in a decision handed down on March 18, 2013, a judge with the U.S.
District Court for the Western District of Missouri focused on the fact
that Choice Escrow was offered and explicitly declined in writing the use
of dual controls, thereby allowing the thieves to move money directly out
their account using nothing more than a stolen username and password.
The court noted that Choice also declined to set a limit on the amount
or number of wire transfers allowed each day (another precaution urged by
the bank), and that the transfer amount initiated by the thieves was not
unusual for Choice, a company that routinely moved large sums of money.
Like most U.S. states, both Missouri and Mississippi have adopted the
Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which holds that a payment order received
by the [bank] is effective as the order of the customer, whether or not
authorized, if the security procedure is a commercially reasonable method
of providing security against unauthorized payment orders, and the bank
proves that it accepted the payment order in good faith and in compliance
with the security procedure and any written agreement or instruction of
the customer restricting acceptance of payment orders issued in the name
of the customer.
The Choice Escrow judgment may be among the first to focus on a
particular aspect of the UCC (Article 4a), which states that if the bank
offers to the customer a security procedure which the customer declines,
the bank can argue that its procedures were commercially reasonable, said
Dan Mitchell, an attorney in Portland, Me.
Really, it looks like thats what this whole case was about for the
court, which didnt examine whether the banks security procedures were
commercially reasonable, said Mitchell, who recently represented Patco,
a Maine construction firm that successfully sued its bank for poor
security following a $588,000 cyberheist that also took place in 2009.
The courts whole analysis was about the fact that the bank offered
dual controls which the customer declined.
Charisse Castagnoli, a bank fraud expert and independent security
consultant, said the fraud incident happened before banking regulators
issued the current online banking security guidelines, which call on banks
to take additional steps to protect customers from account takeovers
including educating customers about the sophistication of todays threats.
The banks security may not have been sufficient by todays standards,
but the key here was that the bank offered a security measure that was
refused, Castagnoli said. If the bank doesnt ever make the
recommendation to use additional controls, then shame on them. But in this
case, it seems like the bank was trying to steer their customer to use
those controls. Considering this was back in 2009, it looks like the bank
was at least doing a pretty good job informing their customers about the
need for dual controls.
Choice Escrow declined to comment, or say whether it planned to appeal.
But according to Castagnoli, summary judgments can be difficult to appeal.
Its pretty expensive, and the standard of review for the court is
fairly high.
There is no doubt that requiring two employees to sign off on all
transactions minimizes the potential for fraud (particularly
employee/insider fraud). But dual controls alone are hardly sufficient.
The very first cyberheist case that I wrote about back in the summer of
2009 dealt with the electronic theft of $415,000 from Bullitt County,
Kentucky. Bullitt had set things up so that all payments had to be
initiated by the county treasurer and approved by the county judge.
In that attack, the crooks had compromised the treasurers computer,
which allowed them to change the email addresses that were to receive
notifications about new transactions. They were able to do this because
the treasurer was the designated administrator of the countys account
settings at the bank. They then changed the judges password in the banks
system, and approved the fraudulent transfers using a computer outside of
the state of Kentucky.
The best way to avoid a cyberheist is to not have your computer systems
infected in the first place. The trouble is, its becoming increasingly
difficult to tell when a system is or is not infected. Thats why I
advocate the use of a Live CD approach for online banking: That way, even
if the underlying hard drive is infected with a remote-access, password
stealing Trojan like ZeuS or Citadel, your online banking session is
protected. This is just one of the tips from a much longer list of
precautions that small- to mid-sized businesses should consider adopting
when banking online.
McAfee Working on Software That Finds and Blocks All Pirated Content
McAfee may be about to become the best friend of copyright holders all
over the world. TorrentFreak reports that McAfee has patented a new
technology that aims to prevent the public from accessing pirated movies
and music online. The content-blocking technology could be integrated
with McAfees SiteAdvisor toolbar and would essentially create a blacklist
that compiles reported pirated content from across the web and offer users
alternative suggestions for how to legally buy the content theyre looking
for. In its patent filing, McAfee writes that by informing a user of
illegal sources and possible alternatives, a user can obtain the desired
electronic distribution without violating an authors intellectual
property rights.
Facebook: Audit Finds Privacy Practices Sufficient
Facebook says that an independent audit found its privacy practices
sufficient during a six-month assessment period that followed a settlement
with federal regulators.
Facebook Inc. said it submitted the findings to the Federal Trade
Commission on Monday evening. The audit was a required part of the social
networking company's settlement with the FTC last summer. The settlement
resolved charges that Facebook exposed details about its users' lives
without getting the required legal consent.
Facebook provided a copy of its letter to the FTC, along with a redacted
copy of the auditor's letter, to The Associated Press on Wednesday. The
redacted portion contains trade secret information and does not alter the
auditor's findings, the company said. The audit, which found that
Facebook's privacy program met or exceeded requirements under the FTC's
order, covered written policies as well as samples of its data.
"We're encouraged by this confirmation that the controls set out in our
privacy program are working as intended," said Erin Egan, Facebook's chief
privacy officer for policy," in an emailed statement. "This assessment has
also helped us identify areas to work on as Facebook continues to evolve
as a company, and improve upon the privacy protections we already have in
place. We will keep working to meet the changing and evolving needs of our
users and to put user privacy and security at the center of everything we
do."
Facebook did not disclose the full, 79-page report or specific details on
shortcomings in its privacy practices that were revealed by the audit.
Spokeswoman Jodi Seth said Facebook declined to disclose such details
"based on contractual obligations and the possibility of security and
competitive vulnerabilities."
The company has asked the FTC to keep the redacted information private,
saying it would put it and its auditor at a competitive disadvantage and
because it could reveal possible limitations of its privacy program.
The name of the accounting firm is also redacted but that information will
be released when the FTC responds to the audit.
A representative for the FTC did not immediately return a message for
comment on Thursday morning.
Facebook has made several high-profile mistakes over user privacy,
especially in its early years. Much of the FTC's complaint against the
company centered on a series of changes that Facebook made to its privacy
controls in late 2009. The revisions automatically shared information and
pictures about Facebook users, even if they previously programmed their
privacy settings to shield that content. Among other things, people's
profile pictures, lists of online friends and political views were
suddenly available for the world to see, the FTC alleged.
The complaint also charged that Facebook shared users' personal
information with third-party advertisers from September 2008 through May
2010 despite several public assurances from company officials that it
wasn't passing the data along for marketing purposes. Facebook said this
only happened in limited instances.
Facebook did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, but it
agreed to submit to audits of its privacy practices for 20 years. This was
the first of those audits. Google Inc. earlier agreed to a similar
settlement, but was fined $22.5 million last August to resolve allegations
that it did not comply with it.
Workers Demand Social Media Rights
Employees no longer see using Facebook in the office as luxury or a
business tool, but as a right, new research shows.
A quarter of employees say they would not work for a company that banned
social media at work. In total, nearly one-third of employees are spending
an hour or more a day on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites
during work hours, a study by virtual office space franchise Intelligent
Office found.
The study shows that those social media needs are part of an overall trend
of employees desiring more choice in the technology they use. One-third of
those surveyed would prefer to work for a company that allows them to use
their own technology.
"Technology has made it possible to change the way we work, and now we
simply see workers embracing the freedom to do so," Tom Camplese,
Intelligent Offices chief operating officer, told BusinessNewsDaily.
Helping to drive the desire for more technology choices is the increasing
wish among employees to work from locations outside of the office.
"We are continuing to find that in order to increase mobility without lost
productivity, a new breed of worker is conducting business on the go, and
wants to be able to work more independently," Camplese said."Many would
argue that productivity has seen a significant boost as technology has
fostered the ability to conduct business on the go, anywhere, any time."
Camplese believes this is all part of a culture shift taking place in
which today's workers are personalizing and customizing their work in many
ways, including work style, location and technology.
"We have ultimately uncovered a dramatic shift in how people work today
and how they want to work," he said. "We see this trend of employees
wanting more choice and flexibility continuing into the future."
The study was based on surveys of more than 1,000 employees in the United
States and Canada.
Truth and Consequences - A Dilemma for Twitter and Its Users
Does Twitter have a credibility problem?
For many, a single fake tweet from the Associated Press account that
briefly roiled financial markets on Tuesday, driving the Dow Jones
industrial average down about 145 points, vividly reaffirmed the
fearsome, near-instantaneous power of the 140-character message.
But the security lapse also revived doubts about Twitter's place in the
media landscape - and its ultimate value - at a moment when its status as
one of today's essential information networks had seemed all but cemented.
Just a week after social media networks took criticism for helping
circulate misinformation about the alleged perpetrators of the Boston
Marathon bombing, Twitter's security shortcomings fell under a harsh
spotlight Tuesday after a hacker group commandeered the AP Twitter
account and falsely reported that explosions in the White House had
injured President Barack Obama.
The AP was only the latest hacking victim in recent days after Twitter
accounts belonging to National Public Radio, CBS 60 Minutes and others
were breached. Last year, Reuters News was the victim of hackers who
briefly took over one of its Twitter accounts and posted false tweets.
The latest hack was by far the most significant: the single AP tweet
stunned investors and effectively wiped out $136.5 billion of the S&P 500
index's value in a matter of minutes.
Although the news agency later disclosed that one of its employees may
have inadvertently given away company passwords as the result of a
"phishing" attack by the hackers, security experts quickly faulted Twitter
for its longstanding failure to implement two-factor authentication, a
double-layered password feature used by the likes of Google Inc and
Microsoft Inc that might have prevented the spate of high-profile Twitter
hijackings.
"It's one of those cases that we are seeing too often. It's getting
unnerving," said Robert Quigley, a journalism lecturer specializing in
social media at the University of Texas. "What media organizations need
to do is pressure Twitter to have a more secure website."
The company has also repeatedly declined to discuss its product roadmap,
although it has signaled that it will soon unveil two-factor
authentication, including a public job posting in February that suggested
it was hiring to tackle the problem.
Mark Risher, the founder of a security consultancy that counts social
media companies Pinterest and Tumblr among its clients, said introducing
more measures like two-factor authentication would make Twitter more
cumbersome to use and potentially slow its user growth - a critical
concern for a company that relies on advertising revenues. But he warned
that a prolonged rash of high-profile hacks, and an eroding sense of user
trust, would hurt Twitter more.
"There's always a tradeoff between convenience and safety," Risher said.
"But a security issue damages Twitter's brand."
For Twitter, the hacking has raised questions about its credibility just as
it is beginning to assume a central role in a fast-changing media
landscape, with the volume of tweets rising to more than 400 million a day.
Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that U.S.
companies may report material information such as quarterly results on
Twitter, as long as investors are alerted in advance. Days later,
Bloomberg L.P. said it would funnel Twitter directly into its terminals
used by thousands of traders on Wall Street.
At the same time, the world's leading news organizations and Twitter,
which has 200 million users around the world, have become increasingly
intertwined in a symbiotic, if sometimes troublesome, relationship.
Dan Gillmor, a journalism professor at Arizona State University, said the
hacks have especially hurt news outlets because their Twitter accounts are
often the primary way that their news reaches consumers who may not
subscribe to a newspaper or have access to a newswire.
Twitter has touted itself as a critical newswire of sorts, such as during
the 2011 tsunami in Japan, when it helped emergency responders locate
survivors, or when it became a vital lifeline for some New Yorkers as
television sets fell dark during Hurricane Sandy last year.
But last week, in the wake of the Boston bombings, some of those who
previously viewed Twitter as an indispensable news source began turning
against the service upon discovering that the wisdom of crowds is, in
fact, an adage not often applicable on the Internet.
Steve Brunetto, a senior executive at Edgewave, a network security
company, said Tuesday's hacking undermined Twitter at a sensitive time.
"On the heels of the Boston Marathon bombing, everyone's trying to figure
out, 'Okay, where does Twitter fit into that news cycle? Where does
Twitter fit into disseminating information?'" Brunetto said. "They've got
an opportunity to legitimize themselves as a real player in that
information life cycle but they get knocked down a peg every time
somebody says, 'Oh, you can't believe what you read on Twitter.'"
Jeff Jarvis, a prominent Internet pundit and a journalism professor at
City University of New York, said that the confusion caused by social
media in recent weeks was not an indictment of social media but rather a
reminder that the onus falls on professional reporters to verify
information.
"No, the Internet's not broken," Jarvis said.
The rise of social media means that "you now hear more bar-room debates
and speculation than before," he added. "But that doesn't mean you should
believe it more than you ever did."
Tom Schrader, managing director for U.S. equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus
Capital Markets in Baltimore, said there were a lot of clues in the false
AP tweet that should have kept traders from reacting, in particular the
wording of the message.
"We saw it, we saw the initial reaction. Initially our reaction was, pull
your bids (until we) see whether this is legit or not. We found no
legitimacy to it and went back into the market as normal," he said.
Oli Freeling-Wilkinson is chief executive officer of Knowsis, a London
company that picks out and amalgamates financially relevant tweets and
other social media content for traders. "We do have spam controls in
place, but it's an ongoing war," he said. "It's much more difficult to
work out what's going on when people are hacking into official accounts,
especially in the heat of the moment."
While Twitter has occasionally signaled that it believes it could become
more than a passive distribution network - a shift marked by last year's
purchase of Summify, a small startup that specialized in surfacing
relevant news - it has also taken pains to distance itself from the
content of tweets and maintain strict neutrality from a legal
perspective.
Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo told an Online News Association
gathering last autumn that Twitter's primary responsibility was to create
a platform, rather than to play an editorial role in determining which
tweets people should see.
"A company trying to build media is creating or curating content, and
that's not the kind of company we're creating," Costolo said.
Gillmor, from Arizona State, said Twitter did not need to guarantee the
quality or veracity of its content in order to grow into a media
juggernaut.
"It's not whether Twitter is credible or not, it's what people do with
it," he said. "Every news organization feels it has no alternative but to
use Twitter. But everyone at the traditional news organizations has to be
thinking really hard about what that means, from whether the security is
sufficient on these third-party platforms to what it means to be turning
part of your stuff over to new kinds of publishers."
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