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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 15 Issue 45
Volume 15, Issue 45 Atari Online News, Etc. November 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 #1545 11/15/13
~ UK Warns of Ransom Scam ~ People Are Talking! ~ Hacker Sentenced!
~ MS' Cybercrime Center! ~ Checking Out the PS4! ~ PS4 in Stores Today!
~ 'Splinter Net' Fallout! ~ Italy Eyes Apple Taxes ~ iPad Mini Available!
~ Towerfall Coming to PS4 ~ Snapchat: No FB Buyout ~ New Legend of Zelda!
-* Microsoft Admits Vulnerability *-
-* Estonia To Extradite Suspects to US *-
-* New Game Consoles Face Changed Landscape! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It's been a very long week here, with little time to consider topics
for discussion. It seems like this has been the case for many weeks,
I'm afraid. But, I'm guessing you're not reading our issues for any
of my brilliant exchanges and commentary, so I won't fret!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - New Video Game Consoles Face Changed Landscape!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Sony PlayStation 4 in Stores Today!
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
New Video Game Consoles Face Changed Landscape
The last time Sony and Microsoft came out with new video game consoles,
there was no iPad, the iPhone was months away and "FarmVille" and "Angry
Birds" had yet to be conjured up.
The PlayStation 4, which launches Friday, and the Xbox One, which goes on
sale next week, face a much-changed gaming and entertainment landscape
than their predecessors. As Sony and Microsoft spar this holiday season
over who has the brawnier machine and more enticing online features,
hardcore gamers are all but certain to fall for the shiny, powerful new
consoles. But what's less clear is how the gadgets will compete for the
attention of people who now look to their tablets, smartphones and other
devices for entertainment.
"It's turning out that these consoles, in fighting each other for the
love of the hardcore gamer, run the risk of failing to capture people in
their homes," says James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research.
Both Microsoft and Sony position their gaming systems as entertainment
devices meant to take over the living room. The Xbox 360 started
streaming movies from Netflix in 2008 and the PlayStation 3, which
already served as a Blu-ray player, soon followed, along with a bevy of
other entertainment options. Experts wondered whether gaming systems
would soon replace cable set-top boxes.
Not so fast, was the reply from a host of other gadget makers. Along came
Google's Chromecast, the Roku player, Apple TV and, of course, a slew of
tablets. There are many ways to stream movies, TV and music into the home
now. In that sense, the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are no longer in a
traditional, head-to-head battle.
"It's really these consoles against everything else," says Scott Stein,
senior editor for the tech blog CNET.
That said, both gaming systems are expected to be in brisk demand around
the holidays. Sony expects to sell 5 million units of the PlayStation 4
by the end of its fiscal year in March. The PlayStation 3, in comparison,
sold 3.5 million units in that time period seven years ago. Microsoft
declined to offer a sales outlook for the Xbox One through the holidays,
but demand should be comparable, says Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.
He expects 3 million Xbox Ones to be sold through December and 4.5
million through March.
Why does the PlayStation get a slight edge? Price could be one reason.
The Xbox One, which includes an updated Kinect motion sensor, will cost
$500, which is $100 more than the PlayStation 4. In contrast, the
PlayStation 3 went on sale at $500 or $600 depending on the model in
November 2006 while the Xbox 360 cost $400. Most new game software will
cost $60.
Dan Perkins, a gamer who's on the fence about which console to buy, says
the "price is certainly a factor" nudging him toward a PS4 purchase
even though he was previously an Xbox man.
"I bought the Xbox 360 primarily because I preferred the titles it
offered to the PS3. A major contributor to this decision was the 'Mass
Effect' trilogy, which was initially unavailable on the PS3 at the time
of my purchase," says Perkins, 40, a librarian from Syracuse, N.Y.
"Neither platform has the edge on games in my opinion," he says. "In the
end though, a big factor will be which system my friends adopt."
The friend factor is why Pedro Amador-Gates decided to stick with the
Xbox. The 37-year-old first-time father says he did consider switching,
but the PlayStation didn't have a chance. He likes his interface, his
username is already set up and his gaming achievements will carry over to
the new machine.
"Ninety percent is because I am already established in the Xbox
community," he says.
Then again, neither the Xbox One nor the PlayStation 4 is backward
compatible, meaning the machines don't play games that were made for
their predecessors. That gives players a clean slate to start with a
whole new set of games.
"Everyone is starting over to some extent," Stein says.
The console makers' challenge will be to ensure that everyone does start
over, instead of sticking with their own game console or perhaps buying
an iPad instead of a new game machine. Tony Bartel, the president of the
world's largest videogame retailer, GameStop, expects the new consoles
will be in "high demand and short supply" due to a huge pent-up demand
for new gaming. After all, people have been playing the same consoles
since before the iPhone came out.
"There's tremendous demand for innovation," Bartel says.
Given the choice between an iPad and a PlayStation 4, Sony believes its
consoles have an advantage during the holiday shopping season.
"One purchase offers something that everyone in the family can enjoy
together," says Andrew House, president and CEO of Sony Computer
Entertainment. "Whereas the other is a single-person experience."
Sony PlayStation 4 in Stores Today
It's been seven years since Sony released its last video game console,
but the PlayStation 4 is finally available today, starting at $399. The
new console may be too big to be a literal stocking stuffer, but it's
guaranteed that it will be one of the most requested gifts this holiday
season.
Since the PlayStation 4 was first announced in February , video gamers
have been eagerly anticipating the system. The improved controller design
and the ability to play games as they're downloaded are among some of the
many features that show Sony's focus on games.
The company had a trick up its sleeve, even in the hour just before the
console launched. Game developer studio Naughty Dog announced a new entry
in the Uncharted series, one of the PlayStation 3's most popular line of
games.
The Xbox One, Microsoft's soon-to-be released video game system, has a
high hurdle to overcome. While it has reversed several policies that
alienated many gamers, such as daily Internet connection check-ins and
used game restrictions, many gamers have claimed that the Xbox One still
does not meet their needs. The company's focus on integrating cable TV
and Skype into the new Xbox paints it more like a multimedia center than
a traditional video game console.
But that doesn't seem to be stopping people from ordering either system.
Amazon has been reported as saying that the combined number of pre-orders
for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One "are the largest product releases
in Amazon history."
Playstation 4 Review: Sony Takes a Strong Shot in Console Battle
To say video gamers have been eagerly awating Sony's Playstation 4 would
be an understatement. The PS4 hits stores this Friday for $399, while
Microsoft's Xbox One, another new video game system, will be available
next week for $499. With Microsoft hot on Sony's heels, both gamers and
nongamers alike will be asking one burning question: which gaming system
should I buy? It's a bit too early to call until we can compare the two
side-by-side, but for now we've got you covered with our first
impressions of Sony's sleek entry.
The PS4 looks like something that might come out of an Apple design lab,
though completely in black instead of white. The power and eject buttons
are incorporated directly along the front of the console's sloped edges,
with the CD drive and USB ports hidden between the two buttons. For
Playstation users that like keeping their console upright, Sony sells a
separate stand that stabilizes the PS4 for $14.99.
The Playstation 4's new controller, the Dualshock 4, isn't as minimalist
as the console, but comes with a several ergonomic improvements that make
it more comfortable that Sony's Playstation 3 controllers. The trigger
buttons are slightly indented to conform to players' index fingers, while
the dual analog sticks have a slightly elevated rim that keeps players'
thumbs from slipping off. The controller isn't heavy, but still feels
solid.
Aside from more comfort, the Dualshock 4 controller has plenty of bells
and whistles. The controller's embedded speaker comes in surprisingly
loud and clear (if a little tinny). The touchpad that dominates much of
the space between the directional pad and buttons is smooth to the touch
and responsive as well.
Customers that also bought the $59.99 Playstation Camera can point their
controller's light bar at the camera. The camera then tracks the position
of the brightly colored light bar. In addition to position tracking, the
controller has motion tracking, detecting the orientation of the
controller as it's tilted left and right and rocked back and forth.
We did experience some hardware problems with our first review unit, such
as freezing while in game and refusing to boot up from the system's
standby mode. These issues have made playing with the video game system
less a labor of love, and more like a labor. However, that hasn't stopped
us from digging into the system's interface and games. We will be
receiving another unit soon to see if these hardware problems persist and
will update this article at that time.
Navigating the PS4's clean menus is easy. After creating a system account,
Playstation users are taken to a personalized home screen that includes
recent games they have played, as well as the game activity of other
Playstation users that they have befriended. A Sony representative said
that customers can download software updates and downloadable content for
their games straight from the home screen, instead of having to navigate
through several menus. However, no online features were thoroughly tested
at the time of this review.
Customers will need to download a software update to use any of those
online features, including any activity synced to their Playstation
Network accounts. However, Sony has planned to simplify the downloading
of software updates and game patches by allowing them to download while
the player is away. The console can be placed in standby mode, or it can
be customized to turn on in the middle of the night, for the purpose of
downloading and installing software updates.
In addition to the console's menu is the Playstation App, now available
for iOS and Android devices. According to Sony, the Playstation app can
be used to purchase and download games for the PS4 while on the go. So if
you've been eager to play a game available through PSN, you could make
the purchase on your lunch break and possibly have the game ready to go
by the time you get back from work.
The PS4's processing power is about ten times greater than that of the
PS3's, but how does that ultimately affect how games look and play? Games
like Knack, a family-friendly action game, and Killzone Shadow Fall, a
first person shooter, run beautifully. Though screenshots of those games
show off the amount of detail went into the games' animations, it doesn't
show off just how smoothly it runs.
The games also take advantage of the improved motion detectors of the
controllers, as well as the touchpad and light bar. Certain weapons and
gadgets in Killzone can be activated with a swipe of the touchpad.
However, it can be a little awkward to swipe the touchpad while
simultaneously gripping the controller by its handles.
Games are automatically installed to the PS4's 500 GB hard drive when
inserted into the disc drive. The installations only need a couple of
minutes before they're ready to run. However, with many games requiring
over 30 GB of memory, the PS4's hard drive could be completely filled
quickly. Playstation users may have to keep an eye on how much hard drive
space they have, though thankfully deleting games and reinstalling them
is easy and quick.
The Playstation 4 is a solid video gaming system, even without any
comparison to the Xbox One. There's no one feature that could be called
the Playstation 4 selling point, but instead, it's several smaller
upgrades, like better graphics and improved controllers, that together
create a gaming experience greater than the sum of its individual parts.
But that's not to say that Sony's console will end up being the number
one gaming stocking stuffer this year. We'll have to wait and see what
Microsoft's Xbox One fires back with at the Nov. 22 release
'Towerfall,' Ouya's Best Game, Is Coming to The PlayStation 4
The Android-based Ouya console doesn't have many great games, but there
is at least one standout: Towerfall, a Smash Bros.-style four-player
combat game with an emphasis on archery. Now that game is coming to the
PlayStation 4. Next year Towerfall's six-month exclusivity with Ouya will
expire, and while we knew the game would be making its way to the PC,
developer Matt Thorson has revealed that it will be hitting the PS4 at
the same time as well. Along with the new platform comes a new subtitle,
as the next version of the game will be known as Towerfall: Ascension.
""There's so much new stuff.""
"It's not just a straight-up port," Thorson tells Polygon. "There's so
much new stuff." Among the changes are new weapons, characters, and
levels, as well as a brand new quest mode that can be played by one or
two players. For those who bought the game on Ouya the game sold just
5,000 copies on the platform all of the new content will be available
as a free update three months after Ascension launches. The announcement
is just the latest in Sony's continued push to court a huge library of
indie games for its PlayStation devices. You can expect to see
Towerfall: Ascension on PC and PS4 in early 2014.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
The top-down Zelda games started as console releases on the NES and SNES,
but as 3D graphics took precedence, the flatter rendition of Hyrule was
relegated to the portable platforms. Some have been better than others
(heres to you, Minish Cap), but virtually every portable entry to the
series has stayed rooted to the open-world exploration of the original
game. It might not be the best game in the series, but A Link Between
Worlds for the Nintendo 3DS and other portable consoles is the most open,
fluid and distinctive title since Wind Waker.
Lets start with the obvious additions that set A Link Between Worlds
apart from its predecessors. The classic means of item collection have
been almost entirely scrapped. In their place is a store from which Link
can rent (or buy) nearly every necessary piece of equipment less than an
hour into the game.
In A Link Between Worlds, the entire world of Hyrule is yours to explore,
equipped with whichever items you can afford. By the time Link reaches
the Lorule, the decimated anti-Hyrule and counterpart to A Link to the
Pasts Dark World, every dungeon can be explored in any order you choose.
Heres the catch: if you die, you lose all of your rented items. Itll
cost you to reacquire what you lost, but the economy in both Hyrule and
Lorule is thankfully very forgiving.
The way items work has been revamped as well. In every Zelda title I can
remember, Link has had a limited stock of certain items, such as bombs or
arrows. Every item in A Link Between Worlds uses up a rechargeable energy
bar instead, which means no more hunting for bomb-filled, breakable
pottery to progress.
The other major addition is Links newest ability: turning into a drawing
that can sidle along walls and cliffs. By pasting himself to the wall,
Link can access areas that would be inaccessible otherwise, although in a
combat-heavy game like this, it would have been nice to see graffiti-Link
given a bit more of an offensive presence. The ability is not only
unquestionably more than just a gimmick, it also allows us to see the
Hyrule from A Link to the Past in a completely different light. Getting
up close and personal with a map that many of us have memorized from
decades ago is great fan service and adds a dimension to the experience
that keeps it from becoming stale in spite of familiarity.
What surprised me most about the game was just how snappy it felt. Link
moves at a quick pace through the map, but his speed is matched by the
enemies populating Hyrule and Lorule. Dont get me wrong, the game
contains a lengthy, worthwhile adventure, but by the time youve locked
into the controls and have a grasp of both maps, the pace picks up
rapidly. The games version of fast travel, represented by bird statues
that also serve as save points, is also a welcome improvement. Despite
the relatively small size of the world, the maze-like structure of
Lorule specifically can make traversing the same regions multiple times
a challenge.
Regarding challenge, A Link Between Worlds is not a particularly easy
game. At the risk of readers mocking my abilities, I have to admit that
I found myself dying fairly often in some of the more difficult dungeons.
But considering how much hand-holding makes its way into most Nintendo
games, every swarm of enemies that cornered me in a dark room, every time
I found myself stumped in the face of a new puzzle, entirely lost in
search of what to do, it was a welcome breath of fresh air.
As I swam aimlessly above one submerged, but open, door, pondering which
missing item would allow me to dive, I couldnt help but be thankful that
I didnt have to read another screen of monotonous dialogue explaining
each and every nook and cranny of the games world. I admit, I did have
to resort to the carefully placed hint ghosts more than once, but it
never took away from my enjoyment of A Link Between Worlds.
And thats what this game is all about. There is just so much to see and
do in the lands of Hyrule and the dark, mirroring Lorule, much of which I
am sure I missed along the way. If you manage to open every chest and
purchase every item, beat all the mini-games and collect enough rupees to
buy Hyrule Castle, theres still a Hero Mode to unlock with even stronger
enemies to vanquish. The only significant complaint I could come up with
while I was writing this review is that I only wish more of Nintendos
games would adopt the same philosophy of providing us with a world to
explore without explaining it every step of the way.
If you have a 3DS, 3DS XL or 2DS, and youre looking for a game this
holiday season, A Link Between Worlds will reward your investment with a
volume of content and smart new gameplay dynamics that give the series
the fresh coat of paint it needed.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Google Warns of 'Splinter Net' Fallout From U.S. Spying
Search giant Google Inc. on Wednesday warned that U.S. spying operations
risk fracturing the open Internet into a "splinter net" that could hurt
American business.
In the first public testimony before Congress by a major technology
company since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden
disclosed top secret surveillance programs, Google said it should be
allowed to provide the public more information about government demands
for user data.
"The current lack of transparency about the nature of government
surveillance in democratic countries undermines the freedom and the trust
most citizens cherish, it also has a negative impact on our economic
growth and security and on the promise of an Internet as a platform for
openness and free expression," Richard Salgado, Google's law enforcement
and information security director, said.
Members of Congress are grappling with what changes to make to U.S.
surveillance programs and laws after the Snowden leaks, which were
published in June. The Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing was on
legislation proposed by Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota that
would provide more transparency.
Franken said the "Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013" would require
NSA to disclose publicly how many people have their data collected and
estimate how many were Americans.
It would also allow internet and phone companies to inform the public
about the orders for data collection from the government and the number
of users whose information has been produced in response to those orders.
"Right now, as a result of those gags, many people think that American
internet companies are giving up far more information to the government
than they likely are," Franken said.
Robert Litt, general counsel for the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence, said requiring NSA to compile those statistics would be an
intensive task that would take resources away from the mission of
uncovering terrorism plots.
"I think those thousand mathematicians have other things that they can be
doing in protecting the nation ... rather than trying to go through and
count U.S. persons," Litt said.
"If you impose upon them some sort of obligation to identify U.S.
persons, they're going to take an email address that may be, you know,
Joe at hotmail.com. And they're going to have to dig down and say, 'what
else can we find out about Joe at hotmail.com?'" he said. "And that's
going to require learning more about that person than NSA otherwise would
learn."
Google officials have expressed outrage and called for reform after a
Washington Post report late last month said that the NSA had tapped
directly into communications links used by Google and Yahoo Inc to move
huge amounts of email and other user information among overseas data
centers.
Salgado said the leaks about NSA operations have led to "a real concern"
inside and outside the United States about the role of government and the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which decides in secret on legal
issues about electronic surveillance efforts.
The fallout could result in greater internet restrictions that could hurt
U.S. economic interests and some proposals could in effect create a
"splinter net" by putting up internet barriers, he said.
While he did not mention any specific proposal, a government plan in
Brazil would force global internet companies to store data on Brazilian
users inside that country.
"You can certainly look at the reaction, both inside the United States
and outside of the United States to these disclosures, to see the
potential of the closing of the markets through data location
requirements" and similar restrictions, Salgado told Reuters after the
hearing.
"That's bad for all of the American companies, and frankly bad for the
Internet generally," he said. "This is a very real business issue, but it
is also a very real issue for the people who are considering using the
cloud and for those who currently use the cloud and may have their trust
in it rocked by the disclosures," Salgado told Reuters.
President Barack Obama's administration has defended the NSA programs and
the secrecy around them as necessary in fighting terrorism and groups
such as al Qaeda.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who
has proposed legislation for restrictions on NSA programs, said reforms
were necessary, "especially when NSA handled things so carelessly they
let a 29-year-old subcontractor walk off with all their secrets and, so
far as I know, nobody has been even reprimanded for that."
Salgado, in his testimony, quoted reports that U.S. companies may lose
billions of dollars in revenue as non-American users of the Internet
grow wary of services based in the United States.
Microsoft Admits Its Data Centers Are Vulnerable to NSA Spying
Although Google has said that its deployed end-to-end encryption between
its data centers to keep out the prying eyes of the National Security
Agency, it doesnt seem as though Microsoft has done any such thing just
yet. Wired reports that Microsoft executive Dorothee Belz said this week
that Microsofts server-to-server transportation is generally not
encrypted, which is why the company is currently reviewing our security
system. This is a concern because documents leaked by Edward Snowden
recently showed how the NSA was able to hack into Google and Yahoos data
centers to breaking into their main communications links between their
private clouds and the public Internet. If Microsoft hasnt yet
implemented the server-to-server encryption that Google has implemented,
this means its private data servers are wide open to NSA hacking.
Spy Scandal Weighs on U.S. Tech Firms in China, Cisco Takes Hit
U.S. technology companies including Cisco Systems Inc, International
Business Machines Corp and Microsoft Corp may face new challenges selling
their goods and services in China as fallout from the U.S. spying scandal
starts to take a toll.
Cisco shares tumbled 11 percent on Thursday, a day after it warned that
revenue would drop 10 percent this quarter, and continue to contract
through the middle of next year, in part due to a backlash in China
against revelations about U.S. government surveillance programs.
"All the big U.S. IT companies are concerned," said Jim Lewis, a senior
fellow with the Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, who is an
expert on China and technology. "But so far Cisco is bearing the brunt of
it."
Lewis said Beijing may be targeting Cisco in particular as retaliation
for Washington's refusal to buy goods from China's Huawei Technologies
Co, a telecommunications equipment maker that the United States claims is
a threat to its national security because of links to the Chinese
military.
The Snowden revelations provoked a storm in the Chinese media and added
urgency to Beijing's efforts to use its market power to create indigenous
software and hardware, analysts and businessmen say.
"The U.S. government isn't doing any favors for Cisco," said Evercore
Partners analyst Mark McKechnie.
Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers said on a conference call that Cisco
and its peers face "challenging political dynamics" in China.
IBM last month reported a 22 percent drop in China revenue, leading to a
4 percent decline in its third-quarter profit. Chief Financial Officer
Mark Loughridge attributed the company's problems to the "process
surrounding China's development of a broad-based economic reform plan,"
which caused delays in purchases.
Microsoft executives singled out China as the company's weakest
performing area in the world during the September quarter in an October 24
earnings call.
"The macro conditions in China, which I think are consistent with what
some of the other companies have reported as well, have been
challenging," said Chris Suh, Microsoft's general manager for investor
relations.
Company officials could not be reached for comment.
Beijing has long mistrusted foreign technology companies, and those
concerns have been exacerbated since former U.S. National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden first revealed the existence of the NSA's
clandestine data mining program in June.
"This is all about China using its own technology, and China building
leading technology companies," said James McGregor, chairman for Greater
China at consultancy APCO Worldwide.
Although Beijing has not prohibited state firms from purchasing
Western-made technology services and equipment, the government has sent a
clear message to choose Chinese-made equipment first, China-based
executives say.
"While a formal document hasn't been issued, in the future we will try to
buy IT equipment from domestic brands, such as Lenovo," said a person
familiar with technology purchases at one of China's four big state-owned
banks.
"The government's signal is pretty clear - they want to rely less on U.S.
products, such as IOE (IBM, Oracle and EMC Corp)," said a former
China-based telecommunications executive.
Oracle officials could not be reached. Representatives with EMC and IBM
declined to comment.
In August, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top
economic planning body, published a statement setting cyber-security
standards for financial institutions, cloud computing and big data,
information system secrecy management and industrial controls.
Four domestic software and hardware makers, including China National
Software & Service Co, announced this month they have received a
"top-tier" rating from the Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology.
China National Software's share price has gained nearly 250 percent since
the Snowden revelations.
"We hope and demand that relevant foreign companies respect China's laws,"
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Thursday, when asked
about Cisco's woes. "At the same time, as the Chinese government we of
course have an obligation, a responsibility, to protect the country's
security."
Snowden's revelations have reverberated in other big emerging markets such
as Brazil, Mexico and India.
Cisco CFO Frank Calderoni said China was where the company was most
affected by a political backlash, but noted that it was difficult to
quantify how much of its revenue shortfall was due to politics versus
macroeconomic trends.
To be sure, the impact of any Snowden scandal backlash is unlikely to hit
all U.S. tech firms equally.
Cisco is perhaps most vulnerable, experts said, because it competes with
two well-established Chinese telecommunications equipment providers:
Huawei and ZTE.
Chinese companies are less competitive in producing semiconductors and
database software, which means that any fallout from the scandal will
have less impact on U.S. firms in those areas.
"Everyone is feeling the heat from the NSA revelations," said a former
employee at a major multinational technology firm. The important point,
however, was that companies like IBM don't have competitors for their
high-end equipment, the expert added. "If they don't buy from IBM they
can't buy from anyone else."
Chicago Hacker Tied to Anonymous Given 10 Years in Prison
A Chicago computer hacker tied to the group known as Anonymous was
sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison for cyber attacks on various
government agencies and businesses, including a global intelligence
company.
Jeremy Hammond, 28, was handed the maximum term in the December 2011
hacking of Strategic Forecasting Inc, an attack his lawyers contend was
driven by concern about the role of private firms in gathering
intelligence domestically and abroad.
Prosecutors say the hack of Austin, Texas-based Strategic Forecasting, or
Stratfor, resulted in the theft of 60,000 credit card numbers and records
for 860,000 clients, which were then uploaded online. Hammond admitted
being behind it in May.
He also admitted to hacking several law enforcement agencies and
organizations, including the Arizona Department of Public Safety,
releasing personal details of officers as part of an attack by the
Anonymous-affiliated group LulzSec.
Hammond's lawyers argued their client should be sentenced to only time he
had already served since his March 2012 arrest, portraying him as a
political activist and whistleblower.
As part of the Stratfor attack, Hammond's lawyers said he turned over
company e-mails to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which has since
selectively released documents revealing the firm's dealings with clients
including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Coca-Cola Company.
Chief Judge Loretta Preska of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan
imposed the 10-year term, and also ordered Hammond to serve three years
of supervised release.
The defendant had pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to
engage in computer hacking.
Hammond's sentencing drew more than 250 letters of support from family,
friends and activists, including Daniel Ellsberg, the former U.S.
military analyst who in 1971 released the Pentagon Papers, the top secret
U.S. report on its role in the Vietnam War.
Estonia To Extradite Three Cybercrime Suspects to US
Estonia says it will extradite to the United States three men accused of
hijacking millions of computers in a cyber-fraud scheme.
Justice Minister Hanno Pevkur said Thursday that his government has
approved the extradition of Timur Gerassimenko, Dmitri Jegorov and
Konstantin Poltev.
They are among seven people six Estonians and one Russian charged
with infecting with malware more than 4 million computers in more than
100 countries, including some belonging to NASA and other U.S.
government agencies.
U.S. prosecutors say the malware secretly enabled the defendants to
generate millions of dollars by re-routing infected computers to certain
websites and advertisements.
One of the defendants, Anton Ivanov, was extradited to the U.S. last
year. The others are in jail in Estonia.
Microsoft's New Cybercrime Center Combines Tactics Against Hacking Groups
The maker of the most popular computer operating system in the world is
launching a new strategy against criminal hackers by bringing together
security engineers, digital forensics experts and lawyers trained in
fighting software pirates under one roof at its new Cybercrime Center.
Microsoft Corp's expanded Digital Crimes Unit inside the 16,800-square
foot, high-security facility combines a wide array of tactics that have
worked the best: massive data gathering and analysis, gumshoe detective
work, high-level diplomacy and creative lawyering.
The new approach, to be launched on Thursday, is the latest attempt to
close the gap created in the past decade as criminal hackers innovated in
technology and business methods to stay ahead of adversaries mired in the
slow-moving world of international law enforcement.
Already, many of the biggest victories against organized online criminals
have come when private companies have worked together to seize control of
the networks of hacked computers, called botnets, that carry out criminal
operations. Though it is at times derided for the security shortfalls in
its own products, Microsoft has led more of those seizures than any other
company.
"Cybercrime is getting worse," Digital Crimes Unit chief David Finn told
Reuters during an exclusive visit to the Redmond, Washington, campus
building this week. But Finn hopes that by mixing specialists from various
professional arenas, Microsoft can get better.
The center features a lab for dissecting malicious software samples that
is accessible only with fingerprint authorization. In another room, a
monitor tracks the countries and Internet service providers with the
greatest number of machines belonging to some of the worst botnets.
Next to a situation room with a wall-sized, touch-screen monitor sit rows
of empty offices for visiting police, Microsoft customers or other allies
expected to join specific missions for days or weeks at a time.
There are hundreds or thousands of botnets, and Microsoft is trying to get
only the biggest or most damaging, or else to pursue fights that would
establish key precedents.
In the past few years "at least half of the major, significant takedowns
have been driven by Microsoft," said Steve Santorelli, a former Microsoft
investigator and Scotland Yard cybercrime detective who now works at a
security nonprofit group called Team Cymru.
Microsoft has tangled with a Mexican mafia family that proudly put brand
labels on pirated Xbox game CDs, a ring that took online payments via a
parking garage in Malaga, Spain, and a Russian virus writer paid with a
paper bag full of cash - by a 12-year-old boy on a bike.
Outside security experts praised the cross-pollination of fraud, security
and software specialists.
"That kind of integration is only for the better. The financial sector
has been thinking along those lines as well," said Greg Garcia, a former
cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security and at Bank
of America who now advises the banking industry's main cybersecurity
coordination group, known as FS-ISAC.
The crimes unit doesn't tackle government spying, where Microsoft is
among the major Internet companies that have turned over large amounts
of data on users to the U.S. National Security Agency (it is suing for
the right to disclose how much). And another unit within Microsoft is in
charge of making the company's products less susceptible to hacking.
About 80 of the crime unit's 100 staffers have focused on the piracy of
Microsoft products, with far fewer devoted to deconstructing the methods
of criminals attacking Microsoft users and stopping them when possible.
But time and again, the piracy squad has found counterfeiters who were
using botnets that also sent spam or attacked websites with
denial-of-service attacks, or who slipped malicious software into copied
Microsoft wares, or who had other ties to broader security issues.
In one test, undercover Microsoft employees bought 20 new computers in
China the way average consumers would. All had pirated versions of
Windows, and all had at least traces of malicious software. An expanded
pool of 169 machines included 18 percent ready to receive electronic
commands as part of a botnet called Nitol.
More critically, the piracy people bring experience with unusually
powerful U.S. copyright laws. With a strong preliminary showing in court
that their goods are being misrepresented, copyright owners can win
orders allowing them to seize the offending property without prior
notice.
In an innovative and aggressive twist, Microsoft has been using that law
to seize website addresses, including those used by criminals to control
botnets.
"Microsoft really has done a very positive job in a couple of areas, and
one of those is construction of legal frameworks that create precedents
that allow future actions," said Jeff Williams, head of security strategy
at Dell Inc's SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit.
The Nitol case was remarkable in that it and other botnets were
connecting to 70,000 addresses at a Chinese web domain-name seller called
3322.org. Microsoft won the right to filter all connections to those
addresses and blocked more than 7 million attempts in 16 days. The owner
of 3322 agreed to settle Microsoft's lawsuit and to drop other bad
addresses identified by Microsoft or Chinese Internet security officials
in the future.
Microsoft also felled a botnet called Rustock, once one of the biggest
sources of spam on the planet. More recently, it teamed with banks to
seriously hurt two operations that sell do-it-yourself kits for crafting
smaller botnets that have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from
online accounts.
The takedowns are often dramatic, with armed raids on multiple locations
where servers are housed. If there are many control computers and they
don't get disconnected within minutes of one another, the surviving
machines can issue new commands and recreate the entire network.
During one raid in Pennsylvania, an executive at the bad web page's
hosting company was cooperating when the site's owner realized what was
happening and changed his password from afar, locking out the official.
The Microsoft team pulled out the cables to save the day.
Finn and Microsoft crime expert Richard Boscovich, a fellow former federal
prosecutor, said they are working on new means to take down even more
sophisticated botnets, which are controlled through a peer-to-peer
mechanism instead of through centralized servers.
"You'll be seeing some interesting stuff in the near future," Boscovich
promised. "This is an area where what is good for the business is good
for society."
Italy Investigates Apple for Alleged Tax Fraud
U.S. tech giant Apple is under investigation in Italy for allegedly hiding
1 billion euros ($1.34 billion) from the local tax authority, two judicial
sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Milan prosecutors say Apple failed to declare to Italian tax authorities
206 million euros in 2010 and 853 million euros in 2011, one of the
sources said, confirming a report by Italian magazine L'Espresso.
"Checks on the size of the tax are under way," the source said.
The Italian subsidiary of Apple booked some of its profit through
Irish-based subsidiary Apple Sales International (ASI), thus lowering its
taxable income in Italy, the source said.
"Apple pays every dollar and euro it owes in taxes and we are continuously
audited by governments around the world," the company said in a statement.
"The Italian tax authorities already audited Apple Italy in 2007, 2008 and
2009 and confirmed that we were in full compliance with the OECD
documentation and transparency requirements. We are confident the current
review will reach the same conclusion."
The maker of the iPhone is the latest prominent corporation to become the
target of a tax inquiry in Italy amid a global crackdown aimed at
preventing companies such as Google, Amazon and others from avoiding
taxes.
In crisis-hit Italy, tax authorities faced with dwindling revenues have
become more aggressive with domestic and multinational companies.
In June, fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were handed
a 20-month suspended prison sentence and a heavy fine for hiding hundreds
of millions of euros in unpaid taxes. Both deny any wrongdoing.
"There is a global process under way and the Italian tax authority is one
of the most active," said an Italian tax source. "In general, the focus
is shifting towards multi-nationals that are able to lower their tax base
through their international operations."
To try to fix public finances, Italy's largest ruling party, the
center-left PD, has proposed legislation to oblige companies that
advertise and sell online in Italy to do so only through agencies with a
tax presence in Italy.
The proposal, dubbed the Google Tax, is meant to combat a tendency by
corporations to shift revenue out of Italy and into low-tax countries
such as Luxembourg or Ireland.
A U.S. Senate investigation in May revealed that Apple structured its
operations so that the vast majority of its non-U.S. profits are reported
in Ireland, by companies which, through an unusual feature of Irish tax
law, are not tax resident in that country.
ASI contracts with mainly Chinese companies to manufacture iPads and
iPhones. ASI then sells these products to another Irish company which
resells them to retail subsidiaries in Italy and other European
countries.
The pricing of the inter-company transactions ensures that the lion's
share of the profit ends up with ASI, the Senate report said. Low profits
in countries like Italy mean low tax payments there.
Countries usually consider companies registered on their territory to be
tax resident there but Irish law allows ASI to be tax resident nowhere.
This means its profits go untaxed.
UK Warns of Ransom Scam Targeting Tens of Millions
The British government has issued an unusually stark warning about a
cyberscam that locks users out of their computers unless they pay a
ransom, saying that tens of millions of people may soon be targeted.
In a message headlined "URGENT ALERT," Britain's National Crime Agency
said Friday they were aware of a "mass email spamming event that is
ongoing" and urged computer users to beware messages purporting to come
from their bank.
The scam works by tricking users into downloading CryptoLocker, a piece
of malicious software that encrypts a user's hard drive, effectively
scrambling all their personal documents and photos.
A countdown clock appears on the screen warning that the files will be
lost irrevocably unless a ransom is paid, typically through hard-to-trace
cybercurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Snapchat Rejected $3 Billion Buyout Offer from Facebook
Mobile messaging startup Snapchat rejected an acquisition offer from
Facebook Inc that would have valued the company at $3 billion or more,
according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday.
Facebook representatives reached out to Snapchat in recent weeks to
discuss the all-cash deal, which would have been Facebook's largest
acquisition ever, the report said, citing anonymous sources.
Facebook declined to comment. Snapchat could not immediately be reached
for comment.
Snapchat, which allows consumers to send smartphone photos which
automatically disappear after a few seconds, has proven popular among
teenage users.
The report of Facebook's interest in Snapchat comes a couple of weeks
after Facebook, the world's No. 1 Internet social network, acknowledged
that it was seeing a decline in daily use by young teenagers in the
U.S., although it said overall use by teenagers was stable.
Mysterious Software Claims It Can Cleanse Google
of Lies About How Much You Suck
Are you sick of potential dates being turned off by your ex-girlfriend's
online claims that you were a coke-addicted, abusive mess when you dated?
Then you will love a new website called Brand.com, which cleanses Google
of false information about people, places and things.
Brand.com's president, Michael Zammuto, told VentureBeat the site's
"patent-pending De-Indexing Action Plan is the first turnkey process that
can permanently erase misleading content from Google, Yahoo, and Bing's
search algorithms."
"No one else in the online reputation management industry offers this
conveyor-belt style de-indexing servce," he added.
But Brand.com won't spill the beans on how its proprietary patent-pending
process works. They claim the algorithm not only keeps lies and libel
from showing up in Google searches, but also is able to verify whether or
not the information is false so, sorry, you can't just use it to stamp
out all the bad online reviews of your business.
We're not really sure how an algorithm could determine whether or not you
were a shitty boyfriend three years ago. But hey, kudos to Brand.com for
trying.
Whether the mysterious algorithm works or not, we doubt people will stop
posting unfavorable reviews online any time soon. If it does work, expect
a proliferation of apps like Lulu that can tell you about a boyfriend's
sexual prowess Google-free.
Apple's iPad Mini with Retina Display Available
They might not be wearing Christmas sweaters, but Apple's iPad family is
ready for the holiday season.
Apple announced that its new iPad Mini with a Retina Display will be
available starting today at Apple's online store. The tablet, which was
announced last month, still has a smaller 7.9-inch display than the
full-size iPad, but now that display has significantly better resolution.
The 2048 x 1536 resolution screen is much crisper, making photos, videos
and text appear sharper. The tablet starts now at $399, rather than the
$329 the original Mini cost. However, Apple is still keeping that
original, lower-resolution Mini on shelves for $299.
Of course, the two smaller tablet siblings are also joined by the iPad
Air, which has a larger 9.7-inch display and a higher $499 starting
price. The Air and the new iPad Mini with Retina really only differ in
size. They both have Apple's new A7 processor, a similar design and
Retina Displays. Apple will also still offer the iPad 2 for $399.
Though the new iPad mini goes on sale today, brick and mortar Apple
stores won't sell it to walk-in customers directly. Instead, customers
will need to place an order online and request in-store pickup, instead
of just buying one on the spot at an Apple store. However, the new iPads
will also be sold through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and
select Apple Authorized Resellers.
That's four iPads available from Apple this holiday season to fight on
the competitive tablet battlefield. Microsoft's Surface 2, Amazon's
Kindle Fire HDX and Google's Nexus 7 are all being marketed by the
respective companies as better alternatives to the iPad. However, while
Apple's iPad sales slowed last quarter with 14.1 million sold versus the
14.6 million in the previous quarter, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that
he expects this to be an "iPad Christmas."
"We continue to view the tablet market as 'huge.' We see it as a large
opportunity for us. We are not solely focused on unit share, as we've
said many times, but on usage and customer satisfaction and other things
that are very important to us," Cook said last month on the company's
earnings call.
And analysts and reviewers tend to believe the same, that Apple continues
to have the lead in the competitive market. While the other companies
have come up with clever new hardware and software features, Apple's new
thinner and lighter tablets and the availability of over 475,000 apps
continues to put the tablet pioneer in the lead, even if the prices are
higher.
"At $399, the new iPad Mini is certainly one of the more expensive 8-inch
tablets on the market and a few multiples of the price beyond the least
expensive Android tablets," Ross Rubin, principal analyst for Reticle
Research, told ABC News. "However, it includes premium components
including the high-resolution display and high-end A7 processor."
This Thanksgiving, Order on Black Friday, Get It on Black Sabbath
Its hard to imagine living in America and not being a member of Amazon
Prime. If you can do it, hats off to you. Youve resisted a lot of
pressure. Because even if you shop online only for Thanksgiving napkins,
Hanes T-shirts or the occasional Wii U, you cant avoid Amazon, which
tops Googles unpaid search results for just about every retail object.
And if you lazily follow those links to Amazon, you have to move heaven
and earth to resist joining Amazon Prime, for which traps are set at every
turn. Agree to hand over $79 annually and you get white-glove
right-this-way-sir service and, above all, free two-day shipping. It seems
irresistible; the graphic design alone makes it hard to say no.
And two-day shipping doesnt mean just two business days. It means
Saturdays and Sundays, too. Amazon Prime members no longer just ride first
class on the Internet. The fix is in for Amazonians with the U.S. Postal
Service, that is the government.
American free speech and the interstate circulation of information has
long been thought to require a federal postal system. The Constitution
mandates that Congress establish post offices and post roads. Thomas
Jefferson, who thought mail was the states problem, worried that a
centralized postal system would invite patronage and mismanagement.
Sure, he didnt name Amazon. But what is patronage if not the juggernaut
Amazons partnership with the flailing U.S. Postal Service? Amazons
stuff, and Amazons alone, now gets delivered by our government through
rain, heat and gloom of Saturday night.
Sunday delivery of Amazon goods by the postal service started this week
in Los Angeles and New York, and Jeff Bezos' company in concert with
the United States Postal Service plans to expand it to Dallas, Houston,
New Orleans, Phoenix and more cities next year.
You dont have to pay extra for your Sunday packages (Amazon paid off the
feds so you dont have to). If you have Prime and live in New York or
L.A., you can buy something on Friday and have it by Sunday for free.
Non-Prime shoppers, who get free 5-to-8-day shipping on orders that cost
$35 and up, will find that Sunday is now counted among the days.
The postal service, which has not delivered on Sunday since 1912 and has
been aiming to drop Saturday, shores up its rocky balance book with this
patronage sorry, partnership deal. But can it shore up its
reliability?
Amazon should have to indicate in the description of an item if theyre
going to deliver using USPS," a consumer retail analyst, who declined to
be identified, told me. The analyst echoed the impression of many
consumers that the postal service is currently as Jefferson warned
mismanaged.
Amazon, for its part, is trumpeting the partnership as part of its world
retail domination. The three big pieces of growth for us are selection,
lower prices and speed," Dave Clark, Amazons vice president of
worldwide operations and customer service, said in a public statement.
"Adding an additional day is all about delivery speed. An Amazon
customer can order a backpack and a Kindle for their child and be
packing it up on Sunday for school on Monday."
Hmm. Or I can order more books about dogs that I dont need and have
them before I need them, which is never. This idea that you desperately
need pronto Amazon deliveries like Kindles and backpacks for the
children! is questionable. But ever since Amazon Prime appeared, I
know I have been ordering more stuff: Because its easy and there are no
shipping costs.
More stuff, more cheaply and more quickly: If thats Amazons wish, mine
is for less stuff, less disorganized and less useless.
Can Amazon partner with, say, a government environmental group to
facilitate that?
=~=~=~=
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