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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 15 Issue 08
Volume 15, Issue 08 Atari Online News, Etc. February 22, 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 #1508 02/22/13
~ Rising Hacks Concern! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Yahoo Goes Social!
~ Commercial Cyberspying ~ April Xbox Unveiling? ~ PSN Gives Out Cash!
~ PlayStaion 4 Unveiled! ~ Anonymous A Hack Victim! ~ New Google 'Glass'!
~ ~ Domain Awareness Program ~
-* Apple Hack Seems Familiar! *-
-* China Denies U.S. Hacking Charges! *-
-* U.S. Developing Penalties for Cybertheft! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Here we go again!! For the past two weekends, we've been hit with some
snow storms. First THE Blizzard of 2013 a couple of weeks ago, and then
another heavy-ish storm last weekend.
All this week, I've been watching the local weather reports. Constant
"updates" forecasting another big storm this weekend - with predictions
of a foot or more of new snow. The forecasts have changed a little bit
from day to day, but the totals stayed pretty much the same - until today.
Today's forecast shows us that this pending storm has weakened
significantly; and the new totals are down to about 3 - 6 inches. If so,
it will just be more of an "annoyance" storm than anything else. But,
having lived here in New England my entire life, I'll believe it when I
see it!
I don't have much to discuss this week, but I do want to take this
opportunity to do something that I don't always think to do. And that
is to thank those folks who are avid A-ONE fans. Over the years, various
readers have taken the time to communicate with us here, letting us know
how they feel about our work, good or bad. And also, some have taken
even more time to make contributions to us for inclusion in our issues,
whether they be articles or notations of some interesting online articles
for us to check out.
One such reader, Fred Horvat, has been providing A-ONE with articles for
quite a few years now. While I don't know Fred personally (we've never
met during Atari's heyday, or during the years since), have "talked"
online via e-mails, etc. for quite some time. I just want to go on
record, again, as thanking Fred for all of his help over the years.
There have been many weeks in which A-ONE would have had very little
content had it not been for Fred's contributions. In fact, there may have
been some weeks in which an issue would not have appeared for lack of
material. So, Fred, let me just offer a hearty thanks!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - PlayStation 4 Unveiled at NY Event!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Microsoft To Unveil Next Xbox in April!
PlayStation Is Giving Out Free Money!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PlayStation 4 Unveiled at NY Event
Sony unveiled its next-generation gaming system, PlayStation 4, at an
event in New York, saying the console will be part of a new ecosystem
focused on hardware, software and "the fastest, most powerful gaming
network."
"Our long-term vision is to reduce download times of digital titles to
zero," said Mark Cerny, Sony's lead system architect on the PS4.
The new console is the Japanese electronics giant's first major game
machine since the PlayStation 3 went on sale in 2006.
Wednesday's unveiling is Sony Corp.'s attempt to steal the spotlight, at
least until Microsoft Corp. unveils its next Xbox in June, as expected,
at the E3 video game expo in Los Angeles.
Among the PS4's revisions is an updated controller that adds a touchpad,
motion control and a "share" button. The controller also features a light
bar, which means a new PlayStation camera can more easily track the
device.
Sony has struggled lately to keep up with Microsoft and other powerful
rivals such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. The company is
promising nifty mobile devices, sophisticated digital cameras and other
gadgetry as part of its comeback effort.
The new device arrives amid declines in video game hardware, software and
accessory sales. Research firm NPD Group said game sales fell 22 percent
to $13.3 billion in 2012. One reason for the decline, analysts believe:
It's been years since a new game machine was released. Most people who
want an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or a Wii already have one. But people also
have shifted their attention to games on Facebook, tablet computers and
mobile phones. Sony and other game makers face the task of convincing
people that they need a new video game system rather than, say, a new
iPad.
Last fall, Nintendo started selling the Wii U, which comes with a
tablet-like controller called the GamePad. It allows two people playing
the same game to have entirely different experiences depending on whether
they use the GamePad or a traditional Wii remote, which itself was
revolutionary when it came out because of its motion-control features.
The GamePad can also be used to play games without using a TV set, as one
would on a regular tablet.
The original Wii has sold more units since its launch than both its
rivals, but it has lost momentum in recent years as the novelty of its
motion controller faded. Nintendo said it sold 3.1 million Wii Us by the
end of 2012. It was a disappointing start for the first of a new
generation of gaming systems.
In some ways, notably its ability to display high-definition games, the
Wii U was just catching up to the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, the
preferred consoles to play popular games such as "Call of Duty" and "Red
Dead Redemption."
All three console makers are trying to position their devices as
entertainment hubs that can deliver movies, music and social networking
as they try to stay relevant in the age of smartphones and tablets. The
Wii U has a TV-watching feature called TVii. With it, the console's
touch-screen GamePad controller becomes a remote control for your TV and
set-top box. But Microsoft and Sony were ahead of the game in this front,
too.
When the PlayStation 3 went on sale in the U.S. on Nov. 17, 2006, the 20
gigabyte model had a $500 price tag and the 60 GB version went for $600.
They are now cheaper and come with more storage $270 for 250 GB and
$300 for 500 GB. Comparable models of the Wii U and the Xbox 360 both
start at $300.
Sony, meanwhile, started selling a mobile gaming device, PlayStation Vita,
last February. The Vita connects to the PlayStation 3, so players can
play the same game regardless of whether they are using a console or a
handheld system.
Microsoft To Reportedly Unveil Next Xbox at April Event
The debut of Sonys PlayStation 4 is now behind us, so Microsoft is next
in line to take a crack at grabbing gamers attention with its
next-generation console. The Redmond, Washington-based company has worked
its way to the top with its current-generation Xbox 360, which just
recorded its twenty-fifth consecutive month as the best-selling console
in the U.S. Now, according to a new report from Computer and Video Games,
unnamed developers and other industry professionals including multiple
Sony employees say Microsofts next Xbox will be unveiled at a press
conference in April. No other details were provided, but the next Xbox is
expected to feature an eight-core 1.6GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 50GB 6x
Blu-ray Disc drive.
PlayStation Is Giving Out Free Money
In what you can only assume is a move to completely make February 20th all
about PlayStation, Sony is giving certain PlayStation Network users free
money. Just after midnight Central time in North America, certain PSN
users found the following message in their inboxes along with a PSN code
for $10.
Don't mind if I do...
No word on what the criteria is for getting the free money, but you'd
assume it's for spending a certain amount of cash on the PlayStation Store
as it's rewarding folks for being "a loyal customer." Sony has run
programs in the past where spending a certain amount got you a certain
amount of money back, but those programs are usually advertised.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
China Says U.S. Hacking Accusations Lack Technical Proof
Accusations by a U.S. computer security company that a secretive Chinese
military unit is likely behind a series of hacking attacks are
scientifically flawed and hence unreliable, China's Defense Ministry said
on Wednesday.
The statement came after the White House said overnight that the Obama
administration has repeatedly taken up its concerns about cyber-theft at
the highest levels of the Chinese government, including with Chinese
military officials.
The security company, Mandiant, identified the People's Liberation Army's
Shanghai-based Unit 61398 as the most likely driving force behind the
hacking. Mandiant said it believed the unit had carried out "sustained"
attacks on a wide range of industries.
The Chinese Defence Ministry, which has already denied the charges, went
further in a new statement, slamming Mandiant for relying on spurious
data.
"The report, in only relying on linking IP address to reach a conclusion
the hacking attacks originated from China, lacks technical proof," the
ministry said in a statement on its website (www.mod.gov.cn).
"Everyone knows that the use of usurped IP addresses to carry out hacking
attacks happens on an almost daily basis," it added.
"Second, there is still no internationally clear, unified definition of
what consists of a 'hacking attack'. There is no legal evidence behind the
report subjectively inducing that the everyday gathering of online
(information) is online spying."
As hacking is a cross-border, anonymous and deceptive phenomenon, by its
very nature it is hard to work out exactly where hacks originated, the
statement said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, asked about the U.S. taking
up its concerns about hacking with Beijing, said: "China and the U.S. have
maintained communication over the relevant issue".
Unit 61398 is located in Shanghai's Pudong district, China's financial and
banking hub, and is staffed by perhaps thousands of people proficient in
English as well as computer programming and network operations, Mandiant
said in its report.
The unit had stolen "hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141
organizations across a diverse set of industries beginning as early as
2006", it said.
Most of the victims were located in the United States, with smaller numbers
in Canada and Britain. The information stolen ranged from details on
mergers and acquisitions to the emails of senior employees, the company
said.
But the Chinese Defence Ministry said China's own figures show that a
"considerable" number of hacking attacks it is subjected to come from the
United States.
"But we don't use this as a reason to criticize the United States," the
ministry said.
However, the Global Times, a widely read tabloid published by Communist
Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, said China should be more active in
publicly airing its complaints about hacking attacks, especially as the
United States does so.
"Some officials have been punished for internally reporting that government
websites have been hacked and secrets leaked, but almost no details have
come out," it wrote.
"The Americans really know how to talk this (issue) up. All China can do
is concede defeat."
Apple Hack Similar to Facebook Attack
Apple was targeted by the same hackers who went after Facebook last month,
Reuters reported this afternoon and Apple confirmed to ABC News.
"Apple has identified malware which infected a limited number of Mac
systems through a vulnerability in the Java plug-in for browsers," Apple
said in a statement. "The malware was employed in an attack against Apple
and other companies, and was spread through a website for software
developers."
No data was stolen, Apple said. As in the Facebook case, the company said
hackers were only able to access a small number of Apple employees'
Macintosh computers. Apple then isolated them from its network.
"There was no evidence that any data left Apple," the company said.
Facebook reported on Friday that it was "targeted in a sophisticated
attack." Like Apple today, it said that there was no evidence that
Facebook user data was compromised. Security experts told ABC News that
it is likely that the only information compromised was what was on the
personal computers of those employees whose machines were infected.
Both attacks used a vulnerability in Java, the software used to show much
of the content on Web browsers. Because of that vulnerability, the
Department of Homeland Security released a statement last month urging
computer users to disable the software in browsers.
Apple said that its operating systems do not ship with Java installed. If
a user installs Java, Apple's software will automatically disable it if
it has been unused for 35 days. Apple will also be releasing a new update
that will help against Java threats.
"To protect Mac users who have installed Java, today we are releasing an
updated Java malware removal tool that will check Mac systems and remove
this malware if found," Apple said today.
Apple and Facebook's announcements comes after Twitter's announcement on
Feb. 1 that 250,000 accounts were compromised in an attack. Twitter told
affected users to reset their passwords. The New York Times and the Wall
Street Journal said their computer systems were infiltrated by Chinese
hackers in late January.
With so many security breaches, this is a good time to make sure you are
following basic online safety tips - reset your passwords regularly, keep
your anti-virus software up to date, and stay away from websites that seem
questionable.
Rising Hack Attacks Prompt Concern
A string of hacking attacks at high-profile US companies has security
experts and officials worried that the hackers are using information
gained to plan even more sophisticated attacks.
Facebook announced it "was targeted in a sophisticated" attack last month,
beginning a spate of high-profile hackings. The Twitter accounts of Burger
King and Jeep were taken over by hackers earlier this week, just weeks
after the site announced 250,000 user passwords had been compromised in
an attack.
And on Tuesday, Apple confirmed the same hackers who went after Facebook
had accessed a small number of Apple employees' Macintosh computers.
The Apple, Facebook and Twitter attacks could be related to an Eastern
Europe operation, according to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters.
"That part of the world is without a doubt the most prolific and advanced
center for criminal hacking on the planet," said Robert Siciliano, McAfee
online security expert.
The social media hacks are separate from the alleged Chinese cyber
espionage attacks detailed in a report released by Mandiant, a
Virginia-based cyber security firm.
While there is a lot to sort out, here is what we know:
Apple and Facebook
No data was stolen in the Apple and Facebook hackings, according to both
companies.
Security experts told ABC News that the only information likely
compromised was on the personal computers of those employees whose
machines were infected.
Both attacks used a vulnerability in Java, the software used to show much
of the content on Web browsers. Because of that vulnerability, the
Department of Homeland Security released a statement last month urging
computer users to disable the software in browsers.
Apple said that its operating systems do not ship with Java installed. If
a user installs Java, Apple's software will automatically disable it if
it has been unused for 35 days. Apple will also be releasing a new update
that will help against Java threats.
On Tuesday, Apple released an updated Java malware removal tool.
"The more data that these criminal hackers have, the more insight they
have to the code of these different tech companies and how they do what
they do and who the people on the inside are," Siciliano said. "All this
intelligence is everything they need to build better hacking tools."
Twitter announced on Feb. 1 that 250,000 user passwords had been
compromised, and said it had taken swift action, requiring a password
reset before any hacked handle can be accessed again.
The breach was reportedly Twitter's largest data compromise to data,
though the number of affected Twitter handles accounted for less than
0.125 percent of the service's 200 million active tweeters.
In a separate incident, the Burger King Twitter account @BurgerKing was
hacked on Monday, with the logo, name and background page changed to
McDonald's.
The hacker posted tweets that Burger King had been sold to McDonald's and
the account had been taken over by McDonald's employees. "We just got
sold to McDonalds! Look for McDonalds in a hood near you @DFNCTSC," the
hacker tweeted at 12:01 p.m. ET. @DFNCTSC is likely an account set up by
the hacker. Several of the posts used obscenities or racial epithets.
On Tuesday, Jeep became the second brand name to fall victim to a hacker,
with a prankster taking over the account and suggesting the car company
had been purchased by Cadillac.
Some unconfirmed reports suggested the Burger King hack had been
perpetrated by the hacking group known as Anonymous.
Twitter is reportedly considering two factor authentication in order to
help prevent hacks like Burger King and Jeep.
A report released by Mandiant, a Virginia-based cyber security firm,
alleges a specific Chinese military unit is likely behind a cyber attack
campaign that has stolen "hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141
organizations" since 2006, including 115 targets in the U.S.
Mandiant's report was released a week after President Obama said in his
State of the Union address that America must "face the rapidly growing
threat from cyber attack."
"We know hackers steal people's identities and infiltrate private e-mail.
We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now
our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our
financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems. We cannot
look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real
threats to our security and our economy," he said.
President Obama pushed cyber security to the forefront last week, signing
an executive order that will allow government agencies to work with
private companies to tackle cyber threats.
Industries based in the U.S. will be asked to create voluntary standards
for protecting information, while the federal government will commit to
sharing cyber threat data with companies.
After the spate of hackings, Siciliano says personal users should be
concerned and take precautions.
"When you have criminal hackers going after public-facing,
consumer-oriented companies, the end game is to hack the public," he
said.
Administration Developing Penalties for Cybertheft
Evidence of an unrelenting campaign of cyberstealing linked to the Chinese
government is prompting the Obama administration to develop more
aggressive responses to the theft of U.S. government data and corporate
trade secrets.
The Obama administration is expected to announce new measures Wednesday,
including possible fines and other trade actions against China or any
other country guilty of cyber-espionage. Officials familiar with the
administration's plans spoke on condition of anonymity because they were
not authorized to speak publicly about the threatened action.
The Chinese government denies being involved in the cyberattacks cited in
a cybersecurity firm's analysis of breaches that compromised more than
140 companies. On Wednesday, China's Defense Ministry called the report
deeply flawed.
Mandiant, a Virginia-based cybersecurity firm, released a torrent of
details Monday that tied a secret Chinese military unit in Shanghai to
years of cyberattacks against U.S. companies. Mandiant concluded that the
breaches can be linked to the People's Liberation Army's Unit 61398.
Military experts believe the unit is part of the People's Liberation
Army's cybercommand, which is under the direct authority of the General
Staff Department, China's version of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As such,
its activities would be likely to be authorized at the highest levels of
China's military.
The release of the Mandiant report, complete with details on three of the
alleged hackers and photographs of one of the military unit's buildings
in Shanghai, makes public what U.S. authorities have said less publicly
for years. But it also increases the pressure on the U.S. to take more
forceful action against the Chinese for what experts say has been years
of systematic espionage.
"If the Chinese government flew planes into our airspace, our planes would
escort them away. If it happened two, three or four times, the president
would be on the phone and there would be threats of retaliation," said
Shawn Henry, former FBI executive assistant director. "This is happening
thousands of times a day. There needs to be some definition of where the
red line is and what the repercussions would be."
Henry, the president of the security firm CrowdStrike, said that rather
than tell companies to increase their cybersecurity, the government needs
to focus more on how to deter the hackers and the nations that are backing
them.
James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, said that in the past year the White House has been
taking a serious look at responding to China. "This will be the year they
will put more pressure on, even while realizing it will be hard for the
Chinese to change. There's not an on-off switch," Lewis said.
In denying involvement in the cyberattacks tracked by Mandiant, China's
Foreign Ministry said China too has been a victim of hacking, some of it
traced to the U.S. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei cited a report by
an agency under the Ministry of Information Technology and Industry that
said that in 2012 alone foreign hackers used viruses and other malicious
software to seize control of 1,400 computers in China and 38,000
websites.
"Among the above attacks, those from the U.S. numbered the most," Hong
said at a daily media briefing, lodging the most specific allegations the
Chinese government has made about foreign hacking.
Cybersecurity experts say U.S. authorities do not conduct similar attacks
or steal data from Chinese companies but acknowledge that intelligence
agencies routinely spy on other countries.
China is clearly a target of interest, said Lewis, noting that the U.S.
would be interested in Beijing's military policies, such as any plans for
action against Taiwan or Japan.
In its report, Mandiant said it traced the hacking back to a neighborhood
in the outskirts of Shanghai that includes a white 12-story office
building run by the army's Unit 61398.
Mandiant said there are only two viable conclusions about the involvement
of the Chinese military in the cyberattacks: Either Unit 61398 is
responsible for the persistent attacks, or they are being done by a secret
organization of Chinese speakers, with direct access to the Shanghai
telecommunications infrastructure, who are engaged in a multi-year
espionage campaign being run right outside the military unit's gates.
"In a state that rigorously monitors Internet use, it is highly unlikely
that the Chinese government is unaware of an attack group that operates
from the Pudong New Area of Shanghai," the Mandiant report said,
concluding that the only way the group could function is with the "full
knowledge and cooperation" of the Beijing government.
The unit "has systematically stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at
least 141 organizations," Mandiant wrote. A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes.
The most popular version of the new iPhone 5, for example, has 16
gigabytes of space, while the more expensive iPads have as much as 64
gigabytes of space. The U.S. Library of Congress' 2006-10 Twitter archive
of about 170 billion tweets totals 133.2 terabytes.
Anonymous Becomes Latest Victim in Twitter Hacking Spree
Anyone whos ever had their website hacked and defaced by hacker
collective Anonymous can have a good laugh at their expense, because it
looks as though they arent immune to security breaches either. BBC News
reports that Anonymous this week has suffered an embarrassing breach, as
one of its popular Twitter feeds is taken over by rival hacktivists. The
Anonymous Twitter hack follows other high-profile Twitter hacks that have
occurred over the past few days, including the Twitter accounts for both
Burger King and Jeep. Graham Cluley, a senior consultant at security
firm Sophos, tells BBC News that the hacks likely resulted from poor
password practices, such as either using weak passwords or using the same
password across multiple different accounts across the web.
Commercial Cyberspying, Theft Promise Rich Payoff
For state-backed cyberspies such as a Chinese military unit implicated by
a U.S. security firm in a computer crime wave, hacking foreign companies
can produce high-value secrets ranging from details on oil fields to
advanced manufacturing technology.
This week's report by Mandiant Inc. adds to mounting suspicion that
Chinese military experts are helping state industry by stealing secrets
from Western companies possibly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Chinese military has denied involvement in the attacks.
"This is really the new era of cybercrime," said Graham Cluley, a British
security expert. "We've moved from kids in their bedroom and financially
motivated crime to state-sponsored cybercrime, which is interested in
stealing secrets and getting military or commercial advantage."
Instead of credit card numbers and other consumer data sought by crime
gangs, security experts say cyberspies with resources that suggest they
work for governments aim at better-guarded but more valuable information.
Companies in fields from petrochemicals to software can cut costs by
receiving stolen secrets. An energy company bidding for access to an oil
field abroad can save money if spies can tell it what foreign rivals might
pay. Suppliers can press customers to pay more if they know details of
their finances. For China, advanced technology and other information from
the West could help speed the rise of giant state-owned companies seen as
national champions.
"It's like an ongoing war," said Ryusuke Masuoka, a cybersecurity expert
at Tokyo's Center for International Public Policy Studies, a private
think tank. "It is going to spread and get deeper and deeper."
Mandiant, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, said it found attacks on
141 entities, mostly in the United States but also in Canada, Britain and
elsewhere.
Attackers stole information about pricing, contract negotiations,
manufacturing, product testing and corporate acquisitions, the company
said. It said multiple details indicated the attackers, dubbed APT1 in
its report, were from a military unit in Shanghai, though there was a
small chance others might be responsible.
Target companies were in four of the seven strategic industries identified
in the Communist Party's latest five-year development plan, it said.
"We do believe that this stolen information can be used to obvious
advantage" by China's government and state enterprises, Mandiant said.
China's military is a leader in cyberwarfare research, along with its
counterparts in the United States and Russia. The People's Liberation Army
supports hacker hobby clubs with as many as 100,000 members to develop a
pool of possible recruits, according to security consultants.
Mandiant said it traced attacks to a neighborhood in Shanghai's Pudong
district where the PLA's Unit 61398 is housed in a 12-story building. The
unit has advertised online for recruits with computer skills. Mandiant
estimated its personnel at anywhere from hundreds to several thousand.
On Wednesday, the PLA rejected Mandiant's findings and said computer
addresses linked to the attacks could have been hijacked by attackers
elsewhere. A military statement complained that "one-sided attacks in the
media" destroy the atmosphere for cooperation in fighting online crime.
Many experts are not swayed by the denials.
"There are a lot of hackers that are sponsored by the Chinese government
who conduct cyberattacks," said Lim Jong-in, dean of Korea University's
Graduate School of Information Security.
The United States and other major governments are developing cyberspying
technology for intelligence and security purposes, though how much that
might be used for commercial spying is unclear.
"All countries who can do conduct cyber operations," said Alastair
MacGibbon, the former director of the Australian Federal Police's High
Tech Crime Center.
"I think the thing that has upset people mostly about the Chinese is ...
that they're doing it on an industrialized scale and in some ways in a
brazen and audacious manner," said MacGibbon, who now runs an Internet
safety institute at the University of Canberra.
China's ruling party has ambitious plans to build up state-owned champions
in industries including banking, telecoms, oil and steel. State companies
benefit from monopolies and other official favors but lack skills and
technology.
Last year, a group of Chinese state companies were charged in U.S. federal
court in San Francisco in the theft of DuPont Co. technology for making
titanium dioxide, a chemical used in paints and plastics.
In 2011, another security company, Symantec Inc., announced it detected
attacks on 29 chemical companies and 19 other companies that it traced to
China. It said the attackers wanted to steal secrets about chemical
processing and advanced materials manufacturing.
In Australia, a report by the attorney general this week said 20 percent
of 225 companies surveyed had experienced a cyberattack in the previous
year.
Australian mining companies make a tempting target because of their
knowledge about global resources, said Tobias Feakin, head of national
security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a think tank.
As Chinese resource producers expand abroad, "you could see the motivation
for understanding the Australian competition and infiltrating their
systems," Feakin said.
China has long been cited by security experts as a center for Internet
crime. They say some crimes might be carried out by attackers abroad who
remotely control Chinese computers. But experts see growing evidence of
Chinese involvement.
Few companies are willing to confirm they are victims of cyberspying,
possibly fearing it might erode trust in their business.
"When companies admit their servers were hacked, they become the target of
hackers. Because the admission shows the weakness, they cannot admit,"
said Kwon Seok-chul, president of Cuvepia Inc., a security firm in Seoul.
An exception was Google Inc., which announced in 2010 that it and at least
20 other companies were hit by attacks traced to China. Only two other
companies disclosed they were targets. Google cited the hacking and
efforts to snoop on Chinese dissidents' email as among reasons for closing
its China-based search service that year.
Mandiant cited the example of an unidentified company with which it said a
Chinese commodity supplier negotiated a double-digit price increase after
attackers stole files and emails from the customer's chief executive over
2½ years beginning in 2008.
"It would be surprising if APT1 could continue perpetrating such a broad
mandate of cyberespionage and data theft if the results of the group's
efforts were not finding their way into the hands of entities able to
capitalize on them," the report said.
NYPD, Microsoft Create Crime-fighting Tech System
A 911 call comes in about a possible bomb in lower Manhattan and an alert
pops up on computer screens at the New York Police Department, instantly
showing officers an interactive map of the neighborhood, footage from
nearby security cameras, whether there are high radiation levels and
whether any other threats have been made against the city.
In a click, police know exactly what they're getting into.
Such a hypothetical scenario may seem like something out of a futuristic
crime drama, but the technology is real, developed in a partnership
between the nation's largest police department and Microsoft Corp., and
the latest version has been quietly in use for about a year.
The project could pay off in more ways than one: The NYPD could make tens
of millions of dollars under an unprecedented marketing deal that allows
Microsoft to sell the system to other law enforcement agencies and
civilian companies around the world. The city will get a 30 percent cut.
The Domain Awareness System, known as the dashboard, gives easy access to
the police department's voluminous arrest records, 911 calls, more than
3,000 security cameras citywide, license plate readers and portable
radiation detectors. This is all public data not additional
surveillance.
Right now, it is used only in NYPD offices, mostly in the counterterrorism
unit. Eventually, the system could supply crime-fighting information in
real time to officers on laptops in their squad cars and on mobile devices
while they walk the beat.
"It works incredibly well," said Jessica Tisch, director of planning and
policy for the counterterrorism unit.
For example, officers used the system during a deadly shooting outside
the Empire State Building in August. Dozens of 911 calls were coming in,
and it initially looked like an attack staged by several gunmen. But
officers mapped the information and pulled up cameras within 500 feet of
the reported shots to determine there was only one shooter.
Analysts are cautious about the potential profits, saying that largely
depends on Microsoft's sales efforts and whether any major competition
arises. While there other data-drilling products made by other companies,
they say the NYPD's involvement could set the dashboard apart.
"This is the kind of stuff you used to only see in movies," said analyst
Rob Enderle of Enderle Group, a technology analysis firm. "Getting it to
work in a way that police departments can use in real time is huge."
The venture began in 2009 when the NYPD approached Microsoft about
building software to help mine data for the Lower Manhattan Security
Initiative, a network of private and public cameras and other tools
monitored by the department's counterterrorism bureau. Development cost
the department between $30 million and $40 million, officials said.
"Usually, you purchase software that you try to work with, but we wanted
this to be something that really worked well for us, so we set about
creating it with them," said Richard Daddario, the NYPD's deputy
commissioner for counterterrorism.
Officers were involved throughout the process with the programmers,
offering advice on what they need during an emergency.
"It was created by cops for cops," Tisch said. "We thought a lot about
what information we want up close and personal, and what needs to be a
click away. It's all baked in there."
The system uses hundreds of thousands of pieces of information. Security
camera footage can be rewound five minutes so that officers can see
suspects who may have fled. Sensors pick up whether a bag has been left
sitting for a while. When an emergency call comes in, officers can check
prior 911 calls from that address to see what they might be up against.
Prospective clients can customize it to fit their organization.
Dave Mosher, a Microsoft vice president in charge of program management,
said the company started to market the system in August and is looking at
smaller municipalities, law enforcement agencies and companies that handle
major sporting events.
He would not say whether any clients have been lined up and would not give
details on the price except to say that it would depend on how much
customization must be done.
Shawn McCarthy, an analyst with the research firm IDC, described the
partnership and outcome as unusual in the tech world. "I see huge
potential, but so much depends on the price and competition," he said.
No firm timetable has been set on when the dashboard will be rolled out to
the entire 34,000-offficer department.
Yahoo Goes Social, Teams with Facebook for Site Revamp
Yahoo Inc is overhauling its website to incorporate features familiar to
Facebook users such as a newsfeed and people's "likes," in CEO Marissa
Mayer's biggest product revamp since taking the helm of the ailing company
last year.
Mayer, who took over in July after a procession of CEOs was shown the
door, said in a blog post on Wednesday that Yahoo's redesigned website
will let users log in with their Facebook IDs to gain access to content
and information shared by friends - from articles and videos to birthdays.
Yahoo is one of the world's most-visited online properties, but revenue
has declined in recent years amid competition from Google Inc and Facebook
Inc.
The changes to Yahoo's Internet shop window, which include a more
streamlined mobile application for smartphones and tablets, will be rolled
out over coming days. The makeover follows a new version of Yahoo mail,
one of its most popular applications, introduced in December.
Analysts say the move marks a strengthening of Yahoo's ties with Facebook,
employing some of the social network's growing data on its billion-plus
users to battle Google for Web users' attention. It remains to be seen
whether the initial makeover and tweaks expected over time will win back
its Internet audience.
"This is definitely an important step. The Yahoo home page is one of the
most important things because it is the first interface," said B. Riley
Caris analyst Sameet Sinha. "It's familiar in terms of layout, the
newsfeed is interesting, and it will be interesting to see how it
develops over time.
"The key will be how data is aggregated within Yahoo and Facebook."
Seven months into her tenure, former Google executive Mayer has arrested
the decline of the Internet portal and won favor on Wall Street with
stock buybacks among other things. But Yahoo's forecast of a modest
revenue uptick this year still pales in comparison with the growth of
rivals like Google and Facebook, which are eating into its advertising
market share.
"We wanted it to be familiar but also wanted it to embrace some of the
modern paradigms of the Web," Mayer said of the product revamp on NBC's
"Today" show on Wednesday.
"One thing that I really like is this very personalized newsfeed; it's
infinite and you can go on scrolling forever," she said.
Among other problems, Yahoo has been plagued by internal turmoil that has
resulted in a revolving door of CEOs. Mayer, 37, took over after a
tumultuous period during which former CEO Scott Thompson resigned after
less than six months on the job over a controversy about his academic
credentials. Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang then resigned from the board and
cut ties with the company.
Thompson's predecessor, the controversial and outspoken Carol Bartz, was
fired over the phone for failing to deliver on growth. Yahoo's 2012
revenue was $5 billion. It has been flat year over year, off from some
$6.3 billion in 2010.
Inside View on New Google Glass
Google has been showing off its glasses or its Project Glass for nearly a
year now, but we haven't seen much about what it looks like when you put
on the futuristic, Internet-connected glasses that show digital
information right in front of your eyes, projected over the physical
world. Until today that is.
Google has launched a new website and a series of videos which show off
features of the glasses - or what it is now officially calling Glass. As
you can see in the video below, the glasses can be controlled with your
voice and then a small box appears in the right hand corner of the glasses
showing the software.
For instance, you can tell Glass to record a video or search for photos of
tigers. Even more impressive seems to be the navigation functionality. You
can tell Glass where you want to go and it will show a 3D navigation view
in the corner. The video also shows what happens when you get a message -
it pops up with the photo of the person, again in the right corner.
The glasses, Google told ABC News last year, have smartphone parts - a
processor and battery - in the left leg. On the front of the glasses, in
the top left (or right depending on which way you view them) corner is a
small camera and a glass-looking box, which is a tiny display. On the top
of the glasses is a power button and a camera button. You control the
screen's interface with the touchpad on the leg of the glasses.
With the new previews of the software and how it works, Google has also
announced its plans to open up availability to real people. "We're
looking for bold, creative individuals who want to join us and be a part
of shaping the future of Glass," Google writes on its Glass website.
While Google has already started to test the glasses with software
developers, they are now asking people to share on Google+ and Twitter
their ideas of how they would use the glasses. Include the #ifihadglass
hashtag and your idea in 50 words or less before Feb. 27 and Google might
pick you. You can share them with Google on Google+ (+ProjectGlass) or
Twitter (@projectglass).
Those selected will need to pre-order the developer version of the
Glasses - called the Glass Explorer Edition - for $1,500. Google has
already begun showing off the glasses to developers in New York and
San Francisco this month.
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