June 2011

For Some Hackers, Goal Is Pranks

Amid growing worries over criminal hacking attacks and cyberwarfare, a group calling itself LulzSec is showing that hackers pulling pranks to get attention remain a serious annoyance and even a threat in their own right.

Since early May, the group, whose members remain unknown, has claimed responsibility seven times for computer break-ins and the theft of documents that it posted on a website and bragged about on Twitter. Targets have included Japanese technology-and-media giant Sony Corp., U.S. public broadcaster PBS, and television network Fox, a unit of News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal. In most cases involving data theft, perpetrators have not claimed responsibility. LulzSec, by comparison, boldly announces its antics and publishes private data to bolster its claims -- echoing the actions of an earlier generation of hackers that sought to brag about their skill or taunt victims and rivals. Security experts say such tactics are at least as troublesome, if not more so. "The underlying motives may be different, but the damage they can do is exponentially greater," said Craig Spiezle, executive director of the Online Trust Alliance and a member of InfraGard. "Effectively, they are creating disruption and doing economic harm."

Pulling Out Weeds Online

Seeking to milk the huge growth in online advertising, a rush of technology firms have emerged in recent years pitching an array of techniques for buying, targeting and measuring digital ads.

But the raft of newcomers has created a complex landscape that has left marketers confused. Now a series of specialized companies are pitching products to simplify the landscape by helping marketers navigate the online-advertising world. WPP Group PLC online-ad firm 24/7 Real Media recently started promoting a product that helps marketers determine which ad-technology start-ups to work with to make the best use of ad spending. Several other companies that had specialized in one segment of the business, such as buying search ads, are broadening their offerings to other areas, such as social-networking sites and mobile advertising. Digital-ad shop IgnitionOne, a unit of Dentsu Inc., is rolling out a service that lets marketers buy, measure and boost the performance of ads that appear on search engines, along the border of a Web page and on social-networking site Facebook.

Android, Apple face growing cyberattacks

Cyberattacks that commonly had targeted computers are zapping smartphones and tablets, prompting security experts to urge Google and Apple to do more to slow their spread.

"The drive to push new tech products out the door has always trumped security, and now that mind-set has moved to the mobile platforms," says John Pironti, an adviser at ISACA, a group for information systems professionals. After a recent attack, Google last week removed 25 corrupted applications from its Android Market, but not before up to 125,000 Android users downloaded the bad apps, says Kevin Mahaffey, chief technical officer of Lookout Mobile Security. On each Android phone with these apps, the attacker can connect to a remote server when a voice call is received, then download other malicious programs to the phone, Mahaffey says.

String of major cybersecurity breaches builds momentum for government action

Cybersecurity experts have warned the government for years about the increasing threat that attacks from criminals and foreign states post to the nation's economic and physical security. But it has taken a series of high-profile breaches in recent years to build enough momentum to cut through the legislative stalemate.

The release of the first detailed legislative guidance on the topic from the White House is another sign that comprehensive cybersecurity legislation may finally pass Congress this session after years of inactivity. Both the Senate and the House have shown a willingness to cooperate on legislation, though there is a healthy debate over how much authority the government should have to regulate security standards for private sector firms, particularly those deemed "critical infrastructure" and therefore crucial to national security. On one thing most experts are in agreement: whatever we're doing now isn't working.

China calls US culprit in global 'Internet war'

The Chinese military accused the U.S. on June 3 of launching a global "Internet war" to bring down Arab and other governments, redirecting the spotlight away from allegations of major online attacks on Western targets originating in China.

The accusations June 3 by Chinese military academy scholars, and their urging of tougher policing of the Internet, followed allegations this week that computer hackers in China had compromised the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including government officials, military personnel and political activists. Google traced the origin of the attacks to the city of Jinan that is home to a military vocational school whose computers were linked to a more sophisticated assault on Google's systems 17 months ago. China has denied responsibility for the two attacks. In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States had raised its concerns with China over the latest allegations. He said the allegations were serious but made no comment on reports of China's involvement.

FCC To Unveil 'Future Of Media' Report Next Week

Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission's study, "The Technology and Information Needs of Communities," has been teed up for the FCC's June 9 public meeting.

According to a one-sentence clue in its agenda announcement for the June 9 public meeting--which hardly served the information needs of reporters who had been looking out for the report-- the FCC said there will be a "presentation by the working group on the impact of technology on the information needs of communities." The FCC brought on Beliefnet founder Steve Waldman in October of 2009 to head up a working group reviewing and producing a report on the impact of the technological revolution on those information needs. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Waldman are both scheduled to appear June 10 at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York for a "special event The Impact of Technology on the Information Landscape of Communities," where they will talk about the report as well.

LightSquared wireless Internet plan concerns officials pushing GPS for aviation

Two of 21st-century America’s favorite gadgets — the smartphone and the GPS device — are on a collision course, according to a report delivered June 3 to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The report says deployment of a massive new network of towers and satellites to expand wireless communication may effectively shut down Global Positioning System devices that are at the core of a multibillion-dollar plan to revolutionize aviation. They also may affect some GPS units used by drivers, bicyclists and boaters. The report puts the Federal Communications Commission in a Solomonesque position with two of its most cherished, ambitious and expensive initiatives. President Barack Obama has promised to make Internet access available to all Americans, even as the Administration has pushed airlines to invest billions to install GPS-based equipment.

Channel 13 subsidiary will get $4M in fees, grant to operate New Jersey Network

The new nonprofit group Channel 13 WNET incorporated to operate New Jersey’s public television network will not only pay nothing for the management rights, but will actually receive $4 million in fees and grants as part of the agreement.

Rather than pay the state for the opportunity to run the network, the new WNET subsidiary will receive a $2 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that was previously awarded to New Jersey Network. It will also get to keep about $2 million in tower rental fees that private companies pay to NJN, according to sources familiar with the ongoing negotiations who requested anonymity because of the confidentiality required of the bidding process.

Inside the ultra-high-speed wireless home wars

The clear winner of the home networking wars of the past few years has undoubtedly been Wi-Fi. The sheer number of Wi-Fi embedded devices, from laptops to smartphones, is increasingly being joined by the pack of new consumer electronics device categories with Wi-Fi, such as smart TVs and over-the-top set tops, which means the technology isn't going anywhere soon. But it’s not alone, either. The Wi-Fi industry has done a good job of evolving, with improvements in speed, range and quality of service. But in-home distribution of rich-media content, such as uncompressed HD video, is growing, and that content would stretch the limits of what Wi-Fi can do. In some cases, it would be impossible for existing Wi-Fi technologies, such as 802.11n, to handle, even when using dual-band MIMO solutions. The good news is that there are a bevy of emerging technologies in various states of evolution. Ultra-high-speed local wire-replacement technologies such as WiGig would enable new use cases that are impossible today with Wi-Fi. Potentially, these new technologies could even replace the current generation of Wi-Fi based on 802.11n.

Obama Administration condemns Syria for shuttering Internet

The Obama Administration condemned the Syrian regime for allegedly shutting down Internet and other communication networks amid continuing calls for political reforms. “We are deeply concerned by reports that Internet service has been shut down across much of Syria, as have some mobile communication networks,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

“We condemn any effort to suppress the Syrian people’s exercise of their rights to free expression, assembly, and association.” The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “must understand that attempting to silence its population cannot prevent the transition currently taking place,” Sec Clinton said. “We believe that even in the face of significant obstacles, the Syrian people will -- and should -- find a way to make their voices heard.” “States should not arbitrarily deprive or disrupt individuals’ access to the Internet or other networked technologies,” Sec Clinton said, citing the White House’s International Strategy for Cyberspace.

Benton

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