December 2014

2015 will be a crucial year for all US mobile network operators but foremost for T-Mobile US, the subsidiary of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom and the smallest of the four leading US carriers.

It has to compete against the big three carriers in US spectrum auctions. One is ongoing, while the other, more costly low band auction is currently set for the first quarter of 2016. To compete successfully in such an auction, which could go up to hundreds of millions of dollars or more, T-Mobile US will need a war chest. But its parent company and majority stakeholder Deutsche Telekom wants to offload T-Mobile so that it can focus on competing in a rapidly consolidating European market.

The latest theory on the culprit behind the devastating cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, presented to the FBI, blamed the attacks on one or more insiders working in concert with known hackers.

In an independent analysis, representatives from security firm Norse found a 10-year veteran of Sony Pictures with a technical background and access to the studio’s networks who was laid off in 2014, and individuals previously associated with LulzSec, which claimed responsibility for a 2011 attack on the Sony Pictures website. Norse Senior Vice President Kurt Stammberger said it’s clear the attackers had some kind of inside-assist: The malware used to infiltrate Sony’s corporate network had the addresses of individual computer servers written into the code. “This was super-duper targeted. That’s why it was so effective,” Stammberger said. “They knew precisely how Sony’s network was architected, exactly where all of its critical data was kept. That’s why so much of their data has spilled out onto the Internet.”

For days the hacking episode was viewed inside Sony as little more than a colossal annoyance. Though Sony executives were quickly in touch with federal law enforcement officials, the company’s initial focus was on setting up jury-rigged systems to let it limp through what was expected to be a few days or weeks of inconvenience. Sony CEO Michael Lynton and his colleagues underestimated the ferocity of the interaction between the news media and the hackers as the drama unfolded in December. Hackers released the information to traffic-hungry websites, which published the most embarrassing details, while Sony mostly stayed publicly silent. In the end, "The Interview" may be seen by more viewers than if it had experienced an unimpeded, conventional release, particularly if, as studio executives suspect, those who paid for the film online were joined by friends and family. Now, five weeks into the episode, Sony’s internal technology is still impaired. Executives estimate that a return to normal is at least five to seven weeks away.

A court in Moscow convicted Russia’s top opposition blogger, Aleksei Navalny, of criminal fraud. Navalny, who has been under house arrest for nearly a year, was given a suspended sentence and spared jail time. His younger brother Oleg, however, was sentenced to serve three and a half years. Aleksei Navalny is an anti-corruption activist and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, and the verdicts were seen as a cynical strategy to punish him without turning him into an imprisoned martyr.

Navalny, a 21st-century Russian dissident, presents a new kind of threat to the Putin regime. He was the first Russian activist to have used the Internet as an effective tool of political resistance. He didn’t ask people to revolt, he just called on them to file online complaints. He provided detailed instructions for appealing to the authorities, and asked his supporters to report everything from unrepaired potholes to suspicious government contracts. Navalny has proved that the Internet’s power is not just “virtual.” But it does have its limits. The opposition’s main obstacle will continue to be public apathy, which is an authoritarian government’s best protection. The Internet alone is not enough to overcome it.