At the “Content Protection Summit” that we recently discussed, a VP from Summit Entertainment, the indie studio who has had some success lately thanks to the Twilight films and The Hurt Locker, apparently told the audience that the industry should get rid of DVD screeners, and who cares if it inconveniences people. She specifically said “we’re going to have to agree to be inconvenienced.”
Archive for 2010/12/09
One of Jack Valenti’s last great “battles” as the head of the MPAA was his fight against DVD screeners sent out for the various movie awards events
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness, Illegal File SharingCall of Duty DDoS attack police arrest teen
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, EnforcementA 17-year-old from Manchester has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police’s e-crime unit (PCeU) on suspicion of being behind a denial of service attack against the online game Call of Duty.
The teenager was arrested in the Beswick area of Manchester early on Thursday morning.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/09/hacker_held_gaming_attack/
European carriers hope to extract wireless fees from Apple, Google
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports“Service providers are flooding networks with no incentive” to cut costs, France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard said last month. “It’s necessary to put in place a system of payments by service providers as a function of their use.”
See also:
EU Mobile Operators Demand Facebook and Google to Pay Up or be Restricted
U.S. diplomatic cables have given top embassy officials a worldwide audience that journalists and other commentators can only dream of
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness, Public PolicyFor those caught up in this net, it no doubt seems like a nightmare. But at least their writings are the year’s publishing sensation.
What’s more, in a positive twist on an otherwise damaging story for U.S. diplomacy, these dispatches are getting rave reviews for style, brevity, clarity and objective reporting.
What is also striking about these leaked cables is the insightful and remarkably blunt assessments that American officials have sent along to their State Department, particularly given the general tendency in American politics these days to dodge around so many crucial problems.
We haven’t yet seen any evidence of deep criminal plots or conspiracies. But there has been much speaking truth to power, in ways that leaders need to hear.
Much more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/12/09/f-vp-stewart.html
Amazon share price plunges ahead of promised cyber ‘payback’ for WikiLeaks censorship
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Organized CrimeAfter announcing plans to blast the site with gobs of traffic, effectively denying page-loads to its regular customers, Amazon’s share price on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: AMZN) began to plummet, down 1.17 percent by 12:10 pm eastern. The site still appeared to be online.
Update: The company’s stock staged a small rally later in the day when the site did not go down. It closed at less than 1 percent off the day’s opening price.
DDoS: How to take down WikiLeaks, MasterCard or any other Web site
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / AwarenessJulian Assange, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, has been transferred to the segregation unit of Wandsworth prison, south London
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness…where the authorities are planning to give him limited access to the internet, it emerged on Thursday.
Mr. Assange, the most famous inmate in the Victorian jail, met his legal team on Thursday after being sent there on remand when he was refused bail on Tuesday. Sweden is seeking his extradition over allegations of sexual assault. Mr. Assange is thought to have asked to be housed away from other prisoners, who had shown a high degree of interest in him after he arrived.
Mr. Assange complained about the daytime TV, Stephens said, adding that “he doesn’t have access to a computer, even without an internet connection, or to writing material. He’s got some files but doesn’t have any paper to write on and put them in.”
As part of a scheme called “access to justice”, prison authorities are arranging for Mr. Assange to be given a computer so he can work on his case. The computer will have limited internet access. Mr. Assange asked for one of his legal team to be allowed to bring him a laptop, but was refused — prisoners are not commonly allowed their own computers.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article942085.ece
Assange lived in rented rooms at The Frontline club for about three weeks
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awarenessuntil he surrendered to British police on Tuesday
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40582454/ns/us_news-wikileaks_in_security/
Wikipedia Editors Remove ‘List of WikiLeaks Mirrors’ Article
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Blocking, Education / AwarenessNow, before anyone cries foul. Wikipedia is not really joining the growing number of companies and organizations turning their back on WikiLeaks. Instead, editors appear to have removed the article due to the fact that it did violate Wikipedia’s policies. More specifically, the article went against the guidelines that indicates that “Wikipedia is not a mirror or repository of links.”
http://erictric.com/2010/12/09/wikipedia-editors-remove-list-of-wikileaks-mirrors-article/
Putin leads backlash over WikiLeaks boss detention
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy“Why was Mr. Assange hidden in jail? Is that democracy? As we say in the village: the pot is calling the kettle black,” Putin said. “I want to send the ball back to our American colleagues,” Putin added.
I don’t think the queues of McAnarchists angrily looking for ways to give money to Julian Assange have it right. WikiLeaks has done some good work in highlighting what are, apparently, vile acts by governments intend on power at any cost – regardless of the collateral damage (the video ‘Collateral Murder’ being a contentious, but prime example).
But if the New Yorker magazine is to be believed (that is, if it’s not working for the Man, the System etc.), the WikiLeaks collective has a fairly inconsistent approach to collateral damage. Assange’s collaborator Rop Gonggrijp reportedly told the magazine: “that some leaks risked harming innocent people—’collateral damage, if you will’ —but that he could not weigh the importance of every detail in every document.
In the same article, Assange said: “that he had instituted a ‘harm-minimisation policy,’ whereby people named in certain documents were contacted before publication, to warn them, but that there were also instances where the members of WikiLeaks might get ‘blood on our hands’.”
Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office: Team High Tech Crime arrested 16-year-old in relation to ‘WikiLeaks attacks’
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Organized CrimeFollowing up on recent events The Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office has announced that the National Crime Squad (Team High Tech Crime) of the Dutch national police has arrested a 16-year-old teenager from the The Hague in The Netherlands. He is suspected of being involved in the so called ‘WikiLeaks attacks’ on websites of MasterCard and PayPal among others.
The computer systems and storage equipment of the suspect have been seized and he has already been interviewed by investigators of the Team High Tech Crime.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office states that the suspect now has confessed to attacking the sites and services of MasterCard and VISA. It appears he is part of a larger group of hackers which is currently under investigation.
The suspect has to appear before a judge of the Court of Rotterdam tomorrow.
(my summary and translation)
Dutch language article: http://www.om.nl/actueel/nieuws-_en/@154591/16-jarige_jongen/
We celebrate disruption as long as we are not the ones being disrupted – WikiLeaks introduces the phenomenon of Radical Transparency
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness, Tech EvolutionEnabled by technology, radical transparency surrounds us — and sometimes we don’t even know it’s there. A teenager can end up publicly shamed after inadvertently broadcasting a sordid conversation on her Facebook Wall to friends of friends. A private direct message to a lover can be broadcast to thousands of followers on Twitter with the slip of a button.
In a world where many of us carry a recording and instant-publishing device in our pockets, transgressions that once remained private can now become global news stories in minutes. TSA agents can’t talk to passengers anymore without running the risk of being recorded and broadcast on the Web.
We celebrate disruption as long as we are not the ones being disrupted. With WikiLeaks, anything’s fair game, right? The U.S. government? Sure. The banks? Bring it on. The company we work for. Well, sure, but first there’s a few things I’d like to clarify as I wouldn’t want anything to be taken out of context. My college indiscretions? Well hang on a minute!
WikiLeaks: A Case Study in Web Survivability
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, EnforcementIn fact, if you’re WikiLeaks, you want to build redundancy on your redundancy and be able to survive not just a single point of failure, but a virtual meltdown of cascading failures.
WikiLeaks has implemented an interwoven network of domains, hosts, servers, and DNS services to ensure that losing any one provider, or having a server or domain shut down by a DoS attack will not ultimately impact the availability of the site.
Bottom line: It would take a catastrophe of global proportions to completely knock WikiLeaks offline. Meanwhile, Twitter grinds to a halt if Lindsay Lohan is seen drinking a White Russian with lunch.
It is illegal in Australia to obtain – or distribute – classified documents
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness, EnforcementTHE Gillard government has hardened its position on the WikiLeaks expose, saying it is illegal in Australia to obtain – or distribute – classified documents.
In the wake of the furore that followed Julia Gillard’s claim that the website’s release of thousands of secret US cables was illegal, Attorney-General Robert McClelland sought advice on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had broken any law. Yesterday, Mr McClelland said obtaining classified information without authority was an offence under Australian law.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay voiced concern on Thursday at reports of pressure being exerted on private companies to halt financial or Internet services for WikiLeaks
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public PolicyPillay said that taken together, the measures could be interpreted as an attempt to prevent Wikileaks from publishing, thereby violating its right to freedom of expression.
WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson: DDoS attacks were similar to those made against Wikileaks itself
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Organized Crime“We neither condemn nor applaud these attacks,” Hrafnsson said. “We believe they are a reflection of public opinion on the actions of the targets.”
Diplomatic cables contained in WikiLeaks are available for sale on Amazon’s U.K. website
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness, New Business ModelsIt’s a twist following the company’s refusal to host the WikiLeaks’ website.
The cables were self-published as a Kindle e-book by an author listed as Heinz Duthel. People in the U.K. can buy it for 7.37 pounds ($11.60).
The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, gave an exclusive interview to Brazilian journalist Natalia Viana of the online publication Opera Mundi on Monday.
http://hamsayeh.net/society/111-the-accusations-are-false-julian-assange/
Pro-WikiLeaks hackers threaten Amazon.com
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Organized CrimeAfter taking down the websites of Visa, Mastercard and others, supporters of WikiLeaks threatened Thursday to knock Amazon.com offline.
See also:
http://business.financialpost.com/2010/12/09/fp-tech-desk-hackers-supporting-wikileaks-preparing-amazon-attack/
Live DDoS attack on Mastercard performed on Dutch TV show
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Cybercrime, Education / AwarenessLive DDoS attack on Mastercard performed on Dutch TV show
Can it get any crazier? “The cyberwar is on”, says Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, presentor of ‘De Wereld Draait Door, a prime time and most popular television program from Dutch public broadcaster VARA. It seems like Van Nieuwkerk wants to contribute to the cyberwar himself. Well, actually he lets Arnoud Vermeer, internet security expert, do the dirty job. After Vermeer first points out to Van Nieuwkerk how to perform a DoS attack step by step, he lets Van Nieuwkerk seduce him to perform a live attack on http://www.mastercard.com.
Van Nieuwkerk: “Show me step by step how to fire on MasterCard”. And later on Vermeer says: “Any moment I want, I can press on fire and then we get war.” To which Van Nieuwkerk says, “Do it”. “That’s a criminal offence”, says Vermeer. “Yes, but this won’t hurt much more, this is a journalistic demonstration of how it works. Press fire!”. Then, Vermeer presses the button ‘fire’. (See 2:20)`
Dutch language VIDEO HERE
Yesterday in his weblog, Dutch IT lawyer Wouter Dammers (SOLV) pointed out in detail why under Dutch law performing a DDoS attack constitutes a criminal offence on several grounds:
“This way article 138b Penal Code criminalizes the intentional and unlawful obstruction of access to or use of a automated device (read: computer), by offering or sending it information. In addition, the Computer Crime Act has a number of other articles that are also applicable to DDoS attacks. For examples: Article 350a Penal Code, criminalizes the unlawful and intentional destruction of computer data. By absence of intent, but when debt is provabe, it would fall under Article 350b Penal Code. Article 161sexies Penal Code sees the willful and unlawful destruction of a computer as a criminal offense. By absence of intent, but when debt is provabe, this falls under Article 161septies Penal Code. And the intentional and unlawful entry of a computer (“computer intrusion”) is punishable under Article 138a paragraph 1 Penal Code.”
Vermeer lets Van Nieuwkerk push him into giving a live, on air performance of a criminal offense… not so smart! To make it even worse, Vermeer states that he has done it before: “Half a year ago, in a drunken night we shut down the University of Twente and Eindhoven”. (see 5:25).
One wonders, does providing a tutorial to and executing a DDoS attack fall under the tasks of a journalist and a public broadcaster?
Source: De Wereld Draait Door (VARA)
Author: Martine Wubben – Date: 09-12-2010
Dutch National Police Targeting 4Chan / Anonymous Group, visits Leaseweb / Evoswitch
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Organized Crime, Public Policy
Dutch media are reporting that the National Crime Squad of the Dutch National Police has launched a large scale investigation in relation to the attacks on the websites of VISA and MasterCard. The attacks would have been executed by the 4Chan/Anonymous group using computer servers in the Netherlands. The group is targeting anyone who has opposed The Pirate Bay and/or WikiLeaks. Their campaigns are called Operation Payback and Operation Avenge Assange.
The MasterCard website has been offline for 10 hours.
Late last night the Dutch News Broadcaster NOS was reporting that the Dutch National Police paid a visit to LeaseWeb / Evoswitch to take down the relevant infrastructure used by the group. A measure which rendered the website of Anonymous inaccessible http://www.anonops.net/ at least for now.
(my summary and translation)
Dutch language news articles:
http://nos.nl/artikel/203774-mastercard-platgelegd-om-wikileaks.html
http://security.nl/artikel/35412/1/Recherche_onderzoekt_DDoS-aanval_MasterCard.html
http://twitpic.com/3e5dms
Video:
http://nos.nl/video/203888-aanval-op-mastercard-vanuit-nederland-opgezet.html
http://nos.nl/video/203850-verslaggever-jeroen-wollaars-over-operation-payback.html
About Operation Payback and Operation Avenge Assange: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Payback
Operation Payback
| Target[60] | Site[60] | Attack time[60] |
| ACS:Law | acs-law.org.uk | 10/03/2010 7:00 PM UTC |
| RIAA | riaa.org | 10/29/2010 9:00PM UTC |
| Motion Picture Association of America | mpaa.org | — |
| Aiplex Software | aiplex.com | — |
| Davenport Lyons | davenportlyons.com | — |
| TMG Image Over Networks | tmg.eu | — |
| Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) | afact.org.au | — |
| DG Legal | dglegal.com | — |
| Gallant Macmillan | gmlegal.co.uk | 10/12/2010 06:00 PM GMT |
| Ministry of Sound | ministryofsound.com | 10/03/2010 7:00 PM UTC |
| Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE) | sgae.es | 10/06/2010 |
| Ministerio de Cultura | mcu.es | 10/06/2010 |
| Promusicae | promusicae.es | 10/06/2010 |
| Federation of the Italian Music Industry (FIMI) | fimi.it | 10/09/2010 |
| International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) | ifpi.it | 10/09/2010 |
| — | pro-music.it | 10/09/2010 |
| United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office | ipo.gov.uk | 10/16/2010 05:00 PM GMT |
| Associação do Comércio Audiovisual de Portugal | acapor.pt | 10/18/2010 |
| Gene Simmons | genesimmons.com | 10/19/2010 |
| Satel Film | satelfilm.at | 10/22/2010 |
| Hustler | hustler.com | 10/22/2010 |
| FACT | fact-uk.org.uk | 10/24/2010 10:00 PM GMT |
| antipiracy.fi | antipiracy.fi | 10/26/2010 |
| United States Copyright Office | copyright.gov | 11/03/2010 15:00 GMT |
| Irish National Federation Against Copyright Theft | infact.ie | 11/06/2010 18:15 GMT |
| International Federation of the Phonographic Industry | ifpi.org | 11/26/10 |
| Warner Bros. | warnerbros.com | 12/1/10 6:00 PM GMT |
Operation Avenge Assange
| Target[60] | Site[60] | Attack time[60] |
| PostFinance | postfinance.ch | 12/6/10 |
| Swedish Prosecution Authority | aklagare.se | 12/7/10 |
| EveryDNS | everydns.com | 12/7/10 |
| Joseph Lieberman | lieberman.senate.gov | 12/8/10 |
| MasterCard | mastercard.com | 12/8/10 10:30 AM GMT |
| Borgstrom and Bostrom | advbyra.se | 12/8/10 |
| BILD (not confirmed) | bild.de | 12/8/10 7:30 PM GMT |
| Visa | visa.com | 12/8/10 9:00 PM GMT |
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday that her personal credit card information and the website of her political action committee were attacked online by supporters of the document-dumping website WikiLeaks.
More: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20025088-503544.html
I bet Assange’s hacking past is leveraging his ties to the hacking community
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / Awareness…says Jeff Bardin, the chief security strategist at XA Systems. WikiLeaks hacker supports could merely feel a kinship with him, or there could be an even stronger connection, he speculated.
“I bet this was premeditated by Assange”
WikiLeaks Still Funded by Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde’s Startup Flattr.com
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Education / AwarenessWhile major online financing services such as PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa have shut down their dealings with the embattled WikiLeaks, one microfinancing startup is still hanging on. Flattr, a micropayment startup created by Peter Sunde, co-founder of the infamous BitTorrent sharing site The Pirate Bay, still accepts donations on behalf of the document-leaking non-profit.
Sunde has been a public advocate for Assange and WikiLeaks. He has also proposed a peer-to-peer DNS system that would prevent domain name registrations from being revoked, as was done with the WikiLeaks.org domain.
Sunde started Flattr in March along with Linus Olsson. WikiLeaks, which has experienced funding problems in 2009, was among its first financing partners, although any company can now sign up to accept Flattr payments. At the time, he told TechCrunch that Flattr was “prepared for the controversy.”
More details: http://www.mediabistro.com/webnewser/startup-still-funds-wikileaks_b10218
Facebook and Twitter Suspend Operation Payback Accounts
Posted: 2010/12/09 in Blocking, Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Organized CrimeApparently, Wikileaks has a posse.
On Tuesday, my colleague Andy Greenberg reported on how the hacker group Operation:Payback have retaliated against organizations that have cut ties with Wikileaks, or have made moves against the site’s leader, Julian Assange. Major credit card companies Visa and Mastercard – both of which recently suspended all donation payments to Wikileaks’ accounts – have gone down under a barrage of ddos attacks. PayPal and the Swiss Bank PostFinance have felt the hackers’ wrath. And an attack against the website of the Swedish prosecutor going after Assange for charges of sexual misconduct has been levied.
How are the hackers communicating with one another? One way, at least, seems to be via Operation:Payback’s Facebook page. Operation:Payback has been broadcasting a play-by-play from their Twitter account during the activities.
More details: http://tinyurl.com/36cmvbm
See also:
A loosely organized group of Internet hacktivists took down Visa’s website Wednesday, after organizing a similar attack on MasterCard.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/213024/anonymous_takes_down_visacom_in_wikileaks_protest.html
