Dutch hosting provider LeaseWeb will acquire Frankfurt-based netdirekt in a deal that marks its expansion into Germany, Austria and Switzerland. LeaseWeb cited the strategic importance of Frankfurt’s internet exchange, which is among the key connectivity hubs in Europe, alongside Amsterdam and London.
More: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/12/13/leaseweb-acquires-germanys-netdirekt/
Belgian mobile operators Base and Mobistar suffered damages of EUR 1.84 billion from 1999 to 2004 due to the high on-net prices charged by Proximus, according to an interim court report. Belgacom, Proximus’ parent company, published the report on its website. Mobistar (France Telecom) and Base (KPN) filed in 2003 a claim for damages at the commercial court, accusing Belgacom of charging too high termination fees and too low retail prices.
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/court-report-finds-damages-of-eur-184-bln-at-base-mobistar
On Free Speech and the Rule of Law
This is an attempt at mob rule — by both sides. So if you find yourself marching along with a torch bearing mob, think it over, think about the rule of law and what kind of Internet you want for yourself and for future generations. Mob rule may be within your grasp, but you should be careful what you wish for.
Here are 5 reasons why:
1. The 16-year-old Jeroenz0r used a botnet, Awinee did not;
2. Jeroenz0r worked alone and was the one triggering and administering the botnet, Awinee was one of many who participated;
3. Jeroenz0r only confessed to attacking MasterCard and VISA, but was also arrested in relation to PayPal. Awinee on the other hand made a full confession. Therefore further investigation regarding Jeroenz0r is required;
4. Famous Dutch ‘KaZaA lawyer’ Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm believes that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is not very experienced in this field, has to tread carefully and is therefore keeping Jeroenz0r in custody;
5. There is a chance that Jeroenz0r can become a recidivist.
(my summary and translation)
Dutch language article: http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/68100/5-redenen-om-een-16-jarige-ddos-er-vast-te-houden-.html
Previously:
Update: Second Dutch Anonymous suspect released after confessing additional attacks on MasterCard, MoneyBookers and VISA
http://vrritti.com/2010/12/12/update-second-dutch-anonymous-suspect-released-after-confessing-additional-attacks-on-mastercard-moneybookers-and-visa/
The company said Monday that a third party was able to get past security measures and see into a database of its customer information that included e-mail, phone numbers, addresses, birthdates and other specifics that they provided when signing up for online promotions or other subscriptions to its websites.
Shares of McDonald’s fell 9 cents to $77.47 in afternoon trading.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/13/mcdonalds-customer-databa_n_796097.html
Twitter said a virus that hijacked some of its user’s accounts to send out spam advertisements for a fake Acai berry weight-loss program was linked to Gawker’s user accounts being compromised.
Included in the dump are passwords linked to accounts from NASA, about every .gov domain you could imagine and hundreds from banks.
See also:
Tsunami warning faked from hacked Twitter account
http://www.onlinesocialmedia.net/20101126/tsunami-warning-faked-from-hacked-twitter-account/
It would be ideal to have financials – I’d like to see how much, if any, these entities lost. The pain and suffering award goes to Gawker (#Gnosis) – truly the most humiliating of the lot. The RIAA, with 7 days down, is quite astonishing – followed by ACS: Law (both Operation Payback).
Yet who ever thought Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal (Anonymous) could be publicly smacked around – all in a day?
Or, just another day online.
Much more: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/the-global-cyber-war-hacks-and-attacks-scorecard/15192
The Web giant is being criticized by search services such as TripAdvisor.com, claiming that Google favors its own content and services at their expense.
Streaming video and digital downloads will help to push DVD revenue into double-digit declines over the next few years, a new study finds.
It’s just emerged that thousands of Virgin Media UK customers in Sutton were left without television, phone and broadband ISP services for up to 48 hours at the end of last month (29th November 2010) after thieves dug two holes in the ground at Morden Road and stole 1,500 metres of fibre optic cable.
A UK based market intelligence group, TechNavio, has reported that the increasing uptake of internet traffic snooping technology (Deep Packet Inspection) by broadband ISPs will help the global DPI market (currently estimated to be worth £282 million) grow by around 30% each year to just over £1 billion in 2015.
DPI solutions are used by ISPs for all sorts of tasks from Traffic Management to security. However it can also be used for the questionable tracking of customers private online activity, which in some cases (e.g. Phorm ) has appeared to go too far.
According to Marissa Mayer, Google’s “VP of geographic and local services”, Google Guess (our name, not Google’s) is about “contextual discovery” as a way to “pre-emptively” push data at users “before they’ve started to look for it”, based on “factors such as their web browsing history or current location”, says the story.
DC public interest groups want the government to do a little antitrust digging in the dirt surrounding the Comcast/Level 3 peering dispute—and then start tunneling outward to every other peering and transit deal that makes the Internet work.
The Supreme Court has upheld a ban on unauthorized “gray market” imports. Stamp a copyrighted logo on anything made overseas and US retailers will have to obtain authorization in order to sell it here. If they don’t, they could be hit with huge copyright infringement awards.
The Office of Fair Trading in the UK has given Handpicked Media a slap on the wrist for failing to properly disclose its sponsored blog posts “in a manner unavoidable to the average consumer.”
“Hacktivists” say their denial of service assaults aren’t intended to steal personal financial data, rather to raise awareness of companies that stopped doing business with WikiLeaks.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/277tqpr
See also:
Operation Payback’s next DDoS target: Fax machines
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2010/12/13/operation-paybacks-next-ddos-target-fax-machines.html
Just a little more background on the “hero” Jullian Assange and Wikileaks…
Wikileaks was started up in Dec. of 2006. Oddly enough, as a supposed “leak” site, a dissident site, it was given a great deal of immediate mainstream attention from the likes of the Washington Post, TIME magazine, and even Cass Sunstein the now Obama administration official who wrote a paper on how to “cognitively infiltrate” dissident groups in order to steer them in a direction that is useful to the powers that be.
The TIME magazine article is curious because it seems that right off the bat they were telling us how to interpret Wikileaks in such a way that sounded strangely familiar to George W. Bush back just after 9/11…
“By March, more than one million leaked documents from governments and corporations in Asia, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet Bloc will be available online in a bold new collective experiment in whistle-blowing. That is, of course, as long as you don’t accept any of the conspiracy theories brewing that Wikileaks.org could be a front for the CIA or some other intelligence agency.” TIME Jan. 2007 (emphasis added)
Now remember and read closely… this article was written PRIOR to Wikileaks’ first big “leak”, which according to the article was to occur sometime in March of 2007.
So why would TIME magazine be writing about them in the first place if they hadn’t done anything yet? Also, let’s not pass up on that delicious irony: this is TIME magazine singing the praises of a supposed “leak” site which will supposedly expose all kinds of “conspiracy theories” while at the same time telling their readers NOT to believe in those silly “conspiracy theories” circulating about Wikileaks. Just so long as you believe the “right” conspiracy theories, you’ll be alright I guess. This of course perfectly matches Jullian Assange’s own statements about 9/11.
TIME goes on to explain that the Wikileaks version will be the “correct” version (even though they had yet to publish anything at that point… pretty far out on that credibility limb for TIME if you ask me…)
“Instead of a couple of academic specialists, Wikileaks will provide a forum for the entire global community to examine any document relentlessly for credibility, plausibility, veracity and falsifiability,” its organizers write on the site’s FAQ page. “They will be able to interpret documents and explain their relevance to the public. If a document is leaked from the Chinese government, the entire Chinese dissident community can freely scrutinize and discuss it…” TIME Jan. 2007
You have to remember, Wikileaks first started targeting China obviously and as we all know from history, typically dissident movements within targeted nations are often funded and run by covert CIA operations. Since Wikileaks started off with a host of Chinese dissidents, it would be logical to assume that at least some of them have links back to the agency. But it gets better.
Much more: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22371
The 19-year-old Martijn Gonlag who was arrested on Saturday and released just yesterday, having confessed attacking the websites of VISA, MasterCard, Moneybookers and the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office, possibly awaiting his trial, already appeared on a Dutch radio broadcast by Business News Radio and stated that he intentionally made the choice not to shield his IP address. He knew he could be arrested but is still defending his actions.
Previously:
Update: Second Dutch Anonymous suspect released after confessing additional attacks on MasterCard, MoneyBookers and VISA
http://vrritti.com/2010/12/12/update-second-dutch-anonymous-suspect-released-after-confessing-additional-attacks-on-mastercard-moneybookers-and-visa/
Dutch Team High Tech Crime arrests second Anonymous suspect in relation to pro-WikiLeaks DOS attacks
http://vrritti.com/2010/12/11/dutch-team-high-tech-crime-arrests-second-anonymous-suspect-in-relation-to-pro-wikileaks-dos-attacks/
Recent information from The Intel Hub that further exposes Wikileaks as a CIA front is dismissed as unacceptable by many, including some well-educated professionals in the caring field. Seasoned investigators stand behind tell-tale signs that Wikileaks is conducting a major, well-orchestrated psychological operation to distract the public from even worse human rights abuses such as the Gulf genocide and crime against humanity plus to gain military support for more wars.
Two psychologists emailed the author after reading her article, Wikileaks Cointelpro Wizard of Oz or ‘Whistleblower’? They called it “conspiracy theory mongering.”
More: http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/censored-news-wikileaks-cia-military-psychology
See also:
Wikileaks CIA op one of many Down Under- Mother of All DUMBs and Ops in Oz Red Center
Australia has over 63 U.S. military bases. Locals say that at Pine Gap secret deep underground military base (DUMB) in Australia’s “Red Center,” not far from the “Town Called Alice,” there are more CIA employees than there are in the entire U.S. Pine Gap is officially reported to have 1000 CIA employees. Pine Gap is also known as “Australia’s Area 51.” Pine Gap was built on traditional Aboriginal land, forcing removal of Aborigines from it. The Red Center has particular sacred. It is home to Uluru, Ayers Rock, the most sacred of all Aboriginal sites.
More: http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/video-wikileaks-cia-op-one-of-many-down-under
On the psytek.net website we find the following:
“I am the admin of psytek.net and I have just come online to tell you what I have found, after receiving a phonecall from a close friend when he saw my domain was linked to the CIA via Wikileaks.”
Yes, I decided to run a Wikileaks mirror last weekend as way of participating and helping keep information free and ultimately human freedom.
Upon closer analysis over the last few hours it appears my site has been compromised by CIA operatives who have attempted to discover the source of the Wikileaks mirror source.
I do not know how successful they were, only that they did manage to log all incoming traffic. Including inbound web traffic of users inside the United States trying to view the Wikileaks mirror.
More: http://www.infowars.com/did-the-cia-hijack-a-wikileaks-mirror/
