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Sony resumes limited PlayStation Network operation (AP) : Technet |
- Sony resumes limited PlayStation Network operation (AP)
- Twitter feed lawsuit underscores power of a tweet (AP)
- BREAKING: Sony PlayStation Network Coming Back Online (Mashable)
- Taliban on Twitter for Afghan Internet age (AFP)
- Sony to resume network services after hacker attacks (AFP)
- Sony begins restoring PlayStation after security breach (Reuters)
- Android Explainer Series: Best Android smartphones and devices from AT&T (Appolicious)
- Best Celebrity Twitter Pics (The Daily Beast)
- Sony PlayStation Network access begins to return (Digital Trends)
- Superbrothers creator Craig Adams on making an blockbuster iOS game (Appolicious)
- New iPhone To Be Called iPhone 4S? [REPORT] (Mashable)
- Guinness Awards Gaming Records to iPhone 4, App Store (PC World)
- Hackers may have used Amazon server for Sony PSN breach (Digital Trends)
| Sony resumes limited PlayStation Network operation (AP) Posted: 14 May 2011 07:37 PM PDT TOKYO – Sony says it has begun restoring its PlayStation Network service in the United States and Europe. The service was shut down almost a month ago after a massive security breach. Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka says the company also began Sunday phased restoration of its Qriocity movie and music services. Sony's PlayStation network is a system that links gamers worldwide in live play. Sony shut it down on April 20 after discovering the security breach affecting over 100 million online accounts. The network serves both the PlayStation video game machines and Sony's Qriocity movie and music services. It is a system that also allows users to upgrade and download games and other content. |
| Twitter feed lawsuit underscores power of a tweet (AP) Posted: 14 May 2011 01:53 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO – When Adorian Deck was home sick from high school, he entertained himself like countless other teenagers have in recent years: He started a Twitter account. Unlike other teenagers, Deck's account became a sensation. Deck, under the handle (at)OMGFacts, tweeted random bits of celebrity gossip and quirky trivia. In less than a year, he had attracted more than 300,000 followers. Now Deck, 17, is suing a business partner who promised to take OMG Facts to the next level, but who the Northern California teen says deceived him into turning over the rights to his creation. "It was kind of a slow process of realizing what exactly was going on," Deck said. "I was starting to lose more and more control." A federal lawsuit over rights to a Twitter feed might sound like a case of bringing a grenade launcher to a squirrel hunt. But the court fight over OMG Facts reminds that the power of a tweet can extend well beyond 140 characters. For both sides, the dispute is not so much over who can claim any of the more than 5,500 tweets to the (at)OMGFacts account as who owns the rights to the potentially lucrative OMG Facts brand. Emerson Spartz, 24, the defendant in the case, declined to comment on the ownership issue directly because of the pending litigation. But he says OMG Facts would have nowhere near its current popularity without his efforts. Spartz first caught the media's attention as the founder of mugglenet.com, one of the world's most popular Harry Potter fan sites, which he started when he was 12. He went on to start Spartz Inc., an Internet media company that oversees a network of sites aimed at a young audience. Spartz says that since partnering with Deck in February 2010, Spartz Inc. built a popular OMG Facts website, developed a heavily subscribed YouTube channel and researched and wrote nearly every tweet on (at)OMGFacts. "Mr. Deck has hardly lifted a finger throughout most of the growth of OMG Facts, but people have been telling him he's a genius for so long now that he's starting to believe it," Spartz said. Deck disputes that he stopped tweeting. Undisputed is the ongoing surge in (at)OMGFacts' popularity. Since Spartz got involved, (at)OMGFacts grew from fewer than 400,000 followers to nearly 1.9 million followers, making the feed the 126th most followed account out of more than 200 million Twitter users, according to Twitter statistics website twittercounter.com. The (at)OMGFacts feed ranks just below musician and would-be Haitian presidential candidate Wyclef Jean and just above actor Peter Facinelli, who appeared in the Twilight movies. A large number of Twitter followers can feed not just egos but bank accounts. Top tweeters like Kim Kardashian (7.4 million followers) can command $10,000 per tweet to endorse a product. Regulators have recognized a tweet's power. The Federal Trade Commission requires bloggers, including Twitter users, to disclose when they are being paid to endorse products. Mixing tweets, money and the law can raise other complex issues. When rapper 50 Cent (4.5 million followers) in January posted praise of a penny stock in which he was an investor, shares of H & H Imports Inc. skyrocketed. The hot tip led to speculation that the Securities and Exchange Commission might investigate, though no such probe was ever confirmed. In Chicago, a property management company filed a libel lawsuit against a tenant who complained on Twitter about a roof leak that led to mold in her apartment. A judge dismissed the suit last year. Politics can further complicate Twitter clashes. Twitter's one-time practice of suggesting new users follow certain prominent tweeters drew the attention of California's campaign watchdog when several 2010 Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls appeared on the list but no Republicans. Twitter put an end to the feature. Along with the potential of Twitter's outsize influence to lead to legal entanglements, the OMG Facts case highlights the tricky question of who can claim to own a tweet. Because tweets are so short, it can be hard to compose them in a way that earns them full copyright protection, said Eric Goldman, a professor of Internet and intellectual property law at Santa Clara Law School. "Copyright protects the ways in which we express ourselves," Goldman said. "It doesn't protect the underlying facts or ideas we are expressing." What's more, Twitter by its very nature, which includes a button to "retweet" or repost another user's tweet to your own feed, may imply a right to reuse someone else's material. The law gets murkier when talking about a collection of tweets, or the brand identity itself, as in the case of the OMG Facts lawsuit. Deck's complaint contends that the contract he signed with Spartz was predatory and designed to dupe the teen into turning over his rights to the OMG Facts trademark without realizing what he was doing. Deck's attorney, Glenn Peterson of Roseville, argues that the intellectual property issues are moot in any case because California law allows individuals to disavow any contracts signed when they were minors. Spartz counters that Deck's mother co-signed the contract as his legal guardian, and that Deck is simply hoping to exploit Spartz Inc.'s hard work for a quick gain. "Among other things, this agreement was designed to protect against Mr. Deck walking away with what we created, which is exactly what he's trying to do," Spartz said. Perhaps the only clear fact is that the law is still racing to evolve at the blistering pace of social media. "We've had 600 years to develop the rules on books," Goldman said. "We've had less than five years to develop how those rules apply to tweets." ___ Online: (at)OMGFacts: http://twitter.com/omgfacts OMG Facts website: http://www.omg-facts.com ___ Follow Marcus Wohlsen on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MarcusWohlsen |
| BREAKING: Sony PlayStation Network Coming Back Online (Mashable) Posted: 14 May 2011 01:20 PM PDT [More from Mashable: Amazon Servers Used in Sony Playstation Hack [REPORT]] The announcement was made by Sony Corporation Executive Deputy President Kazuo Hirai. "The services are being restored in phases, and I am pleased to say that the first phase has been launched in most regions around the world," Hirai said in a video statement. Sony rebuilt the entire PlayStation Network following a breach of its security that resulted in the compromise of 24.6 million user accounts. The changes are being delivered in a new system update that is restoring online gaming and Qriocity services. [More from Mashable: Senators Want Cyberattacks To Be Disclosed] "We have greatly updated our data security systems," Hirai noted in the video statement. "These changes were the result of an intensive investigation aided by some of the most respected forensic and security experts in the computer industry." Those changes include more advanced security technology, advanced levels of encryption, additional firewalls and better early-warning systems, he said. In addition to enhancing security, Sony is also giving PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers a free month of service. And while these measures are a good start, Sony has a lot of work to do to regain user trust. "Please know that we're doing everything we can to fully restore network service around the world and to regain your trust in the days, weeks and months to come," Hirai stated. This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| Taliban on Twitter for Afghan Internet age (AFP) Posted: 14 May 2011 08:50 PM PDT KABUL (AFP) – The Taliban once banned all television, music and cinema in Afghanistan, but now they are fighting their war via Twitter, the online messaging network that revolutionised global communication. The Islamist extremists sent out their first tweet in English on May 12 claiming "enemy attacked in Khak-e-Safid", with a link to their website for more details about rebel fighters killing "at least 6 puppet police". The move into the English language on Twitter is the latest sign that the Taliban are embracing modern technology in the propaganda battle that runs alongside the guerrilla war of ambushes, suicide bombings and mine explosions. When they ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, almost all electronic products were outlawed as un-Islamic. Photographs of living things were illegal, and ownership of a video player could lead to a public lashing. Today, they send out text messages and emails, release videos of attacks on US-led international troops, and run a website that evades repeated efforts to close it down. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan joined Twitter about six months ago," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told AFP, using the group's name from its time in power. "We did it because we know Twitter is a popular social network in the West, and we want to make our voice heard. They used to hear only one-sided news about us from the invaders, but now they can know the reality." Mujahid said that an official Taliban page on Facebook had been shut down by the company earlier this year, but supporters still host personal pages passing on news and information. "We regard modern technology including the Internet as a blessing of God," he said, declining to explain the Taliban's change of attitude since they were toppled for sheltering Al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks. The Taliban's Twitter feed @alemarahweb -- a reference to Islamic statehood -- sends out several messages every day, mostly in the Pashto language, and is followed by 4,200 people with the number growing rapidly since English was introduced. The NATO-led coalition force in Afghanistan on Saturday used its own Twitter feed to post a response saying: "What's that? Taliban's tweeting in English? Lies are lies no matter the language." Bizarrely, the Taliban's Twitter account follows tweets sent out by a British soldiers' charity, as well as a carpet-weaving development programme and a site linked to Islamist militants in the Caucasus. "The Taliban have now discovered the magical power of media technology and are widely using it in their favour and to attract new recruits," said Mohammad Zia Bomia, director of the Kabul-based Mahal News agency. Its sophisticated website, currently at http://alemarah-iea.net, has for years been posting information in Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Urdu and English -- though many of the claimed attacks and death tolls are exaggerated or untrue. Videos on the site show alleged coalition atrocities and footage of Taliban attacks accompanied by background music and gunfire. The Taliban also say they broadcast Internet radio programmes for two hours a day in some regions, despite low web access in the country. The Afghan intelligence agency (NDS) concedes it has struggled to act against the Taliban's Internet presence, saying that the insurgents' technology experts are based outside the country. "We have been trying to track them and prevent their propaganda activities as they are against our national interest and constitution," NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said. "Unfortunately they are almost all based outside Afghanistan soil," he said, in a veiled reference to neighbouring Pakistan. Despite the Taliban's use of technology, many Afghans warn that the group retains the strict anti-modern ideology that it displayed when ruling from Kabul. "They clearly express their goals of taking control again, putting an end to the present democratic system and imposing their version of Sharia law," Afghan media analyst Sediqullah Tawhidi said. "Looking at these aims, one can be sure that they would behave the same as before and ban all signs of modernity and freedom if they return to power." |
| Sony to resume network services after hacker attacks (AFP) Posted: 14 May 2011 07:10 PM PDT TOKYO (AFP) – Sony said it would start Sunday a "phased restoration" of network services that came under hacker attacks in one of the biggest data breaches since the advent of the Internet. The cyber attacks in recent weeks involved the theft of personal data that include names, passwords and addresses from more than 100 million accounts on its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services. Sony has said it cannot rule out that millions of credit card numbers may have been compromised. The entertainment and electronics giant said it would resume PlayStation Network and Qriocity services in phases, with full restoration expected by the end of the month. "The phased restoration will be on a country-by-country basis beginning in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Middle East," the Sony group said in a statement. Services in other areas would follow. "Working closely with several respected outside security firms, the company has implemented new and additional security measures that strengthen safeguards against unauthorised activity, and provide consumers with greater protection of their personal information," Sony said. Sony shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services on April 20 after a cyber attack on the company's data centre in San Diego. "We are taking aggressive action at all levels to address the concerns that were raised by this incident, and are making consumer data protection a full-time, company-wide commitment," said Kazuo Hirai, Sony executive deputy president. |
| Sony begins restoring PlayStation after security breach (Reuters) Posted: 14 May 2011 08:08 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony said it had begun restoration of its PlayStation Network games service on Sunday, almost a month after a massive security breach of the network forced the company to shut it down. Gamers and security experts had criticized Sony for its handling of the incident, which sparked lawsuits and cast a shadow over its plans to combine the strengths of its content and hardware products via online services. The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant apologized to customers for the outage, and said a range of new security measures had been introduced. These included an early warning system that could alert the company to any attempt to penetrate the network. "I can't thank you enough for your patience and support during this time," Sony No. 2 Kazuo Hirai said in the news release, which was also posted as a video message on the PlayStation Network blog. "We are taking aggressive action at all levels to address the concerns that were raised by this incident, and are making consumer data protection a full-time, companywide commitment." A single message from a PlayStation Network user under the name SG-1_F-302 on the blog read simply: "Thank you Sony!!!!" But some users have said the prolonged outage has prompted them to switch to rival Microsoft's Xbox Live games service. In what is thought to be the biggest security breach of its kind, hackers accessed personal information on 77 million PlayStation Network and Qriocity accounts, 90 percent of which are in North America and Europe, and may have stolen credit card information. Hackers rented a server from Amazon for the attack, Bloomberg news said earlier in the day, citing a source with knowledge of the matter. Sony discovered unusual activity on its PlayStation Network, which enables games console owners to download games, chat with friends and pit their skills against rivals, on April 19. It shut down the network and its Qriocity online music and movie service, frustrating many users, but waited almost a week before alerting users to the extent of the security leak. The company later found out that a separate online games service had also been penetrated, allowing access to another 25 million user accounts. PROCESS TO BE COMPLETE BY MAY 31 Sony said the restoration of PlayStation Network and Qriocity online movie and music services would take place on a country by country basis and that it expected the process to be complete by May 31. Sony Online Entertainment services are also being restored and customers will be offered free game time as compensation for the outage, the company said. Sony also said it had appointed an acting chief information officer to oversee security on its networks. The attack on Sony is the highest-profile of a series that have affected large corporations in recent months, fuelling doubts about the security of cloud computing services. "During the past 18 months, we've seen a dramatic rise in the volume of cyber attacks, their sophistication and their impact on businesses," Sony quoted Francis deSouza of Internet security company Symantec as saying. Japanese games company Square Enix, known for the Final Fantasy series, said on Saturday that hackers had accessed one of its websites and obtained information, including up to 25,000 customer e-mail addresses and possibly job applicants' resumes. (Editing by Ron Popeski) |
| Android Explainer Series: Best Android smartphones and devices from AT&T (Appolicious) Posted: 14 May 2011 10:00 AM PDT |
| Best Celebrity Twitter Pics (The Daily Beast) Posted: 14 May 2011 06:16 PM PDT |
| Sony PlayStation Network access begins to return (Digital Trends) Posted: 14 May 2011 07:55 PM PDT
"I'd like to send my sincere apologies for the inconvenience the service outage has caused you, and want to thank you for the patience that you've shown as we've worked through the restoration process," said Hirai in a video announcing the PSN's return. "I can't thank you enough for your patience and support during this time." Features restored in phase one of the PSN's return include: playback rental service of the PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service for PS3, PSP and MediaGo devices; Music Unlimited on Qirocity for subscribers; access to third party services, like Netflix and Hulu; Friends List, Chat and Trophy Comparison on PS3; and PlayStation Home. As part of Sony's beefed security measures, all users must change their PSN and Qirocity account passwords. Passwords may only be changed on the machine that was used to activate the account. All PSN and Qirocity users will receive a "Welcome Back" package once their PSN access is restored. Users in the US can check this map to see whether service has been restored to their state. (Or, you know, just frantically keep trying to connect until it works.) At the time of this writing, no states had yet received access, as restoration is said to really kick off on Sunday. In addition to its apology, Sony maintained that they believed they were prepared for such an attack, but assert that the black hat tricks of the modern hacker are constantly changing, which makes them all the more difficult to defend against. The hackers who perpetrated the disastrous security breach and theft of data pertaining to nearly 13 million credit card accounts remain in the dark, though members of the hacktivist group Anonymous have been pointed to as possible suspects. The group officially denies any role in the breach. Watch Sony President and CEO Kazuo Hirai's full statement:
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| Superbrothers creator Craig Adams on making an blockbuster iOS game (Appolicious) Posted: 14 May 2011 08:00 PM PDT |
| New iPhone To Be Called iPhone 4S? [REPORT] (Mashable) Posted: 14 May 2011 08:57 AM PDT Speculation continues to swirl around the next iPhone, and now an analyst claims he has new information about the highly anticipated smartphone from Apple. It will be called "iPhone 4S" when it's released in September, according to Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek. He adds that Apple will announce "distribution deals for the iPhone with Sprint and T-Mobile in time for the holidays." [More from Mashable: Next iPhone Might Have Over-the-Air Updates [REPORT]] In addition, the new iPhone will have a dual-core A5 processor under the hood, helping it keep up with numerous dual-core smartphone competitors already on the market such as the Motorola Atrix 4G and HTC Sensation. Misek added that the iPhone's design will remain the same except for "minor" cosmetic changes, but he did write that its front and rear cameras will be improved to an unspecified extent. [More from Mashable: iPhone 5, Kindle Lending & AT&T Earnings: This Morning's Top Stories] If you're looking for higher speed, you'll have to settle for HSPA+ connectivity; Misek says there won't be any LTE support for the iPhone yet, because the anticipated LTE chipset from Qualcomm "is currently not achieving yields sufficient for inclusion" in the next iPhone. This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| Guinness Awards Gaming Records to iPhone 4, App Store (PC World) Posted: 14 May 2011 02:03 PM PDT The Guinness Book of World Records has bestowed the honor of fastest-growing gaming system upon Apple's iPhone 4, as well as noting that the App Store itself and several games in it also have set records. An estimated 1.5 million iPhone 4s were sold on launch day, far eclipsing any other gaming system. Guinness noted that the PlayStation Portable only sold 200,000 units in its first day, and it was a full week until the Nintendo DS pushed 500,000 consoles out the door. "The release of the iPhone has not just changed the mobile industry, but the video game world too," Guinness' gaming editor Gaz Deaves says in a statement. The organization also noted that Apple's App Store holds the record for the largest downloadable video game store with 37,362 titles available. Guinness did not provide numbers from the Android Market for comparison purposes, but noted the App Store was well ahead of other competitors including Xbox Live Arcade (around 1300) and Wii's Virtual Console service at 576. Angry Birds is also receiving honors for being the "Top Paid-For App Store Game in Most Countries." The title is the top paid download in 67 countries on the App Store with an estimated 6.5 million paid downloads. Other records for iOS games include Tap Tap Revenge for the most popular App Store game in history with 15 million downloads, and Plants vs. Zombies set two records in the strategy category. It was the highest grossing launch with $1 million in revenue for developer PopCap in the first nine days, as well as the fastest selling with 300,000 downloads in that same period. For more tech news and commentary, follow Ed on Twitter at @edoswald and on Facebook as well as Today @ PCWorld. |
| Hackers may have used Amazon server for Sony PSN breach (Digital Trends) Posted: 14 May 2011 07:56 AM PDT
Rather than hijack Amazon's server, the hackers allegedly used an alias to sign up for an account through Amazon's EC2 service, and waged their cyber attack from there, says the unnamed source. The account is said to have been since shut down but the revelation that Amazon's cloud network was used for one of the largest data breaches in US history could shed light on the perpetrators' identities. Neither Sony nor Amazon have yet been willing to confirm the allegation that an Amazon server was used for the breach. Security expert E.J. Hilbert, president of Online Intelligence and a former cyber-crime agent for the FBI, tells Bloomberg that the FBI will likely subpoena Amazon as part of its investigation into the PSN hack. "The subpoena will give law enforcement a history of the transactions," said Hilbert. "The search warrant will get them more detailed information, including payment information and which credit card was used." Now a month after the attack, the PlayStation Network remains down. With the outage beginning to take a tangible financial toll on the gaming industry, Sony released a letter to game publishers this week in an attempt to explain the situation as best it can. For PSN customers, Sony has offered a year's worth of free identity protection through the AllClear ID Plus service, which gives users a $1 million insurance policy if their personal data is compromised. As for the hackers, their identities remain unknown. But so far, evidence points to members of the "hacktivist" group Anonymous, though the group as a whole firmly denies any involvement, and has criticized Sony for its lack of a proper security infrastructure to keep its users' financial information safe. |
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