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Sunday, June 26, 2011

LulzSec member says group is 'bored' (AP) : Technet

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LulzSec member says group is 'bored' (AP) : Technet

LulzSec member says group is 'bored' (AP)

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 02:22 PM PDT

By PETER SVENSSON and RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Peter Svensson And Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press – Sun Jun 26, 5:22 pm ET

NEW YORK – A member of a publicity-seeking hacker group that sabotaged websites over the past two months and is dissolving itself says his group isn't disbanding under pressure from the FBI or enemy hackers.

"We're not quitting because we're afraid of law enforcement," the LulzSec member said in a conversation with The Associated Press over the Internet voice program Skype. "The press are getting bored of us, and we're getting bored of us."

The group's hacking has included attacks on law enforcement and releases of private data. It said unexpectedly on Saturday it was dissolving itself.

In the Sunday interview, the hacker acknowledged that some of the material being circulated by rivals online — which purports to reveal the hackers' online nicknames, past histories, and chat logs — was genuine, something he said had proved to be "a distraction."

He added that three or four of Lulz Security's members were taking what he called "a breather" and said he was considering giving up cyberattacks altogether.

"Maybe I'll stop this hacking thing entirely. I haven't decided," he said. He said he couldn't speak for the others' long-term plans, but said it was possible some of the members would continue to be involved with Anonymous, the much larger and more amorphous hacking group which has targeted the Church of Scientology, Middle Eastern dictatorships, and the music industry, among others.

He said the six-member group was still sitting on a considerable amount of stolen law enforcement files.

"It's safe to say at this point that they are sitting on a lot of data."

Although the hacker declined to identify himself publicly, he has verified his membership with Lulz Security by posting a pre-arranged message to the group's popular Twitter feed.

Lulz Security made its Saturday announcement about disbanding through its Twitter account. That statement gave no reason for the disbandment.

One of the group's members was interviewed by The Associated Press on Friday, and gave no indication that its work was ending. LulzSec claimed hacks on major entertainment companies, FBI partner organizations, the CIA, the U.S. Senate and a pornography website.

Kevin Mitnick, a security consultant and former hacker, said the group had probably concluded that the more they kept up their activities, the greater the chance that one of them would make some mistake that would enable authorities to catch them. They've inspired copycat groups around the globe, he noted, which means similar attacks are likely to continue even without LulzSec.

"They can sit back and watch the mayhem and not risk being captured," Mitnick said.

As a parting shot, LulzSec released a grab-bag of documents and login information apparently gleaned from gaming websites and corporate servers. The largest group of documents — 338 files — appears to be internal documents from AT&T Inc., detailing its buildout of a new wireless broadband network in the U.S. The network is set to go live this summer. A spokesman for the phone company could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the documents.

In the Friday interview, the LulzSec member said the group was sitting on at least 5 gigabytes of government and law enforcement data from across the world, which it planned to release in the next three weeks. Saturday's release was less than a tenth of that size.

In an unusual strategy for a hacker group, LulzSec has sought publicity and conducted a conversation with the public through its Twitter account. LulzSec attacked anyone it could for "the lulz," which is Internet jargon for "laughs."

___

Satter contributed from London.

LulzSec Shuts Down, Ends Hacking Campaign (Mashable)

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 03:51 PM PDT

Ben Parr Ben Parr – Sat Jun 25, 6:51 pm ET

LulzSec, the hacker group that has hacked the CIA, U.S. Senate, Nintendo, Sony and others, has surprisingly announced that it is disbanding. LulzSec, short for Lulz Security, claims that it intended to only operate for 50 days as an attempt to revive the AntiSec movement, which is opposed to the computer security industry.

[More from Mashable: Dropbox Bug Made Accounts Accessible Without Passwords]

"For the past 50 days we've been disrupting and exposing corporations, governments, often the general population itself, and quite possibly everything in between, just because we could," the hacker group said in its announcement. "All to selflessly entertain others - vanity, fame, recognition, all of these things are shadowed by our desire for that which we all love."

The release continues on, explaining that the organization is not tied to its LulzSec identity and has succeeded in bringing back the AntiSec movement. The group, in fact, encourages others to take up its cause. "We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement manifests itself into a revolution that can continue on without us... Together, united, we can stomp down our common oppressors and imbue ourselves with the power and freedom we deserve."

[More from Mashable: LulzSec Mastermind Suspect Arrested in Essex, England]

As its final parting gift, the group released one last data dump with data allegedly taken from AT&T, AOL, Disney, Universal, EMI and the FBI.

The group has had its way with corporations and governments for the last two months. It took down the CIA's website, hacked Sony's servers, released sensitive documents from the Arizona state government and attacked the U.S. Senate's website. While a suspected member of LulzSec was recently apprehended, the group claims he was not its leader.

The end of LulzSec doesn't mean the end of hacker attacks, of course. Long-standing hacker group Anonymous is still around, and we bet other groups will form in the wake of the group's disbandment. And with 277,000+ followers and a captivated audience, we bet LulzSec will come back in one form or another. We also doubt its disbandment will stop authorities from searching for its masterminds.

What do you think of LulzSec and its AntiSec mission? What do you think will happen next? Let us know what you think in the comments.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Dix nabs sprint double, Jeter denied (AFP)

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 04:38 PM PDT

by Rebecca Bryan Rebecca Bryan – Sun Jun 26, 7:38 pm ET

EUGENE, Oregon (AFP) – Walter Dix will get two world title shots at Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt after wrapping up a sprint double at the US athletics championships with a 200m triumph on Sunday.

Dix, a double bronze medallist at the 2008 Olympics, won the 100m on Friday, in the absence of injured 2009 World Championships silver medallist Tyson Gay.

Dix followed up with a victory in the 200m in a wind-aided (2.4m/sec) 19.95sec and said he would only get better by the time the World Championships roll around in Daegu, South Korea, August 27-September 4.

"I feel real confident going into worlds," Dix said. "I'm confident I can win gold after today."

Darvis Patton was second in 19.98 and Jeremy Dodson third in 20.07.

The early exit of American record-holder Gay on Friday, when a sore hip forced him out before the semi-finals of the 100m, robbed the US World Championship team of the sprinter deemed most likely to challenge dual world record-holder Bolt in Daegu.

But Dix said his four days of racing had him looking forward to Bolt, or anyone else Jamaica and the world have to offer, in Korea.

"I knew I was strong, but I wasn't race sharp and I came out here and did what I did," said Dix, who plans to sharpen up with some races in Europe before the worlds.

Women's 100m champion Carmelita Jeter appeared headed for a double when she came off the turn in the 200m in the lead.

But Shalonda Solomon ran her down to win in a world-leading, and personal best, 22.15sec.

Jeter's second-place time of 22.23, in a race run in a legal wind of 1.0m/sec, was also inside the previous best in the world this year -- Kimberlyn Duncan's 22.24 set on June 11.

It was one of four world leading performances on the final day of the championships, as Kellie Wells improved on her own prior world leader in winning the 100m hurdles, Jesse Williams notched a season's best in the men's high jump and reigning World Champion Brittney Reese set the season standard in the women's long jump.

Three-time US collegiate champion Jeshua Anderson, who turned 22 earlier this month, won a scintillating men's 400m hurdles, edging 2005 world champion Bershawn Jackson with Angelo Taylor, the 2000 and 2008 Olympic champion, third.

Just one one-hundredth of a second separated the top three, with Anderson and Jackson both timed in 47.93 and Taylor clocking 47.94.

After a mighty lean into the tape -- one of his trademarks -- Anderson fell to the track and stayed on his knees.

When his name topped the scoreboard, he leapt up in a victory dance.

"I was praying," he said. "And I looked up at the scoreboard and saw my name. It was a big moment for me."

He said a victory over veteran champions Jackson and Taylor had special meaning.

"Those are some guys I really look up to," he said.

Williams won the high jump with a world-leading clearance of 2.37m. He eclipsed the mark of 2.35 set by Russian Aleksey Dmitrik on June 2. With the victory secure, Williams failed in three attempts at 2.41.

Reese won the women's long jump with a leap of 7.19m, easily outdistancing runner-up Janna DeLoach (6.97m) with Funmi Jimoh third (6.88). Reese also bettered the prior season's best of 6.95 by Veronica Shutkova.

Wells won the 100m hurdles in a world-leading and lifetime-best 12.50sec, improving on her prior world leading time of 12.59 at Doha.

Danielle Carruthers was second in 12.59 and 2008 Olympic champion Dawn Harper was third in 12.65.

There was a another big-meet disappointment for Lolo Jones, who just missed out on the 100m hurdles final. Jones said she couldn't recover from a tight start -- after Kristi Castlin false-started in Jones' semi-final -- and bumping arms with another runner.

Spice up and share your photos with the Snapbucket Android app (Appolicious)

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 03:30 PM PDT

Has Renren suffered enough from China stocks phobia? (Reuters)

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 10:13 AM PDT

By Clare Baldwin Clare Baldwin – Sun Jun 26, 1:13 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Renren Inc was hyped as the "Facebook" of China, a company that had access to the world's largest Internet market, and a good way to ride the buzz surrounding social media IPOs -- but investors who believed the story are nursing big wounds.

In the two months since its IPO, Renren's stock has lost more than half of its value. The company and its owners sold shares at $14 apiece in early May but since then the stock has sunk to close at just $6.23 on Friday.

Whether the IPO price was too high, or investors are now being unduly cautious, remains an open question. Chinese stocks listed in the U.S. have plunged amid growing concerns about alleged accounting fraud and whether the companies' claims about their businesses stand up to scrutiny.

Renren has been mostly free of that taint, but it still faces concerns about competition, censorship and a sudden resignation by a key board member before the IPO.

"It's being caught up in the Chinese stuff. If you look at all of the recent Chinese IPOs they've all traded pretty badly in the past few weeks," said Nick Einhorn, a research analyst at Renaissance Capital, an IPO research and investment house in Connecticut.

"There are a lot of investors and portfolio managers that are reducing their exposure to Chinese stocks, especially relatively unproven ones, like IPO companies."

The questionable accounting showing up in some companies could be a sign of a broader slowdown in China, prominent Asia-based investor Marc Faber told Reuters Insider on Friday.

"One of the most reliable indicators you are in a bubble stage is the emergence of fraud on a massive scale and that we had in Chinese companies very clearly," said Faber, who is also editor of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report.

Renren values corporate governance and transparency, a spokeswoman for the company said in an e-mailed statement. "Accounting scandals affecting a handful of companies are hurting the stock price not only of Renren but the performance of many other companies, so this is not company specific for Renren," she wrote.

One pre-IPO investor in Renren has indicated it shares the same opinion: the sharp decline in the stock price is due to investor concerns about China and has nothing to do with Renren specifically, or the e-commerce sector, said a person who had been briefed on the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity.

Certainly, the previous world in which investors bought Chinese stocks to chase turbocharged growth has been largely replaced by a perception that everything from China needs to be treated with some suspicion. Any sense of balance has been lost -- the baby is going out with the dirty bath water, bankers say.

"There is no question in my mind that there is growth in China," Rodman & Renshaw head of investment banking John Borer said at a conference in Los Angeles last week, but added: "Today, tactically, the market of investors, have capitulated. They've thrown in the towel."

Rodman & Renshaw has historically worked on smaller transactions.

Renren is not the only Chinese stock that has fallen sharply since its IPO. Other recent IPO companies that have struggled include NetQin Mobile Inc, Trunkbow International Holdings Ltd and E-Commerce China Dangdang.

CLIENTS NOT LOST

Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse took lead roles in bringing Renren public. When the IPO finally priced, it did so at the top of a range that had been increased by 30 percent, and traded up as much as 57 percent during its first day. Since then, it has been almost all downhill.

Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley declined comment. Credit Suisse was not immediately available for comment.

Even though some bank clients lost money on Renren, it is unlikely that they will stop doing business with the banks who sold them the deal, former equity capital markets banker Bruce Foerster said.

"If you've got a hot deal, you don't have to call them. They'll call you," he said.

Indeed, there is not much in the way of angry phone calls coming in to the banks that worked on the IPO, sources familiar with the situation said.

That may be partly because many probably sold the stock at a hefty profit when it soared on the first day -- leaving the mainly retail investors who are thought to have picked it up to lose their shirts.

Who got Renren shares in the IPO is not public information. A partial list of major investors will become public on July 1.

"Investors, U.S. investors especially, tend to underestimate the risk in Chinese IPOs because they believe it's the next Baidu Inc -- and that's just not the case," said Josef Schuster, founder of Chicago-based IPO research and investment house IPOX Schuster.

Chinese web search engine Baidu came public on the Nasdaq in 2005 and rose 354 percent on its first day of trading. Its shares remain more than 300 percent above their IPO price.

When people think of Chinese stocks, it's that iconic deal that many reference.

BOTTOMING OUT

In Renren's case there is a long list of issues in regulatory filings that could catch investors' attention -- questions about its internal financial controls and the tight control and censorship of the Chinese government, for example.

And while Renren has not been accused of any accounting shenanigans, it probably isn't helping that the chief of its audit committee, resigned just before the IPO. The official, Derek Palaschuk, was also chief financial officer of Longtop Financial Technologies -- a Chinese IPO company that was hit by the resignation of its auditor and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe amid allegations of fraud.

Even so, some investors are buying into Renren now, hoping the discounting of Renren's stock has been overdone.

"All of my friends say that I am crazy because it is probably just another Chinese fraud," declared Adrian Sciberras, a Malta-based accountant and trader who said he bought about $10,000 worth of call options when it hit $7.50.

"You have to have the guts to buy and close your eyes, then in a few months time it's fine," he said. Sciberras says he believes that the company has good growth potential and a lot of cash.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin, editing by Martin Howell)

Motorola Triumph: High-End Prepaid Android Smartphone Coming July 19 (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT

Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck – Sun Jun 26, 1:00 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

This is a Triumph; a Motorola Triumph, that is! And when it goes on sale July 19 for $299, it'll be one of the most powerful prepaid Android smartphones out there, on Virgin Mobile's network or any other.

What makes the Triumph so, well, triumphant?

The specs, and what they mean

The Motorola Triumph will have a 1-gigahertz single-core processor and 512 MB of RAM, making it roughly equivalent to a high-end Android smartphone from 2010 like the HTC Evo. It will have a 4.1 inch screen, much larger than the iPhone 4's and closer to other large Android smartphones'. And it will only have 2 GB of internal storage, but will support up to 32 GB of additional memory through its MicroSD slot -- so if you already have a fingernail-sized memory card from another phone, just plug it in and you're good to go.

The Triumph will run Android 2.2 "Froyo," a recent version of Android that's basically par for the course for a modern smartphone, with minimal carrier branding or customization. (That means fewer non-uninstallable "trashware" apps than usual.) It will also have advanced multimedia capabilities, like a 5-megapixel camera that can record 720p video, plus a front-facing camera for video chat. Finally, an HDMI out port will let you plug it in to your HDTV so you can watch videos on the big screen.

So what's the catch?

The Motorola Triumph is a prepaid smartphone, meaning you don't sign up for a two-year contract with it. Because of that, you have to pay the phone's full cost up front, and it's pretty hefty at $299.

On the plus side, though, not only do you not sign a contract, but you can get unlimited data and texting for $25 a month. Virgin Mobile's basic "Beyond Talk" plan also includes 300 voice minutes per month, and its $40 per month plan includes 1200 minutes. ($60 a month gets you unlimited everything, period.) And did I mention there's no 2-year contract?

The Upshot

Virgin Mobile is easily the cheapest of the prepaid mobile carriers, like MetroPCS and Cricket, and it uses Sprint's network to boot. But up until now -- well, until June 17, anyway -- there's been no standout Android smartphone on its network. The LG Optimus V is Virgin's flagship phone at the moment, and it costs half as much as the Triumph but has decidedly low-end specs.

The Motorola Triumph just might be the phone you've been waiting for, if you want a decent smartphone without a 2-year contract. And it'll cost more than more powerful phones will up-front, but the cheaper, contract-free wireless plans might make it worth it.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

BackStab leads iPad Games of the Week (Appolicious)

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Social gaming a big winner in smartphone boom (AFP)

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 11:47 PM PDT

by Philip Lim Philip Lim – Sun Jun 26, 2:47 am ET

SINGAPORE (AFP) – More virtual livestock looks set to be traded and petulant fowl hurled at targets as social gaming takes hold in the booming mobile phone market, industry experts say.

Social gaming, made popular by titles such as "Farmville" and "Angry Birds", was one of the closely followed topics at last week's CommunicAsia trade fair in Singapore, where telecom executives meet annually to check on new trends.

Internet-enabled smartphones as well as tablets are liberating social gamers from the physical confines of home and office, and more titles specifically designed for handheld devices are on their way.

Asia-Pacific smartphone sales are expected to reach 200 million a year by 2016, a third of all mobile phones sold in the region, according to telecom consultancy Ovum.

"At least 90 percent of gamers will be on mobile in the future," said Jeffrey Jiang, a director at Singapore-based Touch Dimensions, which develops games for various platforms.

He said his firm's clients now favour social games designed for mobile phones rather than personal computers or consoles such as the Xbox 360.

"When I started in the industry, all the projects are mostly PC, hardly any mobile. But now most of the projects that people ask from us is about mobile," he told AFP.

Jiang, whose firm creates games for mobile brands such as the iPhone, Android and Nokia, said light social gamers rather than hardcore videogame players would be the drivers of developer industry growth.

"The majority of the population are going to be casual gamers and casual gamers are not really that willing to play their games just on the PC... Everyone has mobile devices so it's the logical shift."

"Farmville", which enables players and their friends to turn themselves into rural folk ploughing fields and trading pigs and cows, is the most popular game on Facebook and has made its developer Zynga a fortune.

With Zynga preparing to offer its shares soon, The Wall Street Journal has quoted sources as saying the developer could be valued at $7 billion to $9 billion after making $400 million in profit on approximately $850 million in revenue last year.

More than 250 million people a month play Zynga games which also include "CityVille", "FrontierVille", "Café World", "YoVille" and "Vampire Wars", according to the developer.

In "Angry Birds", developed by Finnish company Rovio, players catapult birds at enemy pigs which have stolen their eggs -- players post their scores and discuss the game on social media sites.

Social game developers make money by selling their games as paid applications on mobile platforms such as Apple's AppStore, with various upgrades available as users become more addicted.

Advertising space is also available within their virtual worlds.

David Ko, senior vice president for Zynga, said some 1.1 billion smartphones -- mobile devices with features such as video cameras and Internet capability -- are expected to be shipped worldwide in 2015, double this year's forecast.

This creates a "tremendous opportunity" to reach more players, he said.

Ko said gamers have pressed Zynga to devote more resources to mobile platforms, "so an important part of our strategy is making sure that we have mobile extensions of all of our IPs (intellectual properties) going forward."

Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone maker, said gamers were the biggest customers of its applications store Ovi.

At Apple's AppStore, mobile games are the best-selling items, filling nine out of the top 10 slots.

Even BlackBerry, a brand more synonymous with businessmen rather than the gaming fraternity, showcased the gaming capabilities of its first tablet model, the Playbook at CommunicAsia.

It set up four flatscreen televisions connected to Playbooks enabling players to compete in the racing game "Need for Speed".

Thomas Crampton, a Hong Kong-based media consultant, said the rise of the smartphone made social gaming viable.

"The connectiveness to the Internet is important because it gives you that social link and the social aspect of gaming is really going to be a huge driving factor," said Crampton, Asia-Pacific director of Ogilvy Public Relations' global social media team.

Smaller music venues might not be keen on latest Apple patent (Appolicious)

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT

Sony PS3 hacker George 'GeoHot' Hotz 'works for Facebook' (Digital Trends)

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 12:41 AM PDT

Andrew Couts Andrew Couts – Sun Jun 26, 3:41 am ET

geohot-facebook-george-hotz

Just when you thought the massive hacker stories were over for the evening, another twist comes in: Hacker George 'GeoHot' Hotz, who recently settled a lawsuit with Sony for publishing a PlayStation 3 crack online, now works for Facebook, according to various sources. His exact position with the company is unclear, but he may be on a the development team tasked wit building the social network's rumored new iPad app.

The rumor of Hotz's break into "legitimate" product development comes first from jailbreak hacker Joshua Hill (aka p0isixNinja), who said in a recent interview that Hotz had made the move. Hill reportedly challenged Hotz to a iPad 2 jailbreak duel. (Both hackers come from an iOS-cracking background.) Hotz declined, saying that he wanted to remain out of the attention of the media after the debacle with Sony.

Techmeme, said that he noticed on Hotz's Facebook page a message that reads, "Facebook is really an amazing place to work…first hackathon over." Hotz reportedly published that post on June 17, but he is said to have worked at Facebook since May.

Hotz has become somewhat of a symbol for the hacking community. Hacktivist group Anonymous launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Sony in April as retribution for suing Hotz. Coincidentally or not, the DDoS onslaught came at the same time as a monstrous breach of Sony's PlayStation Network put the personal data of as much as 100 million people worldwide at risk.

Those hacks became the preface to an ongoing campaign by Lulz Security, who hacked Sony in a variety of ways. The group later went on to attack everyone from PBS to the CIA. By chance, LulzSec announced tonight that it was disbanding, and would never perform another cyberattack under the LulzSec pirate flag again. There is so far no evidence that GeoHot going corporate has anything to do with LulzSec's sudden death.

Watch the interview with Hill and My Great Fest jailbreak convention:

Apple's new Time Capsule update lacks advertised 'server-grade' hard drive? (Digital Trends)

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 09:15 AM PDT

Adam Rosenberg Adam Rosenberg – Sun Jun 26, 12:15 pm ET

apple-time-capsule

Last week, Apple released updated 2 TB and 3 TB flavors of its backup-oriented Time Capsule drives. The product page for these puppies, which will run you $299 and $499, respectively, tout the inclusion of a "server-grade hard drive" in each device.

What does that mean though? Engadget notes that an "enterprise"-qualified hard drive "must sustain a mean time between failure — MTBF for short — in excess of one million hours." Which is to say, such a drive is expected to be good for more than a million hours.

The new Time Capsule was torn apart by Hardmac and found to contain a Western Digital Caviar Green model of hard drive with a 64 MB cache. It isn't so far removed from the hardware that's powered previous Time Capsule releases. Hardmac queried WD and received confirmation that the drive is a "general public model." There are more expensive options from the manufacturer that offer more reliability and a lengthier warranty, but that's not what's inside your Time Capsule.

Stepping back and looking at the whole picture, all of this boils down to a whole lot of nothing. Apple isn't making any outrageous claims; the term "server-grade" originates with the company and its Time Capsule products. This same question arose back in 2008 (via MacRumors) and was promptly addressed by Apple.

Your new Time Capsule will work just like your old one did, and be just as reliable too (generally speaking, of course). Nothing to see here, folks. Mountains and molehills. The better question is whether or not a backup device that lives in the same location as the data you want to keep safe is enough. Easy answer there: no.

at 9:42 PM

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