Chinese hackers purported to have attacked U.S. gas pipeline operations

According to a recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report, hackers have successfully broken into numerous U.S. gas pipeline operators from December 2011 through June 2012.  The hackers infiltrated 23 gas pipeline companies by sending e-mails that looked to be official but contained viruses or Trojan horses used to break into the computer system. 

The information stolen was in-depth and the DHS feels this intelligence could later be used to sabotage and take down those gas lines.  Of the 23 gas line operators at least ten of them were hit with information extracted.  Another ten gas line operators were broken into, but it is uncertain if anything was obtained and is still under investigation.

The DHS report does not mention China or any Chinese backed group by name, but the independent security firm Mandiant Corporation confirmed the suspicion.  The facts in Mandiant’s detailed report show how they traced recent government hacks back to China.  The intro to the document reads in part,

Our research and observations indicate that the Communist Party of China (CPC) is tasking the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to commit systematic cyber espionage and data theft against organizations around the world.

Presently 30% of the U.S. power grid is dependent on natural gas.  This recent intelligence stolen by the Chinese military could, at least in theory, give them an advantage in destroying natural gas compressor stations in different regions around North America, essentially shutting the economy down with the press of an enter key.

A detailed report from the Obama Administration titled, “Administration Strategy on Mitigating The Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets”, published on February 13, 2012, discusses  the need of beefing up the U.S. infrastructure to prevent these types of future attacks.  More importantly the report gives detailed examples of how trade secrets of major companies are being stolen as well. 

During President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address he iterated the need for the U.S. to catch up on securing its computer network infrastructure. “America must also face the rapidly growing threat from cyber-attacks,” The President said in part.  “… [W]e know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions.” 

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Can hackers control your HP Printer remotely and set it on fire?

MSNBC ran a detailed article on the allegations that hackers could remotely take over HP LaserJet Printers and set it on fire using a predefined set of instructions.

Once taken over, sensitive personal information can be stolen, networks can be attacked and set on fire by executing a set commands designed to heat the printer up.

HP responded to MSNBC with a statement that it is evaluating the problem but contended that the claims by Columbia PhD student Ang Sui and Prof. Salvatore Stolfo are highly exaggerated.

The Prof-student duo claims that the printers are accepting software updates without verifying digital signatures and they are able to remote install malicious software onto it.

In a demonstration of the flaw, the researchers demostrated how by giving instructions, they could heat up the printer fuser of a hijacked computer, which is designed to dry the ink once it is applied to paper, ultimately causing it to burn and smoke. In the same demo, a thermal switch shut the printer down before a fire started. But the researchers expressed their apprehension that such things can easily cause real-world damage if not checked immediately.

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Quarter of 18-25 year olds are Facebook friends with boss

One quarter of people between the ages of 18 to 25 are friends with their employers on Facebook, potentially exposing career damaging content, according to a study by internet security firm AVG.

 

AVG surveyed 4,400 people in the given age bracket in 11 different countries on their social network habits as part of Digital Baggage, the sixth instalment of its Digital Diaries study.

 

While one in four add their boss on Facebook, the majority of those who do have social media links with their colleagues are not careful about what they are posting, which might harm their job prospects. 

 

60 percent do not restrict content from co-workers, which is possible on Facebook, albeit less intuitive than the Circles feature of Google+. The US was top of the list with 59 percent for not restricting profiles, followed by Italy at 58 percent and Spain at 54 percent. Japanese workers are more cautious, with only 27 percent leaving their profiles open to co-workers.

 

Worse yet, 13 percent post “abusive content” insulting their boss or company after a bad day at work, which could be seen by a colleague and used against them, or in some cases might even by seen by the boss him or herself. Of those asked, Italian young workers are most likely at 18 percent to vent about their job online, while only 10 percent do so in France and New Zealand.

 

Many workers also have inappropriate content online, such as images they may not want their employers to see. The Spanish topped the list by far with 80 percent, while the UK and US were much better, with only 25 percent and 21 percent posting potentially damaging photos.

 

For those who do not believe online presence matters in the workplace, they might want to think again. The study found that 15 percent of Italian young people had been asked about things they posted online in an interview, while that figure is 13 percent for the US, nine percent for Australia, and six percent for the UK. This is a number that is likely to grow as more companies view the internet as an important medium for their identity, which could be damaged by the poor online identities of their employees.

 

“AVG’s latest research clearly shows young people today have a comfort with using online social networks that is leading to blurring between their professional and private lives,” said Tony Anscombe, Senior Security Evangelist at AVG. “It seems obvious that posting abusive content about a boss or workplace is not very sensible, but it’s important to understand that not only could it damage a person’s existing career, it could also negatively impact on future opportunities too. Our research findings indicate that today’s 18-25 year old ‘digital natives’ need to be more aware of their online brand as something employers and recruiters are increasingly investigating.”

 

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Nintendo announces Zelda Wind Waker HD for Wii U

Nintendo has recently announced via their Wii U Direct video series that an HD port of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is coming to the Wii U, offering enhanced graphics as well as other features that bring the GameCube classic into the current age of gaming.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD will feature new HD graphics, Off-TV play with the Wii U Gamepad, and integrated Miiverse support. It was also revealed that the remake came to be as the development team experimented with different art styles for the next main Zelda title, which is also currently in development for the Wii U.

According to Satoru Iwata, gamers can expect the HD port of Wind Waker sometime in Fall 2013.

Originally released in 2003 on GameCube, Wind Waker received favoritism and was warmly received by critics and fans alike for its creative and original graphics, which utilize cell-shading and a very distinctively bright color scheme. The game mechanics were very original as well, providing an experience that was unlike any prior games in the Zelda game series.

Even now, the game is ranked as one of the best Zelda titles, and many fans worldwide count it as their favorite in Nintendo's expansive series, which remains one of the most iconic franchises in video game history.

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AT&T to invest $14 billion to extend LTE & broadband coverage

The increased spending will help AT&T expand its 4G LTE network, which is more efficient in transmitting data than the previous 3G generation.

“This is a major commitment to invest in 21^st century communications infrastructure for the United States,” Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, said in a statement. He also mentioned that the expansion will help to deliver high-speed internet to millions more people who did not have access to broadband before.

A portion of the investment will go towards expanding AT&T’s broadband network. Strategically, the company wants smartphone users to use the wired network instead to help alleviate the stress of data usage on the wireless network.

Verizon is currently in first place in terms of LTE coverage, with 420 cities. Whereas, AT&T’s LTE currently only covers about 80 cities, but AT&T expects that the investment will help to bring LTE to 300 million people by the end of 2014.

AT&T’s move to beef up its infrastructure follows recent moves by other major carriers in the U.S. to improve their respective services. Last month, T-Mobile USA bought out Metro PCS to expand on its own business. Sprint, another major U.S carrier, recently handed over the majority of the company over to SoftBank Japan in exchange for $20.1 billion.

The thought of catching up to Verizon is on the mind of most major carriers in the U.S., and AT&T is putting a lot of chips on the table, but so have T-Mobile and Sprint. Will AT&T retain second place in the race to be the largest carrier? The company is planning to infuse $22 billion into expanding its network by 2015, so why shouldn’t AT&T maintain its rightful place as the second best carrier?

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CES 2013: EVGA X79 Dark Motherboard and Mini-ITX Cases

X79 Dark

Unlike the more prominent motherboard makers like ASUS and Gigabyte, EVGA was late to the Intel Sandy Bridge-E HEDT platform with less than stellar offerings like the X79 FTW and Classified, which offered only four DDR3 DIMM slots (as opposed to eight on the other brands) and were plagued for months after launch with numerous BIOS quirks and underwhelming memory overclocking potential. The company's engineers went back to the drawing board to come out with the X79 Dark - which they claim is now able to compete with the likes of the Republic of Gamers boards from ASUS and challenge top overclocking records, thanks to a redesigned memory trace configuration (presumably T-toplogy) that can support eight-DIMM operation in quad channel.

The board is loaded with a plethora of enthusiast oriented features like a 12+1 phase VRM (presumably IR3550) and debug switches including an EVBot connector. A company spokesman said the X79 Dark should hit retail in around 2-3 months time,  which is to be close to the upcoming 22nm Ivy Bridge-E refresh and GPU releases from Nvidia and AMD. 

 

Mini-ITX Box

EVGA also showed off its new line of ITX enclosures for LAN party enthusiasts, fitted with a 500W 1U power supply (40A on 12v rail) and ample space for a 240mm close-loop water radiator. The actual design and pricing has not been finalized yet but expect to see the final incarnation around Computex Taipei at June this year.

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Rapidshare utilizing datacap restrictions to keep pirates away

Rapidshare, a big contender in the file sharing business, has taken steps to distance itself from internet piracy. Earlier this year, Kim  Dotcom's Megaupload file sharing service was taken down by the US government, and it seems Rapidshare wants to avoid landing itself in the same place. To keep pirates away, Rapidshare has thus implemented a datacap restriction on their downloads, limiting the amount of data which can be downloaded from one file over a certain period of time.

The new restriction will put a 1GB per 24 hours limit on files uploaded for free, whereas subscription users will be allowed a datacap of  30GB for their files. This data restriction will apply to publicly available files, whereas personal files shared from user to user (akin to dropbox), will be unaffected.

 

"No download for you. Come back, one day!"

 

Since high data traffic on these public files will be impossible, pirates should be more or less unable to distribute copyrighted material via Rapidshare. However, smaller files such as documents, or files which will be downloaded by a limited number of people, will be largely unaffected. Unfortunately, any legitimate file of substantial size will be impacted as well.

 

The datacap might be a risky move for Rapidshare: Whether they like it or not, a significant amount of the traffic they have comes from piracy, and if this is stopped, who knows what Rapidshare's fate will be, especially with the new "Mega" just around the corner to scoop those pirates up. It's possible that without the pirates, Rapidshare might become a much smaller and more timid beast than it currently is.

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