I don't play video games so....
"PlayStation cyberattack another blow to Sony" by Callum Borchers and Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff December 27, 2014
Sony Corp.’s joyless holiday season continued to sour Friday, as the entertainment giant endured the second day of yet another cyberattack, this one taking down the online PlayStation Network used by millions of video game players.
The attack, which began on Christmas Day, prevented gamers from accessing the system where they can play such popular titles as “Madden” or “Call of Duty” with opponents across the world.
Sony is still reeling.
How untimely.
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In the latest cyberattack, a mysterious group called the Lizard Squad claimed responsibility.
OMG!
The outage disappointed gamers who received Playstation or Xbox systems this holiday but were unable to access the online networks in order to boot up the games. Others were only able to play new games against a computer simulator or with friends or family members in the same room.
Yeah, God forbid you should interface with an actual physical person in your presence.
Game Stop shopper David Murray III, 19, said his excitement at receiving “Persona 4,” a fighting game, quickly dissolved when he turned on his PlayStation 3 on Christmas, hoping to challenge another user.
“I tried to sign in but it was taking really long — like a good three minutes — and then it told me there was an error and it just timed out,” Murray said.
Unable to role play as soldiers or star quarterbacks, some gamers left their usual indoor haunts and resorted to playing outdoors.
I hope the sun didn't cause them to disintegrate.
“I’m out here skating instead,” 18-year-old Louis Justiniano of Dorchester said Friday afternoon while skateboarding outside the Game Stop store in Fields Corner. “When it don’t work, I just go out.”
Cybersecurity analysts said the latest attacks appeared to be distributed denial of service, or DDoS, in which the hackers bombard the targeted site with so much traffic that the network crashes. However, it does not appear any personal information was exposed during these attacks.
North Korea's usual shtick, I was told, and why not as sophisticated this time?
“DDoS is a very serious and frustrating problem because it’s so easy to launch these attacks,” said Brian Krebs, a computer security researcher and author of the book “Spam Nation.” “In every case we’ve seen in the past, they’re a bunch of teenagers who live in their parents’ basements. These attacks are not sophisticated, and they let the kids who launch them feel like gods.”
Related: The Terrorists Among Us
Gotta be ISIS, right?
Did someone say inside job?
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This week’s attack on Xbox and PlayStation was signaled in early December, when the Lizard Squad group claimed responsibility for separate attacks on the PlayStation and Xbox Live networks and posted a warning on Twitter: “That’s a small dose of what’s to come on Christmas.”
In disabling the network this week, hackers removed one of gaming’s chief appeals: the ability to test one’s skill against a friend down the street or an unknown user in another country. In addition to connecting players in different locations, the PlayStation Network also serves as an online marketplace where users can download games and movies.
An annoyance for gamers, the network outage can be devastating for small video game studios if it drags on. Many developers do not sell their games in stores but market them only through online platforms such as PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. No connection means no sales....
But the e-retail business has been great!
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They are “fortunate to still exist,” something many business won't be saying by spring.
"Online shoppers spent early, often, setting new record" by Spencer Soper, Bloomberg News December 26, 2014
NEW YORK — Amazon.com Inc. and other Web retailers sold more products than ever this holiday season, boosted by early promotions and investments in delivery systems that helped avoid the widespread shipping snags of last year.
Online shopping is on pace to rise 16 percent to $61 billion for the November to December period, according to researcher ComScore Inc., with retailers benefiting from lower unemployment rates, higher consumer confidence, and a decline in oil prices that has left shoppers with more to spend on gifts. The total includes $7.9 billion in mobile sales, ComScore said.
Amazon.com, the world’s biggest Internet retailer, hired more workers, and opened more distribution centers, extending its reach to get goods to customers faster. United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. also stepped up hiring, updated their technology, and invested in infrastructure to absorb the growth. Consumers shopped earlier, responding to pre-Thanksgiving promotions and not splurging at the last minute — something that contributed to last year’s delivery delays....
I was wondering what BS they were going to come up with to explain sagging sales.
Related: Shippers came through for shoppers
Then why is Fed-Ex complaining?
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Related: Identity theft victims hit hard by months of hassles
Banks take the biggest financial hit, but....
"US, Japan, S. Korea to share spy data" by Hyung-Jin KimAssociated Press December 27, 2014
SEOUL — South Korea, the United States, and Japan will sign their first trilateral intelligence-sharing pact next week to better cope with North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile threats, Seoul officials said Friday.
They were supposed to be talking peace, but I have noticed that never lasts long in the war paper.
The United States has separate, bilateral intelligence-sharing agreements with South Korea and Japan, both American allies that are hosts to tens of thousands of American troops.
But Seoul and Tokyo do not have such bilateral pacts amid long-running history disputes stemming from Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. In 2012, the two almost forged their first-ever intelligence-sharing pact but its signing was scrapped at the last minute due to backlash in South Korea.
Under the trilateral pact, South Korea and Japan would share intelligence, only on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, via the United States, according to a statement from Seoul’s Defense Ministry.
The pact would enable the three countries to swiftly respond to any North Korean provocation as threats continue after its third nuclear test in February 2013, the statement said. The use of Japanese intelligence assets would boost surveillance on North Korea, it said.
This as the economy under Abe is imploding.
South Korean officials say the North is believed to have made progress in its goal of manufacturing nuclear warheads small and light enough to be placed on a missile capable of reaching the United States, given that eight years have passed since its first bomb test in 2006. North Korea conducted its second test in 2009.
And if they ever sent one here we would put a crater where that country is now.
The formal signing of the pact by the South Korean vice defense minister and his US and Japanese counterparts will take place Monday, according to South Korean defense officials.
Elsewhere, three South Korean workers died Friday after apparently inhaling toxic gas at a construction site for a nuclear plant being built by South Korea’s nuclear power company, which has come under recent threats by hackers, a company official said.
Well, we know who may have done that, and what's this about another earthquake in Japan?
The accident at the construction site in the southeastern city of Ulsan came as the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. was on high alert over a series of threats by hackers who said they can disable the control systems of its plants. Choi Hee-ye, a company spokeswoman, said there was no reason to believe that Friday’s accident was linked to the cyberattack threats.
Is that what happened at Fukushima to cause the meltdowns?
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Post over.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
US stocks close higher, extending gains for the week
I'm sure they will flog that point.
Americans are showing a new optimism and are ready to shop again. But.... here is some parting advice regarding the agenda!!!
