The latest cell phones reviews and news!
Cell Phone News
Why Hackers Hit India
May 17th
Anonymous hackers darkened several Indian government websites, retaliating against the country's censorship practices in its continued crusade for a free Internet.
The Supreme Court of India and All India Congress Committee websites suffered distributed denial of service attacks under "MT Operation India," leaving them inaccessible for 24 hours. Anonymous crippled the government pages to chastise Indian service providers for blocking file-sharing sites like Vimeo and The Pirate Bay.
India's ISPs acted in anticipation of a pending government proposal, which aims to create a Committee for Internet Related Policies for overseeing the subcontinent's online activities.
The committee, a 50-member UN-backed organization, would hold censorship powers over content deemed inappropriate or offensive by India's ruling party. But Anonymous, whose Pirate Party won parliamentary seats in Sweden and Germany after campaigning for Internet freedom, disagrees with this direction.
"Namaste #India, your time has come to trash the current government and install a new one. Good luck. #SaveTPB #Anonymous #Censorship," the collective tweeted.
Anonymous has a history of denouncing governments that wish to control the Internet, while India has a record of censoring websites. The two interests are now clashing for the second, but likely not the last, time.
Anonymous' first publicized tangle with India occurred in February and concerned the 1984 Bhopal gas leak, which left thousands dead and maimed. The global intelligence firm Stratfor, according to Anonymous, paid corrupt Indian officials to silence victims after the disaster.
Before turning its sights to Bhopal, Anonymous already enjoyed widespread notoriety for challenging worldwide governments on censorship issues.
The collective hit the FBI for nabbing Wikileaks suspects, struck China over its strict censorship policies, even targeting Malaysia and Spain for their attempts to police the Internet.
Anonymous also involved itself in the Arab Spring, fighting against Gaddafi in Egypt and Assad in Syria. The leaderless hackers also criticized Iran over its plans to create a government-run, internal Internet by August 2012.
Until the Stratfor hack this February, however, Anonymous largely remained silent while India sought to censor emails and social media content.
India successfully banned Nokia email servers in April 2011, citing security risks, and enlisted RIM's reluctant help in monitoring BlackBerry Messenger content last fall. The country is also suing Google and Facebook after the Internet giants' allegedly slow response to government requests for proactive censorship of "offensive" content.
But after years of ignoring India's increasingly strict Internet controls, Anonymous is beginning to take interest. The collective may be doing so in part to burnish its reputation as a crusader for freedom after a slew of bad press smeared the hackers this winter.
If India pursues its current direction about online restrictions, however, Anonymous will likely strike the subcontinent more often, denouncing Internet regulation and preserving its own reputation in the process.
Why Hackers Hit India originally appeared at Mobiledia on Thu May 17, 2012 11:02 am.
Coming Soon: Waterproof Phones
May 17th
Several companies are marketing waterproofing technology to protect electronic devices, an endeavor that may revolutionize the mobile market.
P2i, HzO and Liquipel are all competing for commercial clients interested in making their laptops and mobile phones fully submersible.
U.K.-based P2i is already "working with virtually all the big names," according to Applications Director Nick Rimmer, who wouldn't disclose specifics but affirmed water-repellent phones will hit the market "within months." The high prices people pay for smartphones, combined with their need to be connected to them at all times, is opening new markets for these innovations.
P2i's method for waterproofing a mobile phone involves placing the device in a vacuum chamber and spraying it with chemical agent. An electric current then pulses through the chamber, permanently bonding the waterproofing agent to every atom on the phone's surface.
P2i's competitor Liquipel, a California-based startup, lets consumers waterproof their phones at $60 per device. Liquipel is reportedly negotiating at contract with Fujitsu to coat its upcoming tablets and phones, as the company aims to expand its mail-in business.
HzO, a Utah-based company, is also developing nano-technology to waterproof electronic devices. The startup says its coating, which covers a phone's internal circuitry, can protect submerged devices for longer than P2i's technology.
"We're vastly different from P2i or Liquipel," said HzO president Paul Clayson. "We take a solid chemical, turn it into a gas and introduce it into a vacuum chamber to deposit on the electronics. Our coating is thicker, building layers on top of each other and providing a protection that can endure underwater for extended periods of time."
All three companies seek to improve upon past waterproofing techniques, like Keystone Echo's MarineCase and Grace Digital Audio's Eco Pod.
The MarineCase is a silicon cover for iPhone that lets users record videos and take pictures in up to twenty feet of water, making it a useful tool for divers.
The $50 Eco Pod is another waterproof case made of polycarbonate material that shields phones from drowning. It comes with submersible headphones too, allowing swimmers to enjoy music while doing laps.
The iPhone-specific LifeProof case works in up to 6.6 feet of water, meeting military specifications for those leading rugged and active lifestyles.
But P2i, HzO and Liquipel may make external waterproof cases unnecessary, if future phones and other electronics use nano-technology coating off the shelves.
Such a development would greatly benefit those who live in waterlogged climates, where consumers are willing to pay more for protection from the elements. And accident-prone mobile users will have nothing to fear after dropping their phones in a puddle if nano-technology waterproofing catches on.
The possible applications for solid waterproofing technology are endless, as consumers may soon find out should companies like P2i, HzO and Liquipel revolutionize the market.
Coming Soon: Waterproof Phones originally appeared at Mobiledia on Thu May 17, 2012 9:51 am.
In Brief: Apple, Publishers Prep for E-Book Showdown
May 16th
A U.S. District Court judge said Apple and five major publishers must face allegations of price fixing, rejecting their bid to dismiss a civil class action lawsuit against them.
In Brief boils down complex events to give you the heart of the matter -- today and what it means for tomorrow -- clearly and simply.
Legal action concerning e-book prices is mounting against Apple and its publishing partners. The U.S. Department of Justice last month announced a separate settlement with three publishers, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group and Harper Collins. However, no settlement was reached between Apple, Macmillan and Penguin, and the government said the three must face complaints that they colluded to maintain high e-book prices.
What's Happening: The complaints are based on how Apple prices its e-books for its iPad. The Cupertino, Calif. company opted to sell books using an agency model, or prices the publishers wanted them sold for, and it agreed to do so, taking a cut of the profits.
Amazon, on the other hand, set its own prices, and sold books at a lower rate, which pleased shoppers but caused publishers to lose money. Eventually, Amazon raised its prices as well, after the top publishing companies began selling more of their books through Apple.
What It Means: The Justice Department and the class action civil suit both say the same thing -- that the publishing houses and Apple conspired to use the agency model against Amazon, which was monopolizing the e-book market at the time.
For their part, Apple, MacMillan and Penguin all say the agency model of publishing allows publishers to offer more choice and flexibility when it comes to pricing their work.
What it Really Means: Amazon had been on top of the publishing market for a long while, and the publishers and Apple say Amazon's pricing model will force smaller publishers out of business. Further, most publishers believe they'll eventually have to accept whatever royalties Amazon deems proper to pay them, instead of getting full royalties for their work.
Amazon can afford to offer the books at lower prices because of the quantity it sells, and for now, it pays publishers the full royalty fee. However, the remaining publishers may believe that if the lawsuit goes on -- and they lose -- Amazon will have the power to lower their revenues once it no longer has to compete with Apple for e-book sales.
Amazon still sells the most e-books, but competitors such as the iPad and the Barnes & Noble Nook are eating away at its profits, and the retail giant will do what it needs to in order to keep its customers.
What's Next: U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, saying the lawsuit can continue, appeared to side strongly with consumers against Apple and the remaining two publishers, which does not bode well for their chances if a settlement isn't reached.
Cote ruled that she believes Apple blocked e-books from competing in the open market by "[helping] the suppliers to collude, rather than compete independently." She didn't make a ruling in the case itself, but her strongly worded ruling leaves little doubt that if Apple wants to keep profiting from e-book sales, it may have to move away from the agency pricing model and base its plans on Amazon's example or come up with something different.
The Takeaway: Cote's ruling means the class-action suit will proceed, unless the remaining book publishers and Apple try to settle, which would save an untold amount in legal fees. While Apple doesn't often settle legal cases, the book publishers may have little choice, given the financial difficulties the industry is facing.
Meanwhile, the three publishers who have settled are still in the lawsuit, but they are negotiating with states to give refunds to people who bought e-books. The other two publishers, while appearing to stand their ground, may decide it's more economically feasible to offer customers similar refunds, leaving Apple alone to face federal collusion charges.
Apple may have difficulty defending itself from the federal allegations. The late Steve Jobs himself fueled speculation over aggressive moves made by publishers, telling the Wall Street Journal "publishers may withhold their books from Amazon" if they're unhappy with the way the company prices publications.
Although Jobs died last October, Apple still follows most of the standards he set while he was alive, and it may not take much more than his statements to the Wall Street Journal to convince a jury that his company worked with publishers to not only set prices, but to earn a huge profit from e-book sales in return.
Apple is unlikely to stop working with publishers to sell e-books. The stakes are too high as people shift from reading paper copies of their favorite publications to enjoying them electronically. However, Apple may have to accept a much lower profit margin if the courts find it worked with publishers to set book prices higher and to keep them away from Amazon as well.
In Brief: Apple, Publishers Prep for E-Book Showdown originally appeared at Mobiledia on Wed May 16, 2012 4:09 pm.
The Chat Room: Battle of the Steves
May 16th
Steve Jobs' life is coming to the big screen in two different forms, though movie pirates may not be able to download either film from popular torrent site The Pirate Bay, since it is subject to a mysterious internet attack.
Two men are trying to tweet to aliens, while image-conscious smartphone users are taking drastic actions to keep their jawlines supple.
Meanwhile, love flourishes on Internet radio.
A Tale of Two Steve Jobs Movies
Aaron Sorkin will write an upcoming Steve Jobs biopic based on Walter Isaacson's enormously popular biography, setting up a battle between Sorkin's version and the Ashton Kutcher-led "Steve Jobs: Get Inspired," which already began filming.
Sorkin's version, called "Steve Jobs," has Sony's backing and carries a better pedigree, but since Kutcher's version is already in production, it has a head start.
"Steve Jobs" will focus on a wider swath of Jobs life than Kutcher's version, which hones in on his road to fame. No word yet on casting for "Steve Jobs," but Kutcher probably won't do double-duty.
Pirate Bay May Be Sinking
Popular torrent site The Pirate Bay has been down for over 24 hours, and though the website has not confirmed who is behind the problems, it may be hacking collective Anonymous.
Why would Anonymous hack digital pirates, when they seem to have similar ideologies? The Pirate Bay publicly condemned Anonymous for attacking Virgin Media, so this may be a retribution for their harsh words.
On the other hand, The Pirate Bay is hardly on good terms with copyright holders, so the shutdown may be coming from a different source.
Can We Tweet Aliens?
An experimental art project is attempting to contact far-flung beings by beaming tweets as they happen 22 light years away. People who want to take part can label their tweets #tweetinspace, and the duo behind the project will send the message to the far corners of the universe.
New media artist Scott Kildall and associate professor Nathaniel Stern are collaborating on the project, which is being crowd-funded on RocketHub, a site similar to Kickstarter.
The artists don't expect aliens to respond to the tweets, but want to use the project to illustrate how deeply people want to be connected.
Internet Radio Helps Man Propose to Girlfriend
A man proposed to his girlfriend with the help of popular music site Pandora. Kyle, a blogger, worked with a team of Pandora employees to set up a special station with a recorded proposal.
His girlfriend, Maggie, had recently purchased a car with a built-in Pandora app, so he decided to pop the question as they drove to his graduation dinner.
Kyle got his inspiration from a man who proposed using Internet memes, and he wanted to do something involving tech that also meant something to him and his fiancee. It worked, and Maggie said yes.
Smartphones Are Making You Ugly
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons revealed chin implants are on the rise, and some doctors believe the upswing is a direct result of excessive mobile technology use.
Dr. Mervyn Patterson coined the term "smartphone face" to describe what happens to jaw lines after patients stare down at their smartphones or laptops all day for years.
Of course, people tilt their heads in much the same way to look at books, and there wasn't a widespread case of "librarian face" or "law student face," so the condition may simply be a marketing ploy to encourage desire for plastic surgery.
The Chat Room: Battle of the Steves originally appeared at Mobiledia on Wed May 16, 2012 3:41 pm.
Sexting or Sexual Harassment: How Far Is Too Far?
May 16th
Young girls are regularly pressured to send nude pictures or record sexual acts, according to a U.K. report, illustrating how technology can push harassment to new mediums.
"A Qualitative Study of Children, Young People and Sexting," a report by researchers at the London School of Economics, Open University and the U.K.'s Institute of Education, found a third of under-18 texters received a lewd sexual image by text or e-mail. On top of that, the focus group research revealed a substantial portion of young males had dozens of sexual pictures of their peers on their mobile devices, indicating their habit of sharing explicit photos with each other.
"Girls are being pressured by text and on BlackBerry Messenger to send 'special photos' and perform sexual services for boys from an early age. In some cases they are as young as 11. Even while we were interviewing them they were being bombarded with these messages," Institute of Education researcher Jessica Ringrose said, explaining how toxic the climate has become.
Navigating burgeoning sexuality is an inescapable facet of adolescence, and many teens dismiss the adult hand-wringing about the upswing in shared sexual images as unnecessary. After all, teens have engaged in sexual activity throughout human history, and some young people rationalize sexting as an extension of a natural exploration.
Some sexting can be just that, if it stays between the people involved, and the picture sender acts for the right reasons. But the type of persistent, pestering behavior exhibited by many of the young men in the study, coupled with their tendency to pass intimate images around and objectify their subjects, clearly marks this type of behavior as bullying and abusive, not an innocent sexual experiment.
Teen cruelty is nothing new, but recent high-profile suicides springing from relentless bullying is putting a spotlight on the issue, and parents, educators and adults everywhere are desperate to curb socially vicious behavior.
Mobile technology opened up new venues for bullying, letting aggressors bombard their targets at all hours of the day, through Facebook, Twitter, text messages and more. Hurling insults online affords the bully an emotional distance, so young teens making cutting remarks feel secure doing so via social networks or text messages. As a result of the attackers' ability to infiltrate more areas of their lives, bullied adolescents have fewer places of respite. Young people check their phones everywhere, including the home, which brings the problem to more intimate spaces.
In some cases, like the situation between Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi, bullying is inextricably linked with technology, with aggressors pursuing and humiliating their targets entirely by digital communication.
Boys far too shy to demand girls take their clothes off in person feel empowered by the distance built into texting, and young people who are well-mannered in person may behave like outsized charlatans on instant messenger.
With young people often outpacing their teachers and parents when it comes to tech savvy, the lack of supervision and education about online etiquette contributes to the churlish behavior. And though some research shows teen sexting is not as rampant as it is often portrayed in the media, this recent study suggests it is still a sizable problem that can lead to widespread self-esteem issues among bullied girls.
Even though U.S. law officials are trying to amend current child pornography laws to keep ignorant teens off sex offender registries, sending these salacious texts can often still land teens in trouble with authorities.
To quell this damaging behavior, parents and educators need to step up to the plate and begin a comprehensive online etiquette campaign. While teens may never stop sending each other naked photos of themselves, smart education strategies can point out and change the climate of blatant sexual harassment.
Sexting or Sexual Harassment: How Far Is Too Far? originally appeared at Mobiledia on Wed May 16, 2012 1:36 pm.
The Secret Online Lives of Tweens: What Parents Can Do
May 16th
Increasingly, younger kids now create online lives, offering challenges to parents who must grasp the new realities and master the nuances of raising kids in this new age.
Is This Thing On?, or ITTO, is our Wednesday column showing how everyday people use technology in unexpected ways.
Parents are getting wise to their kids' interactions on social media sites like Facebook, but it seems as soon as the older generation picks up and joins the trend, the kids take it underground to new places.
The players have changed, but the cat-and-mouse game of parents trying to keep tabs on their restless kids is as old as time. Still, the novelty and the permanency of the modern child's digital activities requires a greater parental awareness, since what kids say or do on the online playground -- unlike a skinned knee at the neighborhood playground -- won't likely disappear over time.
The issue is moving beyond what specific sites are popular to understanding that kids become drawn to these things -- and like it or not, are leaving digital footprints. Parents may well consider starting earlier to ensure safer, more positive online experiences for their kids as they pass through adolescence and into their own adulthood.
Where The Kids Are
Facebook, formerly a cause for parental confusion and tween enchantment, is going public, in more ways than one. Coinciding with the social network's IPO are increasing reports of parents using the now familiar social networking tool for their own ends.
Most recently, the case of Denise Abbot, the mother who used her daughter's Facebook to send a stern message to her 13-year-old daughter illustrates how the simmering debate is bubbling over, turning the tide a little more firmly in parents' favor.
Many teens and tweens are already one step ahead of the Ohio mom, and in response to their growing awareness of grownups' access to Facebook, are turning to Twitter over Facebook to talk with friends.
Teenagers demanding a more private online communication channel nearly doubled Twitter's use for the coveted demographic as they flocked to the site's unique benefits. Twitter's default settings allow public access, but teenagers are finding ways to use the site differently. For example, teenagers can lock their accounts, use anonymous handles and establish multiple accounts to keep their communication under the radar, beyond prying eyes.
Teens who embrace Twitter because they are able to restrict who monitors their activity may still explore other options, especially in light of news the senior set and other adults are finding fun with the micro-blogging site. While society may cheer the granny trying to get 80,000 Twitter followers, to teens and others, it may be a signal to move on.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr or Google+ have policies meant to bar kids under the age of 13, but savvy kids are finding answers in many free apps to create more private spaces. Apps like Instagram, the photo filtering program, are serving as a backdoor for kids to gather for private communications and sharing.
Often parents don't know these handy programs, which seem like sensible learning tools for their children, can be used to share their creations. For example, many kids are using Instagram, Versagram and Viddy to post and "like" photo-jokes and text messages they create. Instagram does have an age requirement, but parents may not be aware of this other use, and children can enter fake birth dates to satisfy it.
Starting Early
Kids are good at finding new places to connect, preferably unsupervised by their families. Despite their concerns about online predators, bullying and lost hours in front of the screen, parents are learning how difficult it is to prevent their kids from interacting with social media, when new options and mutations sprout up apparently daily.
The kids' persistence, combined with the parents' belief that it is in the children's best interests to be nimble with technology, is sparking growth in social networks and other interactive content younger kids can engage with and parents can monitor to make these early exposures fun and educational.
This summer, Microsoft and Scholastic will help sponsor an inaugural conference, which takes place June 29-July 1 in Philadelphia, to bring together over 200 creative teens and tweens from around the country along with their families. At the three-day conference, teens will develop skills through hands-on workshops and interactive sessions, learn how they can take their creative endeavors to a more professional level, explore the impact that kids are having on the broader digital culture, and meet other like-minded teens.
"We have teens, college professors, business people, bloggers, editors, entrepreneurs, and programmers coming together for this event. These remarkable online professionals are committed to sharing their expertise and experience with the next generation of digital creators in a way that is both entertaining and useful in the real world," says conference co-founder Jennie Baird.
The conference reflects what emerging companies are already capitalizing on. Social media start-up KidzVuz, for example, helps kids create content at an early age without using their names to ease concerns about establishing a permanent record.
KidzVuz, developed by two technologically active New York City mothers, lets kids create a profile with handles like "LittleMermaid" to showcase their video reviews of books, movies, trends and activities, and parents have to approve the account. There is no private messaging, and comments are actively monitored.
The idea behind this and other social network entertainment networks for kids under the age of 13, like Walt Disney's Club Penguin, Imbee, Kidsocial, Scuttlepad and Everloop, is to create a safe place for children to learn how to communicate effectively and politely on a more controlled medium that will be key to their social, academic and economic lives.
For example, the children learn lessons about film production like lighting and dialogue by making videos to post on the networks, and they can understand, with advice from parents and peers, what topics are interesting and proper as they create their own content.
By starting younger kids out on "training wheels" of social media, and stressing some good sharing practices, parents can plant early seeds that will bear fruit when their children hit the tween and teenage years.
Influence and Instruction: A Combined Approach
For parents with children who are already teenagers and missed the window these social media "starter networks" give, developing an evolving rulebook for kids' online activities is crucial.
Letting teens know what's okay and what's not on Facebook and Twitter and learning a few things about privacy settings can greatly diminish the risks of social-network snafus. Teens understand some of the bigger implications, so talk with them about setting these options to "friends only," meaning no one outside the child's immediate, approved circle can interact with them. Facebook also allows disabling its location services, meaning status updates won't include the child's whereabouts.
On Twitter, explore options like Tweet Privacy, which protects the user's tweets by making them visible only to approved people -- not the world at large. Another setting worth enabling is the "Always use HTTPS" feature, which tells Twitter to use a secure connection when possible, thus reducing the risk of the user's account getting hacked.
Also, just because social media is so appealing to tweens and teens doesn't mean it is an absolute right. Parents can use their kids' fascination with social media as a parenting tool to reward their children's behavior and accomplishments.
Ignoring social media and your children's digital lives is not an option, since they aren't going away anytime soon and could feature prominently in college applications and job prospects.
Parents can influence their tweens and teens' online behavior and get a head start teaching younger kids about the implications of privacy, the permanence of their Web footprint, the basics of brand building and something about online manners.
Consider the issue of your kids' digital lives not with an attitude of resignation, but as an opportunity to bolster your child's understanding. After all, if parenting is done right, these kids will one day head out into a world where you aren't there at every step.
The Secret Online Lives of Tweens: What Parents Can Do originally appeared at Mobiledia on Wed May 16, 2012 12:52 pm.
Why Brain Sensors Are Dangerous Behind the Wheel
May 16th
Brainput, a device that promises to help drivers multitask, may actually put drivers in danger.
Researchers at MIT, Tufts and Indiana University created a portable brain sensor that's small enough to wrap around the forehead. Brainput recognizes when users are multitasking and feeds information to one or more devices ranging from computers to cars, promising to ease the wearer's responsibilities by automating the devices.
Brainput operates like a standard-issue brain monitor, but its software responds to brain wave activity, signaling multitasking, and sends information to one of the user's devices. Though researchers experimented with robots, they believe Brainput can help automate cars, military vehicles and a variety of other machines.
The idea of "smart cars", or partly automated vehicles, is catching on, especially for their ability to help older drivers stay behind the wheel. And Brainput can work as a smart car accessory, sending the vehicle into an automated state while the driver texts or plays a quick game of "Angry Birds."
But distracted driving deaths caused by smartphone use are on the rise, and lawmakers and police are going to great lengths to curb the destructive behavior. Although the campaigns to curb distracted driving are intense, the increasing ubiquity of smartphone use is making it difficult to stomp out altogether.
If Brainput takes hold as a car accessory, it throws a curveball at distracted driving opponents, since habitual in-car phone users can defend themselves by claiming their car was being automatically driven. As with other smart car technology, this can do more harm than good, as drivers wouldn't pay attention to the task they delegated. And if Brainput's automatic commands experienced a glitch or a delay, drivers may get in an accident.
Like Google's automated cars, currently being test-driven in Nevada, Brainput can give people behind the wheel too much peace of mind, encouraging them to stop paying attention, which leaves everyone on the road at the mercy of a computer program.
Brainput is helpful behind a desk, sending messages while attention drifts away. But when the task is as potentially life-and-death, Brainput does more harm than good.
Why Brain Sensors Are Dangerous Behind the Wheel originally appeared at Mobiledia on Wed May 16, 2012 11:44 am.
How Cyber-Hacks Are Hurting Small Businesses
May 16th
Cyber-attacks on small businesses are repelling customers and costing a fortune, leaving owners with tough choices on how to strengthen their online defenses against increasingly common security breaches.
According to a Neustar study, 70 percent of surveyed businesses experienced prolonged distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks that drove away countless customers and millions of dollars in potential revenue.
Over five hundred IT professionals admitted their greatest fear is the customer backlash and heavy cost of distributed denial of service attacks. DDoS attacks overload servers with requests, overwhelming websites in a heavy flow of traffic.
Retailers worried about hacking the most, as such attacks cost an average of $100,000 per hour.
"This is a significant amount of money," observed Ted Swearingen, director of the Neustar Security Operations Center. "People don't realize there are a lot of other costs associated with DDoS, such as brand damage."
Neustar's study suggests if large firms suffer monetarily from cyber-attacks, small businesses have an even harder time handling increased security breaches.
For instance, Sony stands out as a significantly damaged brand, following a string of Anonymous DDoS hacks from April until October 2011. The attacks cost millions in cleanup and forced the company to compensate disgruntled users for failing to protect their data.
The Japanese company was big enough to stay afloat following this disaster, but most small entrepreneurs would have sunk in its wake. And in this case Anonymous hackers didn't even aim to steal from Sony's financial centers, preferring instead to humiliate the electronics maker by publicizing user information.
"While Anonymous has been getting a lot of headlines, our data tells us that most of these attacks are happening for the old-school reasons of why you'd want to knock out a site: financial gain and competitive advantage," said Sweringen.
Small businesses are just as vulnerable as big corporations against financial DDoS attacks, since the payout is lower but the threat of retaliation much slimmer. And financially motivated attacks are increasingly common, as Swearingen states.
"You have a one in three chance of a DDoS attack. It is something that IT teams and companies need to prepare for," he warns.
But under five percent of participants in Neustar's study have any protection against DDoS attacks, using only firewalls and rudimentary software to discourage hackers.
Further, many businesses use generic passwords like "password1" and "1234" to shield sensitive data rather that switching to complicated, unhackable codes.
Cyber-insurance, sold by firms like Travelers Companies and Chubb, also offer a refuge to both small and large businesses seeking protection against cyber-criminals. Still, this method is only partially helpful as it may not cover certain claims like civil lawsuits.
New government regulations may also soon enable small businesses to collaborate with the National Security Administration in warding off cyber-criminals. But civil rights advocates say these bills violate the First Amendment and may eliminate more liberties than they grant.
With the number of cyber-hacks is the rise, small companies will need to set aside finances for comprehensive preparations to fortify their electronic defenses to avoid Sony's fate. However, they will also need to weigh whether the investment will be money well-spent, or if any company can really be protected against the ever-increasing -- and more aggressive -- amount of cyber-attacks.
How Cyber-Hacks Are Hurting Small Businesses originally appeared at Mobiledia on Wed May 16, 2012 9:12 am.
The Chat Room: Bikinis Made Out of IPods
May 15th
A bikini made of old electronics stirred up controversy about women in tech, while one man used body modification to wear his iPod in an unusual way.
Freddie Mercury sang to adoring crowds, despite being dead, while Alan Rickman's mundane daily deeds became a source of amusement.
Meanwhile, generous Twitter users donated their unused characters to a good cause.
Bathing Suit Made From Old Electronics Sparks Debate
Jennifer Shannon and Andi Cheung designed a provocative bikini made of outdated bits of electronics and created a magazine mock-up to spark a debate on how women occupy the tech sector.
The photos of a model wearing the deeply impractical swim wear, accompanied by statements like "Women have their own strengths, like fashion" are pushing buttons online.
The artists behind the photoshoot wanted to point out the marginalized position women still occupy in the tech sector, but some bloggers are taking their satirical product literally.
Hologram Freddie Mercury Rocks a Crowd
A holographic image of flamboyant, beloved Queen front-man Freddie Mercury appeared at the Dominion Theater in London.
The deceased Queen superstar performed to honor the 10th anniversary of the "We Will Rock You" musical, alongside members of its cast.
Guitarist Brian May prefers to call the image an "optical illusion," and expressed regret that the Tupac hologram at Coachella happened first, as the band has tried to bring Mercury's visage to the stage using technology for some time.
Slow-Mo Alan Rickman Gets Big Laughs
Set to a dramatic score, some Alan Rickman super-fan created a slow-motion video of the venerable British actor preparing tea for himself in a sparsely decorated room.
Rickman is largely silent throughout the nearly-seven-minute film, although after four minutes pass, he begins to look directly in the camera and slowly raises his hand to hail the cameraman.
Hopefully someone can mash up tea-sipping Rickman and the slowed-down, drunk-sounding Jeff Goldblum clips for more comic mayhem.
Literally Stuck to His IPod
Body piercer Dave Hurban invented what he calls a "strapless watch" by implanting four metal studs into his wrist and affixing an iPod to his skin with magnets. Hurban works at a tattoo parlor, so he was well-equipped to try out the unusual procedure.
The heavily pierced and tattooed innovator showcased his novel arm accessory on YouTube, explaining how other could get a similar look.
Over 900,000 viewers watched the clip in about two weeks, illustrating other people are interested in getting the unique body modification.
Donate a Tweet
A new program called Hashtags4Heros takes unused Twitter characters and adds messages about the Wounded Warrior Project, which helps wounded veterans. The program wants to raise awareness about WWP through these charity tweets.
Hashtags4Heros is a Twitter application created by defense contractor Raytheon, a supporter of WWP's message. Users who want to give a one-time donation, but don't want to have their leftover Twitter characters taken all month, can tweet directly from WWP's website.
The app originally aimed to donate 30,000 Twitter characters by the end of Military Appreciation Month, but due to its overwhelming success, it bumped the goal up to 300,000 by Memorial Day.
The Chat Room: Bikinis Made Out of IPods originally appeared at Mobiledia on Tue May 15, 2012 3:02 pm.
Is Anyone Using Google+?
May 15th
New data suggests Google+ is not capturing users the way the Google suggests, but the research may not be as damning as analysts think.
Research company RJ Metrics found that of the 40,000 Google+ accounts it monitored, 30 percent of users who make a public post on Google+ never post again. Metrics also discovered that the average number of public posts is declining steadily each month, and the average post gets less than one reply.
Finally, Metrics said that Google+ users spent just a little more than 3 minutes a month visiting the site, while the average Facebook user spent more than seven hours on its social network over the course of one month.
Metric's data may pour cold water on the glowing statistics Google likes to put out about its new service, which they say boasts 170 million users, but the research does not necessarily mean all is doom and gloom for the young social network. All the activity Metrics observed and recorded was of the public variety; the company was not allowed to watch private interactions between Google+ users.
For example, if a member made a post that was only viewable to a specific circle of friends it went unnoticed by Metric's research. All replies and interactions on those posts were also subsequently ignored.
The exclusion of private posts and interactions in Metric's Google+ research skews the company's findings against the social network. Users' ability to post things so that only specific groups will see the content is one of the biggest draws of the service. Google said that more interaction and sharing occurs privately than publicly on Google+, making public posts just a small part of the social network's overall package.
Still, while Metric's research does not represent all the user's activity on Google+, it's safe to say the service still lags far behind Facebook. The software giant continues to attempt to put a public spin on its social network, and not admit it has fallen short up to this point. It has made recent moves to boost photo sharing and improve its mobile app, but measures have not yet been able to close the distance between the two social network rivals.
Google's social network may not be as vacant as Metric's research makes it seem, but the company is likely telling less than the truth when it says it's happy with its performance. In this case, reading between the lines both parties are putting out gets closer at the reality of the fledgling social network's popularity.
Is Anyone Using Google+? originally appeared at Mobiledia on Tue May 15, 2012 1:49 pm.
