Sony Pictures Entertainment: A De Facto Cyber Terrorist Group?

The famed multinational entertainment company may have gained the world’s sympathy after the cyber attack by North Korea and other rogue hackers that almost brought it to its knees near the end of 2014, but is Sony nothing more than a de facto cyber terrorist group?

By: Ringo Bones 

Ever wondered why the famed multinational entertainment company Sony Pictures Entertainment has become the proverbial “whipping boy” of rogue hackers (Guardians Of Peace) and state sponsored cyber-terror groups (North Korea’s Bureau 121 and Unit 61318 of the Beijing 50-Cent Cyber Army) years before the brazen cyber attack aimed at the Kim Jong Un assassination spoof movie titled The Interview on its scheduled Christmas 2014 release? Well, US President Barack Obama might have used Sony Pictures Entertainment as a platform of the entire planet’s last bastion of free speech in a world increasingly inching towards “illiberal democracy” and thus making Sony, Seth Rogen, James Franco and some the world’s sympathy when it comes to one’s right of free expression. 

Unfortunately, virtually all of the world’s population remains clueless of a “grave crime” committed by Sony Pictures Entertainment in the form of its “XCP Rootkit copy protection software”. 

There might be some truth to the fact that Sony Pictures Entertainment might have “inadvertently” made themselves into one of the world’s first cyber terror groups by the multinational company’s first attempts to secure its own intellectual property and other copyrighted works from online piracy at the height of the NAPSTER debacle back in 1999. Copy protection and Digital Rights Management (DRM) measures that date back to a Sony Pictures Entertainment meeting back in August, 2000 when statements made by Sony Pictures Entertainment’s US Senior Vice President Steve Heckler foreshadowed the events that eventually led to the creation of the Sony BMG XCP Rootkit copy protection software when Heckler told attendees at the Americas Conference on Information Systems that: “The industry (Sony Pictures Entertainment) will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams…”         

The debacle that resulted in the “over zealous” copy protection measures of the Sony BMG XCP Rootkit copy protection software that eventually became the Sony Digital Rights Management copy protection rootkit scandal of 2005 to 2007 might have “inconvenienced” everyone wanting to clone an expensive rare CD for use in their car stereo or portable players in line with existing Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Fair Use laws might be overshadowed by a greater debacle of former US President George W. Bush’s handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina back in Autumn of 2005. It unfortunately swept the Sony BMG XCP Rootkit debacle and the dangers it poses under the rug from the radar of the general public. 

According to his personal blog entry in October 31, 2005 of Microsoft’s information technology researcher-in-residence Mark Russinovich who – amongst countless others – who were the first to have uncovered the main dangers posed by the Sony BMG XCP Rootkit copy protection software are as follows: 1) It creates security holes that can be exploited by malicious software such as worms or viruses. 2) It constantly runs in the background and excessively consumes system resources, slowing down the user’s computer, regardless of whether there is a Sony BMG XCP Rootkit protected CD playing. 3) It employs unsafe procedures to star and stop which could lead to system crashes. 4) It has no uninstaller and is installed in such a way that inexpert attempts to uninstall it can lead to the operating system to fail to recognize existing drives. Soon after Russinovich’s first blog post, there were several Trojans and worms exploiting XCP’s security holes. Some people even used the vulnerabilities to cheat in online games – i.e. Sony’s Playstation consoles’ online games capabilities. 

At the height of the Sony Digital Rights Management copy protection XCP Rootkit scandal, there were 22 million Sony BMG CDs equipped with the “copy protection software” that allowed them to install one of the two pieces of software which provided a form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) by modifying the operating system to interfere with CD copying via your personal computer. Both programs couldn’t easily be uninstalled and they created vulnerabilities that were exploited by other malware. Sony claims this was unintentional. 

Following public outcry, government investigations and class action lawsuits in 2005 and 2006, Sony BMG partially addressed the scandal with consumer settlements, a recall of 10 percent of the affected CDs and suspension of CD copy protection efforts in early 2007. Sadly, the Sony BMG XCP Rootkit copy protection software still wreak havoc in donated computers often used in public school computer labs in developing countries set up by set up by leading charity groups like the Clinton Global Initiative / Clinton Foundation since free online antivirus software programs are powerless against the Sony BMG XCP copy protection software. Some IT experts say that only premium antivirus software packages costing 50 US dollars and above are the minimum required to keep the Sony BMG XCP Rootkit copy protection software at bay in infected desktop PCs. 

Can Your Wet Smartphone And Laptop Computer be Saved?

Despite the busted myth that rice actually do squat in saving your wet Smartphone, laptop or tablet type computer – is there actually an effective way to “resurrect” your dunked personal electronic devices? 

By: Ringo Bones 

 

Actually there is a commercial service providing firm that could effectively dry and “resurrect” dunked in the toilet water / diet coke / even seawater tablet computer, Smartphone and even laptops that you’ve accidentally dunked into these various bodies of water and if they can’t “resurrect” it, you don’t have to pay service charges. TekDry has already been in this personal electronic saving business for almost two years. Based in Loveland, Colorado and founded by three former University of Denver graduates – Adam Coockson and Craig Beinecke started TekDry after thousands of people were mislead by claims of the internet that a 5-pound bag of rice and a hairdryer can actually save your Smartphone, laptop, or tablet type computer that has been dunked in toilet water, diet coke or a large body of water. 

TekDry uses a proprietary device that works via the principle of negative pressure invented by Adam Cookson and Craig Beinecke to vacuum dry dunked Smartphones, laptops, tablet type computers and other personal electronic devices. Most damage to these devices occur when the device is still on with its battery still attached as it is dunked into water or softdrink poured onto it, instantly producing galvanic corrosion on the circuit traces. Previous methods with dubious claims – like that 5-pounds of rice takes your wet Smartphone much slower to dry than just leaving it unpowered on the counter while the hairdryer method actually moves moisture into the smaller circuit traces – causing more damage. 

TekDry recommends immediately powering down as your device gets dunked or wetted, remove the batteries and Simcards and if you are within a comfortable drive in their offices, bring your dunked device to them for the “TekDry” vacuum drying treatment. TekDry charges $70 to dry and resurrect a Smartphone, $150 for a tablet type computer and $250 for a laptop. If it doesn’t turn on again, you don’t have to pat anything. TekDry’s greatest “miracle” is managing to “resurrect” a Smartphone that spent 36 hours at the bottom of the lake before being brought to them for treatment by the owner.   

Can You Run A Computer Via Your Own Thoughts?

To some, it might be a newfangled concept but did you know that as far back as 1974, computer engineers had already been toying with the idea of using ones thoughts to run a computer?

By: Ringo Bones 

Our recent exposure of the concept is probably a documentary showing a US Air Force experiment on a pilot using his thoughts to fly a plane – actually it was an F-22 Raptor flight simulator – with a surprising degree of success. But did you know that as far back as 1974, computer engineers had already been toying with the idea of using one’s thoughts to run a computer? Just imagine the possibilities if you can buy an “affordable” interface that will allow one to run your personal computer or smart-phone by just using your thoughts. Would an affordable and portable thought run computer with a “non-obtrusive neural interface” be the next information technology revolution? 

Back in 1974, a computer was hooked to the human brain by Lawrence Pinneo of Stanford Research Institute, who programmed it to take orders from the subject’s thoughts. Pinneo started with 25 subjects, each fitted with an electrode-studded helmet. The electrodes were connected to an electroencephalograph – a machine that measures brain waves. 

The subjects were asked to think but not to articulate seven different commands: up, down, left, right, slow, fast and stop. The brain-wave patterns from these commands were then fed into a computer that had been programmed to recognize the patterns. If the computer detected the brain-wave pattern for “down” for example it would move a spot of light or cursor towards the bottom of the television screen. If it discerned the pattern for “slow” it would slow the motion of the dot. Each subject, thinking at random of any of the seven commands, was capable of moving the computer-directed dot of light around the TV screen – literally at will – making it respond correctly about 60 percent of the time. 

Pinneo is convinced that the accuracy of the computer’s recognition of brain waves can be greatly improved. He foresees the time when the pilot of a high-speed aircraft, too occupied to scan the complex bank of instruments for a correct reading will merely have to think “rate of climb” or “compass heading” and the plane’s computer will immediately flash on a large display board in front of the pilot the correct number of feet per minute or degrees away from north. 

Celebrity-Endorsed Apps: The Future of App Marketing?

Even though the “App Industry” had been on a plateau – some say even on a slow decline – after a peak back in 2012, will celebrity endorsement reinvigorate the now lagging smart-phone app industry? 

By: Ringo Bones 

From actors with a very large “cult following” like Richard Dean Anderson endorsing the MacGyver Deadly Descent app to political humor based apps, like the “Ronald Reagan Pornography Identification App” that poked fun on the US Republican Party’s hypocritical view on the U.S. pornographic industry, it seems that celebrity endorsed apps seems like a logical way to revitalize lagging demand of the smart-phone app industry that seems to have seen better days since its peak back in 2012. But will such relatively zany marketing gimmicks truly work? By the way, have you already checked out apps that make the latest smart=phones and tablet computers more relatable and soulful to folks born before 1979? 

As the world’s leading app developers now seek star quality for their “virtual wares”, Oscar-winning actor and collector of vintage typewriters Tom Hanks has recently endorsed an app that pays homage to manual typewriters. More likely to appeal to folks who are old enough to remember World War II first hand, the Tom Hanks app – or more unofficially and aptly referred to as Hanx Writer App – somehow managed to generate a large cult following to younger users. And it even managed to reach the top of the iTunes Chart back in August 19, 2014.  

Way before our present age of Android compatible smart-phones and related apps, celebrities used to endorse more “tangible” items, like perfumes, shoes and other related fashionista doodads, but the runaway boom of the app economy back in 2012 had many celebrities – famous or otherwise – start to contemplate other alternate endorsement options. Will apps be the latest celebrity endorsement du jour? 

Should There Be A Ronald Reagan Pornography App?

Given that 1980s throwback themes had recently become bestsellers in the burgeoning app industry, would a “Ronald Reagan Pornography App” be the next must have retro app? 

By: Ringo Bones 

With the release of the MacGyver Deadly Descent App back in the second half of May 2014 that had taken the app world by storm – for a 1980s themed retro app that is and based on a hit 1980s TV series nonetheless – many could be asking right now if “there was a pornography detection app based on that notorious then US President Ronald Reagan and then US Attorney General Edwin Meese III’s pornography commission report?” Imagine – for possible comic effect – the app’s pornography detection criterion be based on that Ronald Reagan’s “big blue 1,960-page book on pornography that was published back in July 1986 that almost nobody reads anymore and was labeled a big waste of American taxpayers’ money back then”. Would such a 1980s themed retro app prove to be a “best-seller”? 

Given that July has become the more or less ad hoc “Ronald Reagan Pornography Month” – the release of a “Ronald Reagan Pornography” themed app this July 2014 seems apt – if you’ll excuse the pun – to try out what the hubbub is about on that notorious of American taxpayers’ money Ronald Reagan Pornography Commission Final Report was back in July 1986. Would it also necessitate the addition of a “hypocrisy chip” or “hypocrisy module” on your Android capable smartphone given how the US Republican Party tackles such problems since the days when Ronnie was still president? Or would it be like – as legend has it – act like former US First Lady Nancy Reagan when she first saw an exhibition of the paintings of Old Masters in a museum and exclaimed “pornography”? Maybe somebody is already making and/or designing a US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart Pornography App right now. 

Given the capabilities of a typical contemporary smartphone, an artificial intelligence like program that could make the Ronald Reagan Pornography app act like a typical dyed-in-the-wool US Republican Party stalwart could not only provide countless hours of hilarity for history buffs or those old enough to have been singed by “Reaganomics” this sort of “pornography app” could prove to be a best-seller in today’s overcrowded app marker. Or should it carry the proverbial “caveat emptor” warning?