Pirates Sentenced to 1-6 Years

by Taylor Flatt on December 31st, 2008 at 6:10 pm EDT - 272 views

Earlier this week, the Chinese counterfeiting gang that stole 2 billion dollars worth of Microsoft phony software was sentenced to 1 1/2 years to 6 1/2 years which is quite tough considering earlier Chinese court cases. The software was found in 36 different countries and multiple languages which isnt suprising considering the speed that things fly on the web.

Although, Microsoft and the RIAA along with governments, are cracking down on these “pirates” they will never see the end of the road. Not only are there millions of pirates, but most do it because of one simple fact. That fact is the price of software and games today. You used to be able to go out and buy a $39 game, but now it is $59-69 and same goes to software which is hiking up the ladder. This is game will continue to go on for years to come and will only end in hard feelings and trillions of dollars spent trying to quell this uprising. Something more drastic needs to be done if they think they will make any head way into stopping this.

Source: AP

US not equipped for Cyber Attack

by Taylor Flatt on December 21st, 2008 at 5:59 pm EDT - 169 views

Last week, several agencies and intergovernmental agencies took part in a two day cyber war where our nation’s cyber defense was tested.  Not only did they find it was not equipped they Mark Gerencser, vp of Booz Allen Hamilton said “There isn’t a response or a game plan; there isn’t really anybody in charge.”

This development is quite considering the consequences of a major security breach within our government.  Could there be a attack that renders banks and large amounts of government funds useless and most likely go missing?  The answer to that question is yes which is why agents are pushing to have Barrack Obama address this immediately when he steps into office.

After having several attacks in ‘07 like

• The unclassified e-mail of the Office of the Secretary of Defense was hacked
• The Department of State had lost terabytes of information
• Homeland Security suffered break-ins in several of its divisions
• NASA had to impose e-mail restriction before shuttle launches and had allegedly seen designs for new launches compromised
• The Department of Commerce was forced to take the Bureau of Industry and Securityoffline for several months
• The White House recently dealt with unidentifiable intrusions in its networks

This is not only scary it is eye opening.  To see the US government, arguably the most powerful on the planet, succumb to a range of cyber attacks that can ruin millions of lives, is crazy.  Let us hope they will find a solution to this problem and fast.

Source: NYTimes