If you don’t know anything about Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) then you should watch at least this video. It doesn’t matter why you are using internet or you think that it doesn’t affect you, it does. It appears that SOPA and PIPA were just distractions to the real enemy of the internet, ACTA. They have created ACTA in the name of intellectual property rights and to create international standards to protect them. ACTA gives access to everything you do or say over the internet, everything. They will have access in everything that you send and receive over the internet even you emails and chats. And they do this to check if anything you send or receive has to do with intellectual property rights.
Greek Justice Ministry’s website was hacked by Anonymous
The website of the Greek Justice Ministry was hacked by Anonymous. The reason is that Greece joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is basically sacrifices democracy for Greek people. The website was hacked by hacktivists from Greece and Cyprus that belong to Anonymous group. This was only the beginning and if Greece implement the ACTA anti-piracy treaty, hackers will attack again. ACTA is hurting the people and if your government agrees with that it makes people to react. Some people think that defacing a website doesn’t change anything but in my opinion they are mistaken. The attack is now known to most people in Greece and even the ones that didn’t know about IMF and ACTA, by learning about the attack they are informed. Also, defacing a website does hurt (even little) the owner of the website. It is not only about the defacement but the message that comes with it especially nowadays that internet is part of our lives.
Anonymous have recorded FBI conference call
Anonymous released a 16-minute FBI conference call which they discuss ongoing investigations with UK law enforcement officers according to hacking activities. A call that was about tracking and prosecuting hackers who belong in loose-knit hacking group. For such a serious things I thought it would be more official but they are joking and laughing. I didn’t know that arresting hackers was so funny for law enforcement officers. According to Anonymous the call is made on 17 January. It it very embarrassing for the FBI to have hackers listening to their call in which they are discussing about them. Everyone though that FBI would have a better security.
GrayHatz defaced large game sites
GrayHatz, a Turkish hacking group which was created on 2006, defaced nine of the largest game sites. Those websites are Call of Duty, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Prototype 2, Infinity Ward (Developer of Call of Duty), The Quantum Of Solace Game, Guitar Hero and DJ Hero 2. Even though I understand the attacks from hackers to some government websites and security companies, hacking game websites is in my opinion pointless. There is a reason behind an attack but that doesn’t mean that every reason is a right one.
Google to pay 500.000 euros for being anti-competitive
A French commercial court ordered Google France to pay 500.000 euros for being anti-competitive by offering Google maps for free. A French company is also offering the same service (maps) but obviously for a fee. For example, if a Verizon customer gets the Xperia PLAY can choose between two services, Google maps for free or Verizon’s VZ Navigator for $10 per month. Now I can see why the company is complaining about free maps. Bottin Cartographes, the French mapping company which filed the complaint, argues that Google is providing Google maps for free to eliminate its competitors. The half million euros was for the damages and interest and Google also fined with 15.000 euros for its practice. Google France will appeal the decision.
Command and Conquer in HTML 5
I was a big fan of Command and Conquer for a long time. I was playing Red Alert for hours in both single player and multiplayer. I was just informed that someone is recreating the game in HTML 5 and JavaScript and I couldn’t resist on trying it. It is a single map with one simple mission but it is a very good start. There are also few very obvious bugs but they are working to improve it. It is very convenient to have a game in HTML 5 since you are not required to install the game on your computer and you can play (and continue) from any computer. The only requirement is that you must have a compatible web browser and internet connection. I played the game with Firefox 9 with no problems and I highly recommend it.
Rust: A new programming language by Mozilla
Mozilla, the developers of Firefox, the best web browser, have created a new programming language called Rust. If you are familiar with the C-family then you will have no problem learning Rust. Although, there are many differences in both syntactic and semantic details. Rust was designed with the “programming in the large” in mind. The source files of the Rust programming language have a .rs extension. You can find a tutorial and more information about the Rust programming language in its website.
Mushrooms that eat plastic
We have been told that plastic (Polyurethane) can not be broke down and recycled naturally. This was true with the data we had so far until Yale’s students discovered a fungus that eats plastic. That mushroom is discovered in the Amazon, the place in earth with the most species. Pestalotiopsis microspora, the discovered fungi, is the first that can survive eating only plastic. The most amazing thing is that it can do it in an anaerobic environment, an environment without oxygen. Great news for science, this is a step forward to ensure that our garden chairs (and any other plastic garbage) will not be on earth for centuries. If scientists find a way to do this in larger scale, it means we will have a cleaner planet.
Universal Music Portugal database hacked
Hackers have targeted media companies and this is another win for them. Hackers hacked into Universal Media Portugal website and gained access to their database. Hackers published 100 tables and 160 records of the beta_users table to a pastebin file. It includes emails/ids and passwords. The website was taken down right after the hack for maintenance. Of course if you ask the media company, they still believe that those hacks are a minor thing when you compare it with MegaUpload and they are right.
Another hack to give message to 0xOmar
Apparently the war between the hackers is not over and both sites continue their actions. The website of Saudi Arabia’s Presidency of Meteorology & Environment Protection was defaced by you-r!-k@n, an Israeli hacker. Yourikan defaced the website to give a message to 0xOmar and this was not the first time, Israeli hackers stroke back few days ago. In my opinion both sides should stop the retaliations and find a common enemy to attack instead of each other.