Sony admits second security breach with data theft from 25m more users

After top executives bowed in a traditional Japanese apology at a weekend press conference in Tokyo, Sony has been plunged into further disarray, admitting that a second hack, older than the one revealed last week has been discovered, involving the theft of almost 25 million sets of personal details.

This second breach, of its Sony Online Entertainment PC games network, became apparent after a review of the PlayStation Network intrusion. Sony said it had occurred a day earlier than the PlayStation break-in between 17 and 19 April.

The names, addresses, emails, birth dates, phone numbers and other information for 24.6m PC games customers were stolen from its servers. It also admitted that a 2007 database – now outdated – of customers outside the US may have been stolen, this one including the direct debit information of 10,700 customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.

The information includes credit card numbers, debit card numbers and expiration dates, but not the crucial three-digit security code on the back of credit cards.

The second attack heaps further misery on the beleaguered company, in a highly competitive industry, where customer loyalty and confidence is crucial. If customers abandon the console in favour of its rivals, game developers will follow.

But it has won praise for its response to the second attack, which has been swifter and better managed. "It has acted extremely quickly and seems to be following the four golden rules in crisis PR – to be open, honest, transparent and fast," said Richard Spreckley, an adviser on crisis management.

Sony, which has shut the online entertainment service in response, said its Playstation Network services, which it suspended last Tuesday, would be available again "this week". Users will be offered 30 days' free subscription, plus one day's free use for every day the service is down, by way of compensation.

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6:37 PM | 0 comments

FBI releases 'memo that proves aliens did land in New Mexico in 1947'

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has published in its website a bizarre memo that proves aliens did land in New Mexico in 1947.

The memo titled 'Flying Saucers', written by FBI agent Guy Hottel, is published in the agency's new online resource 'The Vault'.

Hottel, who was in charge of the Washington field office in 1950, reveals that an Air Force investigator had stated that 'three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico', reports the Daily Mail.

The investigator gave the information to a special agent, he said.

The FBI has censored both the agent and the investigator's identity.

"They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter," said Hottel.

"Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall," he added.

The bodies were 'dressed in a metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots.'

Hottel said that the informant, whose identity was censored in the memo, claimed the saucers had been found in New Mexico 'due to the fact that the government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with the controlling mechanism of the saucers'. He then stated that the special agent did not attempt to investigate further.

The release of the secret memo is likely to fuel conspiracy theorists' claims of a government cover-up.

The town of Roswell in New Mexico became infamous after reports that a flying saucer had crashed in the desert near a military base there on or around July 2, 1947.

Military authorities issued a press release, which began: 'The many rumours regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc.'

The headlines screamed: 'Flying Disc captured by Air Force.' Yet, just 24 hours later, the military changed their story and claimed the object they'd first thought was a 'flying disc' was a weather baloon that had crashed on a nearby ranch. Amazingly, the media and the public accepted the explanation without question.

Roswell disappeared from the news until the late Seventies, when some of the military involved began to speak out.

Another memo published in The Vault from 1947 claimed that an object 'purporting to be a flying disc' had been recovered near Roswell. The disc was 'hexagonal in shape' and 'suspended from a balloon by a cable', according to the memo, marked as 'Urgent', to the FBI director. The memo noted that the disc resembled a weather balloon - but claimed that a telephone conversation between the Air Force and the field office 'had not [word censored] borne out this belief'. The disc and balloon were being transported to Wright Field for further inspection, the memo noted. It added that the information was being flagged up because of 'national interest' in the episode, and noting that both NBC and the AP were set to break the story that day. (ANI)

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10:03 AM | 0 comments

Larry Page’s not so impressive CEO debut

Google’s new CEO and his team would have definitely wanted to have a better debut than what was happened on the Quarterly earnings call. Like a student coming late to class and giving excuses Page’s excuses and statement looked silly and Childish, combine it with increasing expenditure, market got spooked.

After a brief period in 1998-2000 , Google was run by its founder Larry Page , but with insistence of well wishers and pressure from Investors the CEO role was given to a older Gentleman in Eric Schmidt. Who with support from Page and Brin helped grow the company from a small search engine to its current position.

Instead of taking the lead and taking questions, Page was introduced as a special guest, who doesn’t have much time for the call, who in turn gave a written statement and more than a couple of times reiterated that everything was going as per plan in Google. With the way he approached the call made one wonder if Page took the whole thing very light, may be similar to how the his day at Office prior to CEO days.

Many have described how fun it is to work in Googleplex and how Page runs his business in a casual way, but Wall Street doesn’t run like that. Thats where it was expected someone would step in and correct Page, it appears either no one did or Page didn’t listen. Even when Schmidt was being replaced there were questions about his CEO skills other than 2 years at Google’s helm for a 100 employees company.

If Larry Page has his way, Google will take more risk, invest more in high tech projects and take more drastic steps. All these might sound exciting, but with a resurgent Microsoft and Facebook to contend, investors may not feel the same.

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5:41 AM | 0 comments