Sony announced they plan to get the PlayStation network up and running by the end of May.
Of course, Sony officials say everything depends on their investigation into who hacked their systems in April. Officials will not talk about the details of their investigation.
Sony is dealing with yet another breach of data. This time a U.S. subsidiary of Sony has been hacked. Data for 2,500 U.S. customers have been accessed.
The information is related to a contest customers applied for, back in 2001.
Mexico City announced they are working on a way to put their earthquake warning system on social media.
The city’s residents have been complaining that the current quake warning system is not reliable. If Japan can have quake warning systems, and even Mexico City, why doesn’t the United States?
Ecuadorian scientists want to create a genetically modified Banana. They say it’s the only way to keep Bananas in their country from going extinct.
“…something that we can be sure of is that the Sigatoka will not lose its battle. As soon as we can get a new fungicide, the disease becomes more resistance. Replacing the Cavendish banana (dominant variety today) for another type, by genetic engineering, is the only answer.”-Emile Frison, International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain
Apparently the use of fungicides has resulted in a super fungus that is resistant to chemicals. Ecuadorian officials are warning against using too much fungicide.
Another motivator for a GMO Banana, is competition. Farmers say they just can’t make enough money on each box of Bananas, mainly because of the cost of fighting the fungus Black Sigatoka.
Japanese scientists are working on a cyber ‘french’ kissing machine. The machine works by sensing the actions of your tongue, then transmitting that to another machine across the internet.
It’s hoped that the machine will help Japanese people to interact more intimately over the internet (maybe they should get out more?). Scientists hope to recreate “…the sense of taste, the manner of breathing, and the moistness of the tongue.” At first it sounds pathetic, but wait, there is a profit motive; marketing ideas include getting a kiss from your favorite celebrity.
Why a french kissing machine? Scientist say it’s still too hard to mimic the movements of lips.
“We don’t respond to pressure, we respond to compulsory legal process. There has never been a time we have been pressured to turn over data — we fight every time we believe the legal process is insufficient. The legal standards for compelling a company to turn over data are determined by the laws of the country, and we respect that standard.”-Facebook spokesman
That’s the response from Facebook, who says they do not ‘automatically’ process info for governments. Julian Assange, of WikiLeaks, says he has evidence that social media sites have had to deal with so many requests by governments, for user’s account info, that they simply hand it over automatically.
However, Facebook does not deny that they hand the government info on users, in fact Facebook has a specific department for that, called “CIPP-certified professionals”. The CIPP is supervised by two former federal cyber crime prosecutors.
Facebook also admitted that they would like to deal with less of these cases, and, are looking for a legal way not to comply with government demands for info.
“Do not use Facebook and Twitter”-Egyptian revolution manual
WikiLeaks founder has told Russian media that he’s discovered that popular social networking tools are really tools for many governments to collect data on the users.
Julian Assange is talking about Facebook, Twitter, even Yahoo and Google. He says an Egyptian revolution manual warns people not to use the social networking sites, because in past demonstrations, the demonstrators that used Facebook, or Twitter, were immediately targeted and arrested by government forces. Assange says social networking sites provide governments with a cheap, almost free way to gather information.
“So Facebook in particular, is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been ever invented.”- Julian Assange, Russia Today interview
Assange points out that governments are not directly involved, but are taking advantage of the fact that people love to post even the most detrimental information about themselves, and others, on the internet.
He also says that the social media sites have “…built in interfaces…” with intelligence agencies. This came as a result of legal pressure from the U.S. government. Rather than deal with individual court orders for individual databases, media sites decided it would be easier to give government agencies blanket access.
“Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook they’re doing free work for United States intelligence agencies in building these databases for them.”-Julian Assange, Russia Today interview
Assange’s interview is on RT web site. It is in two parts, totaling 41 minutes. His comments about social media sites are at the end of the second part.
The Iranian oil producer, Iranian Offshore Oil Company, says their engineers have designed the world’s first drilling rig, that can operate both on shore, and off shore.
Once the rig becomes operational some 8,000-10,000 barrels of oil per day could be pumped. It’ll operate in Iran’s Salman oilfields.
Sony is now being sued in the United States, by customers who’re upset that it took Sony more than a week to notify users of the biggest breach of security in Sony’s history.
The FBI’s Cyber Crimes Unit is now investigating. More than 77 million user accounts might have compromised, including credit card data.
Sony is warning PlayStation users to monitor their credit card accounts, after a hacker got into 77 million accounts. Sony says it ”cannot rule out the possibility” that credit card data was hacked.
The incident also includes the music and video service Qriocity. This could be the worst case of information leaks in Sony’s history. Sony wants all users of PlayStation and Qriocity to change their passwords and user IDs.