Sony Hacked Again, Group Claims (PC Magazine)

Sony has been hacked again, according to a group that recently infiltrated the servers at PBS.

A group that identifies itself as Lulzsec claims to have hacked into SonyPictures.com and compromised the personal information of more than 1 million users.

"Among other things, we also compromised all admin details of Sony Pictures (including passwords) along with 75,000 'music codes' and 3.5 million 'music coupons,'" Lulzsec wrote in a note posted to Pastebin.com.

Lulzsec is the same group that infiltrated PBS servers to post fake news and password dumps.

The news comes the same day that Sony brought the Sony PlayStation store back online and appeared on Capitol Hill to say there was no "clear evidence" that hackers accessed credit card information on its PlayStation Network. The company, however, said it and other tech companies are vulnerable to future attacks absent any action from Congress.

Sony has been conducting an "intensive investigation" into the hack that took down its PlayStation Network for almost a month and in looking "deeply" at the logs related to the hacked databases, "we have found no clear evidence that there was any access made to the credit card information, and we found plenty of evidence that that data was not accessed," Tim Schaaff, president of Sony Network Entertainment International, told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

Almost a week after the PSN went down, Sony confirmed that hackers had obtained personal information from the network, which possibly included credit cards. The company later said that credit card information was encrypted, but it could not rule out the possibility that it was obtained by the hackers.

Schaaff said Thursday that as its investigation continued, the information it recovered about credit card data "has changed." In speaking with credit card companies, there are "no signs of unusual activity related to this breach," Schaaff said.

Still, despite pointing fingers at clandestine cyber-group Anonymous, Sony still does not know who hacked into its system. "We're working with law enforcement to try and figure that out," Schaaff said.

Last month, Sony said one of its SOE servers included mention of Anonymous. Though a group spokesman has denied involvement, it has launched distributed denial of service attacks against Sony for suing PS3 hackers.

When asked if Sony regrets pursuing PS3 hackers given that those lawsuits possibly prompted the PSN hack, Schaaff said it points to a larger problem of how companies protect their content. But if Sony hadn't gone after those hackers, it "would've played out" at another company, he said. "We are all under attack."

Furthermore, without comprehensive privacy legislation from Congress coupled with industry-wide best practices, the tech industry is vulnerable to future attacks, Schaaff speculated. In written testimony, he said Sony supports federal data breach legislation that would require companies to inform customers about any breaches in a timely and consistent manner, regardless of the state in which they reside.

"Without further assistance, we're all going to have a world of hurt in this Internet economy and we would appreciate your assistance," Schaaff told the subcommittee.

Jeanette Fitzgerald, general counsel with Epsilon Data Management, which recently had a data breach of its own, said it also supports federal legislation that would replace the patchwork of state laws governing data protection with one, federal law.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack, chair of the subcommittee on commerce, manufacturing, and trade, said "Americans need additional safeguards to prevent identity theft, and I will soon introduce legislation designed to accomplish this goal."

Her bill will focus on three guiding principles: companies and entities that hold personal information must establish and maintain security policies to prevent the unauthorized acquisition of that data; information considered especially sensitive, such as credit card numbers, should have even more robust security safeguards; and consumers should be promptly informed when their personal information has been jeopardized.

In the Senate, John Kerry and John McCain have teamed up to introduce a bill that would provide Internet users with a commercial privacy bill of rights.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M Debuts in Gaming Laptops (PC Magazine)

The GTX acronym is reserved for Nvidia's finest GPUs that are designed for all-around gaming, but it's been a while since the company launched one for laptops. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M debuts today with some notable improvements, including support for a graphics-switching technology called Optimus and improved frame rates at 1080p resolutions.

This marks the first time Nvidia is introducing its Optimus technology into a mobile GTX card. Optimus enables the switch to Intel's processor graphics when the gaming laptop is used for everything else besides hardcore gaming and 3D-intensive tasks. The purpose of a graphic switch is so that the battery can last longer on a single charge (Intel's graphics doesn't demand as much from the battery as an Nvidia chip). During serious gameplay, the GTX 560M takes over.

Most gaming laptops come with huge screens that can scale to 1,920-by-1,080 resolution (or 1080p), but few gaming chips can handle 3D games at this resolution, while cranking up all the quality settings. The GTX 560M can handle games like Crysis 2, Duke Nukem Forever, and Age of Conan at this resolution, with all the details, such as textures and shadows, maxed out. At these settings, Nvidia claims that its GTX chip can easily achieve 30 to 40 frames per second in Crysis 2 and Duke Nukem.

Nvidia will continue to support Direct X 11 and SLI configurations in the GTX 560M, and Toshiba and Alienware will be the first OEMs that'll use it in their mobile gaming rigs.

For more from Cisco, follow him on Twitter @CiscoC.

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The Revenge of Steve Jobs (PC Magazine)

Not long after the IBM PC began to takeoff in 1982, Steve Jobs and team started working on the Mac in earnest. He was convinced that the PC—with its mainframe and minicomputer-like, text-driven interface—would never catch on with mainstream users, and he set his team on creating a new computer that had a graphical user interface. Although he did not disclose that a new computer was coming from Apple at that time, I remember him telling some of us about how the PC was too geeky and boxy to be considered anything but a business computer. Even then, he was fixated on ease of use and design.

To his dismay, the PC did take off, and even when the Mac came out and helped redefine the user interface by making it more consumer friendly, the PC went on to defy his viewpoint and become the defacto standard for personal computing. If you know Apple's history, Jobs's decision to not license the Mac OS doomed Apple to a distant second place behind Windows and IBM compatible PCs. Apple has been struggling to play catch up to this dominant platform since 1984.

But Steve Jobs has never given up on his vision of creating the "next" great computer. When he was kicked out of Apple in 1984, his main goal was to create the computer that could beat the original Mac and the PC. He attempted to do this with the launch of his NeXT Computer. While the NeXT Computer did not do that, the base NeXT OS code that he created during that time eventually became the core of the new Mac OS and is central to iOS today as well.

In fact, his desire to create the "next" big computer and thumb his nose at the PC market that rejected his early creations is now stronger than ever. Jobs is inflicting his own version of personal revenge by causing major nightmares for traditional PC vendors with the new products and services that he has brought to market since he returned to Apple in 1997. While his moves are all business, his intentions are clearly to make sure that this time he wins the battle for producing the next big thing in personal computers.

His first onslaught into creating the next major computing platform was with the Mac itself. He has now extended its OS in ways that make it the richest PC OS on the market today. His MacBook Air is the thinnest and lightest laptop and is redefining what a portable computer should look like. But the thing that is frightening his competitors is that after decades of lagging behind the PC vendors, the Mac today is kicking their butts. Not only is the Mac outpacing the broader PC market, but it is doing it in virtually every segment from enterprise to government to education. According to IDC, Mac shipments grew 27 percent in March—a period in which PC shipments declined 1.2 percent. IDC goes on to say that in Europe, Mac sales were up 10 percent year over year, while the PC market there was down 17.5 percent. In Asia, IDC says Mac sales were up 69.4 percent, while the PC market was up just 8.8 percent. Even more interesting is that in PC crazed Japan, Mac sales where up 21.1 percent and total PC sales declined 16.1 percent.

Helping that growth is Apple's impressive retail presence. Apple stores have defied pretty much every one's prediction that they would fail. In fact, May 19, 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of the first Apple Store. Through these stores, Apple has redefined what it takes to sell technology products and has raised the bar so much that it has made it almost impossible for the mainstream retailers to compete head-to-head with them, especially when it comes to personalized services.

One thing Jobs really understands is that even though Apple creates an easy to use UI for all of its products, technology by nature has many variables and is still complex, so consumers need hand-holding from time-to-time. According to Apple, 50 percent of the people who buy Macs in its stores are new to the Mac platform, which means that these folks are choosing to turn their backs on Windows-based PCs. This is a huge trend, and with the stores helping make computer buying fun and easy, it should not be a big surprise that Apple is gaining ground on its PC competitors.

But the crowning jewel in Jobs's personal revenge is the iPad. With this product, he finally brought out the "next" computer. Apple delivered what really is the next major personal computing platform. But this time, he realized that just creating a hardware device and a great OS is not enough. In his long-range planning way of thinking, he spent the last decade building out a rich service component that includes iTunes, the App Store, and the soon to be announced cloud service. These services combined with the new personal computing device give users a richer experience. To Jobs, perhaps the more important aspect of this is that the whole package is hard to replicate.

His success with the iPad has, like the original PC from IBM, shown the market what the next big computing platform will be. And like the first time around, Jobs and company is sticking with their decision of not licensing iOS. And of course, he won't give any OEM access to his services either. This time around, Windows is not Apple's chief competitor though. Google's Android is Apple's most competitive challenger in the mobile OS game. The big question is whether Android can eventually be the spoiler to Apple that Windows was back in the 1980s or 1990s.

The competition sure hopes so. I have talked with CEOs, CMOs, and many top execs with competing devices, and they basically see Android eventually replicating what Windows did for PCs and delivering the largest OS platform for tablets. I am not so sure this is true for the first few years of tablets. The iPad gets its great utility from the apps and connected ecosystem Apple provides. The Apple stores also enhances the iPad, because they have become the go-to location for anyone even slightly interested in a tablet. On the other hand, the competing tablets will be on racks in big box stores and specialty computer retailers, where they are all vying with each other and where they will receive little sales support to help consumers with buying decisions. But, once they become commodity devices, like PCs are today, the balance could be tipped towards Android and other OSs as well. But at the moment, with Macs on a major upswing and the iPad leading the current tablet assault, Steve Jobs's revenge engine is in high gear.

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When it Comes to Virtual Goods, Men Outspend Women 9 to 1 (PC Magazine)

Women love to shop: it's a common stereotype but one study shows that it doesn't always prove true. As far as the purchase of virtual goods in mobile games goes, men outspend women nine to one, social gaming company MocoSpace has found.

Boston-based MocoSpace culled data from 1,500 anonymous gamers on its mobile platform to determine the different habits men and woman have when it comes to gaming. The study revealed that 53 percent of MocoSpace gamers are male and 47 percent are female. Men spend a bit more time playing games every day, with an average of 21 minutes versus an average of 19 minutes for women.

While men and women seem to spend similar amounts of time playing games, men spend much more on virtual goods. Sixty-nine percent of male gamers buy virtual goods while only 31 percent of women do the same. But men are responsibly for the overwhelming majority of virtual goods that are purchased, buying 90 percent of them.

MocoSpace games include such titles as Street Wars, Stage Hero, and Happy Farms. Founded in 2005, there are 17 million players on the MocoSpace platform.

According to AppData, MocoSpace averages 15,348 daily average users on Facebook.

Another social gaming platform, Zynga, is rumored to be filing for an initial public offering as early as next week. Zynga is behind such popular games as FarmVille and CityVille and has around 250 million users playing its games each month. While Zynga reportedly brought in $400 million in revenue last year, critics have said that the rumored IPO is more evidence of the hotly-debated tech bubble.

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Facebook is Building a Desktop Software Team, Despite Lack of iPad App (PC Magazine)

Need a job? Give Facebook a call. The company is seeking engineers for a new desktop software team.

TechCrunch pointed out a posting on the jobs page titled "Software Engineer, Desktop Software" at Facebook's recently-opened Seattle office

The description reads: "The desktop software team is a new team at Facebook based out of Seattle, WA. We will be working on new products that we expect to deliver to millions of users' computers to help make their entire computing experience more social. Facebook is seeking experienced software engineers in Seattle to join this team."

The page says the other responsibilities of the job are to "create desktop applications for Mac and/or Windows, work closely with our product and design teams to define feature specifications, work closely with our Platform team to build server-side APIs and interfaces in support of these applications, [and] conduct design and code reviews."

Interestingly enough, Facebook is building this team for the desktop before it even has an iPad app. The lack of the iPad app is also curious considering Facebook's iPhone app is the most downloaded application of all time.

Could Facebook be building a desktop app? Possibly, but TechCrunch notes that it "doesn't seem to make a lot of sense given their stated (over and over again) commitment to HTML5 and that being the key driver for why they don't have an iPad app."

Last fall, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the absence of an iPad app.

"iPad's not mobile," he said. "I don't mean to be rude to Apple. iPad just isn't mobile in the same way [an iPhone] is."

It's unclear whether or not Facebook will eventually cave and build an official iPad app. For now it seems we might see an increased emphasis on the desktop.

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Intel's 'Hybrid Cloud' Is a Cloud Server Inside Your Office (PC Magazine)

On Tuesday, Intel announced a cloud-based hosted applications service that actually runs on a local, on-premises server to protect data.

Formally, Intel's initiative is known as the AppUp Small Business Service, running on the Intel Hybrid Cloud. It's a fancy name for a small server that a small business can keep in its office, with applications that would otherwise be hosted in the cloud as a service, or else running locally on an individual PC.

The key, however, is that it allows customers to store their data locally, while taking advantage of some of the pricing cloud-based services offer. "Having their data on premise is absolutely the advantage," for SMBs, said Bridget Karlin, general manager of the Intel Hybrid Cloud.

How does it work?

Small businesses can't buy the service directly from Intel. Instead, managed service providers will need to register at IntelHybridCloud and then start offering the solutions to their customers. SMBs wll then sign up for a three-year lease with the MSP.

The hardware will be installed on site. Users will be able to access the apps as they would from a true off-site cloud, with the pay-per-use pricing. But data will be stored locally, providing additional security for healthcare providers and others concerned about their data being exposed in an offsite cloud.

The requests and software transactions will be handled by Intel, via its cloud server manager middleware.

Lenovo and white-box OEMs will be manufacturing the first servers, based on a one-socket Xeon design that Intel developed. This summer, Acer and NEC will take part, with two-socket servers added to the mix. The hardware runs the Intel hybrid cloud server manager, on top of which will sit the AppUp small business service catalog, a collection of apps from Microsoft, Intuit, Symantec, Vembu, and others, optimized and priced for small business on a pay-per-use basis.

"This is something new, with options that we haven't seen in the marketplace yet," said Boyd Davis, general manager of the Intel Server Group.

For a small business, there are two benefits: the security of on-premise data, and the lower cost that pay-per-use software can entail, which will be spread over months of use, rather than a one-time up-front fee. Davis said that Intel encourages customers to buy their own infrastructure and install packaged apps, but that it might not be cheaper over the long haul. He described what Intel is doing - taking packaged apps, and distributing them on a pay-per-use model, "as kind of a unique offering".

Users could pay as little as a "few dollars per month," Karlin said, although the total cost will depend on the number of applications and users.

Software providers will be able to offer solutions like ERP, security, and backup as a service, Intel executives said. The Intel AppUp Small Business Service features a mix of local and cloud software with an Intel Xeon-based server that comes pre-loaded with tools for remote management, firewall, VoIP/PBX and backup, app vendors added.

Applications vendors can apply for approval and appear on the site in about a week's time, Karlin said.

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LiveChat Livens Up Its Features (PC Magazine)

LiveChat this week announced two new features for its real-time software and Web analytics tool for e-commerce sales and support teams, Intelligent Triggers and Conversion Meter.

With Intelligent Triggers, the LiveChat system identifies the best prospects visiting a Web site based on data gathered from the purchasing decisions of 65 million buyers. It initiates a chat invitation with a personalized, custom message. Triggers can also be set based on keywords, referring Web site, and location and can contain any combination of conditions as needed to reach the desired set of customers. LiveChat inviations are customizable.

Mariusz Cieply, Live Chat CEO said, "It's no longer about waiting for a Web site visitor to click on a chat button. E-commerce sites and brands can now initiate the conversation with their potential customers. For example, if a Web shopper experiences an error on the checkout page or is browsing for more than three minutes, triggers can be set to instantly launch shopper again. The end result is expanding sales by reaching visitors who are hesitating or encountering an error and might otherwise abandon a shopping cart at a critical purchasing point."

Conversion Meter, meanwhile, measures how many chat invitations and sessions result in a successful purchase or membership sign-up. With it, marketers can determine the success rates of their LiveChat campaigns and can make changes as needed to increase their chats to goals conversions.

LiveChat starts at $36 per month for a single agent, with additional discounts available for larger plans.

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