Google Hacked By China… Google Returns The Favour

Here’s an interesting plot twist to this Google vs. China story. How does Google find out who’s really responsible for the hacks that they’ve detected? Simple, they hack the hackers right back:

It managed to gain access to a computer in Taiwan that it suspected of being the source of the attacks. Peering inside that machine, company engineers actually saw evidence of the aftermath of the attacks, not only at Google, but also at at least 33 other companies, including Adobe Systems, Northrop Grumman and Juniper Networks, according to a government consultant who has spoken with the investigators.

Seeing the breadth of the problem, they alerted American intelligence and law enforcement officials and worked with them to assemble powerful evidence that the masterminds of the attacks were not in Taiwan, but on the Chinese mainland.

Geez. This wasn’t just a one time deal. How evil. Hopefully the companies that were hacked along with Google take whatever steps to ensure their security. As for who’s behind this, it’s not so clear:

But while much of the evidence, including the sophistication of the attacks, strongly suggested an operation run by Chinese government agencies, or at least approved by them, company engineers could not definitively prove their case. Today that uncertainty, along with concerns about confronting the Chinese without strong evidence, has frozen the Obama administration’s response to the intrusion, one of the biggest cyberattacks of its kind, and to some extent the response of other targets, including some of the most prominent American companies.

Lovely. But at least it puts the perps on notice that when you hack Google, you’re hacking the wrong people.

China To Google: F-U Too!

China has responded to Google’s threat to exit China due to some Gmail accounts that are tied to human rights activists being hacked. China responded in a manner that you’d expect. Here’s what they said via foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu:

“China’s Internet is open,” Ms. Jiang said. “China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law.”

Good luck with that. Here’s why I say that. If Google sticks to their guns and wins, Internet access in China will be more open than it is now. If Google loses and bolts from China, Google still wins because they would have stood up to the Chinese and their “Great Firewall Of China,” not to mention living up to their corporate motto of “don’t be evil.” So assuming that China actually cares about its image, then it’s they who are on the wrong end of this fight.

You’ll also notice that in the story that I linked to, the US government is monitoring the situation:

Mr. [Robert] Gibbs [White House spokesman] said the White House is awaiting China’s response to Google’s announcement. Asked whether the incident could cause a U.S.-China chill, Mr. Gibbs said: “We stood in China when we gave the answer about a free Internet. So, the president and this administration have beliefs about the freedom of the Internet.”

Bottom line: The stakes are high. Really high. Stay tuned for what happens next.

Hey IT Nerd. Why Aren’t You Posting About The Apple Tablet?

The above title has been showing up in my e-mail inbox lately. Why am I the only tech blog on the planet that isn’t talking about the Apple tablet that is allegedly due to appear on Earth in the near future? The reason is simple: There’s a ton of coverage pretty much everywhere else about this subject. So I figured why add to something that is beyond overhyped?

But since so many of you asked about this topic, here is my one and only comment about the Apple tablet….. Until it is officially released that is.

First question: Does it exist? The answer is yes. Valleywag offered a bounty yesterday for any definite info on the tablet. The iLawyers promptly sent Valleywag a C & D to have them stop the bounty. Anytime the iLawyers send a C & D to stop somebody from talking about a product that is the subject of rumor, it all but confirms that the product actually exists.

Second question: What will it look like? No clue. The most consistent rumors seem to indicate that the tablet will basically be a 10.1″ iPod Touch on steroids. Anything beyond that is pure speculation.

Third question: Will it be called the iSlate? Possibly. There is evidence that Apple has registered the iSlate domain as well as trademarking it along with the term “Magic Slate”. However, Apple has also trademarked iGuide too. So who knows what all of that could refer to.

So that’s my one and only comment on the Apple Tablet. Unless there’s something Earth shattering between now and January 26th when the tablet is allegedly being released. Which I don’t expect.

See you on the 26th.

Kodak Sues Apple And RIM Claiming Patent Infringement

Kodak invented the digital camera way back in 1975, but apparently they don’t think they’re getting paid for their work. Therefore, they’re suing both RIM and Apple for Patent Infringement:

The Kodak complaint, filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), specifically claims that Apple’s iPhones and RIM’s camera-enabled BlackBerry devices infringe a Kodak patent that covers technology related to a method for previewing images. Separately, Kodak filed two suits today against Apple in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York that claim the infringement of patents related to digital cameras and certain computer processes.

Kodak claims that they’ve tried to work on resolving this with both companies, but that’s failed so they’re left with no other choice than to sue. Given that  they recently won a judgment in a similar ITC case against Samsung, and a similar lawsuit against Sun Microsystems back in 2004, they’ve got decent odds IMHO.

My take? It will go something like this:

• Lots of chest thumping possibly followed by the exchanging of threats, followed by a possible counter suit
• Undisclosed sums of money will then exchange hands followed by cross licensing agreements of some sort
• Lawyers will get rich
• Business as usual for consumers

In other words, the same thing that almost always happens in a case like this.

Google To China: F-U!

Imagine you’re Google for a second. You’ve tried to filter search results to keep the Chinese government happy and you’ve tried to behave yourself while taking heat for doing so. But when you discover that the Gmail accounts belonging to human rights activists have been hacked, what do you do? You apparently reconsider your operations in China:

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

So where do things go from here? Google is going to talk to the Chinese government and figure out a way to operate an unfiltered search engine in a legal way. If that doesn’t get sorted out, Google is going to close Google.cn and maybe leave the country. Bravo Google! The only question I have is this: What took you so long to grow a pair?

Apple Drops The Security Ball… Again

The topic of Apple not being serious about security seems to keep coming up again and again and again. This time, an article on The Register points to a researcher who reported a security related bug to Apple seven months ago and it still remains unpatched:

The buffer overflow flaw could be exploited by attackers to remotely execute malicious code, and virtually all Apple devices – including Mac computers and servers, iPhones, and even Apple TV – are susceptible, one of the researchers, Maksymilian Arciemowicz, told The Register. SecurityReason.com, the Poland-based security firm he works for, alerted Apple to the vulnerability in the middle of June and again last month, but the computer maker has yet to patch the bug.

By contrast, developers for OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and a variety of Mozilla applications have fixed identical vulnerabilities, in some cases within hours of notification. The bug affects all applications and operating systems that implement gdtoa floating point numbers.

“It was not that difficult to patch it,” Arciemowicz wrote in an email. “It seems to us that Apple comes from the assumption that when there is no PoC or exploit given that the problem doesn’t exist.”

You know, one has to wonder what the logic of Apple has to be when it comes to security. After all if you’re going to bash Windows for having substandard security, the security in your products has to be top shelf. That clearly doesn’t seem to be the case.

Perhaps it’s time for them to get their heads out of the sand and start taking security seriously. Otherwise, they won’t be seen in the marketplace (in particular the enterprise space) as an alternative to Windows.

Word Injuction Is On… And Office Is Not Available From The Microsoft Online Store

Today is January 11th 2010 and the injunction for Microsoft Word goes into effect today. It seems that Microsoft isn’t selling anything with Word in it as one look at their online store shows that most Office products are not available:

I am sure that this is only a short term thing and they’ll have Office back in their online shortly. That of course assumes that their appeal isn’t successful.

Microsoft Files Appeal In Word Patent Case

Microsoft did warn the world that they were going to “consider their legal options” when it came to that patent case involving Microsoft Word. Now they’ve done something more. According to The Globe And Mail, they’ve filed an appeal:

The world’s largest software company wants all 11 judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles many patent and trademark cases, to review the case involving i4i Ltd. in the hope of overturning the original judgment.

One has to wonder why Microsoft hasn’t simply paid i4i off. They’ve lost twice already. What makes them think that they’ll win if they try a third time? I don’t get it. It would make more sense to write a cheque and move on. But I’m not part of Microsoft’s legal team and perhaps they have something brilliant in mind. Or perhaps they just want drag the process out.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.

Why The Google Nexus One Will Kill The Android Platform

Google this past week released the Android based Nexus One to the world. Google thinks that this is the best thing since sliced bread. But I think that this is a horrible idea for Google. In fact, it’s so bad that I think that it will kill the Android platform. Does that sound extreme? I don’t think so. Here’s why I think that this is the case:

1. Google has spent the last year trying to woo mobile phone companies to use Android. Now that many (Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Sony just to name four) have signed on the dotted line and released phones with Android on it, Google comes out with their own phone. If I was one of those companies, I’d be a bit ticked off since I’ve just been shafted by Google. Even Microsoft with Windows Mobile isn’t stupid enough the screw their partners like this.
2. The Nexus One has a version of Android that is very different and much more advanced than anything that anyone else currently offers. So they’ve effectively kept the best for themselves. When you take into account that Google said that the whole idea behind Android was to make the mobile phone market more open. It doesn’t sound open when you don’t share the cool stuff with your partners. Now to be fair, Google did hint that they’ll offer this version of Android to their partners. But it’s not going to make them feel better.
3. Google defends the fact that the Nexus One exists by saying that they’re not competing against their partners because according to Andy Rubin who is the VP of Engineering at Google they don’t make their own hardware (that’s because HTC builds the phone). That my friends is semantics, and semantics is a nice way of saying that they’re shoveling bullshit. When you take item 1 and 2 into account, how can they not be competing against their own partners? To say otherwise is simply disingenuous. That’s a nice way of saying that it’s a lie.
4. Google has it’s own distribution channel as they’re selling the phone direct in a handful of countries unsubsidized. Of course you can buy it from some carriers such as T-Mobile in the US with a subsidy. But who’s going to do that as it’s likely that you’d be on some sort of contract to get the subsidy? Not many I would suspect. That’s going to make carriers really happy….. NOT! Now I’m not saying that mobile phone carriers are the greatest companies on Earth. They’ve often been the exact opposite in fact. What I am saying is that Google is really screwing them which is a really bad idea.

All of that means that Google has really dug a grave for itself. They’ve burned so many bridges that I can’t see how Android can be a success.

I suspect that Apple and RIM are watching and loving the fact that their biggest threat has shot itself in the foot like this.

Palm Announces Two New Handhelds And More [UPDATED]

Since the WebOS revolution began over at Palm, they’ve release two devices. The Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi. You can add two new devices to that list. Palm announced the Palm Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus today at CES. I’ll start with the Pixi Plus. It’s basically the Pixi with WiFi from what I can tell. Yawn. However the Pre Plus is far more interesting. It has 16GB of RAM (the original had 8GB), a standard induction cover for Touchstone charging (it was an option before), and no navigation button on the front panel. A new feature that both smart phones have is the ability to be used as a mobile hotspot for up to five devices that want to surf the Internet. If you use that feature, make sure you have a great data plan or it will get expensive in a hurry. In any case, both phones are coming exclusively to Verizon at the end of the month, no word on international carriers for these phones.

Palm also announced WebOS 1.4 which will have video capture, edit and sharing capabilities. Good, but this news is better. Flash 10 support is coming to WebOS (iPhone users take note). Expect WebOS 1.4 to hit the streets in February.

There’s also going to be 3D games available for the Pre (sorry Pixi users, you’re out of luck) from companies such as EA available soon. From the brief shots that I saw on the web feed I was watching, they look very iPhone like.

Finally, developers who want to make WebOS apps can get to work right away according to Palm:

The Palm developer program is designed to promote a thriving environment for all developers to create, distribute, promote and monetize the delivery of valuable applications to Palm customers. It extends the unique web orientation of Palm webOS, providing innovative opportunities for developers to grow their businesses by leveraging the web as a promotional channel for applications.

Each element of the Palm developer program is designed to help developers promote their work and ultimately drive application sales and downloads. Developers receive a 70/30 split (developer/Palm) of gross revenues generated through sales (after applicable taxes).

Sounds interesting. We’ll see how many people take them up on that offer.

IMHO, the biggest news here is impending Flash 10 support. Seeing as the iPhone and the iPod Touch don’t have Flash 10 support, that’s sure to get the attention of somebody in Cupertino CA.

UPDATE: A press release about Verizon getting Palm smart phones has just appeared.