WikiLeaks Emerging as Hydra-Like Web Entity That`s Hard to Kill - eWeek

WikiLeaks Emerging as Hydra-Like Web Entity That`s Hard to Kill
( Page 1 of 2 ) WikiLeaks keeps finding ways to stay online even as it gets hit with repeated denial-of-service attacks aimed at keeping people from accessing the site and despite decisions by technology and financial companies to terminate essential services. 

With each passing day it?s getting harder to shut WeakiLeaks down, according to technology experts. ?The harder you hit them, the bigger they get,? wrote James Cowie, CTO at Internet monitoring firm Renesys. 

In the past ten days since WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of leaked U.S diplomatic messages, Amazon has cancelled its hosting service, everyDNS terminated its domain name server services, and PayPal, PostFinance, MasterCard and Visa Europe have frozen its accounts.  

WikiLeaks continues to be hit by DOS attacks to shut down the site with the first attack hitting hours before it published the first batch of diplomatic messages. Instead of relying on just one domain name service provider, the site currently has 14 name servers from 11 different providers in eight different countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Canada, and Malaysia, listed in its WHOIS information.  

WikiLeaks has a number of other top-level domains in case WikiLeaks.ch gets knocked off line, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Iceland. The geo-diversification makes it very hard to take WikiLeaks down, wrote Cowie. 

Shortly after US-based DNS provider everyDNS terminated service, easyDNS CEO said the company would be willing to work with WikiLeaks provided certain conditions were met. As the company was based in Toronto, easyDNS would not be subject to U.S. laws ?with respect to takedown requests,? said Mark Jeftovic.

As of Dec. 8, WikiLeaks.ch listed two easyDNS name servers. EasyDNS is also serving other WikiLeaks domains, according to Jeftovic. Last week, WikiLeaks.nl listed Nevada-based Rollernut for DNS, which has been replaced by EasyDNS. 

The DNS for WikiLeaks is ?confined? to the Prolexic anycast nameserver, said Jeftovic. The four servers, deployed in ?London, Hong Kong and on the east and west coasts of North America,? were selected because Prolexic specializes in ?soaking up DOS attacks? and they do that ?very well,? he wrote. Even anticipating that WikiLeaks will be attacked, everyDNS is ?confident? that there will be ?little effect? on other customer domains or even on WikiLeaks, Jeftovic said. 

Now that WikiLeaks is ?spreading in a multi-mirrored fashion, it?s really gone hydra now,? he wrote. ?There?s no center of gravity? for attackers to take out, he said. 

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In political gamble, Reid holds Senate votes he knows he'll lose - Washington Post

On Wednesday afternoon, the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate did something that sounds odd: He set himself up to lose an important vote.

Then he did it again, on another key issue.

And Thursday he'll do it two more times.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) planned votes where his favored bills were expected to fail. For Reid, failure is actually the point. He wants to put Republicans on record as blocking all four.

On Wednesday, he took up seniors' benefits and collective- bargaining rights for police and firefighters' unions, and on Thursday he will call votes on an immigration bill that would assist people who were brought to the United States illegally as children, and legislation that would provide health-care benefits for responders to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

These "test votes" are a sign of the sclerotic state of Congress, clogged by filibuster threats. Usually, it is the people out of power who resort to grand, futile gestures.

Now - in a political gamble - it's the guys in charge.

"Just because the party of 'Just say no' has been blocking all these initiatives, it doesn't mean we're not going to try," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid. "At some point, you've got to take a stand, and let the chips fall where they may."

Senate Democrats, who hold a majority in the chamber, held their last "test vote" on Saturday - two, actually. The first proposal called for an end to tax cuts, passed under President George W. Bush, on income greater than $250,000 for a family.

Democrats needed 60 senators to agree. They got just 53.

Then Democratic leaders staged a vote to let the tax cuts expire only for income of more than $1 million per year for a family. That failed, too.

In theory, these votes were supposed to demonstrate that Republicans were favoring the rich at the expense of the middle class.

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China must do more to restrain N. Korea, Mullen says - Washington Post

TOKYO - As North Korea on Wednesday startled Seoul by firing artillery off the peninsula's west coast, the top U.S. military official directed sharp criticism at China for its "tacit approval" of North Korea's recent behavior.

In Seoul to meet with South Korea's top defense officials, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described China's "unique influence" and "unique responsibility" to restrain North Korea, which in recent weeks has shelled a South Korean island and revealed an advanced uranium-enrichment facility.

"The Chinese have enormous influence over the North, influence that no other nation on Earth enjoys," Mullen said. "And yet, despite a shared interest in reducing tensions, they appear unwilling to use it. Even tacit approval of Pyongyang's brazenness leaves all their neighbors asking, 'What will be next?' "

Mullen's message for Beijing exposed the fault line separating the Obama administration and the Chinese. China - North Korea's lone ally and primary benefactor - is pushing for a resumption of six-party talks, the process designed to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. But the United States, South Korea and Japan don't feel ready, doubting North Korea's willingness to roll back its nuclear arms ambitions.

On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met in Washington with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara for a show of hand-holding and condemnation of North Korea's provocations.

Two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed Nov. 23 when North Korea launched artillery at Yeonpyeong Island, triggering the latest crisis on the often-tense peninsula. Days earlier, North Korea had revealed to a U.S. nuclear specialist a new facility filled with roughly 2,000 centrifuges. North Korea says the uranium program will be used for energy purposes, but it has the capacity to produce highly enriched uranium and expand Pyongyang's nuclear weapons stock.

The lingering anxiety in the South was reflected Wednesday morning, when its military reported hearing North Korean artillery fire near the maritime border. Though the shells landed in North Korean waters, South Korean financial markets were briefly rattled by the news, recovering only when local television stations attributed the fire to military drills, not an attack.

South Korea has held its own live-fire exercises this week, continuing a show of military readiness that North Korea says threatens a "full-scale war." The United States and South Korea last week conducted joint military drills, with more to come. The Yeonpyeong attack - which prompted the resignation of South Korea's defense minister - caused Seoul to reassess its restrained response to the shelling, with new Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin vowing airstrikes against North Korea if the South is attacked again.

Still, Mullen on Wednesday called for caution.

"Rather than meet belligerence in kind, you chose to meet it with restraint and resolve and with readiness," Mullen said of South Korea. "The North should not mistake this restraint as a lack of resolve, nor should they interpret it as willingness to accept continued attacks to go unchallenged."

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Google Launches Chrome OS Preview - InformationWeek

In recent years, consumers have had three major desktop-oriented operating systems to choose from: Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. On Tuesday, Google introduced a fourth option, Chrome OS.

'With Chrome OS, we have the development of a viable third choice for the desktop," said CEO Eric Schmidt, evidently unconvinced that Linux counts where consumers are concerned.

At a media event in San Francisco, Google announced a pilot program for Chrome OS, its highly anticipated browser-based operating system, launched the Chrome Web Store, its effort to change the way Web apps are discovered and purchased, and provided an update on the global adoption of its Chrome browser.

Chrome OS won't be ready for a stable release until mid-2011. That's when Google's Chrome OS hardware partners Acer and Samsung are expected to ship their Chrome OS netbooks.

But Google this week plans to begin shipping specially commissioned hardware to select testers through its Chrome OS pilot program.

Program participants will receive a Google-commissioned netbook, designated Cr-48, with Chrome OS installed. The company extended invitations to event attendees, to a random group of users through an invitation placed on the Chrome new tab page, and to some Facebook users who participated in a recent quiz. Would-be Chrome OS users may also apply online and are encouraged to submit a YouTube video to convey why they should be invited into the pilot program.

"Chrome OS is nothing but the Web," said Sundar Pichai, VP of product management.

Google is throwing out the things people hate most about computers -- slow startup times, the need to update and install software, and security worries -- and offering an operating system that loads its Chrome browser instead of a desktop file system.

Those using Chrome OS will have to rely on Web applications in place of familiar favorites like Microsoft Office. To ensure an adequate supply of Web apps, Google launched its Chrome Web Store, an online app store that aims to do for Web apps what Apple's iTunes has done for music and iOS apps: build a viable market by providing a mechanism for discovery and monetization.

The Chrome Web Store has some 500 apps at launch but Google expects that developers will add many more in the months ahead. Several companies sent representatives to discuss the Web apps they've created for Chrome, including Amazon, Electronic Arts, and the New York Times.

Amazon showcased an e-commerce Web app called Amazon Windowshop and Kindle for the Web, which will be available early next year. Electronic Arts demonstrated a game called Popit that will ship with future versions of Chrome. And the New York Times showed off a newspaper reading Web app that allows the user to control how news gets presented.

Pichai acknowledged that offline functionality was necessary and demonstrated a version of Google Docs that works offline (coming early next year). But he said that the Web is better when a network connection is available. That's why Google has partnered with Verizon to offer on-demand cellular connectivity with every Chrome notebook.

The Verizon plan provides for 100 MB of free data every month for two years. It doesn't require a contract and additional data can be purchased as needed, starting at $9.99 for unlimited data for one day.

Pichai also provided an update on the adoption of its Google Chrome browser. Chrome had 70 million users in May. Now it has 120 million users worldwide.

"The single most common piece of feedback we get from our users is that Chrome is fast," he said. "Speed has been our biggest focus since day one."

InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on hardening next-gen Web applications. Download it now (free registration required).

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Mobiles, iPod touch killing off Nintendo DS, Sony PSP - Apple Insider

Mobiles, iPod touch killing off Nintendo DS, Sony PSP

By Daniel Eran Dilger

Published: 04:00 PM EST

In contrast to all the "iPod-killers" imagined by Apple's competitors, new research quantifies just how much Apple's iOS platform has done to actually displace standalone gaming devices like the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

According to a new report by Interpret, mobile phones now make up 43.8 percent of the mobile gaming market, which includes Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP lines of handheld devices.

While the proportion of games played on phones has increased by 53.2 percent over the last year, the number played on the DS and PSP have actually fallen by 13 percent.

The firm noted that "a full 27.2% of consumers who indicate that they play games on their phones only (and not on the DS/PSP) actually own a DS or PSP, but do not actively use the device(s)."

Courtney Johnson, a research and analysis manager at Interpret, added that "the proliferation of highly multifunctional smartphones and messaging phones is a very real threat to the dominance by the DS and PSP of the handheld gaming market. Devices which satisfy a variety of entertainment and utility are fast outstripping single-function devices as consumer favorites."

Adapting to a changing market

Prior to the appearance of the iPhone, Apple faced similar threats to its iPod lineup at the hands of smartphones, which analysts predicted would eat into iPod sales by offering MP3 features that made standalone players obsolete. However, the iPhone and iPod touch helped Apple to maintain its position with the iPod while leveraging its existing economies of scale to successfully enter the smartphone market.

Additionally, Apple's release of an open Software Development Kit for iPhone in 2008 helped create an entirely new market for paid downloadable apps, one that hadn't ever really taken off for previous mobile platforms before.

By that time, the hardware of the late 2004 Nintendo DS and Sony PSP were already being challenged by the new iPhone. By the end of 2008, gaming legend Jon Carmack of id Software went on record as saying the iPhone was "more powerful than a Nintendo DS and PSP combined," and praised Apple's App Store revenue sharing model in the App Store.

Since then, smartphones have advanced significantly in processor and graphics capabilities while Nintendo has largely only offered a bigger DS screen and Sony has done little to advance the PSP. Both Nintendo and Sony have also made only the barest of attempts to push downloadable games, likely out of fear of disrupting the highly lucrative market for licensing third party titles.

Bleak future for PSP2, 3DS

Sony is rumored to be readying a PSP2 as a successor to the existing PSP toward the end of 2011, and Sony Ericsson is also working to create an Android phone cable of playing PSP games, expected in February 2011.

Nintendo has released subtle improvements to the DS line, but will be launching its first major upgrade in the spring of 2011 under then name 3DS, featuring games with 3D screen effects that don't require glasses, 3G mobile connectivity, an accelerometer and GPS features.

Apple's iPhone 4 and iPod touch already deliver a host of gaming related hardware features, including a gyroscope and a high resolution Retina Display. Unlike the DS and PSP line, Apple's iOS also features strong web browsing and productivity apps, a high quality mobile camera with video capture and editing and FaceTime video chat, and other software titles that move well beyond gaming (in addition to the iPhone working as a phone).

iOS cracks open mobile gaming

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, recently stated that mobile games were "approaching saturation on the handheld market. We?re starting to see DS hardware sales crack," he said.

"I think the big woody of the iPod Touch is cutting into the handheld market, I think the PSP is dead on arrival and I think the PSP2 is going to be dead on arrival. It looks to me like young kids are just as happy playing with an iPod Touch or a Nano.?

Pachter asked, ?what?s the difference if you play Tetris on an iPod Touch or on a DS? Well, you pay a buck on the iPod Touch, you pay $20 on the DS. Parents prefer $1 or free software. I think the iPod Touch is going to sell really, really well. I really think as the iPod Touch gets more and more powerful, you?re going to see a lot of free games over there."

Pachter predicted that Nintendo's forthcoming 3DS "will prolong the handheld market for the game manufacturers, but ultimately, I think handhelds are in trouble. After the 3DS has had its little rush I think the handhelds will continue to decline.?

The top titles for Nintendo's DS are primarily first party games created by Nintendo. If the market for standalone handheld game hardware collapses at the foot of smartphones and the iPod touch, Nintendo may find itself in the position of Sega after the failure of the Dreamcast console.

Sega gave up on building hardware and began creating games for existing platforms, including some of the first games for Apple's iOS.

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