MP implicates more Murdoch newspapers in hacking row

Rupert Murdoch's entire stable of British newspapers was dragged into the phone hacking row yesterday when a former Labour minister told the House of Commons the scandal touched The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun.

Tom Watson MP said during discussion of Mr Murdoch's BSkyB bid that he believed evidence existed that journalists employed on the Times titles had been involved in phone hacking and that their sister paper, The Sun, had printed a story possibly based on hacked conversations.

He also told MPs that the BBC had been bullied into delaying a Panorama programme on newspaper tactics – which he said involved "more sinister forms of illegal surveillance"

Ashton Kutcher's Twitter Account Gets Punk'd

It appears that actor/producer Ashton Kutcher's Twitter account was hacked on Wednesday at TED 2011, proving that no one -- not even a celebrity -- is immune from hackers.
ReadWriteWeb reported Wednesday evening that Kutcher's account -- which has 6,393,635 followers -- was compromised at TED by another TED attendee. The hacker posted two tweets, the first of which reads:
"Ashton, you've been Punk'd. This account is not secure. Dude, where's my SSL?"
Now, this could be an Ashton trick on his followers, but the following tweet reads:
"P.S. This is for those young protesters around the world who deserve not to have their Facebook & Twitter accounts hacked like this. #SSL"

Judge lets Sony see identities of visitors to GeoHot's PS3 hacking site

Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero has awarded Sony a subpoena that allows the company to obtain the IP addresses of everyone who visited geohot.com, the personal website of PlayStation 3 jailbreaker George Hotz, also known as GeoHot, for the past 26 months (since January 2009). Furthermore, Sony's request for subpoenas on the account names of anyone who has accessed a PS3 jailbreak video on the 21-year-old's YouTube account, his tweets relating to the hacking on Twitter, information on people who posted comments to his blog on Blogspot, and information about his account on the PSX-Scene website, have all been granted, according to Wired.
As a result, Sony can now ask GeoHot's Web provider, Bluehost, for the IP addresses of visitors to his website who accessed or downloaded files from it. Court documents show that Sony rejected arguments submitted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that the requests were "overly broad" and violated GeoHot's rights to Free Speech. GeoHot has reportedly agreed not to oppose the subpoenas in exchange for Sony narrowing the scope of some of them.
Last month, Sony demanded that Google hand over the identities of those who have viewed or commented about the jailbreak video posted on YouTube. GeoHot posted the video on January 7, later made it private, and then pulled it on a judge's orders.
Sony's legal attacks against the hackers that released the PS3 root key and custom firmware began two months ago. The group known as fail0verflow is accused of posting a rudimentary hack in December 2010 after finding security codes for the PS3. It was refined by GeoHot weeks later when he independently found and published the PS3 root key. The resulting hacks allow homebrew apps and pirated software to run on unmodified consoles. Sony is still threatening to sue anybody posting or distributing PS3 jailbreak code, despite the fact that the company accidentally tweeted the PlayStation 3 security key.

Is Motorola loosening the reins on hacking?

One of the biggest advantages of Android is its being open source. Not only can you completely customize the way it looks with themes and launcher replacement apps, you can also manipulate nearly every aspect of the operating system, if you so wish. Whether sticking to stock or flashing custom ROMs (manipulated versions of the operating system) is your bag, you can make Android entirely yours.
The problem is, some manufacturers aren't exactly supportive of all the development that goes on. Of the powerhouse Android manufacturers, Motorola is probably the most against rooting and hacking. Software – codenamed eFuse – on the Droid X was put in place to try to keep people from tampering with the bootloader. If unsigned software was flashed to the device, it would not boot until signed software was reinstalled. Fortunately, developers got smart and found a workaround. No other manufacturers have gone to such lengths to prevent users from hacking.
We were hoping – since developers are relentless and will more than likely find a workaround – Motorola would eventually give up. A few months back though, they made it very clear that locked down bootloaders weren't going anywhere.
The funny thing is, they have actually done very little to impede the hacking of the XOOM. The bootloader on their tablet is extremely easy to unlock and re-lock; it takes one command in a command prompt and a little know-how. I've rooted and hacked every Android device I've ever owned, and nothing has been so easy to unlock and root as the XOOM.
They also said that when you ship your XOOM to them for the LTE upgrade, they will still install the 4G modem and try to install the software update, even if it is sent in running unauthorized software. They recommend you revert it back to stock and re-lock the bootloader, but it isn't mandatory.
Is this support for development a tell tale for what we should expect from Motorola in the future? I'm not so sure, but I would like to think so (one can dream, right?). Motorola still believes that BLUR is the best thing since sliced bread. As futile as their efforts may be, I think they will try their best to force users to use it, and keep them from removing it or manipulating it in any way.
I have a feeling that all of this support for developers and hacking comes from the tight-knit, vertical integration that Motorola had with Google on the production of the XOOM. We know Google wants us to have fun with their software and push limits, I just hope some of that open source mentality rubbed off on Motorola when they were working so closely together. It could also be that BLUR isn't installed on the XOOM. Considering it's 100% Google's software, Motorola probably couldn't care less what you do with it.
Even if they don't plan on scrapping locked down bootloaders and MOTOBLUR, maybe they will realize how much easier it is not to care. What do you guys and gals think? Is Motorola turning over a new leaf? Are they learning to embrace and cherish developers? Or is this a one-time thin

MP threatens to lift lid on 'enormous issues' in phone-hacking case

A Labour MP will make new claims this week about the extent of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal during a House of Commons debate which threatens to deepen the controversy engulfing Rupert Murdoch's News International.

Chris Bryant, a shadow minister who is taking legal action over an alleged failure by Scotland Yard properly to investigate the illegal eavesdropping of voicemails, said the true nature of the scandal remained unclear and raised important questions about democracy in Britain.

Mr Bryant has secured a 30-minute Commons debate on Thursday which will include a formal government response. He said: "It has become apparent that the extent of phone hacking is greater than either News Corporation or the News of the World have admitted to. Indeed, it would seem it was far more substantial than that found by the original investigation that the Metropolitan Police could be bothered to mount." The Rhondda MP said "enormous issues" had been raised by the scandal, which led to the jailing in 2007 of the private detective Glenn Mulcaire and NOTW's royal editor Clive Goodman.

A team of 45 Metropolitan Police detectives is leading a fresh investigation to determine whether Mulcaire was eavesdropping on individuals beyond the eight people he has already admitted to targeting. Mr Bryant is one of four people, along with the former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott, seeking a judicial review of the failure of the Yard to inform them that they were likely victims of Mulcaire.

"There is also the political aspect of all this," Mr Bryant added. "What was the purpose behind all this phone hacking? Ultimately, I think its purpose was murky and nefarious. It raises questions of just who runs Britain."

Last week Tom Watson, a defence minister in the last government, told the Commons he believed evidence existed implicating journalists working for The Times and The Sunday Times and said he believed The Sun printed a story that may have been based on hacked conversations. News International said it did not believe Mr Watson had evidence to support the claims

Microsoft Releases Zero IE8 Security Updates Before "Pwn2Own" Browser Hacking Contest

Microsoft has opted not to release any patches to its Internet Explorer 8 browser prior to this year's Pwn2Own browser exploit challenge, which is set to run from March 9 to March 11 at the CanSecWest security conference.
There's been no indication as to why Microsoft's not making one last effort to plug security vulnerabilities within Internet Explorer 8. Pundits have suggested that the company might be waiting to see exactly what exploits and security flaws are uncovered by the various contestants in the annual contest, such that the company can more quickly address them post-Pwn.
For the uninitiated, Pwn2Own works like this: Security researchers square off in an attempt to hack through the browser or mobile operating systems of eight different targets. Each Pwn2Own entrant or team has 30 minutes to compromise the browser or phone, and each device or web browser has—at maximum—four individuals or teams competing.
The first group to successfully hack a device or browser wins a cash prize of $15,000 for each, with a special reward of $20,000 going to a group that successfully manages to crack Google's Chrome browser (currently unblemished in all its Pwn2Own appearances).
The software and hardware participants in this year's contest include the "Big Four" web browsers--Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8, Apple's Safari, Mozilla's Firefox, and Google Chrome—as well as four different mobile phones: a Dell Venue Pro, iPhone 4, Blackberry Torch 9800, and an Android-driven Nexus S.
To Microsoft's credit, the company typically issues Internet Explorer updates in even-numbered months. And indeed, the last major patch to the browser hit as part of Microsoft's February 2011 Cumulative Security Update. Updates scheduled for this week's Patch Tuesday included two fixes for Windows itself and one patch for Groove 2007.
Mozilla and Google have already updated their respective browsers this past week. Mozilla fixed ten security flaws in Firefox—eight of which were rated "critical" by the company, which is described by Mozilla as, "The big bada boom." A critical bug allows an attacker to run code and install software as if he or she was sitting in front of a compromised computer itself.
Google fixed up 19 different vulnerabilities in its release of Chrome 9.0.597.107, which included 16 issues with a rating of "High" by Google. Third-party contributors to Google's bug-patching process earned a total of $14,000 for their efforts in unmasking Chrome vulnerabilities, with 13 bugs each earning their submitters a $1,000 award apiece.