Daily Archives: May 16, 2011

SONY hack launched from Amazon Cloud

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Wow! Amazing Bloomberg report.

For three pennies an hour, hackers can rent Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)’s servers to wage cyber attacks such as the one that crippled Sony Corp. (6758)’s PlayStation Network and led to the second-largest online data breach in U.S. history.

A hacker used Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud, or EC2, service to attack Sony’s online entertainment systems last month, a person with knowledge of the matter said May 13. The intruder, who used a bogus name to set up an account that’s now disabled, didn’t hack into Amazon’s servers, the person said.

The incident helps illustrate the dilemma facing Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos: Amazon’s cloud-computing service is as cheap and convenient for hackers as it is for customers ranging from Netflix Inc. (NFLX) to Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) Last month’s attack on Sony compromised more than 100 million customer accounts, the largest data breach in the U.S. since intruders stole credit and debit card numbers from Heartland Payment Systems in 2009.

“Anyone can go get an Amazon account and use it anonymously,” said Pete Malcolm, chief executive officer of Abiquo Inc., a Redwood City, California-based company that helps customers manage data internally and through cloud computing. “If they have computers in their back bedroom they are much easier to trace than if they are on Amazon’s Web Services.”

The Chromebook cometh

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On June 15, Google launches its Chromebook netbooks. The Ubergizmo site has a useful preview of the Samsung version. Highlights include:

  • Thin (0.79-inch) case
  • 12.1-inch display
  • HD webcam
  • 8.5-hour battery life (for Samsung version; the Acer version has shorter battery life)
  • Onboard 60GB solid-state disk.

    So far, so conventional. But now it diverges from the norm:

  • 8-second boot-up time
  • 1-second wake-up from sleep mode
  • Supports SD and USB mass storage
  • Gmail, Google calendar and Google Docs work offline (“and many third-party applications will do the same”: Hmmm… The ones featured in the Google press conference didn’t look too exciting).
    Citric and VMware deals which will allow people to access their organisations’ Windows applications remotely.

    • The most interesting revelation, however, had nothing to do with the hardware. Google announced a “Chromebooks for Business” deal which, for $28 per employee per month, organisations get:

  • Free Chromebooks, replaced/updated every three years
  • Web console (?)
  • Support
  • Warranty and replacement

    • There’s also going to be a comparable deal for education – at $20/student per month.

    This could be really interesting – especially as many organisations (including major UK newspapers and universities) have already gone over to Google Apps (Gmail and Docs especially).

    Amazon.co.uk will be selling it from June 15.

    The IMF immune system

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    Hmmm… I see that the IMF’s Articles of Association state that its officials “shall be immune from legal process with respect to acts performed by them in their official capacity except when the Fund waives this immunity.”