Malware Attacks Hit News Websites – Foretelling Cyber False Flag?

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

Malware alerts struck the web last night and this morning, in a preview of what Internet users have to look forward to once the real cyber false flag hits the Net.  Real and fake malware will create chaos, as users get blocked from their favorite websites.

Regular visitors to BIN may have noticed that we had some of those cute red screens courtesy of your browsers (Safari, Chrome and Firefox) on our site last night and this morning alerting you that "you'd better not go there".

The Google Chrome malware warning from BIN late last night.  Firefox and Safair had similar dire warnings for these sites.

Outages were reported at many popular sites, including ZD Net, CNET, Glenn Reynold's popular Instapundit, etc.  Here's a report from ZD Net that covered their end of things.  Facebook is running behind, they are still showing warnings for some sites, including BIN.  The BIN site is completely clean at this time, according to Google.

 

Here's a screen grab from Instapundit:

Has anyone else noticed what's happened to the internet?  Sites with edgy alternative content or conservative points of view get hacked more often, and in this case not hacked, but effectively taken down by scary looking warning messages.  This type of censorship has been going on for years with email.  If you want to keep a lid on the news, you just signup for a site's email, then send it to one of the 50 self appointed "spam police" sites and they'll blacklist a site.  It usually takes a day or two for things to return to normal and get off the blacklist and by then the damage is done.  The same thing is now happening to web sites.

There's only one way around this, a new way to communicate and get news and information using the internet.  We've been developing it for a year and it's going to be what we think is a very good alternative to insecure email and chat programs, as well as providing a way to view web content without surfing around for it.

Before its news

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

22 Forbidden Places to be Displayed on Google Maps

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

1. Baker Lake Inuit territory in northern Canada

A man who identified himself as "Dr. Boylan," says the darkened area in this image and in some other locations, hiding extraterrestrial beacons aliens.

2. Air base Ramstein, Germany

This NATO air base is the starting point for the forces of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and, for that reason, of course, can be a target for terrorist attacks. This may explain why the object is partially cut out of Google Maps.

 

3. Pacific Northwest, USA

What exactly we do not see in this photo? This place is located near the border of the states of Washington and Oregon. Enthusiasts have personally inspected the place and found nothing remarkable, except for a sinister-looking fence and no marked entrance.

 

 

4. Refinery Szazhalombatta, Hungary

This is one of the most bizarre specimens censorship in Google Maps - this place is painted green. Area of ​​the plant is removed, the buildings are erased, and all you can see is green.

 

5. Palace Huis Ten, The Netherlands

It is difficult to imagine that the Dutch royal family could be a prime target for a mad terrorist, but the Royal Palace Huis Ten remains blured on Google Maps when viewed from any angle. (However, the surrounding area and the trees can be seen at close increases with crystal clarity, so not sure what the point is.

6. Unknown area, Russia

No one knows what lies in the region. One view - that there is a "radar or missile interception system," and some say that a picture is inserted surrounding area from another region of Russia.

7. Oil Corporation Mobil, Buffalo, New York, USA

Some have criticized the company Mobil Buffalo for blurring the pictures, saying that oil companies are not much of interest to terrorists. On the other hand, we do not know what the terrorists think themselves.

8. North Korea

You will not see it on Google Maps, since the whole country exists in the pictures, but no road markers, street names or any other identifying details.

9. Airbase at Reims, France

The reasons that this air base locked into Google Maps, are unknown.

 

10. Indian Point Power Plant, New York, USA

According to experts in the field of energy, the plant is not strong enough to withstand an earthquake, such as the one recently destroyed Japan, and if earthquake is to happen, the consequences could be devastating.

11. Volkel Air Base, Netherlands

WikiLeaks published diplomatic correspondence, which confirms the presence of nuclear weapons on the territory of the base, perhaps that's why it is blurred.

12. HAARP, Hakon, Alaska, USA

HAARP (The research program of high-Northern Lights) - this is one of the most controversial operations, which is currently being conducted in the United States. Hakon, space research, and ongoing experiments there with the ionosphere, some conspiracy theorists are sure that this place is the cause of anything - from floods to earthquakes, but the evidence for this is very small.

13. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Salinas, California, USA

This is one of the most bizarre examples of censorship in Google Maps: Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, California. The strange thing in this is the fact: it is obviously harmless racetrack.

14. Babylon, Iraq

While the surrounding area is perfectly visible, the city of Babylon in pictures is blurred. One could argue that this is somehow related to the local rebels.

15. Tantauco National Park, Chile

For some reason, this reserve of endangered species completely excised from Google Maps, nobody can explain why.

16. Elmira Correctional Facility, USA

This is the highest level prison in upstate New York. Perhaps, after the riots in Attica prison, and several incidents of uprisings and mass escapes around the world, the authorities can really worry about the possibility of escape by helicopter.

17. Alexei Miller House, Russia

According to Wikipedia, this place is a "private palace of Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller."

18. Colonel Sanders

This is the strangest fact of Google: Colonel Sanders, the person on Kentucky Fried Chicken, does not appear in a single shot of Google Street View. This is because, according to representatives of Google, that

blurred at any pictures.

19. Faroe Islands, Denmark

It is believed that in this area there are some military installations.

20. NATO headquarters, Portugal

Random grass is placed over the building. nobody knows why for sure.

21. Seabrook Nuclear Station, New Hampshire

22. Missile silos, Spain

According to one researcher, "At this place there is a small building with something resembling a missile silo in the middle. What's strange - this zone is not locked in Yahoo! Maps, but Google Maps still blur it.

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

Google starts watching what you do off the Internet too

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

The most powerful company on the Internet just got a whole lot creepier: a new service from Google merges offline consumer info with online intelligence, allowing advertisers to target users based on what they do at the keyboard and at the mall.

Without much fanfare, Google announced news this week of a new advertising project, Conversions API, that will let businesses build all-encompassing user profiles based off of not just what users search for on the Web, but what they purchase outside of the home.

In a blog post this week on Google’s DoubleClick Search site, the Silicon Valley giant says that targeting consumers based off online information only allows advertisers to learn so much. “Conversions,” tech-speak for the digital metric made by every action a user makes online, are incomplete until coupled with real life data, Google says.

“We understand that online advertising also fuels offline conversions,” the blog post reads. Thus, Google says, “To capture these lost conversions and bring offline into your online world, we’re announcing the open beta of our Conversions API for uploading offline conversion automatically.”

The blog goes on to explain that in-store transactions, call-tracking and other online activities can be inputted into Google to be combined with other information “to optimize your campaigns based on even more of your business data.” When on-the-Web interactions start mirroring real life activity, though, even a certain degree of privacy doesn’t make Conversions API any less creepy. As Jim Edwards writes for Business Insider, “If you bought a T shirt at The Gap in the mall with your credit card, you could start seeing a lot more Gap ads online later, suggesting jeans that go with that shirt.”

Of course, there is always the possibility that all of this information can be unencrypted and, in some cases, obtained by third-parties that you might not want prying into your personal business. Edwards notes in his report that Google does not explicitly note that intelligence used in Conversions API will be anonymized, but the blowback from not doing as much would sure be enough to start a colossal uproar. Meanwhile, however, all of the information being collected by Google — estimated to be on millions of servers around the globe — is being handed over to more than just advertising companies. Last month Google reported that the US government requested personal information from roughly 8,000 individual users during just the first few months of 2012.

“This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise,” Google admitted with their report.

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

Darpa director leaving the Pentagon for Google

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

One of the most top-secret Pentagon departments — the same that spawned America’s drones, military robots, electromagnetic guns and other sci-fi weaponry — is about to lose its top officer to Google.

Regina Dugan oversaw the development of some of the USZ military’s most marvelous high tech accomplishments as director of Darpa, but the head of the DoD’s research lab is parting ways with the Pentagon to take on a role with Google. Not even three years after she took on the role as the first female director of the America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, Regina Dugan is now walking away to join the ranks of America’s other innovative powerhouse. Dugan will be relinquishing her top roll at the Defense Department’s Darpa program and trading in the Potomac River for Silicon Valley, and says it is a natural decision to move somewhere where the possibilities seem endless. Apparently within the cogs of the war machine, there is only so much left to explore.

Confirming the move to a “senior executive position” with Google, Darpa spokesman Eric Mazzacone tells Wired that Dugan couldn’t refuse an offer with such an “innovative company” as the search engine giant. Until the latest news broke, however, Darpa had been touted as a creative — yet controversial — research lab for space-age technology only once imaginable. Darpa has developed technologies used across the globe that can take away lives and, as seen with cutting-edge robotic limbs, practically create them. With the Defense Department scaling back on many operations and Google seemingly only growing, Dugan’s departure only makes sense given the timing. Both USZ President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have thrown their weight behind a shift in the Pentagon’s budget in an effort to save billions over the next few years. Google, on the other hand, has only increased its outreach, operating countless new endeavors and taking on new mediums.

That’s not to say, of course, that Dugan avoided trouble while with Darpa. She has been the subject of an investigation after awarding pricey contracts to a defense research company she partially owns, a deal which prompted the Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General to open a probe. Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan, a spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, says that the change in command and ongoing investigation into Dugan’s RedX Defense company are unrelated, but aside that there is little known about her career change. On their part, a Google rep tells PC Mag, "Regina is a technical pioneer who brought the future of technology to the military during her time at DARPA," adding, "She will be a real asset to Google, and we are thrilled she is joining the team." In a statement from the Pentagon, Frank Kendall for Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, adds, “Regina Dugan’s leadership at Darpa has been extraordinary and she will be missed throughout the Department.

“We are all very grateful for the many contributions she has made in advancing the technologies that our war fighters depend on.” Dugan, however, had blasted Darpa for not doing enough only a year earlier. “There is a time and a place for daydreaming. But it is not at Darpa,” she told a congressional panel in March 2011. “Darpa is not the place of dreamlike musings or fantasies, not a place for self-indulging in wishes and hopes. Darpa is a place of doing.” The transition also raises further questions about what relationship the federal government has with Google. As RT reported yesterday, an advocacy group will be taking the USZ National Security Agency to court later this month in hopes of finding details on what ties, if any, the NSA has with Google. The NSA has refused to disclose any details in the past that discuss a relationship, despite a series of Freedom of Information Act requests.

(RT)

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

Android apps 'leak' personal details

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

Millions of people are using Android apps that can be tricked into revealing personal data, research indicates. Scientists tested 13,500 Android apps and found almost 8% failed to protect bank account and social media logins. These apps failed to implement standard scrambling systems, allowing "man-in-the-middle" attacks to reveal data that passes back and forth when devices communicate with websites. Google has yet to comment on the research and its findings.

Researchers from the security group at Leibniz University of Hanover and the computer science department at the Philipps University of Marburg tested the most popular apps in Google's Play store. By creating a fake wi-fi hotspot and using a specially created attack tool to spy on the data the apps sent via that route, the researchers were able to:

• capture login details for online bank accounts, email services, social media sites and corporate networks
• disable security programs or fool them into labelling secure apps as infected
• inject computer code into the data stream that made apps carry out specific commands

An attacker could even re-direct a request to transfer funds, while making it look to the app user like the transaction was proceeding unchanged. Some of the apps tested had been downloaded millions of times, the researchers said. And a follow-up survey of 754 people suggests users could struggle to spot when they were at risk.

"About half of the participants could not judge the security state of a browser session correctly," the researchers wrote. "Most importantly, research is needed to study which counter-measures offer the right combination of usability for developers and users, security benefits and economic incentives to be deployed on a large scale."

(BBC)

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

Google forced to pay $22million fine for ‘spying on web users’ – but REFUSES to admit they were wrong

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

The Federal Trade Commission has ordered Google to pay $22.5 million for violating user privacy on its Apple's Safari browser. It's the biggest FTC fine ever issued for a commission violation.

The federal agency found that Google had been tracking "cookies" on Google sites for Apple Safari users. It was also sending targeted ads to those users, which violated another settlement between the FTC and the search-engine giant.

Google claimed that a tweak in Apple's browser caused an unintentional violation, but the FTC was not swayed by such an argument.

"A company like Google, which is a steward of information for hundreds of millions of people has to do better," David Vladeck, the FTC director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, told reporters on a conference call following the announcement.

The potential privacy violation was first detected by Jonathan Mayer, a Standford University graduate student, who realized that Google was still tracking his cookies, even though he had tried to block it.

"This seems to be the kind of thing the company shouldn't be doing," Mayer told ABC News in February.

As a result of this and other violations, a "Do Not Track," or DNT, setting had been added to various browsers, including Mozilla's Firefox, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari. Still, with this particular violation, the FTC charged that during 2011 and 2012, Google had been tracking Safari users -- on Macs, iPhones and iPads -- who had opted out of such tracking, as a result of default settings in the browser.

Google has not admitted to violating the law. "The complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendant has actually violated the law. This consent order is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant that the law has been violated," the FTC said in a news release.

A Google spokesperson held to that as well. "We set the highest standards of privacy and security for our users. The FTC is focused on a 2009 help center page published more than two years before our consent decree, and a year before Apple changed its cookie-handling policy," the spokesperson told ABC News. "We have now changed that page and taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple's browsers."

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

Google and Apple to spy from the sky

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

Dreaming of an attic window? Enjoy sunbathing naked in your high-fenced backyard? Now, you may have to think twice before getting exposed, even in the privacy of your property, as Google and Apple take to the skies with high-precision cameras.


­Google has sent the planes over cities; Apple has acquired a firm using spy-in-the-sky technology – the two giants seem to be serious about this race to create the most-detailed aerial maps of populated areas ever. In fact, these maps are expected to be so detailed they can reveal objects only four inches wide, reports Britain’s Daily Mail.


Apple is expected to unveil its new mapping applications for iPhone and other devices as the company kicks off a big week for product announcements in San Francisco on Monday. Its 3D maps will reportedly show, for the first time, the sides of tall buildings, such as London’s Big Ben tower. Previously, Apple used Google’s mapping services on its devices, but changed the strategy when it purchased 3D-mapping company C3 Technologies last year. This firm relies on technology developed by Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab AB.


And yet, no matter how advantageous such prospective technological developments may be, they are also seen as a potential threat to people’s privacy and could be used for sinister purposes. “The next generation of maps is taking us over the garden fence,” warns Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch – a UK-based campaign group for civil liberties and protecting privacy. “You won’t be able to sunbathe in your garden without worrying about an Apple or Google plane buzzing overhead taking pictures.”


It is not yet known what kind of technology is behind the aerial photography, but Google’s 3D maps are expected to be much more detailed than its Google Earth images taken from satellites. As for Apple, its military-grade cameras are thought to be powerful enough to see into homes through skylights and windows. The technology is believed to be similar to that used by intelligence services for tracking and identifying terrorists.


Google says it should have 3D coverage of towns and cities with a combined population of 300 million by the end of the year. C3 Technologies had already mapped 20 cities, and this number will continue to grow. Google’s planes are reportedly able to photograph some 40 square miles every hour. The company says they will be flying too quickly and too high to be able to access unsecured domestic WiFi networks, and therefore will not be able to gather private information, which is was discovered doing when compiling Google StreetVIew. 


Google does pixelate faces and car number plates that appear on its maps, but faced criticism on a number of occasions when it failed to do so. Nick Pickles says Google and Apple should seek householders’ consent before putting images of their homes online in high resolution. If the companies fail to do so, they should be prepared for quite a backlash.

(RT)

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

Web Founder worried about Facebook, Google, Apple and CISPA

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, the man
credited with inventing the world wide web, gives a
speech on April 18, 2012 in Lyon, central France
(AFP Photo/Philippe Desmazes)

He revolutionized the world by inventing the World Wide Web. Decades later, though, MIT professor Tim Berners-Lee is warning consumers of his creation against Google and Facebook, as well as the government’s attempts to censor the Internet. In an interview published by the Guardian on Wednesday, Berners-Lee celebrates the marvels made possible by the Web but cautions users to be weary of what companies could be doing with thought-to-be-private info. While the Internet offers endless answers, solutions and opportunities for entertainment, the British-born professor warns that the companies that consumers invest their personal data into might not necessarily be their friend.

"My computer has a great understanding of my state of fitness, of the things I'm eating, of the places I'm at. My phone understands from being in my pocket how much exercise I've been getting and how many stairs I've been walking up and so on,” says the scientist. As helpful as that could be, though, Berners-Lee says it has its downside. "One of the issues of social networking silos is that they have the data and I don't,” he explains. “There are no programs that I can run on my computer which allow me to use all the data in each of the social networking systems that I use plus all the data in my calendar plus in my running map site, plus the data in my little fitness gadget and so on to really provide an excellent support to me."

Who is benefiting then? Companies like Facebook, Google and Apple, which are monopolizing not just the Internet, but their user’s information. "It's interesting that people throughout the existence of the web have been concerned about monopolies. They were concerned [about] Netscape having complete control over the browser market until suddenly they started worrying that Microsoft had complete control of the browser market. So I think one of the lessons is that things can change very rapidly,” he says. Berners-Lee’s comments eerily mirror warnings made earlier in the week to the Guardian by Sergey Brin, the co-founder of search engine giant Google. Discussing the hold the company has over its users, Brin said in his interview that consumers are forced to “play by their rules,” which, he added, are “really restrictive.”

“The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine is the Web was so open. Once you get too many rules, that will stifle innovation,” said Brin. On his part, Berners-Lee says that as companies monopolize out way of receiving and delivering information, consumers are quickly becoming more and more vulnerable to be left at their mercy. In attacking Apple over how they attempt to force their customers into using their own applications, the professor says it should be up to the users to decide how they want to control their own devices. "I should be able to pick which applications I use for managing my life, I should be able to pick which content I look at, and I should be able to pick which device I use, which company I use for supplying my internet, and I'd like those to be independent choices,” he says.

Berners-Lee adds that the Web has seen some monumental changes as it has developed since the 1980s. As people trust their personal and private information with companies that are big today, though, he cautions that they might someday be at the mercy of websites gone kaput. "Before the web, Gopher [an early alternative to the world wide web] was taking over the whole internet, it seemed, very quickly. I remember in an internet engineering meeting, somebody remarked that it was incredible how quickly it was taking over. One of the wiser people said: 'Well it's funny, it's amazing how quickly people on the internet can pick something up, but it's also amazing how quickly they can drop it,’” he tells the Guardian.

"Whatever social site, wherever you put your data, you should make sure that you can get it back and get it back in a standard form. And in fact if I were you I would do that regularly, just like you back up your computer … maybe our grandchildren depending on which website we use may or may not be able to see our photos." That isn’t to say that the corporations invested in the Internet are the only parties to cause concern. As the USZ Congress tries to pass the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) under the guise of cybersecurity concerns, the founder of the Web tells the Guardian that the government is going to cause a major Internet collapse impacting the rest of the world.

"[It] is threatening the rights of people in America, and effectively rights everywhere, because what happens in America tends to affect people all over the world,” he says of CISPA. “Even though the SOPA and PIPA acts were stopped by huge public outcry, it's staggering how quickly the USZ government has come back with a new, different, threat to the rights of its citizens." Congress is currently considering several would-be laws, including CISPA, which have caused advocates for an open Internet to rally against them in opposition. Activists are currently in the midst of “Stop Cyber Spying Week” to raise awareness of Washington’s plans for the Web. These protests precede “Cybersecurity Week,” when lawmakers will discuss CISPA and other acts at the Capitol Building.

(RT)

Enticing Fury

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

Blogger blocks PCF's Afghan War Report

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

Yesterday, Pakistan Cyber Force published the Afghan War Report from 18 to 31 March, 2012 detailing the heinous war crimes committed by terrorist invaders and their hireling snake puppets against the Afghan civilians which included burning Qur'an, looting civilian homes, killing minor children as young as 4 at point blank, detaining innocent villagers and destroying their livestock and trees. It also detailed the horrific defeat and deadliest losses being sustained by American Terrorist Invaders and their allied terrorists in Afghan War. Google, CIA's largest web surveillance project so far, however couldn't bear with it and Blogger unpublished the war report automatically. Today our admins logged into the blog only to find the war report automatically reverted to a "draft" and "unpublished" without even a single notice or e-mail detailing some so-called technical reason behind it.

We urge the readers to save this report as PDF and share at other websites in order to make it public knowledge what exactly is happening in Afghanistan. Link to the war report is given below:

• 1363 Terrorist Invaders, 969 Puppets Killed; 127 Tanks, drones + bases + choppers wrecked - Afghan Operation Badar (18 - 31 Mar, 2012)

Enticing Fury

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter

Google Workers Caught ‘Vandalizing’ Open Source Maps

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

High-ranking members of the OpenStreetMap project — an open source mapping project that competes with Google Maps — have claimed that user accounts attached to a range of Google internet addresses in India have been maliciously tampering with its data.

Google said that two people behind the accounts were contractors using machines on Google’s network.

The accusation from OpenStreet Map follows a widely reported incident in which users behind a Google IP address in India were caught scraping data from a Kenyan online business directory called Mocality. Last week, Google apologized for this crime. Then, on Monday evening, Mikel Maron, an OpenStreetMap (OSM) board member, told that users had been vandalizing OpenStreetMap from the same IP address range in India.

Two accounts behind the IP address range of Google had been deleting map data, reversing the direction of one-way streets, and maliciously altering other information since Thursday of last week. After Maron, Coast, and Slater made the accusation, another member of the OSM project, sysadmin Tom Hughes, downplayed the situation in a comment to their blog post. “The board of OSMF are making mountains out of tiny pimples here,” Hughes said. “It seems that they want this to be some sort of organized corporate malfeasance on the part of Google which is why they have tried to link it to the recent Mocality incident where there was indeed clear evidence of such behavior.

“The reality in this case is that there is no evidence that this is any different to the numerous other incidents we get all the time where users either accidentally or deliberately make bogus edits.” In their blog post, Maron, Coast, and Slater said that the project is still examining the user accounts in question in order to locate all malicious edits and that the analysis will take some time.

Much like Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap is a crowd-sourced project, meaning that anyone can edit its data. The project is run by a UK-based non-profit, but it receives money, hardware, and data from Google Maps rivals Microsoft and the AOL-owned MapQuest. Steve Coast, the founder of OSM, is now on the payroll at Microsoft as a member of the team that builds the mobile version of Bing, Microsoft’s search engine.

Maron told that the OSM braintrust noticed the vandalism last Thursday. In a standard procedure used when malicious alterations are suspected, OSM placed a stop on the account the next day, attempting to verify that the user is a real person and that he or she understands the open-source nature of OSM. Maron said that the stop was acknowledged early Monday — and that the user then continued to vandalize mapping data. Maron said that this was caught within a few hours, and that the system administrator then noticed that the user’s IP address was in the same range as the address Mocality had identified.

Mocality, an outfit that relies on similar crowd-sourcing, accused Google of scraping its data and lying to customers about its relationship with Mocality. Mocality said that at least some of the scraping came from a Google IP address in India, and Google later apologized and said it was investigating.

According to Maron, OSM found that over the past year, the open source project was accessed at least 102 thousand times from at least 17 accounts attached to this same IP address range. In earlier years, like Microsoft and MapQuest, Google officially contributed data to the OSM project, and it has sponsored OSM’s annual conference. But it has not officially supplied data since June.

Faraan Khan

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter