A pile of PlayStation games was found in the wreckage of a building adjacent to a house hit by a NATO missile in Tripoli over the weekend, according to news reports.
“The walls of an adjacent building were partly destroyed,” The Washington Post’s Simon Denyer and Leila Fadel reported.
“In one room, a television was still turned on, and a pile of PlayStation games lay on a sofa, including Modern Warfare 2 and Fifa Soccer 10. A pair of Homer Simpson slippers was half buried in the dust,” they wrote.
On Apr. 27, PC Mag.com reported on a Microsoft warning that the counterterrorism computer game invited phishing attacks, which enable a hacker to acquire usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information by masquerading as a trustworthy source in an e-mail or other electronic communication.
"Users may receive potential phishing attempts via title specific messaging while playing Modern Warfare 2. We are aware of the problem and are working to resolve the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience," Microsoft wrote on the Xbox Support page, according to PC Mag.com.
The vulnerability has been known for some time, PC Mag also reported, citing one game at the Xbox forum.
"MW2 being hacked is old news now and that's Activision's problem,” the game wrote. “And everyone agrees that how it was handled set a standard... Always have a beta for multiplayer.”
Did a spy slip the game into the children’s hands, perhaps planting GPS or other locater software? Implausible, maybe, but anything’s possible in NATO’S increasingly desperate attempt to topple Gadaffi.
In the game, a CIA mistake provokes a surprise Russian attack on the United States.
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1 comment:
This is ridiculous baseless conjecture.
1.)By definition, a phishing attack requires the user to respond to the hacker in order to initiate an outgoing connection that will allow a backdoor to be established. The attack cannot be performed solely on the intruder end.
Some people get fooled cause they are stupid (Nigerian money scam), or the email has been carefully crafted to match some contract or business activity tied directly to the business email account (secret pending contract or something).
It is unlikely that the sons would be stupid enough to click on a link or respond to a request like that in a game account. From the extremely vague PCMag article, there may not even be a technical problem at all, just people dumb enough to voluntarily hand over their CC info to an anonymous request by instant message.
2.)In order to confirm an account belongs to one of Gaddafi's clan, the US would need to get access to Sony's CC info on all their PSN customers (otherwise they would not know who to spear-phish). Its unlikely Sony would give that info up legally and its implausible that the US would have been involved in the recent PSN hacker attack given the resources required to accomplish vs reward. This assumes that the son's even used their personal CC info when registering for the service (also unlikely).
3.)MW2 is the most popular online console game currently. Its hard to find many console owners that DON'T have the game.
4.)The last I heard, Libya's internet was completely shut down. Kinda makes any spear-phishing impossible.
Unless credible reports arise, its a lot more likely that the strikes come as a result of the usual suspects. Satellites, surveillance planes/drones, and paid/unpaid informants.
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