This Is Reporting? Fox News Ties Flame Malware To Angry Birds Because Both Use Lua
from the wow dept
We're often told that the big media companies need to be saved because of all the important expensive reporting work they do. And then we see something absolutely ridiculous, such as Fox News linking the infamous Flame malware to Angry Birds... because both use the Lua computing language (found via Slashdot):
This is, of course, a complete pointless linkage, which seems to serve no purpose whatsoever, other than (perhaps) to attract the attention of those who are obsessed with Angry Birds (an admittedly large group of people). But just because two programs are written in the same language, it doesn't mean... well, it doesn't mean anything of importance whatsoever. Instead, it just seems like Fox News and its "Chief Intelligence Correspondent" Catherine Herridge needed to fill some space and came up with something entirely pointless. But, you know, we need those big professional news companies because of deep, hard-hitting stories like this one.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: angry birds, flame, lua, malware, news
Companies: fox news
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
"Controversial 'Mein Kampf' book tied to Erich Kaestner children's stories".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It's A Legitimate Point
This is why I love Fox News. They ask the tricky questions that nobody else dares to contemplate! You're site could learn something from them, Mike!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
LMAO @ Pirate Mike! Priceless. Mike, who does nothing but post pointless nonsense (including this very article) whining about others doing the same. Too funny. Nobody's coming to TechTurd for "hard-hitting stories" either, Pirate Mike. You're all surface and no depth. I love it--the guy who runs one of the most idiotic, whiny blogs on the 'net is upset at other people's fluff pieces. Awesome!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Literal-Minded Here
Really, that's what I feel like doing right now, only minus the wall with my desk.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: It's A Legitimate Point
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Keeps you occupied, doesn't he? He provides something that you state, categorically, "I love it" and "Awesome".
High praise indeed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Well, at least they didn't try to "sex it up", like during sweeps...
For most people, this is a non-story and thus it has to use "Angry Birds" to get anyone to pay attention at all. I'm kind of surprised that they didn't use "World of Warcraft", as their user modifications are written in the same language. Oh, my god...
Tomorrows News Today: "Flame" virus writers practiced writing virus code with "World of Warcraft"! (Film at 11.)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
To be clear, you are doing what you're ridiculing Mike of. And you do it much more often than would be considered acceptable and much more often than Mike. But in your eyes pointing out problems with laws and overreaching and whatnot is considered whining. Which is hilarious considering it would be just whining, if Mike also didn't point out how they can do better and offer suggestions on exactly that.
Whiny Troll is whiny. That's your new nickname, Whiny Troll. You are no longer just a troll. Guys let's all start calling him this and flagging his ad hom comments (since that's all they ever are).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Flame
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Flame
;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Exclusive...read it here first.
*GASP*
I bet you will all be thinking twice now!
(hardly)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
That's what Faux News does 24/7. You just summed up the entire news channel in one sentence.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Not just FOX but all the others as well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Your link doesn't link to the entire article so I'm not exactly sure if the article does say anything suspect but from the picture the article only seems to say that the language that was used to write this 'cyberweapon' was the same language used to write Angry Birds. OK, so the title maybe a bit confusing, even misleading, but anyone who reads the article will quickly find it's just a title to grab attention. It's not like Techdirt (and every blog and newspaper) has never made somewhat catchy titles that are somewhat confusing and hyperbole and most don't fault much you for it (well, except the trolls, though I admit that I have looked at some of the Techdirt titles with confusion after reading the article and I may have complained about it before but it's really no big deal). It seems like the confusion is cleared upon reading the article.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: It's A Legitimate Point
Everything should be written in Microsoft visual basic!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
help with a witty comment.
Flame Malware was written in LUA.
F-Secure couldn't detect Flame.
Script kiddies: 1 ... AV companies: 0
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Pathetic.
And I'm not sure if I'm talking about Fox News, you, or both right now.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
/so what's this sarc mark look like anyway... :-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
It's funny, because the ones that DON'T claim to be news is where you find the real news.
Jon Stewart
Stephen Colbert
Bill Maher
All three are comedians first and reporters second.
Sad thing is, they're far more reliable than traditional media.
Mostly because they call out both sides for their stupidity.
I remember when Stewart was yelling at Democrats for being p**sies and the Republicans for being ***holes.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Forgot to say
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
IF you were intelligent, you'd have seen it but alas, your vision is obscured by a grade school analysis.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Feed the troll nom, nom, nom.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
The headline falsely proclaims a connection where NONE exists. As in my comment up above, Fox News might as well have a headline showing the connection between Mein Kamp and Erich Kaestner because both are written in German. It's a meaningless headline that is entirely unrelated to the article.
As for Mike making a non-story, I have to disagree with you there. If no-one ever bothered to tell me that Fox News is actually Faux News, I wouldn't know about it. So kudos to Mike for letting us know. Keep on reporting that Fox News is full of crap! Let us hold on to hope that someday Fox News will actually live up to its catchprase of "Fair and Balanced".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Exclusive...read it here first.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Oh the bird jokes this lady will have to endure may be punishment enough.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
Balancing "crazy and extreme" with reasonable ( to be "fair" )
Two online news shows with sense....
NOT to BALANCE (aSide +999999) & (bSide-1) as being equally opposite.
TYT AND The Alyona Show
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
grow up
FYI; if you're using Colbert, Maher, or Stewart for your news YOU'RE a comedian and with the exception of Stewart neither you or them is even funny. You'll understand this better when dragged into the "Deathly Hollow" called 'maturity', kicking and screaming no doubt..
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It's stories like this that cause some people (including Fox News viewers) to score WORSE then those who don't watch any news when asked about current events.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pity
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
NOOOOOOOO!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
I'll Ring you.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
And speaking of that...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Fox News
Military Intelligence
pianoforte
Living Dead
Honest Government
Open Secret
---
You get the picture.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/30/powerful-flame-cyberweapon-tied-to-powerfully -angry-birds/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: grow up
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ohh hog wash
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Next up
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: grow up
I really can't someone like you seriously. The kind of 'maturity' that you're emphasizing is nothing more than a hallowed out, empty shell of an existence that leads one to drinking nothing but beer and eating greasy foods, getting fatter and fatter, forcing the obesity problem to get worse and more and more stupid laws to get passed simply because your life isn't worth living.
Well, here's a little news flash for you, sad sack...
Maturity is what you make of it. Whenever a parent says "act your age" to their child, they really mean "act twice as old as you really are".
A truly mature person is someone who takes responsibility for their actions.
That's all it really is. That and being able to read a situation and act accordingly, but that's rather minor compared to being able to take responsibility for your actions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ONLY THE L IS CAPITALIZED
http://www.lua.org/about.html
[ link to this | view in thread ]
So FoxNes = Just About Every Anti-Virus Software Out There.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: ONLY THE L IS CAPITALIZED
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
FTFY
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
You're right, of course. This site is just a honey-pot for trolls.
techdirt: We keep trolls busy. You're welcome internet!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It's absurd
Wait, bad example...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
LUA is favored by game programmers because it’s easy to use and easy to embed. Flame is described as enormously powerful and large, containing some 250,000 lines of code, making it far larger than other such cyberweapons. Yet it was built with gamer code, said Cedric Leighton, a retired Air Force Intelligence officer who now consults in the national security arena.
“The people who developed the malware … found an ingenious way to use a code not part and parcel of a hacker’s normal arsenal, and that made it harder to detect,” he told Fox News.
"Easy to use and easy to embed", this looks like straight up journalistic writing, with a point of reference that the novice would understand.
So why the Anti Fox News baiting Mike?
Oh that's right Rupert Murdock is the master of the evil empire.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
There, fixed that for you.
I'll even give you CC license for it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Fox News
Fox News - full of Morons using up my oxygen!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
LOLOLUA
I'm a game developer who uses Lua in my game engine. Guess I'll have to remove it in order to be able to market to Fox News viewers.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
This whole Fox News story just chilled me all the way to my IT bones. How in the hell can they even get away with reporting like that?
As a network administrator and programmer that has been in the industry for over 15 years, I can say that allowing a news station to get away with making such an outlandish comparison just for ratings is dirty journalism at best.
They are blatantly trying to misdirect any education about the IT world to people that need to understand it the most.
I can't wait till this technology ignorant generation dies off.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Being an Australian I actually agree with this statement, in reference to his business practices, lack of ethics and narcissistic personality. Interestingly so do nearly all other Australians who actually have worked for, known, or encountered Rupert and his family when he was an Aussie citizen..
Fox News is just a small part of an extremely vast egotistic empire that happily is finally beginning to crumble and self implode.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Much like acids and bases, the combination of the two means brain cells explode.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This just in!
Coincidence? I think not.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Also, this just in - innocent peoples DNA uses same code as criminals.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
That article is a great example of "anti-news": a reader is actually left less informed for having read it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Mentioning Angry Birds is completely baffling to me. Pointing out the two things were written in the same language is relevant to exactly nothing, and clarifies nothing. For people who don't know anything about programming, it's even worse in that it encourages people to think the there is some kind of meaningful link between the two.
So? Lua is one of a number of languages that are preferred by game programmers because it's easy to use and embed.
I have no idea why the article spends any time on how large Flame is, and even measure it according to number of lines of code, which is a meaningless measurement when taken alone. Why is "far larger" relevant? In fact, being far large implies that it might not be terribly sophisticated, as keeping the code small helps to keep it stealthy.
"Gamer code"?? Really?? What does that even mean? It's meaningless bullshit. Ah, but here we see a clue to the real purpose of the article: this quote comes from a "national security consultant" which means that the more frightened people are, the more money he makes. This article is an advertisement, not news.
This is more meaningless bullshit, and that it was written in Lua does not impact its difficulty to detect.
This is not journalism at all, even in the most generous meaning of the term. This is a press release from a for-profit security firm that markets to the government and major corporations.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
When writing this, I was remembering the "Kitchen Chemistry 101" lesson given to us students decades ago about mixing chlorine with ammonia.
I guess brain cells don't explode in that context, but they sure do end up dead.
Thanks for the reminder. Perhaps this is why I didn't pass Chem the first time around (or the second, and barely the third).
Ugh. I'm reminding myself why I hate Chemistry.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
I'm terribly sorry for yelling.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: It's absurd
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
[Byline]DNA builds criminality into humans.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: grow up
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: ONLY THE L IS CAPITALIZED
I have not seen one story about this item that actually spelled it right.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Exclusive...read it here first.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This is surprising?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Have you ever watched Fox "news"
More like... Fox, news entertainment.
The same man that likes to "shape agendas" at least they tried, supporting the Bush policy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K2pLo8JV5Y
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: grow up
Why not give something RELEVANT to relate to? They might as well just say "Flame was created by a person, and so was Angry Birds!" What they've done is less informative and more irresponsible journalism than if they'd given no comparison at all.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"WE ARE LEGIOoooooooooN !"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y6H_dDTisg
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wonder how many of them might be aware of google ownership?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Fox News Tied to Child Porn ... Both Use Video
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
OMG
Sources say apparently most documents related to criminal activity produced during the past thousand or so years have relied on the letters a through z.
Sources say this link proves that the entire alphabet along with written and spoken language must be banned to stop piracy/terrorists/for the children......
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
ergo:
Right handed fox pundits = mental mastubator's
left handed fox pundits = bottom wipers
:) :) :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Catherine Herridge is just trying to make a living
Give her a break, she is just too uneducated to understand that all Windows/PC viruses, trojans, and other malware is all executed on the Intel x86 instruction set. Obviously, Intel is the sponsor and enabler of all the world's ill.
If she was really up to her task of a true muckraker, she would be camping out at Santa Clara, demanding to speak to Paul Otellini to get to the bottom of this fiendish scheme.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: It's A Legitimate Point
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]