NSA, GCHQ Spying On Angry Birds And Lots Of Phone Apps: Time For Mobile Security To Up Its Game

from the game-over dept

Having already "infiltrated" online games like Second Life and World of Warcraft, it appears that the NSA and GCHQ are also busy playing Angry Birds, Candy Crush and pretty much any other popular mobile app as well, as they've learned that such mobile apps are incredibly "leaky" when it comes to revealing information about who you are, what you do and where you are. In a new report based on Snowden documents, ProPublica, the NY Times and the Guardian all have stories about how deeply the US and UK intelligence agencies can dig into your mobile phone to collect just about anything they want on you. And, as usual, they appear somewhat gleeful about the whole thing, as one slide in a presentation talks about "the golden nugget!" in discussing how they can pull so much information: Another set of slides, talking about how much information can be obtained from various mobile platforms, suggests that GCHQ and NSA can basically get just about anything from anyone. Take, for example, this slide about what they can get from an Android phone: Yeah: "If its on the phone, we think we can get it." (Grammar nazis will note the misused "its" there, but everyone else will be concerned about the implications here). Similarly things like "NOSEY SMURF" suggest the ability to turn on the phone's microphone to automatically tap anyone with a phone from anywhere.

Of course, a big part of the issue here is the lack of concern or focus on encrypting and securing mobile apps and data. While there's been increasing talk about encrypting everything on the web, the main focus has been on the desktop. And while there are things like VPNs and security for mobile phones, it's been much less of a priority for many. That needs to change.

In talking about the NSA issue with a variety of startups lately, it's been somewhat depressing to hear more than a few suggest that they were unwilling to speak up, because they were afraid it would shine more of a light on how weak their own privacy and data protection efforts have been. I've told multiple companies that the proper response to this is not to stay quiet but to fix your own data management in order to protect your users. Because sooner or later, people were going to find out about leaky data like this one way or the other.

At this point, it's clear that the NSA, GCHQ and others will seek out and collect any data they can. That makes it imperative for pretty much everyone creating any app that collects any data -- even for something as simple as a game like Angry Birds -- to learn how to properly protect that data and to protect their users. This goes for both small companies and large ones. For example, the reports show the NSA and GCHQ salivating over all of the information that Google Maps provides. Google has been taking a stand that says they're serious about protecting their users' data. If the company is serious about that it should take the lead in making phones much more secure from simple and easy tracking, as is detailed in these documents.

Filed Under: angry birds, encryption, gchq, mobile apps, mobile phones, nsa, security, surveillance

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.

Filed Under: angry birds, flame, lua, malware, news
Companies: fox news

Angry Birds CEO Explains How The Company Embraces Piracy

from the not-so-bad-for-the-business dept

I was in the audience to see Eliot van Buskirk interview Rovio's CEO, Mikael Hed, on Monday morning at Midem, but with so much going on at the conference (and then traveling), I'm finally getting a chance to write it up. Hed made a point of telling music industry execs that not only was the music industry's approach to piracy entirely wrong, he believed Rovio's approach was much smarter: embracing the piracy. I'd heard that Hed made it a special point to make sure that the interview included a discussion on piracy -- and brought it up two separate times during the interview -- saying that the company was basically doing exactly the opposite of the music industry:

"We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy."

He explained how the important thing for the future of Angry Birds was to keep building "fans" and that piracy can actually help with that. He noted that they were "embracing" pirates where they could, recognizing that it could help the company get more fans. Later, he noted that if there's too much piracy, it's the company's own fault for not providing access to the game in a convenient enough manner. His comments went even further than the comments from his colleague Peter Vesterbacka a few months ago about how the company used counterfeiting as market research to figure out where to invest.

Either way, it seems clear that Rovio has taken to heart many of the points that we've discussed here about proactive ways to deal with piracy: by recognizing that it's an opportunity, not a threat.

Filed Under: angry birds, business models, embracing, mikael hed, piracy
Companies: rovio

Angry Birds CEO At Peace With Chinese Counterfeit Merchandise

from the don't-get-mad-get-glad dept

Recently, Rovio CEO, Peter Vesterbacka attended the Disrupt conference in Beijing. At that conference he walked on stage clutching a bunch of counterfeit Angry Birds balloons. However, he was not angry. He was actually happy. Why is this? Because it showed him that his game is hugely popular in China.

Vesterbacka said that the increase in counterfeit merchandise has influenced Rovio's retail strategy:

There are a lot of Angry Birds products out there, but most of them aren't officially licensed. Angry Birds is now the most copied brand in China, and we get a lot of inspiration from local producers.

Right now, we've proven that there's demand, and we're going for 100 million downloads this year for Angry Birds, and again the same demand for the physical products.

The way we look at it is, of course we want to sell the officially licensed, good quality products, but at the same time we have to be happy about the fact that the brand is so loved that it is the most copied brand in China.

It's great for us to see the demand, and that's why we're building our own stores here. And actually we're building our first stores here, and not in Helsinki... We hope to have quite a few over the next 12 months.

This line of thinking really flies in the face of most content producers. While other companies are ranting, raving and trying to legislate counterfeiting out of existence, Rovio is working to compete against counterfeiters on their home turf. It recognizes that those who buy counterfeits do so because of an unavailability of the real thing. By bringing authentic merchandise to China, Rovio is hoping to increase its revenue and capture a market that is based around its properties. Not only that, but he even admits that Rovio is learning from those counterfeits, and getting "inspiration." It's a form of free market research, so that Rovio can understand ahead of time what consumers want... for free.

There's no reason why this will not work. The Chinese people want Angry Birds merchandise. Rovio is providing said merchandise. That is pure supply and demand at work. It's crazy that many other companies do not get that pure and simple lesson. Perhaps it's time for the CEOs and boards of directors of other companies to take a note from the Rovio playbook and put it into action. They might find a world that doesn't need poorly written legislation like PROTECT-IP/E-PARASITE or secret treaties like ACTA, but rather companies who listen to fans and provide them the goods and services they desire.

Filed Under: angry birds, china, counterfeits, peter vesterbacka
Companies: rovio

No, Angry Birds Is Not Costing $1.5 Billion In Lost Productivity

from the can-we-get-the-mighty-eagle-to-smash-this-ridiculousness? dept

Every so often we hear various stories about how this or that online "thing" is "costing $x billions in lost productivity." For years it was "personal surfing" at work was costing billions. Then things like March Madness. Or even just "keeping up with the data stream." The latest killer of productivity? You guessed it. It's Angry Birds. Prisoner 201 sent in the news that people are now calculating the lost productivity from Angry Birds. Of course, in the past, most of these stories tended to come from companies (conveniently) selling filtering software. This time it just seems like some reporters looking for a story.

But, of course, this is ridiculous. While I have no doubt that there are some people who get sucked into playing Angry Birds and don't get their work done, that's an issue for that employer and that employee. It's not Angry Birds causing the lack of productivity. It's the employee. The bigger issue, of course, is the basic assumption here that hours equals productivity. If so, you could equally argue that commuting and sleeping are massive killers of productivity, because that's also time that is spent not working. While it does depend on the type of job, many jobs do not involve a constant level of productivity. In fact, many jobs have ebbs and flows of productivity, and that's a good thing. Letting someone play Angry Birds to clear their mind for a bit could, conceivably be good for productivity. What if they're struggling with a hard problem and working on it just isn't getting anything done... but taking a break and starting again clears things up?

Considering that other studies have shown that trusting your employees to do their jobs creates happier, more loyal and more productive workforces, perhaps we shouldn't be so worried about people playing Angry Birds, rather than going out for a smoke or hanging out at the water cooler. If they get their job done, they're productive.

Filed Under: angry birds, productivity

Lodsys Strikes Again: Sues Rovio For Patent Infringement Over Angry Birds

from the where-does-the-mighty-eagle-stand-on-patents? dept

You almost have to wonder if Lodsys is filing its patent infringement lawsuits solely to demonstrate how ridiculous the system is. Its latest lawsuit is against Rovio, the makers of the nearly ubiquitous destroyer-of-productivity game Angry Birds. One hopes that Rovio, with the many millions of dollars its raised recently, can afford one mighty eagle of a lawyer, and perhaps it can show Lodsys what happens to pigs with bogus patents.

Filed Under: angry birds, apps, patents
Companies: lodsys, rovio