According to the affidavit, the investigation included the co-operation of authorities in Canada, France and Germany.
As for code, the LOIC DDoS software believed to be used by Operation Anonymous remain available on the social code site Github and on SourceForge. Thousands of people have downloaded it from those sites. The software allegedly makes it easy for a user to donate their computer's bandwidth to repeatedly messaging a target server until it is rendered inaccessible by other users.
The ephemeral group Anonymous, or Operation Payback, co-ordinated a series of such attacks earlier this month against Paypal, Mastercard, Visa and others. These global leaders in money transfer were criticized for preventing their customers from donating money to the controversial website Wikileaks, despite the site having been convicted of no crimes.
Clearly a sufficient number of people in the FBI believe the denial of service attacks may constitute felony-level damage to computer systems, but others have argued that the campaign falls broadly within the tradition of non-violent civil disobedience and political protest.
FBI Agent Allyn Lynd, whom The Smoking Gun reports signed the affidavit, has been in the technology news media before. He lead a 2009 raid on at least two Texas web hosts over an alleged federal crime concerning unpaid bills to AT&T and Verizon. Those raids disrupted a number of co-located but unrelated businesses, including some that allege the disruption cost them millions of dollars.
In this latest affidavit, Lynd argued again that he may need to disrupt some other servers temporarily in order to achieve his goal of determining which servers were relevant to his investigation. Due to the document's incomplete publication, whether any sense of irony was appreciated is unclear.
No information has been made available to date regarding any FBI or other law enforcement investigation of the denial of service and other technical attacks made against the Wikileaks website.
Paying for Android apps is easier for AT&T users as the operator is adding carrier billing for its Android device owners. Users who find an app they like in Android Market will have the option of having the software purchase tacked on to their monthly bill, rather than go through Google Checkout. The update brings a much needed payment alternative to Android Market and hopefully points the way to carrier billing support from all carriers soon.
Right now, a lot of people don’t buy apps from Android Market because they’re limited to Google Checkout. Besides being flaky for some users, Google Checkout requires new users to enter in their credit card information. It’s a step that turns people off and has been hurting paid downloads on Android Market compared to iTunes, where many users already have their credit card on file with Apple.
What people really want is to just add purchases to their carrier bill. A new Strategy Analytics survey found that 38 percent of consumers prefer carrier billing more than pre-registered accounts like iTunes and PayPal, which are tied for 31 percent. Credit or debit card entry is favored by 22 percent of users.
This is important for Android and its ecosystem of developers. Options like PayPal are also welcome but the easiest thing to do for a consumer is just tack it on to their bill. T-Mobile has previously supported this and Sprint announced last year that it would, though it hasn’t followed through. Verizon Wireless supports carrier billing for app downloads in its VCast App store but there’s no word when it will be come to Android Market. Google’s Eric Chu said Google will continue to partner with more carriers on carrier billing so hopefully we’ll see Sprint and Verizon at some point soon.
Overall, it’s another sign that Google is making significant efforts to address some of the problems in Android Market. Recently, Google overhauled the look of the Android Market, making it easier for people to browse content using more categories and additional tools such as finding related apps. For developers, Google has upped the size of apps to 50MB, reduced the refund window to 15 minutes and earlier this year, opened up sales overseas to more countries. There’s still more to be done. I’ve asked about that promised online Android Market storefront. But gradually, Google is getting the picture. Android developers need to be able to make money and giving them tools to do that will help the entire ecosystem flourish. Mobile ads and in-app purchases are important monetization pieces but paid downloads are key for many developers looking for a return on their work. Expanded carrier billing could be an essential piece in helping Android developers close the revenue gap on their iOS counterparts.
Related research from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):
- Why Google Launched App Inventor
- Is Amazon the New Self-Publish Kingpin?
- Why Carriers Still Hold the Key to Handset Sales
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Windows Phone Marketplace hits 5000 Apps and is Cracked
There's been good news and bad for Microsoft this week. The good news is that the number of apps available in the new Windows Phone marketplace has been growing steadily since October and has now passed the 5000 mark. ...
Fox <b>News</b>, Hypocrisy, And “Politically Correct” Journalism
My earlier post about Megyn Kelly's absurd equation of illegal immigration and rape in a discussion about changes to the Associated Press Style Guide.
Good <b>news</b>: School officials destroy girl's college plans over <b>...</b>
Good news: School officials destroy girl's college plans over knife mix-up.
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