WebProNews » Verisign

Microsoft IE Hole Used in Google China Attacks

Chris Crum — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:01:21 +0000

Update 3: Now the State Department is quoted as saying it will issue a formal "demarche" to the Chinese government. From the Register:

"We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early next week," US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday. "It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation of how it happened and what they plan to do about it."

Update 2: On a related note, while various sources the U.S. government is backing Google’s decision, Voice of America reports:

The top American official in China says the U.S. government will stay out of negotiations between Internet giant Google and the Chinese government. At the same time, though, he stressed that the issue of Internet freedom is related to free speech, which is a core American value.

…

He said the U.S. government sees the American company’s negotiations with China as a business matter and therefore will not get involved.

Update:

According to multiple sources, the attacks exploited a new security hole in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Microsoft is working with Google and other partners o patch the hole. The attackers called the attacks "Operation Aurora", according to McAfee.

Original Artilcle: There has been a lot of confusion and mixed reporting going on around this whole Google China situation. Verisign, whose iDefense team who has researched the attacks took note of this and put up a blog post trying to clear the air. Read that to get a clear summarization of what the firm knows. Within that, Verisign says:

The attack bears significant resemblance to a July 2009 attack in which attackers launched targeted e-mail campaigns against approximately 100 IT-focused companies. The July attack employed a PDF file that exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Reader. The malware associated with the summer attacks communicated with Command & Control Servers configured similarly to the Command and Control Servers involved in the Google attacks. In fact, the C&C servers from the Google attacks are within the same subnet and six IP addresses apart from the Command and Control server addresses in the summer attacks.

Considering the similarity of the two attacks, it is likely that the summer attacks and the Google attacks originate from the same actor and that the organizations targeted in the Silicon Valley attacks have been compromised since July. It is not much of a stretch to speculate (This is the speculation part) that both attacks leveraged an Adobe vulnerability although that has not been confirmed and Google is not talking.

According to reports, iDefense declares that the Chinese govenrment was behind the effort, which explains Google’s actions, and the involvement of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said:

We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions. We look to the Chinese government for an explanation. The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy. I will be giving an address next week on the centrality of internet freedom in the 21st century, and we will have further comment on this matter as the facts become clear.

Chinese government officials were quoted by Bloomberg:

"The Chinese government administers the Internet according to law and we have explicit stipulations over what content can be spread on the Internet," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular briefing in Beijing today. Chinese law prohibits hacking and other forms of online attacks, she said, declining to say whether that law also applies to state agencies.

…

"Effective guidance of public opinion on the Internet is an important way of protecting the security of online information," Wang Chen, director of the State Council Information Office, said in a question-and-answer session with reporters, a transcript of which was posted on the office’s Web site today.

Google.cn is still accessible (at least from here in the U.S.), and it is no longer censoring search results. Among the other companies affected by the attacks were Yahoo and Adobe.

Related Articles:

> China Responds To Google Situation

> Baidu’s Stock Soars Following China News

> Google May Quit China

24 Million New Domain Names Added In 2008

Mike Sachoff — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:49:33 +0000

The Internet added 24 million new domain names in 2008, according to the fourth quarter 2008 Domain Name Industry Brief by VeriSign.

The year ended with a total of 177 million domain name registrations across all of the Top Level Domains (TLDs). This represents 16 percent growth over the previous year. In the fourth quarter, more than 10.1 million new domain names were registered across all TLDs.

The five largest TLDs in terms of size were .com, .cn (China), .de (Germany), .net, and .org.

The overall base of .com and .net domain names grew to 90.4 million at the end of 2008. This is a 12 percent increase over the previous year and a one percent increase over the third quarter of 2008.

VeriSign says it is working to provide a way for people of all languages to navigate the Internet. It supports Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) that use local language characters to represent a domain name.

"The potential for internationalized TLDs to enable a universally accessible Internet is promising," said Jill McNabb, vice president, Naming Services at VeriSign.

"But it must be done right. A careless or rushed approach will expose the community to a high risk of failure over technical and business issues. VeriSign is committed to working with ICANN and others to achieve a safe, consistent and ubiquitous user experience, while protecting company brands and their customers around the world."

VeriSign To Divest Some Businesses

Doug Caverly — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:13:02 +0000

A proper track car doesn’t have any unnecessary parts, and to a proper car guy, that means no back seats, no interior trim, and no spare tire. VeriSign is apparently also against the idea of dead weight, as the corporation has announced its plans to divest several businesses.

For whatever’s left, there should be a lot of positive results; after all, it’s the worst-performing branches that are due to be trimmed off. But judging by the number and size of those branches – VeriSign has thus far admitted to having targets “such as communications, billing and commerce” – this comes across as a pretty desperate measure.

In fact, Rafat Ali had something to report that sounded downright scary: “The company said it expects to shut down some of the businesses if buyers aren’t found.” For it to just toss these things away, one can’t help but figure that VeriSign is losing a lot of money on them.

Still, since there have been rumors about this for some time now, the market wasn’t too upset about the development. VeriSign’s stock actually closed up $0.55 (or 1.66 percent) on Wednesday and lost just $.49 today, seemingly demonstrating that weight reduction isn’t just for cars.

VeriSign’s CEO Steps Down

Doug Caverly — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:12:24 +0000

It’s the end of an era at VeriSign – Stratton Sclavos, the company’s CEO, has resigned. “[T]he leading provider of digital infrastructure for the networked world” will now be managed by William A. Roper, Jr.

Why Sclavos stepped down remains unclear, however; an official statement from VeriSign mentions a potential reason – “the review of the company’s historical stock option grant practices by an ad hoc group of independent members of VeriSign’s Board of Directors is substantially completed” – but then goes on to point out that “[t]he review did not find intentional wrongdoing by any current member of senior management, including Sclavos.”

In the end, we may never know. Sclavos is, in any event, staying positive, and has stated, “I want to thank the people of VeriSign for their support and contributions over the past 12 years. I am proud of my role in building VeriSign into the great company it has become, and wish all of my associates the very best in the coming years.”

Sounds like a nice fella, right? No word on any “golden parachutes,” but it seems reasonable to assume that any CEO who’s wisely managed his (or her) money has nothing to worry about.

VeriSign’s stockholders also appear to be in the clear – after an initial dive in value, the company’s shares are now trading near a 52-week high. Yet, from our eBusiness angle, it’ll be interesting to see if Sclavos’s resignation has an effect on domain name prices and his (former) company’s scuffles with ICANN.

Domain Name Prices To Rise (And Keep Rising?)

Doug Caverly — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 21:17:29 +0000

This won’t cause the end of the world, and it probably won’t even drive anyone out of business, but VeriSign is set to raise domain prices by 7-10%. More ominous is the possibility that the prices will, from this point on, continue to increase on a yearly basis. Oh, well – at least the company is being upfront about it.

“VeriSign Announces Increase in .Com/.Net Domain Name Fees,” it declared. “[A]s of Oct. 15, 2007, the registry fee for .com domain names will increase from $6.00 to $6.42 and . . . the registry fee for .net domain names will increase, from $3.50 to $3.85.”

Perhaps to head off those fears about the future, VeriSign also informed readers, “This will be the first registry fee increase for .com and .net since the fee structure was put in place by ICANN in 1999.”

But no one’s feeling too comfortable right now; as Burke Hansen reports, a contract between VeriSign and ICANN may be a cause for worry. It “provided for increases of seven per cent in four of any six years of the agreement,” he writes.

“However, the deal also provides that in any year when the seven per cent rate increase clause is not exercised . . . Verisign will still be able to raise its prices by seven per cent that year if any of several contingencies are met, such as a ‘threat of attack on the Security or Stability of the DNS’” – whatever that might be.

Even a one-time-only price hike itself will bring a flood of cash to VeriSign’s doors, with Michael Arrington putting the amount at $27 million per year. “It’s good to be a monopoly,” the TechCrunch guru concluded.

To sum up: it looks like VeriSign may be poised to screw a lot of people out of a lot of money. But if it helps, and if VeriSign’s most recent press release is a good indicator, the company will be pretty open about its actions.

Adobe, Verisign, FMS and P2P

Stefan Richter — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:14:50 +0000

If you are on the ball when it comes to Flash Video then youre likely to have seen the press release that made the rounds in the last few days.

First I wasn’t sure if it was even blog-worthy but the discussions and deciphering of the contents of the release are now in full swing, both on the Flash Media List as well as in other places.

For example it is not clear what they mean by ‘integrate future versions of next generation media technologies leveraging VeriSign’s Kontiki peer-to-peer technology and Adobe’s award winning Flash Video software’.

Flash Video software? What’s that? The Flash Player? Flash? FMS? All of it?

But that aside there appears to be some excitement surrounding this announcement.

I am simply glad to see an Adobe press release which mentions Flash Media Server so clearly.

The bottom line of the statement is that Adobe will be integrating FMS into Verisign’s Kontiki peer-to-peer technology. Wow!

While CDN delivery of Flash video is nothing new, the Kontiki technology seems to be a different beast, some sort of P2P based CDN.

I make no secret that I do not fully grasp the implications of this but some folks have already mentioned that this could open the door for Flash Video based DRM mechanisms.

P2P technology also seems to be a good foundation to turn the internet into a broadcast capable medium.

No doubt Adobe is keeping its cards to its chest but the Flash Video train is definitely moving full steam ahead. Jump on it while you can.

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Stefan is a certified Flash Developer who has been involved with Flash Media
Server since its very early days. From his home office in the UK he has
handled a variety of projects, specializing in Flash Video and Rich Internet
Applications for clients that include CNET, USA Network and Unilever. Stefan
is the author of a series of Adobe Developer Center articles, has spoken at
several industry events and contributes a regular column on Flash Video to
Streaming Media Magazine. His site www.flashcomguru.com is one of the
largest online resources on Flash Video.

News Corp Buys VeriSign Subsidiary

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:33:37 +0000

News Corp. and VeriSign announced this week their plans to form the world’s largest provider of mobile entertainment. News Corp. will pay approximately $188 million for a controlling interest in VeriSign’s wholly-owned Jamba subsidiary and will combine it with Fox Mobile Entertainment assets.

The companies say the merger will reach 30 territories with a reach of over a billion mobile subscribers. The newly formed company will retain the US Jamster brand and the worldwide Jamba brand. Lucy Hood, formerly President of Fox Mobile Entertainment, will become CEO of the joint venture.

“This is an important step in News Corp.’s strategy of becoming the world’s leading digital media company,” said Peter Chernin, News Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer.

“We’re the most powerful media company on the web with Fox Interactive Media, our aggressive digital content deals have given consumers access to News Corp. programming on every conceivable platform and we have already demonstrated innovation in this emerging space with the Mobisode and Mobizzo.”

Six-year-old Jamba caught News Corp.’s eye for not only the reach of the company but also for what News Corp. called the industry’s most advanced platforms for distributing content.

The new Jamba will aggregation and distribute original content made exclusively for mobile. Jamba partners include Universal Music Group and Warner Music.

Jamba will integrate Fox properties and content into two products:

MySpace Mobile Store: In an alliance with MySpace, Jamba an m-commerce engine to enable MySpace users to download ringtones, graphics and animations from top music and media companies.

The Simpsons Mobile: Jamba will offer mobile content from via subscription to the popular FOX series, The Simpsons, including wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones and video.

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The transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of 2006.

Verisign and eBay Use VIMN for Mobile SMS

StraightUpSearch — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 13:52:01 +0000

It seems that there are more features, services, websites and applications available on mobile devices every month.

With the rapid advances being made in this market, I guess it was only a matter of time before eBay joined the crowd.

Your typical eBay users are a vigilant group. It was probably inevitable that they would demand the ability to manage their bids on the go.

Anticipating this need, VeriSign and eBay announced an agreement that will allow eBayers to use VeriSign’s Intelligent Messaging Network (VIMN) to receive mobile short message service (SMS) alerts, similar to a typical text message, containing important auction information.

These messages will notify a user, actively bidding on an eBay auction, if they are either out-bid on an item or if an auction is nearing the end.

Dedicated users will now be able to take eBay with them wherever they go and be able to manage their bids from any location.

Best of all, they will also have the ability to adjust their bids and receive top-bid notifications all from the convenience of their cell phone.

Just imagine the heartache that will now be avoided. I pity the fool that loses those gold chains originally owned, and worn, by Mr. T to someone bidding $1 more simply because they were out grocery shopping or picking the kids up from daycare.

Thanks to VeriSign and eBay this nightmare will never need to occur.

VeriSign’s VIMN service will eventually be available across all major domestic wireless networks in the United States and interested eBay enthusiasts can learn more at eBay.

As significant as this is, it is just the latest in a series of mobile advances, many of which have been highlighted right here at StraightUpSearch:

Who’s Going Mobile? – 4-13-06

One Small Step for PayPal, One Giant Leap for Mobile Commerce – 3-9-06

Haunted By A Super Bowl Ad – 2-20-06

The Whole Weird Wireless World – Mobile Search’s Future Is Now – 2-3-06

Mobile Search: Coming to a Screen near You – 1-10-06

Turn Signals, Window Wipers & Touch Screens: Mobile Search Fuels Up for the Long Haul – 11-9-05

Tiny Screen, Big Opportunity: Mobile Search Today – 11-7-05

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Oneupweb is the only two-time winner of the ClickZ award for “Best Search Engine Engine Marketing Firm”. StraightUpSearchs blog authors include experts from Oneupwebs natural SEO, pay-per-click campaign management, research, marketing, design, and sales departments.

VeriSign Teams With eBay For SMS Alerts

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:49:46 +0000

For eBay auction bidders tired of losing out to last-minute snipers whilst running errands (or whatever may pull your attention from the computer), VeriSign and eBay announced an agreement to deliver mobile alerts via SMS from VeriSign’s Intelligent Messaging Network (VIMN).

VeriSign’s network, which delivers some 3 billion SMS messages per month, will allow eBayers to monitor items during “crucial end-of-listing periods” and receive outbid notifications on the run.

“These time-critical mobile alerts can improve response time to listings that are ending soon,” said Eric Shoup, group product manager, eBay Wireless.

“By using VeriSign’s Intelligent Messaging Network to deliver mobile alerts, our customers can enhance their experience by having key bidding information regardless of location and device.”

eBayers can register for the outbid alerts and end-of-auction alerts on the eBay.com website. The system also allows re-bidding from mobile handsets, complete with highest bid confirmation. Bill Wolfe, senior vice president for VeriSign Communications Services called the service a “loyalty-building experience.”

The VIMN service will be available across all major domestic wireless operators in the United States. For those extra-competitive eBayers who need more vigilant sniping services, just google [ebay sniping] for a complete list of sniper-bot offerings.

News of the partnership may have been overshadowed by eBay’s announcement last week of a slew of new API offerings for webmasters and developers interested in expanding product listings and widgets beyond eBay.com.

That news followed the previous weeks’ bombshells that include an expansive relationship with Yahoo! to expand its search presence while incorporating Yahoo! search advertising into eBay.com itself.

In addition, eBay has added “Skype Me” icons to its auctioneer offerings to link up sellers and buyers via voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) connections. The company also announced the launch of eBay member blogs and wikis to add to product and seller information offerings.

Shares of eBay are up as of 2:30 PM EST to $30.37 (+0.30%) while VeriSign stocks are down 0.95% to $21.84.

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VeriSign Delivers One Key for the Internet

StraightUpSearch — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:46:14 +0000

According to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft affects roughly 10 million Americans each year.

Cybercrooks are finding creative ways to circumvent spyware programs, and are now even joining forces to increase the spread of spam, viruses and other malware for profit. These online vandals cause millions of people around the country to vacillate before participating in e-commerce transactions. Financial institutions, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and e-merchants are currently faced with the challenge of implementing effective, cost-efficient and usable customer authentication programs. But VeriSign may have the answer.

VeriSign recently launched a new authentication program which uses one device to authenticate users at various network affiliates on the Web. The VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) service gives you one device to use across Paypal, eBay, Yahoo, to log into your bank online, or even buy stock online. Nico Popp, vice president of authentication services at VeriSign, describes the new service as giving users “one key for the Internet.” The VIP network, which allows users authenticate themselves all over the Web with one device, is being strongly supported by Yahoo, PayPal and ebay, which are estimated to have 250 million active users. Not only is VIP giving these users one more tool to protect themselves from identity theft, it’s providing a way for ISPs, financial institutions, and e-merchants to use existing solutions to implement customer authentication in a simple, cost-effective way.

The simplicity comes with outsourcing the complexity of an authentication program to VeriSign. With VIP, VeriSign will provide all the service required, including hardware and life cycle management, as well as consumer fulfillment and first line support. VeriSign’s vision is to make VIP the most effective method to guarantee the growth of e-commerce by protecting users from malicious attacks. As this shared network expands to more and more members, e-commerce customers will likely expand along with it. Advanced customer authentication programs, such as VIP, will result in the emergence of millions of potential customers into the e-commerce industry. More than ever, being seen in search engine results will prove to be a crucial step toward maximizing attainable revenue as customers begin to feel more comfortable shopping online.