Alibaba.com says may spin off and list HiChina (Reuters)

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Alibaba.com can spin off and list its application in public Internet Service Provider HiChina, the company said on Monday.

He gave no details of the size or structure of tapping the potential in the statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

IFR, a Thomson Reuters reports was published in June, China's largest e-commerce company plans to spin HiChina for a list of the United States to collect over $ 200,000,000 $ 300,000,000.

HiChina provides Internet application services to businesses, including domain registration, hosting, enterprise email systems, Web site creation and management and consulting company in e-commerce.

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh, Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

Hearing Rumors of a Plot, Cities Make Security Presence Known

New York was already on alert for this weekend’s memorial of the Sept. 11 attacks, but amid reports of a bomb plot, security efforts were escalated around the city, including on Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange, as well as in Washington.

Two senior American law enforcement officials said an informer in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region passed word of the plot, intended to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, to American intelligence officers on Wednesday. The informer said two American citizens of Arab ancestry had left Afghanistan, traveled through one or more other countries and reached the United States as recently as last week.

But the informer’s information on the plot was second- or third-hand, another official said. It included only a vague physical description of the two men — one described as 5 feet tall, the other 5-foot-8 — and a first name for one, Suliman, that is common in the Middle East. The tipster also described a third conspirator, but he appeared to have traveled to Europe. “All this information is very, very sketchy,” one of the law enforcement officials said.

While the informer was not specific about targets, officials in both New York and Washington increased scrutiny of bridges and tunnels, long considered potential targets for vehicle bombs.

The increased security came as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. publicly discussed the threat, trying to strike a balance between urging vigilance and preventing panic. “There are specifics — in that sense it was credible,” Mr. Biden said on the ABC News program “Good Morning America,” “but there’s no certitude.”

The increased police presence forced drivers heading toward Manhattan on the Brooklyn Bridge to squeeze into a single lane and through a gantlet of police officers, who walked around and between the cars, singling out some for a closer look. In Lower Manhattan, just a few blocks from ground zero, police vehicles with flashing lights were positioned in front of the former American Stock Exchange building.

“It’s good,” said Wolfgang Klebe, who runs a shipping business in Lower Manhattan, as he watched the officers on Friday morning. “They have to do this.”

More bomb sweeps of parking garages were planned; ferries were to be given extra police coverage; and cars parked illegally were to be towed quickly, not just ticketed.

Officials briefed on the threat offered varying views of how serious it was, and some suggested that the strong reaction from federal and local agencies reflected heightened wariness around the anniversary. The two senior law enforcement officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, were in the skeptical camp.

“It’s 9/11, baby,” one official said.  “We have to have something to get spun up about.” The second official said the reported plot “could all be one big fabrication, but no one wants to take any chances.”

Another official acknowledged that the tip could turn out to be wrong. But the imminent anniversary did not allow much of a window to study its veracity.

“There was no time to sit around and think it over,” the official said. “The appropriate thing to do it is to share the information and provide proper warning.”

In a notebook found in the compound of Osama bin Laden after he was killed in May, the Qaeda leader mused about the possibility of mounting an attack on the 9/11 anniversary, and the police in New York and Washington were already on alert for trouble.

American intelligence analysts said they were examining the possibility that the suspected plot was ordered by Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Bin Laden as Al Qaeda’s leader, and that it was accelerated after an American drone strike last month killed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a Libyan who had taken over as Al Qaeda’s top operational planner.  In their haste to speed up the attack, which may also have been planned to commemorate Mr. Rahman’s death, the plotters may have inadvertently allowed word of the scheme to leak out.

Bits Blog: Google Reaches Settlement on Illegal Ads

10:42 p.m. | Updated

Google will pay $500 million to settle federal government charges that it has knowingly shown illegal ads for fraudulent Canadian pharmacies in the United States, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.

The federal investigation, which was first revealed in May, found that Google was aware that some Canadian pharmacies that advertised on its site failed to require a prescription for substances like the painkiller Oxycontin and the stimulant Ritalin. Google continued to accept their money and assisted the pharmacies in placing ads and improving their Web sites, according to the Justice Department.

Illegal online pharmacies have been a challenge for regulators, because the Internet makes it easy for them to operate under the radar and emerge under different names when they get shut down.

Search engines like Google drive much of the traffic to these sites, say researchers who study online pharmacies. Web sites are liable for advertising that breaks federal criminal law.

Since 2009, when it became aware of the investigation, Google has taken significant steps to chase illegal pharmacies from its site.

“Google does have a responsibility in this regard,” said Susan E. Foster, director of policy research and analysis at Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. “To the extent that they continue to allow ads for illegal pharmacies, they’re aiding and abetting the problem and profiting from it as well.”

In a statement Wednesday, Google said that it banned advertising of prescription drugs in the United States by Canadian pharmacies “some time ago.” The statement continued, “However, it’s obvious with hindsight that we shouldn’t have allowed these ads on Google in the first place.”

In a statement issued by the Justice Department, James M. Cole, a deputy attorney general, said, “This settlement ensures that Google will reform its improper advertising practices with regard to these pharmacies while paying one of the largest financial forfeiture penalties in history.”

The $500 million fine covers both revenue that Google earned from the illegal advertisers and revenue that the rogue Canadian pharmacies received from American customers buying controlled drugs. Google had said in May that the fine decreased its quarterly profit by 22 percent.

Under the settlement, Google also acknowledged that it had improperly aided the rogue pharmacies, and it agreed to strict compliance measures.

The online ad business for health care and pharmaceutical companies is expected to be $1.6 billion this year, up 24 percent from $1.3 billion last year, according to eMarketer, a digital marketing research firm.

Google has been fighting rogue online pharmacies since 2003, and Sheryl Sandberg, former vice president for global online sales at Google and currently the chief operating officer at Facebook, testified before the Senate in 2004 that Google had the problem under control.

According to a former Google executive, who would speak only anonymously because the person was not authorized to discuss the business, said Google did not turn a blind eye to the pharmaceutical advertising, but rather played a game of Whac-A-Mole with the rogue pharmacies.

Over the last two years, Google has made changes to crack down on rogue pharmacy advertisers.

After Google became aware of the investigation, it has required that all Canadian pharmacy advertisers be certified by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association and has specified that they can advertise to Canadian customers only. American pharmacy advertisers must be certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

Google had previously relied on the private firms Square Trade and PharmacyChecker.com to certify pharmacy advertisers, but according to PharmacyChecker.com and the Justice Department, advertisers that never applied nonetheless appeared on Google.

Google has also always monitored ads shown for drug-related keywords, like “painkiller” or “Ritalin.” But Michael Zwibelman, litigation counsel for Google, has described its policing efforts as “an ongoing, escalating cat-and-mouse game.”

“As we and others build new safeguards and guidelines, rogue online pharmacies always try new tactics to get around those protections and illegally sell drugs on the Web,” Mr. Zwibelman wrote in a company blog post last year.

The investigation, which was led by officials from the United States attorney’s office for the District of Rhode Island, headed by Peter Neronha, and the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations, began during an unrelated financial fraud investigation, the Justice Department said.

The target of that inquiry fled to Mexico and began illegally advertising drugs through Google’s AdWords program. After he was apprehended, he began cooperating with the government, which created undercover Web sites to advertise the illegal sale of drugs on Google.

Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, said the settlement showed that the United States government was taking an increasingly active role in regulating the Web. “They’re going out of their way to cut off these bad actors internationally and enlisting U.S. enterprises to help them in that fight,” he said.

Crime targets mobile and social sites

Facebook applications can provide the personal information needed to create a targeted attack

Smart phones and social networks tend to be the next big thing for criminals, according to a report from the securities industry.

Symantec warns annual analysis of the threat that the technologies are increasingly used to spread malicious code.

The users of Facebook, Twitter and Google's mobile operating system, Android, is said to be particularly vulnerable.

However, the number of attacks remains small compared with other online crimes such as phishing e-mail.

According to Symantec, the vulnerabilities of mobile operating steps known from 115 in 2009 to 163 in 2010.

In several cases the vulnerability exploited and used to install malicious software on Android phones – which suggests that criminals are now seeing smartphone hack as a potentially lucrative area.

At least six different variants of malicious programs discovered hidden in the programs were distributed by a Chinese download service.

"It is something we are starting to happen, albeit a small plane," said Orla Cox, security operations manager at Symantec.

"It gives people the opportunity to do some things from the intercept SMS to dial toll numbers. They have opened up the possibility of what is there."

Several malicious programs were also found on the iPhone, but only devices that were "jailbroken" to circumvent Apple's security was affected.

The company's pre-funding review process all new applications are believed to have saved their equipment from a major attack.

Source: Symantec

Facebook and Twitter, said Symantec analyzes different types of threats.

Among the most common was a web link that encourages users to click through to other sites that contain malicious code and malicious software, designed to collect personal information.

The company estimates that one in six links posted on Facebook pages linked to malware.

User information is said to be particularly useful in "social engineering" attacks, where criminals use the knowledge of an individual to cheat in scams that seem to affect them personally.

The report also concern http://tiny.cc/jumqm abbreviated as URL.

Such systems are often used to shorten URLs, but also make it difficult to say what is the landing page. Sixty-five percent of the malware links on social networking sites have been found to use shortened URLs.

Symantec makes its money selling Internet security software and services for individuals and businesses

His yearly Internet Security Threat Report – information from users around the world delivered basis – is generally considered a reliable indicator of the changing trends in cyber crime are considered.

Worldwide, the company achieved a 93% increase in Web-based attacks between 2009 and 2010.

Software packages, users with relatively little skill, his own malicious software allow the design – the dramatic increase is mainly due to the widespread availability of "attack toolkits.

Tool kits are on sale for as little as a few pounds and as much as several thousand for the latest versions on the web.

The most popular attack kit was Phoenix, which exploit vulnerabilities in the Java programming language – often for web based applications.

Symantec report also notes, selected to increase the number of targeted attacks in which certain companies, organizations or individuals.

The sensational attack of 2010 was undoubtedly targeted Stuxnet. The software was developed to incorporate worm mechanical systems in nuclear facilities of Iran as a control.

There is widespread speculation that the United States or Israel could play a role in the foundation played.

Despite controversial nature Stuxnet's Orla Cox believes that indicate things to come.

"It was interesting to see that it is possible physical attack systems. I think it is unlikely that we have to show a number of attacks of this kind," she said.

Dell shares slump on weak outlook

Shares of Dell fell 10.4% after the PC maker cut its growth forecasts for sale late Tuesday, blaming a "more uncertain demand environment."

Competitors division of Hewlett Packard fell by 3.7% by mid-afternoon in New York in what was still a market optimist.

Dell said it now expects revenue to rise only 1% -5%, down from 5% -9% before.

This is despite the company posting a net profit for the second quarter of $ 890 (£ 537), with net income rising faster than expected by 60%.

The increased revenue in part due to the expansion of Dell's higher margin businesses, such as servers, data storage and computer services.

1% of revenues were higher, lifted by strong spending by businesses and the government of the United States.

However, Dell should come under pressure in the rest of the year, governments, businesses and consumers are required to moderate their expenses.

Shares in Dell fell by around 6% in after-hours trading on weakening sales prospects, after the results were released after the closing bell on Wall Street.

The bad news from Dell failed to affect the overall market, which has been encouraged by strong financial results for retailers.

Target stores have reported net profit for the second quarter of $ 704m for the second quarter of the year, comfortably beating expectations.

The shares gave up early gains on Wall Street, Wednesday to end 2.4% higher.

It is also impressive figures Tuesday at Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, and DIY chain Home Depot.

To Track Militants, U.S. Has System That Never Forgets a Face

The eyes of an Afghan villager were scanned last year by an American soldier in the volatile Arghandab Valley.

One thing made it easier. Just a month before the April jailbreak, Afghan officials, using technology provided by the United States, recorded eye scans, fingerprints and facial images of each militant and criminal detainee in the giant Sarposa Prison.

Within days of the breakout, about 35 escapees were recaptured at internal checkpoints and border crossings; they were returned to prison after their identities were confirmed by biometric files.

One escapee was seized during a routine traffic stop less than two miles from his home village. Another was recaptured at a local recruiting station where he was trying to infiltrate Afghan security forces.

With little notice and only occasional complaints, the American military and local authorities have been engaged in an ambitious effort to record biometric identifying information on a remarkable number of people in Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly men of fighting age.

Information about more than 1.5 million Afghans has been put in databases operated by American, NATO and local forces. While that is one of every 20 Afghan residents, it is the equivalent of roughly one of every six males of fighting age, ages 15 to 64.

In Iraq, an even larger number of people, and a larger percentage of the population, have been registered. Data have been gathered on roughly 2.2 million Iraqis, or one in every 14 citizens — and the equivalent of one in four males of fighting age.

To get the information, soldiers and police officers take digital scans of eyes, photographs of the face, and fingerprints. In Iraq and Afghanistan, all detainees and prisoners must submit to such scrutiny. But so do local residents who apply for a government job, in particular those with the security forces and the police and at American installations. A citizen in Afghanistan or Iraq would almost have to spend every minute in a home village and never seek government services to avoid ever crossing paths with a biometric system.

What is different from traditional fingerprinting is that the government can scan through millions of digital files in a matter of seconds, even at remote checkpoints, using hand-held devices distributed widely across the security forces.

While the systems are attractive to American law enforcement agencies, there is serious legal and political opposition to imposing routine collection on American citizens.

Various federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have discussed biometric scanning, and many have even spent money on hand-held devices. But the proposed uses are much more limited, with questions being raised about constitutional rights of privacy and protection from warrantless searches.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, there are some complaints — but rarely on grounds recognizable to Americans as civil liberties issues.

Afghanistan, in particular, is a nation with no legacy of birth certificates, driver’s licenses or social security numbers, and where there is a thriving black market in forged national identity papers. Some Afghans are concerned that in the future the growing biometric database could be abused as a weapon of ethnic, tribal or political retaliation — a census of any particular group’s adversaries. Even Afghan officials who support the program want to take it over themselves, and not have the Americans do it.

“To be sure, there must be sound and responsible policies and oversight regarding enrollment and the storage, use and sharing of private individual data,” said Brig. Gen. Mark S. Martins, commander of the military’s new Rule of Law Field Force in Afghanistan.

But he stressed that biometric systems “can combat fraud and corruption, place law enforcement on a sounder evidentiary footing, and greatly improve security.”

Instant, computerized iris scans as a tool of population control used to be the monopoly of science fiction films. Even real-world use of biometric identification technologies overseas was for years reserved for the intelligence agencies and the military’s elite hunter-killer commando units.

But a new generation of hand-held biometric systems has spread across the military.

“You can present a fake identification card,” said Sgt. Maj. Robert Haemmerle of the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force 435. “You can shave your beard off. But you can’t change your biometrics.” The task force conducts detention, judicial and biometrics operations — responsibilities that will be turned over to the Afghan government.

Defense Department spending on biometrics programs is enormous, set at $3.5 billion for the 2007 through 2015 fiscal years, according to the Government Accountability Office.

On Its Own, Europe Backs Web Privacy Fights

Fernando Perez, the editor of the Spanish government publication, said that "perhaps there is information which has a life cycle."

Among them was a victim of domestic violence that their addresses can be easily found by Google discovered. Another, even in middle age, thought it was unfair that a few keystrokes computer could dig a report on her arrest in her college days.

You could not have given much of a hearing in the United States, where Google is based. But here, as elsewhere in Europe, an idea, people have a right to be forgotten, "on the web.

Spanish government is now advocating for this purpose. Has ordered Google to stop indexing the information on 90 people, formal complaints lodged with the Data Protection Authority.The case is now before the courts and being closely watched across Europe on how it might affect the citizens have control over the information published or are published on the Web.

Whatever the decision in the case of Spain, the EU must also weigh on the new "right to forget" the regulations this fall. Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, offered few details on what you have in mind. But he made clear his determination to establish privacy advocates more power.

"I can not accept that people have no voice in their data once it is launched in cyberspace," he said last month. She said she had heard the argument that more control was impossible, and that Europeans should "get over".

However, Reding said: "I do not agree."

On this subject, experts say, Europe and the United States largely separated.

"What we really need here is a trans-Atlantic clash," said Franz Werra, born and raised in Switzerland and is now a law professor at Georgetown University. "The two cultures are, it's not actually going on in the same direction when it comes to personal rights."

For example, the United States, Mr. Verro, said the courts have always found that the right to publish the truth about the past, replaced by someone right to privacy. The Europeans, he said, see things differently: "In Europe you do not have the right to tell someone something, even if it's true."

Mr. Werro says Europe sees the need for freedom of expression and the right against the individual's right to privacy and dignity balance concepts often know by the European legislation laid down.The European perspective has been shaped by how information is collected and used against people under dictators like Hitler and Franco and communism. Government agencies have compiled the routine documents of citizens as a means of control.

Decisions on these issues have arisen in many parts of Europe.

In Germany, for example, Wolfgang and Manfred Werle Lauber, who became notorious for killing a German actor in 1990, continuing Wikipedia to admit them. German privacy laws allow the prosecution of criminal identities in the new accounts when people have paid their debt to society. Counsel for the two murderers claim that criminals have a right to privacy too, and the right to be left alone.

Google also faces suits in several countries, including Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, efforts to collect from the street by street for its Street View photos.In Germany, where the Court found that Street View is legal, the Google people and companies to opt out, and has about 250,000.

The issue has not had traction in the U.S., where every person has the right to take pictures of everything in sight from the street.

Google refused to discuss the Spanish case, instead issuing a statement saying that the demand for search engines to ignore certain information "can have a profound effect on the frightening freedom of expression, protect the privacy of individuals.”

Gaming the GRE test in China, with a little online help (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – When 21-year-old Zhang, an average student in college, got set for the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) in Beijing this year, she felt so unprepared that she skipped the exam entirely.

Forty days later, she flew to Vietnam and nailed a near-perfect score in the test, which is taken by candidates applying to graduate school in the United States.

The secret to her sudden stroke of brilliance?

Before the second exam, Zhang — not her real name — tapped into an online network of former test-takers who pool questions and answers to gain an edge in the computerized test, which is not offered in China.

"I heard from my friends that it is easier to get better grades in the computer-based exam," said Xu, another Chinese student who flew to the Philippines and came back with a score of 1420 out of 1600. "Now I think it was money well-spent."

The coordinated cheating on the computerized GRE poses a challenge for the Princeton, New Jersey-based Educational Testing Service, which develops and administers the exam.

The stakes are high. On August 6, the computerized GRE will return to China after a nine-year hiatus, after ETS launches a revised GRE worldwide. That will allow much greater numbers of Chinese students to tap into online cheating networks if the revised GRE fails to curb their methods.

For Chinese, post-graduate study at a U.S. school is the ticket to prestige, adventure, and possibly higher wages.

"ETS's Office of Testing Integrity closely monitors testing, investigates security issues and assures score validity worldwide for all ETS testing programs," Christine Betaneli, ETS spokeswomen for the GRE tests, wrote in an email to Reuters.

"ETS takes test security very seriously and has a number of processes and procedures in place to ensure the highest standard of validity in testing. Some of our protocols are shared with the public, while some methods remain confidential."

The protocols outlined by Betaneli — handwriting samples, photographs and voice matching — would help deter one person from taking the test on behalf of someone else, but they would do little against the coordinated online cheating system.

ETS has instituted new security measures for the revised GRE. Betaneli did not elaborate, saying they were confidential.

"COMPUTER EXPERIENCE"

In a well-coordinated global effort, Chinese students who have just taken the computerized GRE load as many questions and answers as they can remember on to online chatrooms.

They call it "ji jing", or "computer experience". It capitalizes on a weakness in the testing system, namely that test organizers cannot introduce new questions fast enough to keep test-takers from finding out the questions in advance.

ETS painstakingly develops and evaluates each question, making it unlikely that the computerized test, offered weekly around the world, could contain unique questions each time.

The online system is more than just simple sharing. Blogs and forums on the Chinese search engine Baidu point potential test-takers toward chatrooms, staffed by volunteer organizers.

The organizer collates the contribution and posts an "officially edited version" of the questions with answers and analysis by the end of the day.

"Those taking the test in Asia in the morning are responsible for the first three questions. Post them as quickly as you can, and those in the afternoon will benefit a lot!" said one organizer in a blog post.

The contributors take the tests primarily in North America and Southeast Asia. New test-takers benefit from the time difference to memorize the responses posted from other continents.

FIVE MISTAKES

Some chatroom organizers worry about scores being too high.

"We must follow the score-control strategy," admonishes one. Test-takers were advised to make five mistakes to ensure scores aren't so high that they expose the system.

In China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea the exam has only been offered in paper form since 2002, when ETS discovered websites containing GRE questions.

"The websites included both questions and answers illegally obtained by test takers who memorize and reconstruct questions and share them with other test takers," ETS said in 2002. It decided to retire questions after each paper test, to prevent cheating.

"An extensive investigation covering more than 40 countries showed security breaches occurring only in these areas."

Around the same time, ETS won a lawsuit in Chinese courts against the New Oriental Language School, a chain of schools that teach English and test preparation. New Oriental had published complete copies of previous tests, including questions that ETS re-used in subsequent years.

Despite the lawsuit, copies of those previous exams still can be found at sellers of pirated books in Chinese cities.

Teachers in test-preparation schools in China now advise students that to get better scores, they should take the computer-based GRE abroad, according to a student who attended one such class.

Some Chinese note that widespread sharing of questions casts suspicion on the scores earned by any Chinese student, whether or not that individual had cheated.

"It's utterly unfair for Chinese students who work so hard for the test," said He Minghao, a 21-year-old who took the GRE test in June.

"Shame on those who cheated. Their behavior discredits our hard-earned score as we are all Chinese students and their high scores give them an advantage over us in the application, especially when it comes to scholarship offers. Jijing should be forbidden."

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Ken Wills and Alex Richardson)

Pandora Media gets thumbs-up from two brokerages (Reuters)

(Reuters) – Two brokerage started coverage of Pandora Media Inc., with positive reviews stating the exciting long-term opportunities for growth, given the growth of Internet radio and continuous passage of advertising dollars for the Web and mobile environments.

Shares of online radio companies, which has existed for a decade and let listeners create playlists, fell one percent after rising 4 percent in early trading.

"Pandora is well positioned to take advantage of the display of the United States online, mobile and radio advertising markets," Doug Anmuth JP Morgan Securities' he wrote in a note, adding that there is an opportunity 37000000000 U.S. dollars in 2014.

Pandora companies compete against traditional radio, satellite radio provider Sirius XM Radio Inc., music services like Rhapsody and Apple's offerings, Google and Amazon.com Inc.

Anmuth, Pandora began to "overweight" rating, saying he has the ability to monetize their time to listen.

"(Pandora), the ability to monetize mobile hours will improve in the coming years, until the bottom line."

In mid-June Pandora IPO was underwritten by Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo Securities, William Blair & Co, Citi Weisel and Stifel Nicolaus. That $ 2.9 billion market value is equivalent to about 20 times sales last year.

Jason Wells Fargo Securities' Maynard started the action with an "outperform" rating and said the head of hours listening to Internet accounts for only 3.6 percent of total viewing time radio, gives ample opportunity to earn shares.

However, Stifel Nicolaus, which began with a "hold" and said that the participation of the Pandora Internet radio in the U.S.could be something close to new competitors like Spotify and Turntable.fm.

Pandora's shares owned by a debut at the New York Stock Exchange was at $ 20 to 25 percent above the IPO price has shed 35 percent of their value in the last 1 month. They were at one percent at $ 18.17 in early trading Monday.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in Bangalore, rock and Joyjeet The Prem Udayabhanu)

Sony insurer not interested in paying for the PlayStation Network hack (Digital Trends)

One of the insurers that covered when cutting Sony PlayStation Network four weeks, said a New York court should not be responsible for claims that occur in cyberspace. The question is whether Sony has been damaged in the real world attacks that took place in the virtual space. Zurich American is also co-insurers continued ACE Ltd., Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and AIG to get a better understanding of shared responsibility to cover potential losses from Sony.

jpg "alt =" "width =" 300 "height =" 300 "> The insurance company, this fits into the right due to the 55 lawsuits in the United States over the loss. Most of the complaints refer to data loss that occurred from PSN Hacking in April 2011. One of the biggest intervention in history, is planning to hack classified information from 77 million users of the PlayStation Network in the hands of hackers. Zurich American also pushing back the blame on Sony and make the company liable for all future in connection with the hacking. network interruption is estimated to have cost Sony $ 171 million already.

PlayStation Network, fully back online during the first week of June 2011. Sony has no new attempts to hack into the network reported, but it is unclear whether the PSN is still a goal. Sony had other properties fell under siege by a denial of service attack on the main Sony site.This attack was attributed to the search for Sony lawsuit against hackers PlayStation 3 George Hotz. CEO Howard Stringer believes that all the attacks were the result of Sony trying to protect its intellectual property for video games.

If a court rules that Zurich American Insurance Company is not responsible for the attacks in cyberspace, Sony is the struggle against class action lawsuits in the U.S. and abroad. In Canada, Ontario woman filed a lawsuit on behalf of one million users in Canada to a massive $ 1 billion in damages.