[SecurityRatty] tag: comic

When Psychology Meets Network Administration

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:17:09 +0000

The library comic Unshelved has a fun strip today…where the new library intern announces she will reconfigure the network to correct the librarian’s snarky attitude. But can computer administrators really control their users’ behavior? Our fearless young librarian Dewey doesn’t seem too worried.

Luckily we do have some technologies to warn users who still haven’t learned to stop opening spammy attachments, click pop up ads and so on…but I don’t think they’d help with the snarky attitude problems. I’m not sure I’d want my computer network to try doing that anyway.

Hunt The Dark Knight

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:24:38 +0000

After writing about this website yesterday (and alerting those I know involved in comics, comic forums and news portals), I woke up to see this...

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Of course, it's too early to tell if the site has been pulled permanently - but it looks like someone realised there's no point trying to scam a community when they're already waiting for it with a baseball bat.

Thanks to all who put the word around - your honorary vigilante badges are in the post...

Best, Good, Standard Practices

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:52:13 +0000

It’s like Scott knew it was my birthday and wrote a special comic just for me!

Zango And The Batman Online Videogame

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:00:00 +0000

This is Newsarama, a site (mostly) geared around comics and other related media:

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You'll notice Batman, over on the right there. Let's take a closer look:

"Free Online Batman Game"? Well, that's curious because I follow comics pretty closely and I'd be the first to know if an "Online Batman Game" had been in the works (this advert has been doing the rounds on numerous comic-related websites. Visit the URL in the ad - Batmangame.info - and you'll see this...

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There it is again - "Online Batman Game". Furthermore, the text goes on to say:

"Batman Online lets you do anything and every little thing you'd like in a Batman game. From leveling up your character to destroying villans, it has it all. Download and play this amazing game now, all for free! I'm sure you'll be playing for hours on end, it's that much fun.

    Level Up Your Character

   Explore a Huge Vast World

   Play Online With Your Friends

   Hundreds of Quests To Finish

   Perfect Battle System

So start your Batman adventure today! Download the full game below and fight them all!"

Note that they specifically call it "Batman Online". It specifically sounds like a text blurb you'd expect to see with a MMORPG. However, something isn't quite right here.

1) The only DC licensed MMORPG anybody knows of is this, and it isn't due out until 2009. It's not Batman-centric, either.

2) The screenshots are lifted from the Batman Begins videogame, which came out in 2005. If you were offering a "Batman Online Game", wouldn't you use screenshots from that instead of an unrelated title?

3) Absolutely no licensing, copyright or legal mumbo-jumbo on the page anywhere. DC and Warner Bros don't roll like that.

4) The website - Batmangame(dot)info - is registered anonymously. Not exactly something you see everyday for websites related to licensed DC franchises such as Batman videogames.

5) "To download and play the Batman Online Game you must download and install Zango as well. It is free, very easy to install and will give you access to the full game."

Shall we continue?

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A Zango installer prompt, complete with picture of Batman at the top. If you say "No" to the install, you end up on Google.com. What happens if you click "Start"? Well, you'll get the usual collection of Zango installer screens including one that rather humorously has a guy in a superhero costume.

Once everything is installed, you're taken to another page and from here things just get plain confusing. Remember, up to this point you've been promised an "Online Batman Game", the description of which is clearly intended to evoke images of a MMORPG. However....

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All of a sudden, you're being told you're downloading "Batman: Vengeance" on a cheap-looking splash page and shown what looks like an unofficially ripped Batman: Vengeance trailer on Youtube.

In case you're unaware, Batman: Vengeance is a videogame first launched way back in 2001 for consoles (followed shortly after by a PC version). What does this have to do with an "Online Batman Game"? Well, nothing, actually. Aside from the fact you were presented with one thing and are now handed another, things get even stranger when you see the download location:

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Have you ever heard of an officially licensed game being offered via Rapidshare downloads? It's possible, I guess, but it seems a little odd. However, the real oddness is reserved for the "Online Batman game" itself.

Remember, we've been promised "Hundreds of quests", "A huge vast world", the ability to "level up your character" and (of course) the "play online with your friends" promise of greatness.

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Imagine your dismay, then, when you've installed Zango, downloaded the game from Rapidshare using up around 140MB of bandwidth, installed it and....

Oh dear.

Not only are you given a totally different game than what was advertised, you're given a DEMO VERSION of that game with four short sample levels present, no online functionality and quite a few less quests than the "hundreds" advertised.

Hilariously, you can download a 100% legit copy of this demo here at Fileplanet, sans Adware. Setting aside the issue of whether this file is actually sitting on Rapidshare with either Ubisoft or DC / Warner Bros permission (and if it IS okay to be there, I'm pretty sure it's NOT okay to falsely advertise it as some kind of MMORPG) there are some questions that need to be raised here.

When this guy approached them with his website, did nobody stop to think that this game did not actually match up with the "Online Batman" game it was touted as? Didn't someone at Zango Quality Control actually download the game and see the big "This is a demo" wording as soon as it starts up? Or question why the screenshots on the website don't look like the graphics for Batman: Vengeance in the slightest?

However you look at it, this is a scam, pure and simple. Whoever came up with the idea of an "Online Batman Game" is lying through their teeth. Of course, because their website is registered anonymously we have no idea who the culprit is, unless of course Zango want to deposit them on the steps of Gotham City and let me dispense some Batman-style justice to their posterior.

However, based on the way these things tend to go - God forbid anyone ever offer up the identity of someone happily scamming the public at large, even when that person is dragging the name of the company associated with them through the mud by their antics - I think I might be waiting some time for the Bat Signal...

Google seeks route around Microsoft with Chrome

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Google's surprise announcement of a new browser, Chrome, via a Web comic book could prove to be another game-changing development for the Internet in the coming years.

Another Voting Machine Cartoon

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:43:18 +0000

You know your industry has problems when mainstream comic strips make fun of you.

The Angry Spamtool...

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:29:27 +0000

Here's a spamming program that targets Xfire users, with a particularly distasteful name. If you're under 16, you'll probably find the name incredibly lulzy (or whatever it is that kids under 16 are saying at the moment). Open up the zip the program comes in, and you'll see that it's called...er...

...yeah, charming. Note that it also comes bundled with a solitary MP3, presumably to rock out to over and over again while you get your fill of spamming chatboxes for a small portion of eternity.

Here's the application in action - there seems to be an abundance of angry, red shouty faces with this one, doesn't there?

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Hit the "Bomb Em" button, and the program rather helpfully asks you how many times you want to nuke your victim. For no real reason, I went for a comic reference and selected 52:

But wait! One more charming popup box awaits:

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.....anyone think the creator needs anger management classes yet?

The new golden age of comics

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:31:58 +0000

The golden age of comics in the 30's and 40's saw the creation of the superhero. The good versus evil storylines mimicked the real life events of the day. It elevated the comic book to an art form. Comic style illustration and story telling in short dialog balloons had never before or since reached those heights. Than after WW II, with the advent of TV and one evil empire ending, comic books seemed to recede back into the background of young boys play things. Their numbers never again reached the levels seen during the war and many of the characters faded away.

Over the years the comic industry tried to regain their former glory, but the age of the superhero was over. Yeah there was the TV cartoons, who didn't watch Superman or Batman when you were little. Some of you like me, may have even watched the Marvel Superhero Show that had short segments of many of the Marvel characters (check them out in the You Tube video), but they were campy and never appealed to an audience beyond young boys. The Superman movies with Christopher Reeves market a turning point on the return of the superhero and the Batman movies were very successful. But beyond those two, there were many flops.

With better technology and better story lines, Spiderman, Iron Man and now the latest, The Incredible Hulk have brought comic book superheroes from the page to the screen in a big way. I know that I was not a big fan of the Iron Man movie, but seeing Tony Stark come in at the end of the Hulk movie did get even me excited by the possibilities. Also seeing the Hulk and Iron Man, I began to see that these movies are not aimed at adolescent boys with stories that I am used to from comic books and TV shows. These are movies aimed at adults with adult storylines. The technology is great, the heroes are played by big stars (I hear Brad Pitt is playing Thor) rather than unknowns and the productions are first class.

Besides the movies already out, Thor, Captain America, and Namor, the submariner are all headed for the big screen. Once each of these and more have their movie debuts, the subsequent combinations and sequels are almost infinite. This could be the biggest movie franchise of all time and make the original comic book owners more money then they ever dreamed of! In the meantime, I am excited to see many of my boyhood heroes get this new big screen treatment!

Friday Squid Blogging: 500-Pound Giant Squid Caught Off Australia

Fri, 30 May 2008 12:14:18 +0000

Three news stories.

And a week of squid comics -- not related to the Australia catch. And another comic.

How America may be funding the Mafia in Japan.

Sun, 11 May 2008 21:15:00 +0000

Those of us who may have thought of Japan as a country of respectful, law-abiding peaceful citizens, would do well to think again.

In a Washington Post article titled: "The Mob is Big in Japan", the writer, Jake Adelstein paints a far different picture. Mr. Adelstein has spent the past 15 years covering the Mafia (Yakuza) as a crime reporter for Japan's largest newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun. He has been so relentless in his reporting, that his life and that of his family are now in danger.

Apparently, Mobs are legal entities there and they have "fan magazines" and comic books. The Japanese National Police Agency (NPA)estimates that the yakuza has nearly 80,000 members. Police say that in Tokyo alone, there are more than 800 yakuza "front companies" in industries such as: investment and auditing firms, construction companies and pastry shops. Disturbingly, it is reported that the mobsters have even opened their own bank in California.

In more recent times, the yakuza have moved into finance. Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission know of more than 50 listed companies with ties to the underworld. U.S. investors have invested billions of dollars in the Japanese stock market. How much of that is going towards funding the Japanese Mob? To add further insult to injury, the yakuza makes much of their ill-gotten profits from child pornography. Want to hear something revolting? Owning child porn in Japan is LEGAL.

Investigation firms such as ours constantly advise clients to do their due diligence. How would you like to enter into a business agreement with a Japanese company and later find out that they were a front company for drug runners and child porn peddlers? Remember, you can't always rely on a government to tell you who the bad guys are and they don't always wear black hats.

Know what you are getting into and if it is a deal worth pursuing, hire somebody to conduct a thorough investigation or send over a member of your staff to check them out fully and avoid having your reputation damaged down the road.