Notes on Skynet

John McCain made a vice presidential choice, but no one knows her? Time to establish a complete waste-of-time TWITTER MEME in which one may use other INTERNET MEME JOKES to describe her. This is the most important Internet development since TUMBLR. Oh who are we kidding. We’re still getting over the lack of Mittens on this ticket, and it’ll take some time. (Wonkette)

This is a little bit genius. One of the new features of FriendFeed (a Twitter-like thingie) is “fake following”. That means you can friend someone but you don’t see their updates. That way, it appears that you’re paying attention to them when you’re really not. Just like everyone does all the time in real life to maintain their sanity. Rex calls it “most important feature in the history of social networks” and I’m inclined to agree. It’s one of the few new social features I’ve seen that makes being online buddies with someone manageable and doesn’t just make being social a game or competition. (Kottle via Marginal Revolution)

The conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia region has extended to Internet, both countries having launched cyber-attacks and blocking each other’s broadcasting sites.

Georgian authorities have blocked access to Russian news broadcasters and websites, the action being justified by Georgia’s Interior Ministry with the argument that Russian broadcasts would “scare our population” which the government could not allow.

Mamia Sanadiradze, founder and CEO of Caucasus Online, the biggest Georgian ISP, told Reuters: “People from the (Georgian) security agencies asked me to block Russian sites. There were threats from viruses, we faced disinformation and so on. (…) I hope that when war is over, we will unblock these sites.”

On the other hand, Georgian online news media and the Georgian government websites have been attacked by Russian hackers, including the President’s site. In order to remain accessible, the foreign ministry website changed its URL address.

Security researchers claim to have evidence showing a link between Russian state businesses and the cyber-attacks against Georgia. Denial of service attacks against Georgian websites started a day before the break out of the military conflict over South Ossetia.

Don Jackson, a SecureWorks researcher said that logs showed that part of the attack was run from command and control servers located on the networks of Rostelecom and Comstar, two Russian state-run companies. “We know that the Russian government controls those servers theoretically, if they have not been ‘pwned’ by somebody else,” Jackson told eWeek. The two companies made changes in routing tables that blocked internet traffic to Georgia. The same networks were used to launch denial of service attacks and cache poisoning attacks against Georgian networks, according to SecureWorks.

Reporters Without Borders condemn the violation of online freedom of information. “The Internet has become a battleground in which information is the first victim. On the one side, the main Georgian ISPs severed access to Russian websites. On the other side, Georgian government websites were attacked by Russian hackers. With newspapers and radio and TV stations putting out very little independent news, the Internet is a vital tool for the public, so these attacks must stop at once.” (via Sterling)