In this week's newsletter Laurie investigates what many are calling the 'largest case of identity theft in American history'. It's certainly a memorable crime, and one that highlights the fact that cyber crime isn't less dangerous - it's just much quieter.

Also this week, Ellie explains why Dan Brown's latest book may result in a sales boost for eReaders, while Dave takes a look at India's answer to Google Earth, and precisely how happy we all are.

I hope you enjoy the issue. If you do, why not visit our blog? And follow us on Twitter: @PromptLondon and @PromptBoston.

Hazel Butters
CEO
Prompt Communications

28 year old, responsible for 'the largest case of identity theft in American history'

By Laurie Santalucia

On Monday this week, news broke that Albert Gonzalez, a former US Secret Service informant, had been the ringleader in a conspiracy that gave him access to over 130 million stolen credit card numbers. Officials have declared the 28 year old's ploy the biggest case of identity theft in American history.

Just last August, Gonzalez was arrested and detained, along with 10 others, for database theft across a range of retailers. These included popular convenience store 7-Eleven, eight major retailers including TJX and TJ Maxx, as well as a major restaurant chain. Over 94 million records came from TJX alone.

USA Today reported that Gonzalez and his cohorts specialized in harvesting large batches of stolen payment card account numbers to feed into an underground market, run much like eBay and accessible via online forums.

Alongside two as yet unnamed Russian hackers, Gonzalez used an 'SQL injection attack' and advanced codes to hack into five companies, including Heartland Payment, from which 130 million records were stolen.

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India's global view rivals Google Earth

By Dave Wilby

Bhuvan, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s answer to Google Earth and Wikimapia, was made available for public download earlier this week. Sanskrit for 'Earth', Bhuvan is a 3D online satellite imaging and mapping tool that has been in testing and tweaking since the Spring.

According to The Times of India: "If Google Earth shows details up to 200 metres distance and Wikimapia up to 50 metres, Bhuvan will show images up to 10 metres. Imagine if you could count the lions in Gir or fishermen find concentration of fish in the sea, just by dragging a mouse on a computer screen."

Of course it's actually camera resolution, application stability, speed of manipulation, regularity of updates and robustness under load that really count when it comes to public digital imaging on this scale, but we're delighted to see ISRO expand its portfolio of 'space applications.

Let us know what you think of Bhuvan. We'll literally be watching this space...

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How happy is your world today?

By Dave Wilby

"On a happiness scale of 1 to 10, the world scored a 6.16 on Monday, according to Emotionr." This is how the San Francisco Chronicle opened a report this week which discussed online services that purport to gauge how happy our population is feeling.

Some might argue that emotions are intangible, and that attempting to overlay metrics onto the landscapes of 6.8 billion complex minds is always going to be an inexact science at the very best. But if pressed over how we're feeling on a scale of 1 to 10, most of us will begrudgingly offer up "about 6 or 7" and that's pretty much the level of data that feeds services such as Emotionr and others.

Emotionr is a free online tool with an emotional slider that submits individual scores to the global happiness pool, while also allowing you to track your own state of mind over time. TweetFeel claims to use "insanely complex analysis" to examine tweeter attitudes to anything you care to type into a search box. Google Insights for Search compares search volumes and patterns for the marketing community. Our emotions, it seems, are not only measurable, they can be 'monetized'.

As The Chronicle pointed out, even President Obama's chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers recently cited the decline in Google searches for 'economic depression' as a sign of optimism. But are the Googling and Twittering classes really ready to represent the happiness of our world? How do you feel about that?

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No more paper cuts for Brown's readers

By Ellie Turner

Dan Brown managed to gain millions of fans after the success of his books Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. There aren't many people who can say they haven't read one, or at least know the plotlines. Well, he may just gain a few technology fans too. It was announced this week that an electronic version of Brown's new novel, The Lost Symbol, will be made available.

The uptake of eBooks has been slow, but people are predicting that The Lost Symbol will provide a boost. The downloadable version will enable readers to view the pages on computers or specialist devices such as the Sony Reader, the Amazon Kindle and Apple Tablet.

Joel Rickett, editorial director of Penguin's Viking Books, explained: "The eBook is very quickly becoming a publishing reality and The Lost Symbol will be one of the fastest-selling books of recent times. Once people can flip between books, look up references online and switch to an audio reading, everything will change very quickly."

The book is due to be launched on 15 September in the US by Knopf Doubleday and is already at number four in Amazon's bestseller chart.

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21st August 2009

Welcome

Technology News

28 year old, responsible for 'the largest case of identity theft in American history'

India's global view rivals Google Earth

How happy is your world today?

No more paper cuts for Brown's readers

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By James Gerber

Every Xbox 360 owner I know has experienced the infamous 'Red Ring of Death'. A survey by Game Informer compared the three next generation gaming consoles:

Console failure rate

Xbox 360 - 54.2%

Playstation 3 - 10.6%

Wii - 6.8%

Percentage of people who rate their customer service experience "very helpful"

Nintendo - 56.1%
Sony - 51.1%
Microsoft - 37.7%

US

By Vicki Kim

Don Hewitt, creator and executive producer of CBS' 60 Minutes for 36 years, lost his battle with pancreatic cancer this week at the age of 86. A news veteran who joined CBS at the very beginning of television, Hewitt won eight Emmys and two Peabody Awards before stepping down from his position with the television news-magazine in 2004. He is survived by his wife of 30 years, journalist Marilyn Berger, and four children from previous marriages.

Robert Novak, a syndicated columnist, journalist and political commentator, also died this week at the age of 78 after a battle with brain cancer. The infamous columnist was best known for publicly revealing Valeria Plame as a covert CIA operative in a 2003 column. His actions resulted in harsh criticism of Novak's journalistic integrity, an investigation into the CIA leaks and the trial and conviction of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Richard Cheney.

The Wall Street Journal's Niraj Sheth has left his position as a New Delhi correspondent to take over as a telecommunications reporter in New York. Sheth swapped with Amol Sharma who is now a New Delhi correspondent covering the technology industry, the Indian economy, politics and culture.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has seen several staff members leave the paper this week due to layoffs. Among them is new technology editor Brian Cragin, who been with the paper since 2008.

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UK

By Ellie Turner

Netimperative.com has been bought by Digital Strategy Consulting, internet business strategy specialists. Netimperative provides its readers with digital marketing news.

Nicola Jeal, head of magazines at The Observer since 2003, is to become weekend editor at The Times this year. Jeal will take over from Eleanor Mills who is leaving to become associate editor at the Sunday Times.

The Times is to launch a new science supplement in October. Eureka will be given away free with the Thursday edition of the paper once a month from October.

Publishing firm, Future, has announced the closure of PlayStation World (PSW) - the unofficial PlayStation magazine. The September issue will be the final one.

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