Olympic Malware Threat

Be warned there is some Olympic themed malware spreading across the net.

Mashable warns:

"Beware if you receive a file purporting to be an Olympics-themed PDF. It may actually be malware.

That’s the warning, at least, from F-Secure, a Helsinki-based security firm. F-Secure warns that the PDF, which is supposed to be a copy of the 2012 Olympic schedule, is a decoy file. 

Once downloaded, the file (see image below) attempts to make a network connection to a “student travel” site in Baotoushi, China. The download exploits weaknesses in old versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat.

F-Secure warns to be wary of any Olympic-themed emails and attachments or of any that are themed to current events. The firm also suggests downloading the current version of Adobe Reader."

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Olympics To Crash The Interent

In one of the more bizarre threats arising from the Olympics to life on this planet as we know it, the Cabinet is warning that the London 2012 Olympics may well crash the internet.

The Cabinet Office's official advice, Preparing your Business for the Games, claims that the UK's telecoms system may be unable to cope with demand to access the internet in certain areas. 

Quote:

"It is possible that internet services may be slower during the Games or, in very severe cases, there may be dropouts due to an increased number of people accessing the internet."

It goes on to warn that there may be data caps to try to spread the load.

To my humble view this scaremongering is reminiscent of the overblown hype of the Y2K "problem" (that turned out to be a damp squib). My gut feeling is that this alleged "capacity shortage" will be used as an excuse to turn off certain social media networks at critical moments.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Olympics Censorship

 Locog have banned the 70,000 volunteers for the London Olympics from getting into detailed discussions online about the Games.

Good luck policing that then!
 

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Scammers

The Telegraph reports that over £2M was defrauded from thousands of Olympic fans by way of an internet ticket scam in 2007.

Allan Thomas Scott, Gerardus Petrus Paulus van Meer and Terence Shepherd (involved in the internet company Xclusive Leisure and Hospitality Ltd) were found guilty of deceit and conspiring to injure by unlawful means. They were also made personally liable for the company's debts.

Needless to say, despite these people being caught, other scammers will be hard at work in preparation for the London games.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Dirty Blog

It seems that the Leabank Square Residents' Association (who reside in the shadow of the London Olympic construction site) have fallen foul of the Olympic Development Authority (ODA), in a dispute over comments made on the residents' blogsite.

The blog had accused senior officials of lying about their efforts to reduce noise and air pollution at the development.

The ODA then threatened court action if "libellous" comments were not removed from the site, they noted that some of the comments were "personal and threatening" to an individual.

The contentious posts have been removed.

However, the residents still want the dust removed as they believe the ODA promised they would do but claim is not happening.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Cyber Crime

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams of Scotland Yard has warned that international criminal networks are preparing to target the London 2012 Olympics, using the Internet to carry out their frauds.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Williams, speaking at Association of Chief Police Officers annual conference, said:

"There is a lot of work to be done with e-crime and the Olympics. First of all we need to get the money sorted and there is an imperative about that now.

We know from Canada and Beijing that the threats are real and they have grown in the last six months.

These are all potentially subject to abuses and we need to understand these and put plans in place very quickly now.

That is a projected area of work and it is where e-crime meets the more significant threats and terrorism threats."

Needless to say, the police are asking for more money to help them fight the 2012 threat. Funny how the Olympics is used by all and sundry as an excuse to get the begging bowl out!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Cyber Threat to Games

David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, will warn that the London 2012 Olympic Games are at risk of a "cyber attack".

Blunkett will give the warning during his opening address to the Infosec annual conference at Olympia this Tuesday, and will go on to say that terrorists could hack into computer and communications systems causing a "complete meltdown".

He wants a co-ordinated approach between government, security experts and business to mitigate the threat.

The threat of a cyber attack is indeed very real. However, that threat exists and will continue to exist, with or without the London Olympics.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Too Small To Compete?

The Liberal Democrats have warned that the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics have failed to award small businesses, promised a share of the games, despite the fact that a special website (CompeteFor) for matching Olympic suppliers with buyers has been set up.

The Liberal Democrats claim that the ODA had awarded 880 contracts, but only 140 of them were through the website. The website cost the taxpayer £5M to set up.

However, the ODA claim that awarded 550 contracts before the website was launched.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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The Sweet Smell of Bullshit

The IOC would have the world believe that internet access in China, for the period of the Olympics, is more or less free and unfettered for the foreign journalists who are camped en masse there.

The IOC released a statement:

"The media should be seeing a noticeable difference in accessibility to websites that they need to report on the Olympic Games.

Open Internet access has always been assured by [Beijing Organising Committee] and the Chinese authorities, and the IOC is pleased to see these reassurances being upheld."

All very nice, except for one small problem.

It is bullshit!

Thousands of sites remain unavailable to both journalists and Beijing residents; including TypePad, LiveJournal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Technorati, parts of Wikipedia and the Huffington Post.

WebSitePulse.com has a "China Firewall test" tool, which lets users input a site's address to see if it's working in Beijing. Why not try it out for yourself?

Free Website Test tools by WebSitePulse

The IOC does not come out of this very well at all.

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Ticket Scam

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is taking action against www.beijingtickets.com that has allegedly been operating an Olympic ticketing scam.

It is reported that many hundreds of people in Britain, America, Belgium and Australia have paid the site approximately £30K for non existent tickets and accommodation.

The hapless purchasers have been arriving in Beijing only to find that their purchases have yielded them nothing.

The site is now offline and "parked".

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Web Access in Beijing

The IOC have announced that Chinese and international organisers are working on a compromise to unblock censored websites for the foreign media.

Despite the fact that Beijing has unblocked a number of banned sites, including Amnesty International, there are others that remain blocked.

IOC President Jacques Rogge has promised free and unrestricted net access for foreign journalists during the games.

The IOC and the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, have set up a working group to determine which remaining censored websites can be opened up to reporters.

With nine days to go, they will have their work cut out!

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The Great Firewall of China II

For those who have problems in China wrt accessing the certain sites on the net, Amnesty International Australia have set up the Chinese Internet Censor Index for you to record you frustrations.

The Telegraph reports that politically sensitive sites, including those dealing with Tibet and Taiwan and the BBC (technical problems are blamed), are still blocked.

However, you can buy porn in the Games village bookshop, which sells erotic books featuring pictures of naked women with titles such as "Drawing book for the Nude".

Don't forget to visit www.theolympicswarehouse.com
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No Smoking Ban

Restaurants, bars and Internet cafes in Beijing have been exempted from a proposed public smoking ban in response to a backlash from business owners.

However, these venues will be required to separate smoking and non-smoking areas from May 1 as part of the new regulations.

Beijing had planned to ban or restrict smoking in most public places, as part of its pledge to hold a smoke-free Olympics.

Only government offices, schools, museums, hospitals and sports venues will be designated smoke-free areas.

London Logo Farce - The Farce Continues IV

The farce over the "Lisa Simpson Gives Head" London 2012 Olympics logo continues.

The organisers of the London Olympics have now revamped the logo to contain images of competing athletes.

One image, featuring a child taking part in martial arts, has been spotted on the side of an Olympics bus touring Britain to promote the Games.

Needless to say those behind the logo deny that this change is in any way connected to the howls of protests over the logo. The official line is that this is an attempt to "populate" an evolving brand.

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog), was reportedly shocked at the extent of the backlash that followed the launch of the logo last month.

The the logo will be shown in 3-D in films and on the internet. Seemingly it looks, so the designers say, very good when presented in that format.

However, the organisers who should have been more thorough wrt the planning have failed to take into account the fact that most people will see it only as a flat image in newspapers and magazines.

This hardly gives one confidence in their ability to organise and manage the Games themselves, does it?

Olympic Catalyst for Abuse

Amnesty International has issued a report warning that as China prepares to host the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the preparations are in fact acting as a "catalyst" for worsening abuses of human rights.

Amnesty notes that there is now an extensive use of detention-without-trial by police, and an increase in the persecution of civil-rights activists.

Amnesty also notes that new methods are being deployed to rein in the domestic media and censor the internet.

They ask that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should raise the issue with the Chinese government.

"The IOC cannot want an Olympics that is tainted with human rights abuses....the Olympics is apparently acting as a catalyst to extend the use of detention without trial".

China has not yet responded to the report. However, in the past it has stated that it is fulfilling all the commitments made in its bid for the games and has accused Amnesty of being biased against the Chinese government.

Giselle Davies, an IOC spokeswoman, said that the governing body would "want to take the time to digest it before making any further reaction".

Amnesty may do well to remember that the pace of economic and social change in China needs to be managed with care, lest there be a total fragmentation of society. To blame the Olympics for everything that Amnesty disapproves of is maybe far too simplistic.