Blackberry's Site After TeaMp0isoN's Hack!
A TeaMp0isoN member that goes by the handle TriCk defaced a website that belongs to Blackberry maker Research in Motion on Tuesday afternoon. This came soon after the company said it would aid London police in investigating several days of rioting that have already led to one death.
This all started when alleged drug dealer Mark Duggan, whose shooting by police “sparked the initial disturbances on Saturday night,” used BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) to send a final message to his girlfriend. The message read, “The Feds are following me.” Many people believe the police targeted Duggan and shot without him being any direct threat to the officers, hence the rioting.
On Saturday, there was a lot of unrest and rioting at Tottenham, north London. After this, a BBM message was circulated that read, “Everyone in edmanton enfield wood green everywhere in north link up at enfield town station at 4 o clock sharp!!!”
As authorities struggled to contain the country’s worst unrest since race riots set the capital on fire in the 1980′s, violence and looting rages continue to spread across London and three other major British cities. Police investigating the escalation of London’s rioting and disorder believe that instant messages sent via Blackberry smartphones, or BBM, played a vital role in coordinating the riots. Patrick Spence, managing director at manufacturer RIM (Research in Motion), said the company had reached out to police to offer its aid, potentially turning over messages from the rioters. With RIM’s help, rioters would no longer be able to use text, calls, or BBM from their devices.
Hackers swiftly retaliated to RIM’s statement that they would help the police, as many believe the police had done something so wrong, and of course that riots are “for the freedom of the people.” TeaMp0isoN defaced a blog that is ran by RIM because of their statement.
“No Blackberry you will NOT assist the police,” wrote one member of the hacker group TeaMp0isoN, which claimed responsibility for the hack. The Blackberry blog was briefly taken offline and subsequently restored to its original state, but an archive page of the hack reveals a message from the TeaMp0isoN hacker who calls himself TriCk.
“You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all, the Police are looking to arrest as many people as possible to save themselves from embarrassment.”
TriCk claimed to have hacked RIM employee information, which included addresses, names, phone numbers, “etc.” He, or she, also threatened to make this information public for the rioters if RIM assists the police in any way with the riots. Blackberry and RIM have not commented on this hack or message.
TriCk responded to the statement that Spence had written on the blog about the rioting. Spence had said “we feel for those impacted by the riots in London” and promised to “engage with the authorities to assist in any way we can.”
RIM falls within a UK bill called the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which may force them to cooperate with officials by intercepting and handing over relevant communications on the private, instant messaging service on the Blackberry network. So really, at this point they almost have no choice, even though they really didn’t from the beginning. The UK Police continue to blame the BBM from Blackberry owners, as the messages can be passed to hundreds of users in minutes.
It is, however, unfair to target the BBM service for its role in the rioting. It is not the fault of the service, but the fault of the people using it. “Certainly, it’s a lot easier for people to communicate with each other in real time via some of these services but that’s a fact of life,” Ian Maude, an analyst at Enders Analysis, told the Journal. “They’re not good or evil in themselves, its the purposes for which people use them.”
Source: Fox News
While Google has already made quite a few significant cuts to services that it is supporting and deeming more “outside of its focus” in the past few months, another has made the list. However, the userbase is a little smaller than many think and Google is trying to push out services for the majority.
Now, in the video game world, things are a bit different. It’s very common, especially with OTA updates, for a company to release a game, and weeks to months later, release a patch that fixes many errors in the game. This allows the users to feel like the company is behind the game, as well as the company to push the game release date sooner.