I'm assuming these Pirate Bay folks were dumb enough to operate, or at least have servers, in America. That's how they got the Megaupload guys. Ever download and leach site I see nowadays is purely foreign, so they're not answerable to American courts at all.

Not really news as such, but here's an article on how not to fuck up your Linux system. Or you might find it useful if you're feeling a bit destructive :)

9 Lethal Linux Commands You Should Never Run

I think they were operating off the ocean years ago but don't hold me to that

I find the Hour of Code event quite interesting. It's an event as part of Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 8th - 14th) with the aim of getting people from all walks of life interested in coding and particularly kids in schools. When I think back to when I was in school 10 years ago there were no options for me to learn how to code or get involved in web development, unless I taught myself outside of school. It's fantastic that schools are finally getting kids involved in coding more in recent years and hopefully this will encourage more innovation and help solve skills shortages in IT somewhere along the line.

How 'Hour of Code' sparked a movement that could teach 100 million people to code - TechRepublic

Join the largest learning event in history, Dec 8-14, 2014

Some info on Computer Science Education Week:
http://csedweek.org/

NASA's Orion shuttle launch a few days ago was pretty cool, massive flames.

There's still Pirate Bay backup site and severs still up. But it's a different host obviously.

Today the FBI have allegedly confirmed the connection between North Korean networks and the Sony Entertainment hack.
FBI confirms North Korea behind Sony hack
FBI concludes that the North Korean gov't is responsible for Sony cyberattack

Their conclusion seems to be based on:

- Code similarities compared to previous North Korean cyber attacks
- Matching encryption methods used in previous North Korean cyber attacks
- Similar data deletion methods used in previous North Korean cyber attacks
- Hard-coded IP addresses in the malware pointing to North Korean infrastructure
- The tools / applications used in the attack are similar to the ones used in a cyber attack on South Korean banks / media last year.

I was quite convinced that this whole debacle was just another act of lulz unleashed upon Sony by neckbearded North Americans eager to test their might, similar to the attack back in 2011 that killed PSN for close to a month & scooped the personal details of 70 million PSN user accounts, but if we're to believe the FBI it looks like this was a genuine political cyber attack, lame.

That being said, I may be fishing here, but all of the above evidence, as is usually the case with cyber crimes, could have easily been spoofed by a North American hacker to stir the pot between the US and North Korea.

Or to get The Interview a wealth of publicity. The whole situation made my conspiracy bells ring, because once the film is released theres going to be a large audience seeing the film that wouldn't have before. It's probably legit but either way the ROI on this film is going to be greater than expected IMO.

Posted this elsewhere but it can hang here too.

Yeah it's certainly fishy all the way around. The seemingly pseudo-broken English used in the alleged "messages to SONY" posted on Pastebin, the humorous tongue in cheek negotiations, threatening SONY with the release of "Christmas present" content leaks, this being the second massive security breach suffered by SONY in recent years, it all seems like the same old **** we've seen from North American hacker groups over and over again. It's not outrageous to expect the FBI to scramble for a scapegoat, pointing the finger prematurely to satisfy media outlets when really all of the evidence they're making public doesn't say much at all, which is pretty typical when hunting for suspects in cyber crimes.

But this is why big cyber crime debacles like this one are always so much fun for passive observers, it's the hardest game of CLUE possible.