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The following is a list of all entries from the rumor category.

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Xbox Live NOT Hacked…

Filed in Xbox Live, hackers, news, rumor, March 21, 2007, 8:27 pm by Jeff

There’s been a lot of hoopla today from various blogs and news sites about Xbox Live. c|net covered it, and it spread to Slashdot, Firing Squad, 1Up, Kotaku, Joystiq, Evil Avatar, and other sites quickly. There’s just something about the words “Xbox”, “Microsoft” and “Hack” that when combined cause all the gaming blogs to light up.

Well, it’s all for naught. To Microsoft’s knowledge, there has been no compromise of the Xbox Live network. No credit card or other personal information was exposed. We treat the security of our users and networks very seriously and are constantly evaluating and our security policies and procedures in this regard.

So what was all the fuss about? As far as our security investigation shows, this was a social engineering attack. Made famous by Kevin Mitnick, social engineering is the art of deceiving others into performing actions or divulging information. You know, like calling a phone company and convincing them to cancel the service for your neighbor who parks his car in front of your driveway. Using his name, phone number and address you might convince the phone representative that you’re really him – once that’s done you could wreck all sorts of damage. Another way would be to call your neighbor, convince him you’re the support representative for his phone company and you need him to confirm some important account details. Shoot, you don’t even need to call him – a convincing email or phishing website will do just fine.

In my opinion (this is my personal opinion, not that of Microsoft), there are (at least!) two things that can be improved upon here:

Xbox Live support representatives need better training

It was reported that when contacting Microsoft technical support, a representative said that “Hackers have control of Xbox Live and there is nothing we can do about it.” A support professional should not be making statements like this. First and foremost, they do not have the tools and access to the inner workings of the Xbox Live network, so it would be impossible for them to know if that statement were true or not. Secondly why would you ever say “there is nothing we can do about it?” Perhaps the “we” was intended to refer to Microsoft Support, but to everyone else on the planet it sounds like “we” == Microsoft, and of course Microsoft could do something about it (if it were true). We built the thing, we know how it works, there are many things we could do if anyone were to compromise our security.

Industry reporters should vet stories better

Sorry to blame the messengers here, but all the reporting I saw today was completely one-sided. Look – there was a report that security might have been compromised. Microsoft issued a statement saying that it would investigate. Then suddenly reports are everywhere that Xbox Live has been hacked. (I’m looking at you Kotaku!) What? How do you know? We get these reports practically every day, and I’ve yet to hear about one that turned out to be real.

I honestly believe our industry is being hurt by this lack of balance and bias within our most popular gaming blogs and news sites.

All in all, this whole shebang just reemphasizes how important it is to keep your personal information secret! Never share your password with anyone! Even if they claim they are from Microsoft. We don’t need your password! We will never ask for it. Protect other valuable information as well, like your name, phone number, credit card number, secret account question and answer, etc. These are only required if you call us for support – never share them with anyone via email, via voice chat, on forums, etc. Also, try to use a strong password, one that uses both letters and numbers. Use both uppercase and lowercase if you can. And finally, don’t use the same password on every website you visit! Who knows how other sites keep your information secure? A hacker could attack the site with the weakest security to get everything they need to steal your account.

- Official Microsoft statement (GamerscoreBlog.com) (MajorNelson.com)

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Rumor: Google to buy Adscape

Filed in adscape, google, in game ads, rumor, January 22, 2007, 12:01 pm by Jeff

As reported (paid subscription required) in the Wall Street Times yesterday, Google is considering acquiring Adscape Media. Last week I speculated that such an acquisition would be unlikely for Google. With all the press – let me take a closer look at Adscape and what might make them attractive to the search giant.

Why In-Game Ads?

There are a few reasons why Google would consider getting into in-game advertising. Perhaps Google feels the need to “keep pace” with Microsoft. This might be a response to Microsoft purchasing Massive, or it might be an effort that aligns with their foray into radio, and newspaper/print advertising. Or, perhaps there is some specific technology behind Adscape that Google wants to lock-up.

Keeping pace with Microsoft is no easy feat – companies either need to invest a tremendous amount of resources, or redefine the marketplace to carve Microsoft out (see Scoble vs. Winer on Microsoft Innovation). To my eyes, it appears that Google is trying the latter approach by pursuing non-WWW advertising options.

In 2006 we saw Google purchase a radio advertising company, explore newspaper advertising, and most recently file a patent on digital billboards. Here there is no direct competition from Microsoft and Google is going to learn a lot about targeting consumers off the web and with little user-context. There are tremendous rewards to be gained from digitizing real-world advertising (think better targeting, easier ad or campaign rotation, measurement, etc…). In-game advertising gives Google a platform to test & refine these technologies before going mainstream.

So, why Adscape?

Adscape boasts their unique “AverPlay” technology allows publishers to activate and deactivate “ad spots” remotely and dynamically. They also claim to have a proprietary “two-way connection between in-game ads and the real-world. Real World/Virtual World Gateway (RVG) enables two-way text, audio and video communication via SMS Text or eMail.” (source, click Technology).

As a gamer this sounds very intrusive, as a publisher this sounds like a mixed message. They claim “a priority of Adscape Media is to ensure the deployment of ads into games does not detract in any way from the game experience.” – yet their flagship technology is intended to provide interactive advertising. In my opinion, using SMS to interact with advertising sounds better suited for real-world billboards, than their virtual counterparts.

In fact, I can’t seem to find any Publishers that have signed with Adscape. Their site doesn’t mention any titles in their network. Their CEO Chris Gilbert claimed (7 months ago) “though we have several deals signed, we can’t discuss them publicly until they are formally announced.”

In the end, I think that’s what makes them attractive to Google – the technology itself, rather than the in-game opportunity. As Google tries to digitize real-world advertising by making it more interactive, they will need technologies such as SMS interaction. Adscape boasts 1 patent granted and 30 filed. In the end these technologies are what matter to Google, not the in-game market.

Related reading:

– Fry