YOUTH HACKING

DNS SPOOFING

DNS spoofing (or DNS cache poisoning) is a computer hacking attack, whereby data is introduced into a Domain Name System (DNS) resolver's cache, causing the name server to return an incorrect IP address, diverting traffic to the attacker's computer (or any other computer).

Contents  

1 Overview of the Domain Name System

2 Cache poisoning attacks

3 Variants

3.1 Redirect the target domain's nameserver

3.2 Redirect the NS record to another target domain

4 Prevention and mitigation

Overview of the Domain Name System

A domain name system server translates a human-readable domain name (such as example.com) into a numerical IP address that is used to route communications between nodes. Normally if the server doesn't know a requested translation it will ask another server, and the process continues recursively. To increase performance, a server will typically remember (cache) these translations for a certain amount of time, so that, if it receives another request for the same translation, it can reply without having to ask the other server again.

When a DNS server has received a false translation and caches it for performance optimization, it is considered poisoned, and it supplies the false data to clients. If a DNS server is poisoned, it may return an incorrect IP address, diverting traffic to another computer (often an attacker's).

Cache poisoning attacks

Normally, a networked computer uses a DNS server provided by an Internet service provider (ISP) or the computer user's organization. DNS servers are used in an organization's network to improve resolution response performance by caching previously obtained query results. Poisoning attacks on a single DNS server can affect the users serviced directly by the compromised server or those serviced indirectly by its downstream server(s) if applicable.

To perform a cache poisoning attack, the attacker exploits flaws in the DNS software. Server should correctly validate DNS responses to ensure that they are from an authoritative source (for example by using DNSSEC). Otherwise the server might end up caching the incorrect entries locally and serve them to other users that make the same request.

This attack can be used to direct users from a website to another site of the attacker's choosing. For example, an attacker spoofs the IP address DNS entries for a target website on a given DNS server and replaces them with the IP address of a server under his control. Then, he creates files on the server under his control with names matching those on the target server. These files usually contain malicious content, such as a computer worm or a computer virus. A user whose computer has referenced the poisoned DNS server gets tricked into accepting content coming from a non-authentic server and unknowingly downloads malicious content.

Variants

In the following variants, the entries for the server ns.target.example would be poisoned and redirected to the attacker's nameserver at IP address w.x.y.z. These attacks assume that the nameserver for target.example is ns.target.example.

To accomplish the attacks, the attacker must force the target DNS server to make a request for a domain controlled by one of the attacker's nameservers.

Redirect the target domain's nameserver

The first variant of DNS cache poisoning involves redirecting the nameserver of the attacker's domain to the nameserver of the target domain, then assigning that nameserver an IP address specified by the attacker.

DNS server's request: what are the address records for subdomain.attacker.example?

subdomain.attacker.example. IN A

Attacker's response:

Answer:

(no response)

Authority section:

attacker.example. 3600 IN NS ns.target.example.

Additional section:

ns.target.example. IN A w.x.y.z

A vulnerable server would cache the additional A-record (IP address) for ns.target.example, allowing the attacker to resolve queries to the entire target.example domain.

Redirect the NS record to another target domain

The second variant of DNS cache poisoning involves redirecting the nameserver of another domain unrelated to the original request to an IP address specified by the attacker.

DNS server's request: what are the address records for subdomain.attacker.example?

subdomain.attacker.example. IN A

Attacker's response:

Answer:

(no response)

Authority section:

target.example. 3600 IN NS ns.attacker.example.

Additional section:

ns.attacker.example. IN A w.x.y.z

A vulnerable server would cache the unrelated authority information for target.example's NS-record (nameserver entry), allowing the attacker to resolve queries to the entire target.example domain.

Prevention and mitigation

Many cache poisoning attacks can be prevented on DNS servers by being less trusting of the information passed to them by other DNS servers, and ignoring any DNS records passed back which are not directly relevant to the query. For example, versions of BIND 9.5.0-P1and above perform these checks.Source port randomization for DNS requests, combined with the use of cryptographically-secure random numbers for selecting both the source port and the 16-bit cryptographic nonce, can greatly reduce the probability of successful DNS race attacks.

However routers, firewalls, proxies, and other gateway devices that perform network address translation (NAT), or more specifically, port address translation (PAT), often rewrite source ports in order to track connection state. When modifying source ports, PAT devices typically remove source port randomness implemented by nameservers and stub resolvers.

Secure DNS (DNSSEC) uses cryptographic digital signatures signed with a trusted public key certificate to determine the authenticity of data. DNSSEC can counter cache poisoning attacks, but as of 2008 was not yet widely deployed. In 2010 DNSSEC was implemented in the Internet root zone servers.Although, some security experts claim with DNSSEC itself, without application-level cryptography, the attacker still can provide fake data.

This kind of attack can be mitigated at the transport layer or application layer by performing end-to-end validation once a connection is established. A common example of this is the use of Transport Layer Security and digital signatures. For example, by using HTTPS (the secure version of HTTP), users may check whether the server's digital certificate is valid and belongs to a website's expected owner. Similarly, the secure shell remote login program checks digital certificates at endpoints (if known) before proceeding with the session. For applications that download updates automatically, the application can embed a copy of the signing certificate locally and validate the signature stored in the software update against the embedded certificate.

Intelligent Anycast Cache Appliances from Dell and TCPWave have watchdogs, which ensure that the DNS processes do not get a cache poison by predefining the roots in the watchdogs. Source port randomization via BIND backed up by a non-BIND DNS server software with intelligence blended into the BGP routing protocol mitigates the DNS Anycast cache poisoning attacks from malicious users

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CYBERATTACKS AT SINGAPORE IN 2013

The 2013 Singapore cyberattacks were a series of hack attacks initiated by the hacktivist organisation Anonymous, represented by a member known by the online handle "The Messiah". The cyber attacks were partly in response to web censorship regulations in the country, specifically on news outlets. On 12 November 2013, James Raj was charged in Singapore court as the alleged "The Messiah".

Contents  

1 Background

2 Incidents

3 Reception

Background

On 1 June, a new set of web censorship regulations drafted by the Media Development Authority became effective in Singapore. Under the new rules,

websites with at least 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore every month that publish at least one local news article per week over a period of two months ... will have to remove 'prohibited content' such as articles that undermine 'racial or religious harmony' within 24 hours of being notified by Singapore's media regulator.

During the introduction of these new rules, government officials stated that they "do not impinge on internet freedom".

Incidents

The hacked version of Irene Tham's The Straits Times blog

Following his hack attack on the People's Action Party's Community Foundation's webpage, Anonymous member The Messiah hacked into the official website of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council, to exemplify the fact that it was very vulnerable to cyber attacks. Site administrators were quick to lock the site and a police report was made.

Upset with "the Government's new licensing rules imposed on websites", a purported member of Anonymous went on to upload a four-minute-long video on YouTube, in which he, wearing the signature Guy Fawkes mask, threatened to "bring down key infrastructure in Singapore".He also urged Singaporeans to don red and black on 5 November, as well as black out their Facebook profile pictures. In the video, he made reference to The Messiah, who he called "one of comrades".

The Straits Times news reporter Irene Tham decided to post a critique of The Messiah's video on her blog on the newspaper's official website. The hacker then hit back by hacking into the blog, defacing the report's title with the words "Dear ST [Straits Times]: You just got hacked for misleading the people!". In justification, The Messiah opined that Tham had misconstrued his speech. He also noted that Tham "conveniently modified the sentence 'war against the Singapore government' into 'war against Singapore'." He enjoined Tham to either apologise within two days or resign from her job, to atone for her "blasphemous lies".

Later on, in an email to Yahoo Singapore, The Messiah said

we reached out to our comrades from other fractions [sic] who together with us performed DNS poisoning on the .gov.sg sites, taking them down for a period of time. But there must have also been some patching that was done as some of our favourite point of entries into their networks seemed to be fixed.

On 3 November, the website of the Seletar Airport was hacked. Its webpage replaced with a black and green background with an image in the middle resembling a skull wearing a hood. The site resumed normal operations 30 minutes after the hack was first noticed.

On 5 November, the Twitter and YouTube accounts of Singaporean entertainer Ridhwan Azman were hacked. According to posts from the compromised account, this was in retaliation for "dissing the legion". Apart from this incident, Anonymous did not carry out any other major activity, contrary to its promise to ignite a massive protest on that date.

Two days later, the hacktivists hacked into and vandalised a subpage on the website of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, following Lee's vow to bring The Messiah and his accomplices to justice.Additionally, the webpage of the Istana was also hacked.

On 20 November, the websites of 13 schools, which were hosted on a single server, were reportedly defaced between 3:30pm to 5pm.

Reception

News of the cyberattacks were picked up by disparate news outlets from around the world, including the South China Morning Post,The Huffington Post,Time,The Star,and The Jakarta Post, among others.

Regarding the hacking of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council's website, Member of Parliament Ang Hin Kee dubbed it as "malicious", promising to boost the page's security system.

After the release of the YouTube video, the Government IT Security Incident Response Team immediately released an alert to all the Singaporean government agencies. The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore responded in an official statement, "We are aware of the video, and the police are investigating the matter."The Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), of which The Straits Times is a subsidiary, promptly took down the blog which was hacked into and filed a complaint to the police.

Singaporean politician and Deputy Chairman of Singapore's Parliamentary Committee for Communications and Information, Baey Yam Keng, offered, "We do not know what the hacker's capabilities are, so it's important for us to take this very seriously." Bertha Henson, who operates Breakfast Network, a Singaporean news outlet, felt that The Messiah's action would "make the government seem right, that we [independent website operators] are just troublemakers."

Whilst observing counter-terrorism drill Exercise Highcrest, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pledged to hunt down the team responsible for the cyberattack, stating, "It is not a laughing matter. It's not just anything goes, and you're anonymous, therefore there's no responsibility. You may think you are anonymous. We will make that extra effort to find out who you are.

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HACKED  LinkedIn  2012

The social networking website LinkedIn was hacked on 5 June 2012, and passwords for nearly 6.5 million user accounts were stolen by Russian cybercriminals.Owners of the hacked accounts were no longer able to access their accounts, and the website repeatedly encouraged its users to change their passwords after the incident.Vicente Silveira, the director of LinkedIn,confirmed, on behalf of the company, that the website was hacked in its official blog. He also said that the holders of the compromised accounts would find their passwords were no longer valid on the website.

The stolen passwords, which were in an encrypted format, were decrypted and posted on a Russian password decryption forum later on that day. By the morning of June 6, passwords for thousands of accounts were available online in plain text. Graham Cluley of the internet security firm Sophos warned that the leaked passwords could be in the possession of criminals by 6 June.LinkedIn said, in an official statement, that they would email all its members with security instructions and instructions on how they could reset their passwords.

Contents  

1 Reaction by communities and users

2 Response from LinkedIn

3 Controversy

Reaction by communities and users

Rep. Mary Bono Mack of the United States Congress commented on the incident, "How many times is this going to happen before Congress finally wakes up and takes action? This latest incident once again brings into sharp focus the need to pass data protection legislation." Senator Patrick Leahy said, "Reports of another major data breach should give pause to American consumers who, now more than ever, share sensitive personal information in their online transactions and networking ... Congress should make comprehensive data privacy and cybercrime legislation a top priority."Marcus Carey, a security researcher for Rapid7, said that the hackers had penetrated the databases of LinkedIn in the preceding days.He expressed concerns that they may have had access to the website even after the attack. Michael Aronowitz, Vice President of Saveology said, "Everyday hundreds of sites are hacked and personal information is obtained. Stealing login information from one account can easily be used to access other accounts, which can hold personal and financial information." Security experts indicated that the stolen passwords were encrypted in a way that was fairly easy to decrypt, which was one of the reasons for the data breach.Katie Szpyrka, a long time user of LinkedIn from Illinois, USA, filed a $5 million lawsuit against LinkedIn, complaining that the company did not keep their promises to secure connections and databases. Erin O’Harra, a spokeswoman working for LinkedIn, when asked about the lawsuit, said that lawyers were looking to take advantage of that situation to again propose the bills SOPA and PIPA in the United States Congress.An amended complaint was filed on Nov. 26, 2012 on behalf of Szpyrka and another premium LinkedIn user from Virginia, USA, named Khalilah Gilmore–Wright, as class representatives for all LinkedIn users who were affected by the breach.The lawsuit sought injunctive and other equitable relief, as well as restitution and damages for the plaintiffs and members of the class.

Response from LinkedIn

LinkedIn apologized immediately after the data breach, and asked its users to immediately change their passwords.The Federal Bureau of Investigation assisted the LinkedIn Corporation in investigating the theft. As of 8 June 2012, the investigation was still in its early stages, and the company said it was unable to determine whether the hackers were also able to steal the email addresses associated with the compromised user accounts as well.LinkedIn said that the users whose passwords are compromised would be unable to access to their LinkedIn accounts using their old passwords.

Controversy

Internet security experts said that the passwords were easy to unscramble because of LinkedIn's failure to use a salt when hashing them, which is considered an insecure practice because it allows attackers to quickly reverse the scrambling process using existing standard rainbow tables, pre-made lists of matching scrambled and unscrambled passwords. Another issue that sparked controversy was the iOS app provided by LinkedIn, which grabs personal names, emails, and notes from a mobile calendar without the user's approval. Security experts working for Skycure Security said that the application collects a user's personal data and sends it to the LinkedIn server. LinkedIn claimed the permission for this feature is user-granted, and the information is sent securely using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. The company added that it had never stored or shared that information with a third party.

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COMPUTER SECURITY HACKER HISTORY

Timeline of computer security hacker history. Hacking and system cracking appeared with the first electronic computers. Below are some important events in the history of hacking and cracking.

Contents  

1 1903

2 1930s

2.1 1932

2.2 1939

2.3 1943

3 1960s

3.1 1965

4 1970s

4.1 1971

5 1980s

5.1 1981

5.2 1983

5.3 1984

5.4 1985

5.5 1986

5.6 1987

5.7 1988

5.8 1989

6 1990s

6.1 1990

6.2 1992

6.3 1993

6.4 1994

6.5 1995

6.6 1996

6.7 1997

6.8 1998

6.9 1999

7 2000s

7.1 2000

7.2 2001

7.3 2002

7.4 2003

7.5 2004

7.6 2005

7.7 2006

7.8 2007

7.9 2008

7.10 2009

8 2010s

8.1 2010

8.2 2011

8.3 2012

8.4 2013

8.5 2014

1903

Magician and inventor Nevil Maskelyne disrupts John Ambrose Fleming's public demonstration of Guglielmo Marconi's purportedly secure wireless telegraphy technology, sending insulting Morse code messages through the auditorium's projector.

1930s
1932

Polish cryptologists Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Rózycki broke the Enigma machine code.

1939

Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman and Harold Keen worked together to develop the Bombe (on the basis of Rejewski's works on Bomba). The Enigma machine's use of a reliably small key space makes it vulnerable to brute force and thus a violation of CWE-326.

1943

French computer expert René Carmille, hacked the punched card used by the Nazis to locate Jews.

1960s
1965

William D. Mathews from MIT found a vulnerability in a Multics CTSS running on an IBM 7094. The standard text editor on the system was designed to be used by one user at a time, working in one directory, and so created a temporary file with a constant name for all instantiations of the editor. The flaw was discovered when two system programmers were editing at the same time and the temporary files for the message-of-the day and the password file became swapped, causing the contents of the system CTSS password file to display to any user logging into the system.

1970s
1971

John T. Draper (later nicknamed Captain Crunch), his friend Joe Engressia, and blue box phone phreaking hit the news with an Esquire Magazine feature story.

1980s
1981

Chaos Computer Club forms in Germany.

The Warelords forms in The United States, founded by Black Bart (cracker of Dung Beetles in 1982) in St. Louis, Missouri, and was composed of many teenage hackers, phreakers, coders, and largely black hat-style underground computer geeks. One of the more notable group members was Tennessee Tuxedo, a young man who was instrumental with developing conference calls via the use of trunk line phreaking via the use of the Novation Apple Cat II that allowed them to share their current hacks, phreaking codes, and new software releases. Other notable members were The Apple Bandit, Krakowicz, Krac-man, and The Codesmith, who ran the BBS The Trading Post for the group. Black Bart was clever at using his nationally known and very popular BBS system in order to promote the latest gaming software. He used that relationship to his advantage, often shipping the original pre-released software to his most trusted code crackers during the beta-testing phase, weeks prior to their public release. The Warelords often collaborated with other piracy groups at the time, such as The Syndicate and The Midwest Pirates Guild, and developed an international ring of involved piracy groups that reached as far away as Japan. Long before the movie WarGames went into pre-production, The Warelords had successfully infiltrated such corporations and institutions as the White House, Southwestern Bell "Ma Bell" Mainframe Systems, and large corporate providers of voice mail systems.

1983

The 414s break into 60 computer systems at institutions ranging from the Los Alamos National Laboratory to Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.The incident appeared as the cover story of Newsweek with the title "Beware: Hackers at play", possibly the first mass-media use of the term hacker in the context of computer security.As a result, the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings on computer security and passed several laws.

The group KILOBAUD is formed in February, kicking off a series of other hacker groups which form soon after.

The movie WarGames introduces the wider public to the phenomenon of hacking and creates a degree of mass paranoia of hackers and their supposed abilities to bring the world to a screeching halt by launching nuclear ICBMs.

The U.S. House of Representatives begins hearings on computer security hacking.

In his Turing Award lecture, Ken Thompson mentions "hacking" and describes a security exploit that he calls a "Trojan horse".

1984

Someone calling himself Lex Luthor founds the Legion of Doom. Named after a Saturday morning cartoon, the LOD had the reputation of attracting "the best of the best"—until one of the most talented members called Phiber Optik feuded with Legion of Doomer Erik Bloodaxe and got 'tossed out of the clubhouse'. Phiber's friends formed a rival group, the Masters of Deception.

The Comprehensive Crime Control Act gives the Secret Service jurisdiction over computer fraud.

Cult of the Dead Cow forms in Lubbock, Texas, and begins publishing its ezine.

The hacker magazine 2600 begins regular publication, right when TAP was putting out its final issue. The editor of 2600, "Emmanuel Goldstein" (whose real name is Eric Corley), takes his handle from the leader of the resistance in George Orwell's 1984. The publication provides tips for would-be hackers and phone phreaks, as well as commentary on the hacker issues of the day. Today, copies of 2600 are sold at most large retail bookstores.

The Chaos Communication Congress, the annual European hacker conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club, is held in Hamburg, Germany

William Gibson's groundbreaking science fiction novel Neuromancer, about "Case", a futuristic computer hacker, is published. Considered the first major cyberpunk novel, it brought into hacker jargon such terms as "cyberspace", "the matrix", "simstim", and "ICE".

1985

KILOBAUD is re-organized into The P.H.I.R.M., and begins sysopping hundreds of BBSs throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

The online 'zine Phrack is established.

The Hacker's Handbook is published in the UK.

The FBI, Secret Service, Middlesex County NJ Prosecutor's Office and various local law enforcement agencies execute seven search warrants concurrently across New Jersey on July 12, 1985, seizing equipment from BBS operators and users alike for "complicity in computer theft",under a newly passed, and yet untested criminal statue.This is famously known as the Private Sector Bust,or the 2600 BBS Seizure,and implicated the Private Sector BBS sysop, Store Manager (also a BBS sysop), Beowulf, Red Barchetta, The Vampire, the NJ Hack Shack BBS sysop, and the Treasure Chest BBS sysop.

1986

After more and more break-ins to government and corporate computers, Congress passes the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it a crime to break into computer systems. The law, however, does not cover juveniles.

Robert Schifreen and Stephen Gold are convicted of accessing the Telecom Gold account belonging to the Duke of Edinburgh under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 in the United Kingdom, the first conviction for illegally accessing a computer system. On appeal, the conviction is overturned as hacking is not within the legal definition of forgery.

Arrest of a hacker who calls himself The Mentor. He published a now-famous treatise shortly after his arrest that came to be known as the Hacker's Manifesto in the e-zine Phrack. This still serves as the most famous piece of hacker literature and is frequently used to illustrate the mindset of hackers.

Astronomer Clifford Stoll plays a pivotal role in tracking down hacker Markus Hess, events later covered in Stoll's 1990 book The Cuckoo's Egg.

1987

Decoder magazine begins in Italy.

The Christmas Tree EXEC "worm" causes major disruption to the VNET, BITNET and EARN networks.

1988

The Morris Worm. Graduate student Robert T. Morris, Jr. of Cornell University launches a worm on the government's ARPAnet (precursor to the Internet). The worm spreads to 6,000 networked computers, clogging government and university systems. Morris is dismissed from Cornell, sentenced to three years probation, and fined $10,000.

First National Bank of Chicago is the victim of $70-million computer theft.

The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is created by DARPA to address network security.

The Father Christmas (computer worm) spreads over DECnet networks.

1989

Jude Milhon (aka St Jude) and R. U. Sirius launch Mondo 2000, a major '90s tech-lifestyle magazine, in Berkeley, California.

The politically motivated WANK worm spreads over DECnet.

Dutch magazine Hack-Tic begins.

The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll is published.

1990s
1990

Operation Sundevil introduced. After a prolonged sting investigation, Secret Service agents swoop down on organizers and prominent members of BBSs in 14 U.S. cities including the Legion of Doom, conducting early-morning raids and arrests. The arrests involve and are aimed at cracking down on credit-card theft and telephone and wire fraud. The result is a breakdown in the hacking community, with members informing on each other in exchange for immunity. The offices of Steve Jackson Games are also raided, and the role-playing sourcebook GURPS Cyberpunk is confiscated, possibly because the government fears it is a "handbook for computer crime". Legal battles arise that prompt the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, including the trial of Knight Lightning.

Australian federal police tracking Realm members Phoenix, Electron and Nom are the first in the world to use a remote data intercept to gain evidence for a computer crime prosecution.

The Computer Misuse Act 1990 is passed in the United Kingdom, criminalising any unauthorised access to computer systems.

1992

Release of the movie Sneakers, in which security experts are blackmailed into stealing a universal decoder for encryption systems.

MindVox opens to the public.

Bulgarian virus writer Dark Avenger wrote 1260, the first known use of polymorphic code, used to circumvent the type of pattern recognition used by Anti-virus software, and nowadays also intrusion detection systems.

Publication of a hacking instruction manual for penetrating TRW credit reporting agency by Infinite Possibilities Society (IPS) gets Dr. Ripco, the sysop of Ripco BBS mentioned in the IPS manual, arrested by the US Secret Service.

1993

The first DEF CON hacking conference takes place in Las Vegas. The conference is meant to be a one-time party to say good-bye to BBSs (now replaced by the Web), but the gathering was so popular it became an annual event.

AOL gives its users access to USENET, precipitating Eternal September.

1994

Summer: Russian crackers siphon $10 million from Citibank and transfer the money to bank accounts around the world. Vladimir Levin, the 30-year-old ringleader, uses his work laptop after hours to transfer the funds to accounts in Finland and Israel. Levin stands trial in the United States and is sentenced to three years in prison. Authorities recover all but $400,000 of the stolen money.

Hackers adapt to emergence of the World Wide Web quickly, moving all their how-to information and hacking programs from the old BBSs to new hacker Web sites.

AOHell is released, a freeware application that allows a burgeoning community of unskilled script kiddies to wreak havoc on America Online. For days, hundreds of thousands of AOL users find their mailboxes flooded with multi-megabyte email bombs and their chat rooms disrupted with spam messages.

1995

The movies The Net and Hackers are released.

February 22: The FBI raids the "Phone Masters".

1996

Hackers alter Web sites of the United States Department of Justice (August), the CIA (October), and the U.S. Air Force (December).

Canadian hacker group, Brotherhood, breaks into the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The U.S. General Accounting Office reports that hackers attempted to break into Defense Department computer files some 250,000 times in 1995 alone. About 65 percent of the attempts were successful, according to the report.

The MP3 format gains popularity in the hacker world. Many hackers begin setting up sharing sites via FTP, Hotline, IRC and Usenet.

1997

A 15-year-old Croatian youth penetrates computers at a U.S. Air Force base in Guam.

June: Eligible Receiver 97 tests the American government's readiness against cyberattacks.

December: Information Security publishes first issue.

First high-profile attacks on Microsoft's Windows NT operating system

In response to the MP3 popularity, the Recording Industry Association of America begins cracking down on FTPs . The RIAA begins a campaign of lawsuits shutting down many of the owners of these sites including the more popular ripper/distributors The Maxx (Germany, Age 14), Chapel976 (USA, Age 15), Bulletboy (UK, Age 16), Sn4rf (Canada, Age 14) and others in their young teens via their ISPs. Their houses are raided and their computers and modems are taken. The RIAA fails to cut off the head of the MP3 beast and within a year and a half, Napster is released.

1998

January: Yahoo! notifies Internet users that anyone visiting its site in recent weeks might have downloaded a logic bomb and worm planted by hackers claiming a "logic bomb" will go off if Kevin Mitnick is not released from prison.

January: Anti-hacker runs during Super Bowl XXXII

February: The Internet Software Consortium proposes the use of DNSSEC (domain-name system security extensions) to secure DNS servers.

May 19: The seven members of the hacker think tank known as L0pht testifies in front of the US congressional Government Affairs committee on "Weak Computer Security in Government".

June: Information Security publishes its first annual Industry Survey, finding that nearly three-quarters of organizations suffered a security incident in the previous year.

October: "U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno announces National Infrastructure Protection Center."

1999

Software security goes mainstream In the wake of Microsoft's Windows 98 release, 1999 becomes a banner year for security (and hacking). Hundreds of advisories and patches are released in response to newfound (and widely publicized) bugs in Windows and other commercial software products. A host of security software vendors release anti-hacking products for use on home computers.

The Electronic Civil Disobedience project, an online political performance-art group, attacks the Pentagon calling it conceptual art and claiming it to be a protest against the U.S. support of the suppression of rebels in southern Mexico by the Mexican government. ECD uses the FloodNet software to bombard its opponents with access requests.

U.S. President Bill Clinton announces a $1.46 billion initiative to improve government computer security. The plan would establish a network of intrusion detection monitors for certain federal agencies and encourage the private sector to do the same.

January 7: an international coalition of hackers (including CULT OF THE DEAD COW, 2600 's staff, Phrack's staff, L0pht, and the Chaos Computer Club) issued a joint statement  condemning the LoU's declaration of war. The LoU responded by withdrawing its declaration.

A hacker interviewed by Hilly Rose during the Art Bell Coast-to-Coast Radio Show exposes a plot by Al-Qaida to derail Amtrak trains. This results in ALL trains being forcibly stopped over Y2K as a safety measure.

March: The Melissa worm is released and quickly becomes the most costly malware outbreak to date.

July: CULT OF THE DEAD COW releases Back Orifice 2000 at DEF CON

August: Kevin Mitnick, "the most wanted man in cyberspace",sentenced to 5 years, of which over 4 years had already been spent pre-trial including 8 months solitary confinement.

September: Level Seven Crew hacks The US Embassy in China's Website and places racist, anti-government slogans on embassy site in regards to 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.

September 16: The United States Department of Justice sentences the "Phone Masters".

October: American Express introduces the "Blue" smart card, the industry's first chip-based credit card in the US.

2000s
2000

May: The ILOVEYOU worm, also known as VBS/Loveletter and Love Bug worm, is a computer worm written in VBScript. It infected millions of computers worldwide within a few hours of its release. It is considered to be one of the most damaging worms ever. It originated in the Philippines; made by an AMA Computer College student for his thesis.

September: teenage hacker Jonathan James becomes first juvenile to serve jail time for hacking.

2001

Microsoft becomes the prominent victim of a new type of hack that attacks the domain name server. In these denial-of-service attacks, the DNS paths that take users to Microsoft's Web sites are corrupted.

February: A Dutch cracker releases the Anna Kournikova virus, initiating a wave of viruses that tempts users to open the infected attachment by promising a sexy picture of the Russian tennis star.

April: FBI agents trick two into coming to the U.S. and revealing how they were Hacking U.S. banks .

May: Spurred by elevated tensions in Sino-American diplomatic relations, U.S. and Chinese hackers engage in skirmishes of Web defacements that many dub "The Sixth Cyberwar".

July: Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov is arrested at the annual Def Con hacker convention. He is the first person criminally charged with violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

August: Code Red worm, infects ts.

2002

January: Bill Gates decrees that Microsoft will secure its products and services, and kicks off a massive internal training and quality control campaign.

May: Klez.H, a variant of the worm discovered in November 2001, becomes the biggest malware outbreak in terms of machines infected, but causes little monetary damage.

June: The Bush administration files a bill to create the Department of Homeland Security, which, among other things, will be responsible for protecting the nation's critical IT infrastructure.

August: Researcher Chris Paget publishes a paper describing "shatter attacks", detailing how Windows' unauthenticated messaging system can be used to take over a machine. The paper raises questions about how securable Windows could ever be. It is however largely derided as irrelevant as the vulnerabilities it described are caused by vulnerable applications (placing windows on the desktop with inappropriate privileges) rather than an inherent flaw within the Operating System.

October: The International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium - (ISC)² - confers its 10,000th CISSP certification.

2003

The hacktivist group Anonymous was formed

March: CULT OF THE DEAD COW and Hacktivismo are given permission by the United States Department of Commerce to export software utilizing strong encryption.

December 18: Milford Man pleas guilty to hacking.

2004

March: Myron Tereshchuk is arrested for attempting to extort $17 million from Micropatent.

July: North Korea claims to have trained 500 hackers who successfully crack South Korean, Japanese, and their allies' computer systems.

2005

April 2: Rafael Núñez aka RaFa a notorious member of the hacking group World of Hell is arrested following his arrival at Miami International Airport for breaking into the Defense Information Systems Agency computer system on June 2001.

September 13: Cameron Lacroix is sentenced to 11 months for gaining access to T-Mobile USA's network and exploiting Paris Hilton's Sidekick.

November 3: Jeanson James Ancheta, whom prosecutors say was a member of the "Botmaster Underground", a group of script kiddies mostly noted for their excessive use of bot attacks and propagating vast amounts of spam, was taken into custody after being lured to FBI offices in Los Angeles.

2006

January: One of the few worms to take after the old form of malware, destruction of data rather than the accumulation of zombie networks to launch attacks from, is discovered. It had various names, including Kama Sutra (used by most media reports), Black Worm, Mywife, Blackmal, Nyxem version D, Kapser, KillAV, Grew and CME-24. The worm would spread through e-mail client address books, and would search for documents and fill them with garbage, instead of deleting them to confuse the user. It would also hit a web page counter when it took control, allowing the programmer who created it as well as the world to track the progress of the worm. It would replace documents with random garbage on the third of every month. It was hyped by the media but actually affected relatively few computers, and was not a real threat for most users.

May: Jeanson James Ancheta receives a 57-month prison sentence, and is ordered to pay damages amounting to $15,000.00 to the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake and the Defense Information Systems Agency, for damage done due to DDoS attacks and hacking. Ancheta also had to forfeit his gains to the government, which include $60,000 in cash, a BMW, and computer equipment .

May: Largest Defacement in Web History, at that time, is performed by the Turkish hacker iSKORPiTX who successfully hacked 21,549 websites in one shot. 

July: Robert Moore and Edwin Pena featured on Americas Most Wanted with Kevin Mitnick presenting their case commit the first VOIP crime ever seen in the USA. Robert Moore served 2 years in federal prison with a $152,000.00 restitution while Edwin Pena was sentenced to 10 years and a $1 million restitution.

September: Viodentia releases FairUse4WM tool which would remove DRM information off WMA music downloaded from music services such as Yahoo Unlimited, Napster, Rhapsody Music and Urge.

2007

May 17: Estonia recovers from massive denial-of-service attack

June 13: FBI Operation Bot Roast finds over 1 million botnet victims

June 21: A spear phishing incident at the Office of the Secretary of Defense steals sensitive U.S. defense information, leading to significant changes in identity and message-source verification at OSD.

August 11: United Nations website hacked by Turkish Hacker Kerem125

November 29: FBI Operation Bot Roast II: 1 million infected PCs, $20 million in losses and 8 indictments

2008

January 17: Project Chanology; Anonymous attacks Scientology website servers around the world. Private documents are stolen from Scientology computers and distributed over the Internet

March 7: Around 20 Chinese hackers claim to have gained access to the world's most sensitive sites, including The Pentagon. They operate from a bare apartment on a Chinese island.

March 14: Trend Micro website successfully hacked by Turkish hacker Janizary(aka Utku)

2009

April 4: Conficker worm infiltrated millions of PCs worldwide including many government-level top-security computer networks

2010s
2010

January 12: Operation Aurora Google publicly reveals that it has been on the receiving end of a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google"

June: Stuxnet The Stuxnet worm is found by VirusBlokAda. Stuxnet was unusual in that while it spread via Windows computers, its payload targeted just one specific model and type of SCADA systems. It slowly became clear that it was a cyber attack on Iran's nuclear facilities - with most experts believing that Israel was behind it - perhaps with US help.

December 3: The first Malware Conference, MALCON takes place in India. Founded by Rajshekhar Murthy, Malware coders are invited to showcase their skills at this annual event supported by the Government of India. An advanced malware for Symbian OS is released by hacker A0drul3z.

2011

The Hacker group Lulz security is formed

April 9: Bank Of America website got hacked by a Turkish hacker named JeOPaRDY. An estimated 85,000 credit card numbers and accounts were reported to have been stolen due to the hack. Bank officials say no personal customer bank information is available on that web-page. Investigations are being conducted by the F.B.I to trace down the incriminated hacker.

April 17: An "external intrusion" sends the PlayStation Network offline, and compromises personally identifying information (possibly including credit card details) of its 77 million accounts, in what is claimed to be one of the five largest data breaches ever.

Elite hacker sl1nk releases information of his penetration in the servers of the Department of Defense (DoD), Pentagon, NASA, NSA, US Military, other UK government websites.

The hacker group LulzRaft is formed

September: Bangladeshi hacker TiGER-M@TE made world record in defacement history by hacking 700,000 websites in one shot.

October 16: The YouTube channel of Sesame Street was hacked, streaming pornographic content for about 22 minutes.

November 1: The main phone and Internet networks of the Palestinian territories sustained a hacker attack from multiple locations worldwide.

November 7: The forums for Valve's Steam service were hacked. Redirects for a hacking website, Fkn0wned, appeared on the Steam Users' Forums, offering "hacking tutorials and tools, porn, free giveaways and much more."

December 14: Five members of the Norwegian hacker group Noria was arrested, allegedly suspected for hacking into the email account of the militant extremist Anders Behring Breivik

2012

Saudi hacker, 0xOmar, published over 400,000 credit cards online,and threatened Israel to release 1 million credit cards in the future.

In response to that incident, an Israeli hacker published over 200 Saudi's credit cards online.

January 6: Hacker group The Hacker Encrypters found and reported an open SQLi exploit on Facebook. The results of the exploit have been posted on Pastebin.

January 7: Team Appunity, a group of Norwegians hackers, got arrested for breaking into and publishing the user database of Norway's largest prostitution website.

February 3: Marriott was hacked by a new age ideologist, Attila Nemeth who was resisting against the New World Order where Corporations Rule the World. As a response Marriott reported him to the United States Secret Service.

February 8: Foxconn is hacked by rising hacker group, Swagg Security, releasing a massive amount of data including email logins, server logins, and even more alarming - bank account credentials of large companies like Apple and Microsoft. Swagg Security stages the attack just as a Foxconn protest ignites against terrible working conditions

May 4: A lot of important Turkish Websites are hacked by F0RTYS3V3N (Turkish Hacker) . Google, Yandex, Microsoft, Gmail, Msn, Hotmail, PayPal Turkish representative offices ' s Websites hacked in one shot.

May 24 WHMCS is hacked by UGNazi, they claim that the reason for this is because of the illegal sites that are using their software.

May 31: MyBB is hacked by newly founded hack group, UGNazi, the website was defaced for about a day, they claim their reasoning for this was because they were upset that the forum board Hackforums.net uses their software.

October 7: Farmers Insurance, MasterCard, and several other high-level government sites are hacked by Swagg Security. Released is several thousand usernames and logins, as well as other confidential information.

2013

February 18: Burger King's Twitter account 'hacked' with McDonald's logo  According to Anonymous, it was due to the horse meat scandal in Europe.An account named "iThug" was responsible for the hack. As a result, iThug's account was suspended.

March 2: Two FBI web servers hacked by a Japanese hacker named Daisuke Dan.

October 27: NSA's website shut down after the infiltration of a Japanese elite hacker Daisuke Dan.

2014

February 7: The Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox filed for bankruptcy after $460 million was apparently stolen by hackers due to "weaknesses in their system" and another $27.4 million went missing from its bank accounts.

November 28: The website of a major provider of Telecommunications Services in the Philippines Globe Telecom usually known as GLOBE was hacked to acquaint for the poor internet connection service they are distributing.

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DEFENCE OF YOUTH

Youth Defence is an Irish organisation that opposes legalisation of abortion. It was founded after the 1992 X case established abortion rights in the case of the mother's life being at risk. It shares offices with closely aligned Catholic Eurosceptic group Cóir.

Contents  

1 History

1.1 2012 anti-abortion campaign

1.2 Billboard parked outside Rape Crisis Centre

1.3 Website hacking incident

2 Funding

History

The organisation was founded in 1992 by a group of seven anti-abortion activists including Peter Scully, Niamh Nic Mhathúna, her sister Una Bean Nic Mhatúna, and Una's husband Seamus Mhatúna.Far-right Irish nationalist Justin Barrett is a former leader of the group.

In 1997 Youth Defence picketed the home of Róisín Shortall and in 1999 the group the home of then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Both events generated negative publicity, including complaints of intimidation by protestors from neighbours of Róisín Shortall.Archbishop Desmond Connell has kept his distance from the group, criticising its "American-style tactics".

2012 anti-abortion campaign

In June 2012 Youth Defence began their "Abortion tears her life apart" campaign. This campaign consisted of billboard signs, posters, and many members of the group handing out flyers. The campaign was across many cities in Ireland.

Pro-choice users of the website Broadsheet.ie encouraged supporters to call upon advertising companies to pull the adverts, saying that the text used misinformation.Legal scholar and Labour Senator Ivana Bacik criticised Youth Defence's decision to show an 18-week-old aborted fetus on the billboard, "although 89 per cent of abortions take place before 13 weeks. The advertisements are grossly offensive."TheJournal.ie later alleged that Youth Defence had breached copyright terms and conditions in using an image of a woman depicted on the posters, by failing to print a disclaimer that the billboard showed a posed model.

On 6 December 2012, Youth Defence organised a "vigil for life" outside Leinster House in Dublin that was attended by several thousand people.They were also involved in the "rally for life" which took part in July 2013. Organisers had claimed that 60,000 people took part, though the police estimated that there were 35,000 participants. 

Billboard parked outside Rape Crisis Centre

On 27 June 2013, a Youth Defence billboard truck parked outside the Dublin Rape Crisis centre. A photo of the truck was posted to John Ryan's Broadsheet.ie website, sparking outrage online. AdMobile, the billboard company, said that the driver was taking a photograph of the truck as required by contract and was unaware of the nearness of the rape crisis centre. AdMobile also said they would no longer run ads for Youth Defence. Youth Defence stated they did not instruct the company to photograph the billboard outside the rape crisis centre.

Website hacking incident

On 9 July 2013, Youth Defence's website was hacked and replaced with a message detailing allegations relating to the group.At the same time, details from their subscriber list were also published, though they were later removed.No organization has claimed responsibility and a representative of Youth Defence has stated that complaints have been made to the Garda Síochána.

Funding

The Irish Times reported in March 2013 that the Standards in Public Office Commission has been attempting to investigate Youth Defense's sources of funding, but that the organisation has thus far refused to cooperate.By law, any organisation involved in political lobbying must declare all donations over €100, can only accept donations of up to €2,500, and cannot accept donations from overseas unless the donor is an Irish citizen or from a corporation that has offices in Ireland

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SONY PICTURES

Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (SPE) is the American entertainment subsidiary of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony.

Based in Culver City, California, it encompasses Sony's motion picture, television production and distribution units. Its group sales in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014 has been reported to be of $8 billion.

Throughout the years, SPE has produced, distributed, or co-distributed successful franchises such as Spider-Man, Men in Black, Underworld, and Resident Evil.

Sony Pictures Entertainment is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Contents  

1 History

1.1 Hacking incident

2 Corporate structure

2.1 Senior management team

2.2.1 Motion Pictures and Home Entertainment

2.2.2 Television

2.2.2.1 Production and distribution

2.2.2.2 Television Networks

2.2.3 Other Sony Pictures operations

History

On September 1, 1987, The Coca-Cola Company announced plans to spin-off its assets of Columbia Pictures, which they had owned since 1982. Under this arrangement, Coca-Cola would sell their entertainment assets to Tri-Star Pictures, of which they owned 39.6%. Tri-Star would be renamed to Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (CPE), with Coca-Cola owning 49%, its shareholders owning 31%, and Tri-Star's shareholders owning 20%.A new company was formed in early 1988 with the Tri-Star name to take over the studio's production operations.

On September 28, 1989, Sony Corporation obtained an option to purchase all of The Coca-Cola Company's stock in CPE for $27 per share. The next day, Sony also announced that it reached an agreement with Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPEC; formerly Barris Industries, Inc.) to acquire CPE for $200 million when Sony hired Peter Guber and Jon Peters to be its co-chairmen.This was all led by Norio Ohga, who was the president and CEO of Sony during that time.

The hiring of Guber and Peters by Sony to run Columbia was conflicted by a previous contract the producers had signed at Warner Bros. Time Warner's chairman, Steve Ross, threatened Sony with a lawsuit for breach of contract. The lawsuit would be subsequently dropped when Sony sold half-interest in Columbia House and cable distribution rights to Columbia's feature films, TV movies, and miniseries to Warner Bros. Said agreement also saw Columbia sell its 35% interest in the Burbank Studios, and acquired Lorimar Studios, previously the MGM lot, from Warner Bros.

On October 31, 1989, Sony completed a friendly takeover bid for the rest of shares (51%) of CPE, which was a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: KPE), and acquired 99.3% of the common stock of the company. On November 8, 1989, Sony completed the acquisition by a "short-form" merger of its wholly owned subsidiary Sony Columbia Acquisition Corporation into CPE under Delaware law. Sony also completed a tender offer for shares of common stock of the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company on November 6, 1989 and acquired the company on November 9, 1989. The acquisition cost Sony $4.9 billion ($3.55 billion for shares and $1.4 billion of long-term debt) and was backed (financed) by 5 major Japanese banks Mitsui, Tokyo, Fuji, Mitsubishi and Industrial Bank of Japan. The company was renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment on August 7, 1991.

Sony has since created numerous other film production and distribution units, such as creating Sony Pictures Classics for art-house fare, by forming Columbia TriStar Pictures (also known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group) by merging Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures in 1998, revitalizing Columbia's former television division Screen Gems. It expanded its operations on April 8, 2005, when a Sony-led consortium acquired the legendary Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in a US$4.8 billion leveraged buyout, through the holding company MGM Holdings Inc.

On June 4, 2008, SPE's wholly owned group 2JS Productions B.V. acquired Dutch production company 2waytraffic N.V., famous for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and You Are What You Eat for £114.3 million ($223.2 million in US dollars).

On November 18, 2012, Sony Pictures announced it has passed $4 billion with the success of releases: Skyfall, The Amazing Spider-Man, 21 Jump Street, Men in Black 3, Hotel Transylvania, Underworld: Awakening, The Vow, and Resident Evil: Retribution.

On November 21, 2013, SPE and Sony Entertainment's CEO Michael Lynton announced that SPE will shift emphasis from movies to television by cutting its 2014 film slate. It was also announced on the same day, that there will be more Spider-Man sequels and spin-offs.

On January 22, 2014, SPE folded its technology unit into its various cores of its businesses.In April, Sony Pictures arranged a film financing deal worth $200 million with LStar Capital, the credit venture of Lone Star Capital and CitiBank, half in debt and the other in equity to fund most of SPE's film slate for several years. SPE was originally considering a $300 million deal with Blue Anchor Entertainment, led by Bloom Hergott partner John LaViolette and former investment banker & producer Joseph M. Singer, and backed by Longhorn Capital Management and Deutsche Bank, which was held up by regulatory matters.

On February 24, 2015, Tom Rothman was named chairman of SPE's motion picture group to replace Amy Pascal.

Hacking incident

Main article: Sony Pictures Entertainment hack

In 2011, the Sony Pictures computer network was breached and approximately 1 million user accounts associated with the SonyPictures.com website were leaked.

It was revealed in December 2014 that the Sony Pictures computer network was compromised by a group of hackers named Guardians of Peace, disabling many computers.Later the same week, five of Sony Pictures' movies were leaked, including some not yet released (such as Fury and Annie), as well as confidential data about 47,000 current and former Sony employees. Film historian Wheeler Winston Dixon suggested that the hack, which exposed the inner workings of the studio, was "not a pretty picture," and served as a "wake-up call to the entire industry." The hack also revealed some other plans, like a partnership with Marvel Studios for the inclusion of the superhero Spider-Man on the third Captain America film.On December 16, the hackers issued a warning to moviegoers, threatening to attack anyone who sees The Interview during the holidays and urging people to "remember the 11th of September 2001".On December 17, 2014 Sony cancelled the previously planned December 25 release of The Interview in response to hacker threats.

On April 16, 2015, WikiLeaks published over 30,287 documents, 173,132 e-mails, and 2,200 corporate e-mail addresses of Sony Pictures' employees. WikiLeaks said in a press release that the content of the leaks were "newsworthy and at the center of a geo-political conflict" and belonged "in the public domain". Sony Pictures later condemned the hack and subsequent leaks, calling it a "malicious criminal act", while also criticizing WikiLeaks for describing the leaked content as public domain.

Corporate structure

Headquartered in Culver City, California, USA, SPE comprises various studios and entertainment brands, including Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures and GSN.

Senior management team

Michael Lynton

Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment

CEO, Sony Entertainment

Tom Rothman

Chairman, Sony Pictures Motion Pictures Group

Motion Pictures and Home Entertainment

Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group: With a library of more than 4,000 films (including 12 Academy Award for Best Picture winners), as of 2004 this unit of Sony distributes about 22 films a year under its various studio brands in 67 countries.The group owns studio facilities in the United States, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Japan. In addition to the company-owned brands below, Columbia TriStar also has a contract to distribute films for independent Revolution Studios and select films by MGM and United Artists.

Columbia Pictures: Founded in 1924 by Harry Cohn, Sony acquired the studio in 1989 from The Coca-Cola Company for $3.4 billion.

TriStar Pictures Formed in 1982 as a joint venture between Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS. Became part of Columbia Pictures Entertainment in December 1987 and the Sony ownership in 1989. Was relaunched in 2004 as a marketing and acquisitions unit that specializes in genre and independent films.

Screen Gems: Originally Columbia's animation division and later a television production company best known for TV's Bewitched and The Partridge Family, as well as bringing The Three Stooges short subjects to TV in 1958. Sony revived the Screen Gems brand to develop mid-priced movies (production budget of between $20 million and $50 million) in specific genres such as science fiction, horror, black cinema and franchise films.

Sony Pictures Classics (SPC): Specializes in acquiring distribution rights to independent and art films as well as producing lower-budget productions geared to limited audiences.

Sony Pictures Releasing: Founded in 1994.

Sony Pictures Releasing International (formerly Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International)

Sony Pictures India, production house established by Sony to release Indian movies and distribute Hollywood movies, released under Columbia Pictures.

Monumental Pictures: A Russian motion picture studio formed on February 2, 2006 as a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Russia-based Patton Media Group producing and releasing Russian language films in Russia, the CIS, and Mongolia.

TriStar Productions: A joint-venture between Thomas Rothman and SPE.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment: Manufactures and distributes the Sony film library on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, video cassette, and UMD forms to global markets.

Sony Wonder: The former kids and family label of Sony Music Entertainment that was moved to SPHE on June 21, 2007.

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA): A Sony division which acquires and produces about 60 films per year for a wide variety of distribution platforms, especially for non-theatrical markets. It had been called Worldwide SPE Acquisitions, Inc. until September 2010.

Destination Films: A "niche" motion picture company purchased by Sony in 2001.

Stage 6 Films: A direct to video label created in 2007. Also releases some films theatrically.

Affirm Films: A motion picture label launched in 2008 to release gospel and Christian films.

Television

Production and distribution

Sony Pictures Television Group: (formerly Columbia TriStar Television Group) The successor-in-interest to Columbia's television division (first Screen Gems, later Columbia Pictures Television, Coca-Cola Television, TriStar Television (A division of Columbia Pictures Television), and Columbia TriStar Television), as of 2004 the unit was producing 60 titles for various television outlets globally. Contains a library that includes more than 35,000 episodes of more than 270 television series and 22,000 game show episodes under the Columbia TriStar Television brand, and the television rights to the Embassy Pictures library (including The Graduate and The Lion in Winter) and also the owner of the television division "Embassy Television"—among most recent notable shows in this library are Seinfeld, King of Queens, Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless. Their former international distribution division, Sony Pictures Television International, was responsible for global distribution for the SPE film and television properties worldwide. Formerly known as Columbia TriStar International Television from 1992 to 2002.

2waytraffic: Acquired by Sony in 2008, this television production company owns a number of formats, most notably including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

Adelaide Productions

Barris Industries: Formed in 1965 by Chuck Barris as Chuck Barris Productions. Renamed to Barris Industries in 1981. Merged with the Guber-Peters Company in 1988 and renamed as Guber-Peters Entertainment Company in 1989.

Barry & Enright Productions (post-scandal), including Jack Barry Productions: Formed in 1947 by Jack Barry and Dan Enright, shut down in 1959, and reformed in 1975. Later renamed Stafford-Enright Productions in 1991. Sony acquired the library in 1992.

Culver Entertainment

Electric Ray: Founded by Karl Warner with SPT in January 2014.

ELP Communications (ELPC) and Tandem Licensing Corporation (TLC): The two in-name only units of Sony Pictures Television own the productions' copyrights presented by Norman Lear's former companies: Tandem Productions and ELP Communications (series from T.A.T. to ELP Communications). The companies were formed by Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear in 1958 as Tandem Productions. Yorkin ended his partnership with Lear in 1975, but remained with Tandem. Lear and his partner Jerry Perenchio sold Tandem/Embassy Television to The Coca-Cola Company in 1985 and later became Embassy Communications in 1986 (later became ELP Communications in 1988). ELPC and TLC are part of Sony Pictures Entertainment since 1991.

Embassy Row: A television and digital production company by Michael Davies. SPT acquired the company on January 14, 2009.

Floresta

Four D Productions: Independent production house founded by Danny Arnold in 1974. Acquired by The Coca-Cola Company in 1986.

Gogglebox Entertainment

Lean-M Producers Center: A Russian production company founded in 2000 by Timur Weinstein, Vyacheslav Murugov and Oleg Osipov. In 2007, SPTI acquired a majority stake in Lean-M, with an additional 16% on April 13, 2009 and the remainder in 2010.

Left Bank Pictures: A UK production company founded by Andy Harries, Francis Hopkinson, and Marigo Kehoe in 2007. Majority stake acquired by SPT in 2012.

Merv Griffin Enterprises: Founded in 1964 by Merv Griffin as Merv Griffin Productions. He sold his company to The Coca-Cola Company in 1986 as Merv Griffin Enterprises and was a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures Entertainment from 1988 to 1991 and Sony Pictures Entertainment from 1991 to 1994.

Silver River Productions

Stellify Media: A joint venture between SPT, Kieran Doherty, and Matt Worthy launched in 2014 for Northern Ireland.

Stewart Television: Formed in 1964 by Bob Stewart. Merged with SPE in 1994.

Teleset

Victory Television: A UK television production company that was founded in 2011; a joint-venture with Victoria Ashbourne.

Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd.: A subsidiary based in India. Sony Entertainment Television (India) and SAB TV are its main brands although it owns many other companies and brands under the Sony brand.

Television Networks
Sony Pictures Television Networks

Animax: Instituted in Japan by Sony in 1998, Animax is the world's largest anime television network,with respective networks operating across Japan, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, South America and other regions.However, Animax was cut off from Vietnam cable network in 2010 without any reason

AXN: Formed in 1997, AXN is Sony's entertainment television network, which airs across Japan, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Cine Sony Television

Sony ONE

Sony Channel

Sony GEM

BeTV

Crackle (formerly known as Grouper Networks): Crackle is a digital platform of Sony Pictures. It hosts videos on YouTube, Hulu, Dailymotion, and its own site, etc. Crackle is operated by SPT.

The Minisode Network

CSC Media Group: Acquired by SPT in August 2014.

True Drama

True Entertainment

The Vault

Bliss

Chart Show Dance

Chart Show TV

Flava

Scuzz

Starz TV

Kix

Pop

Pop Girl

Tiny Pop

True Movies 1

True Movies 2

GSN: (joint venture with DirecTV)

GetTV (was slated to launch in Fall 2013, now moved to February 2014)

Sony Movie Channel

Sony Entertainment Television

More Than Movies

Movies4Men

Sony Spin

Sony Aath

Other Sony Pictures operations

Sony Pictures Music Group

Sony Pictures Family Entertainment Group

Sony Pictures Consumer Products

Sony Pictures Interactive

Sony Pictures Digital Productions Inc.

Sony Pictures Imageworks

Sony Pictures Animation

Sony Station

Sony Pictures Network

Sony Pictures Mobile

Sony Pictures Digital Networks

SPiN

SoapCity

Screenblast

Advanced Platform Group APG

Entrance to SPE main lot in Culver City

Sony Pictures Cable Ventures, Inc.

Sony Pictures Studios: The actual physical buildings, land and movie-making equipment properties in Culver City, California. Includes 22 sound stages, ranging in size from 7,600 to 43,000 square feet (700 to 4,000 m²)

Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan (SPEJ): The company plans, produces, manufactures, sells, imports, exports, leases, broadcasts and distributes movies, TV programs, videos and audio-visual software in Japan. The company web site says it was established on February 10, 1984,predating Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment by 5 years. SPEJ was formed in 1991 through the merger of Columbia TriStar Japan, RCA-Columbia Pictures Video Japan, and Japan International Enterprises.Based in Tokyo, Japan.

Sony Pictures Europe: Offices located at 25 Golden Square, London, England

Sony Pictures Studios Post Production Facilities

Worldwide Product Fulfillment