Happy New Year from Disney

Thanks to Steve Bass and his great TechBit newsletter for passing this along.

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Keylogger included with Wall-E Online Game?

It’s always a pleasure to meet other security minded people but it’s troubling when it’s related to a new threat for our kids. My grandson Tristan went to the movies to see Disney’s new Wall-E and so did my new security friend who has the blog “Timeless Journeys”.

Unfortunately, I was pointed to a new post at Timeless Journeys by my long time friend Wayne Porter who warned me (via Twitter) about the dangers of the Wall-E online demo.

It turns out an online demo game of Wall-E from THQ may include a keylogger best known as Spyware.Ardakey according to Norton 360 and other security programs. The software is available on a server from Cachefly who confirmed their servers have not been compromised by some outside hacking. They claim to have notified THQ so it will be interesting to find out how quickly the demo is pulled and what the response will be from THQ.

For now stay clear of Wall-E unless it’s at the theater. Tristan did give the movie Wall-E “Six Thumbs Up” and can’t wait to see Beverly Hills Chichuahua. I’ll update this post as I hear more from Cachefly and THQ.

Update: The opinion today by most researchers is that this report is a false-positive and there is no danger. It's not uncommon to see false-positives for keyloggers but it's rare for security programs to point to a specifically named threat. I downloaded the U.K. Wall-E demo and WinPatrol did not find any malicious software installed.

Source:
http://www.wayneporter.com/2008/08/02/keyloggers-games/

http://www.timelessprototype.com/tpdc/blog/post/2008/08/Keylogger-Detected-in-Wall-E-Demo-PC-Game.aspx

Tristan Xavier Cook

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Disney, Microsoft and NASA

When I was new to software development I thought about what companies would really be cool to work for. It seemed fantastic if I could someday get a job at Disney, Microsoft or NASA. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized it’s all about the project and not necessarily the company. Fortunately, over the years I did have opportunities to do really fun projects while working for both Disney(ABC’s Enhanced TV) and Microsoft(Information Highway PC).

I never did any work for NASA although we do have 30 WinPatrol’s licensed at one of their sites in Georgia. Growing up in the 1960’s I’m still a big fan of NASA but lately they’ve really been getting a bad rap.

I thought we had just gotten over the jokes about astronauts in diapers when more scandal has hit the news. Reports this week are that on more than one occasion an astronaut was intoxicated before blasting off. I don’t know how drunk he or she was but somehow this didn’t shock me. I might need a little help before I sat on the top of a huge cylinder of rocket fuel about to be ignited. It’s kinda like the accusations in Paul McCartney’s divorce that he drank and smoked pot. Hello? Was this a surprise to anyone?

The really scary news from NASA is that a worker intentionally sabotaged equipment that was suppose to be sent to International Space Station on the next Space Shuttle mission. Wires were cut in a computer designed to report stress measurements on the space station structure.

I’m too old to start a new career with NASA but I’ll still be cheering for them every time they go into outer space.

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