A large scale cyber attack which took down cable, telephone, cellular and satellite networks in Washington for around 15 minutes has been blamed on a female Russian hacker. According to the show Covert Affairs, she is a member of Piratbyrån, the founding group behind The Pirate Bay. The group are somewhat unsuccessfully trying to play down any real-life link to the supposedly fictional claims.
Covert Affairs is a spy action/drama from USA Network which premiered in July 2010. The pilot featured young CIA trainee, Annie Walker, who was guided by Auggie Anderson, a agent who was previously blinded on a mission in Iraq. The next few episodes to date follow Annie in her adventures.
In episode 7, which aired last week, events were focused on the visually impaired Auggie Anderson. While in bed with beautiful TV reporter Liza Hearn (Emmanuelle Vaugier), Auggie notices the phones are down. Not only that, but all TV, cable, Internet, cellular and satellite communications too.
Concerned at the shutdown and eager to get back into the field, Auggie puts his theory to his bosses – that a hacker was responsible and he is the man to go in and sort things out.
To his surprise, Auggie was given the mission but at the briefing (6 minutes into the episode) he had quite a surprise. The hacker turns out to be his elegant Russian ex-girlfriend Natasha Petrovna (Liane Balaban), who Auggie had dumped several years earlier.
As with many shows of this type, Covert Affairs blurs reality with real-life events, people and organizations such as the CIA. In this respect, Petrovna’s background proves to be of particular interest.
Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, Auggie’s old flame has a graduate degree in computer security but according to the CIA is now a member of a particularly sinister group – the Swedish Piracy Bureau Piratbyrån – the founding group behind The Pirate Bay.
“A card carrying anarchist,” remarks an agent in the briefing.
Concerned that there’s rarely smoke without fire, TorrentFreak contacted Piratbyrån founder Marcin de Kaminski for comment.
“What I can say is that we do have strong and positive connections with Russian groups and individuals,” Kaminski explained. “We have experienced really good cooperation at more than one time.”
“It is of course always bad for our credibility when information appears to leak. At the same time we know that the MPAA has been making stuff up for years, so we are not surprised.”
So has Piratbyran ever been involved in hacking, or would it consider employing mysterious hackers?
“If we use secret agents like this Natasha? It is impossible for me to say anything specific about our whereabouts and strategies, but let me make this clear: there is still lots of dirty stuff that has to be taken care of,” warned Kaminski.
But wasn’t Piratbyrån disbanded recently?
“Piratbyrån is in fact not currently an operational entity, that is correct. But at the same time we are working on other partially related projects. You will hear from us again,” Kaminski concludes.
The next episode of the show, Fool In The Rain, airs September 7th. Who knows what other secrets will be revealed….
This post has been written by enigmax on September 02, 2010 couresy of torrentfreak.com.
Whether it’s your daily commute or a random road trip, your iPhone can help you drive, park, and stave off passenger boredom. Here are our picks for the best iPhone apps for when you’re on the move.
Your built-in iPhone Maps application can be hard to beat. It’s free, it’s simple, and it gets the job done. Through Maps you can get driving, walking, and public transit directions. You have access to map, satellite, and street view. While it’s not the same turn-by-turn phenomenon that’s packed into Android, it gets you where you need to go and also works pretty well as a replacement for the (figurative) yellow pages. Despite having tested several different turn-by-turn navigation apps, I always find myself coming back to Maps. It’s just easy to use and it works. [Pre-installed]
If you do need some vocal assistance in your navigation, you can pay a lot for great GPS apps. (We’ve always had an affinity for 
Gas Buddy will help you find the cheapest, closest gas station based on a set of criteria you provide. While it’s very much a unitasker, Gas Buddy is very good at what it does. If you’re looking for a particular grade or even need to find a diesel station, Gas Buddy will help you sort through your options and round them up based what’s more important to you—cost or proximity. When you find a gas station you want, Gas Buddy can map out the directions for you. Gas Buddy will set you back $2.99, but it can pay for itself after one or two trips to fill up your tank. [
Every time I make the trip out to Los Angeles there’s at least one accident on the way. This makes for bad traffic and that’s where Beat The Traffic comes in. Beat The Traffic scopes out all kinds of traffic issues and lets you discover the best route to take. It’s saved me from ending up in a highway-turned-parking lot several times, and it’s completely free. [
Parking lots and structures might as well be mazes. If you’ve ever been subjected to either, chances are you’ve lost track of your car. G-Park doesn’t rely on just one method to help you remember. First, it lets you mark your GPS position. Second, you can take a picture of where you parked to provide a visual memory. Third, you can specify the level and parking spot code so you can be absolutely sure where you left your car before heading out. For 99 cents it can help keep you sane after your next trip to Disneyland. [
A long drive gets boring pretty quickly without some music, and your tired old playlists can’t always cut it. The popular Pandora Radio helps you discover new music based on music you already like, runs in the background (for iOS 4 users) so as not to interrupt your turn-by-turn navigation, and is free to use (although you can pay for extra features). If you’re looking for something new to listen to during your drive, Pandora’s a good way to find some alternatives. [
Denver police are on the hunt for a duo of thieves who they say stole about $1,200 worth of video games from a local Ultimate Electronics store, according to 9News.
