technology TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2017 Russia-linked hackers target hotel guests across Europe FRANKFURT: A cyber-spying group with suspect- Several governments and security research and managed to breach the computer of a US gov- been stolen from the US National Security Agency, ed links to Russian military intelligence was proba- firms have linked APT 28 to the GRU, Russia’s mili- ernment employee, he said. giving hackers a highly sophisticated way to move bly behind a campaign targeting hotel guests in tary intelligence directorate. Other researchers In the July attacks, FireEye found spear-phish- silently inside organizations’ networks once they eight mostly European countries last month, have tracked the same pattern of attacks, but ing emails were used to trick hotel employees to infect even a single machine. researchers at security firm FireEye said on Friday. stopped short of linking APT 28 to the Russian download an infected hotel reservation document, It was also EternalBlue that fuelled the world- The espionage group, dubbed APT 28, sought to state. Moscow vehemently denies the accusations. which then installed GAMEFISH malware run wide spread of WannaCry ransomware in May and steal password credentials from Western govern- Benjamin Read, manager of cyber espionage remotely from internet sites known to be con- the NotPetya attack against Ukraine in June, which ment and business travelers using hotel Wi-Fi net- analysis for US-based FireEye, said the technical trolled by APT 28. This foothold gave the cyber fanned out globally to hit dozens of major firms. works, in order then to infect their organizational exploits and remote chain of command used to spies control over guest Wi-Fi networks and could The 2016 hotel attacks tricked one user with a fake networks back home, FireEye said in a report. mount the attacks all clearly pointed to APT 28, help them grab passwords of targeted victims and Adobe Flash update and were likely launched by a The wave of attacks during the first week of July whose vast scope of activities his firm has detailed sniff unencrypted data being transmitted to nearby hacker on the same guest Wi-Fi network, targeted travelers who were staying in several since 2014. shared network drives in the up-market, business- FireEye said. APT 28 logged into the guest’s web- hotel chains in at least seven countries in Europe “We are moderately confident in our assess- class hotels of major cities. based Outlook email account 12 hours later, it said. and one in the Middle East, it said. These prelimi- ment,” Read told Reuters, saying this was because “We did not observe any guest credentials The government employee returned to the United nary findings are the latest to allege that Russia is the technical inquiry was still in its early days. “We being stolen. However there were multiple hotel States and the infection spread to their agency engaged in far-flung hacking activity aimed at just don’t have the smoking gun yet.” The latest chains targeted and we don’t know the full extent when their computer was reconnected to the net- governments, businesses and election campaigns, attempts were identified and thwarted in the ini- of the operation,” Read said. The July attacks took work, Read said. He declined to comment on how including Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful White tial infiltration stage. But similar methods were advantage of a recently leaked piece of malicious far the attack reached or whether it caused any House bid last year. used in the autumn of 2016 at hotels in Europe, software known as EternalBlue, believed to have damage.—Reuters HSBC, IBM to develop cognitive intelligence to digitize global trade HSBC, the world’s leading trade finance both buyers and suppliers, leading our bank, is working with IBM to develop a cog- industry forwards, and we will reduce com- nitive intelligence solution combining opti- pliance risks through an enhanced ability cal character recognition with advanced to manage huge volumes of data.” robotics to make global trade safer and “The problem is how to capture semi- more efficient for thousands of businesses. structured documents with highly variant HSBC’s Global Trade and Receivables content through an analogue process, and Finance (GTRF) team facilitates over no-one has the perfect answer,” said Roger USD500 billion of documentary trade for Welch, Industry (Financial) Expert and customers every year, and in doing so Solution Architect for IBM Analytics ECM must manually review and process up to practice. “In our experience, no trade 100 million pages of documents, ranging finance solution has come as far or done as from invoices to packing lists and insur- much as this new solution.” ance certificates. HSBC is currently using the technology The new solution uses IBM’s advanced to analyze English-language import and analytics technology, including intelligent export bills in several markets in Asia, segmentation and text analytics, to identi- Europe, the Americas and the MENA fy, digitize and extract key data within region. The team aims to enhance the solu- these documents before feeding it into the tion so it can read a wider range of docu- bank’s transaction processing systems; ments and languages including French, boosting accuracy whilst freeing up staff Spanish and Chinese. for more value-adding activities. “We are continuously investing in tech- “The average trade transaction requires nologies that will improve the way we 65 data fields to be extracted from 15 dif- work for the benefit of our customers and ferent documents, with 40 pages to be our people,” said Natalie Blyth. “HSBC reviewed,” said Natalie Blyth, HSBC’s Global wants to be the leading bank for innova- GAME REVIEW Head of GTRF. “By digitizing this process we tion, and initiatives like this one are key to Sonic Mania paints over its will make transactions quicker and safer for achieving our goal.” problems than fixing them ith Sonic Mania, Sega has done the whether or not many assets have been pulled and deadly obstacles from off-screen, whether unthinkable for a corporate player in directly from existing Sonic games. It certainly actually coming from an area not shown at the Wvideo games: They’ve given it to the looks like a Genesis game, or rather, a Sega CD time or something instantly appearing in front fans. Sega has had a nightmarish time trying to release - animations are more detailed than I of Sonic. The sound of every ring you’ve collect- rekindle the magic and majesty of its iconic mas- remember them being from the cartridge titles, ed exploding out of you when colliding with a cot since the blue hedgehog’s peak in the ‘90s. though the color palette feels like it came hazard is a singularly enraging audio cue, and After the Genesis console faded, Sega went an directly from the Genesis. it’s all the more infuriating because frequently, entire hardware generation without a “proper” This extends to the way Sonic Mania plays as it just doesn’t feel fair. flagship Sonic release on the Saturn. With the well. Sonic has a new ability, the Drop Dash, While these are primarily issues for Sonic jump to 3D in 1999’s Sonic Adventure, the series which allows him to immediately drop out of a moving at speed, slowing things down can occa- retained its flash, but something was fundamen- jump and dash upon hitting the ground, but sionally pose its own frustration. Sonic has tally broken in the translation. While some fans otherwise, you could draw a direct line between always been terrible with precise platforming. defend the Sonic oeuvre from the Dreamcast Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Sonic and Knuckles and The controls and animation priority are just not onward, the series’ best days were behind it, Sonic Mania. It’s a side-scroller that is, ostensibly, up to the demands of pixel-perfect precision reaching its absolute nadir with 2006’s disas- a platformer, but it’s nothing like its contempo- (and honestly, some hazards seem to hit Sonic Natalie Blyth trous Sonic the Hedgehog. raries. Instead, Sonic and his friends collect rings beyond where it seems like they should be able). Since then, Sega has tried to reinvent the as they race through each level, looping and For whatever reason, Sonic Mania includes these requisite precise platforming bits, and despite my own sense that they are somewhat more forgiving than in its 16-bit ancestors - SpaceX to launch maybe rings you drop stay on screen longer than they used to - they’re still here, and they’re super-computer to space still not especially fun. It’s ironic that sections requiring twitch reflexes are often the worst MIAMI: SpaceX is poised to launch an communications will become increasingly parts of Sonic games, but here we are, 26 years unmanned cargo ship toward the delayed. later, and it’s still true. Somewhat bucking Sonic International Space Station yesterday, Messages from Mars to Earth would be tradition, the most inventive and fun parts of the including a super-computer that could delayed from between four minutes to 24 game lie within its boss encounters. direct astronauts on future deep-space minutes one-way, depending on the dis- missions. The liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket, tance between the planets, according to I know! I was surprised too! carrying the Dragon cargo ship, is planned the European Space Agency. “Such a long Each boss requires a different strategy, which for 12:31 pm from Cape Canaveral, Florida. communication lag would make any on- isn’t unusual, but Sonic Maniareally blows out its The weather forecast is 70 percent favor- the-ground exploration challenging and most basic gameplay structures, drawing from able for launch.