Sony PlayStation Network and other game services attacked

Sony's PlayStation Network was forced offline for much of Sunday by a cyber-attack in what appears to be a campaign against several online gaming services. Microsoft's XBox Live, Blizzard's Battle.net, and Grinding Gear Games are among others to have reported being disrupted over the weekend. The attacks coincided with a bomb scare involving a flight carrying a Sony executive. An American Airlines jet was diverted after a threat was made online. A warning that the flight - from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Diego - was carrying explosives was subsequently repeated by a Twitter account that had been used to claim responsibility for the online attacks. John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, had been tweeting about his firm's efforts to combat a "large scale DDoS" before posting a message saying he was about to board the plane. DDoS stands for distributed denial of service attack - a technique in which many computers are used to flood an online service with requests in an attempt to overload its systems.

After the threatened plane landed in Phoenix, Arizona, Mr Smedley tweeted: "Yes, my plane was diverted. Not going to discuss more than that. Justice will find these guys." A spokeswoman for Sony said that the FBI was now investigating the diversion. However, the Bureau has yet to issue a statement of its own. Jihadist links A Twitter account that has claimed responsibility for attacking Sony and the other video games firms has linked the attacks to the jihadist group Islamic State, posting: "Kuffar [non-muslims] don't get to play videogames until bombing of the ISIL stops." It also makes several references to Isis - the former name used by the Islamic militants. But it is unclear whether this is a diversionary tactic, since an earlier post by the same account states: "Sony, yet another large company, but they aren't spending the waves of cash they obtain on their customers' PSN service. End the greed." To complicate matters another hacker, who is associated with the Anonymous hacking collective, has claimed responsibility for the DDoS on the PlayStation Network, saying they mounted it to highlight vulnerabilities in Sony's system. This hacker has criticised the other claims of responsibility and posted screenshots that purport to support their case. Xbox disruption Sony's PlayStation Network was notably taken offline for more than three weeks in 2011 after a hack attack that compromised its members' personal details and exposed their encrypted debit and credit card accounts. However, the firm's social media manager has sought to reassure subscribers about the latest attack. "We have seen no evidence of any intrusion to the network and no evidence of any unauthorized access to users' personal information," Sid Shuman blogged.

"In light of today's issue, the networks will not undergo the regularly scheduled maintenance, which was planned for Monday, August 25. "We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by this issue." Microsoft declined to "comment on the root cause" of disruption its rival Xbox Live online gaming service has faced. However, a message on is support site stated that Xbox One owners were experiencing "server unavailability issues" when trying to join other players in online games. The webpage also mentions problems faced by owners of the Xbox 360 trying to connect to Diablo III's party chat feature . This appears to be a consequence of an attack on Activision Blizzard's gaming service Battle.net, which also supports World of Warcraft and Starcraft titles. "Battle.net game services have recently been subject to DDoS attacks. We worked diligently along with our ISPs [internet service providers] to improve the situation and currently are seeing more stability," said a message posted to the facility's site.

Meanwhile, Grinding Gear Games posted a message on the Twitter account of its game Path of Exile on Sunday, saying: "We're having some server issues due to a DDoS attack. Should have it sorted out soon. Sorry for the inconvenience!" The incidents follow reports of earlier DDoS attacks on other multiplayer titles on Friday, including Eve Online, League of Legends, RuneScape and Guild Wars 2.

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TRICKS: LEARN TO GET 700 FREE MB ON MTN SIMCARD

Follow the below steps to get free 700MB from your MTN sim.

• Dial *662*6# and subscribe for all the plan you see there i.e from jumia to easy taxy (monthly trial) each monthly trial you subscribe to gives you 100mb and they are 7 in number, giving you 700MB in total.
• The 700mb can only work with this site www.jumia.com.ng, Meaning that aside of the above site, it won’t work.
• So if you already have Simple server, open it or download it HERE
• Same thing goes with openvpn or download th HERE and config file HERE
•  Open it and replace anywhere you see 0.facebook.com or blackberry.com with jumia.com

For PC users, download SimpleServer.exe or follow this link HERE to set it download; and set your browser to manual proxy to 127.0.0.1 port 8080 (don’t forget to replace anywhere you see 0.facebook.com with jumia.com)

Finally, this 700mb will only allow you once for a life time since its trial;

so if you have more sims, keep repeating the same process to keep enjoying free 700MB.

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TECH: Sony Launches UZ Series UHS-1 U3 SD Cards in India With 95MB/s Read Speed

Sony India on Tuesday has launched two new Ultra High Speed SD cards for photographers and videographers in its new UZ Series. The UZ Series of SD cards are available in 32GB (SDHC) and 64GB (SDXC) storage capacities, priced at Rs. 5,339 and Rs. 9,942 respectively. Sony has announced that both the cards are already available across all Sony Center outlets and major electronic stores across India. The new ultra high speed SD cards come with data transfer speeds of 95MB per second (read) and 90MB per second (write). It also comes with UHS-1 Speed Class 3 rating, which according to Sony will result in fast data transfer speed, quality images captured and 'smooth 4K recordings as well as minimal buffering when capturing still images in Burst, multi-frame or panoramic modes.' The cards also include Sony's File Rescue software, which according to company is the first in the world to support 3D movies and photos. It allows users to recover previously deleted data too. Sony also claims that the UZ Series of SD cards are protected with moulded resin, making them 'remarkably durable, shockproof and resilient to extreme temperatures.' In May, SanDisk launched its Ultra microSDXC UHS-1 128GB memory card in India at Rs. 9,999, which was first introduced during MWC. The company had also claimed that it is the world's "highest capacity microSDXC memory card" with 128GB storage and is said to be designed for Android-powered smartphones and tablets. The new 128GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I memory card can, according SanDisk, store up to 16 hours of full-HD videos, a total of 7,500 songs, 3200 images and over 125 apps. Further, the company details that the new cards can read data at speeds up to 30MB/s for quick file transfer, apart from being waterproof and temperature proof.

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TUTORIAL :How to Send Large Files Over the Internet

Ever had to send a really large file to someone and realised how inconvenient it is? Most email service providers have puny file size limits on attachments. A limit of 25MB is quite small so whether you want to send high-resolution videos or other large files, you're going to have to rely on Web-based services. Here are some of the best solutions with generous file size limits on the free tier. 1. Send files quickly - no login required Sometimes you might want to send just one large file and don't want to bother with signing up and setting up accounts to share files. In such cases, you can either use a service that uploads your file to a server or one that lets the recipient download the file directly from your computer. These services are great for one-time use, but since the file is being uploaded from your browser, the upload could fail, which means you have to start over from scratch, which can be a frustrating experience over slow or unreliable connections. These are the ones we liked most: WeTransfer There are several services that let you upload files to a server and send a downloadable link, but WeTransfer stands out for two reasons - a generous 2GB size limit on single files and no sign up required. Here's how to use it. 1. Open WeTransfer's website and click Skip/ I Agree if presented with some prompts. 2. Now you'll see the option to add files (up to 2GB per file). Each file is stored only for 7 days, after which you'll have to upload it again. 3. Click Add files > select your files (you can select multiple files) > click Add more files (if needed) > Transfer > Copy link. 4. Send this link to whoever you want to share these files with. 5. WeTransfer also has an iOS app that allows you to send up to files up to 10GB for free. This might be useful if you want to send photos or videos, but since iOS doesn't have a file manager, you cannot send any other kind of data.

JustBeamIt If you are concerned about privacy, you can send files via a peer-to-peer service such as JustBeamIt. The service doesn't store files on its servers and let others download files directly from your computer. For this to work, you will have to keep your browser window open till the recipient has downloaded the file. JustBeamIt simply creates a download link which the recipient can use to download the file. This link works only once and is only active as long as the download is running. To share a file with another person, you will have to create a new link. This is how it works. 1. Go to JustBeamIt's website and drag and drop any file (or click the parachute icon and select files). You'll be presented with a link. 2. Send this link to the person you want to share files with. The recipient will see a webpage with a prompt to begin downloading. Click the file icon to start downloading. There are no file size limits on JustBeamIt, and unlike the alternatives, it doesn't require you to install any apps on your computer either.

2. Cloud Storage Services If you're using any cloud storage service such as Dropbox or Google Drive, sharing files via email is very easy. These services have generous file size limits and let recipients download files without a hassle too. While the signup and setup is relatively is simple, it can be too much effort if you aren't already a user and want to send something quickly. In such cases use alternatives mentioned here. Our favourite is Dropbox because it is available as an app on almost all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android) and has a good Web interface too. Dropbox gives users 2GB of free storage. You can get more free space by referring others to Dropbox and sometimes by buying a new smartphone, or simply buy more storage if needed. Dropbox allows you to upload up to 10GB per file when using the Web interface and has no limit on single file sizes when you upload using any of the apps. Once Dropbox is up and running on your machine, simply copy/ move the file you want to share to your Dropbox folder (or any of its sub- folders). You can do this by clicking on the Dropbox icon on your system tray in Windows, or clicking on the Dropbox icon in the Menu Bar on a Mac and then clicking on the little folder on the top left. This will open the Dropbox folder in Explorer/ Finder. Simply copy the file you want to share to this folder. Then right-click the link and select Share Dropbox link. This will copy a link to this file, that you can send to anyone you want to share this file with. This can be used to share absolutely any file of any type or size that your system is capable of storing. If you are away from your computer and want to send someone a file that's on your Dropbox folder, this is how you can do it. Here's how to use it. 1. Open Dropbox and login. 2. After that, select the file or folder you want to share > click the Share link button > click Get Link and send this link to those you want to share the file with. Other services like Google Drive, Box and OneDrive work in similar ways, and can be used instead. Google Drive in notable because it lets you upload up to 1TB per file, but free storage is capped at 15GB. You might want to use Google Drive if you need to send files larger than Dropbox's limit.

Send large files via email As mentioned earlier, email attachments are too limiting if you intend to send large files. However, popular email services have cloud integration as well, so you can send large files almost as if they were attachments. Gmail The world's most popular email service, Gmail, has a rather strict 25MB limit on attachments. It does offer an easy way to attach larger files. Follow these steps if you wish to do so: 1. This method doesn't work if you're using Gmail's basic HTML view. Make sure you are using Gmail's default view before trying this. 2. Click the Compose button on the top-left > hover your mouse over the + icon in the compose window > click Insert from Drive > upload your file to Google Drive. This way you can upload files larger than 25MB. 3. If you're already using a different cloud service, then you might not want to have some files stored on Google Drive. To quickly attach these files when using Gmail, try a Chrome extension called Cloudy. 4. Go to compose a mail > click the Cloudy button on the top-right > select the cloud service you use. Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, OneDrive, Github, photos from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and Picasa are supported. Add the file and send. Yahoo Mail Yahoo Mail also has a default attachment limit of 25MB. However, Yahoo does support sending larger files via Flickr (for images) or Dropbox (for everything else). 1. Sign in > click Compose to start writing a new email. 2. Click the down arrow next to the paper clip icon for attachments and select Share via Flickr or Share via Dropbox. 3. You'll be prompted to authorise Yahoo Mail's access to Flickr/ Dropbox. This is a one-time activity which happens the first time you use either service via Yahoo Mail. 4. Once the authorisation is complete, you can pick the file(s) you want to share. These files can then be opened by anyone, even if they aren't Flickr/ Dropbox users. Outlook.com Outlook.com users can also send large files easily, but by default they can attach only 20MB per email. Here's how to attach bigger files: 1. Log in > click Compose. 2. Click the down arrow next to the Insert button at the top and select Share via OneDrive. This lets you attach files from your OneDrive account. All you need to do is upload files to OneDrive via your computer, mobile device, or the OneDrive Web interface, and select them when prompted by Outlook.com.

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Glo drops international call rates to 10k/sec

Globacom, Nigeria’s National Telecom Carrier, has introduced three new International Direct Dial (IDD) Packs, which considerably reduced the cost of international calls.

One of the new packs, tagged Combo Pack 1, comes at a rental rate of N100 with bundled airtime of N100 and a call rate of 14k per second to United States, Canada, India, China and fixed lines only in United Kingdom. The package comes with 7 days validity for the bundled airtime.

The second package, dubbed ‘Combo Pack 2’, has a 15-day validity for the bundled airtime at a rental rate of N200 with bundled airtime of N200 and a call rate of 13k per second for calls to the United States of America, Canada, India, China and fixed lines only in United Kingdom.

Combo Pack 3 has a rental rate of N500 with N500 bundled airtime, while calls to United States, Canada, India, China and United Kingdom (Fixed lines only) are fixed at 10k per second. It has 30 days validity for the bundled airtime.

Speaking on the offer, the Chief Commercial Director, Globacom, Mr. Ajay Mathur, said the company was delighted to launch the Combo IDD Packs as they offered customers attractive rates to call specific countries as applicable. He emphasized that the IDD Packs offer lower IDD call rates to customers once they subscribe to the service.‎

Mathur stated that ‎subscribers wishing to opt for any of the new packs should dial *170*23# for Combo Pack 1 which is the N100 pack, *170*24# for Combo Pack 2, the N200 pack and *170*25# for Combo Pack 3, the N500 pack.‎

“The new IDD Packs will make international calls cheaper for our esteemed subscribers as they offer the most competitive rates for international calls,” he added.

According to him, “cost effective communication is imperative now that the world is truly a global village with people either living, working or vacationing in various part of the globe. Globacom has consistently brought innovation and quality service delivery to its subscribers since the company rolled out in 2003. The IDD package is not an exemption.”

He described the new IDD packs as the easiest and most affordable means of making international calls, and called on subscribers on the Globacom network to take advantage of the new IDD rates which are as low as 10k per second.

Mathur added that the offer is permanent and without any time limit.

Also speaking at the event, Mr. Femi Oduntan, Head of Business Development, Glo Gateway, said Globacom is the only operator in Nigeria that has a fully dedicated International Gateway that ensures premium voice quality on all international routes.

He noted that the company’s armoured Glo 1 submarine cable which links Nigeria to West Africa, United Kingdom with dedication extension to the US and the rest of the world, has provided enormous bandwidth and brought in a new era of prosperity in the ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) sector in Nigeria.

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Glo offers subscribers 3-in-1 recharge option

Glo has unveiled a unique 3-in-1 Recharge Option to make the process of loading regular airtime credit, international calling packs and data bundles more convenient for its subscribers.

The 3-in-1 recharge option gives its customers the convenience of topping up their airtime credit for various services directly without going through the process of first topping up their prepaid accounts before‎ allocating the airtime for data bundles or international calls.

Launching the 3-in-1 recharge option at the Mike Adenuga Towers in Lagos, Head of Operations, Bisi Koleoso, said the company decided to simplify the airtime recharge process in order to provide customers with more convenient options in line with its avowed commitment to put subscribers first in everything.

Head of Operations, Bisi Koleoso, delivering his welcome remarks at the launch of the convenient 3-in-1 Recharge Option for Globacom subscribers in Lagos. With him, from L-R, Globacom Official, Ronke Ali Oke, Coordinator Gloworld, Mr. Dimeji Amao, and Globacom Official, Omolade Odunola.

“Under the new arrangement, customers who want to directly top up and add to their main balance should dial *123*PIN#, while those interested in directly buying a data bundle without cramming codes should dial *223*PIN#. Similarly, subscribers wishing to load International Direct Dialing (IDD) packs should dial *323*PIN#,” Koleoso added.

He said the introduction of the new 3-in-1 recharge option was particularly timely for subscribers who make international calls because Glo recently crashed the cost of making calls to key destinations such as United States, Canada, India, China and UK to as low as 10k per second‎.

Koleoso also disclosed that customers who use the *223*PIN# option to load a data bundle will get an extra 385MB of data when they load a N1000 credit instead of the 350 MB of free data they would have received if they had used the conventional recharge option to load the same N1000 recharge credit.

He noted that the launch of the 3-in-1-recharge option was in sync with Globacom’s relentless desire to make recharge very convenient and accessible to all and sundry on the different call platforms of the company’s network.

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Glo launches Jolof, offers N25, N50 recharge options

Glo Jolof, a product that offers subscribers the lowest recharge option in the country at N25 with three minutes of call time and three sms, has been launched by Globacom to lower the bar for Nigerian telecommunication subscribers to make calls at pocket friendly rates.

Two of the three minutes are for calls within the Globacom network while the third is available for the subscriber to call any other network. All the three sms are on net.

Also introduced under the Glo Jolof package is the N50 recharge string, which gives the subscriber 6 minutes of call time and 6 SMS, thus giving telecommunication subscribers more value for money. Out of the six minutes of call time, four are for calls within the network while two are for calls to other networks. The six short messaging services (sms) are for on net utilization. The tantalizing benefit is valid until midnight of the same day of recharge.

Announcing the product in a statement on Sunday, Globacom’s Head, Business Support, Mr. Yomi Ogunbamowo explained that the proudly Nigerian company designed “Glo Jolof” in fulfillment of its brand promise to continue to give subscribers a delightful experience on the Globacom network at pocket-friendly rates.

He said, “it is very easy to benefit from this offer. Subscribers willing to utilise the N25 or N50 recharge strings should dial *0805*25# or *0805*50# respectively and the value of N25 or N50 as appropriate will be deducted from the account balance of the subscriber. The subscriber can then use the N25 or N50 respectively to enjoy the special bundle of three minutes and six minutes for calls as well as three sms and six sms.

Ogunbamowo said ‎as long as subscribers have sufficient balance of N25 or N50, they can dial the recharge string and enjoy the benefits, adding that the value a subscriber would get from the N25 and N50 recharge strings is almost double the value the subscriber would have gotten if he or she made the calls or send sms from his or her main account credit balance.

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