Tacoma, Washington based internet security firm IDD (Internet Identity) has recently released their Q4 eCrime Trends Report, indicating a rise in both sophistication and frequency of cyber-attacks. Specifically, the company points to a new tactic whereby criminals use domain name system (DNS) entries to hijack and steal consumers’ personal information, including, the coveted credit card number.

According to IDD, this past Christmas saw ChronoPay.com under such attack. ChronoPay.com is Russia’s largest payment processor, and one of the largest services of it’s type in Europe. For several hours between December 25th and 26th of 2010, online criminals redirected the ChronoPay domain to a false payment site, where they collected at least 800 individual credit card numbers. The false site was designed to look exactly like the authentic ChronoPay platform, with unsuspecting consumers happily entering the payment details.

“While we’ve been warning for years that DNS hijackings could result in financial disaster, we hadn’t seen such a well-planned and successful attack of this nature until this incident,” said IID President and CTO Rod Rasmussen in a statement. “With ChronoPay, our worst fears came true. Unlike the recent DNS hijackings of Twitter, Baidu and others, with ChronoPay we have confirmation that people’s vital information was stolen without them being aware of it.”

And while most payment providers, fatfoogoo included, have extremely strict standards when it comes to security, this new form of attack could leave payment providers implementing new solutions to avoid such an attack.

This type of attack also represents some rather high levels of technical sophistication, as DNS hijacking is attacking the massive amounts of information and details at it’s gateway. Meaning, DNS is the translator between domain names and IP addresses. Think of DNS as the Time/Gate keeper of the internet. It’s the source of conducting transactions, transmitting messages, and the sharing of consumer (and corporate) information. Once an eCriminal is able to spoof or redirect a DNS, they’re free to drive unsuspecting internet travelers to just about any destination they want – including word-for-word copies of a site these same consumers have come to trust over the course of time. In addition to redirection, a DNS hijack can intercept emails, financial transactions, and sensitive data and personal information…or just about anything else that passes through the internet.

IDD’s eCrime Trends Report also includes a number of other findings including,

• Phishing attacks impersonating gaming companies increased 489 percent from Q4 2009 to Q4 2010.
• Overall phishing attacks went up 14 percent from Q4 2009 to Q4 2010.
• Phishing attacks impersonating e-commerce companies jumped over the holiday season. In all, these attacks increased 13 percent from Q3 to Q4 2010.

internetidentity.com

Announced late last week, League of Legends developers Riot Games has been acquired by Chinese firm Tencent Holdings. Slated to close in 30 days, pending regulatory approval, Riot Games will officially be owned by Tencent Holdings, however the company maintains that they will remain an independent organization within Tencent’s portfolio of products. To be clear, Tencent Holdings has not fully acquired Riot Games fully, but rather, has purchased a majority stake in the company.

You’ll remember, this is not the first time that we’ve seen Riot Games and Tencent’s names popping up together. In late 2009, Tencent invested in Riot Games to the tune of $8 million, along with Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital.

“The team at Riot has built an incredible company in just a few years,” stated Mitch Lasky, partner at Benchmark Capital, and Riot Games board member. “Tencent’s additional investment validates the disruptive position Riot has created in the online video game market, and provides the company with the resources to press their advantage for years to come.”

Shenzhen based Tencent is China’s leading and largest internet portal, establishing their dominance primarily due to it’s popular QQ messaging service.

“This is exciting news for ‘League of Legends’ players and the existing Riot Games team,” said Brandon Beck, CEO, Riot Games in a statement. “Tencent’s investment will provide our talented team of designers, developers and community staff with additional resources to focus on innovating around ‘League of Legends’ and launching new projects that push the boundaries in the gaming space.”

Following this statement, Riot Games is reporting that they will remain in their Los Angeles headquarters, with the existing management team still at the reigns. They’ve also got an aggressive recruitment strategy in the works, looking to expand across all of their offices over the course of 2011. The incoming $400 million from Tencent will be put towards enhancing the company’s flagship title “League of Legends,” and expanding into new markets. Likewise, the company has said that they will use this new influx of capital to work on and produce new titles.

“Tencent is committed to delivering premium quality online games to global gamers and Riot has proven its capability in the development of its flagship title,” said David Wallerstein, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent. “Tencent will provide the Riot team with the support and autonomy to continue to deliver high quality experiences that impress both fans and critics in the global gaming market.”

Sure there’s been a lot of talk about Android over the past year, and there’s no denying it’s market penetration; however, if there was a question on the table about iPhone’s ability to sell like hotcakes, it seems as though Verizon just put this question to the test, and came up with a major win.

Available to the general public this coming February 10th, Verizon started taking pre-orders of the iPhone 4. It seems as though Verizon was expecting consumer demand, but not quite in the volumes that they received. In fact, the telcom provider has had to shut off it’s pre-order system to to overwhelming customer demand. As of 8:10 PM EST February 3rd, Verizon ceased online ordering, and pointed to their most successful first day sales of any phone in the company’s history. Again, for the record, that’s an iOS device, not Symbian, Windows Phone 7, or Android, but iOS that pulled down the company record.

Dan Mead, President and CEO for Verizon Wireless comments in a statement, “This was an exciting day. In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history. And, when you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story. It is gratifying to know that our customers responded so enthusiastically to this exclusive offer — designed to reward them for their loyalty.

Yes, that’s right – between 3 and 5 am. Even on PST, that’s mighty late to be casually ordering a new phone.

“Yesterday’s launch set the pace for next week when we open up sales to everyone across America,” Mead added.

This kind of event brings two topics to the forefront:

Even though Android’s proliferation is larger, consumers are still very clearly interested in pocketing an Apple phone, and not an HTC, Samsung, etc.

American consumers are clearly not happy with AT&T’s service. The telcom provider has had a rough road when it comes to iPhone service availability, and it seems as though some are jumping ship to the other game in town. Now, if that other game can live up to consumers’ expectations remains to be seen.

Keep in mind, the above news concerns online pre-ordering only – and the numbers are off the charts. Verizon officially starts handing out physical devices on February 10th, with more than 2000 Verizon Wireless Stores opening at 7am on the day of the event. Likewise, Verizon serviced iPhone 4’s will be available via Apple Store locations, Best Buy, and select Wal-Mart locations.

Anyone want to place a wager on just how high Apple’s App store revenues are going to shoot between February 10th and, let’s say, the 15th?