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Free apps eat up your cellphone battery just to send you ads
TECHNOLOGY Insight Hacktivism
Were we taken in by Sabu? Samantha Murphy looks at her interview with LulzSec’s leader in a new light IN THE early hours of 30 June last However, last week we found out year, my time spent monitoring the that while it probably was 28-year-old Anonymous chat room finally paid off: Hector Xavier Monsegur that I was “Sabu” would grant me an interview. speaking to that night, we were not I had become a familiar name to alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else, some of the key figures in the Monsegur had been arrested on hacktivist group, as well as their more 7 June, and since then he had been aggressive sub sect, LulzSec. Most of cooperating with the FBI to gather them would not do interviews so it intelligence on Anonymous activities came as a big surprise that night when from the inside. LulzSec’s de facto leader agreed to tell Though his every online move was me his story in private. Looking back, being monitored by the FBI – which in the light of last week’s news of his says it does not “go into the details” of arrest, I realise perhaps all was not its investigative methods – he was to quite as it seemed. “With the news of Sabu’s The following night, over the arrest, hackers are falling course of about 3 hours, he told silent or even setting their me all about himself (New Scientist, computers alight” 9 July 2011, p 26). He came across as every bit the principled warrior, thrust into the international spotlight appear to conduct business as usual. by both passion for the cause and his It seems likely that I was speaking to own skill. Other insider hackers a mole on a very tight leash. confirmed his participation in the Looking back through my logs interview and he demonstrated that now, there may have been signs. On he was the one in charge of the multiple occasions, Monsegur warned notorious @AnonymouSabu Twitter me that I should be prepared to be feed. Both friends and foes of his were under more scrutiny myself as a able to verify details he was sharing. result of our conversations. He You can never be absolutely mentioned that I “may have federal sure who is typing on the other side agents contact [me] for info” and of the screen, but this was about as directed me to listen to a song by close as I could hope for. rapper Immortal Technique called 22 | NewScientist | 17 March 2012
The Point of No Return, which talks about a world-weary man who refuses to go down without a fight. Putting himself at risk of reprisals for cooperating with authorities – done to avoid a prison sentence that would leave his young family alone – may give this message new meaning, but so much remains a mystery. News of Monsegur‘s arrest sent his fellow “Anons” into a panic. Jennifer Emick, an ex-Anon and partner at Backtrace Security, has been an outspoken critic of the group since she left. Former hackers are falling silent, or even setting their computers alight to destroy evidence, while others are on a “snitch hunt”, she says. And she warns that all the moles have not yet been revealed. “I think it will be the end of Antisec,” she adds, referring to the movement Monsegur launched. But it is not the end of hacktivism generally, says Marcus Rogers of Purdue University in Indiana, who studies hacker psychology. “If one of them gets arrested, they think ‘they were stupid’ or ‘they were unlucky’.” So while they may be retreating into the shadows for now, it won’t be for long. For budding hacktivists – and journalists – there may be no better cautionary tale than that of Sabu. n
STRUGGLING to make your smartphone battery last the whole day? Paying for your apps might help. Up to 75 per cent of the energy used by free versions of Android apps is spent serving up ads or tracking and uploading user data: running just one app could drain your battery in around 90 minutes. Abhinav Pathak, a computer scientist at Purdue University, Indiana, and colleagues made the discovery after developing software to analyse apps’ energy usage. When they looked at popular apps such as Angry Birds, Free Chess and NYTimes they found that only 10 to 30 per cent of the energy was spent powering the app’s core function. For example, in Angry Birds only 20 per cent is used to display and run the game, while 45 per cent is spent finding and uploading the user’s location with GPS then downloading location-appropriate ads over a 3G connection. The 3G connection stays open for around 10 seconds, even if data transmission is complete, and this “tail energy” consumes another 28 per cent of the app’s energy. Pathak blames the energy leakage on inefficiencies in the third-party code that developers use to generate profit on free apps. He will present the research at the EuroSys conference in Bern, Switzerland, next month. Jacob Aron n
istockphoto
polaris/eyevine
Why ads on apps drain the life out of your phone
Were we taken in by Sabu? Samantha Murphy looks at her interview with LulzSec’s leader in a new light IN THE early hours of 30 June last However, last week we found out year, my time spent monitoring the that while it probably was 28-year-old Anonymous chat room finally paid off: Hector Xavier Monsegur that I was “Sabu” would grant me an interview. speaking to that night, we were not I had become a familiar name to alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else, some of the key figures in the Monsegur had been arrested on hacktivist group, as well as their more 7 June, and since then he had been aggressive sub sect, LulzSec. Most of cooperating with the FBI to gather them would not do interviews so it intelligence on Anonymous activities came as a big surprise that night when from the inside. LulzSec’s de facto leader agreed to tell Though his every online move was me his story in private. Looking back, being monitored by the FBI – which in the light of last week’s news of his says it does not “go into the details” of arrest, I realise perhaps all was not its investigative methods – he was to quite as it seemed. “With the news of Sabu’s The following night, over the arrest, hackers are falling course of about 3 hours, he told silent or even setting their me all about himself (New Scientist, computers alight” 9 July 2011, p 26). He came across as every bit the principled warrior, thrust into the international spotlight appear to conduct business as usual. by both passion for the cause and his It seems likely that I was speaking to own skill. Other insider hackers a mole on a very tight leash. confirmed his participation in the Looking back through my logs interview and he demonstrated that now, there may have been signs. On he was the one in charge of the multiple occasions, Monsegur warned notorious @AnonymouSabu Twitter me that I should be prepared to be feed. Both friends and foes of his were under more scrutiny myself as a able to verify details he was sharing. result of our conversations. He You can never be absolutely mentioned that I “may have federal sure who is typing on the other side agents contact [me] for info” and of the screen, but this was about as directed me to listen to a song by close as I could hope for. rapper Immortal Technique called 22 | NewScientist | 17 March 2012
The Point of No Return, which talks about a world-weary man who refuses to go down without a fight. Putting himself at risk of reprisals for cooperating with authorities – done to avoid a prison sentence that would leave his young family alone – may give this message new meaning, but so much remains a mystery. News of Monsegur‘s arrest sent his fellow “Anons” into a panic. Jennifer Emick, an ex-Anon and partner at Backtrace Security, has been an outspoken critic of the group since she left. Former hackers are falling silent, or even setting their computers alight to destroy evidence, while others are on a “snitch hunt”, she says. And she warns that all the moles have not yet been revealed. “I think it will be the end of Antisec,” she adds, referring to the movement Monsegur launched. But it is not the end of hacktivism generally, says Marcus Rogers of Purdue University in Indiana, who studies hacker psychology. “If one of them gets arrested, they think ‘they were stupid’ or ‘they were unlucky’.” So while they may be retreating into the shadows for now, it won’t be for long. For budding hacktivists – and journalists – there may be no better cautionary tale than that of Sabu. n
STRUGGLING to make your smartphone battery last the whole day? Paying for your apps might help. Up to 75 per cent of the energy used by free versions of Android apps is spent serving up ads or tracking and uploading user data: running just one app could drain your battery in around 90 minutes. Abhinav Pathak, a computer scientist at Purdue University, Indiana, and colleagues made the discovery after developing software to analyse apps’ energy usage. When they looked at popular apps such as Angry Birds, Free Chess and NYTimes they found that only 10 to 30 per cent of the energy was spent powering the app’s core function. For example, in Angry Birds only 20 per cent is used to display and run the game, while 45 per cent is spent finding and uploading the user’s location with GPS then downloading location-appropriate ads over a 3G connection. The 3G connection stays open for around 10 seconds, even if data transmission is complete, and this “tail energy” consumes another 28 per cent of the app’s energy. Pathak blames the energy leakage on inefficiencies in the third-party code that developers use to generate profit on free apps. He will present the research at the EuroSys conference in Bern, Switzerland, next month. Jacob Aron n
istockphoto
polaris/eyevine
Why ads on apps drain the life out of your phone