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PERRIN LOVETT

~ Fiction, Freedom, and The West

PERRIN LOVETT

Tag Archives: Pokemon

Pokemon was Worse than We Imagined

13 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

culture, election, government, hacking, Pokemon, Russia, spying

Last year I repeatedly warned about the threats of Pokemon Go! Both:

The sheer stupidity of it; and

The information security risks (corporate).

Yet even I did not suspect the ultimate purpose behind the game.

My dear liberal friends, you were on to something. The Russians used Pokemon to hack last’s year Black Mass and prevent the coronation of the Coughing Queen.

Russian efforts to meddle in American politics did not end at Facebook and Twitter. A CNN investigation of a Russian-linked account shows its tentacles extended to YouTube, Tumblr and even Pokémon Go.

One Russian-linked campaign posing as part of the Black Lives Matter movement used Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and Pokémon Go and even contacted some reporters in an effort to exploit racial tensions and sow discord among Americans, CNN has learned.

I tried to warn everyone.

nimbus-image-1507914640659.png

The Devil’s In The Details: Pokemon Craze

30 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes, Other Columns

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

business, computers, Pokemon, security, software

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit in for a little while and attend an e-conference on cyber-security and Pokemon. This was put on for the benefit of large businesses and organizations which have something to lose to the game – many things actually. I was astounded.

I see people playing the game everywhere. To think it just got started a week or so back. People are having fun but there is cause for concern. Many businesses are using their exposure to the game (unwittingly hosting Pokestops) as free advertising. Outwardly they welcome players and tout themselves as hip. Inwardly, many of these exact same companies are worried. They have good cause.

hacker-cartoon

blackappleintl.com.

Pokemon Go was designed to work very well on both Apple and Android devices. Part of its universal success is the way it utilizes most of a phone’s features. Depending on one’s device, the game and its makers may have root access to up to 60-70% of the device’s systems. Root access means the game can, theoretically, manipulate and control most of the phone. It probably has easy backdoor access to the rest.

The odds are those who made the game are not interested in maliciously accessing or misusing a player’s phone – that would be very bad for business. When it was pointed out to them that they had such unprecedented control, they admitted to overkill in their software design. They wanted the game to run smoothly and it does because it is so powerful as an app. Players give them the right to that access and potential control – it’s in the terms in the app agreement people click without reading. People willingly give Pokemon a level of access to their digital lives that the FBI has been unable to obtain with Court orders.

This presents several problems for businesses. First, people are using company phones and devices to play the game. That means they are signing over access to and control of cloud information which might otherwise be privileged. It also means they are probably playing on company time.

Remember, Pokemon itself is not likely to misuse the information it is privy to. However, this breach of security is a hacker’s dream. Experts suggest it would be very easy to hack the app and upload a variety of malware or ransom-ware or to simply clone the device or steal information.

Big business is now spending big money to combat this threat that didn’t even exist a month ago. They are also concerned that a host of similar knock-off apps are coming to ride the wave of Poke-success. A Harry Potter app is likely in the works right now. Success upon success.

Ordinary people would be wise to assess how all of them might affect them. A hacker could backdoor his way into one’s iPhone and essentially lock down the best features until the owner paid a fee for restoration.

There are other and more common problems with the game too. It has already been reported that people are trespassing while in search of the little … whatever they ares. People are winding up in places, some of them sensitive (power grid, etc.) where they probably don’t need to be. People are getting lost. They falling and injuring themselves. They are causing traffic accidents.

All of these things should be cause for second-guessing the utility of the game. I would suggest playing (if one must) on a throw-away device – a Trackfone or something similar – something disconnected entirely from one’s other accounts and business. Pokemon spotters might be a good idea to keep players from falling down old wells. People probably shouldn’t play on company time or while driving automobiles. As with most things, a little common sense goes a long way.

Pokemon 2.0: Let’s Step It Up A Notch

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

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Tags

America, green space chickens, Pokemon, The People

I see a lot of folks out there playing Pokemon Go. In their cars. At the gym. In the store. My fireman buddy reports they come to the station day and night looking for those elusive … whatever they ares. They’ve overrun the park where I jog and hike. Today when I ventured out it was about 100 Degrees so there weren’t that many to run around. Actually, at 100 my “run” was more of a stooping, sweating, grumbling, weary stumble (but I did it!). Anyway, it almost looks like they’re having fun with it all. Good for them. Did you know the Pokemon can hibernate? Or, was that incubate? Whatever.

image - Edited

Constitutimon!? bc.ctvnews.ca.

I’ve come up with a short list of things that could be included, scavenger-style, in the next update for the game. Wouldn’t it be fun to go around beating the digital bushes to find:

An honest politician?

A useful government program?

Or a Constitutional government program?

A government program that wasn’t bankrupting us?

Local lone wolf terrorists? (Think of the fun they’d have collecting their gold coins or stars(??) and fighting of the Caliphate!)

A plausible explanation for how WTC 7 collapsed without the aid of explosives?

A way to quantitatively ease the Federal Reserve out of existence?

How about helping O.J. find the real killer(s)?

Jobs for all these protesters who spring up everywhere?

Obama’s birth certificate? (I know 4G ain’t the best in some parts of Kenya…)

Any “real” Georgia fans who followed Mark Richt down to Miami?

An end to the federal regulatory code?

Gun free zones which are also crime free?

The lost city of Detroit?

The computer that comes up with all these awful television and movie plots?

Zamfir? (Remember him? Master of the pan flu … no.)

Snipes! (Who didn’t love a snipe hunt?)

Paul Ryan’s spine?

The Smurf village.

A feasible way to excise D.C. from North America?

Men who have read 50 Shades of Grey? (A real challenge.)

Green space chickens?

All the other Pokemon-ers who have fallen off cliffs or into wells or down holes.

With all those folks out there looking for something, I figure they might want to try finding something other than cartoon characters. Trivial enough? Probably not.

 

It’s Worse Than I Thought

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

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Tags

crime, firearms, Pokemon, police, The People

It’s almost funny, too.

In their quest to do … whatever one does with Pokemon, people are now crashing cars and trespassing on private property.

PHOENIX (AP) — The “Pokemon Go” craze across the U.S. has people wandering into yards, driveways, cemeteries and even an off-limits police parking lot in search of cartoon monsters, prompting warnings that trespassers could get arrested or worse, especially if they cross paths with an armed property owner.

Since the release of the smartphone game last week, police have gotten a flurry of calls from residents about possible burglars or other strangers prowling the neighborhood.

When or if one of these digital zombies runs across that armed property owner (or the cops) we know who Gersh K. will blame.

no-trespassing-sign-1447456-640x480

Photo: onizzino/freeimages.com.

Funny. Sad. Funny but sad.

Pokemon: Mass Hysterical Stupefaction

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

books, chaos, culture, freedom, Pokemon, society, The People, triviality

I had forgotten about Pokemon – to me it was forgettable. Then, in the past few weeks, I started noticing a resurgence. People on Facebook were talking about the game – some for it, some against – as if it had relevance. I wondered once again if I had slipped-streamed back in time a few decades. It started showing up in the news. I investigated. Pokemon is back.

Pokemon.

It’s back with controversy. The first contention is that the cute little game is being played by many adults now. I remembered it vaguely as something nieces and nephews were into in the 90s. Now, it seems, it is for everyone (except me).

The second controversy comes from the manner in which Pokemon is delivered in the 21st Century – via a free phone app. The app, like most, comes with a long, draconian agreement that no one reads. Hidden in the terms one finds curious language about turning over private information (darn near all of it) to the app and its owners. People seem upset about this. Perhaps “free” really isn’t.

Little about Pokemon is actually known to me. I understand it is some sort of Japanese cartoon cock-fight, maybe mixed with a scavenger hunt. I know children loved it, or love it still, and many adults are completely obsessed. Then I found something…

Back in 1999 I started a book, one of many I never even came close to finishing. It didn’t even have a title. Still doesn’t. It was a “what’s wrong with modern society” kind of book. One of the chapters was “Pokemon”.

I am decades ahead of my time and have been for a while now. My thesis, if I remember rightly, was not that Pokemon is (was) inherently evil. It may be; I’m not sure. However, I am confident that it is one of numerous trivialities with which people obsessively entertain themselves while the world rots around them. I think I wanted to use it, specifically, as a benchmark of the mindless, dumbed-down fantasies people use generally to escape the real world. That was 1999. There’s more rot around now in 2016.

A child’s game is fine for children. If adults enjoy it too, in its place, that’s fine. But, when there is so much else going on, it seems a bit odd that millions spend hours and hours trying to … do whatever it is one does in Poke-land. While they’re searching for the bird or the egg or the rainbow (???) and giving away their identity and location to boot, the economy is collapsing. It’s not just bad numbers anymore – the underpinning themselves are being eviscerated as if by  a massive bombing. Then, there are the real bombings. And the terrorists. The racial strife. The robots. The debt. The attack of the one-worlders. The antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The civilization-resistant “refugees”. Wars. Real world things, many unpleasant. The adults play games.

Given the above turmoil, maybe a little trivial pursuit is in order – a little. I’m pleased today with two things. One, my thoughts are exceedingly constant across time. Two, so consistent also are the silly diversions employed by and against the people.

Notechmagazine.

Play this digital version of Grit and Steel if you like. Just remember: it’s a game; THEY are watching you, and; there’s a big mess sloshing around off-screen.

My thoughts – 17 years in the making.

Perrin Lovett

perrinlovett@gmail.com

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