"Brand" and "Knock-off" should be carefully used in the same sentence.

For 10 seconds I thought that Apple was branching off and selling some new cola that tastes like Coke(tm).

Agreed, that to me seems a respectful way of treating your employees. People have families and commitments, the least you can do is give them notice as far ahead as possible. And some generous severance.

If you want to know more what each party is discussing with their national governments, can't think of a better place than hacking Belgian telecom.

This is why they did it.

Agreed. Chances are there are a bunch of PMPs and ITIL processes in place. Could be internal politics.

Coding a few minutes is a one thing. Testing it, getting someone to approve to move something to prod, and herding people to actually do work is a bunch of other things. Legal and PR may get involved too.

In some corps I worked, the finger-pointing usually takes days and involves a bunch of crappy meetings. It can be days before someone engages InfoSec or the developers to confirm a problem.

Two weeks is not terrible; better than most large corporations.

That's not too bad all things considering. Maybe they have a proper structured development shop (not too structured, since it obviously doesn't include code reviews or vuln scanning)? Maybe they had maintenance windows which they are contractually bound to (and more expensive to make an exception then to do deal with a flaw)? Maybe once they were made aware of the problem they were scanning the database system for odd entries or suspicious activity? Maybe they needed to get an independent audtor to review so they can appease their various stakeholders?

Hopefully they learned from this, and will at least run an automated vulnerability tool against the app for future releases.

Remember your Fountainhead:

Once all the "Takers" are gone, then the "Producers" can frolic in unabashed glory in their new utopia as their products are no longer taken (or consumed) by people who want them.

And THEN the Morlocks will kill and eat all the Eloi.

Yeah, duh. The first thing you do is cut its wings off, then clip its fuel line and drain it out before tying it to your hood.

The master said it best:

The young specialist in English Lit, having quoted me, went on to lecture me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern "knowledge" is that it is wrong.

My answer to him was, "John, when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."
— Issac Asimov, The relativity of wrong

I used to run my own web site. The modest fees didn't bother me; but the image leaches did.

Translation: "I somehow figured out how to install IIS, and then I forgot how to use google, so I gave up and shut down."

The poor sap is probably chomping at the bit to buy all of his media again when a new format comes out.

Oh, to be a "consumer" instead of a...person.

Use this instead: [pirate bay link]

THIS, and I'll raise you that Spotify should ban their music. There are lots of other equally-or-more-talented musicians who would kill for a chance at exposure.

I'm sure Ministry of Sound would be happy getting their stuff played exclusively on ClearChannel FM and/or sold at [insert failing big-box 'electronics' store here]. Meanwhile, artists with business knowledge will be out promoting the shit out of their music and making a killing.

I might take a break from my PS4 just to laugh at the MS FanBoyz. I hope they enjoy spending their Microsoft Fun Bucks, I mean cash on avatar "clothes".

I have a 360 -- the last Xbox I'll own until MS pulls their head out of their sphincters.

Terrorists are not a credible threat.

FIFY, at least in America.

41,000 Americans die each year in vehicle-related accidents (source: ntsb.gov)

785,000 Americans die each year due to heart disease (source: ahajournals.org)

580,000 Americans die each year due to cancer (source: cancer.org)

0 (as in Zero) Americans die each year due to Terrorism - it isn't a recurring event. This year, 3 people died in Boston, due to "Terrorism". In 2001, 3-5,000 people died; in 1996, 1 person died.

Even if we had a 9/11 every month, it wouldn't even come close to Cancer or Heart Disease as a threat.

...so you can toss your duct tape and plastic sheets. Or use them when you paint your garage.