₦airaland Forum

Ubisoft pushes back hotly anticipated Xbox One and PlayStation 4 title until next Spring in order to "polish and fine tune"

The launch lineup for Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4 has been considerably weakened by the surprise announcement that French publisher Ubisoft is delaying the highly anticipated video game thriller Watch Dogs until Spring 2014.

A statement released by the Watch Dogs development team said "We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience."
Watch Dogs is set in a near-future Chicago which is controlled by an all-encompassing network, with you cast as vigilante hacker Aiden Pearce, able to take control of connected devices within the game's open world. Since its surprise unveiling at E3 2012, Watch Dogs has been a vanguard for the next generation, displaying high quality visuals and social connectivity. News of its delay will be a setback for Microsoft and Sony as they try and convince consumers to buy into their new consoles which are released on 22 November and 29 November respectively. The Wii U, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Watch Dogs have also been delayed.

There was concern over the status of PlayStation 4 pre-order bundles that included Watch Dogs, and in a statement to Videogamer, Sony said they will be "working very closely both with Ubisoft and with our partners at retail to manage this situation."

Ubisoft also confirmed that open-world racer The Crew was being delayed until "Q2 2015", which runs from July 2014 to September 2014. The Crew had originally been scheduled for "early 2014."

Information kept on Facebook could help fraudsters create credit cards, bank loans and new accounts in your name.

Most people know Facebook stores your data. They understand that when you send a message or post a photo on the site those files don't disappear into the internet's ether.

There might even be a nodding of heads when the breadth of what's held is explained: every joke cracked, birthday message posted and person "poked" remains logged on the site for posterity. It makes sense after all.But few realise how much a fraudster could do within minutes of access to an account. A few simple searches could bring enough information to help a criminal open a credit card, loan or new bank account in your name. How? And who is to blame?

Anyone can download all the data Facebook holds on them. Thanks to Europe-wide data protection rules companies are obliged to reveal what information they store on you. Normally this involves a written request, small fee and 40-day wait.

Luckily Facebook makes this easy. By clicking on account settings (the small cog icon at the top right), picking "general" and going to "download a copy of your Facebook data" you can get hold of everything.

Browsing the folders at first is fairly amusing. Old messages track forgotten relationships as they spark up and peter out. Gossip from university days resurfaces. AmDram productions you promised friends you would attend remain in a list of past events.

You realise biographers of the future won't be combing through dusty collections of letters but double-clicking on folders containing Facebook profiles. But what if the data fell into the wrong hands?

To see what useful info could be gleaned I downloaded my own personal Facebook data, which has been building up for the last seven years. Through simple word searches a host of sensitive information could be uncovered within minutes.

Searching for the word "bank" in the file containing past messages returned my bank account details. Sort code; account number; card number; bank name; the lot. Turns out I had sent them to a friend who needed to transfer money in 2010.

Typing "my address" bought up my home address, including postcode, as well as a flat I had rented in London. Searches for "my number" and "my email" found the correct details instantly.

Date of birth could be worked out via "happy birthday" posts. Relatives could be found by searching the friends list for my surname. Recent sessions logged the IP address of the computer used.

A criminal could even work out the exact times I would be out of the house for dinner or on holiday by looking at which events I was attending.

"There are all sorts of things you could do with that," says Tony Neate, an ex-policeman who spent 30 years in the force and now heads up the government-backed Get Safe Online campaign.

"I know from talking to people within the police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency that you are well on your way as a criminal to having everything you need to steal your identity."

He adds: "They can mirror who you are and then start looking at where they can actually make money from the information they have got ... The amount of information you have given me is 90 per cent there for someone to be able to [commit identity fraud]."

By intercepting post at my home address a fraudster could create a credit card or take out a bank loan in my name, according to Neate. The Facebook data alone may be enough to open a new bank account with my details to be used to transfer dirty money.Neil Munroe, external affairs director at credit information group Equifax, says the information "ticks a lot of the boxes" needed to take out a credit card and fears people fail to adequately protect their profiles.

"A lot of passwords are still set as derivatives of family names, pet names, holidays, that type of thing," he says, warning that Facebook profiles can help criminals guess logins. The fact that so many people use one password for all their accounts is also a danger.

Munroe continues: "Intuitively everybody knows that that information should not be there. You would not write that information on a sandwich board and walk down your local street with it on. That is exactly what you are doing with Facebook."

When asked about the findings a Facebook spokesman acknowledged people have a responsibility to be careful with their data and stressed that the company has systems in place to stop hackers.

"We all need to be aware of how we look after our personal information, wherever it is kept. People using Facebook benefit from a number of powerful security tools, from secure encrypted HTTPS browsing, to two-factor login authentication and one time passwords," he said.

"People on Facebook can receive notifications if an unknown device is used to access their account, and in the rare situation that an account is compromised, it can quickly be locked down and restored."

Even so, some are predicting a boom in Facebook fraud over the coming years. Our lives may be becoming ever more integrated with social media, but awareness of the risks still lags way behind. Unless something changes, Neal Munroe says, criminals will increasingly target the "rich pickings" offered by our Facebook profiles.

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's aviation minister has caused outrage by calling air crashes inevitable acts of God, as she sought to deflect criticism of her record after the country's second deadly accident in 15 months.

Stella Oduah was speaking to journalists at the presidential villa on Monday, three days after sixteen people were killed in a small passenger plane that crashed shortly after take-off outside Lagos airport's domestic terminal.

In June last year, a Dana Air flight crashed into a Lagos apartment block, killing 163 people in the country's worst airline disaster in two decades.

An investigation has yet to reveal the cause.

"We do not pray for accidents but it is inevitable... We do everything to ensure that we do not have accidents, but it is an act of God," she said. "We do not speculate on the cause of accidents."

Oduah later qualified her comment, saying that everyone from baggage handlers to regulators, airlines and management shared responsibility for passenger safety and that a preliminary report into the latest crash should be out in a couple of weeks.

But Nigerian newspapers and Twitter exploded with angry responses. Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode was quoted in Vanguard local daily as calling for her resignation.

The Punch newspaper quoted popular blogger Japheth Omojuwa as saying: "If God is in charge of safety in the aviation sector, we are then duplicating roles by paying a salary (to the minister)... When you start passing the buck to God, then the time has arrived to pass on your resignation letter."

Oduah's spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The belief that fatal accidents are acts of God, or of malevolent spirits, is common in Nigeria and many other African countries.

Air crashes are relatively frequent in Africa's second biggest economy, where a sophisticated financial sector and large professional class depend on flights, although safety improved a lot in the years just before the Dana crash.

NIGERIA’S senior home-based players will on Thursday, October 17 begin preparations for the country’s first-ever appearance at the African Nations Championship (CHAN), the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) said on Tuesday.

In a statement in Abuja by its Assistant Director (Media), Ademola Olajire, the NFA said the home-based Super Eagles would open camp with 28 players.

It said the team’s Head Coach, Stephen Keshi who also manages the `A’ team, had already invited the players to camp.

``The players are to report in camp in Abuja as the Super Eagles’ Team B gets set for an international friendly with the full team of Jordan,’’ the statement said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the match is billed for the Jordanian capital city of Amman on Oct. 28.

Jordan are to use the match to prepare for their 2014 FIFA World Cup play-off fixture against the fifth-placed team in the South American qualifying campaign.

Nigeria are also using the game to prepare for the 2014 CHAN taking place in South Africa in January.


According to the statement, Keshi had invited three goalkeepers, eight defenders, nine midfielders and eight strikers.

Ejike Uzoenyi, back home from a stint in France, as well as five regular members of the `A’ squad, are on the list.

These are goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim, defenders Azubuike Egwuekwe, Solomon Kwambe and Benjamin Francis, and midfielder Sunday Mba.

There are also other Team B regulars, such as goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi, defenders Ebenezer Odunlami and Umar Zango, midfielder Etebo Oghene and forwards Muhammad Gambo, Ifeanyi Edeh and Ezekiel Mbah.


``Team officials have advised all invited 28 players to arrive at the team’s Bolton White Apartments abode in Abuja on Thursday with their international passports,’’ the statement.

It said this was necessary as the visa processing for the trip would commence on Friday, Oct. 18 as the delegation was expected to leave for Amman on Friday, Oct. 25.

FULL LIST

Goalkeepers: Chigozie Agbim (Rangers International); Daniel Akpeyi (Heartland FC); Okemute Odah (Warri Wolves).

Defenders: Azubuike Egwuekwe (Warri Wolves); Benjamin Francis (Heartland FC); Ebenezer Odunlami and Solomon Kwambe (Sunshine Stars).

Defenders: Umar Zango (Kano Pillars); Yinka Adedeji (Sharks FC); Bright Esieme (Enyimba International FC); Solomon Babatunde (Nasarawa United FC).

Midfielders: Sunday Mba, Ogonna Osuchukwu and Christian Oghiozor (Rangers International); Etebo Oghene (Warri Wolves) and Rabiu Ali (Kano Pillars).

Midfielders: Mohammed Garuba (Abia Warriors); Douglas Achiv (Lobi Stars); Olayinka Oyeleke (Crown FC) and Christian Pyagbara (Sharks FC).

Forwards: Muhammad Gambo (Kano Pillars); Ifeanyi Edeh (Enyimba International); Barnabas Imienger (Lobi Stars) and Osadiaye Joseph (Warri Wolves).

Forwards: Sani Mohammed (Gombe United); Ejike Uzoenyi (Rangers International); Victor Namo (Nasarawa United) and Ezekiel Mbah (Akwa United).

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