Daily Tech Snippet: Monday December 8

• The massive hacker attack on Sony, possibly by groups linked to North Korea, continues to dominate headlines; security flaws exposed: North Korea says its supporters may be behind Sony attack:The attack shut down most of the studio's network for more than a week and hackers have released sensitive data over the Internet, including employee salaries and Social Security numbers along with high-quality digital versions of several unreleased films. A key weakness was that few security measures existed between the computers of the Japanese company’s divisions around the world, so hackers could move with relative ease throughout the corporation, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because the information is confidential. The most recent attacks suggests Sony hasn’t done enough since the last episode. The company put itself and others at risk by not putting passwords or encryption on the files that would have made them more difficult for hackers to open, according to Todd Feinman, chief executive officer of Identity Finder LLC, a New York-based provider of data management software.

• Facebook Video and YouTube are now equals in the video ad market, say some: "YouTube and Facebook are equal players now, or at least close to it," Ron Amram, senior media director of marketing, Heineken USA, told Adweek. "What we're finding is that we have to consider Facebook as the key video partner going forward because not only does it have the reach but the effectiveness. Here's why he's bullish on Facebook's nascent promos: While pushing Heineken Light to 21 to 34 year olds in the United States in October, the brand's digital spots—in three days—were exposed to the newfeeds of 35 million Facebook users, producing 5.5 million views, according to Amram. That means 16 percent of the people reached watched the spot. "This is the first time we've looked at [Facebook] as part of our digital video strategy overall," he said. "It complements television very well but also goes beyond it." To Amram's last point, the 15-second auto-play ads featured the same Neil Patrick Harris work from Wieden + Kennedy that broke on TV in July. One minute and 48-second commercials were also pushed on the platform. "Putting it on Facebook re-accelerated it for us," Amram said. "August and September were good, but October was even better." "Facebook over-delivered on what we anticipated," he said. Additionally, he had postive data when it came to still promos on Facebook. Amram said sister brand Dos Equis got a $3.35 back for every dollar spent during the weeks leading up to Cinco de Mayo last spring, which helped the brand lift sales by 6.6 percent year over year.

• India's smartphone market is surging (23M in Q3 2014, 82% Y/Y), even as China's reaches saturation (105M in Q3 2014, 10.8%): The latest figures from IDC show that smartphone shipments in India grew 82 percent in the past 12-month period, while China saw growth of just 10.8 percent. Admittedly, India is still a small-ish market in relative terms, with an estimated 23.3 million smartphones shipped to retailers in Q3 2014, versus 105 million in China. Basic, non-smart phones still account for the majority of mobile sales in India, but that means a seismic shift is now underway to Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices. Cheaper Android phones are helping push this forward in the very price-sensitive market. The ratio of feature phones to smartphones shipped in India is now 68:32, which has changed a lot from 78:22 at the end of last year, and 90:10 at the end of 2012.

• Uber terms of service face scrutiny as firm faces the possibility of legal action in India following arrest of rape suspect: Madhur Verma, New Delhi police deputy commissioner, said that police will also take legal action against Uber — valued at $40 billion — for failure to run checks on the driver’s background and whether he had an adequate GPS device in his car. The police are taking legal advice before deciding whether it would be a criminal or civil case. Earlier reports suggest that the suspect had disabled GPS during the incident, which occurred late on Friday night or early Saturday morning. The suspect allegedly parked the car in a secluded area after the passenger, said to be in her mid-twenties, fell asleep. He then raped her and threatened her life if she reported anything. Shockingly enough, Uber’s terms of service don’t necessarily protect against this. You can have a read through it right here, if you’d like, but the main argument is this: Uber is not a transportation company, but rather a technology service that matches seekers of transportation (riders) with providers of transportation (drivers). By using Uber, and accepting the obligatory ToS, you are acknowledging that each and every driver that picks you up in any city in the world is a third-party (not Uber), and thus, Uber is not responsible for any of their actions. This is hardly the first time that a dispute (to put it lightly) has arisen between an Uber driver and a passenger or pedestrian. One man was hit over the head with a hammer, and a six-year-old girl was killed when hit by a driver. This isn’t even the first rape allegation against an Uber driver.