Scott Berkun Scott Berkun has collected some terrific excerpts from Pixar president Ed Catmull’s 2010 interview with The Economist’s Martin Giles:

The notion that you’re trying to control the process and prevent error screws things up. We all know the saying it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. And everyone knows that, but I think there is a corollary: if everyone is trying to prevent error, it screws things up. It’s better to fix problems than to prevent them. And the natural tendency for managers is to try and prevent error and over-plan things.

British broadcasting company BSkyB has had all
British broadcast company Sky News has had both of its Android apps hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army. A look at the apps’ pages app’s page in the Google Play store reveals that their descriptions were the description was changed to “Syrian Electronic Army Was Here”. The broadcaster sent out a Tweet instructing anyone who has downloaded the app to uninstall it.

Both Sky+, SkyNews Android apps were hacked and replaced, please uninstall the apps play.google.com/store/apps/det… … play.google.com/store/apps/det…

— Sky Help Team (@SkyHelpTeam) May 26, 2013

First reported by ITV News via The Desk, it appears that not only are the company’s Sky+ and Sky News Android apps compromised, but also Sky Go, Sky Wifi, Sky Movies, and Sky Sports News. It’s unknown how exactly the group managed to update the programs inside the Google Play store. However, all screenshots in the app have been replaced with images by the hacking group, which has been at the forefront of some of the recent cyberattacks on services like Twitter, and with media publications.

In addition, the group has also modified the developer website link on all of BSkyB’s apps so that it points to their page. If you tried to email the developer, it also points to an email address believed to belong to the organization.

Former Reuters social media editor Matthew Keys has reported that the Syrian Electronic Army sent him a screenshotpurported to be of the Google Play hack. Keys says that the cyber attack comes after a story was published implicating the group in a failed attack against the water supply control systems in Haifa, Israel. The group told Keys that any reports of its involvement were “untrue”.

The group is believed to be made up of a number of hackers and online activists that support current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Last week, the group hacked the website and Twitter accounts of the Financial Times leaving articles with the headline “Hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army” on its technology blog. It has also laid siege to BBC Twitter accounts, the National Public Radio service, the Guardian newspaper, and the Associated Press.

Today’s move could be an unprecedented one. It recent history, it doesn’t appear that any other app has been hacked within one of the major app stores, whether it’s iTunes or Google Play. In fact, both Apple and Google have security protocols in place to help ensure that malware and malicious apps don’t get distributed onto their devices. With 900 million Android devices activated, today’s hack could certainly affect many people.

We have reached out to Google and BSkyBs for comment and will update this if we hear back.

Update: All of the affected apps have now been removed from Google Play. BSkyBsays it will announce when fixed versions are available. In the meantime, if you have any BSkyB Android apps on your device, uninstall them immediately.

Photo credit: Sky News image via Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images, Screenshot of Sky News Android app via Google Play, Syrian Electronic Army screen hack via Matthew Keys/The Desk

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