2C

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2015

THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM

INNOVATIONS

Cyberattacks on U.S.
companies by China
persist, report says

MASSIVE ONLINE RETAILER DISCOURAGES GROWING PRACTICE

BY KEN DILANIAN
AP Intelligence Writer

A worker places an item in a box for shipment during a media tour of the new Amazon.com fulfillment
center in DuPont, Wash. [AP FILE PHOTO]

Crackdown: Amazon sues to

stop phony product reviews
BY MAE ANDERSON

About 45 percent of consumers consider product

reviews when weighing an
online purchase, according
to Forrester Research. Twothirds of shoppers trust
consumer opinions online,
according to research by
Nielsen.

AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK Internet users

increasingly rely on online customer reviews when making
spending decisions, whether
theyre buying an iPhone case on
Amazon or hiring an Uber ride.
But just how much can you trust
those reviews?
A new lawsuit in which Amazon accuses more than 1,000
people of offering to post bogus
glowing write-ups for as little as
$5 apiece might give you pause.
The case, filed in Washington
state court Friday, casts light on
what appears to be a burgeoning
practice: the commissioning of
fake reviews that masquerade as
ordinary testimonials.
Fake reviews are nothing new
to online retailing, and Amazon
is far from the only big company affected. Yelps restaurant
reviews and TripAdvisors hotel
ratings have long been a target of
critics who claim that merchants
can easily post positive reviews of
their own businesses.
Amazons legal counteroffensive, however, appears to be one
of the most aggressive attempts
yet by a major U.S. e-commerce
company to fight back.
Its lawsuit alleges that individuals would write five-star reviews
about products they never tried,
and plotted with product makers
to subvert Amazon safeguards
that are meant to bolster confidence in the websites reviews.
Suing the reviewers is a way
to discourage them from doing
it again, said Wedbush analyst
Michael Pachter. Theyre trying
to make a statement that you can
rely on the integrity of the reviews

on the site.
There are powerful incentives
to plant fraudulent reviews.
About 45 percent of consumers
consider product reviews when
weighing an online purchase,
according to Forrester Research.
Two-thirds of shoppers trust
consumer
opinions
online,
according to research by Nielsen.
For small businesses, it can be
more economical to buy positive
reviews than to buy advertising.
For example, a half-star
increase in a restaurants online
rating can increase the likelihood of securing, say, a 7 p.m.
booking by 15 to 20 percent, said
Jenny Sussin, a director at Gartner Research. So a restaurateur
might be tempted to pay $250 for
50 positive reviews online in the
hopes of raising that rating.
Online sites like Amazon, Yelp
and TripAdvisor have worked
hard to thwart the planting of fake
reviews a practice sometimes
called astroturfing, a reference
to the synthetic grass used on
sports fields.
They employ computer algorithms and teams of investigators
who scour reviews and delete suspicious entries. Often, only people who have paid for a product or
service and been verified can post
reviews.

Yelp director of business outreach Darnell Holloway said that

when suspicious reviews are
found, the company puts a consumer alert badge on a companys Yelp site for 90 days warning
consumers that reviews might be
deceptive. If the problem persists,
Yelp removes all reviews of the
company.
Most recently, Yelp deleted
all reviews of a business called
Movers Alliance after if found the
company was pressuring customers to write positive reviews.
TripAdvisor says it has a team
of 300 people using fraud detection techniques to weed out fakes.
In the first half of 2015 alone
we took action against 29 different optimization companies
around the world to put a stop to
their activity, said spokesman
Kevin Carter.
But in general, experts say,
fraudulent reviews arent going
away anytime soon. Gartner estimates that 10 to 15 percent of all
online reviews are fake.
Legal recourse has been scarce.
In 2013, the New York attorney
generals office said it had settled cases with 19 companies and
secured $350,000 in penalties for
fake reviews.
In April, Amazon sued several
websites that offered to produce
positive reviews. Now its targeting the actual writers of the
reviews in this case, those who
have accounts at Fiverr.com, a site
for freelancers looking for work.
Amazon is suing for unspecified damages and an order forcing the users to stop writing fake
reviews. The Seattle company
said the offenders are liable for
breach of contract for violating
Amazons terms of service.

WASHINGTON Chinese hacking attempts on

American corporate intellectual property have
occurred with regularity over the past three weeks,
suggesting that China almost immediately began
violating its newly minted cyberagreement with
the United States, according to a newly published
analysis by a cybersecurity company with close ties
to the U.S. government.
The Irvine, Calif.-based company, CrowdStrike,
says it documented seven Chinese cyberattacks
against U.S. technology and pharmaceuticals companies where the primary benefit of the intrusions
seems clearly aligned to facilitate theft of intellectual property and trade secrets, rather than to conduct traditional national security-related intelligence
collection.
Weve seen no change in behavior, said Dmitri
Alperovich, a founder of CrowdStrike who wrote
one of the first public accounts of commercial
cyberespionage linked to China in 2011.
One attack came on Sept. 26, CrowdStrike says,
the day after President Barack Obama and Chinese
President Xi Jinping announced their deal in the
White House Rose Garden. CrowdStrike, which
employs former FBI and National Security Agency
cyberexperts, did not name the corporate victims,
citing client confidentiality. And the company says
it detected and thwarted the attacks before any
corporate secrets were stolen.
A senior Obama administration official, speaking
on condition of anonymity because he was not
allowed to discuss the matter publicly, said officials
are aware of the report but would not comment on
its conclusions. The official did not dispute them,
however.
The U.S. will continue to directly raise concerns
regarding cybersecurity with the Chinese, monitor the countrys cyberactivities closely and press
China to abide by all of its commitments, the official
added.
The U.S.-China agreement forged last month
does not prohibit cyberspying for national security
purposes, but it bans economic espionage designed
to steal trade secrets for the benefit of competitors.

TECH BYTES
BANK OFFERS APPLE WATCH APP
Quail Creek Bank isoffering services via an Apple
Watch application, called LINQ. With theapp, customers can review transactions and account balances with a quick glance. Another feature of LINQ
is a new mobile app that allows customers to make
check deposits, transfer money person-to-person
and pay bills on-the-go.
Community banks must improve their customers mobile banking experience to remain competitive with national banks, said Duggan Roberts, vice
president of Quail Creek Bank and developer of the
new apps. Quail Creek Bank has embraced new
digital technology to enhance customer service by
launching LINQ. And, were proud to lead the way as
the first community bank in Oklahoma to offer an
Apple Watch App.
Other new features include Apple Pay and an
updated website that is responsive to mobile and
tablet devices and more secure with a new website
domain, https://quailcreek.bank.

AT&T TO HIRE 190 WORKERS IN STATE

AT&T said Monday that the company will hire
workers for about 190 jobs in Oklahoma. The positions are primarily technicians and retail support
jobs and are a result of AT&Ts continued investment in Oklahoma, the company said.
AT&T continues to expand its customer base in
Oklahoma and invest in our network to ensure we
are providing the high level of service customers
have come to expect, said Steve Hahn, president
of AT&T Oklahoma. As part of our commitment
to this level of customer service and to support our
growth in Oklahoma we are pleased to welcome
some new Oklahoma faces to the AT&T family.
More information on AT&T jobs openings can be
found at connect.att.jobs. Technician applicants are
encouraged to attend AT&Ts hiring event set for 9
a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Doubletree hotel at
616 W 7 in Tulsa.
FROM STAFF REPORTS

Bioscience conference a place to highlight successes, opportunities

When i2E was asked
to manage the Oklahoma
BioScience Association
(OKBio) a couple of years
ago, we welcomed the
opportunity.
The promise of Oklahomas bioscience sector is
deep and wide. The economic impact statewide
of bioscience exceeds $6.7
billion, supporting 51,000
Oklahoma jobs and annual
revenues from Oklahoma
bio companies of more
than $4.1 billion.
The research, testing
and medical laboratories
in Oklahoma cut a broad
swath that stretches from
the Samuel Roberts Nobel
Foundation in Ardmore
on through the Oklahoma
Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City,
to OSU in Stillwater, Tulsa
University, and beyond.
Our roster of young
pharmaceutical and thera-

DID YOU KNOW?

Scott
Meacham
INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURS

peutic companies includes

Moleculera, with a
breakthrough technology
for diagnosing Pandas/
PANs, a treatable neurological disease. Biolytx is
approaching clinical trials
for its therapeutic antibiotic to treat antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
Arthrokinex offers a
new nonsurgical injection
therapy for osteoarthritis.
DormaTarg is developing
therapeutics for cancer;
and Synereca is close to
clinical trials for a new
compound which will
enhance the effectiveness
of antibiotics currently on

i2E invested more than $2.1 million in six Oklahoma

bioscience companies in 2014, and $10 million over
the past 15 years.

the market.
i2Es investment capital and venture advisory
services have proven to
be a critical and adaptable match for bio sector
opportunities.

Costly startups
But however we tackle
the challenges, bioscience
companies by their very
nature will require many
more years and considerably more capital than
startups in any other
industry.
Investments must be
specifically structured to
accommodate initial and
follow-on $5 million to $10
million rounds over the

long runway (seven to 10

years) that stretches from
preclinical trials to FDA
approval.
From a capital standpoint, while weve been
successful at syndicating
with other investors to
provide some early stage
funding for preclinical trials on a number of biotech
deals, Oklahoma startups
in this sector benefit from
greater and more direct
access to biotech-specific
funds. Those funds, along
with strategic partners
who may also be interested as investors, are
commonly from outside
Oklahoma.
Thats why i2E, OKBio,

and others continue to

support such a strong
state presence and investment in BIO International
the worlds convention
for biotech. This year, for
example, we hosted 172
partnering meetings at our
state pavilion and a reception attended by more
than 400 industry leaders
from around the globe.

Spreading the word

BIO International is the
way to make sure the world
knows about Oklahomas
BIO scene. OKBio is the
statewide bio organization
that provides Oklahomas
bio community access to
the opportunities offered
by BIO International.
We hold several events
each year to highlight the
importance of the bio sector to Oklahomas economy. OKBio BrewFest is an
annual fall event to shine a

spotlight on bio in Oklahoma and provide support

for OKBio, which among
other things provides BIO
International scholarships
to Oklahomans every year.
BrewFest, from 5 to 7
p.m. Nov. 5, features samples from 23 of Oklahomas best craft beer, wine
and spirits producers.
Learn more at www.i2E.
org.
BrewFest is a fun way to
show support for a growing and vital bioscience
community, as well as to
learn about great Oklahoma libations, which are
a kind of bioscience, too.
Scott Meacham is president and CEO
of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation
that mentors many of the states
technology-based startup companies.
i2E receives state appropriations
from the Oklahoma Center for
the Advancement of Science and
Technology. Contact Meacham at
i2E_Comments@i2E.org.