Verizon to publish data requests

20 December 2013 Last updated at 06:47 ET

US mobile operator Verizon says it will reveal the number of requests for customer information it received from law enforcement agencies this year.

The move follows leaks about mass surveillance programmes run by the National Security Agency from fugitive ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Shareholders asked Verizon to disclose its dealings with the NSA last month.

The company says it will publish total requests received in criminal cases, as well as details on other legal demands.

This will include court orders, subpoenas and warrants.

Continue reading the main story

The aim of our transparency report is to keep our customers informed about government requests for their data and how we respond to those requests"

End Quote Randal Milch Verizon

'Transparency'

But Verizon, the second-largest US telephone company by revenue, says it is still working with the US government to establish the amount of information it can legally reveal about the number of national security letters it received. The letters are legal orders allowing the government to demand financial and phone records without prior court approval.

The report will also not publish "information about other national security requests received by the company".

"The aim of our transparency report is to keep our customers informed about government requests for their data and how we respond to those requests," Randal Milch, executive vice-president of public policy at Verizon, said in a statement.

"Verizon calls on governments around the world to provide more information on the types and amounts of data they collect and the legal processes that apply when they do so."

Much of the information it plans to reveal is already on available on an ad hoc basis, but the report - to be published in early 2014 and updated twice a year - aims to make it more consistently available, Mr Milch said.

More freedom

Several major internet companies, including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Yahoo, already publish periodic reports disclosing the number of requests from federal agencies and police departments for personal data.

They have called for more freedom to disclose information on national security-related requests. Eight firms formed an alliance called Reform Government Surveillance earlier this month.

Verizon says its report will detail requests "to the extent permitted by applicable US and foreign laws and regulations".

Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Facebook have all confirmed they have complied with orders to hand over data relating to "national security matters" to the US authorities.

However, they have been forbidden from saying exactly how many requests they received or details about their scope.

A White House panel has recommended significant curbs on the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance programme following a ruling from a federal judge finding it unconstitutional.

Mr Snowden, an ex-US contractor granted temporary asylum in Russia, leaked documents to the media highlighting the various methods used by agencies to gather information.

The leaks have pointed to agencies collecting phone records, tapping fibre-optic cables that carry global communications and hacking networks.

That has lead to concern among users over how much customer information companies have been sharing with authorities.

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Artificial worm starts to wriggle

20 December 2013 Last updated at 09:49 ET

A project to create artificial life has hit a key milestone - the simulated creature can now wriggle.

The Open Worm project aims to build a lifelike copy of a nematode roundworm entirely out of computer code.

This week the creature's creators added code that gets the virtual worm wriggling like the real thing.

The next step is to hook the body up to a simulation of the worm's brain to help understand more about how and why it moves.

Swim speed

The Open Worm project started in May 2013 and is slowly working towards creating a virtual copy of the Caenorhabditis elegans nematode. This worm is one of the most widely studied creatures on Earth and was the first multicelled organism to have its entire genome mapped.

The simulated worm slowly being built out of code aims to replicate C. elegans in exquisite detail with each of its 1,000 cells being modelled on computer.

Early work on the worm involved making a few muscle segments twitch but now the team has a complete worm to work with. The code governing how the creature's muscles move has been refined so its swaying motion and speed matches that of its real life counterpart. The tiny C. elegans manages to move around in water at a rate of about 1mm per second.

"Its movement closely resembles published literature on how C. elegans swims," project leader John Hurliman told the New World Notes blog.

The immediate next step for the project is to plug in the system used to model how nerve fibres in the worm fire to get muscle segments twitching and propelling the whole creature forward.

Soon the Open Worm creators hope to make a virtual version of C. elegans available online so people can interact with it via a web browser.

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Target card heist hits 40 million

19 December 2013 Last updated at 15:17 ET

Payment details from up to 40 million credit cards could have been stolen after they were used in the stores of US retail giant Target.

The retailer said it was investigating after discovering that thieves had gained access to its payment systems.

The data breach began around 29 November, known as Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

The attackers are believed to have been scooping up credit card details for almost three weeks.

"We take this matter very seriously and are working with law enforcement to bring those responsible to justice," said Target boss Gregg Steinhafel in a statement.

In addition, he said, the company was working with a data forensics firm to work out how the theft occurred.

Data-stealing code

Target said the thieves had taken credit card numbers, names, expiration dates and security codes for the cards.

It urged people who shopped at its stores in the vulnerable period to check credit card records and query unusual activity.

"We regret any inconvenience this may cause," said Mr Steinhafel.

Security researcher Brian Krebs, writing about the breach, said sources at credit card payment processing firms had told him the thieves had installed data-stealing code on to card-swipe machines at tills in all 1,797 Target stores.

It is not yet clear how the attackers managed to get their malicious program on to point-of-sale equipment in the stores.

The thieves stole data between Thanksgiving and 15 December, said Target.

The US Secret Service, which has official responsibility for investigating financial fraud, told Reuters it was looking into the breach.

The largest ever credit card breach at a US retailer took place in 2007 when cyber-thieves managed to steal information related to almost 46 million credit and debit cards from TJ Maxx and Marshalls.

The thieves amassed the huge cache of data over an 18 month period after penetrating the retailers' computer network.

I am a British ex-pat living in the US. My wife and I regularly shop at Target and typically use a credit card as payment - whether online or in the store. My wife also has a store credit card through Target. This news is very disconcerting as I know we have shopped at Target at least a couple of times during the reported period. Our credit company (American Express) has been very good at identifying anomalies in the past and dealing with fraudulent transactions, so between us and the company checking activity on the cards I am hopeful we will not be caught out. Russell Hitchen, St Petersburg, Florida

It's becoming apparent that the system of handing a card with personal and financial details to a store clerk is outdated as it seems the criminals have more technological savvy than those who are supposed to protect us from this kind of fraud. We shop at Target all the time but in the future we will pay cash until the problem is resolved. If ever... Peter O'Brien, Monroe, New Jersey

Target is my go to store for everything. So concerned after reading this news piece. Have to go though my credit card statement to make sure I see don't see any anomalies. Fariha, Fremont, California

I did shop at Target during that time and this just isn't that surprising to me. Isn't that sad? I have already had my credit card number stolen twice this year, despite being careful. I've begun monitoring my credit card transactions on a daily basis because this has just become so common. Amy Kolinko, Dublin, Ohio

Interestingly enough, I work for a credit card processing company. I also happened to shop at Target over the course of Black Friday. My thoughts, as we move into a world where electronic payment methods are becoming more widely used, we must take a step back and evaluate why they are so convenient in the fist place. This convenience is obviously coming at a cost, and that cost is our privacy. This goes into the broader discussion of how the web has been used and is currently used to illicit intimate details of individuals. Getting back to the matter at hand, Target should have definitely invested more money in its security infrastructure, but at what point is security considered to be adequate? Will the 'hackers' always be one step ahead? Time can only tell, but my guess, this is an ongoing threat that will never truly be resolved completely. Omar Khalid, Astoria

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Crowd-funded Lego car powered by air

19 December 2013 Last updated at 11:06 ET By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

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A car made from Lego blocks and powered by compressed air

An air-powered car built of Lego, that can reach a top speed of around 20km/h (12mph) has hit the roads of Melbourne.

It was built by an Australian entrepreneur and a Romanian technologist who used more than 500,000 pieces of Lego to complete the car.

The crowd-funded project began with a tweet asking people to invest in an "awesome" start-up.

Four air-powered engines and 256 pistons, all built of Lego bricks, enable the car to move.

Everything bar the wheels is made from Lego.

Co-founder Steve Sammartino told the BBC that he was "neither a car enthusiast nor a Lego enthusiast".

"What I am is a technology enthusiast and I wanted to show what is possible when you crowd-fund an idea and use young talented people," he said.

"I met this crazy Romanian teenager on the web and we came up with the idea but I knew that I couldn't afford to fund it," he added.

So he sent out a late-night tweet which read: "Anyone interested in investing $500 - $1,000 in a project which is awesome and a world first tweet me. Need about 20 participants."

Forty Australians offered cash and the Super Awesome Micro project, as it is dubbed, was born.

It took 18 months and a lot more money to build, said Mr Sammartino.

Continue reading the main story

Using Stickle Bricks in the crumple zones would have made for much better crash performance"

End Quote Matt Saunders Deputy road test editor

The car was constructed in Romania by him and his business partner Raul Oaida and then shipped to Australia where large parts of it needed to be rebuilt.

"We drove it in a suburb of Melbourne. The engine is fragile and the biggest fear was a giant Lego explosion impaling passers-by," Mr Sammartino told the BBC.

For the time being he has no plans on expanding the fleet.

"I've been up to my neck in Lego for four weeks and my fingers are still sore so I'm not keen on building another one just at the moment," he told the BBC.

"This can't have been an easy thing to make, let alone to make move. The engine in particular must have required some innovative thinking," said Matt Saunders, deputy road test editor of Autocar magazine.

"It doesn't look too comfortable though, and I wouldn't want to drive it very far. Or into anything by accident. Using Stickle Bricks in the crumple zones would have made for much better crash performance," he added.

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Microsoft boss gives cow via Reddit

19 December 2013 Last updated at 12:49 ET

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has donated a cow as part of Reddit's Secret Santa gift exchange programme.

He bought the $500 (£305) cow from charity Heifer International on behalf of a Reddit user known as NY1227 with whom he had been paired.

In a note accompanying the gift, Mr Gates said the cow would be given to a family in need.

In addition, Mr Gates donated an unnamed amount of cash to Heifer International to help its work.

Mr Gates' participation in the gift-swapping scheme came to light via the reports that many members of Reddit write about their experience with the programme. In 2012, more than 44,000 people took part in Reddit's Secret Santa programme.

Redditor NY1227 wrote about opening her gift package and her gradual realisation that it had been sent by the Microsoft co-founder. A note and a picture in the package confirmed that the gift came from Mr Gates.

As well as the donated cow and cash for the charity, Mr Gates included a stuffed toy cow and a National Geographic travel book in the package for NY1227. In the write-up about her gift, NY1227 thanked Mr Gates for his generosity and for matching it so well with her interests and the items she had put on her Secret Santa wish list.

All participants in the gift-swapping programme write a list of items they would like to receive as gifts.

However, NY1227 did feel moved to apologise for one item on her list that Mr Gates did not provide.

"Sorry for the apple ipad on my wishlist," she wrote, "that was really awkward."

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Ex-Microsoft manager faces charges

20 December 2013 Last updated at 04:13 ET

Former Microsoft manager Brian Jorgenson, and his friend Sean Stokke, have been charged with insider trading by the US securities regulator.

The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Mr Jorgenson, 32, tipped off Mr Stokke, 28, about Microsoft news before it was made public.

Mr Stokke traded on the information and the two shared in the profits, the regulator said.

It said they made $393,125 (£240,000) in profits over 18 months.

According to SEC documents filed in Seattle, the two men have admitted that "they knew it was illegal for them to trade on the basis of material non-public information".

Jenny Durkan, a US attorney, added in a statement: "For every stock market winner, there is a loser, and trading on confidential inside information is a cheater's way of gaining at the expense of others."

Continue reading the main story

They knew that Microsoft's earnings were going to fall well short of analysts' consensus estimates and bought Microsoft options"

End Quote US Securities and Exchnage Commission

The commission said the two traded shares based on insider information between April 2012 and October this year.

It said the first trade was carried out ahead of Microsoft's announcement in April 2012 that it would invest $300m in Barnes & Noble's e-reader and digital media business.

The regulator alleged that the pair purchased Barnes & Noble call options ahead of the announcement, "which they sold for almost $185,000 in illicit profits".

'Conceal their fraud'

In July this year, they traded in advance of Microsoft's fourth-quarter earnings.

"They knew that Microsoft's earnings were going to fall well short of analysts' consensus estimates and bought Microsoft options," the regulator said, adding that they made profits of over $195,000 when they sold the options.

They also traded ahead of the Microsoft's first-quarter earnings in October this year, which the commission said they knew "would exceed analysts' consensus estimates".

"This time, in an effort to conceal their fraud, instead of trading directly in Microsoft options, they traded in options of the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund, which held Microsoft common stock," it alleged.

They made almost $13,000 in profits from the trade.

According to the Associated Press news agency, Mr Jorgenson's attorney, Angelo Calfo said his client accepted he "made a really bad decision, and he's prepared to take his medicine".

Microsoft said it had "zero tolerance for insider trading. We helped the government with its investigation and terminated the employee".

Mr Stokke had previously worked with Mr Jorgenson at an asset management company.

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Google hit by Spanish privacy fine

20 December 2013 Last updated at 06:04 ET

Google has been fined 900,000 euros (£751,000) for breaking Spanish data protection laws.

The fine is the maximum it is possible to levy on a firm that has broken the nation's privacy laws.

It was imposed after Google changed its privacy policy and started combining personal information across its online services.

Google said it had co-operated with the Spanish inquiry and would act once it had seen the agency's full report.

Biggest fine

Google changed its privacy policy in March 2012 and began the process of combining the data that people surrendered when they used its many services.

The change led many European data protection authorities to look into Google's privacy policy. The investigation carried out by Spain's privacy watchdog has now led to it imposing a fine - the maximum possible under Spanish law.

Google collected information across almost 100 services, said the Spanish data protection agency, but had not obtained the consent of people to gather information nor done enough to explain what would be done with the data.

The "highly ambiguous" language Google employed on its privacy policy pages made it hard for people to find out what would happen to their data, said the agency in a statement. Google also kept data for too long and made it far too hard for people to delete data or manage the information they surrendered.

The 900,000 euro fine is made up of three separate penalties of 300,000 euros each for breaking different parts of Spanish privacy laws.

Google said it had worked closely with the Spanish data agency during its investigation and said it would await publication of the full report before taking any action.

The search giant could also face further action from other European data protection bodies. In late November, the Netherlands data protection authority said Google's 2012 policy change also broke its laws. France is also believed to be contemplating levying a fine over Google's data handling policies.

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Blackberry agrees Foxconn tie-up

20 December 2013 Last updated at 09:50 ET

Struggling smartphone maker Blackberry has agreed a five-year deal with Foxconn, the big Taiwan-based maker of electronic products and components.

The two companies will initially work on the development of a new smartphone.

Blackberry also announced on Friday a third-quarter loss of $4.4bn (£2.7bn), including a big write-down of assets.

The firm once dominated the smartphone market, but has seen its fortunes fall in recent years and last month abandoned an attempt to find a buyer.

Blackberry recently appointed an interim chief executive, John Chen, following the collapse of a planned sale to its biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings.

"It's an absolutely essential deal for Blackberry," Ben Wood, mobile analyst at research firm CCS Insight, told the BBC.

"Foxconn gives them the scale they need to be competitive, particularly in the Far Eastern markets, such as Indonesia - Blackberry's biggest market."

'Determination'

Blackberry has been hit by the success and popularity of smartphones launched by rivals such as Apple and Samsung. Its attempts to boost its market share have not yielded the desired results.

"This partnership demonstrates BlackBerry's commitment to the device market for the long-term and our determination to remain the innovation leader in secure end-to-end mobile solutions," said Mr Chen.

"Partnering with Foxconn allows BlackBerry to focus on what we do best - iconic design, world-class security, software development and enterprise mobility management - while simultaneously addressing fast-growing markets leveraging Foxconn's scale and efficiency that will allow us to compete more effectively."

Foxconn is the world's largest manufacturer of electronic products and components, and already has extensive links with Apple as the maker of the iPad and iPhone.

Meanwhile, Blackberry's quarterly results continue to underline the company's struggle to regain financial stability. Excluding the one-time items and writedowns, the loss was $354m.

Revenue fell to $1.19bn from $2.73bn as increased uncertainty about the company's fate led to further sales erosion.

A new line of devices that run on BlackBerry 10 software has failed to win back market share.

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'Angry' singer 'H' in Google row

20 December 2013 Last updated at 10:42 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Lawyers for Steps singer Ian "H" Watkins have approached Google after his image appeared next to stories about convicted paedophile Ian Watkins.

The "furious" singer's management said lawyers were "taking immediate steps to urgently rectify the position".

He was said to be "astonished" that his photo was still being linked to "the appalling crimes of the Lostprophets singer".

Google said it was looking into "layout" issues with its pages.

Mr Watkins won a court apology earlier this week after website E! Online used his picture on a story about the abuse case.

Unlike typical news websites, Google News is not managed by a human editor, instead using complex algorithms to determine the importance and relevance of stories posted on news websites around the world.

Google's algorithm appeared to be unable to differentiate between the two cases, taking a picture - from a BBC News article about the E! apology - and pairing it with a separate article by CBS News about the abuse.

A Google spokesman added: "For some specific searches Ian H Watkins' picture is appearing in our results because he is relevant to the story, having received a court apology.

Continue reading the main story

We are looking into the issue he raises"

End Quote Google spokesman

"We are looking into the issue he raises."

'Angry and upset'

"A publisher's intention is irrelevant to the question of liability for defamation," said Emma Woollcott, media lawyer at Mishcon de Reya.

"What matters is what the ordinary person would understand by what they read.

"If electronic algorithms connect two pieces of information and defamatory inferences arise, there may be potential for liability, even if the connection is inadvertent."

US-based CBS News, which incorrectly received criticism from several users on Twitter because of the mix-up, said it had never had an image of "H" in its system - and was therefore confident it had not made an error.

After being alerted to the problem by one of his fans, Ian 'H' Watkins tweeted angrily about the issue on Thursday, saying: "I can't actually tell you how angry and upset I am right now.... ;0("

He shared a screenshot showing the results of a search for "ian watkins cbs news".

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Murdoch buys Irish social media firm

20 December 2013 Last updated at 12:32 ET

Rupert Murdoch's media company NewsCorp has bought Storyful, an Irish "social media news agency".

The Dublin-based firm has been acquired for $25 million (£15.3m).

Storyful specialises in licensing and distributing social media content to major news organisations such as the Wall Street Journal and BBC.

"We believe that journalism in the age of social media needs to be open, innovative and collaborative," Storyful founder Mark Little said.

Mr Little set up the company in 2010. He had previously been a presenter on Irish TV network RTE.

Storyful's business is in verifying online video authenticity, and also licenses usage rights to broadcasters for popular viral video.

The company will remain at its current location in Dublin, and will act as a standalone company.

Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp, added: "Storyful has become the village square for valuable video, using journalistic sensibility, integrity and creativity to find, authenticate and commercialise user-generated content."

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YouTube culls hundreds of game clips

12 December 2013 Last updated at 09:16 ET

Major games publishers have offered their support to fans who have had gameplay clips removed from YouTube due to "illegitimate" copyright claims.

Changes in the way Google-owned YouTube scans videos had caused a spike in clips being taken down.

But Capcom, Blizzard and Ubisoft all said they wanted footage of their games to remain online.

Gameplay videos are extremely popular on YouTube, with some channels having millions of subscribers.

The clips, which sometimes are more than an hour long, typically show an adept gamer playing portions of popular titles.

Technically, uploading footage is a breach of copyright. However, many publishers see the clips as a useful and effective means of promotion for their games. The creators of the videos sometimes use advertising to make money from their efforts.

Due to the sheer volume of clips uploaded, Google uses a system known as Content ID to seek out videos that contain copyrighted material.

"We recently enabled Content ID scanning on channels identified as affiliates of MCNs [Multi Channel Networks]," YouTube said.

"This has resulted in new copyright claims for some users, based on policies set by the relevant content owners."

The move has meant hundreds of gaming videos have been flagged in the past few days.

'Illegitimate flags'

But publishers worried about a potential backlash from vocal fans moved quickly to make it clear they had not been behind the spike in take-downs.

"If you're a YouTuber and are receiving content matches with the new changes, please be sure to contest them so we can quickly approve them," tweeted Blizzard, publisher of the Diablo series.

Capcom wrote: "YouTubers: Pls let us know if you've had videos flagged today. These may be illegitimate flags not instigated by us. We are investigating."

Ubisoft pointed out to users that take-down requests may be due to the music used in the clips, rather than the game footage.

"If you happen to be hit with claims on any of your Ubisoft content, it may be that some of the audio is being auto-matched against the music catalogue on our digital stores," the company explained in a statement.

Another developer, Deep Silver, also said it had not called for removal of footage.

Gameplay videos, and the legality of making them, has become an increasingly controversial issue between gamers and rights holders.

Earlier this year, Nintendo announced it would take a share of advertising revenue generated from gameplay clips - a decision described as "backwards" by some of the company's fans.

The company defended the move, saying it was necessary to ensure content could be shared across social media, and that the alternative was to block it altogether.

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Copycat ransomware racks up victims

13 December 2013 Last updated at 08:02 ET

Malicious programs that demand a ransom to restore files that they have encrypted are starting to proliferate.

Security company IntelCrawler has discovered malware called Locker that demands $150 (£92) to restore files.

The cyber-thieves behind Locker were trying to emulate the success of CryptoLocker that has racked up thousands of victims this year.

However, IntelCrawler said, flaws in the malicious program suggest it might be easier to defeat than CryptoLocker.

IntelCrawler said it first saw "large-scale distribution" of several different versions of Locker early this month. So far, the malware has managed to snare people across the US, Europe and Russia. It is spread via infected files placed on compromised websites and through booby-trapped files disguised as MP3s.

Unscramble

Analysis by Andrey Komarov, of IntelCrawler, shows that when Locker infects a machine, it deletes files leaving only encrypted copies behind and also drops a small file containing a unique ID number and contact details for Locker's creators.

The file also warns that no key will be given to any victim who harasses or threatens the malware's creators.

Those who want to get their data back are encouraged to use the contact details and, once the ransom is paid, each victim gets a key to unscramble files.

However, help could be at hand for anyone hit by Locker, said Mr Komarov, as IntelCrawler had managed to penetrate the network the cyber-thieves were using to monitor victims. This helped the company extract the universal keys used to scramble target files.

"Our researchers are working on the universal decryption software in order to help the victims," said Mr Komarov.

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Bitcoin start-up raises $25m funding

12 December 2013 Last updated at 22:54 ET

Coinbase, a start-up that lets people trade Bitcoins, has raised $25m (£15m) in venture capital funding - the largest by a Bitcoin start-up.

Bitcoin, a virtual currency, has been attracting a lot of interest and its value surpassed $1,000 recently.

Backers of the currency, which is not controlled by regulators, have been pushing for its increased usage.

Coinbase said it will use the funding to "educate the market, and promote the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin".

"We are nearing a tipping point for broad adoption of Bitcoin - what we at Coinbase believe to be one of the most important shifts in the global economy in our lifetime," the firm said in a blogpost.

Mixed response

Confidence in Bitcoins has grown after a US Senate committee described it as a "legitimate financial service" at a meeting in October.

However, on Friday, the European Banking Authority (EBA) warned about the potential risks of using Bitcoins.

Continue reading the main story

Bitcoin is often referred to as a new kind of currency.

But it may be best to think of its units being virtual tokens rather than physical coins or notes.

However, like all currencies its value is determined by how much people are willing to exchange it for.

To process Bitcoin transactions, a procedure called "mining" must take place, which involves a computer solving a difficult mathematical problem with a 64-digit solution.

For each problem solved, one block of bitcoins is processed. In addition the miner is rewarded with new bitcoins.

This provides an incentive for people to provide computer processing power to solve the problems.

To compensate for the growing power of computer chips, the difficulty of the puzzles is adjusted to ensure a steady stream of about 3,600 new bitcoins a day.

There are currently about 11 million bitcoins in existence.

To receive a bitcoin a user must have a Bitcoin address - a string of 27-34 letters and numbers - which acts as a kind of virtual postbox to and from which the bitcoins are sent.

Since there is no registry of these addresses, people can use them to protect their anonymity when making a transaction.

These addresses are in turn stored in Bitcoin wallets which are used to manage savings.

They operate like privately run bank accounts - with the proviso that if the data is lost, so are the bitcoins owned.

"In particular, consumers should be aware that exchange platforms tend to be unregulated and are not banks that hold their virtual currency as a deposit," the EBA said.

"Currently, no specific regulatory protections exist in the European Union that would protect consumers from financial losses if a platform that exchanges or holds virtual currencies fails or goes out of business."

China, the world's second largest economy, has also banned its banks from handling Bitcoin transactions, saying they had no legal status and should not be used as a currency.

At the same time, there have been concerns that the rise in Bitcoin's value has been triggered by speculators looking to cash in on its popularity.

Alan Greenspan, former US Federal Reserve chairman, has called the rapid rise a "bubble".

'Easier for consumers'

Despite these concerns, some establishments across the globe have started to accept Bitcoins as a form of payment, just like cash or credit cards.

Coinbase said the number of people who use its Bitcoin wallet had doubled to more than 600,000 in the past two months and almost 10,000 new people were signing up every day.

It said it was also working with 16,000 merchants to provide Bitcoin payments.

"We are making it easier for consumers to buy, merchants to sell, and developers to build," the firm said.

Chris Dixon, of venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz - which led the Coinbase funding, said in a blogpost that the Bitcoin platform could be used to develop new technologies.

He said the potential applications of Bitcoins include "machine-to-machine payments to reduce spam" and offering "low-cost financial services to people who, because of financial or political constraints, don't have them today".

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Bots 'take up 61% of web traffic'

12 December 2013 Last updated at 08:42 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

If you are visiting this page the chances are that you are not a human, at least according to research.

A study by Incapsula suggests 61.5% of all website traffic is now generated by bots. The security firm said that was a 21% rise on last year's figure of 51%.

Some of these automated software tools are malicious - stealing data or posting ads for scams in comment sections.

But the firm said the biggest growth in traffic was for "good" bots.

These are tools used by search engines to crawl websites in order to index their content, by analytics companies to provide feedback about how a site is performing, and by others to carry out other specific tasks - such as helping the Internet Archive preserve content before it is deleted.

Fuzzy data

To generate its report, Incapsula said it observed 1.45 billion bot visits over a 90 day period.

The information was sourced from 20,000 sites operated by its clients.

Dr Ian Brown, associate director at Oxford University's Cyber Security Centre - which was not involved in the study - said the figures were useful as an indication of the growth in non-human traffic, even if they were not accurate to the nearest decimal place.

"Their own customers may or may not be representative of the wider web," he told the BBC.

"There will also be some unavoidable fuzziness in their data, given that they are trying to measure malicious website visits where by definition the visitors are trying to disguise their origin."

Impersonator bots

Despite the overall growth in bot activity, the firm said that many of the traditional malicious uses of the tools had become less common.

It said there had been a 75% drop in the frequency spam links were being automatically posted. It suggested this was in part down to Google's efforts to make it harder to carry out the practice.

It also said it had seen a 10% drop in hacking tool bot activities, including the use of code to distribute malware, to steal credit cards and to hijack and deface websites

However, it noted that there had been an 8% rise in the use of "other impersonator bots" - a classification including software that masquerades as being from a search engine or other legitimate agent in order to fool security measures.

It said these bots tended to be custom-made to carry out a specific activity, such as a DDoS attack - forcing a server to crash taking a website or service offline by flooding it with traffic - or to steal company secrets.

Activity by "good bots", it added, had grown by 55% over the year. It suggested this might be because the legitimate services were sampling the net more frequently. This might, for example, allow a search engine to add breaking news stories to its results more quickly.

Dr Brown noted that these extra visits were likely to put website operators under more strain, meaning they would have to buy more computer servers to handle the extra traffic. But he played down the risk.

"While the trend will increase the costs of website operators, I think that, at this scale, it's something they can cope with," he added.

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Instagram adds direct messaging

12 December 2013 Last updated at 11:55 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Photo and video sharing app Instagram has added direct messaging to its service in a nod to the success of rivals such as Whatsapp and Snapchat.

Instagram Direct lets users send a picture or video to up to 15 people, without it appearing to the public.

Only someone a user "follows" on the service could send them a direct image, founder Kevin Systrom explained.

He dismissed suggestions that the app may soon add a Snapchat-style "disappearing" photograph option.

But the new Instagram features do borrow various popular aspects from its rival:

• images and video can be sent to individuals or a group
• the sender is notified when the content has been viewed
• small amounts of text can accompany the message

Only images and video from people a user already followed on Instagram would be automatically shown, Mr Systrom said, but other users could send content that would appear only when the recipient agreed to view them.

Continue reading the main story

More recent successes in the social networking space have been around private interaction"

End Quote Jack Kent Analyst

He added that Instagram would not monitor messages for explicit or offensive content - but that the usual reporting methods would apply to private messages as well as those shared publicly.

Mr Systrom did not elaborate on whether the feature would be used to deliver advertising directly to user's private inboxes.

IHS mobile analyst Jack Kent told the BBC that making money from the feature would be a secondary concern to Instagram - which is owned by Facebook - at this stage.

"When you look at Facebook's wider strategy with new services and features, the first goal isn't necessarily monetisation," he said.

"It's building on maintaining scale. With these new features, it's about maintaining and growing the audience."

Messenger threat

Instagram was bought last year by Facebook for $1bn (£629m), at a time when it shared only photographs, often with "artistic" filters applied.

Gradually, the app has grown - the most significant addition being the option to share 15-second video clips, emulating Twitter's short video service, Vine.

It has also added advertising into users' feeds.

But it is instant messaging that has Instagram and Facebook looking over their respective shoulders.

According to reports, one of the most popular apps, Whatsapp, has grown to boast 350 million active users worldwide - compared with Instagram's 150 million.

Other competitors, such as Viber and Kik, have also gained rapid popularity. Snapchat, an app in which messages "self destruct" after 15 seconds or less, reportedly turned down a $3bn takeover offer from Facebook.

Furthermore, some studies have suggested that teenagers are moving away from Facebook, frustrated that a social network that was once dominated by their peers now attracts their parents.

Mr Kent said Thursday's Instagram announcement was all about maintaining and growing an audience by incorporating features users are have started to use elsewhere.

"Instagram so far has been built on public profiles," he said. "But more recent successes in the social networking space have been around private interaction."

Twitter, which has had direct messaging since its inception, recently expanded its offering to allow the private sending of images and other media.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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German 'porn users' told to pay up

12 December 2013 Last updated at 13:36 ET

Thousands of Germans are reported to have been sent letters asking them to pay a fee for porn they are alleged to have streamed illegally online.

Law firm Urmann (U+C) is acting on behalf of Swiss copyright protection firm the Archive, and is asking for one-off payments of 250 euros (£210).

It confirmed to the BBC that the letters have been sent but would not say how many.

A growing number of affected people are claiming to be wrongly accused.

According to a German news site, more than 10,000 people are affected.

The German case is one of the first to target people accused of streaming rather than downloading pornography.

In this case U+C is targeting users who, they claim, have viewed content from porn-streaming site Redtube.

The law firm was unwilling to speak about its work to the BBC. Neither was the Archive available for comment.

In a twist, its campaign appears to have been taken up by cybercriminals who are sending out fake emails purporting to come from U+C but containing malicious software.

It led the law firm to issue a warning on its website urging people not to open the emails.

"Fake warnings on behalf of U+C have been sent by email. This email does not come from the law firm. Warnings on behalf of our clients are shipped exclusively by mail," it said.

Real evidence

The practice of law firms pursuing alleged copyright infringers has become a growing concern in recent years.

"In previous cases like this, we've seen some people pushed into paying up when they may have done nothing wrong," said Peter Bradwell of the Open Rights Group.

"It can seem more expensive or embarrassing to challenge the accusation.

"If a company wants to write to people it claims have infringed their copyright, a court needs to at least make sure the evidence they have is of a high standard and that letters being sent are fair and easy to understand."

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Twitter scraps blocking changes

13 December 2013 Last updated at 02:34 ET

Twitter has reversed changes it made to how people block other users, less than a day after they were introduced.

The changes allowed blocked users to continue to see tweets and interact with accounts that had blocked them, leading to an outcry.

Twitter said it was reverting to old rules, under which users are not able to follow an account once blocked.

Blocking is used by people to stop trolls and rude online commentators from interacting with them.

"We have decided to revert the change after receiving feedback from many users - we never want to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe," Michael Sippey, Twitter's vice-president of product, said in a blogpost.

"Any blocks you had previously instituted are still in effect."

Continue reading the main story

Some users worry just as much about post-blocking retaliation as they do about pre-blocking abuse"

End Quote Michael Sippey Twitter

'Post-blocking retaliation'

There have been calls for Twitter to do more to counter cyberbullying following a number of high-profile cases of trolling, where users of the social networking site were bombarded with threats and abuse.

The firm recently introduced a "report Tweet" button to try to combat the problem.

Mr Sippey said that Twitter's initial decision to change the way blocking works was a further attempt to prevent abuse, by ensuring that users did not know they had been blocked by someone.

He said blocked users - and sometimes even their friends - often retaliated against the people who had blocked them, resulting in increased bullying.

"Some users worry just as much about post-blocking retaliation as they do about pre-blocking abuse," he explained.

He added that Twitter "will continue to explore features designed to protect users from abuse and prevent retaliation".

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Ex-Google lawyer made US patent boss

13 December 2013 Last updated at 06:12 ET

Google's former top patent lawyer has been put in charge of America's patent and trademark office (USPTO).

Michelle Lee was made deputy director of the USPTO this week and will run the agency while it seeks a new boss.

Currently head of the Silicon Valley office of the patent agency, Ms Lee starts her new job on 13 January.

Ms Lee joined the patent office after leaving Google in June 2012 but said the opinions of her former employer would not guide her work.

Google, like many other tech firms, has clashed with rivals over the technologies used in many of its products. In particular, Google has fought rivals in court for the right to use some innovations in its smartphones.

The agency is seeking a new head after the former director left to join a private legal practice in February and then the acting director stepped down in late November.

'Frivolous' lawsuits

One of the USPTO's priorities should be tackling its huge backlog of patents, said Ms Lee. Statistics released by the agency reveal that currently there are almost 600,000 patents awaiting assessment by its examiners.

In addition, said Ms Lee, she would work to improve the quality of patents being approved in a bid to reduce the number of "frivolous" lawsuits kicked off when firms are granted the rights to overly broad technological innovations.

Many tech firms have been embroiled in legal fights with so-called "patent trolls", who win approval for an idea and then seek large licence payments from firms they claim are using their technology without permission.

On 5 December, the US House of Representatives approved a bill known as the Innovation Act, which aims to make it harder for trolls to get their patent applications approved and forces them to supply more detailed evidence of infringements. The act must now be approved by the US Senate before it becomes law.

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Amazon founder loses Nasa protest

13 December 2013 Last updated at 06:48 ET

A space company run by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has lost a protest over Nasa's plans to lease out a launch pad.

Blue Origin protested to the US Government Accountability Office about the process Nasa uses to decide which companies can use the launch pad, either exclusively or sharing it.

The GAO rejected the protest and said Nasa had not shown a preference for one approach over another.

Blue Origin has not commented on the ruling.

Nasa is hoping to lease out Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which has not been used since the US shuttle fleet was retired in 2011. It was the launch pad from which Apollo 11 lifted off for the first manned Moon landing.

A spokesman for Nasa said: "Given today's GAO ruling, Nasa is looking forward in the near future to selecting an industry partner for negotiations to lease and operate the launch pad."

'Open to sharing'

Another company, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla Motors, is also bidding to use the facility.

SpaceX had originally wanted to use the site exclusively but later said it was open to sharing the site. Blue Origin's plans were to share the site.

Blue Origin suggested that Nasa's proposal for seeking companies to use the site preferred an option where the site was shared.

But after Nasa administrator Charles Bolden made a comment that Blue Origin said showed the agency favoured an exclusive contract instead of a shared approach, the company filed a protest.

The GAO disagreed with the protest and in its ruling said: "There currently is nothing in the record beyond the protester's arguments to show that either approach necessarily is better in terms of meeting the agency's objective of achieving the fullest commercial use of space.

"We conclude that nothing in the language of the [announcement for proposal] favours one approach over the other."

SpaceX has made no comment on the ruling.

SpaceX already launches rockets from Cape Canaveral and last year became the first company to dock a commercial craft at the International Space Station,

Blue Origin is working on a system, known as New Shepard, that the company says will allow researchers and other passengers to fly to sub-orbital space.

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'Greenest' supercomputer unveiled

13 December 2013 Last updated at 08:53 ET

A supercomputer that is the "greenest of its kind" has been built at Cambridge University.

Wilkes - named after computing pioneer Maurice Wilkes - will be used for development of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

When complete the SKA will be the biggest radio telescope ever made.

The computer's power is the equivalent of 4,000 typical desktop computers all working together, the university said.

While it is some way off being the most powerful in the world - it ranks at 166th - Wilkes was built to be efficient rather than powerful.

"Energy-efficiency is the biggest single challenge in supercomputing today and our new system makes an important step forward in this regard," said Dr Paul Calleja, director of the Cambridge High Performance Computing Service.

It has an energy efficiency of 3,361 Mega-flops per watt. In simple terms, "flops" (floating point operations per second) is a measure of how much computing a machine can handle at once.

Wilkes comes in 2nd place on the Green 500, a ranking of the most energy-efficient computers. However the leading machine, built by a team in Tokyo, requires an oil-cooling system, whereas Wilkes is cooled using air, making it the most efficient of its kind.

Maurice Wilkes was the man behind EDSAC, the first programmable computer to come into general use - it was built in 1946.

A team at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park are currently in the process of restoring EDSAC to working order.

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Warning over rare metals in gadgets

6 December 2013 Last updated at 08:24 ET

Modern technology is too reliant on rare materials whose scarcity could drastically set back innovation, a new report has warned.

It suggested that as more and more devices are manufactured, supplies of key elements, particularly metals, will be strained.

Potential substitute materials are either inadequate or non-existent, researchers said.

One scientist called the findings "an important wake-up call".

Andrea Sella, of University College London - who was unconnected to the study - told website The Conversation that it was the first time the issue had been explored in such detail.

Researchers at Yale University, led by Prof Thomas Graedel, analysed the use of 62 metals or metalloids commonly found in popular technology, such as smartphones.

Troubling

It found that none of the 62 had alternatives that performed equally well. Twelve had no alternative, Prof Graedal found.

The scope for serious disruption because of material shortages is increasingly troubling technology companies.

Rare materials are expensive to extract, and their processing comes with considerable environmental concerns.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

In April 2012, the BBC's Ian Hardy discovered the effect that mass flooding in Thailand had on the technology supply chain

Political factors also play a part: in 2010, China restricted the export of some materials, known as rare earth elements.

It said this was because of environmental issues, but some observers noted that the restrictions had two distinct effects - the price of the elements increased fivefold, and Chinese companies were simultaneously given the upper hand in using the precious materials at lower cost.

Disrupted

Natural disasters bring another unpredictable risk.

In 2011, serious flooding in Thailand disrupted global supply chains as the country is a hub for hardware manufacture.

Shortages of storage devices extended well into 2012, according to research company IHS iSuppli, with hard-drive supplies the hardest hit.

The Yale report concluded: "As wealth and population increase worldwide in the next few decades, scientists will be increasingly challenged to maintain and improve product utility by designing new and better materials, but doing so under potential constraints in resource availability."

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Microsoft disrupts ZeroAccess botnet

6 December 2013 Last updated at 01:46 ET

ZeroAccess, one of the world's largest botnets - a network of computers infected with malware to trigger online fraud - has been disrupted by Microsoft and law enforcement agencies.

ZeroAccess hijacks web search results and redirects users to potentially dangerous sites to steal their details.

It also generates fraudulent ad clicks on infected computers then claims payouts from duped advertisers.

Also called Sirefef botnet, ZeroAccess, has infected two million computers.

The botnet targets search results on Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines and is estimated to cost online advertisers $2.7m (£1.7m) per month.

Microsoft said it had been authorised by US regulators to "block incoming and outgoing communications between computers located in the US and the 18 identified Internet Protocol (IP) addresses being used to commit the fraudulent schemes".

Continue reading the main story

Due to its botnet architecture, ZeroAccess is one of the most robust and durable botnets in operation today and was built to be resilient to disruption efforts"

End Quote Microsoft

In addition, the firm has also taken control of 49 domains associated with ZeroAccess.

David Finn, executive director of Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, said the disruption "will stop victims' computers from being used for fraud and help us identify the computers that need to be cleaned of the infection".

'Most robust'

The ZeroAccess botnet relies on waves of communication between groups of infected computers, instead of being controlled by a few servers.

This allows cyber criminals to control the botnet remotely from a range of computers, making it difficult to tackle.

According to Microsoft, more than 800,000 ZeroAccess-infected computers were active on the internet on any given day as of October this year.

"Due to its botnet architecture, ZeroAccess is one of the most robust and durable botnets in operation today and was built to be resilient to disruption efforts," Microsoft said.

However, the firm said its latest action is "expected to significantly disrupt the botnet's operation, increasing the cost and risk for cyber criminals to continue doing business and preventing victims' computers from committing fraudulent schemes".

Microsoft said its Digital Crimes Unit collaborated with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) to disrupt the operations.

Earlier this year, security firm Symantec said it had disabled nearly 500,000 computers infected by ZeroAccess and taken them out of the botnet.

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NSA 'tracking' millions of mobiles

5 December 2013 Last updated at 06:34 ET

Almost five billion mobile phone location records are logged by the NSA every day, reports the Washington Post.

The data is said to help the NSA track individuals, and map who they know, to aid the agency's anti-terror work.

The "dragnet surveillance" was condemned by digital rights groups who called for the NSA's snooping efforts to be reined in.

The news comes as Microsoft plans to use more encryption to thwart NSA spying on it and its customers.

Wrong target

The huge database built up by the NSA (National Security Agency) keeps an eye on "hundreds of millions" of mobile phones, said the Post, adding that it let the agency map movements and relationships in ways that were "previously unimaginable".

It added that the vast programme potentially surpassed any other NSA project in terms of its impact on privacy. Information about the programme was in papers released to the Post by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The spying agency is said to have accumulated so much data, about 27 terabytes according to leaked papers seen by the Post, that it was "outpacing" the NSA's ability to analyse the information in a timely fashion.

The analysis, via a computer system called Co-Traveler, was necessary as only a tiny fraction of 1% of the data gathered was actually useful in its anti-terror work, said the paper. The analysis is so detailed that it can be used to thwart attempts to hide from scrutiny by people who use disposable phones or only use a handset briefly before switching it off.

The vast majority of the information gathered is said to come from taps installed on mobile phone networks and used the basic location-information that networks log as people move around. Analysing this data helps the NSA work out which devices are regularly in close proximity and, by implication, exposes a potential connection between the owners of those handsets.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it was "staggering" that the NSA could mount such a vast location-logging system without any public debate. The "dragnet surveillance" broke US obligations that require it to respect the privacy of foreigners and Americans.

"The government should be targeting its surveillance at those suspected of wrong-doing, not assembling massive associational databases that, by their very nature, record the movements of a huge number of innocent people," it added.

The steady flow of information about the NSA's surveillance work has led Microsoft to take steps to protect itself and its customers from unwarranted scrutiny, it said in a blogpost.

Brad Smith, Microsoft legal counsel, said government snooping was now as much of a security problem as computer viruses and other cyber-attacks.

In response, Mr Smith said, Microsoft was expanding its use of encryption; would fight legal orders that stop it telling customers when their data is being sought and would allow a closer look at the code it develops to show there were no backdoors built in.

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UK paves way for driverless cars

5 December 2013 Last updated at 07:07 ET

The government has announced that it wants to make the UK a world centre for the development of driverless cars.

It said it would conduct a review next year to ensure that the legislative and regulatory framework is in place for such vehicles to be incorporated on Britain's roads.

It will also create a £10m prize to fund a town or city to become a testing ground for autonomous vehicles.

Milton Keynes is already experimenting with driverless pods.

By mid-2017 it is planned that 100 fully autonomous vehicles will run on the town's pathways along with pedestrians, using sensors to avoid collisions.

The plans for self-drive cars were announced in the chancellor's National Infrastructure Plan.

Radical change

Continue reading the main story

People will be like the millionaires of old where you just had a driver that did everything"

End Quote Brad Templeton Software engineer

Much of the hype around driverless cars centres around Google. Its self-drive car recently completed 500,000 miles (804,000km) of road tests.

In the US, California, Nevada and Florida have passed legislation to allow driverless cars.

This month Nissan carried out the first public road test of an autonomous vehicle on a Japanese highway.

Many envisage a future when we may not own cars at all but simply hail one to fulfil all our transportation needs.

"I call it mobility on demand. You pop out your mobile phone, say where you want to go and how many people and in a short amount of time a vehicle rolls up," said Brad Templeton, software engineer and adviser to Google on its self-drive car project.

"People will be like the millionaires of old where you just had a driver that did everything. These cars will worry about recharging, parking and refuelling. They will drive down a road without you paying much attention to it," he said.

Such cars will make cities both safer and greener, he thinks.

"It will radically change the amount of energy we use, how congested our streets are and eliminate most of the parking lots that take up a huge amount of space in our cities.

"Humans kill 1.2 million people in car accidents each year so the idea of being able to make a safer vehicle is very appealing," he said.

Many think that the issue of who will be liable in the event of accidents will hold up the development of autonomous vehicles but Mr Templeton is not convinced.

"I think only the barristers will find it the most interesting question," he said.

"For me the more interesting question is whether a machine is more liable than a drunk driver. Countries that decide a machine is more liable will slow the development of this technology," he added.

Car manufacturers suggest that autonomous vehicles will be on the roads within the decade.

Google has given 2017 as the date its cars will hit the roads. Not to be outdone, Elon Musk, head of electric car company Tesla Motors, has said he will have such vehicles ready in 2016.

Other car manufacturers, including Daimler and Nissan have given a 2020 date for their own versions.

Much of the underlying technology for autonomous driving is already installed in cars such as the Mercedes S500 which uses onboard radar and 3D stereoscopic cameras to gauge the distance from other cars.

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New X-Men film, Apocalypse, for 2016

A new X-Men film has been announced for 2016.

Apocalypse will be the eighth film in the superhero series, which includes two Wolverine spin-off movies.

Bryan Singer, who directed the first two films in the franchise, hinted about the project on Twitter before it was confirmed by Fox that it would be released on 27 May 2016.

The first film in the X-Men series came out in 2000.

The new movie will focus on Apocalypse, an ancient Egyptian villain who appears in the Marvel comics.

The character first appeared in 1986.

It is set to be released in the same week as Alice in Wonderland 2 and two weeks before The Amazing Spider-Man 3.

There are no indications of the plot for the film.

Bryan Singer hinted about the new film on Twitter

The next X-Men movie, Days of Future Past, will be released on 23 May 2014.

The film stars Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman and James McAvoy.

Jennifer Lawrence will also appear in the movie.

It follows the release of The Wolverine earlier this year.

The X-Men franchise has grossed more than $2 billion (£1.2bn) worldwide, including the Wolverine spin-offs.

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter

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Android app caught sharing ID data

6 December 2013 Last updated at 06:42 ET

Tens of millions of Android users have been "deceived" by a developer who covertly gathered personal data, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said.

GoldenShores Technologies took ID and location data from the millions using its Brightest Flashlight app.

The developer shared the data with ad networks but did not tell users about this practice, an FTC statement said.

To settle the charges, GoldenShores has agreed to give users more control over what happens to their data.

In its statement, the FTC criticised GoldenShores for its poor privacy policy, which did not let people know that the app was logging their precise location and a unique identifier for their phone and was then sharing that information with advertisers.

'Left in the dark'

Although the free app offered people an opt-out clause, the FTC said this was "meaningless" because data from all users of the Brightest Flashlight app was shared whether they agreed or not.

"When consumers are given a real, informed choice, they can decide for themselves whether the benefit of a service is worth the information they must share to use it," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC bureau of consumer protection, in a statement.

"But this Flashlight app left them in the dark about how their information was going to be used," she added.

A settlement deal signed by GoldenShores tightens up its privacy policy and demands that the company change how it handles data. In particular, it must no longer misrepresent how it gathers data and whom it is shared with, and must give consumers meaningful control over what is done with the information.

In addition, it must delete all the data it previously gathered from those who downloaded the Flashlight app.

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NatWest services hit by cyber attack

6 December 2013 Last updated at 09:54 ET

A deliberate attempt to disrupt services at NatWest left some customers struggling to access online banking on Friday.

The surge of traffic - known as a distributed denial of service attack - was blamed by the RBS Group, which owns NatWest, for the access problems.

The disruption lasted for an hour from 11:30 GMT.

It came less than a week after a major computer failure left some customers unable to use cards and cash machines.

Details safe

On Friday, a number of customers reported problems getting on to the bank's website, from which they normally access their accounts online.

The RBS Group - which includes RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank - said that NatWest was worst affected by the "deliberate" disruption.

"Due to a surge in internet traffic deliberately directed at the NatWest website, customers experienced difficulties accessing some of our customer websites today," a spokeswoman for RBS said.

"This deliberate surge of traffic is commonly known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. We have taken the appropriate action to restore the affected websites. At no time was there any risk to customers. We apologise for the inconvenience caused."

She stressed that the latest incident was not connected to Monday's IT failure and no customer information was compromised at any time.

The incident on Monday also affected cash machines and card payments and prompted an apology from the boss of the RBS group, Ross McEwan.

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Samsung and Philips raided by EU

6 December 2013 Last updated at 10:26 ET

Samsung and Philips have revealed that they were among several consumer electronics companies raided recently by European Commission inspectors.

Thursday's raid focused on companies making and selling consumer electronics products and small domestic appliances.

The Commission said it was concerned these firms had colluded in restricting online availability of some products in a bid to restrict competition.

Media-Saturn, the European consumer electronics retailer, was also raided.

Both Samsung and Philips said they were co-operating with the authorities.

"The Commission has concerns that the companies concerned may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit anticompetitive agreements or concerted practices," it said in a statement.

Restricting supply "may lead to higher consumer prices or the unavailability of products through certain online sales channels", it said.

The Commission did not give details of the companies it had visited.

Exclusive appeal

If found guilty, the companies could face fines equivalent to 10% of global annual turnover.

In Samsung's case, this could amount to £17bn, although a fine of this size would be unprecedented and extremely unlikely.

Sources familiar with the case told the BBC that agreements between manufacturers and retailers are not necessarily illegal.

Luxury goods brands, for example, often want to restrict the supply and distribution of their products to safeguard their exclusive appeal.

Whether such a defence would apply to low-cost electronic products is for the lawyers to decide.

"The fact that the Commission carries out such inspections does not mean that the companies are guilty of anticompetitive behaviour," the Commission said, "nor does it prejudge the outcome of the investigation itself."

EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia has been stepping up antitrust investigations under his watch.

This week the Commission fined eight banks - including Royal Bank of Scotland - a total of 1.7bn euros (£1.4bn) for forming illegal cartels to rig interest rates in the financial derivatives markets.

And in May, Commission inspectors raided several oil companies suspected of price-fixing.

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Samsung reattempts botched update

6 December 2013 Last updated at 13:10 ET

Samsung has started again to roll out an update to its Galaxy S3 smartphone, weeks after a botched attempt angered users.

Some S3 owners were left with devices that drained battery quickly, would suddenly freeze, or were "bricked" altogether.

The update was to give users version 4.3 of the Android operating system - also known as Jelly Bean.

"We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused," the company said.

A statement explained: "The fix for the issues with Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean 4.3 upgrade has begun rolling out to selected users in the UK, and will continue to do so.

"Specific upgrade schedules will vary by mobile operators. Please check your phone for the upgrade."

Samsung was unable to give more precise details on who the "selected" users were, or when the problem would be fully resolved for all.

'How much longer?'

Users in the UK and US appeared to be worst affected by the problems, which began last month.

Samsung was forced to temporarily suspend its upgrade service after a flood of complaints on social media - with the length of time it has taken to fix being the most common complaint.

"We have paid a lot of money for this phone," wrote Tushar Dass on Facebook. "I don't think we deserve this treatment."

Another, Jim Lovett-Dalley, added: "How much longer must we wait for a working phone, Samsung? Been over two weeks now. I'm paying £27 a month for a phone that's about as useful as a chocolate teapot."

Enthusiasts and bloggers speculated that the update may have been rushed out to ensure compatibility with the recently released Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

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Lift off for £1bn UK space project

8 December 2013 Last updated at 07:30 ET By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

The roll-out has begun for Britain's single biggest commercial space project.

The London-based Inmarsat company has launched the first spacecraft in what will be a new global telecommunications network for its on-the-move customers.

Inmarsat plans to launch up to three further spacecraft in its Ka-band Global Xpress (GX) system, representing an investment of £1bn ($1.6bn).

The initial I-5 F1 satellite was launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

Its Proton rocket left the pad at 18:12 local time (12:12 GMT) on a long flight due to last over 15 hours.

Separation from the Proton's Breeze-M upper-stage on Monday (GMT) should put the I-5 in a supersynchronous transfer orbit that runs out to 65,000km above the planet.

The Boeing-built, 6.1-tonne satellite will then use its own electric propulsion system to circularise this trajectory and move itself into a "stationary" position at 63 degrees East, some 36,000km above the Indian Ocean.

Inmarsat has become the dominant force in the so-called Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) market.

Its principal customer base is the shipping sector, but the company also caters for any groups that need connectivity away from a fixed line. These include oil and gas installations, the aviation sector, armed forces, aid agencies and NGOs in disaster areas, and TV news crews reporting from trouble zones.

Customers can use Inmarsat services to make phone calls, to transfer audio-visual material or simple data.

Traditionally, the company has served these customers using the L-band part of the radio spectrum. However, the new GX constellation will operate in the higher-frequency Ka-band, enabling much higher bandwidth connections - up to 50Mbps download, and 5Mbps upload.

"When we started thinking about this project five years ago, we'd come to the conclusion that you could not grow much further the L-band franchise - not in terms of revenue, but in terms of capacity," explained Ruy Pinto, Inmarsat's chief technical officer.

"We have hit the limits of all-you-can-eat high-data-rate packages in L-band; there simply isn't enough spectrum. Ka is the natural next step to deliver the types of packages our customers want," he told BBC News.

The I-5 satellites will not replace the existing Inmarsat L-band spacecraft; rather, they will augment them, and hopefully also drive new types of services.

Although Ka will accommodate higher data rates, its signals can become degraded in poor weather, and Inmarsat plans to switch customers seamlessly between the bands if some locations on the globe are experiencing particular difficulties.

"The physics of Ka allows higher throughput. It has had a vulnerability in the past because of its susceptibility to 'rain fade', to bad weather, but technology has largely taken care of this problem," added Inmarsat's Michele Franci.

"And for the maritime sector, where you might experience extreme weather, we offer a service onboard the ship where you have a router that is connected to the network management system and chooses Ka or L-band depending on the strength of the signal."

One key and fast-growing market likely to benefit from the introduction of the Global Xpress system is the aviation sector.

Inmarsat already provides mobile connectivity to enable airlines to offer on-board wifi for passengers. Ka should mean those passengers can do more on their laptops, tablets and smartphones while in the air.

Of all Inmarsat's revenue streams, this one is currently growing fastest - in double digits.

Three satellites, separated from each other by roughly 120 degrees, are required to complete the GX network. Inmarsat will launch the I-5 F2 and F3 models next year, with the aim of having 90% of services up and running by the end of 2014.

The company has also exercised an option to buy a fourth spacecraft from Boeing.

This additional platform will initially provide insurance against any failure in the first three, be that a loss on launch or a major malfunction in orbit. But the intention is certainly to put it in orbit at some point.

Richard Roithner from the space consultancy Euroconsult said the GX roll-out was a big moment for Inmarsat.

He told the BBC: "With this trend towards the higher data-rate needs of customers, Inmarsat has increasingly faced competition from Fixed Satellite Service operators, such as Intelsat and SES with what is called VSAT in the Ku and C-band. This has taken away some high-end customers.

"These operators are all now thinking about their next-generation, high-throughput systems. And in the future, Intelsat will probably be the main competition with a system called Epic," he said.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

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