Man jailed for filming in cinema

22 August 2014 Last updated at 12:19

A man has been jailed for 33 months after recording Fast And Furious 6 from the back of a cinema in Walsall.

A judge in Wolverhampton ruled that Philip Danks, 25, uploaded the movie, which was downloaded 700,000 times.

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) claimed this meant "millions of pounds" lost for the film's distributor, Universal Pictures.

Another man, Michael Bell, was also sentenced to a community order for 120 hours' unpaid work.

Bell, the former boyfriend of Danks' sister, had played a part in uploading material, the court ruled.

As well as putting the film on the internet, Danks offered to sell copies of the film using his Facebook profile.

'Arrogant'

Danks had also used his profile to update his friends about his case - on 20 August, a day before his hearing, he wrote: "Not loking [sic] good."

The judge who sentenced Danks said his behaviour was "bold, arrogant and cocksure".

In a statement distributed by Fact, Det Sgt Rod Rose, of West Midlands Police, said: "We assisted the Federation Against Copyright Theft throughout this case with search warrants, forcing entry to addresses and making arrests.

"We also supported with evidence recovery and interviewing suspects.

"Fraud comes in many guises and ultimately affects all of us."

Police said that Danks had continued to illegally distribute movies after his arrest in May last year.

Officers were able to trace him after he used the username TheCod3r to leave a comment on a well-known pirated movie website.

Danks had used the same username on the Plenty of Fish dating website.

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Spy camera cash machine gang jailed

21 August 2014 Last updated at 12:46

A gang behind a "sophisticated" bank card fraud has been jailed.

Florin Silaghi, Vasile Pop, Ovidiu Metac and Adriana Turc used spy cameras to scam card data from ATMs, downloaded the details and then copied them on to fake cards, the Old Bailey heard.

They compromised 953 bank accounts and took some £160,000, although they stole details from more than 60,000 accounts.

The Romanian nationals, who operated from Harrow in north-west London, were jailed for between 21 and 64 months.

'Fraudster's utopia'

Prosecutor Catherine Pattison said the four were responsible for "a large-scale, highly sophisticated, well executed ATM and counterfeit fraud".

Their operation was smashed in December when gadgets including cards traps, cloned cards and spy cameras were seized in police raids.

The Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU) said the cards recovered had a street value of £16m - based on the amount stolen on average from a compromised card.

During the investigation, evidence of a method not seen before in the UK to steal card details came to light - spy cameras fitted to the side panel of cash machines, rather than the top panel.

This method allows fraudsters a better view of people's Pin numbers.

Det Insp Sarah Ward, from the DCPCU, said: "The premises we raided really were a fraudster's utopia, with a dizzying array of machines and gadgets designed to commit serious fraud."

Sentencing them, Recorder Douglas Day QC said: "Electronic card fraud is one of the scourges of the technological age... it causes significant loss to the banks and distress and inconvenience to the card holders whose cards have been compromised."

Silaghi, 30, was jailed for 64 months, Pop, 30, for 61 months, Metac, 25, received 43 months, while Turc, 27, was jailed for 21 months.

They all admitted to conspiracy to defraud and various other charges relating to the technical side of the operation.

The prosecutor said Silaghi and Pop were the key players, while Metac and his partner Turc had lesser roles.

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Samsung-made Nook tablet announced

20 August 2014 Last updated at 18:31 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

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Michelle Fleury reports from New York, where the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook had its debut

Barnes & Noble has unveiled a customised version of an existing Samsung tablet as a replacement for the Nook HD+, which it manufactured itself.

The US book chain is marketing the device as the "first-ever full-featured Android tablet optimised for reading", based on its inclusion of pre-installed Nook apps and homescreen shortcuts.

However, its screen is lower resolution than Kobo's Android-powered Arc 7HD.

One analyst said it would be an "uphill struggle" to sell the new device.

"There is growing consumer apathy to this growing class of low-cost tablets," said Ben Wood, from the tech consultancy CCS Insight.

"Although there is the Nook angle on this, it goes into the melting pot with numerous other tablets that will appear in this price point as we run up to Christmas.

"Amazon has pretty much locked out the market in reading-focused tablets anyway, the only thing I'd applaud here is the fact that Barnes & Noble has gone to Samsung, which can give it scale and quality."

The advantage that the 7in (17.8cm)-screened Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook has over Amazon's Fire tablets is that it can easily access the Google Play marketplace. Amazon's tablet uses a proprietary store with fewer apps available.

Costing $179 (£107), the new Nook is also cheaper than the Kindle Fire HDX and Kobo Arc 7HD.

However with only 216 pixels per inch, text will appear less sharp on its screen. Likewise, magazines and movies sold from the included Nook Newsstand and Nook Video apps will present less detail than similar purchases on either the two other Android machines or Apple's bestselling iPad Mini, which also has its own dedicated ebook store.

Even so, one market watcher said the tie-up still made business sense. Samsung should benefit from the exposure of having its machine promoted in Barnes & Noble's stores and website, while the retailer gets to cut its costs after posting a $47m (£28.2m) net loss for its last financial year.

"It's very hard to make money out of mobile devices," said Ian Fogg, from the IHS consultancy.

"But by having this partnership, Barnes & Noble can have its own content and services pre-installed so that they are not just front-of-mind but also front-of-eyes for consumers.

"If it wants to get its apps used on other people's devices it has to persuade people to install them instead of a Kindle app or another competitor - that visibility is very important."

At the moment the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook is only available in the US.

Barnes and Noble will continue to sell e-ink readers, including the Nook GlowLight, which was launched in the UK earlier this month.

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UK's 'most generous town' revealed

21 August 2014 Last updated at 00:03 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Bedford has been crowned the UK's most generous town, according to data gathered by donation site JustGiving.

In the year to May 2014, 41,631 people with a Bedford postcode gave a total of £1,145,967 to appeals on the site.

JustGiving compiled its list based on the number of givers and the amount donated in relation to populations.

Richard Fuller, the MP for Bedford & Kempston, said he was "thrilled but not surprised" by the findings, saying it reflected the town's "solidarity".

"It's great to see that sense of personal responsibility to not just look after yourself but to look after others," he told the BBC.

"What's distinctive about Bedford is that going back decades now it's been a very welcoming place for people with different backgrounds."

The top 10 ranking was determined by calculating how much a town had donated via the site - adjusted to account for the number of donors relative to the population size.

Top 10 'most generous' places in the UK

Location	Statistics
Source: JustGiving. Population sizes taken from Office for National Statistics, and adapted to provide postcode matches (ONS figures are given for local authorities, not postcode groups).
1. Bedford	41,631 givers; £1,145,967 raised; population 79,150
2. Cambridge	48,295 givers; £1,440,634 raised; population 126,480
3. Reading	58,235 givers; £1,711,566 raised; population 159,247
4. Brentwood	21,672 givers; £750,509 raised, population 74,460
5. Woking	27,646 givers; £921,165 raised; population 99,567
6. Aberdeen	58,307 givers; £1,872,610 raised; population 220,420
7. Bristol*	135,373 givers; £3,582,531 raised; population 432,500
8. Cheltenham	33,381 givers; £976,995 raised; population 115,900
9. High Wycombe	31,658 givers; £1,004,113 rasied; population 120,256
10. Watford	22,643 givers; £737,375 raised; population 93,736

* Update: The table in this report has been revised after JustGiving recalculated its figures for Bristol.

The town of Sevenoaks had the highest amount per individual giver - an average of £42.29 each was donated by people there.

The data only reflects donations made through the JustGiving website, and so does not take into account other charity donations made by people, - such as putting cash in collections, making payments via direct debits and standing orders, or through other online services.

Aberdeen was the highest ranked Scottish location, coming in sixth overall. No towns in Northern Ireland or Wales made the top 10.

JustGiving is the UK's largest charity fundraising website and is widely used for people undertaking sponsored events to raise money for good causes.

However, it has been criticised for charging charities a fee to use its site, and it takes a small cut of every pound donated - unlike rivals such as Virgin Giving.

JustGiving said it reinvests these charges into improving its service.

New blood

The data highlighted the growing importance of online donating and campaigning to charities across the country.

While direct mail still remains the most popular way of donating to charity, online services are growing rapidly - particularly among young people.

"If you look at the distribution of donors by their age, direct mail is most popular amongst those aged 70-plus," said Matt Haworth, co-founder of Reason Digital, a group which advises charities on online fundraising.

"We need to replace that with new blood. We're going to see in the next few years that the majority of income is digital. Charities really need to prepare."

He said that fundraisers were having to adapt how they communicated with potential donors to allow for shorter attention spans online.

"Everything's getting shorter." he said.

"You used to send your supporters a long penned letter that might go into great detail. That is now giving way to shorter messages, tweets, and text-giving."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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UPS branches hit by data breach

21 August 2014 Last updated at 11:52

The personal data of customers who have used local branches of the US parcel delivery company UPS has been stolen in a widespread security breach.

The hack, which affected 51 franchises across 24 states, exposed clients' names, postal addresses, email addresses and payment card information.

The company said the malware had been "eliminated" and that its services were now safe to use.

On Monday, a large US hospital chain said its systems had been infiltrated.

About 4.5 million healthcare patients involved with Community Health Systems facilities had their private information stolen.

Last week, the US grocery chain SuperValu said it had also suffered a breach.

UPS, which was founded as a messenger company in 1907 and has become a multibillion-dollar corporation, has more than 4,450 franchised locations in the US.

Monitor account

Each franchise is individually owned and responsible for installing its own network.

The breaches, which were only discovered by UPS because of a notification from the US government, took place between January and August.

UPS said that while it had received no reports of the stolen data being used for fraudulent purposes, customers should carefully monitor their account activity for signs of intrusion.

"We encourage you to remain vigilant by reviewing your account statements and monitoring your free credit reports," said Tim Davis, president of The UPS Store.

He added: "Our customers can be assured that we have identified and fully contained the incident."

The company also said it had begun an internal review to investigate the breach.

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Social network cannot stop IS posts

21 August 2014 Last updated at 13:13 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

The team behind a social network being used by Islamic State (IS) militants has admitted it cannot prevent the spread of extremist material.

Diaspora is a decentralised network with data stored on many private servers which cannot be controlled by any single administrator.

IS is believed to have switched to Diaspora after Twitter upped its efforts to block accounts.

Diaspora's creators said they were "concerned" about the activities.

In a blog post, they wrote: "Various newspapers have reported that members of the Islamic State (IS) have set up accounts on Diaspora to promote the group's activities.

"In the past, they have used Twitter and other platforms, and are now migrating to free and open source software."

The post explained that Diaspora's network is spread across several independent servers - known as pods - which are not controlled by the Diaspora team.

Continue reading the main story

It's absolutely inevitable that organisations like IS are going to be among the early adopters"

End Quote Jamie Bartlett Social media analyst and author

"There is therefore no way for the project's core team to manipulate or remove contents from a particular node in the network (which we call a "pod")," the blog post explained.

"This may be one of the reasons which attracted IS activists to our network."

Diaspora was launched in 2010, paid for by a crowdfunding campaign set up by four students in New York.

Twitter efforts

Diaspora said it was contacting administrators of the individual pods - known as podmins - to alert them to the problem of extremist content, stressing the legal implications of hosting such material.

"Because this is such a crucial issue, we have also accumulated a list of accounts related to IS fighters, which are spread over a large number of pods, and we are in the process of talking to the podmins of those pods.

"So far, all of the larger pods have removed the IS-related accounts and posts."

A bigger challenge is in contacting owners of smaller pods to ask for material to be taken down, the team said.

Before shifting some of its focus to Diaspora, much of IS's efforts were focused on Twitter. But in the past week, the site has been pro-active in removing the accounts of IS members and supporters.

It has since widened that scope to include any member who shares graphic images of video relating to the killing of US photojournalist James Foley.

However, Diaspora, due to its nature, will be unable to take similar action. It is therefore unsurprising that IS would turn to the network, argued Jamie Bartlett, author of The Dark Net, a book looking at hidden internet services and decentralised social networks.

"Not a great deal can be done," he told the BBC.

"In terms of the base technology, decentralised services are incredibly difficult for police to get a handle on. Every time they're clamped down on - the services get a bit smarter, a bit better at evading detection.

"It's absolutely inevitable that organisations like IS are going to be among the early adopters of this sort of innovation."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Aircraft to have 'human-like skin'

21 August 2014 Last updated at 16:40

A system that allows the exterior of aircraft to "feel" damage or injury in a way similar to human skin is in development by BAE Systems.

The British defence contractor said the technology, which works by covering the entire body of a plane with tens of thousands of micro-sensors, is able to detect problems before they occur.

The devices could measure wind speed, temperature, strain and movement.

One analyst said the innovation could prove useful "far beyond the military".

Senior research scientist Lydia Hyde, who came up with the technology, says the idea came to her while watching her tumble dryer, which uses a sensor to prevent overheating.

"Observing how a simple sensor can be used to stop a domestic appliance overheating got me thinking about how this could be applied to my work and how we could replace bulky, expensive sensors with cheap, miniature, multi-functional ones," she said.

"This in turn led to the idea that aircraft, or indeed cars and ships, could be covered by thousands of these motes creating a 'smart skin' that can sense the world around them and monitor their condition by detecting stress, heat or damage."

The sensors, which might be as small as dust particles and have their own power source, could even be sprayed on to an aircraft like paint, BAE said.

Early warning

Jennifer Cole, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) think tank, told the BBC the technology could help stave off natural disasters or everyday annoyances.

"It could help equipment and technology to 'report back' on local environmental conditions and alert users to when repairs are needed ahead of schedule if hairline cracks are detected early, for example on flood defences and dams.

"Or it could enable water pipes to 'switch on' heating elements automatically during a particularly cold winter that would prevent pipes from freezing and bursting."

She added: "If similar technology could be applied to cars, it could revolutionise MOT schedules and potentially reduce road accidents."

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NSA and GCHQ agents 'leak Tor bugs'

22 August 2014 Last updated at 10:58 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

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Andrew Lewman: "The fact that we take a completely anonymous bug report allows them to report to us safely"

British and American intelligence agents attempting to hack the "dark web" are being deliberately undermined by colleagues, it has been alleged.

Spies from both countries have been working on finding flaws in Tor, a popular way of anonymously accessing "hidden" sites.

But the team behind Tor says other spies are tipping them off, allowing them to quickly fix any vulnerabilities.

The agencies declined to comment.

The allegations were made in an interview given to the BBC by Andrew Lewman, who is responsible for all the Tor Project's operations.

He said leaks had come from both the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the US National Security Agency (NSA).

By fixing these flaws, the project can protect users' anonymity, he said.

"There are plenty of people in both organisations who can anonymously leak data to us to say - maybe you should look here, maybe you should look at this to fix this," he said. "And they have."

Mr Lewman is part of a team of software engineers responsible for the Tor Browser - software designed to prevent it being possible to trace users' internet activity. The programs involved also offer access to otherwise hard-to-reach websites, some of which are used for illegal purposes.

The dark web, as it is known, has been used by paedophiles to share child abuse imagery, while online drug marketplaces are also hosted on the hidden sites.

Mr Lewman said that his organisation received tips from security agency sources on "probably [a] monthly" basis about bugs and design issues that potentially could compromise the service.

However, he acknowledged that because of the way the Tor Project received such information, he could not prove who had sent it.

"It's a hunch," he said. "Obviously we are not going to ask for any details.

"You have to think about the type of people who would be able to do this and have the expertise and time to read Tor source code from scratch for hours, for weeks, for months, and find and elucidate these super-subtle bugs or other things that they probably don't get to see in most commercial software.

"And the fact that we take a completely anonymous bug report allows them to report to us safely."

He added that he had been told by William Binney, a former NSA official turned whistleblower, that one reason NSA workers might have leaked such information was because many were "upset that they are spying on Americans".

In response, a spokesman from the NSA public affairs office said: "We have nothing for you on this one."

A spokesman for GCHQ said: "It is long-standing policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters. Furthermore, all of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework, which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate."

The BBC understands, however, that GCHQ does attempt to monitor a range of anonymisation services to identify and track down suspects involved in the online sexual exploitation of children, among other crimes.

The reporter Glenn Greenwald has also published several articles, based on documents released by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, alleging that both agencies have attempted to crack Tor as part of efforts to prevent terrorism.

A security expert who has done consultancy work for GCHQ said he was amazed by Mr Lewman's allegation, but added that it was not "beyond the bounds of possibility.

"It's not surprising that agencies all over the world will be looking for weaknesses in Tor," said Alan Woodward.

"But the fact that people might then be leaking that to the Tor Project so that it can undo it would be really very serious.

"So if that is happening, then those organisations are going to take this very seriously."

Illegal activity

Tor was originally designed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, and continues to receive funding from the US State Department.

It is used by the military, activists, businesses and others to keep communications confidential and aid free speech.

But it has also been used to organise the sale of illegal drugs, host malware, run money laundering services, and traffic images of child abuse and other illegal pornography.

Mr Lewman said that his organisation provided advice to law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the UK Serious Crime Agency (Soca), to help them understand how Tor worked in order to aid their investigations.

But he criticised cyberspies who carried out orders to undermine Tor's protections.

"We are around 30 people in total, and think of the NSA or GCHQ with their tens of thousands of employees and billions of pounds of budget," he said.

"The odds there are obviously in their favour.

"It's sort of funny because it also came out that GCHQ heavily relies on Tor working to be able to do a lot of their operations.

"So you can imagine one part of GCHQ is trying to break Tor, the other part is trying to make sure it's not broken because they're relying on it to do their work.

"So it's typical within governments, or even within large agencies, that you have two halves of the same coin going after different parts of Tor. Some protect it, some to try to attack it."

He added that the Tor browser had been downloaded 150 million times in the past year, and that it currently supported about 2.5 million users a day.

"Hundreds of millions of people are now relying on Tor," Mr Lewman said, "in some cases in life-and-death situations. And that's what we pay attention to.

"We would be very sad if anyone was arrested, tortured and killed because of some software bug or because of some design decision we made that put them at risk."

Mr Lewman will deliver the keynote speech at the Broadband World Forum event in Amsterdam in October.

You can read a full transcript of the interview here.

Who are the cyberspies?

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) employs about 5,000 people and has two key roles:

• To identify threats from intercepted communications. It says these include terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons, regional conflicts around the world and threats to the economic prosperity of the UK.

• To serve as an authority on information assurance - meaning that it advises the government and organisations running the UK's critical infrastructure how to safeguard their systems from interference and disruption.

It dates back to 1919, when it was called the Government Code and Cypher School. It adopted its current name in 1946. The foreign secretary is answerable in Parliament for GCHQ's work.

The National Security Agency (NSA) gathers intelligence for the US government and military leaders.

It is also has the task of preventing foreign adversaries gaining access to classified national security information.

It employs about 35,000 workers, both civilians and military.

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Study creates 'virtual time travel'

22 August 2014 Last updated at 11:28 By Melissa Hogenboom Science reporter, BBC Radio Science

Virtual reality can be used to give the illusion of going "back in time", according to an exploratory study.

In this virtual world, subjects were able to reduce how many people a gunman killed, an event they had unknowingly been part of.

Going into "the past" increased the level of guilt the participants felt.

Writing in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the team says that virtual time travel could help people overcome traumatic experiences.

Most interesting, the researchers add, was the emotional impact virtual time travel had on the participants.

"The more the participants felt the illusion, the greater the sense of their own morality," explained co-author Mel Slater of the ICREA (Catalan Research Institute) and University College London.

Mutable past

In the virtual world, participants could walk, talk and move similar to how they would in real life, and previous studies have shown that people strongly associate with their virtual selves.

"In virtual reality, the brain's low level perceptual system does not distinguish between the virtual and the real world; the brain takes what it sees and hears in a surrounding environment as given," added Prof Slater.

"Therefore, if they had an experience with the illusion of time travel, there is implicit learning that the past is mutable, that is: 'my own past decisions don't matter because they're changeable'."

In the study, 32 participants witnessed a man open fire and kill five people in an art gallery. They had learnt to control a lift and had allowed the killer to go to the upper-level.

Continue reading the main story

It's the best thing we can do for time travel until the physicists do their job and come up with a time machine"

End Quote Dr Friedman Doron, Sammy Ofer School of Communication, Israel

Half of these went back in time to experience this event once more, but this time were faced with a classic moral dilemma: do nothing and five people will die, or intervene and five lives can be saved at the expense of one.

The other half simply experienced the same event but were not able to change their earlier actions.

This dilemma is commonly used in philosophical studies looking at morality. As expected, most participants chose to intervene.

This team says that virtual time travel could help people overcome post traumatic stress disorders or to revaluate previous bad decisions.

Time machine

The laws of physics, of course, currently dictate that time travel is not possible. But lead author of the work, Friedman Doron, from the Sammy Ofer School of Communications in Israel, said his team had now come closest to it.

"Highly immersive virtual reality is very visceral. People hide behind the desk when they get shot. Some of the subjects duck down. It's the best thing we can do for time travel until the physicists do their job and come up with a time machine. For now this is the closest thing."

Physicist Robert Nemiroff of Michigan Technology University, US, commented that the work was interesting, though strange as "the ability to change the past is not a reasonably likely occurrence".

"If some version of illusory 'time travel therapy' can help people make better decisions in the future, and come to a better understanding of bad decisions, they have made in the past - then I am all for it."

But he added that having patients going around really believing that that they could change the past "might have negative repercussions that have not been explored".

People have long entertained the fantasy of going backwards in time, commented James Broadway from the University of California Santa Barbara, who was not involved in the research but edited the journal collection in which it appeared.

"'If I knew then what I know now...' is a common lament indeed.

"While it remains impossible to un-do something that has already occurred, results of this study suggest that... virtual reality techniques can be usefully harnessed to promote greater acceptance of one's own mistakes in the past, as well as better decision-making in the future."

Follow Melissa on twitter

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Researchers hack into Gmail app

22 August 2014 Last updated at 15:47

US researchers say they have been able to hack into Gmail accounts with a 92% success rate by exploiting a weakness in smartphone memory.

The researchers were able to gain access to a number of apps, including Gmail, by disguising malicious software as another downloaded app.

Gmail was among the easiest to access from the popular apps tested.

The hack was tested on an Android phone, but the researchers believe it could work on other operating systems.

A Google spokeswoman said the technology giant welcomed the research. "Third-party research is one of the ways Android is made stronger and more secure," she said.

The research is being presented later at a cybersecurity conference in San Diego by academics from the universities of Michigan and California.

Other apps hacked included H&R Block, Newegg, WebMD, Chase Bank, Hotels.com and Amazon.

Passwords stolen

The Amazon app was the hardest to access, with a 48% success rate.

The hack involves accessing the shared memory of a user's smartphone using malicious software disguised as an apparently harmless app, such as wallpaper.

This shared memory is used by all apps, and by analysing its use the researchers were able to tell when a user was logging into apps such as Gmail, giving them the opportunity to steal login details and passwords.

"The assumption has always been that these apps can't interfere with each other easily," said Zhiyun Qian, an assistant professor at the University of California and one of the researchers involved in the study.

"We show that assumption is not correct, and one app can in fact significantly impact another and result in harmful consequences for the user."

In another example the researchers were able to take advantage of a feature of the Chase Bank app which allows customers to pay in cheques by taking pictures of them with their device's camera.

The researchers were able to access the camera to steal the pictures as they were being taken, giving them access to personal information including signatures and bank details.

The tests were carried out on Android phones, but the researchers believe the attacks could be successful on other operating systems, including Windows and the iOS system developed by Apple.

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Microsoft to end old Explorer fixes

8 August 2014 Last updated at 11:34

Anyone using older versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser will soon no longer get security updates and bug fixes for the software.

From 12 January 2016 Microsoft will only support the latest copy of IE for the different versions of Windows.

The shift ends a long-standing policy of providing support for different versions of IE for many years.

Microsoft said the move would aid security and help developers, who would only need to support newer browsers.

In a blogpost explaining the changes, Microsoft said commercial customers who had "standardised" on earlier versions of IE should start preparing plans now to migrate to more up-to-date releases.

In addition, Microsoft said it would provide resources and help for customers to ensure web-based applications and programs created for older versions of IE continue to work with newer versions.

The change should help developers, said Microsoft, because they will no longer be required to support the out-of-date technologies in those older browsers.

'Targeted by cyber-thieves'

Up to now, Microsoft's support for the versions of IE lasted as long as its support system for the version of Windows that the browser initially shipped with. In some cases, this meant it had to keep producing bug fixes and security updates for versions of IE that were more than 10 years old.

The change means that it will only be supporting versions 9 and above of Internet Explorer. Users of different editions of Windows will be expected to be using the latest copy for that release. For instance, people and businesses running Windows 8.1 will only get bug fixes and security updates if they are on IE11.

Microsoft has also made other moves to improve security on its browser. From 12 August, Explorer will start to block some out-of-date add-ons, known as ActiveX controls, for the program.

In a blogpost, Microsoft said out of data add-ons were regularly targeted by cyber-thieves as a way to subvert browsers and steal data. The regular monthly update for IE will bring in the change that blocks out-of-date add-ons.

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Facebook must reveal underage users

8 August 2014 Last updated at 16:34

Facebook must disclose any available records on the number of underage account holders in Northern Ireland, the High Court in Belfast has ruled.

It ruled any existing records should be supplied for a lawsuit that involves a vulnerable girl who contacted men and posted sexual photos on the website.

Facebook is being sued by the girl's father, for alleged negligence and breaching her right to privacy.

Under Facebook's own policy, no-one under 13 should set up an account.

But with the schoolgirl now under a care order, lawyers for her father claimed an open registration system meant it was too easy for her to set up profiles and be at potential risk from paedophiles.

From the age of 11, she created four different accounts to publish sexually suggestive and inappropriate photos, the court heard.

She received text messages with extreme sexual content from men as a result of her personal details appearing on Facebook, it is alleged.

However, her accounts were deactivated as soon as reports were received by the company.

As part of the ongoing legal action, attempts were made to secure more details about the number of underage users reported and identified.

In a detailed ruling, the judge blocked many other requests for more information from Facebook.

But he held that specific discovery should be made on any documentation containing notes and records that company holds on use of its network by children under 13 in Northern Ireland or the UK as a whole, between 2011 and 2014.

"If the defendants do have them, they should be discovered," the judge said.

"If they do not have them, then obviously they can properly indicate that they do not have such information in their possession, custody or power."

The same ruling was made on a request for details on the number of account holders in Northern Ireland generally.

According to the judge, that information appeared relevant to assessing the size of the task confronting Facebook "if taking steps to address the mischief of underage children registering".

The court also heard the company does not retain data on reports of underage users for more than six months.

Countering the claim that no more statistics were available, a lawyer for the girl's father cited an alleged statement by its chief privacy advisor in 2011 that 20,000 people a day are removed from the site for being underage.

Despite recognising the "factual standoff" on the issue, the judge refused to order Facebook to comply with that request, on the basis that it does not have the information.

He added: "If it should emerge that the defendant's assertions are unsustainable, then at the very least the case may be adjourned in order to compel appropriate replies to the interrogatories with attendant cost consequences."

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Million neurons on stamp-sized chip

8 August 2014 Last updated at 08:40 By Jonathan Webb Science reporter, BBC News

Scientists have produced a new computer chip that mimics the organisation of the brain, and squeezed in one million computational units called "neurons".

They describe it as a supercomputer the size of a postage stamp.

Each neuron on the chip connects to 256 others, and together they can pick out the key features in a visual scene in real time, using very little power.

The design is the result of a long-running collaboration, led by IBM, and is published in the journal Science.

"The cumulative total is over 200 person-years of work," said Dr Dharmendra Modha, the publication's senior author.

He told BBC News the processor was "a new machine for a new era". But it will take some time for the chip, dubbed TrueNorth, to be commercially useful.

Next generation

This is partly because programs need to be written from scratch to run on this type of chip, instead of on the traditional style which was conceived in the 1940s and still powers nearly all modern computers.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Google Images... does a marvellous job of recognising pictures of cats - but it is using large arrays of computers"

End Quote Sophie Wilson Senior Technical Director, Broadcom

That design, where the processors and memory are separate, is a natural match for sequential, mathematical operations.

However, the heavily interconnected structure of biologically-inspired, "neuromorphic" systems like TrueNorth is said to be a much more efficient way of handling a lot of data at the same time.

"Our chip integrates computation, communication and memory very closely," Dr Modha said.

Instead of binary ones and zeros, the units of computation here are spikes. When its inputs are active enough, one of TrueNorth's "neurons" generates a spike and sends it across the chip to other neurons, taking them closer to their own threshold.

Software has to be written completely differently for these spiking-network systems.

"It will be interesting to see those programs develop - but don't hold your breath," commented Sophie Wilson, an eminent computer engineer based in Cambridge.

Ms Wilson, a fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society, can definitely see a role for this next generation of computing strategies.

"It's clear that conventional scalar processing is getting very tricky for some of these tasks," she told the BBC. "Google Images, for example, does a marvellous job of recognising pictures of cats - but it is using large arrays of computers to do that."

Grid after grid

The building blocks for the TrueNorth chip are "neurosynaptic cores" of 256 neurons each, which IBM launched in 2011.

Dr Modha and his team managed to engineer an interconnected 64-by-64 grid of these cores on to a single chip, delivering over one million neurons in total.

Because each neuron is connected to 256 others, there are more than 256 million connections or "synapses".

This complexity is impressive for a man-made device just 3cm across, but still pales in comparison with the organ it emulates. Biological neurons, packed inside the brain, send and receive something in the order of 10,000 connections each.

The chip, Dr Modha is quick to point out, is "endlessly scalable". Multiple units can be plugged together to form another, still more powerful assembly.

"This isn't a 10-15% improvement," he said. "You're talking about orders and orders of magnitude."

To demonstrate TrueNorth's capabilities, Dr Modha's team programmed it to do a visual perception party trick.

Within a video filmed from a tower at Stanford University, a single chip analysed the moving images in real time and successfully identified which patches of pixels represented pedestrians, cyclists, cars, buses and trucks.

This is just the sort of task that the brain excels at, while traditional computers struggle.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

This is another step in a programme, whose end point I suspect even they don't know at the moment"

End Quote Prof Steve Furber University of Manchester

Expanding horizons

Dr Modha envisages myriad next-generation applications, from glasses that help visually impaired people navigate, to robots for scouring the scene of a disaster.

But some of the gains might be overstated - or perhaps too eagerly anticipated.

Prof Steve Furber is a computer engineer at the University of Manchester who works on a similarly ambitious brain simulation project called SpiNNaker. That initiative uses a more flexible strategy, where the connections between neurons are not hard-wired.

He told BBC News that "time will tell" which strategy succeeds in different applications.

The new IBM chip was most significant, Prof Furber said, because of its sheer degree of interconnectedness. "I see it as continuing their programme of research - but it's an interesting and aggressive piece of integration," he said.

"This is another step in a programme, whose end point I suspect even they don't know at the moment."

Ms Wilson also pointed out that TrueNorth's efficiency, while it might trump a vast supercomputer, is not very far ahead of the latest small devices like smartphones and cameras, which are already engineered to minimise battery usage.

"Cellphone cameras can recognise faces," she said.

There is also a rival chip made by a company called Movidius, which Ms Wilson explained is not as adaptable (it is designed very specifically to process images) but uses even less power than TrueNorth.

That product, which we might see in devices as soon as next year, has also lifted elements of its computing strategy from the human brain.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter

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All USB devices 'critically flawed'

8 August 2014 Last updated at 10:03 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Karsten Nohl shows Dave Lee a threat on a USB-connected smartphone

Cyber-security experts have dramatically called into question the safety and security of using USB to connect devices to computers.

Berlin-based researchers Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell demonstrated how any USB device could be used to infect a computer without the user's knowledge.

The duo said there is no practical way to defend against the vulnerability.

The body responsible for the USB standard said manufacturers could build in extra security.

But Mr Nohl and Mr Lell said the technology was "critically flawed".

It is not uncommon for USB sticks to be used as a way of getting viruses and other malicious code onto target computers.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

You can never trust anything anymore after plugging in a USB stick"

End Quote Karsten Nohl Security Research Labs

Most famously, the Stuxnet attack on Iranian nuclear centrifuges was believed to have been caused by an infected USB stick.

However, this latest research demonstrated a new level of threat - where a USB device that appears completely empty can still contain malware, even when formatted.

The vulnerability can be used to hide attacks in any kind of USB-connected device - such as a smartphone.

"It may not be the end of the world today," Mr Nohl told journalists, "but it will affect us, a little bit, every day, for the next 10 years".

"Basically, you can never trust anything anymore after plugging in a USB stick."

'Chip' exploited

USB - which stands for Universal Serial Bus - has become the standard method of connecting devices to computers due to its small size, speed and ability to charge devices.

USB memory sticks quickly replaced floppy disks as a simple way to share large files between two computers.

The connector is popular due to the fact that it makes it easy to plug in and install a wide variety of devices. Devices that use USB contain a small chip that "tells" the computer exactly what it is, be it a phone, tablet or any other piece of hardware.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Karsten Nohl: "You can never trust anything anymore after plugging in a USB stick"

It is this function that has been exposed by the threat.

Smartphone 'hijack'

In one demo, shown off at the Black Hat hackers conference in Las Vegas, a standard USB drive was inserted into a normal computer.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Any business should always have policies in place regarding USB devices and drivers"

End Quote Mike McLaughlin First Base Technologies

Malicious code implanted on the stick tricked the machine into thinking a keyboard had been plugged in.

After just a few moments, the "keyboard" began typing in commands - and instructed the computer to download a malicious program from the internet.

Another demo, shown in detail to the BBC, involved a Samsung smartphone.

When plugged in to charge, the phone would trick the computer into thinking it was in fact a network card. It meant when the user accessed the internet, their browsing was secretly hijacked.

Mr Nohl demonstrated to the BBC how they were able to create a fake copy of PayPal's website, and steal user log-in details as a result.

Unlike other similar attacks, where simply looking at the web address can give away a scam website, there were no visible clues that a user was under threat.

The same demo could have been carried out on any website, Mr Nohl stressed.

'Trust nothing'

Mike McLaughlin, a security researcher from First Base Technologies, said the threat should be taken seriously.

"USB is ubiquitous across all devices," he told the BBC.

"It comes down to the same old saying - don't plug things in that you don't trust.

"Any business should always have policies in place regarding USB devices and USB drives. Businesses should stop using them if needed."

Universal Serial Bus (USB)

• Standard method of connecting devices to computers
• Popular due to its small size
• Easy to plug in and install a variety of devices

The group responsible for the USB standard, the USB Working Party, refused to comment on the seriousness of the flaw.

But in more general terms, it said: "The USB specifications support additional capabilities for security, but original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) decide whether or not to implement these capabilities in their products.

"Greater capabilities of any product likely results in higher prices, and consumers choose on a daily basis what they are willing to pay to receive certain benefits.

"If consumer demand for USB products with additional capabilities for security grows, we would expect OEMs to meet that demand."

Mr Nohl said the only protection he could advise was to simply be ultra-cautious when allowing USB devices to be connected to your machines.

"Our approach to using USB will have to change," he told the BBC.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Pokemon-playing fish makes a splash

8 August 2014 Last updated at 10:48 By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

A live feed of a fish called Grayson playing vintage Nintendo game Pokemon from his tank in a US college dorm room has had more than one million views.

Grayson's movements dictate the actions of his on-screen Pokemon Red character. The Betta fish has been playing for more than 135 hours.

The project was created as part of a hackathon by two students,

Some viewers have expressed concern about Grayson's welfare on the messageboards of social site Reddit.

"Grayson's health and safety are our primary concern," wrote the creators of the feed, college students Catherine Moresco and Patrick Facheris in response.

They claim that the tank is heated and the water changed regularly - and they intend to get a bigger tank.

By 10:40 BST on Friday, 1,175, 673 people had viewed the real-time feed on Twitch, a website dedicated to live-streaming video gaming.

Pokemon Red/Blue was developed for the Nintendo Gameboy handheld console in the 1990s.

The aim of the game is to become champion of a fictional region known as Kanto by defeating eight Gym Leaders.

The developers said Grayson had already acquired his first Pokemon and defeated his first opponent.

The game was built in 24 hours during New York hackathon HackNY, according to its page on Twitch .

Another Twitch stream which invited multiple players to simultaneously control a single Pokemon character in one game ended in March.

The game was completed in 16 days and was watched by around 36 million people.

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One million on 'superfast broadband'

8 August 2014 Last updated at 11:28

The UK's culture secretary has said that more than a million properties now have access to "superfast broadband speeds" as a result of a government-backed rollout of the tech.

Sajid Javid added that the effort was "firmly on track" to offer high-speed internet to 95% of UK homes and businesses by 2017.

He said that fast speeds were "totally transforming the way we live and work".

But many have questioned the quality of access and speeds advertised.

'Not good enough'

Superfast broadband is defined by the European Union as speeds of 24Mbps or above. The UK government's ambition is to provide 95% of the UK with those speeds or higher by 2017, with the rest having a minimum speed of 2Mbps.

Continue reading the main story

There are far too many homes and businesses in both rural and urban areas that won't see any benefit for some years to come"

End Quote Independent Network Co-operative Association

By contrast, Finland plans to have a baseline speed that is more than four times faster - 100Mbps - by next year, while South Korea wants to see citizens equipped with 1Gbps connections by 2017.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has said that the UK's broadband target is simply not ambitious enough when compared with other nations and wants the government to commit to delivering a minimum of 10Mbps for all homes and businesses by 2018-19.

John Allan, FSB's national chairman, told the BBC that "there is still a long way to go".

"Small businesses are increasingly reliant on digital services, but too many are without decent and affordable broadband that meets their needs. This restricts their ability to grow, innovate and compete in global markets.

"Leaving 5% of the UK without adequate broadband in 2017 is simply not good enough. "

But the UK government says the current UK coverage of superfast broadband is the highest of the five biggest European economies.

Rural access

The government has also set aside millions to improve broadband access in rural areas.

But BDUK, the group set up to spend the £530m of government money for the rural internet initiative, has come in for criticism for delays in distributing funds to councils and for awarding every contract to BT.

"Getting fibre to rural areas is hard, and often complex, work, but we are making great progress," said Gavin Patterson, the chief executive of BT, adding that it was laying undersea cables to the Outer Hebrides, for example.

"Some of the early projects are close to completion, and further funds will be released if we come in under-budget or take-up exceeds expectations," he said.

A Commons Public Accounts Committee report criticised the government for wasting taxpayers' money by giving all of its broadband funds to BT.

The FSB has said that coverage in rural areas is "either very poor or non-existent".

Alternative providers are already in place. B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North), for example, offers broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps to about 350 homes currently. But since BT signed contracts with councils around the UK, the plug has been pulled on several community-based schemes.

Malcolm Corbett, head of the Independent Network Co-operative Association, which represents some of the smaller broadband suppliers, told the BBC: "It is great that the rollout programme is making good progress. However, there are far too many homes and businesses in both rural and urban areas that won't see any benefit for some years to come.

"Fortunately there is a growing sector of independent providers that are stepping up to fill the void," he added, citing projects like CityFibre, which is developing a portfolio to bring ultra-high-speed broadband to York, Peterborough, Coventry, Bournemouth, and more.

Andrew Ferguson, the editor of thinkbroadband.com, told the BBC that the focus was now on those 5% of people in the "most remote and hardest parts" of the UK not covered by the current plans for superfast broadband.

He said that £10m had been invested in a series of pilot projects currently under way in eight locations across the nation to work out how best to get broadband to them.

"The findings will be used to inform future funding bids to ensure everyone benefits from the transformation of the digital landscape currently under way," he added.

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Authors rally in Amazon dispute

8 August 2014 Last updated at 11:48

More than 900 authors are making a public appeal to Amazon to end a bitter publishing dispute that they say has been "hurting" writers and readers.

Authors including James Patterson and Donna Tartt have signed a letter to the retailer that is due to appear as a full-page advert in the New York Times.

Amazon is in a battle with Hachette, one of the world's biggest publishers, over the terms of e-book sales.

The authors said their books had been "taken hostage" by Amazon's tactics.

The online retailer has delayed delivery, prevented pre-orders and removed discounts for books by some Hachette authors, who include JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer and David Baldacci.

'Misleading customers'

The letter said Amazon had singled out a group of authors for "selective retaliation" and was "inconveniencing and misleading its own customers with unfair pricing and delayed delivery".

"Many of us have supported Amazon since it was a struggling start-up," the letter continued.

"Our books launched Amazon on the road to selling everything and becoming one of the world's largest corporations.

"We have made Amazon many millions of dollars and over the years have contributed so much, free of charge, to the company by way of co-operation, joint promotions, reviews and blogs.

"This is no way to treat a business partner. Nor is it the right way to treat your friends.

"Without taking sides on the contractual dispute between Hachette and Amazon, we encourage Amazon in the strongest possible terms to stop harming the livelihood of the authors on whom it has built its business."

The letter concludes by asking readers to email Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to urge him to end the dispute. The New York Times said the letter was scheduled to appear as a full-page ad on Sunday.

Amazon's price push

Other Hachette authors to have signed up include Baldacci, Sandra Brown, Jeffery Deaver, Malcolm Gladwell and Daniel Handler, who writes as Lemony Snicket.

Lee Child, Paul Auster, John Grisham, Philip Pullman and Stephen King - who are published by other houses - have also added their names.

But some of Hachette's biggest names, including Rowling and Meyer, have not.

In a recent blog, Amazon said e-books were too expensive and most should cost $9.99 (£5.95) rather than the current $14.99 (£8.92) or £19.99 (£11.90).

"That is unjustifiably high for an e-book," the company wrote.

"With an e-book, there's no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out-of-stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market - e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can be and should be less expensive."

Prices 'artificially high'

If prices were lowered, Amazon said, more books would be sold and total revenues would be higher. Hachette was also "sharing too small a portion with the author", it added.

Meanwhile, a petition in support of Amazon, which claims Hachette wants to keep e-book prices "artificially high", has attracted 7,600 signatures, including a number of self-published authors who praised the retailer for creating a more democratic industry.

One, Theresa Ragan, wrote that she had failed to get the attention of established publishers until Amazon allowed her to self-publish.

"They allowed readers to decide whether or not they wanted to read my books," she wrote. "What a concept! Since that time, I've sold over one million e-books."

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Bitcoin heist diverts net traffic

8 August 2014 Last updated at 12:51

More than $83,000 (£50,000) in virtual cash has been stolen by a thief who managed to hijack net traffic from 19 separate ISPs, say security experts.

The hijacked data was involved in the "mining pools" that generate virtual cash and keep track of who spent what.

The thief directed the results of the mining and transaction tracking to his own server so he could cash in.

Internal access to a Canadian ISP allowed the thief to divert traffic, said experts.

The theft was uncovered by security researcher Joe Stewart, who was part of one of the mining pools that was hit by the thief.

Mining pools underpin the way many different crypto currencies work. They involve people connecting up their home computers to process the information generated when virtual cash is spent, swapped or gifted.

In return for doing this hard computational work, miners are regularly rewarded with freshly minted coins.

By regularly diverting traffic passing between members of several different mining pools, the attacker was able to reap all the rewards for themselves, Mr Stewart told Wired.

"Some people are more attentive to their mining rigs than others," he said. "Many users didn't check their set-ups for weeks, and they were doing all this work on behalf of the hijacker."

The targeted hijacks only lasted 30 seconds but that was long enough to trick the collaborating computers into handing over the results of their work to the attacker.

At its height the attack netted more than $9,000 (£5,350) a day in bitcoins, dogecoins and worldcoins for the thief.

The diversion was made possible by the attacker gaining access to the internal systems at a Canadian ISP from where they were able to tell net hardware to reroute traffic.

The attack started in February but was shut down in May when it was detected.

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Chatroom 'rape' woman sent to jail

8 August 2014 Last updated at 19:14

A woman who used internet chatrooms to try to arrange for strangers to rape a former work colleague has been jailed for six years.

Joanne Berry, 30, from Grove Park, south-east London, said she liked role-play and invited men to act out violent "rape scenarios" with her.

But instead of giving her own address she gave that of the work colleague in Kent.

A judge said Berry may have held the victim responsible for losing her job.

One man tried to barge into the victim's home, but aborted the plan when he realised they had both been set up.

'Irrational vendetta'

Berry was convicted at an earlier hearing at Maidstone Crown Court of putting a person in fear of violence, assault with the intention of committing a sexual offence, common assault and attempting to cause a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.

Continue reading the main story

That (the victim) was not in fact raped or seriously sexually assaulted is entirely fortuitous"

End Quote Judge David Griffith-Jones QC

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC said Berry had developed an "irrational vendetta" against the victim who had only shown kindness towards her.

She found a chatline through which she made contact with a man known in court as "DH", who gave evidence during the trial.

Eventually Berry persuaded DH to come to "her home", knock on the door and "rape" her, but she gave him the victim's address.

The judge said her behaviour was wicked and calculating.

"That (the victim) was not in fact raped or seriously sexually assaulted is entirely fortuitous," he said.

Part of a victim impact statement was read out at court. The woman described how the ordeal had left her suffering panic attacks.

She now refuses to sit out in the garden on her own because she fears men may force their way in and she panics when someone knocks on her door.

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'Sketchy' app sparks racism row

8 August 2014 Last updated at 23:02 By Kim Gittleson BBC business reporter, New York

The BBC does not pay its staff a hardship allowance to live in New York City - but maybe it should.

That's at least according to a new app, SketchFactor, which launched on Friday.

The app uses crowd-sourced data from users to pinpoint "sketchy" areas as well as to provide safe walking directions.

It says that just down the block from the BBC's bureau here, a "random, super tall, super heavy dude" is going about giving unwanted bear hugs.

In fact, several alarming red flags pop up when one looks at the area around the bureau.

But in reading the comments, some reports are not as threatening.

"There's a homeless shelter or something that houses the poor here. The residents hang out front and never bother anyone, but it's uncomfortable as you pass an otherwise nice area," reads one.

'Tone deaf app'

It is comments like these that have landed the app's founders, Allison McGuire and Daniel Herrington, in hot water.

"White people create terrible app to avoid, um, sketchy areas" was one headline. "Want to Avoid Black Neighbourhoods? There's an App for That" was another.

The founders did not reply to a request for comment, but on their website sought to refute such claims.

"SketchFactor is a tool for anyone, anywhere, at any time," they wrote.

"We have a reporting mechanism for racial profiling, harassment, low lighting, desolate areas, weird stuff, you name it."

They add that they tested the app with 100 people in various community groups in New York.

Ms McGuire says she was inspired to create the app after living in Washington DC as a young non-profit worker.

After getting supportive feedback, she and her co-founder Mr Herrington quit their jobs and moved to New York City.

The app was a finalist in a city-sponsored BigApps competition, and has several thousand dollars in investment.

In addition to user data, the app also incorporates public crime data and trusted sources.

Crowdsourcing safety

SketchFactor is just one of many products that aim to crowdsource safety information about the areas in which users live and walk - and it is not the first to be hit with the racism label.

Last autumn, the briefly-lived GhettoTracker.com came under fire both for its name, which many found offensive, and because in labelling an area a "ghetto", it took into account user feedback and not official data such as crime rates. (It later changed its name to Good Part of Town before disappearing altogether.)

In 2012, when Microsoft was granted a patent for technology which would incorporate crime data when providing walking directions in its Bing maps service, it was dubbed the "avoid ghetto" GPS patent.

Some apps have had success by focusing more on specific communities: Nextdoor is a private social network in which users in specific neighbourhoods can communicate about local issues, including reporting crime and working with police to solve issues.

The key, say experts, are the users.

"Technology is only as good as the people who form part of its developer and user community," Seeta Pena Gangadharan, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, told the BBC.

"A tool like SketchFactor might actually be incredibly powerful for a community in building safety by allowing people to share stories but it really does depend on the context. You could imagine a community that might have a xenophobic tendencies or exclusionary tendencies to use an app like that as an extension of already existing biases."

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Uber taxi app 'competing unfairly'

1 August 2014 Last updated at 23:44

The Uber taxi app is "competing unfairly" with London's black cabs, senior Labour MP Margaret Hodge says.

She has written to Boris Johnson asking why Transport for London allows cars to take bookings through the app without a licence to operate in the capital.

Mrs Hodge claims the firm is "opting out of the UK tax regime" but Uber said it complied with "all applicable tax laws".

Thousands of taxi drivers protested against the app in June.

The smartphone app works out the cost of fares using GPS. Cab drivers say it is similar to using a taxi meter, which only they are legally entitled to do.

'Impact on livelihoods'

The app's Dutch operating company, Uber BV, does not pay tax in the UK - but Mrs Hodge said TfL could insist that it does so.

She said: "I am particularly concerned about the tax structure that Uber and others have apparently constructed and the impact this has both on the public purse and on the livelihoods of London cabbies and private hire drivers.

"This structure allows these new entrants to unfairly undercut London operators by opting out of the UK tax regime.

"TfL allows this to happen by failing to apply the appropriate regulations to Uber."

In the letter to Mr Johnson, the mayor of London, Mrs Hodge, who chairs the cross-party Commons Public Accounts Committee, added: "Surely TfL has a duty to enforce legislation that will ensure a fair and level playing field for all taxi and private hire operators?

"I would be grateful if you could set out the steps you will take to ensure that TfL does not inadvertently allow tax avoidance in London and that all taxi and private hire drivers receive a fair deal."

She has been backed by the Licensed Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA), which represents 20,000 cabbies.

'Corporate greed'

LPHCA chairman Steve Wright said: "London's taxi and private hire industries are being compromised by inconsistent licensing enforcement by TfL and the apparent ability for app-based operators like Uber to operate through an offshore tax regime.

"As well as the loss in revenue to the country, a whole industry that has a wonderful compliance record - unlike some of these new apps - is being undermined by foreign entities, working the UK tax system for corporate greed."

But an Uber spokesman said: "Uber complies with all applicable tax laws, and pays taxes in all jurisdictions, such as corporate income tax, payroll tax, sales and use tax, and VAT.

"Uber London Limited is a licensed private hire vehicle operator and recently passed the largest inspection of records ever conducted by TfL."

Chief operating officer at TfL Garrett Emmerson said he was "fully satisfied" the app was operating lawfully.

He added: "TfL's role is to licence and regulate the taxi and private hire industry in London. We do not have any powers in relation to an operator's corporate structure and how or where they pay tax."

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Tor attack may have unmasked users

30 July 2014 Last updated at 21:16 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

Developers of software used to access Tor - an otherwise hard-to-reach part of the internet - have disclosed that an attack on the network may have unmasked users for five months.

The Tor Project said that it believed the assault was designed to de-anonymise the net addresses of people operating or visiting hidden sites.

However, it said it was not sure exactly how users had been "affected".

The project added that it believed it had halted the attack on 4 July.

Tor allows people to visit webpages without being tracked and to publish sites whose contents does not show up in search engines.

The Tor Project said it believed that the infiltration had been carried out by two university researchers, who claimed at the start of July to have exploited "fundamental flaws" in Tor's design that allowed them to unmask the so-called dark net's users.

The two security experts, Alexander Volynkin and Michael McCord, had been due to give a talk at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas next week. However, the presentation was cancelled at the insistence of lawyers working for their employer, Carnegie Mellon University.

"We spent several months trying to extract information from the researchers who were going to give the Black Hat talk, and eventually we did get some hints from them... which is how we started looking for the attacks in the wild," wrote Roger Dingledine, one of the network's co-creators, on the Tor Project's blog.

"They haven't answered our emails lately, so we don't know for sure, but it seems likely that the answer to [whether they were responsible] is yes.

"In fact, we hope they were the ones doing the attacks, since otherwise it means somebody else was."

A spokesman from Carnegie Mellon University declined to comment.

Illegal activity

Tor attempts to hide a person's location and identity by sending data across the internet via a very circuitous route involving several "nodes" - which, in this context, means using volunteers' PCs and computer servers as connection points.

Encryption applied at each hop along this route makes it very hard to connect a person to any particular activity.

To the website that ultimately receives the request, it appears as if the data traffic comes from the last computer in the chain - known as an "exit relay" - rather than the person responsible.

Tor's users include the military, law enforcement officers and journalists - who use it as a way of communicating with whistle-blowers - as well as members of the public who wish to keep their browser activity secret.

But it has also been associated with illegal activity, allowing people to visit sites offering illegal drugs for sale and access to child abuse images, which do not show up in normal search engine results and would not be available to those who did not know where to look.

Two-pronged attack

The Tor Project suggests the perpetrator compromised the network via a "traffic confirmation attack".

This involves the attacker controlling both the first part of the circuit of nodes involved - known as the "entry relay" - as well as the exit relay.

By matching the volumes and timings of the data sent at one end of the circuit to those received at the other end, it becomes possible to reveal the Tor user's identity because the computer used as an entry relay will have logged their internet protocol (IP) address.

The project believes the attacker used this to reveal hidden-site visitors by adding a signal to the data sent back from such sites that included the encoded name of the hidden service.

Because the sequence of nodes in a Tor network is random, the infiltrator would not be able to track every visit to a dark net site.

Tor also has a way of protecting itself against such a danger: rather than use a single entry relay, the software involved uses a few relays chosen at random - what are known as "entry guards".

So, even if someone has control of a single entry and exit relay, they should only see a fraction of the user's traffic, making it hard to identify them.

However, the Tor Project believes the perpetrator countered this safeguard by using a second technique known as a "Sybil attack".

This involved adding about 115 subverted computer servers to Tor and ensuring they became used as entry guards. As a result, the servers accounted for more than 6% of the network's guard capacity.

This was still not enough to monitor every communication, but was potentially enough to link some users to specific hidden sites.

"We don't know how much data the attackers kept, and due to the way the attack was deployed, their... modifications might have aided other attackers in de-anonymising users too," warned Mr Dingledine.

Several government agencies are interested in having a way to unmask Tor's users.

Russia's interior ministry is currently offering a 3.9m roubles ($110,000; £65,000) prize to anyone who cracks such identities. It says it wants to protect the country's "defence and security".

A report by the German broadcaster ARD suggests US cyberspies working for the NSA have also made efforts to overcome Tor's system, despite the fact the Tor Project is partly funded by other US government departments.

And leaked documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden also indicate the UK's GCHQ has attempted to track Tor users.

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Israeli Iron Dome firms 'hacked'

31 July 2014 Last updated at 16:44 By Joe Miller Technology reporter

The BBC has seen evidence that appears to confirm hackers stole several secret military documents from two government-owned Israeli companies that developed the Iron Dome missile defence system.

The breaches were first publicised by security blogger Brian Krebs on Monday.

The companies denied their classified networks had been infiltrated.

However, the team that discovered the incidents has given the BBC access to an intelligence report, which indicates hundreds of files were indeed copied.

The documents, which were stolen over a period of many months, relate to:

• Arrow III missiles
• unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones
• ballistic rockets

Continue reading the main story

The data collected makes strong indications that the actors behind this attack originated from China"

End Quote CyberESI report

Cyber Engineering Services (CyberESI) tracked the activities of the hackers over eight months between 2011 and 2012.

It said the data taken by the hackers suggested they had been after intelligence relating to Iron Dome.

Iron Dome is a complex anti-missile defence system, which can intercept and destroy rockets and shells.

The technology has been widely credited with preventing the deaths of many Israeli civilians during the ongoing conflict with militants from Gaza.

CyberESI's report, compiled in 2013, also indicates the attacks were made using highly sophisticated tools resembling those used by Chinese hackers to infiltrate US defence firms - an attack in which the Chinese government denies any involvement.

"The data collected makes strong indications that the actors behind this attack originated from China," it says.

"This assertion is based on the activity during the past year that Cyber Engineering Services has observed on compromised networks, as well as the geo-location of the IP [internet protocol] addresses retrieving the exfiltrated data."

"The nature of exfiltrated data and the industry that these companies are involved in suggests that the Chinese hackers were after information related to Israel's all-weather air defence system called Iron Dome."

Gigabytes stolen

CyberESI, which operates out of Maryland in the US, monitored data being stolen from two leading Israeli defence contractors:

• Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a government-owned company that develops missiles and aircraft
• Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, a government-owned company established in 1948, which develops surface-to-air missiles

A spokeswoman for IAI initially confirmed to Mr Krebs the attack had taken place and been "reported to the appropriate authorities".

However IAI subsequently said the "information reported regarding the leakage of sensitive information is incorrect" and only its "civilian non-classified" network had been hacked.

A spokesman for Rafael said the company did "not recall such an incident".

But the report seen by the BBC suggests sensitive data was taken from IAI and that Rafael's network was compromised, with hackers able to deactivate security software and harvest authentication data, including passwords.

In total, the report says, gigabytes of data were stolen from the Israeli companies, including:

• word documents
• power point presentations
• spreadsheets
• PDFs
• executable (.exe) files

Some of the stolen technical documents are said by CyberESI to have contained intellectual property data and were marked as being controlled by US government International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations.

US connections

Both IAI and Rafael were heavily involved in developing the Iron Dome missile defence system, which allows Israel to intercept rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

The US, which already collaborates with Israeli firms over Arrow III - jointly designed by IAI and Boeing, now wants to invest in future versions of Iron Dome technologies.

In May 2013, the Pentagon accused China of carrying out a sophisticated cyber-spying campaign on US diplomatic, economic and defence organisations.

The raid on the Israeli companies bore similar characteristics, experts at CyberESI told the BBC, using tools that were "known to originate from" China.

The attacks were part of an advanced persistent threat (APT) - a form of highly organised and targeted hacking.

APTs have been used for industrial espionage in the past and tend to use sophisticated methods not easily available to the vast majority of cyber-thieves.

Executive emails stolen

CyberESI's report also featured a third Israeli company, Elisra, originally a US company and now a leading supplier to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Elisra, which is not involved in Iron Dome, appears to have been comprehensively infiltrated by the hackers, who stole data from folders named "Military Spacs" and "UAV" and infiltrated the email accounts belonging to the chief executive and several senior managers.

The attackers also stole passwords and sign-in details, allowing them to roam around the networks undetected.

Elisra did not respond to a BBC request for comment.

In January 2014, another security company reported that 15 Israeli defence computers had been compromised via a malicious email attachment.

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Dark net drugs ads have 'doubled'

31 July 2014 Last updated at 17:01 By Angus Crawford BBC News

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Supervisor Christian Crawford shows Angus Crawford around the postal facility in Los Angeles where US Customs try to halt the flow of illegal drugs

The number of listings offering illegal drugs for sale on the "dark net" appears to have more than doubled in less than a year, BBC News has learned.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) closed down the original online illegal drug market, Silk Road, in 2013.

But new figures suggest the trade has actually increased since then.

And other research indicates one in four British drug users has accessed hidden websites.

'Big problem'

In October 2013, there were 18,174 drugs listings across four main markets, according to the internet safety organisation Digital Citizens Alliance, based in the US.

A recent trawl of the dark net by BBC News revealed there were now 43,175 listings across 23 markets.

In this context, the term "dark net" refers to parts of the internet that cannot be reached easily unless specialised software is used.

Its content is hidden from conventional search engines such as Google and Bing. Commonly used apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Evernote - whose content does not show up in search results either - are not covered by the term.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

They are dealing in illegal drugs and they are dealing in misery"

End Quote Caroline Young, National Crime Agency

Britain's National Crime Agency recognises the drug trade on the dark net is a threat.

"It's a big problem," says Caroline Young, deputy director of the NCA's Organised Crime Command.

"In our threat assessment we have cocaine and heroin as a high priority, and because it's cyber-enabled that makes it even more of a high priority."

However, she said the figures might be misleading.

"The numbers of vendors in the UK has reduced by 40%, each vendor may have more than one listing," she says.

One internet safety campaigner was concerned by the findings.

"We still think the internet can be a wonderful tool for consumers and businesses, but we do worry good people and companies get caught up in the web spun by criminals and rogue operators," said Adam Benson, deputy executive director of Digital Citizens Alliance.

"That will slowly erode the trust and confidence we have in the internet."

The dealer's view

After months of negotiations, a dark net drug dealer based outside the UK agreed to answer my questions.

He would only do it anonymously and using encrypted messages.

"To us the dark net is all about anonymity and freedom," he said.

I put it to him that he was still selling dangerous substances and supporting organised crime.

"A street dealer could sell you anything without you knowing what it is exactly," he replied.

"Because of the strong community on the dark net, this almost never happens. And when it happens, the vendor in question will lose all of his clients."

He added that the online drugs trade showed no signs of reducing.

"I've seen the dark net market grow almost exponentially."

Undesired publicity

Californian Ross Ulbricht was arrested last year and is awaiting trial charged with being the administrator of the original Silk Road site, which he denies.

Customers and dealers used encrypted email and paid using the virtual currency Bitcoin, which can be hard to track.

The FBI seized the site and confiscated all funds.

But some observers say that has only increased interest in the markets.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

No-one's going to find out who I am, I just feel safe using it"

End Quote Sam Dark net drugs buyer

Deepdotweb.com is a website that observes developments on the hidden web.

A representative from the site said: "The Silk Road bust was the best advertising the dark net markets could have hoped for."

Anonymous network

One of the most popular access methods for the dark net is the TorBrowser.

It allows people to use Tor, an "onion-routing" system that makes a PC's net address untraceable.

It bounces encrypted data through several randomly selected computer servers on a volunteer network - before it reaches its destination.

There are also many hidden sites on the network ending in the dot-onion suffix, including drugs markets.

Tor was first created by the US military and is now also used by pro-democracy campaigners, whistleblowers and journalists operating under repressive regimes.

But criminals too are taking advantage of its anonymity.

Cocaine clicks

One buyer agreed to talk to me, but only if his identity was hidden.

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Views from both sides of the internet drugs market

Sam, not his real name, admitted he used to buy drugs from a dealer in London.

"I bought cannabis, around every two to three weeks from a street vendor, it was pretty terrifying," he said.

He then showed me the cannabis he bought online - it was delivered to his house by first-class post.

"I don't have to reveal my identity at all, it's completely anonymous, no-one's going to find out who I am, I just feel safe using it."

And there is evidence he is part of a growing number of people going online to buy illegal drugs.

The Global Drug Survey has taken place each year since 1999.

For the 2014 survey, more than 79,000 people worldwide were questioned about their drug habits.

Some 25% of British respondents said they had accessed dark net drugs markets.

The survey's founder, Adam Winstock, said it was just like the growth of any e-commerce.

"Better quality, better range, more convenient," he said, "and certainly in the case of drugs, avoiding having to come into contact with dealers."

Targeting dealers

Those who observe the dark net believe sales will continue to grow.

Deepdotweb.com expects methods may change.

"We will see movements toward decentralised markets as they have better potential for being safer, are impossible to shut down, and can provide better solutions for handling transactions," said its editor, who asked to remain anonymous.

Britain's National Crime Agency says it will do all it can to disrupt the trade.

"We will use all and every tool and technique we possibly can," said Caroline Young.

"Whether they are dealers and buyers online or on the street - they are exactly the same.

"They are dealing in illegal drugs and they are dealing in misery."

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