UK signs up to online safety plan

25 January 2013 Last updated at 07:59 ET By Anthony Reuben Business reporter, BBC News, Davos

The UK government has signed up to an initiative to help countries and companies work together to make themselves safer from cyber attacks.

It is the latest signatory of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Partnering for Cyber Resilience initiative.

Speaking at Davos, UK Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said nations had to work together to tackle what was one of the top four threats to the UK.

Brussels is due to make an announcement on the subject on 7 February.

Mr Maude said protection against cyber crime was currently not as strong as that against things like terrorism or tackling the drugs trade.

"Only by working together can we ensure the world can continue to realise the benefits of the internet," he said.

European Union digital commissioner Neelie Kroes said measures to be introduced in February would require EU member states to cooperate with each other.

The WEF principles requite signatories to recognise the importance of cooperation, develop risk management programmes and encourage partners and suppliers to adopt the same commitments.

Mr Maude quoted Ian Livingstone, chief executive of BT as saying, "There are two types of chief executives: those that know they've been attacked and those that don't."

'Like an epidemic'

The minister stressed that hacking was already illegal so what was needed was for companies to work together to fight the threats.

Earlier this month, a committee of MPs warned that the UK was being complacent about the threat to national security from a cyber attack on the armed forces.

Cyber attacks threaten governments, companies and individuals, which all rely on internet access.

Without protection, hackers may be able to prevent any of them using online services or steal sensitive information.

Jolyon Barker from Deloitte, who advises WEF on the subject, said the cyber threat was "like a disease epidemic - if you don't get inoculated you put everyone at risk".

He said the key was to train employees to act responsibly to stop hackers being able to gain access to networks, plan how you would inform other companies of an attack, and prepare how you would keep the company going under attack.

He added that the security work was critical if things like banking services on mobile phones or online voting were to catch on.

John Herring, founder of a mobile app called Lookout, said that the mobile word was crucial to maximising cyber security.

"Everything is becoming connected - there are devices you wear that keep track of your heart rate and thermostats that connect through wifi - so cellular infrastructure has become critical infrastructure," he said.

"We're starting to see bad guys migrating to mobile."

Lookout uses reports of problems with other apps to warn other users' mobile devices of a potential threat.

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US ends phone unlocking amnesty

25 January 2013 Last updated at 11:53 ET

From Saturday, Americans will have to get permission to "unlock" their smartphone so it runs on more than one mobile network.

On that date a 90-day time limit that made it legal to unlock phones without permission is due to expire.

Many Americans unlocked their phones to avoid running up big bills when travelling outside the US.

An online petition has been started asking for unlocking without permission to be made permanently legal.

In October 2012, a change was made to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that temporarily allowed owners to unlock their smartphones without the need to ask their network beforehand.

Prior to the change, owners were typically charged a fee when they asked their operator to unlock a phone. Alternatively, users could buy unlocked versions of smartphones from manufacturers, but these handsets were typically more expensive than those locked to one network.

When Saturday's deadline passes, users will again have to seek permission.

However, it is not clear what action will be taken against customers who ignore the law. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which campaigns on digital issues, said in an email to Tech News Daily it should be up to the courts not the government to decide to what the DMCA applies.

In addition, many online services have sprung up that unlock phones for a small fee and some have said the change will have no effect on them.

Also, some US operators, such as Verizon, unlock all phones of a particular type they sell. AT&T is known to unlock all phones on an expired contract for its network.

So far, about 3,500 people have signed a petition on the White House website asking for unlocking to be legal all the time - 100,000 signatures are needed before the US government responds.

Unlocking a phone is distinct from a practice known as "jail-breaking" that opens up a phone so software from unofficial sources can be run on it. Jail-breaking remains legal in the US.

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Glasgow wins 'smart city' cash

25 January 2013 Last updated at 06:32 ET Continue reading the main story

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Traffic

Crime

Footfall

Energy

Transport

Reporting problems

Traffic

A more joined up use of CCTV and traffic management will enable authorities to react more quickly to deal with road incidents and traffic congestion.

Crime

Better use of CCTV camera technology will feed back to control centres, with the aim of preventing and reducing anti-social behaviour.

Footfall

Real-time information could allow shoppers to see how busy areas of the city are.

Energy

Weather conditions and energy levels across the city will be monitored. Energy will be stored when demand is low and used when demand is higher.

Transport

A smartphone app will allow Glaswegians to get real-time views of traffic levels on roads and up-to-date information on bus and train times.

Reporting problems

A smartphone app will allow people to report issues like pot holes, graffiti or missing bin collections directly to the council with a GPS location.

Glasgow has won a £24m UK government grant intended to make it one of the UK's first smart cities.

It will use the money on projects to demonstrate how a city of the future might work.

They will include better services for Glaswegians, with real-time information about traffic and apps to check that buses and trains are on time.

The council will also create an app for reporting issues such as potholes and missing bin collections.

Other services promised by the council include linking up the CCTV cameras across the city with its traffic management unit in order to identify traffic incidents faster.

It will use analytical software and security cameras to help identify and prevent crime in the city and monitor energy levels to find new ways of providing gas and electricity to poorer areas where fuel poverty is a big issue.

Glasgow will not be the UK's only smart city. Others including Birmingham, Sunderland and London are beginning to roll out technologies to make services work more smartly.

Continue reading the main story

What is a smart city?

Both old and new cities around the globe are starting to get smarter, joining up services and collecting data in order to improve city life for both government and citizens.

Technology firms such as IBM, Siemens and Cisco are busy touting services that promise to streamline traffic management, rubbish collections and street lights.

Data is seen as key to making cities smarter and a network of sensors aims to connect everything to the network and create new services for citizens.

Alongside the solutions being offered by technology firms are more community-developed apps that use the power of the crowd to, for instance, offer real-time maps of city traffic flow.

Next month the BBC will be running a series of features looking at smart cities around the world.

The grant was offered by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), a body set up by the government in 2007 to stimulate technology-enabled innovation.

Its Future Cities Demonstrator, as the prize is known, is intended to act as a blueprint for other cities.

"Glasgow has some quite extreme challenges - it has the lowest life expectancy of any city in the UK for instance - and the hope is that if we bring together energy, transport, public safety and health it will make it more efficient and a better place to live," said Scott Cain, the TSB's project leader for Future Cities.

All data collected in the project will be available so that other cities can see it.

"The thinking behind it is to have somewhere in the UK where firms can look at the efficiencies, the investments and how you can address the challenges of a city," he added.

Thriving economy

Glasgow was among 30 cities in the UK bidding for the money, with the shortlist including London, Peterborough and Bristol.

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts was in Glasgow to make the announcement.

"With more people than ever before living in our cities, they need to be able to provide people with a better quality of life and a thriving economy," he said.

"From transport systems to energy use and health, this demonstrator will play a key part in the government's industrial strategy and give real insight into how our cities can be shaped in the future," he added.

Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon welcomed the news.

She said: "Generations of talented Scots have helped cement Glasgow's global reputation for innovation and creativity, and I am delighted the city has won its bid to secure the £24m Future Cities demonstrator."

Councillor Gordon Matheson, leader of Glasgow City Council, added: "This is a huge boost to Glasgow's ambitions to build a better future for our city and its people.

"By linking everything from foot and vehicle traffic to council tax collection and hospital waiting lists we can ensure we are being as innovative and smart to meet the continued challenges of a modern and future city life."

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Apple audit finds under-age workers

25 January 2013 Last updated at 06:48 ET

Apple has terminated a contract with Chinese circuit board manufacturer PZ after discovering 74 under-age workers were working there.

The workers, who were all under 16, had been supplied by a regional recruitment company who gave them fake identity papers, the tech giant said.

They have since been returned to their families.

Apple has carried out 393 audits of its suppliers for its latest investigation into staff working conditions.

The recruitment company, named in the report as Shenzhen Quanshun Human Resources Co Ltd, has had its business licence revoked by the regional government as a result of the findings, Apple claims.

Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics Co Ltd, more commonly known as PZ, makes "a standard circuit board component used by many other companies in other industries", according to the report.

Apple eventually hopes to eradicate child labour from the technology manufacturing sector completely, senior vice-president of operations Jeff Williams told Reuters.

"We go deep in the supply chain to find it," he said.

"And when we do find it, we ensure that the under-age workers are taken care of, the suppliers are dealt with."

The report also claims that 92% of the 1.5 million workers covered by the audit worked a maximum of 60 hours per week.

In October 2012, China-based iPhone and iPad manufacturer Foxconn admitted hiring 14-year-old interns in one of its factories

"We recognise that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologised to each of the students for our role in this action," the electronics manufacturer said in a statement.

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Skype privacy called into question

25 January 2013 Last updated at 08:07 ET

Microsoft is under fresh pressure to disclose information about how confidential its Skype user data is.

Reporters Without Borders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and 43 other campaign groups have signed a letter asking the firm to reveal details about what information is stored and government efforts to access it.

Google, Twitter and others already provide such transparency reports.

Microsoft is to consider the request.

"We are reviewing the letter," a spokeswoman said. "Microsoft has an ongoing commitment to collaborate with advocates, industry partners and 2,112 governments worldwide to develop solutions and promote effective public policies that help protect people's online safety and privacy."

Report request

More than 600 million people use Skype to make voice and video calls and send text and audio messages. Microsoft is currently in the process of migrating users from its Windows Live Messenger product to the service.

The US firm took control of Skype in 2011. Since then, the letter alleges, it has issued "persistently unclear and confusing" details about how confidential conversations on the service were.

Among the details the campaign groups want Microsoft to provide are:

• Details of how many requests for data each country's government has made and the percentage that the firm complies with.
• Information about exactly what information Microsoft keeps itself.
• The firm's own analysis about the current ability of third-parties to intercept conversations.
• The policy its staff has for dealing with disclosure requests.

Privacy policies

Skype last commented in detail about privacy issues in a blog post last July.

It said that Skype-to-Skype calls between two participants did not flow through its data centres meaning it would not have access to the video or audio.

It also noted that calls made between two devices using its software would be encrypted - limiting the ability of anyone to make sense of the data even if they could listen in.

However, Microsoft acknowledged that group calls using more than two computers did pass through its servers which were used to "aggregate the media streams", and that text-based messages were also stored on its computers for up to 30 days in order to make sure they were synchronised across users' various devices.

"If a law enforcement entity follows the appropriate procedures and we are asked to access messages stored temporarily on our servers, we will do so," it added.

Microsoft also noted that calls which linked Skype to mobile or landline telephone networks would flow through the relevant networks' equipment, potentially offering an opportunity to tap in.

Furthermore it recognised that a China-only version of its service involved certain chats being stored and uploaded to the local authorities in compliance with the country's laws.

Surveillance efforts

Beyond China, several governments have signalled they want to have access to Skype data.

The UK's draft Communications Data Bill suggests internet service providers retain information about their subscribers' use of Skype and other internet communications tools.

The Cnet news site reported last year that the FBI had drafted an amendment to US law which would require Microsoft and other net chat tool providers to create surveillance backdoors in their products.

More recently the netzpolitik.org blog published what it said was a leaked document from Germany's government stating that its Federal Criminal Police Office was working on surveillance software to allow it to track Skype and other data communications. It said the agency hoped to have it ready by 2014.

An expenditure report by the country's Ministry of Home Affairs suggests the local authorities have already spent money to try to monitor Skype using third-party software.

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Antigua applies to run 'pirate' site

25 January 2013 Last updated at 09:00 ET

Antigua is seeking permission to run a website that sells music, movies and software - but ignores copyright law.

The Caribbean island is due to appear before the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 28 January seeking permission to run the site.

The decision to set up the site is the end point of a long-running dispute with the US over gambling.

The US has objected to Antigua's plan saying it amounted to official "piracy" of intellectual property.

Officials from Antigua will make their plea before the WTO's dispute settlement body on Monday to get "final authorisation" to set up the site, Mark Mendel, a lawyer representing the island nation told the BBC.

Antigua went to the WTO after the US moved to stop American citizens using gambling services, including web-based betting shops and casinos, run from the Caribbean country. Antigua claims that action deprived it of billions of dollars in revenue.

The WTO agreed with Antigua and dismissed a US appeal against its ruling. However, because the US took no action to lift the controls on cross-border gambling Antigua filed an application to recoup its lost cash by other means.

'Official pirates'

It sought permission to sell movies, music, games and software via a store that would be able to ignore global agreements on copyright and trademark controls, reports filesharing news site TorrentFreak. It wanted to be able to sell up to $3.4bn (£2.15bn) of those goods before having to make copyright payments.

The WTO rejected that figure, but said Antigua could sell $21m (£13.2m) annually via the store before it had to consider paying copyright fees. The US is believed to have offered to pay Antigua $500,000 annually as compensation for the lost revenue.

The US has also written to the WTO criticising Antigua's plans. In a letter to the WTO, excerpted on the Caribbean 360 news website, it said the plan amounted to "government-authorised piracy".

It also warned that if Antigua did go ahead with its plan "it would only serve to postpone the final resolution of this matter, to the detriment of Antigua's own interests".

Mr Mendel added that just because Antigua had permission to run the site did not mean it would go on to set it up.

"When or exactly how it will do so is within the government's discretion and will be considered and taken or not in due course," he said.

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One in four new phones a Samsung

25 January 2013 Last updated at 09:04 ET

Samsung accounted for one in four of all mobile phones shipped worldwide last year, as its shipments rose nearly 20% to 396.5 million, a report says.

Apple's phone shipments grew by 46% to a record 135.8 million mobile phones worldwide in 2012.

But Nokia's global phone shipments fell by 20% from 417.1 million units in 2011 to 335.6 million.

Overall, total shipments grew by 2% annually to reach 1.6 billion units in 2012, according to Strategy Analytics.

Neil Shah, senior analyst at the research firm, said: "Ongoing macroeconomic challenges in mature markets like North America and Western Europe, tighter operator upgrade policies, and shifting consumer tastes" were among the reasons for the modest global growth figure.

He added: "Fuelled by robust demand for its popular Galaxy models, Samsung was the star performer, shipping a record 396.5 million mobile phones worldwide and capturing 25% market share to solidify its first-place lead.

"However, Samsung's total volumes for the year fell just short of the 400-million threshold."

Global mobile handset shipments (2012)
Company	Units (millions)	Market share
Source: Strategy Analytics
Samsung	396.5	25.2%
Nokia	335.6	21.3%
Apple	135.8	8.6%
ZTE	71.7	4.6%
Other	635.4	40.3%

Meanwhile Strategy Analytics said global smartphone shipments grew by 43% annually to a record 700 million units in last year.

Global smartphone shipments for the full year reached a record 700.1 million units in 2012, from 490.5 million units in 2011, but there were signs that shipments of smartphones began to mature in developed regions such as North America and Western Europe.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

In little over 24 hours we have seen results from three of the biggest players in smartphones - which may now be the world's most important industry"

End Quote

Once again Samsung had the biggest market share, at 30% worldwide and extending its lead over Apple and Nokia.

The research comes as Samsung reported a 76% jump in profits for the last three months of 2012, helped by sales of its Galaxy smartphones.

Net income rose to a record 7.04tn won ($6.6bn; £4.2bn), up from 4.01tn won in the same period a year earlier, beating analysts' expectations.

The Korean firm said its mobile profits more than doubled over the same period.

Last year, Samsung became the world's biggest smartphone maker, overtaking Apple, its main rival in the sector.This week Apple also reported quarterly results, showing flat profits, unchanged from a year earlier at $13.1bn, and record quarterly revenue of $55bn.

But it was not enough to overcome disappointment over sales of the company's new iPhone 5, as analysts said the firm was in danger of becoming a victim of its own success.

The firm said late on Wednesday it had sold more iPhones (47.8 million) and iPads (22.9 million) in the final three months of last year than in any previous quarter, but investors had expected more.

'Emerging markets'

"If you look at Apple, their position of strength in the smartphone market has generally been in Europe and North America, " said Mark Newman, head telecoms analyst at research firm Informa.

"A lot of their continued growth will be in emerging markets, in Bric countries such as Brazil, India and China. There has certainly been this feeling that Samsung is catching up up, and overtaking Apple in terms of sales."

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Bryan Glick, Computer Weekly: "Samsung have products which can match Apple... but they've also got lower-end phones"

Meanwhile Nokia, the struggling Finnish mobile phone maker which once dominated the global mobile market, said on Thursday that it had swung back into profit in the last three months of 2012.

Pre-tax profit for the quarter was 375m euros (£316m), against a 974m-euro loss last year. Nokia said it sold 15.9 million smartphones in the quarter, down from 19.6 million a year earlier.

"We have seen Nokia hit rock bottom but there are now some gentle signs of a recovery," said Mr Newman.

He said in that the smartphone marketplace Apple and Samsung currently occupied the top tier, with "many players vying for position in the mid-range marketplace," including Nokia, and others such as LG, Motorola, HTC. and Sony.

"This is an extremely competitive place, and it is difficult to see any of these brands capturing the mid-market, which is so fragmented," added Mr Newman.

He said at the bottom end of the smartphone market there was "pent-up demand" for a phone retailing at about 100 euros, and Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE were "making most of the running here".

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