North Korea struggles to stay online

23 December 2014 Last updated at 16:57

North Korea appears to have suffered a second internet blackout, according to internet performance measuring firm Dyn Research.

On its Twitter feed, the firm reported a second outage this afternoon - which was restored less than an hour later.

"Internet of North Korea down again at 15.41 UTC. Second blackout since last night's restoration of service," the tweet read.

The first outage saw large parts of the internet unavailable in North Korea.

Officials have not yet commented on the issue.

Speculation is rife about the source of the blackouts, following a cyber security row with the US.

China has denounced reports suggesting it was responsible. US officials have not commented on any possible American involvement.

The US had said it would launch a proportional response to the hacking of Sony Pictures, after an FBI investigation appeared to show that North Korea was behind the hack attack which led to films and private emails being leaked online.

The Interview, which depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was cancelled by Sony following threats from hackers.

Korean net

Internet services in North Korea were down for around nine and a half hours in the first outage, according to Dyn Research.

Some questioned how much an outage would affect a country where normal citizens have little access to the web.

Although many have computers and smartphones, they only have access to a government-approved intranet. Access to the world wide web is reserved for a trusted elite in North Korean society.

North Korea's internet is handled by state-run company Star Join Ventures which is routed through Chinese telecommunications firm China Unicom.

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Video games 'should be in Olympics'

24 December 2014 Last updated at 12:46

Competitive video gaming - known as e-sports - should be included in the Olympic Games, the creator of World of Warcraft has told the BBC.

Rob Pardo, who until July was chief creative officer at Blizzard Entertainment, said "sport" now had a broad definition.

"Video games are well positioned to be a spectator sport," he told Afternoon Edition on BBC 5live.

Professional e-sports events currently attract audiences of millions.

A recent major final held in Seoul, South Korea, filled a stadium of 40,000 people - with many more watching either online or at meet-ups around the world.

"There's a very good argument for e-sports being in the Olympics," said Mr Pardo, who was also lead designer on Starcraft: Brood War, a game often credited with kickstarting the e-sports phenomenon.

"I think the way that you look at e-sports is that it's a very competitive skillset and you look at these professional gamers and the reflexes are lightning quick and they're having to make very quick decisions on the fly.

"When you look at their 'actions per minute', they're clearing over 300."

However, he conceded that video gaming faced a cultural battle to win over those who followed more physical sports.

"That starts getting into how you define sport," he said.

"If you want to define sport as something that takes a lot of physical exertion, then it's hard to argue that video games should be a sport, but at the same time, when I'm looking at things that are already in the Olympics, I start questioning the definition."

'Mind sport'

Having new sports admitted into the Olympic roster is a long-winded process and, since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) capped the number of sports allowed in the Games, has become increasingly difficult.

Even if e-sports were to be recognised as an Olympic sport, that does not mean they would be included in the Games - it merely means a case can be presented to the IOC.

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Thousands turned up for the League of Legends World Championship in Seoul

Take chess, for instance. Supporters of the game have long called for its inclusion the Games, but the IOC has been reluctant, considering it a "mind sport" and therefore not welcome in the Games.

Video games face the same hurdle, but have done their best to at least act like a sport, by adding measures such as an anti-doping programme.

Mr Pardo argues that e-sports could be visually appealing to a broad audience.

"You can do whatever you want with the graphics, you can make it be really exciting and competitive," he said.

The full interview with Rob Pardo can be listened to via the Let's Talk About Tech podcast. Download it here.

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Alibaba spends $160m fighting fakes

24 December 2014 Last updated at 03:34

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba says it has spent more than $160m (£103m) fighting fake goods on its websites from the beginning of 2013 to November of this year.

The company will add another 200 people next year to the 2,000 workers tackling counterfeit goods on its sites.

That is in addition to the 5,400 volunteers who are already involved in its daily online surveillance plan.

The prevalence of fake goods in China is still a big problem.

Before its record-setting $25bn listing in New York, the world's largest e-commerce company had said in its IPO prospectus that counterfeits goods could hurt its ability to win customers, investors and US retail partners.

In comparison, US e-commerce site eBay said in a court filing in 2010 that it spends up to $20m a year on "buyer protection programs" such as reimbursing buyers for fake goods bought on its site.

'Serious' battle

"We bear a serious responsibility in this fight against counterfeits," said Jonathan Lu, chief executive of Alibaba Group in a statement on Tuesday.

"Jack Ma [company's chairman] said yesterday - if e-commerce does well in China, that may have little to do with Alibaba Group, but if counterfeits in society are not tackled effectively, it has a lot to do with Alibaba Group."

The tech giant's retail businesses were listed on the US Trade Representatives list of "notorious markets" for intellectual property (IP) infringement until 2012.

China and Hong Kong accounted for 93% of the value of IP-infringing goods seized by US customs in the 2013 fiscal year, according to a government report.

While Alibaba has been aggressive in its push to remove knock-offs from its sites, the mission has been an uphill battle.

Last month, when the company's annual Singles' Day saw over $9bn in sales, the official State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) conducted an investigation on counterfeits sold that day.

It said more than 10% of the goods that it bought online from retailers were fake or highly suspicious.

Alibaba said it had co-operated with Chinese authorities in over 1,000 counterfeiting cases just this year.

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Lin to direct next Star Trek outing

23 December 2014 Last updated at 10:43

Film-maker Justin Lin is to direct the next instalment of the Star Trek movie franchise, it has been confirmed.

Lin, whose previous credits include four instalments of the Fast and Furious series, replaces Roberto Orci, who recently pulled out of the role.

JJ Abrams, who made the first two reboots of the sci-fi series, stepped down to make the new Star Wars film.

A release for the third Star Trek prequel - or "threequel" - has not been set by Hollywood film studio Paramount.

However, there has been speculation that it will come out in 2016 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Star Trek television series.

Casting details are not confirmed, but actors who starred in the first two outings, including Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, are expected to return.

Star Trek Into Darkness, released in 2013, made more than $467m (£278m) worldwide. It co-starred Benedict Cumberbatch as villain Khan.

The first prequel, looking at the younger lives of its famous characters, was released in 2009.

Orci, who was due to make his directorial debut on the project, is co-writing the script.

Orci, along with Abrams, will continue to be on board as producers.

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Sony warns Twitter over leaked emails

Sony Pictures Entertainment is threatening to sue Twitter if the company doesn't suspend accounts containing links to hacked emails.

The film company's lawyer David Boies has sent a letter to the social network demanding that accounts sharing information be shut down.

US website Motherboard has posted a letter sent from Boies to Twitter.

In it one user is singled out, Val Broeksmit, who tweets screenshots of Sony emails as @BikiniRobotArmy.

In the letter to Twitter, Sony's lawyer says Twitter should "comply with all future requests with regard to any other account holder seeking to disseminate the Stolen Information via Twitter".

The letter also asks the network to send a copy to @BikiniRobotArmy user Val Broeksmit, advising him to stop publishing stolen information.

It continues: "If Twitter does not comply with this request, and the Stolen Information continues to be disseminated by Twitter in any manner, SPE will have no choice but to hold Twitter responsible for any damage or loss arising from such use or dissemination by Twitter."

Sony Pictures warned some American news outlets about using information from leaked emails earlier this month after its internal computer system was hacked.

The US accused North Korea of orchestrating the cyber-attack on the company in November, although the country has denied that.

The hack resulted in unreleased films and the script for the next James Bond movie being leaked online.

Details of corporate finances and private emails between producers and Hollywood figures were also released.

It also led Sony to cancel the Christmas release of The Interview, a film about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Meanwhile, North Korea's entire internet went down early on Tuesday.

The US had warned the country that it would launch a proportional response to the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures but would not comment on any American involvement in the outages.

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

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E-books 'damage sleep and health'

23 December 2014 Last updated at 00:45 By James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website

If you curl up under the duvet with an e-book for a bedtime read then you are damaging your sleep and maybe your health, US doctors have warned.

A team from Harvard Medical School compared reading paper books and light-emitting e-readers before sleep.

They found it took longer to nod off with a back-lit e-reader, which led to poorer quality sleep and being more tired the next morning.

Original Kindle readers do not emit light so should be fine, say experts.

Experts said people should minimise light-exposure in the evening.

Whether you are perusing the Man Booker shortlist or leafing through Zoella, the impact of reading on your sleep is probably the last thing on your mind.

But there has been growing concern about the dangers of light before bedtime.

Body clock

Our bodies are kept in tune with the rhythm of day and night by an internal body clock, which uses light to tell the time.

But blue light, the wavelength common in smartphones, tablets and LED lighting, is able to disrupt the body clock.

Blue light in the evening can slow or prevent the production of the sleep hormone melatonin.

Twelve people were locked in a sleep laboratory for two weeks.

They spent five days reading from a paperback and five days from an iPad.

Regular blood samples showed the production of the sleep hormone melatonin was reduced by reading an e-book.

People also took longer to fall asleep, had less deep sleep and were more tired the next morning.

The researchers said other e-readers such as the Nook and Kindle Fire produced similar wavelengths of light and would have the same impact.

The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

'Concern'

Lead researcher Prof Charles Czeisler told the BBC News website: "The light emitted by most e-readers is shining directly into the eyes of the reader, whereas from a printed book or the original Kindle, the reader is only exposed to reflected light from the pages of the book."

He said disrupting sleep in turn affected health.

"Sleep deficiency has been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes, and cancer.

"Thus, the melatonin suppression that we saw in this study among participants when they were reading from the light-emitting e-reader concerns us."

Sleep hygiene

Dr Victoria Revell, who researches the impact of light on the body at the University of Surrey, told the BBC: "This is a very good study and I think it's really interesting.

"We should be advising people to minimise their [light-emitting e-reader] use in the evening, particularly teenagers who are a group that are using their phones and tablets late in to the evening."

Teenagers naturally have a late body clock, which makes them slow to rise in the morning and up late at night.

"People who already have a delayed body clock are delaying themselves much further and that is a very important message," Dr Revell added.

Prof Czeisler agreed, saying there was "special concern" for teenagers who were already sleep deficient by being forced to get up early for school.

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Apple automates bug update for Macs

23 December 2014 Last updated at 11:29

Apple has sent out its first automatic security update for Mac computers as researchers warn about new bugs.

Previously Apple has released security patches through its regular software update system which requires user approval.

The latest bugs were so severe it felt it needed to get customers protected immediately, the firm said.

"The update is seamless. It doesn't even require a restart," Apple spokesman Bill Evans told Reuters.

The Mac bugs were mentioned in security bulletins issued last week by the Department of Homeland Security and the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute.

It identified dozens of technology companies, including Apple, whose products might be vulnerable.

The vulnerability targets a component of its OS X operating system called the network time protocol (NTP) which is used for synchronising clocks on computer systems.

The protocol is a global method of synchronising time over a network and has previously been exploited by hackers.

Microsoft has been offering automatic updates for security flaws for some time.

Apple developed technology for automatically pushing out security updates two years ago but has never previously used it.

The firm said that it did not know of any cases where hackers had exploited the bug.

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