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Russia backtracks on net proposal

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 11 Desember 2012 | 23.43

11 December 2012 Last updated at 06:44 ET

Russian-backed proposals calling for 193 countries to be given "equal rights to manage the internet" have been pulled at a UN conference in Dubai.

The US had threatened to block the suggested additions to an international communications treaty.

It wants the treaty to make minimal reference to the internet, warning to do otherwise risks state interference.

Russia and its partners are now redrafting their document and are expected to submit it later.

Attendees at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (Wcit) have until Friday to renegotiate the 24-year-old treaty.

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Regulators and other delegates have until 14 December to agree which proposals to adopt.

More than 900 changes to the International Telecommunication Regulations have been put forward.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) highlights proposals to block spam messages, cut mobile roaming fees and prioritise emergency calls as some of the event's key topics.

There have been accusations of "secrecy" because the ITU had left it to individual countries to publish proposals rather than release them itself.

Two sites - Wcitleaks and .nxt - have gathered together related documents from a variety of sources but many are still unpublished.

The resulting treaty will become part of international law, however the ITU itself recognises that there is no legal mechanism to force countries to comply.

The UN agency hosting the event - the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - had earlier pledged not to put any disputed changes to a majority vote, saying there had to be full consensus.

Internet addresses

Russia had first put forward its net governance proposal ahead of the conference, but it emerged on Friday that it had found support from other countries.

The United Arab Emirates announced the details would be submitted to the ITU at the beginning of this week. But before that could happen a draft of the proposals was published by website Wcitleaks.

It revealed that the UAE, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Sudan were the other countries signed up to the so-called "compromise document".

Wcitleaks also named Egypt, but it issued a statement to say that it did not support the proposals.

One of the most controversial suggestions was a call for member states to be given equal rights to manage "internet numbering, naming, addressing and identification resources".

This would mark potentially mark a shift from the current system in which the US government decides who runs the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (Iana) - the body responsible for regulating the net's address system.

It has this power as a legacy of its funding for Arpanet - a precursor to the internet which helped form its technical core.

While some other countries see this as an anachronism, the US says it allows it to ensure that technical experts can make "agile, rapid-fire decisions" about the net's development as part of multi-stakeholder organisations, and to change this would risk the process getting slowed down by bureaucracy.

It also makes a wider point that attempts to add sections to the treaty about the internet could later by used by governments to legitimise interference into the operations of internet service providers (ISPs) and cloud-based operations such as Google or Facebook, "opening the door to censorship".

However, others says the references are needed to help countries co-ordinate cybersecurity and anti-spam efforts.

Revised proposals

After the US made clear that it would oppose the document's proposals its backers subsequently decided not to file it in its current state.

The ITU says it expects an amended version will be delivered later, but adds that it will not released it for public view until it has been translated into a range of other languages.

The US gave a guarded response to the news.

"While this is a welcome development, these issues will continue to be on the table for discussion in other forms during the remainder of the conference," said the US ambassador to Wcit, Terry Kramer.

"The United States will continue to make the case that Wcit should maintain the scope of the international telecommunication regulations and resist proposals to extent that scope into internet governance or content."

The Russia-backed group has not issued a statement at this time, however the ITU stresses that if the revised document is still opposed by the US, it will not be adopted.

"If it contains text that doesn't have majority support it won't be acceptable to the conference," a spokeswoman told the BBC.

"So they're trying to remove the bits that people won't agree to and see where people might be prepared to bend a little bit."


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Police warn over Apple Maps error

10 December 2012 Last updated at 07:13 ET

Inaccuracies in Apple Maps could be "life-threatening" to motorists in Australia's searing heat, police have warned.

Officers in Mildura, Victoria, say they have had to assist drivers stranded after following the software's directions.

Some of the drivers had been without food or water for 24 hours.

Apple's software was heavily criticised by users when it was released in September.

Last week, chief executive Tim Cook admitted Apple had "screwed up" and was working to improve the program.

'No water supply'

In a press release, Victoria police's acting senior sergeant Sharon Darcy made her force's concerns clear.

"Tests on the mapping system by police confirm the mapping systems lists Mildura in the middle of the Murray Sunset National Park, approximately 70km [45 miles] away from the actual location of Mildura," she said.

"Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the park and temperatures can reach as high as 46[C], making this a potentially life-threatening issue."

The force advised travellers to use an alternative mapping service until the issues had been fixed.

In September, Apple dropped Google Maps from its iOS software in favour of its own mapping program. However, users were quick to complain it contained many inaccuracies, poor imagery and unreliable directions.

The company defended the software at first, telling users it was "confident about our map quality".

However, Apple soon backtracked, posting an apology notice on its website.

"We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better," said Mr Cook.

A specially created section on the App Store highlighted alternative mapping software. However, an app for Google Maps has yet to be made available - although some reports suggest one is in its testing phase.

The fall-out from Apple Maps saw high-profile senior executives leave the company.

GPS vulnerability

Apple's mapping woes come as researchers at Carnegie Mellon University warned about newly discovered vulnerabilities in the world's Global Positioning System (GPS).

The research paper suggested that just $2,500 (£1,500) of equipment could be used to knock out 30% of systems supporting "safety and life-critical applications".

The researchers proposed "defences such as hardening GPS software against RF [radio frequency] and network attacks, as well as an attack detection system".

They added: "Until GPS is secured, life and safety-critical applications that depend upon it are likely vulnerable to attack."


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Iran launches web video channel

10 December 2012 Last updated at 07:41 ET

Iran has launched a new website for citizens to share short videos.

The website is called Mehr, which means affection in Farsi, and is run by the state broadcaster IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting).

Iran already has a popular local video channel called Aparat, which is run by the same company behind Iranian social network Cloob.

YouTube, operated by Google, has been blocked in the country since 2009 but many Iranians can still access it.

They use Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, which are banned in the country but are not uncommon - and allow net surfers to bypass filters.

Online video is very popular in Iran but low internet speeds - often less than 1Mbps (megabits per second) - make streaming a big problem, said reporter Adel Shaygan from the BBC Persian Service.

"Having that speed, streaming good quality and stutter-free videos is next to impossible. In which case, downloading is a more reliable option," he said.

"As well as knowing how to get round the restrictions on the internet (imposed by the authorities), people also know how to download content from YouTube."

While there is no data yet available about the use of Mehr, Aparat, which has been around for a couple of years, is the 13th most popular website in Iran according to web stat provider Alexa.

Aparat is based in Iran and abides by local laws governing its content but has international sponsors including electronics firm LG.

YouTube was officially censored in the country following protests and allegations of vote fraud after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.

YouTube owners Google declined to comment on the launch of Mehr.


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Few vote on Facebook data changes

11 December 2012 Last updated at 05:45 ET

A poll on sweeping changes to how Facebook is governed has ended with only 660,000 of the social network's one billion plus users voting.

That works out at about 0.06% and falls far short of the 30% of users needed to force a rethink.

Of those who voted, nearly 90% were against the changes.

Facebook wants to increase data-sharing between services, relax rules on who can message users as well as scrapping the voting system.

It has promised to introduce new ways to allow users to offer feedback on how the site is governed, including a forum on its website.

Privacy groups, which have opposed to the changes, have called for the setting up of a user council.

In a post on the official Facebook Site Governance page the firm said: "We will be announcing the results and the next steps regarding the governance process shortly."


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Twitter adds Instagram-like tool

11 December 2012 Last updated at 07:28 ET

Twitter has added photo-sharing features to its mobile service, allowing users to edit images and enhance them with artistic filters.

The features are similar to those of photo app Instagram, which stopped users from displaying its pictures on Twitter over the weekend.

Users can now only post a link to Instagram's site.

One expert said the action was designed to help the social networks make more money from their users.

Twitter explained its move in a blog post, saying that users would now be able "to edit and refine photos, right from Twitter".

"Every day, millions of people come to Twitter to connect with the things they care about and find out what's happening around the world.

"As one of the most compelling forms of self-expression, photos have long been an important part of these experiences."

Removing integration

Instagram was bought by Facebook in April 2012 and has more than 100 million users.

It stopped supporting Twitter's Cards feature last week.

The facility used to ensure that images taken with the photo app and shared on Twitter were displayed in people's feeds.

But over the weekend, it became impossible to integrate Instagram photos in tweets; the only way to share one now is by posting a link taking users to the Facebook-owned site.

In a statement, Instagram's chief executive Kevin Systrom said it was done to encourage people to use his website.

"[Users can] engage with Instagram content through likes, comments and hashtags," he said.

"Now we believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives."

Advertising revenue

One social media expert told the BBC that the tit-for-tat action had been motivated by Instagram's desire to make money.

"It's all about holding on to users, preventing them from spending too much time on rival social networks," said Mark Little, principal analyst at Ovum.

"[It's all about] potential eyeballs for advertising revenues.

"So it's interesting that this partnership that built up in the earlier days and benefited both parties was never permanent - because once they gain enough benefits from each other it becomes more like rivalry.

"The next step is to get enough subscribers and to monetise them, to start defending their ecosystem from the past partners to stop themselves from losing users."

He added that since the integration between Instagram and Twitter was very popular among users, it now remained to be seen whether Facebook would introduce a Twitter-like functionality of its own.


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Google reveals UK 2012 net hits

11 December 2012 Last updated at 07:30 ET

"The Olympics" may have seemed like a safe bet for the top search term in the UK this year - but, according to Google, it was eclipsed by "Euro 2012".

"Olympic tickets" came second in Google's annual zeitgeist report, which lists 2012's most searched-for terms.

London was the most searched-for city in the UK, while Rio, host of the next Summer Olympics, was the most searched-for travel destination.

Skyfall reflected its box-office success, as the top trending movie.

Singer Whitney Houston, who died in February, was the most searched-for person, followed by "Kate Middleton", the Duchess of Cambridge.

The people list looked very different on rival search engine Bing, which revealed its top 2012 searches a few weeks ago.

Topping its global list was reality TV star Kim Kardashian, followed by singer Justin Bieber. Kim Kardashian also topped Yahoo's most searched-for list.

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  1. Euro 2012
  2. Olympic tickets
  3. Whitney Houston
  4. Kate Middleton
  5. April Jones
  6. Netflix
  7. NatWest Online
  8. iPad 3
  9. Gary Barlow
  10. Gangnam style

Sprinter Usain Bolt was the most searched-for Olympian, according to Google, while the most searched-for British star of the Summer Games was tennis player Andy Murray, followed by diver Tom Daley and athlete Jessica Ennis.

On Bing's list, Bolt only made it in at number nine, with tennis player Serena Williams, athlete Lolo Jones and basketball player LeBron James making its top three.

Nostalgia trip

Cyclist Victoria Pendleton was the most searched-for reality TV star, following her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing, while Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt beat London Mayor Boris Johnson to the top politician's spot, according to Google.

Cbeebies show Mike the Knight beat US hit Homeland to the number one spot for TV shows, with another home-grown hit, the Great British Bake Off, also making the top 10.

Some of the most interesting results are revealed in Google's more esoteric searches.

Topping the "what is" poll was "love", followed by the far less romantic "iCloud" and "3G".

The "how to" list revealed the growing trend of reigniting old skills with "knit" and "crochet" making the top 10, alongside "draw", "kiss" and "hack".


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Hackers dump 1.6m log-in details

11 December 2012 Last updated at 07:41 ET

Log-in details from 1.6 million accounts have been posted on the web by hacktivist group Ghost Shell.

The group gathered the data during a series of attacks on Nasa, the FBI, the European Space Agency and many other government agencies and contractors.

Included in the dump were log-in names, passwords, email addresses and CVs, plus the contents of online databases.

The group said it had sent messages to security bosses about 150 insecure servers it had targeted in the attacks.

In a statement posted to the Pastebin website, Ghost Shell said the attacks were part of its #ProjectWhiteFox campaign to promote freedom of information online.

The data stolen was posted on several different sites to stop it being swiftly found and deleted.

Images posted to the Pastebin page suggest the hacking group accessed some sites by attacking the databases many companies use to catalogue and curate website content.

With cleverly crafted queries, attackers can make these databases cough up data they should be concealing.

As well as mounting attacks on government agencies, the group also targeted contractors and firms working for the US Department of Defense.

In all, 37 separate organisations, agencies and businesses were hit during the campaign.

The group, which is an offshoot of the Anonymous hacking collective, has carried out a series of attacks in 2012.

Details from millions of accounts held at businesses, universities and Russian government departments and companies have all been posted by the group.

It said #ProjectWhiteFox was the last operation it would carry out in 2012.


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No 10 to redraft 'web snoop' plan

11 December 2012 Last updated at 08:02 ET
Jimmy Wales

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Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales: The Communications Data Bill is "absolutely incompetent"

No 10 says the PM remains committed to giving police and security services new powers to monitor internet activity, despite criticism of current plans.

The prime minister's spokesman said he accepted the criticism from MPs and peers of the draft Communications Data Bill and would re-write it.

Deputy PM Nick Clegg had threatened to block it unless there was a "rethink".

No 10 said bringing in new powers was a "government commitment" and everyone was "committed to fixing this problem".

He said: "We recognise this is a difficult issue. We will take account of what the committee said."

The deputy prime minister had earlier said he would block the draft Communications Data Bill and push for plans ensuring "the balance between security and liberty".

His comments came as a committee of MPs and peers criticised the bill's scope.

Civil liberties campaigners have described the proposals as a "snoopers' charter", but Home Secretary Theresa May insists they are vital for countering paedophiles, extremists and fraudsters.

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaderships agree on the need for new measures, but they disagree over their scope.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg

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Nick Clegg: ''We need a fundamental rethink, go back to the drawing board''

The plans in the draft bill include:

  • Internet service providers having to store for a year all details of online communication in the UK - such as the time, duration, originator and recipient of a communication and the location of the device from which it was made.
  • They would also be having to store for the first time all Britons' web browsing history and details of messages sent on social media, webmail, voice calls over the internet and gaming, in addition to emails and phone calls
  • Police not having to seek permission to access details of these communications, if investigating a crime
  • Police having to get a warrant from the home secretary to be able to see the actual content of any messages
  • Four bodies having access to data: the police, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the intelligence agencies and HM Revenue and Customs

A report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Bill, made up of MPs and peers, accepted a new law was needed to help police fight crime and tackle security threats organised online.

But it warned ministers would be able to demand "potentially limitless categories of data" unless the draft bill was amended.

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  • The Bill would extend the range of data telecoms firms have to store for up to 12 months
  • It would include, for the first time, details of messages sent on social media, webmail, voice calls over the internet and gaming, in addition to emails and phone calls
  • The data would include the time, duration, originator and recipient of a communication and the location of the device from which it was made
  • It would not include the content of messages - what is being said. Officers would need a warrant to see that
  • But they would not need the permission of a judge to see details of the time and place of messages, provided they were investigating a crime or protecting national security
  • Four bodies would have access to data: the police, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the intelligence agencies and HM Revenue and Customs
  • Local authorities would face restrictions on the kinds of data they can access

It called for "safeguards" over the new powers to prevent abuse and accused the government of producing estimates of the cost of implementing the plans which were not "robust" enough.

The "net benefit figure" was "fanciful and misleading", it said.

The MPs and peers added that the draft bill paid "insufficient attention to the duty to respect the right to privacy" and went "much further than it need or should for the purpose of providing necessary and justifiable official access to communications data".

Mr Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said the committee had raised "a number of serious criticisms - not least on scope, proportionality, cost, checks and balances, and the need for much wider consultation".

"It is for those reasons that I believe the coalition government needs to have a fundamental rethink about this legislation. We cannot proceed with this bill and we have to go back to the drawing board."

But he added: "The committee did not, however, suggest that nothing needs to be done. They were very clear that there is a problem that must be addressed to give law enforcement agencies the powers they need to fight crime. I agree.

"But that must be done in a proportionate way that gets the balance between security and liberty right."

'Secret notices'

In its report, the committee said the home secretary would be given "sweeping powers to issue secret notices to communications service providers, requiring them to retain and disclose potentially limitless categories of data".

But it added: "We have been told that she has no intention of using the powers in this way. Our main recommendation is therefore that her powers should be limited to those categories of data for which a case can now be made."

If these powers needed to be enhanced in future, this should be done with "effective parliamentary scrutiny", it said.

The home secretary wants the bill in place next year.

Continue reading the main story

This bill wasn't dreamt up by Tory ministers in the coalition.

The previous Labour government came up with the first plans after the intelligence and security community said it needed modern tools to combat modern threats - threats organised online rather than through invisible ink messages left under park benches.

So the controversy is not about the bill's aim, but its scope - something we have seen in other pieces of security legislation since the coalition took office. Powers to hold terror suspects in their own home and the current bill to protect state secrets in courts were both cut back as part of coalition compromise. In each case ministers aimed to protect the primary purpose.

The question is whether this particular bill will be able to do its job if it goes through the same exercise - and that's why Nick Clegg will face claims of playing politics with security.

Security minister James Brokenshire told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there was a "legitimate debate" to be had.

He added that he wanted to "rebalance" the bill, so that "it's properly reflecting the needs of the collective and the needs of the individual".

Mr Brokenshire also said: "If there were to be any extension, that would have to be through the full scrutiny of Parliament. We are saying very clearly that we accept that."

He added: "We know that we need to work this through the coalition."

For Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the government was "making a complete mess of a very important issue".

"It is important that the police and security services can keep up to date with modern technology, but this bill is too widely drawn, is unworkable and gives far too much power to the home secretary without proper safeguards."

She added: "It is astonishing that the Home Office have had so little discussion with the internet companies who need to deliver this legislation. The Government have been slipshod with this bill from the word go."

A person using a laptop

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A Home Office spokesman said: "This legislation is vital to help catch paedophiles, terrorists and other serious criminals and we are pleased both scrutiny committees have recognised the need for new laws.

"We have now considered the committees' recommendations carefully and we will accept the substance of them all. But there can be no delay to this legislation. It is needed by law enforcement agencies now."

The Intelligence and Security Committee, which has sent a classified report on its findings to Prime Minister David Cameron, after speaking to the security services, called for more detail to be included in the draft bill.

It recommended that it be "future-proofed" to ensure extra powers are not added without scrutiny, adding that there had been "insufficient consultation" between ministers and internet providers.


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MEPs vote to unify patent system

11 December 2012 Last updated at 09:57 ET

Euro MPs have voted to introduce a unified patent system.

The system would allow inventors to register their innovation with a single European Union (EU) authority rather than in each of its 27 member states, and is designed to save time and money.

There would also be a unified patent-court system. The move is due to be introduced in 2014.

But Spain and Italy continue to oppose the change, saying the new regime would discriminate against their languages.

The new rules would say applications and approvals need only to be made available in one of three languages, English, French and German.

At present, applicants are spending thousands of pounds translating their paperwork into each country's native language.

Italy and Spain suggest that as a result "commercial trade in innovative products will be favoured for undertakings which work in German, English or French".

But a senior adviser to the European Court of Justice has advised that it reject their plea. A panel of judges has still to consider the case.

Software patents

Eurochambres - an organisation that represents EU countries' chambers of commerce - called the vote in favour of the scheme a "breakthrough".

"[It] will significantly reduce administrative burdens and boost European innovation," it said in a statement.

However, April - a French free software-advocacy group - has warned the move could open the door to software-patent litigation on a scale recently seen in the US.

It says the European Patent Office (EPO) has shown itself willing to grant thousands of software patents - and worries the EU could end up with a system in which appeals against such judgements are decided according to the EPO's own rules.

"MEPs voted in favour of a legally uncertain system that does not not provide any checks and balances against threats to innovation such as software patents," said spokeswoman Jeanne Tadeusz.

"The European Patent Office will gain amazing powers, even though its governance has been highly criticised, especially with regard to its practice of granting software patents, against the letter and the spirit of European patent law."


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Robot 'race' to fix nuclear plant

11 December 2012 Last updated at 11:37 ET

Japanese company Mitsubishi has unveiled a radiation-resistant robot aimed at cleaning up the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Other firms, among them Hitachi and Toshiba, have also rolled out their own remote-controlled bots recently.

The plant was damaged during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Robots are already working inside the plant, but none has been specifically designed for this kind of work.

One UK expert said that working inside a nuclear reactor was "a challenge for robotics".

Dubbed MEISTeR (Maintenance Equipment Integrated System of Telecontrol Robot), Mitsubishi's "tankbot" is about 1.3m (4ft) tall and has two arms with seven degrees of freedom each, able to hold loads of up to 15kg (33lb).

The robot is equipped with various tools and has electronics hardened to withstand radiation.

But Jeremy Pitt, deputy head of the Intelligent Systems and Networks Group at Imperial College London, said it was still a challenge for a remotely controlled machine to successfully replace humans in such harsh conditions.

"Operating in extreme environments requires a remarkable range of human skills that might otherwise be taken for granted," he said.

"Fundamentally, instead of programming a robot to follow a precise series of actions, in open environments the requirement is to programme it to improvise.

"This requires a fusion of conscious reasoning mechanisms, like learning, with subconscious reasoning mechanisms."

Different design

Although currently there are several robots inside the plant, they have not been designed to repair a nuclear reactor.

For instance, the devices made by Qinetiq, introduced at Fukushima immediately after the disaster, were built to search for mines, said the firm's spokesman Mark Clark.

Using machines not made for such conditions was "always a compromise", he said, and better robots were needed.

"The operational environment within a large complex such as a power station poses high demands on these robots, which they were never designed to accommodate.

"If you are wishing to operate robots 24/7 inside a debris-filled power station in a radioactive area, it is much better to design the custom robot from the outset to meet specific tasks."

For instance, Toshiba says its robot has a wireless network that can be controlled in high radiation, looking for a better signal when reception is weak.

Mr Clark explained that the biggest problem associated with robots deployed into such zones was maintenance, because if repairs were needed, it would be difficult for humans to get anywhere near.

The solution would be to fix everything remotely, or while wearing heavy protective clothing.

To simplify the task, robots made to work inside a reactor would have to be "stripped of all unnecessary items", he said.

"If nuclear robots start leaking hydraulic fluid, they send an alarm before they fail so they can be quickly recovered. Others have the capability to shed or drop off parts of their manipulators so if they get caught up in debris they jettison the trapping section of robot, thus freeing them from the obstruction.

"Most nuclear robots operate on power provided by a trailing umbilical. This means there are no batteries to change and no refuelling issues to contend with."


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