Beyonce and Jay-Z finances hacked

By Amelia Butterly
Newsbeat reporter Beyonce and Jay-Z, one of the richest couples in hip hop, have been targeted

US celebrities including Beyonce and Jay-Z have had private details of their finances posted online.

Hackers have also put up information, but not credit reports, about US Vice-President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Los Angeles police say they are investigating how a police chief's private details, including his address and a credit report, ended up online.

Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith described the site as "creepy".

He said: "People get mad at us, go on the Internet and try to find information about us, and post it all on one site.

"The best word I can use to describe it is creepy."

He also confirmed that police would be investigating the posting of information about any celebrities living in Los Angeles.

Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher and Kim Kardashian are all said to be affected

Other affected people include Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.

Some of the private financial information posted includes social security numbers, which could allow fraudsters to commit identity theft.

Actors Mel Gibson and Ashton Kutcher are also reported to have been targeted on the site.

Information about FBI Director Robert Mueller is thought to have been uploaded. The bureau says it is aware of the site but has not revealed whether they will be investigating.

More names were added throughout Monday, including Britney Spears and former presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is thought to have been hacked

The website uses an internet suffix assigned to the Soviet Union and includes some unflattering pictures of the people who are mentioned.

It did not state how it sourced the information but did include an anti-police message written in Russian.

One of the site's pages also made reference to the former police officer Christopher Dorner who apparently committed suicide during a large scale manhunt, after he killed four people.

So far representatives for each person targeted either declined to comment on the accuracy of the information that was posted, or they did not return messages seeking comment.

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Facebook 'likes' predict personality

11 March 2013 Last updated at 15:00 ET

Sexuality, political leanings and even intelligence can be gleaned from the things you choose to "like" on Facebook, a study suggests.

Researchers at Cambridge University used algorithms to predict religion, politics, race and sexual orientation.

The research, published in the journal PNAS, forms surprisingly accurate personal portraits, researchers said.

The findings should "ring alarm bells" for users, privacy campaigners said.

The study used 58,000 volunteers who alongside their Facebook "likes" and demographic information also provided psychometric testing results - designed to highlight personality traits.

The Facebook likes were fed into algorithms and matched with the information from the personality tests.

The algorithms proved 88% accurate for determining male sexuality, 95% accurate in distinguishing African-American from Caucasian-American and 85% for differentiating Republican from Democrat.

Christians and Muslims were correctly classified in 82% of cases and relationship status and substance abuse was predicted with an accuracy between 65% and 73%.

The links clicked rarely explicitly revealed these attributes. Fewer than 5% of gay users clicked obvious likes such as gay marriage, for instance.

Instead, the algorithms aggregated huge amounts of likes such as music and TV shows to create personal profiles.

It also threw up some strange pairings.

"Curly fries correlated with high intelligence and people who liked the Dark Knight tended to have fewer Facebook friends," said research author David Stillwell.

Data rethink

The study will be music to the ears of social media firms keen to make more money from customers via personalised marketing.

But the researchers warned that the digital profiles people are creating also threaten privacy.

"I appreciate automated book recommendations, or Facebook selecting the most relevant stories for my newsfeed. However, I can imagine situations in which the same data and technology is used to predict political views or sexual orientation, posing threats to freedom or even life," said Michael Kosinski, lead researcher on the project.

There are simple things users can do, said Mr Stillwell.

"Facebook likes are public by default but it is not that Facebook is forcing you to make them public; you have a choice to change your privacy settings."

He stressed that the results had implications beyond social media to all digital records - from browser histories to search queries.

"This research should ring alarm bells for anyone who thinks that privacy settings are the solution to protecting information online. We need to fundamentally re-think how much data we are voluntarily sharing," said Nick Pickles, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch.

"Sharing individual likes or pages might not seem hugely intrusive, but it allows individuals to be categorised and behaviour predicted in areas that are far more personal and sensitive than people realise.

"Yet again, it is clear the lack of transparency about how users' data is being used will lead to entirely justified fears about our data being exploited for commercial gain."

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EA sorry over 'dumb' SimCity launch

11 March 2013 Last updated at 07:25 ET

Electronics Arts has apologised for the shambolic launch of the latest version of town-planning title SimCity.

Gamers have reported long queues to play, bugs and other glitches since SimCity launched on 5 March.

The company said the way it had set up the launch had been "dumb" and that it "really feels bad" about the way gamers had suffered.

As compensation, all those who bought SimCity will be offered a free Electronics Arts PC game this month.

Since the game launched, the online computers that co-ordinate play have been regularly overwhelmed.

Many gamers reported waiting 30 minutes or more before they could start to construct a city and said the game was sluggish once they were playing. Others said it often crashed or was slow to respond to changes.

The troubles led online store Amazon to briefly suspend sales of the download version of the game.

In a blogpost, Lucy Bradshaw, general manager for SimCity, said the way Electronics Arts (EA) and Maxis, the studio that created the game, had set up the servers had contributed to the problems.

Unlike all other versions of SimCity, the latest requires gamers to remain online while they play, as each city they construct sits on a chunk of virtual territory shared with other players.

These regions share certain over-arching characteristics such as crime levels, resources and pollution.

However, said Ms Bradshaw, the way people played the finished game was very different to what EA and Maxis had seen during early, or beta, testing.

She wrote: "A lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played, and played in ways we never saw in the beta."

"OK, we agree that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it," she added.

To clear the queues, EA had doubled the number of servers supporting the game, Ms Bradshaw said.

In addition, it had engineers working on fixes for the bugs.

This work, said Ms Bradshaw, had led the number of "disrupted experiences" to drop by 80%.

Features that had been turned off late last week to help lighten the load on servers would be restored soon, she added.

As compensation for the trouble, players would soon be offered a free PC game from EA's catalogue, said Ms Bradshaw.

Emails detailing how to claim the free game would be sent out on 18 March, she added.

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'Revenge porn' site owner is sued

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Intrade shuts amid investigation

11 March 2013 Last updated at 09:15 ET

Online trading platform Intrade has ceased all trading activity pending an investigation.

In a statement on its website it blamed the halt on "circumstances recently discovered... that may include financial irregularities".

The move means users will not be able to withdraw money from their accounts.

Dublin-based Intrade allows users to place bets on future events by buying and selling contracts in a similar way to the financial markets.

Users can bet on everything from who will be the next Pope to how much snow will fall in a given winter.

It is favoured by academics and journalists who often use the site's odds as indications of public sentiment, particularly when it comes to predicting US presidential elections.

'Investigate further'

"With sincere regret we must inform you that due to circumstances recently discovered we must immediately cease trading activity," Intrade said in its statement, saying the shutdown had been required under Irish law.

"These circumstances require immediate further investigation, and may include financial irregularities.

"During the upcoming weeks, we will investigate these circumstances further and determine the necessary course of action."

The company did not elaborate, and it is not clear if or when it will resume operations.

In November Intrade suffered a severe blow to its business when regulators forced it to suspend all trading in the United States - its biggest market.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against the company, arguing that it violated US trading laws.

It lost tens of thousands of users as a result of the legal action.

Intrade was founded in 1999 by John Delaney. He died in May 2011 while attempting to climb Mount Everest.

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Harlem Shake sparks royalties row

11 March 2013 Last updated at 11:06 ET

Reggae artist Hector Delgado and rapper Jayson Musson say the producer of the chart-topping hit Harlem Shake did not have permission to use their voices.

The pair are now asking for compensation from record label Mad Decent Records, which released the single, reports the New York Times.

Harlem Shake has become an internet sensation on video website YouTube.

Producer Harry Rodrigues, also known as DJ Baauer, and Mad Decent Records declined to comment.

Musson told the New York Times the record label had been "more than co-operative" but an agreement had not yet been reached.

The song has inspired thousands of people around the world to upload videos of themselves dancing along to the first 30 seconds of the track - up to 4,000 a day are currently being put onto YouTube, according to the website.

The song was initially released in 2012.

Rights issues

Delgado can be heard at the beginning of the track singing, "Con los terroristas," a sample from a single he released in 2006.

Musson shouts, "Do the Harlem Shake," about 15 seconds in, which he says is taken from a rap by his group Plastic Little in 2001.

In the New York Times, Delgado's agent, Javier Gomez, described the situation as "a clear breaking of intellectual property rights".

Last month in an "ask me anything" session on website Reddit, Rodrigues was asked about the origin of a female Spanish vocal that also features on the track.

"Found it on the innerweb," he wrote in reply.

Barney Hooper, from PRS for Music, which represents the rights of music creators, told the BBC: "If one piece of music is sampled in another, then typically the creators of the original work would be entitled to a share of royalties when the new work is played, performed or reproduced," he said.

"A song can have a number of songwriters/composers and use samples of other works.

"If this is the case, all could have an ownership share in the new work and these would be registered with organisations like PRS for Music.

"We then pay out the royalties we collect based on the ownership shares registered with us."

However the situation was sometimes complicated, Mr Hooper added.

"There are often ownership disputes relating to popular works where others musical works are sampled," he said.

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Poor IT skills 'hurt young jobless'

11 March 2013 Last updated at 20:01 ET

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Will.i.am says he was intimidated by science at school, but is now taking a computer science course

A lack of computer skills could be damaging the career chances of young people, a charity has warned.

More than one in 10 young people do not think their computer skills are good enough to use in the job they want, the Prince's Trust said.

The research follows a £500,000 donation by hip hop star will.i.am to the Trust last year.

His donation will be used on projects to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills.

"I was intimidated by science and advanced maths," said the music star, who donated his fee for appearing on BBC talent show The Voice.

"When I say, 'Hey kids, you guys should want to be scientists, technicians, engineers and mathematicians...' I say that because I too am going to school to learn computer science.

"I'm taking a computer science course, because I'm passionate about where the world's going, curious about it and I want to contribute," he told the BBC.

Embarrassed

The Prince's Trust research was based on interviews with 1,378 British 15-to-25-year-olds, including 265 "Neets" - those not in education, employment or training.

One in 10 unemployed young people cannot send their CV online, while a quarter say they "dread" filling in online job applications, the survey found.

A tenth of Neets said they were embarrassed by their lack of computer skills, and 17% admitted they do not apply for jobs that require basic computer skills.

Continue reading the main story

There remains a postcode lottery, with some schools providing barely more than an hour a week of computer access"

End Quote Valerie Thompson E-Learning Foundation

The research was released to mark the launch of a new Prince's Trust scheme to engage young people in schools with science and technology.

Under the scheme, staff from the Science Museum will visit Prince's Trust clubs in schools to work with young people at risk of exclusion and under-achievement.

"We work with the hardest-to-reach pupils, who may not have access to a computer at home, and often don't have basic IT skills," said Martina Milburn, the Prince's Trust chief executive.

"The Trust is using will.i.am's generous donation to engage these young people in science and technology while they're still at school.

"We're also giving young people more access to IT to support them into work, and helping more unemployed young people set up technology-related businesses."

'Postcode lottery'

Valerie Thompson from the E-Learning Foundation, which aims to provide learning technologies to children both at home and at school, said that while will.i.am's donation was "fantastic", there remained "a very significant challenge".

"That [donation] would buy 2,000 children an iPad, and we've got 750,000 children who can't get online at home," she told the BBC.

"This wouldn't be so bad if they had great access at school, but there remains a postcode lottery, with some schools providing barely more than an hour a week of computer access. No wonder they lack the skills to prepare a good CV!"

She added that there is money in the system which could be used to improve computer access at schools, pointing to the pupil premium, which is paid to schools to support disadvantaged pupils, rising to £1.875bn in 2013-14, or £900 per disadvantaged child.

"So the solution is there if schools are prepared to use the new discretionary powers they now have over what to spend their budgets on," she said.

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US official in China hacking call

12 March 2013 Last updated at 00:00 ET

The Chinese government should acknowledge and investigate cyber-theft from China, a top US official has said.

National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon said cyber security was a "growing challenge" to the US economic relationship with Beijing.

The pointed remarks appeared to reflect growing US concern over cyber-crimes said to originate in China.

On Saturday China's foreign minister criticised claims China was behind hacking attacks on US companies.

'Acceptable norms'

In a speech at the Asia Society in New York on Monday, Mr Donilon said that US businesses were increasingly concerned about "cyber intrusions emanating from China" that stole confidential business information or intellectual property.

"We seek three things from the Chinese side," he said. "First, we need a recognition of the urgency and scope of this problem. Second, Beijing should take serious steps to investigate and put a stop to these activities."

"Finally, we need China to engage with us... to establish acceptable norms of behaviour in cyberspace."

China has long been suspected of a role in cyber-hacking. But the issue has become more high-profile in recent months following widely reported hacks into media outlets including the New York Times - in that case apparently linked to a report by the paper on the wealth of relatives of outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao.

In a report in February, US cyber security firm Mandiant said that it had linked hundreds of data breaches since 2004 to a Chinese hacking team it had traced to the site of a military unit in Shanghai.

Last month, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the hacking issue came up "in virtually every meeting we have with Chinese officials".

China, which called the Mandiant report flawed, says that it opposes hacking activities and is a victim of cyber attacks itself.

Speaking on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said: "Cyberspace needs rules and co-operation, not war."

He criticised recent reports that said China was responsible for cyber attacks against Western companies, saying they were "built on shaky ground."

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Microsoft opens up on Kinect code

12 March 2013 Last updated at 06:06 ET

Microsoft has opened up access to the core computer code for its Kinect motion-sensing device.

The device, built for the Xbox 360, lets people play games by moving their body instead of using a controller.

Before now anyone wanting to use the Kinect had to work via an official software toolkit that hid the underlying code.

Microsoft said it had opened the code up to make the Kinect easier to use and get feedback about how to improve it.

Soon after the Kinect's 2010 release, hardware hackers wrote code that let them control the device so they could use it for their own projects.

Later on, Microsoft aided these "home-brew" efforts with the release of a software development kit and a program that allowed the Kinect to be controlled via Windows.

However, both these programs hid the core code of the device, limiting what developers and others could do with the gadget.

Now, Microsoft has released 22 code samples for the Kinect that expose the computer code that helps it track faces, interpret gestures and determine colours, among other things.

The code has been put on the CodePlex website so developers can freely download and share the software.

Microsoft made the announcement about the code sharing on a blog and said it had taken the step to help those that wanted to use Kinect for their own ends and to help improve the control software.

As the core Kinect code is updated and changed, new samples could be posted to CodePlex, said Microsoft spokesman Ben Lower.

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Ultrasound pill project awarded £5m

12 March 2013 Last updated at 07:13 ET

A University of Dundee-led project to develop a pill that can carry ultrasound technology has been awarded a £5m grant.

The "sonopill" would relay ultrasound images from inside the body after being swallowed by patients.

It is hoped it could allow gastrointestinal problems to be diagnosed without the need for uncomfortable endoscopic exams.

The funding is from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Researchers have already developed pills that contain tiny cameras.

The "sonopill" aims to push that technology further.

Less discomfort

Prof Sandy Cochran, from the Institute for Medical Science and Technology at the University of Dundee, said: "The principal current method of examining problems within the gastrointestinal tract is endoscopy, which is very uncomfortable and requires a high-level of clinical skill.

"So-called "pillcams" are a developing area of medical technology which have already benefited more than one million patients.

"What we want to do is develop that technology further to include ultrasound, for the first time seeing beyond the surface of the gastrointestinal tract into the tissue itself. This will bring significant diagnostic benefits for patients. We also want to explore treatment with such pills."

The project includes research teams at Heriot Watt University and the University of Glasgow.

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