Labour calls for cyber crime action

3 March 2014 Last updated at 16:26

Labour has called for tougher action by police and the intelligence services to tackle cyber crimes connected with child pornography and terrorism.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said such action was needed in the face of growing online crime and abuse.

But, in a speech in London, she said it must be accompanied by stronger safeguards to protect privacy.

Ms Cooper argued that the government "cannot keep burying its head in the sand and hoping these issues go away".

Out of date

Continue reading the main story

Online communication and technology is forcing us to think again about our traditional frameworks for balancing privacy and safety, liberty and security"

End Quote Yvette Cooper Shadow home secretary

She said: "In the face of growing online crime and abuse, and the use of online communications by criminals and extremists, the police, intelligence and security agencies need to be able to operate more effectively in this digital world.

"But for them to do so, we also need stronger safeguards and limits to protect our privacy and sustain confidence in their vital work.

"The oversight and legal frameworks are now out of date. That means we need major reforms to oversight and a thorough review of the legal framework to keep up with changing technology.

"Above all we need the government to engage in a serious public debate about these new challenges and the reforms that are needed."

Ms Cooper said the issues involved were "too important" to be ignored because they had implications "for our liberty, our security, the growth of our economy and the health of our democracy".

'Snooper's charter'

Last year, ministers hoped to include new measures on data monitoring in the Queen's Speech.

The plans, which would have allowed the police and security services to track emails and other online communications, were blocked by the Liberal Democrats.

Critics of the proposals denounced them as a "snooper's charter".

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said his party would not support any extension of existing laws which would end up with a "record kept of every website you visit and who you communicate with on social media sites".

But senior Labour figures said technological advances were presenting new problems that must be addressed.

Snowden leaks

Ms Cooper said: "Online communication and technology is forcing us to think again about our traditional frameworks for balancing privacy and safety, liberty and security.

"Perhaps most serious of all has been the growth in online child abuse. Last year the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency received 18,887 reports of child abuse - an increase of 14% on the year.

"The police and security services have been under pressure to explain why they did not know more about the murderers of Drummer Lee Rigby, and why more is not being done to disrupt the use of the internet by violent extremists looking to radicalise young people.

"And - with perhaps the widest ramifications of all - former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked hundreds of thousands of US intelligence documents and 58,000 British intelligence documents - raising serious concern about the impact on national security and about the scale of activity of intelligence agencies all at the same time."

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More

Twitch Plays Pokemon completes game

3 March 2014 Last updated at 11:46 By Carolyn Rice Technology reporter, BBC News

More than one million people taking part in an online "social experiment" have completed a game of Pokemon.

Using the social-gaming video site Twitch, all the players were trying to control one character in the game at the same time.

Twitch is a website that lets users broadcast and watch games and use an online chat function while playing.

The online game took 16 days to complete and the site was viewed more than 36 million times.

The game, Pokemon Red/Blue, was originally launched on Nintendo's Game Boy handheld in the 1990s.

Anarchy or democracy

Players use Twitch's chat function to type in one of the original game's eight commands - up, down, left, right, A, B, start or select - to move the main character in the game.

More than 122 million chat messages were entered during the 16 days the game was active, according to figures released by Twitch.

Progress of the main character, Red, through the game's levels had initially been slow as so many users tried to control him simultaneously.

The creator of Twitch Plays Pokemon had been sceptical about whether users would ever finish the game as he doubted players would be able to co-ordinate enough to overcome the game's hurdles.

Two playing modes were introduced to determine how chat commands were processed during the game.

Anarchy mode meant that everyone's command was applied immediately. Democracy mode meant that the most popular command entered over a 30 second period would be chosen.

Players could influence which mode was used by typing "anarchy" or "democracy" in to the chat function. The mode with the most votes would triumph until enough people voted the other way.

The aim of Pokemon Red/Blue is to become champion of the fictional region known as Kanto by defeating eight "Gym Leaders".

If players get this far, they gain access to the "Elite Four", who are the "top Pokemon trainers in the land".

In an official Twitch blog the game was called "the biggest cultural phenomenon to strike Twitch" and it thanked the sites "passionate and preposterous community".

The creator of Twitch Plays Pokemon told the Guardian newspaper he would introduce a new game. Shortly after the completion of Pokemon Red a new game was online on Twitch - Pokemon Crystal.

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bafta fellowship for Rockstar Games

3 March 2014 Last updated at 12:55

The makers of the Grand Theft Auto video games series are being awarded a Bafta fellowship.

Rockstar Games will be presented with the award at the British Academy Games Awards ceremony on 12 March.

The award is the highest accolade given by the Academy and is in recognition of an "outstanding contribution to film, television or games".

Previous winners include Gabe Newell from video game company Valve and Peter Molyneux, creator of Dungeon Keeper.

In a statement, Bafta said the Grand Theft Auto series, as well as other games including Manhunt, Bully and Red Dead Redemption had kept Rockstar Games "at the forefront of the gaming industry for over a decade".

'Incredibly humbling'

Harvey Elliott, chairman of Bafta's Games Committee, said: "The creativity and passion exhibited by the Rockstar teams have inspired a generation of game developers to raise the bar in every aspect of game development.

"From design and mechanics, through to storytelling, cinematics and audio immersion, and in the process creating games that compete so profoundly on a global stage across all entertainment media."

Sam Houser, founder of Rockstar Games, called the award "incredibly humbling".

"We have long believed in the potential for video games to become a new form of cultural expression and worked to show that in our games. This honour reflects the creative vision and dedication of a huge number of people over many years," he said.

Grand Theft Auto 5 is the latest edition to the series and when it was released in 2013 it became the fastest selling entertainment product ever, taking just three days to generate $1bn (£598m) in revenue.

It is nominated in several categories at the 2014 awards including Game Innovation and Best Game.

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hackers take control of home routers

3 March 2014 Last updated at 16:13

A world-spanning network of hijacked home routers has been uncovered by security researchers.

The network involves more than 300,000 routers in homes and small businesses that have been taken over through loopholes in their core software.

Discovered by researchers at Team Cymru, the network is thought to be one of the biggest involving such devices.

It is not yet clear what the people behind the attack intend to do with the collection of compromised routers.

In a research paper describing its findings, Team Cymru said it had first seen routers from several different manufacturers being compromised in January 2014.

These first victims had been in Eastern Europe, but now most of the machines were in Vietnam with the rest scattered around Europe as well as a couple of other countries, said Team Cymru.

Once routers were taken over, internal instructions were changed so they no longer asked servers at their owner's ISP for help looking up the location of websites they regularly visit.

This would mean that the attackers could re-direct people to anywhere they wanted, inject their own adverts into web pages people visit or poison the search results they get.

Instead, these queries were routed through two IP addresses overseen by a hosting company in south London. That company has yet to respond to a request for comment.

Team Cymru researcher Steve Santorelli said the reason for creating the network of hijacked routers was still "mysterious" as the attackers did not seem to have abused their control for malicious ends.

The attack had some similarities with an incident seen in Poland, which involved hijacked home routers being re-directed to malicious websites controlled by hi-tech thieves keen to grab online bank login credentials, said Mr Santorelli.

"It's a definite evolution in technology - going after the internet gateway, not the end machine," Mr Santorelli told the BBC in an email. "We see these leaps in concepts every few years in cybercrime."

Team Cymru had contacted law enforcement about the attack and informed ISPs with a lot of compromised customers, he said.

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kickstarter pledges cross $1bn mark

3 March 2014 Last updated at 19:45

Online crowdfunding website Kickstarter has passed $1bn (£599m) in pledges, nearly five years after its launch.

The site said more than half of that amount was pledged in just the last 12 months.

Donors from the US led the pledges, offering more than $663m, followed by UK with more than $54m.

Kickstarter is one of the leading crowdfunding websites - sites that allow people raise money from donors to fund various projects.

The developers of the Pebble smartwatch are among those who secured big pledges.

The project debuted on Kickstarter in April 2012 seeking $100,000 (£62,000) to complete development of the device.

Continue reading the main story

• United States: $663.3m
• United Kingdom: $54.4m
• Canada: $44.9m
• Australia: $31.7m
• Germany: $21.6m
• France: $10.1m
• Japan: $7.1m
• Sweden: $7.1m
• Netherlands: $7m
• Singapore: $6.7m

Source: Kickstarter

By the end of its 38-day funding drive it had raised more than $10m and had almost 70,000 backers.

The 'mid' factor

Crowdfunding platforms are becoming increasingly popular.

More than 5.7 million people have backed projects listed on Kickstarter, with nearly 1.7 million of them backing more than one project.

Kickstarter also gave quirky details about the trends in pledges.

According to the firm's data, Wednesday is the most popular day for people to pledge cash, and the middle of the month is also the most productive when it comes to pledges.

The day with most pledges was 13 March last year with 54,187 backers pledging more than $4m to 1,985 projects.

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More

MtGox gives bankruptcy details

4 March 2014 Last updated at 09:12

More details have emerged into what led MtGox, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges, to file for bankruptcy.

There was a "high probability" that the bitcoins had been stolen through a bug in MtGox's systems, the firm said in a statement.

Investigations to find the culprits are under way, it added.

MtGox filed for bankruptcy in Japan on Friday. Days earlier the site had closed down after losing an estimated 750,000 of its customers' bitcoins.

Much of the statement released on MtGox's website confirmed details contained in a leaked document that surfaced just days before the bankruptcy application.

'Crimes punished'

As well as the 750,000 bitcoins belonging to customers that were lost, the company said it had also lost approximately 100,000 of its own. This amounts to nearly $500m (£300m).

It also said MtGox accounts held with financial institutions currently contained approximately 2.8bn yen (£16.5m) less than the amount MtGox users had deposited.

To "establish the truth" about what had happened a "huge amount of transaction reports" would need to be investigated, MtGox said.

Because of this, MtGox could not give an exact amount of missing deposit funds or the total amount of bitcoins that had disappeared.

MtGox also said that it had appointed an expert to look at the possibility of criminal proceedings.

"We will make all efforts to ensure that crimes are punished and damages are recovered," it said.

The possibility of continuing as a business in order to pay back creditors was also being explored, the company said.

A call centre has also been set up to answer customers questions.

Japan said on Tuesday that the government was still trying to determine what had led to the collapse of MtGox.

"We still have not had a clear grasp of the situation," Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said, according to Reuters.

"[We] don't know if it was a crime or just a bankruptcy."

Meanwhile another Bitcoin bank - Flexcoin - has announced that it too is going out of business, following a hack attack which saw 896 coins stolen. It is working with law enforcement to trace the source of the hack.

"As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss, we are closing our doors immediately," it said.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) is set to create a taskforce to advise on whether virtual currencies should be regulated.

The watchdog, which is due to be created before July, will analyse the risk to consumers of using virtual currencies such as bitcoins.

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More

Twitter resets passwords by accident

4 March 2014 Last updated at 11:43

Twitter instructed thousands of users to change passwords due to accounts being "compromised" - but it has since said the emails were sent by mistake.

The reset notices were sent out to users on Monday, prompting many to question if the service had been hacked.

The social network would not say how many users had been affected, but apologised for the inconvenience.

Twitter users, particularly those with high profiles, are frequently targeted.

'System error'

Groups such as the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) have become adept at tricking users into unwittingly handing over log-in details for social media,

This round of emails sent by Twitter came with a warning that: "Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter."

It added: "We've reset your password to prevent accessing your account."

It has since blamed a "system error" for the notices being sent, although those who received the email will still need to reset their details despite the false alarm.

Last year, similar emails were sent out for a real breach. Some 250,000 users' passwords had been stolen, as well as usernames, emails and other data, the site's security director said at the time.

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple unveils CarPlay iPhone system

Apple has unveiled its new iPhone technology for cars at the Geneva Motor Show.

CarPlay allows iPhones to plug into cars so drivers will be able to call up maps, make calls and request music with Siri voice commands or a touch on a vehicle's dashboard screen.

It requires Apple's latest software, iOS 7, and an iPhone 5, 5C or 5S.

Apple first announced plans to make its iOS mobile operating system more compatible with cars last June.

Car producers including Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo previewed CarPlay in Geneva with other producers saying they plan to adopt the system.

"iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction,'' said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of iPhone and iOS product marketing.

Ferrari is previewing CarPlay on its four-wheel-drive FF model.

Volvo plans to feature the iPhone system in its redesigned Volvo XC90 sports utility vehicle (SUV).

Mercedes-Benz isn't revealing which models will get CarPlay, but expects that both its S-Class large sedan and C-Class midsize sedan should be compatible with the system.

A long list of other car manufacturers, including General Motors, Ford and Honda, also are drawing up plans for CarPlay, according to Apple.

Google announced it was teaming up with car manufacturers including Audi, Honda and Hyundai to integrate its Android operating system into their dashboards last month.

GM and Honda declined to comment on their CarPlay plans.

Meanwhile Ford has already launched a voice-control system called Sync made by Microsoft in some of its cars and offers its own touch-screen technology.

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More

China criminals 'target mobile web'

4 March 2014 Last updated at 12:47

Chinese cybercriminals are increasingly targeting mobile users via a vast underground network of tools and services, according to a new report.

Security firm Trend Micro outlines the popular methods used by Chinese gangs to make money from the mobile web.

It details how cheap some mobile malware kits can be - from as little as 100 yuan (£9.70).

Such underground forums are thriving worldwide, particularly in Russia, China and Brazil.

The Mobile Cybercriminal Underground Market report outlines some of the key businesses operating in this vast and sophisticated network.

Spam devices

It includes the selling of premium-rate phone numbers, which can be bought from 220,000 yuan (£21,400).

Such numbers are used in conjunction with malicious apps that reply to text messages and then delete confirmation messages so users end up paying vast sums to cybercriminals without realising.

Spam is big business in a country where 81% of Chinese internet users went online using their mobile phone in 2013.

At the end of 2013 there were 500 million mobile internet users in China, according the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

To launch spam campaigns, cybercriminals often use a GSM modem, a device attached via USB to a computer, which can send out text messages to multiple users.

A 16-slot GSM modem, are available for approximately $425 (£254) each, can send up to 9,600 text messages per hour.

This spam can be used to advertise various products as well as tricking users into visiting malicious websites.

The report also talks about SMS forwarders - which are Trojans designed to steal authentication or verification codes sent via text messages.

They monitor text messages sent from online payment service providers and banks and intercept authentication or verification codes which are then forwarded to cybercriminals.

Currently they only run on Android phones.

Boosting apps

Apple users are also being targeted via iMessage spammers that are able to buy 1,000 spam services for as little as 100 yuan (£9.60).

Also operating on the mobile underground are app-rank boosting services, which can promote a malicious app by creating several dummy accounts to download and write good user reviews for it.

To boost an iPhone app into the top five of Apple's China app store can cost 60,000 yuan (£5,800).

In Android third-party stores - where most Chinese Android users shop - cybercriminals pay according to the number of downloads they want, with prices starting at 40 yuan (£3.90) for 10,000 downloads.

The report concludes: "The barriers to launching cybercriminal operations are less in number than ever. Toolkits are becoming more available and cheaper; some are even offered free of charge.

"Cybercriminals are also making use of the 'deep web' to sell products and services outside the indexed or searchable world wide web, making their online shops harder for law enforcement to find and take down."

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rent-out-your-toilet app launched

4 March 2014 Last updated at 14:41

An app that allows people to charge members of the public to use their private toilet is being tested at the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

AirPnP - inspired by AirBnB, a service for renting out your property to travellers - said it offered a "legal alternative" to urinating in public.

Willing "entrepeeneurs" can charge a price to use their toilet, and must add details such as cleanliness and toilet paper thickness.

Users can rate their "pee experience".

The founders said the site was inspired by the yearly trouble the founders had when attending New Orleans's Mardi Gras festival, which has been running since 1837.

"During the Mardi Gras they routinely experienced the pain point of having no place to legally urinate," the Airpnp "About us" page explains.

"This problem is often solved by using what is known as a 'rogue pee'.

"If caught the person faces a weekend in Orleans Parish Prison. Yet this stiff penalty doesn't stop thousands upon thousands of 'rogue pees'. This clearly demonstrates the demand for a legal alternative."

'Porcelain paradise'

Almost 2,000 people have signed up to use the app. At the time of writing, about 20 toilets had been added. All are in New Orleans, except one posted in Budapest, Hungary.

"Clean bathroom in our uptown home," reads one.

"Toilet paper and hand soap provided, of course. Large mirror for checking yourself out."

Another advert offers a "porcelain paradise" just off the main parade route, for $3 per visit.

The advert reads: "Imagine, you, gazing at passing floats. Now imagine you gazing at more floats just a few minutes later. Because that's all it will take for you to unleash your bowels in our frequently cleaned porcelain paradise."

The app's founders have a history of creating public-service-minded apps.

One of them, Travis Laurendine, has been recognised by the White House for efforts in "hacking" for a civic cause.

More than 10 million people have booked rooms using AirBnB, a popular alternative to using a hotel.

While Uber allows people to use their own vehicles to provide taxi rides.

These types of services - dubbed the "sharing economy" - rely on the principle that allowing users to easily vote on how good a service is will ensure high quality.

23.43 | 0 komentar | Read More