New cybercrime tests for banks

10 June 2014 Last updated at 13:38

The Bank of England has stepped up its efforts to protect the UK's financial institutions from cybercrime with a new testing framework to spot vulnerabilities.

The Bank says hacking represents a growing risk for the financial sector.

The new tests will combine government intelligence about existing cyber-threats with those that the security industry assesses to be risks.

It is expected that the voluntary tests will be widely adopted.

Bad guys

The new cybersecurity strategy, known as CBEST, is the first of its kind for the financial services sector and tests will begin this summer.

"The results should provide a direct readout on a firm's capability to withstand cyber-attacks," said Andrew Gracie, the Bank of England's executive director of resolution.

James Chappell is chief technology officer at Digital Shadows, one of the security firms taking part in the tests. He explained how they would differ from previous vulnerability testing:

"Previous tests were carried out by a geeky guy who tried various technical ways to get into a system and then presented a report to the bank.

"These tests will mimic the behaviour of the bad guy, whether that be a hacktivist, organised crime or a nation state, it will emulate the same techniques they would use."

Rising risk

In a speech to the British Bankers' Association cyber-conference in London launching the new framework, Mr Gracie warned that banks needed to be better prepared to counter cyber-attacks.

"Cyber presents new challenges. Unlike other causes of operational disruption like fires and floods, we know there are agents out there - criminal, terrorist organisations or state sponsored actors, that have the will, if not necessarily the means, to attack the system.

"Low-level attacks are now not isolated events but continuous. It is clear that the risk is on the rise and a growing cause of concern to industry and authorities alike."

According to the Bank of England's Systemic Risk survey, during 2013 there was a 10% increase in concerns about cyber-attacks among banks.

In December, the Royal Bank of Scotland admitted its platform was briefly attacked by hackers while one unidentified London-listed company incurred losses of £800m in a cyber-attack a few years ago.

Results of the tests are unlikely to be made public.

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Researcher caught mining bitcoins

10 June 2014 Last updated at 11:18

A researcher has been suspended from a US national agency for misusing supercomputers to mine bitcoins at two universities.

In a report, the National Science Foundation (NSF) revealed that more than $8,000 (£4,760) worth of bitcoins had been generated from NSF-funded computers.

The NSF recommended that the individual should be suspended.

The researcher said he was conducting tests.

Equipment worth $150,000 (£89,230) at the government-backed organisation was used to mine the digital currency.

Both universities, which have not been identified, determined that this was an unauthorised use of their IT systems.

It is claimed that the unnamed researcher used remote access software and may have been attempting to cover his tracks.

"Both university reports noted that the researcher accessed the computer systems remotely and may have taken steps to conceal his activities, including accessing one supercomputer through a mirror site in Europe," says the report.

The researcher's access to all NSF supercomputer resources was terminated.

A similar incident occurred in February this year when a Harvard researcher was caught mining a bitcoin derivative called dogecoin.

Using Harvard's high-powered network cluster known as Odyssey, which harnesses the power of thousands of CPU cores, the researcher mined an unspecified number of dogecoins that could have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

According to the Harvard Crimson, which first reported the story, the researcher was permanently banned from using the powerful network.

In an email from James Cuff, assistant dean for research computing at Harvard, students and academics were warned that any digital mining operations were strictly prohibited for "fairly obvious reasons".

Kadhim Shubber of CoinDesk told the BBC that, "With the price of bitcoin currently almost £400, there is certainly a strong temptation to misuse access to a powerful computer for mining."

He urged that institutions ensure there are good safeguards in place in order to prevent further similar instances of unauthorised bitcoin mining.

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Xbox One console to get Halo remakes

9 June 2014 Last updated at 21:11 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

Microsoft is recoding the main games in its Halo series to run on its recently released Xbox One console.

In addition to original versions of the games, Halo: The Master Chief collection will also include a new visually-upgraded version of Halo 2.

Purchasers of the November release are also being promised "beta" access to the multiplayer version of the forthcoming Halo 5.

One company watcher said it illustrated the firm was listening to its fans.

"I think it's a smart move," said David Scarborough, from GamesTM magazine.

"It shows a willingness to satiate the appetite of Xbox hardcore gamers, which is what Microsoft sees the Halo franchise as - it's biggest hardcore gaming franchise.

"It also feeds into the hype for the next entry in the series.

"But I personally don't think it will be something that will incentivise people who haven't yet bought a new console to buy an Xbox One."

Xbox gamers who already bought the titles on earlier versions of the Xbox are being given an added reason to buy the games again: the package will also include access to watch a new live-action series called Halo: Nightfall.

The episodes, produced by Ridley Scott, are currently being filmed in Ireland, and are separate to the Steven Spielberg Halo TV series promised last year.

While new pre-rendered trailer footage of Halo 5 was shown to the audience at the firm's E3 press conference in Los Angeles, developer 343 Studios was not yet ready to demo gameplay or confirm a launch date.

All about games

Xbox chief Phil Spencer told the crowd at the Microsoft event that Halo was the "reason Xbox is here today".

He also acknowledged that his firm had changed its strategy to take account of customer feedback - a nod to it abandoning restrictions on the sale of second-hand disks and releasing a cheaper version of the console without its Kinect voice/camera sensor.

He pointedly said at the event's outset that this year's conference would be dedicated exclusively to showing off new games, rather than sharing the time to show off other multimedia features.

Microsoft's rival Sony had exploited previous attempts to promote the Xbox as both a games machine and a means to control cable TV, pitching the PlayStation 4 as the machine for serious gamers. That move helped the Japanese company to enjoy stronger sales since both machines launched last November.

Other new titles on show for the Xbox One included the hyper-reality game Sunset Overdrive, which features a character who skids across rails blowing up people who have been turned into mutants by a poisonous fizzy drink.

The colourful game is an Xbox One exclusive and due out later this year.

Microsoft Game Studios showed off another new Xbox One exclusive at an earlier stage of development called Phantom Dust - which is billed as a "battle for reality". It had previously released an action-strategy title by the same name for the original Xbox a decade ago.

The in-house games publisher also previewed a dragon-fighting title - developed by Japan's Platinum Games - called Scalebound for the new console, and a fresh version of its open-world third-person shooter Crackdown, originally released for the Xbox 360.

One expert said offering such distinctive titles could prove critical to Microsoft's attempts to woo those who had not yet upgraded to a "new-gen" console.

"Since Xbox dropped the DRM [digital rights management] stuff before launch and then ditched the Kinect as a must-have about a month ago, the actual level of differentiation between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One has really shrunk," said Ed Barton, an analyst at the Ovum consultancy.

"So, one of the only differentiators left is exclusive game titles - there's not much left in to pick between them based on hardware."

Analysis from E3: Dave Lee, Los Angeles

First stop at this year's E3 was the Galen Center, a venue usually used for basketball, where Microsoft rolled out its portfolio for the coming year and a bit.

At its heart, the crowd-pleasing announcement of the Halo Master Collection - a complete compendium of the Halo series, plus a "beta" of the latest entry in the series, Halo 5 Guardians. It won the biggest cheer in the arena, for mostly nostalgia purposes.

But a new console can't rely on old franchises, even if they are of Halo's calibre. That's where Sunset Overdrive comes in - an (almost) open-world game with a lead character that, at first glance, is more than slightly irritating.

While the Xbox event was a typically loud, brash affair - it was intentionally no-nonsense. This was all about games, and the firm has set out a convincing staple for the year ahead, even if it is a little reliant on tried and tested brands.

It all points to a strong 2014 and 2015 for Xbox One. It needs to be if it is to claw back some of the ground lost to the PlayStation 4.

Tellingly, there was only a brief mention of the Kinect - a peripheral touted last year to be integral to the Xbox One experience.

Not so this time - only two titles mentioned the Kinect directly: a dancing game and a baffling music-creation game based on the old Disney film, Fantasia.

Later we get to see what Sony has to offer.

Call of Duty

Square Enix picked the show to premiere a trailer for its next Lara Croft game, called Rise of the Tomb Raider. The character appears to be suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after her previous origins story, but little of the new plot was revealed.

Activision was more forthcoming with a long sequence from its forthcoming Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare game, showing soldiers fighting swarms of drones in a battle-hit city. However, there was only a brief glimpse of its star Kevin Spacey in the footage.

Several titles on show took advantage of the Xbox's extra processing power to offer fast-paced multiplayer campaigns. They included:

• Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Unity, in which four players work together to kill targets in 18th-century France
• Lionhead's Fable Legends, a role-playing game in which players can either work together as a band of heroes, or take a top-down view of the world acting as the villain putting obstacles in their way
• Evolve, in which four players work together to take down a monster, or play as the monster itself trying to frustrate the attacks

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Google behind Webdriver mystery

10 June 2014 Last updated at 12:55 By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

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The Webdriver Torso test videos on You Tube

Google has admitted it is behind the Webdriver Torso web account, an unlikely internet sensation which has mystified and delighted web users.

The mystery began when a series of seemingly pointless 11-second videos - all showing a series of blue and red rectangles - were uploaded in their thousands to YouTube.

Speculation was rife about who was behind the enigmatic postings and what they could mean.

Aliens and spies were mooted.

But now it seems that the reality behind the Webdriver Torso mystery is more mundane - it is one of many tests channels used by YouTube to ensure video quality.

The content of the video is meaningless, just a random set of sounds and visuals picked because they were easy to create, according to a YouTube source.

By comparing the uploaded video with the original file, the team is able to assess whether they are being uploaded in the same quality.

Mystery solved

In an official statement, Google said: "We're never gonna give you uploading that's slow or loses video quality, and we're never gonna let you down by playing YouTube in poor video quality.

"That's why we're always running tests like Webdriver Torso."

Its light-hearted statement echoes 1980s pop star Rick Astley's hit song Never Gonna Give You Up in reference to a recent Webdriver Torso video which showed the singer in silhouette.

That in turn is a reference to Rickrolling, one of the internet's most famous memes which linked people to a video of the singer via a masked link.

The Webdriver Torso mystery was finally solved by website Engadget following revelations that Webdriver was part of a network called ytuploadtestpartner_torso, which in turn was associated with social media accounts that name-dropped several Google employees based at its Zurich office.

Engadget confronted Google with its findings and the search engine confessed.

Not spies

Continue reading the main story

Perhaps we shouldn't relax just yet"

End Quote Stephen Beckett BBC Click

Wired magazine was the first to spot the Webdriver Torso phenomenon in February, as part of a feature on bizarre YouTube clips.

The technology press quickly became obsessed with the story, with a variety of theories postulated, including that the videos were part of an advertising campaign by aliens or a digital version of spies' numbers stations, used during the Cold War to decode messages.

Each of the almost 80,000 clips - uploaded over a seven-month period - followed the same pattern - 10 slides, each with a red rectangle, a blue rectangle and a computer-generated tone.

The BBC conducted its own investigation, led by BBC Click producer Stephen Beckett. He asked Google if it was behind the mystery at the end of May but, at the time, the firm declined to comment.

"I can't deny I'm not disappointed that we haven't discovered extra-terrestrial life, or cracked the communications of a clandestine spying ring," he said.

"While the truth may be a little more down to earth, with all the attention now is the perfect time for aliens and spies to start communicating discreetly via rectangles and Rick Astley memes. Perhaps we shouldn't relax just yet."

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Smart TVs subverted by radio attack

9 June 2014 Last updated at 11:55

Millions of smart TVs can be hijacked by burying attack code in signals broadcast to the net-connected devices, security experts warn.

The attack exploits loopholes in widely used technology that helps smart TVs receive tailored adverts.

Once hijacked, the TVs could be made to send messages on behalf of attackers, find other vulnerable devices in a home or launch other attacks across the net.

Detecting and stopping the attack would be difficult, said the researchers.

The attack uses the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) standard that is widely supported in smart television sets sold in Europe.

The HbbTV system was designed to help broadcasters exploit the internet connection of a smart TV to add extra information to programmes or so advertisers can do a better job of targeting viewers.

But Yossef Oren and Angelos Keromytis, from the Network Security Lab, at Columbia University, have found a way to hijack HbbTV using a cheap antenna and carefully crafted broadcast messages.

"For this attack you do not need an internet address, you do not need a server," Mr Oren told Forbes. "You just need a roof and an antenna and once you are done with your attack, there's completely no trace of you."

By exploiting loopholes in HbbTV, smart TVs could be hijacked by attackers and used to do anything their real owners would do.

For instance, the researchers said, if owners had logged in to Facebook via a TV app, the attack could be used to post messages on the social network on that person's behalf.

Alternatively, wrote the researchers in a paper, the loopholes could be used to bombard a target website with data or to log spurious votes or clicks.

It could also be used to scan devices inside a home network for vulnerabilities or display on-screen notices asking for credit card or other sensitive information.

In areas where lots of people owned smart TVs, a $250 (£150) antenna could reach thousands of people, said Mr Oren. A bigger antenna could extend the reach of the attack considerably, he added.

Millions of smart TVs use HbbTV across Europe, and more than 60 broadcasters in the region have signed up to use the technology.

Mr Oren said the standards body that oversaw HbbTV had been told about the security loophole. However, he added, the body did not think the threat from the attack was serious enough to require a re-write of the technology's security.

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Computer convinces panel it is human

9 June 2014 Last updated at 13:36

A computer program called Eugene Goostman, which simulates a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy, is said to have passed the Turing test at an event organised by the University of Reading.

The test investigates whether people can detect if they are talking to machines or humans.

The experiment is based on Alan Turing's question-and-answer game Can Machines Think?

No computer has passed the test before under these conditions, it is reported.

The 65-year-old Turing Test is successfully passed if a computer is mistaken for a human more than 30% of the time during a series of five-minute keyboard conversations.

On 7 June Eugene convinced 33% of the judges at the Royal Society in London that it was human.

Other artificial intelligence (AI) systems also competed, including Cleverbot, Elbot and Ultra Hal.

Judges included actor Robert Llewellyn, who played an intelligent robot in BBC Two's science-fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, and Lord Sharkey, who led the successful campaign for Alan Turing's posthumous pardon, over a conviction for homosexual activity, in 2013.

Eugene was created by Vladimir Veselov, who was born in Russia and now lives in the United States, and Ukrainian-born Eugene Demchenko, who now lives in Russia.

Transcripts of the conversations are currently unavailable, but may appear in a future academic paper.

The judges and hidden human control groups were kept apart throughout the test.

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BBC's Gareth Furby previews the Turing Test event

The event was organised by Reading University's School of Systems Engineering in partnership with RoboLaw, an EU-funded organisation examining the regulation of emerging robotic technologies.

Alan Turing was an English mathematician, wartime code-breaker and pioneer of computer science.

Historic

The event has been labelled as "historic" by the organisers, who claim no computer has passed the test before.

"Some will claim that the Test has already been passed," said Kevin Warwick, a visiting professor at the University of Reading and deputy vice-chancellor for research at Coventry University.

"The words Turing test have been applied to similar competitions around the world. However, this event involved the most simultaneous comparison tests than ever before, was independently verified and, crucially, the conversations were unrestricted.

"A true Turing test does not set the questions or topics prior to the conversations. We are therefore proud to declare that Alan Turing's test was passed for the first time on Saturday."

Lord Sharkey, a leading expert in robotic technology and artificial intelligence, said: "It is indeed a great achievement for Eugene. It was very clever ruse to pretend to be a 13-year-old Ukranian boy, which would constrain the conversation. But these competitions are really great to push developments."

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Instagram to introduce ads globally

9 June 2014 Last updated at 19:52 By Kim Gittleson BBC technology reporter, New York

Photo-sharing service Instagram has announced plans to expand advertising to the UK, Canada and Australia later this year.

Instagram - which was bought by Facebook for $1bn in 2012 - introduced ads to its US audience in November.

In a blog post, Instagram said advertisers had positive results which "in some cases [were] well above the ad industry's average for performance".

The app said it had over 200 million users worldwide.

"We are committed to learning as much as we can while building Instagram as a sustainable business," the company said in a statement.

The service allows users to take photos and then apply various filters, which can then be shared within the app and on other social networks.

Continue reading the main story 'Logical step'

Advertising consultancy eMarketer estimates that there were 34.9 million Instagram users in the US - meaning a large portion of those posting photos to the site are outside the United States.

"It's a logical next step for Instagram to roll out advertising in these English-speaking countries, enabling global brand advertisers to extend their Instagram efforts outside the US," said Debra Aho Williamson, social media analyst at eMarketer.

Instagram tested advertising in the US with a few select firms last autumn, including Adidas, General Electric, and Levi's.

It has since expanded to include approximately 20 firms, such as Taco Bell, and monthly ad campaigns can cost close to $1m, according to reports.

In March, it announced it had signed a deal with advertising giant Omnicom worth an estimated $40m.

However, the process of introducing advertising has been slow, partly because Instagram's users have said they are concerned that the experience of using the app could be harmed by too much advertising.

"Instagram has purposely been cautious about rolling out ads in the US, so I expect a similar cautious and calculated rollout in these countries," says Ms Williamson.

Mobile push

The global expansion comes as parent Facebook has increasingly sought to position itself as a mobile-first company.

Facebook bought messaging app WhatsApp for $19bn this year, and recently said that mobile advertising makes up 59% of its total advertising revenue.

Shares in the social networking giant are up more than 150% for the year on the strength of its mobile offerings.

However, Facebook has been cautious about its efforts to monetise Instagram, fearing that users will leave the app.

Now, however, it is facing increasing competition from social media companies like Twitter and Pinterest, which are also exploring ways to boost their mobile ad offerings.

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eBay's PayPal president to quit

10 June 2014 Last updated at 00:00

The president of eBay's payments business PayPal is stepping down to join Facebook where he will lead its messaging products business.

eBay said David Marcus, who has led the division for the past two years, would leave the firm on 27 June.

eBay president John Donahoe said Paypal's leadership team would report directly to him until a successor was found.

Mr Donahoe added that PayPal was on track to meet expectations for 2015.

PayPal, which accounted for 41% of eBay's revenues in 2013, has 148 million active accounts.

Under Mr Marcus's leadership it has expanded into mobile payments, and Mr Marcus said he was leaving the business with a "strong leadership team in place".

In a Facebook post, Mr Marcus said he'd decided to join Facebook after a meeting with its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

"At first, I didn't know whether another big company gig was a good thing for me, but Mark's enthusiasm, and the unparalleled reach and consumer engagement of the Facebook platform ultimately won me over," he wrote.

"I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty again attempting to build something new and meaningful at scale," he added.

'Incredibly excited'

In a statement, Facebook said Mr Marcus would be vice president of messaging products at Facebook, a newly created role.

It said it was "incredibly excited" to work with Mr Marcus who had "taught himself to write code at the age of 8 and launched his first start-up at the age of 23".

Facebook spokeswoman Vanessa Chan said Mr Marcus would oversee the Messenger service within its social network as well as the free Messenger mobile app.

Facebook is trying to grow its private messaging features in the face of stiff competition from new start-up messaging service rivals such as Snapchat and Line.

In February, Facebook said it would buy WhatsApp for $19bn (£11bn).

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Sony gets new Uncharted and Sack Boy

10 June 2014 Last updated at 06:08 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

Sony has confirmed the return of two of its biggest exclusive franchises: Uncharted and Little Big Planet.

Its new PlayStation 4 console will get third-person shooter Uncharted 4 in 2015, while Sack Boy is due to star in Little Big Planet 3 in November.

Sony also announced it would launch a budget console for $99 (£59) this year.

Sony's E3 games expo event covered more topics than Microsoft's, but industry watchers were split as to which firm had come out on top.

"I think Microsoft had the better show - it was tighter and more focused," said Stephen Totilo, editor-in-chief of the games news site Kotaku.

"A lot of the Sony games that we saw were for 2015, and Microsoft did a better job of showing people what they will be getting in 2014.

"E3 is always to some extent smoke and mirrors, and when you're at the event you have to discern what is real and what is hype."

While Sony showed off live gameplay for the Little Big Planet game at the Los Angeles event, it only showed a brief pre-rendered trailer for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, and a pre-recorded clip of another big budget title The Order: 1886, also due to go on sale next year.

However, NowGamer writer Adam Barnes had a different take.

"It was probably Sony that came out on top in the end, in spite of the wasted time talking up the benefits of Sony's TV and entertainment department," he told the BBC.

"Bloodborne carries a lot of prestige among gamers and the first official unveiling of Grand Theft Auto 5 on a next-gen platform will certainly carry a lot of weight for many."

Bloodborne is a forthcoming role-playing action title from Hidetaka Miyazaka, creator of the notoriously difficult title Dark Souls.

The PS4 version of crime-themed GTA V is due to go on sale in the autumn, shortly after the 29 July release of another re-mastered title, The Last Of Us.

Sony also announced that add-on content for its game Infamous: Second Son - due out in August - could be bought and played by consumers who had not purchased the original title.

Along with the more family-friendly Little Big Planet 3 - which is compatible with user-created levels for earlier versions of the platformer - the titles will help tackle criticism that several other big-name titles unveiled at last year's E3 have been delayed until 2015.

Analysis from E3: Dave Lee, Los Angeles

Before Sony's press event at E3, the company puts on a big open air do - food stands, beer, DJ, the works. In the LA sun. It's a pleasant way to end a busy day of announcements.

For Sony, it serves another, more useful purpose. Unlike Microsoft's press conference at 09:30 local time, which has a room full of skipped breakfasts and hangovers, the PlayStation event is packed with excitable, whooping games fans.

But the incessant hollering after every sentence won't disguise the fact that much of what we saw from Sony tonight will not enter gamer's worlds until 2015.

Compared to the strong portfolio of titles coming to Xbox One before the end of the year, it could prove to be an Achilles heel.

Yet tipping the battle back in Sony's favour is the fact that some of its exclusives looked utterly stunning.

A points win for Sony, one analyst told me, though plenty will disagree.

First looks

Sony has boasting rights to the fact that it managed to secure first-look gameplay from Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Knight, Bungie's Destiny, and NeatherRealm Studios's Mortal Kombat X, despite the fact they will all be released on the Xbox One as well.

The Japanese firm managed to surprise its audience with news that it had signed a deal to allow PS4 owners to invite others to play multiplayer battles in another title - Ubisoft's Himalayas-set actioner Far Cry 4 - even if the "friends" had not bought the software.

It also drew one of the loudest cheers of the event with news that LucasArts classic 1998 game Grim Fandango was being recreated for PlayStation by Double Fine Productions.

But other elements of its show were less well received.

A drawn out promotion for Powers - an in-development detective TV series involving characters with superpowers - only generated scattered applause.

"This is not selling the series very strongly," blogged Ars Technica in its live coverage of the show.

News of an animated movie based on the characters Ratchet and Clank movie had an even cooler reception.

Micro console

Beyond a quick mention of two new demos for Project Morpheus, Sony's virtual reality helmet was all but ignored.

The firm instead focused on the North American launch of PS Now in July - a service that will allow PS4s to play games made for older consoles via the internet. It added that the service would be extended to the PS3, PS Vita handheld and selected Sony TVs later in the year.

No mention was made of it coming to other parts of the world.

However, Sony did reveal that Europe would be included in the initial launch of the PlayStation TV - a $99 device that can stream games from the PS4 to a second TV in the home, as well as provide access to Sony's online content including movies and PS Now, where available.

Mr Totilo was not impressed.

"I think the PlayStation TV is a confusing product," he said.

"Sony TVs are now playing PlayStation games, the PlayStation TV is playing backwards-compatible games - I think if I was the consumer I'd be in a muddle about which of Sony's many different devices is the one that I need."

Infinite exploration

The audience proved more receptive to some of the indie games on show.

UK-based Hello Games was widely praised for its promo of No Man's Sky - a title involving a universe containing an "infinite" amount of planets.

Giant Squid also showed off Abzu - an underwater-set follow-up to its award-winning title Journey.

However, there was no mention of The Last Guardian - a game first announced by Sony at E3 five years ago, which the firm recently stressed had not been cancelled.

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Facebook reveals image messaging app

10 June 2014 Last updated at 13:14

Facebook has revealed a new photo-messaging app after accidentally releasing it on Apple's app store.

Known as Slingshot, the app's features include sharing photos and videos with friends and sending "reaction shots".

Like Snapchat, all images are deleted once sent and users can scribble or type over their photos.

Facebook has confirmed Slingshot's existence, but it is not known when the app will be officially released.

Reporters from The Verge and TechCrunch took screengrabs of the app's promotional material before it was removed by Facebook.

The images appear to reveal many of Slingshot's features, the more unusual of which include an unlocking mechanism, whereby photos received from friends must be unlocked by sending a photo back to the original sender.

It is thought that the back and forth "slinging" of images is why the app is called Slingshot.

"Earlier today, we accidentally released a version of Slingshot, a new app we're working on," confirmed Facebook in a statement.

The company did not reveal when the app would be made available, stating: "It'll be ready soon and we're excited for you to try it out."

Snapchat competitor?

In 2012 Facebook bought photo-sharing network Instagram for $1bn.

A year later, it was reported that Snapchat rejected a $3bn bid from Facebook, revealing the social media giant's apparent continued and serious interest in photo-messaging services.

Previously Facebook attempted and failed to create a successful image-messaging app called Poke, which was recently abandoned and had been described by some as a "blatant copycat app."

However, unlike Poke, Slingshot has a number of unique features not found in rivals such as Snapchat, which could make it a strong competitor.

Another similar app and potential rival is Taptalk, which is reportedly admired among some Facebook engineers.

Taptalk provides a comparatively minimalist and simplified approach to image messaging, allowing users to send personal pictures or videos by tapping or holding their friend's profile picture.

It has also been noted that Slingshot's icon is strikingly similar to Taptalk's.

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