Audi claims self-drive speed record

21 October 2014 Last updated at 13:29 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

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WATCH: The RS7 took a little over two minutes to complete a lap (video filmed by Audi and edited by BBC)

Audi has claimed a speed record for a self-driving car.

The German car giant says its RS7 vehicle topped 149mph (240km/h) while driving uncrewed round the Hockenheim racing circuit, south of Frankfurt.

The car took just over two minutes to complete a lap of the Grand Prix track.

Sunday's stunt was organised to highlight the firm's efforts to bring "piloted driving" to road vehicles. But one expert cautioned that several hurdles still needed to be overcome.

Audi - a division of Volkswagen - also put a human behind the wheel of the vehicle for a comparison lap. He took five seconds longer to complete the circuit.

A member of the car company's research team explained that it believed the innovation could ultimately be used by the public.

"I know accident-free driving will remain a vision. But at least we can reduce the number of accidents in the future," said Dr Horst Glaser.

"Piloted driving defuses situations like, for example, being in a traffic jam. Whenever the driver is distracted and inattentive the car could take over.

"Additionally the driver has a chance to relax. That means they are on full alert as soon as their attention is required again."

The RS7 used a combination of cameras, laser scanners, GPS location data, radio transmissions and radar sensors to guide itself around the track, with the data processed by computing equipment that filled its boot.

The experiment marked a high point after 15 years of research by the firm in the US and Europe.

However, one industry-watcher noted that a speed test on an otherwise empty racetrack was very different to the day-to-day driving conditions such vehicles would one day experience.

"I think we will see driverless cars on our roads within a decade, but there's clearly still a lot of work to do," said Prof David Bailey from Aston Business School.

"You need to make sure they interact with other driverless cars as well as those piloted by humans - you've got to make sure the software absolutely works."

He added that the insurance industry also needed to grapple with the concept.

"One of the big issues is what happens if there is an accident," he explained.

"Who is responsible? Is it the driver even if they are not driving? Is it the car company? Is it the software company? There are a whole load of legal issues to sort out.

"But there could be big savings for the economy in terms of far fewer accidents and more efficient travel."

Audi is far from alone in this field research.

Another German manufacturer, Mercedes, showed off a rival computer-controlled version of its S-class car recently.

Other car companies including Daimler, Volvo, Toyota, Tesla and BMW are also experimenting with artificial intelligence-directed vehicles, as are other tech firms including Google, Panasonic and Autolive.

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Google changes 'to fight piracy'

20 October 2014 Last updated at 13:16 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Google has announced changes to its search engine in an attempt to curb online piracy.

The company has long been criticised for enabling people to find sites to download entertainment illegally.

The entertainment industry has argued that illegal sites should be "demoted" in search results.

The new measures, mostly welcomed by music trade group the BPI, will instead point users towards legal alternatives such as Spotify and Google Play.

Google will now list these legal services in a box at the top of the search results, as well as in a box on the right-hand side of the page.

Crucially, however, these will be adverts - meaning if legal sites want to appear there, they will need to pay Google for the placement.

The BPI said that while it was "broadly" pleased with Google's changes, it did not think sites should have to pay.

"There should be no cost when it comes to serving consumers with results for legal services," a spokesman told the BBC.

In numbers: Piracy battle

• The BPI made 43.3 million requests for Google to remove search results in 2013 (the US equivalent group, the RIAA, made 31.6 million)
• Google removed 222 million results from search because of copyright infringement
• Google's Content ID system, which detects copyrighted material, scans 400 years-worth of video every day
• 300 million videos have been "claimed" by rights holders, meaning they can place advertising on them

Source: Google report into piracy

"Instead we have urged Google to use the machine-readable data on the Music Matters website, which lists all services licensed in the UK, and to promote these legal services above illegal sites and results in their search, using appropriate weighting applied fairly and equally across services."

'Legitimate sources'

Google has also added extra measures to doctor its search results so that links pointing to illegal content fall lower in results, with legal sites floating to the top.

The company has been doing this for several years, but now says it has "refined the signal" for detecting these links.

To coincide with the announcement, Google published a report into the measures it has put in place across its various websites.

On YouTube, for instance, its Content ID system is able to detect the use of copyrighted material in videos - offering music labels the choice of having the content removed, or monetising it by placing advertising.

But the report stressed the long-held view from Google that the solution to piracy lay in putting effort into creating better legal services, rather than chasing off illegal ones.

"Piracy often arises when consumer demand goes unmet by legitimate supply," the report said.

"As services ranging from Netflix to Spotify to iTunes have demonstrated, the best way to combat piracy is with better and more convenient legitimate services."

Ongoing row

The BPI and Google have been at logger-heads over downgrading results for several years.

The music industry has been angered by the way in which a search on Google for "listen to Katy Perry", or any artist, would sometimes produce results pointing to places to download content illegally.

Often, the illegal sites would rank higher than official outlets such as iTunes.

Google, reluctant to tamper with its "organic" results, but leant on by the government, has gradually backed down and implemented some measures, although their effectiveness is often disputed.

Other combative measures pushed by the BPI include the blocking of websites such as the Pirate Bay so that UK internet users cannot visit unless they are using specialist software.

"We will monitor the results carefully," said Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI.

"But we are encouraged that Google has recognised the need to take further action and will continue to work with the search engines and government to build a stronger digital music sector.

"The BPI, together with colleagues from the film industry, will continue to meet with the search engines and government to ensure these measures make a real difference and to persuade Bing and Yahoo to take similar action."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Staples investigating hack attack

21 October 2014 Last updated at 11:54

Office supply superstore Staples is investigating possible payment card data thefts, according to reports.

A blog report by security expert Brian Krebs has suggested that several of its stores in north-east America have been affected by a breach.

If correct, it would make Staples the latest in an increasingly long line of US retailers to have been targeted by hackers.

The US government has called for a swift move to chip-and-pin technology.

Stores are gradually making the move from using magnetic strip payment cards - the most common form of payment in the US - to the more secure chip-and-pin.

Many are now rushing through the changes following a series of high-profile breaches where hackers have put card-stealing malware on cash registers.

Staples, it seems, could be the latest victim.

Secure technologies

Mr Krebs, a US security expert who has written widely on retail data breaches, blogged that bank officials were investigating breaches at Staples stores in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

"Multiple banks say they have identified a pattern of credit and debit card fraud suggesting that several Staples Inc. office supply locations in north-eastern United States are currently dealing with a data breach," Mr Krebs wrote.

Staples said it was investigating the matter.

"Staples is in the process of investigating a potential issue involving credit card data and has contacted law enforcement," company spokesman Mark Cautela said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Sears Holdings said it had discovered that point-of-sale registers at its Kmart stores had been compromised by malicious software.

Fast-food chain Dairy Queen also reported that malware had been installed on cash registers in nearly 400 of its stores.

And, at the end of last year, Target suffered a massive data breach which affected up to 70 million customers.

It has led the US government to call for the widespread adoption of chip-and-pin technology.

"With over 100 million Americans falling victim to data breaches over the last year, and millions suffering from credit card fraud and identity crimes, there is a need to act and move our economy toward secure technologies that better secure transactions and safeguard sensitive data," the Obama administration said in a press release.

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Apple's iPhone sales boost earnings

20 October 2014 Last updated at 22:32

Apple reported fourth-quarter earnings of $8.47bn (£5.24bn), a 13% rise from the same period a year earlier, beating analysts' expectations.

Profits at the technology giant were helped by sales of its new iPhone 6 models, which were on sale for 10 days during the three-month period to 30 September.

Total iPhone sales hit 39.3 million.

However, sales of Apple's iPad disappointed, with 12.3 million sold, down from 13.1 million a year earlier.

"Our fiscal 2014 was one for the record books, including the biggest iPhone launch ever with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus," said Apple chief executive Tim Cook in a statement accompanying the earnings report. He added that he was optimistic for the crucial holiday quarter coming up.

Apple shares rose over 2% in after-hours trading after the earnings were released.

Pay for the future

The earnings were announced on the same day that Apple introduced its digital payment system, Apple Pay, at a host of US retailers including supermarket chain Whole Foods and pharmacy Walgreens.

Some analysts believe that alongside iPhone sales, Apple Pay could be one of the biggest drivers of revenue growth at the company in coming years.

The technology works by allowing users to scan their fingerprint using an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus to access stored credit information to pay for goods at participating retailers.

However, while analysts are optimistic about ApplePay's potential, only a few stores are currently equipped to use the technology - and several large retailers, most notably Wal-Mart, have yet to sign on to the service.

Furthermore, the technology is only available on the newest model of iPhones.

PC boom

On a conference call to discuss earnings, Apple chief financial officer Luca Maestri highlighted a surprising area of strength: Mac laptop sales.

He said that Mac sales hit a quarterly record, which was especially notable given the state of the overall global PC market, which had been declining.

On the call, Mr Cook also emphasized that Apple had repurchased $17bn of its own stock during the quarter - perhaps a nod at shareholders like Carl Icahn who have demanded that the technology giant return even more money to holders of its stock.

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Students build Oculus Moon robot

21 October 2014 Last updated at 15:26 By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a robot which they plan to land on the Moon to act as eyes for Earth-bound space enthusiasts.

The project is part of a $30m prize from Google offered to a team that can send video back from the moon.

The robot has already been shown to potential investors, including Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart.

It works in tandem with an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

The scientists from Carnegie Mellon have teamed up with space firm Astrobotic to compete for the Google Lunar XPrize, which requires a team to land a robot on the Moon, move it 500m and send back video to Earth.

Astrobotic Technology, which is a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon, has signed a deal with SpaceX - the private space company set up by Elon Musk - to use its Falcon 9 rocket to launch the robot. It is due to take off in 2016.

Non-stop hackathon

"The vision was simple - let anyone on Earth experience the Moon live through the eyes of a robot," explained team leader Daniel Shafrir.

"We weren't just going to go to the Moon. We are going to bring the Moon back," he added.

The telepresence robot, nicknamed Andy after university founder Andrew Carnegie, can be controlled by an operator's head.

Using an Oculus Rift headset, the movements of the user's head are tracked and sent back to Andy's camera so that it will match where the user is looking.

"Imagine the feeling of looking out and seeing rocks and craters billions of years old. Turn your head to the right and you see the dark expanse of space. Turn your head to the left and you see home, Earth," said Mr Shafrir.

To achieve this required complex coding. The team also encountered smaller problems such as the fact that the Oculus software was unable to receive two live video streams at the same time.

"Tackling challenges like that made the project a non-stop, day and night hackathon," explained Mr Shafrir.

Working with games designer Ben Boesel and planetarium director Dan Arnett, the team put Andy through his paces in a demo earlier this month.

The vision is to have "hundreds of the robots on the Moon", said Mr Shafrir.

"With an Oculus headset in every classroom, allowing kids to experience what, to this date, has only been experienced by 12 human beings," he added.

There are currently 18 teams from around the world competing to win the Google-sponsored Lunar X-Prize.

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Anonymising router project shut down

20 October 2014 Last updated at 11:15

A plan to raise cash to make a router that hides what people do online has been suspended after questions were raised about the project.

Anonabox sought $7,500 (£4,700) on crowdfunding site Kickstarter but got pledges of more than $585,000 in its first five days.

The project was pulled by Kickstarter which said it had worries about who made the hardware being offered.

Other problems with the project also emerged via social news site Reddit.

Security worry

The Anonabox project claimed to involve creating a tiny $45 custom-built router that sent all a person's browsing traffic across the Tor network. This bounces data around the net, encrypting it at every step, to hinder attempts to trace who is visiting a site or who has written a particular message or blogpost. Tor is widely used in many nations by human rights activists to avoid official scrutiny.

Typically people use software to join the Tor network but Anonabox claimed hardware was better because it was less open to tampering and attack by people keen to unmask anonymous browsers.

Soon after the project debuted on Kickstarter, some people noticed that the hardware being claimed as custom-built was already available elsewhere. Pictures of the prototype Anonabox seemed to be very similar to a device available from a Chinese electronics firm.

Others questioned the project's pledge to be open source as relatively little of the code running on the router was shared. Finally, some uncovered security shortcomings with the Anonabox that could give attackers a way to compromise the device.

The scrutiny led Kickstarter to suspend the project and ensure cash from backers did not get passed on. In an email to tech news site Wired, Kickstarter said questions raised about where the hardware came from and who made it brought about the suspension.

August Germar, who came up with the idea for Anonabox, told Ars Technica that the similar-looking devices seen on Chinese websites were "just generic knockoffs" saying it was good the hardware was available from China.

"It doesn't bother me," he said. "I just wanted more people to be able to have a device like this."

Despite the project being cancelled on Kickstarter, Mr Germar said he planned to continue development of Anonabox and sell it directly.

The furore around Anonabox comes as the Tor Project announces version 4.0 of its core software.

The updated version disables some older software found to be vulnerable to attack and adds some data traffic funnelling systems that seek to get around widely used firewall systems. In particular, said Tor, these systems should help people in China avoid official scrutiny of their browsing habits and behaviour.

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China denies backing iCloud hack

21 October 2014 Last updated at 11:34

The Chinese government has denied reports that it was involved in an attempt to steal user data from iCloud accounts within the country.

According to campaign website greatfire.org the service was subjected to a "man in the middle" (MITM) attack.

It took the form of a false website placed between the genuine log-in page and iCloud's servers.

Greatfire said it resembled other government-backed attacks but a spokesman denied any involvement.

"This is clearly a malicious attack on Apple in an effort to gain access to usernames and passwords and consequently all data stored on iCloud such as iMessages, photos, contacts, etc," said Greatfire in its report.

"If users ignored the security warning and clicked through to the Apple site and entered their username and password, this information has now been compromised by the Chinese authorities."

The attack coincided with the launch of Apple's iPhone 6 handset in the country last week.

Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry, told journalists the government was "resolutely opposed" to hacking.

China Telecom, the country's state-owned internet provider, also said the accusation was "untrue and unfounded".

However, two security experts claim the allegations of government involvement are credible.

"Generally one has to be slightly careful about attributing these attacks - however, in this case, it does seem to have come from deep within in China's domestic network.

"The finger is definitely pointing in that direction," Prof Alan Woodward, a security researcher from the University of Surrey, told the BBC.

"It appears to have been a fairly classic MITM attack. [The Chinese government] has a reputation for hoovering up any data they can get but the big question is, what were they interested in?"

"All the evidence I've seen would support that this is a real attack," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure.

"The Chinese government is directly attacking Chinese users of Apple's products."

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Peers back revenge porn 'offence'

20 October 2014 Last updated at 23:37

The House of Lords has agreed unanimously to make "revenge porn" a criminal offence in England and Wales.

The sharing of a private sexual image of someone without their consent and to cause distress will be punishable by up to two years in prison, Justice Minister Lord Faulks said.

The change to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill covers sharing of physical and online copies, and text messages.

MPs must approve the plans before they can become law.

'Distraught'

According to information from eight police forces in England and Wales which kept data on this issue, there were 149 allegations of revenge porn made in the past two and a half years.

Lord Faulks said the disclosure of revenge porn was "extremely distressing" and left victims feeling "humiliated and distraught".

A new offence was needed to "punish this pernicious practice" and provide "an important means of redress for victims of this cruel behaviour", he said.

For Labour, Baroness Thornton welcomed the government's move as a "positive step".

Liberal Democrat Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames said this "thoroughly nasty behaviour" caused "untold distress and humiliation" for victims.

The changes made to the Bill by the Lords, without need for a vote, go before the House of Commons at a later date.

Victims of revenge porn have often found it difficult to have pictures removed from the internet. Many sites where the images are hosted are based outside the UK, and requests to remove content are often ignored.

In some cases, asking for removal results in more attention being brought to the images.

Previously, without specific legislation, some victims of revenge porn have sought legal workarounds to have images taken down - most commonly the use of copyright law.

If an intimate picture has been taken as a "selfie", the image's copyright belongs to the taker.

If passed into law, the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill will define revenge porn as "photographs or films which show people engaged in sexual activity or depicted in a sexual way or with their genitals exposed, where what is shown would not usually be seen in public".

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Man guilty of fake-girl webcam sex

21 October 2014 Last updated at 04:29 By Angus Crawford BBC News

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The charity said men from 71 countries had tried to solicit Sweetie

A man in Australia is believed to be the first to have been convicted as the result of an undercover sting in which charity workers posed online as a 10-year-old Filipina.

Details of 1,000 men who contacted the fake child, nicknamed Sweetie, were sent to police around the world

The men had requested Sweetie perform sex acts in front of a webcam for cash.

The names of 110 British men thought to be among those involved were sent to the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).

It says it is actively pursuing the investigation, although no arrests have been made.

Scott Robert Hansen, who is a registered sex offender, pleaded guilty to three charges in Brisbane District Court.

He admitted sending obscene pictures of himself to Sweetie, having images of child sexual abuse on his computer and failing to comply with a sex offenders order.

He was sentenced to two years in prison, but is not expected to go to jail because of the eight months he has already been in detention.

He will be subject to a 12-month correction order and was ordered to undertake a sex offender treatment programme.

Chat logs

BBC News has obtained the chat logs of Hansen's conversations.

Hansen started by asking: "hi u really 9yo"

The operator replied: "Yes," to which he wrote: "wanna chat or cam with older?"

He went on: "I like asian chicks, are you... for action"

Continue reading the main story

Some of the men we interacted with literally give me nightmares"

End Quote Operator, Terre des Hommes

His comments became more explicit: "i'm naked, ever seen a guy naked?"

He then turned on his webcam and performed a sex act in front of what he believed was a nine-year-old girl.

Judge Ryrie, in sentencing said Hansen had "a protracted interest in targeting children in various ways".

The fact the girl was not real was irrelevant, she said. "If you believe that's a nine-year-old girl, then that's the law, that's good enough."

Internet patrols

This is thought to be the first conviction related to the Sweetie operation. It was created by a Dutch charity called Terre des Hommes.

Head of the programme Hans Guyt said he and his colleagues had always hoped the information would be used by police forces to mount their own operations.

"Law enforcement now know that the information we supplied can be very useful," he said.

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Undercover operator 'Some of the men give me nightmares'

He added that police had to be more proactive. "The only way to try and find these people is to patrol the internet," he said.

A team of four researchers worked on the project for 10 weeks in 2013. They posed in chat rooms as Philippine girls.

Sometimes they even used a computerised avatar, which they would show men via web cam.

Nightmares

BBC News has spoken exclusively to one operator, who asked to remain anonymous.

"Some of the men we interacted with literally give me nightmares," he said.

Regarding Scott Hansen, he commented: "He was very direct, at one point he asked us to get our fictional eight-year-old sister involved. It was very difficult to go to sleep at night after interacting with someone like Hansen."

The operator is proud of playing a part in Hansen's conviction, but wishes there had been more. "He was probably not the most serious, not even amongst the most serious," he said.

Over the period of the project tens of thousands of men contacted the team. The names of 1,000 were given to Interpol, which distributed the identities to 71 countries around the world.

This is the first reported conviction related to the project.

National Crime Agency

The NCA said a substantial amount of work needed to be done to identify the 110 men it had been notified about.

It said it was "actively pursuing" the investigation but could not offer further detail.

BBC News has seen the British files - much of the information would not be admissible in court.

Some of the men are untraceable. Others, though, would be easy to find, and their behaviour is very disturbing.

The NCA has confirmed it has not yet passed the information to individual forces.

This may prove controversial following the NCA's previous admission that it had failed to pass on information from Canadian police in 2012.

The details of more than 2,000 British men who had been buying child abuse images from an online video store in Canada was passed to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) centre in July 2012.

Ceop judged the men low risk and did not inform local forces until November 2013, when it became part of the National Crime Agency.

Several of those men, including Cambridge paediatric cancer specialist Dr Myles Bradbury, have since been convicted of child abuse offences.

The head of the NCA, Keith Bristow, has apologised for the delay in passing on information

He has also referred the handling of the information to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Today the NCA said it received "1,600 referrals relating to potential child abuse every month", adding that it gave "top priority to those cases where an immediate or high risk to a child is identified".

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UK spy drones to fly over Syria

21 October 2014 Last updated at 13:21

The UK will fly unmanned drones over Syria in the battle against Islamic State (IS) militants, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Rivet Joint spy planes will also be authorised for surveillance missions.

Downing Street has said there will be no military action in Syria without a Commons vote unless there is an urgent humanitarian need.

The drones, which will also be used over Iraq, were based in Afghanistan.

In a written statement, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the Reapers and surveillance aircraft would be authorised to gather intelligence in Syria "as part of our efforts to protect our national security from the terrorist threat emanating from there".

The Reapers are not authorised to use weapons in Syria, he said, saying this would require further permission.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said MPs would have a vote before any military action was taken in Syria - unless it was an emergency or there was a threat of a humanitarian disaster - following the Commons' rejection of joining in air strikes in that country last year.

But BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said the surveillance move would be seen as "mission creep" by some MPs.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said the government believed use of the drones was legal on the grounds of national and collective self defence.

She declined to say whether the UK had discussed their deployment with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The US-led anti-IS coalition has been carrying out air strikes around the Syrian town of Kobane, which has been the scene of fierce fighting between IS militants and Kurdish fighters.

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