Written By Unknown on Selasa, 31 Maret 2015 | 23.43
The power cut led to queues at some petrol stations in Istanbul
A massive power cut has hit dozens of provinces across Turkey, with officials saying a break in connections with mainland Europe could be to blame.
The cuts affected power stations and public transport, including Istanbul's tram and metro systems.
A crisis centre has been set up at the energy ministry.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said all possible causes are being examined, including terrorism. The cut hit at 10:36 (07:36 GMT) on Tuesday morning.
Power cuts were reported in at least 40 of Turkey's 81 provinces.
Traffic lights stopped working in several parts of Istanbul and Ankara during the outage, causing traffic jams, while rescue teams were called to help people trapped in lifts or stuck underground at metro stations.
By Tuesday afternoon, electricity returned to parts of Istanbul. Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said about "80% of Istanbul's electricity has been restored" and he expected power to return to the rest of the country soon.
Many shops and officers were plunged into darkness The power cut disrupted train services from Ankara
Istanbul's transport company said all of its routes were back up and running.
Turkish TV also reported that power had been re-established in the cities of Edirne, Tekirdag, Erzurum and Trabzon.
"Our main target right now is to restore the network. This is not an incident that we see frequently," Mr Yildiz told Turkish media.
Turkey suffers from sporadic electricity cuts but locals say they cannot remember such a nationwide cut for a generation, reports the BBC's Mark Lowen in Istanbul.
One of the few cities unaffected by the power cut was Van in the east of the country, where electricity is supplied from Iran.
Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies says profits jumped a third last year, boosted by strong performances in all its businesses.
The world's second biggest telecoms equipment maker said its net profit was 27.9bn yuan ($4.5bn; £3bn), up from 21bn yuan in 2013.
That matched the company's forecasts announced in January.
The firm, which is also a major smartphone maker, saw revenues rise by 21% over the year.
"Our cash flow, revenue, and profit all grew over the previous year," said chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in a statement on Tuesday. "Moreover, our debt and financing structures have continuously improved."
Foreign exchange gains also had a big impact on the company's earnings, because it generates more than 60% of its revenue abroad.
Huawei's growth comes despite it facing challenges in several major economies. In the US, it was branded a national security threat by legislators, because of its alleged close ties with the Chinese government.
Meanwhile, it has been banned from being involved in broadband projects in Australia over espionage fears.
However, the company said it was well positioned to capture business opportunities with heavy investment in innovative areas such as cloud computing and fifth generation (5G) mobile technology.
Some members of BA's Executive Club said their air-mile accounts had been emptied
British Airways' air-miles accounts, the coding site GitHub and the work chat service Slack have all been hit in the latest wave of cyber-attacks.
The firms have all notified their users of the incidents, which varied in approach and do not appear to be connected.
In addition, several Uber users have complained of their accounts being hacked.
However, the car pick-up service said it had "found no evidence of a breach".
The firms have dealt with the attacks in different ways, and BA has been criticised for how it responded.
Wiped out accounts
Complaints about points being stolen from the BA's Executive Club scheme date back at least a fortnight.
One user said their account had been used by someone else to book a hotel room in Spain, while others reported that their list of transactions showed "ex-gratia" deductions that had wiped out their entire credit.
"I checked my account yesterday and found that the mobile number had been changed to a Russian one. I changed it back and my miles are still there. Passwords now changed," reported another member, who appeared to have had a narrow escape.
A spokesman for BA said that it believed only "a small number" of its frequent flyers were affected.
"This appears to have been the result of a third party using information obtained elsewhere on the internet, via an automated process, to try to gain access to some accounts," he said.
"We would like to reassure customers that, at this stage, we are not aware of any access to any subsequent information pages within accounts, including travel histories or payment card details."
British Airways has been criticised for asking users to click on an emailed link
Security experts have, however, raised concern that BA initially sent out emails asking users to click on a link to reset their passwords.
"That's a classic trick used by criminals phishing for login credentials," noted security consultant Graham Cluley.
BA said it had removed the link from subsequent emails and suggested concerned members contact its service centre.
Traffic flood
The attack on San Francisco-based GitHub - which is used by more than 8 million software developers - has involved an attempt to knock its site offline by flooding it with traffic.
"We are currently experiencing the largest DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack in GitHub's history," systems engineer Jesse Newland wrote on its blog.
The attack on GitHub has been linked to China-related pages that it hosts
"These include... some sophisticated new techniques that use the web browsers of unsuspecting, uninvolved people to flood GitHub with high levels of traffic.
"Based on reports we've received, we believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content."
The reports suggest the data barrage was specifically directed at web pages providing China-based users with a way to circumvent local censorship controls.
"It does look like someone in China is fighting back, as we predicted they would, against those who are trying to circumvent the 'great firewall of China'," commented security consultant Alan Woodward.
"Ask most developers and they are likely to be using GitHub in some way, so assuming it is China this looks like their censorship attempts are now having global impact."
When asked about the allegation, a spokeswoman for the Chinese government responded: "It is quite odd that every time a website in the US or any other country is under attack, there will be speculation that Chinese hackers are behind it. I'd like to remind you that China is one of the major victims of cyber-attacks."
Slack attack
Slack reported it was attacked in February.
The US firm provides a way for team members to communicate with each other as an alternative to email.
The service is less than two years old, but was recently valued at being worth $2.8bn (£1.9bn). Were businesses to believe the data it held was insecure then its future would be threatened.
Slack has a link on its home page alerting users to its breach
Slack said it believed the hackers had accessed a database that would have allowed them to see user names, email addresses and Skype IDs.
However, it added that passwords - which give users access to posted information - were encrypted in a form that made it "computationally infeasible" for the hackers to unscramble them.
"As part of our investigation we detected suspicious activity affecting a very small number of Slack accounts," it added.
"We have notified the individual users and team owners who we believe were impacted and are sharing details with their security teams."
One London-based user received an Uber bill for a lengthy US trip (image edited by BBC)
The company said that it had introduced two-factor authentication as an additional security step, which requires users to type in a code sent to their mobile phone or tablet to access the app.
Uber complaints
News site Motherboard has also reported that login details for Uber are being offered for sale for as little as $1.
The BBC was contacted by one London-based user on Sunday who reported that someone else was booking rides in New York using his account without his permission, and had clocked up a $556 bill.
Others have posted similar stories on Twitter.
"We take any issue of this nature very seriously and after investigating have found no evidence of a breach at Uber," a spokesman responded.
"Attempting to fraudulently access and use Uber accounts is illegal and we notify the authorities about such activity.
"We would like to remind people to use strong and unique usernames and passwords and to avoid reusing the same credentials across multiple sites and services."
The G20 leaders' visa numbers, passport numbers and dates of birth were among the personal data accidentally emailed to the organisers of the Asian Cup football tournament
The passport numbers and visa details of 31 world leaders were accidentally emailed to the organisers of the Asian Cup in Australia before the G20 summit in Brisbane in November 2014.
Those affected included US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A worker at the Australian Department of Immigration sent the list by mistake.
The department decided there was no need to alert the G20 attendees.
"Given that the risks of the breach are considered very low and the actions that have been taken to limit the further distribution of the email, I do not consider it necessary to notify the clients of the breach," an unnamed Department of Immigration director wrote to the Australian Privacy Commissioner in an email obtained by the Guardian following a Freedom of Information request.
Both the sender of the email and the recipient had deleted it within 10 minutes of it being sent, the officer explained, and the Asian Cup football tournament organisers said they did not believe the email was accessible or stored on their servers.
The message included the 31 world leaders' dates of birth but not personal addresses and other contact details.
The breach was said to be the result of "human error", with the sender forgetting to check the auto-fill function in Microsoft Outlook's email service before hitting send.
"There was nothing systemic or institutional about the breach," continued the email from the government official.
"It should also be noted that the personal details of these individuals, including their names, positions and dates of birth are generally already available in the public domain given their prominent positions."
Stephen Fry says he's deleting his Instagram account telling his followers he was "hounded off".
The TV presenter and actor, who has 92,000 followers on the picture-sharing website but nine million on Twitter, said: "Newspapers, as ever, suck all the joy out of everything.
"Closing down. It was, briefly, fun. Bye."
He posted a blank, black picture to the page which also included the line "Hounded off. Goodbye".
It's not the first time Fry has closed down one of his social media accounts.
Last November, he said he had to stop using his Twitter account because it wasn't safe.
In 2009, he threatened to leave the site because there was "too much aggression and unkindness around".
Fry recently used his Twitter account to reveal he'd married his partner Elliott Spencer.
He posted a picture for his millions of followers showing him and the 27-year-old signing a marriage register.
With the picture Fry tweeted: "Gosh. @ElliottGSpencer and I go into a room as two people, sign a book and leave as one. Amazing."
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Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho is calling for the creation of a new British institution to make the tech industry more accessible to all
"What happens if you get pregnant?"
That was the first question an investor asked Martha Lane-Fox after she and her business partner pitched him their idea for a dot-com company in a plush office in central London in the late 1990s.
That idea was lastminute.com, a company that would go on to be valued at £768m ($1.1bn) when it floated on the London Stock Exchange just two years later - but the investor was too preoccupied with her biological clock to seize the opportunity.
"Couldn't he see beyond his prejudices about a 25-year-old woman to glimpse the inspiring, brave new world ahead?" Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho asked the audience during the BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture at the Science Museum in London this evening.
Sexism on trial
In California, Silicon Valley has been gripped by a sexual discrimination case brought by Reddit boss Ellen Pao against her former employer, venture capitalist Kleiner Perkins.
Two separate class-action lawsuits have also been filed against Facebook and Twitter, alleging lack of promotion on the ground of gender.
All companies have denied the claims and on Friday a jury ruled in favour of Kleiner Perkins.
So it was topical for Lady Lane-Fox to use her lecture to call for a new national body in the UK to promote a more diverse and inclusive approach to technology for users and, crucially, its workforce.
"It's time to balance the world of dot-com," she said.
"I would call it Dot Everyone."
Mind the gap
Just 14% of the UK tech industry is female, said Lady Lane-Fox
Because while it may be 17 years since the peer's excruciating first pitch, there is no getting away from the fact that the tech sector is still overwhelmingly male-dominated.
While just 14% of the UK industry is female, fewer than 10% of its investors are women, Lady Lane-Fox said.
"Yes, there are some impressive senior women in tech, women like Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook, Marissa Mayer running Yahoo - but you can count them on one hand and they're mostly based in the US," she said.
"I reckon it is not misleading to suggest that about 98% of the code that the internet and web technologies rely on was and continues to be programmed by men."
And this is apparent in the product, she believes, suggesting that Apple would not have omitted women's menstrual cycles, relied upon by millions of couples trying to conceive, from its much feted health tracker at its launch last month had women been involved in its design.
White and male
Both Apple and its arch-rival Google revealed last year that 70% of their global workforces were male.
But just 17% of Google's tech staff (20% of Apple's), and 21% of its leadership team (28% of Apple's), were women.
"Google is not where we want to be when it comes to diversity," admitted the company's Laszlo Bock in a blog post.
Amazon, Twitter, Yahoo and Facebook have also published data that indicates they are also predominately white and male.
Despite numerous high-profile campaigns to attract young women into engineering and technology, a recent survey by the Institution of Engineering and Technology found that 93% of parents in England who responded said they would not be keen for their daughters to pursue careers in these areas.
One of the huge recruitment problems facing the industry is that it does not have a reputation for being particularly female-friendly.
Where are your children?
As a female technology reporter I know that I am usually in the minority at press events.
It does not bother me - and working for the BBC gives me an edge of authority - but it is not uncommon to be met with thinly veiled surprise that I actually know what I'm talking about.
I am often asked who is looking after my children if I am away at a conference.
My male colleagues are not.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January I soon ran out of conversation with the notorious "booth babes" - very beautiful, semi-clad women employed as brand ambassadors by some tech firms. It was clear that I was not their target audience and, besides, they did not know a great deal about the tech spec of their product.
That said, there were fewer of them at the event than there have been in previous years.
A female member of community website Reddit who "works on computers" recounted a recent phone interview in which the male interviewer advised her that no "accommodations" could be made for her.
"I'm thinking I filled out the portion where they ask if you have any disabilities incorrectly or something, so I reply, 'Well, I don't have any disabilities, so that's not a problem'," she wrote.
"'No, it's not that. It's just that everyone else in the division are men,' " was the response.
The poster says that she is still looking for work.
Case of credibility
Ellen Pao lost her case but sexism is still on the agenda in Silicon Valley
Reddit boss Ellen Pao thrust sexism in Silicon Valley into the spotlight when she claimed in her high-profile court case that she was sexually discriminated against during her time as an employee at venture capitalist Kleiner Perkins.
She was repeatedly overlooked for promotion on account of her gender and then fired after she complained, she said.
Kleiner Perkins said its decisions were based on her performance.
Ms Pao lost her case - but that does not excuse the industry from all allegations of sexism.
"The environment definitely is biased against women in technology, and venture capital is even worse," said Erin Malone, an alternate juror who heard all the evidence in the case but was not involved in the verdict.
"But I didn't find her as credible as she should have been."
"While today's outcome is a disappointment, I take consolation in knowing that people really listened," Ellen Pao tweeted after the jury's verdict.
"Hopefully my case will inspire the venture capital industry to level the playing field for everyone, including women and minorities."
The industry will now have to wait and see whether the publicity about Ms Pao's case leads to an increase in discrimination claims, or whether the verdict acts as a deterrent.
'Groundswell'
Computer scientist Sue Black, who has founded networks for women in computer science, said that she was pleased to see women taking legal action in the face of unfair treatment in the technology sector.
"We hear more and more women's voices about what's been happening to them - and we have more men agreeing it's a problem," she said.
"I have felt in the last two or three years that there is a groundswell around this issue.
"Women are speaking out more publicly, more confidently, and there are more networks of people backing them up."
Of course, diversity is an issue that reaches far beyond gender.
In an authored piece for the Washington Post, openly gay Apple chief executive Tim Cook attacked US legislation that could condone homophobic discrimination on religious grounds.
"Discrimination isn't something that's easy to oppose," he wrote.
"It doesn't always stare you in the face. It moves in the shadows.
"And sometimes it shrouds itself within the very laws meant to protect us."
Ross Ulbricht is alleged to have made millions from running the Silk Road
Two former US special agents have been charged with stealing large amounts of digital currency while investigating the notorious Silk Road marketplace.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) alleges that Shaun Bridges stole more than $800,000 (£540,000) in Bitcoin.
His colleague, Carl Force, has also been charged with money laundering and wire fraud.
Best known for selling illegal drugs, Silk Road was closed in 2013 following raids by the FBI and other agencies.
The man accused of running the site, Ross Ulbricht, was convicted in February, and prosecutors argued that he had earned about $18m in Bitcoin from the operation.
Mr Force, who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), served as an undercover agent during the investigation into the Silk Road.
One of his tasks involved communicating with Ulbricht, known online as "Dread Pirate Roberts."
The DoJ alleges that "without authority", Mr Force "developed additional online personas and engaged in a broad range of illegal activities calculated to bring him personal financial gain".
"In doing so, the complaint alleges, Force used fake online personas, and engaged in complex Bitcoin transactions to steal from the government and the targets of the investigation.
"In one such transaction, Force allegedly sold information about the government's investigation to the target of the investigation."
The 46-year-old is charged with wire fraud, theft of government property, money laundering and conflict of interest.
Shaun Bridges, who worked for the US Secret Service, is charged with wire fraud and money laundering.
The DoJ alleges that he transferred more than $800,000 in Bitcoin into an account at MtGox, a Japanese digital currency exchange that filed for bankruptcy in February.
"He then allegedly wired funds into one of his personal investment accounts in the United States mere days before he sought a $2.1m seizure warrant for Mt. Gox's accounts," the DoJ says.
Both men appeared in a San Francisco court on Monday.
Samsung and LG have agreed to try to end a lengthy legal battle, but prosecutors will have the final say
The rival manufacturers Samsung and LG have agreed to seek an end to their long-running dispute.
Each said it would withdraw legal complaints against the other and ask for leniency in continuing cases.
A war has been raging between the South Korean companies, including a battle over claims that LG staff damaged Samsung washing machines.
South Korean prosecutors refused to comment on proceedings against employees of both firms.
"Both sides have agreed to avoid legal action and resolve any future conflicts or disputes through dialogue and mutual agreement," the companies said.
LG employees admitted that Samsung appliances were damaged, but said it was accidental
Their accord raises the prospect of peace between the firms. But it does not officially resolve criminal cases brought by prosecutors.
LG appliances chief Jo Seong-jin has been indicted by Seoul prosecutors on a charge of deliberately damaging Samsung washing machines at a retail store in Germany last September.
While Samsung employees have been indicted on charges of stealing organic light-emitting diode (Oled) display panel technology from LG.
Each company has said, however, that it will withdraw its complaint and ask for leniency on behalf of the other.
The two firms have a longstanding and fierce rivalry. The bad feeling escalated when Samsung said that LG executives deliberately damaged its washing machines ahead of a major trade fair.
LG accepted that two machines were damaged, but said it was accidental and a result of poor manufacturing.
It said its employees examined the goods and that it offered to pay for four machines at one store, even though only two were damaged by them during the inspection.
After Samsung asked South Korean prosecutors to get involved, LG published surveillance video footage in an attempt to prove its employees' innocence. Samsung said the video had been heavily edited in the executive's favour.
The firms had previously argued over refrigerator capacity and which of the two has the bigger air-conditioning market share.
The agreement extends to Samsung Electronics subsidiary Samsung Display and to LG Display Co Ltd. Samsung Display employees were indicted in February on charges of stealing organic light-emitting diode (Oled) display panel technology from LG Display.
Samsung Display has said the technology was widely known in the industry and that the indictment was excessive.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' office declined to comment on the case against the LG Electronics appliances chief, and the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office declined to comment regarding its case against the Samsung Display employees.
The Surface 3 benefits from a clip-on keyboard and pen, but they must be bought as add-ons
Microsoft has refreshed its tablet line-up with a new entry-level device that runs more software, but is also more expensive than its predecessor.
The Surface 3 is powered by an Intel processor, unlike the ARM-based chip in the Surface 2.
That means it uses the Windows 8 operating system, rather than the more limited Windows RT.
Experts suggest the move could help Microsoft replicate the success of its higher-specification Surface Pro 3.
The bigger tablet, which was launched 10 months ago, features a 12in (30.5cm) screen, compared with the 10.8in display of the new Surface 3.
Shipments of Surface tablets rose from 1.8 million units in the last three months of 2013 to 2.1 million units for the same period in 2014, according to research group Canalys, with the Pro 3 accounting for the bulk of demand since it went on sale.
Microsoft's share of the tablet market has grown from 2.3% to 3.2% as a result, while Apple has seen sales of its iPad decline, although it remains the bestselling brand.
Microsoft markets the Pro 3 as "the tablet that can replace your laptop", and is using similar language for the new model.
But it will target the Surface 3 at those on tighter budgets such as students and schools, and mobile workers who may want a lighter, smaller design.
Last year's launch of the larger Surface Pro 3 helped boost sales of Microsoft's tablets
"For people that need to get stuff done, generally you need a keyboard and some people need a pen, and that's where our device plays," said Dale Perrigo, a Surface marketing manager.
"If you want a pure entertainment that's not what this device is."
The release date is 7 May.
Price shift
The basic version of the Surface 3 - featuring 64 gigabytes of storage, 2GB of RAM and an Intel Atom x7 processor - costs £419.
That is about a third lower than the £639 price tag of the cheapest Surface Pro 3, but about two-thirds more than the £259 that had been charged for the Surface 2.
Microsoft says that its touchscreen pen lets its Surface tablets be used instead of paper
The touchscreen pen and keyboard cover are not included, and add £155 to the cost.
"Because it's an Atom processor it is under-powered compared to the Pro 3, which has plenty of horsepower," commented Tim Coulling, an analyst at Canalys.
"So, it's not going to suit everyone as a notebook replacement and will be for people who only want it for lighter productivity tasks.
"But there are a lot of those people out there."
Fanless but thick
Using Windows 8 rather than Windows RT - with the offer of a free upgrade to Windows 10 when it becomes available - means the entry-level Surface gains access to more programs.
Asus's new Windows tablet is thinner but has micro USB ports rather than the more commonly used USB 3.0
The Surface 2, for example, had been unable to run the full version of Photoshop, CorelDraw, Spotify, World of Warcraft or Google Chrome.
The new model's Atom-class chip does, however, mean the Surface 3 will struggle with some processor-intensive programs - such as video editors, computer-aided design (CAD) software and graphics-intensive games - which the Pro 3 model will be more suited for.
The new tablet is fanless, but significantly thicker - at 8.7mm (0.34in) - than many of its rivals in order to incorporate a standard USB 3.0 socket.
That makes it 30% thicker than both Dell's Android-based Venue 8 7840 and Apple's iPad Air 2, and 13% deeper than the tablet part of Asus's Windows-powered Transformer Book T300 Chi.
"We optimised for a port that enables connections to the largest number of devices and peripherals possible," explained a Microsoft spokeswoman.
Apple and Google recently released computers with a smaller type of cable port that can transfer data at double the speed, called USB-C.
Google's Chromebook Pixel is one of the first computers to feature the new USB-C port
Mr Coulling said the technology could lead to slimmer Surfaces, but added that it might have been too early to adopt the technology.
"The Surface 3 would have been thinner had Microsoft included it, but then users would have had to worry about adding converters or upgrading their peripherals," he said.
"But I think it will be there in the next revision of the product."
Schools and offices
Another expert suggested the new tablets should further boost Microsoft's tablet sales, but warned they could put some of the firm's business relationships under strain.
"Right now there is a huge battle going on in the education space to ensure the next generations of users stay familiar with and loyal to Microsoft rather than solutions from Google and others," said Martin Garner from the CCS Insight consultancy.
The Surface 3 can be connected to a docking station to gain additional ports
"Microsoft is also clearly going after business users - with Office 365 bundled in, it's the sort of device companies will give to workers who are regularly on the move.
"So, the new Surface 3 is a welcome move, but it will put Microsoft into increasing competition with its partners who make Windows-powered products, such as Dell and Lenovo."
