Campaigners bid to change spying law

3 October 2013 Last updated at 14:41 ET

Campaigners are trying to force a change in UK law after accusations of mass UK internet surveillance.

Three privacy campaign groups have open legal proceedings in Europe in a bid to alter UK bugging legislation.

The groups are trying to get the court to decide if UK surveillance rules give spies too much leeway to collect huge volumes of data.

UK signals intelligence agency GCHQ declined to comment on Thursday.

Three privacy groups have launched a bid to take the UK government to court in Europe after revelations of mass surveillance schemes.

Under Tempora, UK agencies allegedly tapped cross-Atlantic fibre-optic cables to scoop up data headed for the US.

The scheme was revealed by the Guardian newspaper in June.

According to leaked documents, the UK also participated in the US Prism scheme, which allowed law enforcement access to detailed mass records of smartphone and internet activity.

The campaigners allege that internet communications taps collected huge amounts of data traffic in a way that went against European human rights law.

The groups want the European Court of Human Rights to force the UK government to tighten up a UK bugging law called the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa).

Big Brother Watch, the Open Rights Group, and the English Pen campaign groups opened legal proceedings with the European Court of Human Rights this week.

The groups sent a detailed letter to the court stating their concerns, Daniel Carey of Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors told the BBC.

Mr Carey, who is acting on behalf of the groups, said that the court could make a decision within two to three months about whether it will take the proceedings any further.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Instagram to start allowing ads

3 October 2013 Last updated at 18:53 ET

The photo sharing service Instagram announced it will start placing ads in US users photo streams in a posting on its website.

"We have big ideas for the future, and part of making them happen is building Instagram into a sustainable business," it said.

Ads will appear in a few months and involve just a handful of firms.

Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1bn (£619m), but has never made a profit.

The company, which now has 150 million users, has been a favourite among consumers but has long left analysts wondering how it could turn enthusiasm among photographers into a business model.

Early efforts by Instagram to generate revenue were met with user backlash, such as when the company changed the terms of service to seemingly indicate that it would own user images and could sell those images to advertisers.

The failure of this move was acknowledged in the company's posting.

Social media boom

"As always, you own your own photos and videos. The introduction of advertising won't change this," it said.

In an interview earlier this year with the BBC, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom said that Instagram must "fund its own future."

Social media advertising is a booming business in the US.

According to research firm eMarketer, advertisers will spend $9.5bn on social network ads worldwide this year.

Facebook has boosted its efforts to gain a larger share of this ad spending.

This year, the company's share of global mobile ad revenues will rise to 15.8% from 5.35% last year.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Samsung forecasts record profits

3 October 2013 Last updated at 21:20 ET

Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest mobile phone and TV maker, has forecast record profits for the July-to-September quarter.

It expects operating profit of 10.1 trillion won ($9.4bn; £5.8bn) for the quarter, a 25% jump from a year ago.

The profit guidance beats many analyst forecasts.

Samsung has enjoyed tremendous success with its Galaxy range of smartphones, but there had been concerns recently that its growth rate may be slowing.

"The company is doing a phenomenal job of continuing its growth rate," said Andrew Milroy, an analyst with consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

"One would have expected that its growth rate may be hit by the emergence of other cheaper mobile phone makers.

"But it doesn't seemed to have happened, at least not yet," he added.

'Smart enough'

Continue reading the main story

Samsung realises that growth opportunities in emerging markets are key to overall success of their business, and they have been smart enough to tap into it"

End Quote Andrew Milroy Frost & Sullivan

The success of its Galaxy range of smartphones has seen Samsung become the leading player in the global mobile phone market.

Analysts say the company's policy of catering to the low and high-end segments of the market has proved particularly effective.

Samsung has launched top-end products such as the Galaxy S4 in a bid to take on the likes of Apple's iPhone.

It has also introduced low-cost smartphones targeted at customers in emerging markets such as India and China.

Many mobile phone operators in those markets do not subsidise phones, making low-cost devices a much more attractive option for many consumers.

"Samsung realises that growth opportunities in emerging markets are key to overall success of their business, and they have been smart enough to tap into it," said Mr Milroy.

"They have covered both ends of the spectrum really well."

Bendy and curved

Last month, Samsung said that it is planning to launch handsets with curved displays.

It exhibited prototype products with bendy and extendable screens in January this year, but there are doubts as to how this technology can be mass-produced cheaply and reliably.

The firm also launched a smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear, last month - beating Microsoft, Apple and Google in the race to bring this type of technology to market.

The smartwatch has a colour screen that can show alerts, be used for voice calls and run apps.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Twitter plans to raise $1bn in IPO

3 October 2013 Last updated at 23:17 ET

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Twitter likely to list on Nasdaq, says Peter Esho from Invast Financial Services

Social networking company Twitter has said it plans to raise $1bn (£619m) in its stock market debut in documents filed with US regulators.

In the filing, revealed on Thursday, the seven-year-old company said that it now has 218 million monthly users and that 500 million tweets are sent a day.

It made a loss of $69m in the first six months of 2013, on revenues of $254m.

It will be the largest Silicon Valley stock offering since Facebook's listing in 2012.

Analysts said that the offering was likely to get a good response.

"Social media is red hot," said Internet analyst Lou Kerner. "Twitter is front and centre benefiting from market enthusiasm for all things social, and remarkably strong metrics."

Financial details

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

The filing also revealed Twitter's finances for the first time.

While the company has never made a profit, its revenue has grown from just $28m in 2010 to $317m by the end of 2012.

Around 85% of Twitter's revenue last year came from ad sales; the rest was from licensing its data.

The company takes in a significant portion of its ad revenue from mobile devices, an important metric often tracked by analysts.

As of 2013, over 65% of the company's advertising revenue was generated from mobile devices. More than 75% of Twitter users accessed the site from their mobile phone during that same time period.

Some analysts said that the decision by the firm to raise capital indicated that it was keen on improving the way people enjoy content on its platform and how advertisers connect with its users.

Continue reading the main story

It looks like Twitter is looking at how to enrich the experience and it understands that to build a successful service, they have to create something people like and want to come back to and spend time on"

End Quote Zachary Reiss-Davis Analyst

"Users should be happy about this," said Zachary Reiss-Davis, an analyst with Forrester.

"It looks like Twitter is looking at how to enrich the experience and it understands that to build a successful service, they have to create something people like and want to come back to and spend time on."

Peter Esho from Sydney-based Invast Financial Services, added that Twitter's ease to use had seen it increase its user base, making it an attractive option for advertisers.

"I think what Twitter has working in its favour is that it's very easy to use: it doesn't eat up too much bandwidth for the average user in places where broadband penetration is low," he said.

The filing also revealed that two of the company's co-founders, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey, own significant stakes in Twitter, and could stand to take in significant sums from the company's stock market listing.

Mr Williams owns 12% of shares in the company, while Mr Dorsey owns 4.9%.

Benchmark Capital's Peter Fenton, an early investor in the company, is the second-biggest shareholder, with 6.7% of shares.

Advantage Nasdaq?

Twitter indicated three weeks earlier that it had filed for a public stock market offering.

However, under a new law passed by Congress in 2012, it did not have to reveal its financial documents because it had revenue of less than $1bn.

But by releasing the documents publicly, it gave an indication that it hopes to complete its stock sale soon.

The company plans to list under the stock symbol TWTR, but it did not reveal which stock exchange, the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange, it had chosen.

However, Mr Esho said that the listing was likely to be on the Nasdaq.

"I was to speculate, I think it would have to be Nasdaq," he said. "That really is the exchange that has seen so many tech names come to the market."

Goldman Sachs is the lead bank taking the company public, a coveted position that is often fought for amongst the nation's biggest banks.

The other banks helping with the offering are Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities and CODE Advisors.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Adobe confirms data security breach

4 October 2013 Last updated at 05:38 ET

Adobe has confirmed that 2.9 million customers have had private information stolen during a "sophisticated" cyber attack on its website.

The attackers accessed encrypted customer passwords and payment card numbers, the company said.

But it does not believe decrypted debit or credit card data was removed.

Adobe also revealed that it was investigating the "illegal access" of source code for numerous products, including Adobe Acrobat and ColdFusion.

"We deeply regret that this incident occurred," said Brad Arkin, Adobe's chief security officer.

"Based on our findings to date, we are not aware of any specific increased risk to customers as a result of this incident," he said.

But Chester Wisniewski, senior adviser at internet security company Sophos, told the BBC: "Access to the source code could be very serious.

"Billions of computers around the world use Adobe software, so if hackers manage to embed malicious code in official-looking software updates they could potentially take control of millions of machines.

"This is on the same level as a Microsoft security breach," he added.

Adobe said it had been helped in its investigation by internet security journalist Brian Krebs and security expert Alex Holden.

The two discovered a 40GB cache of Adobe source code while investigating attacks on three US data providers, Dun & Bradstreet, Kroll Background America, and LexisNexis.

Mr Krebs said the Adobe code was on a server he believed the hackers used.

Compromised

Adobe said that it is resetting passwords for the customer accounts it believes were compromised, and that those customers will get an email alerting them to the change.

It is also recommending that, as a precaution, customers affected change their passwords and user information for other websites for which they used the same ID.

For those customers whose debit or credit card information is suspected of being accessed, Adobe is offering a complimentary one-year subscription to a credit-monitoring programme.

Finally, the company said it had notified law enforcement officials and is working to identify the hackers.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fury over Sindh messaging ban plan

4 October 2013 Last updated at 07:19 ET

Internet freedom activists in Pakistan have expressed anger over proposals by the government of Sindh province to ban messaging apps including Skype, Viber and WhatsApp for three months.

The provincial government says the move is necessary as a security measure.

It says the move "detaches criminals from modern communication means".

But the proposal has to be approved by the central government before it is implemented and so far no decision has been taken.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that he was not in favour of such a move.

"But I will go through the Sindh government's application in favour of the ban to see how much weight it carries," Mr Khan was quoted by local media as saying.

Scores of social media users have condemned the proposals arguing that they are infringements of personal freedom and will impede small businesses and entrepreneurs from working effectively.

"The ban on Skype, Viber and WhatsApp in Sindh is a cyber-drone attack from the government," social media user Umer Pirzada tweeted.

Another critic wrote: "This is when you know the country has gone down the drain. Blocking WhatsApp, Skype, What's next? Blocking oxygen?"

But senior Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has spoken out in favour of the move arguing on Twitter that it was necessary to "catch some terrorists and save some lives".

Sindh has been plagued by serious militant, sectarian and criminal violence throughout 2013 with the port city of Karachi being especially badly hit.

Technology experts have pointed out that the proposed restrictions may be doomed to failure because they could easily be circumvented by criminals.

Correspondents says that Pakistan's mobile network has been switched off about 12 times over the last year.

Former PPP Interior Minister Rehman Malik frequently shut down cellular networks for extended periods on important national and religious holidays to "ensure the safety of the people".

A ban on video sharing website YouTube - deemed by the authorities to be blasphemous - was introduced by the central government in September 2012.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Anonymous attackers' up in court

4 October 2013 Last updated at 09:45 ET

Thirteen alleged members of hacktivist group Anonymous have been indicted, accused of carrying out cyber-attacks.

They have been charged in the US with conspiring to intentionally cause damage to protected computers.

They were said to have targeted firms that refused to process payments for WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing site founded by Julian Assange.

The group flooded services with large amounts of traffic in an attempt to overwhelm the sites.

This method - known as a Distributed Denial of Service attack, or DDoS - is a typical tactic of the hacktivist movement.

Mastercard and Visa

The accused allegedly targeted groups or businesses they felt did not share the philosophy of Anonymous to make all information free for everyone, regardless of copyright laws or national security considerations.

Those hit included governments, trade associations, law firms and financial institutions.

Court documents said that from September 2010 to January 2011, Anonymous members waged a campaign they dubbed Operation Payback.

In December 2010, the conspirators are alleged to have discussed possible targets related to WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing site that struggled to receive funding after several payment processing companies, including Mastercard and Visa, refused to facilitate the transfer of donations to the group.

The Swedish prosecutor's office was also hit, in connection with arrest warrants for sexual crimes issued for Mr Assange.

The accused were also said to have gone after music industry bodies in retaliation for action taken against The Pirate Bay, a Sweden-based file sharing website devoted to the illegal downloading of copyrighted material.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Terminator' cube robots unveiled

4 October 2013 Last updated at 10:11 ET

Cube-shaped robots that can flip, jump and assemble themselves into different shapes have been unveiled by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The small robots, known as M-Blocks, have no external parts but can move using an internal flywheel mechanism.

They stick together using magnets.

The scientists envisage miniaturised "swarmbot" versions self-assembling like the "liquid steel" androids in the Terminator films.

More realistically, the researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), believe armies of such cubes could be used for making temporary repairs to bridges or buildings, or as self-assembly, re-configurable scaffolding.

Modular robots have the advantage of being able to adapt to whatever task or terrain is presented to them.

John Romanishin, one of the research scientists at CSAIL leading the project, said: "We want hundreds of cubes, scattered randomly across the floor, to be able to identify each other, coalesce, and autonomously transform into a chair, or a ladder, or a desk, on demand."

The M-Blocks are currently controlled by computer instructions sent over wireless radio, but in future the researchers hope algorithms can be loaded on the blocks directly, making them entirely autonomous and capable of adapting to different environments.

Blocks equipped with sensors and cameras would be able to work out how to accomplish specific tasks in combat or emergency situations, the scientists hope.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Two million' monitor web in China

4 October 2013 Last updated at 12:46 ET

More than two million people in China are employed by the government to monitor web activity, state media say, providing a rare glimpse into how the state tries to control the internet.

The Beijing News says the monitors, described as internet opinion analysts, are on state and commercial payrolls.

China's hundreds of millions of web users increasingly use microblogs to criticise the state or vent anger.

Recent research suggested Chinese censors actively target social media.

The report by the Beijing News said that these monitors were not required to delete postings.

Continue reading the main story

Dong Le BBC Chinese Service

---

China's internet is one of the most controlled and censored in the world.

Websites deemed to be subversive are blocked. Politically sensitive postings are routinely deleted . Even the name of the former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was censored when rumours were circulating on the internet that his family had amassed a fortune while he was in power.

But with the rapid growth of internet users, the ruling Communist Party has found itself fighting an uphill battle.

The Beijing News, while reporting the story of microblog monitors, has admitted that it is impossible for the government to delete all "undesirable" postings.

The more postings deleted, the more they appear, it says.

China seldom reveals details about how it monitors and controls the internet. The government even does not acknowledge that it blocks web sites.

But the report does offer a rare glimpse into this opaque world.

They are "strictly to gather and analyse public opinions on microblog sites and compile reports for decision-makers", it said. It also added details about how some of these monitors work.

Tang Xiaotao has been working as a monitor for less than six months, the report says, without revealing where he works.

"He sits in front of a PC every day, and opening up an application, he types in key words which are specified by clients.

"He then monitors negative opinions related to the clients, and gathers (them) and compile reports and send them to the clients," it says.

The reports says the software used in the office is even more advanced and supported by thousands of servers. It also monitors websites outside China.

China rarely reveals any details concerning the scale and sophistication of its internet police force.

It is believed that the two million internet monitors are part of a huge army which the government relies on to control the internet.

The government is also to organise training classes for them for the first time from 14 to 18 October, the paper says.

But it is not clear whether the training will be for existing monitors or for new recruits.

The training will have eight modules, and teach participants how to analyse and judge online postings and deal with crisis situations, it says.

The most popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, launched in 2010, now has more than 500 million registered users with 100 million messages posted daily.

Topics cover a wide range - from personal hobbies, health to celebrity gossip and food safety but they talso include politically sensitive issues like official corruption.

Postings deemed to be politically incorrect are routinely deleted.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Silk Road accused appears in court

4 October 2013 Last updated at 14:53 ET

The alleged mastermind behind the online illegal drugs marketplace Silk Road is too dangerous to be bailed, US prosecutors have said.

Ross Ulbricht, 29, was arrested this week and is charged with being the administrator of the site which has now been shut down.

He is also accused of trying to arrange the killing of one of the site's users.

"We deny all charges and that is the end of the discussion at this point," Mr Ulbricht's lawyer said.

Mr Ulbricht appeared in a San Francisco court on Friday wearing a green T-shirt under red jail clothes and had his ankles shackled.

A request from his legal team for his bail hearing to be pushed back was granted - it will now take place on 9 October.

Flee concern

Federal magistrate Joseph Spero asked Mr Ulbricht's lawyer Brandon LeBlanc whether seeing the criminal indictment that included a murder-for-hire charge had "changed his calculus" on whether he thought Mr Ulbricht would be granted bail.

As part of its criminal complaint, the FBI alleged that Mr Ulbricht had sought to pay a Silk Road user to kill another user who had threatened to expose details of the site's users.

Prosecutors opposed the delay, arguing that Mr Ulbricht represented a danger to the community, and that there was a high likelihood that he may attempt to flee.

The Silk Road was a well-known destination on Tor, a so-called "dark web" service that anonymises users, making it much more difficult for authorities to track locations.

The site sold a range of items, but was most famous for offering a host of illegal drugs, paid for using virtual currency Bitcoin.

23.52 | 0 komentar | Read More