Chopper sent to downed wi-fi balloon

20 June 2014 Last updated at 11:42

An emergency helicopter has been mistakenly scrambled after a Google wi-fi balloon ditched in the sea near Christchurch in New Zealand.

The plummeting balloon, measuring 12m (39ft) in height, was spotted by a pedestrian who thought a light aircraft was in trouble and contacted police.

Google said it would repay the cost of sending the helicopter to the scene.

In June 2013, 30 balloons were launched by Google in New Zealand to provide wi-fi in remote areas.

The call to the emergency services initially led to the launch of a lifeboat off the South Island's east coast.

The helicopter was called in when the rescuers could not recover the balloon because of rough conditions.

"We will get in touch with the Westpac rescue helicopter crew to reimburse them for the mistaken rescue flight," Google spokesman Johnny Luu told news site Stuff New Zealand.

Last year's launch marked the start of Google's Project Loon, which will eventually employ up to 400 balloons encircling the Earth to give people wireless net access.

The balloons will float in the stratosphere around the Earth's 40th parallel, providing wi-fi to buildings fitted with a special antenna.

They are designed to stay up for about 100 days, and when they descend, co-ordinators try to guide them down on to land.

Most balloons were recovered after landing, Mr Luu added.

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Lego fuses real and virtual worlds

20 June 2014 Last updated at 14:52

Construction toy firm Lego has blended the real and the virtual with bricks that can be built and then transferred to online games.

It is part of a trend among toy manufacturers to straddle the two realms and appeal to children immersed in the digital world.

Users can choose to build four game sets which come with a special plate to build them on.

The creations can be photographed and imported into free games.

Zombie gaze

"Children have always imagined their Lego creations as immersive worlds which come to life for hours of role-play and adventure," said Ditte Bruun Pedersen, senior design manager at Lego Future Lab.

"Recently, smartphones and tablets have become a popular platform for empowering game mechanisms that kids love. Lego Fusion brings these two favourite play patterns together."

Once a child's creation has been imported into a game there are a series of challenges that require them to build new things to move the game forward.

"In our research, we heard repeatedly from parents that they are constantly battling 'zombie gaze', the experience when their children are immersed in their device screens for large blocks of time," said Ms Pedersen.

"We developed Lego Fusion with this challenge in mind, creating a play experience that keeps children entertained with the kind of app gameplay they love while giving real reasons to return to the brick pile to creatively build."

So, for example in the town-building game Town Master children can add extra facilities to keep inhabitants happy or in the Battle Towers game, if a castle is damaged in the game it can be repaired in the real world.

Increasingly toy manufacturers are aiming to fuse the two realms.

Video games maker Activision found a hit with Skylanders, a game which came with add-on toys which offer new content when placed into a RFID (radio-frequency identification) reader attached to a console.

Lego Fusion will be launched in September and will initially be available in the US online.

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MI5 focus on tracking Syria fighters

20 June 2014 Last updated at 22:41

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MI5 are devoting the greatest amount of their casework to tracking jihadists leaving the UK for Syria - and returning, as Frank Gardner reports

Tracking British jihadists fighting in Syria is now the top priority for MI5, the BBC has learned.

It comes after a video appeared to show UK jihadis in Syria trying to recruit people to join them there and in Iraq.

The Home Office said counter-terror police were working to get the video - posted by internet accounts linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) militants - taken off line.

The father of one of the men in the video said it made him "want to cry".

Nasser Muthana, 20, from the Cardiff area - who has been offered places to study medicine by four universities - appears in the footage using the name Abu Muthanna al-Yemen.

Isis has made rapid advances through Iraq in recent weeks.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said its fighters are plotting terror attacks on the UK.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said MI5 was having to prioritise the greatest amount of its casework on tracking British jihadists in Syria.

An estimated 400-500 UK fighters have been recruited by Isis, which has a presence in Syria and is engaged in fierce fighting with Iraqi government forces.

'Propaganda'

The video footage features six armed men, sitting in front of the black flag of Isis.

One of them, a Briton identified as Abu Dujana al Hindi, says he has a "message to the brothers who have stayed behind".

The video cannot be verified, but BBC correspondent Paul Adams said it came from social media accounts with known links to Isis and had probably been filmed in Syria.

"It appears to show British jihadis intent on joining the fight in Iraq," he said.

Isis in Iraq

Isis grew out of an al-Qaeda-linked organisation in Iraq

• Estimated 10,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria
• Joined in its offensives by other Sunni militant groups, including Saddam-era officers and soldiers, and disaffected Sunni tribal fighters
• Exploits standoff between Iraqi government and the minority Sunni Arab community, which complains that Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is monopolising power
• Led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an obscure figure regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician

Jihadi groups around the world

Ahmed Muthana, Nasser's father, told the BBC his son had "disappeared" without saying where he was going.

Asked about the video, he said: "I don't think that's Nasser talking, it's someone else is teaching him to talk like this because the attitude of Nasser is 100% completely different, and I think they're calling for wrong things."

Asked whether his son had been radicalised, he said: "I think so."

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Ahmed Muthana, father of Nasser: "Somebody is driving those kids to do this"

It comes a day after the UK government "proscribed" Isis, making it a criminal offence to associate with it or give it financial backing. Four other groups with links to Syria were proscribed at the same time.

Alongside its military advances, Isis has mounted a parallel social media campaign.

Sasha Havlicek, who co-chairs a European Union working group on internet radicalisation, said Isis was using social media to compete with other radical groups.

"I think the strategy that they're putting in play right now is about brand recognition," she told the BBC.

"The point really I think for Isis is about claiming a piece of the market, and they've done that incredibly successfully."

Analysis

Sebastian Usher, BBC Arab affairs editor

In the video, six men sit cross-legged in a semi-circle, with their Kalashnikovs beside them and the black flag of Isis behind. It is unclear where they are. But their message is very clear.

It is a recruitment call for Western Muslims to join their battle, not at home but in Iraq and Syria. One says that jihad is the best cure for the depression which he says Muslims feel in the West.

Isis has established itself as a sophisticated manipulator of social media. The image portrayed is often brutal, intended to sow fear and submission. This is different - the fighters speak softly and smile. It seems aimed at widening the group's appeal.

The Home Office said: "We do not tolerate the existence of online terrorist and extremist propaganda, which directly influences people who are vulnerable to radicalisation.

"We already work closely with the internet industry to remove terrorist material hosted in the UK or overseas."

The Home Office said it wanted to "further restrict access to terrorist material" and use "family-friendly filters" to block other extremist content.

A report by the government's extremism taskforce, carried out after the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, said it would work with internet companies to "restrict access to terrorist material online which is hosted overseas but illegal under UK law".

A spokesman for the Internet Services Providers' Association, which describes itself as the trade body for the UK's internet industry, told the BBC this was "a very tricky area".

There would be two ways to remove the video, he said - either by asking every company hosting it to take it down, or by asking filtering companies to add it to their web filters.

The spokesman added: "We know the Home Office has been looking at this for a while now, and has not really put forward any concrete plans, which may point to the fact that it's quite difficult."

Twitter said it had guidelines for authorities to request information about individual accounts, as well as rules on "potentially sensitive content".

Meanwhile, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) said it did not believe there were British fighters in Iraq.

The ICSR, which uses social media to track jihadists' movements, said so far the only European jihadists fighting with Isis in Iraq were from the Balkans.

The Muslim Council of Britain has condemned the violence of Isis and warned young Britons that travelling to Iraq or Syria "will not help the people of those countries".

Mr Cameron has warned of a threat to the UK if an "extreme Islamist regime" is created in central Iraq, while Downing Street said 65 people had been arrested in the past 18 months for Syria-related jihadist activities.

Meanwhile, Baiji, Iraq's biggest refinery, is surrounded by the rebels, who say they have seized most of Tal Afar airport.

The US has said it will send some 300 military advisers to help the fight against the insurgents.

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Plan to tackle phone blackspots

21 June 2014 Last updated at 13:11

Mobile phone operators could be made to share their networks in rural areas of the UK where signals are weak under plans being considered by ministers.

Some parts of rural Britain have just one or two of the main mobile phone networks available, or none at all, leaving some people without any signal.

It is hoped so-called national roaming could be used to plug blackspots.

However, mobile phone companies say this would remove their incentive to build more masts to improve coverage.

New Culture Secretary Sajid Javid wants mobile phone companies to introduce national roaming which would allow customers to switch to an alternative network if their own was not available, as happens when they are abroad.

A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which oversees telecommunications, said the government was already spending £150m in areas with no coverage and was looking at doing more.

'World-class coverage'

A mobile phone industry source told the BBC the government might be able to force the big operators to share their networks using existing legislation.

But the companies are likely to argue that national roaming will be a brake on their investment because there will not be an incentive to build new phone masts in remote areas if the service has to be shared.

They have also warned there would be costs involved in such a scheme which could result in higher charges for consumers.

Mobile operator Three insisted it was widening its coverage.

A spokesman said: "We've invested heavily to bring coverage to around 98% of the population.

"We support the principle of expanding coverage to address areas less well served and are in discussions with government about the most effective means to deliver that."

A DCMS spokesman said: "The government has made clear it wants to ensure the UK has world-class mobile phone coverage as part of our investment in infrastructure for the long-term economic plan.

"We are investing up to £150m to improve mobile coverage in areas where there is currently no coverage from any of the Mobile Network Operators.

"Of course we want to look at what more can be done in areas with poor coverage."

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Harley-Davidson tests electric bike

20 June 2014 Last updated at 08:23

Iconic motorbike manufacturer Harley-Davidson has revealed its first electric motorcycle.

The bike will not go on general sale, instead the firm will select customers from the US to ride it and provide feedback

The bike - dubbed Project LiveWire - will travel down the US's Route 66 visiting more than 30 Harley-Davidson dealerships between now and the end of the year.

Fans had a mixed reaction to the bike.

"Project LiveWire is more like the first electric guitar - not an electric car," said Mark-Hans Richer, senior vice president at Harley-Davidson Motor Company.

"It's an expression of individuality and iconic style that just happens to be electric. Project LiveWire is a bold statement for us as a company and a brand."

The bike can go 130 miles before it needs charging and will offer riders a top speed of 92mph (148km/h). Recharges will take between 30 minutes to an hour.

Silent bike

Initial feedback from the Harley-Davidson Riders Club of Great Britain suggested a degree of cynicism.

Dave Scott said: "It looks ok but I'd need a real engine in it."

While member Dazzlin asked how safe it would be: "For an electric bike it has a good look, but I can't help think a silent bike is a recipe for disaster on our ever increasingly busy roads".

In a teaser video released by the firm a motorcycle is seen driving down Route 66 almost without noise.

Purpose-built electric bicycles are becoming hugely popular. In China 25 million are sold each year, according to Prof Peter Wells, co-director of the automotive industry research group at Cardiff Business School.

The market for an electric Harley will be more "niche" he said but it is unsurprising that the firm is jumping on the bandwagon.

"We are moving toward zero emissions cities and motorbike manufacturers, like car manufacturers have to go that way," he said.

"In an ideal world I expect that they want it to go faster and further than it will."

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Phishing gangs target dating sites

19 June 2014 Last updated at 13:44

Fraudsters are stepping up phishing campaigns that target people who use dating websites, suggests research.

Members of Match.com, eHarmony, Zoosk, Christian Mingle and many others had received emails seeking to steal login details for the sites, said Netcraft.

The net monitoring firm said the emails had been sent from other websites, hacked to hide the senders' identity.

Stolen data would be used to befriend other users in an attempt to trick them into handing over cash, it said.

The phishing campaign against dating sites marked a departure for fraudsters, who typically preferred to target banks, said Paul Mutton, a security analyst at Netcraft who investigated the attacks.

The attacks were "massive", he said, adding that in the past week Netcraft had seen more than 100 compromised sites targeting Match.com alone.

So far, he said, it was not clear how sites were being compromised to host the scripts. Websites and servers run by individuals, small businesses, construction firms and telecom suppliers had all become unwitting hosts of the phishing tools, he added.

Mr Mutton said just one compromised site he had seen was home to about 800 short programs or scripts that targeted many different dating sites. Each script looked like it had been generated by a "kit" bought online.

"Anyone with a very basic knowledge of programming could make use of the kit," he said.

Extract cash

The scripts are used to craft phishing emails that are spammed out to potential victims.

The mails seek to trick people into entering their login names for the dating sites.

If successful, the details are passed on to the legitimate login page of a dating website and are also sent to one of 300 email addresses used by the phishing gang.

Fraudsters were keen to steal login details for accounts so they could avoid paying the charges dating sites levied before users could swap messages with other members, said Mr Mutton.

Using on-site messages the fraudsters hope to befriend others and then try to extract cash to help pay for a non-existent medical condition or to aid fictitious relatives.

Significant amounts of cash could be stolen this way, said Mr Mutton, pointing to the case of Karen and Tracy Vasseur, of Colorado, who were jailed in 2013 for stealing more than $1m (£590,000) from 374 people using dating-site scams.

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Rural broadband winners revealed

19 June 2014 Last updated at 14:41

The UK government has revealed the winners of a £10m fund aimed at finding new ways to get superfast broadband to very remote areas of Britain.

Eight schemes have been shortlisted, using a variety of technologies including fixed wireless and satellite.

Proposed locations to test the technologies include Scotland, Wales, Devon, Somerset and Northumberland.

The government said it would use the trials to work out the best way to get superfast broadband to the final 5%.

The schemes include:

• In Wales, AB Internet is planning a hybrid fixed line and wireless network that will deliver speeds of up to 50Mbps

• In North Yorkshire, Airwave plans to deploy four next-generation wireless systems, including making use of TV white space

• Satellite provider Avanti wants to pilot a satellite broadband platform in Northern Ireland and Scotland

• MLL plans to aggregate small wireless networks in Kent

• In Northumberland, Cybermoor wants to develop a fibre to the home network using a financial model that gets investment from the local community

Rural Affairs Minister Dan Rogerson said: "Fast and reliable broadband revolutionises everything from how we work and how our children learn, to how we spend our leisure time and engage with public services.

"It is critical that we explore how to get superfast broadband out to these hard-to-reach areas to allow business to be more productive, innovative and competitive, which is crucial for building a stronger rural economy and fairer society."

Several of the winning bidders are members of the Independent Networks Co-operative Association (Inca).

Chief executive Malcolm Corbett said he hoped the trials would help inform local councils currently looking to spend their rural broadband funds.

"It will help local authorities make decisions about where to invest and can hopefully make the process a bit more competitive," he said.

There has been criticism that, to date, BT has won all the contracts to roll out rural broadband.

"The simple fact that BT has not directly won any of these projects will please many people, but it needs to be remembered that this £10m of funding is just for the pilot projects and is not a full commitment yet," said Andrew Ferguson, from ThinkBroadband.

But, he added, the major stumbling block for ensuring that the vast majority of the UK was served by superfast broadband would be identifying the areas that needed it most.

"The pilots are focused on the most rural parts of the UK, but we see enough people in towns and cities that have missed out on the commercial rollouts of superfast services, or are considered served by an existing BDUK [Broadband Delivery UK] project, but have slipped through the cracks caused when councils have used postcodes rather than individual addresses to assess coverage."

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Android and Windows add 'kill switch'

20 June 2014 Last updated at 09:56

Google and Microsoft will add a "kill-switch" feature to their Android and Windows phone operating systems.

The feature is a method of making a handset completely useless if it is stolen, rendering a theft pointless.

Authorities have been urging tech firms to take steps to help curb phone theft and argued that a kill-switch feature can help resolve the problem.

Apple and Samsung, two of the biggest phone makers, offer a similar feature on some of their devices.

The move by Google and Microsoft means that kill switches will now be a part of the three most popular phone operating systems in the world.

Growing problem

Continue reading the main story

An activated kill switch converts an easy-to-sell, high-value multimedia device into a jumble of plastic and glass"

End Quote New York State Attorney General

Smartphone theft has become a big problem across the world. According to a report by US authorities:

• Some 3.1 million mobile devices were stolen in the US in 2013, nearly double the number of devices stolen in 2012
• One in three Europeans experienced the theft or loss of a mobile device in 2013
• In South Korea mobile device theft increased five-fold between 2009 and 2012
• In Colombia criminals stole over one million devices in 2013

In an attempt to tackle the issue, policymakers have launched an initiative called Secure our Smartphones.

As part of it, they have urged technology firms to take steps to make it less attractive for robbers to steal mobile devices.

"An activated kill switch converts an easy-to-sell, high-value multimedia device into a jumble of plastic and glass, drastically reducing its street value," the report by New York Attorney General said.

Explainer: How a kill switch works

• A "hard" kill switch would render a stolen device permanently unusable and is favoured by legislators who want to give stolen devices the "value of a paperweight"
• A "soft" kill switch only make a phone unusable to "an unauthorised user"
• Some argue that the only way to permanently disable a phone is to physically damage it
• Experts worry that hackers could find a way to hijack a kill signal and turn off phones
• If a phone is turned off or put into aeroplane mode, it might not receive the kill signal at all, warn experts

Authorities claim that Apple's feature - dubbed Activation Lock - which it introduced on all iPhones running the iOS 7 operating system in September last year, has helped reduce theft substantially.

According to a report by the New York State Attorney General, in the first five months of 2014 the theft of Apple devices fell by 17% in New York City.

Meanwhile iPhone robberies fell 24% in London and 38% in San Francisco in the six months after Apple introduced the feature, compared to the previous six months.

"During the same period, thefts of other popular mobile devices increased," the report says.

Manoj Menon, managing director of consulting firm Frost & Sullivan said the move was a step in the right direction.

"This is a fantastic move and will go a long way in helping authorities come one step closer to realising a vision of zero theft of mobile phone," he told the BBC.

But he added that it was "not a foolproof system" as thieves "will find a way to monetise the accessories and parts of a phone".

However, he said the market for parts and accessories was relatively small and the kill switch "does substantially reduce the financial incentive of stealing a device".

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Coalition bust-up over IT overhaul

20 June 2014 Last updated at 14:31 By Brian Wheeler Political reporter

A coalition row has erupted after Lib Dem minister Vince Cable criticised the Tories' flagship IT policy, claiming it had nearly paralysed his department.

Vince Cable and Ed Davey complained to David Cameron at a recent Cabinet meeting over slow emails and other IT problems at their departments.

The two ministers blamed Conservative Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude's IT procurement policy.

The Cabinet Office has said the ministers' own officials were to blame.

Business Secretary Mr Cable and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Mr Davey were reported in the Financial Times to be angry about slow and intermittent emails and network problems at their departments since they started migrating to new systems in May.

The problems, which included data loss, lost emails and frozen screens, are said to have nearly brought their two departments to a standstill.

'Messed up'

The departments share an IT system, which was previously provided by Japanese computer giant Fujitsu under a 15-year PFI deal worth £19m a year.

Under new Whitehall procurement procedures, they are using several different suppliers on shorter contracts.

Francis Maude is attempting to end the dominance of IT giants at Whitehall - and hand a bigger share of contracts to small and medium sized companies (SMEs).

The business and climate change departments were the first to implement the new initiative - one of the Conservative Party's flagship policies to boost small business.

Mr Cable is calling for it to be halted until lessons can be learned about what went wrong.

But Cabinet Office sources suggested the energy and business departments had "messed up" the procurement of the new contracts and were trying to shift the blame to Mr Maude's team.

'Outdated contracts'

A Conservative government source told BBC News: "It is rather strange that the secretary of state for business seems to be against small business."

Mr Maude's officials have pointed out that the new IT system at the two departments is not, in fact, being solely provided by small companies and some of the contractors are large IT companies.

They say officials are taking time to get used to new ways of working, with several contractors handling IT instead of one big supplier. They also point out that the new IT contracts at the two departments are 40% cheaper.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "Civil servants need modern technology to do their jobs so we are replacing the expensive, inflexible and outdated contracts which we inherited in 2010.

"Our government IT reforms are saving taxpayers' money and ensuring SMEs can compete alongside bigger providers.

"Departments remain responsible for their own technology and services."

A spokesman for the business department said they were "working hard" to resolve the IT problems and "minimise disruption" and "much progress has now been made".

"BIS and DECC were the first government departments to implement the Cabinet Office's new ICT strategy and lessons learned will help other departments when they renew their IT in the future," the spokesman added.

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Unlikely hit app Yo is 'hacked'

20 June 2014 Last updated at 16:00 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Messaging app Yo, which in the past week has rocketed to the top of the app download charts, has been hit by a hack.

Creator Or Arbel told technology news site TechCrunch the app was having "security issues".

The app allows users to send a message saying "yo" to friends - and nothing else.

It has been branded "pointless", but has nonetheless raised $1m (£600,000) in investment.

TechCrunch said it was contacted by three college students who said they had uncovered a flaw in the app.

"We can get any Yo user's phone number (I actually texted the founder, and he called me back)," the students told TechCrunch.

"We can spoof yos from any users, and we can spam any user... We could also send any Yo user a push notification with any text we want (though we decided not to do that)."

Other developers have been able to recreate the flaw.

Similar problems have hit apps such as Snapchat and Tinder in the past few months.

'Decline of civilisation'

Mr Arbel told TechCrunch he was dealing with the issue, but would not elaborate further.

"Some of the stuff has been fixed and some we are still working on," he said, adding that he had hired a specialist security team.

"We are taking this very seriously."

Despite the app's apparent pointlessness, it has quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of users. Mr Arbel said more than four million "yo" messages had been sent.

A service that sends a "yo" to a user every time a goal is scored in the World Cup has already been launched - with other similar services planned.

The app, which took eight hours to create, has the technology community divided - with some seeing the app, and its seven-figure investment, as a sign of increasing hysteria in Silicon Valley for offbeat ideas.

"We have decided this is an idea with great potential," Mr Arbel told the Financial Times.

One reader of The Verge technology news site said the app, and its sudden mainstream coverage, was "accelerating the decline of civilisation".

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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