Police get cash to develop rural app

2 August 2014 Last updated at 08:24

Two Welsh police forces will develop an £837,000 app to send witness statements from remote locations.

The cash has come from a UK government innovation fund, which has seen Wales' four police forces awarded £1.2m.

The Gwent and South Wales Police app will allow officers to record and upload audio and visual statements from a crime scene to a shared system.

It will mean officers can be freed from having to return to base, and can spend more time on patrol.

The app will work on mobile phones and tablets and means statements can be uploaded directly to data systems.

It will allow the two forces to share information, give officers quick access to data and let the public monitor the progress of a criminal report and incidents of anti-social behaviour.

As well as funding for the statement app, the Home Office innovation fund has also awarded the Gwent force a further £234,500 for a Wales-wide project aimed at working with women who have been arrested.

Body cameras

The scheme will try to help rehabilitate female offenders, and divert them away from a life of crime. The pilot scheme will run until 2016.

Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner Ian Johnston said: "This funding is truly fantastic news and I would like to congratulate everyone who brought their new and innovative ideas to the table and who worked so hard on making these range of exciting bids a reality."

The innovation fund is offering police forces across Britain access to £50m in grants.

In the latest round, North Wales Police has been awarded £44,538, and the Dyfed-Powys force was given £95,500.

North Wales Police will spend the money on body-mounted video cameras for officers and the money given to Dyfed-Powys Police will be used for a system to exchange information with other organisations during ongoing incidents.

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Tor attack may have unmasked users

30 July 2014 Last updated at 21:16 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

Developers of software used to access Tor - an otherwise hard-to-reach part of the internet - have disclosed that an attack on the network may have unmasked users for five months.

The Tor Project said that it believed the assault was designed to de-anonymise the net addresses of people operating or visiting hidden sites.

However, it said it was not sure exactly how users had been "affected".

The project added that it believed it had halted the attack on 4 July.

Tor allows people to visit webpages without being tracked and to publish sites whose contents does not show up in search engines.

The Tor Project said it believed that the infiltration had been carried out by two university researchers, who claimed at the start of July to have exploited "fundamental flaws" in Tor's design that allowed them to unmask the so-called dark net's users.

The two security experts, Alexander Volynkin and Michael McCord, had been due to give a talk at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas next week. However, the presentation was cancelled at the insistence of lawyers working for their employer, Carnegie Mellon University.

"We spent several months trying to extract information from the researchers who were going to give the Black Hat talk, and eventually we did get some hints from them... which is how we started looking for the attacks in the wild," wrote Roger Dingledine, one of the network's co-creators, on the Tor Project's blog.

"They haven't answered our emails lately, so we don't know for sure, but it seems likely that the answer to [whether they were responsible] is yes.

"In fact, we hope they were the ones doing the attacks, since otherwise it means somebody else was."

A spokesman from Carnegie Mellon University declined to comment.

Illegal activity

Tor attempts to hide a person's location and identity by sending data across the internet via a very circuitous route involving several "nodes" - which, in this context, means using volunteers' PCs and computer servers as connection points.

Encryption applied at each hop along this route makes it very hard to connect a person to any particular activity.

To the website that ultimately receives the request, it appears as if the data traffic comes from the last computer in the chain - known as an "exit relay" - rather than the person responsible.

Tor's users include the military, law enforcement officers and journalists - who use it as a way of communicating with whistle-blowers - as well as members of the public who wish to keep their browser activity secret.

But it has also been associated with illegal activity, allowing people to visit sites offering illegal drugs for sale and access to child abuse images, which do not show up in normal search engine results and would not be available to those who did not know where to look.

Two-pronged attack

The Tor Project suggests the perpetrator compromised the network via a "traffic confirmation attack".

This involves the attacker controlling both the first part of the circuit of nodes involved - known as the "entry relay" - as well as the exit relay.

By matching the volumes and timings of the data sent at one end of the circuit to those received at the other end, it becomes possible to reveal the Tor user's identity because the computer used as an entry relay will have logged their internet protocol (IP) address.

The project believes the attacker used this to reveal hidden-site visitors by adding a signal to the data sent back from such sites that included the encoded name of the hidden service.

Because the sequence of nodes in a Tor network is random, the infiltrator would not be able to track every visit to a dark net site.

Tor also has a way of protecting itself against such a danger: rather than use a single entry relay, the software involved uses a few relays chosen at random - what are known as "entry guards".

So, even if someone has control of a single entry and exit relay, they should only see a fraction of the user's traffic, making it hard to identify them.

However, the Tor Project believes the perpetrator countered this safeguard by using a second technique known as a "Sybil attack".

This involved adding about 115 subverted computer servers to Tor and ensuring they became used as entry guards. As a result, the servers accounted for more than 6% of the network's guard capacity.

This was still not enough to monitor every communication, but was potentially enough to link some users to specific hidden sites.

"We don't know how much data the attackers kept, and due to the way the attack was deployed, their... modifications might have aided other attackers in de-anonymising users too," warned Mr Dingledine.

Several government agencies are interested in having a way to unmask Tor's users.

Russia's interior ministry is currently offering a 3.9m roubles ($110,000; £65,000) prize to anyone who cracks such identities. It says it wants to protect the country's "defence and security".

A report by the German broadcaster ARD suggests US cyberspies working for the NSA have also made efforts to overcome Tor's system, despite the fact the Tor Project is partly funded by other US government departments.

And leaked documents released by whistleblower Edward Snowden also indicate the UK's GCHQ has attempted to track Tor users.

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Dark net drugs ads have 'doubled'

31 July 2014 Last updated at 17:01 By Angus Crawford BBC News

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Supervisor Christian Crawford shows Angus Crawford around the postal facility in Los Angeles where US Customs try to halt the flow of illegal drugs

The number of listings offering illegal drugs for sale on the "dark net" appears to have more than doubled in less than a year, BBC News has learned.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) closed down the original online illegal drug market, Silk Road, in 2013.

But new figures suggest the trade has actually increased since then.

And other research indicates one in four British drug users has accessed hidden websites.

'Big problem'

In October 2013, there were 18,174 drugs listings across four main markets, according to the internet safety organisation Digital Citizens Alliance, based in the US.

A recent trawl of the dark net by BBC News revealed there were now 43,175 listings across 23 markets.

In this context, the term "dark net" refers to parts of the internet that cannot be reached easily unless specialised software is used.

Its content is hidden from conventional search engines such as Google and Bing. Commonly used apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Evernote - whose content does not show up in search results either - are not covered by the term.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

They are dealing in illegal drugs and they are dealing in misery"

End Quote Caroline Young, National Crime Agency

Britain's National Crime Agency recognises the drug trade on the dark net is a threat.

"It's a big problem," says Caroline Young, deputy director of the NCA's Organised Crime Command.

"In our threat assessment we have cocaine and heroin as a high priority, and because it's cyber-enabled that makes it even more of a high priority."

However, she said the figures might be misleading.

"The numbers of vendors in the UK has reduced by 40%, each vendor may have more than one listing," she says.

One internet safety campaigner was concerned by the findings.

"We still think the internet can be a wonderful tool for consumers and businesses, but we do worry good people and companies get caught up in the web spun by criminals and rogue operators," said Adam Benson, deputy executive director of Digital Citizens Alliance.

"That will slowly erode the trust and confidence we have in the internet."

The dealer's view

After months of negotiations, a dark net drug dealer based outside the UK agreed to answer my questions.

He would only do it anonymously and using encrypted messages.

"To us the dark net is all about anonymity and freedom," he said.

I put it to him that he was still selling dangerous substances and supporting organised crime.

"A street dealer could sell you anything without you knowing what it is exactly," he replied.

"Because of the strong community on the dark net, this almost never happens. And when it happens, the vendor in question will lose all of his clients."

He added that the online drugs trade showed no signs of reducing.

"I've seen the dark net market grow almost exponentially."

Undesired publicity

Californian Ross Ulbricht was arrested last year and is awaiting trial charged with being the administrator of the original Silk Road site, which he denies.

Customers and dealers used encrypted email and paid using the virtual currency Bitcoin, which can be hard to track.

The FBI seized the site and confiscated all funds.

But some observers say that has only increased interest in the markets.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

No-one's going to find out who I am, I just feel safe using it"

End Quote Sam Dark net drugs buyer

Deepdotweb.com is a website that observes developments on the hidden web.

A representative from the site said: "The Silk Road bust was the best advertising the dark net markets could have hoped for."

Anonymous network

One of the most popular access methods for the dark net is the TorBrowser.

It allows people to use Tor, an "onion-routing" system that makes a PC's net address untraceable.

It bounces encrypted data through several randomly selected computer servers on a volunteer network - before it reaches its destination.

There are also many hidden sites on the network ending in the dot-onion suffix, including drugs markets.

Tor was first created by the US military and is now also used by pro-democracy campaigners, whistleblowers and journalists operating under repressive regimes.

But criminals too are taking advantage of its anonymity.

Cocaine clicks

One buyer agreed to talk to me, but only if his identity was hidden.

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Views from both sides of the internet drugs market

Sam, not his real name, admitted he used to buy drugs from a dealer in London.

"I bought cannabis, around every two to three weeks from a street vendor, it was pretty terrifying," he said.

He then showed me the cannabis he bought online - it was delivered to his house by first-class post.

"I don't have to reveal my identity at all, it's completely anonymous, no-one's going to find out who I am, I just feel safe using it."

And there is evidence he is part of a growing number of people going online to buy illegal drugs.

The Global Drug Survey has taken place each year since 1999.

For the 2014 survey, more than 79,000 people worldwide were questioned about their drug habits.

Some 25% of British respondents said they had accessed dark net drugs markets.

The survey's founder, Adam Winstock, said it was just like the growth of any e-commerce.

"Better quality, better range, more convenient," he said, "and certainly in the case of drugs, avoiding having to come into contact with dealers."

Targeting dealers

Those who observe the dark net believe sales will continue to grow.

Deepdotweb.com expects methods may change.

"We will see movements toward decentralised markets as they have better potential for being safer, are impossible to shut down, and can provide better solutions for handling transactions," said its editor, who asked to remain anonymous.

Britain's National Crime Agency says it will do all it can to disrupt the trade.

"We will use all and every tool and technique we possibly can," said Caroline Young.

"Whether they are dealers and buyers online or on the street - they are exactly the same.

"They are dealing in illegal drugs and they are dealing in misery."

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Israeli Iron Dome firms 'hacked'

31 July 2014 Last updated at 16:44 By Joe Miller Technology reporter

The BBC has seen evidence that appears to confirm hackers stole several secret military documents from two government-owned Israeli companies that developed the Iron Dome missile defence system.

The breaches were first publicised by security blogger Brian Krebs on Monday.

The companies denied their classified networks had been infiltrated.

However, the team that discovered the incidents has given the BBC access to an intelligence report, which indicates hundreds of files were indeed copied.

The documents, which were stolen over a period of many months, relate to:

• Arrow III missiles
• unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones
• ballistic rockets

Continue reading the main story

The data collected makes strong indications that the actors behind this attack originated from China"

End Quote CyberESI report

Cyber Engineering Services (CyberESI) tracked the activities of the hackers over eight months between 2011 and 2012.

It said the data taken by the hackers suggested they had been after intelligence relating to Iron Dome.

Iron Dome is a complex anti-missile defence system, which can intercept and destroy rockets and shells.

The technology has been widely credited with preventing the deaths of many Israeli civilians during the ongoing conflict with militants from Gaza.

CyberESI's report, compiled in 2013, also indicates the attacks were made using highly sophisticated tools resembling those used by Chinese hackers to infiltrate US defence firms - an attack in which the Chinese government denies any involvement.

"The data collected makes strong indications that the actors behind this attack originated from China," it says.

"This assertion is based on the activity during the past year that Cyber Engineering Services has observed on compromised networks, as well as the geo-location of the IP [internet protocol] addresses retrieving the exfiltrated data."

"The nature of exfiltrated data and the industry that these companies are involved in suggests that the Chinese hackers were after information related to Israel's all-weather air defence system called Iron Dome."

Gigabytes stolen

CyberESI, which operates out of Maryland in the US, monitored data being stolen from two leading Israeli defence contractors:

• Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a government-owned company that develops missiles and aircraft
• Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, a government-owned company established in 1948, which develops surface-to-air missiles

A spokeswoman for IAI initially confirmed to Mr Krebs the attack had taken place and been "reported to the appropriate authorities".

However IAI subsequently said the "information reported regarding the leakage of sensitive information is incorrect" and only its "civilian non-classified" network had been hacked.

A spokesman for Rafael said the company did "not recall such an incident".

But the report seen by the BBC suggests sensitive data was taken from IAI and that Rafael's network was compromised, with hackers able to deactivate security software and harvest authentication data, including passwords.

In total, the report says, gigabytes of data were stolen from the Israeli companies, including:

• word documents
• power point presentations
• spreadsheets
• PDFs
• executable (.exe) files

Some of the stolen technical documents are said by CyberESI to have contained intellectual property data and were marked as being controlled by US government International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations.

US connections

Both IAI and Rafael were heavily involved in developing the Iron Dome missile defence system, which allows Israel to intercept rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

The US, which already collaborates with Israeli firms over Arrow III - jointly designed by IAI and Boeing, now wants to invest in future versions of Iron Dome technologies.

In May 2013, the Pentagon accused China of carrying out a sophisticated cyber-spying campaign on US diplomatic, economic and defence organisations.

The raid on the Israeli companies bore similar characteristics, experts at CyberESI told the BBC, using tools that were "known to originate from" China.

The attacks were part of an advanced persistent threat (APT) - a form of highly organised and targeted hacking.

APTs have been used for industrial espionage in the past and tend to use sophisticated methods not easily available to the vast majority of cyber-thieves.

Executive emails stolen

CyberESI's report also featured a third Israeli company, Elisra, originally a US company and now a leading supplier to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Elisra, which is not involved in Iron Dome, appears to have been comprehensively infiltrated by the hackers, who stole data from folders named "Military Spacs" and "UAV" and infiltrated the email accounts belonging to the chief executive and several senior managers.

The attackers also stole passwords and sign-in details, allowing them to roam around the networks undetected.

Elisra did not respond to a BBC request for comment.

In January 2014, another security company reported that 15 Israeli defence computers had been compromised via a malicious email attachment.

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Switching broadband is 'too costly'

1 August 2014 Last updated at 00:01

Tens of thousands of broadband customers in the UK are having to pay "costly" charges to change supplier, Citizens Advice has warned.

It says the average cost of ending a contract is £190, with some fees said to be as high as £625.

Often consumers are faced with such charges after having received poor service from their existing internet provider, it claimed.

But the internet industry said termination fees are always made clear.

"People are finding themselves held captive by bad broadband services," said Gillian Guy, the chief executive of Citizens Advice.

However, the industry argues that termination charges are necessary, because of the high initial cost of supplying a connection.

"The cancellation policies on contracts generally require the remaining subscriptions to be paid off, and reflect actual costs," said a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers' Association (Ispa).

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

I really got the feeling that they knew how old I was. They started to bully me."

End Quote Brian Ing 79 year-old broadband customer

'Bullying'

In many cases, those who fail to pay the fees are being referred to debt collection agencies.

Brian Ing, a 79-year-old from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, tried to switch supplier in March this year, after poor service from his provider.

He was given a bill for £211, which was subsequently passed to a debt collection agency.

Mr Ing had been a customer for seven years, so should not have been liable for termination fees.

"I really got the feeling that they knew how old I was," he told the BBC.

"They started to bully me," he claimed.

Having received a demand for £231 from a debt collection agency, Mr Ing passed the letter to the Ombudsman and Citizens Advice, and the company involved agreed to suspend the charges.

Continue reading the main story

Broadband: Your Rights

• Contracts can be no longer than 2 years
• Termination charges cannot exceed remaining contract payments
• Providers must provide information on charges
• Information must be clear and prominent
• Switching must be free, if prices go up unexpectedly

source: Ofcom

When contacted by the BBC, the provider said it could not comment on individual cases.

'Clear information'

Citizens Advice is asking internet providers to stop cancellation fees when customers have "persistent" problems with their service.

One big provider said it would be happy to comply.

In the meantime the regulator, Ofcom, provides guidance for consumers.

Its guidelines require companies to issue contracts for a maximum period of 2 years.

It says consumers must be given "clear, comprehensible, prominent and accurate" information on termination fees, which can never be greater than the payments they are due to make for the remainder of the contract.

Ofcom says it has made switching broadband provider much easier since the introduction of "migration authorisation codes" (macs), which providers have to give out.

Since the start of the year, customers who wish to switch provider because of an unexpected price rise, must be able to do so, free of charge.

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'Draconian' Russian net law enacted

1 August 2014 Last updated at 00:05

A new law imposing restrictions on users of social media has come into effect in Russia.

It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform to the regulations that govern the country's larger media outlets.

Internet companies will also be required to allow Russian authorities access to users' information.

One human rights group called the move "draconian".

Continue reading the main story

The internet is the last island of free expression in Russia"

End Quote Hugh Williamson, Human Rights Watch

The law was approved by Russia's upper house of parliament in April.

It includes measures to ensure that bloggers cannot remain anonymous, and states that social networks must maintain six months of data on its users.

The information must be stored on servers based in Russian territory, so that government authorities can gain access.

Critics see it as the latest in a series of recent moves to curb internet freedom.

'Free expression'

Hugh Williamson, of New York-based Human Rights Watch, has called the law "another milestone in Russia's relentless crackdown on free expression".

"The internet is the last island of free expression in Russia and these draconian regulations are clearly aimed at putting it under government control," he added.

Opposition figures have used the internet to air their views, with some gaining millions of followers.

Commentators opposing Vladimir Putin often face restrictions in broadcast outlets and newspapers.

Analysis: Famil Ismailov, news editor, BBCRussian.com

Russian bloggers are bracing themselves for the moment when Russia's new "information security law" comes into force on 1 August. Some already share advice on how to use proxy servers in order to access social media sites that, in their view, are under threat of being closed.

It is hard to see how the law will be enforced. The servers for most of the popular social media platforms that many Russians use are based outside Russia.

Many popular bloggers are already looking for, and apparently finding, ways to "cheat" the feature that counts page visits and keep their daily unique visitor numbers just under 3000, or to make sure that the statistics are hidden altogether.

Anton Nossik, who is considered Russia's "internet guru", wrote in his LiveJournal blog that the new law didn't threaten individual bloggers directly, but provided legal grounds to block popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal and Google.

"The issue of banning all these platforms in Russia is a political one and it will be decided by only one person", Mr Nossik wrote, with a thinly veiled reference to President Vladimir Putin.

Critics blocked

Earlier in the year, Russia enacted a law that gave the government powers to block websites without explanation.

In March, Moscow blocked the blog of Mr Navalny, along with two news sites and a organisation run by Garry Kasparov - a vocal critic of the Russian government.

In a statement, Russia's prosecutor general's office said the blocks were imposed because of the sites' role in helping stage illegal protests.

Earlier this week, Twitter blocked access to an anti-Kremlin account that often publishes leaked government documents, following a request by Russia's federal communications agency Roskomnadzor.

'CIA project'

For many years, Russia had relatively lax internet laws.

However Moscow has recently changed its tune, with Mr Putin branding the internet an ongoing "CIA project".

He also claimed that the popular Russian search engine Yandex was controlled by foreign intelligence.

Two years ago, Russia enacted a law enabling authorities to blacklist and force certain websites offline without a trial.

The government said the legislation was designed to protect children from harmful internet content, such as pro-suicide or pornography websites.

On Thursday, lawyers for US intelligence officer Edward Snowden said the whistleblower had filed for refugee status in Russia.

Mr Snowden received temporary shelter in Russia last year.

He had evaded US authorities after he leaked classified government documents revealing mass surveillance programmes undertaken by the NSA in the US and GCHQ in the UK.

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Wearables tracked with Raspberry Pi

1 August 2014 Last updated at 11:30

People who use wearable gadgets to monitor their health or activity can be tracked with only $70 (£40) of hardware, research suggests.

The work, carried out by security firm Symantec, used a Raspberry Pi computer to grab data broadcast by the gadgets.

The snooping Pi was taken to parks and sporting events where it was able to pick out individuals in the crowds.

Symantec said makers of wearables need to do a better job of protecting privacy and handling data they gather.

'Serious breach'

The research team used a barebones Raspberry Pi computer to which they added a Bluetooth radio module to help sniff for signals. At no time did the device try to connect to any wearable. Rather, it just scooped up data being broadcast from gadgets close by.

Symantec said the eavesdropping was possible because most wearables were very simple devices that communicated with a smartphone or a laptop when passing on data they have collected.

The researchers, Mario Barcena, Candid Wueest and Hon Lau, took their Pi to busy public places in Switzerland and Ireland, including sporting events, to see what data they could grab.

"All the devices we encountered can be easily tracked using the unique hardware address they transmit," the team wrote in a blogpost.

Some of the devices picked up were also susceptible to being probed remotely to make them reveal serial numbers or other identifying information. It would be "trivial", said the researchers, for anyone with a modicum of computer and electronics knowledge to gather this information.

Trick databases

In addition, the research team looked at the apps associated with some activity monitors or which use a smartphone to gather data. About 20% of the apps Symantec looked at did nothing to obfuscate data being sent across the net even though it contained important ID information, such as name, passwords and birthdate.

"The lack of basic security at this level is a serious omission and raises serious questions about how these services handle information stored on their servers," said the Symantec team.

Further investigation revealed that many apps did not do enough to secure the passage of data from users back to central servers. In some cases it was possible to manipulate data to read information about other users or trick databases into executing commands sent by external agents.

"These are serious security lapses that could lead to a major breach of the user database," said the team.

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Microsoft told to provide Irish data

1 August 2014 Last updated at 12:02

Microsoft's latest attempt to resist a US government warrant demanding access to emails stored on servers in Ireland has been dismissed by a federal judge.

A court in New York ruled against the tech company, which has consistently fought the order issued in December as part of a drug-trafficking trial.

Microsoft immediately announced plans to challenge the decision.

The company has previously said it will allow users to choose where their data is stored.

Emergency legislation

Twitter released a report this week showing that the number of government requests for its users' data had almost doubled since last year.

The social network said it received 1,257 requests from the US authorities in the six months to the end of June, and it handed over some information in 72% of cases.

Microsoft's case has been closely watched by tech companies around the world, many of whom have rallied around their commercial rival's cause.

The legal battle, thought to be the only one of its kind in the US, could affect the wider tech industry, which faces mounting pressure from government authorities to allow access to data.

Last month, the UK voted through emergency legislation giving the security services access to people's phone and internet records, including some powers to go after those outside the country.

Microsoft, which is one of the world's largest email providers, says this case is about protecting data customers' rights to privacy.

The data requested by the US government is stored on servers in Dublin, the Irish capital, outside the country's legal jurisdiction.

Reacting to the New York judge's verdict, Microsoft said: "The district court's decision would not represent the final step in this process.

Brad Smith, the company's general counsel, said: "We will appeal promptly and continue to advocate that people's email deserves strong privacy protection in the US and around the world."

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Uber taxi app 'competing unfairly'

1 August 2014 Last updated at 23:44

The Uber taxi app is "competing unfairly" with London's black cabs, senior Labour MP Margaret Hodge says.

She has written to Boris Johnson asking why Transport for London allows cars to take bookings through the app without a licence to operate in the capital.

Mrs Hodge claims the firm is "opting out of the UK tax regime" but Uber said it complied with "all applicable tax laws".

Thousands of taxi drivers protested against the app in June.

The smartphone app works out the cost of fares using GPS. Cab drivers say it is similar to using a taxi meter, which only they are legally entitled to do.

'Impact on livelihoods'

The app's Dutch operating company, Uber BV, does not pay tax in the UK - but Mrs Hodge said TfL could insist that it does so.

She said: "I am particularly concerned about the tax structure that Uber and others have apparently constructed and the impact this has both on the public purse and on the livelihoods of London cabbies and private hire drivers.

"This structure allows these new entrants to unfairly undercut London operators by opting out of the UK tax regime.

"TfL allows this to happen by failing to apply the appropriate regulations to Uber."

In the letter to Mr Johnson, the mayor of London, Mrs Hodge, who chairs the cross-party Commons Public Accounts Committee, added: "Surely TfL has a duty to enforce legislation that will ensure a fair and level playing field for all taxi and private hire operators?

"I would be grateful if you could set out the steps you will take to ensure that TfL does not inadvertently allow tax avoidance in London and that all taxi and private hire drivers receive a fair deal."

She has been backed by the Licensed Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA), which represents 20,000 cabbies.

'Corporate greed'

LPHCA chairman Steve Wright said: "London's taxi and private hire industries are being compromised by inconsistent licensing enforcement by TfL and the apparent ability for app-based operators like Uber to operate through an offshore tax regime.

"As well as the loss in revenue to the country, a whole industry that has a wonderful compliance record - unlike some of these new apps - is being undermined by foreign entities, working the UK tax system for corporate greed."

But an Uber spokesman said: "Uber complies with all applicable tax laws, and pays taxes in all jurisdictions, such as corporate income tax, payroll tax, sales and use tax, and VAT.

"Uber London Limited is a licensed private hire vehicle operator and recently passed the largest inspection of records ever conducted by TfL."

Chief operating officer at TfL Garrett Emmerson said he was "fully satisfied" the app was operating lawfully.

He added: "TfL's role is to licence and regulate the taxi and private hire industry in London. We do not have any powers in relation to an operator's corporate structure and how or where they pay tax."

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GCHQ unveils 'cyber spy' degrees

2 August 2014 Last updated at 16:34

Intelligence agency GCHQ has accredited six UK universities to teach specialist master's degree courses to future internet security experts.

The degrees form part of the UK's cyber security strategy published in 2011.

The strategy recognised that education was key to improving defences against hackers and online fraud.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said internet cyber security was a "crucial part" of the government's long-term plan for the British economy.

He said the courses would help to make the "UK one of the safest places in the world to do business online".

He said: "Through the excellent work of GCHQ, in partnership with other government departments, the private sector and academia, we are able to counter threats and ensure together we are stronger and more aware."

UK universities were invited to submit their master's degree courses for certification.

The universities now running GCHQ-approved programmes in cyber security are Edinburgh Napier University, Lancaster University, the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway, University of London.

GCHQ has also given provisional accreditation to Cranfield University's cyber defence and information assurance course, and the University of Surrey's information security course.

A spokesman for GCHQ said the universities "were judged to provide well-defined and appropriate content, delivered to the highest standard".

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