Facebook gives users 'Ebola button'

Facebook has added an Ebola button to users' profile pages to help people donate to charities fighting the disease.

The money will go to International Medical Corps, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and Save the Children.

Facebook is also paying for 100 satellite communication terminals to help improve internet and phone services in west Africa. The disease has killed nearly 5,000 people across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the Ebola donation button with a video on his own profile page, saying "I want to make sure Facebook does its part to help fight Ebola."

Mark Zuckerberg says he's personally given $25m dollars to the fight against Ebola

Last month he donated almost $25m (£16m) to the fight against the virus.

And he's been forced to point this out again, with critics accusing him of adding the button purely as a marketing move.

"Facebook is giving everyone the ability to donate, but how much is Facebook donating? ... this seems just marketing to me one more time," said Pepe Pepe Pepe.

Zuckerberg responded in person, writing: "I personally donated $25m and Facebook is spending millions more on providing internet connectivity in the affected regions."

Facebook says it chose charities that work directly on the ground and are able to accept money globally.

Ebola aid donations have so far lagged behind the money given by the public after natural disasters like last year's Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, or the earthquake in Haiti four years ago.

Will Facebook payments look like this?

It's well known Facebook is trialling a payment system and it's likely the Ebola button will help the firm measure how its servers handle secure money transfers.

In October hacked screenshots appeared to show a hidden payment option inside the site's Messenger app, which is used by around 200 million people.

All the evidence adds up that Facebook wants to move into the money transactions market.

In June, the company brought in PayPal president and payments expert David Marcus as boss of its messaging service.

It's thought he's looking beyond adverts for how chat apps can begin to make real profit.

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Twitter opening office in Hong Kong

7 November 2014 Last updated at 07:22

Social media giant Twitter has said it will open an office in Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2015.

The messaging service has been banned from operating in China since 2009 over fears that it could be used to organise protests against the government.

However, Twitter said it wanted to tap into the next phase of its growth in the Asian region by expanding in Greater China.

The office will house sales staff and joins the likes of Google and Facebook.

"Our upcoming Hong Kong office in the first quarter will enable us to pursue strategic opportunities in Greater China, such as China export advertising market, Hong Kong and Taiwan advertising markets, media partnerships, and our new Twitter Fabric integrated with MoPub for mobile developers," the company told the BBC on Friday.

The opening would be Twitter's fifth office in the region, with operations already in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney.

In August, Twitter said it was opening an office in Jakarta, with Indonesia being one of its biggest markets.

"With half of all internet, mobile and social media users worldwide in Asia today, we see many opportunities across the region," a company spokesperson said.

News of the expansion comes as Twitter reported a disappointing 7% fall in timeline views per user - a closely watched measure of engagement - despite 23% growth in its user base in the third quarter last month.

The company also said its fourth-quarter revenue might fall short of market expectations of $448.8mn (£283mn). New York-listed Twitter shares are down almost 36% this year.

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Apple malware affects Chinese users

6 November 2014 Last updated at 11:25 By Rajeshni Naidu-Ghelani & Leo Kelion BBC News

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The BBC's John Sudworth explains how the malware affects Apple products

Malware has bypassed Apple's safety controls by taking advantage of a process used by employers to add apps to workers' iPhones and iPads.

US-based Palo Alto Networks said WireLurker appeared to have originated in China and was mostly infecting devices there.

The malware first targets Mac computers via a third-party store before copying itself to iOS devices.

Researchers warn it steals information and can install other damaging apps.

"WireLurker is unlike anything we've ever seen in terms of Apple iOS and OS X malware," said Ryan Olson, Palo Alto Network's intelligence director.

"The techniques in use suggest that bad actors are getting more sophisticated when it comes to exploiting some of the world's best-known desktop and mobile platforms."

WireLurker has the ability to transfer from Apple's Mac computer to mobile devices through a USB cable.

The security firm said the malware was capable of stealing "a variety of information" from mobile devices it infects and regularly requested updates from the attackers' control server.

"This malware is under active development and its creator's ultimate goal is not yet clear," the company added.

Apple has issued a brief statement.

"We are aware of malicious software available from a download site aimed at users in China, and we've blocked the identified apps to prevent them from launching," it said.

"As always, we recommend that users download and install software from trusted sources."

Work apps

According to Palo Alto Networks, WireLurker was first noticed in June when a developer at the Chinese firm Tencent realised there were suspicious files and processes happening on his Mac and iPhone.

Further inquiries revealed a total of 467 Mac programs listed on the Maiyadi App Store had been compromised to include the malware, which in turn had been downloaded 356,104 times as of 16 Oct.

Infected software included popular games including Angry Birds, The Sims 3, Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Once the malware was on the Mac, it communicated with a command-and-control server to check if it needed to update its code, and then waited until an iPhone, iPad or iPod was connected.

When an iOS device was connected the malware would check if it was jailbroken - a process used by some to remove some of Apple's restrictions.

If it was jailbroken, WireLurker backed up the device's apps to the Mac, where it repackaged them with malware, and then installed the infected versions back on to the iOS machine.

If it was not jailbroken - which is the case for most iOS devices - WireLurker took advantage of a technique created by Apple to allow businesses to install special software on their staff's handsets and tablets.

This involved placing infected apps on the device that had been signed with a bogus "enterprise certificate" - code added to a product that is supposed to prove it comes from a trustworthy source.

To ensure the devices accepted this certificate, a permissions request was made to pop up on the targeted iOS device on the user's first attempt to run an infected app.

It simply asked for permission to run the app, but if the user clicked "continue" it installed code called a "provisioning profile", which told the iOS device it could trust any other app that had the same enterprise certificate.

Palo Alto Networks remarked that while this technique was not a new concept, it was the only known example of it being used to target non-jailbroken iOS devices in the wild.

Once active, the malware is used to upload information about the machine to the hackers, including phone numbers from its Contacts app, and the user's Apple ID.

Different versions of WireLurker also automatically installed new apps on the devices - including a video game and a comic book reader.

While these were innocuous, experts warn they could represent a test run for other more damaging software.

"People have got very used to iOS being secure and there is a danger they may be complacent about the risk this presents," said Prof Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey.

"Now Apple knows what it's looking for, it should be able to shut it down relatively easily. But it shows that people are trying to attack Apple's operating system and the firm can't take security for granted."

Under attack

News of the attack comes after tech giant Apple's iCloud storage service in China was attacked by hackers trying to steal user information just last month.

Chinese web monitoring group Greatfire.org said that hackers intercepted data and potentially gained access to passwords, messages, photos and contacts. They believed the Beijing government was behind the move.

But the Chinese government denied the claims and was backed by state-owned internet provider China Telecom, which said the accusation was "untrue and unfounded".

China is home to the world's biggest smartphone market and Apple saw its iPhone sales there jump 50% in the April to June quarter from a year earlier.

To minimise the risk of attack, Palo Alto Networks has recommended that users:

• Do not download Mac apps from third-party stores
• Do not jailbreak iOS devices
• Do not connect their iOS devices to untrusted computers and accessories, either to copy information or charge the machines
• Do not accept requests for a new "enterprise provisioning profile" unless it comes from an authorised party, for example the employer's IT department

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Warning on effects of 3D on vision

6 November 2014 Last updated at 15:04

A French health watchdog has recommended that children under the age of six should not be allowed access to 3D content.

The Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (Anses) added that access for those up to the age of 13 should be "moderate".

It follows research into the possible impact of 3D imaging on still-developing eyes.

Few countries currently have guidelines about 3D usage.

According to Anses, the process of assimilating a three-dimensional effect requires the eyes to look at images in two different places at the same time before the brain translates it as one image.

"In children, and particularly before the age of six, the health effects of this vergence-accommodation conflict could be much more severe given the active development of the visual system at this time," it said in a statement.

Nintendo warning

It is not the first time questions have been raised about the safety of 3D, which is used in many feature films as well as on some video games, TVs and computer screens.

Italy has sought to restrict the use of 3D glasses by young children, following a similar warning from its national health agency last year.

When Nintendo released its 3D video console in 2010 it warned that playing games on it could damage the eyesight of children under six.

More and more firms are creating 3D-enabled products and Apple is rumoured to be developing a 3D display that can be viewed without the need to wear special glasses.

The American Optometric Association has said that it has had no reports of eye damage as a a result of viewing 3D content.

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US retailer lost 53m emails in hack

6 November 2014 Last updated at 23:14

US retail giant Home Depot says hackers who stole payment-card details of millions of customers also stole 53 million email addresses.

It said hackers accessed its network with a vendor's username and password between April and September.

The company had previously revealed that 56 million debit and credit card details were also stolen in the hack.

Analysts say it is one of the largest data breaches on record, surpassing a similar incident at retailer Target.

Home Depot insisted on Thursday that the file containing the email addresses did not contain passwords or other sensitive personal information.

But it warned customers to be on guard against further phishing scams that might trick them into sharing personal information.

Customers that have been affected in the US and Canada will be notified and offered credit monitoring, the company added.

The latest update came just weeks after Home Depot disclosed the data breach, saying 56 million credit and debit card details were taken.

The company said it was still investigating the incident.

It follows a similar case involving Target, another US retailer, which was targeted by hackers in December 2013.

Target said payment and personal data from as many as 70 million customers was taken.

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Huge raid shuts 400 'dark net' sites

7 November 2014 Last updated at 11:37 By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

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Troels Oerting from Europol explained to the BBC's Anna Holligan how the joint police operation unfolded

Silk Road 2.0 and 400 other sites believed to be selling illegal items including drugs and weapons have been shut down.

The sites operated on the Tor network - a part of the internet unreachable via traditional search engines.

The joint operation between 16 European countries and the US saw 17 arrests, including Blake Benthall who is said to be behind Silk Road 2.0.

Experts believe the shutdown represents a breakthrough for fighting cybercrime.

Six Britons were also arrested, including a 20-year-old man from Liverpool, a 19-year-old man from New Waltham, a 30 year-old-man from Cleethorpes and a man and woman, both aged 58, from Aberdovey, Wales.

All were interviewed and bailed according to the National Crime Agency.

Tor, as well as hosting legitimate sites, is home to thousands of illegal marketplaces, trading in drugs, child abuse images as well as sites for extremist groups.

Analysis: Rory Cellan-Jones, technology correspondent

It was the operation last year to take down the drugs marketplace Silk Road which was the first major success in the battle against criminal use of the dark net.

Now this much bigger operation involving global cooperation amongst law enforcement agencies sees that battle taken to a new level, with Silk Road 2.0 amongst 400 sites closed.

It's important to remember that the dark net isn't all about illegal activity. Indeed its best known tool the anonymising browser Tor was created by a US intelligence agency to help its operations and to assist people living under repressive regimes.

Last year, many predicted that shutting one online drugs bazaar - and arresting its alleged owner Ross William Ulbricht - would not make a lot of difference, with plenty more rushing to fill the gap.

Now this much bigger operation may signal that the authorities have developed new techniques to track down the origins of these networks and those behind them.

Still, the number of arrests may be telling - 400 sites closed, but just 17 arrests. That would suggest there is a lot of work still to be done.

Silk Road 2.0 - which launched in October last year - is one of the most notorious and deals in the buying and selling of illegal drugs.

It was resurrected after the original Silk Road site was shut down and its alleged owner arrested.

'Serious organised crime'

The operation also saw the seizure of Bitcoins worth approximately $1m (£632,000).

"Today we have demonstrated that, together, we are able to efficiently remove vital criminal infrastructures that are supporting serious organised crime," said Troels Oerting, head of Europol's European cybercrime centre.

"And we are not 'just' removing these services from the open internet; this time we have also hit services on the dark net using Tor where, for a long time, criminals have considered themselves beyond reach," he added.

The BBC understands that the raid represented both a technological breakthrough - with police using new techniques to track down the physical location of dark net servers - as well as seeing an unprecedented level of international co-operation among law enforcement agencies.

The so-called deep web - the anonymous part of the internet - is estimated to be anything up to 500 times the size of the surface web.

Within that experts refer to the dark net - the part of the network which Tor operates on. There are approximately three million Tor users but the number of sites may be smaller.

Prof Alan Woodward a security consultant from the University of Surrey who also advises Europol, said that the shutdown represents a new era in the fight against cybercrime.

"Tor has long been considered beyond the reach of law enforcement. This action proves that it is neither invisible nor untouchable," he said.

But, he added, it did not mean copycat sites would not spring up, or that the police had thrown light on the dark net.

Explainer: What is Tor?

Tor is a special part of the internet that requires software, known as the Tor Browser bundle, to access it.

The name is an acronym for The Onion Router - just as there are many layers to the vegetable, there are many layers of encryption on the network.

It was originally designed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, and continues to receive funding from the US State Department.

It 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.

As well as allowing users to visit normal websites anonymously, it can also be used to host hidden sites, which use the .onion suffix.

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.

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Virtual reality aids warship design

7 November 2014 Last updated at 15:08

Virtual reality technology is being used in the construction of Royal Navy warships in a bid to build them more cheaply and efficiently.

Engineers at BAE Systems, the firm contracted to build vessels, are creating virtual versions that can then be examined in detail before any actual steel is cut.

Previously engineers had relied on wood or cardboard mock-ups of ships.

The system is currently being used to develop three offshore patrol vessels.

BAE Systems hopes the technology system will become a fundamental part of the engineering process.

"Visualisation technology is transforming the way we design, build and deliver complex warships," said Mick Ord, managing director at BAE Systems' Naval Ships business.

"By creating a virtual prototype, we can mature and optimise a ship's design and gain a real understanding of the vessel and the experience of those serving on board before manufacturing begins."

The system has been installed in three sites - Glasgow, Portsmouth and Bristol.

Visualisation suites with huge screens allow engineers, equipped with special glasses and a controller, to walk around the computer-generated ships and inspect the innards of the vessels to see whether there are any potential issues with the design.

Howard Wheeldon, an independent defence analyst said that the system had a lot of benefits.

"There are a lot of people involved in ship design so to be able to do it this way is absolutely brilliant and should be the way forward in other areas of engineering," he said.

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Porn stars want Google's piracy help

7 November 2014 Last updated at 15:13 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Porn stars and studios have called on Google to help publicise legal ways to buy adult content in an effort to combat piracy.

Prominent industry figures said they deserved the same measures as those recently introduced to publicise legitimate music and film sites.

"Google continues to discriminate against the adult industry," actress Angela White said.

The search giant told the BBC it did not want to comment on the concerns.

It recently struck a deal with the music industry in the UK to show links to legal ways to buy music more prominently than before.

Record labels had long complained that a search for something such as "Ed Sheeran album" would offer up piracy links ahead of legitimate sites.

'Taboo'

A number of influential figures in the porn industry have told the BBC they want the same kind of deal. At present, the online adult industry is not allowed to buy advertising space on Google's network.

"Google is perpetuating the misconception that the adult industry is not a legitimate industry," said Ms White.

"The adult industry is run like any other professional industry; we pay taxes, create jobs and contribute to the economy.

"How many times a day is the word 'porn' typed into the Google search interface? Mainstream corporations like Google continue to discriminate against the adult industry despite the world being genuinely interested in seeking out pornography."

Studio owner Tasha Reign, also an actress, said Google was "still treating the adult industry as taboo".

"Our whole industry has been turned upside down due to the stealing of adult content.

"By working with adult companies, Google could ensure the content that is seen contains age restrictions, unlike pirated content."

Google told the BBC it would not comment on any aspect of this issue.

Changes to "promote" pornography, in any form, could be of concern to politicians pushing for tighter rules on online content.

Worries over children accessing pornography have led to calls in the UK for age restriction barriers on all adult sites - but critics say such a policy is difficult to enforce as most sites are based overseas.

Additionally, major internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK must give the option for all adult content to be filtered at network level - although a study by watchdog Ofcom suggested that fewer than one in seven households chose to do so.

Down the tube

The studios complain that the popularity of "tube" sites - websites that offer free videos in a YouTube-like fashion - has had a significant effect on their revenue.

Like YouTube, most high-profile porn tube sites provide a way for content owners to request the removal of illegal content.

But smaller studios argue it is difficult to keep across what is being posted.

"You can't have your eyes on every single tube site," said Tasha Reign.

However, other industry figures conceded that making people pay for porn was a challenge.

"Studios do have to convince consumers why they should pay and make that transaction easy," said Nate Glass, who runs Takedown Piracy, a company that helps firms issue copyright notices to websites.

"But it doesn't help when consumers can't find those pages because they're on Page 10 of Google after the 100 or so most egregious pirate sites in the world."

The president of Girlfriends Films, who is known simply as Moose, said the concerns of the adult industry were not being taken seriously because of the nature of the content.

"Society doesn't view sex workers as people, but rather commodities," he said.

"It's a mentality that has to change, not just because of piracy, but for the good of society as a whole.

"Pirating adult content hurts real people, from the women and men in front of the camera, to the editors, office workers, and adult shop employees."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Elite faces competition after launch

7 November 2014 Last updated at 16:37

Space trading game Elite: Dangerous is to be launched on 16 December.

The latest sequel to the influential game will go on general release after months of testing by those who backed it on Kickstarter.

After launch, the game will face stiff competition from other space-based games currently in development.

Many of those offer players very similar experiences to the fighting, trading and exploring in deep space seen in Elite.

Plans to make the fourth instalment in the Elite series of games emerged in November 2012 when the project appeared on Kickstarter seeking to raise £1.25m to develop the game.

Elite: Dangerous is being made by Cambridgeshire-based Frontier Developments, the game studio headed by David Braben who co-developed the original Elite game. He said he used Kickstarter because it would have been hard to get a publisher to back the idea.

The December release date is later than originally planned and the game will initially only be playable on PCs. A Mac version is due to follow three months after the original release. Frontier is planning an event on 22 November at which some players will get a look at what the finished game will look like.

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Elite is the most successful British Kickstarter-funded project ever

On porting the game to consoles, Mr Braben told the BBC: "It is important we make a great game first, but then we will look at other platforms."

After the end of its Kickstarter campaign, Frontier continued to raise funds via its website and from gamers who have paid to take part in the testing phases of the game.

This week Frontier announced that this fund-raising activity had helped it raise £7.5m and more than 140,000 people had taken part in its alpha and beta testing programme.

"Elite has a fabulous heritage," said James Binns, managing director at gaming news site PCGamesN. "The loyalty that people have to it comes from playing it in the 80s."

However, he said, it faced strong competition from another title, Star Citizen, that was also calling on a strong community to back it.

Currently, Star Citizen has raised more than $60m (£38m) from its backers and had a "super engaged" community who were fans of its creator Chris Roberts' earlier Wing Commander games.

Star Citizen was trying to be a bit different, said Mr Binns, as it was planning to let spaceship pilots get out of their craft and fight gun battles in space stations, on planets and inside ships themselves. Star Citizen is scheduled to be released in 2016 though some parts of it are available to backers already.

Also a rival, said Mr Binns, a game called No Man's Sky made by Guildford-based Hello Games.

"If you are looking for a game that was inspired by the original Elite then No Man's Sky is that game," said Mr Binns. It too will let players use a spaceship to explore a Universe that has been created using a technique called "procedural generation".

Trailers for the game generated huge interest at the E3 convention and it is expected to be released in 2015. At first it will only be available on Sony's PlayStation 4 but a version for PCs is expected to follow.

Each of the games was appealing to a slightly different audience, said Mr Binns, but there was no doubt that these pools of players did overlap.

However, he said, Elite, Star Citizen and No Man's Sky could all face competition from a very well-established title.

"Right now," he said, "the most exciting space game that has shipped is Eve Online."

Mr Braben welcomed the presence of rivals, saying: "Competition is always a good thing for the players, as it gives choice, but also it keeps the competitors on their proverbial toes."

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Samaritans pulls 'suicide watch' app

7 November 2014 Last updated at 19:22 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

An app made by the Samaritans that was supposed to detect when people on Twitter appeared to be suicidal has been pulled due to "serious" concerns.

The charity's app was meant to use an algorithm to identify key words and phrases which indicated distress.

But in practice, some said the app made those with mental health issues feel more vulnerable.

The Samaritans apologised to "anyone who has inadvertently been caused any distress".

"We have made the decision to suspend the application at this time for further consideration," said the charity's policy director, Joe Ferns, in a statement.

"Our primary concern is for anyone who may be struggling to cope, including those with mental health conditions.

"We are very aware that the range of information and opinion, which is circulating about Samaritans Radar, has created concern and worry for some people and would like to apologise to anyone who has inadvertently been caused any distress.

"This was not our intention."

'Stalkers and bullies'

Launched last month, the Samaritans Radar app analysed Twitter accounts for phrases like "tired of being alone", "hate myself", "depressed", "help me" and "need someone to talk to".

Users who have signed up for the scheme will receive an email alert if someone they followed tweeted such statements.

While Samaritans Radar only monitored tweets that were publicly available, some found the level of analysis unsettling.

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Rory Cellan-Jones shows how the new Samaritan Radar app works

A petition calling for Radar's closure read: "While this could be used legitimately by a friend to offer help, it also gives stalkers and bullies and opportunity to increase their levels of abuse at a time when their targets are especially down.

"Just as bad, not everyone apparently wanting to help may be able to do so effectively or has the person's best interests at heart."

In other cases, the Radar app was mocked due to false positives.

'History of innovating'

Moreover, data protection experts had raised concerns over the monitoring process.

Jon Baines, chairman of the National Association of Data Protection and Freedom of Information Officers, said he believed the app "had been released without adequate assessment of its impact on people's privacy".

Despite the suspension of the app, the Samaritans' Mr Ferns defended the charity's track record experimenting with new technology.

"Samaritans has a history of innovating to meet the challenges of providing a safe, relevant and effective service to all those we exist to support and we will continue to do this and learn from the work we do.

"We will use the time we have now to engage in further dialogue with a range of partners, including in the mental health sector and beyond in order to evaluate the feedback and get further input.

"We will also be testing a number of potential changes and adaptations to the app to make it as safe and effective as possible for both subscribers and their followers."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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