NSA targeted Tor via Firefox flaw

7 October 2013 Last updated at 10:10 ET

The NSA attempted to monitor Tor users by using security holes in the Firefox web browser, according to reports.

The US agency broke into computers to try to look at Tor anonymous communications, documents leaked by Edward Snowden have suggested.

The National Security Agency (NSA) had difficulty in undermining the encrypted Tor service itself, they said.

A security expert said the NSA appeared not to have yet managed to crack Tor.

US signals intelligence agency the NSA, and its UK counterpart GCHQ, have been involved in long-term efforts to try to undermine the Tor online anonymity service, according to leaked documents published by the Guardian newspaper.

The NSA and GCHQ have been implicated in spying on mass communications in a number of documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Tor (The Onion Router) tries to hide user identities, and the websites that people are looking at, by routing encrypted internet traffic through a number of volunteer computers.

One of the ways the NSA tried to get around Tor encryption was to infect Tor users' computers instead, according to a Guardian report.

Attempts to crack Tor

The leaked document, called "Tor Stinks", said that the NSA had no success in revealing Tor communications between criminal suspects.

Nevertheless, the agency had managed to "de-anonymise a very small fraction of Tor users".

The document outlined different avenues the NSA had explored, including placing small pieces of data called cookies on users' machines.

The agency also suggested slowing down communications over Tor using its own network of computers running Tor.

The NSA has the ability to "stain" people's website traffic as it enters Tor, and to identify it as it leaves, according to leaked documents published by the Washington Post.

Firefox infection

The NSA allegedly infected computers in an attempt to look at web traffic at both ends of the encrypted Tor communication path, rather than decrypt the path itself.

The agency used links with US telecoms companies to sift vast amounts of internet data and identify traffic from computers connecting to Tor, the report said.

Once the users' machines were identified, the NSA allegedly used secret internet servers, codenamed FoxAcid, to infect the computers with malicious software.

The NSA used software called EgotisticalGiraffe to attack vulnerable older versions of the Firefox web browser, the report said.

Firefox is included in a bundle of software provided to get users up and running with Tor.

The Tor service is intended for legitimate use by people in repressive regimes, but law enforcement agencies have been concerned that Tor can hide criminal and terrorist activity.

The US government published a statement on Friday saying that its interest in Tor and other means of online communication "is based on the undeniable fact that these are the tools our adversaries use to communicate and co-ordinate attacks against the United States and our allies".

Security expert Steven Murdoch said it was "strangely comforting" that the NSA had not managed to crack Tor.

"Tor seems not to be the weakest link," said Mr Murdoch, a Cambridge University researcher who contributes to the Tor Project.

"It looks like the weakest link is software on people's computers, in this case, older versions of Firefox," he said.

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Adobe confirms data security breach

4 October 2013 Last updated at 05:38 ET

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compromised

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

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

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

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

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'Terminator' cube robots unveiled

4 October 2013 Last updated at 10:11 ET

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

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

They stick together using magnets.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Silk Road accused appears in court

4 October 2013 Last updated at 14:53 ET

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flee concern

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

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

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

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

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

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Solar car crash ends race hopes

6 October 2013 Last updated at 10:21 ET Continue reading the main story

The only British team to qualify for a solar car race in Australia has been forced to pull out after its vehicle crashed just days before the start.

The Cambridge University Eco Racing car, Resolution, was expected to take part in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, but crashed on Tuesday.

The team hoped to fix it before the start, but withdrew on Saturday.

In a statement, the team said: "We have not been able to reassure ourselves of the safety of our solar drivers."

Resolution was one of 28 vehicles entered in the Challenger category of the 1,860-mile (3,000km), seven-day race from Darwin to Adelaide which started earlier.

'Rolled and skidded'

Built by a 60-strong team of students at the university's engineering department, the car weighs 265lb (120kg) and is designed to run at an average speed of 50mph (80km/h).

During testing prior to the race, the team wrote on their blog: "The first three hours of testing went exactly as planned.

"Unfortunately, we also did one unplanned test, of the structural integrity of the chassis. We had an accident."

The vehicle rolled on its side, skidded along the road and slipped down an embankment.

The driver walked away unhurt as the roll cage and chassis stood up to the impact.

However, the team said: "[The] solar cells on the side of the door... do not take kindly to being sanded by 50m of rough tarmac.

"Large portions of the side panel cells are now scattered in a thin, very expensive layer over the surface of [the road]."

The team added the car was "only designed to withstand one such impact - and as such needs to be repaired to be fit for purpose".

Members were unable to make the repairs in time for the start of the race.

A message on their website said: "The team is very disappointed but we are confident that we have made the right decision."

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Probe into 'racist' Lord Sugar tweet

6 October 2013 Last updated at 10:45 ET

Lord Sugar has been investigated by police after he was accused of posting a racist message on Twitter.

The businessman and star of The Apprentice posted a photo of a child apparently of Chinese origin crying.

He wrote: "The kid in the middle is upset because he was told off for leaving the production line of the iPhone 5."

Merseyside Police said it had investigated a complaint but said "no criminal offences" had taken place.

Lord Sugar's spokesman said he would not be commenting on the complaint.

Liverpool shop owner Nichola Szeto had taken offence about the reference to the Asian factories where the mobile phones are produced and complained about the "racist tweet" to the Metropolitan Police.

She was then contacted by Merseyside Police and went to a Liverpool police station to make a statement about the tweet, which was posted on 30 September.

A police spokesman said: "Merseyside Police can confirm officers received a complaint in relation to the tweet sent on the evening of Sunday September 30.

"The communication has been examined by the force's specialist hate crime investigation team and at this time it has been recorded as a hate incident and no criminal offences have taken place.

"Officers from the specialist team will be contacting the person who made the initial complaint to discuss this."

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BBC 'to launch personalised iPlayer'

7 October 2013 Last updated at 07:04 ET

The BBC's director general Tony Hall is expected to announce the launch of the next generation BBC iPlayer in a keynote speech on Tuesday.

It is understood he will explain his vision for an enhanced iPlayer, allowing users to personalise their viewing and listening choices.

The iPlayer, launched in 2007, provides a catch-up service for BBC TV and radio programmes.

The speech is Lord Hall's first since his joining speech in April.

Entitled Where Next?, Lord Hall's speech will discuss the technological challenges facing the BBC, as more people turn to the internet via mobile phones and tablets to watch TV.

As part of this focus, BBC Radio 1 has announced it is going to get its own channel on the iPlayer.

The station said this will allow fans to watch exclusive performances and interviews not broadcast anywhere else.

It is hoped that the channel will help Radio 1 reach more young people.

Content will include music featured in Radio 1's Live Lounge and at the annual Big Weekend festival as well as interviews with celebrities and artists from around the world.

But as the iPlayer becomes more bespoke for each user, media commentators have already begun to question the validity of the fixed licence fee paid by the public.

Writing in the Guardian on Sunday, Steve Hewlett wrote: "One question that must surely arise in the unbundled 'My BBC' world is, once I've picked out the bits of the BBC I use and value, why should I pay for the rest?

"And because the technology of on-demand delivery that underpins the whole project allows subscription in a way that broadcast TV and radio don't - at least not easily - 'My BBC' will inevitably in time reignite the question of subscription funding, for some BBC services at least."

Lord Hall will also announce the launch of an app for mobile phones and tablets to allow listeners to hear their favourite radio programmes in one place.

The app will showcase new pieces of content each day. Users will be able to choose what they want to hear and when they want to hear it.

In time, users will be able to personalise their choices, with the app suggesting programmes they may like depending on their interests and the time they have available.

It will feature programmes from stations including BBC Radio 4, Radio 3 and the World Service.

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David Sillito reports: BBC arts funding to get 20% boost

Director of BBC Radio Helen Boaden said: "Listeners will get outstanding programmes from brilliant brains in a way which fits into their packed lives."

A launch is planned in 2014, with content available both in the UK and internationally.

In Tuesday's speech, Lord Hall will also flesh out the details of a 20% increase in funding for the BBC's arts coverage.

The director general - who used to run the Royal Opera House - is keen to return the arts to the corporation's "heart".

It will mean plays, art exhibitions and more live music from around the UK being broadcast on the BBC.

Among Lord Hall's proposals are a new "BBC Arts at" brand, while two new television series will be fronted by historian Simon Schama and broadcaster Andrew Marr respectively.

Lord Hall also wants to see the BBC collaborate more with arts institutions around the country.

The director general is expected to unveil new partnerships with London's British Museum, the Tate and the Manchester International Festival.

The plans mean that more opening nights, major exhibitions and arts events will be shown live on television.

The announcements are part of the director general's new strategy for the BBC and come as the corporation is in the process of cutting 2,000 jobs by 2017 after the freezing of the licence fee.

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Army robot refuses to be pushed over

7 October 2013 Last updated at 07:51 ET By Matthew Wall Technology reporter, BBC News

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Boston Dynamics road-tests its Atlas robot on rough terrain

Meet Atlas, a humanoid robot capable of crossing rough terrain and maintaining its balance on one leg even when hit from the side.

And WildCat, the four-legged robot that can gallop untethered at up to 16mph (26km/h).

These are the latest creations of Boston Dynamics, a US robotics company part-funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).

The robots are part of Darpa's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation programme.

Darpa says such robots "hold great promise for amplifying human effectiveness in defence operations".

Referring to Atlas's ability to remain balanced despite being hit by a lateral weight, Noel Sharkey, professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield, told the BBC: "This is an astonishing achievement... quite a remarkable feat."

This version of Atlas is one of seven humanoid robots Boston Dynamics is developing in response to the Darpa Robotics Challenge.

In December, competing robots will be set eight tasks to test their potential for use in emergency-response situations, including crossing uneven ground, using power tools and driving a rescue vehicle.

Darpa wants to improve the manoeuvrability and controllability of such robots while reducing manufacturing costs.

WildCat strike?

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Boston Dynamics puts its WildCat robot through its paces

WildCat can bound, gallop and turn, mimicking the movements of quadruped animals. It is powered by an internal combustion engine.

"It is a shame that such technology is not being developed with other research funding," said Prof Sharkey, who is also chair of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control.

"We do not know what military purpose it will serve but certainly it is a step towards a high-speed ground robot that could be weaponised to hunt and kill."

The video shows WildCat performing on a flat surface, but Prof Sharkey said: "It would be good to see how well it could perform in a muddy field."

Last year, Boston Dynamics' Cheetah robot reached a sprint speed of 28.3mph tethered to a treadmill.

Geoff Pegman, managing director of RURobots, told the BBC: "Robotics has been making important strides in recent years, and these are a couple of demonstrations of the technology moving forward.

"However, their application may be limited to areas such as defence and, maybe specialised construction or demolition tasks.

"In other applications there are more efficient ways of achieving the mobility more cost effectively."

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UK jumps up net-access scoreboard

7 October 2013 Last updated at 08:21 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

The UK has moved up the UN's net-connectivity table, leapfrogging Hong Kong and Japan to take eighth place.

South Korea topped the list for the third year in a row. Niger and the Central African Republic came in last.

Officials forecast that almost 40% of the world's population would be online by the end of the year.

But they warned that the relative high cost of net access in developing countries was restricting uptake and causing a "digital divide".

They said 90% of the globe's 1.1 billion households not yet connected to the net were in the developing world, and highlighted a group of 39 countries - most of which are in Africa - they said were not making enough progress to roll out information and communications technologies (ICT).

As a result, they warned that at current growth rates it was unlikely that the UN Broadband Commission's 2015 targets for global internet use would be achieved.

Too expensive

The ICT Development Index is based on 11 indicators measuring internet access, use and skills.

It is compiled on an annual basis by the International Telecommunication Union - a United Nations agency dedicated to expanding connectivity.

Its 2012 report noted that a high level of competition had helped the UK rise up its scoreboard, with the country enjoying some of the world's cheapest fixed and mobile broadband rates, based on a comparison of subscription costs versus income.

It noted that 80% of all UK households had had an internet connection at the end of last year - more than double the global rate.

Across the world it said 250 million people had joined the net in 2012 and it forecast a total of 2.7 billion people would be using it by the end of this year.

However, it added, that would still leave 4.4 billion people offline.

Part of the problem, the ITU said, was the issue of affordability.

Buying fixed-broadband cost on average 30% of gross national income per capita in developing countries, it said. In other words, nearly a third of the average wage.

In half of all African countries the level was even higher with fixed-broadband costing more than 40% of the average wage.

It acknowledged that mobile phone data was usually more affordable, but said there were exceptions - in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sao Tome and Principe buying 500MB of data for use on a handset cost more than 100% of the average monthly wage.

By contrast, Malaysia was singled out for praise for running a smartphone money-back initiative for the under-30s and investing heavily in getting schools online.

"Our most pressing challenge is to identify ways to enable those countries which are still struggling to connect their populations to deploy the networks and services which will lift them out of poverty," said Hamadoun Toure, the ITU's secretary general.

The UN's official target is that the cost of accessing the net falls below 5% of a country's average monthly wage.

Lobby group

To help achieve that goal a group of private and public sector organisations has launched a coalition to coincide with the ITU's report.

The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) is the brainchild of the World Wide Web Foundation, and aims to pressure countries to change the ways they allocate spectrum and promote infrastructure-sharing efforts in order to force prices down.

Google, Facebook, Intel, Yahoo, Microsoft, the US State Department and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women are among its sponsors.

"The reason for the alliance is simple - the majority of the world's people are still not online, usually because they can't afford to be," said Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web Foundation.

"In Mozambique, for example, a recent study showed that using just one gigabyte of data can cost well over two months' wages for the average citizen.

"The result of high prices is a widening digital divide that slows progress in vital areas such as health, education and science.

"The real bottleneck now is anti-competitive policies that keep prices unaffordable. The alliance is about removing that barrier and helping as many as possible get online at reasonable cost."

Economy	ICT Development Index 2012 rank (2011 rank)
Source: ITU
South Korea	1 (1)
Sweden	2 (2)
Iceland	3 (4)
Denmark	4 (3)
Finland	5 (5)
Norway	6 (6)
Netherlands	7 (7)
UK	8 (11)
Luxembourg	9 (9)
Hong Kong	10 (10)
Australia	11 (15)
Japan	12 (8)
Switzerland	13 (12)
Macao	14 (13)
Singapore	15 (14)
New Zealand	16 (18)
United States	17 (16)
France	18 (19)
Germany	19 (17)
Canada	20 (20
Guinea-Bissau	150 (152)
Ethiopia	151 (150)
Eritrea	153 (153)
Burkina Faso	154 (154)
Chad	155 (156)
Central African Republic	156 (155)
Niger	157 (157)

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LG announces curved screen phones

7 October 2013 Last updated at 10:51 ET

LG has announced it is to start mass-production of what it calls the "world's first flexible OLED [organic light-emitting diode] panel for smartphones".

The South Korean firm said it hoped to start selling the first handsets to feature the tech next year.

The news comes weeks after Samsung made a similar announcement.

Samsung said it intended to launch its first product - a special edition of the Galaxy Note 3 - later this month.

Both companies already use the technology to offer curved OLED television sets.

Although the displays used in the TVs are in theory "flexible", they are mounted in fixed shells so they cannot be bent or otherwise re-shaped by the owner.

A press release from LG's display division indicated its handset screen would curve from top-to-bottom rather than side-to-side, the design Samsung described in a recent patent.

It said the advantage of using the tech was that the panel was "bendable and unbreakable".

"The new display is vertically concave from top to bottom with a radius of 700mm [28in], opening up a world of design innovations in the smartphone market," LG added.

"What's more, it is also the world's lightest, weighing a mere 7.2g [0.25oz] even with a 6in screen, the largest among current smartphone OLED displays."

One industry watcher was not convinced the product, as described, would have much appeal.

"I think LG is doing this to show it is innovative, to do something different and to stand out from the rest of the bar-style screen devices that we have at the moment," said David McQueen, a mobile device expert at tech consultants Informa.

"But I don't think consumers are going to be that interested by a slightly curved design.

"However, we do think there will be interest if flexible screens are used to offer different form factors.

"For example a device that you snap round your wrist or a traditional shaped smartphone whose screen wraps around the sides onto a bit of the back so that the edges become touchscreen rather than hard buttons."

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