Twitter scraps blocking changes

13 December 2013 Last updated at 02:34 ET

Twitter has reversed changes it made to how people block other users, less than a day after they were introduced.

The changes allowed blocked users to continue to see tweets and interact with accounts that had blocked them, leading to an outcry.

Twitter said it was reverting to old rules, under which users are not able to follow an account once blocked.

Blocking is used by people to stop trolls and rude online commentators from interacting with them.

"We have decided to revert the change after receiving feedback from many users - we never want to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe," Michael Sippey, Twitter's vice-president of product, said in a blogpost.

"Any blocks you had previously instituted are still in effect."

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Some users worry just as much about post-blocking retaliation as they do about pre-blocking abuse"

End Quote Michael Sippey Twitter

'Post-blocking retaliation'

There have been calls for Twitter to do more to counter cyberbullying following a number of high-profile cases of trolling, where users of the social networking site were bombarded with threats and abuse.

The firm recently introduced a "report Tweet" button to try to combat the problem.

Mr Sippey said that Twitter's initial decision to change the way blocking works was a further attempt to prevent abuse, by ensuring that users did not know they had been blocked by someone.

He said blocked users - and sometimes even their friends - often retaliated against the people who had blocked them, resulting in increased bullying.

"Some users worry just as much about post-blocking retaliation as they do about pre-blocking abuse," he explained.

He added that Twitter "will continue to explore features designed to protect users from abuse and prevent retaliation".

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Copycat ransomware racks up victims

13 December 2013 Last updated at 08:02 ET

Malicious programs that demand a ransom to restore files that they have encrypted are starting to proliferate.

Security company IntelCrawler has discovered malware called Locker that demands $150 (£92) to restore files.

The cyber-thieves behind Locker were trying to emulate the success of CryptoLocker that has racked up thousands of victims this year.

However, IntelCrawler said, flaws in the malicious program suggest it might be easier to defeat than CryptoLocker.

IntelCrawler said it first saw "large-scale distribution" of several different versions of Locker early this month. So far, the malware has managed to snare people across the US, Europe and Russia. It is spread via infected files placed on compromised websites and through booby-trapped files disguised as MP3s.

Unscramble

Analysis by Andrey Komarov, of IntelCrawler, shows that when Locker infects a machine, it deletes files leaving only encrypted copies behind and also drops a small file containing a unique ID number and contact details for Locker's creators.

The file also warns that no key will be given to any victim who harasses or threatens the malware's creators.

Those who want to get their data back are encouraged to use the contact details and, once the ransom is paid, each victim gets a key to unscramble files.

However, help could be at hand for anyone hit by Locker, said Mr Komarov, as IntelCrawler had managed to penetrate the network the cyber-thieves were using to monitor victims. This helped the company extract the universal keys used to scramble target files.

"Our researchers are working on the universal decryption software in order to help the victims," said Mr Komarov.

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'Greenest' supercomputer unveiled

13 December 2013 Last updated at 08:53 ET

A supercomputer that is the "greenest of its kind" has been built at Cambridge University.

Wilkes - named after computing pioneer Maurice Wilkes - will be used for development of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

When complete the SKA will be the biggest radio telescope ever made.

The computer's power is the equivalent of 4,000 typical desktop computers all working together, the university said.

While it is some way off being the most powerful in the world - it ranks at 166th - Wilkes was built to be efficient rather than powerful.

"Energy-efficiency is the biggest single challenge in supercomputing today and our new system makes an important step forward in this regard," said Dr Paul Calleja, director of the Cambridge High Performance Computing Service.

It has an energy efficiency of 3,361 Mega-flops per watt. In simple terms, "flops" (floating point operations per second) is a measure of how much computing a machine can handle at once.

Wilkes comes in 2nd place on the Green 500, a ranking of the most energy-efficient computers. However the leading machine, built by a team in Tokyo, requires an oil-cooling system, whereas Wilkes is cooled using air, making it the most efficient of its kind.

Maurice Wilkes was the man behind EDSAC, the first programmable computer to come into general use - it was designed in 1947 and ran its first program on 6 May 1949.

A team at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park are currently in the process of building an authentic replica of EDSAC.

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Google buys military robot-maker

15 December 2013 Last updated at 23:22 ET

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Robotics expert Noel Sharkey said Google's acquisition of Boston Dynamics, was "a big surprise"

Google has acquired the engineering company that developed Cheetah, the world's fastest-running robot and other animalistic mobile research machines.

Boston Dynamics, which contracts for the US military, is the eighth robotics company snapped up by Google this year.

Both the price and size of the project, which is led by former Android boss Andy Rubin, are being kept under wraps.

However, analysts say the purchases signal a rising interest in robotics use by consumer internet companies.

Online shopping portal Amazon, for example, recently announced plans to deploy a fleet of delivery drones.

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The firm's BigDog robot can throw breeze blocks

In a statement posted on the Google Plus service, Chief Executive Larry Page said:

"I am excited about Andy Rubin's next project. His last big bet, Android, started off as a crazy idea that ended up putting a supercomputer in hundreds of millions of pockets. It is still very early days for this, but I can't wait to see the progress."

Robot Machines

Boston Dynamics, which does not sell robots commercially, was founded in 1992 by a former professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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The Cheetah Robot developed by Boston Dynamics breaks the speed record

It consulted for Japanese electronics giant Sony on consumer applications such as Aibo, a robot dog.

But it mostly develops mobile and off-road robotics technology, funded by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa.

Google has said it would honour the existing military contracts with Darpa.

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Boston Dynamics road-tests its Atlas robot on rough terrain

Boston Dynamics' videos of its walking robots have garnered millions of views online.

One of them, called BigDog, is remarkably agile for a machine and is able to move over rough terrain such as snow and ice.

Another, of a four-legged robot named WildCat, shows the noisy machine galloping down a car park at high speed and pivoting quickly on the spot.

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Boston Dynamics' WildCat robot is put through its paces

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NSA considering Snowden amnesty

16 December 2013 Last updated at 05:23 ET

The US National Security Agency is considering offering an amnesty to fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden if he agrees to stop leaking secret documents, an NSA official says.

The man in charge of assessing the leaks' damage, Richard Ledgett, said he could be open to an amnesty deal.

Disclosures by the former intelligence worker have revealed the extent of the NSA's spying activity.

But NSA Director Gen Keith Alexander has dismissed the idea.

Mr Ledgett spoke to US television channel CBS about the possibility of an amnesty deal: "So my personal view is, yes it's worth having a conversation about.

"I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high, would be more than just an assertion on his part."

But Gen Alexander, who is retiring early next year, rejected the idea of any amnesty for Mr Snowden.

"This is analogous to a hostage taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10, and then say, 'if you give me full amnesty, I'll let the other 40 go'. What do you do?"

In an earlier interview with the Reuters news agency, Mr Ledgett said he was deeply worried about highly classified documents not yet public that are among the 1.7 million files Mr Snowden is believed to have accessed.

Mr Snowden's disclosures have been "cataclysmic" for the agency, Mr Ledgett told Reuters.

Earlier this month, a UK newspaper editor told UK MPs only 1% of files leaked by Mr Snowden had been published by the newspaper.

The state department says its position has not changed and that Mr Snowden must return to the US to face charges, says the BBC's Suzanne Kianpour.

The US has charged Mr Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence.

Each of the charges carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

At the weekend, the NSA allowed a CBS television crew into their headquarters for the first time in its history, in an effort to be more open about what the agency does with the data it collects.

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BT default 'porn filter' switched on

16 December 2013 Last updated at 06:33 ET

BT has announced the launch of a new internet filter designed to protect children online.

The controls will automatically be set to "on" for new users. Customers who do not want the service will have to actively choose not to turn it on.

The filter is designed to block sites deemed unsuitable for children.

The move comes after the government called for internet service providers to filter legal pornography and other adult subjects "by default".

The BT Parental Controls filter will cover any internet-enabled device connected to its home broadband service.

The implementation of the controls will be pre-selected for new users who are setting up their internet connection for the first time. They will have to confirm this option and then will be asked to set a filter level.

There will be three levels - strict, moderate and light - or customers can choose to turn the filter off.

Existing users of BT's broadband will be contacted during 2014 and asked to make a decision on whether or not they want to set up the new service.

Search blocked

Sites that show pornography, refer to illegal drugs or promote self-harm will all be blocked. Other categories of sites that the filter can be set to block include nudity, social networking and gaming.

Users can also personalise the filters to block access to sex-education sites and search engines.

BT currently has 6.8 million broadband customers.

"BT takes the issue of online child protection extremely seriously and we are very pleased to be able to launch the whole-home filter to help parents keep their families safe online," said BT's managing director of consumer commercial marketing and digital, Pete Oliver.

The National Crime Agency's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP) said it welcomed the move by BT.

The government has said by the end of 2014, 20 million homes - 95% of all homes in Britain with an existing internet connection - will be required to choose whether to switch on a whole-home "family- friendly" internet filter.

Sky and Talk Talk have already implemented their own version of a "family-friendly" filter. Virgin is expected to introduce something similar in the new year.

In November, Google and Microsoft announced that 100,000 search terms that related to illegal material would be blocked by their search engines.

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Warnings over text-sharing apps

16 December 2013 Last updated at 07:35 ET By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

Warnings are being issued about Android apps that exploit a phone's ability to send unlimited numbers of text messages.

The apps are proving popular because they claim to reward phone owners for every text message they relay.

But, say security firms, the apps can relay huge numbers of texts via a phone and lead to its number being blocked.

Mobile operators say the apps violate their terms and conditions and could lead to a service being suspended.

Daily rate

The apps aim to profit via the unlimited texting that many people get with their mobile contract.

Routing text messages through a phone can be a cheap way to ensure an SMS reaches its destination, said Cahal McDaid from mobile security firm Adaptive Mobile.

"There's a huge market in sending text messages as cheaply as possible around the world," he said.

The fees for transporting text messages vary from country to country which has led to a "grey market" for routing messages via the cheapest route.

Routing the message via a phone already in the country that someone wants to reach could cut costs even more, he added.

However, said Mr McDaid, the sheer number of texts that some of the apps sent through a participating phone could cause problems.

Adaptive had seen thousands of messages passing through phones that had downloaded one of the apps.

In addition, he said, operators were likely to take a dim view of customers who use their phone as a text message relay.

"You cannot resell your message plan," he said. "Operators have terms and conditions for a reason."

A spokesperson for Bazuc, one of the message-relaying Android apps, said it told participants to ensure that the daily limit of messages they send is not set too high.

"We are fully aware that mobile operators are not going to be a big fan of this app," said the spokesperson. "We're simply trying to help people out there make some extra money."

The spokesperson claimed that some users of its app had five phones dedicated to using the app so they can cash in. Bazuc said it paid participants $0.001 cents for every message they relayed.

All the UK's large mobile operators contacted by the BBC said any customer using text-message-relaying apps would be breaching the terms of their contract. This could lead to their number being blocked or their service being suspended.

Marc Rogers, principal security researcher at mobile security firm Lookout, said getting caught using such apps could make the whole experience very expensive.

"If your operator decides to bill you their 'out of bundle' or overage rate for violating their terms you could be billed hundreds of pounds for those messages," he said.

"Aside from the potential issues with your operator, you are allowing people to send messages from your mobile number, without having any control or visibility of what those messages are," he said. "But you may have to face the consequences."

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Legal row over Google privacy case

16 December 2013 Last updated at 08:50 ET

Britons accusing Google of violating their privacy by tracking them via Apple's Safari browser face the search giant in the High Court today.

In the hearing, Google is expected to ask for the case to be dismissed, as a similar case was recently in the US.

But lawyers for the Britons say UK laws have been broken so Google should be held to account in a UK court.

In the US, Google has already paid a record fine for tracking people via the Safari browser.

The legal spat arose over the way Google got round a feature in Apple's Safari browser that stopped advertising firms keeping an eye on where people went online.

Google used small text files called cookies to get around the "do not track" feature in order to keep monitoring people and piping tailored adverts to them.

In August 2012, Google paid $22.5m (£13.8m) to settle the case. At the time the payment was the largest fine ever imposed on a single company by the US Federal Trade Commission. Google has also paid a separate $17m fine levied by attorney generals in 38 US states for its actions.

The UK hearing revolves around a procedural question of whether UK campaigners can continue with their case against Google.

Lawyers from legal firm Olswang argue that Google breached UK privacy laws and has a case to answer here.

"British users have a right to privacy protected by English and European laws," said Dan Tench from Olswang.

Google is expected to argue that the case does not meet the strict standards required for it to be heard in the UK.

"A case almost identical to this one was dismissed in its entirety two months ago in the US," said Google in a statement. "We're asking the Court to re-examine whether this case meets the standards required in the UK for a case like this to go to trial."

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Vocational 'Tech levels' unveiled

16 December 2013 Last updated at 09:48 ET By Judith Burns Education reporter, BBC News

A range of A-level standard "Tech level" qualifications, ranging from motorcycle maintenance to craft baking, has been announced in England.

Leading employers are backing the vocational qualifications, designed to boost teenagers' work skills.

The overhaul follows concerns that some vocational exams were of poor quality.

The new qualifications, due to be taught from 2014, "will lead to better employment opportunities", said Skills Minister Matthew Hancock.

The government unveiled 142 Tech levels, each supported by leading businesses or trade associations, including Vauxhall, John Deere, Procter and Gamble and Kawasaki.

Recognised occupation

They are designed to lead to a recognised occupation, such as engineering, accounting, construction, agriculture or information technology.

In addition the government announced 87 Applied General Qualifications, which provide broader study of a vocational area and are each endorsed by at least three universities.

The new qualifications will be ready for first teaching in 2014, will first be awarded in 2016 and will count in school performance tables from 2017.

Schools can still teach other qualifications but most of these will no longer count in the tables.

The changes are a response to Prof Alison Wolf's 2011 review of vocational education which suggested the system was failing young people.

The review said schools were often tempted to teach qualifications that attracted the most points in performance tables but would not necessarily help students into work or higher education.

Mr Hancock said: "For the first time young people will know which qualifications are backed by top employers and lead to better employment opportunities.

"Tech levels and Applied General Qualifications will give students the skills so vital to getting on in life, preparing them for employment, training and higher education."

He said the new qualifications would help fill the skills gap holding back UK business and were part of a long-term plan for the economy.

An 'afterthought'

Prof Wolf said the new system would "serve the needs of motivated and ambitious young people, of employers, and of the country as a whole."

Labour's minister for young people Rushanara Ali said three years of "downgrading rigorous vocational courses" showed that vocational education was "an afterthought for this Tory-led Government".

"Almost a million young people unemployed. David Cameron has proved he has no plan for the forgotten 50%, those young people who do not plan to pursue A-levels and university.

Ms Ali said Labour would ensure there were "qualified teachers in all schools and colleges, maths and English for all to 18 and a new gold-standard Technical Baccalaureate that will be accredited by business. Colleges will have to earn accreditation to deliver the 'Tech Bacc', driving up standards in vocational education."

In a separate move, the government also announced new vocational courses in engineering and construction for 14- to 16-year-olds.

These are among 73 new courses for this age group, which will each count as a GCSE equivalent in league tables.

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This is a real partnership, working to produce vocational qualifications that really deliver for young people"

End Quote Prof Matthew Harrison Royal Academy of Engineering

The engineering courses were developed by the Royal Academy of Engineering and backed by businesses including JCB, Rolls Royce and Siemens.

The aim is to replace the Engineering Diploma which was controversially downgraded by the government as part of its initial response to the Wolf Review, despite having been developed by academics and industrialists.

Prof Matthew Harrison, director of engineering and education at the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: "This announcement really matters to the engineering profession.

"Four of the qualifications included on the list are the product of deep engagement between awarding bodies, engineering employers, universities and professional engineering institutions.

"This is real partnership working to produce vocational qualifications that really deliver for young people and for engineering in the UK."

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Tablet goes on sale for £30

16 December 2013 Last updated at 10:25 ET

A tablet costing £30 has gone on sale in the UK.

The UbiSlate 7Ci, made by UK-based company Datawind, is the commercial version of the Aakash 2 tablet, which was originally launched in India.

There, the tablet is mainly used by students and was designed to provide cheap internet access to help improve education.

Analysts say UK customers buying this tablet and comparing it with others on the market may be disappointed.

The 7in (18cm) Android tablet has wi-fi connectivity, 512MB of RAM, a microUSB connection and 4GB of storage.

When the Aakash was launched in India in 2011 it was dubbed the "world's cheapest touch-screen tablet" and was aimed at schools and colleges. The first version was not well received by critics, but an upgraded version, the Aakash 2, fared better.

Speaking at the Wired 2013 conference in October, Suneet Singh Tuli, who founded Datawind, said getting online was all about affordability.

"It's not just about creating low-cost devices, for us it's about delivering the internet," he said.

Cost offset

A partnership with the Indian government helped the Aakash 2 became one of the country's best-selling tablets.

"At the start of this year we became the largest supplier of tablet computers in India, ahead of both Apple and Samsung," said Mr Tuli.

Samsung has since taken the lead.

The company said it could afford to sell the product at such a low price as the cost of the hardware was offset with revenue from content and advertising.

"The reality is that with any consumer electronics device you get what you pay for," said Ben Wood, an analyst at research company CCS Insight.

"Any consumer buying this tablet with the expectation it will deliver a comparable experience to more expensive, yet affordable, Android tablets such as Amazon's Kindle Fire and Tesco's Hudl will be sorely disappointed."

The company, which was named as the UK's most innovative mobile company in a government competition in 2012, also has two other tablets with higher specifications advertised on its UK website.

Both Tesco and Aldi have recently joined the "low-cost" tablet market. Tesco's 7in Hudl device went on sale for £120 and Aldi sold out of the 7in £80 Medion Lifetab shortly after launching it. Argos also launched a £100 tablet known as the MyTablet.

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