McCann 'Twitter troll' found dead

6 October 2014 Last updated at 13:57

A 63-year-old woman who was accused of targeting internet abuse at the family of Madeleine McCann has been found dead in a hotel.

Brenda Leyland, from Burton Overy, Leicestershire, was accused of being one of the so-called "trolls" directing abusive messages at the McCanns.

Her body was found days after she was confronted outside her home by a Sky News reporter.

Madeleine McCann disappeared while on holiday in Portugal in 2007.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Psychologist Dr Arthur Cassidy: McCann Twitter troll had "unusual background"

Mrs Leyland was confronted by the reporter who put to her she had posted messages attacking the family on Twitter via the handle @sweepyface.

She replied: "I'm entitled to do that."

A spokesman for Leicestershire Police said: "Police were called at 13:42 on Saturday 4 October to reports of a body of a woman in a hotel room in Smith Way, Grove Park [in Leicester].

"Officers have attended the scene and a file is being prepared for the coroner. The death is not being treated as suspicious."

Sky issued a statement saying: "We were saddened to hear of the death of Brenda Leyland. It would be inappropriate to speculate or comment further at this time."

A statement released by the Marriott Hotel in Leicester read: "We are very sad to confirm the death of a guest at the Leicester Marriott Hotel and our thoughts go out to the family and friends of the deceased."

On Friday, Madeleine's father, Gerry McCann, told the BBC: "Clearly something needs to be done about the abuse on the internet.

"I think we probably need more people charged."

He described how he and his wife Kate, who live in Rothley, Leicestershire with their nine-year-old twins, did not read posts about them on the internet because it was too "upsetting".

His interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme followed the news police were reviewing a dossier of abusive messages about the family on social media, although the Met Police said nobody had been interviewed in connection with the investigation.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

The BBC's Andy Moore reports following the death of Brenda Leyland

In a list of thousands of tweets, apparently sent by Mrs Leyland, none of the messages are directed personally at the McCanns, who have "no significant presence" on social media.

However, many are labelled with the hashtag #mccanns which allows them to be easily found and criticised the couple following the disappearance of their daughter.

One read: "#mccann To Kate and Gerry, you will be hated by millions for the rest of your miserable, evil, conniving lives, have a nice day!"

The account has since been deleted.

Dr Arthur Cassidy, a psychologist who specialises in social media, said Mrs Leyland appeared to have a middle class upbringing which was unusual in trolling.

He said: "In this particular case, her whole repertoire of trolling is slightly different from those of well-seasoned trolls because of her uniqueness and the way she has done this.

"It would signify to me that she has been quite a novice at this."

Dr Cassidy said typically, trolls sought and enjoyed a response from their victims but that did not appear to have been the case here.

Mrs Leyland's son tweeted a tribute to his mum, writing simply: "I love you mum and I will miss you forever."

Supporters of the 63-year-old have established a Facebook page, with several people posting tributes and condolences to her family.

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cable broadband speeds 'beat fibre'

3 October 2014 Last updated at 13:46 By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

Internet connections in cable broadband homes are faster on average than those using fibre, Ofcom research suggests.

Average cable speeds were measured at 43.3 megabits per second (Mbps), compared with 42 Mbps for fibre.

This was partly because many cable customers had upgraded to a faster service, the regulator said.

The most common type of broadband ran at 7.4 Mbps, however, and Ofcom found a big difference remained in the average speeds in cities and rural areas.

But it said the difference was narrowing - in rural areas, average speeds were now about 13.6 Mbps, compared with 22.9 Mbps in suburban areas and 33.4 Mbps in cities.

In Ofcom's nomenclature "cable" means ISP Virgin Media and "fibre" refers to the other big domestic ISPs it samples when drawing up statistics.

Technical restrictions

The report found average browsing speeds were 18.7 Mbps in the first half of this year across all UK home broadband services.

The 8% increase on the average speed on cable broadband connections, to 43.3 Mbps, meant these overtook the average speed seen on fibre connections for the first time.

Ofcom logged fibre services as running at 42 Mbps on average.

It said as well as customers changing internet packages, the fall in average fibre speeds was caused by more people choosing the lower tier of fibre services, which operate at "up to" 38 Mbps, rather than faster speeds running at "up to" 74 Mbps.

Continue reading the main story

Full fibre to the home can and should beat the cable services"

End Quote Andrew Ferguson Think Broadband website

Andrew Ferguson from the Think Broadband website said the way a lot of fibre was implemented in the UK suggested cable would offer higher speeds for some time.

Many services only ran fibre to a street cabinet (known as FTTC) rather than direct to a home (FTTH), he said.

"The technical maximum is around 120 Mbps for FTTC and that's if you are the house next to the cabinet," he said.

In the UK, the maximum FTTC speed sold as a service from provider Openreach is around 80 Mbps.

Virgin Media said that it too used fibre to cabinets near customers' homes. It added that its network differed from other providers because it used coaxial cable rather than copper to provide the link between those cabinets and a home.

On such cable networks speeds can exceed 200 Mbps, said Mr Ferguson. However, the architecture of these networks meant speeds fell significantly at peak times.

"Full fibre to the home can and should beat the cable services, and we see those who order 1 gigabit per second from firms like Hyperoptic (urban) and Gigaclear (rural) testing at well over 200 Mbps," he added.

FTTH connections did not feature in Ofcom figures, he said, because the numbers of homes using them was so low.

Rural speeds

The report noted a growing shift towards superfast connections, which run at 30 Mbps and above, with 28% of UK households now signed up to use them. Across all superfast connections, the average speed was 47 Mbps.

The demand for higher speeds had a positive knock-on effect on slower copper-based ADSL connections, it said.

Improvements telecom operators had made to their networks to accommodate the higher cable and fibre speeds had increased ADSL speeds by 10%, the report said.

Mr Ferguson said projects to boost broadband in rural areas could have a dramatic impact on average browsing speeds.

North Yorkshire has seen speeds rise to in excess of 12.5 Mbps, from about 7 Mbps, in less than a year.

By contrast speeds in Conwy in northern Wales, which has yet to benefit from the Superfast Cymru project, are currently about 6 Mbps.

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shows extended on iPlayer to 30 days

6 October 2014 Last updated at 03:53

Shows will now be available to watch on the BBC iPlayer for 30 days rather than seven, after the service was extended by the corporation.

The move was announced in April but has now been put into effect.

It has been introduced in time for the autumn schedule, which is traditionally one of the most popular times of the year for TV viewing.

Shows such as Peaky Blinders and The Fall are expected to be a major attraction for iPlayer users.

Director general Tony Hall said: "BBC iPlayer pioneered online viewing. It is recognised as not just the first but the best service of its type in the world."

The most popular show on BBC iPlayer so far this year was the first episode of season three of Sherlock, which attracted 3,643,900 requests..

BBC iPlayer recorded a record 3 billion requests in 2013, up 33% on 2012, with Top Gear proving to be the most popular show.

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Yahoo 'set to invest in Snapchat'

6 October 2014 Last updated at 06:46

Yahoo is close to investing millions of dollars in mobile messaging service Snapchat, which may value the start-up at about $10bn (£6.2bn), reports say.

Snapchat allows users to send images and videos that "disappear" seconds after being viewed.

The company is said to have rejected a $3bn takeover offer from Facebook and other tech behemoths, including China's Alibaba and Tencent groups in recent years.

Yahoo and Snapchat refused to comment.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo may invest about $20m in Snapchat's next funding round after cashing in from its stake in e-commerce giant Alibaba.

In 2005, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang bought a 40% stake in Alibaba for about $1bn. It sold part of that stake during last month's initial public offering, earning more than $9bn before taxes.

Online shopping

Yahoo has been on an acquisition spree under chief executive Marissa Mayer, who has been looking to move it away from its reliance on search and make it more of a content provider.

Since joining in 2012, Ms Mayer has overseen more than two dozen deals aimed at turning the company around.

However, she has recently come under pressure from activist investor Starboard Value. The firm has been calling on Yahoo to halt its spending and consider combining with online rival AOL.

Last week, it bought mobile-chat application MessageMe, which allows users to ping one or many friends on their smartphone using emoticons and stickers.

Ms Mayer also acquired blogging service Tumblr for about $1bn last year.

MessageMe has said it will shut down in November, so that its eight-person team can work on mobile products for Yahoo.

Snapchat was created by a group of students at Stanford University in 2011 and quickly became popular among teens.

Social network Facebook is now testing a similar feature that allows users to schedule the automatic deletion of their posts ranging from one hour to seven days.

Snapchat, which has little to no revenue, reportedly rejected Facebook's $3bn offer last year for being too low.

However, a tech boom in Silicon Valley has seen several privately owned start-ups receive eleven-digit valuations, including house-sharing company Airbnb and private car-booking application Uber.

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Microsoft profits from Android

6 October 2014 Last updated at 11:31

Samsung paid Microsoft about $1bn (£626m) last year to use its technology in gadgets running Google's Android.

The figure is revealed in court documents Microsoft has filed to help legal action taken against Samsung.

The case revolves around the licensing agreement that generated the $1bn payment.

Samsung made one payment late and has now stopped paying altogether, claiming Microsoft's 2013 acquisition of Nokia had invalidated the agreement.

Microsoft has rebuffed this claim, saying the licensing agreement contains "explicit provisions" that allow it to buy other companies and still get cash from Samsung.

High stakes

Signed in 2011, the agreement was set to last seven years. The court papers reveal that in the second year of the agreement, which ran from July 2012 to June 2013, Samsung paid Microsoft more than $1bn. The amount Samsung pays grows depending on how many Android phones the South Korean electronics giant sells and what it charged for them.

Legal action over the deal was begun in August 2014 after Samsung was late to make a payment. At the time, Microsoft said it had launched the court action to recover about $7m it had lost in interest payments as a result of the cash arriving late.

Samsung has now refused to pay any more money for the licensing agreement. It has said it might take retaliatory legal action against Microsoft as the deal was a cross-licensing agreement that let the Seattle software firm use technologies owned by Samsung.

Technology patent expert Florian Mueller said in a blogpost that the legal row could get nasty given how much cash was at stake or if Samsung asserted its rights to technologies used in Nokia phones.

"The extreme outcomes are unlikely," he wrote. "A renegotiated license agreement is my best guess."

About 25 companies are thought to also pay Microsoft for permission to use its patented technologies in their handsets and other gadgets. The list includes HTC, LG, Acer and Nikon.

Microsoft began a licensing programme in 2010 to collect payments from tech firms it said were using its innovations.

Google's Android is now the world's most popular mobile operating system and the size of the royalty payments it has received from one signatory suggest Microsoft is making more money from Android than its own Windows phones.

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Facebook sues fake 'like' scammers

6 October 2014 Last updated at 11:55

Facebook has vowed to "aggressively get rid of fake likes" on its network.

The site said it had won more than $2bn (£1.3bn) in legal judgements against scam artists who sold fake likes to businesses.

Many businesses buy likes to make their products or brands appear more popular.

But Facebook said bumping up likes this way did "more harm than good", and could mean companies "could end up doing less business" on the social network.

In a post on its security blog, Facebook said: "We have a strong incentive to aggressively get rid of fake likes because businesses and people who use our platform want real connections and results, not fakes."

It explained: "Fake-like-pedlars tempt Page admins with offers to "buy 10,000 likes!" or other similar schemes.

"To deliver those likes, the scammers often try to create fake accounts, or in some cases, even hack into real accounts in order to use them for sending spam and acquiring more likes.

"Since these fraudulent operations are financially motivated businesses, we focus our energy on making this abuse less profitable for the spammers."

It said as well as the legal action, these efforts included investing in sophisticated anti-spam algorithms.

An investigation by BBC News in 2012 revealed the extent of the fake like problem.

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones set up a fake company - VirtualBagel - to see what happened when he paid for advertising through the network.

He discovered that many of the likes VirtualBagel received were from suspicious accounts - none of which would have ever been actual customers had his business been real.

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Facebook app payments 'revealed'

Soon it may not just be smiley faces, big cats and a thumbs-up that you can send your friends on Facebook messenger.

Screenshots posted by a computer science student in the US appear to show cash transfers between users could be coming to Facebook.

Earlier this year the social network's founder Mark Zuckerberg said that "over time" there would be some "overlap" between messenger and payments.

But Facebook declined to comment.

Images posted by Andrew Aude appear to show the option for users to add multiple debit cards

Andrew Aude, 21, posted screenshots of the payment function on Twitter.

He reportedly uncovered the facility using software which allows developers to explore and modify apps.

He added debit card details which apparently unlocked a way of sending money, just as you would a photo or emoji.

Payments would offer people a reason to use Facebook messenger app, which operates separately from the social network's main iOS and Android apps.

Speaking to investors in July, Zuckerberg warned that the company had "a lot of work to do" before offering a payments service.

"We're going to take time to do this in the way that we think that's going to be right over multiple years."

Earlier this year, Facebook hired former PayPal president David Marcus.

Several person-to-person payment apps already exist including Ribbon, Square Cash and Venmo.

It is unclear whether Facebook would charge users for making a payment or offer the service for free.

So far these services have struggled to attract users in large numbers, particularly outside the US.

Facebook has 1.3 billion active monthly users, giving it the potential to become widely used as a payment service.

The social network has faced criticism for forcing users to use a separate app to send messages rather than the main Facebook app.

Adding mobile payments may help Facebook encourage people to use the messenger app more widely.

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bitcoin price falls to 11-month low

6 October 2014 Last updated at 14:40

The value of one bitcoin has fallen to its lowest level for almost a year.

On Sunday afternoon the Bitcoin hit a low of $290 ($181), and the virtual currency lost about 18% of its value across the whole weekend.

The crypto-currency has seen its value steadily fall since December 2013, when each bitcoin was briefly worth more than $1,100.

Economic experts put the steady fall in value down to the internal mechanics of the system used to generate bitcoins.

Money makers

Since the fall at the weekend, values have recovered. Now, according to Coindesk, individual bitcoins are worth about $330 (£263) each.

An increasing number of shops and payment-processing firms have signed up to let people use the virtual currency to pay for goods and services.

Paypal's announcement in late September that it was putting in place systems to let its merchants accept bitcoins caused a brief bump in the value of the crypto-cash, but this has now been eroded.

Some speculated that the fall was due in part to the greater number of businesses accepting bitcoins, which had led to more of the coins being in circulation, depressing prices.

However, said economic historian Garrick Hileman from the London School of Economics, the numbers of bitcoins being put back into circulation via this route was not significant enough to effect prices so markedly and for so long.

The most recent swings in value were down to speculative trading, he said, but this did not explain the long term decline.

One significant factor, he said, was the steady supply of new bitcoins introduced in to the market every day by miners. These are people who use powerful computers to carry out the complicated mathematics involved in validating transactions made in bitcoins. In return for carrying out this work, miners are regularly rewarded with newly minted bitcoins.

"Approximately every 10 minutes 25 new bitcoins are mined into existence, which works out to approximately 3,600 new bitcoins created every day," he said. "At current prices that's $1.2m in new supply coming into existence every day."

Miners converted some of their coins to pay for the power needed to keep machines running and to ensure they used the fastest computers available, he said.

"How much of this $1.2m miners have to sell to pay for these things is a closely guarded trade secret, but unless the market can absorb the new bitcoins which miners sell, the price will fall," he said.

In addition, said Dr Hileman, a whole host of other factors including regulatory concerns, competition from alternative payment systems and the strength of the dollar were all impinging on the Bitcoin world.

Not all Bitcoin enthusiasts were worried by the ongoing slide. Roger Ver, who has invested in several Bitcoin start-ups, pointed out in a tweet that those holding bitcoins had enjoyed a good year.

"For anyone complaining about the current price of Bitcoin, remember it has more than doubled over the last 12 months." he wrote. His message was accompanied by a graph of values from exchange Bitstamp, which showed this time last year the Bitcoin was worth about $120.

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

HP to split into two companies

6 October 2014 Last updated at 15:41

Technology giant Hewlett-Packard, known as HP, is to split itself into two separate companies.

The US firm will separate its better-performing computer and printer business from its corporate hardware and services operations.

Shareholders will be given a stake in both businesses.

The split is part of a radical restructuring plan, which has already resulted in tens of thousands of job cuts in recent years.

Investors cheered the news, sending HP's shares up nearly 5% in early trading on Wall Street.

Rapid change

The firm is now in the fourth year of its five-year turnaround plan, aimed at helping the firm adapt to the new era of mobile and online computing.

Continue reading the main story

Current chief executive Meg Whitman, who has the job of reviving the fortunes of the 75-year-old firm, will head the new spin-off, Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

This will house the corporate hardware and services operations.

She will also be chairman of HP's printing and PC business, HP Inc, which last quarter accounted for about half its revenue and profit.

Ms Whitman said the split would give both firms the "flexibility they need to adapt quickly to market and customer dynamics".

"We can [now] more aggressively go after the opportunities created by a rapidly changing market," she added.

HP said it expected the division to be complete by the end of the 2015 financial year.

Split opinion

Analysts said it was still unclear how the split would help HP to compete against its rivals, and whether the two divisions would ultimately end up competing with one another.

"Both operations have seen declining revenue, and many are likely to question whether independence can change their fortunes," said Arnaud Gagneux at analyst firm CCS Insight.

"The cost of the separate marketing, finance and purchasing departments for the two entities will increase HP's spending, and the loss of some economies of scale may affect HP when purchasing components."

However, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White said that separating into two companies would give HP the option to sell off one or even both businesses if an attractive offer was made.

Business pressures

The division of HP's businesses comes at a time when other large tech firms are being urged to break up.

Last week, online auction site eBay announced it was splitting off its payments system PayPal into a separate company.

HP has been under pressure from newer rivals such as Chinese firm Lenovo, which overtook HP as the world's largest PC maker in 2012. Third-ranked US rival Dell was taken private last year.

Founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939, HP helped usher in the PC revolution and now has more than 300,000 employees globally.

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Attack code for USB flaw released

6 October 2014 Last updated at 16:29

Computer code that can turn any almost any device that connects via USB into a cyber-attack platform has been shared online.

Computer security researchers wrote the code following the discovery of the USB flaw earlier this year.

The pair made the code public in an attempt to force electronics firms to improve defences against attack by USB.

One of the experts who found the flaw said the release was a "stark reminder" of its seriousness.

Attack tools

Details of the BadUSB flaw were released at the Black Hat computer security conference in August by Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell.

Their work revealed how to exploit flaws in the software that helps devices connect to computers via USB. The biggest problem they discovered lurks in the onboard software, known as firmware, found on these devices.

Among other things the firmware tells a computer what kind of a device is being plugged into a USB socket but the two cybersecurity researchers found a way to subvert this and install attack code. At Black Hat, the BBC saw demonstrations using a smartphone and a USB stick that could steal data when plugged into target machines.

Mr Nohl said he and his colleague did not release code in order to give firms making USB-controlling firmware time to work out how to combat the problem.

Now researchers Adam Caudill and Brandon Wilson have done their own work on the USB flaw and produced code that can be used to exploit it. The pair unveiled their work at the DerbyCon hacker conference last week and have made their attack software freely available via code-sharing site Github.

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Karsten Nohl shows Dave Lee a threat on a USB-connected smartphone

"We're releasing everything we've done here, nothing is being held back," said Mr Wilson in a presentation at DerbyCon.

"We believe that this information should not be limited to a select few as others have treated it," he added. "It needs to be available to the public."

Mr Wilson said cybercrime groups definitely had the resources to replicate the work of Mr Nohl and Mr Lell to produce their own attack code so releasing a version to the security community was a way to redress that imbalance.

Responding to the release of the attack tools Mr Nohl told the BBC that such "full disclosure" can motivate companies to act and make products more secure.

"In the case of BadUSB, however, the problem is structural," he said. "The standard itself is what enables the attack and no single vendor is in a position to change that."

"It is unclear who would feel pressured to improve their products by the recent release," he added. "The release is a stark reminder to defenders, though, that BadUSB is - and always has been - in reach of attackers."

09.10 | 0 komentar | Read More