Feminist site knocked offline

9 March 2015 Last updated at 12:46

A community-style blog encouraging female contributors to write about their experiences was knocked offline during a day for the global celebration of women.

Femsplain was unavailable for several hours during International Women's Day on Sunday, 8 March, after a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

It is unclear who was behind the attack.

The site was launched in October 2014 and has been crowdfunding on the net.

It reached its $25,000 fundraising target last week.

"We're more than a website or events - we're a movement. We are providing a safe space to connect, learn and grow with other female-identified people," reads the introduction to the site.

"Our goal is to highlight all the amazing diversity of women on the internet who might not have another outlet to share their experiences."

Women have increasingly reported being threatened and harassed online, especially on social media platforms, in recent times.

In 2013, Caroline Criado-Perez received death threats after successfully campaigning for writer Jane Austen to appear on £20 notes.

Under attack

DDoS is a technique in which many computers are used to flood an online service with requests in an attempt to overload its systems.

When the site went down, founder Amber Gordon tweeted that Femsplain frequently experienced attempted attacks.

"We constantly have people attacking us and attempting to bring our website down. It's unfortunate but the reality of our mission," she wrote.

"Ultimately, whoever is behind the attack hasn't achieved anything or even articulated a criticism of feminism or Femsplain specifically," said Jess McCabe, former editor of feminist website the F Word.

"Far from silencing anyone, it will only help amplify Femsplain's voices."

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Millions at risk from 'Freak' bug

6 March 2015 Last updated at 13:05

Microsoft has issued a security warning about a bug that could let attackers spy on supposedly secure communications.

Called "Freak", the bug was found in software used to encrypt data passing between web servers and web users.

Initially the flaw was thought only to affect some users of Android and Blackberry phones and Apple's Safari web browser.

Microsoft's warning suggests millions more may be at risk of losing data.

The Freak flaw was discovered by encryption and security expert Karthikeyan Bhargavan and lets attackers force data travelling between a vulnerable site and a visitor to use weak encryption. This makes it easier to crack open the data and steal sensitive information.

Statistics gathered by a group set up to monitor the impact of the Freak flaw suggest about 9.5% of the web's top one million websites are susceptible to such attacks.

The monitoring group has also produced an online tool that lets people check if they are using a browser that is vulnerable to the flaw.

Vulnerable

Apple is expected to produce a patch for the flaw next week and Google has updated its version of Chrome for the Mac to remove its susceptibility to Freak. It has yet to say what action it is taking with Android.

In a security advisory note released on 5 March, Microsoft said every current version of Windows that uses Internet Explorer, or any non-Microsoft software that calls on a part of Windows called Secure Channel, was vulnerable to the Freak flaw.

Microsoft has issued advice about ways to remove the vulnerability from some of its software but said applying these fixes could cause "serious problems" with other programs. It said it was working on a separate security update to remove the vulnerability.

In its advisory, Microsoft said it had not received any information that suggested the attack was being actively exploited by cybercriminals.

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Amazon opens Alibaba shop in China

6 March 2015 Last updated at 11:52

Amazon, the US online retail giant, has opened another shop on rival Alibaba's Tmall marketplace in China.

Amazon is offering food, women's footwear, toys and kitchenware on the platform in an attempt to expand further into the huge Chinese market.

It launched a shop for its Kindle e-book reader on Tmall last year and has had an online presence in the country since 2011.

Tmall hosts nearly half of all Chinese business-to-consumer transactions.

"China's e-commerce industry is fast-growing and nobody wants to miss it," said Yang Xiao of e-commerce services provider HC International. "Amazon wants to add an additional distribution channel in China."

Tmall.com acts as a marketplace for online retailers and offers payment processing services for them as well. It does not sell its own products.

In 2004, Amazon bought Joyo.com, the Chinese books, music and video retailer, then rebranded the company as Amazon.cn in 2011.

But a presence on Tmall gives it a potentially valuable extra channel for reaching Chinese consumers.

Other Western retailers, such as Asos, Burberry and Inditex, which owns the Zara chain, have also set up shop on Tmall.

"We welcome Amazon to the Alibaba ecosystem and their presence will further broaden the selection of products and elevate the shopping experience for Chinese consumers on Tmall," an Alibaba spokeswoman said.

But in other areas Amazon and Alibaba are arch rivals.

This week, the Chinese online retail giant founded by Jack Ma, said it would open a data centre in Silicon Valley, further encroaching on Amazon's cloud computing business run by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Alibaba's Aliyun division already competes with AWS in China and plans to offer cloud services to US firms.

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Apple to replace AT&T on Dow Jones

6 March 2015 Last updated at 16:42

Apple, the biggest US company by market value, will be included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 19 March.

It replaces AT&T, which first joined the US stock market barometer in 1916.

Despite being one of the most successful US firms, Apple was excluded from the Dow because its high stock price would have distorted the price-weighted index.

But a change in the structure of Visa shares, which is in the same sector, has made room for the iPhone maker.

Continue reading the main story

From 18 March, Visa shares will be split four-for-one, which reduces the weighting of the information technology sector in the overall index.

"As the largest corporation in the world and a leader in technology, Apple is the clear choice for the Dow Jones Industrial Average," said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Apple's own seven-for-one stock split last June also helped pave the way for it to join the Dow Jones.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is calculated by taking the sum of the share prices of its 30 stocks and dividing the total by a number known as the Dow Divisor.

The divisor is continually adjusted to accommodate structural changes to companies and to maintain continuity.

Dow Jones Fact File

• When Charles Dow launched the index in 1896 he said it was like putting sticks in the sand to measure the successive waves
• In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, the Dow Jones enjoyed its best year, gaining 66%
• It experienced its worst year in 1931, when it dropped 52%
• The biggest one-day loss was on 19 October 1987, when it slid 22.6%
• The biggest one-day gain was on 15 March 1933, when it rose 15.3%
• Only two-thirds of the companies in the Industrial Average are industrial companies. The rest are financial, services and technology companies

Source: McGraw Hill Financial

As the Dow includes only 30 companies, critics argue it does not accurately reflect the broader market. The S&P index by contrast includes 500 stocks.

"This brings the Dow into reality and the 21st Century," said Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co, referring to Apple's entry.

"It will make the Dow a more interesting index to watch, but also more volatile since it is replacing a nice, steady old name with an interesting and exciting tech and retail company."

All change

With a market value of around $736bn, Apple is the biggest US company measured by market capitalisation.

Since the launch of the iPhone in June 2007 its shares have risen 700%.

AT&T is worth $176.5bn and its exit from the Dow Industrials leaves Verizon as the only telecoms company on the index.

AT&T had an almost unbroken run on the Dow stock from 1916 with only a brief absence in 2004 to 2005.

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UK 'needs action' on driverless cars

6 March 2015 Last updated at 02:59 By Tom Espiner Business reporter

The government needs to work out how driverless cars will be introduced onto UK roads, an influential group of MPs has said.

Liability for crashes and how drivers will be trained and licensed need to be looked at now, according to the Commons transport committee.

People also need to be reassured about safety, it added.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said safety was its "first priority" and it was "working closely with industry".

A mixture of driverless, semi-autonomous and manual cars could be on UK roads well within the next ten years, according to evidence heard by the committee.

Yet, conflicts such as who is legally responsible in the event of a driverless car crash have yet to be resolved, committee chair and Labour MP Louise Ellman told the BBC.

"Who is liable? Is it the manufacturer of the vehicle, or the technology in it? Is it the driver?" she said.

Practicalities

Tech giants such as Google and Apple are busy looking into driverless car technologies.

Companies such as Google aim to collect data about how people drive. Insurance firms are already doing so.

But the public needs to be reassured about practicalities such as the safety of driverless cars on roads, and how data collected from the cars will be used, she said.

Businesses will need to be given incentives such as tax breaks to prevent the UK lagging behind leading countries such as the US, Japan, China, and Germany, she added.

A DfT spokesman said: "Public safety is our first priority as we adapt to advances in motoring technology.

"We have a comprehensive approach to ensure the UK is at the cutting edge of developments."

The spokesperson said the department was "working closely with industry" to promote driverless car technology, and added that it had a road investment strategy which includes "a major expansion of smart motorway technology."

'Nightmare scenario'

AA president Edmund King said: "The report rightly points to potential problems of a transition period on the roads.

"There is a potential nightmare scenario whereby robotic driverless cars are fighting for space with cars with humans behind the wheel and indeed semi-autonomous cars with no-one totally in control.

"We really need a safe vision for the future whereby all vehicles and all road users can coexist in harmony.

"This vision will entail government, manufacturers, insurers and indeed drivers agreeing the way ahead."

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Dozens arrested in cybercrime raids

6 March 2015 Last updated at 12:23

The UK's National Crime Agency has arrested 56 suspected hackers as part of a "strike week" against cybercrime.

In total, 25 separate operations were carried out across England, Scotland and Wales.

Those arrested are suspected of being involved in a wide variety of cybercrimes including data theft, fraud and virus writing.

One raid the BBC witnessed targeted a man suspected of involvement in a 2012 hack attack on web giant Yahoo.

Stolen data

The week-long series of operations was co-ordinated by the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) as well as specialist officers from regional organised crime squads and the Metropolitan Police.

West Midlands police arrested a 23-year-old man in Sutton Coldfield who is believed to have been involved in breaking into the network of the US defence department in June 2014.

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Rory Cellan-Jones joined police on one of the cybercrime raids

The biggest operation saw the arrest of 25 people in London and Essex suspected of using the net to steal money, launder cash and carry out other frauds.

The hackers behind that attack stole contact information for about 800 people and data on the network's internal architecture was also pilfered.

Eyewitness: Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent

I was with one of the teams from the National Crime Agency as they carried out an arrest this week at a flat in north London. One group had tracked the suspect, a 21-year-old student, all the way back from university 40 minutes away.

The arrest had some of the drama of a classic police operation - "Go! Go! Go!" came the command over the walkie-talkie as we approached the suspect's flat. But no doors were kicked in, and there were no shouts of "You're nicked!" The priority was to make sure any computers were seized before they could be shut down or their data encrypted.

Teams arrived with equipment to gather data, and found a laptop and a desktop computer, both of them online. One officer was employed simply keeping her finger on the laptop's trackpad to make sure it didn't go to sleep. Later, police cyber-specialists would spend many hours examining exactly what was on the two computers.

The action also resulted in the arrest of people thought to be part of some well-known hacking groups.

In Leeds, a suspected member of the Lizard Squad group was arrested, and in London a 21-year-old man was taken into custody on suspicion of being part of the D33Ds Company hacking collective.

The D33Ds group is believed to have been behind a 2012 attack on Yahoo that stole more than 400,000 email addresses and passwords subsequently published online.

Phishing gangs

Investigations about suspects in Sutton Coldfield, Leeds and Willesden were aided by forensic information provided by the FBI.

The other actions targeted alleged phishing gangs, intellectual property thieves, users of financial malware, companies that offer hosting services to crime groups, and many people who took part in so-called DDoS [distributed denial of service] attacks in an attempt to knock websites offline.

One 21-year-old man from County Durham allegedly knocked out the Police Scotland website mounting such a DDoS attack.

"Criminals need to realise that committing crime online will not render them anonymous to law enforcement," said Andy Archibald, deputy director of the NCCU.

"It's imperative that we continue to work with partners to pursue and disrupt the major crime groups targeting the UK."

In addition, this week the NCA coordinated visits to 70 firms to inform them about how vulnerable their servers were to attack and how they could be used by cyberthieves to send out spam or act as proxies for other attacks.

The strike week also involved four forces setting up pop-up shops to give advice to the public about staying safe online and to get their devices checked to make sure they are free of malware and other digital threats.

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Police mugshot files 'alarm' MPs

7 March 2015 Last updated at 01:51 By Kevin Rawlinson BBC News

MPs want stricter regulation of how police use biometric technologies.

The Commons Science and Technology Committee said it was "alarmed" that police in England and Wales had collected the mugshots of innocent and guilty people alike.

Last month, BBC Newsnight revealed police were holding 18 million images to use with facial recognition tech.

The government said the technology had an "important role" but images had to be used "in accordance with the law".

Committee chairman Andrew Miller said the MPs were not opposed to the use of biometric technologies to combat crime.

"But we were alarmed to discover that the police have begun uploading custody photographs of people to the Police National Database and using facial recognition software without any regulatory oversight - some of the people had not even been charged."

The MPs said there had been a "worrying" lack of government oversight and regulation of the use of biometrics by public bodies.

They highlighted a 2012 High Court ruling that the police's policy on retention of mugshots at that time was "unlawful" - but that nothing had changed as a result.

The MPs recommended that the police's maintenance of its database and associated use of facial recognition technology should be brought into the jurisdiction of the Biometrics Commissioner, Alastair MacGregor QC.

The commissioner has previously expressed concern about the implications of the police's system for privacy and civil liberties.

The committee also called on the government to open a public debate about how public bodies used biometric data.

It said it was "inexcusable" that a government report into the risks and benefits of using the data had not yet been published, despite being due in 2013.

According to campaign group Big Brother Watch, the committee's report highlights how the current use of biometrics could erode the public's "already fragile opinion of the technology".

A spokesman said: "It is unacceptable for innocent people to be treated in the same way as those who have been found to be guilty of a crime. [The police] database, as it stands, does just that.

"The fact that two years have passed since the retention of these photographs was ruled illegal and nothing has yet been done to rectify it, is totally unacceptable."

A BBC Newsnight report on 3 February revealed that the database maintained by forces in England and Wales included photos of people who had never been charged with a crime, as well as those of people acquitted.

The images were uploaded without Home Office approval, the programme reported.

'Intrusive technologies'

But privacy groups say the Home Office itself needs to do more to control surveillance.

Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, said: "It's incredibly easy for surveillance powers to grow just because technology gets easier.

"That's what the Home Office doesn't like to tell you when they demand new surveillance laws - intrusive technologies deliver more police powers all on their own. Surveillance needs regulating and oversight rather than extra help to grow."

His comments were echoed by Privacy International executive director Dr Gus Hosein.

Dr Hosein said people should assume the Home Office was "hoping that secret deployment of surveillance techniques will go unnoticed. Fortunately, on this occasion, Parliament is demanding more of them".

Mr Miller acknowledged that biometrics involved "risks and raise important ethical and legal questions relating to privacy and autonomy".

However, he insisted that they could play a key role in people's lives.

"As we struggle to remember ever more passwords and pin numbers in everyday life, the potential benefits of using biometric technologies to verify identity are obvious."

Lord Bates, the minister for criminal information, defended the use of mugshots and facial recognition technology, saying it played an "important role".

But, he said, the images should be used in accordance with the law.

He said the government needed to find a balance between public protection and civil liberties and said it was reviewing how police use custody images.

Ch Con Mike Barton, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said that, while DNA and fingerprints were covered by existing legislation, the management of custody images was not.

"Police have used existing guidance on the 'Management of Police Information (MoPI)' to agree principles upon which we review, retain and delete these images. This varies dependent on factors such as age and the type of crime," he said.

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Smart meters energy scheme 'at risk'

7 March 2015 Last updated at 07:23

Plans to install energy saving smart meters in every UK home and business by 2020 are at risk of veering off track, an influential group of MPs has warned.

Smart meters could save about £17bn and put an end to estimated bills.

But the Energy and Climate Change Committee said a key piece of the £11bn programme's infrastructure was behind schedule.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said it had designed the scheme to maximise value for money.

The committee said the project was in danger of becoming a costly mistake, with a series of "technical, logistical and public communication issues" resulting in delays.

'Time running out'

The MPs said the government needed to get a firm grip on smart metering to avoid future embarrassment.

Committee chairman Tim Yeo said: "Time is running out on the government's plan to install smart meters in each of the UK's 30 million homes and businesses by 2020.

"Smart meters could generate more than £17bn in energy savings for the country yet a series of technical and other issues have resulted in delays to the planned roll-out."

He added: "This committee first looked at this programme in 2013, highlighting issues which we urged the government to address.

"While some progress has been made since then, it's not enough.

"The energy industry told us that it needs the government to enable industry wide solutions, rather than the less efficient alternative of letting each energy supplier develop its own solution."

'Steer industry'

Mr Yeo said the government was at a crossroads with its smart-metering policy.

"It can continue with its current approach and risk embarrassment through public disengagement on a flagship energy policy, or it can grip the reins, and steer the energy industry along a more successful path which brings huge benefits for the country," he said

Smart meters will eventually allow consumers to know exactly how much electricity each appliance uses, in order to encourage more efficiency.

Installing a smart meter will not cost consumers anything upfront and there will be no additional charges - although the costs of infrastructure like electricity meters are already incorporated into power bills, according to Smart Energy GB.

The DECC said one million consumers had already benefited from having a smart meter.

Claire Maugham, director of communications at smart meter advocacy group Smart Energy GB, told BBC Radio 5 live that the rollout of smart meters was "well underway" in the UK and the people who have them are "more confident in looking around for the right tariff and the right supplier... and they're much more happy with the whole experience of buying gas and electricity".

However, she said that the rollout of smart meters needed more independent oversight, and that people may need more support getting to grips with the technology once it is installed in their homes.

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'Jealous hackers deleted all my Vines'

Viner Ben Phillips says his account has been hacked and all his videos deleted after he revealed he can earn up to £12,000 a clip.

He blames "jealous hackers".

"I'm thinking it's because of all the recent press I've been doing about my success with Vine," he tells Newsbeat.

"It's definitely a hack. My passwords change every week and my email address is completely generic. You wouldn't be able to guess."

The 22-year-old from Bridgend has more than 285 million loops on Vine and an international following.

This is what appears on Ben's Vine account

"Everything's gone from my first ever Vine right up to now. It's like memories, a photo book that has been deleted," he says.

He's contacted Vine asking if it can restore his clips but because its office is based in New York he's waiting for a reply.

Ben is hopeful Vine will be able to help him because clips he's posted on his Twitter feed are still playing loops.

He says he doesn't know what he'll do if Vine can't help.

"That's the question I really don't want to answer.

"I'll have no choice but to start again. For me, that's something I really don't want to be thinking about right now because it's more of the memories of those Vines.

"I feel bad for everyone. Those Vines are to make people smile and now they're gone."

Firms and marketing companies now pay Ben to feature their products in his six second clips, but he denies they're adverts.

Ben says: "I never get asked to put the price in of the product. I just get asked if I can have a bit of fun with their product.

"I don't contact them, they contact me."

Ford was the first company to pay Ben to feature a product. He got paid £12,000 for that Vine, the equivalent of £2,000 a second.

He says he doesn't like talking too much about money, but admits he has since been paid more than that for one of his clips.

"I didn't make a penny out of anything until I hit one million followers.

"Petrol, food and life isn't free so we have to incorporate some adverts but we make [those Vines] as much fun as possible. The last thing I want to be doing is pumping sales down everyone's throats."

With the money he's made from Vines, Ben has been able to travel around Europe, staying in hotels - a luxury, he says.

"The bigger you get and the more followers you have, the bigger the payments."

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Solar plane set to land in Oman

9 March 2015 Last updated at 15:30 By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent

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Andre Borschberg was at the controls of the single-seater vehicle as it took off

The first leg of a record-breaking attempt to fly around the world in a solar-powered plane is approaching its end.

The aircraft - called Solar Impulse-2 - is preparing to land at Muscat in Oman after a 12-hour flight.

Piloted by Andre Borschberg, it began its epic journey in Abu Dhabi.

Over the next five months, it will skip from continent to continent, crossing both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the process.

The single-seater vehicle took off at 07:12 local time (03:12 GMT).

Mr Borschberg will share the pilot duties in due course with fellow Swiss, Bertrand Piccard.

The plan is stop off at various locations around the globe, to rest and to carry out maintenance, and also to spread a campaigning message about clean technologies.

Before taking off, Borschberg told BBC News: "I am confident we have a very special aeroplane, and it will have to be to get us across the big oceans.

"We may have to fly for five days and five nights to do that, and it will be a challenge.

"But we have the next two months, as we fly the legs to China, to train and prepare ourselves."

Monday's leg to Oman will cover about 400km and take an estimated 12 hours. Details of the journey are being relayed on the internet.

A solar revolution - by Roger Harrabin, BBC environment analyst

It's a deep-breath moment in the history of technology as Solar Impulse soars to the skies.

Because, pinch yourself, solar power is predicted to become the dominant source of electricity globally by 2050.

The price of solar electric panels fell 70% in recent years and costs are expected to halve again this decade.

And Deutsche Bank forecasts that, based on current fossil fuel prices, solar will produce power as cheaply as gas in two thirds of the world before 2020.

In the UK the solar industry thinks it can compete with wind within 18 months and with gas in the near future. In the USA, solar jobs already outnumber coal jobs.

The solar revolution was sparked by government subsidies, which attracted venture capitalists to fund innovation and created a huge market that Chinese manufacturers are battling to exploit.

The solar boom is a huge help in the battle against climate change, but scientists warn it's not nearly enough. And we must find ways of storing that mighty but capricious power, and making it work with the grid.

BBC iWonder: Is jet travel becoming the dirtiest way to cross the planet?

Lightweight plane

The Solar Impulse project has already set a number of world records for solar-powered flight, including making a high-profile transit of the US in 2013.

But the round-the-world venture is altogether more dramatic and daunting, and has required the construction of an even bigger plane than the prototype, Solar Impulse-1.

This new model has a wingspan of 72m, which is wider than a 747 jumbo jet. And yet, it weighs only 2.3 tonnes.

Its light weight will be critical to its success.

So, too, will the performance of the 17,000 solar cells that line the top of the wings, and the energy-dense lithium-ion batteries it will use to sustain night-time flying.

Operating through darkness will be particularly important when the men have to cross the Pacific and the Atlantic.

The slow speed of their prop-driven plane means these legs will take several days and nights of non-stop flying to complete.

Piccard and Borschberg - whoever is at the controls - will have to stay alert for nearly all of the time they are airborne.

They will be permitted only catnaps of up to 20 mins - in the same way a single-handed, round-the-world yachtsman would catch small periods of sleep.

They will also have to endure the physical discomfort of being confined in a cockpit that measures just 3.8 cubic metres in volume - not a lot bigger than a public telephone box.

Flight simulators have helped the pilots to prepare, and each man has developed his own regimen to cope.

Borschberg will use yoga to try to stay fresh. Piccard is using self-hypnosis techniques.

"But my passion also will keep me going," said Piccard.

"I had this dream 16 years ago of flying around the world without fuel, just on solar power. Now, we're about to do it. The passion is there and I look forward so much to being in the cockpit."

The support team is well drilled. While the mission will be run out of a control room in Monaco, a group of engineers will follow the plane around the globe. They have a mobile hangar to house the plane when it is not in the air.

It is not at all certain Solar Impulse will succeed. Computer modelling suggests the ocean crossings are feasible, given the right weather conditions.

But that same modelling has shown also that there may be occasions when the team simply has to sit tight on the ground for weeks before a fair window opens.

"Last year, we had a very good exercise. We went around the world virtually, but with actual conditions," explained Raymond Clerc, mission director.

"For the Pacific crossing, it was an easy decision. We had a very good window on 2 May. But when we were on the East Coast of the USA, we had to look to cross the Atlantic and we had to wait 30 days to find a good window. And then it was easy - 3.5 days and we were in Seville, [Spain]," he told BBC News.

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Pilot Andre Borschberg gives a guided tour of the solar plane

If the pilots should come unstuck over the Pacific or the Atlantic, they will bail out and use ocean survival gear until they can be picked up by a ship.

Of the two protagonists, Andre Borschberg perhaps needs a little more introduction.

A trained engineer and former air-force pilot, he has built a career as an entrepreneur in internet technologies.

Bertrand Piccard, on the other hand, is well known for his ballooning exploits.

Along with Brian Jones, he completed the first non-stop, circumnavigation of the world in 1999, using the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon. The Piccard name is synonymous with pushing boundaries.

Bertrand's father, Jacques Piccard, was the first to reach the deepest place in the ocean (a feat achieved with Don Walsh in the Trieste bathyscaphe in 1960). And his grandfather, Auguste Piccard, was the first person to take a balloon into the stratosphere, in 1931.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

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