Rapidshare to close within weeks

11 February 2015 Last updated at 12:30

Rapidshare, formerly one of the most popular file-sharing sites, will close in March, it has been announced.

The decision comes after a period of decline for the site, which sacked three-quarters of its staff in 2013.

It adopted anti-piracy measures following criticism over allegations around copyright infringement and later scrapped its free service.

According to one expert, users had been abandoning the site ever since, meaning it was no longer a viable business.

The Switzerland-based site has warned users to secure their data and said that all accounts would be deleted on 31 March this year.

It was once ranked in the top three filesharing sites, along with Megavideo.com and Megaupload.com, which were estimated to have generated more than 21 billion visits between them.

"It's clear that Rapidshare lost the vast majority of its users in recent years, after it implemented a series of anti-piracy measures. This visitor exodus has led to a sharp decline in revenues," said the the editor of the file-sharing news site TorrentFreak, Ernesto van der Sar.

"The announced shutdown suggests that it was no longer viable for Rapidshare to offer its services in the present form."

Legal battles

Rapidshare, which launched in 2002, is one of many similar sites to have faced legal difficulties in recent years. However, unlike some others, it won at least a partial victory in court.

A German court ruled in 2012 that it operated legally in the country and said that it did not have to monitor files uploaded by its users. But it was told to monitor other sites linking to copyrighted files on its platform and to ensure that those files became inaccessible.

The ruling followed a series of measures by the site to proactively tackle online piracy.

Within months, however, its troubles began to surface.

In November 2012, it introduced a limit on how much users could share. And, less than two years later, it did away with its free version altogether. That followed the firing in May 2013 of 45 of its 60 employees as business floundered.

Rapidshare did not respond to a request for comment.

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Samsung TVs put ads in others' apps

11 February 2015 Last updated at 15:55

Samsung says it is investigating why some of its smart TVs are adding adverts to television programmes and films played via third-party apps.

Owners have complained of a silent ad for Pepsi interrupting playback several times an hour.

A spokeswoman for Samsung said it was only aware of the glitch affecting customers in Australia at this time.

The fault comes days after the company faced controversy over the way its TVs made use of voice recordings.

"We are aware of a situation that has caused some smart TV users in Australia to experience programme interruption in the form of an advertisement," the spokeswoman said.

"This seems to be caused by an error, and we are currently conducting a full and thorough investigation into the cause as our top priority.

"This situation has so far been reported only in Australia. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience experienced by our customers."

Users of at least two smart TV apps have complained about the issue:

• Plex - media centre software that allows owners to stream video files stored on a hard disk to other equipment. In most cases, the user would not expect to see any ads at all when using this
• Foxtel Play - an app installed by default on Samsung's Australian TVs, which provides access to the pay TV network's channels, which have ads of their own

News site Ars Technica noted that Samsung and Yahoo had been working together on a way to show pop-up ads on Samsung's smart TVs and suggested that the software involved might be the cause of the fault.

It said some users had been able to stop the ads appearing by rejecting a "Yahoo privacy policy" in the affected TV set's settings.

Voice recognition

Samsung's PR team is also dealing with a backlash prompted by fears that its smart TV sets might be "spying" on their watchers' conversations.

Concern was raised by a privacy policy that stated: "Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of voice recognition."

Several commentators compared the policy to the surveillance state depicted in George Orwell's novel 1984.

Samsung has since clarified the situation, saying there are two microphones involved:

• One built into the TV set, which responds to pre-set commands, such as, "Turn the volume up," but does not store or transmit the user's words while doing so
• Another embedded in its remote control, which does send speech to a third-party service - currently the voice recognition specialist Nuance - to let the TV respond to complex commands, including requests for movie recommendations. In addition, it said, the commands could be collected and studied by Samsung itself

The South Korean company said it had now altered its privacy document to read: "Samsung will collect your interactive voice commands only when you make a specific search request to the Smart TV by clicking the activation button either on the remote control or on your screen and speaking into the microphone on the remote control.

"If you do not enable Voice Recognition, you will not be able to use interactive voice recognition features, although you may be able to control your TV using certain predefined voice commands."

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Microsoft patches 'China spy bug'

10 February 2015 Last updated at 20:15 By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

Microsoft has released a patch to close a bug exploited by hackers, who targeted US military and government networks.

The flaw was used to compromise Windows PCs that visited sites seeded with other malware created by the group.

Popular news site Forbes was one victim unwittingly enrolled into the cyber-espionage campaign.

Security systems on US military networks ultimately foiled attempts to steal data, said one expert.

"It's fairly brazen for a Chinese cyber-espionage group to use such a public site," said John Hultquist from iSight Partners, which said it had traced the attack back to a group called Codoso.

Data grabbing

Forbes' site was compromised via a software add-on, or widget, that made use of a version of Adobe's Flash software, which in turn was vulnerable to an exploit believed to have been created by Codoso.

This was paired with a separate vulnerability that the hackers used to takeover Windows machines.

The booby-trapped widget was present on the Forbes site between 28 November and 1 December, 2014, said a spokeswoman for the news site.

"Forbes took immediate actions to remediate the incident," said the spokeswoman.

"The investigation has found no indication of additional or ongoing compromise nor any evidence of data exfiltration."

No group had claimed responsibility for the attack, she added.

Mr Hultquist told the BBC that iSight had been tracking Codoso since 2010 and was confident it was behind the attack.

Additional intelligence about its origin has been provided by security company Invincea which spotted machines infected via the Forbes exploit on military networks.

Once it took hold on a Windows machine the Codoso malware sought to log what software the machine ran and to map networks to find other machines to compromise, Mr Hultquist explained

"It's all about land and expand," he said.

"They want to get in and stay in and be as persistent as possible and gather intelligence over a long period of time."

No data was stolen from official US networks using this exploit, said Norm Laudermilch from Invincea.

However, he said, analysis of the malware showed that it had been used to get at various other sites and the sheer number of people visiting Forbes would suggest a lot had been caught out by it.

Adobe patched the Flash bug on 9 December and Microsoft has now moved to close the other loophole found and exploited by Codoso.

Mr Hultquist said the evidence suggested Codoso was no common-or-garden cybercrime group.

"There are different motivations for hacker groups, but this one is about espionage and that, by definition, is not about making money," he said.

China was not alone in setting up such groups and trying to gather data by hacking, he added.

"We've seen dozens of them," he said.

"It's a very inexpensive way to get an advantage over your adversaries."

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Requests for Twitter user data surge

10 February 2015 Last updated at 12:43

Twitter has seen a surge in government requests for user information, according to its latest transparency report.

The social media platform has seen a 40% rise in the number of requests from governments around the world since its last report, in July 2014.

Hundreds came from the government of Turkey, which has previously attempted to ban Twitter.

The most requests came from the US government.

All of the large internet companies, including Google, Facebook and Yahoo, now release regular transparency reports in order to keep users informed about how much data is shared with governments.

It is part of the industry's response to revelations from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, which pointed to mass government surveillance programs in the US and abroad.

"Providing this insight is simply the right thing to do, especially in an age of increasing concerns about government surveillance," Twitter senior manager of legal policy Jeremy Kessel said in a blogpost.

Twitter received 2,871 requests from governments across the world asking it to reveal data about 7,144 of its users in the second half of 2014.

Just over half (52%) of the requests had been fulfilled, it said.

Most of the requests came from the US government - with 1,622 requests. 80% of which were complied with.

The Turkish government made 356 requests, putting it second place behind the US. None of its data requests had been complied with, said Twitter, although it did not go into details about what they had been about.

The company also saw an 84% increase in government demands to remove content from Twitter. The top three requesting countries were:

• Turkey (477)
• Russia (91)
• Germany (43)

In Turkey, these requests tended to focus on claimed violations of personal rights either for citizens or government officials.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blocked Twitter in Turkey in March after an anonymous source posted allegations of government corruption. The ban was overturned in the courts and the service restored.

Russia had sent 108 requests for account information since July, according to Twitter. Previously it had not sent any.

It had also sent 91 requests for the removal of content, ranging from posts promoting illegal drugs to attempts to suppress non-violent demonstration.

"We denied several requests to silence popular critics of the Russian government and other demands to limit speech about non-violent demonstration in Ukraine," said Mr Kessel.

In August, Russia passed laws placing restrictions on users of social media.

Bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers were forced to register with the media regulator, social networks were required to retain six months' worth of data on its users and bloggers were not allowed to remain anonymous.

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Warnings over smart device privacy

10 February 2015 Last updated at 12:53

People who use smart devices that monitor what they do will have to get used to giving up some privacy, warns a top technologist.

Prof Will Stewart of the Institution of Engineering and Technology said privacy loss was "intrinsic" to such gadgets.

His comments come after Samsung warned about a voice activation feature on some of its televisions.

It warned people to avoid talking about personal issues in front of their TV in case it grabbed sensitive information.

Lost features

Widespread publicity about the privacy policy for some Samsung Smart TV sets has led the South Korean firm to clarify when such sets listen to what people say.

Rather than listening all the time, the voice activation feature works only when people press a button on a remote control and speak into a microphone, it said.

At these times, anything said will be recorded and sent across the net for analysis to work out what that person said. It added that it did not retain any audio or sell it on.

The publicity prompted a wider discussion about other ways in which smart TVs intrude on privacy or limit the control that people have over how they use them.

It brought to light an older report about unwanted adverts appearing on smart TV sets and reports by owners of smart TVs who said they lost access to some features if they did not consent to a manufacturer's privacy policy.

In addition in late 2013, LG faced criticism over the way its smart sets gathered information about viewing habits.

Some owners of game consoles have also questioned how often their devices are "listening" as many are programmed to respond to voice commands. In mid-2014, a TV advert featuring actor Aaron Paul saying "Xbox on" was found to be switching on consoles in some homes.

Prof Stewart said there seemed to be "little danger" in the Samsung case but added that this may become less true as TV sets and other devices got smarter.

"Upcoming services, like live translation, do involve wider data sharing and people should be aware of this," he said.

In many cases, it was going to be impossible to avoid surrendering private information, Prof Stewart said. "Many more ordinary services like locate-your-friends and car tracking to reduce insurance costs do involve some intrinsic loss of privacy," he said.

While most people realised this and were happy to lose a little privacy in return for a material benefit, far fewer realised that the privacy loss was "progressive" and would lead to steadily greater intrusions, he said.

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UK kickstarts driverless car changes

11 February 2015 Last updated at 00:08 By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

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Richard Westcott has a closer look at new driverless technology

Changes to road regulations and car maintenance checks will be necessary to accommodate driverless cars on the roads of the UK, a Department of Transport report has confirmed.

The government wants the UK to become a world leader in driverless technology.

It will publish a code of practice in the spring which will allow the testing of autonomous cars to go ahead.

Self-drive pods that will be tested in Milton Keynes and Coventry have been unveiled for the first time.

The government promised a full review of current legislation by the summer of 2017.

That review will involve a rewrite of the Highway Code and adjustments to MOT test guidelines, potentially taking into account whether a higher standard of driving should be demanded of automated vehicles.

It will also look at who would be responsible in the event of a collision and how to ensure the safety of drivers and pedestrians.

The Department of Transport report acknowledged that true driverless cars may be some way off and that current tests of the technology will need to include a qualified test driver to supervise the vehicle.

"Driverless vehicle technology has the potential to be a real game-change on the UK's roads, altering the face of motoring in the most fundamental of ways and delivering major benefits for road safety, social inclusion, emissions and congestion," said transport minister Claire Perry.

The government is providing £19m to launch four driverless car schemes in four UK locations.

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Richard Westcott explains how the cars avoid hitting people

To mark the launch of the review, Ms Perry and Business Secretary Vince Cable highlighted some of the trials that they are funding, including a fully autonomous shuttle in Greenwich and a BAE System-developed Wildcat vehicle, which will be tested in Bristol.

Self-drive pods that will be tested in Milton Keynes and Coventry were also unveiled for the first time.

Prof Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "These trials are not just about harnessing technology to make our travelling lives easier and safer, they also involve getting the regulation right.

"Alongside the hi-tech innovation you need policy decisions on long-term, low-tech matters such as who takes responsibility if things go wrong. As and when these vehicles become commonplace, there is likely to be a shift from personal to product liability and that is a whole new ball game for insurers and manufacturers."

But the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) said that it was concerned that, while the government is pushing ahead with making driverless cars a reality, the service and repair sector did not yet have the skills and infrastructure in place to deal with the new technology.

IMI chief executive Steve Nash is calling on businesses to take steps to address this sooner rather than later.

"We believe the government is yet to fully [realise] the pressures we are under," he said.

Driverless cars around the world

• The US was the first country to introduce legislation to permit testing of automated vehicles. Four US states have done so but 15 have rejected bills related to automated driving

• In Europe, only Germany and Sweden have reviewed their legislation in this area

• Those wishing to conduct tests in the UK will not be limited to test tracks or certain geographical areas and will not need to obtain certificates or permits

Smartphone app

The Lutz Pathfinder pod, which is being led by the UK's Future Transport Systems innovation centre, will be tested on the pavements of Milton Keynes later this year.

It is a two-seater, electric-powered vehicle that is packed with 19 sensors, cameras, radar and Lidar - a remote sensing technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser and analysing the reflected light.

In a panel behind the seat is the computing power equivalent to two high-end gaming computers.

Three pods will drive themselves on the pavements and pedestrianised areas of the city initially and, if successful, a fleet of 40 vehicles will be rolled out. These vehicles will be able to talk to each other as well as being connected to a smartphone app to allow people to hail them.

Alongside the trials in Milton Keynes and Coventry, Bristol will host the Venturer consortium, which aims to investigate whether driverless cars can reduce congestion and make roads safer.

Its members include the insurance group Axa, and much of its focus will be on the public's reaction to the technology as well as the legal and insurance implications of its introduction.

Greenwich is set to run the Gateway scheme. This will be led by the Transport Research Laboratory consultancy and also involves General Motors, as well as the AA and RAC motoring associations. It plans to carry out tests of automated passenger shuttle vehicles as well as autonomous valet parking for adapted cars.

In addition, a self-drive car simulator will make use of a photorealistic 3D model of the area to study how people react to sharing the driving of a vehicle with a computer.

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Driverless cars: The rules in the UK explained

Research undertaken by Virgin last year suggested that 43% of the British public wouldn't feel comfortable with the presence of driverless cars on the roads.

A quarter of those surveyed said that they would not get inside such a car.

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Europe's mini 'spaceplane' set to fly

11 February 2015 Last updated at 02:38 By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent

Europe is all set to launch its mini "spaceplane" demonstrator.

The unmanned Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) will launch atop a Vega rocket from South America, fly east around the globe, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

The wedge-shaped craft is designed to gather information on how space objects fall back to Earth.

Engineers could use the data to inform a range of future technologies from re-usable rockets to Mars landers.

Lift-off for the Vega from French Guiana is timed for 10:00 local time (13:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

It will throw the IXV to an altitude of 450km, from where the European Space Agency (Esa) test article will then begin its rapid descent.

By the time it re-enters the atmosphere, the craft should be moving at 7.5km/s. As it pushes up against the air, the temperatures on its leading surfaces will soar to 1,700C.

Flaps and thrusters will be used to control the trajectory, ensuring the IXV comes down close to a recovery ship some 3,000km west of the Galapagos Islands.

A parachute system deployed in the very late stages of the flight will put the two-tonne vehicle gently in the water. Floatation balloons will come out to stop it from sinking.

Beginning to end, the complete mission is expected to last approximately one hour and 40 minutes.

Europe's expertise on re-entry technologies is more limited than, say, the US or Russia. Something it wants to change with the help of the IXV.

Esa's project manager Giorgio Tumino told BBC News: "Europe is excellent at going to orbit; we have all the launchers, for example. We also have great knowhow in operating complex systems in orbit. But where we are a bit behind is in the knowledge of how to come back from orbit. So, if we are to close the circle - go to orbit, stay in orbit, come back from orbit - this third leg we need to master as well as other spacefaring nations."

Europe has produced one or two re-entry capsule systems in the past, but the IXV's complex "lifting body" is new territory.

The vehicle is packed with sensors. Their data will feed back into materials research and into the computer models used to describe the energetic physics that occurs when an object plunges through atmospheric gases at hypersonic speeds.

The IXV will start its data dump the moment it clears the descent's radio blackout phase, which occurs when the vehicle is enveloped by the hot plasma created during high-speed re-entry.

Getting all the information off the craft while it is still in the air means the mission can complete its objectives even if something goes wrong at splashdown and the IXV sinks.

Esa has already approved a follow-on project called Pride (Programme for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator in Europe).

This would see the development of another re-entry vehicle but with a key difference - the ability to land on a runway.

In this respect, the Pride craft would look very similar to the X-37B mini shuttle, which is operated by the American military.

No-one is quite sure what missions are flown by this unmanned craft, but they are likely to include the early testing of new technologies for future satellites.

This could be a role also for Europe's future Pride vehicle. In-orbit servicing of satellites is a capability often discussed in this context as well.

Esa nations will meet shortly to define these roles.

"We need still to agree with all the member states all the different types of operations in orbit. But whatever the payload, it will always be in the perimeter space of civilian applications," stresses Mr Tumino.

The UK is not involved in the Italian-led IXV programme, but it is signed up to Pride, albeit at a low contribution.

Britain's interests relate to reusable launcher technologies and to the safe return of planetary samples, such as rock specimens collected on Mars.

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

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3D-printed knuckle dusters seized

11 February 2015 Last updated at 11:37

Police in Australia have seized 3D-printed weapons after a raid in a suburb of Gold Coast City, Queensland.

The haul included plastic knuckle dusters and what are suspected to be printed gun parts.

If confirmed, the state's police force has said it would be the first time it had discovered 3D-printed firearm components in a home.

Australian authorities released a series of videos in 2013 highlighting the dangers of using 3D-printed guns.

"We've obviously got to get it through our ballistic experts but we can identify most if not all of the major components of a weapon," detective inspector Scott Knowles of Queensland Police Service told ABC News following the arrest of a 28-year-old suspect in Mudgeeraba.

"To us, it appears that they are complete weapons just requiring assembly.

"The technology's dangerous [because] the materials they're using aren't able to sustain the sorts of forces that come as a result of the weapons they're trying to discharge."

He added that the owner of the printer thought to have been involved had given the machine to the suspect to be calibrated, and was not aware that it was going to be misused.

Last year, Australia's Senate held an inquiry into gun-related violence, during which there were calls for the country's laws to be updated to take account of new technologies.

"We're going to have a situation where someone is going to be shot and injured with the use of a 3D device," warned Howard Brown from the Victims of Crime Assistance League at the time.

It was suggested that it be made an offence to own computer files that would allow 3D-printed weapons to be manufactured.

However, DI Knowles noted that Queensland's current laws were already adequate to prosecute a case if ballistics experts confirmed the 3D-printed parts involved were designed for use in firearms.

"With weapons and parts manufactured this way still being classified as a firearm under current legislation, people can also see themselves before the courts for manufacturing and possessing these items" he said.

Japan jailing

3D-printed weapon arrests are still a relatively rare occurrence.

However, a Japanese man was jailed for two years in October after making guns with a 3D printer at his home in Kawasaki, Japan. It is believed he is the first person to have received a prison sentence for such an offence.

Yoshitomo Imura was arrested after he uploaded a video showing how he had created the weapons to the internet.

He told officers that he had not believed his actions had been illegal.

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Kill switches cut 'smartphone crime'

11 February 2015 Last updated at 14:30

The addition of "kill switch" anti-theft tools to iPhones and Android handsets appears to be acting as a major deterrent to criminals.

London, New York and San Francisco have all announced major drops in the number of reported stolen smartphones since the facilities were added.

A kill switch allows an owner of a stolen phone to send a command that blocks it from being accessed or reset until an ID and passcode are entered.

Microsoft has yet to add the feature.

Apple was first to introduce the measure. It included Activation Lock as an option in its iOS 7 operating system in September 2013, and the latest released statistics are based on iPhone thefts over the following 12 months:

• London reported a 50% fall in iPhone thefts
• San Francisco reported a 40% fall
• New York reported a 25% fall

The three cities created the Secure Our Smartphones (SOS) initiative in 2013 to pressure smartphone manufacturers and mobile networks to help tackle smartphone thefts, after experiencing spikes in related crime.

"We have made real progress in tackling the smartphone theft epidemic that was affecting many major cities just two years ago," said London Mayor Boris Johnson following the latest announcement.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon added: "Preventing their own customers from being the target of a violent crime is the coolest technology [the mobile industry] can bring to market."

Default protection

The authorities are still pressing for further change.

Although Apple made its kill switch the default setting on new iPhones running iOS 8 - meaning users do not need to switch it on, but rather must switch it off if they do not want it - this is not the case for other devices.

So, while Google announced in October that its Android Lollipop operating system would introduce an opt-in feature called Factory Reset Protection, it is not currently offered by all handsets running the system.

Likewise, Samsung's proprietary Reactivation Lock facility, offered on some of its Galaxy S5 smartphones, must also be turned on manually.

The SOS initiative, however, is calling for kill switches to be automatically activated on every mobile device.

"A default solution is imperative because it ensures all device are worthless to thieves," a campaign leaders said.

Microsoft has promised to incorporate a kill switch into its smartphone version of Windows 10, but has yet to announce when the OS will be released.

Smartphone chip maker Qualcomm has also announced a hardware-based kill switch facility, to be called SafeSwitch, that it will offer to manufacturers that use its latest processors.

The firm describes this as a "superior solution" to others' software-based efforts.

But handset-makers have yet to say if they will make the facility available to consumers.

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Jeb Bush redacts leaked information

11 February 2015 Last updated at 16:03

US presidential hopeful Jeb Bush has edited a trove of emails he released, after it emerged they contained correspondents' personal details.

Social security numbers, email addresses and phone numbers were all included in plain text in the files.

Mr Bush released the emails from his eight years as Florida's governor, in the interests of transparency.

Earlier this week, his technology chief, Ethan Czahor, resigned over "inappropriate comments" he had made.

In one email, sent in 2004, the name, social security number and other details belonging to the mother of a sick child appeared. The information had been in a note written by a healthcare representative, the Verge reported.

Other emails also contained social security numbers and other personal information.

The cache, which had been posted on Tuesday, included hundreds of thousands of emails from 1999 to 2007.

Mr Bush's campaign team moved to redact as much of the information as possible after the leaks came to light.

As of Wednesday afternoon, a message posted on the website hosting the emails said: "This page previously included raw .PST data files provided by the Florida Department of State. We were informed that some personal information was available in the raw data so we removed these files.

"Please contact the Florida Department of State with any questions or public records request. You may still read these emails on the email calendar link, where we have redacted personal information we have been able to locate."

The news came after Mr Czahor resigned over comments made by him on Twitter and attributed to him on another website.

Mr Czahor, who was hired to Mr Bush's Right to Rise political action committee in January this year, had posted messages on his personal Twitter account in which he referred to women as "sluts" and made remarks about gay men.

He also made racially offensive comments on the other website.

Mr Bush's spokeswoman Kristy Campbell noted that Mr Czahor had apologised for "regrettable and insensitive comments" that did not reflect the views of Mr Bush or his organisation. But she added that it was "appropriate for him to step aside".

Mr Czahor apologised after the Twitter comments emerged, but did not resign until the publication of those found on his website by the Huffington Post.

He tweeted that he hoped his "recent news won't dissuade future techies from entering politics, regardless of political affiliations/backgrounds".

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