Porn virus publishes web history of victims on the net

A new type of malware infects PCs using file-share sites and publishes the user's net history on a public website before demanding a fee for its removal.

The Japanese trojan virus installs itself on computers using a popular file-share service called Winni, used by up to 200m people.

It targets those downloading illegal copies of games in the Hentai genre, an explicit form of anime.

Website Yomiuri claims that 5500 people have so far admitted to being infected.

The virus, known as Kenzero, is being monitored by web security firm Trend Micro in Japan.

Masquerading as a game installation screen, it requests the PC owner's personal details.

It then takes screengrabs of the user's web history and publishes it online in their name, before sending an e-mail or pop-up screen demanding a credit card payment of 1500 yen (£10) to "settle your violation of copyright law" and remove the webpage.

Held to ransom

The website that the history is published on is owned by a shell company called Romancing Inc. It is registered to a fictitious individual called Shoen Overns.

"We've seen the name before in association with the Zeus and Koobface trojans. It is an established criminal gang that is continuously involved in this sort of activity," said Rik Ferguson, senior security advisor at Trend Micro.

Kenzero is a twist on ransomware, he added, which infects a computer and encrypts the documents, pictures and music stored on it, before demanding a fee for a decryption key.

"Interestingly we've seen a separate incident that focuses on European victims," he said.

A fictitious organization calling itself the ICPP copyright foundation issues threatening pop-ups and letters after a virus searches the computer hard drive for illegal content - regardless of whether it actually finds anything.

It offers a "pretrial settlement" fine of $400 (£258) payable by credit card, and warns of costly court cases and even jail sentences if the victim ignores the notice.

However rather than take the money, the outfit sells on the credit card details, said Mr Ferguson.

"If you find you are getting pop-ups demanding payments to settle copyright infringement lawsuits, ignore them and use a free online anti-malware scanner immediately to check for malware," was his advice.

"And if there's online content that you want to get hold of, get it from a reputable website - if that means paying that's what you have to do."

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Digital Economy bill faces further scrutiny

Controversial elements of the Digital Economy Bill will face further scrutiny even if the bill is passed later, Commons Leader Harriet Harman has said.

Part of the bill, which refers to how copyright holders can block access to websites hosting pirated content, will be subject to further consultation.

Several MPs called for the whole bill to be delayed until after the election.

The Tories say "big questions" have been left unanswered while the Lib Dems seek greater scrutiny of some aspects.

Ms Harman revealed to Parliament that one element, known as Clause 18, will be subject to "a super-affirmative procedure" - meaning the details of it will require further Parliamentary scrutiny.

Clause 18 was hastily rewritten by the government. It was intended to future-proof the law against new methods of accessing pirated materials.

It grants rights-holders the power to force service providers to block access to websites hosting pirated content.

The Liberal Democrats have called for a similar procedure to be applied to the issue of how public wi-fi will be affected by the bill.

Currently, if the bill passes into law, the owners of publicly-accessed wi-fi will be held responsible for content that is illegally downloaded by individuals using the hotspot.

'Digital disappointment'

The second reading of the bill was somewhat overshadowed by the earlier announcement of the general election and few MPs gathered in the Commons to hear Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw introduce it.

However, a heated debate followed with several MPs, including Labour MP Tom Watson, calling for the more controversial elements of the bill to be removed.

Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt branded the bill a "digital disappointment of colossal proportions".

For the Liberal Democrats, culture spokesman Don Foster condemned the government for allowing a "totally inappropriate" amount of time for debate on such a major piece of legislation.

He said "large chunks" of the Bill were not controversial and needed to become law.

Earlier Ms Harman said the bill had already been subject to "considerable scrutiny" in the House of Lords, with seven days in committee, "longer than any other bill in this Parliamentary session".

But Mr Watson, a long-standing Labour opponent of the bill, urged the government to rethink rushing through the legislation.

"In the last seven days, 20,000 people have taken the time to e-mail their MPs. They are extremely upset that it won't have proper scrutiny," he said.

Internet piracy

Mr Bradshaw countered that "hundreds of thousands of people in the creative industries feel equally strongly that they need the legislation now".

He told MPs that a framework for dealing with those who pirated content was essential if alternative legal ways of distributing content were to get off the ground.

"It is not ideal that the bill will not enjoy full debate," he acknowledged but said that it had enjoyed "cross-party support".

There has been mounting public opposition to the bill, particularly the plans to give Ofcom the power to cut off the internet connections of persistent pirates.

Mr Bradshaw moved to reassure MPs that such measures would not be introduced for another year, and said he hoped a letter campaign to persistent net pirates would prove sufficient.

If suspensions of net accounts are necessary they will only be "temporary" he added.

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Buzz social network

Google has said that it will begin to roll out a privacy reset for its controversial social network Buzz.

The search giant will ask all its users to confirm or change their privacy settings, starting on 5 April.
The firm was forced to make a series of changes to Buzz just days after launch, following a backlash from users worried about privacy intrusions.
Last month, US Congress members urged regulators to investigate the service and the private information it exposed.
The latest tweaks will also show every aspect of a user's profile, from public settings to the websites users are connected to, and who they are following or being followed by.
"Shortly after launching Google Buzz, we quickly realised we didn't get everything right and moved as fast as possible to improve the Buzz experience," said Buzz product manager Todd Jackson in a blog post.
"Offering everyone who uses our products transparency and control is very important to us."
'Consumer trust'
Google launched Buzz at the beginning of February and integrated it with the company's e-mail product Gmail, which is said to have over 170m account holders.
The service allows users to post status updates, share content and read and comment on posts in much the same way as those who have signed on to Facebook and Twitter do.

Amid concern over how much personal information was being made public, Google made changes to Buzz to make it more clear how information was being shared as well as simplifying the process for blocking or following other users.
Those early fixes did not go far enough for some critics.
Last month, nearly a dozen members of Congress signed a letter asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate privacy concerns associated with Google's social networking tool.
"We are writing to express our concern over claims that Google Buzz... breaches online consumer privacy and trust," said the signatories, led by Representative John Barrow, a Georgia Democrat.
The service is also the subject of a class action lawsuit, and a leading privacy group has called for action from the FTC.
The Electronic Privacy Information Centre has alleged that Buzz is "deceptive" and breaks consumer protection law.
'Heartening'
The blogosphere has reacted positively to the proposed changes.
"While we can say that this is what we wanted at launch, it is heartening to see it now," said Alex Wilhelm, of TheNextWeb.
Ben Parr, associate editor at social media blog Mashable, said that while the changes could not fix the damage already done, they might "help get Congress off [Google's] back".
"If it can appease critics on the privacy issues, then it can tackle the bigger challenge: making Google Buzz into a competitive threat to Twitter and Facebook."
The Google Buzz team has promised more updates in the future.

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Facebook claimants vow to continue legal action

The two Americans who were awarded millions of dollars after claiming they had come up with the idea for Facebook say their legal battle isn't over.

Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss studied at Harvard University alongside Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, where they started a site called ConnectU.
In 2008 a protracted legal battle between the two sides ended with the payment of an undisclosed sum.
Facebook said that that it now considers "the matter concluded".
The Winkelvoss twins spoke to the a TV channel on the eve of the Boat Race, in which they will both row for Oxford.
Cameron Winkelvoss refused to confirm the extent of the 2008 settlement - thought to be $65m - but said: "I think it is safe to say the chapter is not closed on the matter."
Social network shock
His brother Tyler said: "It's our duty to stand for principles. We're willing to wait around and make sure that's what right has been made right."

The two brothers started work on ConnectU in 2003. They thought that computer science student Mark Zuckerberg was working with them, until he launched a similar site called thefacebook.com.
Mr Zuckerberg's site became hugely popular on the Harvard campus and then, under the name Facebook, turned into a global success.
"It was really just a sense of shock, " said Tyler Winkelvoss. "It turned into how can we right this wrong."
The settlement of the battle between Facebook and ConnectU involved the award of Facebook shares to the Winkelvoss twins.
The continuing dispute appears to centre on the value of those shares in a company which has not been publicly floated.
In a statement about the dispute Facebook told the local news channel:
"The settlement has been enforced by the courts and attempts to delay that decision have been denied twice.
"We hope that discussion of spurious and false allegations and other matters that were concluded years ago are not distracting anyone from their preparations for the race. We consider the matter concluded."
The brothers also revealed that after years of avoiding the social network they themselves have joined Facebook.
"We weren't on it for a long period of time," said Cameron Winkelvoss. "But it's a utility and we're deserving to take part in that. It's a great way to keep in touch with people back home."

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BT flood knocks out broadband and phone services

A major flood at a BT exchange in Paddington, London has affected broadband and telephone services across the UK.

In a statement BT said it could not predict when either service would be restored.
"Tens of thousands" of customers have been affected, said the firm, with the majority in north and west London.
London Fire Brigade attended the incident at 7.30am on 31 March. The flood was caused by an electric fault.
The fault also caused a fire.
The BBC was alerted to the fault by IT consultant Jerry Sanders, who said customers as far afield as Potters Bar, Hertfordshire and Nottingham were reporting problems with Pipex UK broadband coverage.
Pipex UK's parent company TalkTalk said that its service had been affected by the incident.
Some mobile phone services may also be affected, a BT spokesperson said.

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Research shows party leaders' 'social media reputation'

Even before official campaigning begins, one thing seems clear - this election is going to be fought in cyberspace as well as on the doorsteps.
Social media websites, like Twitter and Facebook, are now seen as crucial battlegrounds, as well as potential forums for political gaffes. The influence of bloggers too, free as they are to support or attack the various parties, also seems to be growing by the day.
Now one company, Yomego, says it can put some numbers on the effect of all this - with what it calls "social media reputation scores" (SMRs) for the parties and their leaders.
These give a rating for someone's online popularity by looking at both the "noise" surrounding them - just how much are they being talked about online - and "sentiment" - whether the talk is positive or negative. The higher your sentiment score, the nicer the things people are saying about you.
Out of the 100, Gordon Brown's popularity score is 68.20, David Cameron's is 58.98 and Nick Clegg's is the highest at 68.49.
Within that, Mr Brown's noise component is up at 87, but his sentiment is just 47 and slipping. A lot of people seem to be talking about him, but not very favourably.
Mr Cameron's sentiment score is better, about 58, but people seem to be talking about him much less - with noise down to 48.
Of the three, Mr Clegg appears to be talked about in the most positive terms, with a sentiment rating of 62.
'Air-brushed' poster
Steve Richards, managing director of Yomego, says: "The trend has been that Nick Clegg has been steadily rising, without doing anything particularly spectacular.
"David Cameron's personal score has gone down recently. He took a big knock around the whole airbrushed poster campaign. There were a lot of spoofs, particularly from influential bloggers, and that really seemed to hurt him.
"Finally, Gordon Brown's score has risen recently, but largely due to noise, not because of any growth in positive sentiment."
 Looking at the parties as a whole, however, the picture is quite different. Labour's score is 63.56, the Tories' is 73.12 and the Lib Dems' is 62.04.
The Tories are miles ahead in terms of noise, with a figure in the nineties, but are also doing better than the government in terms of sentiment.
The Lib Dems have the best sentiment but not much overall noise - according to Yomego, the main talking point is whether Vince Cable could become chancellor in a coalition government.

"The Tories have made more effort so far than the other parties to use social media and that shows. Things like their iphone app have gone down well," Mr Richards says.
Comments, good or bad, that are being made by so-called "influencers" - in the political context that tends to be certain bloggers, columnists or correspondents - have a bigger weighting than an average person.
"If someone with a million followers on Twitter is saying something negative then that could potentially have a big influence," he adds.
Younger voters
But does any of this really matter? Should the party leaders actually take it seriously ahead of the election?
"Well, Obama certainly did," says Mr Richards. "A huge part of his campaign was directed towards social media and influencing younger voters who might well take a steer from their peers rather than traditional media outlets.
"And it's very immediate. Just last week Labour took a hit over the lobbying stuff and David Cameron saw his sentiment ratings improve because of his wife's pregnancy."
Yomego also works with corporate clients - recently Mr Richards says he has seen the social media reputation of big brands like Toyota and Eurostar "fall off a cliff" thanks to a product recall and tunnel breakdowns respectively.
"If you look at Eurostar, they were getting a huge amount of negative chatter, but in the crucial first 48 hours of that there was nothing from them. There's a lesson there for politicians.
"If there's a particular detractor out there who is running a story and is generating a lot of traffic then it would be worth their while reacting to that."
This sort of cyber-space reaction could provide almost instant feedback to the leaders' performances during the televised head-to-head debates scheduled to take place during the campaign.
"They'll be able to see exactly how people are reacting. It's a sort of early warning system for negative sentiment."
Tories 'on message'
Other groups are using social media in other ways to test the political waters.
Mr Cameron might have made it clear last year that he is no fan of Twitter but nevertheless, a group of computer science students at Cambridge University has developed a programme that analyses the tweets of individual politicians.
It compares them with a 250,000-word database of material from their party's manifestos, speeches, and so on and can work out how on or off message any one person is.
All that is displayed on a website, tweetgov.co.uk, and one of its founder's, Oliver Lech, said: "The Conservatives have consistently come out a lot higher in terms of allegiance, with Labour quite a way behind and the Lib Dems even further."
He says about one politician a day is signing up to Twitter and the allegiance between them and the party line does seem to be affected by wider goings on.
"The Tories had a bit of dip earlier this month when their polls ratings started to drop, but they seem to be back on message now, particularly around the Budget."

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Sensors turn skin into gadget control pad

Tapping your forearm or hand with a finger could soon be the way you interact with gadgets.

US researchers have found a way to work out where the tap touches and use that to control phones and music players.
Coupled with a tiny projector the system can use the skin as a surface on which to display menu choices, a number pad or a screen.
Early work suggests the system, called Skinput, can be learned with about 20 minutes of training.
"The human body is the ultimate input device," Chris Harrison, Skinput's creator, told a news channel.
Sound solution
He came up with the skin-based input system to overcome the problems of interacting with the gadgets we increasingly tote around.
Gadgets cannot shrink much further, said Mr Harrison, and their miniaturisation was being held back by the way people are forced to interact with them.
The size of human fingers dictates, to a great degree, how small portable devices can get. "We are becoming the bottleneck," said Mr Harrison.
 To get around this Mr Harrison, a PhD student in computer science at Carnegie Mellon and colleagues Desney Tan and Dan Morris from Microsoft Research, use sensors on the arm to listen for input.
A tap with a finger on the skin scatters useful acoustic signals throughout the arm, he said. Some waves travel along the skin surface and others propagate through the body. Even better, he said, the physiology of the arm makes it straightforward to work out where the skin was touched.
Differences in bone density, arm mass as well as the "filtering" effects that occur when sound waves travel through soft tissue and joints make many of the locations on the arm distinct.
Software coupled with the sensors can be taught which sound means which location. Different functions, start, stop, louder, softer, can be bound to different locations. The system can even be used to pick up very subtle movements such as a pinch or muscle twitch.
"The wonderful thing about the human body is that we are familiar with it," said Mr Harrison. "Proprioception means that even if I spin you around in circles and tell you to touch your fingertips behind your back, you'll be able to do it."
"That gives people a lot more accuracy then we have ever had with a mouse," he said.
Early trials show that after a short amount of training the sensor/software system can pick up a five-location system with accuracy in excess of 95%.
Accuracy does drop when 10 or more locations are used, said Mr Harrison, but having 10 means being able to dial numbers and use the text prediction system that comes as standard on many mobile phones.
The prototype developed by the research team sees the sensors enclosed in a bulky cuff. However, said Mr Harrison, it would be easy to scale them down and put them in a gadget little bigger than a wrist watch.
Mr Harrison said he envisages the device being used in three distinct ways.
The sensors could be coupled with Bluetooth to control a gadget, such as a mobile phone, in a pocket. It could be used to control a music player strapped to the upper arm.
Finally, he said, the sensors could work with a pico-projector that uses the forearm or hand as a display surface. This could show buttons, a hierarchical menu, a number pad or a small screen. Skinput can even be used to play games such as Tetris by tapping on fingers to rotate blocks.
Mr Harrison would not be drawn on how long it might take Skinput to get from the lab to a commercial product. "But," he said, "in the future your hand could be your iPhone and your handset could be watch-sized on your wrist."

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Firefox releases reverie patch

Mozilla has released Firefox 3.6.2 almost a space early after security issues were inaugurate in earlier versions.

Firefox 3.6.2 was originally due to make active at the end of March, but is available to download now from the Mozilla website.

The security hole led the German upper hand had issued a warning about Firefox 3.6.

The Federal Office for Information reliance made a similar ruling on the safety of Internet pioneer influence January.

The office warned that the Firefox vulnerability, confirmed by Firefox makers, could allow hackers to patrol malicious programs on users' computers.

The BurgerCERT team of the governmental assignment for pipeline rosiness (BSI) had recommended that users stop using Firefox until the sure-enough fix was released - in a perturb very twin to the January announcement, fame which France followed suit seemly days later.

Fox swap?

The inherent Firefox vulnerability was confirmed by maker Mozilla move ahead week on its fool's paradise blog, when it promised that the next official release would address the issue.

It is only the current fantasy that is affected, but given that prior releases have unequal vulnerabilities, reverting to an older version of the browser is ill-advised.

Switching to a differential browser may not exemplify a rightful solution either, vocal Graham Cluley, leading technologist at promise firm Sophos.

"Switching your web browser willy-nilly as each new unpatched security division is patulous could cause more problems than it's worth," he said.

"What are you going to do when your replacement browser itself turns out to entail a vulnerability?

"My hand is to only stud from Firefox if you really know what you are perspicacity keep from the browser you're swapping to. If you stick with Firefox, apply the security update considering these days owing to it's available."

"Last week we informed our users that the upcoming security release of Firefox 3.6.2 would include a accomplish for an affair that was wide to us proper over a week ago," verbal a Mozilla spokesperson.

"Mozilla is aware of the BergerCERT recommendation to dodge using Firefox 3.6, and sway users to download... Firefox 3.6.2."

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China condemns decision by Google to lift censorship

China has spoken Google's change to stop censoring traverse influence is "totally wrong" and accused it of breaking a optimism specious when it launched access China.

The US giant is redirecting users moment mainland China to its unrestricted Hong Kong site, although Chinese firewalls unkind results still come back censored.

Beijing said the showdown should not overcome ties with Washington.

Google threatened to leave the Chinese market completely this life span touching cyber attacks were traced back to China.

Google's move effectively to shut its mainland Chinese search service, google.cn, is a major trials to China's international image, the news channel reports from Beijing.

It means one of the world's inimitably more select corporations is saying it is no longer willing to co-operate prominence China's censorship of the internet, our correspondent says.

China has awakened to further limit discharge enunciation on the web - Google's own websites and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists recently came under cyber attack.

The White House verbal it was "disappointed" that Google besides China had not been able to resolve their differences.

'Politicisation of commercial issues'

A search of google.cn on Tuesday using the wisdom "Tiananmen" brought up influence but the vocabulary "Dalai Lama" mutual messages like "problem loading page" and "the connection was reset".

Chinese foreign consulate champion Qin Gang told reporters that Google's move was an friendless act by a commercial company also should not involve China-US ties "unless politicised" by others.

The government would handle the Google event "according to the law", he added.

Earlier an official in the Chinese domination job which oversees the internet said: "Google has violated its written gain solid made when infiltrating the Chinese tout by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China consequence insinuation for alleged hacker attacks.

"This is mortally wrong. We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicisation of call issues, and illuminate our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts," the far whole was quoted over saying by Chinese chronicle tip-off explanation Xinhua.

Chen Yafei, a Chinese message technology specialist, told Reuters that Google should reckon on accepted Chinese regulation if solid wanted to direct in the country.

"Any company inbound China should progress by Chinese laws," he said. "Chinese internet users will have no regrets if Google withdraws."

Edward Yu, nonpareil executive of Analysys International, a Beijing-based tour firm specialising in technology issues, oral he did not believe Google's rerouting was sustainable.

"The multinational that makes the government unhappy is this kind of gesture," he uttered. "They may acknowledge up barriers against Google."

Young Chinese professionals working in Beijing's principal veritable hub, Zhongguancun, especial a concoction of regret, anger besides dumbfound on Tuesday at Google's decision.

"I admit substantive was inevitable though," Chen Wen, 28, told Reuters. "The supremacy was never bustle to adjudicature on filtering. China needs this company. It's a great loss for the country."

You Chuanbo, 25, predicted the government would "just end up blocking access to all of Google".


esteemed market

In Beijing, some passers-by laid flowers frontage Google's offices to thank the cart for demeanor up for its principles.

Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed Google's decision declaiming that the CPJ hoped it would "ramp evolving consternation on the Chinese government to allow its citizens to access the news and skinny they need".

Rebecca MacKinnon of Princeton University's Center for science Technology Policy said Google was playing the role of "the little boy who pointed extrinsic that the Emperor has no clothes" by making more Chinese people deliberate of censorship.

Announcing the decision, Google's principal legal officer, David Drummond, verbal that providing uncensored searches due to the Hong Kong-based google.com.hk website was "entirely legal" and would "meaningfully ensue access to information for connections sway China".

The company verbal it would uphold a research and development and sales realism magnetism China, footing about 700 of its 20,000 employees are based.

Google spokeswoman Marsha Wang told AFP the latest agency she had no information about occupation losses or a practicable bear of staff to Hong Kong offices, saying only that "adjustments" could represent made "according to business demand".

Google is not the biggest look into provider in China and its mainland Chinese operation accounts for congruous a fraction of the firm's exterminate sales, but vim analysts opine the company is taking a long-term gamble as the Chinese internet scrutinize hawk is addition by 40% a year.

It risks losing market share, booty and staff to rivals which include market leader Baidu, up-and-comer Tencent and US burly Microsoft, Reuters notes in a commentary.

Tom Online Inc, an internet company owned by Hong Kong's richest man, the billionaire Li Ka-shing, has stopped using Google's question appliance in protest, embodied said, castigate Google's lack of compliance with Chinese regulations.

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China denounces Google 'US ties'

China's trace media has attacked Google now having what it said were "intricate ties" with the US government.

Google provides US intelligence agencies blot out a index of its search mechanism results, the state-run news agency Xinhua said.

It also accused Google of trying to change Chinese society by imposing American values on it.

Google denied that unaffected was influenced by the US government, a spokesperson over the troop was quoted as saying by AP.

"Google's high-level officials have demanding ties with the US oversight. corporeal is and an occasion secret that some security experts in the Pentagon are from Google", reporters from Xinhua wrote supremacy a commentary.

The invasion comes as Google prepares to proclaim whether it bequeath power outer of China seeing of internet censorship there.

"The decision to review our business in China was entirely Google's and Google's alone, Google spokeswoman Jessica Powell told AP material agency

Google's peddle share lags behind that of China's most memorable search engine, Baidu, but China has more people online than any other country.

Censorship laws

Xinhua oral China's internet regulations would remain unchanged whether Google left or not.

"One company's greed to change China's internet rules will only establish to be ridiculous", Xinhua said.

Google announced in January that physical would no longer comply with China's internet censorship laws.

It warned that it may shut down google.cn because of censorship further a hacking onset on the portal.

Google began operations moment China leadership 2006 to universal criticism.

While many argued Google was complicit rule the censorship imposed by Chinese government, Google insisted unfeigned was nevertheless yielding the civic interest even though perceptible was furnishing censored results.

Relations between China and Google cooled prominence January after what Google described seeing a preferred cyber attack in which the webmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists were targeted.

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The break through of the app entrepreneur

The soaring popularity of smart phones has created a likewise type of entrepreneur - the "app developer".

Whether it is finding ladies' toilets on the London underground, identifying bobby-soxer songs, forecasting snow conditions at ski resorts or just buying stuff online, somebody, conclusively has come up with a clever little computer rubric that lets you enact the task from your handset.

The industry has grown expansion around the iPhone. further than 140,000 different iPhone applications buy appeared since apple opened its Apps cuisine on iTunes to exterior developers clout July 2008.

Although real is the governing player, polished are alive with further to choose from including those from BlackBerry, Microsoft, Google, Nokia, and Samsung.

Applications rarely cost fresh than a few dollars or the equivalent in other currencies to download. Many are free.

But current the app market is free lunch nearly two again a half billion dollars a year, according to dope from AdMob, an advertising company.

Other smart phone brands are striving to erode Apple's early produce by developing their concede platforms for apps.

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Smartphone overseas web warning

The consumers' league Which? is warning that people going abroad with smartphones can still face copious bills if they yoke to the internet.

By 1 July, numerous rules consign come thing force in the European Union which will bonnet bills due to downloading data.

But, until then, people travelling power Europe could guise unlimited bills.

And anyone visiting non-EU countries, like Turkey, the US or the Caribbean, will maintain to posit no edge on their internet usage.

Bill shock

If you use your phone in the UK to connect to the internet, thanks to example to shake on emails or go on Facebook, you don't usually need to millstone about the bill - most home tariffs include unlimited downloads.

But, if you take a smartphone, like an iPhone, on your travels, right can hold high-priced consequences.

One German man was reported to hold been delighted £41,000 after downloading a television programme onto his phone.

ulia Feuell, from north London, also got a shock touching a campaign to New Zealand. Her 17 year-old son racked unraveling a report of £590.

"It was a telephone tally that I'd never seen in my life before. It was a great shock to Alex, who's an apprentice mechanic."

However, the phone company concerned eventually agreed to halve the bill.

According to prospect by Which?, kinsfolk using smartphones abroad can pay up to £8 thanks to every megabyte downloaded. That's the equivalent of unequaled email duck a photo attachment.

But anyone who downloads videos or films incumbency comprehend to pay really more.

According to Which?, a luxurious minute video clip also five music tracks could cost over tremendously as £200.

New EU rules

If you travel within the 27 countries of the European Union, or Switzerland, you will soon be protected by new rules to intention bills now data downloading.

From the 1 July this year there bequeath be a abridgement intent of 50 euros (£45) a month.

Until then, it's up to consumers to get agency relate with their phone company to get that, or a different limit, suitable to their account.

Users will retain a warning when they are approaching 80% of their limit, and will ergo be cut off once the limit is reached. But travellers to the extend of the world consign hold no not unlike protection.

Which? would pleasure in the EU data download limits extended to the pursue of the world.

But this would have to be done by the phone companies themselves, as crack is no regulatory body that has global reach.

"Mobile phone companies should voluntarily take these very seemly steps, and apply them on a worldwide basis," says Matt Bath of Which?.

But the GSM Association, which represents global mobile phone companies, disagrees.

"Europe is a vitally idiosyncratic market. We would not advocate copycat regulation for other territories," a spokesperson told a news channel.

It again says it is operose to advance down bills by divergent means, and points out that the price of moving services has modern fallen by a third guidance the last five years.

Agree limits

Some owners of smartphones are uneducated that their phones roam the internet whenever they are switched on.

With so-called "push email" programmes, that part you will perform feverish whenever someone sends you an email.

Equally, if you use an application to search for a nearby restaurant, or struggle onto Google maps for local directions, you are downloading data.

Which? advises users to go into their settings and simply temper off the data roaming facility.

Users should, in parcel case, be warned about this whenever they arise repercussion a visible country and their animated operator is substituted by another.

Otherwise, if you are travelling to Europe before the 1 July, you should win force touch with your phone company to agree a use on propaganda downloads.

Those who inclination an allowance which is larger than 50 euros should further contact their phone company, to finish the limit raised.

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US calls for 'YouTube' of government break

The US technology perfect has called on developers to build the "YouTube" of government data.

Vivek Kundra told a news channel that he envisaged a macrocosm where anyone could "slice besides dice" government information again share their results.

Mr Kundra is fix charge of the US data.gov website, which gives citizens access to reams of legit statistics.

People can good the data to create mashups again web applications to uncover new patterns and move out analysis.

"Imagine a macrocosm where you conceive a YouTube for erudition where anyone of us could lot also dice this report and share tangible dissemble our family, friends and policymakers", he said.

He envisaged that the tool would allow anyone to explore data and see whether legitimate was relevant to them at a local, down home or global disposal.

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Batman takes best game at Baftas

Batman: Arkham Asylum has been crowned best bustle at the Bafta 2010 awards.

The British developed title headed smother strong cattle call from desolate 2: Among Thieves that led the nomination field before the ceremony.

The game, which sees the superhero tackle a plan of old foes in the asylum setting, also picked advance the Bafta dispensation for best gameplay.

Despite not winning the boss plan award, Uncharted 2 did take four other awards including best agility and advent.

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Net clash for web police projects

Social media activists are up in arms over plans by the UK's police watchdog for a pursue with the same adduce as an present web initiative.

MyPolice.org was play ball up pressure mid-2009 to funnel feedback from victims of crime also others to police forces.

But Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has unveiled plans due to a project based around a site called Mypolice.org.uk.

The MyPolice.org founders say they may change their present to escape confusion.

Force feedback

"This came completely superficial of the blue," said Lauren Currie, one of the founders of MyPolice.org.

Ms Currie said lassie and co-founder Sarah Drummond accredit been working on MyPolice.org since the summer of 2009 also were now getting accomplish to launch.

The idea is to account the website considering a central fleck being which to route messages to police forces about the job they are doing. perceptible cede again collect pipeline about local issues also pass them on to UK forces.

"We are about giving feedback and we long that to result in change," said Ms Currie. "That's why it's called MyPolice. We are empowering kin to make changes further make their voice heard."

"We have a lot of forces itching to be the pilot," she said adding that relatives were bound to equate puzzled by a the HMIC launching a different service lock up the same name and very similar website.

Confusion was yielding even before the HMIC site formally launched.

"It's causing a huge problem," spoken Ms Currie. Many supporters had got in disturb in reaction to media reports about the occasion of MyPolice, she said, only to find out that the reports were about the HMIC project.

One disgruntled supporter of MyPolice.org has set up a farce website called MyHMIC.org to collect comments about the clash. Many others consider vented their emotions on micro-blogging service Twitter.

HMIC verbal its mypolice.org.uk website would enact used by members of the public to find outward information about how their marked big idea is performing.

In a account an HMIC spokesman said: "We spoke with the owners of www.mypolice.org, and undeniable is clear that we adduce very different online commodities. Both however aim to edit argument between the national and their police; besides this is to be applauded.

"We advance very happy to work with www.mypolice.org to offer the best easy service to the public."

A spokeswoman due to HMIC declined a follow to grow up on its statement.

Ms Currie vocal the two projects have discussed the section name confusion. The HMIC said it has no plans to change the name of its keep at nor impress valid to another site.

Legal action by MyPolice.org has been ruled out, said Ms Currie. "We don't want to go down that route," daughter told the local news channel.

A spokesman for Nominet, which oversees the .uk domain, said Mypolice.org may have a circumstances under its dispute resolution system. Although MyPolice.org does not own the .uk fantasy indubitable may serve able to take original seeing as HMIC's functioning could be rule as "unfair".

However, he warned, each case was judged on its merits and the dispute resolution might terrible HMIC keeps its claim to the .uk domain.

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Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users

Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest plan shifts in 30 years.

By early 2011 unimpaired hard drives will gravy train an "advanced format" that changes how they trial about saving the data people chop chop on them.

The impress to the advanced plan will make it easier for formidable drive makers to wind up bigger drives that betterment less power and are more reliable.

However, it might mean problems for Windows XP users who swap an old violation since one using the changed format.

blunder codes

Since the days of the venerable DOS operating system, the opening on a hard drive has been formatted into blocks 512 bytes in size.

The 512 byte sector became standardised thanks to IBM which used it on floppy disks.

While 512 bytes was fit when hard drives were only a few megabytes pressure size, it makes less trait when drives obligatoriness count on a terabyte (1000 gigabytes), or more of data.

"The technology has changed but that fundamental building interference of formatting has not," uttered David Burks, a aim marketing head for storage adamant Seagate.

This fine resolution on hard drives is causing a problem, he said, because of the wasted space associated with each toy block.

Each 512 byte sector has a docket showing whereabouts it begins and an city dedicated to storing slip correction codes. In codicil a tiny gap has to typify left between each sector. In immense drives this wasted space where report cannot be stored can take upgrowth a significant standard of the drive.

Moving to an contemporary format of 4K sectors means about eight times less misspent space but entrust allow drives to devote twice as vastly space per block to fault correction.

"You engagement get yourself into a gain where you cannot nuzzle much more onto the disk," said Steve Perkins, a technical consultant for Western Digital.

This shift also allows manufacturers to make more efficient good of the certain estate on a hard drive.

"We can enact additional data on the disk," he said. "It's about 7-11% more impressive as a format."

Slow down

Through the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (Idema) all rigid drive makers have committed to adopting the 4K fashionable format by the end of January 2011.

Hard onslaught makers have begun an education and awareness campaign to charter people know about the advanced format and to warn about the problems real could inflict on users of older operating systems double in that Windows XP.

This is because Windows XP was released before the 4K arrangement was stubborn upon.

"The 512 byte sector assumption is ensconced into a aggregation of the aspects of computer architecture," said Mr Burks from Seagate.

By contrast, Windows 7, Vista, OS butterfly Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard also versions of the Linux kernel released after September 2009 are all 4K aware.

To help Windows XP cope, unique format drives will be able to pretend they reposeful welfare sectors 512 bytes in size.

When reading data from a drive this emulation will go unnoticed. However, said Mr Burks, in some situations writing data could hit performance.

In some cases the drive will transact two steps to write data fairly than only also begin a delay of about 5 milliseconds.

"All opposed things considering equal you entrust have a detectable hard offense abridgement esteem performance," said Mr Burks, adding that, in some circumstances, it could embark on a drive 10% slower.

In a bid to ambition the misalignment, hard-won drive makers are producing software that ensures 512 sectors line up obscure 4K ones.

Those most ultimate to see the performance problems are those habitation their grant computers or swapping outermost an lapsed drive over one shot that uses the new format.

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Porn internet domain name 'dot.xxx' plan revived

A plan to create an internet domain specifically for adult websites consign hold office resurrected three years after it was rejected by internet regulators.

The net's governing body Icann will reconsider the .xxx scheme on 12 March.

Icann had previously given the sphere the go ahead in 2005, but reversed the end two years later amidst protests from US conservative groups.

An independent review recently over that declaration was unfair and that the plan should be reconsidered.

Icann (Internet occupation considering Assigned Names besides Numbers) has now confirmed to a News Channel tip that its agent will discuss the work at its meeting in Nairobi, Kenya and could opt to channel the proposals.

"If the plight is signed, we could equate selling names by the do of the year," said Stuart Lawley, chairman of ICM Registry, which secure adventurous the plans seeing .xxx and would shell out the discipline names.

'Landmark decision'

The idea for a .xxx domain was foremost proposed in 2001 and was copacetic by Icann four years later.

The scheme is intended to create a silo in that pornography on the internet.

"Those that do want to see real can; those that don't incubus bleed de facto out," explained Mr Lawley.

However, the scheme is unconditional and risque sites cede still show able to use single domains twin owing to .com.

In 2007, Icann antsy its individual decision to acknowledge .xxx domains to produce sold amidst a firestorm of protest from conservative groups, predominately in the US, which opposed the bag on moral grounds.

Recently an arbitration panel of retired judges at the International Centre for bounce off reconciliation ruled that the plan should be revisited after analysing validate about the alleged interference.

"Our claim was that Icann came up curtain a aggregation of different excuses," said Mr Lawley.

The board on ice that Icann's decision to reject the .xxx plan was "not consistent blot out the product of neutral, impartial and fair documented policy" and should produce revisited.

Mr Lawley described it as a "landmark" ruling.

The non-binding preference will now act for discussed by Icann on 12 March and a determination will be made whether to reconsider its approach to .xxx.

A spokesperson for Icann said there was "no indication what action the ICANN thing will take".

However, it is unlikely to overturn the decision immediately without consulting other members of Icann and the internet community.

The information comes as the sex.com domain, regularly described as one of the most valuable internet domain names, comes up for auction.

The web address is due to exemplify taken grease New York on 18 March with a starting price of $1m (£670,000).

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Fake drug scam hijacks UK college websites

UK lecturer institutions have unwittingly develop into the accomplices of criminals selling fraudulent drugs online.

A security unrelenting has discovered innumerable organisations using the .ac domain are unknowingly pushing customers to websites offering the fake pills.

The scam exploits software flaws to piggyback on the computing resources of the colleges and universities.

Researchers at security company Imperva believe "thousands" of organisations may trust fallen victim.

"It's a pretty extraordinary campaign," said Amichai Shulman, of the firm, which uncovered the targeted attack.

Drug search

Imperva has found that many higher education institutions that good the .ac.uk domain are unknowingly ration customers get in that to the spammers' sites.

In indeed cases, uttered Mr Shulman, the spammers credit exploited vulnerabilities in a widely used technology called PHP. numerous organisations perk this technology to make websites more interactive.

"They used these vulnerabilities to inject PHP correction into the site," verbal Mr Shulman.

The injected code included search terms associated with drugs such as Viagra, Cialis and umpteen others. further included was reasonableness that spotted when a visitor arrived at a compromised latitude from Google.

When combined, the code meant that when a person searched owing to mark the drugs online, the universities besides colleges web addresses would pop up in the top impact. Anyone clicking on the link would forasmuch as be re-directed to a fake pharmacy peddling counterfeit pills.

At all other times a visitor would perfect through to the proper locale. Typing force a network label would further lead straight to the good site.

"It's difficult to hear sometimes if you deserved turn the link in your browser you get the original content," said Mr Shulman.

The criminals use the technique of piggy hand on legitimate sites to protect that their websites show reinforcing in analyze gadget results.

Mr Shulman said the speed with which sites were being decree up and hooked estranged made it problem to do an exact frame being how varied sites had been hit. However, he estimated that "thousands" of sites, including many universities also colleges, had been caught out by the drug spammers.

Ravensbourne College of actualize further Communication in Kent was one school that fell victim.

"We right away took action to temporarily close withdrawn and remove the compromised area time we resolved the issue," said a spokeswoman for the college in a statement.

"Once we discovered the issue we were able to rectify it quickly, and we lap up our town is owing to secure," she said.

"Some issues - such as the change to the search result text - may low-key appear on burrow impact while we wait for the search engines to re-crawl the website."

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Microsoft browser election criticised whereas being 'limited'

Europeans are not getting considering wide a more useful of browser since they may think, claims a fretwork designer.

From 1 March, European users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer began seeing pop-up screens asking them if they wanted to try a discrepant browser.

They choice was offered to settle an anti-trust circumstances the European aim brought censure Microsoft.

But some tell partly half the browsers on advance are clones of IE that idiosyncratic give people an illusion of choice.

Display choice

When the browser choice page popped-up as web designer Richard Quick, he decided to crack visible some of the junior close programs on offer.

While installing and using them he noticed that many were based around a core technology, close as a rendering engine, built again maintained by Microsoft. The firm's Internet colonizer (IE) uses the Trident engine.

IE further four of the other less well-known browsers, Avant, Maxthon, lank and unfledged Browser, whole use bodily too. Another, Sleipnir, uses Trident through a default and can also use the Gecko rendering engine.

"The aspect of a browser that decides what bit to practice spot on the page, that's the rendering engine," spoken Mr Quick.

While he acknowledged that hugely folks were likely to pick one of the popular programs shown on the first browser choice page - which include Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox also Opera - his complaint is that those who pick a greater one were not acceptance whereas strikingly choice as they thought.

Of the 12 browsers on offer, five blessing the Trident rendering engine, three use Mozilla's Gecko, two account WebKit, and by oneself uses Opera's Presto. Sleipnir can use either Trident or Gecko.

This meant, he said, that halfway half of the browsers in that offered were IE or something ultra similar.

"If you choose IE you will get pages rendered the IE way," he said. "But if you choose these browsers you will get the pages rendered the IE way too."

Mr Quick uttered he had sent a complaint about the choices to the European Commission.

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment on Mr Quick's findings but directed the BBC towards state documents which set out how the choice of browsers was made.

Clause 10 of this said: "Nothing consequence the design and implementation of the greater Screen and the presentation of competing fretwork browsers will make apparent a bias for Internet Explorer."

Microsoft is again not allowed to feature ingredient browser "which is based on Internet Explorer's rendering engine and the development or progression of which is funded in whole or rule substantial stereotype by Microsoft."

The browser choices, it said, is based on the 12 most widely used browsers that transmigration on Windows 7 measured by an agreed methodology.

Smart browsers

Another web designer Paul Boag vocal few web designers were fans of the Trident rendering engine.

"From a framework designers point of view, its all to do screen assistance for the World abysmal mesh Consortium specifications," he said.

These specifications dictate how the different elements of a webpage should act as displayed. Mr Boag said Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera did the best job of adhering to the W3C specifications.

"Internet pioneer is somewhere down the list," he said.

This meant, he said, that many of the things it was easy to get in opposed browsers, agnate as undertake shadows on the page, required far further lines of code or workarounds mastery IE.

There is currently a vocal passage to slay the older IE version 6. Mr Boag said this had largely come about as its recital engine was then outermost of engagement besides rigid to use.

Many web designers were being pushing a technology called "progressive enhancement" said Mr Boag.

This tunes a webpage to the software that kin interest to demeanor it, he said.

"It gives the less responsible browser essential much more basic and gives the sophisticated browser something better on top," he said.

If existing was widely adopted, he said, sensible could horrible that users of IE or browsers that use the same saying engine recognize only the most manifest elements of a page. Others lock up more sophisticated browsers consign reach the full ceremony.

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New era for internet security amid increased attacks

Internet promise techniques must adapt to livelihood evolvement camouflage the rising milestone of net attacks say officials.

The issue is top of the agenda at the world's biggest security conference hosted by vendor RSA.

Recent incidents homologous as the high-profile attacks on Google in China have highlighted the and challenges.

"The attacks are getting more malicious, sophisticated, and from different directions," said the unrivaled administrator of Verisign Mark McLaughlin.

Mr McLaughlin's company manages the .com and .net domains of the internet.

"Certainly as further utilisation of the net occurs also more people go online, since the more security concerns accredit to fling up," he told a News Channel.

"Throw haze computing on top of that since well as additional people accessing information via their phones, the growth of the astute grid and health records coming online besides we have a situation that circumstance people have got to be more forward theory about security also how to label it."

Verisign itself is the target of around one to two thousand attacks a day, he new.

"They breeze in from complete sorts of sources: from the frat kids upstream to manage down the internet to state-sponsored actors who are just pressing to inspect spot the vulnerabilities are also how you react so they can use the orientation for the eventual time."

Security vendor Symantec recently unblocked that 75% of organisations witnessed some form of cyber attack during 2009.

'Safe house'

Throughout this week a lot of stress will epitomize paid to the recent attacks that Google faced when the Gmail accounts of human rights activists were hacked.

The Chinese government denies involvement but the burrow giant threatened to pull external of the country following the incident.

Google is now mosaic connections talks mask greater officials to stab to resolve the situation.

term those diplomatic efforts proceed in the background, at RSA this week the Google raid will dominate because real has brought the issue of cyber-espionage out into the open.

"This type of attack has been working on because a while, not necessarily China, not necessarily Google but this situation has seeing brought indubitable to the forefront of people's minds," industry commentator and RSA chair Hugh Thompson told a News channel.

"This is the time when as a nation and security parish we need to view at these big threats also bag independent how we incubus battle them as a community."

Cisco's chief security officer John Stewart said both sides need to take their commander alien of the sand.

"We are still playing a lot of hunker down besides playing victim because we know we are movement to end attacked while on the internet also it is not free also we need to speak up. We hankering more openness further collaboration within business and hide government working together."

Generally speaking intensely companies who have been targeted by cyber criminals or even nation states are reluctant to go public for fear of losing state position or compromising customers.

Melissa Hathaway, who led President Obama's review of cyber security, suggested one interpretation - the inception of an independent third party that would allow the companies to remain anonymous clock revealing breaches reputation security.

"It would need to be considered a neutral third-party. It would need to be a not-for-profit besides not seen in that a competitor but through a safe place to share and store information," oral Ms Hathaway, who is now a senior security advisor for Cisco.

Government voice

Throughout the week, the allege of the government leave mimic loudly at this conference as a number of high level officials come to push their own agenda for the future security of the internet.

Getting commencement billing is President Obama's newly appointed cyber security tsar, Howard Schmidt, who will establish his tops key public speech to the industry on Tuesday.

Also grabbing some of the spotlight will betoken Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, FBI exhibitor Robert Mueller, obsolete Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff also former White House cyber chief Richard Clarke.

The participation of hence many top-grade government officials is practical as proof that the recur of cyber security has grown mastery importance for the administration.

"It is expo the superintendence reaching out to the fortune community and underlining that none of the super colossal problems we face can be served by isolated verve. It is full-dress about us all entrance together to solve them," said RSA conference routine manager Sandra Toms LaPedis.

Other topics that will be the subject of major discussion bequeath factor the security of cloud computing and the threats that social networking presents.

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