World News | Latest News: July 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Teen charged over hacking attack

31 July 2011 Last updated at 15:23 ET

A man from the Shetland Islands has been charged with computer offences by police investigating hacking attacks.

Jake Davis, 18, was charged with unauthorised computer access and conspiracy to carry out a distributed denial of service attack on the Serious and Organised Crime Agency's website.

He faces five charges and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday, police said.

Police are investigating hacking groups known as Anonymous and LulzSec.

Officers from the police's Central e-Crime Unit arrested the teenager in what they describe as a "pre-planned intelligence-led operation" on Wednesday.

The UK Serious Organised Crime agency took its website offline for several hours on 20 June after it appeared to be a victim of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. LulzSec claimed responsibility for the attack.

DDoS is where large numbers of computers, under malicious control, overload their target with web requests.

Ryan Cleary, 19, of Wickford, Essex, was charged last month with five offences under the Criminal Law and Computer Misuse Acts, including an alleged hacking attack against Soca's website.

LulzSec has previously also claimed responsibility for hacking attacks on the US Senate, Sony, the CIA and the Sun newspaper.

A 16-year-old boy from south London was arrested and bailed last week, while the international investigation has also led to sixteen arrests in the United States and four in the Netherlands.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

DVT linked to video gamer's death

30 July 2011 Last updated at 09:31 ET

A man whose son died after playing video games for long periods is campaigning for greater awareness of the risk posed by their excessive use.

Chris Staniforth, 20, who would play his console for up to 12 hours, died in May from deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

His father David believes the condition may have been triggered by long gaming sessions.

DVT can form during long periods of immobility and can kill if the clots travel to the lungs.

Computer records showed his son would sometimes play online on his Xbox for periods up to 12 hours.

The coroner said a clot formed in Chris' left calf before moving to his lungs.

Once there, it caused a fatal blockage, known as a pulmonary embolism.

Mr Staniforth said: "After my research I saw there was no difference to Chris sitting at a desk on his Xbox and someone on a long-haul flight.

"Sitting still is literally the danger zone. Chris loved to play and would stay up all night.

"Millions of people worldwide are playing these games for hours, and there is a risk."

While Mr Staniforth has no problem with games consoles, he wants to highlight the heightened risk of DVT associated with being immobile, and is in the process of setting up a website.

Microsoft, who manufacture the Xbox console, could not be reached for comment.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Apple holding more cash than USA

29 July 2011 Last updated at 08:55 ET

Apple now has more cash to spend than the United States government.

Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7bn (�45.3bn).

Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn (�46.9bn).

The US House of Representatives is due to vote on a bill to raise the country's debt ceiling, allowing it to borrow more money to cover spending commitments.

If it fails to reach an agreement, the federal government is likely to hit its $14.3 trillion (�8.7tn) dollar limit.

The United States is currently spending around $200bn (�122bn) more than it collects in revenue every month.

Apple, on the other hand, is making money hand over fist, according to its financial results.

In the three months ending 25 June, net income was 125% higher than a year earlier at $7.31bn (�4.6bn).

Spending spree

With more than $75bn (�35.8bn) sitting in the bank, there has been enormous speculation about what the company will do with the money.

"Apple keeps its cards close to its chest," said Daniel Ashdown, an analyst at Juniper Research.

Industry watchers believe that it is building up a war chest to be used for strategic acquisitions of other businesses, and to secure technology patents.

Bookstore Barnes and Noble and the online movie site Netflix have both been tipped as possible targets, said Mr Ashdown.

The company may also have its eye on smaller firms that develop systems Apple might want to add to its devices, such as voice recognition.

Apple dipped into some of its reserves recently when it teamed-up with Microsoft to buy a batch of patents from defunct Canadian firm Nortel.

The bidding consortium shelled out $4.5bn (�2.8bn) for more than 6,000 patents.

Whitehall's web habits revealed

29 July 2011 Last updated at 06:50 ET By Victoria King Political reporter, BBC News

Belly dancing, Doctor Who and the Roman Empire are just some of the interests of civil servants as revealed by their web browsing habits.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has disclosed the 1,000 sites visited most often by staff while at work.

The BBC website came top, but employees are also spending time apparently shopping, gambling and house-hunting.

A DfT spokesman said personal internet use by staff should be restricted to official breaks.

The details were published in response to a Freedom of Information request and cover the period from January to May this year.

'Leave reality behind'

Many of the websites come as no surprise - Google is close to the top along with a number of newspapers and news blogs. The BBC homepage is number one with 7.4 million hits.

Facebook comes in at 85th, with more than 130,000 hits. Argos is the most regular online shopping destination, but John Lewis, Next and Debenham feature too.

Plenty of sports fans appear to have been sneaking in a cheeky look or two at scores or fixtures - with goonerweb, chelseaafc and espncricinfo - a cricket stats website - all popular.

"Start Quote

Personal use should not detract from staff's performance of their duties"

End Quote Spokesman Department for Transport

Some may also be having a flutter - hence the popularity of oddschecker and bet365 - which get 25,808 and 7,328 hits respectively.

But there are a number of unusual sites which reveal some more unexpected past-times among civil servants.

Coming in at number 385 - with 27,634 hits - is bearsfaction.org.uk - a website run by the Lorien Trust which organises fantasy role-play festivals.

It invites users to "leave reality behind" and "walk amongst goblins, elves and dwarves".

Even more popular, coming in at 115, is etiquettehell.com which gives frustrated sticklers for good manners a forum in which to vent.

Smallworldbellydance.com - a south London belly dancing studio - gets 3,170 hits, while a website for fans of the Roman Empire attracted nearly 100,000.

Some civil servants also seem to be interested in matters of glamour within Whitehall itself.

Sexymp.co.uk - where users get to rank Members of Parliament in order of attractiveness - got 21,477 hits in the five-month period, making it the 465th most popular site.

Meal breaks

The DfT was asked whether it could reveal the amount of time spent on each website, but it said it did not keep accurate figures.

A spokesman said: "Our internet access policy states that personal use of the internet by staff should be kept as short as possible and should not in any event exceed one hour each day made in their own time, e.g. meal breaks.

"We also have measures in place to prevent the inappropriate use of internet by staff, for example in relation to pornographic web sites.

"Personal use should not place excessive demands on ICT [information and communications technology] facilities and should not detract from staff's performance of their duties."

The DfT said two staff had been disciplined during 2009-10 due to "inappropriate internet usage".

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Virtual people to get ID checks

28 July 2011 Last updated at 20:12 ET

The faces and behaviour of online avatars could help identify the people controlling them, scientists believe.

Using both characteristics, researchers hope to develop techniques for checking whether the digital characters are who they claim to be.

Such information could be used in situations where login details are not visible or for law enforcement.

Impersonation of avatars is expected to become a growing problem as real life and cyberspace increasingly merge.

Signature moves

Avatars are typically used to represent players in online games such as World of Warcraft and in virtual communities like Second Life.

As their numbers grow, it will become important to find ways to identify those we meet regularly, according to Dr Roman Yampolskiy from the University of Louisville.

Working out if their controller is male or female has an obvious commercial benefit, he said. But discovering that the same person controlled different avatars in separate spaces would be even more useful.

"It's useful for profiling of avatars for marketing purposes by businesses in virtual worlds," explained Dr Yampolskiy.

"It also has some applications in forensic tracking of avatars across multiple virtual communities."

The technology may also have implications for security if a game account is hacked and stolen.

Behavioural analysis could help prove whether an avatar is under the control of its usual owner by watching to see if it acts out of character.

The research looked at monitoring for signature gestures, movements and other distinguishing characteristics.

Limited expressions

Researchers discovered that the lack of possible variations on a avatar's digital face, when compared to a real human, made identification tricky.

However, those limited options are relatively simple to measure, because of the straightforward geometries involved in computer-generated images.

Dr Yampolskiy's team generated large data sets made up of many possible faces in Second Life and Entropia Universe and then studied them to spot key characteristics.

"It's very preliminary work as we are still collecting data," he said. "So far we have been very successful."

Dr Yampolskiy pointed out that another factor driving the need for avatar identification was the increasing use of telepresence and augmented reality.

Especially for businesses, it will be important to ensure that on-screen facsimiles represent the people they purport to.

Further work by the group will extend the identifying work and behaviour monitoring to robots.

As more and more machines start to work alongside people access to controlled areas would rely on being able to tell one from another.

BT ordered to block pirate links

28 July 2011 Last updated at 05:15 ET

A High Court judge has ruled that BT must block access to a website which provides links to pirated movies.

Newzbin 2 is a members-only site which aggregates a large amount of the illegally copied material found on Usenet discussion forums.

The landmark case is the first time that an ISP has been ordered to block access to such a site.

It paves the way for other sites to be blocked as part of a major crackdown on piracy.

In his ruling, Justice Arnold stated: "In my judgment it follows that BT has actual knowledge of other persons using its service to infringe copyright: it knows that the users and operators of Newbin2 infringe copyright on a large scale, and in particular infringe the copyrights of the Studios in large numbers of their films and television programmes."

He continued: "It knows that the users of Newzbin2 include BT subscribers, and it knows those users use its service to receive infringing copies of copyright works made available to them by Newzbin2."

BT and the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which brought the case, will be back in court in October to work out how the blocking will work.

Creative victory

"Start Quote

Finally, it seems we have a way to deal with rogue sites which will benefit the film industry including UK independent distributors and, more broadly, the entire creative sector."

End Quote Lord Puttnam President, Film Distributers Association

The MPA which represents a number of movie studios including Warner, Disney and Fox, launched the legal action as a last-ditch attempt to close down Newzbin 2.

Chris Marcich, president and managing director of MPA said: "This ruling from Justice Arnold is a victory for millions of people working in the UK creative industries and demonstrates that the law of the land must apply online.

"This court action was never an attack on ISPs but we do need their co-operation to deal with the Newzbin site which continually tries to evade the law and judicial sanction. Newzbin is a notorious pirate website which makes hundreds of thousands of copyrighted products available without permission and with no regard for the law."

The MPA signalled its intention to pursue other ISPs.

Link sites such as Newzbin are gaining popularity as those determined to get their hands on free content move away from traditional peer-to-peer downloading methods.

A previous court case had ruled that Newzbin 2's predecessor must stop linking to free content but a new version of the site was set up outside of the UK's jurisdiction.

Revenge attacks

The judge ruled that BT must use its blocking technology CleanFeed - which is currently used to prevent access to websites featuring child sexual abuse - to block Newzbin.

In an email interview before the verdict, Newzbin 2 threatened to break BT's filters.

"We would be appalled if any group were to try to sabotage this technology as it helps to protect the innocent from highly offensive and illegal content," said a spokesman for BT.

The Internet Service Providers' Association has been a fierce critic of web blocking.

It said that using blocking technology, designed to protect the public from images of child abuse, was inappropriate.

"Currently CleanFeed is dealing with a small, rural road in Scotland," ISPA council member James Blessing told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

"Trying to put Newzbin and other sites into the same blocking technology would be a bit like shutting down the M1. It is not designed to do that."

Disconnection

The crackdown on piracy has gained new urgency in recent months.

Pressure from rightsholders forced new legislation on the issue.

The UK's controversial Digital Economy Act makes provisions for tough action against those who downloading pirated music and films - initially sanctioning a letter-writing campaign asking them to desist.

BT and TalkTalk called for a judicial review of the DEA, saying the legislation was rushed through parliament and was unenforceable but a judge ruled that it could go ahead.

Court action could be taken against individuals who ignore written warnings and 'technical measures' including disconnecting someone from the web could also follow.

The government is also considering the feasibility of more widespread site blocking.

IT giants 'ripping off Whitehall'

28 July 2011 Last updated at 02:40 ET

Government departments have been ripped off by a "cartel" of big IT firms, a damning report by a committee of MPs has found.

Some were paying as much as 10 times the commercial rate for equipment and up to �3,500 for a single desktop PC.

The public administration committee said an "obscene amount of public money" was being wasted on IT.

The government said it was already making "significant improvements" to the way it bought computer equipment.

Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to end the era of vast government IT projects that he said had dominated Labour's time in power.

The coalition has called a halt to schemes costing more than �100m as it looks to reduce the UK's budget deficit.

In its report, the public administration committee recommends that departments across Whitehall use more small and medium-sized IT suppliers to increase competition and bring down prices.

'Rip-offs'

Committee chairman, Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin, said that according to some sources, the government had paid contractors between seven and 10 times more than the standard rate.

But ministers themselves did not collect the information required to verify these claims, he added.

Analysis

The government has talked a good game on ending mega IT schemes - but we'll probably still be reading headlines about catastophic computer projects for years to come.

True, the coalition has scrapped the huge ID card project, but this had more to do with politics than cost-saving.

The real problem facing ministers is that IT is central to delivering better public services and cutting costs.

Hence, the Department for Work and Pensions is rolling out a huge computer project to place all claimants' income and benefits on one database that they will be able to access in real time, online.

Placing the proposed Universal Credit online is not just a hugely complicated IT project involving millions of different benefit claims, but is also politically crucial and key to to Ian Duncan Smith's welfare reforms.

The department insists the Univeral Credit roll-out is on time and on budget, but somehow I suspect we may not have heard the last of great government IT rip-offs.

The committee said Whitehall's overall record in developing and implementing new IT systems was "appalling".

It warned: "The lack of IT skills in government and over-reliance on contracting out is a fundamental problem which has been described as a 'recipe for rip-offs'.

"IT procurement has too often resulted in late, over-budget IT systems that are not fit for purpose.

"Given the cuts that they are having to make in response to the fiscal deficit it is ridiculous that some departments spend an average of �3,500 on a desktop PC."

The report concludes that "the current government seems determined to succeed where others have failed and we are greatly encouraged by its progress to date".

But it warns that the government will be "doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past" if it does not learn to be more "intelligent" in its dealings with IT suppliers and improve the way it compares costs across different departments, known as "benchmarking".

The last Labour government spent �16bn in IT projects in 2009.

It came under particular criticism for the spiralling cost of its delayed NHS scheme, which eventually reached more than �12bn.

Last autumn, the coalition government announced it would allow hospitals to source more of their own equipment, as part of a plan to cut costs by �700m. This came on top of �600m of savings already announced by Labour.

'Robust'

In March, Tony Blair's former IT chief Ian Watmore - who has returned to the Cabinet Office under the coalition - told the committee that some Labour ministers had ordered expensive computer projects because they wanted their policies to "sound sexy".

Mr Jenkin called for an overhaul of the entire system of procurement, saying: "The government has said that it is overly reliant on an 'oligopoly' of suppliers; some witnesses went further and described the situation as a 'cartel'.

"Whatever we call the situation it has led to an inexcusable situation that sees governments waste an obscene amount of public money."

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "We have already made significant improvements to the management of IT projects including introducing new ICT [information and communications technology] controls, increasing transparency, and creating robust governance arrangements.

"We hope these will go some way to address the problems of the past the committee have rightly highlighted."

BBC launches global iPlayer app

28 July 2011 Last updated at 03:34 ET

The BBC is launching an international version of its on-demand video service, the iPlayer, for Apple iPad users.

Customers who pay a monthly subscription will get access to a range of current and classic programmes.

The app will have one feature not available in the UK - the ability to download content and watch offline.

The project is being run BBC Worldwide-- the corporation's commercial arm - which said that money earned would help supplement licence-fee income.

Initially, global iPlayer will be available in 11 European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

It will cost 6.99 euro per month (�6.14), with the option of an annual subscription priced at 49.99 euro (�44).

According to BBC Worldwide, the international product will look and feel similar to the UK iPlayer, but function in a different way.

Rather than a seven-day catch-up service, it will offer a showcase of BBC shows, old and new. Examples given include Fawlty towers, Only Fools and Horses, Sherlock and Doctor Who.

It is possible that may provoke questions from viewers in the UK who do not have access to older shows.

The domestic iPlayer also does not offer a download facility, which would allow users to watch programmes when they have no internet connection. Although the option was available in the service's early days, during its beta testing phase.

The BBC said that the initial roll-out through iPad in a limited number of countries was seen as a pilot for a broader global service.

"We have an exciting vision for what this service could become and will develop it based on feedback from within the markets," said Jana Bennett, president of Worldwide networks and global iPlayer.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Teenager held in hacking inquiry

27 July 2011 Last updated at 12:45 ET

A 19-year-old man has been arrested in the Shetland Islands as part of an investigation into hacking groups, Anonymous and LulzSec.

The man is suspected of using the online nickname Topiary and presenting himself as a spokesman for the groups.

Both high-profile hacker groups are known for stealing and releasing private information from websites.

Police are also searching a house in Lincolnshire and interviewing a 17-year-old boy under caution.

Officers from the police's Central e-Crime Unit arrested the teenager in what they describe as a "pre-planned intelligence-led operation".

A statement from the Metropolitan Police says they believe he is linked to an ongoing international investigation into a number of cyber-attacks on international businesses and intelligence agencies.

The man was arrested on Wednesday and is being taken to London while his home is searched.

LulzSec has previously claimed responsibility for attempted hacks made on the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), the US Senate, the CIA and the Sun newspaper.

On Monday, Anonymous released secret documents stolen from an Italian cybercrime unit.

Last month, LulzSec announced it was disbanding.

Ryan Cleary, 19, of Wickford, Essex, was charged last month with five offences under the Criminal Law and Computer Misuse Acts, including an alleged hacking attack against Soca's website.

'Pirate' link site stands defiant

27 July 2011 Last updated at 11:16 ET

A website which offers links to pirated movies has threatened to 'break' BT's internet filtering system if the company tries to block it.

The Motion Picture Association has applied for an injunction that would compel BT to stop its UK customers accessing Newzbin 2.

A High Court ruling on the case is expected on Thursday and may pave the way for further website blocking.

The BBC spoke to one of Newzbin 2's administrators ahead of the verdict.

He did not expect the judge to find in the website's favour.

"In most legal systems the verdict goes to the man with the biggest pile of gold," said Mr White, who represents the website but did not wish to disclose his real identity.

Breaking blocks

Newzbin 2 is a members-only site which aggregates a large amount of the illegally copied material found on Usenet discussion forums.

The original Newzbin site was closed down after a High Court ruling in 2010 ordered it to take down links to copyrighted films and TV programmes.

At the time, Mr Justice Kitchin said: "I have found that the defendant well knows that it is making available to its premium members infringing copies of films."

Mr White pledged that Newzbin 2 would attempt to "ensure continuity of service to our UK users" if a judge rules against it again.

He warned that keeping the site up may involve attempts to break BT's Cleanfeed filter, which the ISP currently uses to block access to sites featuring child sex abuse.

"Our users don't wish Cleanfeed to work and based on a preliminary technical assessment we think it will be trivially breakable. We have the sand, and if needed we will pour it in Cleanfeed's engine oil," he threatened.

BT has so far remained tight-lipped about the case.

Whiskey lifestyle

"Start Quote

We make enough money for strippers and Jack Daniels but Ferraris may be some way off"

End Quote Mr White Newzbin 2

Following the injunction against the original site, Newzbin was wound down. The MPA believes that Newzbin 2 is just a new name for the same group and that it has moved overseas to avoid legal challenges.

Its successor was styled as a "separate organisation" that was not UK-based and therefore not subject to the injunction.

"Newzbin and Newzbin 2 are entirely different. We have no inherited equipment or personnel. We started Newzbin 2 because we were users of the service who disagreed with what happened to them and wanted a service to replace it," said Mr White.

It does however claim the same defence as its predecessor.

"We are the Google of Usenet, that is, merely a search engine and like Google we provide links to places on the internet where infringing material may be found," said Mr White.

The Performing Rights Society For Music (PRS) is currently campaigning for legitimate search engines to highlight differences between legal and illegal content.

Links to sites that offer legal downloads would get green tags, while links to illegal download sites would be flagged in red.

Those determined to download content for free have shifted behaviour in recent months as governments tighten their laws around peer-to-peer file-sharing.

While website blocking is seen by many rightsholders as the answer to the problem, it has proved controversial.

Google's chairman Eric Schmidt vowed to fight any attempts to ban such sites in the US, saying that it set a dangerous precedent which could be misused by censorious governments.

It is an argument also favoured by Newzbin 2.

"We don't think it will be confined to sites falsely accused of helping copyright infringement. It is certain that others with a censorship agenda will use the precedent set by this to require blocking of 'hate speech', libel, anorexia sites, sexism or any other ism that is trendy," said Mr White.

The decision to pursue the website via ISPs represents a change of tactic for rightsholders but the MPA is keen to stress that it does not represent an attack on service providers.

"It is the result of not being able to identify and enforce action against offshore sites - nobody knows who they are run by or exactly where they are based," it said in a statement.

"We have explored every route to get Newzbin to take down the infringing material and are left with no option but to challenge this in the courts," it added.

The MPA said that it had chosen BT because it was the UK's largest ISP.

But industry body the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) said plans to use its filtering technology on a wider scale would not work.

"Currently CleanFeed is dealing with a small, rural road in Scotland. Trying to put Newzbin and other sites into the same blocking technology would be a bit like shutting down the M1. It is not designed to do that," ISPA council member James Blessing told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

"Rip-off prices"

The music and film industries argue that tough action is needed on pirates because illegal downloading is destroying their businesses.

Mr White said that the movie industry's claims about losing billions of dollars of revenue to illegal downloading were "pure fiction".

He claimed that Newzbin 2 is "barely used for finding music."

"Everyone uses iTunes," he said.

His views seemed to be supported by EMI executive Douglas C Merrill who revealed at a recent conference that his own research showed that users of the file sharing service LimeWire were also iTunes' biggest customers.

"The copyright industry has run this argument against the manufacturers of Pianola rolls in the 1920s, against vinyl records in the jazz era, against cassette tapes in the 1970s and VHS tap technology in the 1980s," he said.

"If the MPA want to kill us they can do so virtually overnight and we'll tell them how: learn from the music industry and license work at non rip-off prices which the public regard as fair and in a form they find convenient," he said.

According to the MPA, Newzbin has around 700,000 members and generates an income in excess of �1m per year.

Mr White denies this.

"We make enough money for strippers and Jack Daniels but Ferraris may be some way off," he said.

Hackers call for PayPal boycott

27 July 2011 Last updated at 09:30 ET

Two high profile hacker groups have called on their followers to boycott PayPal over its continued refusal to handle donations to Wikileaks.

Anonymous and Lulz Security issued a joint statement asking supporters to withdraw funds and close their accounts.

PayPal froze Wikileaks' assets after it released stolen US diplomatic cables.

The company declined to comment on the boycott because of ongoing legal action over attempts to hack its website.

Launching the campaign, LulzSec and Anonymous wrote in an online posting: "PayPal continues to withhold funds from WikiLeaks, a beacon of truth in these dark times.

"By simply standing up for ourselves and uniting the people, PayPal still sees it fit to wash its hands of any blame, and instead encourages and assists law enforcement to hunt down participants in the AntiSec movement [the campaign to highlight weak IT security]."

Going straight

The campaign marks something of a departure for LulzSec and Anonymous, which are both known for stealing and releasing private information from websites with poor security.

"Start Quote

PayPal continues to withhold funds from WikiLeaks, a beacon of truth in these dark times."

End Quote Anonymous/LulzSec statement

The groups are at pains to emphasise that their current protest is being waged through legal means.

More than 100 million people around the world use PayPal to make online payments.

The company incurred the wrath of online activists, including Anonymous and Lulz Security, when it appeared to bow to pressure from the US government to stop handling donations to Wikileaks in December 2010.

Shortly afterwards the site suffered several denial of service attacks.

Earlier this month - in July 2011 - 14 people in the US and Europe were arrested in connection with the attacks.

In a statement, PayPal told BBC News: "As we state in our privacy policy, PayPal works with law enforcement or government officials if we receive a subpoena or court order; if we need to do so to comply with law; or if we believe in good faith that illegal activity has occurred."

French downloaders face grilling

27 July 2011 Last updated at 06:09 ET

The body responsible for administering France's "three strikes" anti-piracy law has summoned a group of web users to explain their file sharing habits.

Hadopi takes its name from the 2009 legislation which permits authorities to fine copyright infringers, or to cut off their internet connection.

The move is the most significant enforcement action since French politicians passed the law.

However, the 10 individuals named in the action are not obliged to appear.

France's "three strikes and out" legislation empowers Hadopi to identify suspected illegal file sharers and write to them, demanding they stop.

Those who do not comply after several letters can be disconnected from their internet service provider and blacklisted from obtaining services from another ISP.

In the UK, the Digital Economy Act makes some similar provisions, although the exact nature of possible sanctions has yet to be fully explained.

The blanket term "technical measures" is used to cover a range of potential consequences ranging from enforced slowdown of internet connections to disconnection.

Legal action

Hadopi said that in the last nine months it has been tracking 18 million French IP addresses.

It has sent a total of 470,000 first warnings by email, with 20,000 users receiving a second warning through the mail.

About 10 people who appeared to ignore the two warnings were asked to come and explain their actions to the agency.

After the meeting, Hadopi will decide whether to pursue legal action.

It will then be up to a judge to rule if a user has broken the law.

"The judge may impose a fine of a maximum of 1,500 euros (�1,326) and also disconnect the user from the internet for a maximum of one month," said a Hadopi spokesperson.

"Alternatively, he may decide to fine the user without the disconnection penalty - or simply let the user go."

But Jeremie Zimmermann from French citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net) thinks that it is unlikely that anyone will ever be charged.

"Start Quote

For Hadopi it's now about this strategy of intimidation - they're sending out warnings to make people believe that file-sharing is bad, but that's as much as they can do"

End Quote Jeremie Zimmermann La Quadrature du Net

"Hadopi is hoping that people will come and confess, that they will say that they have indeed downloaded copyrighted material," he told BBC News.

If the person does not confess or does not even show up, the only evidence the agency can present before the judge is a series of numbers - a particular computer's IP address, he said.

This poses several problems, believes Mr Zimmermann.

Firstly, hackers can easily break into a user's wireless hotspot and stream illegal content to a particular IP address using a different computer.

"We have no idea how this data has been acquired," said Jeremie Zimmermann. He expects that securing a conviction difficult, if not impossible.

Hadopi disagrees. "It's not only about the IP address," said its spokesperson.

"What we have to show is that the person has been warned that there's something wrong going on with his internet usage - that there's been illegal file-sharing - and that he has not done anything to protect himself from it after the first warning.

"So the evidence is the second warning received by the person."

Connection 'hacked'

The first person to respond to Hadopi's "invitation" has already declared his innocence.

Robert Tollot, a 54-year-old high school teacher from the region of Loire, will present himself to the Hadopi officials in Paris in September.

He told the French media that he had never downloaded any copyrighted material and that his wi-fi connection was hacked.

"He's absolutely furious, and it can turn out really badly for Hadopi as others will hear about his case and will prepare accordingly," said Mr Zimmermann.

"This law is absolutely useless," he added.

"For Hadopi it's now all about this strategy of intimidation - they're sending out warnings to make people believe that file-sharing is bad, but that's as much as they can do."

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

ISPs still 'mislead' on broadband

26 July 2011 Last updated at 21:38 ET

Broadband speeds in the UK now average 6.8Mbps (megabits per second) but there is still a huge gap between advertised and actual speeds, according to Ofcom.

Almost half of broadband users are now on packages with advertised speeds above 10Mbps but few achieve this.

Ofcom's biannual report into the state of the broadband market urged changes to advertising.

Virgin Media accused rivals of misleading the public.

The report found that the average broadband speed has increased 10% in the last six months as more people try out fast services.

But the gap between advertised and actual speed has widened in the same period. The average advertised speed was 15Mbps, 8.2Mbps faster than the average actual speed.

It also found that more than a third of customers on services advertised as "up to" 24Mbps actually received speeds of 4Mbps or less.

"The research is still telling us that some consumers are not receiving anywhere near the speeds that are being advertised by some ISPs," said Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards.

The watchdog is urging changes in advertising guidance "so that consumers are able to make more informed decisions based on the adverts they see".

Superfast broadband is now available to 57% of UK homes, the report finds.

But three-quarters of broadband services are still delivered via copper-based ADSL technologies, which will always have speed limitations based on the distance between the home and the telephone exchange.

Other factors that slow down a connection include the quality of the wiring in a house and the time of day that the service is used.

Virgin Media is the only ISP able to come close to advertised speeds because cable services are not influenced by distance.

It has spearheaded the campaign to change the way broadband is advertised.

Jon James, executive director of broadband for Virgin Media, said: "The gulf between what's advertised and what speeds customers get continues to grow."

"We remain concerned that people paying for fast broadband are still being misled and believe it is absolutely essential that consumers have all the information they need to make an informed choice," he added.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is currently reviewing broadband advertising. Its report is expected in the next few months.

In a bizarre twist, last month it ruled that Virgin Media's campaign against false advertising itself broke advertising rules.

Andrew Ferguson, co-founder of broadband news site ThinkBroadband thinks more needs to be done to explain the differences between cable and ADSL but is not sure changes to advertising is the correct way.

"Adverts will shift to lifestyle advertising rather than actual facts, and some people may be denied access to products because they would drag the average speed down," he said.

Ofcom has introduced a code of practice to help inform the public about their likely speed before signing up to a service.

It recommends that broadband customers should be given a speed range rather than a single estimate of the maximum speed on their line.

It also suggests that users be allowed to leave their provider without penalty if they receive a maximum speed which is significantly below estimates.

So far, Virgin Media, BT, O2 and Sky have signed up to the code.

Michael Phillips, of comparison website broadbandchoices, is not sure the code goes far enough.

"Ofcom's code of practice has made some steps in the right direction, but without some more careful thought, there's still room for a lot of confusion.

How will my mum know if a service offering 1Mb - 6Mb is better or worse than one providing 2Mb - 5Mb? She needs to know what speed she's most likely to receive most of the time," he said.

He thinks that 'typical speeds' should be made "the gold standard for speed advertising in the same way that banks use 'typical APR' percentages".

Action urged on mobile notspots

26 July 2011 Last updated at 07:02 ET

The upcoming 4G mobile auction should be used as an opportunity to upgrade the UK's mobile infrastructure, says an advisory group.

The Communications Consumer Panel said regulator Ofcom should obliged operators to extend services to rural areas.

It also suggested the money made by selling off the airwaves could be used to upgrade rural coverage.

It estimates that three million people live in mobile "not-spots".

The panel said it did not believe that new 4G services would extend beyond existing coverage.

4G is the next-generation for mobile services, offering faster speeds, crucial as more people use smartphones to surf the web.

The panel is suggesting that Ofcom run a "reverse auction" after the initial sell-off, in which operators can bid for money to extend their services in rural areas.

Valuable spectrum

The 4G auctions begin next year with services likely to start rolling out from 2013.

There is a great deal of interest in the spectrum - which has been freed because of the switch to digital TV - as it operates in the low frequency 800MHz band.

This spectrum will be particularly good at penetrating buildings and will allow operators to offer better in-building coverage which is becoming an increasing problem as people use their smartphones at home.

The money freed up by the 4G auctions must be ploughed back into notspots, said the panel.

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UK 3G Survey
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It estimates that the UK needs an extra 1,400 base stations to improve rural coverage.

"This is a critical moment, and we have a unique opportunity to resolve the persistent problem of inadequate mobile coverage," said panel chair Bob Warner.

"Most places that were mobile coverage notspots 10 years ago are still notspots today, and the spectrum auction represents perhaps the only chance we have in the next decade to improve coverage in the nations and for rural communities," he added.

The BBC is conducting its own survey into notspots using an app developed by network analysis firm Epitiro.

Ofcom has said that mobile coverage is one of its priorities and is conducting its own research into the problem.

One of the biggest blackspots for mobile coverage is on rail networks.

Research conducted for Ofcom last year found that on the East Coast mainline the probability of maintaining a 15 minute phone call was as low as 10% for two operators.

Mozilla stars work on mobile code

26 July 2011 Last updated at 06:26 ET

The creators of the Firefox web browser have started developing an operating system for mobiles and tablets.

Although the project will draw on some parts of Google's Android mobile operating system much of the code will be freshly written.

Once finished the operating system will compete with Android as it will run on the same devices.

The project team said all code development would be done in the open and shared as soon as it was written.

Called Boot To Gecko the code creation is being overseen by the Mozilla Project which created the Firefox browser. It was announced on the Mozilla discussion forum by researcher Andreas Gal.

Gecko is the rendering engine that powers the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email program. A rendering engine interprets the code on webpages and displays it in the right format on screen.

With B2G, the Mozilla developers aim to get applications running without the need for the browser, effectively creating a web-centred operating system.

It will draw on some core parts of Android but aims to add a wrapper around it that is much more open than the one created by Google. If successful, the project will face stiff competition from Google's Android and Chrome as well as Apple's iOS and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.

The Mozilla team admitted that the project was in its "infancy" but said it already created some basic software from building blocks that are similar to those needed to get the OS running.

The team said they were publicising the project to root out experts in the Mozilla community and elsewhere who could help and encouraged them to get in touch and sign on.

Mr Gal said the project had set its sights high and wanted to do it "the way we think open source should be done".

Its ultimate goal, he said, was "breaking the stranglehold of proprietary technologies over the mobile device world".

Monday, July 25, 2011

Hackers hit Italian cyber-police

25 July 2011 Last updated at 08:28 ET

Hackers have started to release gigabytes of secret documents stolen from an Italian cybercrime unit.

The 8GB of files has allegedly been taken from the network of the Italian CNAIPIC which oversees the country's critical IT infrastructure.

In a message announcing the release, the Anonymous hacker group said it received the files from a "source".

The attack on CNAIPIC is thought to be in retaliation for arrests of Italian members of Anonymous.

Links to the first few confidential files purportedly stolen from CNAIPIC were placed on the Pastebin website. Anonymous claims the files were taken from the evidence servers of CNAIPIC (National Computer Crime Centre for Critical Infrastructure Protection).

The documents include information about government offices such as Australia's Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Agriculture as well as data about private firms Gazprom, Exxon Mobil and many others.

Preview images also shared by Anonymous reveal the management structure of CNAIPIC, pictures of staff and a long list of all the documents that have been taken.

CNAIPIC has yet to respond to requests for comment.

Officers from Italy's cybercrime division carried out a series of raids on homes of suspected Anonymous members in early July. Three people were arrested as a result.

RIM to cut 2,000 jobs in shake-up

25 July 2011 Last updated at 08:03 ET

Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion has said it is to cut 2,000 jobs as part of a shake-up of its operations.

The planned job cuts would account for 11% of the Canadian firm's workforce.

The firm also announced that its chief operating officer (COO) Don Morrison is planning to retire.

He will be replaced by Thorsten Heins, currently COO of products at the firm, who will take on an expanded role including products and sales.

The news comes after RIM announced in June that it had missed its lowered profit forecasts and reduced its predictions for the full year.

The company's share price has fallen by more than 50% since the start of the year.

RIM made a net profit of $695m (�430m) in the three months to 28 May, down from $769m in the same period last year.

It had warned in April that its profits would be low because of reduced shipments of its Blackberry phones.

Blackberry has been overtaken in the smartphone market by sales of phones running Apple and Google Android operating systems.

Focus on growth

In a statement, RIM said it needed to make the changes in order to "focus on areas that offer the highest growth opportunities".

RIM has already announced a cost-cutting programme, which includes job cuts, but had not given full details.

As well as cutting costs the company hopes the changes will increase the speed at which it can bring products to market.

The smartphone manufacturer has not yet announced any one-off expenses as a result of the programme - such as redundancy payments.

China shuts down fake Apple shops

25 July 2011 Last updated at 03:59 ET

China has moved to shut down several fake Apple stores found in Kunming city.

Three of the elaborate fake stores, which mimicked the look of the real thing, came to the world's attention after being exposed on a blog.

Following the publicity, trade officials investigated and found five stores in Kunming posing as official Apple retail outlets.

Two of the five have now been closed as their owners lacked a business licence.

The BirdAbroad blog, written by an American woman living in Kunming, wrote about a visit to one fake Apple store which superficially resembled the official outlets.

In the article, the blogger wrote about conversations with staff, many of whom were convinced they worked for the US electronics firm.

Chinese officials investigated the shop visited by BirdAbroad but it was not one of those closed down. It has a licence to trade and is selling genuine Apple products.

Apple has said it has no comment to make on the discovery of the counterfeit shops.

On her blog, BirdAbroad described the store as a "beautiful ripoff - a brilliant one - the best ripoff store we had ever seen".

She describes how convincing the shop was at first glance because so much trouble had been taken to copy key elements of a real Apple store.

For instance, it has a winding staircase, upstairs seating area and employees wearing blue T-shirts and chunky ID lanyards.

Shoddy construction

On closer inspection, wrote BirdAbroad, the store did not seem to be constructed to a particularly high standard.

The stairs appeared to be poorly put together, the walls were not painted properly and, most damning, it had the words "Apple store" written on the shop front.

"Apple never writes 'Apple Store' on its signs - it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit," wrote BirdAbroad.

Research by the blogger revealed that the only official Apple stores in China are in Beijing and Shanghai.

A further check revealed that none of the three stores she found are mentioned on Apple's list of official resellers known to be trading in Kunming.

What was also unclear was where the fake store had got the Apple products on sale - whether they had come from an Apple distributor or a grey market source.

The blog entry mentioning the visit to the fake store has proved hugely popular and has gathered more than 500,000 visits in less than 48 hours.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Sony insurer seeks hack opt-out

22 July 2011 Last updated at 06:00 ET

Sony faces a court battle over how it will pay for legal claims made in the wake of a massive data breach.

One of the company's insurers has asked a judge to rule that it is not liable for losses related to the cyber attack.

In April, Sony discovered that hackers had gained access to 77 million accounts on its PlayStation Network.

The firm agreed to pay anyone who lost-out financially as a result of the incident, but it is still being sued by a number of users.

PlayStation Network was shut down worldwide for more than a month while Sony reviewed its security procedures.

Claim game

Zurich American Insurance has now gone to court in New York seeking a declaration that it does not have to help Sony with current or future legal action related to the data breach.

Legal papers filed by Zurich reveal that 55 separate class action lawsuits are pending in the US because of the breach.

Also underway are investigations by state and federal regulators that could also end-up before the courts.

Sony has made claims on several of its insurance policies, including one with Zurich, to help pay its legal bills and provide compensation.

However, Zurich argues that the policy it set up for Sony does not cover the part of the business that suffered the breach or the sort of damage the theft caused.

Specific clauses in the policy also rule out Zurich providing cover, it said.

Sony declined to comment because the matter is the subject of pending litigation.

In financial statements, Sony said it expected costs for the breach to top 14bn yen (�109m) this year. The figure does not include any costs for compensating customers.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Microsoft reports record revenue

21 July 2011 Last updated at 18:53 ET

The US technology giant Microsoft said its annual revenues hit a record of $69.94bn (�43.4bn).

Sales of the company's Xbox 360 videogame console and its Office software helped fuel the growth.

Net income at the world's biggest software maker jumped 23% to 23.15bn for the year.

The figures, which beat earnings estimates, also showed final quarter revenues reached a record high of $1.37bn, leading to profits of $5.87bn.

Sales rose 8% to $17.37 billion, a boosted chiefly by sales of Office, Xbox and server software behind Microsoft's push into cloud computing.

Microsoft's business division, which sells the Office suite of programs, including Outlook, SharePoint and Excel, was the company's biggest seller in the quarter, increasing sales by 7% to $5.8bn.

The company's online services unit, which runs the Bing search engine and MSN internet portal, increased sales by 16.5% to $662m, but saw losses increase to $728m as it struggles to fight competitor Google.

One weaker spot was sales of its widely-used Windows product, which are slowing as tablet PC sales eat into demand for traditional PCs.

On Wednesday, chipmaker Intel warned that PC sales would not be as strong as it had expected this year.

Microsoft is itself expected to enter the tablet market next year with the launch of its next operating system, code-named Windows 8, which will be compatible with the low-power chips commonly used by tablet and mobile phone makers.

Microsoft is the latest technology company to exceed profit expectations.

Google, Apple and IBM all reported strong earnings recently.

Fake Apple stores found in China

21 July 2011 Last updated at 10:24 ET

An American blogger has discovered three fake Apple stores operating in Kunming city, China.

Pictures of the stores, their staff and a description of a stroll around them was posted on the BirdAbroad blog.

In the article, she writes about conversations with staff, many of whom were convinced that they were employed by the US electronics firm.

Apple has said it has no comment to make on the discovery of the counterfeit shops.

On her blog, BirdAbroad described the stores as a "beautiful ripoff - a brilliant one - the best ripoff store we had ever seen".

She describes how convincing the shop was at first glance because so much trouble had been taken to copy key elements of a real Apple store.

For instance, it has a winding staircase, upstairs seating area and employees wearing blue t-shirts and chunky ID lanyards.

Shoddy construction

On closer inspection, wrote BirdAbroad, the store did not seem to be constructed to a particularly high standard.

The stairs appeared to be poorly put together, the walls were not painted properly and, most damning, it had the words "Apple store" written on the shop front.

"Apple never writes 'Apple Store' on its signs - it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit," wrote BirdAbroad.

Research by the blogger revealed that the only official Apple stores in China are in Beijing and Shanghai.

A further check revealed that none of the three stores she found are mentioned on Apple's list of official resellers known to be trading in Kunming.

What was also unclear was where the fake store had got the Apple products on sale - whether they had come from an Apple distributor or a grey market source.

The blog entry mentioning the visit to the fake store has proved hugely popular and has gathered more than 500,000 visits in less than 48 hours.

Pirate chasing firm moves abroad

21 July 2011 Last updated at 03:34 ET

ACS:Law, the controversial law firm that tried to get money from people by accusing them of illegal file-sharing, appears to be back in business.

Ralli Solicitors, which represented some of those accused by ACS:Law during a UK court case, has told the BBC it is now advising a client based in Greece.

"They have received e-mails purporting to be from the law firm," said Ralli solicitor Michael Forrester.

The letters have been sent to overseas addresses.

"The IP addresses quoted do not appear conventional, making reference to country codes outside of the UK," said Mr Forrester.

"Despite this, the letters of claim refer to UK law under the Copyrights, Design and Patents Act," he added.

Compensation

One of the letters seen by the BBC read: "We act as solicitors for DigiProtect Ltd, the owners of copyright of various films and music rights.

"Our client has retained forensic computer analysts to search for and identify internet addresses from which their copyright works are being made available on so-called peer-to-peer programs."

It requests a compensation payment of �1665 or else court action will be taken.

The letter asks that cheques are made payable to ACS:Law and supplies a central London address, which is in an adjacent building to where the law firm used to trade from.

ACS:Law has enjoyed something of a chequered history, and has been accused of taking advantage of tough new laws on piracy in order to make money.

Sole proprietor Andrew Crossley teamed up with companies DigiProtect and MediaCAT, which purported to represent copyright owners.

Together they sent letters to around 10,000 people in the UK, alleging that the IP addresses of their computers had been linked to illegal file sharing.

Individuals were given the option of paying �500 or facing court action.

Many of those contacted said they had never engaged in such activity. Consumer watchdog Which accused the firm of speculative invoicing and claimed that none of the evidence would stand up in court.

Bankrupt

Mr Crossley eventually brought 26 cases to court, but soon after hearings began he tried to have them dismissed.

Judge Colin Birss QC refused to allow proceedings to stop and accused Mr Crossley of trying to "to avoid judicial scrutiny".

He, in turn, left the court mid-way through the case and had his barrister read out a statement in which he said that he no longer wanted to pursue net pirates because he had received death threats.

The case was dismissed and Mr Crossley faced a large bill for wasted costs. The accused have since settled out of court.

Soon after, ACS:Law was wound up and declared bankrupt.

Mr Crossley is currently the subject of an investigation by the Solicitors' Regulation Authority.

"It is unclear how the firm ACS:Law is continuing to operate, despite purporting to close earlier this year and the sole principal recently being made bankrupt. We have advised clients that we may be dealing with an imposter," said Mr Forrester.

ACS:Law was not contactable at the time of writing.

Traffic light plan for web music

A music body wants online search results to steer fans to legal download sites.

The Performing Rights Society (PRS) For Music wants search engines to show which sites offer content illegally.

Links to sites that offer legal downloads would get green tags, while links to illegal download sites would be flagged in red.

The PRS says the new system is needed as some people don't know when they're illegally downloading.

"There is evidence out there that if you help people go in the right direction many of them will do," said Robert Ashcroft, boss of PRS For Music.

'Right thing'

"We're concerned about piracy, there are many things we can do about it, but we should start by telling people what is licensed and what is not licensed.

"We're not trying to stop people, this isn't a legal action, this isn't site blocking.

PRS are proposing search results are flagged with 'traffic lights'

"This is an information to consumers and I think that many people want to do the right thing.

"I say watch this space - I would like to see something happen before the end of the year," he added.

The technology has already been developed and could be deployed at short notice.

But the proposal has had a mixed reaction from artists and music fans.

Wretch 32, the rapper who scored a number one single with his track Unorthodox earlier this year, said he understood why PRS are doing this.

But he thinks the plan is flawed.

"I think 98% [of people] are aware of where they're getting it from.

"Everyone has got their way of obtaining music - I think people who download [illegally]... they just download.

"They know exactly where they're going and that's just what they do."

Adam Gibblin is 23 and from London.

Adam Gibblin, from Northwood, says he thinks it's a good idea

He usually listens to his music on iTunes and YouTube but he thinks it's a good idea.

"I think people are quite naive - when you search for something you think it's come up on the internet it must be okay. You just use it.

"It'd make you think about it and consider what you're doing."

PRS for Music will now need to convince the most popular search engines to adopt the idea.

Google, which is by far the biggest search engine in the UK, said it had "no comment" on the plans.

But PRS for Music has had success in negotiating with the internet giant before.

Earlier this year after negotiation between the two parties, Google changed their Autocomplete search feature.

The most recent figures from the UK's recording music body British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said 1.2 billion individual tracks were illegally downloaded last year.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Apple goes download only for Lion

20 July 2011 Last updated at 10:26 ET

Apple has launched the latest version of its Mac operating system - OS X Lion - through its online app store.

It is the first time that the company has not issued new system software on disk.

Users without an internet connection, or whose link is too slow, will be given the option to download the file in an Apple store later this month.

For customers who want a physical copy, Apple is offering a memory stick version for an extra �25.

Editor-in-chief of Mac Format Magazine Graham Barlow said that many users viewed their OS disks as a "security blanket" in case something goes wrong with their machine.

"I for one will be looking at ways I can make an actual physical disk out of the download, if that is legally supported by Apple," he said.

Mr Barlow also warned that the 4Gb file may lead some users to exceed their download limit if their home broadband has a low cap.

iPad-esque

Apple is touting OS X Lion as a major redesign which takes many of its cues from the iOS operating system that runs on iPhones and iPads.

It adds additional multitouch gestures, full screen applications and an iPad-style launch screen.

Like the touchscreen devices, Lion features an auto resume feature where programmes are restored to the state they were left the last time they were used.

"For people that are using lots of creative apps all day with lots of documents open in them, that is going to make a big difference," said Adam Banks, editor-in-chief at Mac User magazine.

Mr Banks said that Lion contained a number of design themes that would help extend the appeal of Apple's laptops and desktops in the face of competition from its own handheld products.

"Some people predicted that by this point there wouldn't even be a Mac any more because Apple is getting all these millions and millions of users on its iOS devices, why do they need the relatively small number of people using Macs.

"Is Apple still about that creative, professional market? I think there are features here that make clear it is," said Mr Banks.

'Hackers' held in US and Europe

19 July 2011 Last updated at 19:18 ET

Police in the US, Britain and the Netherlands have detained more than 20 people as part of an investigation into major cyber attacks.

Most of the arrests were in the US, where the FBI said 16 people had been held for alleged computer hacking.

Fourteen of them were suspected of an online attack on PayPal, claimed by hacking group Anonymous, said the FBI.

In Britain, a teenager was arrested in London, while four other suspects were detained by police in the Netherlands.

Wikileaks 'revenge'

The US indictment against 14 of those arrested on suspicion of December's attack on PayPal said it had been "retribution" for the site closing a donation account for the whistleblowing website Wikileaks.

The PayPal attack suspects were arrested in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington DC, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio, US officials said in a statement.

The other two US suspects were held under separate indictments but similar charges in Florida and New Jersey.

In the UK, Scotland Yard told the BBC that it had arrested a 16-year-old boy in south London on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

"The Metropolitan Police is liaising with the FBI and indeed with our Dutch colleagues," a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

As well as attacking PayPal, Anonymous also temporarily shut down MasterCard and Visa last December, after they froze Wikileaks accounts.

Anonymous targeted Amazon, too, after it removed Wikileaks content from one of its servers, but that attack was not successful.

The hacking group has used a technique known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) in an attempt to take the sites offline.

DDoS attacks bombard a website with data until it cannot respond, rendering it inaccessible.

Anonymous rose to fame with a series of attacks on websites linked to the Church of Scientology and Gene Simmons, bassist with the rock group Kiss.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

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