US defends Twitter data request

15 February 2011 Last updated at 18:31 ET

The US has defended its request for the personal details of three Twitter users, as part of its inquiry into Wikileaks.

At a court in Virginia, the justice department said it was seeking the account information of three associates of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

The trio are fighting the request, arguing it is an invasion of privacy.

A justice department lawyer told the court the request was a standard investigative measure.

US prosecutors say the request forms part of their ongoing investigation into the Wikileaks site, which released thousands of confidential diplomatic cables online.

The trio appealing against the request - Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and US computer programmer Jacob Appelbaum - all know, or have worked with, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Lawyers representing the trio appeared before the US district court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday to argue against the release of their private information.

"What's at stake here is the ability to use the internet freely and privately, without the government looking over their shoulder," said Aden Fine, of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Mr Fine, who is representing Birgitta Jonsdottir, spoke on behalf of all three plaintiffs in court.

The trio say the demand for this information "intrudes upon important First Amendment rights" and "will not directly further the government's purported interests".

Mr Fine said he had also asked the judge to reveal whether similar orders for information had been issued to other websites, such as Facebook and Google.

On Monday, Mr Assange said the order was "an outrageous attack by the Obama administration on the privacy and free speech rights of Twitter's customers".

'Investigative measure'

The order calling on Twitter to release account details, IP addresses, user names and sign-up information was made by District Judge Theresa Buchanan in December 2010.

The order, only made public earlier this month, also requested details of the general Wikileaks Twitter account, thought to be run by Julian Assange, and that of Bradley Manning, the army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the documents to Wikileaks.

A justice department spokesman said the terms of the request had since been narrowed to data from 15 November, 2009, to 1 June, 2010, and to four accounts - those belonging to Mr Appelbaum, Mr Gonggrijp and Ms Jonsdottir and the official Wikileaks account.

The US government is allowed to ask for the communication records of service providers up to 180 days in the past.

Appearing at the hearing on Tuesday, Assistant US Attorney John Davis said the government was seeking routine data, no different to phone records or credit card bills.

"This is an investigative measure used in criminal investigations all over the country, every day," Mr Davis said.

A justice department spokesman stressed the government was "not seeking any content" and that this was a routine part of its investigation.

The judge did not rule on the appeal made by the three, and will issue a written ruling at a later date.

'Nuclear virus' targets uncovered

15 February 2011 Last updated at 08:51 ET By Jonathan Fildes Technology reporter, BBC News

A powerful internet worm repeatedly targeted five industrial facilities in Iran over 10 months, ongoing analysis by security researchers shows.

Stuxnet, which came to light in 2010, was the first-known virus specifically designed to target real-world infrastructure, such as power stations.

Security firm Symantec has now revealed how waves of new variants were launched at Iranian industrial facilities.

Some versions struck their targets within 12 hours of being written.

"We are trying to do some epidemiology," Orla Cox of Symantec told BBC News. "We are trying to understand how and why it spread."

Repeated attacks

The worm first grabbed headlines late last year after initial analysis showed that the sophisticated piece of malware had likely been written by a "nation state" to target Iran's nuclear programme, including the uranium enrichment centrifuges at the Natanz facility.

Russia's Nato ambassador recently said the virus "could lead to a new Chernobyl," referring to the 1986 nuclear accident.

Although speculation surrounds which countries may have been involved in its creation, the origins of the worm still remain a mystery.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

One organisation was attacked three times, another was targeted twice"

End Quote Orla Cox Symantec

Iranian officials have admitted that the worm infected staff computers. However, they have repeatedly denied that the virus caused any major delays to its nuclear power programme, although its uranium enrichment programme is known to have suffered setbacks.

The new research, which analysed 12,000 infections collected by various anti-virus firms, shows that the worm targeted five "industrial processing" organisations in Iran.

"These were the seeds of all other infections," said Ms Cox.

The firm was able to identify the targets because Stuxnet collected information about each computer it infected, including its name, location and a time stamp of when it was compromised.

This allowed the researchers to track the spread of the virus.

Symantec declined to name the five organisations and would not confirm whether they had links to the country's nuclear programme.

However, Ms Cox, said that previous research confirmed that the worm could disrupt the centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

The five organisations were targeted repeatedly between June 2009 and April 2010, she said.

"One organisation was attacked three times, another was targeted twice," she said.

These waves of attacks used at least three different variants of the worm.

"We believe there was also a fourth one but we haven't seen it yet," she said.

Analysis of the different strains and the time it took between the code being written and it making its first infection suggested that the virus writers had "infiltrated" targeted organisations, she said.

The researchers drew this conclusion because Stuxnet targeted industrial systems not usually connected to the internet for security reasons.

Instead, it infects Windows machines via USB keys - commonly used to move files around and usually plugged into a computer manually.

The virus therefore had to be seeded on to the organisation's internal networks by someone, either deliberately or accidentally.

The virus could have been spread between the organisations by contractors that worked for more than one of them, she said.

"We see threads to contractors used by these companies," she said. "We can see links between them."

Big picture

Once on a corporate network, the worm is designed to seek out a specific configuration of industrial control software made by Siemens.

The code can then reprogram so-called PLC (programmable logic control) software to give attached industrial machinery new instructions.

Previous analysis suggests that it targeted PLCs operating at frequencies between 807 and 1210Hz, a range that includes those used to control uranium enrichment centrifuges.

Subverting PLCs requires detailed knowledge and, although security researchers had raised concerns about exploits in the past, had not been seen before Stuxnet.

Ms Cox said the firm's analysis revealed incomplete code in Stuxnet that looked like it was intended to target another type of PLC.

"The fact that it is incomplete could tell us that [the virus writers] were successful in what they had done," she said.

The novelty of the virus, combined with attack mechanisms that targeted several previously unknown and unpatched vulnerabilities in Windows, have led many to describe Stuxnet as "one of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever".

However, research by Tom Parker from security firm Securicon says that elements of it were "not that advanced at all".

"I've compared this less advanced code to other malware and it does not score very highly," he said last year.

Ms Cox agrees that elements of the code and some of the techniques it uses are relatively simple. But, she says, that misses the bigger picture.

"If you look at the sum of its parts, then it is certainly very sophisticated," she said.

Blackberry dismisses Nokia jibe

15 February 2011 Last updated at 10:26 ET By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

Research in Motion's boss has dismissed suggestions that its Blackberry devices are no longer a major player in the smartphone race.

Jim Balsillie told BBC News that the firm should not be written off.

It follows comments by Nokia's Stephen Elop, who said that the smartphone ecosystem was now a three horse race between Windows, Android and Apple.

"I don't know how you can say that we are not in the race," said Mr Balsillie at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

He said that Blackberry had experienced 70% growth last year and was the number one phone in the UK.

Figures from research firm Gfk show that the phone maker had 28.2% of the UK smartphone market in 2010.

However, the firm trails Google, Nokia and Apple in terms of market share, according to figures from Canalys.

"Are people writing us off? We have had huge growth in the last year. I wouldn't write us off," he said.

He was also keen to shake off RIM's business focussed image.

"80% of our subscribers are consumers."

Blackberry is forging a new link with younger, teenage consumers who are flocking to the handset because of Blackberry messaging.

Analysts have characterised 2011 as a year of transition for Blackberry as it moves away from its traditional business roots.

But for Mr Balsillie the greatest change is the move into larger devices.

"The biggest transition for us is that we are coming out with tablets," he said.

The firm announced its Playbook tablet device in September 2010.

In Barcelona, the firm also said that would be launching a 4G Playbook in the second half of the year. None of its tablets have yet hit shop shelves, but are expected in the coming weeks.

It has been a difficult year for RIM in countries such as Saudi Arabia and India, where governments want to gain greater access to the tight security system used for Blackberry's business users.

Mr Balsillie said the company's policy had not changed, despite significant growth amongst Indian consumers.

"We want to abide by local laws while also supporting our systems," he said.

RIM has always maintained that it cannot interfere with the encryption system set up to protect its business customers' messages.

It remained in talks with the government in India, said a spokesman.

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'Nuclear virus' targets uncovered

15 February 2011 Last updated at 08:51 ET By Jonathan Fildes Technology reporter, BBC News

A powerful internet worm repeatedly targeted five industrial facilities in Iran over 10 months, ongoing analysis by security researchers shows.

Stuxnet, which came to light in 2010, was the first-known virus specifically designed to target real-world infrastructure, such as power stations.

Security firm Symantec has now revealed how waves of new variants were launched at Iranian industrial facilities.

Some versions struck their targets within 12 hours of being written.

"We are trying to do some epidemiology," Orla Cox of Symantec told BBC News. "We are trying to understand how and why it spread."

Repeated attacks

The worm first grabbed headlines late last year after initial analysis showed that the sophisticated piece of malware had likely been written by a "nation state" to target Iran's nuclear programme, including the uranium enrichment centrifuges at the Natanz facility.

Russia's Nato ambassador recently said the virus "could lead to a new Chernobyl," referring to the 1986 nuclear accident.

Although speculation surrounds which countries may have been involved in its creation, the origins of the worm still remain a mystery.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

One organisation was attacked three times, another was targeted twice"

End Quote Orla Cox Symantec

Iranian officials have admitted that the worm infected staff computers. However, they have repeatedly denied that the virus caused any major delays to its nuclear power programme, although its uranium enrichment programme is known to have suffered setbacks.

The new research, which analysed 12,000 infections collected by various anti-virus firms, shows that the worm targeted five "industrial processing" organisations in Iran.

"These were the seeds of all other infections," said Ms Cox.

The firm was able to identify the targets because Stuxnet collected information about each computer it infected, including its name, location and a time stamp of when it was compromised.

This allowed the researchers to track the spread of the virus.

Symantec declined to name the five organisations and would not confirm whether they had links to the country's nuclear programme.

However, Ms Cox, said that previous research confirmed that the worm could disrupt the centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

The five organisations were targeted repeatedly between June 2009 and April 2010, she said.

"One organisation was attacked three times, another was targeted twice," she said.

These waves of attacks used at least three different variants of the worm.

"We believe there was also a fourth one but we haven't seen it yet," she said.

Analysis of the different strains and the time it took between the code being written and it making its first infection suggested that the virus writers had "infiltrated" targeted organisations, she said.

The researchers drew this conclusion because Stuxnet targeted industrial systems not usually connected to the internet for security reasons.

Instead, it infects Windows machines via USB keys - commonly used to move files around and usually plugged into a computer manually.

The virus therefore had to be seeded on to the organisation's internal networks by someone, either deliberately or accidentally.

The virus could have been spread between the organisations by contractors that worked for more than one of them, she said.

"We see threads to contractors used by these companies," she said. "We can see links between them."

Big picture

Once on a corporate network, the worm is designed to seek out a specific configuration of industrial control software made by Siemens.

The code can then reprogram so-called PLC (programmable logic control) software to give attached industrial machinery new instructions.

Previous analysis suggests that it targeted PLCs operating at frequencies between 807 and 1210Hz, a range that includes those used to control uranium enrichment centrifuges.

Subverting PLCs requires detailed knowledge and, although security researchers had raised concerns about exploits in the past, had not been seen before Stuxnet.

Ms Cox said the firm's analysis revealed incomplete code in Stuxnet that looked like it was intended to target another type of PLC.

"The fact that it is incomplete could tell us that [the virus writers] were successful in what they had done," she said.

The novelty of the virus, combined with attack mechanisms that targeted several previously unknown and unpatched vulnerabilities in Windows, have led many to describe Stuxnet as "one of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever".

However, research by Tom Parker from security firm Securicon says that elements of it were "not that advanced at all".

"I've compared this less advanced code to other malware and it does not score very highly," he said last year.

Ms Cox agrees that elements of the code and some of the techniques it uses are relatively simple. But, she says, that misses the bigger picture.

"If you look at the sum of its parts, then it is certainly very sophisticated," she said.

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EU updates law against child porn

15 February 2011 Last updated at 07:30 ET

The EU has taken a step towards common rules for cracking down on those who sexually abuse children and post images of the abuse on the internet.

A committee of Euro MPs backed an EU draft directive calling for child abuse images to be removed at source.

Where removal is impossible - for example, because web pages are hosted outside the EU - then the abuse images may be blocked by national authorities.

MEPs aim to adopt the new rules later this year, after further negotiations.

MEPs insisted that any moves to block access to images on the web must be accompanied by "transparent procedures and provide adequate safeguards" so that "the restriction is limited to what is necessary and proportionate".

The safeguards would include informing users of the reason for the block and informing content providers and users of their right to appeal.

Legal minefield

The original proposal from the European Commission called for mandatory blocking of child abuse websites in the 27-nation EU.

But in some cases, such blocking action could be seen as a violation of fundamental rights.

The amended text was adopted overwhelmingly by the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on Monday.

The Commission recommended both the removal of child abuse content at source and blocking as a complementary tool, admitting that blocking was not always effective.

Internet blocking exists already in the UK, Denmark, Italy, Finland and Sweden.

"The experience of these countries shows that hundreds, or even thousands, of attempts to access child pornography sites are blocked every day," EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said last year.

An alliance of European child protection groups, including the UK's NSPCC, called the new directive an "important opportunity" to improve EU legislation aimed at preventing sexual crimes against children.

Making grooming a crime

The directive would make the sexual grooming of children via the internet a crime across the EU.

It seeks to make undercover police operations a "possibility... in national legislation" to target paedophile rings that prove particularly difficult for the authorities to access.

A range of measures would also boost legal support for child victims, as well as protections such as vetting of adults who work with children.

Offenders would face prison terms ranging from two years to more than 10 years, depending on the gravity of the crime.

In addition, EU states plan to step up partnerships with Russia, the US and other non-EU countries to combat child abuse on the internet.

MEPs will now discuss the directive with EU governments, with the aim of reaching a deal within months. Once adopted, the directive will have to be incorporated into national law EU-wide within two years.

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Twitter boss talks up mobile hope

15 February 2011 Last updated at 04:26 ET By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter, BBC News, Barcelona

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo has dismissed talk of a $10bn deal with Google as "rumour" during a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress.

He laughed off questions about tie-ups with Facebook and Google, saying he didn't know "where such talk came from".

Instead he concentrated on the importance of the service's growth, especially on mobile.

According to Mr Costolo, 40% of tweets now come from mobile platforms.

He said that the service needed "deeper integration" in smartphones as well as to extend how it was made available to more basic phones.

Mr Costolo said that he wanted Twitter to work seamlessly on all mobile software.

"We want deep smartphone integration and stronger text messaging integration. It has to just work the same way everywhere it is used," he said.

But he offered little detail on how this would be achieved, beyond saying that he wanted more "single sign-ons".

"We want to be able to tweet from any app, without having to fire up another application," he said.

More detail on how Twitter could be integrated with mobiles would have been useful, said Eden Zoller, principal analyst at research firm Ovum.

"We expected more; for example what Twitter is doing to build its application ecosystem given the importance of apps in adding value to the service and the fact that a growing number of Twitter users interact with the service via apps," she said.

"We also hoped Twitter would show that it intends to leverage mobile location better than it is, and likewise search," she added.

Expansion plans

Currently Twitter's revenues are made in three key ways - from promoted trends, which allows companies to pay to appear in its top ratings, and sponsored and promoted tweets.

Much of the keynote speech was devoted to Twitter's phenomenal growth.

Twitter now regularly carries 130 million tweets a day and during major events, such as the football World Cup can see upwards of 3,000 tweets a second, Mr Costolo said.

The record, he revealed, was 6,000 tweets per second in Japan at New Year's Eve.

Mr Costolo also spoke of the importance of the platform as a political tool, with basic services such as speak-to-tweet, a partnership with Google which allowed users to send tweets as voicemail and read them as texts, proving crucial in recent citizen protests in Egypt.

He announced that a crowd-sourcing translation service will soon be coming to Twitter.

He revealed that increasing numbers of users are coming to the service as passive consumers.

"More users of Twitter aren't tweeting," he said.

"We have to understand that many are here just for consumption, they just want to follow content," he added.

He hinted at possible expansion of Twitter's social network.

"If new users come to Twitter and have a couple of social connections they are far more likely to remain engaged users," he revealed.

Windows world

Mr Costolo did also hint at possible tie-ups with TV advertisers, playing up Twitter's value during TV shows such as live sports, saying that the service was turning people against DVRs and on-demand services because they preferred to watch in "real time" so that they could tweet.

Twitter was allowing interactive TV to become a reality. "Twitter is the second screen," he said.

The assertion will be welcomed by TV advertisers which have seen revenues fall as a result of people using DVRs and other methods to watch content.

Ms Zoller was disappointed that Mr Costolo did not say more about how he intends for the company to make money.

"Twitter quoted figures on healthy growth and use, which is good but not surprising. What it didn't provide was concrete details on was how effective its nascent businesses are proving to be in driving revenues - lots of case studies of cool brands using Twitter but no hard line on the margins this brings to Twitter," she said.

In an earlier keynote speech, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer revealed that it plans to integrate Twitter as one of a raft of updates to Windows phones, coming later this year.

Other updates include a version of Microsoft's latest browser, Internet Explorer 9, for phones and deeper ties with gaming services Xbox and Kinect.

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Man arrested over Nintendo hack

14 February 2011 Last updated at 13:44 ET

Police in Spain have arrested a man who allegedly stole details on thousands of Nintendo users and tried to blackmail the company.

The unnamed individual obtained data on 4,000 gamers, according to Spain's Interior Ministry.

It is claimed he threatened to contact the country's data protection agency, accusing the firm of negligence.

When Nintendo did not respond, he began leaking some of the information online, said police.

The man was arrested in the southern province of Malaga.

Authorities say he had been planning to release the full contents of the user database onto the internet.

It is unclear if the alleged theft was from Nintendo's own computer system or that of a third party.

Nintendo said it was unable to comment on the case as is was the subject of of an active investigation by the Spanish authorities.

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Image site hits back at spammers

14 February 2011 Last updated at 10:58 ET

Spammers are being thwarted by finding that their junk messages unexpectedly contain warnings urging recipients to delete the e-mail.

The alerts are issued by ImageShack, in an effort to stop spammers using its services.

It is replacing pictures, known to have appeared in spam, with warnings such as "Do not buy".

Spammers often use image hosting sites so they can include fake logos, intended to make the mail look genuine.

The aim is raise users' awareness of the problem and to make life difficult for those sending the spam, Alexander Levin, president of ImageShack told BBC News.

"The net effect is that the spammers lose customers and see a decrease in revenue."

Spam warning

ImageShack's system is capable of swapping thousands of the spammers' images for warnings within an hour of them being reported.

The company works with anti-spam groups to identify any files that have been uploaded to its servers and are being used in junk emails, he said.

It then scours its web logs to uncover other images that have been uploaded from the same web address.

This allows it to identify images "not previously reported to the anti-spam communities", Mr Levin added.

The move was welcomed by Paul Wood, senior analyst at security firm Symantec.cloud.

However, he warned that if image hosting sites are serious about tackling spam, they should consider their registration processes.

"Users often don't need to register to use these sites - making them highly disposable and open to abuse," he said.

According to security firm McAfee, the global volume of spam is at its lowest level since 2006.

That follows one of the largest group of spammers, known as Spamit, deciding to cease its activities last August.

Even so, spam accounts for nearly 80 per cent of all email traffic, McAfee reported.

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Android launches lead mobile show

14 February 2011 Last updated at 04:26 ET By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter, Barcelona <!-- Embedding the video player --> <!-- This is the embedded player component -->

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Sony Ericsson launch phone aimed at fans of the PlayStation

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As Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona, a host of mobile firms have launched new devices, many featuring Google's Android operating system.

Headline grabbers include Sony Ericsson with its smartphone-cum-gaming device, dubbed the Xperia Play.

Rival Samsung has unveiled a new tablet, the Galaxy 10.,which as the name suggests features a bigger 10.1 inch (26cm) screen.

Meanwhile LG will be showing off the first mobile phone with 3D capability.

Sony Ericsson's launch attracted a big crowd as it unveiled it not-so-secret PlayStation phone, which it is hoping will appeal to the widening mobile gaming market as well as to more hardcore gamers.

The device - dubbed the PlayStation phone - has a pull-out control pad and will feature a catalogue of games, from Electronic Art's Fifa series to Assassin's Creed, the Sims and Dungeon Defender.

It is launching with 20 gaming partners and will be available from March.

Sony Ericsson has signed up Verizon as its US partner while in the UK the Xperia Play will be carried by all operators.

Sylvia Chind, head of branded devices at network operator Three, said the handset was a "step change in the way in which consumers use data, merging mobile communications and entertainment".

Analyst Ian Fogg, from research firm Forrester, thinks it represents a real challenge to Apple's dominance: "It is an extremely competitive device and shows that Apple will not be the only player in the mobile gaming market," he said.

But just as Sony Ericsson has leveraged the PlayStation brand so others may follow, he thinks.

"Nokia, Microsoft, Apple and Google also have other assets they could bring to the mobile experience," he said.

Guy Cocker, the editor of gaming website GameSpot said the phone aimed to please both the casual and the more hardcore gamer.

Gaming, he said, was no longer a niche activity.

"People want to play games wherever they are...from fans of Angry Birds through to those who want to play more traditional games on their mobiles," he said

Not to be overshadowed by its rival, Samsung has put down its mark as a very real contender to the iPad, with its new version of the Galaxy Tab.

Announced just before the Samsung's official Mobile World Congress 2011 press announcement, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 has a number of new features, the most significant being its bigger, 10.1 inch screen.

It will run on the latest version of Android, dubbed Honeycomb, and designed specifically for tablet devices.

LG's 3D tablet and phone are also powered by Android.

Both allow users to users to shoot 3D images and video, as well as upload their clips directly to YouTube.

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Supercomputer vs human on TV quiz

14 February 2011 Last updated at 04:31 ET By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

A supercomputer, designed by IBM, is to face two human contestants on the US quiz show Jeopardy.

Watson will pit its wits against two of the game's most successful players.

At stake is a $1 million prize (�620,000) and the reputation of the field of artificial intelligence.

The company said Watson signals a new era in computing where machines will increasingly be able to learn and understand what humans are really asking them for.

Jeopardy is seen as the greatest challenge for Watson because of the show's rapid fire format and clues that rely on subtle meanings, puns, and riddles; something humans excel at and computers do not.

"Watson has to come up with an answer based on what information it has in its brain just like any human has in his head," Rod Smith, IBM's emerging technology director told BBC News.

"Watson could be connected to the internet all the time, but it won't be because that is not the way to play Jeopardy. This really is about setting the bar and working through all the data it has in less than three seconds to come up with the right answer."

Jeopardy, which first aired on US television in 1964, tests a player's knowledge of trivia in a range of categories, from geography and politics to history and entertainment.

In a twist on traditional game play, contestants are provided with answers and need to supply the questions. A dollar amount is attached to each question and the player with the most amount of money at the end wins the game.

'Gladiatorial'

The technology behind Watson relies on analytics to understand what is being asked, to crunch through massive amounts of data and provide the best answer based on the evidence it finds.

That store of information adds up to 15 terabytes of memory, about the size of the total printed text in the Library of Congress.

Mr Smith said inside Watson's brain are around "a million different books and 200m pages of material".

The amount of power used for Watson is equal to that of a small university.

Watson's adversaries in the show are Ken Jennings, who won 74 games in a row - the most consecutive victories ever - and Brad Rutter, who scored the most money with winnings of more than $3m.

Mr Jennings told his hometown newspaper the Seattle Times that "it's nerve-wracking because you know a computer can't get intimidated. A human player might get frustrated. Watson has no ego, no consciousness".

The competition was held inside IBM's lab in New York and will be broadcast over the next three nights.

"The crowd is full of IBM employees cheering for human blood. It was an away game for the human race. It was gladiatorial," added Mr Jennings.

Prize money

Mr Smith said the end game is about equipping Watson to help us "solve world problems and neighbourhood problems".

"Think about today's government - it produces volumes of data and stuff that we don't even know what to ask. Think about health care or the fact that as we do drug evaluation, you would like to know the different reactions and the different relationships.

"Well Watson can do these types of things, analyse the data quickly and come up with information that is useful to answer these questions".

As well as practical business applications, Stephen Baker, author of Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything, told NPR News that Watson also brings a bit of lustre to what is seen as an unsexy company.

"They need to do this kind of thing because they're not like Apple and Google. They don't have stuff that people want. So they have to show that they can do really fun stuff so that they can attract, you know, great PhDs to their programmes".

The winner of Jeopardy will receive $1 million. The second place receives $300,000 and third place $200,000. Mr Jennings and Mr Rutter have both said they will donate half of their winnings to charity, and IBM will donate all of its winnings to charity.

This is not IBM's first foray at taking on humans. In 1997 the company's computer Deep Blue beat chess champion Gary Kasparov.

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