UK web blocking plans criticised

23 June 2011 Last updated at 21:13 ET

Online consumer groups have criticised government plans to block website which stream copyrighted material for free.

It follows a meeting last week between communications minister Ed Vaisey, internet service providers and copyright holders.

Campaign group, The Open Rights Group (ORG) is angry that its request to attend the meeting was turned down.

It called for more public debate on the issue.

Web blocking is seen as a way to combat the increasing amount of copyrighted material that is being streamed for free online.

ORG said that it has learnt that part of the discussion was about setting up a "council" that could be given the power to decide which websites were blocked.

Censorship

Jim Killock, executive director of the ORG is a vocal campaigner against the measures being proposed.

He said: "It is unacceptable for trade groups and the government to conduct policy in this way. Censorship proposals must be discussed in public.

Many of us will oppose any censorship that impacts directly and widely on free expression."

There are no details of how the "councils" would be made up, but consumer group Consumer Focus, who was at the meeting, warned that it would be inappropriate for right holders to decide which UK websites should be blocked.

The plans are part of the Digital Economy Act (DEA) which allows for mandatory web-blocking. Any web blocking plan would require secondary legislation.

The group of copyright holders behind the plans titled as 'Addressing websites that are substantially focused on infringement' included the Publishers Association, the BPI, the Football Association Premier League and the Motion Picture Alliance.

Live streaming

If the proposals get the go-ahead it could allow the Premier League to block access to live streams of its football matches.

Consumer Focus argued in the case of streamed football games, blocking would be a "disproportionate" response.

"We believe that the first step to address this problem is to assess whether consumers' evident demand for streaming football games online is met by legal services."

In response to the criticism, a spokesperson from the Department for Culture Media and Sport issued a statement:

"The Government hosted a useful discussion between ISPs and rights holders on issues around industry proposals for a site blocking scheme to help tackle online copyright infringement.

"Consumer representatives were invited and Consumer Focus attended the meeting."

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FBI targets 'scareware' sellers

23 June 2011 Last updated at 06:14 ET

A gang that made more than $72m (�45m) peddling fake security software has been shut down in a series of raids.

Co-ordinated by the FBI, the raids were carried out in the US, UK and six other countries.

The money was made by selling software that claimed to find security risks on PCs and then asked for cash to fix the non-existent problems.

The raids seized 40 computers used to do fake scans and host webpages that tricked people into using the software.

Account closed

About one million people are thought to have installed the fake security software, also known as scareware, and handed over up to $129 for their copy. Anyone who did not pay but had downloaded the code was bombarded with pop-ups warning them about the supposed security issues.

Raids conducted in Latvia as part of the attack on the gang allowed police to gain control of five bank accounts used to funnel cash to the group's ringleaders.

Although no arrests are believed to have been made during the raids, the FBI said the computers seized would be analysed and its investigation would continue.

The raids on the gang were part of an international effort dubbed Operation Trident Tribunal. In total, raids in 12 nations were carried out to thwart two separate gangs peddling scareware.

The second gang used booby-trapped adverts to trick victims. Raids by Latvian police on this gang led to the arrest Peteris Sahurovs and Marina Maslobojeva who are alleged to be its operators.

According to the FBI, the pair worked their scam by pretending to be an advertising agency that wanted to put ads on the website of the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper.

Once the ads started running, the pair are alleged to have changed them to install fake security software on victims' machines that mimicked infection by a virus. On payment of a fee the so-called infection was cured. Those that did not pay found their machine was unusable until they handed over cash.

This ruse is believed to have generated a return of about $2m.

"Scareware is just another tactic that cyber criminals are using to take money from citizens and businesses around the world," said assistant director Gordon Snow of the FBI's Cyber Division in a statement.

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Winklevoss twins end Facebook row

23 June 2011 Last updated at 05:59 ET

The Winklevoss brothers, Harvard contemporaries of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, have ended their legal battle with the social network.

They reached a $65m ($41m) settlement in 2008, after claiming that Mr Zuckerberg stole their idea.

The legal spat was immortalised in the film "The Social Network".

In January they attempted to reopen the case, claiming that they should have received more shares.

They sought to undo the settlement of $20m in cash and $45m in stock - now worth more than $100m.

A US appeals court ruled in April that they could not back out of the deal.

The pair had threatened to go to US Supreme Court to overturn the decision but have now said they will not pursue it.

They offered no statement on what had prompted their decision to abandon the suit.

The twins originally argued that Mr Zuckerberg had stolen their idea after he was hired by them to code their ConnectU site in 2003.

Facebook has always rejected the claims but agreed to the 2008 settlement to end what it called "rancorous litigation".

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Man charged with website attacks

22 June 2011 Last updated at 12:31 ET

A 19-year-old Essex man has been charged with five computer offences, including attacking the Serious Organised Crime Agency's website.

Ryan Cleary, from Wickford, is alleged to have set up a distributed denial of service attack on Soca on 20 June.

It is alleged he attacked the website of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in November 2010.

He also allegedly attacked the British Phonographic Industry's website in October.

Mr Cleary was charged under the Criminal Law Act and Computer Misuse Act by the Met Police's e-crime unit and will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates court on Thursday.

A distributed denial of service typically involves flooding a target website with data, in an attempt to overwhelm it so it cannot serve its legitimate users.

The charges against Mr Cleary include conspiring with other unknown people on or before 20 June to construct a botnet - a collection of hijacked home computers - to conduct distributed denial of service attacks.

He is also charged with making, adapting, supplying or offering to supply a botnet, intending that it should be used to commit, or to assist in the commission of a distributed denial of service attack.

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Bitcoin 'will recover' from crash

21 June 2011 Last updated at 19:11 ET

The virtual currency Bitcoin will "bounce back" after a hack attack caused its value to collapse, according to one of its senior developers.

Gavin Andresen said he hoped the crisis would lead to better security on sites where Bitcoins are bought and sold.

Prices on the main exchange, Mt.Gox, fell from $17.50 (�10.80) to almost zero when a large number of stolen Bitcoins were dumped on the market.

Trading was suspended and eventually rolled back to pre-crash rates.

Mt.Gox revealed details of the security breach on June 20 with an announcement on its website.

"It appears that someone who performs audits on our system and had read-only access to our database had their computer compromised. This allowed for someone to pull our database," the statement read.

Around the same time, an unidentified person accessed one of the compromised accounts and sold all of its Bitcoins.

They then attempted to buy the coins again and withdraw them in US dollars.

The fraudster was partially foiled when they hit Mt.Gox's $1000 daily limit.

The decision to reset the Bitcoin rate to a point just before the malicious trades were placed was criticised by some users who had taken the opportunity to buy low.

"Why should everyone who profited from the crash suffer your inability to secure the site?" wrote a user called Elments.

Questionable future

Although the problem was caused by security failings at Mt.Gox, it has raised wider questions about the viability of Bitcoin as a virtual currency.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Like any start-up, it could change the world but it could also be risk."

End Quote Gavin Andresen Bitcoin developer

"I am sceptical about its longer term prospects," said David Birch, director of Consult Hyperion, a consultancy specialising in electronic transactions.

"There were two things here - the specific bubble (caused by the dumping of stolen coins) and the exchange mechanism."

Bitcoin transactions are made by swapping anonymous, heavily encrypted codes which only a specific user can unlock.

Details of who owns each Bitcoin are distributed across a peer-to-peer network, with no central repository.

If an encrypted coin file is deleted, the money is lost.

The system has proved popular with online criminals, keen to keep their financial transactions secret, although it has a wider, legitimate, user base.

Mr Birch said the fact that so many Bitcoins were traded on a single exchange made it vulnerable to market shocks.

He also questioned the fundamental workings of the currency, saying that its emphasis on anonymity and decentralised nature meant there was little recourse for users when things go wrong.

Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen conceded that current safeguards around the currency may be inadequate.

"I have been the person saying that Bitcoin is an experiment, so you can have confidence in it as much as you can have confidence in any start-up.

"Like any start-up, it could change the world but it could also be risk," he said.

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Teenager held over website hacks

21 June 2011 Last updated at 08:53 ET

A teenager has been arrested in a joint Scotland Yard and FBI investigation into the hacking of websites.

The 19-year-old man was held during a raid at a house in Wickford, Essex.

On Monday the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) took its website offline after it was attacked by Lulz Security hackers.

Scotland Yard would not confirm the arrest was connected but did say that it followed a series of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

The raid in Essex had been a "pre-planned, intelligence-led" operation, it said.

The teenager was arrested under the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act and is being questioned at a central London police station.

He was arrested by the Metropolitan Police's e-crime unit.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "The arrest follows an investigation into network intrusions and distributed denial of service attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group.

"Searches at a residential address in Wickford, Essex, following the arrest last night have led to the examination of a significant amount of material. These forensic examinations remain ongoing."

Scotland Yard is co-operating with the FBI as well as Essex Police.

An FBI spokesman said it had no comment "at this time".

Channel 4 News claimed LulzSec may have succeeded in hacking into the database of the 2011 Census, which holds details of every UK citizen who filled out the survey earlier this year.

But the Office for National Statistics has released a statement saying: "We are aware of the suggestion that Census data has been accessed. We are working with our security advisers and contractors to establish whether there is any substance to this.

"The 2011 Census placed the highest priority on maintaining the security of personal data. At this stage we have no evidence to suggest that such a compromise has taken place."

When Lulz Security, or LulzSec, first appeared in May, the group portrayed itself as a light-hearted organisation, bent on creating online fun and Lulz (laughs).

But LulzSec is said to have been planning to establish itself as a rival to Anonymous, the hacking group embroiled in the WikiLeaks fallout.

LulzSec initially targeted US broadcasters PBS and Fox and gaming firms.

But the Twitter page @LulzSec then declared its intention to break into government websites and leak confidential documents.

LulzSec is also suspected of hacking into CIA, Sony and NHS websites.

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Mobile firms can trade spectrum

21 June 2011 Last updated at 06:08 ET

UK regulator Ofcom has given phone operators the green light to trade spectrum in a move intended to increase mobile network capacity.

Available bandwidth is becoming a huge issue as smartphones put increasing demand on networks.

The trading of airwaves comes ahead of a crucial spectrum auction next year that will usher in 4G data services.

Both the auction and the decision to allow operators to trade existing spectrum have caused controversy.

Spectrum trading allows operators to sell off the airwaves they own in the 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz frequency bands.

Historically the 900MHz slice of spectrum has belonged exclusively to O2 and Vodafone because they were the only two mobile operators on the market when it was handed out.

While other nations have reallocated this spectrum to offer a more level-playing field ahead of 4G auctions, this has not happened in the UK.

Ofcom had originally planned to redistribute the spectrum allocated to O2 and Vodafone, but was met with a legal action, initiated by the two operators.

Lifeblood

Ofcom dropped its plans following the merger of T-Mobile and Orange.

Everything Everywhere (EE), the parent company of T-Mobile and Orange will be the biggest beneficiary of spectrum trading.

It was required to sell off about 19 percent of its spectrum frequencies as a condition of the merger.

Three is unhappy as it has the least spectrum to trade.

"Spectrum is the lifeblood of smartphones and the mobile internet and for those with surplus holdings it is also a strategic asset, so voluntary trading is the exception," it said in a statement.

"This move simply allows those who have been gifted access to public spectrum to profit from it, with no benefit for UK taxpayers."

Three will voice its concerns later today at a Department of Culture select committee hearing set up to discuss the way spectrum is being allocated.

Further delays

O2 and Vodafone are unlikely to sell off any of their assets, according to Mr Howett.

"It is simply too valuable to them and they would only trade it if they were forced to," he said.

What may force their hand is the upcoming 4G auction in which Ofcom has set caps on the amount that can be bought.

It will mean the operators with more existing spectrum will be able to buy less of the more valuable 4G airwaves.

Ofcom has also ring-fenced some of the spectrum for new entrants such as Three.

"It has done this because it recognised that 3 might not be able to survive and it values the disruptive nature of a player like 3," said Mr Howett.

But O2 said it was tantamount to "state aid" and has threatened legal action.

Any further delays to the auction could put the UK behind other European countries in the roll-out of 4G services, said Mr Howett.

4G will be crucial as the market continues to grow.

According to Ofcom there are now 80 million mobiles in the UK, 12.8 million of which are smartphones.

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LulzSec attacks UK crime agency

20 June 2011 Last updated at 12:29 ET

Hacking group Lulz Security has said it was responsible for taking offline the website of the UK Serious Organised Crime agency (Soca).

Www.soca.gov.uk was unavailable on Monday afternoon, with an intermittent service restored later in the day.

As the agency launched an investigation, LulzSec tweeted: "Tango down - in the name of #AntiSec".

The group has hit a number of high-profile websites in recent weeks, including the CIA and US Senate.

Soca appeared to be the victim of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, where a number of computers, under malicious control, overload their target with web requests.

A later LulzSec twitter posting seemed to confirm that.

"DDoS is of course our least powerful and most abundant ammunition. Government hacking is taking place right now behind the scenes," it said.

Over the weekend, the shadowy organisation declared that it would begin targeting government systems, calling the campaign Antisec.

In an online posting, LulzSec set out its agenda: "Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including e-mail spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments."

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Web primed for domain name surge

20 June 2011 Last updated at 02:43 ET

A global internet body has voted to allow the creation of new website domain suffixes, the biggest change for the online world in years.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) plans to dramatically increase the number of domain endings from the current 22.

Internet address names will end with almost any word and be in any language.

Icann will begin taking applications next year, with corporations and cities expected to be among the first.

"Icann has opened the internet's addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination," said Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive officer for Icann.

"No one can predict where this historic decision will take us."

There will be several hundred new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), which could include such addresses as .google, .coke, or even .BBC.

There are currently 22 gTLDs, as well as about 250 country-level domain names such as .uk or .de.

It will cost $185,000 (�114,000) to apply for the suffixes, and companies would need to show they have a legitimate claim to the name they are buying.

Analysts say it is a price that global giants might be willing to pay - in order to maximise their internet presence.

The vote completes a six-year negotiation process and is the biggest change to the system since .com was first introduced 26 years ago.

Icann said it was beginning a global communications programme to raise awareness of the new domain names.

Applications will start on 12 January.

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Sega hack hits 1.29 million users

19 June 2011 Last updated at 06:47 ET

Sega has confirmed that the personal data of 1.29 million of its customers was stolen in an attack on its systems.

It comes after the computer games firm said on Friday that e-mail addresses and dates of birth stored on the Sega Pass database were accessed by hackers.

However, Sega continues to say that payment information, such as credit card numbers, remained safe.

Sega spokeswoman Yoko Nagasawa said: "We are deeply sorry for causing trouble to our customers."

She added: "We want to work on strengthening security."

Ms Nagasawa added that it was not yet known when the Sega Pass online network could be restarted.

'Investigation'

In an e-mail sent to Sega Pass users on Friday, the company wrote: "Over the last 24 hours we have identified that unauthorised entry was gained to our Sega Pass database.

"We immediately took the appropriate action to protect our consumers' data and isolate the location of the breach. We have launched an investigation into the extent of the breach of our public systems."

Sega explained that it had reset all passwords and urged customers to change their log-on details on other services and websites where they used the same credentials.

It added that password details had not been stored in plain text, suggesting that they may have been secured by some kind of encryption.

Sega is the latest in a line of games companies to suffer hacking and denial of service attacks on their online services.

Nintendo, Sony and several multi-player gaming communities have been hit in recent months.

The hacker group Lulz Security, which has been involved in a number of high profile attacks, including one against Sega rival Nintento, has denied involvement in the Sega case.

Instead it showed some sympathy for the company on its Twitter feed.

"We want to help you destroy the hackers that attacked you. We love the Dreamcast, these people are going down," it said.

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