Twitter's Vine gets adult rating

6 February 2013 Last updated at 09:05 ET

Vine - Twitter's new video clip sharing app - has had its age rating increased to 17+ on Apple's store, the highest option.

The software had previously been rated suitable for 12-year-olds.

It follows complaints that some of its six-second segments were pornographic.

Blogging service Tumblr and photo-sharing service 500px have also seen their iPhone and iPad apps boosted to the maximum age rating over the past fortnight.

Vine is not yet available for Android, but Google Play rates its 500px app as having a "high maturity" content rating, while Tumblr is marked as "low maturity".

Technology news site The Verge was first to note the change in Vine's status.

The app had previously made headlines after one of its Editor's Pick showed a couple engaged in a sexual act.

Shortly after the clip's selection it entered the app's "popular now" list, signalling it was one of the product's most viewed videos. Twitter later apologised, blaming "human error".

It has also deleted some of the offending accounts, but Vine does not vet material before it goes online.

The incident came a week after Apple had blocked 500px's app from its marketplace "for featuring pornographic images and material, a clear violation of our guidelines".

It returned to the store a few days later after adding an in-app button to let users alert the service to inappropriate pictures.

Child safety

Developers must fill out a checklist alerting Apple to any issues with their software before it issues a rating and makes their software live.

Its guidelines state that apps qualify for its highest rating if they involve "sexual content, nudity, alcohol, tobacco and drugs".

Apple tells its customers they must not download an app if they fall below the stated age limit - but users can click away the warning message.

In Android's case developers rate their own software, although the firm reserves the right to change their suggestion.

Google's guidelines state that apps which "focus on suggestive or sexual references must be rated high maturity", but again it does not prevent under-18s from installing any app.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said the issue highlighted parents' responsibility to check how smartphones were being used.

"The internet and mobile phones are now part and parcel of young people's everyday lives," said Claire Lilley, safer technology lead at the NSPCC.

"The benefits are huge, both socially and educationally, but so too are the dangers.

"We cannot put the genie back in the bottle, but we can talk to our children about this issue. Parents, schools, technology companies, and young people themselves can all play their part."

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Federal Reserve confirms hack attack

6 February 2013 Last updated at 06:41 ET

The US's central bank has confirmed information was stolen from its servers during a hack attack.

The Federal Reserve told the Reuters news agency it had contacted individuals whose personal information had been involved.

It follows the hacktivist collective Anonymous's publication of what it described as the credentials of 4,000 US bank executives.

The Fed did not say whether the two incidents were related.

The Anonymous document contains the names and workplaces of employees at dozens of community banks, credit unions and other lenders, as well as mobile phone numbers and what appear to be computer log-on names and passwords.

However, Reuters reported that the Fed had issued an internal report stating that "passwords were not compromised" and had indicated that the leaked list had been a contact database to be used during natural disasters.

"The Federal Reserve system is aware that information was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product," a Fed spokeswoman said.

"Exposure was fixed shortly after discovery and is no longer an issue. The incident did not affect critical operations of the Federal Reserve system."

Unanswered questions

Over recent years, computer hackers identifying themselves under the Anonymous umbrella have carried out a series of attacks on US government sites and linked organisations such as the US-based intelligence company Stratfor.

In 2011 Anonymous threatened to take action against the Fed over its economic policies, but the latest incident is the first time it has claimed success at breaching the agency.

However, it would not be the first time the central bank's systems have been compromised. In 2010 a Malaysian man pleaded guilty to adding "malicious code" to the Fed's network via one of its regional banks.

One UK-based expert said the financial industry would want to know more details about the latest incident.

"If the core Federal Reserve systems are compromised it would be massively concerning for the financial community because it provides a lot of sensitive financial disclosures for regulatory reasons to the Fed, and potentially if a third-party got access to all of that information it could open a can of worms within the banking system overall," said Chris Skinner, chairman of the Financial Services Club networking group.

"People will want to know exactly how it was compromised and what information was leaked."

Hacking laws

Anonymous has linked its alleged attack to wider protests following the suicide of internet freedom campaigner Aaron Swartz.

The 26-year-old had been accused of illegally downloading academic documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s network.

He had been charged with computer intrusion, fraud and data theft, and if found guilty could have faced up to 35 years in prison.

Anonymous and others have called for a change to anti-hacking laws to temper sentences.

MIT has also acknowledged its own systems have suffered a series of hack attacks - the most recent redirected visitors from its site to a page saying "RIP Aaron Swartz".

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Thousands of PCs internet access cut

6 February 2013 Last updated at 07:22 ET

Thousands of computers running Microsoft's Windows XP operating system were unable to connect to the internet after installing an anti-virus update.

Users said they were also unable to access their internal company networks.

Russian IT security company Kaspersky Labs told users to disable its anti-virus software or roll back the update.

Two hours later it issued a fix - but since their PCs were unable to auto-install new code from the net, users had to perform several tasks first.

Kaspersky told its customers: "Please disable the web AV component of your protection policy for your managed computers."

It then told them to go the repositories section, download an update and re-enable the protection.

Repair jobs

The company issued a statement, apologising "for any inconvenience caused by this database update error".

"Actions have been taken to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future," it said.

Dorset-based IT consultant Graham Lord wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter: "Bravo on breaking the internet on all your XP clients.

"Your update just set back one of my repair jobs by a day's work."

But Spain-based security blogger David Barroso tweeted: "So Kaspersky QA [quality assurance] team failed with this update but they quickly released a fix, which it is something good."

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Chinese are 'still hacking' WSJ

6 February 2013 Last updated at 13:04 ET

Rupert Murdoch has said that the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper remains under attack from Chinese hackers.

News Corp's chairman and chief executive made the accusation via a post on Twitter.

The WSJ reported last week that hackers had tried to monitor its coverage of China. That followed news that the New York Times believed it had also been infiltrated over a four-month period.

China's foreign ministry has denied any government involvement.

Despite this accusations have continued to mount.

On Saturday The Washington Post revealed it too had been the victim of a "sophisticated cyber-attack" dating back as far back as 2008, which had been discovered in 2011.

The paper said that "company officials suspect [it] was the work of Chinese hackers".

Google's chairman, Eric Schmidt, has also recently pointed the finger at the country.

'Ongoing issue'

He has written a book which says that China is the "most sophisticated and prolific" hacker of overseas companies, adding that "the disparity between American and Chinese firms and their tactics will put both the government and the companies of the US at a distinct disadvantage".

Rupert Murdoch's tweet adds to allegations that the threat is ongoing.

"Chinese still hacking us, or were over weekend," he tweeted. He did not reply to requests for more information and a spokeswoman for the WSJ declined to comment.

The WSJ had previously reported that hacking groups had entered its network via computers in its Beijing office. It said they then infiltrated its global computer system, targeting journalists in its Beijing bureau among others.

The paper said that security specialists had erased several of the company's hard drives in its Chinese bureau last year after the discovery, and that it had completed other efforts to overhaul its systems at the end of January.

However, a spokeswoman for the paper's publisher, Dow Jones, added that the firm recognised that data security was "an "ongoing issue".

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has stressed that local laws forbid hack attacks and that the original claims printed by the New York Times were "groundless".

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Struggling Sony slashes losses

7 February 2013 Last updated at 04:19 ET

Signs that Sony's recovery plan may be working came with news that the struggling electronics group has cut its quarterly losses.

Net losses for the October-December period fell to 10.8bn yen ($115m; £73m), from 159bn yen for the quarter in 2011, with sales up 6% to 1.9bn yen.

The maker of the Playstation games console and Bravia televisions has lost money for the past four years.

Sony has faced tough competition, plus a high yen that makes exports dearer.

The latest quarterly figures brought total losses in the nine months to end-December to 50.9bn yen, a 75% fall on the previous nine months. Sony made record losses of 557bn yen for the whole of 2011 financial year.

The news saw Sony's shares rise 2.5%.

Sony's film division made a profit, thanks to the success of movies such as Skyfall and Hotel Transylvania. The music division also made a profit. However, the TV division made a loss - and has done for several years.

'Wow' products

Sony's statement confirmed a previous forecast that the company should return to profit for the financial year to end-March.

Kazuo Hirai, who took over as president nine months ago, has promised to deliver a new range of "wow" products in order to re-establish Sony as the premier electronics and entertainment company.

Sony says on the its own website that it "is reinventing itself to deliver new and exciting experiences". New mobile devices, cameras and interconnected gadgetry are in the pipeline.

There is speculation that the company will soon announce its new-generation Playstation 4 console.

Sony's problems have been echoed throughout Japan's electronics industry. Last week, Panasonic and Sharp announced huge losses, and warned of more to come.

Fierce competition from the likes of Samsung, a strong currency - although there are signs the yen in weakening - and strategic mistakes, have undermined the country's global leadership in electronics.

The industry has also been hurt by a Chinese consumer boycott of Japanese brands stemming from a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo.

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Digital music 'becomes mainstream'

7 February 2013 Last updated at 04:37 ET

The inexorable rise of digital music, blamed by many for the collapse of high street retailer HMV, continues unabated in the UK, according to new figures.

Almost one in five consumers (19.6%) now prefers to buy all their music as downloads, says trade body the BPI.

Last year, 27.7% of UK music fans purchased downloads from stores such as iTunes or Amazon; or streamed songs on services like Spotify or YouTube.

Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know was the most-streamed song of 2012.

It was closely followed by Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe - with more than 3.7 billion tracks streamed in the UK in 2012, or 140 per household.

The streaming market is now worth £49m to record labels.

Spotify leads the field in terms of brand awareness, with figures revealing almost 70% of all consumers to be familiar with the Swedish service.

According to the BPI, four out of five of consumers have heard of at least one of the leading audio streaming services.

Spotify's own research shows Edinburgh to be the UK's top city for streaming in terms of per-capita usage, followed by Cardiff and Southampton.

On the release of the BPI's Digital Music Nation report, its chief executive, Geoff Taylor, said there had "rightly" been "a lot of focus in the past few weeks on High Street music retail".

"That will continue," he continued. "We must do all we can to serve music fans who love CDs and vinyl.

"But as well as great music stores, Britain is blessed with a world-beating array of digital music services."

The music fan, he said, would be "the clear winner as digital services evolve to deliver even richer music experiences".

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EU proposes new cybercrime rules

7 February 2013 Last updated at 06:23 ET

Over 40,000 firms, including energy providers, banks and hospitals could be required to report cyber-break-ins under new rules proposed by the EU.

It is part of a move to intensify global efforts to fight cybercrime.

Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said that Europe needed to improve how it dealt with cybersecurity.

But firms are concerned that reporting online attacks and security breaches might damage their reputations.

Many breaches

The EU is keen that member states share information about attacks and shore up their cyber-defences.

Under the proposals, each country would have to appoint a Computer Emergency Response Team and create an authority to whom companies would report breaches.

These new bodies would decide whether to make the breaches public and whether to fine companies.

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Announcing the changes, Ms Kroes said: "Europe needs resilient networks and systems and failing to act would would impose significant costs on consumers, businesses and society."

According to the EU, only one in four European companies has a regularly-reviewed, formal ICT security policy. Even among ICT companies, the figure is only one in two, it said.

A recent study by accountants PwC suggested that three quarters of UK small businesses, and 93% of large ones, had recently suffered a cybersecurity breach.

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'$1m-a-year' botnet gets shut down

7 February 2013 Last updated at 06:25 ET

A botnet that was believed to be illegally raking in more than $1m (£640,000) a year, has been shut down by security experts.

Teams working with Microsoft and anti-virus specialists Symantec raided several data centres in the US.

The firms said computers infected by the Bamital botnet were being used for identify theft.

Affected users - of which there were thousands - were offered free tools to help clean up the infected machines.

"In the last two years, more than eight million computers have been attacked by Bamital," wrote Microsoft's Richard Boscovich.

"The botnet's search hijacking and click fraud schemes affected many major search engines and browsers, including those offered by Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.

"Because this threat exploited the search and online advertising platform to harm innocent people, Microsoft and Symantec chose to take action against the Bamital botnet to help protect people and advance cloud security for everyone."

A botnet is a network of computers that have been infected by a virus, allowing a hi-tech criminal to use them remotely.

In this instance, the Bamital botnet would hijack user searches, tricking users into clicking links on online advertisements.

The botnet also had the ability to use the infected computers to "recruit" other machines into the network.

By the time the botnet was shut down, Microsoft and Symantec believed anything between 300,000 and one million machines may have been actively infected.

Continue reading the main story

We think we got everything but time will tell"

End Quote Richard Boscovich Microsoft

Regain control

In order to combat the botnet, Microsoft and Symantec temporarily disabled infected users' ability to search the web - instead presenting them with a warning screen explaining the problem and how to solve it.

"Microsoft is also using the intelligence gathered in this operation to work with internet service providers and computer emergency response teams to help victims regain control of their computers," Mr Boscovich said.

He told the Reuters news agency that he had a "high degree of confidence" that the criminals had been foiled.

"We think we got everything but time will tell," he said.

Botnets are an increasing problem for security firms and computer users alike.

Unlike other types of virus, botnets can often operate without having a noticeable effect on the machine in question, meaning users are unaware they are being targeted.

Since 2010, Microsoft has obtained court orders to shut down botnets as part of a wide-ranging operation known as Project Mars - Microsoft Active Response for Security.

It works with US law enforcers to gather evidence on those behind the activity.

For the Bamital botnet, the firms said 18 ringleaders had been identified.

They were believed to be based in several countries, including the UK, Australia and the US.

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Kids app 'translates' grown-up paper

7 February 2013 Last updated at 08:44 ET

An augmented-reality app that "translates" grown-up newspapers for children has been developed in Japan.

The Tokyo Shimbun, one of the country's biggest daily titles, has worked with advertising firm Dentsu to create the AR News software.

It allows children to hold a smartphone over the newspaper to see a child-friendly version of the text.

In a promotional video, Dentsu said the app could "create a future for the old media newspaper".

"Newspapers were not made for children," the clip said.

"If newspapers became readable to children, they will contribute to family communication and child's education."

'Educational tool'

The demo video shows a father laying a newspaper out on a table as the child holds his smartphone over the page. Cartoon characters appear on the screen, explaining stories and drawing attention to important words.

"Difficult articles and social problems, economy and politics became interesting subjects for children," Dentsu said.

"The newspapers became a media read by both parent and child. And also an educational tool for children."

Paul Bradshaw, university lecturer and blogger on new technology in journalism, told the BBC he was impressed with the idea.

"What it's really about is something that's been talked about for along time, about content being presented in different ways depending on who the user is," he said.

"It means two versions of the content - a grown-up one and the kids one. That has enormous potential. It also tackles a big gap in young readership.

"Are kids going to be interested in the same subjects as adults, even when treated differently? That's a nut to crack."

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Dead Space cheat dents in-game fees

7 February 2013 Last updated at 09:23 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Exploits in the bestselling video game Dead Space 3 are allowing users to obtain in-game items for free.

The "cheats" could prove costly to the title's publisher, Electronic Arts (EA), which has introduced a system that charges users cash for extra equipment in the sequel.

The move has proved controversial with some, since the title already costs about £40.

EA has the ability to issue an update to remove the workarounds.

However, a spokesman said the firm had no comment on the issue.

Dead Space 3 is an action-horror third-person shooter set on a frozen planet.

Part of its challenge is locating scarce in-game resources needed to create ammunition and medical packs in order to tackle the title's monsters.

In previous games in the franchise, the user needed to find credits in order to buy upgrades. However, the new game introduces real-money micro-transactions as a way of allowing players to add equipment faster than would otherwise be possible.

Ethical dilemma

The bugs were first reported by the news site GameFront, which subsequently posted a video online showing how they worked.

One involves the player's character walking into a specific building, picking up an item, walking out - and then returning to find a new item has appeared. This can be repeated an unlimited number of times.

The other requires the user to go to a different destination, to pick up an item and then to select save and quit before returning to the game.

Within hours of the discoveries, news of the exploits spread to other gaming sites and social media networks.

Several users commented that they did not believe using the cheats was unethical because Dead Space 3 had already been priced as a "premium title".

Bolt-on costs

The rise of micro-transactions in video games can be traced to Asia, where they were introduced as part of efforts to combat piracy.

Rather than charge users to buy software, publishers opted for a "freemium" model, in which the basic product was given away but premium add-on services or features involved payment.

It has since become a common feature in the wider smartphone market.

Console titles have long offered the ability to buy additional downloadable content (DLC) such as extra levels, characters or clothes. However, it is relatively rare for them to charge money for items intrinsic to a character's progress through core content.

Dead Space's developer, Visceral, has stressed players do not need to buy items in Dead Space 3 in order to finish it - but gamers have been concerned about what the innovation signalled.

"People are wondering why do you have to pay more in order to get a weapon that is in the main game anyway," said Keza MacDonald, games editor of the IGN news site.

"The way EA is presenting it is that if you want the weapons earlier then you can buy them. But it's a slippery slope because if most games start adopting this as a tactic you're effectively devaluing the money gamers have had to lay out in the first place."

Legal questions

Cheats have long been a feature of video games.

Magazines such as Zap Attack used to publish pages of tricks in the 1980s to help gamers boost ammunition or health points. Websites offering walkthroughs and other cheat sheets now continue that tradition.

However, one solicitor told the BBC that the practice became "legally grey" once micro-transactions were involved.

"If you go into a baker's to buy a bun and they give you the wrong change and you walk away knowing you have been given more change than you handed over in the first place, that's theft," Sara Ludlam, an intellectual property expert at Lupton, Fawcett, Lee & Priestley told the BBC.

"So, arguably if you go into this game knowing you are supposed to be paying for these weapons and you notice a glitch allows you to accumulate them without paying, that's theft as well.

"But it is arguable because it's a new area."

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