Written By Unknown on Kamis, 09 April 2015 | 23.34
The game tokens can be paid for with real cash or bought with in-game gold
The introduction of a way to use real money to buy virtual cash for World of Warcraft has prompted a big change in the value of the game's gold.
The exchange rate for dollars fell by almost a third on the first day that Blizzard let people swap real cash for game gold.
At launch, players could spend $20 (£13) to get 30,000 gold coins to spend on gear in the fantasy game world.
But 24 hours later the same amount of cash netted players about 20,000.
Before now the only way that World of Warcraft players could artificially boost the fortunes of their characters was by visiting a grey-market site and surreptitiously buying gold from unlicensed vendors.
Fell sharply
The practice was fraught with peril because it was technically a violation of the WoW terms and conditions. Anyone caught buying gold this way could have their account closed down.
Late last year Blizzard announced plans to introduce a $20 "game time token" that could be converted into WoW's internal currency. Currently only North American players of WoW can buy the token.
The tokens can be traded on the game's internal auction house for gold - effectively giving people a way to turn real money into virtual cash. Those with lots of WoW gold can buy the token and use it to pay for their subscription to the online game.
The token trading system went live on 8 April and initially the exchange rate for each one climbed past the 30,000 starting point. But within hours the dollar exchange rates fell sharply and are now hovering around 22,000 for $20.
Some speculated that the dollar exchange rate would fall further to reach those seen on grey-market sources of WoW gold, which currently offer 10,000 to 15,000 coins for $20.
'Lot of fluctuation'
Before the launch Blizzard said the exchange rate for tokens would be set by internal game metrics.
Alec Meer, of the game news site Rock, Paper, Shotgun, told the BBC that there had been some initial "overreaction" to the drop in value of each token.
"It doesn't spell doom," he said. "Blizzard is trialling something new. They went in high to see what would happen, and there's going to be a whole lot of fluctuation as a game with a population of several million adapts to it.
"I'm sure the long-term plan is simply to bring more transactions within Blizzard's purview, and in doing so potentially reduce the influence of gold farmers and keep people playing for longer," he added.
Intel, led by Brian Krzanich, says its RealSense technology is now small enough to fit in a smartphone
Intel has revealed a version of its 3D depth camera that is small and thin enough to be fitted into a 6in (15.2cm) smartphone.
The RealSense sensor can be used to recognise hand and head movements and makes it possible to change the focus of photos after they have been taken.
The prototype was unveiled by the company chief executive Brian Krzanich at an event in Shenzhen, China.
One expert noted that questions remained about its power demands.
Although Mr Krzanich showed off an example of a RealSense-enabled phone, he did not demonstrate it working, which may indicate it is still at an early stage of development.
"The device which was shown on stage at the Intel Developer Forum was a prototype that was created in collaboration with a Chinese firm, whom we are not naming," said a spokeswoman for the company.
"The device is meant to show the different types of apps, usage models and form factors that RealSense tech can be integrated into and to encourage innovation."
The depth data collected by RealSense cameras can be used to change the focus of a photo after it has been taken
The technology is similar to that found in Microsoft's Kinect motion-and-image sensor, but in a much smaller package.
While the Kinect has fallen out of favour with many Xbox gamers, one industry watcher thought the technology would prove popular in handsets.
"We've got to the stage where putting ever higher-resolution cameras in phones is no longer as much of a selling point as it used to be," said Chris Green, of the Davies Murphy Group consultancy.
"So manufacturers need additional features to draw on. Depth perception and light-field technology will interest people and potentially let the next generation of smartphones differentiate themselves from what is already on the market.
"Intel has obviously achieved half of the challenge involved - the miniaturisation - but what is still unclear is whether it has got the power side of things licked. It's one thing putting this into a laptop where you have a large battery and access to a mains power source, it's another to put it into a phone that has to last throughout the day."
Sensor rivals
Intel first announced that laptops were to incorporate its RealSense components in January last year, after a tie-up with the Belgian 3D vision specialist SoftKinetic.
Intel's RealSense cameras already allow laptops to be controlled with gestures
It suggested the tech could be used to provide improved gesture recognition - allowing users to control devices without having to touch them - as well as a way to scan objects that could be later edited and 3D-printed and a means to have more control over the way photos and videos looked after they had been captured.
This year, Dell became the first manufacturer to incorporate the technology into a tablet.
Getting the tech into a smartphone would offer Intel a potential coup, but other firms are also working on alternatives.
Google's Project Tango tablet can be used to create 3D models of rooms
Google has created Project Tango - a tablet fitted with a 3D image sensor made by the German company PMDTechnologies.
At this point the kit is limited to developers, as part of an effort to add "spatial perception" to the Android ecosystem.
The US-based Pelican Imaging is also working on a depth-sensing array of cameras designed for smartphones that it says would let photos be refocused after being taken as well as allowing users to create "3D selfies".
Pelican Imaging suggests its sensors will make 3D selfies possible
Its work is backed by Intel's chip-making rival Qualcomm as well as Nokia's venture capital wing, Nokia Growth Partners.
In addition, Apple bought PrimeSense in November 2013.
The Israeli start-up had previously provided the technology used in the original Kinect. Apple has yet to announce how it plans to make use of the acquisition.
Still too big?
One tech journalist who attended the event in Shenzhen suggested Intel might still have quite a bit of work before its RealSense tech was ready for mainstream handsets.
One expert suggested Intel needed to shrink the components to fit smaller handsets
"It was weird because Brian Krzanich said on stage that he's known for taking risks with performing live demos at tech events, and yet this was pretty much the only device he did not turn on to show what it did on stage, which might say something about the early stage it is at," Richard Lai, editor-in-chief of Engadget Chinese, told the BBC.
"And the prototype was still a 6in phablet. That size is socially acceptable in China, where consumers like to have a large screen.
"But putting it into a smaller form factor would make it more accessible to other consumers."
Apple's iCloud Photo Library syncs photos across devices
Apple has released a new photo storage app for Macs, which can automatically store full-resolution images online.
The iCloud Photo Library syncs photos across devices while managing storage.
Users can opt to keep original high-res photos in the cloud with lower-res version on a Mac, PC or iOS device.
But critics highlight recent online photo security breaches and say Apple's storage fees are much higher than some of its competitors.
The iCloud Photo Library app responds to how much storage is left on each device.
It automatically downgrades the resolution of images held on a device as its storage space starts to run out - starting with the oldest images first - while ensuring they are still of suitable quality to be viewed full-screen.
'Targeted attacks'
If the user has a data connection and has chosen the online storage option for their full-res images, the app will download the larger original file as and when they need it. This could be for editing, zooming into the photo or for printing, for example.
Hackers stole celebrities' photos from iCloud last year
Some experts wonder whether Apple's users are ready to trust the company with their photos after about 500 private pictures, mainly of celebrities, were stolen from the iCloud platform by hackers last year.
Apple later explained that this had happened as the result of a targeted attack in which the intruders had successfully obtained or guessed users passwords to its service, rather than hacked the platform.
Last October, Apple issued another security warning to its iCloud users, saying: "We're aware of intermittent organised network attacks using insecure certificates to obtain user information." It said its own servers had not been compromised.
Martin Garner, mobile services expert at CCS Insight, said: "People are sharing enormous trust when they use services like these. It's not just Apple - many other providers have also suffered breaches recently. But users will need to think about security and accessibility."
'Keep an eye on prices'
Many online storage providers offer cheaper plans for the same or more data to be stored online than Apple's iCloud.
However, each offers different functionality regarding how it syncs with devices, and whether it works automatically or needs user intervention
Apple iCloud compared with other online storage providers
The cost of online photo storage
Provider Data plan Price
Amazon (Unlimited Photos plan)
Unlimited (Photos only) + 5GB
$12 (£8)/year
Google Drive (1TB)
1TB
$120 (£80)/year
Dropbox (1TB)
1TB
$144 (£96)/year
Box (Business)
Unlimited
$180 (£120)/year
Microsoft (OneDrive 1TB)
1TB
$180 (£120)/year
Apple (iCloud Photo Library)
1TB
$240 (£160)/year
The iCloud Photo Library is the first to keep a lower-res image on the device while sending the original full-res image to the cloud.
Unlike a simple back-up or copying of photos, this means users can keep the images on their devices while maximising storage space.
However, many consumers may still prefer deals such as Amazon's "Unlimited Photos plan", which would cost a fraction of the price to maintain a large library.
"Apple will have to keep an eye on prices as the market in online storage is extremely competitive," said Mr Garner.
"Many of its competitors, like Dropbox, have apps available on the iPhone, so it needs to be wary that users do have a good amount of choice.
"Some services like Microsoft and Amazon also bundle online storage with other services like software subscriptions or movie streaming, so Apple may need to consider doing likewise."
The fine is the largest imposed on a company for losing data and violating customer privacy
AT&T has been fined $25m (£17m) over data breaches at call centres in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines.
Names, social security numbers and customer account details were taken in the series of data thefts that took place in 2013 and 2014.
The details of about 280,000 people were taken during the data breaches.
Call centre staff involved in the breaches used the data to work with criminals peddling stolen phones who needed to unlock handsets.
The US Federal Communications Commission began investigating the breaches in Mexico last May after it was given information about data going missing. Soon after, AT&T passed it information about breaches in other nations.
The investigation revealed that several employees at different call centres had abused their login credentials to steal data that was then used to request codes which could unlock stolen phones. The information was sold on to phone thieves.
AT&T said it had got in touch with all the customers who lost data in the breach. It has also terminated its business deal with the companies that operated the call centres where data was stolen. It added that it had also tightened its policies and procedures to ensure a similar data breach could not occur.
The $25m fine is the largest the FCC has imposed on a company for breaking laws that cover data security and privacy.
Google found that millions of people had been caught out by rogue extensions
Tens of millions of users who visit Google sites use a browser loaded with malicious add-ons, research suggests.
Most rogue extensions bombard people with ads, but the most malicious steal login names and other valuable data.
Carried out by security experts and Google, the project analysed more than 100 million visits to the search giant's sites.
It led to Google purging almost 200 bad extensions from its online catalogues of browser add-ons.
Bad behaviour?
Extensions and add-ons for web browsers add all kinds of functions and features to the software.
Many of these extensions have hidden extras that cause trouble for people who install them, said UC Santa Barbara computer scientist Alexandros Kapravelos, who worked with Google on the rogue extensions project.
The research found that malicious extensions were available for every major browser.
The findings are due to be published in full in May at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.
Preliminary results revealed that 5% of people accessing Google every day have been caught out by at least one malicious extension.
Of these victims, about a third have four or more bad add-ons installed in their browser.
"It is a very hard problem to deal with," said Mr Kapravelos.
Some bad extensions were easy to spot, he said, because they were so obviously written to steal saleable data such as bitcoins, bank logins or personal data.
However, many used techniques seen in legitimate extensions, he said, and it took a lot of extra analysis to pin down the bad ones.
"Even when we have a complete understanding of what the extension is doing, sometimes it is not clear if that behaviour is malicious or not," he said.
"You would expect that an extension that injects or replaces advertisements is malicious, but then you have AdBlock that creates an ad-free browsing experience and is technically very similar."
Experts from Swedish security firm ScrapeSentry said it had found examples of extensions that gathered data in ways that could easily be abused.
Some malicious extensions are very obvious and seek to steal bitcoins and other valuable data
ScrapeSentry's analysis of one extension, called Webpage Screenshot, revealed that it contained code that let it grab copies of all the browser traffic from the PC on which it was installed.
The gathered data was then sent to a server in the US. The extension has been downloaded about 1.2 million times.
"What happens to the personal data and the motives for sending it to the US server is anyone's guess, but we'd take an educated guess that it's not going to be good news," said Martin Zetterlund from ScrapeSentry.
A spokesman for Webpage Screenshot said there was nothing malicious about the data it gathered. Instead, said the spokesman, it was used to understand who the extension's users were and where they were located to help drive development of the code.
Users could opt out of sharing data, he said.
Deleting data
Mr Kapravelos said Google had acted on the early findings of the research by removing 192 actively malicious extensions from its Chrome catalogue. About 14 million people had been tricked into using these extensions, he said.
The UC Santa Barbara team was working with Google to develop tools that can automatically spot malicious extensions and flag them to the search giant's security staff.
In addition, said Mr Kapravelos, firms whose adverts were being injected onto webpages by the rogue extensions had been informed.
Unfortunately, he said, ad injection had become "entrenched" as a way for some unscrupulous developers to make money.
The research found that only a small number of developers were behind the majority of the rogue extensions that pepper people with ads, suggesting that targeted action could help tackle the problem.
DJI has refreshed its family of drones with new models that are easier to take off and land.
The Phantom 3 quadcopters also gain the ability to hold their position without using a GPS location signal, making them more suitable for indoor use.
And the app that controls the camera-equipped machines has been updated to allow live video streams to YouTube.
However one expert suggested more should be done to protect the public from such remote-controlled aircraft.
China-based DJI is the bestselling brand of drones in what is a fast-growing sector, with hobbyists, farmers, film-makers and land surveyors among its customers.
The firm found itself at the centre of a security scare earlier this year when one of its previous models crashed into the lawn of the White House.
Live video feed
DJI has unveiled two versions of its latest aircraft, which offer different video recording capabilities.
DJI suggests that he new drone could be used to film a wedding indoors
The Phantom 3 Professional, which costs $1,259 (£842), can shoot in 4K at 30 frames per second.
The ultra high definition format is four times the resolution of 1080p HD, which offers video-makers greater leeway to crop and pan across their footage after it has been shot.
The Phantom 3 Advanced, which costs $999 (£668), films at 1080p at 60 frames per second. This is lower resolution but better suited for slow-mo effects. The Professional model's camera can also be placed in this setting.
The lenses used by both aircraft are better suited for low-light conditions than earlier models. In addition, the new software allows owners to tag the best footage as it is recorded, making it easier to put together a fast edit.
DJI said that footage could be streamed to YouTube in 720p quality when the drone is up to one mile (1.6km) away from its controllers with almost no lag - a facility it suggested could make it a useful tool for journalists covering disasters and protests, and for mining and construction industry managers wanting to direct surveying efforts remotely.
DJI is also promoting the drone's ability to carry out indoor flights.
A tablet app can be used to stream live footage captured by the drone via YouTube
"The platform has a downward-facing camera that creates a 3D map of the ground underneath it in real-time, and identifies key vectors in that map and notices if there's any movement of those vectors," DJI spokesman Michael Perry told the BBC.
"So it automatically adjusts itself to hold a position.
"In addition, it's got two ultrasonic sensors that provide very accurate information about how far it is off the ground, which allows it to hover a lot more accurately, fly closer to the ground without having the platform bump up and down, and more importantly it lets you take off and land easily and securely with the touch of a button."
Drone injuries
DJI competes against Parrot, Walkera and Xinte among others, which all allow users to fit their aircraft with standalone cameras.
Rising sales of such devices have led to safety concerns.
In April 2014 an athlete said she suffered head injuries when a drone that had been filming her race in Australia fell to the ground.
And in December, a US newspaper photographer said the tip of her nose was "chipped off" after an accident involving drones flown inside a restaurant.
DJI is marketing its latest drones as being tools that could be used to film sports events
Following the accident at the White House in January, DJI updated the firmware used by its Phantom 2 drones to prevent them from flying over much of Washington DC.
The firm highlighted that it also continued to expand a wider list of no-fly zones, which is built into its latest models.
However, it suggested government watchdogs needed to offer clearer guidance.
A drunk government worker crashed a DJI drone into the White House's lawn in January
"We feel fundamentally that this industry will not reach its full potential until there is a clear and coherent regulatory framework put in place," said Mr Perry.
"I think the UK has taken some pretty significant strides - it has established a clear criteria for pilot qualifications, which are needed [alongside an approved request application] to be allowed to fly over a crowd or in a downtown area.
"But there is a patchwork of regulations around the globe, which only agree on one thing: flying near airports is dangerous."
Safer designs
Mr Perry noted that DJI drones sold in the UK were packaged with a pamphlet written by the Civil Aviation Authority, that sets out the restrictions under which they can be used.
The Phantom 3 drones will become available for delivery later this month
But one expert said the industry at large had a responsibility to do more.
"Recommendations are already being fed into the European Union to come up with a unified approach that will allow novel technologies and also protect people," said Dr Mirko Kovac, from Imperial College London's Aerial Robotics Lab.
"But the more hobbyists and other people that use drones, the harder it is to control.
"And what we need are more technological developments to ensure safety, particularly through the design of the aircraft as well as the sensors they use... to make the drones themselves inherently safe."
Mr Pincus said he was eager to focus on the company's mobile game offerings
Troubled game maker Zynga has announced that founder Mark Pincus will return to lead the company, as it struggles to repeat the success of hits like Farmville.
Current chief executive Don Mattrick, who joined the company in 2013, will leave, effective immediately.
"I am returning to the company that I love in order to accelerate innovation," Mr Pincus said in a statement.
He will receive a salary of $1.
Mr Mattrick said he will return to his native Canada, adding: "I believe the timing is now right for me to leave as CEO [chief executive officer] and let Mark lead the company into its next chapter given his passion for the founding vision and his ability to couple our mobile progress with Zynga's unique strengths."
Although Zynga - known primarily for its once-popular Facebook games like Farmville and Words with Friends - has stabilised under Mr Mattrick, the company has continued to struggle.
In its most recent earnings release, Zynga said it lost $225.9m (£152m) in 2014, compared to $37m a year earlier.
However, it said its mobile audience continued to grow - showing that it no longer relied on Facebook to generate a majority of its traffic.
Shares in the company were up more than 3% in trading after US markets had closed.
Several of the organisations social media accounts were hit
The French television network TV5Monde says it has suffered an "unprecedented" attack from hackers claiming to belong to Islamic State (IS).
TV5Monde said its TV station, website and social media accounts were all hit.
The hackers also posted documents purporting to be ID cards of relatives of French soldiers involved in anti-IS operations.
TV5Monde regained control over most of its sites about two hours after the attack began.
Its digital director, Helene Zemmour, called the hack "unprecedented and large-scale".
A message posted by the hackers on TV5Monde's Facebook site read: "The CyberCaliphate continues its cyberjihad against the enemies of Islamic State."
They replaced TV5Monde's social media profile pictures with a masked Islamist fighter.
France is part of the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria.
In January, the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the US military command were hit by pro-IS hackers. But Centcom said it was "cyber-vandalism" and not a serious data breach.
Max Schrems accused Facebook of mass surveillance of its users
A court in Austria will rule in the next few weeks whether it has the jurisdiction to hear a class action lawsuit brought against Facebook.
Some 25,000 users - led by Austrian law graduate Max Schrems - accuse Facebook of violating European privacy laws in the way it collects and forwards data.
The case has been brought against Facebook's European HQ in Dublin, which handles accounts outside US and Canada.
Facebook's lawyers have argued for the case to be dismissed.
They presented a list of procedural objections at a court hearing in Vienna on Thursday.
Mr Schrems - a campaigner for data protection - said he brought the claim to stop what he calls mass surveillance by the social networking site.
The legal action claims privacy laws are breached in the way Facebook monitors users when they activate the site's "like" buttons.
It also alleges Facebook co-operated with Prism, a surveillance system launched in 2007 by the US National Security Agency.
The case - which involves more than 900 UK-based users of Facebook - includes a compensation claim of about €500 ($539; £362) per person.
The court will issue a written decision in the next few weeks on whether it can handle the case, the BBC's Bethany Bell reports from Vienna.
Like the Beebone malware, X-Men's Mystique - played by Jennifer Lawrence - morphs to take on other identities
Shapeshifting malware that changes its identity up to 19 times a day to avoid detection has been deactivated by Europe's Cybercrime Centre and the FBI.
At its height in September 2014 the malware, called Beebone, was controlling 100,000 computers a day.
Criminals used it to help steal passwords and download other programs to the infected computers.
Around 12,000 victims are being asked to use new online clean-up tools to remove it.
'Mystique-like' morphing
Beebone downloaded other malware which could steal passwords and banking details
Once on a victim's computer, Beebone operates like a downloader application that can be controlled by the suspected criminal gangs behind the program.
It was used to force victims' PCs to fetch other malware from the internet including password stealers, ransomware, rootkits, and programs designed to take down legitimate websites.
Computer security firm McAfee, which helped law enforcement agencies to stop the malware, said it had seen Beebone change its identity up to 19 times per day to avoid more traditional "signature detection" anti-virus methods.
McAfee's chief technology officer Raj Samani told the BBC: "Beebone is highly sophisticated. It regularly changes its unique identifier, downloading a new version of itself, and can detect when it is being isolated, studied, or attacked.
"It can successfully block attempts to kill it."
Operation Beebone
Operation Beebone was carried out by the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce set up by the European Union to tackle cross-border internet crime. The team finally managed to tackle the malware by stopping it from connecting to servers on the net used to control and send it instructions.
Nearly 100 .com, .net, and .org domains have been "sinkholed" - the process by which traffic meant for specific IP addresses is redirected from suspected criminal-controlled sites to the investigating authorities. This allows detectives to "see" how the application behaves and to intercept requests for further instructions by the malicious software.
The FBI assisted in redirecting traffic from most of the sites being used by the gangs because they were operated from the United States and are under US jurisdiction.
The operation also involved private security firms Intel Security, Kaspersky Labs and Shadowserver. The taskforce now believes it has isolated the morphing malware so criminals can no longer make use of it.
Sustained threat
Head of operations at the European Cybercrime Centre, Paul Gillen told the BBC the agency would now look at whether those behind the attacks could be identified and brought to justice. He admitted the solution the taskforce had found was not a permanent one: "We can't sinkhole these domains forever. We need those infected to clean up their computers as soon as possible."
Several security vendors have created a free tool to remove the Beebone malware including F-Secure, TrendMicro, Symantec and Intel Security.
Symantec is one of several private security firms signed up to help EC3
But victims need to first realise they have the malware on their systems before they can download the removal tool.
Raj Samani said those who have the malware "will be notified by their internet service provider".
ISPs in each affected country will be handed a list of suspected victims to contact by the taskforce.
Dangerous threat
The Beebone malware was described by the Europol taskforce as "very sophisticated". Some security experts believe the consequences of the attack could have been much worse.
Portcullis Security in the UK advises various British government departments on cybersecurity issues. Its director, Paul Docherty, told the BBC:
"The fact that it [the malware] is complicated suggests that it could be used for more targeted attacks. If those responsible were able to harness similar difficult-to-detect code they could potentially move the point of attack from home users to corporate users or other entities which typically hold large amounts of sensitive, valuable data."
Mr Docherty said computer users should have anti-virus software installed and that it was essential that they kept it up-to-date. He warned against members of the public underestimating how valuable their computer might be to criminal hackers.
"There is still a general consensus that, It won't happen to me, I have nothing anyone could want. However, when you discuss with people what they actually use their technology for this changes very quickly."
Future challenge
The total number of computers infected by Beebone is relatively modest compared with some recent malware take-downs like GameOver Zeus. Security experts believe this is because the malware was not spread by mass emailing potential victims with poisoned internet links, an approach known as spearphishing. McAfee said Beebone was more commonly spread through hardware like USB drives, or data discs.
Now remaining victims are being asked to clean up their computers as soon as possible.
Mr Samani said it is likely those who have Beebone on their computers "were likely to have a lot of other malware too because of the nature of Beebone as a malware downloader itself".
But there is another good reason why victims will want to move on quickly, says Mr Docherty: "Clean-up after infection could be complicated, as this [criminal] campaign has used a constantly changing (polymorphic) dropper to implant malware, it is possible that it has also installed code of a similar nature to re-enable access to the systems following clean-up."
