Google, Facebook, Amazon and eBay are joining forces to create a powerful pro-internet lobbying group in the US.

The Internet Association, as the group will be known, will launch in September and operate out of Washington, handling political and regulatory issues. Both Google and Facebook currently spend large amounts of money on political lobbying. Lobbying is a big industry in the US, with an estimated $3.3bn spent trying to influence lawmakers last year. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Google spent $3.9m (£2.5m) on lobbying between April and June of 2012.


 In the same time frame Facebook spent $960,000. The group would "educate" lawmakers about the internet, said new president Michael Beckerman. Mr Beckerman is a former adviser to the chairman of the House of Representatives Energy And Commerce Committee. "We want to educate [lawmakers] about the impact of the internet in their congressional districts," he said. The full list of companies joining the group and the issues they would focus on would be announced in September, he added. The issues net firms lobby on range from immigration reform - to make it easier to hire foreign engineers, taxes, privacy and cybersecurity. Legislation such as the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act drew huge criticism from the industry, with firms saying the plans undermined the freedom of the internet. Online protests reached a head in January with sites such as Wikipedia temporarily shutting down. Both bills are currently on hold.







26 July 2012 Last updated at 11:54
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18996319

Thousands of Australians have received a "death threat" text, demanding they pay 5,000 Australian dollars ($5,140, £3,311) or face being murdered.

The scale of the scam has surprised the police authorities. At a press conference in Queensland, Det Supt Brian Hay said: "Do not respond. Delete it immediately and don't panic... because that's what they prey upon." The fraud is believed to be the work of an organised crime gang. Huge scale The message, which began to hit people's phones on Monday, reads: "Sum1 paid me to kill you. Get spared, 48hrs to pay $5000. If you inform the police or anybody, death is promised." It directs people to a Yahoo email account which police have now disabled. Mr Hay told reporters that enquiries were ongoing as to whether the criminals were based in Australia. Some people had already fallen for the scam, mainly those with little experience of text messaging, he revealed. He said that the scale of the scam was "unprecedented". "We've never see this anything like this before - to have so many people contacted at the same time." "There is an extraordinary amount of Australian consumer data that they are exploiting," he added. He added that the scam was likely to be the work of organised criminals rather than an individual.









  24 July 2012 Last updated at 13:48
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18968229

Microsoft has swiftly fixed an embarrassing gaffe which saw a chunk of code labelled "big boobs".

  The hexadecimal string 0xB16B00B5 was discovered lurking in code that helps a Microsoft program work with Linux open source software. The controversial string came to light on a mailing list for developers who oversee the core, or kernel, of Linux. The string was used every time the Microsoft program ran a virtual version of Linux. Kernel hacker Paolo Bonzini posted a message about the string on the Linux Kernel mailing list saying "Somone (sic) was trying to be funny, I guess". Microsoft was alerted to the mistake and swiftly issued a statement. "We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologise for the offensive string," it said to Network World. It added that it had prepared a patch that would change the spelling of the string in an update. Commenting on the gaffe, developer Matthew Garrett noted that the first version of the Microsoft code used a similar string of 0x0B00B135 - a form of letters that roughly translates to "boobies". "Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys' club where girls aren't welcome," he wrote. His comments, and those on the Linux mailing list, have started a huge debate about whether use of the string was sexist and how male developers should conduct themselves. On his blog, Mr Garrett also wondered how easy it would prove to change the string. Other services, such as access to Microsoft's Azure cloud service, are believed to make extensive use of it. In early June, Microsoft suffered another embarrassment over '"vulgar" language used during a song and dance routine at a company conference.










20 July 2012 Last updated at 12:49
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18922629

A botnet which experts believe sent out 18% of the world's spam email has been shut down, a security firm said.

Grum's control servers were mainly based in Panama, Russia and Ukraine. Security company FireEye and spam-tracking service SpamHaus worked with local internet service providers (ISPs) to shut down the illegal network. A botnet is a network of computers that has been hijacked by cybercriminals, usually by using malware. "Grum's takedown resulted from the efforts of many individuals," wrote Atif Mushtaq, a security researcher with FireEye. "This collaboration is sending a strong message to all the spammers: Stop sending us spam. We don't need your cheap Viagra or fake Rolex." 'Bad news' Mr Mushtaq wrote that on Monday he learned that a Dutch server involved in Grum had been shut down. He said it "at least made a dent" in the botnet. On Tuesday, the command and control servers (CnCs) in Panama had been shut down. "This good news was soon followed by some bad news," he explained. "After seeing that the Panamanian server had been shut down, the bot herders moved quickly and started pointing the rest of the CnCs to new secondary servers in Ukraine.

"So at one point, I was thinking that all we needed was to take down one Russian server, but right in front of my eyes, the bot herders started pointing their botnet to new destinations." He noted that in the past Ukraine has been something of a "safe haven" for bot herders. "Shutting down any servers there has never been easy." Disabling Grum is just one of many high-profile efforts to neutralise botnets worldwide. Russian Georgiy Avanesov was in May sentenced to four years in jail for being behind the Bredolab botnet which was believed to have been generating more than £80,000 a month in revenue. Microsoft has been working to disrupt Zeus, another huge network responsible for, researchers said, millions of pounds in theft. 'Keep on dreaming' FireEye collaborated with other experts in the worldwide security industry to apply pressure to local ISPs to suspend the illegal operation. Mr Mushtaq said more than 20,000 computers were still part of the botnet, but that without the active CnCs they would soon be rendered ineffective. Grum's closure was an encouraging development in clamping down on botnets across the world, he said. "When the appropriate channels are used, even ISPs within Russia and Ukraine can be pressured to end their cooperation with bot herders. "There are no longer any safe havens. Most of the spam botnets that used to keep their CnCs in the USA and Europe have moved to countries like Panama, Russia, and Ukraine thinking that no one can touch them in these comfort zones. "We have proven them wrong this time. Keep on dreaming of a junk-free inbox."














19 July 2012 Last updated at 12:09
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18898971

Web giant Yahoo has confirmed it is investigating a breach of its system which may have exposed 400,000 user IDs.

US security firm Trustedsec said the attack appeared to have originated from servers connected to Yahoo Voices, a user-generated section of the site. It said that hacking group D33DS had claimed to be behind the attack. Hours after the attack came to light, Yahoo had not put a warning on its site. In a statement Yahoo said: "We are currently investigating the claims of a compromise of Yahoo! user IDs," adding that it encouraged users to "change their passwords on a regular basis". She said it was unclear which part of the network was affected. Initially a Yahoo spokesman told the BBC that the problem had originated at Yahoo Voice, its IP telephony service.

The document which gives details of the hack does not make clear which Yahoo service was targeted. According to US security firm Trustedsec, the compromised Yahoo passwords were associated with a variety of email addresses including those from yahoo.com, gmail.com and aol.com. It said that hackers used a well-established technique known as SQL injection to extract the sensitive information from the database. "The most alarming part of the entire story was the fact that the passwords were stored entirely unencrypted," the security firm said in its blog. Reset passwords Meanwhile social network Formspring has disabled nearly 30 million passwords following a separate attack. It said it was a precautionary move after 420,000 passwords showed up on a security forum. Formspring, which launched in 2009 as a crowd-powered question-and-answer site, has asked users to reset their passwords. In a blog post it confirmed that a breach had occurred after someone hacked into one of the San Francisco-based company's servers. A spokeswoman said it had been alerted on Monday that some 420,000 encrypted passwords had shown up on a security forum which she refused to name because she did not want to draw attention to it. Encrypted passwords aren't immediately useable, although they can sometimes be decoded by a clever attacker.













12 July 2012 Last updated at 13:12
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18811300

Google has disputed claims that many Android phones have been infected with a virus that makes them churn out spam.

 On 4 July, Microsoft researcher Terry Zink claimed to have discovered evidence of Android phones being enrolled into a botnet. Botnets typically use infected PCs as spam generators but Mr Zink said he found evidence that Android smartphones were being used in the same way. In a statement, Google said there was no evidence to support Mr Zink's claim. The search giant's investigation suggested the junk messages originated on PCs but the spammers sending them formatted them to look like they came from Android smartphones. "Our analysis suggests that spammers are using infected computers and a fake mobile signature to try to bypass anti-spam mechanisms in the email platform they're using," said Google. By taking this step, said Google, the junk mail would have a better chance of defeating spam filters and ensure that messages reached inboxes. If the spam were coming from a botnet made up of Android phones, it would be the first ever. Mobile security specialist Lookout also questioned Mr Zink's initial claim.

In a blogpost, head of the firm Kevin Mahaffey said it was possible that the spam was originating from lots of Android phones infected with a malicious program. However, he said, Lookout's investigation had also uncovered some serious issues with the Yahoo mail app for Android that suggested it was a risk for all users of it. Lookout had told Yahoo about the problems which were now being worked on. Address origin In a follow-up to his original post, Mr Zink agreed that it was not proven that Android phones had been compromised. He added that it was "entirely possible" that the spammers had faked the message formatting to make it look like it originated on a phone. However, he added, there was no doubt that the number of malicious programs written for Android was on the increase. Given that he said: "The reason these messages appear to come from Android devices is because they did come from Android devices." Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor at Sophos, also posted more information about the case. He said that although Sophos did not have a sample of the malware sending the spam in question there was evidence to suggest it came from smartphones. Sophos could find no hint that the formatting on the messages was faked, he said, and some elements of what it had seen would be impossible to spoof. In addition, he said, much of the spam was coming from net addresses owned by mobile operators.












6 July 2012 Last updated at 09:20
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18734852

Apple's stores and facilities in Italy could be shut for 30 days because of a row about product warranties.

Italian authorities made the threat because it said Apple was not promoting a standard free two-year warranty. Apple has already been fined for not telling customers about the warranties and could face more financial penalties if it does not comply. Instead of the standard warranty, Apple has been pushing its own paid-for service contract. In late 2011 Apple was fined 900,000 euros (£722,000) for failing to let Italian customers know about the standard two-year free warranty that applies to its products. By contrast, Apple's own care scheme is free for a year but can be extended to two years for a fee. Apple's appeal against the fine was rebuffed by an Italian court in May. However, in a bid to force Apple to pay its fine the country's competition and market authority (AMCG) has threatened further sanctions. In documents explaining its action the AMCG said Apple was being "aggressive" in its tactics of offering its own care scheme. Its actions, said the AMCG, constituted an "unfair practice" that was likely to lead consumers into error. Apple had made some attempts to do a better job of telling customers in its stores and online about the free warranties, said the AMCG, but the changes had not gone far enough. The standard warranty and Apple's own plan, called Apple Care, do not offer the same protection to customers. The standard Italian warranty means firms have to replace a product if it proves defective as soon as it is taken out of the box. By contrast, Apple Care is for problems that occur after the gadget in question has started to be used. If Apple does not comply with Italian law and take more trouble to tell customers about the free warranty, the AMCG said its stores and other operations in Italy would be closed for 30 days. In addition it could face a further fine of 300,000 euros. Apple has 30 days to respond before action is taken. In a statement, Apple said: "We've appealed the recent decision of the court as it was, in our view, based upon an incorrect interpretation of the law. We've introduced a number of measures to address the [Italian authorities'] concerns and we disagree with their latest complaint."










3 July 2012 Last updated at 12:08
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18688998