89511215
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
The Sailfish China Consortium has gained the exclusive rights and licence to develop a Chinese operating system based on Sailfish, a mobile OS built on the MeeGo platform abandoned by Nokia when it moved to Windows Phone.
Russia is also using Sailfish to build a national mobile OS in a bid to reduce its reliance on Western technology and reduce the risk of foreign surveillance.
Jolla claimed that there have been many attempts to build a national OS on Android but these had been unsuccessful because of Google’s control over the code.
The Finnish company has released its own smartphone, also called Jolla, running Sailfish but has always intended to offer it to other manufacturers. The first of these, the Intex Aqua Fish, made its debut in July last year.
But now owners of Sony’s mobile devices will be able to run Sailfish on their device through the Sony Open Devices Program, Jolla confirmed at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, where it is showing an Xperia X with the software installed.
89098785
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
In an era of unprecedented cyberthreats, many organisations turn to security firms for guidance on how to prevent and respond to incidents, and to their researchers for information about the latest threats.
But just to illustrate that you can never be too careful, cybersecurity specialist Trend Micro has confirmed that one of the blogs it uses to communicate with customers was itself the victim of a content spoofing attack.
The culprits exploited a vulnerability in WordPress to inject fake content onto the blog before it was removed by Trend Micro and the bug fixed.
“Unfortunately there are many different URLs attackers can use to carry out the same attack, so a couple of fake ‘articles’ ended up posted on CounterMeasures," head of security research Rik Ferguson told Silicon. "We have responded and shut down the vulnerability completely to resolve the issue."
89052589
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
Rail passengers could use fingerprints or iris scans to pay for tickets and pass through gates, under plans announced by the UK rail industry.
In its current form the mobile technology is intended to allow passengers to travel without tickets, instead using Bluetooth and geolocation technology to track a passenger’s movements and automatically charge their travel account at the end of the day for journeys taken.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators and Network Rail, said further development could see passengers identified using biometric technology in a way similar to the facial-recognition schemes used at some UK airports to speed up border checks.
88930019
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
The medals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be made from recycled mobile phones in an effort to engage the Japanese nation and meet sustainability criteria.
The Tokyo 2020 organising committee has called on the Japanese public to donate their “discarded or obsolete electronic devices” to provide the eight tonnes of metal required for the production of the medals.
The production process will reduce this eight tonnes down to around two, enough to produce 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals.
Collection boxes will be installed in the stores of partner organisations NTT DOCOMO and the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center (JESC) from April, with the collection ending when the eight-tonne target is reached.
88615933
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
Accenture research has found Blockchain technology has the potential to reduce infrastructure costs by an average of 30 percent for eight of the world's ten biggest banks. That equates to annual cost savings of $8-12 billion.
A vast amount of cost for today's investment banks comes from complex data reconciliation and confirmation processes with their clients and counterparts, as banks maintain independent databases of transactions and customer information.
However, Blockchain would enable banks to move to a shared, distributed database that spans multiple organisations.
It has become increasingly obvious in recent months that blockchain will be key to the future of the banking industry, with the majority of banks expected to adopt the technology within the next three years.
88518335
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
Switzerland has agreed its own new data transfer agreement with the United States, basing the framework on the deal struck by the European Union (EU) following the invalidation of Safe Harbour.
The previous arrangement was invalidated because of concerns about US mass surveillance but Switzerland says the new Swiss-US Privacy Shield will allow Swiss companies to transfer customer data without the need for additional contractual guarantees.
The Swiss Federal Council, a seven member executive council that is effectively the head of government in Switzerland, claim citizens will benefit from additional protections and the ability to contact an ombudsman about data issues.
Although not part of the EU, Switzerland is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) and has several bilateral agreements with the EU that sees it adopt many of the bigger bloc’s policies. The Federal Council says the alignment between the EU and the Swiss transatlantic data sharing partnerships is good news for multinational organisations.
88471787
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
App developer and privacy journalist Mike Tigas has made his privacy-conscious Onion web browser free for iOS users, four years after it was first made available on the Apple App Store.
Up until recently it had been available for just $0.99, the lowest non-free price allowed by Apple, but the cost has been scrapped due to Tigas’ worries that the price was limiting access to anonymous browsing for those who need it most.
“Given recent events, many believe it’s more important than ever to exercise and support freedom of speech, privacy rights, and digital security,” Tigas wrote in a blog post. “I think now is as good a time as ever to make Onion Browser more accessible to everyone.
“For censorship-circumventing software like Tor, barriers to access are a significant human rights issue — especially in the face of escalating digital repression in some parts of the world.”
88444887
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
For the 24th year in a row, IBM received the most patents of any company in the US. But for the first time it got more than 8,000 — the first firm in any industry to do so.
In total, its inventors were granted 8,088 patents in 2016, covering areas as diverse as artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing, cloud, health and cyber security.
That’s equal to more than 22 patents a day generated by its researchers, engineers and designers, with more than a third of the patents relating to AI, cognitive computing and cloud computing alone.
IBM is betting big on cloud and other services, having spun off its hardware units like servers and PCs to Lenovo.
The other nine companies in the top ten list of 2016 US patent recipients consist of: Samsung electronics (with 5,518 patents), Canon (3,665), Qualcomm (2,897), Google (2,835), Intel (2,784), LG Electronics (2,428), Microsoft (2,398), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2,288) and Sony (2,181).
88386527
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
Nintendo's Super Mario Run was downloaded more than 40 million times in the first four days it was available. But an Android version has yet to materialise.
An official release is on the way, but cybercriminals are taking advantage of this vacuum by spreading malicious apps masquerading as the real thing.
The "Android Marcher trojan" appears as a fake landing page advertising the release of the game, where it can be downloaded onto users' devices. It then targets financial and banking apps and can modify your settings and read your contacts.
The popularity of Pokemon GO last year saw similar scams emerge as users waited for the game
88320651
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
The extra leap second added on to the end of 2016 may not have had an effect on most people, but it did catch out a few web companies who failed to factor it in.
Web services and security firm CloudFlare was one such example. A small number of its servers went down at midnight UTC on New Year’s Day due to an error in its RRDNS software, a domain name service (DNS) proxy that was written to help scale CloudFlare’s DNS infrastructure, which limited web access for some of its customers.
As CloudFlare explained, a number went negative in the software when it should of been zero, causing RRDNS to “panic” and affect the DNS resolutions to some websites.
The issue was confirmed by the company’s engineers at 00:34 UTC on New Year’s Day and the fix – which involved patching the clock source to ensure it normalises if time ever skips backwards – was rolled out to the majority of the affected data centres by 02:50 UTC.
87758357
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
Nintendo will pay up to $20,000 for system and software vulnerabilities in the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld games consoles. The company is looking to prevent activities such as piracy, cheating and the circulation of inappropriate content to children.
The stated goal is to “provide a secure environment for our customers so that they can enjoy our games and services. In order to achieve this goal, Nintendo is interested in receiving vulnerability information that researchers may discover regarding Nintendo’s platforms.”
Rewards will range from $100 to $20,000 (£70 – £15,900), with one given per “qualifying piece of vulnerability information.”
Hackers looking to claim a reward will have to provide Nintendo with either a proof-of-concept or a piece of functional exploit code in order to qualify.
87172751
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
Facebook and WhatsApp have temporarily stopped sharing user data after the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) called for more information about how information would be used and safeguarded.
Facebook has not committed to any such measures but has stopped the transfer of data for now. But Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham wants more.
“We also want individuals to have the opportunity to be given an unambiguous choice before Facebook start using that information and to be given the opportunity to change that decision at any point in the future,” said Denham.
“We’ll keep pushing on this, both from our office and alongside other data protection authorities across Europe, notably the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, where Facebook’s EU headquarters are based,” she said.
The UK is not alone in questioning the controversial arrangement, with the famously pro-privacy German authorities taking an interest.
87005279
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
Bitcoin will be available to purchase from Swiss railway ticket machines, potentially allowing for the wider spread of the cryptocurrency.
Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has more than 1,000 ticket machines and has partnered with regulated financial intermediary SweePay to distribute Bitcoin.
Customers need to select mobile top up on the machines, scan the QR code on their Bitcoin digital wallet and enter the number of Swiss Francs, up to 500 CHF, in to the machine, confirm the offer of Bitcoins they receive then identify themselves using a mobile number and a security code sent to their smartphone.
While the machine can pay out Bitcoin, for the time being it will not accept payments made with the cryptocurrency. While credit card cannot be used with the machines to buy Bitcoins, SBB is effectively providing a way to swap local currency for a digital version that can be used anywhere around the world, thereby bypassing unfavourable exchange rates
86917861
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
Microsoft is to substantially increase its prices for software and cloud services prices offered in British pounds in order to accommodate the sharp drop in the currency against the US dollar in recent weeks.
Beginning in January 2017 on-premises enterprise software prices will go up by 13 percent and most enterprise cloud prices will increase by 22 percent, bringing them into line with euro prices.
Microsoft said it isn’t planning to change its prices for consumer software and cloud services.
The value of the pound has fallen by about 18 percent since the EU referendum on 23 June.
86656025
submission
Mickeycaskill writes:
Ministers have been forbidden to wear the Apple Watch during cabinet meetings due to the risk they could be hacked by Russian agents, according to a report.
Prime minister Theresa May imposed the new rules following several high-profile hacks that have been blamed on Russia.
Several cabinet ministers previously wore the Apple Watch, including former Justice Secretary Michael Gove. Mobile phones have already been banned due to similar concerns.
Politically motivated hackers have caused disruption in several recent incidents, including the hack of the Democratic National Committee, which resulted in the release of a large cache of internal emails.
