Facebook denies it is deliberate loophole but Tobias Boelter sets out what the vulnerability is and why it mattersThere was an outcry when the Guardian published my information regarding a vulnerability within WhatsApp’s implementation of end-to-end encryption, but much of the response misses the point.Most of the arguments seem to revolve around what is and isn’t a backdoor. You can argue that we are looking at a vulnerability which would be something that is there by error, or a backdoor, which would be something that is there deliberately. Continue reading...
Drivers of the electronic cars will again be able to set the self-driving features to break the speed limit, even on undivided roadsTesla owners will be able to ask the robot that drives their car to break the speed limit, again, following a software update pushed out to users over the weekend.The new software changes the way the autopilot function works on Tesla cars equipped with it. The brand covers a suite of advanced safety features, from lane assist, which keeps the car in the correct lane when driving on motorways, to adaptive cruise control, which allows the car to match speeds with the vehicle in front. Continue reading...
by Matt Kamen, Chris Dring, Rich Flower on (#28CB5)
Brexit Britain goes into space, Mario hits the smartphone sector in style, and the cricket simulation series hits us for sixPS4, Xbox One, PC, Billy Goat Entertainment, cert: 3
The voice-controlled home assistant works well, but on the other hand it is a networked listening device, with wider implicationsA few weeks ago, I bought Amazon’s latest gizmo – the Echo. It’s a voice-activated, networked device equipped with a seven-piece microphone array, which means that it can pick up one’s voice from anywhere in its vicinity with impressive accuracy. It comes in two versions, one a 9.25in-tall cylinder that contains a number of speakers, the other a much smaller cylinder that just has tinny speakers. Since the latter was a third of the price of the former, your cheapskate columnist bought that and hooked it up to his hi-fi system, which means that when he speaks to it the Echo replies in sultry female tones modulated by a high-end analogue amplifier and a pair of very fine speakers. Her name, by the way, is “Alexaâ€.I bought it because it seemed to me that it might be a significant product and I have a policy of never writing about kit that I haven’t paid for myself. Having lived with the Echo for a few weeks I can definitely confirm its significance. It is a big deal, which explains why the company invested so much in it. (It’s said that 1,500 people worked on the project for four years, which sounds implausible until you remember that Apple has 800 people working on the iPhone’s camera alone). Amazon’s boss, Jeff Bezos, may not have bet the ranch on it (he has a pretty big ranch, after all) but the product nevertheless represents a significant investment. And the sales so far suggest that it may well pay off. Continue reading...
While some are more secure than others, there always seems to be another flaw waiting to be discovered – so should security be prioritized over convenience?
‘It’s madly extravagant but be wary; once you’ve tried it, nothing else is like it’The Ferrari did something to me, cognitively. I don’t know whether it was the alarm going off in my head, screaming “£200,000â€, or the bright yellow brakes visible through the wheels, ramming home how much sheer metal work it takes to stop a machine such as this, once it gets moving. Perhaps it was because it arrived not with a driver so much as a minder and I felt the obscure urge to reassure him, as if I’d taken possession of an evacuee.Immediately, basic skills like observation and decision-making were shot: from the inside, I couldn’t figure out how to open the door, only the window. In a perverse bid to protect the roof from my own fingernails, I opened the fold-down roof to take my jumper off (this takes 14 seconds and is like watching an acrobat climb into a tiny box). I was never not surprised by the roar of the ignition, nor anything but astonished by the acceleration. As the fresh acts of folly piled up, I couldn’t even reassure myself that nobody was watching; in a Ferrari, someone is always watching. The cliche is that it makes you feel like a film star, which is true. That film star was Mr Bean. Continue reading...
The Bundestag was hacked in 2015. Angela Merkel should expect this year’s election to be targeted tooOne year ago in Berlin, Lisa F, a 13-year-old German-Russian girl, disappeared for 30 hours. When she returned to her parents, she claimed she had been kidnapped and raped by “Arab†men. This was a lie – as she later admitted. She had fallen out with her parents and invented the whole story. But that did little to stop the episode from becoming the centrepiece of a whirlwind Russian disinformation campaign aimed at destabilising Angela Merkel and German institutions.Related: The leaked Russia-Trump dossier rings frighteningly true | Andrei Soldatov Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Matt Shore on (#28S24)
Hillary Clinton’s former deputy social media director, Emmy Bengtson, opens up about her experience working for the Clinton camp, including the how the infamous ‘Delete your account’ tweet came to beIn June 2016 we ran an episode of Chips with Everything discussing the digital strategy of Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign with the his digital director Kenneth Pennington. This week, we flip the coin and speak to Emmy Bengtson, former deputy social media director for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Continue reading...
Scientists claim smartphone cameras are now advanced enough to allow crooks to copy your fingerprint from photos and unlock your phone. So put your hand back in your pocketName: The peace sign.Appearance: Fist clenched, index and middle fingers outstretched skywards. Continue reading...
Pre-ordering is a dangerous game, an untried console could be a total flop. But I’ve got a good feeling about the Switch, I think I’m going to be very happy with itWhen I went to bed on Thursday night, I knew I would be pre-ordering a Nintendo Switch as soon as I woke on Friday.I had some rules for myself, of course. The price had to be right; there had to be at least one game I wanted coming on launch day, plus at least one other shortly after; and the implicit promises made in the first announcement – that it would be a truly hybrid system, as capable on-the-go as docked – had to be kept. Continue reading...
Donald Trump promised to assemble ‘some of the greatest computer minds’ to address cybersecurity. Instead, he picked the former mayor of New YorkAt Donald Trump’s now-notorious press conference on Tuesday, lost amidst his threats to news organizations and denunciations of his enemies, the president-elect claimed he would soon assemble “some of the greatest computer minds anywhere in the world†to tackle the US government’s cybersecurity problem. On Thursday, he went the opposite route instead and hired Rudy Giuliani.Giuliani, Trump election surrogate and the disgraced former mayor of New York, is apparently going to head up Trump’s efforts to coordinate “cybersecurity†issues between the federal government and the private sector, the transition team announced Tuesday. But what does Giuliani, last seen on the campaign trail claiming the president can break whatever law he likes in a time of war, know about cybersecurity? From the look and sound of it, not much. Continue reading...
From old-school fantasy to family-friendly team shoot ‘em ups, classic Street Fighter titles and an all-new Super Mario adventure, here’s what to look forward toNintendo announced all the details of its Switch console on Friday morning, revealing a 3 March launch date and £280 price tag. But what about the games? Everyone was expecting a new Super Mario title and perhaps a remaster of ElderScrolls V: Skyrim – and those were certainly delivered. But what else has been confirmed?Here are the titles we’re most looking forward to.
Exclusive: Privacy campaigners criticise WhatsApp vulnerability as a ‘huge threat to freedom of speech’ and warn it could be exploited by government agenciesA security backdoor that can be used to allow Facebook and others to intercept and read encrypted messages has been found within its WhatsApp messaging service.
Japanese gaming company reveals new console, which launches with flagship title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, will cost $299.99 in US and £279.99 in UKJapanese gaming company Nintendo has unveiled its new Nintendo Switch console at a presentation in Tokyo.The device, a hybrid that can be used both handheld and with a TV when in a dock, will go on sale on 3 March priced $299.99 in the US and £279.99 in the UK. Other European prices will vary, Nintendo said. Continue reading...
Online retailer prepares to expand full-time US workforce by more than 50% over next 18 months, with hires from Florida to CaliforniaAmazon plans to create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States, from software development to warehouse work, becoming the latest company to boast a hiring spree since Donald Trump won the US presidential election in November.The world’s largest online retailer announced on Thursday that it would grow its full-time US workforce by more than 50% to more than 280,000 in the next 18 months. Continue reading...
What are the origins of the 35-page intelligence dossier containing allegations about links between Donald Trump and the Kremlin – and how bad could it get?With days to go before Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, Washington has been convulsed by news of a 35-page intelligence dossier containing incendiary allegations from Russian spies about close links between the Trump camp and the Kremlin as well as salacious sexual details that could allegedly expose the next US head of state to blackmail. The allegations are wholly unsubstantiated, but were deemed serious enough for US intelligence agencies to pass a two-page summary of them last week both to Trump and the current president, Barack Obama.Related: Trump dossier: intelligence sources vouch for credibility of report's author Continue reading...
Proposed rules for robots and AI in Europe include a push for a general basic income for humans, and ‘human rights’ for robotsThe European parliament has urged the drafting of a set of regulations to govern the use and creation of robots and artificial intelligence, including a form of “electronic personhood†to ensure rights and responsibilities for the most capable AI.In a 17-2 vote, with two abstentions, the parliament’s legal affairs committee passed the report, which outlines one possible framework for regulation. Continue reading...
Company behind advanced flying camera capable of shooting video and stills while following users offers refunds as financing failsEagerly anticipated “selfie drone†the Lily Camera, which promised to be able to follow owners around and automatically photograph them, has been cancelled by its designers.The drone secured at least $34m of pre-orders since going on sale on the manufacturer’s website in June, but the costs of development continually outpaced the speed with which Lily could raise funds. Continue reading...
The new machine seeks to merge the handheld and home console experiences. Now it needs to find an audienceIn 2013, Nintendo opened a new research and development facility in its home town of Kyoto, Japan. Usually, a consumer technology manufacturer opening a new office wouldn’t be news, but this was different: the $350m building would house both the company’s handheld and console gaming R&D teams.In the past, these groups had been kept apart, producing very different hardware and games for the different markets – now they would be merged. At the time, analysts thought this was to improve functionality between the Wii U and 3DS, but now we understand this was not the end goal – the end goal was Switch. This hybrid gaming system, which works as both a portable machine and a home console, now looks to represent Nintendo’s future in the games industry. But what does that mean? Continue reading...
Project to build solar-powered drone to provide internet access in remote areas closed in favour of competing high-altitude balloon schemeGoogle owner Alphabet’s subsidiary research company, X, has shut down its project aimed at building a solar-powered drone intended to bring internet access to remote areas.The project, which stemmed from an acquisition Google made in April 2014 of New Mexico-based Titan Aerospace, was deemed by X to be less promising than a competing attempt to use lightweight weather balloons for the same purpose. Continue reading...
David Kaye warns digital economy bill’s age controls and censorship of websites could break international human rights lawThe UN’s free speech advocate has warned that British government plans to enforce age verification and some censorship of pornographic websites risk breaking international human rights law and would contribute to a “significant tightening of control over the internetâ€.David Kaye, the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, called on ministers to conduct a comprehensive review of the digital economy bill, which he said facilitated state surveillance and lacked judicial oversight.
Windows Vista reaches the end of its life on 11 April. John wants to buy a new PC to replace his slow 10-year-old Acer Aspire.I have a 10-year-old Acer Aspire T660 desktop with 640MB of memory and Windows Vista Premium installed. The whole system is getting slower and slower, including the instruction to print documents and/or photos to my HP printer/copier/scanner.I use the PC for email, online banking, word processing and spreadsheets (Microsoft Office), Skype and some games. Broadband here to the house is poor.You must have an enormous amount of patience to run Windows Vista in 640MB or even 2GB of memory, and your best investment would have been to add as much memory as your PC could handle – in this case, 4GB. Sadly, it’s too late for that: it’s not worth spending money on a machine that is at the end of its useful life. On the plus side, almost anything will be a huge improvement. Continue reading...
Two employees say company didn’t offer adequate psychological support for a job requiring them to view ‘indescribable’ sexual assaults and murdersMicrosoft workers on the “online safety team†were forced to view photos and videos of “indescribable sexual assaultsâ€, “horrible brutalityâ€, murder and child abuse, resulting in severe post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a lawsuit.The complaint, filed on behalf of two employees and their families, outlined the “inhumane and disgusting content†the moderators viewed on a regular basis and alleged that the psychological impact has been so extreme that the men are “triggered†by simply seeing children and can no longer use computers without breaking down. Continue reading...
Internet Australia wants review brought forward owing to ‘continuing disquiet’ as government seeks to expand accessThe peak body for internet users in Australia has formally requested that a review of the attorney general’s data retention scheme be brought forward, calling the legislation a “monumental stuff-up†as the government seeks to expand access to include civil lawsuits.
The dossier includes lurid details from Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow and claims an ‘extensive conspiracy’ between his team and the Kremlin – is it true?
The Facebook Journalism Project comes after company accused of failing to tackle misinformation and at a time when newsrooms are cutting costsFacebook has unveiled measures to establish stronger ties between the social network and the news industry, allowing for collaboration on product development, new ways for publishers to make money, and training for newsrooms and readers.The announcement of the Facebook Journalism Project comes in the wake of heightened scrutiny of the social network’s role as a distributor of news, which saw the company accused of failing to tackle the spread of misinformation in the run-up to the US presidential election. At the same time, Facebook and Google are taking the lion’s share of online advertising revenue while newsrooms cut costs and make lay-offs. Continue reading...
Long-lost titles finally saw the light of day, and Mario ran into troubleRelated: The Last Guardian review – a joyous meditation on companionshipIn an industry fuelled by carefully managed waves of hype, developers can easily get carried away in the promotion of software that isn’t quite ready yet. Sometimes that means being loose-lipped about features that don’t make it into the final product, a crime for which the internet will punish you in the same way as if you’d been caught drowning puppies. Other times, games are talked about for so long that they start to seem less like forms of entertainment and more like musty urban myths. But, for some reason, the last few weeks have seen the emergence of a clutch of games that had themselves in video game lore as forever “coming soonâ€. Continue reading...
Beijing KFC is pioneering technology to try to predict and remember people’s fast food choices but there’s a trade off between convenience and privacyWalking into the KFC restaurant in Beijing’s financial district, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a fried chicken outlet like any other. It’s only if you head right to the back corner of the shop that you realise you’re actually in China’s first smart restaurant.KFC has teamed up with Baidu – the search engine company often referred to as “China’s Google†– to develop facial-recognition technology that can be used to predict customer’s orders. Continue reading...
Foreign secretary tells incoming US administration that Russia and Putin have been ‘up to all sorts of very dirty tricks’The Russian embassy in London has accused the Foreign Office of preparing to mount a witch-hunt against Moscow in the wake of allegations by the UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, that Russia has been “up to all sorts of tricksâ€.Johnson had claimed that the Kremlin was behind the hack of the Democratic campaign headquarters computer during the US presidential race, the first time that the UK has confirmed US intelligence reports linking the hacks to Russia. Continue reading...
European ePrivacy directive revision looks to protect communication confidentiality, block nonconsensual tracking and lessen cookie warningsMessaging services such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Gmail will face tough new rules on the tracking of users under a revision to the ePrivacy Directive proposed by the European Commission on Tuesday.
Targets allegedly included former prime ministers Matteo Renzi and Mario Monti and ECB chief Mario DraghiItalian police have arrested two people who allegedly tried to hack the communications of former prime minister Matteo Renzi and other senior Italian politicians and business executives as part of a cyber-espionage ring that sought sensitive financial and political information.The alleged hackers, named as Giulio Occhionero and Francesca Maria Occhionero, a brother and sister who were residents of London, also targeted the former prime minister Mario Monti; the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi; Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, a member of the conclave that elected Pope Francis, and top officials in Italy’s tax police. Continue reading...
Experiential games are finding new ways to tell interactive stories, but studio Humble Grove has given the genre a new autobiographical twistTurning a space into a home is a process akin to alchemy. It’s a combination of objects (old, new, inherited, broken, and sometimes of mysterious origin) and an investment of emotional energy. Space does not become a home overnight. It’s worked and kneaded, left to rise. It is gradual, and then it is a sudden realisation that becomes magically real: this house is now mine.Hana Lee and Tom Davison, the duo behind independent studio Humble Grove, explore this cathexis of placemaking in their forthcoming game, 29, set in an isometric facsimile of the flat they lived in as students. Via soft, desaturated pastels, they’ve captured the whole feel of the place, from a clock ticking on the wall, to a cat purring, radiators popping and pipes groaning in the walls. But there are also magical elements mixed in with the kitchen sink realism. A small fern creeps up from the floor where you walk, and it dies just as quickly. Stars wink in and out of existence just behind you. It’s a familiar place – but uncertain. There are suitcases packed in the bedroom, but nowhere to go. Continue reading...
Chrome, Safari, Opera and extensions such as LastPass can be tricked into leaking private information using hidden text boxes, developer findsYour browser or password manager’s autofill might be inadvertently giving away your information to unscrupulous phishers using hidden text boxes on sites.
Two women recently reported their abuse on Twitter. The difference in how the company responded raises questions about the way it protects its usersOver the weekend “pharma bro†Martin Shkreli was suspended from Twitter following his interactions with Teen Vogue journalist Lauren Duca. Today, the company briefly suspended Alexandra Brodsky, a fellow at the National Women’s Law Center, after she retweeted screengrabs of antisemitic abuse she received. Her abusers’ accounts were not suspended.Related: Martin Shkreli suspended from Twitter for alleged harassment of Lauren Duca Continue reading...
Clinton email hack | Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Pope and breastfeeding | Self-publishing | Singular pluralsUS security services accuse Russia of interfering in the US election (Trump meets with intelligence leaders after calling Russia case ‘witch-hunt’, 6 January), but in view of FBI director James Comey’s bombshell only 11 days before the election – announcing that the FBI had discovered additional emails and was reviewing them to see whether they were related to its investigation into Clinton’s handling of classified information – are we to assume he is also a Russian agent?
Government focus on false reporting comes amid claims that Russia is trying to influence German election later this yearGerman government officials have said they are investigating an unprecedented proliferation of fake news items amid reports of Russian efforts to influence the country’s election later this year.The BfV domestic intelligence agency confirmed that a cyber-attack last December against the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) used the same “attack infrastructure†as a 2015 hack of the German parliament attributed to Russian hacking group APT28. Continue reading...
PM says protection down to individual parties, while senior Whitehall source claims UK does not take threat seriouslyTheresa May has been urged to take stronger action against the threat of foreign powers influencing UK elections through hacking, following accusations of Russian interference in the US presidential contest. Angus Robertson, the SNP Westminster leader, questioned whether the government was doing enough to protect the UK’s democratic system against online threats, following claims that Russia orchestrated an attack against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party during the US election.May has said that it was a matter for individual political parties to protect themselves against cyber-attacks. It is understood that the major parties have their own safeguards in place, but government agencies have not approached them with offers of extra help in light of the US hacking scandal.
A leading police officer wants young offenders to be issued with tags that block the internet. All we need to do is change the law (and hide all the cables)
Vladimir Putin’s office says intelligence agencies’ accusations are unfounded and amount to a political witch-huntThe Kremlin has hit back at a US intelligence report blaming Russia for interference in the presidential election, describing the claims as part of a political witch-hunt.“These are baseless allegations substantiated with nothing, done on a rather amateurish, emotional level,†Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Monday. “We still don’t know what data is really being used by those who present such unfounded accusations.†Continue reading...
Streep delivers an emotional speech while La La Land breaks records; Standing Rock inspires other protests; 16 arrested in Kim Kardashian West robberyLa La Land continued its seemingly unstoppable Oscars charge by winning a record-breaking seven awards at the ceremony in Los Angeles Sunday. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone both took home awards for acting and Damien Chazelle won best director for the film. Moonlight took home best picture drama. One of the night’s biggest moments, though, saw Meryl Streep deliver a searing and emotional speech, in which she criticized Donald Trump for imitating a reporter with disabilities and called on the press to hold power to account. “Disrespect invites disrespect, violence invites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose,†she said. Trump responded on Twitter, calling Streep a “Hillary flunky†and “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywoodâ€, before denying he mocked the reporter. Continue reading...
Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked it all off in 2007, but since then the iPhone has seen size, shape, capability and feature changes, from apps, Siri, retina screens, waterproofing and headphone socket removal. Here’s how the iPhone has evolved over the last 10 years. Continue reading...
President-elect’s incoming White House chief of staff says Trump ‘accepts the findings’ of a report on Russian interference in the electionDonald Trump no longer denies that Russia orchestrated a cyber-attack against Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her party, according to his top advisers, who also blamed Democrats for the breach and falsely characterized the testimony of an intelligence chief to Congress.Related: Barack Obama says Donald Trump may have 'enough craziness' to be president Continue reading...
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