US and British intelligence agencies hacked into a major
manufacturer of Sim cards in order to steal codes that facilitate eavesdropping
on mobiles, a US news website says.
The Intercept says the revelations came from US intelligence
contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The Dutch company allegedly targeted - Gemalto - says it is
taking the allegations "very seriously".
It operates in 85 countries and has more than 40
manufacturing facilities.
The Intercept says that "the great Sim heist" gave
US and British surveillance agencies "the potential to secretly monitor a
large portion of the world's cellular communications, including both voice and
data".
It says that among the clients of the Netherlands-based
company are AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and "some 450 wireless
network providers around the world".
Full investigation
The Intercept alleges that the hack organised by Britain's
GCHQ and the US National Security Agency (NSA) began in 2010, and was organised
by operatives in the "Mobile Handset Exploitation Team". Neither
agency has commented directly on the allegations.
However GCHQ reiterated that all its activities were
"carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which
ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate".
A big selling point of smartphones is their ability to hold much of your data -- photos, videos, your entire music library -- on a little device.
But over the years, their storage capabilities, usually no more than 64 GB, haven't kept pace with all the movies, games, apps and other memory-hogging minutiae of modern digital life.
Many people keep stuff in the cloud, but that requires Wi-Fi access.
It's frustrating to have to delete music or videos every time you want to store something new on your phone. But thanks to some advances in memory design and construction, we may be about to expand our devices in a big way.
"Because it's this amazing material, the industry understands it," Tour said, noting that the key to the scalability of the design is industrial availability. Indeed, Rice's RRAM can be manufactured at room temperature and relatively lower voltages compared with other versions.
RRAM is the next step for an industry that's finding the limits to flash memory. Like flash, RRAM doesn't need continuous power. But it's also much faster, since it can be built into more versatile arrays and stacked into bigger pieces.
"You've got to get into the third dimension to pack up enough density in the memory" in order to keep the capabilities growing, Tour said. Flash memory has kept up with Moore's Law -- the ever-increasing power of microchips -- by giving more functionality to the devices on the chips, he says.
But RRAM does a better and more efficient job.
"It's this insatiable desire for memory that's driving all this," he said.
Tour's team is one of many working on the problem, though he believes his approach has an edge because of its use of silicon oxide instead of more exotic materials. Licensing is under way, he says, and prototypes will be further test the concept's viability.
But if everything pans out, phones with a terabyte of memory -- that's 1,000 GB, enough to hold hundreds of feature-length movies -- are just the beginning, Tour says.
"Because silicon oxide is glass and it's transparent, we've built these on glass, we've built this on top of plastic, so it can even be part of the coating you're looking at through the screen," he said.
Tour believes it'll be a world like that portrayed in the movie "Minority Report," with flexible, rollable digital "newspapers" and writable smart windows.
In a statement issued by the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) to commemorate Sunday’s Zero Discrimination Day, UNAIDS commended Nigeria’s commitment to ending stigma and discrimination against people living with and affected by HIV. UNAIDS Country Director for Nigeria and UNAIDS Focal Point for ECOWAS, Dr. Bilali Camara was quoted in the statement to have said, “I would like to thank the National Assembly for crafting the humanly sensitive bill and President Goodluck Jonathan for signing the Anti-Discrimination law. This law is a big boost to improving Nigeria’s AIDS response because it gives back human rights and dignity to people living with or affected by HIV and ensures that the country ends the AIDS epidemic by 2030”. With the signing into law of the bill, it becomes illegal for employers of labour to either subject prospective employees to HIV tests or to discriminate against employees who are living with the virus. “It is hoped that the new law will create a more supportive environment, allowing people living with and affected by HIV to carry on their lives as normally as possible in the society and the work places’, UNIC spokesman, Oluseyi Shoremekun said in the statement - See more at: http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/national-news/200236-un-commends-nigeria-s-assent-to-zero-discrimination-law#sthash.sKLFFrmW.dpuf
2014 has come and gone, last year saw a lot of development especially in the Technology sector. here is a review of all the development that happened in the tech, ICT and Science sector last year Click Here.
A big selling point of smartphones is their ability to hold much of your data -- photos, videos, your entire music library -- on a little device.
But over the years, their storage capabilities, usually no more than 64 GB, haven't kept pace with all the movies, games, apps and other memory-hogging minutiae of modern digital life.
Many people keep stuff in the cloud, but that requires Wi-Fi access.
It's frustrating to have to delete music or videos every time you want to store something new on your phone. But thanks to some advances in memory design and construction, we may be about to expand our devices in a big way.
"Because it's this amazing material, the industry understands it," Tour said, noting that the key to the scalability of the design is industrial availability. Indeed, Rice's RRAM can be manufactured at room temperature and relatively lower voltages compared with other versions.
RRAM is the next step for an industry that's finding the limits to flash memory. Like flash, RRAM doesn't need continuous power. But it's also much faster, since it can be built into more versatile arrays and stacked into bigger pieces.
"You've got to get into the third dimension to pack up enough density in the memory" in order to keep the capabilities growing, Tour said. Flash memory has kept up with Moore's Law -- the ever-increasing power of microchips -- by giving more functionality to the devices on the chips, he says.
But RRAM does a better and more efficient job.
"It's this insatiable desire for memory that's driving all this," he said.
Tour's team is one of many working on the problem, though he believes his approach has an edge because of its use of silicon oxide instead of more exotic materials. Licensing is under way, he says, and prototypes will be further test the concept's viability.
But if everything pans out, phones with a terabyte of memory -- that's 1,000 GB, enough to hold hundreds of feature-length movies -- are just the beginning, Tour says.
"Because silicon oxide is glass and it's transparent, we've built these on glass, we've built this on top of plastic, so it can even be part of the coating you're looking at through the screen," he said.
Tour believes it'll be a world like that portrayed in the movie "Minority Report," with flexible, rollable digital "newspapers" and writable smart windows.
From a cybersecurity standpoint, the year of 2014 has been saturated with brand-new trends and
innovative approaches to the old ones. Further rapid rise of cloud computing, the growth of social media popularity, the increment of smart phones’ share on the cyber arena, enhanced techniques for online identity protection and, on the other hand, the increasing sophistication of malware attacks – these factors have substantially influenced the way the security software industry should respond to these challenges so as not to lag behind. In this constantly evolving environment, it certainly matters what computer programs to use for proper protection. Experts working on the Privacy PC project have come up with a rating of the software suites that will meet most demanding users’ requirements in terms of reliable defenses in 2015.
Privacy PC is an ambitious initiative aimed at keeping track of computer security, data protection and user privacy issues. Since its launch back in 2003, the project has been continuously testing security software in the prevalent categories according to a robust set of evaluation criteria. Other areas of the team’s expertise include incident response, cyber warfare, social engineering, virus cleanup, data encryption, to name a few.
Getting back to the rating, here is what David Balaban, Privacy PC’s Chief Editor, has to say:
Over the course of the year, we have been testing security software representing all the major niches. Owing to an extensive list of benchmarking parameters, the verdicts on what is where on the scale of overall efficiency and usability have become obvious.
The Gold, Silver, Bronze and Editor’s Choice award winners are listed for the following software clusters: antivirus, Internet security, antimalware, antispyware, mobile security, free antivirus, Internet privacy, encryption, and password management. Download links and brief highlights about each product are provided in one place. Users can also navigate to the respective full review pages for all programs directly from the evaluation page. Last but not least, the impartiality of the rating is attained owing to a clear-cut testing algorithm, where applications are assessed in terms of usability, feature set, efficiency and support. The sum of grades by the above criteria is what ultimately determines the total score.
Keeping one’s cyber life intact is essential these days. Security software ratings like this help users stay on the safe side by separating the great products from the mediocre ones.
It is no secret that the core purpose for the Galaxy S6, release date of which is rumoured to come as early as January 2015, is for Samsung to better compete with Apple's iPhone 6 and propel the South Korean tech giant back to the top of the global smartphone market.
But the big question is - will Samsung deliver this time around and deploy with the Galaxy S6 the essential functionalities that will boost its chances of upending the market leader that is the iPhone 6?
In a report by The Motley Fool, the S5 replacement appears to be the monster device "that will outclass (both) the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus." Specifically, the same report indicates that the Galaxy S6 will shine in three key areas:
Higher RAM provision and latest technology The minimum expectation is for the Galaxy S6 to overtake the specs and capabilities that Samsung had presented with its twin 2014 flagships - the Galaxy S5 and the Note 4. One possibility that is gaining ground is a variant of the GS6, likely the international build, will flash the Snapdragon 810 processor by Qualcomm. That happening will mean that the next Galaxy flagship is very much open for supersized spec upgrades, the most notable of which will be felt in the random access memory department or RAM. It will be hardly surprising that with the Galaxy S6, Samsung will jump from LPDDR3 to LPDDR4 and the upcoming device will boast of at least 3GB of RAM with the high likelihood of higher provision once the phone is out of the box - 4GB perhaps. Efficiency, however, is the most exciting benefit that the GS6 will get from the LPDDR4 memory technology. That would mean the device is equipped with extreme mobile powers not found on any of the iPhone 6 models plus one welcome bonus - the Galaxy S6 will not be a power-hog, promising single-charge battery juice that could last more than 24 hours even in extensive usage. Superfast Internet access The Note 4, according to The Motley Fool, is already a powerhouse in terms of LTE speed and clearly outperforming any of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in mobile download speed. It's only natural that the Galaxy S6 will do significantly better, likely leaving the Apple hero phones behind by many miles. Again with the Snapdragon 810 powering up the next Samsung pride, it will likely sport a cellular radio signal that is governed by the Category 9 LTE-Advanced technology, which translates to maximum speeds of 450 megabits per second (MBPS) for download and 50MBPS for upload. ...and breakneck Wi-Fi speed Complementing the Galaxy S6's LTE edge over its rival is a Wi-Fi standard that will deliver download top-speed of 650MBPS. This is made possible by Broadcom's BCM4358 that takes full advantage of the latest Wi-Fi 2x2 802.11ac solution. The chance is quite high that the chip - or even a much better version - will find its way to the Galaxy S6 as the same is already showing prowess via the Galaxy Note 4, The Motley Fool noted on its report. Additional come-ons for the device is a freshly-engineered body - light and slim - and Samsung's unique TouchWiz render of Android 5.0 Lollipop, which suggests it will be first Samsung kit to get a solid taste of Google's latest mobile operating system. And if indeed Samsung is so raring to take on the iPhone 6 with the Galaxy S6 then the latter could be really set for a release date anytime in January 2015 with the grand introduction to be packed with the CES 2015 in Las Vegas that will kick off on the 6th of the month. Source.
"The Interview" was a big hit with pirates on Christmas.
There are thousands of people currently sharing the movie illegally on BitTorrent. On Christmas, about 750,000 people stole digital copies of "The Interview" by using the file-sharing software, according to piracy blog TorrentFreak.
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing network, allowing people to upload, share and download content. Though there are legitimate purposes for the software, it is largely used as a way for people to host and download pirated movies and TV shows.
Sony(SNE) Pictures opted to release the movie digitally on Wednesday, a day before it hit theaters. That simultaneous digital and theatrical release concerned movie theater chain owners. They worried that making the movie available online would increase piracy and keep people from buying tickets.
But piracy did not appear to have much of an impact on movie theater attendance. "The Interview" had a very limited release: just 331 independently owned movie theaters opted to show the film, and many reported sell-out crowds on Thursday. Related: For moviegoers, 'patriotic duty' to see 'The Interview'
"The Interview" also scored a lot of legal digital purchases as well. Though Sony said it would not provide the number of online streams, the movie soared to YouTube's No. 1 most-streamed movie on Christmas. "The Interview" also was available for streaming on Google(GOOGL, Tech30) Play, Microsoft's(MSFT, Tech30) Xbox and a special website set up by Sony.
Here are the latest updates on Microsoft Windows 10
Update: Microsoft has announced that it has over 1.5m active testers using the Windows 10 preview and as a result has fixed over 1,300 bugs. Also, a screenshot leaked on Twitter revealed that Windows 10 will have the ability to run Windows Phone apps too. Finally, a further Developer Preview leak revealed that Windows 10 with have a new Xbox app as well as having Cortana stitched into the Modern Taskbar.
It’s already been confirmed that Microsoft will launch Windows 10 some time in the middle of 2015. A special event titled “The Next Chapter”, taking place on 21 January, is where Microsoft is expected to announced a more concrete time frame for Windows 10. Windows 10 releases, news and leaks are breaking through at an impressive rate. To make sense of it all, and to cut through some of the garbage, below is everything you need to know about Windows 10.
Microsoft wants to help Android, iOS and Windows apps run offline as well as online, offering a way to improve app responsiveness and functionality when network coverage is bad or non-existent.
Business driven Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics represent a shift in the enterprise that is Learn More
In an age of always-connected smartphones, it might seem there is no need for apps with offline access -- but they still have several advantages, including better responsiveness and the ability to limit data charges by caching data on the device, according to Microsoft. The caching also lets applications continue to work when there is little or no network connectivity, the company said in a blog post on Thursday.
To help developers add offline access to their Android, iOS and Windows apps, Microsoft has announced the general availability of its cloud-based SDK for offline synchronization, which is part of the company's Azure Mobile Services back-end.
For now, the SDK works with Windows and apps developed using Xamarin's cross platform tools, which are used to develop native apps for Android, iOS, Mac OS and Windows. The SDK's support for platforms other than Windows will soon be expanded with dedicated versions for Apple's and Google's mobile OSes, Microsoft said.
This year has seen Microsoft become even more focused on supporting other OSes, including the release of Office for Apple's iPads and iPhones. Last month, the company also released a preview version for Android-based tablets.
When an app that uses Microsoft's SDK is in offline mode, users can still create and modify data, which will be saved locally. When the app is back online, it can synchronize local changes with the Mobile Services backend. There are also mechanisms in place to handle conflicts when two devices modify the same record without synching.
To help developers get started Microsoft has published a video explaining how the SDK works, and what it can be used for.
Microsoft's Azure Mobile Services can also be used to store data in the cloud, authenticate users, and send push notifications to an application. Developers can choose between three versions: Free, Basic and Standard. Basic costs from $14.99 for 1.5 million API calls per month, while Standard costs from $139.99 for 15 million API calls per month, according to Microsoft's pricelist.
Azure Mobile Services is far from the only option developers have. Competing offerings include Google's Play Services and the Mobile SDKs from Amazon Web Services. Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com
Business driven Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics represent a shift in the enterprise that is Learn More
The growing popularity of smartphones has put pressure on IT departments to make enterprise systems available on mobile devices. What Xamarin lets them do is take advantage of C# know-how to build native applications for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows, and reuse code between them.
Developers can use Xamarin's own IDE or Visual Studio to build the apps, thanks to a partnership with Microsoft. IBM has a new SDK that lets developers integrate apps with any back-end system directly from either IDE.
"This is the first time IBM has partnered with another mobile development platform company, so that's a big deal for us," said Nat Friedman, CEO and co-founder of Xamarin.
The integration uses IBM's Worklight Server, which works as a gateway between the mobile applications and the back-end system. It handles synchronization, provides data access and converts the response to a mobile-friendly format. Large file sizes aren't a problem when working on a desktop and a LAN, but can cause problems on a much slower mobile network.
"With a lot of back-end ERP systems when you make a query, you get an object back that's 2MB. So Worklight makes sure you don't get sent 2MB for every query," Friedman said.
The two companies are already working on apps with about a dozen customers, according to Friedman.
For those who don't want to use C#, IBM's Worklight portfolio also includes Studio, a development platform that can be used to create HTML5 and native applications, or a mixture of the two.
The last six months has seen IBM step up its mobile push another notch. In July, the company announced a partnership with Apple, which means IBM will develop iOS apps that integrate with its big data and analytics services and promote iPhones and iPads.
IBM and Xamarin announced the collaboration on Wednesday at Xamarin's user conference Evolve in Atlanta. At the conference, Xamarin also announced a number of new and improved tools.
Xamarin's Test Cloud -- a service that lets developers test apps on real devices -- has been upgraded with video capture and the ability to shorten tests by running them on multiple duplicate devices simultaneously. Both features are available immediately.
With Xamarin Android Player the goal is to create an hardware-accelerated emulator that outperforms what's currently available to developers.
"Our users have consistently told us the emulator that comes with Android is the most painful part of building an app. So it wasn't our fault but it was our problem," Friedman said.
Android Player is available for Mac OS X and Windows, and works with the touchscreen on devices like the Surface 3 from Microsoft. It has also been integrated with Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio. For now it's only a preview, but the tool is stable and developers can control GPS location and battery settings. An upgrade that adds the ability to simulate the back- and front-facing cameras is coming soon.
With Xamarin Insights, the company is also adding app analytics to its mobile app development platform. The initial focus is to provide an insight into application stability. It tracks all kinds of crashes and exceptions, and helps developers know in real-time what is happening with app users.
Just like Android Player, Insights is still under development and available in a preview version.
