Techno-News Blog

by Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Researchers have unmasked two sophisticated cyber-espionage tools created by nation sates. And some experts now say there’s evidence criminals are adopting techniques learned from such tools. On Wednesday, computer security company Rapid7 researcher Claudio Guarnieri shared new details of the workings of FinFisher, a piece of malware sold by UK contractor Gamma Group to government agencies. FinFisher can turn on webcams, record keystrokes, intercept Skype calls and take over a computer. Gamma Group have said that it is sold only to governments but little was known about its use. Guarnieri reverse engineered FinFisher’s remote control system to reveal that it is used in a wide range of countries, raising fears that it may be in use by governments with less-than-perfect human rights records, and maybe by private parties, too.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428807/state-sponsored-spying-may-be-teaching-cyber/

by Rachel Metz, Technology Review

Normally, we point at things to specify, or to emphasize, what we’re talking about. But a project from several MIT researchers aims to make pointing a way to learn more about the world around you—with a special ring on your index finger and a smartphone in your pocket. Called EyeRing, the finger-worn device allows you to point at an object, take a photo, and hear feedback about what it is you just focused on. The project is the brainchild of Pattie Maes, a professor in MIT’s Media Lab who studies interfaces that let us interact with digital information in novel, intuitive ways. Initially conceived as a potential aid for the visually impaired, the EyeRing could also work as a navigation or translation aid, or help children learn to read, say the researchers involved. The group is interested in eventually turning it into a commercial product.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428773/augmented-reality-wrapped-around-your-finger/

by Michael Fitzpatrick, Technology Review

Researchers at Disney have demonstrated a computer interface that changes the way ordinary, everyday objects feel using a weak electric signal fed through a user’s entire body. Revealed at the Siggraph 2012 conference in Los Angeles this weekend, wearable technology modifies a user’s tactile perception of the physical world without requiring him to wear special gloves or use a force-feedback device. Sensations can be induced when the wearer touches a computer screen, walls, furniture, plastic or wooden objects, even other people. Researchers at Disney have demonstrated a computer interface that changes the way ordinary, everyday objects feel using a weak electric signal fed through a user’s entire body. Revealed at the Siggraph 2012 conference in Los Angeles this weekend, wearable technology modifies a user’s tactile perception of the physical world without requiring him to wear special gloves or use a force-feedback device. Sensations can be induced when the wearer touches a computer screen, walls, furniture, plastic or wooden objects, even other people.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428736/disney-researchers-add-virtual-touch-to-the-real/

by David Zax, Technology Review

I doubt you’ve been tungsten gas welding recently, but it turns out it’s a demanding process. A set of University Toronto researchers (among them wearable computing pioneer Steven Mann) write in an abstract that tungsten inert gas welding requires “more skill and more visual acuity than most other welding processes” and that “keen eyesight and exact hand-eye coordination” are a must. As if tungsten welding weren’t difficult enough, recording tungsten welding is just about impossible. A state-of-the-art digital camera is unable to properly adjust itself to capture an image of the site of welding–the brights are far too bright, and the darks are far too dark. What’s needed is a camera system with a far wider dynamic range, a virtual eye that can take in the high highs and low lows all at once. Mann et al. have built just that, and will be presenting their stereo “EyeTap welding helmet” at this year’s Siggraph conference.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428713/an-augmented-reality-welding-helmet/

by David Zax, Technology Review

PossessedHand is interesting, if a little freaky. The device is strapped to the forearm and applies electrical stimuli, using them to direct the motion of your finger joints. The whole set-up comprises a micro-controller and a pair of forearm belts, which together have 28 pads (each pad specializes on a certain sense of muscles). You know when the doctor tests your reflexes by striking your knee, and you move involuntarily? Now imagine dozens of little signals like that working in concert. “Concert,” actually, is a key word here–becauese one of the applications of the device is musical. As Dvice put it in an earlier look at the tech, “Do you want to play the violin, but can’t be bothered to learn how?” The notion, I gather, is that you can simply program the device to teach you just what strings to press, and where, and at what intensity. I can’t imagine deft performance coming from this anytime soon–but it does evoke a frightening sci-fi future in which, if this technology were extrapolated, behavior could be divorced from volition.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428716/hacking-your-hand/

by Tom Simonite, Technology Review

If Vladimir Putin glances out the Kremlin window at just the right moment, he has a chance of glimpsing the world’s best computer programmer in Google’s Moscow office across the river. He is Petr Mitrichev, a 27-year-old Russian who works on Google’s search engine and earned his champion’s title in competitive programming, a sport where hackers write computer code in pursuit of cash prizes, travel opportunities, and a deep fulfillment unattainable anywhere else. Since 2005, Mitrichev, a graduate of Moscow State University, has led the globe in algorithmic programming. That’s the Grand Prix of coding categories, in which riddles involving infinite game boards or the decibel level of n + 1 mooing cows require instant mathematical insights and quick fingers on the keyboard. Mitrichev is known for his “short pause”—that is, he starts to answer questions nearly as soon as he sees them.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428610/in-the-olympics-of-algorithms-a-russian-keeps/

by the BBC

A US tech journalist was cut off from his entire digital life by attackers who tricked Apple support into re-setting his iCloud account. The attack wiped Mat Honan’s iPad, iPhone and Macbook and let hackers into his Gmail and Twitter accounts. Mr Honan is recovering his data and regaining control of the accounts with the help of Apple and Google. Commentators said the attack showed up the risk of using cloud-based messaging services.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19147407#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

by the BBC

The UK’s biggest book retailer Amazon now sells more ebooks than hardbacks and paperbacks combined, the company has said. For every 100 print books sold through the site, Amazon said it sold 114 titles for its Kindle e-reader device. It added that the average Kindle owner bought up to four times more books than they did before owning the device.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19148146#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

by Jessica Leber, Technology Review

Hundreds of thousands of developers know that building apps that rely on the Facebook or Twitter platforms comes at a risk—at any time, the companies can change their access rules or launch a competing feature. The risk is often worth the built-in audience and data from millions of users. Just look at how Zynga grew. Lately, though, as both Twitter and Facebook strain to bring in more revenue and threaten to tighten their platform rules or alter their features to this end, the perennial uncertainty is worsening. For some startups, the situation is even stalling investments or delaying product plans while they wait to see how the future will shake out.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428691/startups-worry-that-twitter-and-facebook-are/

By: Michelle Maisto, eWeek

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins narrowed the arrival of RIM’s BlackBerry 10 smartphones from “Q1” to “January,” in an interview with The Telegraph that yielded several notable nuggets. Research In Motion will release its first BlackBerry 10 smartphones in January, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins told The Telegraph, according to an interview published Aug. 2. Until now, the long-awaited platform and world-class new smartphones have been relegated to a vaguer future in “the first quarter of calendar 2013,” as Heins first told analysts during RIM’s June 28 earnings call. It was during that call that Heins announced the latest delay to the BlackBerry 10 launch and confirmed a plan to lay off 5,000—two pieces of information that, as much as RIM’s revenue or global growth, have fueled newly aggressive chatter about RIM’s demise.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/BlackBerry-10-Smartphones-Coming-In-January-Says-CEO-Heins-265153/?kc=rss

By: Nathan Eddy, eWeek

The OnForce survey also indicated the number of different devices employees are bringing to work is increasing. The bring-your-own-device trend is gathering steam but posing challenges to IT departments, which are trying to figure out how to secure the various smartphones and tablets employees are using to connect to corporate networks, according to findings in OnForce’s Q3 Confidence Index, a poll that reflects the opinion of more than 500 technology service professionals. More than half of technicians that do BYOD work reported a 25 percent or more increase in the number of requests for personal mobile device configuration and/or setup at businesses in the past six months. However, just 31 percent of those surveyed have seen an increase in requests for mobile device security during the same timeframe, suggesting businesses are putting themselves at risk of data breaches.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/BYOD-Initiatives-Grow-but-Security-Remains-a-Challenge-630915/?kc=rss

By: Michelle Maisto, eWeek

Google may have stretched the truth a bit, when it suggested Aug. 1 that it had inked a deal with American Express. The company says that while it’s in talks with Google and interested in Wallet, nothing is yet official.  Google’s relationship with American Express is a bit more nuanced than the search company suggested in an Aug. 1 blog post. While Google shared that its Wallet app now “supports all credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover,” American Express says it’s never actually signed on the dotted line. All Things D first reported that Google hadn’t actually received additional approval from American Express for the next evolution of its mobile payment app.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/American-Express-Interested-In-Google-Wallet-But-Not-Committed-754312/?kc=rss

by Brian Prince, eWeek

Illinois has become the second state in the country to pass legislation banning companies from asking employees or job applicants for their login information for social networks. The bill, which Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law Aug. 1, makes it illegal for an employer to request social network account information in order to gain access to their profile. It also prevents employers from screening potential job candidates or reprimanding current employees based on information from social networks that would otherwise be private. “Employers certainly aren’t allowed to ask for the keys to an employee’s home to nose around there, and I believe that same expectation of personal privacy and personal space should be extended to a social networking account,” Christine Radogno, state senate minority leader and co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement. “This law will not only protect employees’ reasonable rights to privacy on the Web, but will shield employers from unexpected legal action.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Illinois-Bans-Facebook-Social-Network-Password-Requests-by-Employers-329615/?kc=rss

By: Jeffrey Burt, eWeek

The McAfee Social Protection plug-in, developed with Intel, lets Facebook users decide which friends can see photos, which can be copied, printed or shared. McAfee and parent company Intel are teaming up to create an app that will help Facebook users to better protect photos they put on their pages, ensuring that they can be seen only by specially selected friends. Essentially, the app, called McAfee Social Protection, will act as a digital rights management (DRM) tool for Facebook users’ photos, according to media reports following a demonstration Aug. 2 at McAfee’s Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters. McAfee Social Protection, which will be available as a free public beta this fall, will come as a browser plug-in. Once available, users will be able to download and install it on systems running Internet Explorer 8 or higher, Firefox 8 and higher and Google Chrome for PCs. Versions for Apple’s iOS and Mac OS X operating system, and Google’s Android, reportedly will be coming out later in the year.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/McAfee-Facebook-Tool-Protects-Users-Photos-888220/?kc=rss

by Nathan Eddy, eWeek

Who needs real friends, anyway? In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the social networking giant Facebook admitted that 8.7 percent of its 955 million members worldwide could in fact be in violation of its policies, with duplicate accounts, accounts that users maintain in addition to their principal accounts, make up 4.8 percent of that figure. In addition, the filing reveals user-misclassified accounts may have represented approximately 2.4 percent of Facebook’s worldwide users, and undesirable accounts may have represented approximately 1.5 percent of their worldwide users. User-misclassified accounts are classified as personal profiles for a business, organization or nonhuman entity such as a pet. These types of entities are permitted on Facebook using a Page rather than a personal profile under the company’s terms of service.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Web-Services-Web-20-and-SOA/Facebook-Could-be-Filled-with-83-Million-Fake-Accounts-521121/?kc=rss

By: Nathan Eddy, eWeek

As anticipation builds for the impending release of Apple’s latest iteration of the popular iPhone smartphone, generally referred to as the iPhone 5, electronics manufacturer Sharp let slip that the company is preparing to ship the screens for the handset this month, Reuters reported. Sharp president Takashi Okuda revealed the information during a Tokyo press conference concerning the company’s quarterly earnings report. “Shipments will start in August,” Okuda was reported as saying, without elaborating on specific dates. The latest iPhone’s enlarged screen is the subject of much speculation, with rumors suggesting the screen will be bumped up to 4 inches from the current 3.5-inch screen found on every model of the iPhone since its debut in 2007. As competitors like Samsung debut new Google Android smartphones with increasingly large displays—Samsung’s Galaxy S III boasts a 4.8-inch a high definition (HD) display with a 1280×720-pixel resolution—Apple needs to wow consumers with the new iPhone, which is expected to be released at a special press event Sept. 12.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/iPhone-5-Screens-to-Start-Shipping-to-Apple-Sharp-801200/?kc=rss

By: Michelle Maisto, eWeek

Google Wallet is now more spend-friendly than ever, thanks to new support from Visa, American Express and Discover. The change, complete with cloud-based security, comes as Isis may finally get off the ground.  Google’s Wallet app now supports all credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, the Android-maker announced Aug. 1, offering what’s likely to be a boost to the slow-moving mobile payments market. Google rolled out Wallet in the fall of 2011 with support from Citi MasterCard and Google Prepaid cards, which could be funded by other types of credit cards, and the promise that users would eventually be able to use those other cards more directly. That day has finally arrived, thanks to a technical change in the way Google stores card information.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Google-Wallet-Gains-Backing-of-All-Major-Credit-Cards-Moves-to-the-Cloud-731184/?kc=rss

by Wayne Rash, eWeek

The now well publicized Dropbox security breach was the result of two things that Dropbox could have foreseen, and could have prevented. The first was failing to anticipate user misconduct, and the second was failing to take steps that would allow the site to remain secure even if the users weren’t. This was exacerbated by Dropbox employee practices that should never have been allowed and by lax management oversight. In other words, Dropbox created the perfect storm when it comes to security. For me, the whole thing took on a form of déjà vu. A few days prior to the disclosure of the Dropbox breach, I’d been chairing a panel at the NetEvents Americas Press and Analyst Summit in Miami. The topic of that panel was specifically about the security challenges to mobile users of cloud applications and services. A significant part of the discussion was about just the sort of weakness that Dropbox revealed.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Dropbox-Password-Breach-Highlights-Cloud-Security-Weaknesses-266215/?kc=rss

by the BBC

Google is attempting to crack down on rogue mobile apps on its Android platform with stricter guidelines for developers. The measures include a ban on using icons that are “confusingly similar” to that of existing products. The search giant also issued rules on how advertising should appear in apps. Since its launch, the Google Play store has featured a significant number of malicious apps, or counterfeit versions of popular games such as Angry Birds. The new guidelines were announced in an email to developers who have 30 days to make sure their apps comply.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19100613#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

By Leo Kelion, BBC

The UN’s Dr Toure says any change to governance of the internet must be supported by all countries. The US has confirmed it would resist efforts to put the internet under the control of the United Nations. At present several non-profit US bodies oversee the net’s technical specifications and domain name system. They operate at arms-length from the US government but officially under the remit of its Department of Commerce. There has been speculation that other nations will push for a change later this year, but they cannot force the US to comply.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19106420#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

by The Physics arXiv Blog

Physicists have exploited the quantum nature of photons to transmit information for some time now. And in doing so they’ve discovered just how powerful quantum communication can be compared to the classical kind. Instead of sending the 0s and 1s of digital code, quantum communicators can send information in a superposition of states that represent both 0s and 1s at the same time. What’s more, separate quantum objects such as a pair of photons can be entangled, which means they share the same existence even if they are widely separated. That leads to a form of quantum information that has no classical counterpart.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428706/first-demonstration-of-a-quantum-router/