John Lister

A security researcher says hundreds of millions of mobile phones could easily be hacked with nothing more than a specially crafted text message. The hacker could then intercept calls or use the compromised phone to make cash. Karsten Nohl says the ... problem is with SIM cards, which are used to tell a phone which account to use and the number on which to send and receive calls and messages. He says many SIM cards still use an outdated algorithm for encryption to stop other people accessing information about the account. (Source: srlabs.de ) Nohl says his testing found a major flaw with these SIM ... (view more)

Microsoft has revealed that poor sales of its Surface RT tablet computer will cost it $900 million -- making a significant dent in the company's quarterly profits. Earlier this week Microsoft revealed price cuts across the full range of its Surface ... RT devices. That's the type of Surface running Windows RT, a special, slimmed-down version of Windows 8. Microsoft has now published its accounts for the three months ending in June and has included a $900 million writedown for Surface RT "inventory adjustments." (Source: cnet.com ) A writedown is where a company decides one of its assets -- in ... (view more)

Microsoft has flatly denied claims that the National Security Agency (NSA) has direct access to Outlook email accounts. The firm is also criticizing the US government for preventing it from discussing NSA snooping with the public. Last week, several ... sources claimed Microsoft had given the National Security Agency help bypassing the encryption meant to keep its webmail services, such as Outlook.com, confidential. The same reports suggested Microsoft had allowed the NSA to intercept Skype conversations and access files stored through the SkyDrive service. (Source: pcworld.com ) Microsoft's ... (view more)

Apple says it will fully cooperate with police investigating the suspicious death of an iPhone 5 user. The Chinese woman is believed to have been electrocuted, with the phone charger at the center of the investigation. Ma Ailun of the northwestern ... Chinese region Xingiang recently died while picking up her iPhone as it was being charged. Reports are split as to whether she was making or answering a call. It's reported the deceased had just got out of the bath before using the phone. If she was still wet, that may have affected the danger of electrocution. For some time experts have debated the ... (view more)

European regulators have raided the offices of three Internet Service Providers (ISPs) said to have intentionally slowed Internet traffic over a business dispute. The officials are exploring a new legal tactic that could also be used to stop such ... slowdowns in the US. The dispute involves Cogent Communications, which is effectively an Internet middleman. It transfers data between major websites and the Internet Service Providers that carry data to customers' homes. Last month Cogent claimed US-based Verizon was intentionally slowing down the traffic it handles for video streaming sites like ... (view more)

It's estimated that up to 99 per cent of all Android smartphones are vulnerable to a new security vulnerability. The bug involves two of the main security measures used on phones running the popular Android operating system from Google. The first ... security measure affected by the bug is the security check used on all applications that run on an Android phone. Every application has a cryptographic signature, which is a code that confirms the application is genuine. The signature directly correlates to the contents of the application itself, meaning that any attempt to tamper with the contents ... (view more)

Google has put together an aerial map of the world free of clouds. The project has involved pasting together different satellite shots to form a clear, unobstructed view of the earth. The Google Earth map shows an aerial view rather than ... first-person shots. Although the map is not as detailed as Google's Street View cities, it does cover the entire globe. Google notes that the famous "Blue Marble" image created by NASA covers around 500 meters with every pixel. The new Google image covers 15 meters with every pixel, representing a significant improvement. Image The Size Of City Block ... (view more)

A European court says Google should only be forced to delete search engine listings in extreme circumstances. It's a blow to campaigners seeking a legal 'right to be forgotten.' The court comments follow the case of a Spanish man whose home was ... repossessed in 1998. A local newspaper published a government announcement about an auction for the property. That article remains online today and is among the first results when you search for the man's name using Google. He says the repossession is far in the past and wants the link to the newspaper article removed. The man complained to Spanish ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning two dozen leading search engines -- including Bing, Google, and Yahoo -- that they must do more to show the difference between paid advertising and "natural" search results. The FTC warned that blurring ... the lines between the two could be classed as an unlawful and deceptive practice. The warning comes in a formal letter detailing updates to guidelines first published in 2002. The letter says that since that time, search engines are doing a worse job of distinguishing paid ads and that there has been "a decline in compliance with the letter's ... (view more)

Stanford University is working on a new tool that will help Internet users stop advertisers from tracking their online activity. But efforts to produce an industry-wide solution remain bogged down in negotiations. The issue revolves around ... 'cookies,' small text files that are created by a website and stored on a user's computer. Later, they're used as reference information when a user re-visits a site. Cookies can be very helpful. For example, if you type your zip code into a movie listing website, the site will often create a cookie. The next time you visit that site you'll get local ... (view more)