Latest Technology News

[Mafia_DZ]

UK to ban new Huawei gear installations after September

Wireless carriers in the U.K. won’t be allowed to install Huawei equipment in their high-speed 5G networks after September next year

LONDON -- Wireless carriers in the U.K. won’t be allowed to install Huawei equipment in their high-speed 5G networks after September 2021, the British government said Monday, hardening its line against the Chinese technology company.

The deadline is part of a roadmap the British government is laying down to remove “high risk” equipment suppliers with draft legislation that aims to tighten telecommunications security requirements.

The government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July banned Huawei from having a role in building Britain’s next-generation mobile phone networks over security concerns triggered by U.S. sanctions. Britain and other European countries have started to fall in line after the U.S. lobbied allies to shun Huawei over fears its equipment could be used by China’s communist rulers to facilitate electronic espionage.

Telecom operators were ordered to stop buying Huawei 5G equipment by the end of the year and have until 2027 to rip any of the company’s existing gear out of their systems.

While the ban implied operators would have to stop installing Huawei gear, the latest announcement spells out the deadline clearly - making it harder for them to stockpile equipment.

Huawei declined to comment. It has previously denied the U.S. allegations and said Britain’s ban was politically motivated.

“Today I am setting out a clear path for the complete removal of high risk vendors from our 5G networks,” Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said. “This will be done through new and unprecedented powers to identify and ban telecoms equipment which poses a threat to our national security.”

The Telecommunications (Security) Bill, which is set to be debated in Parliament on Tuesday, requires tougher security standards for 5G wireless and fiber optic networks and threatens heavy fines for companies that don’t comply with the rules.

The government is also setting out a strategy to diversify its telecom equipment suppliers, including a research lab and investment in open radio standards technology. Huawei has just a handful of rivals including Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson, raising fears that relying on so few companies to supply critical infrastructure leaves networks open to vulnerabilities.

[Mafia_DZ]

Netflix content given age rating by algorithm

Netflix has labelled all of its content with a UK age rating generated by an algorithm.


The technology was developed with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which classifies films in cinemas.

Netflix staff watched its entire catalogue, tagging sex scenes, depictions of violence and swear words, then fed this data into the algorithm.

The BBFC urged other streaming services to follow suit.
'Innovative partnership'

Chief executive David Austin said: "With people spending increasing amounts of time online, it's more important than ever for families to have clear, consistent advice on content, so they can choose well.

"This innovative partnership with one of the biggest services in the UK has allowed us to do just that.

"No matter what families choose to watch, they can watch with confidence."

BBFC research suggests 85% of parents and 95% of teenagers want age ratings on streaming platforms.

And Netflix voluntarily gave its more than 10,000 films, documentaries and programmes - which may not have already been classified by the BBFC for cinema or physical-media release - U, PG, 12A, 15 or 18 labels, in under two years.

The BBFC then audits these ratings as an extra level of compliance.

etflix director of ratings policy and compliance Jessica Stansfield said: "We wanted our members to see the same trusted age ratings on our service as they recognise from cinema and DVD - to simplify the process of choosing content, however they watch."
Protect children

The age ratings mean parents can edit the profiles of children on the platform to filter out age-inappropriate content.

The move was welcomed by the government, currently drafting laws to protect children from online harms.

Digital and Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage said: "This government is committed to ensuring new technology is safe for everyone to enjoy.

"And we are keen to see online platforms doing all they can to protect children.

"Putting the BBFC's trusted ratings on all shows and films on Netflix will help parents and young people make the right choices to avoid age-inappropriate content.

"I welcome this partnership and urge more streaming services to take similar steps."

It is now hoped this technology will be rolled out on other streaming services and social-media platforms.

The BBFC is already working with 21 other streaming services, including Sky Store, Virgin Media, BT, Talk Talk, Curzon Home and BFI Player, according to the Telegraph.

"This technology will be a welcome addition to protecting children and young people in terms of their access to unsuitable programming broadcast via streaming service platforms," Daisy Richards, lecturer at at De Montfort University's Leicester Media School, said.

"Whilst Netflix age ratings will be useful in helping audiences consider more generally what younger or more vulnerable audiences might potentially want to watch, and what to potentially avoid, nuanced, honest, and open discussions around the types of issues that these shows present are still key to providing further support and protection."

[Mafia_DZ]

Flaw allowed iPhone hacking remotely through wi-fi

searchers have revealed a flaw that allowed Apple iPhones to be hacked from afar without the owner doing anything.

Usually, smartphone hacks rely on user error - by clicking on a suspicious link, opening a message or downloading a malicious app - to gain control.

But Google Project Zero researcher Ian Beer has revealed how attackers could steal emails, photos, messages - and even access the camera and microphone.

Apple fixed the issue in May. And all up-to-date devices are secure.
Download photos

The hack was possible because Apple's devices use a technology called Apple Wireless Direct Link.

This uses wi-fi to allow users to send files and photos over Apple's AirDrop technology and easily share screens with other iOS devices.

Mr Beer exploited this network to show how hackers could gain access to a device from a distance.

In a blog post, he explained how he was able to complete the hack, which he spent six months investigating.
'Rich pickings'

He found no evidence the vulnerability had been "exploited in the wild", although said some people tweeted when the bug was fixed in May.

"As we all pour more and more of our souls into these devices, an attacker can gain a treasure trove of information on an unsuspecting target," he said.

Apple has not yet responded to a BBC News request for comment.

Prof Daniel Dresner, cyber security expert at the University of Manchester, said the lack of known exploitation was reassuring, as was the quick reactions of those involved in detection and remediation.

"It's significant given how new services could be exploited, as devices become more connected," he said.

"As phones seem to be the pivot point of always-on online living, they are rich pickings for finding these vulnerabilities to exploit."

"This showed you didn't have to be very close at all to the phone to hack it," Prof Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey, said.

"It's a very simple hack. You don't even really have to understand what's going on inside the device to be able to remove a considerable amount of data from it."
Location data

Last year, Mr Beer revealed a "sustained effort" to hack iPhones, using booby-trapped websites, said to have been visited thousands of times per week.

Once on an iPhone, the implant could access an enormous amount of data, including (though not limited to) contacts, images and global-positioning-system (GPS) location data, and relay it to an external server every 60 seconds.

In response, Apple accused Google of fear-mongering, as the investigation had been published six months after it had fixed the issues.

However, it is common practice for responsible security researchers not to publish their findings until after a company has been given the chance to fix a flaw.


Another Apple flaw was also revealed in March by mobile security company ZecOps.

Their research said a bug in the Mail app had made devices susceptible to sophisticated attacks.

At the time, an Apple representative told Reuters news agency a fix would be included in upcoming software updates.

Google's Android devices have also previously had vulnerabilities revealed.

Watchdog Which? suggested more than a billion Android devices were at risk of being hacked because they were no longer protected by security updates.

Anyone using an Android phone released in 2012 or earlier should be especially concerned, it said.

[Mafia_DZ]

Microsoft-backed Graphcore asks regulator to block Nvidia’s Arm acquisition

A Microsoft-backed company has asked British regulators to block Nvidia’s $40bn purchase of Arm Holdings, according to reports.

Hermann Hauser, one of Arm's founders, told CNBC that Graphcore has opposed the deal.

The rival chipmaker has submitted evidence submitted to the Competition and Markets Authority, which is currently mulling whether to let the acquisition go ahead.

"If Nvidia can merge the Arm and Nvidia designs in the same software then that locks out companies like Graphcore from entering the seller market and entering a close relationship with Arm," Mr Hauser told the news network.

Mr Huaer has invested in Graphcore through his venture capital firm, Amadeus Capital.

Nvidia, which hopes to buy Arm from Japanese tech giant SoftBank, has previously said the deal was “pro-competitive”.

Graphcore chief executive Nigel Toon earlier claimed on CNBC that the deal would hamper competition because it risks "closing down or limiting companies' access to leading edge CPU processor designs which are so important across the technology world, from data centres, to mobile, to cars and in embedded devices of every kind

[Mafia_DZ]

UK mass surveillance unlawful under European rules, court says



LONDON — Europe’s top human rights court ruled Tuesday that British mass surveillance and intelligence-gathering practices breached human rights laws, in a partial victory for civil rights groups that had challenged the practices exposed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights upheld a 2018 ruling by the court’s lower chamber that found some aspects of British surveillance activities violated provisions in the European Convention on Human Rights aimed at safeguarding Europeans’ rights to privacy.

The court’s 17 judges unanimously agreed that wasn’t enough independent scrutiny of processes used by British intelligence services to sift through billions of calls, emails, text messages and other data and digital communications intercepted in bulk, resulting in violations of the right to privacy and freedom of expression.

The court noted that while the U.K. had independent oversight and a judicial body set up to hear complaints from people whose communications had been intercepted, “those safeguards had not been enough to offset shortcomings in the regime,” according to a press summary of the judgment.

A majority of the judges gave a thumbs-up, however, to British laws governing the sharing of intercepted electronic intelligence with foreign governments or intelligence agencies.

“Sufficient safeguards had been in place to protect against abuse and to ensure that U.K. authorities had not used requests for material from foreign intelligence partners” to get around U.K. laws, the court said.

Five judges dissented on that point.

Judge Pinto de Albuquerque wrote that the ruling didn’t go far enough and “has just opened the gates for an electronic ‘Big Brother’ in Europe.”

Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, a British privacy campaign group that led the legal challenge, said the ruling vindicated Snowden’s revelations in 2013 detailing government surveillance programs.

“Mass surveillance damages democracies under the cloak of defending them, and we welcome the court’s acknowledgment of this,” Carlo said, adding that the ruling also was a “missed opportunity for the court to prescribe clearer limitations and safeguards.”