Cyber-crime unit ‘urgent’

A petition has been launched calling for the Prime Minister to set up a national e-crime reporting unit as soon as possible.

There are proposals outlined in this year’s Comprehensive Spending Review for a new National Fraud Reporting Centre to be set up in 2010-11.

The aim of the centre will be to provide a link between local forces, the public and other law enforcement agencies.

But following the case of lost data discs at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the petitioner, security analyst Neil Stinchcombe, said 2010 was too long to wait and is using the petition to highlight the need for the centre to be set up as soon as possible.

Mr Stinchcombe told Computeractive: “The consequences of, and reactions to, the loss of records by HMRC, make the creation of a well-resourced operation to address computer-assisted crime, including information and identity theft from data and call centres… a matter of great urgency.”

The problems the public and regional police forces have with reporting and handling individual incidents of cyber-crime is well documented. Local police say they do not have the resources to follow up many of these crimes.

Since April, the public has had to report financial online crime to banks rather than the police. There is also no central unit that can handle the cases of victims of identity theft or scams - once the responsibility of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU).

The multi-agency force based in London worked with law enforcement experts selected from the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, HM Customs and Excise and local police forces.

However, the NHTCU was absorbed into the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) in 2004. SOCA handles serious organised crime and not individual cases, which means members of the public have to report any computer-based crime to local police services, which are kept within that force, making it difficult to gauge the overall scale of cyber-crime.

The plan is for the National Fraud Reporting Centre to be managed by a lead police force centred on the City of London Police and, according to the Attorney General’s office, have input from the Metropolitan Police. To ensure overall co-ordination and strategy, there will also be a National Fraud Strategic Authority.

However, the City of London police and the Association of Chief Police Officers would not comment on the petition, which runs until 29 February 2008.

The people who most need information and technical support for the digital TV switchover are not getting it.

A report, Going Digital , from Ofcom’s Consumer Panel found the people most confused about what equipment they should buy and install are the vulnerable; including the elderly and disabled.

It said that although much of the information and assistance that people said they wanted, such as a helpline, already exists, most of the respondents to the survey were unaware of this.

The Panel said with many people likely to spend a lot of money buying new, digital TV equipment as Christmas approaches, a more concerted and targeted communication campaign was vital.

This would ensure viewers who are “confused and anxious” are made aware of all of the options, information and assistance available to them. Even money wasn’t as much of an issue as advice and technical expertise.

Colette Bowe, Consumer Panel chairman, said: “We wanted to understand the experience of vulnerable consumers as they ‘go digital’, and… they told us clearly that they don’t want money; they want easily accessible assistance and advice to help them through the process.”

The survey latest research is published alongside research from the Scottish Consumer Council (SCC), which also found that people confused about the choices. SCC plans to follow the day-to-day experiences of consumers until switchover in November 2008 in the Digital Diaries project.

According to the research, the people who lack the technical confidence to start the conversion process really did not know where to go for information. Even buying the equipment was proving difficult. Going Digital participants told the Consumer Panel that in most cases an easily accessible telephone helpline would meet their needs.

The Consumer Panel said it realised that much of the information and assistance that people want, such as their call for a helpline, already exists, but that they are unaware of it.

Key recommendations therefore include a targeted national information campaign. This will include posting its Helping Hand Packs to all who are eligible for help which includes those over the age of 75 and those on disability benefits.

The Panel also wants better promotion of the Digital UK helpline, which can be reached on 08456 505 050. It would also like to see a rolling information channel on Freeview that provides switchover information and more specifically targeted information for older, disabled and technically unsupported participants.

“The country is currently energized about the digital switchover. They are thinking about buying digital TVs for Christmas, and the switchover is on everyone’s mind. So we are saying the information should be given to people now and it shouldn’t wait until their region is going to switch over,” said a representative for the Panel.

Imagine having all the tools you’d need to work as efficiently as possible from virtually anywhere. Not just at the office. Not just at home. But from the road, on the train, or by the pool. And not just with email, phone, web browsing and instant messaging. But with GPS for mapping and turn-by-turn directions, storage space for your large files and a long-lasting, high-capacity battery.

Then imagine having all the tools you’d need to do things you want to do. Like staying connected to the people who matter most to you. Kicking back with the music you love. Watching clips you’ve downloaded, or playing games while you’ve got a few minutes to spare.

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The BlackBerry® 8800 is the stylish way to get things done. Packed with powerful capabilities, yet incredibly compact and slim - it combines a stylish design with a premium finish. It also features a large, sharp screen that brings colors to life, whether you’re indoors or out: its built-in light-sensing technology automatically adjusts screen and keypad brightness. Sleek, elegant and performance-driven, this is a smartphone you’ll always want to show off.

The BlackBerry 8800 mobile phone has the following features:

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Ofcom has set out plans to upgrade the hugely popular free-to-air digital TV service Freeview to make room for high definition (HD) channels to benefit the consumer and the economy.

Ofcom said that under its proposal, the service would be able to offer HD channels without needing additional radio spectrum from as early as 2009.

It predicts that the upgrade could bring benefits to the economy worth between 4 billion and 6 billion pounds over 25 years.

The transition to HDTV has been called a landmark move for the industry, similar to the shift from black and white to colour, and terrestrial broadcasters want to be able to compete with the sharply improved TV picture offered by pay-TV firms BSkyB and Virgin Media.

They had called on the government and Ofcom to reserve some of the highly sought after spectrum that will be freed up from the switchover to be used to carry HD channels on Freeview, in a bid to prevent a national “HD Divide” between those who can and those who can’t watch TV in HD.

But on Tuesday the country’s four main broadcasters, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five, said they could in fact produce the service with the currently available resources. Ofcom has said it intends to auction the released spectrum off to the highest bidder.

Ed Richards, Chief Executive of Ofcom, said the proposal to upgrade Digital Terrestrial Television, or Freeview, represented a major opportunity to build on its success with wider, richer and more varied services, including the potential for HDTV.

“We look forward to hearing the views of viewers and from right across the industry,” he said.

Ofcom said it would ask the broadcasters to come up with individual suggestions for how they would use the extra capacity in the hope that competition will result in higher standards.

Ofcom said the upgrade could roll out across the country from 2009 and result in four HD channels by 2012.

The overall number of broadband users in the UK continues to rise, but market watchers revealed today that the rate of growth of new subscriptions is falling rapidly.

Point Topic said that total UK broadband subscriptions will reach about 21 million by the end of 2012, comprising 19 million consumer lines and two million business lines.

The current downward trend in the growth rate of net additions is not just a blip but shows the pattern for the future, the analyst company forecasts.

About 330,000 and 550,000 consumer broadband lines were added in the middle two quarters of 2007 respectively, the lowest numbers since 2003. This is barely half the growth achieved in the previous two quarters, according to Point Topic.

The third quarter saw a slight improvement. Almost 600,000 business and consumer broadband lines were added which was better than projected.

The increase was due to good performance by the main broadband operators - Sky, BT Retail, Orange, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media - which added 660,000 lines while smaller competitors shared net losses of over 60,000 lines.

“A primary reason for the current slowdown in the market is the shrinking size of the remaining pool of dial-up users ready to be converted to broadband, ” Point Topic stated.

“Potential users are also put off by the widely reported problems in getting a broadband connection up and running, and controversy over the gap between promised and actual speeds.”

One driver of steady growth in the consumer sector will be demographic advance. As people grow older, they will carry their internet habits with them into older age groups.

This trend will contribute to about a one per cent reduction of the number of non-user households each year. Another factor spreading appeal of new applications will be social networking.

One key factor in Point Topic’s forecast is how quickly homes and businesses which are still without the internet will get online.

“We forecast that about four per cent of the remaining households without internet access will convert each year,” said Point Topic chief analyst Tim Johnson.

“That is roughly the average for the past two years as a whole, but much better than in the past few quarters, so it implies improved performance by the industry.”

Point Topic estimates that about 73 per cent of homes and 85 per cent of business premises will have a broadband connection by the end of 2012.

In the business market, which is expected to have lower barriers to take-up than the consumer sector, about 6.5 per cent of the remaining business premises without broadband will get connected each year.

A surge is seen in the market of broad band users in the UK, to some extent, owing to the availability of the high technological advancements. The same has impacted the sales of cameras and printer models that could be used with broadband communication only. Some of the manufactures have even shifted their resources towards more of the compatible products. This has led to the new line of brother printers and the most advanced and multi functional designs of canon printers.

Search engine Magic Taxi is hoping to attract new users by making a promise to plant trees to help reduce carbon footprints.

Each time someone uses the search engine to browse the web or shop online, Magic Taxi will give 50 per cent of the revenue it receives through advertising and commission referrals to the Woodland Trust.

A spokesman for Magictaxi.com said: “The next six weeks are the busiest for online searching and shopping. According to the Centre for Economic and Business Research, the average British family will spend over £448 on food, drink, toys and other gifts this Christmas.

“If this was spent through Magic Taxi it would plant five trees and help to offset one tonne of carbon. We chose to partner with the Woodland Trust as we wanted the trees purchased to be grown within the UK, so that we could be confident they would reach full maturity and our users could visit the woodland being created.

The Magic Taxi internet toolbar will also give users tips about what they can do to reduce their own carbon footprints by being more energy efficient. The user can set Magictaxi.com either as a home page or a toolbar.

 PopVent.com. The only site that pays it’s members for simply being members. Although Myspace, Friendster, Facebook, YouTube and countless other Social Networking sites are very popular they don’t take care of their members at all!

Think about this: Most social networking sites earn upwards of $20 million dollars per month. And how much of that goes back to the user….NONE!

There are a handful of networking sites that actually share their advertising revenue such as Yuwie, MyLot and a handful of others. The only problem with these sites is that in order to qualify for a portion of their ad sharing revenue you have to send SUBSTANTIAL traffic to their sites.

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IBM’s Blue Gene has retained its title as the world’s fastest supercomputer in the new Top 500 rankings.

Blue Gene/L has held the accolade since November 2004 and is now capable of performing at a rate of 478.2 teraflops, or 478.2 trillion calculations per second.

The supercomputer is based at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where it is used for complicated simulations such as the movement of particles during nuclear fallout.

Second place was awarded to IBM’s follow-up computer, Blue Gene/P, one of four new entries in the top five machines. The third spot was taken by the SGI Altix ICE 8200 at the New Mexico Computing Applications Center in Rio Rancho.

India gained its first entry to the top 10 with an HP Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c system, in fourth place. The supercomputer is owned by the Tata business group and installed at the Computational Research Laboratories in Pune.

HP’s Cluster Platform also took fifth place and the fourth highest new entry, thanks to strong performance at a government agency in Sweden.

The highest UK entry in the Top 500 was Cray’s HECToR at 17, based at the University of Edinburgh.

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While at first glance the Samsung Q70 may look a little bulky and difficult to carry, you will be surprised if you take the time to delve a little deeper. True, it does look and feel a little heavier and larger than most laptops on the market, but it does have some interesting features.

The Samsung Q70 has an impressive screen display which is both sharp and crisp, and copes well with direct sunlight. Using the latest Intel Centronio technology this laptop is both fast, reliable and as good as any currently on the market. Rather than go for the stylish sleek look, Samsung have concentrated all of their efforts on the actual functionality and performance of the machine - something which other laptop manufacturers should maybe consider.

The machine comes pre-installed with the latest version of Vista, including an array of useful graphics and media packages. This is more of a practical model, with a predominantly keyboard based navigation system , rather than these short cut keys which take up a fair amount of surface space. Wi-fi connectivity and a Bluetooth facility are installed as standard, ensuring that you have the latest technology available to work on the move.

After much hype and press coverage the Apple iPhone was released to an eager audience, who had been primed for months. While many of the more prominent phone review specialists were eager to talk down and criticise the Apple iPhone, it is surprisingly hard to actually ignore. For once we have a product which has evolved and is able to give the market consumers what they want. The look and feel of the phone oozes class, and it is obvious that a lot of thought and work has gone into the design of the handset.

The Candy-bar style handset comes in with dimensions of 61 mm x 115 mm x 12 mm and weighs in at a respectable 135gr. This quadband phone covers GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 and 1900, offering uninterrupted usage all around the world. Disappointingly there is no 3G facility, which would really have been the icing on the cake. The battery power is a little better than you would expect for a handset with such services, with 300 minutes talktime.

The main touch screen display is a useful 320 x 480 pixel resolution, which holds up well in direct sunlight. The two main elements of this phone are the 2 megapixel camera (since release we are now seeing 5 megapixel cameras coming to the market) and the music functionality which is based upon the world famous iPod. Apple have somehow managed to incorporate the main ingredients of a top of the range mobile with a very impressive music facility, and made it work - much to the dismay of many critics who were not so sure. However, it is a little disappointing not to see an inbuilt FM radio, although this is no great loss overall.

As you would expect from any of today’s top of the range handsets, the Apple iPhone offers an array of messaging services which include SMS, MMS, email as well as an internet browser which is both very quick and easy to use. The inbuilt memory capacity is in the region of 8192 MB although eager eyed consumers will notice that there are no external memory ports. However, the Apple iPhone does offer both Bluetooth and WiFi for excellent quality data transfer - very popular with both the business end and personal ends of the mobile phone market.

It is obvious from first glance that Apple have used every measure of their experience in the iPod market to put together a quality offering. The design is both smooth and sleek and navigation could not be simpler, for both the phone and music functionality. Apple have now set the benchmark for future handsets in this area of the market and while they may have a clear run in the short term, their competitors will not stand still for too long.

It will be interesting to see who actually steps forward to take on Apple in the music / mobile area of the market, and how they perform. The bar has been raised by the Apple iPhone handset, but this is only the start of the story with more action expected in due course.

 

As we lap up all of the hype about the Apple iPhone, Taiwan based HTC have jumped ahead of Apple and beaten them to the market with a mobile very similar in spec and feel to the iPhone. While company officials claim they have been working on the revolutionary touch screen phone for some time, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the iPhone. Can anyone really compete against the iPhone when it hits the mass market?

Dominated by a system which HTC have christened TouchFLO, users are able to use the touch sensitive screen with a finger of a stylus. The navigation system is also very impressive, with spinning graphics and multiple options leading you to your chosen destination. The HTC Touch also has a 2 mega pixel camera, internet connectivity, Wi-fi and Bluetooth, not to mention an array of the most popular messaging formats.

You have to admire HTC for the speed with which they have been able to get their phone to market, just ahead of the iPhone launch and when the market is very responsive to this particular style of handset. Apple will really have to live up to the hype when the iPhone is finally released, although it has to be said they already have a great following and millions of dollars to fund promotion of the iPhone.