Cyber-thieves hit YouTube Fifa gamers

Six of the most successful Fifa video gamers to feature on YouTube have been targeted by cyber-thieves. The hackers stole millions of Fifa coins, the games virtual currency, and sold players worth thousands of pounds. They are thought to have convinced manufacturer EA Sports to transfer their victims' Origin accounts to email addresses the hackers controlled. Many other well-known players who do not make videos are also believed to have been...

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IS exploits Telegram mobile app to spread propaganda

So-called Islamic State group (IS) has shifted its propaganda distribution to the secure mobile messaging app Telegram from Twitter, where its accounts have been repeatedly shut down over the past year. IS and other jihadist groups appear to be exploiting new functionality introduced by the app last month, which allows users to broadcast their messages to an unlimited number of members via their own Telegram "channel". On 26 September, just...

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Samsung says its mobile payments data is safe despite hack

Samsung Electronics has said its mobile payment system is safe after a hacking attack against its US-based subsidiary LoopPay. An article in the New York Times on Wednesday said the hacking incident had occurred against LoopPay's network in March. LoopPay, acquired by Samsung in February, developed the payment system used to run Samsung Pay - a competitor to Apple Pay. Samsung said user data was not at risk. In August, the...

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Cisco disrupts $30m Angler hacking operation

Technology firm Cisco has uncovered a major hacking operation worth an estimated $30m (£19.6m) a year. The company said criminals had used the notorious Angler Exploit malware toolto target tens of thousands of users every day. The attacks were focused on customers of hosting provider Limestone Networks. Cisco has issued a patch and published guidance on how users' can protect themselves but analysts doubt this will put an end to Angler...

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Intelligent Machines: AI had IQ of four-year-old child

An artificial intelligence system (AI) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has taken an IQ test designed for a young child. The results, written up by MIT Review, revealed that its IQ was equivalent to that of a four-year-old. Increasingly machines are getting better at specific tasks such as playing chess, recognising pictures and making complex commutations. But general intelligence is still proving elusive for most of...

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Drone firm under threat of $2m fine for 'illegal flying'

A drone operator has been threatened with a $1.9m (£1.24m) fine for allegedly flying the unmanned crafts illegally over New York and Chicago. US authorities proposed the fine on Tuesday, saying that the firm, SkyPan International, flew 65 such flights over more than two years. The fine would be more than 100 times larger than the previous biggest punishment. The company said it has not had time to review the proposal in detail. The proposed...

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Google speeds up news article downloads on mobile devices

Dozens of leading news organisations, including the BBC, are taking part in a scheme that will allow their web-based articles to load more quickly on smartphones and tablets. Leaders of the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) initiative promise that the stripped-back versions of the pages will be "lightning fast" to load. The move has been led by Google, which is providing use of its servers. Participants believe it may discourage the...

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Microsoft launches Windows laptop

Microsoft has launched a laptop dubbed the Surface Book, as part of a suite of new Windows 10 products. It also showed off two new smartphones, an updated Surface tablet and a new fitness band. Much is riding on the launches as chief executive Satya Nadella sets out to prove Microsoft can compete with its rivals. Analysts said the new laptop may help revive the ailing PC market. The laptop, Microsoft's first, was the highlight of a tranche...

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How worried is Silicon Valley about Safe Harbour?

The Safe Harbour ruling made on Tuesday has potentially big implications for some giants of Silicon Valley when it comes to how they look after our private data. Safe Harbour was designed as a "streamlined and cost-effective" way for US firms to get data from Europe without breaking its rules. Companies in the US were able to self-certify that they had put the appropriate data privacy measures in place. In the wake of the Snowden...

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Chemistry Nobel: Lindahl, Modrich and Sancar win for DNA repair

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded for discoveries in DNA repair. Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar were named as the winners on Wednesday morning at a news conference in Stockholm, Sweden. Their work uncovered the mechanisms used by cells to repair damaged DNA - a fundamental process in living cells and important in cancer. Prof Lindahl is Swedish, but has worked in the UK for more than three decades. The prize...

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Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project gets £707k of lottery funding

A project to help one of Europe's most endangered bat species has been awarded £707,000 of National Lottery funding. The Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project will restore habitats, protect 11 "priority roosts" and work with landowners. Devon is the species stronghold, with a third of the UK's 6,500 bats found in the county, project organisers have said. Funding has come from the Heritage Lottery Fund. 'Population crash' The project is being...

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Neutrino 'flip' wins physics Nobel Prize

The discovery that neutrinos switch between different "flavours" has won the 2015 Nobel Prize in physics. Neutrinos are ubiquitous subatomic particles with almost no mass and which rarely interact with anything else, making them very difficult to study. Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald led two teams which made key observations of the particles inside big underground instruments in Japan and Canada. They were named on Tuesday morning at...

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New 'hog-nosed rat' discovered in Indonesia

A team of scientists have discovered a new species of rat in Indonesia. The species, which has been named Hyorhinomys stuempkei - hog-nosed rat - has "distinct and unique features uncommon to other rats", they said. Five of the rodents were discovered on Sulawesi island earlier in January by researchers from Australia, Indonesia and the US. Museum Victoria's mammal curator Kevin Rowe said the species was "previously undocumented". "We were on...

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