Kinky Android X-ray app laid bare as malware
Symantec warns it'll try to extort victims
Japanese mobile users are being warned not to download an Android app promising to allow them to see through clothes with the phone’s camera, as the malware hidden within will steal address book data and try to blackmail them to the tune of ¥29,000 (£202).
The app's first manifestation is usually an SMS message appearing to come …
FinFisher spyware goes global, mobile and undercover
Report claims to have found C&C servers in 25 countries
Security researchers have warned that the controversial FinFisher spyware has been updated to evade detection and has now been discovered in 25 countries across the globe, many of them in APAC.
FinFisher, also known as FinSpy, is produced by Anglo/German firm Gamma International and marketed as a “lawful interception” suite …
Caught on camera: Fujitsu touts anti-terrorist pulse-taking tech
The doctor will see you now...
Japanese boffins at Fujitsu have announced a new imaging technology that can take a user’s pulse simply by monitoring the changing brightness of their face, and in so doing potentially stop shifty souls at the airport.
The ingenious video-based system captures the subject’s face, calculating the average value of red, green and …
Celebrity conspiracy as Apple attacked over customer service
'8:20 Party' of Chinese celebs all posted anti-Apple comments at same time
Eagle-eyed weibo fans in China have uncovered what appears to be a pre-meditated and co-ordinated attempt to smear Apple following a high profile consumer rights programme on national TV which slammed the firm for its customer service.
The broadcast on state-run CCTV – a hugely popular and influential consumer rights programme …
Alibaba! could! hand! back! Yahoo! China! to Yahoo! in! May!
Report claims Chinese web bazaar wants to offload ailing portal
Chinese web and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group could return Yahoo! China to its parent company as early as May, as its partnership with the US internet pioneer continues to wind down.
Sources told Chinese tech news portal Sina Tech that the deal may be done through a share swap, speculating that it could happen in or around 10 …
Beijing IT biz taunts Microsoft: Show us your licence for Office 365
If papers aren't in order, it could end up on China's block list
Microsoft Office 365 customers could be in for a tricky time in China after a Beijing IT company called on Redmond to prove it has the legal authority to operate in the country or risk being blocked.
Enterprise IT service provider and Microsoft customer Baihui Zongheng Technology made the calls at a press conference at the China …
NORKS says USA attack took it offline ... as if anyone could tell
US blamed for 'despicable and base acts' on its interwebs
North Korea is warning that the US and its allies “should be held wholly accountable” after claiming that a massive cyber attack has taken the country offline over the past two days, despite virtually no one in the secretive state being allowed on the interwebs.
The axis of evil state’s Korean Central News Agency blamed the US, …
Blue Coat, Skype and QQ named despots' best friends
Reporters Without Borders slams "enemies of the internet"
Blue Coat Systems, Microsoft’s Skype and Chinese IM service QQ have all helped repressive states labelled "enemies of the internet" to snoop on their citizens, according to a new cyber censorship report from press freedom group Reporters Without Borders.
Given China’s increasingly rigorous censorship of web-borne content and …
Euro satellite ‘heard’ Japanese megaquake in SPACE
Infrasound waves travelled 270 kilometers into the heavens
The European Space Agency (ESA) is claiming a world first after releasing evidence that its GOCE gravity satellite picked up sound waves produced by the Sendai earthquake of March 2011.
The ESA explained that particularly large ‘quakes – like the magnitude 9.0 incident that hit Japan – cause the planet’s surface to vibrate, …
Coca Cola in the dock over illegal China GPS map claims
Sugar Daddy says GPS logistics tools were commercially available
The perils of doing business in China were highlighted again recently after it was revealed that Coca Cola is under investigation following allegations it illegally mapped parts of Yunnan province.
The FT translated a notice on a local government web site in the region apparently accusing the fizzy drinks giant of "illegally …
Twitter's Chinese foe is home to social media zombies
More than half of Sina Weibo accounts inactive or unoriginal
China’s social networks may not be as social as was first thought, after a new sample study found that over half of accounts on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo are inactive while fewer than 15 per cent of active accounts feature original posts.
Hong Kong University researchers were keen to find out the truth about weibo, arguing …
Japan to trial emergency 'calls' by Twitter in disaster zones
Social networks could be used to trigger call-outs
Japanese authorities will soon trial a new warning system that would allow imperiled members of the public to contact the emergency services by sending messages on social networking sites like Twitter.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said it will test the system this (northern) summer, Kyodo reported.
The disaster …
Godzilla wreaks revenge on Pakistani government web sites
Monster hacker takes out key sites to protest terror attacks
An Indian hacker known as "Godzilla" taken down several Pakistani government web sites.
The hacker told The Hacker News that it acted in retaliation for the government's alleged support of terrorist activities, adding: "all network owned including switches because they deserve it, I have not touched any innocent website because …
Japan's free public VPN project tunnels through Great Firewall
China and Japan make friends on the interwebs
Chinese netizens finding it increasingly difficult to bypass the Great Firewall after a recent crackdown on virtual private network (VPN) services have found an unlikely ally in a new public relay VPN service from Japan.
The VPN Gate Academic Experiment Project (h/t TechInAsia) was set up by researchers at the Graduate School of …
Earthquake killed your network? Satellite-over-balloon to the rescue!
Softbank upgrades Japanese disaster recovery technology with space link
Two years after the devastating Sendai earthquake and subsequent tsunami rocked north-east Japan, mobile operator Softbank has updated its floating mobile phone base station system to include satellite comms for extra resilience.
Networks faltered after the 2011 quake, with mobile phone towers knocked out of action. Softbank’s …
Cisco opens in Myanmar as US tech firms eye fresh territory
USAID delegation grooming isolated state
Networking giant Cisco looks set to be one of the first major Western tech firms to establish a presence in once-isolated Myanmar, after announcing two networking academies designed to train up locals for work in the country’s burgeoning IT sector.
The collaborative project with the US Agency for International Development (USAID …
World's 'smallest' mobe unveiled in Japan
Forget phablets, this tiddler has a one-inch screen
At a time when smartphone screens are getting bigger and bigger, Japanese outfit Willcom has bucked the trend and announced what it claims is the world’s smallest and lightest mobile phone.
The little-known electronics vendor will launch the munchkin-sized “Strap Phone 2 WX06A” on 21 March. It features a tiny 96x64 resolution, …
Google sends Street View car into Fukushima dead zone
Displaced residents of Namie can't go home, can at least Google it
Google’s Street View project took an unusual left turn this week after one of it's familiar camera mounted cars took to the streets of Namie – a town in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture deserted nearly two years ago after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
A Google spokesperson confirmed to The Reg that the unusual project …
Japanese password protector floods screen with hoax cursors
Password peepers foiled by camouflaged cursor
Japanese boffins have demonstrated a rather nifty way of preventing online password theft by screen capture and shoulder surfing – flood the screen with a barrage of dummy cursors.
Researchers at the government backed Japan Science and Technology (JST) Agency showed off the rather unusual approach to preventing fraud to local …
Gone in 30 minutes: Chinese tweets purged by army of censors
New report claims thousands of censors could be working for Sina Weibo
The murky world of online self-censorship in China has come under the spotlight again in a new report which estimates that most post deletions on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo occur within the first 30 minutes of appearing.
The Velocity of Censorship: High-Fidelity Detection of Microblog Post Deletions, was researched by academics …
Pirate Bay to world: We're not really off to NORKS
TPB slams those who cheered its non-move (in NSWFW language)
The Pirate Bay has admitted that its claim to have relocated its servers to North Korea was a hoax, and then had a pop at those who believed the file-sharing site the first time around.
TPB surprised many when it claimed in a statement released earlier this week that it had been granted “virtual asylum” in the secretive Asian …
Indian atomic boffins draw up plans for 50,000 TONNE magnet
World's biggest will dwarf CERN's tiddler...
Indian engineers are drawing up plans to build the world’s biggest magnet, four times the size of the one used at CERN, as part of a massive particle physics project to be housed in a 1,300 metre deep cave.
The 50,000 tonne magnet is being designed at the country’s Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and will eventually be used in the …
Google in the dock over elephant ivory ads
Environmentalists stampede as Chocolate Factory breaks own AdWords policy
Google has been accused of inadvertently promoting the slaughter of endangered whale and elephant species after environmentalists found tens of thousands of ads for ivory and other products on its Japanese shopping site.
Non-profit campaigning group the Environmental Investigation Agency said that despite Google’s own “laudable …
MI5 test for Mandarin-speaking snoops 'just too easy'
'I'm gonna be the first American James Bond in China!'
British intelligence nerve-centre MI5 is recruiting fluent Chinese speakers to eavesdrop on phone calls - but it got more than it bargained for when its Mandarin comprehension test was ridiculed by Redditors.
Blighty's Security Service set up an online language exam, which encourages peeps with Mandarin, Russian, Sylheti, …
Chinese search giant Baidu launches free AV
English language software could be a shot in domestic search stoush
Chinese search giant Baidu has been quietly testing the waters in the security space, with the launch of a free English language AV product for Windows.
Baidu Antivirus 2013 features traditional signature-based AV and cloud-based threat protection and tries to optimise PC performance along the way. Little other information about …
Anonymous becomes peacemaker as hacktivists battle
Malaysia vs. Philippines dispute over Borneo barney goes online, Anons hose it down
Anonymous has assumed the unlikely role of peacemaker in a growing dispute between Malaysian and Filipino hacktivists that has seen scores of web sites on both sides defaced over a territorial tussle.
Scores have already been killed in bloody clashes in the east Malaysian state of Sabah after a group of nearly 200 Filipino …
NTT Docomo leads 5G push with 10Gbps uplink tests
Ultra-super-fast mobile data services on the way
Japanese operator NTT Docomo has successfully tested uplink packet transmissions at an uber-fast 10Gbps, hundreds of times quicker than the 4G services only just beginning to roll out across North America and Europe.
The outdoor experiment was conducted in collaboration with the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Okinawa’s …
New Japanese craze: Knickers for iPhones' nether regions
iFronts, anyone?
Ever worried that your smartphone is putting just a little bit too much of itself on show? Well worry no more, thanks to SmartPants, the latest eccentric invention from Japan.
Available in several different colours and designs, these iPhone “pants” are the brainchild of Japanese video game maker Bandai and are being marketed …
Japanese govt: Use operator-run app stores, not Google Play
Info-stealing sexy wallpaper app was downloaded 500,000 times on official site
Google’s security credentials have taken another hit after the Japanese government warned local Android users to download their apps from third party operator-run stores, and not Google's own Play, following the discovery of a prolific info-stealing app on the official site.
The Tokyo-based Information Technology Promotion …
Cambridge boffins reveal prehistoric prawn monster
Chinese fossil 'Fuxianhuiid' shows earliest nervous system extending beyond the head
Scientists in China are celebrating another key discovery after unearthing the fossilised remains of a 520 million year-old arthropod, with what they claim is the earliest example of a nervous system extended beyond the head.
The prawn-like sea creature was found preserved sideways on, enabling Javier Ortega-Hernández and his …
Japanese boffins produce solar power paper
Lightweight, flexible sheets of cellulose nano-fibres
Green tech boffins at Osaka University have developed new highly efficient solar panel “paper” technology made from wood pulp, and says it is lighter, more flexible and eco-friendly than traditional clunky solar energy collectors.
The solar paper can be less than one millimetre thick thanks to its basic components: transparent …
Baidu offers English-speaking devs chance to crack China
Fortune and glory await in world's largest smartphone market
Chinese search giant Baidu is stepping up efforts to engage with the international developer community with a new English language web site that might just help mobile app devs outside the Great Firewall crack the huge domestic market in the People’s Republic.
The Baidu Cloud Developer Center is for the time being limited to …
Intel beckons SMBs aboard Big Data bandwagon
Small fry firms can be Big Data fish with Hadoop
Cutting edge Big Data projects might seem the sole preserve of big name multinationals and government organisations but the democratisation of these next gen analytics capabilities is coming soon to an SMB near you, according to Intel.
Speaking at the APAC launch of the Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop, Chipzilla’s global …
Japanese gov builds APT database to study targeted attack info
Hopes to understand attackers' MO, share info with US
The Japanese government will respond to the increasing threats from targeted cyber attacks by building a centralised advanced persistent threat (APT) database designed to aggregate threat intelligence so it can be shared with domestic security organisations and foreign governments.
The ¥800m project is being built in co- …
BBC World Service in a jam as China blocks broadcasts
Beeb strongly condemns disruption
The BBC has claimed China is blocking shortwave radio broadcasts of its World Service, in what could be retaliation for its attempts to cover the recent hacking allegations against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
In a no-nonsense statement, the Beeb said it “strongly condemns” the behaviour, “which is designed to disrupt …
Microsoft latest to 'fess up to Java-based Mac attack
Redmond experiences 'similar intrusion' to Facebook and Apple
Microsoft appears to be the latest big tech firm to have been hit by cyber attackers targeting Macs with a zero-day Java vulnerability, following a sophisticated campaign which has already infected developers at Facebook and Apple.
In a blog post published late last Friday, Microsoft’s GM of Trustworthy Computing Security, Matt …
Toshiba boffins claim battery life boost with SRAM tweaks
Standby power consumption reduction of 85 PER CENT in tests
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba claims to have found a technology solution to the perennial problem of mobile device battery life, offering a reduction in standby power consumption of up to 85 per cent.
Announced at the 2013 International Solid-State Circuit Conference in San Francisco last week, the innovation in embedded …
Turkish tattooists test talent with QR code ad
Tattoo parlour hopefuls urged to swap irons for pen
The bafflingly ubiquitous Quick Response (QR) code may have finally found its ideal use case after a Turkish tattoo parlour decided to feature the 21st century bar-code in an ingenious scheme to weed out job applicants.
Istanbul ad agency BÜRO was recently hired by upmarket tattoo emporium Berrge Tattoo to help it hire some new …
Security report becomes security risk
Mandiant's report on Chinese hacking used as bait in spear phishing attacks
A high profile security report released earlier this week detailing Chinese military involvement in widespread online attacks is itself now being used as a lure in spear-phishing attacks, according to researchers.
The report, APT1: Exposing One of China's Cyber Espionage Units, published by security firm Mandiant, made headlines …
Mobes with monster 72-core GPU to debut in China
ZTE says handsets packing Tegra 4 system-on-chip will land before July
Nvidia’s supercharged quad-core Tegra 4 SoC, which packs a mighty 72 GPU cores, has finally found a mobile home after handset maker ZTE announced new smartphones featuring the chip will debut in China in the first half of 2013.
The Tegra 4 was unveiled last month at CES but has so far been left to stand at the altar by the …
Jerry Yang hired as fly on the wall at Lenovo
Hired for 'proven entrepreneurial spirit' to help PC company grow
Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang is set to join the board of Lenovo.
Yang, who infamously turned down Microsoft’s $40bn buy-out offer back in 2009, will attend board meetings but only as an “observer” – in other words, he’ll have no voting rights.
Yang said in a statement that he would be sharing his experience as tech entrepreneur …
FIFA stages shoot-out between British and German goal line tech
Electric eyes will watch the World Cup, with Hawk_Eye to face off against German foes
Football’s ruling body FIFA has agreed to use goal-line technology (GLT) at next year’s World Cup in Brazil after successful trials in Japan in December.
The decision marks a turnaround in thinking for FIFA after big match errors of judgement by referees in major tournament games which have benefitted and penalised England*.
A …
Tizen mobile OS releases v2.0 code
Android alternative has Samsung's support
The men and women behind the open source Tizen mobile OS platform have stated an early claim to win developer hearts and minds ahead of Mobile World Congress next week with the official release of Tizen 2.0 source code and SDK.
After a particularly slow start since its launch in by the Linux Foundation in September 2011, the …
Alibaba takes ANOTHER swing at Google with search engine launch
Round two of the Android - Aliyun ding dong
Google’s odds of clinging onto market share in the hugely competitive China search market just got longer after local e-commerce giant Alibaba entered the fray with a search engine under the banner of its Aliyun cloud division.
Responding to an El Reg request for more info on breaking news reports, an Alibaba Group spokeswoman …
Cameron to ink cyber deal with India, protect Brit outsourced data
UK will also share infosec expertise and threat intelligence
Prime Minister David Cameron will step up UK co-operation with India on cyber security on Tuesday in a bid to better protect data stored on Indian servers as well as share intelligence on breaking threats.
Cameron is in India as part of a three-day trade trip designed to build stronger business ties with the vast emerging nation …
Indian government censors own web site after court order
ISPs given blacklist in wake of defamation case
The Indian government has effectively censored one of its own web sites after its Department of Telecommunications told ISPs to block access to over 70 URLs in response to a court ruling that they contained defamatory content.
The bizarre turn of events began last Thursday after controversial business school the Indian Institute …
Ex-pats take note: China IT salaries set to jump 40 per cent
It's a tough market but riches await some tech specialists
Salary hikes of up to 40 per cent could be on offer for IT pros in China this year as the surging demand for specialised skills offers certain ex-pat professionals some new opportunities for a change of scene in 2013.
International recruiter Michael Page’s annual Salary & Employment Forecast (PDF) for China reveals a booming …
Singaporean men in naked web cam extortion scam
Pants down with bulging wallets out
Singaporean police have warned men in the city state of a five-fold increase in extortion cases in which they are coaxed into a state of undress, secretly filmed and then asked to hand over cash to prevent release of the resulting video.
Cops in the island nation said the number of such incidents has shot up from 11 in 2011 to …
ICANN boss Chehade in China charm offensive
He wants an open and fair internet ... in China?
The new CEO of internet oversight body the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is in China this week as part of on-going efforts to reach out to the world’s biggest online population at a time when the country’s crackdown on web freedoms has reached new heights.
RosettaNet founder Fadi Chehade, who …
Taiwan's Polytron promises see-through phones
Has anyone seen my mobile? I can't find it anywhere!
Taiwanese manufacturer Polytron has showed a prototype of a transparent smartphone and thinks they could reach the market by year's end.
The Taoyuan-based firm, which describes itself as a leading manufacturer of “electronic and optical vision glass”, demoed an almost completely transparent touchscreen device to Mobile Geeks. …
