Web attack knows where you live

One visit to a booby-trapped website could direct attackers to a person's home, a security expert has shown.The attack, thought up by hacker Samy Kamkar, exploits shortcomings in many routers to find out a key identification number.It uses this number and widely available net tools to find out where a router is located.Demonstrating the attack,...

Private browsing modes leak data

The private browsing modes on modern browsers leak information about where people have visited, suggests a study.Available in many browsers, the private modes are not supposed to log information about sites visited.However, the study found that in many cases the privacy mode was compromised by additions to the browser or extra security on...

Saudi Blackberry services Resumes

Blackberry services have been restored in Saudi Arabia, reports say.A ban on the use of the device for sending and receiving messages was due to have come into force.And locals said the handsets had stopped working for four hours.But there is no sign yet that the ban has been lifted. Earlier reports that Blackberry manufacturers RIM (Research...

Net neutrality talks stall in US

US regulators have halted closed-door meetings intended to find a way to make sure all web data is treated equally.The Federal Communications Commission began the meetings after a court limited its net regulation powers.The FCC faced criticism over the meetings by groups that supported the principle known as net neutrality.The FCC decision...

UK to open Earth observation hub

Science minister David Willetts has announced a new UK centre for monitoring the Earth from space.The Earth observation hub will focus on acquiring environmental data, such as information on deforestation and the impact of climate change.The hub will be based at the International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) at Harwell in Oxfordshire, which...

Ancient climate change 'link' to CO2

A "global pattern" of change in the Earth's climate began 2.7 million years ago, say scientists.Researchers found that, at this point, temperature patterns in the tropics slipped into step with patterns of Ice Ages in the Northern Hemisphere.They report in the journal Science that atmospheric CO2 could be the "missing link" to explain this...

Birds with the brightest feathers may pay a cost for their showmanship

Males with the brightest plumage are thought to be more sexually attractive to female birds.But a study of American goldfinches is the first to show that high levels of brightly coloured chemicals in feathers leads to a breakdown in flight muscles, which affects flight performance.Details are published in the journal Naturwissenschaften. The discovery does not necessarily mean that...

Microsoft slims down Xbox console

The new console - to be launched this week - will have the same price as the old system, but comes with Wi-Fi and a 250 GB HD.It follows a similar move by Sony, which released its own slimmer edition in August 2009.The announcement was made ahead of the E3 games convention in Los Angeles, at which the firm showcased its range of forthcoming...

Wikipedia unlocks divisive pages for editing

The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia says it has taken an "important step" towards making it easier to edit some of its most controversial articles.Up to 2,000 articles, including a page about former US President George W Bush, will have their strict editing restrictions relaxed.Users will now be able to submit changes to the selected ...

Technology milestone heralds a more secure internet

Moves to make the web's address system more secure will take a major step forward next month.In the planning for a decade, the Domain Name System Security Extentions, DNSSEC, will help protect users from cyber attacks such as phishing and spam.The security layer will be added to the web's address system in July.It should close the loophole...

Nintendo unveils 3D game gadget

Nintendo has unveiled its new 3D handheld gaming system at a briefing in Los Angeles at the E3 games show.Called 3DS, the system can display 3D images that can be seen without using special glasses.Nintendo said the novel handheld is designed to replace the existing DS and is scheduled to be on shop shelves in late 2010.The gaming giant...

Large Hadron Collider smashes energy record again

The Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest physics experiment, has broken its own particle beam energy record.On Friday morning, the machine created two beams of protons, each with an energy of 3.5 trillion electron volts.The effort breaks the prior record, set by the LHC in December, of just over a trillion electron volts in each beam.The...

Thales Alenia Space wins huge Meteosat competition

A consortium led by Thales Alenia Space of France will enter into negotiations for a 1.3bn-euro (£1.2bn) contract to build Europe's next weather satellites.The TAS group was selected after a competitive process run by the European Space Agency (Esa).The Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) system will comprise six satellites, with the first spacecraft...

Smartphone overseas web warning

The consumers' association Which? is warning that people going abroad with smartphones can still face huge bills if they connect to the internet.By 1 July, new rules will come into force in the European Union which will cap bills for downloading data.But, until then, people travelling in Europe could face unlimited bills.And anyone visiting...

US calls for 'YouTube' of government data

The US technology chief has called on developers to build the "YouTube" of government data.Vivek Kundra told that he envisaged a world where anyone could "slice and dice" government information and share their results.Mr Kundra is in charge of the US data.gov website, which gives citizens access to reams of official statistics.People can...

Batman takes best game at Baftas

Batman: Arkham Asylum has been crowned best game at the Bafta 2010 awards.The British developed title headed off strong competition from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves that led the nomination field before the ceremony.The game, which sees the superhero tackle a series of old foes in the asylum setting, also picked up the Bafta award for best...

Twitter embeds itself in the web

Twitter has announced technology that it hopes will further embed the service into the fabric of the web.@anywhere, as it is known, will allow people using websites such as Amazon or the New York Times to follow new users or share media directly from the page.It was unveiled at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.It is similar...

US plans to give high-speed broadband to every American

US regulators have unveiled the nation's first plan to give every American super-fast broadband by 2020.The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which will now submit the plan to Congress, said broadband was the "greatest infrastructure challenge".It estimates that one-third of Americans, about 100 million people, are without broadband...

Bee swarms follow 'pied pipers'

A tiny group of bees act like "pied pipers" to trigger the onset of bee swarms report scientists.By buzzing a "piping" signal the bees are able to initiate an explosive departure from the hive.Bees are known to use signals to tell the colony when to swarm but which bees had the power to make this decision was unclear.Now scientists have identified...

Tiger decline is 'sign of world's failure'

Governments need to crack down on illegal tiger trading if the big cats are to be saved, the UN has warned.The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Doha, Qatar heard that tiger numbers are continuing to fall.Organised crime rings are playing an increasing part in illegal trading of tiger parts, CITES...

China warns Google to comply with censorship laws

China's top internet official has warned that Google will "pay the consequences" if it continues to go against Chinese law.Google announced in January that it would no longer comply with China's internet censorship laws.It warned that it may shut down google.cn because of censorship and a hacking attack on the portal.Minister of Industry...

Dotcom web address celebrates silver anniversary

The internet celebrates a landmark event on the 15 March - the 25th birthday of the day the first dotcom name was registered.In March 1985, Symbolics computers of Cambridge, Massachusetts entered the history books with an internet address ending in dotcom.That same year another five companies jumped on a very slow bandwagon.It took until...

Tories may 'lose broadband vote'

The Conservative policy on rural broadband could see its own voters miss out on fast services, research has shown.Analysis from research firm Point Topic suggests some of the Tories' key rural constituencies could suffer most from its decision to hold back on subsidising rural super-fast broadband.The Tories have vowed to scrap Labour's 50p...

Climate change 'makes birds shrink' in North America

Songbirds in the US are getting smaller, and climate change is suspected as the cause.A study of almost half a million birds, belonging to over 100 species, shows that many are gradually becoming lighter and growing shorter wings.This shrinkage has occurred within just half a century, with the birds thought to be evolving into a smaller size...

Obama Nasa plans 'catastrophic' say Moon astronauts

Former Nasa astronauts who went to the Moon have told of their dismay at President Barack Obama's decision to push back further Moon missions.Jim Lovell, commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, said Mr Obama's decision would have "catastrophic consequences" for US space exploration.The last man on the Moon, Eugene Cernan, said it was...