Software : US, UK agencies said to have cracked online encryption |
| US, UK agencies said to have cracked online encryption Posted:  Edward Snowden may have spent his summer hanging out in a Moscow airport, but he's still dishing out the intelligence secrets, this time exposing U.S. and U.K. governments for successfully dodging online encryption methods. BBC News today reported that government intelligence agencies in the United States and United Kingdom may have successfully cracked the encryption codes used to protect millions of internet users. The top-secret operations are the latest disclosure from Edward Snowden, the former computer specialist who began leaking details about classified government surveillance back in May prior to seeking asylum in Russia last month. According to the report, U.S. and U.K. intelligence agencies have successfully decoded encryption techniques in use by internet giants Facebook, Google and Yahoo, countless email, online shopping and remote communications portals as well as 4G-enabled smartphones. Not-so civil warsThe U.S. National Security Association (NSA) is said to spend as much as $250 million (roughly £160M, AU$272M) per year to fund its own project, codenamed "Bullrun" after the first major land battle of the American Civil War in 1861. U.K. spy agency GCHQ is said to have their own equivalent called "Edgehill," likewise named after the first battle of the English Civil War in 1642. The latest disclosures outline the NSA's plan for running its own supercomputers capable of cracking internet encryption protocols, aided by "technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications." British analysts were said to have been "gobsmacked" by the extent of the schemes, part of more than 50,000 documents provided by Snowden to news agencies, although they do not specify which technology companies may have participated.
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| First 12 apps for Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch revealed Posted:  Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Gear smartwatch on Sept. 4, the device that it no doubt hopes will spark the wearable gadget revolution. Naturally, that will depend on the apps, and the Korean company promised that there will be more than 70 available for it. We've yet to see the full scope of those apps, but at least 12 are known, and they alone provide a fairly wide range of functionality. Together, these 12 apps seem to do a good job of showing what the Galaxy Gear smartwatch will be capable of. However, will these and others be enough to convince Android users that they need a watch in addition to a phone? Convenience vs. functionMajor social networks like Twitter and Facebook have yet to pledge support for the Galaxy Gear, but the "private messaging and sharing" social network app Path will be available on the smartwatch at launch. Other social apps confirmed for the Gear are the messaging service, Line; Banjo, a social discovery app; and the location sharing app Glimpse. As TechRadar noted in our hands-on Galaxy Gear review, eBay is also on board with a partially functional app that lets you see notifications and place bids but not search for items or read their descriptions. The fitness apps RunKeeper and MyFitnessPal will both be available on Galaxy Gear, along with Evernote and the "DVR for the web" app Pocket. Finally, there's task creation app Atooma, which claims to "automate your Android"; Vivino Wine Scanner for the winos out there; the travel app Tripit. Snapchat is rumored but unconfirmed, as well. Some of these apps, like Pocket and eBay, provide just a portion of the functionality that their smartphone counterparts do, but the idea is that it's sometimes easier to hold up your wrist than pull out your phone. But is it really such a massive inconvenience to simply pull your smartphone out of your pocket like you've been doing for years? Does that make a £299/$299 (around AUS$325) smartwatch worth the price? We'll find out in October when the Galaxy Gear launches. |
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