Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

Intellectual property and business secrets are fast becoming a target for cyber thieves, a study suggests.

Compiled by security firm McAfee, the research found that some hackers are starting to specialise in data stolen from corporate networks.

McAfee said deals were being done for trade secrets, marketing plans, R&D reports and source code.

It urged companies to know who looks after their data as it moves into the cloud or third-party hosting centres.

“Cyber criminals are targeting this information based on what their clients are asking for,” said Raj Samani, chief technology officer in Europe for McAfee.

He said that some business data had always been scooped up when net thieves compromised PCs using viruses and trojans in a search for logins or credit card details.

The difference now was that there exists a ready market for the data they are finding. In some cases, said Mr Sumani, thieves were running campaigns to get at particular companies or certain types of information.

Thefts of intellectual property or key documents could be hard to detect, said Mr Samani.

“You may not even know it’s stolen because they just take a copy of it,” he said.

Defending against these threats was getting harder, he said, because key workers with access to the most valuable information were out and about using mobile devices far from the defences surrounding a corporate HQ.

“Smartphones and laptops have crossed the perimeter,” said Mr Samani.

The report comes in the wake of a series of incidents which reveal how cyber criminals are branching out from their traditional territory of spam and viruses.

2010 saw the arrival of the Stuxnet virus which targeted industrial plant equipment and 2011 has been marked by targeted attacks on petrochemical firms, the London Stock Exchange, the European Commission and many others.

Mr Sumani said that, as firms start to use cloud-based services to make data easier to get at, they had to work hard to ensure they know who can see that key corporate information.

Otherwise, he warned, in the event of a breach, companies could find themselves losing the trust of customers or attracting the attention of regulators.

“You can transfer the work but you cannot transfer the liability,” said Mr Samani.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Daniel Radcliffe aims to prove there is more to him than Harry Potter, as he takes to the stage in a Broadway musical.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Russia’s Anna Chapman captured the media world’s attention last year when she was deported from the US, accused of being a spy. The BBC’s Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg investigates “Russia’s most glamorous secret agent”.

On the 35th floor of a Moscow skyscraper, an office is filling with smoke.

Suddenly I hear the click-click-click of high heels on parquet floor. And through the mist walks redhead Anna Chapman in a stunning blue dress.

She doesn’t seem in any hurry to evacuate the building.

That’s because the smoke is being pumped into the room by a machine to make her look special.

Russia’s most glamorous secret agent is here to record her weekly TV show. Judging from the scripted lines she’s speaking to camera, it’s clearly not light entertainment.

“Why are some people marked by death, and others escape it?”

Cut.

“More than a million Russians die every year. Nearly 40,000 in road accidents.”

Cut.

“This woman returned from Egypt a cripple. A shark ripped off her arm.”

Cut.

Anna Chapman’s show is called Secrets of the World. Each week on the Russian channel Ren TV, she sets about explaining the mysteries of our planet.

“The programme’s for everyone,” Anna says in a break. “Everyone is interested in mysteries, because they are secrets, they are unsolved.”

She is less keen, however, to talk about her own secrets. I ask Anna Chapman if she really had been a spy.

“I will never deny and I will never confirm the fact,” she replies coldly.

The Americans had no such doubts on the matter.

Eight months ago, Anna Chapman was one of 10 alleged Russian sleeper agents deported from the United States.

At Vienna airport the agents were exchanged for four people the Russians claimed had been spying for the West.

It was the biggest spy swap since the Cold War. Back in Russia, Ms Chapman and her fellow deportees received medals from President Dmitry Medvedev and heaps of praise from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Most secret agents, once uncovered, arrested and deported, normally adopt a low profile back home. Not Anna Chapman.

Since returning to Russia, she’s hardly been out of the headlines.

ALhough I haven’t confirmed this fact, she is surely the first Russian spy to have done a photo shoot for a men’s magazine wearing very little and brandishing a pistol.

As well as being a model, Ms Chapman has also been an investment adviser for a bank, a charity worker and a campaigner for high-speed internet.

She’s also been elected one of the leaders of the youth wing of Mr Putin’s political party.

There are rumours she may even run for parliament this autumn. I ask Ms Chapman if that’s true.

“All I’m going to say is I’m interested in helping other people,” she replies. “That’s all.”

It’s another secret she is keeping well away from the cameras.

Anna Chapman rarely gives interviews, although last December a Russian TV show declared her Woman of the Year and devoted an hour of airtime to her.

In a programme resembling This is Your Life, Ms Chapman sat on a settee as a stream of figures from her past appeared on stage.

Among them, Yegor from Volgograd – her old boyfriend from school. The audience applauded as he gave her a peck on the cheek and a bunch of flowers.

One person who wasn’t there was the man Anna married when she was living in England: Alex Chapman. They divorced after four years of marriage.

Now Anna hosts her own TV show. And she’s got more plans in the world of television.

“I’m planning to launch a 3D production company here in Russia,” she says. “We have the Winter Olympics and other interesting events coming up that I could cover. I’m going to launch a 3D pilot project soon.”

After an hour’s recording on the set of her programme, Anna Chapman is flagging.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t mind something to eat now,” she says to the director.

It shows that, although Ms Chapman is a woman of mystery, she is only human.

She is also charming, at times giggly and clearly keen to perfect her TV skills.

But there is a steely side, too, to Anna Chapman, a determination not to let down her guard.

She is unlikely to reveal her own secrets any time soon.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Boats from Libya are beginning to arrive in southern Italy, where resources have already been stretched by an earlier influx of Tunisian migrants.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The use of the death penalty globally is continuing to fall, an annual report by Amnesty International has said.

Although 23 countries carried out executions in 2010, four more than in 2009, the number of people executed dropped from at least 714 to at least 527, the rights group said.

But that figure does not include China, whose executions are thought to be more than all other countries put together.

Gabon last year became the 139th country to cease the practice.

Mongolia declared a moratorium on the death penalty.

But following an execution-free year in Europe in 2009, the death penalty returned to the continent with two executions in Belarus.

The report expresses alarm that a significant number of executions or death sentences handed down in 2010 were for drug offences – including more than half of the death sentences in Malaysia.

Methods of execution employed worldwide were beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and various kinds of shooting.

No stonings were recorded in 2010, but stoning sentences were recorded in Nigeria, Pakistan and Iran.

Amnesty secretary general Salil Shetty said: “In spite of some setbacks, developments in 2010 brought us closer to global abolition.”

But he added: “The minority of states that continue to systematically use the death penalty were responsible for thousands of executions in 2010, defying the global anti-death penalty trend.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The NHS should offer checks for dementia when people reach 75, a leading health charity says.

The Alzheimer’s Society says fewer than half of those with the condition get a diagnosis, so many miss out on the care and support they need.

The UK National Screening Committee, which advises the NHS, has said tests and treatments need to improve first.

And the British Medical Association says carrying out the checks would mean there is less time for other services.

About 750,000 people in the UK have dementia – and with the numbers projected to rise to more than a million by 2021 the Alzheimer’s Society says it is essential to identify those who need help.

‘The only way’

Professor Clive Ballard, the charity’s director of research, says getting a diagnosis is fundamental to ensuring the right treatment, support and care.

“Really the only way we’re going to improve identification is through effective screening, and probably the right time to do that screening is over the age of 75 once dementia starts to become more common.”

He is proposing that people be offered a cognitive test at the GP surgery, with questions on time, date, place, memory and understanding. This would be backed up by an interview with a relative or carer.

Where dementia is suspected patients would be referred to a specialist for a full clinical assessment. If they were then diagnosed with dementia, there may be drug treatment and changes in lifestyle that could help delay deterioration, and would allow an opportunity to plan ahead, he argues.

Prefer not to know

Dr Shabana Chaudhari, a GP in south London, says she already carries out a cognitive test if she has concerns. However she says screening for dementia presents particular problems.

“You would have to explain why you were doing the test. But what you would also have to do is ask, if there was any impairment, do they want to know, because some people don’t want to know. And if there is anything, do they want their family and friends to know about it as well.”

Dr Laurence Buckman, from the British Medical Association, says there is value in the idea of screening for dementia, and that many GPs would be happy to carry it out. But he says many would struggle to find the time.

“It takes an hour to do an assessment, during which time five other patients could have been seen. In the current economic climate, when the NHS is being asked to make huge efficiency savings and there are many equally valid competing demands, patients and the public need to have a debate over which services should be prioritised.”

The idea of screening for dementia was examined in 2009 by the UK National Screening Committee, which advises ministers and the NHS.

The committee’s programme director, Dr Anne Mackie, says the initial checks are not yet sufficiently reliable. She is worried that while dementia may be missed in some patients, others may be told incorrectly that they are at higher risk, causing needless distress.

She suggests that for the time being the money for screening “would be bettter spent on research, finding better treatments, or providing support for carers”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Israel has demanded an explanation from Argentina over reports it proposed to Iran it would stop investigating two bombings if trade ties improved.

Argentina, Israel and the US have blamed Iran for the bombings of the Israeli embassy and a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in the 1990s.

Iran has denied involvement in the bombings, which killed 114 people.

An Israeli spokesman said if true, “it would be a display of infinite cynicism and a dishonour to the dead”.

A car bomb exploded outside a Jewish community centre known as the AMIA on 18 July 1994, killing 85 people.

Twenty-nine people were killed two years earlier when a bomb destroyed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.

The report about a putative deal appeared on Saturday in Argentine media. The newspaper Perfil quoted a leaked Iranian diplomatic cable that detailed the offer.

The cable reportedly said: “Argentina is no longer interested in solving those two attacks, but in exchange prefers improving its economic relations with Iran”.

According to Perfil, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman made the offer through Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a meeting in Syria in January.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel wanted “official clarifications by the Argentinian Foreign Ministry concerning the article”.

Israeli media reported on Sunday that the foreign ministry was considering cancelling a planned visit next week by Mr Timerman if the reports proved to be reliable.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Women at high risk of developing breast cancer should be given preventative drugs, according to an international panel of cancer experts.

Writing in the Lancet Oncology, they said drugs such as tamoxifen could reduce the chances of developing breast cancer.

Such a policy would be similar to prescribing statins to patients at risk of heart disease, they suggest.

However, tamoxifen has been linked with womb cancer, blood clots and stroke.

In the UK, 46,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

Two drugs, tamoxifen and raloxifene, have been approved in the US for the prevention of breast cancer.

Professor Jack Cuzick, who chaired the panel and is an epidemiologist at Queen Mary, University of London, told the BBC: “The two drugs should be approved in the UK. The evidence for them is overwhelming.”

The panel agreed that women who had a greater than 4% chance of developing breast cancer in the next 10 years should be offered preventative therapy.

In heart disease, there are well-known risk factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol, which can inform treatment.

The challenge for any preventative breast cancer treatment would be identifying similar “markers” of risk.

The panel suggests breast density. They say patients with more than 75% “dense breast tissue” had at least four times the risk of developing breast cancer than patients with mainly non-dense tissue.

Professor Cuzick said: “Increased breast density is one of the leading risk factors for breast cancer and early trial results suggest that where tamoxifen is shown to decrease density, the risk of cancer decreases.

“If this is confirmed in long-term studies, breast density could become a powerful way to identify high-risk women who could benefit from preventive treatments.”

He suggests the risk of getting breast cancer should be determined during cancer screening.

Dr Lesley Walker, from Cancer Research UK, said: “Our scientists were behind some of the first trials showing the long term benefits of tamoxifen for preventing breast cancer in women with a greater than average risk of the disease.

“Being able to accurately predict breast cancer risk and who will respond to preventative drugs like these is a crucial step in ensuring women get the most suitable treatment.”

Meg McArthur, senior policy officer at Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: “It is vital that we find effective ways to prevent breast cancer, especially in women with a high risk. However, as preventative therapy may have negative side effects it would not be appropriate for everyone.

“We welcome studies investigating the best treatments to be used for breast cancer prevention. It’s also crucial to identify those at high-risk who would benefit the most from this form of therapy.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Actor Gary Oldman has been named a film icon at the Empire movie awards.

The star of Dracula and JFK picked up his award from Colin Firth, who won in the best actor category for his Oscar-winning role in The King’s Speech.

“Icon is a lovely word, but Sir is a better word!” Oldman joked backstage at the London ceremony.

Inception won best film prize, Kick-Ass was named best British film and the best actress was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo star Noomi Rapace.

The Empire awards, hosted by comic Dara O Briain at the Grosvenor House Hotel, took place exactly a month after the Oscars. They are last major ceremony of the film awards season.

‘Iconic roles’

Teenage star Chloe Moretz, who starred in Kick-Ass and vampire film Let Me In, won the best newcomer award.

The Empire hero award was presented to Keira Knightley by her Atonement co-star James McAvoy.

Oldman, who recently finished filming Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – alongside Colin Firth – told the BBC that he had been lucky to have so many iconic roles, most recently his recurring role in the Harry Potter series of films.

“Sirius Black, Sid Vicious, Lee Harvey Oswald, George Smiley – I’ve had a real share,” he said.

“I have had 10 years of pedigree fantasy with Potter and the Dark Knight, but it’s nice to come back to something like Tinker, Tailor.”

Among the attendees on the red carpet were Noel Clarke, Sarah Harding, Jonathan Ross, Lily Cole and the stars from The Inbetweeners, who have just finished making a movie version of the TV hit comedy.

The best comedy award went to Chris Morris’s satirical suicide bomber film Four Lions.

The Last Exorcism won best horror, with Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part One winning best sci-fi/fantasy.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo picked up its second award of the night for best thriller.

An inspiration award went to Edgar Wright, who also picked up best director for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

“I’m only 36, so it’s a big responsibility,” he said of his inspiration award.

“I started out as an amateur filmmaker, and over the last year teenagers and people in their early 20s have sent me films that are remakes or mash-ups of my films. I’m always extremely flattered if someone says I’m an inspiration.”

Comic book comedy Kick-Ass was named best british film and its writer Jane Goldman told the BBC the award meant a lot.

“We’re terribly grateful for it because the Empire awards are voted for by the movie-going public.”

She said she had had no complaints about the film’s violent scenes, many involving a child (Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl).

“There never really was a genuine controversy. It had an appropriate rating for its content and I never heard any actual people complain about it.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Three groups of mutations which cause acute myeloid leukaemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, have been identified by scientists.

The researchers suggest their work on mice, published in Nature Genetics, could lead to new treatments.

Two thousand people in the UK are diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia each year.

The charity Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research said the study offered invaluable insight.

During the illness, the bone marrow, which produces blood cells, starts to churn out immature white blood cells.

This changes the balance of the blood.

The white blood cells are not properly developed so they cannot fight infection and there are too few red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body.

The disease can be fatal within weeks if left untreated.

The research group at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute investigated how this form of leukaemia arises because they say there had been little progress in developing new drugs.

The most common mutation implicated in the cancer is to the Npm1 gene.

By switching this gene on in blood cells in mice, the researchers were able to show that it boosted the ability of cells to renew themselves, which is a sign of cancer. Yet only a third of mice went on to develop leukaemia.

The researchers concluded other mutations must also play a part.

They randomly mutated genes in mice, with a technique known as insertional mutagenesis. By looking at mice which developed cancer, they could then trace which mutations were involved.

They found two additional types of mutation. One affects cell division and growth, while the other modifies the cell’s environment.

Dr George Vassiliou, consultant haematologist from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said they had “found critical steps that take place when the cancer develops. Identifying the biological steps in turn means we can look for new drugs to reverse the process.”

He told the BBC: “Getting new drugs to patients could take decades, but what can happen sooner is using drugs which are already on the shelf, but in a more targeted way.”

Dr David Grant, scientific director at Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, said: “New designer drugs which target specific genetic mutations are proving increasingly effective in the treatment of blood cancers.

“This is a very important study as it offers an invaluable insight into the role of the most common form of mutation found in acute myeloid leukaemia. It explains how it develops and the other genetic factors that drive the leukaemia’s growth.

“It offers a potential model for the development of new drugs for this terrible disease in the future.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Big brands reach the smallest villages

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Plans to allow teachers in England to search pupils for mobile phones and examine the phones’ content have been called “reckless” by a teaching union.

The measures in the new Education Bill are designed to combat cyber-bullying.

But the NASUWT says it will create conflict between teachers and pupils and their parents.

The government insists the measures help assert the authority of teachers and will allow them to deal with problems in schools more effectively.

Schools have developed different policies on pupils using mobile phones.

Many teachers have found themselves challenged by students and parents when they try to confiscate them.

The Education Bill for England will give the teachers a legal right to search pupils and take their phones – and also look at and delete any messages and pictures they deem necessary.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates says the powers are disproportionate and reckless, and will put teachers into more conflict with parents and pupils.

He said: “The extra powers in the bill to search and confiscate and dispose of electronic equipment and data are disproportionate powers that teachers don’t really want, and actually could cause more conflict and more problems for schools rather than actually tackling discipline.

“In many respects they are reckless and they are putting teachers into confrontation with parents and with children and young people.”

The proposed powers have so far received cross-party support and are due to be introduced by the autumn.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

By Brigitt Hauck