Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




CYBER WARS
Amnesty feels 'chill' from China Internet meeting
by Staff Writers
Shanghai (AFP) Nov 18, 2014


Twitter indexes every public tweet ever sent
San Francisco (AFP) Nov 18, 2014 - Twitter on Tuesday began letting users search through every tweet publicly fired off at the globally-popular one-to-many messaging service since it launched in 2006.

Twitter has built a searchable index of the billions of tweets posted during the past eight years or so using the service known for its real-time torrent of messages, the company said in a blog post.

"Since that first simple tweet over eight years ago, hundreds of billions of Tweets have captured everyday human experiences and major historical events," Twitter said.

"Our long-standing goal has been to let people search through every Tweet ever published."

Examples of when the new capability may come in handy included revisiting sports or television show seasons, learning what was revealed at conferences such as #TEDGlobal, and tracking down news about major events such as #JapanEarthquake or #ScotlandDecides.

The enhanced search tool will be rolled out during the next few days, according to San Francisco-based Twitter.

Complete search results from the entire index will be found under an "All" tab on Twitter pages for Web browsers as well as in applications for mobile devices powered by Apple or Android software.

The full index was described by Twitter as a major infrastructure investment.

Standard & Poor's gave Twitter's recent $1.8 billion debt issue a "speculative" rating of BB- last week, weighing the company's push for acquisitions against likely slow growth in earnings.

S&P said the rating, roughly in the middle of the speculative or "junk" range, acknowledges expectations of healthy user and income growth at the popular online micro-messaging and social networking service.

"The company is investing very aggressively in growth. Depending on the level of business reinvestment, Twitter may not generate positive discretionary cash flow until 2016," S&P said.

Created in 2006, Twitter has grown rapidly and went public in September 2013.

The company recently said it has 264 million regular users and another 500 million who do not sign in to visit the site.

Twitter recently unveiled new changes and services to enhance its attractiveness to users and the advertisers who pursue them.

Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday described a major Chinese-organised Internet conference as chilling, calling it an attempt to have a greater say in the rules that govern the web.

The Chinese government has set up the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen this week with the theme "An Interconnected World Shared and Governed by All", according to its website.

"China appears eager to promote its own domestic Internet rules as a model for global regulation. This should send a chill down the spine of anyone that values online freedom," William Nee, China researcher at London-based Amnesty, said in a statement.

"China's Internet model is one of extreme control and suppression," he said.

China censors online content it deems to be politically sensitive, while blocking some Western media websites and the services of Internet giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google.

GreatFire.org, which monitors banned websites and keywords in China, said Tuesday that Beijing had just blocked "thousands" of sites using subdomains of edgecastcdn.net, which it described as one of the world's largest content delivery networks.

The World Internet Conference, which begins Wednesday, says it aims to "promote the development of (the) Internet to be the global shared resource for human solidarity and economic progress".

A session on "Constructing a Peaceful, Safe, Open and Cooperative Cyberspace" is described as closed-door and for invited guests only.

Some journalists registered to attend the conference were sent notices on Monday laying down rules for reporting.

"If the conference has not arranged an interactive session, please do not ask questions or interview at the scene," it said, adding: "During the meeting please do not walk about at will within the venue."

Asked to clarify the rules, a media contact said foreign journalists could apply to interview conference delegates beforehand through its official website.

Foreign participants in the conference include representatives of chip maker Qualcomm and professional networking site LinkedIn, according to the event website.

Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba which recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is also an invited guest.

WhatsApp messages get end-to-end encryption
San Francisco (AFP) Nov 18, 2014 - An online privacy tool endorsed by Edward Snowden is being used to protect WhatsApp messages from snooping by encrypting them as they travel the Internet.

Open Whisper Systems on Tuesday announced a partnership with Facebook-owned WhatsApp to useTextSecure protocol to essentially scramble messages in transit, hiding whatever is inside from prying eyes.

"WhatsApp deserves enormous praise for devoting considerable time and effort to this project," Open Whisper Systems said in a blog post.

"Even though we're still at the beginning of the rollout, we believe this already represents the largest deployment of end-to-end encrypted communication in history."

WhatsApp confirmed the announcement to AFP but declined to comment further.

TextSecure encryption enabled automatically as a default setting is already built into most recent version of WhatsApp for mobile devices powered by Google-backed Android software, with billions of messages being exchanged daily, according to Open Whisper.

"(WhatsApp co-founder) Brian Acton and the WhatsApp engineering team has been amazing to work with," Open Whisper said.

"Their devotion to the project as well as their thoroughness in getting this done are inspiring in a world where so many other companies are focused on surveillance instead of privacy."

Open Whisper is an open-source project supported by donations and grants.

While taking part in a South By Southwest conference earlier this year, former National Security Agency contractor Snowden praised encryption tools offered by Open Whisper.

Snowden connected to the gathering remotely from Russia, where he took refuge after leaking information about wide-scale online surveillance by the NSA.

Facebook in October completed its buy of mobile messaging application WhatsApp, with the mostly stock deal tallying nearly $22 billion.

Facebook, the world's biggest social network, announced the buyout of the WhatsApp messenger service, used by 600 million people, in February and US authorities approved the deal in April.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








CYBER WARS
US State Department network shut after cyber breach
Washington (AFP) Nov 17, 2014
The US State Department said Monday it shut down its unclassified computer network over the weekend after evidence emerged that it could have been hacked. Officials believe the incident "was linked" to one late last month when hackers breached the White House's unclassified computer network, State Department press office director Jeff Rathke told reporters. The State Department had initi ... read more


CYBER WARS
After Mars, India space chief aims for the moon

China examines the three stages of lunar test run

China gears up for lunar mission after round-trip success

NASA's LRO Spacecraft Captures Images of LADEE's Impact Crater

CYBER WARS
Warmth and flowing water on early Mars were episodic

Next NASA Mars Mission Reaches Milestone

Mars, too, has macroweather

Comet lander 'working well', but may be on slope

CYBER WARS
Tencent looks to the final travel frontier

ESA Commissions Airbus As contractor For Orion Service Module

Study Investigates How Men and Women Adapt Differently to Spaceflight

S3 concludes first phase of drop-tests

CYBER WARS
China launches new remote sensing satellite

China expects to introduce space law around 2020

China publishes Earth, Moon photos taken by lunar orbiter

China plans to launch about 120 applied satellites

CYBER WARS
NASA Commercial Crew Partners Continue System Advancements

Europe's 3D printer set for ISS

Astronaut turned Twitter star, Reid Wiseman, back on Earth

Three-man multinational space crew returns to Earth

CYBER WARS
Soyuz Installed at Baikonur, Expected to Launch Wednesday

Time-lapse video shows Orion's move to Cape Canaveral launch pad

SpaceX chief Musk confirms Internet satellite plan

Orbital recommits to NASA Commercial program and Antares

CYBER WARS
Follow the Dust to Find Planets

NASA's TESS mission cleared for next development phase

ADS primes ESA's CHEOPS to detect and classify exoplanets

NASA's TESS Mission Cleared for Next Development Phase

CYBER WARS
Boeing Stacks Two Satellites to Launch as a Pair

Swedish military gets upgraded radar facilityw/lll

Eurofighter unveils 1.0-billion-euro radar upgrade

Versatile bonding for lightweight components




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.