Cyber attackers disrupt Internet in Iran: official

DUBAI (Reuters) - Cyber attackers have targeted Iranian infrastructure and communications companies, disrupting the Internet across the country, a state official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
Iran, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, has tightened cyber security since its uranium enrichment centrifuges were hit in 2010 by the Stuxnet computer worm, which Tehran believes was planted by arch-adversaries Israel or the United States.
"Yesterday we had a heavy attack against the country's infrastructure and communications companies which has forced us to limit the Internet," Mehdi Akhavan Behabadi, secretary of the High Council of Cyberspace, told the Iranian Labour News Agency.
"Presently we have constant cyber attacks in the country. Yesterday an attack with a traffic of several gigabytes hit the Internet infrastructure, which caused an unwanted slowness in the country's Internet," he said.
"All of these attacks have been organized. And they have in mind the country's nuclear, oil, and information networks."
Israeli officials have threatened military action against the Islamic Republic's nuclear energy sites if Western sanctions on Tehran's banking and oil sectors do not persuade it to shelve its disputed atomic program.
Western powers suspect Iran is trying to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran says it is enriching uranium only for civilian energy.
Last month a commander in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said it was prepared to defend itself in case of a "cyber war" and deemed it more dangerous than a physical confrontation.
Iranian authorities said in April that a computer virus was detected inside the control systems of Kharg Island - which handles the vast majority of Iran's crude oil exports - but the terminal remained operational.
Iran maintains one of the world's largest Internet filters, blocking access to tens of thousands of websites on the grounds that they are criminal or immoral. Sites expressing anti-government views are routinely barred.
Many of the Internet restrictions date back to the use of sites such as Facebook and YouTube to rally and publicize mass anti-government protests that erupted after the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iranian riot police clashed on Wednesday with demonstrators and foreign exchange dealers in Tehran over the collapse of the country's currency, which has lost a third of its value against the dollar in a week, witnesses said.
Police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators who shouted slogans against Ahmadinejad, saying his economic policies had caused the currency crisis.
(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Media groups, Filipinos protest tough cyber law

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Media groups and Filipinos stepped up calls for repealing a tough new law that targets cybercrime but activists fear will be used to suppress online freedoms in theSoutheast Asian nation.

The Cybercrime Prevention Act took effect Wednesday despite last-minute petitions to the Supreme Court to stop it. The justices said they will take up the issue next week.

The law is envisioned as a measure against hacking, identity theft, spamming, cybersex and online child pornography. But citizens and groups who protested on social networking sites, blogs and out in the streets fear politicians will use it to silence critics.

The law contains a provision that says libel — which is already punishable by up to six years in prison — is also a cybercrime. It doubles cumulative penalties for online offenses and allows government agencies to search, seize and destroy computer data deemed libelous.

Human rights and media groups have unsuccessfully campaigned for years to downgrade libel from a criminal to a civil offense, saying politicians often use the law to harass journalists and other critics.

Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's husband sued 46 investigative journalists and publishers in more than 50 libel cases from 2003 to 2007 but later dropped them in a "gesture of peace."

The journalists wrote stories alleging Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo was corrupt, which he denied. He is now facing two corruption cases linked to an overpriced government deal and the sale of secondhand helicopters to police.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said that the new law's criminal libel provision "and the insidious way it was inserted during the bicameral deliberation — without benefit of public consultation — are direct strikes at the rights to free expression and press freedom."

Journalist Alexander Adonis, one of seven petitioners against the law who himself was jailed on libel charges from 2007 to 2009, argued that the law is unconstitutional and its provisions "so vague, so overbroad that these can be applied arbitrarily on all users of social media."

"In the context of the cyberworld, 'libel' is very difficult to determine since there are many actors in the cyberworld," including the blogger, the blog service provider, the Internet service provider, the person who comments on the blog and the person who posts a link to the blog site, he wrote.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda assured the public Wednesday that the constitution "is clear and uncompromising in the civil liberties it guarantees all our people."

President Benigno Aquino III's administration has not pursued any libel cases since he took office in 2010.

Lacierda criticized hackers who defaced many government websites in support of the movement against the cybercrime law, saying they engaged in online vandalism.

Many Facebook and Twitter users in the Philippines and the portals of the main media organizations have replaced their profile pictures with black screens as a protest against the law.

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Facebook reaches one billion monthly active users

(Reuters) - Social media company Facebook Inc reported on Thursday it reached the 1 billion user mark last month, while Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said it would keep pursuing growth through mobile devices.

The No. 1 social network has faced a rough road since its May initial public offering. Investors and analysts have fretted over a sharp slowdown in revenue growth and questioned how Facebook will make money from users as people access its site on mobile devices.

Facebook shares have lost more than 40 percent of their value since the stock debuted at $38.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, hit the 1 billion milestone on September 14 at 12:45 p.m. Pacific time, the company said on its website. This is up by 45 million users since June.

It said it had 600 million mobile users, according to a fact sheet the company posted.

In an interview on NBC's "Today" show broadcast on Thursday, Zuckerberg was asked by co-anchor Matt Lauer about how, with 1 billion users, the company wasn't "killing it," by making money.

"I think it depends on your definition of 'killing it.' I mean we are making billions of dollars," Zuckerberg said. In its last earnings report, Facebook said revenue increased by 32 percent to $1.18 billion in the second quarter.

The 28-year-old CEO talked about the growth potential from mobile users. "There's 5 billion people in the world who have phones, so we should be able to serve many more people and grow the user base there," he said.

In September, Zuckerberg said the company's new mobile ads were delivering better results for advertisers than its traditional ads on personal computers.

As for his own phone habits, he said he has several devices, but recently had been using an iPhone 5 he received from Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Zuckerberg acknowledged that morale at the company could be better but that its 4,000 employees remained focused on building and improving Facebook's products.

"We are obviously in a tough cycle now ... that doesn't help morale," he said.

The 1 billion user count is up from the end of June, when it had 955 million active monthly users.

Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and board member Marc Andreessen have been courting investors this week with appearances on the CNBC business channel and on panels at a high-profile advertising conference in New York. It also unveiled a video touting Facebook's connection with people across the world.

Facebook has rolled out a spate of initiatives to spur more growth, including a new advertising platform and measurement methods to show companies they are getting their money's worth with Facebook ads.

The company also said on Thursday it has seen 1.13 trillion "likes," or endorsements by users, since it launched the feature in February 2009. Many advertising campaigns that companies conduct on Facebook are designed to garner "likes."

Analysts were not surprised by the timing of the milestone. Hudson Square analyst Dan Ernst said Wall Street had expected Facebook to hit 1 billion in the third quarter.

But it still faces the task of making money from its user base, Ernst said. "The key, of course, is monetization of those users," Ernst said.

The median age of a Facebook user was 22, it said, and the top five user countries were Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States.

The new data came a day after the company said it was letting U.S. users pay a fee to boost the visibility of their postings - the latest effort to look beyond advertising for revenue.

Advertising accounted for roughly 84 percent of the total revenue in the second quarter.

With Facebook's revenue growth rate slowing sharply in recent quarters, analysts and investors believe it needs to find new ways to make money and Facebook has been rolling out new products to generate revenue.

Last week, Facebook unveiled a feature that lets U.S. users buy and send gifts such as eyeglasses, pastries and gift cards to friends, signaling its intent to play a bigger role in e-commerce.

Facebook rose 0.6 percent to $21.97 in early trading on Thursday.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York; Additional reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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Nokia and Oracle announce a new mapping deal

Nokia (NOK) on Monday announced an agreement with Oracle (ORCL) that will see the company’s Fusion Middleware Mapviewer integrated with the Nokia Location Platform. The deal will also provide enterprise customers a chance to license the Nokia Location Platform for use in their Oracle-based applications. 

“The inclusion of the Nokia Location Platform into Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer is an important proof point of our leadership in providing the best, enterprise-class map in the market,” said Roy Kolstad, VP of location and commerce at Nokia. “NLP is an advanced location platform with a unique global footprint based on industry-leading technology and more than 30 years expertise in mapping. It will help businesses save time, money and resources while allowing them to gain a geographic perspective on their business, enabling better decisions.”

Nokia’s press release follows below.

Nokia Location Platform provides worldwide maps for Oracle-based solutions

Nokia is the only map data provider with a prebuilt mapping service for use with Oracle applications

Sunnyvale, CA and Espoo, Finland – Nokia announced today that Oracle has developed a simple, built-in link between Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer and the Nokia Location Platform (NLP). This link removes the barrier of a customized map integration and extends the benefits of global maps for business use to Oracle users. NLP provides maps for almost 200 countries. By integrating NLP with Oracle applications, maps and business data can align to one consistent, accurate map on a worldwide basis. Oracle users will now have opportunity to license NLP from Nokia for use in Oracle applications.

“Oracle is the only systems provider that delivers integrated location and mapping capabilities in every layer of our technology stack. Oracle and Nokia have a strong record of meeting business needs through scalable and flexible capabilities,” said Jim Steiner, Vice President, Product Management, Oracle Server Technologies. “Few data providers have the ability to provide both map data for analytics and integrated platform services for the creation of mapping applications in one solution. Nokia is the only provider of both map data and online mapping services that are integrated with Oracle products.”

Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer is a J2EE service for rendering maps and creating mashups using spatial data. Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer provides services and tools that hide the complexity of spatial data queries and cartographic rendering, while providing customizable options for more advanced users such as developers of geographic business analytic applications. The integration of NLP allows users to easily include Nokia’s map data into their Oracle business applications.

“The inclusion of the Nokia Location Platform into Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer is an important proof point of our leadership in providing the best, enterprise-class map in the market,” said Roy Kolstad, Vice President, Enterprise Americas, Location & Commerce, Nokia. “NLP is an advanced location platform with a unique global footprint based on industry-leading technology and more than 30 years expertise in mapping. It will help businesses save time, money and resources while allowing them to gain a geographic perspective on their business, enabling better decisions.”

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Robin Van Persie has found a home in Man U

If his national team coach is to be believed, Robin Van Persie moved from Arsenal to Manchester United because he wanted people to be mean to him. If that indeed was the Dutchman's true motivation behind a switch that cost United a transfer fee of $38 million, he is going the wrong way about it.

In Champions League play Tuesday, Van Persie scored both goals as United survived a tricky away clash to beat Romanian champions CFR Cluj, a result that set the club on course to a likely spot in the knockout stage, even after only two of six group games.

While some have speculated on where Van Persie's mind was at when he chose to leave Arsenal, his soccer home of the previous six years, and join one of its English Premier League rivals, Netherlands head coach Louis Van Gaal revealed some of the 29-year-old's thought processes.

"Robin had several options of course, to stay, to go to Manchester or to go somewhere else," Van Gaal told Dutch television. "To me it seemed that his priority was to go somewhere where he would be pushed. All of his options were great clubs and it was important to him that wherever it was people would not just agree with him, but they would be mean to him, if necessary, and push him to improve and to be his best."

United has had mixed results in the early part of the EPL season, losing at home to Tottenham last weekend and slipping four points behind leaders Chelsea. Van Persie has already shown glimpses that he can bring the kind of scoring productivity that boss Sir Alex Ferguson craves though, and Tuesday's double will help the settling-in process no end.

Cluj, situated in the Transylvania region that literary mythology claimed was home to Count Dracula, might be relatively unknown outside Romania but had served notice of their ability by winning their opening group match at Portuguese side Brada. The hosts made a confident start against United and deserved their opening goal, when Pantelis Kapetanos produced a calm finish after 14 minutes.

At that point United's critics were busy whetting their knives once more, and the theory that this is far from being Ferguson's best crop of players in his long career, especially defensively, seemed to carry some weight. That argument will be settled over several months and not 90 minutes, yet this was still a comeback to give Ferguson some level of satisfaction.

If Van Persie's equalizer on 29 minutes was scrappy – with the ball glancing off his shoulder and flying into the net – his second was outstanding, a skillful flick of his left boot just after halftime that beat goalkeeper Mario Felgueiras.

Van Persie was the player Ferguson urgently wanted over the summer, making him the focal point of his transfer activity, and it seems that the team's fortunes may hinge on his productivity. It was a carefully researched move on Van Persie's part, who is at a point in his career where he has the potential to elevate himself into the discussion of the world's very finest players.

He spoke at length to experienced mentors such as Van Gaal and former United players such as goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar before eventually taking the plunge in choosing United over Italian giants Juventus.

"He wanted to hear my thought about [United and Juventus]," Van Der Sar told the Daily Telegraph. "We spoke for five minutes about Juventus and 55 minutes about United."

Van Persie, then, has perhaps found his natural home, as these sixth and seventh goals since his move would indicate. If this kind of scoring rate continues, he may have difficulty in finding the hard time he seems to want.

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