UK braces for 'cyber jihad'

UK counter-terrorism forces are gearing up for an expected increase in Al Qaeda-led “cyber jihad” and lone terrorist attacks in the future, as the tools and information needed to carry out such attacks become increasingly widespread online, according to a new report, writes V3.co.uk.

The Home Office Counter-Terrorism Strategy said although there has been “no evidence of systematic cyber terrorism” as yet, there has been related terrorist activity since the first recorded incident in 2010.

“The so-called 'here you have' virus, responsibility for which was claimed by the Tariq bin Ziyad Brigades for Electronic Jihad, was relatively unsophisticated, but a likely indicator of a future trend,” the report revealed.

HTC, Asia's second-largest maker of smartphones, was accused of infringing Apple patents in a case that may halt US imports of the Taiwanese company's phones and its new Flyer tablet computers, reveals Bloomberg.

Apple claims HTC is infringing five patents related to software architecture and user interfaces in portable electronic devices, hardware for touch-screens and movement sensors, according to a complaint filed on 8 July with the US International Trade Commission in Washington.

The complaint is the second Apple has filed against Taiwan-based HTC. Apple has been using the trade commission, which has the power to block products from the US market, to pursue makers of mobile phones that run Google's Android and compete with its iPhone.

There are now more than one million registered third-party applications on Twitter, built by 750 000 developers worldwide, according to AFP.

The site has added a new app to its ecosystem every 1.5 seconds, rapidly growing from the 150 000 apps on the site in 2010 to the more than one million available today.

“Apps help people understand and make the most of Twitter, whether they're on the Web, on mobile, and even watching television,” said Twitter in a 11 July blog post revealing its achievement.

System giant HP has shaken up its webOS division in the wake of the lukewarm response to its iPad rival, the TouchPad, reveals Computing.co.uk.

Jon Berstein, the driving force behind the development of webOS, has been shuffled off to a product innovation role within HP's personal systems group (PSG).

He has been replaced by Stephen DeWitt, who previously led HP's PSG for Americas. Prior to that appointment, DeWitt was chief executive at server appliance maker Azul Systems.