Google, Government, Technology, Terrorism

Google finally acts to block internet terrorists

GOOGLE

The Internet Search Giant Google is to start automatically searching for extremist material online. After months and years of campaigning by human rights groups and other lobbyists, it finally seems to be taking seriously the threat of terrorists on the web.

Through a process of algorithm adaptation Google will enhance the effectiveness of its computers to look for potentially dangerous content. This will then be reviewed to decide if it should be taken down.

Technology firms, including Google and its video streaming site YouTube, have been accused of foot-dragging and failing to remove extremist material quickly enough.

Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice-president, has now announced a plan to tackle the problem. He admits the search engine had previously not done enough.

“There should be no place for terrorist content on our services. While we and others have worked for years to remove content that violates our policies, the uncomfortable truth is that we, as an industry, must acknowledge that more needs to be done,” he said.

As part of the new effort, Google will use new technology to help identify extremist videos.

It is also extending its funding of experts who decide whether material should be taken down from the web.

The firm has pledged a “tougher stance” on videos that do not directly violate its rules but contain, for example, inflammatory religious or supremacist content.

In future, these will appear with a warning and adverts will not run with them, meaning those who post them online will not make money from such content.

And YouTube will re-direct potential Islamic State recruits who search for extremist material to anti-terror videos aimed at stopping them from being radicalised.

Mr Walker said: “Collectively these changes will make a difference. And we’ll keep working on the problem until we get the balance right.

“Extremists and terrorists seek to attack and erode not just our security but also our values – the very things that make our societies free. We must not let them. Together, we can build lasting solutions that address threats to our security. We are committed to playing our part.”

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who was chairman of the home affairs select committee in the last Parliament, welcomed Google’s announcement.

She said: “The committee recommended that they should be more proactive in searching for – and taking down – extremist content.

“News that Google will now proactively scan content is therefore welcome, though there is still more to do.

“Still today there is illegal content easily accessible on YouTube – including terrorist propaganda. Google cannot delay in implementing these new rules.

“As with any other business, social media companies have a responsibility to make sure their platforms are safe. These steps are the first in a series which need to be taken to ensure they are fulfilling their important obligations.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has called on fellow EU ministers to apply joint pressure on technology firms to do more to tackle the problem of extremism online.

At a meeting concluded in Luxembourg, Mr Johnson is hoping that all 28 foreign ministers will agree to establish an industry-led forum on preventing radicalisation via the internet.

In the wake of the Manchester bomb attack last month, links to handbooks imploring extremists to murder, and providing instructions for constructing home-made bombs, are still readily available.

 

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China, Research, Science, Technology

A quantum leap in the pursuit of a secure and new type of internet

QUANTUM SCIENCE

Quantum

China’s quantum satellite, Micius. The satellite has beamed entangled particles of light to ground stations more than 700 miles apart.

Scientists have taken a major step towards building a global quantum internet by beaming “entangled” particles of light from a satellite to ground stations more than 700 miles apart.

The feat paves the way for a new kind of internet which draws on the curious ability for subatomic particles to be connected to one another despite being far apart and even on opposite sides of the planet.

Researchers believe that by linking particles together in this way, encrypted information could be sent from place to place across a quantum network with no danger of it being decrypted and read by others, as can be done on the existing internet.

Jian-Wei Pan, who led the research at the University of Science and Technology in Hefei in China, said the demonstration was a moment he had been dreaming of since 2003. “Many people thought it was a crazy idea, because it was very challenging,” he said.

The work obliterates the previous world record for sending pairs of photons that are connected to one another by a strange rule of quantum physics first spotted by Einstein. Until now, the farthest researchers had ever sent entangled photons stood at a mere 65 miles, less than one tenth of the distance achieved in the satellite experiment.

“It’s a first step, and a major step, toward creating a global quantum network,” said Pan. “All the previous methods are limited to about 100km so can only work within a city.”

The experiment relied on the world’s first quantum-enabled spacecraft: a Chinese satellite called Micius. As it soared over China, the satellite created pairs of photons with properties that were linked through quantum entanglement. It then beamed these simultaneously to ground stations in Delingha, Lijiang and Nanshan. Each pair of particles travelled up to 1,240 miles before they reached their destinations. Details of the study are published in Science.

Pan said that the kind of cryptography used to keep data safe today relies on complex mathematics which can often be defeated by hackers. “If a future quantum network is established, the security is ensured by the laws of physics, which are unconditionally secure,” he said. “It will be beneficial for all human beings.”

Martin Stevens, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, said he was impressed with the work. “These types of experiments are not easy to do, even within the controlled confines of a laboratory environment. Doing them between two remote ground locations and a satellite flying overhead at a speed of thousands of kilometres per hour is mind-bogglingly difficult.”

In 2015, Stevens sent entangled photons down a 65-mile length of optical fibre. That is good enough for quantum communications between neighbouring towns, but it cannot work for much greater distances, because the signal is gradually lost the more optic fibre it travels down. The advantage of using a satellite is that the particles of light travel through space for much of their journey.

Anton Zeilinger at the Vienna Centre for Quantum Science also praised the work. “It’s an important step towards a worldwide quantum network. If you envisage a quantum network, the question is how to cover large distances and that cannot be done with glass fibres on the ground. You have to go into space, because in glass fibres you lose the signal. It’s very important to show that it works with satellites, so I’m very excited by this.”

Zeilinger is working with Pan on an intercontinental quantum network and hopes to have results to report before the end of the year.

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Arts, Drama

Whodunnit: The Body In The Study

THE CASE OF COLONEL HERBERT

Sleuth

Issue No. 2 in the Whodunnit series. Colonel Herbert has been found dead in his study. Use your inner sleuth to establish who the murderer was from the case notes compiled.

When Colonel Herbert was found dead in his study one morning with a knife through his neck, suspicion fell on members of the household. There were no signs of forced entry anywhere in the building, and no public impropriety on the Colonel’s part to make enemies. As police scrutiny intensified, the Colonel’s sister Vivienne consulted her friend, Mary Miller, who had an almost obsessive interest in mystery stories and made a hobby of deduction.

“The thing is, my dear,” Vivienne said, “the police are quite right to be looking at the household. William was a pillar of the community, but in private he was positively beastly. We were all terrified of him, and he would fly into the most violent rage over the tiniest thing. He saw off every suitor I ever had, even one or two I was quite fond of. If the culprit isn’t found, I fear that I might end up spending my twilight years in prison.”

It was therefore agreed that Miss Miller should talk to the entire household, one at a time, about the fatal evening.

“We’ll have to start with you, Vivienne,” Mary said.

“Me?” Vivienne looked shocked.

“Who else?”

“Of course,” she sighed.

“Wonderful. Please do have a seat. Tea? No? Very well. So, what transpired?”

“Well, you know most of it. My brother was in his study on Monday night, taking care of some paperwork. I left him to it, and went to bed at around ten o’clock. Sophia, the maid, went into the study to tidy a little after seven the following morning. That’s when she discovered the body. She shrieked persistently enough to wake the whole place up. The police said that he must have died before midnight.”

Peter Robinson

Recommended reading by the site author: Peter Robinson’s new book, ‘When The Music’s Over’. The new DCI Banks novel.

Next came the maid, Sophie. “It was horrible, ma’am. The Colonel was still in his study when I went up before eleven. I could see the light under his door. Miss Herbert was already asleep, I could hear her, on account of my room being below hers. Next morning, I got up at the usual time, five-thirty, did the fires, cleaned the kitchen floor, and started on the rounds. I opened the study door and there he was, dead as a fish. I slammed the door shut and screamed my head off. I couldn’t bring myself to go into the room. Mr Hunt was the first to get to me.”

Hunt was the family butler. “I returned from seeing Cook home at nine forty-five that evening. Miss Herbert went to bed shortly afterwards, and the maid wasn’t much later. I went to my bed after she’d retired. I looked in on the Colonel before doing so, to ensure he had no further needs for the evening. I was breakfasting the following morning when I heard the screams. I discovered the maid in considerable distress outside the study. Cook arrived a moment behind me, so while she consoled the girl, I opened the door to investigate. I understood her distress as soon as I put the light on. Colonel Herbert was quite dead, having vented a lot of blood. The carpet is completely ruined, I’m sad to say.”

The cook, Mrs Palletier, seemed unbothered by events. “I don’t like speaking ill of the dead, but womankind is safer without that man walking this earth, let me tell you. I heard Sophie’s screams and made my way to the Colonel’s study. Hunt flicked the lights on, and I heard him gasp a little. The old man was dead as a doorjamb. Personally, I reckon the gardener did him in.”

The gardener, Lou Dotson, was curt about the whole affair. “I was home on Monday, with my wife. When I came in Tuesday, the old buzzard was already dead. I need to get back to the roses.”

With everyone interviewed, Mary called Vivienne back in. She hugged her friend and said, “Good news. I know who killed him.”

Who is the murderer, and what tipped Miss Miller off?

 

© MD 2017: all rights reserved

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