China seeks to combat hi-tech crimewave

The Chinese government is cracking down on home-grown cyber thieves seeking to steal online banking details.

The crackdown combats phishing by ensuring that the websites of legitimate banks appear at the top of search results.

The move comes as the personal details of more than 45 million Chinese people were stolen in separate attacks.

The government is investigating the thefts and said that the wave of attacks "threatened internet safety".

Crime spree

The 10 biggest search engines in China have signed up to the anti-phishing scheme to ensure that users looking for bank websites go to the right place.

Phishing attacks involve messages that look like they come from a bank or other organisation and direct people to a website that mimics the real thing.

When people visit the fake site and enter their login details these are recorded by cyber criminals who may loot the account soon afterwards.

By ensuring that the websites of banks appear first, the government hopes to limit the numbers of people falling for phishing scams and visiting the fake sites.

Some of the search engines will put a special icon next to the bank links in lists of results to flag them as legitimate.

Hacked accounts

The anti-phishing initiative comes at the end of a week in which the personal details of almost 10% of China's 485 million web users were stolen.

On Christmas day, the hugely popular Tianya chat site revealed that the login names and passwords from 40 million of its users had been stolen. All risk being plundered by attackers as the information was held in plain text.

Scammers regularly create fake websites that mimic those of legitimate banks

Tianya has contacted the affected users and urged them to change their passwords as soon as possible.

Soon after, CDSN, one of China's largest forums for programmers, reported that the details of all its six million users had been stolen. The attackers got away with email addresses, login names and passwords. Again, all the details were stored in plain text.

The scale of the attacks prompted government action and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it would investigate who was behind the attacks.

"The department believes the recent leak of user information is a serious infringement of the rights of internet users and threatens internet safety," the Ministry said in a statement.

The Chinese government is known to have put in place technology that monitors online chat rooms for controversial topics but the far-reaching measures have not stopped all nefarious cyber activity.

As well as criminal hackers, many activists are turning to the web to make protests more visible.

The website of Menginu, a firm at the centre of a tainted milk scandal, was vandalised and its homepage image replaced with text that read "Do you have a conscience?".

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Andrew Lloyd Webber predicts 2012 theatre 'bloodbath'

The Olympics will cause "a bloodbath of a summer" for London theatres in 2012, Andrew Lloyd Webber has predicted.

"Nobody's going to go to the theatre at all," the composer told Radio 4's Today programme, predicting that "most of the theatres in London will shut".

"It's going to be very tough," he said, revealing advance bookings were "about 10%" of their normal level.

Three major musicals, he added, "are not going to play over the Olympics" - but he would not name them.

Lord Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group owns seven London theatres which are currently hosting shows including War Horse, Matilda and The Wizard of Oz.

The impresario said "big, big, big hits" like his own The Phantom of the Opera would continue during the Olympics period.

But he said some of his other theatres "will have to" close because of a drop-off in the "ordinary West End tourist audience".

On a brighter note, the 63-year-old said a host of new musicals would arrive in the West End after the conclusion of the 2012 games.

Shows heading into London include a Spice Girls musical, a Bridget Jones stage show and the Tony award-winning The Book of Mormon.

"They've never been so commercially popular," he told PM arts correspondent . "The appetite for musicals is insatiable in a way.

"I don't think I've ever had so many musicals being offered to our theatres in London as there are for the end of next year."

The capital's promotional organisation London and Partners added that 29 shows would be running next summer, with an "unprecedented" number booking through to the autumn.

A spokeswoman said that a whole series of experiences would be on offer next year, including London's "world-beating theatre".

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Samsung still doMinates mobile phone market, but Apple is gaining

Samsung is still the biggest maker of mobile phones, but Apple is gaining ground, according to data released today by market researcher ComScore.

Samsung accounted for 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers for the three months ending November 11, a slight increase of 0.3 percent over the previous three months. While Apple came in fourth with 11.2 percent, its 1.4 percent increase was the greatest market share increase for the previous three months.

Samsung and Apple were the only mobile phone makers in the top 5 to boost their share of the market during that period. LG came in at No. 2 with 20.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, a decrease of 0.5 percent, followed by Motorola, which lost 0.3 percent to finish the period with 13.7 percent of the market.

In the No. 5 spot, beleaguered handset maker Research In Motion logged the greatest percentage loss, dropping 0.6 percent to 6.5 percent.

Android, meanwhile, continues to dominate the mobile OS landscape. Apple's iOS also made headway, though not at Google's expense.

Google's mobile operating system controlled 46.9 percent of market, up 3.1 percent over the previous three months, while Apple's iOS came logged an increase of 1.4 percent to finish in second with 28.7 percent. The rest of the top 5 platforms all lost marketshare: RIM lost 3.1 percent to finish with 16.6 percent, Microsoft lost 0.5 percent to finish with 5.2 percent, and Symbian lost 0.3 percent to finish with 1.5 percent.

Today's data does not reflect the 700,000 new Android devices Google says it is activating on a daily basis, or the 4.2 million iOS devices and about 2.6 million Android devices activated on Christmas Day.

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Pattinson inspires Australian win

(PM88) -- Young paceman James Pattinson led the way as Australia hustled out India for just 169 to win the opening Test in Melbourne by 122 runs Thursday.

India were left to chase 292 for victory in their second innings at the MCG, but fell well short as their highly-rated batting order collapsed on the fourth day.

Pattinson finished with figures of four wickets for 53 and also played a crucial role with the bat as he shared a battling 43-run last wicket stand with Ben Hilfenhaus earlier in the day.

That helped Australia to reach 240 all out, having been 27 for four wickets on the third day, and leaving the tourists with a testing target.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men promptly collapsed to 81 for six wickets with Peter Siddle's dismissal of top scorer Sachin Tendulkar a body blow for the Indians.

Still searching for his 100th international century, Tendulkar had made a battling 32 when he sliced the paceman to Mike Hussey in the gully.

With his departure, India's hopes were effectively over and they were all out in just 47.5 overs to suffer their fifth straight Test defeat overseas after suffering a 4-0 thrashing to top-ranked England earlier this year.

It's fantastic to get a win against India, who we love beating, and put the disappointment of the New Zealand loss in Hobart behind us
James Pattinson

"It's fantastic to get a win against India, who we love beating, and put the disappointment of the New Zealand loss in Hobart behind us," Pattinson said as he collected his second man-of-the-match award in his three Tests.

"We should have been able to chase 300 with the kind of batting we've got, so another bad start to a Test series," said Dhoni.

Australia had resumed overnight on 179 for eight wickets and quickly lost Hussey for a battling 89.

But Pattinson, who made an undefeated 37, and Hilfenhaus (14) frustrated the Indian attack and paved the way for Australia's eventual victory.

Hilfenhaus claimed the early wicket of the dangerous Virender Sehwag for seven, and five wickets fell for 93 in the middle session, capped by Siddle's removal of Tendulkar.

Indian skipper Dhoni was bowled by Pattinson for 23 and Umesh Yadav was the last wicket to fall, caught superbly on the boundary by David Warner off spinner Nathan Lyon for 21.

The second Test starts in Sydney next week.

In other Test action Thursday, Sri Lanka wrapped up a 208-run victory over South Africa on the fourth day at Kingsmead in Durban.

Man-of-the-match Rangana Herath took three wickets in four balls, bowling Marchant de Lange to complete his team's first Test win in 2011.

They had lost the first match of the series by an innings and 81 runs, but set 450 to win, South Africa were always struggling.

Herath took five wickets for 79 and nine wickets in the match, but AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn threatened to extend the Test into a fifth day with a battling seventh wicket partnership of 99.

But when Herath trapped de Villiers for 69 it sparked a dramatic late collapse.

Sri Lanka were all out for 279 in their second innings earlier in the day, losing their last three wickets for 23 runs. Steyn took five for 73 for his 17th five-wicket haul in Tests.

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Al Qaeda leader sends veteran jihadists to establish presence in Libya

(PM88) -- Al Qaeda's leadership has sent experienced jihadists to Libya in an effort to build a fighting force there, according to a Libyan source briefed by Western counter-terrorism officials.

The jihadists include one veteran fighter who had been detained in Britain on suspicion of terrorism. The source describes him as committed to al Qaeda's global cause and to attacking U.S. interests.

The source told CNN that the al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, personally dispatched the former British detainee to Libya earlier this year as the Gadhafi regime lost control of large swathes of the country.

The man arrived in Libya in May and has since begun recruiting fighters in the eastern region of the country, near the Egyptian border. He now has some 200 fighters mobilized, the source added. Western intelligence agencies are aware of his activities, according to the source.

Another al Qaeda operative, of dual European-Libyan nationality, was arrested in an unnamed country on his way to Libya from the Afghan-Pakistan border region.

The individual now trying to establish a bridgehead for al Qaeda in Libya is known as "AA." His name has not been made public because of UK law on terrorist suspects who are detained but not charged.

"AA" has been close to Ayman al-Zawahiri since the 1980s and first traveled to Afghanistan in the early 1990s to join mujahideen fighting the Soviet occupation -- as did hundreds of Arab fighters.

"AA" later moved to the United Kingdom, where he began spreading al Qaeda's ideology to younger Muslims. He was an admirer of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who emerged as leader of al Qaeda in Iraq after the U.S. invasion and who led an especially brutal campaign that targeted civilians and promoted sectarian hatred between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

After the terrorist attacks in London in July 2005, heightened concern about terrorist activities in the UK led to the arrest of a number of Libyans resident in England.

"AA" was detained under what was termed a "control order," a mechanism used to detain terrorist suspects -- usually under home arrest -- without charging them. Control orders have been used in dozens of cases where the government does not want to reveal evidence in court for fear of compromising security sources. Those subject to control orders are not named by authorities.

"AA" also spent some time in Belmarsh high-security jail in the UK in 2006-07, possibly because he was seen as a flight-risk. It is also possible, according to the source, that he was resisting legal moves to have him deported to Libya. At the time, relations between the Gadhafi regime and the United Kingdom were improving, and Libyan authorities were seeking the deportation of opponents.

At some point the control order lapsed, and "AA" left Britain late in 2009 and went back to the Afghan-Pakistan border area -- taking two teenagers with him. One was subsequently killed.

Western intelligence agencies have voiced concern in public and privately about the potential for Islamist extremists and especially al Qaeda to gain a foothold in Libya.

The al Qaeda leadership has included several Libyans -- among them Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, who was killed in August, and Abu Yahya al-Libi.

In a video message to fellow Libyans distributed on jihadist forums earlier this month, al-Libi said: "At this crossroads you have found yourselves, you either choose a secular regime that pleases the greedy crocodiles of the West and for them to use it as a means to fulfill their goals, or you take a strong position and establish the religion of Allah."

Militant groups have long had a presence in eastern Libya, even if they were ruthlessly suppressed by the Gadhafi regime. Al Qaeda documents discovered in Iraq in 2006 showed that many of the fighters who had joined the insurgency had come from eastern Libya.

And a U.S. diplomatic cable from 2008 -- published this year by WikiLeaks -- told of support for extremist Islamist views in the town of Derna, which is close to where "AA" has established a presence.

Entitled "Die Hard in Derna" the cable describes the town as a "wellspring of Libyan foreign fighters" for al Qaeda in Iraq.

The diplomat who traveled to Derna quoted a local businessman who had "likened young men in the town to Bruce Willis' character in the action picture 'Die Hard,' who stubbornly refused to die quietly. For them, resistance against coalition forces in Iraq is an important act of 'jihad' and a last act of defiance against the Gadhafi regime."

High youth unemployment, discrimination by the Gadhafi regime and the influence of veteran Libyan jihadists from Afghanistan all played a role in radicalizing a new generation.

"It's jihad -- it's our duty, and you're talking about people who don't have much else to be proud of," the businessman said.

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