https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. If you type on your desktop or laptop computer's keyboard while participating in a Skype call, you could be vulnerable to electronic eavesdropping, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine and in Italy. https://phys.org/news/2016-10-traditional-keyboard-decoded-compromising-privacy.html Security Wed, 19 Oct 2016 06:27:03 EDT news396077215 The Internet Protocol (IP) has been phenomenally successful. From an experiment in the 1970s, it has evolved to an internet spanning the globe, connecting billions of users. IP underpins the enormous success that is the World Wide Web – and its ubiquity has led to the convergence a wide range of technologies upon it, including digital phone calls made using Voice-over-IP (VoIP). https://phys.org/news/2015-05-dwindling-ip-good-commercial-ipv6.html Internet Thu, 28 May 2015 08:20:59 EDT news352020047 University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers are explaining why there are concerns with the end-to-end security of an increasingly popular means of communication, and what users can do to defend against potential threats. https://phys.org/news/2014-11-vulnerability-mobile-applications-voice.html Security Thu, 06 Nov 2014 08:12:59 EST news334483964 BitTorrent Inc., the San Francisco company behind the most popular technology for sharing files online, is branching out into a new arena: snoop-proof calling and texting. https://phys.org/news/2014-08-bittorrent-unveils-nsa-proof-online-messaging.html Security Fri, 01 Aug 2014 09:46:36 EDT news326105162 It's a fully encrypted smartphone that aims to foil snooping governments, industry rivals and hackers. https://phys.org/news/2014-01-encrypted-blackphone-war-snoopers.html Security Sun, 19 Jan 2014 12:22:38 EST news309356523 America's plain old telephone network is rapidly being overtaken by new technology, putting US regulators in a quandary over how to manage the final stages of transformation. https://phys.org/news/2013-11-eyes-phase-out-network.html Telecom Fri, 29 Nov 2013 04:09:24 EST news304920540 (Phys.org)—Ang Cui a fifth year PhD student at Columbia University, has given a demonstration at this year's Amphion Forum in San Francisco, showing a security vulnerability he and colleagues have discovered in Cisco VoIP phones. The vulnerability, he said, allows an intruder to place an electronic device into an on-premise VoIP phone that can be controlled by a nearby smartphone – allowing the "Off Hook Switch" to be manipulated in such as way as to effectively turn the phone into a two-way walkie-talkie. He noted also that once a single phone had been breached all others on the same network could be breached as well though the single device. https://phys.org/news/2012-12-vulnerability-cisco-voip.html Telecom Wed, 19 Dec 2012 08:00:01 EST news275121945 (Phys.org) -- Microsoft is telling the W3C WebRTC working group that it has a better idea than the WebRTC standard which is still in progress and under revision. The goal has been to come up with a Web standard that will enable real-time audio and video conferencing on the Web without requiring any plugins. Now, though, Microsoft has submitted its own proposal for real-time communication to the WebRTC working group. The WebRTC specification is undergoing revision through this W3C WebRTC working group. https://phys.org/news/2012-08-microsoft-webrtc-standard-rehab.html Software Wed, 08 Aug 2012 05:00:01 EDT news263617562 (Phys.org) -- Skype, the famous and widely used voice-over-Internet protocol service and software application that in 2011 became Microsoft's online message, phone and video chat service, is fighting off assumptions and reports that its parent Microsoft has made it loosen up and roll out a welcome mat to law enforcement for surveillance purposes. Skype has issued flat denials that it has changed its policy about outside surveillance of users’ Skype communications. Skype insists that any technical upgrades to its system have not been with surveillance in mind. https://phys.org/news/2012-07-skype-surveillance-alarm-raisers-wrong.html Internet Mon, 30 Jul 2012 05:40:02 EDT news262842636 (Phys.org) -- Pwnie Express, the company specializing in cyber security products, calls its new device “ingenious.” Bloggers hearing about it are paying attention to the fact that it is a power-strip lookalike but with far more ambitious intentions, such as stealth-penetrating a corporate network. Power Pwn is the name of the little device for security testing on corporate networks. It looks like an under the office desk power strip. It is actually a testing platform where security can be put to the test, a self-hacking tool for launching remotely-activated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet attacks. https://phys.org/news/2012-07-power-strip-lookalike-hacks-office-networks.html Other Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:46:03 EDT news262280750 AOL announced plans to sell more than 800 patents to Microsoft in a $1.056 billion deal giving the struggling Internet pioneer a needed cash injection as it seeks to fend off pressure from shareholders. https://phys.org/news/2012-04-aol-patents-microsoft.html Business Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:00:58 EDT news253180849 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange launched the website's new project Thursday, the publication of files it claims shows a global industry that gives dictatorships tools to spy on their citizens. https://phys.org/news/2011-12-wikileaks-spy-global-surveillance-industry.html Internet Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:50:02 EST news241968391 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and colleagues in France and Germany will soon notify Internet scholars of flaws in Skype and other Internet-based phone systems that could potentially disclose the identities, locations and even digital files of the hundreds of millions of users of these systems. https://phys.org/news/2011-10-uncover-privacy-flaws-reveal-users.html Computer Sciences Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:52:44 EDT news238427511 (PhysOrg.com) -- Linguistics researchers working with computer scientists at the University of North Carolina have shown that voice conversations over the Internet, even if they are encrypted, are not as secure as generally thought. Presenting their findings at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in Oakland California this past week, the team showed that by breaking up voice messages broadcast over the Internet, and then parsing the bits into phonemes (human speech components) they could, using linguistic rules, essentially recreate conversations; at least to some degree. The results varied, but were in general good enough to gain the essence of what was being said. https://phys.org/news/2011-05-encrypted-voip.html Computer Sciences Thu, 26 May 2011 11:10:01 EDT news225626967 (AP) -- China is going after Internet phone services such as Skype in a move to protect the country's state-owned telephone companies, causing alarm among consumers who rely on cheap Internet calls. https://phys.org/news/2010-12-china-internet.html Internet Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:13:08 EST news212933572 (PhysOrg.com) -- Phishing scams are making the leap from email to the world's voice systems, and a team of researchers in the Georgia Tech College of Computing has found a way to tag fraudulent calls with a digital "fingerprint" that will help separate legitimate calls from phone scams. https://phys.org/news/2010-10-paths-multiple-networks.html Computer Sciences Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:45:11 EDT news205501484 I've heard frequently from people who bought the original Wi-Fi-only iPad about how they planned to upgrade to the iPad 3G as soon as possible. https://phys.org/news/2010-05-tech-3g-ipad-wi-fi.html Consumer & Gadgets Thu, 27 May 2010 18:30:03 EDT news194192107 Your monthly cell phone bill is way too expensive. No, it's not the fees or taxes or even text messages that are leaching your wallet. It's your voice plan. https://phys.org/news/2010-03-smart-users-ditch-pricey-voice.html Telecom Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:36:48 EDT news188069747 (AP) -- Apple Inc. is allowing iPhone owners to use Internet calling services over cellular networks. https://phys.org/news/2010-01-apple-voip-3g-networks-iphone.html Consumer & Gadgets Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:40:01 EST news183971757 US telecom giant AT&T has asked US regulatory authorities to waive a requirement that it and other carriers maintain costly landline networks. https://phys.org/news/2009-12-att-landline-business.html Telecom Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:59:12 EST news181461484 (PhysOrg.com) -- Following news reports that 65,000 modems and wireless routers used by Time Warner Cable customers are vulnerable to attack by hackers, a Columbia University expert on computer security and privacy has found that software flaws in embedded devices like routers, webcams and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone adapters are far more widespread than previously known. https://phys.org/news/2009-10-thousands-consumer-internet-devices-vulnerable.html Computer Sciences Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:50:01 EDT news175788913 The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. voted last week to start a process to formulate rules that could force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to uphold six principles that would preserve net neutrality, or what the FCC terms "open Internet". https://phys.org/news/2009-10-net-neutrality-principles.html Internet Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:20:01 EDT news175767162 (AP) -- Some computer viruses have a crude but scary ability to spy on people by logging every keystroke they type. Now hackers and potentially law enforcement have another weapon: a virus that can eavesdrop on voice conversations that go over computers instead of a regular phone line. https://phys.org/news/2009-09-wiretapping-skype-virus-eavesdrops-voip.html Internet Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:00:03 EDT news171131038 Personal computers may soon save large amounts of energy by "sleep talking." Computer scientists at UC San Diego and Microsoft Research have created a plug-and-play hardware prototype for personal computers that induces a new energy saving state known as "sleep talking." Normally PCs can be in either awake mode—where they consume power even if they are not being used, or in a low power sleep mode—where they save substantial power but are essentially inactive and unresponsive to network traffic. The new sleep talking state provides much of the energy savings of sleep mode and some of the network-and-Internet-connected convenience of awake mode. https://phys.org/news/2009-04-pcs-energy-money.html Computer Sciences Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:25:42 EDT news159787471 When I first heard about Skype coming out on the iPhone, A LOT of stuff went through my mind: https://phys.org/news/2009-04-skype-iphone-worth-download.html Consumer & Gadgets Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:38:49 EDT news158434715 Researchers at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University have identified a new "guilt-by-association" threat to privacy in peer-to-peer (P2P) systems that would enable an eavesdropper to accurately classify groups of users with similar download behavior. To thwart this threat, they have released publicly available, open source software that restores privacy by masking a user's real download activity in such a manner as to disrupt classification. https://phys.org/news/2009-04-software-p2p-privacy-crowd.html Computer Sciences Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:18:18 EDT news158419063 The first Google phone, the G1, went on sale October 21, 2008. No one was camped out in front of the store and you can buy one today at your T-Mobile store or BestBuy for $179. https://phys.org/news/2008-12-google.html Consumer & Gadgets Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:00:28 EST news147452428 (PhysOrg.com) -- The dmedia G400 offers a choice of 3.8 or 4.3-inch touchscreen with an 800 x 480 resolution. The device features integrated WiMAX, Bluetooth, HSPDA/WCDMA, GPS, and a microSD card slot. Robust feature-sets enable bandwidth-intensive mobile multimedia applications that include NextWave's MXtv, mobile broadcast service, streaming video, video conferencing and VoIP. https://phys.org/news/2008-11-dmedia-g400-wimax-mid-ces.html Consumer & Gadgets Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:57:40 EST news146152660 (PhysOrg.com) -- Technology developed by European researchers promises to dramatically lower the costs of satellite bandwidth, potentially bridging the digital divide and enabling satellites to deliver TV, internet and telephony services via satellite. The technical problems are solved, now the research team is working hard on the business case. https://phys.org/news/2008-11-satellite4all-technology-cheap-satellite-triple-play.html Engineering Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:48:40 EST news145025320 If you've ever had trouble getting a connection for your cellphone in your home, you could soon take matters into your own hands. Instead of relying on an overworked base station, consumers may be able to have their very own base stations inside their homes. https://phys.org/news/2008-03-cellphone-base-station-home.html Consumer & Gadgets Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:43:57 EDT news124371837