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. "Hello? Who's calling?" For many Americans these days, the call is coming from a "bot" or automated program that seeks to trick them into giving up money or important personal data. https://phys.org/news/2019-06-tackle-scourge-robocalls.html Telecom Sat, 08 Jun 2019 04:20:01 EDT news479185627 A December 2017 decision by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), the American agency responsible for regulating the US telecom sector (equivalent of the French ARCEP and the European BEREC), has changed the status of its Internet-service providers. While Europe is protected because of the law on open Internet access, adopted in 2015, the change in the United States provides a good opportunity for reflecting on the neutrality of Internet services. https://phys.org/news/2019-01-web-neutrality-internet.html Internet Tue, 29 Jan 2019 08:26:56 EST news467972807 Over the Thanksgiving travel period an estimated 30 million Americans plan to fly to enjoy turkey and all the trimmings with far-flung family and friends. The huge increase in air travelers and ever more full – and oversold – flights have made air travel more trying. But it has gotten better in one aspect that most of us in the smartphone-addicted public appreciate: Cellphone use is no longer completely forbidden on planes. https://phys.org/news/2018-11-plane-safe.html Telecom Mon, 19 Nov 2018 09:20:01 EST news461840642 Skype has apparently joined the lengthening list of internet tools on China's blacklist, disappearing from download stores with Apple saying Wednesday it was ordered by the government to remove certain apps. https://phys.org/news/2017-11-skype-apps-china-blacklist.html Internet Wed, 22 Nov 2017 04:32:38 EST news430547553 Saudi Arabia will lift its ban on internet calling applications on Wednesday, authorities said, easing restrictions online as the conservative kingdom faces new criticism over censorship. https://phys.org/news/2017-09-saudi-arabia-unblock-internet-apps.html Software Wed, 20 Sep 2017 02:14:03 EDT news425092437 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 You may have heard of the Amazon Echo, a stand-alone speaker with the Alexa voice service built in. https://phys.org/news/2016-06-triby-amazon-alexa-kitchen.html Consumer & Gadgets Thu, 30 Jun 2016 14:10:01 EDT news386512939 Computer Science Professor Sal Stolfo and his former student Ang Cui PhD'15, whose cybersecurity research has discovered dozens of serious flaws, have developed Symbiote defense technology that significantly reduces the threat of embedded device malware attacks on end users and organizations. This work originated from Stolfo's laboratory at Columbia University's Engineering School and is now commercially available through his company, Red Balloon Security. https://phys.org/news/2015-09-hp-professor-sal-stolfo-host-based.html Computer Sciences Fri, 25 Sep 2015 16:24:55 EDT news362417078 Ilan Abehassera had a communication problem. A frequent traveler with three young children at home, it was hard for him to stay in touch with his family. https://phys.org/news/2015-07-home-ily-reimagines-landline-smarter.html Internet Sun, 12 Jul 2015 17:30:01 EDT news355939759 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 Jeri Vargas put her elderly mother on the "Do Not Call" list years ago. So why is the 88-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease still getting several recorded phone calls a day pitching her everything from vacation cruises to medical alert devices and fire extinguishers? https://phys.org/news/2015-04-companies-block-robocalls.html Telecom Tue, 07 Apr 2015 14:30:01 EDT news347634819 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 Today, let's switch on airplane mode and tune out our wireless carriers, their out-there monthly charges and long-term contractual obligations. https://phys.org/news/2014-06-free-call-powerhouse.html Telecom Wed, 04 Jun 2014 04:23:32 EDT news321074598 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 Left out by telecom firms like the one owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, a remote Mexican mountain village now runs its own mobile phone network to communicate with the outside world. https://phys.org/news/2013-08-forgotten-telecoms-mexico-town-cell.html Telecom Tue, 27 Aug 2013 04:50:02 EDT news296797124 Services that offer secure Web browsing and search have been enjoying a surge in popularity since the revelations about National Security Agency monitoring of domestic phone calls, email and Internet activity. https://phys.org/news/2013-07-online-privacy-tough.html Internet Wed, 03 Jul 2013 17:10:01 EDT news292083071 (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 U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's Tactical Satellite-4 successfully completes three weeks of intense testing, June 28, as part of the Navy's annual Trident Warrior Experiment 2012 (TW12). TacSat-4 is a Navy-led Joint mission that provides Ultra High Frequency (UHF) satellite communications (SATCOM). https://phys.org/news/2012-08-tacsat-navy-fleet-trident-warrior.html Engineering Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:36:53 EDT news265462570 (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 (Phys.org) -- Technology is helping communication companies merge telephone, television and Internet services, but a push to deregulate may leave some customers on the wrong side of the digital divide during this convergence, according to a Penn State telecommunications researcher. https://phys.org/news/2012-05-technology-convergence-widen-digital.html Telecom Thu, 17 May 2012 09:24:39 EDT news256465471 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 Distance may no longer be an obstacle for struggling students living in rural and isolated areas. According to the new study "Voice-over-the-Internet-Protocol as a Medium for Delivering Reading Intervention: Evidence from a Single Case Study," published in SAGE Open, video-chatting technology is an effective way for educators to teach their students from remote locations. https://phys.org/news/2011-11-video-chatting-literacy-problems-rural-isolated.html Social Sciences Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:56:54 EST news239990205 (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