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5G on the horizon: here’s what it is and what’s coming

5G is many things—but the most interesting part is what it will eventually become.
The long-touted fifth generation of wireless communications is not magic. We’re sorry if unending hype over the world-changing possibilities of 5G has led you to expect otherwise. But the next generation in mobile broadband will still have to obey the current generation of the laws of physics that govern how far a signal can travel when sent in particular wavelengths of the radio spectrum and how much data it can carry. For some of us, the results will yield the billions of bits per second in throughput that figure in many 5G sales pitches, going back to early specifications for this standard. For everybody else, 5G will more likely deliver a pleasant and appreciated upgrade rather than a bandwidth renaissance.

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Huawei launches new legal challenge against US ban

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has launched a legal challenge to a decision by US regulators to classify it as a national security threat.
It comes after the US Federal Communications Commission put curbs on rural mobile providers using a $8.5bn (£6.5bn) government fund to buy Huawei equipment. The firm said evidence that it was a threat to security "does not exist". The move is the latest in a series of challenges between Huawei and the US. The company has asked the US Court of Appeal to overturn the decision. Speaking at a news conference at Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen, the company's chief legal officer, Song Liuping, said: "The US government has never presented real evidence to show that Huawei is a national security threat. That's because this evidence does not exist."

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HackerOne breach lets outside hacker read customers’ private bug reports

Company security analyst sent session cookie allowing account take-over.
As a leading vulnerability reporting platform, HackerOne has paid hackers more than $23 million on behalf of more than 100 customers, including Twitter, Slack, and the US Pentagon. The company’s position also gives it access to unimaginable amounts of sensitive data. Now, the company has paid a $20,000 bounty out of its own pocket after accidentally giving an outside hacker the ability to read and modify some customer bug reports. The outsider—a HackerOne community member who had a proven track record of finding and privately reporting vulnerabilities through the platform—had been communicating late last month with one of the company’s security analysts. In one message, the HackerOne analyst sent the community member parts of a cURL command that mistakenly included a valid session cookie that gave anyone with possession of it the ability to read and partially modify data the analyst had access to.

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Pound surges to two-year high against the euro

Sterling has jumped after opinion polls suggested the UK would avoid a hung parliament after next week's election.
The pound reached a seven month high against the dollar and its highest level against the euro since May 2017. The move came after polls suggested a 10-point lead for the Conservative party and a parliamentary majority. However, analysts cautioned against relying too much on one poll and said the pound gained momentum after it went past the $1.30 mark.The pound has risen sharply since October, gaining 6% in two months, after the EU granted Britain an extension to its departure from the bloc. This week sterling climbed further as investors saw the prospect of a hung parliament receding. Jeremy Stretch at CIBC World Markets said move was caused by traders consolidating all the recent polls and deciding that a Conservative majority was the most likely outcome.

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FaceApp may pose 'counterintelligence threat' says FBI

The FBI said FaceApp and other mobile applications developed in Russia pose a "potential counterintelligence threat".
The comments were made in a letter to US Senator Chuck Schumer after he called for an investigation into the app. The face-editing tool went viral earlier this year but prompted privacy concerns. The FBI comments come amid rising US concern that products made by foreign tech firms could pose security risks. In a letter addressed to Mr Schumer, the agency said "it considers any mobile application or similar product developed in Russia, such as FaceApp, to be a potential counterintelligence threat".

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New crypto-cracking record reached, with less help than usual from Moore’s Law

795-bit factoring and discrete logarithms achieved using more efficient algorithms.
Researchers have reached a new milestone in the annals of cryptography with the factoring of the largest RSA key size ever computed and a matching computation of the largest-ever integer discrete logarithm. New records of this type occur regularly as the performance of computer hardware increases over time. The records announced on Monday evening are more significant because they were achieved considerably faster than hardware improvements alone would predict, thanks to enhancements in software used and the algorithms it implemented. Many public-key encryption algorithms rely on extremely large numbers that are the product of two prime numbers. Other encryption algorithms base their security on the difficulty of solving certain discrete logarithm problems. With sufficiently big enough key sizes, there is no known way to crack the encryption they provide. The factoring of the large numbers and the computing of a discrete logarithm defeat the cryptographic assurances for a given key size and force users to ratchet up the number of bits of entropy it uses.

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US mulls retaliation to French tech tax

The US is preparing tariffs on $2.4bn (£1.85bn) worth of French exports as retaliation against the country's new digital services tax.
The top US trade official said the new tax, which France approved in July, unfairly targets American tech giants. He said the potential tariffs were intended to deter other countries from taking similar steps. The items that could face tariffs at rates up to 100% include cheese, sparkling wine, make-up and handbags. The decision "sends a clear signal that the United States will take action against digital tax regimes that discriminate or otherwise impose undue burdens on US companies", said US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer.

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Samsung starts Android 10 update at a record pace: Only three months late

International Exynos models get Android 10, but the US will have to wait.
Samsung is starting the slow and arduous process of updating its flagship smartphone to the latest version of Android: Android 10. This is just the beginning of the Android 10 rollout for Samsung, which, according to tracking from SamMobile, starts with Exynos-powered Galaxy S10s in European and Asian countries, including Germany, South Korea, the UK, India, Poland, and Spain. Android 10 came out on September 3, and with the first devices landing the update on November 28, Samsung took 86 days to begin to rollout stable builds of Android 10 across its user base. Samsung still has a long way to go to release Android 10 to everyone with a Galaxy S10, though. Devices in Europe, Africa, and most of Asia ship with a Samsung Exynos SoC, while devices in North America, South America, and China ship with a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. So far only the Exynos units have gotten the update.

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Climate change: COP25 talks open as 'point of no return' in sight

Political leaders and climate diplomats are meeting in Madrid for two weeks of talks amid a growing sense of crisis.
According to UN Secretary General António Guterres, "the point of no return is no longer over the horizon". Meanwhile, Save the Children says that climate shocks have left millions in Africa facing hunger. The charity says 33 million people are at emergency levels of food insecurity due to cyclones and droughts. The world's average surface temperature is rising rapidly because human activities release greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). These gases trap heat in the atmosphere, much like the glass roof of a greenhouse.

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China Now Requires a Face Scan for Every New Phone Purchase

If you want to buy a new phone or switch phone service in China, a face scan is now mandatory as part of the setup process alongside showing your national ID.
China is well known as a surveillance state, but the government continues to increase its ability to identify and therefore track individuals. That's why it's now mandatory to provide a face scan when registering a new phone or signing up for a phone service in the country. As the BBC reports, in what the Chinese government is describing as a way to "protect the legitimate rights and interest of citizens in cyberspace," a new layer of identity verification has been introduced for smartphones this month. When purchasing a new phone or signing up for a phone service such as a mobile data plan, individuals will be required to have their face scanned as well as presenting their national identification card. Before now, a national ID and photos were required.