FBI boss 'concerned' by smartphone encryption plans

Plans by Apple and Google to do more to protect customers' privacy have made the FBI "very concerned".

Speaking to reporters, FBI boss James Comey said the plans to enable encryption by default could thwart law enforcement investigations.

Lives could depend on police forces continuing to get access to the data on devices used by criminals and terrorists, he said.

The FBI was talking to both Apple and Google about its fears, said Mr Comey.

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The conversations with tech firms needed to be had before the day when police forces lost access to those devices, he said.

"I'd hate to have people look at me and say, 'Well how come you can't save this kid?' 'How come you can't do this thing?'" said Mr Comey in a briefing.

His comments came in reaction to a decision by Apple to enable a file encryption system on its iOS 8 software for which it has no keys. This means it would not be able to comply with any official request to help police get at the data on those devices.

Google has said it too is planning to enable a similar encryption system by default on the next version of Android.

Mr Comey said he was "very concerned" about these plans because of what they would allow people to do.

"What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law," he said.

"I am a huge believer in the rule of law, but I am also a believer that no-one in this country is beyond the law," he added.

Apple and Google have yet to respond to Mr Comey's comments.

Ten days prior to Mr Comey's press statement, iOS data forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski pointed out that Apple's encryption system would not stop police getting at data on portable devices.

Specifically weakening security systems just to aid the police was a bad decision, he said.

"For the sake of privacy and overall security, the only logical solution is to make products as secure as possible, and let good detective work do the crime solving, rather than an easy button," he wrote in a blogpost.

Apple says bent iPhones are 'rare'

pple has responded to claims that its new handsets are prone to bending by saying such damage would be "rare" during normal use.

Media outlets across the globe had reported that several iPhone 6 owners had complained of handsets becoming misshapen after being carried in trousers pockets without a case.

Several of the US firm's rivals have also helped publicise the claims.

Apple said nine customers had told it their iPhone 6 Plus phones had bent.

In a statement the company noted that the handsets' shells had been constructed out of "anodised aluminium, which is tempered for extra strength" and also featured stainless steel and titanium parts to reinforce the areas of the phones likely to experience the most stress.

"We chose these high-quality materials and construction very carefully for their strength and durability," it added.

"We also perform rigorous tests throughout the entire development cycle.

"iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus meet or exceed all of our high quality standards to endure everyday, real life use.

"With normal use a bend in iPhone is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus. As with any Apple product, if you have questions please contact Apple."

Apple, Twitter bet on twenty-somethings' billion dollar company

John Collison thinks it should be as easy to move money around the Internet as it is to move information.

The 24-year-old Irish entrepreneur and his brother Patrick, 26, had already built and sold one startup. As they tinkered with ideas for their next project, they were struck by the antiquated mobile payment systems that existed.

They dropped out of college to find a solution.

"One of the biggest impediments to buying things on your phone is that it's so, so clunky," John Collison says. "Contrast the experience of paying for something in person: You hand over two bucks or you swipe your card; when you buy something online, you're there pecking in all your details."

So they created Stripe, a backend service that works with merchants for in-app and web purchases. Meanwhile, users don't have to leave the page to pay elsewhere, as they often do with PayPal and other services.

Related: Is the iPhone 6 Plus bendable?

Collison says the company is built for 'design-focused' merchants.

"We think that jumping off site to make a transaction happen -- it's a bit of an odd flow," he says. "Imagine if you go to the store and you need to go down to the bank to pay for something then go back to the store to pick up your goods."

Fast forward nearly three years later, the San Francisco-based company has 160 employees and a $1.75 billion valuation. Customers include startups TaskRabbit and Shopify, but new partnerships with companies like Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and Twitter(TWTR, Tech30) are positioning the company to compete with giants like PayPal.

When Apple launched its payments platform earlier this month, it announced that Stripe would be a partner. According to Collison, Apple will work with the consumer to collect their credentials and store the information, while Stripe will work with the businesses. (Apple Pay is also partnering with Visa, MasterCard and American Express, as well as six major U.S. banks.)

Developers who use Stripe to power their sites say it's more secure than other systems, which is a big draw.

Twitter has also partnered with Stripe for its new commerce feature, which will allow users to purchase items through a "Buy" button embedded in tweets.

Developers are increasingly building apps that change the way consumers pay, which is a big factor in Stripe's success, according to investor Keith Rabois.

Companies like Instacart bypass traditional point-of-sale transactions, allowing you to purchase groceries from home. Meanwhile, companies like Lyft receive payments via smartphones rather than with cash or credit cards. Both of these services are powered by Stripe.

Low Fare? The £23.7bn Cost Of Return Flight

A would-be holidaymaker has spoken of her shock after an online travel agency almost charged her a whopping £23.7bn for two return flights to Portugal.

Marion Sessions, who owns and runs two holiday cottages in Derbyshire with her husband, was about to click 'proceed' on the eDreams website for flights from Birmingham to Faro for them when she noticed the return baggage check-in cost.

She told friends on Facebook: "How's this for a great price?

"I have just tried to book cheap flights... for a weekend trip to stay with some good friends.

"I Googled 'cheap flights to Faro', found eDreams ('Great Trips at Great Prices' is their slogan) were offering the best, with Ryanair and Monarch Airlines, at a cost for the two of us of £164.07.

"I duly booked and fortunately was alert enough to realise - before clicking 'confirm' that the final cost was the truly - as advertised - great price of £23,659,382,125.95!!!"

She added: "Don't think our current account would have run to it this month..."

Neither Ryanair nor Monarch are responsible for eDreams' pricing or booking processes.

This is not the first time eDreams has come under pressure on an issue of price.

In February, research by Which? suggested travellers booking flights or holidays with the company could face additional service charges of up to 25% of the headline ticket price.

MoneySupermarket.com reported last year that easyJet had referred eDreams to regulators, claiming it was overcharging customers for tickets on its flights.

Mrs Sessions, who has written a blog on her experience, told Sky News: "I thought i must have made a mistake.

"I couldn't believe my eyes but it was so lucky I noticed the final price.

"I shudder to think what may have happened had I agreed... I tried to contact them but there was an out-of-hours message."

Sky News has contacted Spain-based eDreams for its side of the story but has yet to get an explanation for the error.

Just Try Bending Our Phone, BlackBerry CEO Says in Apple Jab!

BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY) couldn’t resist taking a jab at the world’s most popular phone.

Over the past seven years, Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone has wrested the smartphone market from BlackBerry, reducing the once-dominant device maker to less than 1 percent of global shipments as of March. Yet BlackBerry, introducing its new Passport device for business customers today, saw an opening emerge from user complaints that the newest iPhones get bent and warped in people’s pockets.

“I would challenge you guys to bend our Passport,” John Chen, Blackberry’s chief executive officer, said at an event today in Toronto.

Apple Mac Bug Is 'Bigger' Than Heartbleed

Apple's OS X operating system has a security flaw which could be more serious than the notorious Heartbleed bug, experts have warned.

Hackers could exploit a flaw in software on Unix-based operating systems such as OS X and Linux, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

The vulnerable software is called Bash, which is used to control the command prompt on many Unix computers.

By exploiting the bug - known as Shellshock - hackers can take control of a targeted system.

Some software analysts have compared it to the Heartbleed bug, discovered in April, which was contained in encryption software called OpenSSL.

Heartbleed allowed hackers to spy on computers - but not take control of them.

The Shellshock bug is seen as worse because of the capability for overriding a user's control of a machine.

Cyber security firm Rapid7 has rated the bug as 10 for severity - maximum impact - and low for the complexity of exploitation.

The firm's engineering manager, Tod Beardsley, said: "Using this vulnerability, attackers can potentially take over the operating system, access confidential information and make changes.

"Anybody with systems using Bash needs to deploy a patch immediately."

Security expert Robert Graham wrote on Twitter: "I think I was wrong saying #shellshock was as big as Heartbleed. It's bigger."

It has been a bad week for Apple; on Wednesday it was forced to withdraw an update for the iOS 8 operating system, after it appeared to cause more problems than it solved.

Meanwhile a number of iPhone 6 Plus users have complained that it can become bent if left in a tight pocket.

Media agency boss: 'unlimited holiday policy works'!

The boss of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, is offering his personal staff as much holiday as they want.

On his website, he said that his staff of 170 could "take off whenever they want for as long as they want", the assumption being that the absence would not damage the firm.

Jenny Biggam is co-founder of the media agency, the7stars, which has had the same policy for nearly a decade. She says it cuts down on bureaucracy and means people hand over their holiday work in a much more efficient way.