China shut 1.3m websites in 2010

13 July 2011 Last updated at 11:03 GMT Chinese web users are frequently blocked from accessing sites such as Youtube More than one million websites closed down in China last year, a state-run think tank has said.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said there were were 41% fewer websites at the end of 2010 than a year earlier.

Chinese officials have tightened regulations on the internet in recent years, and they launched a crackdown on pornography websites in 2009.

The academy's researcher said there was no link, insisting China had a "high level of freedom of online speech".

Liu Ruisheng said that despite the declining number of sites, the number of web pages had risen to 60 billion during 2010 - a 79% increase on the previous year.

"This means our content is getting stronger, while our supervision is getting more strict and more regulated," he said.

Civil rights campaigners have long railed against China's web censors, who impose controls known as the Great Firewall of China.

A number of websites are routinely blocked, such as the BBC's Chinese language service, and social media sites like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.

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Fears over fake Olympics websites

24 June 2011 Last updated at 14:22 GMT Swimming is one of the sports that sold out quickly for the 2012 Olympics Sports fans are being urged to be aware of the risk of scams that could take advantage of people's disappointment at missing out on Olympics tickets.

Some will be unable to secure tickets, even following the second wave of sales.

Trading standards officers fear that some fake websites will be set up promising to supply tickets.

Websites that take people's money and disappear have been set up prior to other major events and festivals.

Popular

About 1.8 million people applied for 20 million tickets, but only 6.6 million tickets were available for the London 2012 Games.

Only approved resellers are allowed to sell the tickets, all of which are listed on the official London 2012 website.

A website checker is also in place to help people cross-reference whether the website is legitimate.

Other tips for major sporting events in general include checking contact details and terms and conditions before applying for tickets online and being suspicious of tickets sold in bulk and temporary websites.

Caught out

Nicola Schofield, team manager at Nottinghamshire Trading Standards, said they were expecting some issues in the run-up to the Games.

"People should keep to genuine sources of tickets, otherwise tickets might fail to turn up or people may be denied entry," she said.

Ahead of the last Olympics in Beijing, the parents of gold medallist swimmer Rebecca Adlington, who is from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, spent nearly ?1,100 on tickets they ordered from a website, which turned out to be a scam.

Any tickets unsold by organisers for the 2012 Olympics will be made available in further ballots, along with the possibility of additional tickets for higher-profile events being released as venues are tested and capacities finalised.

Ebay, the internet auction site, has said it will not allow the resale of Olympic tickets.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police's Operation Podium, which deals with Olympics-related fraud, says it is continuing to monitor the internet for ticket touts.

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LulzSec hits Brazilian websites

22 June 2011 Last updated at 15:19 GMT By Daniel Emery BBC Technology reporter The attack in Brasil illustrates LulzSec's global reach The websites of the Brazilian government and President have fallen victim to hacker group Lulz Security.

In a Twitter posting, LulzSec said "Tango Down" and linked to the two sites.

Both are thought to have been taken offline by distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS).

LulzSec recently signalled its intent to target the systems of governments and associated organisations around the world.

In the past month, it has attacked the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, the US Senate, Sony, and the broadcaster PBS, as well as a number of games companies.

DDoS attacks are regarded more as malicious activity than hacking, because the sites' computer systems are not broken into.

Instead, they are deliberately overloading with traffic, such as communication requests or so-called 'e-mail bombs'.

The group tweeted "Our Brazilian unit is making progress. Well done @LulzSecBrazil, brothers!" shortly after the two sites went down.

LulzSec has significantly increased its activity in recent months. Arrest

LulzSec also commented on the case of 19-year-old Ryan Cleary who was arrested in Essex on 21 June on suspicion of hacking websites.

The group said that he was not part of their organisation.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, described Mr Cleary's arrest as "very significant".

Although he declined to discuss the details of the case, the Commissioner added: "The challenges around cyber-crime are extremely significant and deeply worrying across the gamut of cyber-crime from personal information to how a paedophile can enter a child's bedroom."

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