Hacking firm hints at cybercrime's professional elite

LAST June, one of the world's most advanced hacker groups hit a problem. The US defence contractor whose systems it wanted to access only allowed a small set of trusted IP addresses to connect to their network. In an unusual move – hackers typically go for the low-hanging fruit – the group hacked the company that provided the IP whitelisting service, enabling it to forge access certificates.

This group, which calls itself Hidden Lynx, was given a vague face last week when antivirus software-maker Symantec released a report profiling it. Believed to be based in China, the group is known only through traces of malicious software bearing its mark found in the compromised computers of some of the world's largest companies.

Symantec estimates the group has 100 employees and says it has been operating for four years, specialising in attacks on financial and government institutions in the US. Chances are, the hackers will never be caught.

Early humans saw black hole light in the night sky

Some 2 million years ago, around the time our ancestors were learning to walk upright, a light appeared in the night sky, rivalling the moon for brightness and size. But it was more fuzzball than orb. The glow came from the supermassive black hole at our galaxy's heart suddenly exploding into life.

This novel picture emerges from work announced this week at a conference in Sydney, Australia, which ingeniously pieces together two seemingly unrelated, outstanding galactic puzzles.

As well as offering a welcome way to solve both, it gives us an unexpected glimpse of how the cosmos might have appeared to Earthlings 2 million years ago (see "Which species saw the flare?"). "That is when we had Homo erectus running around Earth," says Joss Bland-Hawthorn of the University of Sydney, who led the team behind the work.

It also paints supermassive black holes as unpredictable, and capable of generating some of the brightest flares in the universe, almost on a whim. That in turn throws up the possibility of modern humans being treated to a similar sight sometime in the future – thankfully we are too far away for a flare-up to pose a risk.

The technology behind Google's great results

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Apps to sketch and doodle with

SmartPaint (Free)
This is an editing and painting application, which allows you to create and edit your own pictures, and adjust their size by pressing buttons on the phone or by pinching in and out of touch screens.

Create and edit pictures using different layers, change colours as you want them, save those layers and export them as high quality picture files.

Sketchbook Pro/ Sketchbook Mobile (Paid)

This is a professional-grade paint and drawing application which offers you a full set of sketching tools with an intuitive user interface. This app allows you to digitally capture your ideas, make napkin sketches and digitally enhance them, and also produce your artwork when on the move. The Sketchbook Mobile version provides sophisticated paints and brushes which add more quality to your paintings and sketches. It is a paid version.

Draw and Paint (Free) A skilled drawing device for your phone. Create artistic drawings, draw or sketch on a picture from your picture gallery or on a new photo you have taken using your phone camera or even on an empty sheet. Save and share your creation with your friends and family by tagging your artwork on Facebook, Twitter or Picasa

Google's 'Hummingbird' hatches new search formula

MENLO PARK: Google has quietly retooled the closely guarded formula running its internet search engine to give better answers to the increasingly complex questions posed by web surfers.

The overhaul came as part of an update called "Hummingbird" that Google has gradually rolled out in the past month without disclosing the modifications.

The changes could have a major impact on traffic to websites. Hummingbird represents the most dramatic alteration to Google's search engine since it revised the way it indexes websites three years ago as part of a redesign called "Caffeine," according to Amit Singhal, a senior vice president for the company. He estimates that the redesign will affect the analysis of about 90 per cent of the search requests that Google gets.

Any reshuffling of Google's search rankings can have sweeping ramifications because they steer so much of the internet's traffic. Google fields about two of out every three search requests in the US and handles an even larger volume in some parts of Europe. The changes could also drive up the price of Google ads tied to search requests if websites whose rankings are demoted under the new system feel they have to buy the marketing messages to attract traffic.