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INTEREST: European parliament: "Break up Google"; US lawmakers ask to not break up Google
by Wayne Billing 28 Nov '14

28 Nov '14

...from: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/european-parliament-votes-in-fav… European parliament votes in favor of breaking up Google [cid:5ADFFBCA-0F87-4B7D-9B3C-51F70D0B6494] Trey Ratcliff / flickr<http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/4323977677/> In a vote on Thursday, European Parliament members voted 384 to 174 in favor<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/27/eu-google-idUSL6N0TH2FS20141127> of a resolution that calls for the unbundling of search engines from other commercial services to ensure competition among online companies. Although Google is not named specifically in the resolution, it's clearly targeted at the dominant search engine. The resolution would still have to be approved by the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, to take effect, but the overwhelming vote in favor of separating search from other online products increases the likelihood that Google could face a major regulatory headache. In a press release<http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20141125IPR80501/ht…>, the European Parliament called on EU member states and the European Commission to “break down barriers to the growth of the EU's digital single market” (a “single market” refers to the EU as an association of 28 countries trading freely between each other without restrictions). The Parliament also “stressed the need to prevent online companies from abusing dominant positions.” Lawmakers expressed concern, in particular, that Google was using its dominance to promote its own services unfairly and to obscure the services of its competitors. In the resolution, the Parliament asked the European Commission “to prevent any abuse in the marketing of interlinked services by operators of search engines,'” and asserted that "Indexation, evaluation, presentation, and ranking by search engines must be unbiased and transparent.” Reuters reports that European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager “has said she will review the case and talk to complainants before deciding on the next step.” Earlier this month, when the Financial Times reported<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/europes-parliament-poised-to-cal…> on the draft resolution, it noted that the European Commission has been investigating Google for unfair practices for years. Earlier this week, US lawmakers urged<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/us-lawmakers-ask-europe-not-to-b…> the European Parliament not to vote to break up Google. Google declined to comment<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/27/eu-google-idUSL6N0TH2FS20141127> to Reuters. Ars has contacted Google and will update if we receive a response. This is only the latest in a slew of troubles Google has had with European regulators. It has also seen regulation, fines, and warnings from Europe with respect to taxation, copyright concerns, and the “right to be forgotten<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/google-must-erase-inadequate-lin…>.” ...from: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/us-lawmakers-ask-europe-not-to-b… US lawmakers ask Europe not to break up Google European parliament considering a nonbinding resolution to unbundle search engines. by Jon Brodkin<http://arstechnica.com/author/jon-brodkin/> - Nov 26 2014, 10:50am CST * Share<https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Ftech-p…> * Tweet<https://twitter.com/share?text=US+lawmakers+ask+Europe+not+to+break+up+Goog…> 134<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/us-lawmakers-ask-europe-not-to-b…> [cid:DA28E3AB-355C-4A9E-9DBD-70C0B0BCA57D] keso s<http://www.flickr.com/photos/keso/108805307/> A European proposal to unbundle search engines from other commercial businesses—which could result in the breakup of Google—has brought a response from US lawmakers. "Capitol Hill hit back at EU lawmakers on Tuesday for politicizing an antitrust investigation into Google, as tensions rose ahead of a European parliamentary vote calling for the possible break-up of the technology group," the Financial Times reported last night<http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3d903290-74c9-11e4-a418-00144feabdc0.html#ax…>. Lawmakers sent letters to European counterparts expressing alarm at the proposal. The letters don't specifically mention Google, the world's largest search company, but neither does the European draft resolution. That says the European Commission should "consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services." The resolution in the European parliament is likely to pass on Thursday, but it would be nonbinding, because any final action would have to be taken by the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union. One European member of parliament argued that "search engines like Google should not be allowed to use their market power to push forward other commercial activities of the same company.” However, EU digital commissioner Günther Oettinger spoke out against a breakup of Google. US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) wrote<http://judiciary.house.gov/_cache/files/930df244-ccf0-44c6-965d-6f91712adb2…> to European members of parliament, calling himself "troubled to learn that some European elected representatives are encouraging antitrust enforcement efforts that appear to be motivated by politics, rather than grounded in factual and legal principles. We believe that antitrust enforcement should be applied independent of politics and firmly rooted in our shared international principles. Policies that run counter to these principles undermine our free markets and ultimately harm both our businesses and our consumers." Another letter from US lawmakers said "'proposals that seem to target US technology companies' raised questions 'about the EU’s commitment to open markets,'" the Financial Times reported. The letter was signed by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Reps. Dave Camp (R-MI) and Sander Levin (D-MI). A third letter<http://eshoo.house.gov/uploads/Letter%20from%20U%20S%20%20Congressional%20D…> signed by 12 members of US Congress led by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) said the resolution "would deter continued innovation and investment from US based Internet companies." The letter described "the transformative impact of online based services, including e-mail, social media, and search on our society and the economy," plus the contributions of US companies to the European economy. "It is therefore troubling to us that the European Parliament is suggesting an action that would stem cross-border data flows at the expense of millions of people across Europe who enjoy the use of these online services every day," the letter states. "We support healthy competition and a fair playing field for Internet companies in the US and around the globe, and we believe these goals can be accomplished through the traditional regulatory process."

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FYI: Malware’s new target: your password manager’s password
by Wayne Billing 19 Nov '14

19 Nov '14

...from: http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/11/citadel-attackers-aim-to-steal-vict… Malware’s new target: your password manager’s password Citadel trojan attempts to grab your master key. by Robert Lemos<http://arstechnica.com/author/roblemos/> - Nov 19 2014, 12:42pm CST * Share<https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fsecuri…> * TweetCyber criminals have started targeting the password managers that protect an individual's most sensitive credentials by using a keylogger to steal the master password in certain cases, according to research from data-protection company IBM Trusteer.<https://twitter.com/share?text=Malware%E2%80%99s+new+target%3A+your+passwor…> Cyber criminals have started targeting the password managers that protect an individual's most sensitive credentials by using a keylogger to steal the master password in certain cases, according to research from data-protection company IBM Trusteer. The research<http://securityintelligence.com/cybercriminals-use-citadel-compromise-passw…> found that a configuration file, which attackers use to tailor the Citadel trojan for specific campaigns, had been modified to start up a keylogger when the user opened either Password Safe or KeePass, two open-source password managers. While malware has previously targeted the credentials stored in the password managers included in popular Web browsers, third-party password managers have typically not been targeted. While the current impact of the attack is low, the implications of the attacker’s focus is that password managers will soon come under more widespread assault, Dana Tamir, director of enterprise security for IBM Trusteer, told Ars Technica. “Once the malware captures this master key, then they can use that master key to exercise complete control over the machine and any of the user’s online accounts,” she said. Cyber criminals have increasingly focused on stealing passwords from online repositories and services. Passwords are generally not considered an adequate security solution for important data or online services because easy-to-remember passwords are also easier to guess, reducing the security of the protected data. Password managers boost the security of online accounts by allowing users to create a different and complex password for each of their accounts, additionally encrypting the information to prevent access. But the technology is not foolproof, as researchers found this summer when they published details of flaws<http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/07/severe-password-manager-attacks-ste…> in five different programs for storing passwords. Yet, when implemented correctly, the software can allow individuals to securely store a different credential for every site and system they use, avoiding reusing keys. It's no surprise, then, that attackers have started targeting that master key. The Citadel configuration files found by the IBM researchers commanded the malware to begin keylogging whenever Password Safe or KeePass started running. The system also monitored for passwords to an authentication solution known as the neXus Personal Security Client. The master passwords, if captured by the program, were sent to a legitimate Web server that appeared to have been compromised by the attackers. It was not clear whether the attack was part of a targeted campaign or just opportunistic attackers aiming to grab credentials from users of the password managers, IBM Trusteer’s Tamir said. Despite the attack, password managers are still better than just using a few passwords, or worse, a single password, she said. “I think that password managers and authentication solutions are more critical than ever,” Tamir said. “But it is important to keep in mind that these solutions are not sufficient in and of themselves—they have to be accessed from a clean machine.” Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support Computer and Network Support 130 Machray Hall Building 204-474-6649 204-807-3153 (cell) 204-474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

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FYI: Mozilla/FireFox to drop Google default
by Wayne Billing 19 Nov '14

19 Nov '14

...from: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/11/mozilla-ends-google-r… Mozilla ends Google relationship, Firefox will now default to Yahoo in the US Ten-year partnership that paid most of Mozilla's bills coming to an end. by Peter Bright<http://arstechnica.com/author/peter-bright/> - Nov 19 2014, 5:10pm CST * Share<https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Finform…> * Tweet<https://twitter.com/share?text=Mozilla+ends+Google+relationship%2C+Firefox+…> 53<http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/11/mozilla-ends-google-r…> Since 2004, Google has been paying Mozilla a ton of money each year—estimated at around $100 million<http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/firefox-faces-uncertain-future-as-google-dea…>—for the privilege of being the default search engine used in the Firefox browser. This contribution represented the lion's share of Mozilla's income, something in the ballpark of 85 percent. That deal, last renewed for a three-year period in 2011, has come to an end, and this time it won't be renewed. Mozilla announced today<https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/11/19/promoting-choice-and-innovation-on…> that the free browser vendor is switching to a range of different search providers. In the US, Firefox will now default to using Yahoo<http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/103069386424/yahoo-and-mozilla-partner-to-brin…> (which continues to be powered by Microsoft's Bing engine); in Russia it will use Yandex<https://twitter.com/andreasgal/status/535193708518715392>, and in China, Baidu. Mozilla and Yahoo have signed a five-year deal. As part of the deal, Yahoo is going to start honoring the Do Not Track feature when used by Firefox users to limit Yahoo's ability to track user activity across the Web through advertisements. Yahoo is also going to roll out a new search interface for American Firefox users, starting in December. Financial terms of the new five-year deal have not been announced. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support Computer and Network Support 130 Machray Hall Building 204-474-6649 204-807-3153 (cell) 204-474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

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INTEREST: Google Wallet ending online prescence
by Wayne Billing 14 Nov '14

14 Nov '14

Last month Apple announced ApplePay in the USA. (Coming to Canada early 2015) This month, Google has just announced that their electronic pay system "Google Wallet" won't work online starting March, 2015. Is Google offering a replacement product? No, Google is not offering a replacement processing solution for digital goods on websites. ...from: http://www.engadget.com/2014/11/13/google-wallet-digital-goods-shutdown/?nc… https://support.google.com/wallet/business/answer/6107573 Google Wallet won't let you buy digital goods on the web past March 2015 [cid:AB6D7D91-270F-4E30-8186-9ED65408E17D]<http://www.engadget.com/2014/11/13/google-wallet-digital-goods-shutdown/> Sad news, web merchants: if you relied on Google Wallet to process the online payments for your feline subculture e-zine (or any other digital product you've got kicking around), you'd better start looking for something else to do the job. On March 2, 2015, Google will officially pull the plug on its Wallet for Digital Goods API, which means anyone who hasn't switched to another payment processor -- like PayPal, for instance -- will be serve up 404s left and right to anyone trying to buy stuff from them. Why? Mostly because the "industry has matured a lot" since the thing launched back in 2012<http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/04/google-wallet-reaches-the-web-reminds-mo…>, meaning that Google's facing some seriously stiff competition and doesn't feel up to the fight. Don't panic, though: let's just take a moment to run through what's happening and to whom. You can still use your NFC-laden Android phone to pay for your Haribo cola gummies down at the local Wawa - that's a completely separate part of the business. You can still process in-app payments through Google Wallet if you're a developer, too, because the last thing Google needs is to pull the rug out from under the app creators that make them money. And yes, you can still use Google Wallet online to buy physical products, like, say, a Domino's Pizza. Thank heavens for that, right?

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FYI: Apple downplays risk of new malware attack; recommendations
by Wayne Billing 14 Nov '14

14 Nov '14

...from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/apple-downplays-risk-of-masque-attack-aft… Apple downplays risk of Masque Attack after U.S. government warning ['We designed OS X and iOS with built-in security safeguards to help protect customers and warn them before installing potentially malicious software,' Apple said in an official statement.] 'We designed OS X and iOS with built-in security safeguards to help protect customers and warn them before installing potentially malicious software,' Apple said in an official statement. (Hannah Yoon/ Canadian Press) Apple is downplaying a risk of a security bug in its mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned users about yesterday. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, based at the Department of Homeland Security, issued an alert<https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA14-317A> Thursday about the Apple iOS "Masque Attack" technique<http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/apple-ios-bug-makes-iphones-ipads-vulnera…>, announced by the internet security firm FireEye in a blog post Nov. 10<http://www.fireeye.com/blog/technical/cyber-exploits/2014/11/masque-attack-…>. FireEye said the technique allows hackers to replace one of the users' existing apps with malware, for example, replacing a user's banking and email apps with malware that sends banking and email data directly to the attackers. The company said recent Wirelurker attacks<http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/apple-devices-hit-by-wirelurker-malware-i…> in China started to use a "limited form" of Masque Attacks to attack iOS devices via a USB connection. But in an official statement emailed to CBC News on Friday, Apple said, "We’re not aware of any customers that have actually been affected by this attack." The company added, "We designed OS X and iOS with built-in security safeguards to help protect customers and warn them before installing potentially malicious software." The statement came more than three days after CBC News sent Apple an email request for comment about FireEye's blog post<http://www.fireeye.com/blog/technical/cyber-exploits/2014/11/masque-attack-…>. In response to the Apple statement, Vitor de Souza, vice-president of global communications for FireEye, noted that with most cyberattacks, the victim doesn't know they have been compromised. "We are not saying that this is a widespread attack, but we believe consumers should be aware so they take the necessary precaution," he added in an email to CBC News on Friday. But Chris Mills, a writer for the technology website Gizmodo, wrote that he thinks the attack is "not anything to worry about." "See, the 'attack' requires the user to first follow a dodgy-looking link, then click past an iOS pop-up warning people about downloading malicious apps. Not to mention, the hacker needs access to an iOS Developer Enterprise Program account," he wrote. "If we pretend that ignoring the built-in safeguards and then downloading dodgy apps is a security flaw, then every single major operating system, mobile or otherwise, has a security flaw." However, users commenting on the article disagreed, Apple recommended that in order to protect themselves: * Customers should only download from "trusted sources like the App Store." * Users should pay attention to warnings when they download apps. * Enterprise users should install custom business app from their company's secure website<http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6584>.

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INTEREST: in what may be an overreaction, HOME DEPOT "fires" Windows
by Wayne Billing 09 Nov '14

09 Nov '14

[The original attempts to break in to Home Depot computer systems were stymied by their firewalls. The attackers didn't focus on Home Depot directly; they focused on exploiting the computers of 3rd party contractors doing work within Home Depot buildings. The breaches began only when visiting contractors attached their own (already exploited) computers inside the Home Depot firewalls or when they given credentials to penetrate the firewalls from already exploited computers at the contractors home offices.] ....from: http://9to5mac.com/2014/11/09/home-depot-windows-breach-macbooks-iphones/ Home Depot blames security breach on Windows, senior executives given new MacBooks and iPhones<http://9to5mac.com/2014/11/09/home-depot-windows-breach-macbooks-iphones/> [Home Depot Windows] Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal<http://online.wsj.com/articles/home-depot-hackers-used-password-stolen-from…> published an in-depth look at The Home Depot’s recent security breach<https://corporate.homedepot.com/mediacenter/pages/statement1.aspx> of its payment data systems, in which 56 million credit card accounts and 53 million email addresses of customers were compromised. A root cause of the security breach: a Windows vulnerability in the retailer’s main computer network. “Once inside Home Depot’s systems after gaining credentials from the outside vendor, the hackers were able to jump the barriers between a peripheral third-party vendor system and the company’s more secure main computer network by exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system, the people briefed on the investigation said,” writes the WSJ’s Shelly Banjo. The report claims that while Microsoft did issue a security patch after the breach began, which was installed by The Home Depot, the fix arrived too late. According to sources familiar with the investigation, the hackers already had the ability to move across The Home Depot’s systems, including its point-of-sale system, as if they were high-level employees. The report unravels a lot of details related to how the security breach played out, with one anecdote that I found particularly interesting. Following the breach, an IT employee allegedly purchased two dozen new MacBooks and iPhones for senior executives at The Home Depot, indicating that the home-improvement retailer may have lost at least some confidence in its Microsoft-based systems. MacBooks and iPhones have faced their fair share of security vulnerabilities<http://9to5mac.com/2014/11/05/wirelurker-malware/> over the past few years, although recent studies conducted by Kaspersky Labs<http://securelist.com/analysis/kaspersky-security-bulletin/58265/kaspersky-…> and similar firms have proven that both devices remain highly secure platforms in terms of protection against malware and other threats. But whether shiny new Macs and iPhones in The Home Depot’s boardroom will help it prevent another massive security breach remains to be seen.

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FYI: WSJ: Cheaptickets, Orbitz, others charging more per night for some users
by Wayne Billing 26 Oct '14

26 Oct '14

...from: http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-you-cant-trust-youre-getting-the-best-de… Why You Can’t Trust You’re Getting the Best Deal Online A Study Finds Discriminatory Pricing on E-Commerce Sites Is More Widespread Than Thought By ELIZABETH DWOSKIN Oct. 23, 2014 12:01 a.m. ET The Web is full of personalized content, whether it’s a Netflix <http://quotes.wsj.com/NFLX> recommendation or the results of a Google <http://quotes.wsj.com/GOOGL> search. But consumers have protested when e-commerce companies have extended their behind-the-scenes personalization to prices, charging different sums for the same goods, or pushing some people toward higher-priced offers. A new study of top e-commerce websites found these practices—called discriminatory pricing or price steering—are much more widespread than was previously understood. The study, by a team of computer scientists at Northeastern University, tracked searches on 16 popular e-commerce sites. Six of those sites used the pricing techniques; none of the sites alerted consumers to that fact. Among the study’s findings: Travel-booking sites Cheaptickets and Orbitz charged some users searching hotel rates an average $12 more per night if they weren’t logged into the sites, and Travelocity charged users of Apple <http://quotes.wsj.com/AAPL> Inc. ’s iOS mobile operating system $15 less for hotels than other users. Home Depot <http://quotes.wsj.com/HD> Inc. shows mobile-device users products that are roughly $100 more expensive than those offered to desktop-computer users. And Expedia <http://quotes.wsj.com/EXPE> and Hotels.com<http://Hotels.com> steer users at random to pricier products, the study said. “In the real world, there are coupons and loyalty cards, and people are fine with that,” said Christo Wilson, an assistant professor at Northeastern who led the research team. “Here, there’s a transparency problem. The algorithms change regularly, so you don’t know if other people are getting the same results.” Travelocity, a unit of Sabre <http://quotes.wsj.com/SABR> Corp. , didn’t respond to a request for comment. Home Depot didn’t dispute the accuracy of the findings, but the home-improvement retailer wasn’t “intentionally steering search results,” said company spokesman Stephen Holmes. [cid:FA861B28-A0EB-4290-BAB6-B101D0C1164E]ENLARGE Many factors could influence what a customer sees on the company’s sites, Mr. Holmes said, including prior browsing and purchase history, the location of the store, and whether the customer is on mobile or not. Home Depot didn’t charge users different prices for identical products but showed more-expensive products to people who shopped using a smartphone, the researchers found. Chris Chiames, vice president of corporate affairs at Orbitz Worldwide <http://quotes.wsj.com/OWW> Inc., said in an email that the company clearly advertises its loyalty programs and other deals. He said the discounts some members see on the site apply to just a small proportion of hotels—fewer than 5%. So, it wouldn’t make sense, and might even be misleading, to advertise lower prices to all members, he said. “The Northeastern study states that ‘overall, most of the experiments do not reveal evidence of steering or discrimination,’ and so we are curious as to why a handful of exceptions to searches on thousands of hotels is the basis of this paper’s conclusions, or even worthy of a story,” Mr. Chiames added. “Would you be as interested in a Kmart ‘blue light special’ deal that was made available to shoppers who happen to be in a certain store at a certain time?” Moreover, some deals are priced by Orbitz’s hotel partners, he added. “The hotel might have limited inventory of that price, and so they choose to display the rate on a more-limited basis, akin to the flash sale,” he said. On Orbitz and Cheaptickets, also owned by Orbitz Worldwide, consumers who registered through the websites’ free log-in were shown a tab labeled “members only” that offered lower hotel prices. The company didn’t advertise that users could receive discounts for logging in. Orbitz has been accused of price discrimination in the past. A 2012 Wall Street Journal investigation found the company charged Mac users as much as 30% more than PC users for a night’s lodging. The company discontinued the practice, which it characterized as a month-long experiment. The Northeastern researchers confirmed the company no longer discriminates between Mac and PC users. Expedia and Hotels.com<http://Hotels.com>, both units of Expedia Inc., don’t show different prices because of users’ differing characteristics but because the company constantly refines its pricing strategies using a method called A/B testing, the researchers said. Shoppers are randomly placed in a group that highlights either less or more costly hotels. “Either way, the user has no idea what bucket they’ve been placed in,” said Northeastern’s Mr. Wilson. WSJ.D WSJ.D<http://online.wsj.com/news/technology> is the Journal’s home for tech news, analysis and product reviews. * Why You Can’t Trust You’re Getting the Best Deal Online<http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-you-cant-trust-youre-getting-the-best-de…> * Facebook’s Zuckerberg Holds Q&A Session in Chinese<http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/10/23/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-holds-qa-s…> * Foxconn in Talks for China Display Plant<http://online.wsj.com/articles/foxconn-in-talks-for-china-plant-investment-…> * Nokia’s Bullish Outlook Is Evidence That Pain Is in the Past<http://online.wsj.com/articles/nokia-gives-bullish-outlook-as-it-swings-bac…> One group of users, for example, were shown an average hotel listing price of $187 a night. The other group saw prices that were $17, or roughly 10%, less. “Presenting different booking paths and options to different customers allows us to determine which features customers appreciate most” said Expedia spokesman Dave McNamee, in an email. “Pricing is not manipulated by Expedia.com<http://Expedia.com>.” Consumers have long protested price discrimination. In 2000, Amazon.com <http://quotes.wsj.com/AMZN> Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos <http://topics.wsj.com/person/B/Jeff-Bezos/698> apologized for an internal research program in which consumers were shown different prices for identical products. He called the experiment a “mistake.” (Amazon and eBay Inc. weren’t included in the Northeastern study because those companies’ services have little power over the prices they charge, the researchers said.) Staples <http://quotes.wsj.com/SPLS> Inc. varied its online prices based on users’ locations, according to a 2012 article in The Wall Street Journal. The researchers didn’t examine Staples but pointed out that retailers might vary prices by region because the cost of procuring a given product can differ in different parts of the country. They didn’t study geographic variations for that reason. In their study, the Northeastern researchers devised a statistical method to weed out what they called “noise,” or legitimate factors that might cause prices to vary—a technique they hope will be used in future studies of online personalization. The research team recruited 300 beta users, who allowed the researchers to track their experience on different sites. The team also developed hundreds of fake accounts to see whether historical purchase patterns and clicks through the sites had an impact on price personalization. They didn’t examine the impact of consumers’ overall Web-browsing behavior on pricing because they would have no way to know how e-commerce sites tracked participants across the Web. Write to Elizabeth Dwoskin at elizabeth.dwoskin(a)wsj.com<mailto:elizabeth.dwoskin@wsj.com>

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FYI: Microsoft Office for Mac patches: "fix critical issues"; "improve security"
by Wayne Billing 14 Oct '14

14 Oct '14

...from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44329 [Office] Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 14.4.5 Update Select Language: Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Danish Dutch English Finnish French German Italian Japanese Norwegian (Bokmål) Polish Russian Spanish Swedish Download<http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=44329> Close<http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44329&6B49FDFB-8E5B…> This update fixes critical issues and also helps to improve security. It includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. * Details<http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44329&751be11f-ede8…> Version: 14.4.5 File Name: Office2011-1445Update_EN-US.dmg Date Published: 10/14/2014 File Size: 113.6 MB This update fixes critical issues and also helps to improve security. It includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. For more information about this update, please visit the Microsoft Web site<http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=511102>. Applies to: Office 2011, Office 2011 Home and Business Edition, Word 2011, Excel 2011, PowerPoint 2011, Outlook 2011, Office for Mac Standard 2011 Edition, Microsoft Office for Mac Home & Student 2011, and Microsoft Office for Mac Academic 2011 Known issues for installation of Office 2011<http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=255462> * System Requirements<http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44329&e6b34bbe-475b…> Supported Operating System Apple Macintosh, Mac OS X * Operating System Versions: Mac OS X version 10.5.8 or a later version of Mac OS Note To verify that your computer meets these minimum requirements, on the Apple menu, click About This Mac. * Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 (14.1.0): You can download this update for free from the Microsoft Web Site<http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=218211>. Note To verify that you have installed this update, you can open any Microsoft Office 2011 application to check the version number. For example, open Word, and then on the Word menu, click About Word. In the dialog box, compare the version number next to Latest Installed Update.

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FYI: Apple Begins Reminding About App-Specific Passwords
by Wayne Billing 08 Oct '14

08 Oct '14

...from: http://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/08/apple-reminds-app-specific/ Apple Begins Reminding Two-Factor Authentication Users About App-Specific Passwords Wednesday October 8, 2014 8:38 pm PDT by Husain Sumra Apple has begun emailing iCloud users who have enabled two-factor authentication on their Apple IDs, reminding them that application specific passwords will be required when trying to access iCloud data on third party apps starting tomorrow. [Screen Shot 2014-10-08 at 8.13.42 PM] In addition to the email reminders, Apple last week published a new support document<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6186>educating users on how to use app-specific passwords. While the feature was originally intended to require the feature on October 1, it's unclear why two-factor authentication users are being reminded of it a week later. App-specific passwords are a new feature Apple introduced in mid-September<http://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/16/apple-app-specific-passwords/>, following the launch of two-factor authentication<http://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/16/icloud-two-factor-authentication/> for accessing iCloud.com<http://iCloud.com>. The changes arrived after a hacking incident that saw the iCloud accounts of several celebrities compromised due to weak passwords. CEO Tim Cook has promised<http://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/04/cook-security-alerts-icloud/> to improve iCloud security by increasing awareness around Apple's security features like two-factor authentication as well as a sending out email notifications<http://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/08/icloud-alert-emails-web/> whenever a device is restored, an account is accessed or a password change is attempted.

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INTEREST: Interview with Apple's Jony Ive
by Wayne Billing 03 Oct '14

03 Oct '14

...from: http://www.vogue.com/1415025/apple-design-genius-jonathan-ive A Rare Look at Design Genius Jony Ive: The Man Behind the Apple Watch OCTOBER 1, 2014 8:00 AMby ROBERT SULLIVAN<http://www.vogue.com/contributor/robert-sullivan/>|photographed by DAVID SIMS<http://www.vogue.com/tag/photographer/david-sims/> * 0<https://plus.google.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vogue.com%2F1415025%2Fap…> * 0<http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vogue.com%…> * EMAIL<mailto:?body=http://www.vogue.com/1415025/apple-design-genius-jonathan-ive/…> * <http://www.vogue.com/1415025/apple-design-genius-jonathan-ive#> [Jonathan Ive] EXPAND Photographed by David Sims, Vogue, October 2014 How Apple’s under-the-radar design genius, Jonathan Ive, has found the way to our hearts. I first catch sight of Jony Ive across the Apple campus, in a plain Dodger-blue T-shirt and white painter’s pants, in conversation, nodding. The head Apple designer, who brought you the iMac and the iPad and now, the Apple Watch, has a nearly shaved head and a tightly trimmed beard. He’s not tall, not small, and looks as if he might be a formidable rugby opponent—though even from a distance he comes across as open and amenable, less likely to tackle you than to do what he is doing with a colleague at this very moment, which is listening. Ive has a calming presence, like the Apple campus itself, whose very address, Infinite Loop, lulls you into a sense of Zen-ness. In the courtyard, trays of beautiful food—grass-fed steaks and fresh-made curries and California-born hot sauces—lead Apple employees out toward the open-air seating, away from the white cafeteria that might be described as a luxurious spa for the terminally nerdy. White is the color of choice at Apple HQ as in the Apple product line. It is through this white, with its clarity, its dust-hiding lack of distraction, that you have already met Jonathan Ive. To the south of the cafeteria is a tiny amphitheater, an emotional site in Apple’s history: At the company’s 2011 memorial for Steve Jobs, Coldplay took the stage, as did Jony Ive. Ive is notoriously reluctant to give interviews, not to mention speak in public. But on that day he spoke for the man whom he called his dearest friend. For his part, Jobs, when he was alive, referred to Ive as his “spiritual partner.” “I think he better than anyone understood that while ideas ultimately can be so powerful,” Ive told the assembled mourners, “they begin as fragile, barely formed thoughts.” Another thing Jobs understood way back in 1997, the year he returned to the company that had kicked him out a decade earlier, was that Ive—then still in his 20s—was a designer with the background and the psychological tools not just to create the latest, hottest devices but also to orchestrate a team. Like cutting-edge steel, Ive is strong and persistent but flexible, and most crucial (most Jobs-ian, in fact), he is passionate about things, as in things, literally. “So much of my background is about making, physically doing it myself,” he says. In other words, the secret weapon of the most sought-after personal-electronics company in the world is a very nice guy from Northeast London who has a soft spot for woodworking and the sense that designers ought to keep their design talents backstage where they can do the most good. “There’s an odd irony here,” he observes. “I think our goal is that you would have a sense that it wasn’t design.” RELATED STORIES * [cid:E4F8D607-893C-4E35-BD2C-2AED5313E12E] The Small Miracle of the Apple Watch<http://www.vogue.com/2088983/apple-watch-october-2014-issue/> * The Apple Watch Has Landed: Will You Pick Up the Next Big Thing in Wearable Tech?<http://www.vogue.com/1342841/apple-watch-first-look/> When you sit down with Ive, he is eager to chat—too eager, maybe, for the Apple time-minders who are always looking around for him—and will take a while to respond to a question, smiling as he says, “This is going to be a kind of oblique answer. . . .” We are talking in a white room, distracted only by a black non-Apple television—itself a signpost to the question, When will Apple make TVs or whatever will replace them? Noticeably, his phone neither rings nor vibrates; he has designed the moment for concentration. He nurses a white mug of tea, and the only thing in the room besides an iPhone is the pair of reading glasses designed by his friend Marc Newson and tucked into the front of his T-shirt: simple, delicate, but clear and strong. “I wish I could articulate this more effectively,” he continues, addressing his ambitions as a designer. “But it is to have that sense that you know there couldn’t possibly be a sane or rational alternative.” Ive is obsessed over in design blogs, the sites that cover Apple as if it were the Vatican, following leaks and rumors and passing along hijacked photos of components or screens—pitching best guesses as to what Apple is working on next. One blog imagines what it would be like if Jony Ive designed—well, everything: “Jony Ive redesigns . . . freeway signage . . . Coke . . . the solar system.” You might spot the occasional photo of him out in the world—at the White House for a design award; in London being knighted, as he was two years ago, by Princess Anne; at a pizza dinner in San Francisco, sitting with Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and various Silicon Valley execs. But one of the very natural settings for the real Jony Ive is a workshop at Apple HQ. It may be easier to sneak into a North Korean cabinet meeting than into the Apple design studio, the place where a small group of people have all the tools and materials and machinery necessary to develop things that are not yet things. Reportedly Ive’s wife, Heather Pegg, has never been—he doesn’t even tell her what he’s working on—and his twin sons, like all but a few Apple employees, are not allowed in either. Work is conducted behind tinted windows, serenaded by the team’s beloved techno music, a must for the boss. “I find that when I write I need things to be quiet, but when I design, I can’t bear it if it’s quiet,” he says. Indeed, the design team is said to have followed an unwritten rule to move away from their work whenever the famously brusque Jobs entered the studio and turn up the volume so as to make his criticisms less audible, less likely to throw them off course. In 1985, the year Jobs was forced out of Apple, Jony Ive was in design school in England, struggling with computers, blaming himself. “Isn’t that curious?” he says now. “Because if you tasted some food that you didn’t think tasted right, you would assume that the food was wrong. But for some reason, it’s part of the human condition that if we struggle to use something, we assume that the problem resides with us.” Despite that initial obstacle, Ive seems to have been born to understand industrial design. He grew up in Chingford, on the outskirts of London near Epping Forest, a good place for a city kid who liked to play in the trees. His father, Michael Ive, is a silversmith, and his grandfather was an engineer. When Ive was a boy, his father worked with the British government to develop and set the standards for design education. When he made things with his son—a toboggan, say—he would demand that Jony sketch his design before commencing construction. As for the tree house Ive designed back then, guess what? Today he is critical. “I’d do it differently.” His eyes light up as he says it, and you fully believe, in that moment, that he would happily drop everything to walk outside and work on it now. In high school, Ive studied sculpture and chemistry, and in 1985 he enrolled in the design program at Newcastle Polytechnic, where he became known as passionately detail-oriented, creating dozens of models of a hearing aid to be used by deaf children and their teachers. By the time he was out of school and working for a small design consultancy (called, coincidentally, Tangerine), a project he took on for Apple impressed the Cupertino company. They recruited him in 1992. Five years later, a disenchanted Ive was about to leave when Jobs returned to reboot the then-floundering Apple, which happened, by most analyses, when Jobs enabled Ive. By Ive’s account, the two hit it off immediately. “It was literally the meeting showing him what we’d worked on,” Ive says, “and we just clicked.” Ive talks about feeling a little apart, like Jobs. “When you feel that the way you interpret the world is fairly idiosyncratic, you can feel somewhat ostracized and lonely”—big laugh here—“and I think that we both perceived the world in the same way.” Design critics now look back at the birth of the Jobs-Ive partnership as the dawn of a golden age in product design, when manufacturers began to understand that consumers would pay more for craftsmanship. Together Jobs and Ive centered their work on the notion that computers did not have to look as if they belonged in a room at NASA. The candy-colored iMac—their first smash hit—felt to consumers like a charming friend, revolutionary but approachable, and appealed to both men and women. “I think what we sincerely try to do is create objects and products and ideas that are new and innovative,” says Ive, “but at the same time there is a slightly peculiar familiarity to them.” The iMac was followed by laptops in cool brushed titanium, then white laptops. Apple was treating computers and media devices as tools, as more than just wires and RAM shoved in a box; they were not so much minimal devices as devices that coordinate functions. And then came the iPod and the iPhone, an invention like a divining rod, tapping into invisible streams of information. Throughout, Ive has refined Apple’s design process, which, he argues, is almost abstract in its devotion to pure idea: Good design creates the market; ideas are king. And here’s the next irony that defines Ive’s career: In the clutter of contemporary culture, where hits and likes threaten to overtake content in value, the purity of an idea takes on increasing currency. “I think now more than ever it’s important to be clear, to be singular,” he says, “and to have a perspective, one you didn’t generate as the result of doing a lot of focus groups.” Developing concepts and creating prototypes leads to “fascinating conversations” with his team, says Ive. “It’s a process I’ve been practicing for decades, but I still have the same wonder.” For someone whose influence on our lives is so huge, responsible not just for shifting whole economies but for changing the way we interact, Ive is extraordinarily low-profile. “He’s a virtually unknown British character who became a central person in the explosion of the Internet,” says his friend the Hong Kong–born businessman David Tang. “It’s amazing that he’s not more widely talked about.” On the Silicon Valley social circuit, he’s an anomaly. “The technology industry tends to feature people with big personalities who like to talk about their achievements,” says Trevor Traina, a fifth-generation San Franciscan entrepreneur who is a friend and neighbor of the Ives. “Jony is humble and private, and he doesn’t wear his achievements on his sleeve.” Ive lives in the Pacific Heights neighborhood with his wife and sons. “Heather is a writer,” he says. “She’s a creative too. We met at high school. I got married when I was 21, and I’m 47. Married a long time. Isn’t it cool?” Their house, bought two years ago for $17 million, is by the storied architectural firm Polk & Co.—Willis Polk oversaw the design of San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, which opened in 1915. Like his own father, Ive seems adamant about intention at home. “My boys are ten, and I like spending time with them doing stuff that I did, which is drawing and making things—real things, not virtual things,” he says. Easygoing Ive morphs into Serious Ive on this point: He sees design schools failing their students by moving away from a foundation in traditional skills. “I think it’s important that we learn how to draw and to make something and to do it directly,” he says, “to understand the properties you’re working with by manipulating them and transforming them yourself.” Perhaps it is this drive to understand design with his own hands that keeps Ive grounded. “He’s not distracted by any veneer of glamour,” says Tang, who remarks on his friend’s thoughtfulness. On a recent birthday, Tang received two finely crafted wooden boxes containing large, engraved, Ive-designed ashtrays—Tang loves cigars—constructed from the next-generation iPhone material. “It was like getting the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey,” Tang says. Ive likes nothing better than to come up with mischievously inventive ways to use the technology at his fingertips. When a presenter from Blue Peter—Britain’s longest-running children’s TV show, known for encouraging kids to craft utilitarian designs from household objects—came to present him with its highest honor, a gold Blue Peterbadge depicting a ship in full sail, Ive was delighted. In repayment, he fired up a Mikron HSM 600U, a computer-controlled machine that can cut up a chunk of aluminum like an origami flower, and in a mere ten hours created a Blue Peterbadge that looked a lot like a not-so-distant cousin of the MacBook Air. His attention to detail is famous among his friends. Traina likes to joke with him that he couldn’t imagine being Ive’s contractor, since nothing would escape his notice. “One time I showed him a 1920s Cartier crystal, platinum, and diamond pocket watch that had been my father’s,” Traina recalls. “He took a quick look and later referred to the way the crystal was beveled, something I didn’t even remember.” Ive’s personal design tastes include the Castiglionis’ Snoopy lamp and “another Castiglioni that’s a parabolic glass that sits quite low.” He likes his suits custom-made by British tailor Thomas Mahon, and might show up in one on the charity circuit—at the Mid-Winter Gala, for instance, at a table with Marissa Mayer and Alexis and Trevor Traina; the Ives also cochaired the benefit for Tipping Point Community, an anti-poverty group in San Francisco. Ive commutes what used to be 45 minutes and can now be an hour and a half, no matter whether he is driving an Aston Martin or a Bentley or a Land Rover, a fleet of cars that the British press watches like Apple’s stock price. He takes a vacation once in a while, often in London, setting up in a suite at Claridge’s while his family visits with the family of Marc Newson, the Australian designer who has remade everything from cars to furniture to restaurants to first-class lounges for Qantas. When he and Newson relax, they do so by attempting to switch work off—tough to do when you design the world—though designers out for a drink will inevitably allow the poorly designed world to seep in. “Shit we hate,” says Newson, includes American cars. “It’s as if a giant stuck his straw in the exhaust pipe and inflated them,” he adds, “when you look at the beautiful proportions in other cars that have been lost.” The two also relax working, as they did recently on behalf of their mutual friend Bono, whose recent auction of Ive- and Newson-curated goods raised $13 million for (Red), Bono’s charity to stop AIDS. The list included Ettore Sottsass’s Olivetti typewriter; a Dieter Rams hi-fi (Rams himself showed up at New York’s Sotheby’s that Saturday night last fall); an Airstream trailer; and a Leica that Newson and Ive lovingly tweaked together. “We didn’t even have to vocalize our pet hates, we were so in tune,” Newson says. “We only have to look at the object and look at each other and our eyes roll.” It’s a collaboration that is now a lock, apparently, since Apple recently announced that Newson would join Ive’s design team to work on special projects. “They’re a bit like non-identical twins separated at birth,” jokes Bono. They finish each other’s sentences. “They finish each other’s food,” adds Bono. “The kind of emotional and physical attraction people develop with Apple products shouldn’t really be possible, but take a look around you.” Friends marvel as Ive shifts from the guy cracking jokes to the solemn Sir Jonathan Ive. “Jony is deadly serious,” says Bono, who first met Ive when Jobs dispatched him to an Irish pub to salvage a U2–Apple iPod promotion. “He is also serious fun to be around. When you go out for a pint with Jony, it’s kind of like going for a pint with the future, which is cool except you know he’s not telling you what they’ve really got planned.” Feels nice, doesn’t it?” On my second visit to Cupertino, Ive has finally handed it over: the new Apple Watch. It is more watch than the computer geeks would ever have imagined, has more embedded software than in a Rolex wearer’s wildest dreams. When Ive shows it to me—weeks before the product’s exhaustive launch, hosted by new CEO Tim Cook—in a situation room that has us surrounded by guards, it feels like a matter of national security. Yet despite all the pressure, he really just wants you to touch it, to feel it, to experience it as a thing. And if you comment on, say, the weight of it, he nods. “Because it’s real materials,” he says proudly. Then he wants you to feel the connections, the magnets in the strap, the buckle, to witness the soft but solid snap, which he just loves as an interaction with design, a pure, tactile idea. “Isn’t that fantastic?” At the beginning of our sitdown, he is slightly flustered at the attempt to condense all that went into the device into a single conversation. “It’s strange when you’ve been working on something for three years . . .” he says, shaking his head. He describes the trajectory of clocks to watches: from a public clock in a Bavarian square to timepieces owned by royalty, to military chronometers, to the watch’s arrival, only at the beginning of the twentieth century, on the wrist. “It’s fascinating how people struggled with wearing this incredibly powerful technology personally.” The cell phone, of course, killed the watch to some extent. Now he wants to reset the balance. The Apple Watch is designed in three collections, with myriad variations, from elegantly luxurious to a brightly colored sporty version. On the back, LEDs emit light through sapphire-crystal windows, and photodiodes convert that light into a signal that algorithms use to calculate your heart rate. Got that? All of this syncs with your iPhone, making the watch the wrist-bound control tower of your life in tech. Monitor your heart rate or your movement in general. Tap to have Siri take a message, or send a voice reply. Pay for drinks with your wrist (Apple Pay will be, yes, Apple Watch–compatible). With this product, Apple is moving from your desk and your pocket onto your person, your pulse point. The watch underscores the fact that Ive is first and foremost a masterly product designer; technology almost comes second. It’s a beautiful object, a device you might like even if you don’t like devices. “Everything we’ve been trying to do,” he says, “it’s that pursuit of the very pure and very simple.” Aside from all the ways the watch connects to your phone, Ive is very interested in how the watch can connect to another human. “You know how very often technology tends to inhibit rather than enable more nuanced, subtle communication?” he asks. This is the question that haunts the son of a craftsman: Is he making tools that improve the world or shut people down? “We spent a lot of time working on this special mechanism inside, combined with the built-in speaker” —he demonstrates on his wrist. You can select a chosen person, also wearing the watch, and transmit your pulse to them. “You feel this very gentle tap,” he says, “and you can feel my heartbeat. This is a very big deal, I think. It’s being able to communicate in a very gentle way.” Whether it is ultimately judged to be a big deal or another distraction remains to be seen. Either way, Ive eventually leaves the guarded room with his secrets intact for a few more weeks, passing through the bright white corridors decorated with long views of the Santa Cruz Mountains and a poster-like portrait of Steve Jobs holding up a Mac during one of his famous hard sells—the trademark bold product introduction, the late CEO’s big loud pitch. As you watch Ive walk off, politely thanking people, you recall that he closed up his private presentation by asking you to listen closely to a watchband as it is pulled off and then reconnected. “You just press this button and it slides off, and that is just gorgeous,” he was saying. He encouraged you to pause. “But listen as it closes,” he said. “It makes this fantastic k-chit.” He was nearly whispering. And when he said the word fantastic, he said it softly and slowly—“fan-tas-tic!”—as if he never wanted it to end. This is perhaps Ive’s greatest achievement: not that we can get our email more readily, but that we can stop to notice a small, quiet connection.

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INTEREST: JPMorgan hack exposed data of 83 million, among biggest breaches in history
by Wayne Billing 02 Oct '14

02 Oct '14

"Six months [before the attack, Target] began installing a $1.6 million malware detection tool made by the computer security firm FireEye (FEYE), whose customers also include the CIA and the Pentagon. Target had a team of security specialists in Bangalore to monitor its computers around the clock. If Bangalore noticed anything suspicious, Target’s security operations center in Minneapolis would be notified. On Saturday, Nov. 30, the hackers had set their traps and had just one thing to do before starting the attack: plan the data’s escape route. As they uploaded exfiltration malware to move stolen credit card numbers—first to staging points spread around the U.S. to cover their tracks, then into their computers in Russia—FireEye spotted them. Bangalore got an alert and flagged the security team in Minneapolis. And then … Nothing happened. For some reason, Minneapolis didn’t react to the sirens. Target employees familiar with the company’s data security operation, as well as eight people with specific knowledge of the hack and its aftermath, including former employees, security researchers, and law enforcement officials. The story they tell is of an alert system, installed to protect the bond between retailer and customer, that worked beautifully. But then, Target stood by as 40 million credit card numbers—and 70 million addresses, phone numbers, and other pieces of personal information—gushed out of its mainframes." - http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-13/target-missed-alarms-in-epi… Missed Alarms and 40 Million Stolen Credit Card Numbers: How Target Blew It http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-13/target-missed-alarms-in-epi… Home Depot security hack: What to do if your cards are breached http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/home-depot-security-hack-what-to-do-if-your… JPMorgan hack exposed data of 83 million, among biggest breaches in history http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/02/us-jpmorgan-cybersecurity-idUSKCN… JPMorgan hack exposed data of 83 million, among biggest breaches in history Thu Oct 2, 2014 7:15pm EDT (Reuters) - Names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of the holders of some 83 million households and small business accounts were exposed when computer systems at JPMorgan Chase & Co<http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM&lc=int_mb_1001> (JPM.N<http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N>) were recently compromised by hackers, making it one of the biggest data breaches in history. The bank revealed the scope of the previously disclosed breach on Thursday, saying that there was no evidence that account numbers, passwords, user IDs, birth dates or Social Security numbers had been stolen. It added that it has not seen "unusual customer fraud" related to the attack which exposed contact information for 76 million households and 7 million small businesses. The people affected are mostly account holders, but may also include former account holders and others who entered their contact information at the bank’s online and mobile sites, according to a bank spokeswoman. Security experts outside of the bank warned that the breach could result in an increase in crime as scammers will likely attempt to use the stolen information to engage in various types of fraud. The bank's customers should be on heightened alert for fraud, said Mark Rasch, a former federal cyber crimes prosecutor. "All of this data is useful to hackers and identity thieves," he said. "The kind of information that was stolen is not sensitive itself, but is frequently used to validate people's identities." Tal Klein, vice president with the cybersecurity firm Adallom, said that the breach could undermine confidence in the security of banks and other companies that people assume are well protected from hackers. "Criminals could literally take on the identities of these 83 million businesses and people. That's the biggest concern," he said. "Until now the assumption has been that the companies that get breached are the ones that have poor security practices, but we know that JPMorgan had a good security program and that they invest heavily in this area," he said. "So what we are waking up to is that the fundamental nature of security is broken." Still, JPMorgan advised customers on its website that it does not believe they need to change their passwords or account information. Company spokeswoman Patricia Wexler said that the bank is not offering credit monitoring to its customers because no financial information, account data or personally identifiable information was compromised. At the end of August, JPMorgan said it was working with U.S. law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible cyber attack. As with home break-ins, it can take victims of data attacks months to discover what, if anything, is missing. (Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bangalore, David Henry in New York and Jim Finkle<http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=jim.finkle&> in Boston.; Editing by Ted Kerr<http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=ted.kerr&> and Bernard Orr<http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=bernard.orr&>)

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FYI: Apple's Commitment to Privacy
by Wayne Billing 24 Sep '14

24 Sep '14

Apple Inc. is providing new web pages that lay out how your information, location, and transactions has been increased by Apple, iOS 8, and Yosemite. See how you can make best use of these extra protections: http://www.apple.com/privacy/ http://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-built-in/ http://www.apple.com/privacy/manage-your-privacy/ http://www.apple.com/privacy/government-information-requests/ http://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-policy/ ....you should also keep in mind that not many 3rd party (non-Apple Inc.) apps do not yet take advantage of the Apple supplied technology and may not fully encrypt/protect/etc. your information: Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support Computer and Network Support 130 Machray Hall Building 204-474-6649 204-807-3153 (cell) 204-474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

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FYI: iOS8, iPhone 4s, & iPad2: Wait?
by Wayne Billing 18 Sep '14

18 Sep '14

...from: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-on-the-iphone-4s-performance-isn… iOS 8 on the iPhone 4S: Performance isn’t the (only) problem New OS wants screen space and processing power that the old phone doesn't have. by Andrew Cunningham<http://arstechnica.com/author/andrew_cunningham/> - Sept 17 2014, 8:26am CDT * Share<https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fapple%…> * Tweet<https://twitter.com/share?text=iOS+8+on+the+iPhone+4S%3A+Performance+isn%E2…> 129<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-on-the-iphone-4s-performance-isn…> [cid:D5339AF5-E24F-42BA-9DA5-9F64A95DB65C]<http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_0052.jpg> Enlarge<http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_0052.jpg> / The iPhone 4S. I remember when this was the one that made my old phone feel slow. Andrew Cunningham iPhones have about a year to be top-of-the-line. Then they have a year to be the modest-but-capable midrange model. After that, they become the free-with-contract choice. And then, in their last year, they enter that no-man's-land where they're still getting software updates but are no longer being sold. 2014 is the year the iPhone 4S was told to pack up its things and move to the retirement home. As a going away present, Apple gave it iOS 8<http://ars.to/1rZUgRC>, which in all likelihood will be the last major version upgrade it gets. For the last two years, we've taken the oldest phone supported by each new iOS update and looked at what you stand to gain (and lose) by installing the update. We were impressed by iOS 6 on the iPhone 3GS<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/tempting-fate-installing-ios-6-on-the-…>, but iOS 7 on the iPhone 4<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/09/new-lease-on-life-or-death-sentence-io…> came with some serious compromises. The 4S has stayed pretty speedy over the years, but how does iOS 8 treat it? Missing features The iPhone 4S gets many of iOS 8's biggest additions, including support for extensions and most of the improvements to Apple's built-in applications. That said, it's missing out on several features that depend on newer hardware: * AirDrop * TouchID * Handoff for applications, though iPhone call forwarding to other devices works fine * Support for OpenGL ES 3.0<https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/DeviceInformation/Ref…>, the Metal graphics API, and 64-bit ARMv8 apps In addition to that list, keep in mind that the iPhone 4S is much slower than any other iPhone Apple currently sells. It uses 2.4GHz-only 802.11n Wi-Fi, lacks LTE, and uses an Apple A5 chip that only offers about a quarter the raw performance of the Apple A7 in the iPhone 5S (the A8 in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus widens this gap yet further). iOS 8 doesn't leave the iPhone 4S behind, but you'll pick up quite a few features by moving to something newer. 3.5 inches is not that many [cid:C3F70C0E-8265-46D9-934C-04B740A9278B]<http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-13-2-09-09-…> Andrew Cunningham Spotlight suggestions can fit one or two results at best. 1. [cid:90B65383-A73E-4050-B234-4C88D95E2194] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-13-2-09-09-…> 2. [cid:83B10552-2A40-4933-AF1D-8F541261FE63] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-13-2-12-39-…> 3. [cid:ADC477B2-8A92-481F-82EA-344C8489AC33] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-13-11-29-57…> 4. [cid:6E7C37F6-07F3-4E23-BC65-35C7BBAED0E2] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-13-2-21-48-…> 5. [cid:9DBBFC10-B180-4694-B53B-CA6040AAA940] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-13-2-21-30-…> 6. [cid:11B6DA24-F813-485E-8387-64CB4FE457B3] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-13-2-13-22-…> FURTHER READING [cid:311149A2-3E96-4AA3-9CC6-2D118672BE0A]<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/09/new-lease-on-life-or-death-sentence-io…> NEW LEASE ON LIFE OR DEATH SENTENCE? IOS 7 ON THE IPHONE 4<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/09/new-lease-on-life-or-death-sentence-io…> Apple's single-core A4 is really beginning to show its age. The iPhone 4S was Apple's last to use the original 3.5-inch iPhone screen size, which is now the smallest of four different phone screens that Apple supports. iOS 8's new stuff is all about fitting more information on those larger screens, whether we're talking about predictive typing, new Mail sorting options, Notification Center widgets, or Spotlight suggestions. The 4S' screen has always been small, but iOS 8 can make it feel cramped. Look at the Mail app, for example: you give up one strip of horizontal screen space to fit the typing suggestions and another strip at the top to show that Mail compose "windows" can be minimized to let you dig through the rest of your inbox. Both features work on the iPhone 4S, but they also leave you with only a very small bit of screen for what you're writing. If you don't mind (or actively prefer) your 4S' screen size, by all means, continue to enjoy it. You'll just have to do more scrolling than you do on and iPhone 5 or an iPhone 6. Needs more speed We want to open this section by saying that iOS 8 on the iPhone 4S is nowhere near as bad as iOS 7 on the iPhone 4. That OS ran so slowly and looked so different on the iPhone 4 than it did on any other device that it was obvious the hardware was struggling to keep up. The iPhone 4S made the jump to iOS 7 relatively gracefully, though, and it's fine with rendering all of the fancy transparency and translucency effects. We were expecting speed to stay roughly the same in the jump from iOS 7 to iOS 8, more or less as it did when we moved from iOS 5 to iOS 6 on the 3GS. Testing some application launch times under both operating systems reset those expectations. APPLICATION IOS 7.1.2 IOS 8.0 GM Safari 1.25 seconds 2.16 seconds Camera 1.5 seconds 1.8 seconds Settings 0.95 seconds 1.25 seconds Mail 0.91 seconds 1.30 seconds Messages 1.73 seconds 1.83 seconds Calendar 0.8 seconds 1.25 seconds Cold boot 36.4 seconds 39.8 seconds Each app was launched, timed with a stopwatch until it was ready for user input, then force-closed and opened again two more times; the speeds above are averages of those times. Again, we're not looking at an iPhone 4-level situation here, but iOS 8 can add as much as 50 percent more time to the same task compared to iOS 7. As you can read in our main iOS 8 review<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-thoroughly-reviewed/>, browser benchmarks are a little bit faster and battery life is about the same, but speed does take a hit. The other problem is something that's not so easily measurable: animations on the Apple A5 SoC are markedly more choppy and inconsistent in iOS 8 than they ever were in iOS 7, something we confirmed by jumping back and forth between OSes a couple of times to make sure we weren't imagining things. Ars Culture Editor Casey Johnston confirmed that she was seeing the same kind of behavior on her iPad 2<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/a-slide-into-obsolescence-ios-8-on-the…>, and the non-Retina iPad Mini I have for testing was also choppy. It's odd, because although the applications themselves have added features, the GPU shouldn't really be working harder to render stuff in iOS 8 than it had to in iOS 7. The most common problem is dropped frames during animations, which doesn't create slowness so much as it gives the impression of slowness. You'll see these whether you're looking at big sweeping animations (opening a new tab in Safari) or smaller, more subtle ones (hitting "send" on a text in Messages). Occasionally, though, a hitch in animation would actually slow the whole device down, and it would sometimes hesitate to respond to input in a way that it didn't before. The iPhone 4's severe performance problems were addressed to some degree by the iOS 7.1 update<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/03/ios-7-1-on-the-iphone-4-as-good-as-its…>, and we're hoping to see the same done for older devices under iOS 8. Should you upgrade? [cid:A496584D-4DD5-45A4-B4DC-335C03FDDD8D]<http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_0050.jpg> Enlarge<http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_0050.jpg> Andrew Cunningham Despite the problems we ran into, we think the answer for most people will still be "yes." And if you happen to be using an iPhone 5 or iPhone 5C, the next-newest iOS 8 devices, go ahead and upgrade without fear; we didn't notice any of the same speed problems on those phones that we did on the 4S. iOS 8 is a big update, and it comes with a lot of big features. Although the iPhone 4S misses out on Handoff, it can still run extensions like widgets and third-party keyboards, two things iOS users have been awaiting for a long time now. By holding off on iOS 7, you were mostly just missing out on a redesign, but with iOS 8 there's good stuff here that you're going to want if you can get it. Ideally you wouldn't have to trade features for performance, but in our opinion getting the new stuff is worth putting up with the small slowdowns you'll experience. If you'd prefer to play it safe and wait for a future 8.0.1 or 8.1 update to improve performance on older devices, that's fine too—we hope that Apple makes it a priority as it continues to work on iOS 8. -== -=-=-== -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -=- = -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= - ...from: INFINITE LOOP / THE APPLE ECOSYSTEM<http://arstechnica.com/apple/> A slide into obsolescence: iOS 8 on the iPad 2 It didn't seem like 6 could be worse than 7, but 7 to 8 is a different story. by Casey Johnston<http://arstechnica.com/author/caseyjohnston/> - Sept 17 2014, 8:29am CDT * Share<https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fapple%…> * Tweet<https://twitter.com/share?text=A+slide+into+obsolescence%3A+iOS+8+on+the+iP…> 98<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/a-slide-into-obsolescence-ios-8-on-the…> [cid:406DD54B-92AD-482C-A892-58B0BF4DE5A2] iOS 8 doesn't make a huge difference, visually, save a few small points. In case you've been so content with your iPad 2 over the last few years that you've drifted away from paying attention to the Apple product cycle, here is some six-month-old news: Apple finally stopped selling the iPad 2 model back in March. After it hung on at the bottom of the tablet product line for a couple of years to be a rock for the education and corporate markets, Apple kicked the iPad 2 out and resurrected the iPad 4 as the new full-size budget model. But for now, Apple is continuing to update the iPad 2, in part because it has so much in common with the non-retina iPad mini, including the Apple A5 processor and 1024x768 display. But the iPad 2 hung around so long because it's also a legacy device. There are students depending on updates, as well as companies who used the iPad as a default device, like Square. iOS 7 didn't do a whole lot of damage to the iPad 2, and even improved it in some aspects, like how fast the browser could load webpages. But this time around, the new version of iOS 8 appears to make the start of a much bigger decline, not only in performance, but in appearance. Where we miss out, and what goes wrong FURTHER READING [cid:D129D789-CD64-4A62-9B15-84F07CF194A0]<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-thoroughly-reviewed/> IOS 8, THOROUGHLY REVIEWED<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-thoroughly-reviewed/> A big, developer-centric update completes the overhaul started in iOS 7. There were some features added to iOS 7<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/09/dont-let-me-down-apple-ios-7-on-the-ip…> that were not available on the iPad 2, and iOS 8 adds to this list<https://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/>: * Apple Health * Handoff features in Continuity * TouchID * Support for OpenGL ES 3.0<https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/DeviceInformation/Ref…>, the Metal graphics API, and 64-bit ARMv8 apps. The last time we wrote about an iOS transition, we noted that the bolder version of the OS-wide font helped everything look slightly better on the iPad 2's non-retina screen. With the font changes in iOS 8, though, this is no longer good advice—the bold font looks fat and unwieldy, especially on the everpresent clock time at the top of the screen and on the keyboard. Fortunately, Apple seems to have beefed up the standard font a bit in places where it needs it, so switching to bold is no longer necessary. [cid:EAF69CB2-5525-4B8C-853B-AE09E1729FA1]<http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-16-1-38-07-…> Bold text on iOS 7.1.2... 1. [cid:481989F7-79DF-4732-94BF-35965143CACD] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-16-1-38-07-…> 2. [cid:737637CA-DFC4-470B-BCFE-10C7DB379586] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-16-1-39-39-…> 3. [cid:547E5D01-53E0-474D-9CB4-87483C4E4FF4] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-16-1-39-50-…> 4. [cid:90BED20E-C2C1-49BD-8136-7B6B92E2D2C1] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-16-1-41-35-…> 5. [cid:B4381E3F-E204-42AD-BFB7-5DCBC92A04A7] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-16-2-25-19-…> 6. [cid:6B22B8D8-B4B0-4A55-92A7-83024A88326F] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-16-2-26-22-…> 7. [cid:44A4E194-DB8A-4F6D-8758-C4A0D8D8CDF8] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-16-2-25-25-…> 8. [cid:1AAD2D33-7232-41ED-A61F-515D53101511] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Photo-Sep-16-2-26-28-…> In addition to font problems, the iPad 2 also still doesn't get any of the watercolor translucency effects Apple introduced iOS 7. Generally, iOS 8 is noticeably slower and choppier than iOS 7, in everything from opening apps to typing. Back when we switched from iOS 6, we complained about how we could get 10 characters into typing something before the keyboard realized what was happening. This problem has returned with a force in iOS 8, especially on first opening an app. Screen rotation is stuttery, and any time some part of the OS needs to slide into place (text centering, apps minimizing), it can't do it smoothly. To quantify the difference in performance, we tried opening several stock apps on each version of the OS, as well as cold-booting to the lock screen. APPLICATION IOS 7.1.2 IOS 8.0 GM Safari 1.07 seconds 1.81 seconds Camera 1.01 seconds 1.04 seconds Settings 1.16 seconds 1.63 seconds Mail 1.60 seconds 2.61 seconds Messages 0.92 seconds 1.19 seconds Calendar 0.97 seconds 1.48 seconds Cold boot 29.12 seconds 31.53 seconds IOS 7 was overall slower at opening apps than iOS 6 last year, but a lot of the difference could be attributed to the sweeping and slow animations that Apple introduced between the two versions. Even after Apple expedited the animations in newer versions of iOS 7, iOS 8 is still one half to a full second slower to complete certain tasks than iOS 7 on the iPad 2. Cold boots take a couple seconds longer, too. None of these opening times are huge roadblocks, but they add up to a noticeable poky feeling that wasn't there (or wasn't as strong) coming from iOS 7. [cid:C2488662-189A-455E-BB04-21174FF28B02]<http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/charts.005.png> 1. [cid:E353F12D-DFB6-4452-A455-9603A331198B] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/charts.005.png> 2. [cid:2532D096-F72C-4106-A026-45E24E4489CC] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/charts.006.png> 3. [cid:F239B316-1F55-4745-968F-CAEA7744F44D] <http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/charts.007.png> Surprisingly, the browser performance on iOS 8 is marginally better than on iOS 7 according to benchmarks. iOS 8 barely edges out 7 in Kraken, but it loses out in running SunSpider. The iPad 2 could not run Google Octane v2 on iOS 8 without crashing, but when we ran v1 on both versions, iOS 8 beat iOS 7 by a solid margin. FURTHER READING [cid:3C588B9A-B832-4803-A91E-93F9F1BE37E7]<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-on-the-iphone-4s-performance-isn…> IOS 8 ON THE IPHONE 4S: PERFORMANCE ISN’T THE (ONLY) PROBLEM<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-on-the-iphone-4s-performance-isn…> New OS wants screen space and processing power that the old phone doesn't have. Experientially, though, iOS 8 feels like it reloads tabs and reacts to input slower than iOS 7 did. Because of all the reloads, browsing is a disjointed experience with either version. Do I upgrade, or not? Last year our attitude toward the iOS 6-to-7 upgrade was "how much worse can things get," and it turns out we'd never find out. iOS 7 stayed roughly on par with 6 in terms of performance. After that experience, we could advocate for an upgrade with few reservations. But now, iOS 8 has convinced us that things can, in fact, be worse. Not a whole lot worse, and not all the time, but it's enough of a regression with few enough upsides that acquiescing to the "download software update" prompts may actually be a bad idea. FURTHER READING [cid:DDEA7E11-3447-4EC6-85AD-89DDC6E1AE7E]<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/09/dont-let-me-down-apple-ios-7-on-the-ip…> DON’T LET ME DOWN, APPLE: IOS 7 ON THE IPAD 2<http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/09/dont-let-me-down-apple-ios-7-on-the-ip…> The A5 processor is less of a problem than the sad non-retina display. With that course of action comes some caveats: opting out of software updates can be risky from a security standpoint. There is also the possibility that later versions will become more stable, so closing your device off permanently may not be the best decision in the long run. It is possible, though not strictly sanctioned, to roll back to iOS 7 from 8 if you do want to give it a try but are worried you'll find it lacking. Ultimately, the iPad 2 is still our couch Internet-surfing device, occasionally a night-reading device. We don't demand much at all from it in terms of performance and expect it's the same for others who are still using this model a full three and a half years after it came out. This means that upgrading to iOS 8 won't ruin the experience; then again, neither would just staying on iOS 7.

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FYI: "Android Browser flaw a privacy disaster for half of Android users"
by Wayne Billing 16 Sep '14

16 Sep '14

...from: http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/09/android-browser-flaw-a-privacy-disa… Android Browser flaw a “privacy disaster” for half of Android users Bug enables malicious sites to grab cookies, passwords from other sites. by Peter Bright<http://arstechnica.com/author/peter-bright/> - Sept 16 2014, 6:00pm CDT * Share<https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fsecuri…> * Tweet<https://twitter.com/share?text=Android+Browser+flaw+a+%E2%80%9Cprivacy+disa…> 60<http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/09/android-browser-flaw-a-privacy-disa…> [cid:6B50831D-9AD1-474E-90A9-49648DA366F2] Thanks to a bug in the Android Browser, your cookies aren't safe. Surian Soosay<https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssoosay/5762345557/in/photolist-9Mcwzt-46PRKe…> A bug quietly reported on September 1 appears to have grave implications for Android users. Android Browser, the open source, WebKit-based browser that used to be part of the Android Open Source Platform (AOSP), has a flaw that enables malicious sites to inject JavaScript into other sites. Those malicious JavaScripts can in turn read cookies and password fields, submit forms, grab keyboard input, or do practically anything else. Browsers are generally designed to prevent a script from one site from being able to access content from another site. They do this by enforcing what is called the Same Origin Policy (SOP): scripts can only read or modify resources (such as the elements of a webpage) that come from the same origin as the script, where the origin is determined by the combination of scheme (which is to say, protocol, typically HTTP or HTTPS), domain, and port number. The SOP should then prevent a script loaded from http://malware.bad/ from being able to access content at https://paypal.com/. The Android Browser bug breaks the browser's handling of the SOP. As Rafay Baloch, the researcher who discovered the problem<http://www.rafayhackingarticles.net/2014/08/android-browser-same-origin-pol…> found, JavaScript constructed in a particular way could ignore the SOP and freely meddle with other sites' content without restriction. This means that potentially any site visited in the browser could be stealing sensitive data. It's a bug that needs fixing, and fast. As part of its attempts to gain more control over Android<http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-control…>, Google has discontinued the AOSP Browser. Android Browser used to be the default browser on Google, but this changed in Android 4.2, when Google switched to Chrome. The core parts of Android Browser were still used to power embedded Web view controls within applications, but even this changed in Android 4.4, when it switched to a Chromium-based browser engine. But just as Microsoft's end-of-life for Windows XP didn't make that operating system magically disappear from the Web, Google's discontinuation of the open source Browser app hasn't made it disappear from the Web either. As our monthly look at Web browser usage shows<http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/09/august-growth-puts-wi…>, Android Browser has a little more real-world usage than Chrome for Android, with something like 40-50 percent of Android users using the flawed browser. The Android Browser is likely to be embedded in third-party products, too, and some Android users have even installed it on their Android 4.4 phones because for one reason or another they prefer it to Chrome. Google's own numbers paint an even worse picture. According to the online advertising giant<https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html>, only 24.5 percent of Android users are using version 4.4. The majority of Android users are using versions that include the broken component, and many of these users are using 4.1.x or below, so they're not even using versions of Android that use Chrome as the default browser. Baloch initially reported<https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/pull/3759#issuecomment-55638…> the bug to Google, but the company told him that it couldn't reproduce the problem and closed his report. Since he wrote his blog post, a Metasploit module has been developed to enable the popular security testing framework to detect the problem, and Metasploit developers have branded the problem a "privacy disaster<https://community.rapid7.com/community/metasploit/blog/2014/09/15/major-and…>." Baloch says that Google has subsequently changed its response, agreeing that it can reproduce the problem and saying that it is working on a suitable fix. Just how this fix will be made useful is unclear. While Chrome is updated through the Play Store, the AOSP Browser is generally updated only through operating system updates. Timely availability of Android updates remains a sticking point<http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/08/the-state-of-android-updates-whos-fa…> for the operating system, so even if Google develops a fix, it may well be unavailable to those who actually need it. Users of Android 4.0 and up can avoid much of the exposure by switching to Chrome, Firefox, or Opera, none of which should use the broken code. Other third-party browsers for Android may embed the broken AOSP code, and unfortunately for end users, there's no good way to know if this is the case or not.

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INTEREST: Apple's Tim Cook interviewed on Charlier Rose
by Wayne Billing 15 Sep '14

15 Sep '14

"Between zero and two hundred and fifty..." ...from: http://gizmodo.com/tim-cook-on-user-privacy-at-apple-youre-not-our-produ-16… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmm5faI_mLo http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60444569 [cid:D119CACF-7295-41B8-83C3-F860FC761B32] Tim Cook Says Apple Has Never Shared Data: "You're Not Our Product"<http://gizmodo.com/tim-cook-on-user-privacy-at-apple-youre-not-our-produ-16…> Profile<http://alissawalker.kinja.com/>Follow<http://gizmodo.com/tim-cook-on-user-privacy-at-apple-youre-not-our-produ-16…> [cid:15C3A2EB-4AE3-4E73-A34C-8E2F59ADDDBF]<http://alissawalker.kinja.com/> Alissa Walker<http://alissawalker.kinja.com/> Filed to: APPLE PAY<http://gizmodo.com/tag/apple-pay> * APPLE<http://gizmodo.com/tag/apple> * TIM COOK<http://gizmodo.com/tag/tim-cook> * CHARLIE ROSE<http://gizmodo.com/tag/charlie-rose> * PRISM<http://gizmodo.com/tag/prism> * DATA<http://gizmodo.com/tag/data> * DATA MINING<http://gizmodo.com/tag/data-mining> * PRIVACY<http://gizmodo.com/tag/privacy> * IPHONE 6<http://gizmodo.com/tag/iphone-6> Today 7:30pm<http://gizmodo.com/tim-cook-on-user-privacy-at-apple-youre-not-our-produ-16…> As part of Apple's ongoing glasnost campaign, Tim Cook was on Charlie Rose last Friday<http://gizmodo.com/tim-cook-talks-icloud-hack-iphone-6-and-more-with-cha-16…>. Part two airs tonight and it looks like it will be a lot meatier, just based on the clip released today<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmm5faI_mLo&feature=youtu.be>: Cook will apparently talk more about the role of privacy at Apple, including their choice not to release or mine user metadata. "When we design a new service, we try not to collect data," Cook says in regards to how they structured Apple Pay to protect delicate user information like credit card numbers. "We're not reading your email. We're not reading your iMessage. If the government laid a subpoena on us to get your iMessage, we can't provide it. It's encrypted and we don't have the key." He goes on to slam other tech companies for handing over information to the government, seeming to particularly point a finger companies like Yahoo, which was supposedly coerced into joining PRISM<http://gizmodo.com/the-nsa-was-going-to-fine-yahoo-250k-a-day-if-it-didnt-1…><http://gizmodo.com/the-nsa-was-going-to-fine-yahoo-250k-a-day-if-it-didnt-1…>. No one has ever been granted access to Apple's data, says Cook. "We would never do that. They would have to cart us out in a box before we would do that."

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FYI: Australia: in "airplane mode", electronics soon fly
by Wayne Billing 02 Sep '14

02 Sep '14

...from: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/new-inflight-device-rule-clear… New in-flight device rule clears the way for smartphones and tablets to be used during takeoff and landing * 11 DAYS AGO AUGUST 23, 2014 12:00AM [Devices weighing less than 1kg will be allowed to be used in flight mode during takeoff a] Devices weighing less than 1kg will be allowed to be used in flight mode during takeoff and landing, once CASA gives airlines the green light. Source: Supplied AUSTRALIAN airlines are just a signature away from allowing passengers to use electronic devices from gate to gate on domestic flights. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority late yesterday published its new regulation all but clearing the way for smartphones and iPads weighing up to 1kg to be operated in flight-mode during takeoff and landing. IN-FLIGHT DEVICES: Virgin and Qantas lobby for rule change<http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-news/virgin-and-qantas-lobby-for-chang…> CASA is now seeking a “revised submission” from airlines confirming they have completed a safety checklist. Virgin Australia and Qantas must show aircraft manufacturers are happy for personal electronic devices to be used from gate to gate. Then they need to explain what safety systems they will implement to ensure passengers are complying with the regulation, and not using the device in a disruptive or unsafe way. Only devices weighing up to 1kg will be able to be used during takeoffs and landing to limit the risk of heavier items becoming airborne and causing injury. Laptops will still have to be stowed securely in overhead lockers. Finally airlines will need to revise training procedures so flight crew are aware of the regulations and the requirement passengers pay attention to cabin safety announcements. Among the issues highlighted in the safety advisory was an incident in November last year, when a Qantas plane en route to Sydney was diverted to Newcastle because of severe turbulence. One passenger was struck by an iPad from three rows away, and another was hit in the head with a laptop and needed hospital treatment. CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said he expected the airlines would have their revised submissions ready to go. Virgin Australia chief customer officer Mark Hassell confirmed last night the new submission had already been lodged and they were just waiting for CASA’s tick-off. Once that happened, the airline would work to “immediately implement the use of handheld devices from gate to gate”. “In-flight entertainment is a key driver of customer satisfaction and this application marks the next phase of that product evolution,” said Mr Hassell. A Qantas spokeswoman said the change would be “an exciting development to an already exceptional in-flight entertainment service”.

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FYI: "Online Social networks": negative effect on individuals
by Wayne Billing 01 Sep '14

01 Sep '14

SUMMARY: MIT study concludes that people tend to feel more satisfied with their lives and to be more trusting of people if they often meet with friends in person. In all, the study finds the overall effect of social networking on individuals to be "significantly negative" despite its power to keep people connected. ...from: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/530401/evidence-grows-that-online-soci… http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/01/social-networks-negative-effect-study/?n… August 29, 2014 Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Insidious Negative Effects A study of 50,000 people in Italy concludes that online social networks have a significant negative impact on individual welfare. [cid:6A5A3F61-8EA5-43DF-AB13-D9614F6863BA] Online social networks have permeated our lives with far-reaching consequences. Many people have used them to connect with friends and family in distant parts of the world, to make connections that have advanced their careers in leaps and bounds and to explore and visualize not only their own network of friends but the networks of their friends, family, and colleagues. But there is growing evidence that the impact of online social networks is not all good or even benign. A number of studies have begun found evidence that online networks can have significant detrimental effects. This question is hotly debated, often with conflicting results and usually using limited varieties of subjects, such as undergraduate students. Today, Fabio Sabatini at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy and Francesco Sarracino at STATEC in Luxembourg attempt to tease apart the factors involved in this thorny issue by number crunching the data from a survey of around 50,000 people in Italy gathered during 2010 and 2011. The survey specifically measures subjective well-being and also gathers detailed information about the way each person uses the Internet. The question Sabatini and Sarracino set out to answer is whether the use of online networks reduces subjective well-being and if so, how. Sabatini and Sarracino’s database is called the “Multipurpose Survey on Households,” a survey of around 24,000 Italian households corresponding to 50,000 individuals carried out by the Italian National Institute of Statistics every year. These guys use the data drawn from 2010 and 2011. What’s important about the survey as that it is large and nationally representative (as opposed to a self-selecting group of undergraduates). The survey specifically asks the question “How satisfied are you with your life as a whole nowadays?” requiring an answer from extremely dissatisfied (0) to extremely satisfied (10). This provides a well-established measure of subjective well-being. The survey also asks other detailed questions such as how often people meet friends and whether they think people can be trusted. It also asked about people’s use of online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. This allowed Sabatini and Sarracino to study the correlation between subjective well-being and other factors in their life, particularly their use of social networks. As statisticians they were particularly careful to rule out spurious correlations that can be explained by factors such as endogeneity bias where a seemingly independent parameter is actually correlated with an unobserved factor relegated to the error. They found for example that face-to-face interactions and the trust people place in one another are strongly correlated with well-being in a positive way. In other words, if you tend to trust people and have lots of face-to-face interactions, you will probably assess your well-being more highly. But of course interactions on online social networks are not face-to-face and this may impact the trust you have in people online. It is this loss of trust that can then affect subjective well-being rather than the online interaction itself. Sabatini and Sarracino tease this apart statistically. “We find that online networking plays a positive role in subjective well-being through its impact on physical interactions, whereas [the use of] social network sites is associated with lower social trust,” they say. “The overall effect of networking on individual welfare is significantly negative,” they conclude. That’s an important result because it is the first time that the role of online networks has been addressed in such a large and nationally representative sample. Sabatini and Sarracino particularly highlight the role of discrimination and hate speech on social media which they say play a significant role in trust and well-being. Better moderation could significantly improve the well-being of the people who use social networks, they conclude. Facebook, Twitter, and others take note.

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FYI: "kill switch" on smartphones
by Wayne Billing 26 Aug '14

26 Aug '14

You can check your iPhone settings for this by following these "Find My iPhone" instructions: https://www.apple.com/ca/icloud/find-my-iphone.html You'll want to claim an Apple iCloud ID but they're free. Follow this link and click SETUP INSTRUCTIONS: https://www.icloud.com ...from: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/california-governor-signs-law-requ… California Governor Signs Law Requiring a ‘Kill Switch’ on Smartphones By BRIAN X. CHEN<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/author/brian-x-chen/> AUGUST 25, 2014 7:48 PMAugust 25, 2014 7:53 pm Photo [Apple’s iPhone has offered so-called kill switch technology since September, and law enforcement statistics for several major cities saw a significant dip in thefts of devices after the introduction of the antitheft feature.] Apple’s iPhone has offered so-called kill switch technology since September, and law enforcement statistics for several major cities saw a significant dip in thefts of devices after the introduction of the antitheft feature.Credit Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press Governor Jerry Brown of California on Monday signed into law a measure that requires smartphones sold in California to include smarter antitheft technology, a feature that lawmakers hope will help reduce phone theft. The bill, introduced by State Senator Mark Leno and sponsored by George Gascón, San Francisco’s district attorney, requires a so-called “kill switch” — which would render a smartphone useless after it was stolen — to be included on all smartphones sold in California starting in July 2015. A kill switch is software that allows consumers to disable a phone after the device has been reported stolen and reactivate it only with a correct password or personal identification number. Proponents of the bill have argued that wide adoption of this type of antitheft technology would lead to a reduction in phone theft because it would make it more difficult for criminals to resell stolen phones. “Our efforts will effectively wipe out the incentive to steal smartphones and curb this crime of convenience, which is fueling street crime and violence within our communities,” said Senator Leno, in a statement. In May, Minnesota became the first state to require a kill switch on all smartphones sold there. But the California bill is unusual in that it requires manufacturers, like Apple, Samsung and Motorola Mobility, to ship smartphones with the anti-theft technology turned on by default. In San Francisco, 2,400 cellphones were stolen last year, up 23 percent from 2012, according to the San Francisco police. Phone thefts also grew in New York and Washington last year. Overall, about 3.1 million devices were stolen in the United States in 2013, nearly double the 1.6 million that were stolen in 2012, according to Consumer Reports. However, some data suggests that kill-switch technology is already helping deter smartphone theft<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/antitheft-technology-led-to-a-dip-…>. Apple’s iPhone has offered kill switch technology since September. In June, law enforcement statistics for several major cities saw a significant dip in thefts of Apple devices after Apple’s introduction of the antitheft feature. For example, comparing data in the six months before and after Apple released its anti-theft feature, police said iPhone robberies in San Francisco dropped 38 percent. Supporters of a kill-switch law have faced resistance from CTIA, a trade organization for the wireless industry. The group has argued that creating laws specific to certain states would stifle technology innovation. It reiterated this argument again on Monday in reaction to Governor Brown’s decision to sign the bill. “Uniformity in the wireless industry created tremendous benefits for wireless consumers, including lower costs and phenomenal innovation,” said Jamie Hastings, vice president of external and state affairs for CTIA, in a statement. “State by state technology mandates, such as this one, stifle those benefits and are detrimental to wireless consumers.” Mr. Gascón, San Francisco’s district attorney, said in a statement that cellphone owners can “breathe a sigh of relief.” “Soon, stealing a smartphone won’t be worth the trouble, and these violent street crimes will be a thing of the past,” he said in a statement. “The devices we use every day will no longer make us targets for violent criminals.”

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FYI: Skipping thru US Customs? There’s an app for that...
by Wayne Billing 25 Aug '14

25 Aug '14

...from: http://9to5mac.com/2014/08/25/skipping-the-us-customs-and-border-protection… http://www.cbp.gov//travel/us-citizens/mobilepassportcontrol Skipping the US Customs and Border Protection queues? There’s now an app for that …<http://9to5mac.com/2014/08/25/skipping-the-us-customs-and-border-protection…> [mobileapp] U.S. Customs and Border Protection is trialling an iPhone app that allows travellers returning to the United States to bypass the normal immigration queues by entering their details into the app and getting a QR code containing their electronic approval. You still have to show the code to a CBP officer, but you can bypass the normal queues and use a special Mobile Passport Control lane that should be significantly quicker … The app is being tested only at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, with at least one more airport due to join before the end of the year, ahead of expected wide-scale rollout in 2015. It is currently limited to U.S. and Canadian citizens, and is likely to be extended to citizens of countries eligible for the visa waiver program at a later date. If you have in-flight WiFi, you can complete the electronic form up to two hours before your flight’s scheduled arrival time, otherwise completing it on arrival in the airport terminal. An Android app will follow, but it made sense to begin with iOS, said CBP spokesperson Jennifer Evanitsky. Airside Mobile felt that there was a sufficient number of travelers with iOS devices to sustain the pilot, especially considering the demographics of international travel and the documented rates of travel-app engagement for iOS You can download the free app<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobile-passport-officially/id907024887?mt=8…> from the App Store. You can read the full press release below the fold. New Mobile Passport Control App Available WASHINGTON—U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today announced the launch of the first authorized app to expedite a traveler’s entry process into the United States. Mobile Passport Control (MPC) will allow eligible travelers to submit their passport information and customs declaration form via a smartphone or tablet prior to CBP inspection. This first-of-its-kind app was developed by Airside Mobile and Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) in partnership with CBP as part of a pilot program at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. IPhone and iPad users can download the app for free from Apple’s App Store. “We are strongly committed to the facilitation of travel and tourism to the United States, all while maintaining the highest security standards in the world,” said Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “Mobile Passport Control is an important step and one that we think the traveling public will embrace.” Eligible travelers arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will be able to use the app beginning Aug. 13. MPC is expected to expand to more airports later this year and to Android smartphone users in the future. “CBP continues to transform the international arrivals experience for travelers by offering new and innovative ways to expedite entry into the United States, while maintaining the highest standards of security” said CBP Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske. “By offering this app to passengers, we hope to build upon the success we have already experienced with Automated Passport Control, which has resulted in decreases in wait times as much as 25-40 percent, even with continued growth in international arrivals.” MPC currently offers U.S. citizens and Canadian visitors a more efficient and secure in-person inspection between the CBP officer and the traveler upon arrival in the United States. Much like Automated Passport Control, the app does not require pre-approval, is free-to-use and does not collect any new information on travelers. As a result, travelers will experience shorter wait times, less congestion and faster processing. “Mobile Passport exemplifies the forward-thinking commitment CBP and airports have to improving the passenger experience when entering the United States,” said ACI-NA President and CEO Kevin M. Burke. “This partnership between CBP and ACI-NA also represents an outstanding example of industry and government working together to find smart, cost-effective solutions. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with CBP as Mobile Passport begins its roll-out at U.S. airports later this year.” There are five easy steps to MPC: * Download the Mobile Passport Control App from the Apple App Store prior to arriving * Create a profile with your passport information * Complete the “New Trip” section upon arrival in the United States * Submit your customs declaration form through the app to receive an electronic receipt with an Encrypted Quick Response (QR) code. This receipt will expire four hours after being issued * Bring your passport and smartphone or tablet with your digital bar-coded receipt to a CBP officer ACI-NA contracted with Airside Mobile in MPC’s technical development. Information about Mobile Passport, including how to download, user eligibility and other frequently asked questions, is available on the Travel<http://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/mobilepassportcontrol> section of the CBP.gov<http://CBP.gov> website and theAirside Mobile <http://mobilepassport.us/> website. MPC is just one part of CBP’s resource optimization strategy which is transforming the way CBP does business in land, air and sea environments. As part of its commitment to innovation, CBP last year rolled out Automated Passport Control, which is now available in 22 locations, and automated the I-94 form. CBP has also enrolled more than two million travelers in trusted traveler programs such as Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI. These programs allow CBP officers to process travelers safely and efficiently while enhancing security and reducing operational costs.

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INTEREST: Internet outages, slowness spike expected with '512K'
by Wayne Billing 15 Aug '14

15 Aug '14

...from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/internet-outages-slowness-spike-expected-… NEW Internet outages, slowness spike expected with '512K' Temporary glitch a warning of upcoming milestone By Emily Chung, CBC News<http://www.cbc.ca/news/cbc-news-online-news-staff-list-1.1294364> Posted: Aug 15, 2014 3:15 PM ET Last Updated: Aug 15, 2014 3:17 PM ET [internet-computer.jpg] When the number of destinations on the internet surpasses 512,000, users will experience overall internet slowness if they rely on an internet service provider that uses older, affected routers. (Shutterstock) Internet outages and slowdowns spiked earlier this week, and more are likely on the way in coming weeks, as the internet grows too big for some network hardware to handle. According to Vancouver-based internet monitoring firm BGPMon, this past Tuesday, outages were "well above the daily average" and the number of affected systems and addresses was "the highest we've seen in the last 12 months." The issue arose when the number of routes on the internet temporarily jumped beyond 512,000 or 512K – the maximum that some older networking gear can handle by default. The global routing table has passed 512k routes. So what now? #IPv4<https://twitter.com/hashtag/IPv4?src=hash> #IPv6<https://twitter.com/hashtag/IPv6?src=hash> Read: http://t.co/gJOafqLGDk via@CiscoSP360<https://twitter.com/CiscoSP360> — Cisco (@Cisco) August 13, 2014<https://twitter.com/Cisco/statuses/499691886169587712> The cause was a bug at U.S. internet service provider Verizon that dumped 15,000 new internet destinations onto the network for about 10 minutes, said Andree Toonk, founder and lead developer for BGPMon. "We basically got a small taste of what is possibly about to happen," added Toonk, whose company monitors internet routing for outages and security incidents. "Hopefully this is a wakeup call." Network analysts such as Toonk estimate the number of routes in the internet — currently hovering around 500,000 — will permanently surpass 512,000 within a month. "The real test… will start later this week, and will be felt nearly everywhere by the end of next week," estimated Jim Cowie, chief technology officer and co-founder of network performance management firm Renesys, in a blog post Tuesday. The hardware causing the problem is older routers made by San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco and still used by many smaller networks and regional internet providers, Toonk said. Nuisance, not threat According to Cowie, most larger internet service providers "and certainly all of the routers that operate the core infrastructure of the internet" use newer hardware that is unaffected. That means the issue is more of a nuisance than a threat to the internet. The problem arises because routers direct internet traffic to the correct destination, and rely on summaries of the destinations that are kept in tables in their memory. The default maximum size of that memory is 512K for older routers. Once that maximum is reached, three possible things can happen, Toonk said: * The router can switch to a slower mode, resulting in sluggish performance. * Some destinations may not end up in the table at all, making them unreachable. * The network operator may have to reboot the router, resulting in a few minutes of instability. Internet users will experience: * Overall internet slowness if they rely on an internet service provider that's affected. * Slowness for certain websites or services that rely on affected internet service providers, even if their own ISP is not affected. Cisco had warned users of the impending problem back in May. "It's time to start preparing," wrote Omar Santos, senior incident manager of Cisco's Product Security Incident Response Team, in a post on the Cisco Support Community website<https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12202206/size-internet-global-rout…>. He suggested some fixes, such as changing the default configuration for affected devices, but noted that might require users to reset the device. Toonk said that likely would only take five minutes, but isn't always easy to schedule on networks that serve hundreds or thousands of people. He hopes that after this week's warning, affected internet service providers will make a special effort to proactively rejig their routers. "But it's not unlikely we will see some slowness or instability over the next few weeks," he added. "If people don't fix it, it will happen again, and there will always be people who won't fix it."

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INTEREST: Apple makes Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list for 8th consecutive year
by Wayne Billing 14 Aug '14

14 Aug '14

...from: http://9to5mac.com/2014/08/14/apple-makes-fortunes-100-fastest-growing-comp… Apple makes Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list for 8th consecutive year<http://9to5mac.com/2014/08/14/apple-makes-fortunes-100-fastest-growing-comp…> [130521141911-tim-cook-hero-tax-code-614xa] Apple might have dropped from #38 to #88 this year on Fortune’s list of the 100 Fastest-Growing Companies published today<http://fortune.com/100-fastest-growing-companies/apple-88/>, but it’s also making the list for its 8th consecutive year. That means Apple has now been on the list more than any other company and also has the longest streak of consecutive appearances. There aren’t a lot of other high profile tech companies that made the list, but a couple notables include Baidu at #46 and Tivo at #73. Fortune’s list ranks companies (with a market cap of $250 million or more) based on revenue growth rate; EPS growth rate; and three-year annualized total return for the period ended June 30, 2014.[Fortune-Apple-fastest-growing]

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FYI: MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update
by Wayne Billing 30 Jul '14

30 Jul '14

...from: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1756?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US [Download icon] MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.9.1 Download<http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1756/en_US/MacBookAirEFIUp2.9.1.dmg> This update replaces EFI Firmware Update 2.9 and is recommended for MacBook Air (Mid 2011) models. This update addresses an issue where systems may take longer to wake from sleep than expected and fixes a rare issue that may cause fans to run at full speed after waking from sleep. Post Date: Jul 30, 2014 File Size: 4.3 MB System Requirements * OS X 10.9.2 and later * MBA41.0077.B11

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INTEREST: BLOOMBERG: Microsoft May Announce Largest Number of Job Cuts
by Wayne Billing 16 Jul '14

16 Jul '14

Summary: - Microsoft expected to cut 4 - 5 % of global work force within weeks - main reductions in areas that overlap with acquired Nokia units and marketing areas such as XBOX - Microsoft trying to refocus company from "the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential" to mobile devices and cloud-computing ...from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-15/microsoft-said-to-announce-job-cut… Microsoft to Announce Job Cuts as Soon as This Week By Dina Bass Jul 15, 2014 4:39 PM CT [cid:7C54FC1E-39DF-48BE-AF1D-ABAC933B6E99] July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg’s Betty Liu reports that Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella is preparing for the biggest round of job cuts at the company since 2009. She speaks in today’s “Movers and Shakers” on “In The Loop.” Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)<http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/MSFT:US> is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years, as the software maker looks to slim down and integrate Nokia Oyj’s handset unit, people with knowledge of the company’s plans said. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in an interview last week that he has preparing to make sweeping changes at Microsoft. The reductions will probably be in engineering, marketing and areas of overlap with Nokia, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The restructuring -- which may be unveiled as soon as this week -- may end up being the biggest in Microsoft history, topping the 5,800 jobs cut in 2009, two of the people said. Some details are still being worked out, two of the people said. Related: Microsoft, Intel to Benefit as Businesses Upgrade PCs<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-15/microsoft-intel-to-benefit-as-busi…> Nadella, who took over from Steve Ballmer<http://topics.bloomberg.com/steve-ballmer/> in February, said in the interview that Microsoft would have to become more focused and efficient. The CEO issued his first company mission statement last week, calling for greater emphasis on mobile devices, cloud-computing and productivity software as consumers and businesses buy fewer personal computers to check e-mail, browse the Web and access data and software. [cid:CDBDF246-F6E2-49F8-8706-A34B7E440DF5]<http://www.bloomberg.com/photo/uploaded-by-uuid-7953017-at-7-14-2014-11-05-…>Source: Microsoft Corp. via Bloomberg Microsoft employees listen as Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft... Read More<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-15/microsoft-said-to-announce-job-cut…> “Nothing is off the table in how we think about shifting our culture,” Nadella said in the interview. Nadella, a Microsoft veteran who joined in 1992, was promoted to speed up a turnaround at the software maker after Ballmer failed to deliver hit products that could take on smartphones and tablets from Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and other technology rivals. 127,104 Employees While Microsoft has undergone smaller, intermittent job cuts in individual businesses -- for example trimming a few hundred positions in advertising sales and marketing in 2012 and some marketing jobs across the company earlier that same year -- the company has only undertaken a companywide restructuring impacting thousands of workers once before, in 2009 at the start of the recession. Over the course of that year, the company cut 5,800 jobs, or about 5 percent of its workforce at the time. Microsoft shares rose less than 1 percent to $42.45 at the close in New York<http://topics.bloomberg.com/new-york/>, and are up 13 percent this year. Peter Wootton, a spokesman for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, declined to comment. Some of the job cuts will be in marketing departments for businesses such as the global Xbox team, said the people. The European Xbox team is based in Reading, U.K. [cid:9685DB6D-3DDA-454D-B00F-671D189FBF52]<http://www.bloomberg.com/photo/microsoft-corp-ceo-satya-nadella-/-izrWUMFLV…>Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft Corp., holds a Nokia Lumia 930...Read More<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-15/microsoft-said-to-announce-job-cut…> The company had 127,104 employees as of June 5, after adding about 30,000 in its acquisition of Nokia’s handset unit. Cloud Methods When Microsoft agreed to acquire Nokia’s mobile-phone business in September, the software maker pledged $600 million in annual cost savings in the 18 months after the deal closes. Meeting that commitment will probably involve job cuts in areas where the two companies overlap, said the people. Other job cuts may result from changes Nadella is making to the engineering organization, people with knowledge of the matter said last week. Engineering teams have traditionally been split between program managers, developers and testers. Yet with new cloud methods of building software, it often makes sense to have the developers test and fix bugs instead of a separate team of testers, Nadella said in the interview last week. Some of the cuts will be among software testers, said one of the people. Nadella declined to say in the interview whether the changes will result in job cuts and said he would provide more detail on the implications of his memo when Microsoft reports fiscal fourth-quarter earnings<http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/MSFT:US> on July 22. Cost Cuts Microsoft is the latest technology company seeking to reduce costs by trimming jobs. Hewlett-Packard Co. in May announced more cuts after an 11th-straight quarter of declining sales. CEOMeg Whitman<http://topics.bloomberg.com/meg-whitman/> has said she will eliminate as many as 16,000 jobs on top of 34,000 already cut. Separately Microsoft is in talks to acquire Israeli security firm Aorato, a maker of firewall software backed by Accel Partners<http://topics.bloomberg.com/accel-partners/>, said one person familiar with the discussions. The talks are at an early stage and Aorato may also be negotiating with other parties, the person said. To contact the reporter on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2(a)bloomberg.net<mailto:dbass2@bloomberg.net> To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pui-Wing Tam at ptam13(a)bloomberg.net<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-15/mailtspantam13@bloomberg.net> Reed Stevenson, Ben Livesey

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FYI: Apple and IBM Forge Global Partnership
by Wayne Billing 15 Jul '14

15 Jul '14

[cid:DB386B97-933D-4328-ACC2-13FF7E647899] ...from: http://www.ibm.com/mobilefirst/us/en/?lnk=ushpls1 http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/07/15Apple-and-IBM-Forge-Global-Partne… Apple and IBM Forge Global Partnership to Transform Enterprise Mobility CUPERTINO, California and ARMONK, New York—July 15, 2014—Apple® and IBM (NYSE: IBM<http://www.ibm.com/investor/>) today announced an exclusive partnership that teams the market-leading strengths of each company to transform enterprise mobility through a new class of business apps—bringing IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone® and iPad®. The landmark partnership aims to redefine the way work will get done, address key industry mobility challenges and spark true mobile-led business change—grounded in four core capabilities: * a new class of more than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions including native apps, developed exclusively from the ground up, for iPhone and iPad; * unique IBM cloud services optimized for iOS, including device management, security, analytics and mobile integration; * new AppleCare® service and support offering tailored to the needs of the enterprise; and * new packaged offerings from IBM for device activation, supply and management. The new IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions will be built in an exclusive collaboration that draws on the distinct strengths of each company: IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities, with the power of more than 100,000 IBM industry and domain consultants and software developers behind it, fused with Apple’s legendary consumer experience, hardware and software integration and developer platform. The combination will create apps that can transform specific aspects of how businesses and employees work using iPhone and iPad, allowing companies to achieve new levels of efficiency, effectiveness and customer satisfaction—faster and easier than ever before. As part of the exclusive IBM MobileFirst for iOS agreement, IBM will also sell iPhones and iPads with the industry-specific solutions to business clients worldwide. “iPhone and iPad are the best mobile devices in the world and have transformed the way people work with over 98 percent of the Fortune 500 and over 92 percent of the Global 500 using iOS devices in their business today,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “For the first time ever we’re putting IBM’s renowned big data analytics at iOS users’ fingertips, which opens up a large market opportunity for Apple. This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver.” “Mobility—combined with the phenomena of data and cloud—is transforming business and our industry in historic ways, allowing people to re-imagine work, industries and professions,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and CEO. “This alliance with Apple will build on our momentum in bringing these innovations to our clients globally, and leverages IBM’s leadership in analytics, cloud, software and services. We are delighted to be teaming with Apple, whose innovations have transformed our lives in ways we take for granted, but can’t imagine living without. Our alliance will bring the same kind of transformation to the way people work, industries operate and companies perform.” Apple and IBM’s shared vision for this partnership is to put in the hands of business professionals everywhere the unique capabilities of iPads and iPhones with a company’s knowledge, data, analytics and workflows. Specifically, the two companies are working together to deliver the essential elements of enterprise mobile solutions: - Mobile solutions that transform business: The companies will collaborate to build IBM MobileFirst for iOS Solutions—a new class of “made-for-business apps” targeting specific industry issues or opportunities in retail, healthcare, banking, travel and transportation, telecommunications and insurance, among others, that will become available starting this fall and into 2015. - Mobile platform: The IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS will deliver the services required for an end-to-end enterprise capability, from analytics, workflow and cloud storage, to fleet-scale device management, security and integration. Enhanced mobile management includes a private app catalog, data and transaction security services, and productivity suite for all IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions. In addition to on-premise software solutions, all these services will be available on Bluemix—IBM’s development platform on the IBM Cloud Marketplace. - Mobile service and support: AppleCare for Enterprise will provide IT departments and end users with 24/7 assistance from Apple’s award-winning customer support group, with on-site service delivered by IBM. - Packaged service offerings: IBM is introducing IBM MobileFirst Supply and Management for device supply, activation and management services for iPhone and iPad, with leasing options. Announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June and available later this year, Apple’s iOS 8 is the biggest release since the launch of the App Store℠, giving users incredible new features and developers the tools to create amazing new apps. For enterprise, iOS 8 builds on the new IT model for a mobilized workforce by improving the way users are informed of how their devices are configured, managed or restricted, with expanded security, management and productivity features. Apple designs Macs, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad. IBM’s 5,000 mobile experts have been at the forefront of mobile enterprise innovation. IBM has secured more than 4,300 patents in mobile, social and security, that have been incorporated into IBM MobileFirst solutions that enable enterprise clients to radically streamline and accelerate mobile adoption, help organizations engage more people and capture new markets. IBM has made a dozen acquisitions in security in the past decade, has more than 6,000 security researchers and developers in its 25 security labs worldwide that work on developing enterprise-class solutions. IBM has also established the world’s deepest portfolio in Big Data and Analytics consulting and technology expertise based on experiences drawn from more than 40,000 data and analytics client engagements. This analytics portfolio spans research and development, solutions, software and hardware, and includes more than 15,000 analytics consultants, 4,000 analytics patents, 6,000 industry solution business partners, and 400 IBM mathematicians who are helping clients use big data to transform their organizations. For more information regarding the new Apple and IBM solutions, please visit www.ibm.com/MobileFirstForiOS<http://www.ibm.com/MobileFirstForiOS> or www.apple.com/ipad/business<http://www.apple.com/ipad/business>. Press Contacts: Edward Barbini IBM barbini(a)us.ibm.com<mailto:barbini@us.ibm.com> (914) 499-6565 Natalie Kerris Apple nat(a)apple.com<mailto:nat@apple.com> (408) 974-6877

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INTEREST: Goole search now flagging FLASH page results
by Wayne Billing 15 Jul '14

15 Jul '14

...from: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2014/07/promoting-modern-websites… Promoting modern websites for modern devices in Google search results<http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2014/07/promoting-modern-websites…> Posted: Monday, July 14, 2014 Tweet<https://twitter.com/share> Webmaster level: all A common annoyance for web users is when websites require browser technologies that are not supported by their device. When users access such pages, they may see nothing but a blank space or miss out a large portion of the page's contents. Starting today, we will indicate to searchers when our algorithms detect pages that may not work on their devices. For example, Adobe Flash is not supported on iOS devices or on Android versions 4.1 and higher, and a page whose contents are mostly Flash may be noted like this: [cid:1611829B-5A94-4760-9F2B-F4F98E240FE7] Developing modern multi-device websites Fortunately, making websites that work on all modern devices is not that hard: websites can use HTML5 since it is universally supported, sometimes exclusively, by all devices. To help webmasters build websites that work on all types of devices regardless of the type of content they wish to serve, we recently announced<http://googledevelopers.blogspot.com/2014/06/web-fundamentals-and-web-start…> two resources: * Web Fundamentals<https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/?utm_source=wmc&utm_medium=b…>: a curated source for modern best practices. * Web Starter Kit<https://developers.google.com/web/starter-kit/?utm_source=wmc&utm_medium=bl…>: a starter framework supporting the Web Fundamentals best practices out of the box. By following the best practices described in Web Fundamentals you can build a responsive web design<https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/layouts/?utm_source=wta&utm_…>, which has long been Google's recommendation<https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/> for search-friendly sites. Be sure not to block crawling of any Googlebot of the page assets (CSS, JavaScript, and images) using robots.txt or otherwise. Being able to access these external files fully helps our algorithms detect your site's responsive web design configuration and treat it appropriately. You can use the Fetch and render as Google<https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/158587?hl=en> feature in Webmaster Tools to test how our indexing algorithms see your site. As always, if you need more help you can ask a question in our webmaster forum<https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!categories/webmasters/mobile>. Posted by Keita Oda, Software Engineer, and Pierre Far<https://plus.google.com/+PierreFar/posts>, Webmaster Trends Analyst

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