Saturday, June 22, 2013

British intelligence taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world's ...

by News Sources on June 21, 2013

The Guardian reports: Britain?s spy agency GCHQ has secretly gained access to the network of cables which carry the world?s phone calls and internet traffic and has started to process vast streams of sensitive personal information which it is sharing with its American partner, the National Security Agency (NSA).

The sheer scale of the agency?s ambition is reflected in the titles of its two principal components: Mastering the Internet and Global Telecoms Exploitation, aimed at scooping up as much online and telephone traffic as possible. This is all being carried out without any form of public acknowledgement or debate.

One key innovation has been GCHQ?s ability to tap into and store huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables for up to 30 days so that it can be sifted and analysed. That operation, codenamed Tempora, has been running for some 18 months.

GCHQ and the NSA are consequently able to access and process vast quantities of communications between entirely innocent people, as well as targeted suspects.

This includes recordings of phone calls, the content of email messages, entries on Facebook and the history of any internet user?s access to websites ? all of which is deemed legal, even though the warrant system was supposed to limit interception to a specified range of targets.

The existence of the programme has been disclosed in documents shown to the Guardian by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as part of his attempt to expose what he has called ?the largest programme of suspicionless surveillance in human history?.

?It?s not just a US problem. The UK has a huge dog in this fight,? Snowden told the Guardian. ?They [GCHQ] are worse than the US.? [Continue reading...]

Source: http://warincontext.org/2013/06/21/british-intelligence-taps-fibre-optic-cables-for-secret-access-to-worlds-communications/

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10 States That are Maxxed Out on Credit Cards - Mint

10 States That are Maxxed Out on Credit Cards :: Mint.com/blog

Even if you make your payments on time every month, you can still damage your credit score in a major way by using too much of the credit available to you.

The credit utilization ratio, a measure of your total revolving credit balance divided by your total revolving credit limits, makes up roughly 30% of your credit score, which means it?s no small part of what lenders look at when considering what interest rate and terms to give you on your mortgage, car loan or other credit cards.

If you want to see where your utilization stands in comparison to the national averages, you can use the free Credit Report Card.

We decided to use data from the Experian-Oliver Wyman Market Intelligence Reports and Experian?s IntelliView tool to examine which parts of the U.S. are closest to their credit limits.

[Related Article: Can you Really Get Your Credit Score for Free?]

We took the average bankcard balance per consumer in each state and divided it by the average bankcard limit in each state for the first quarter of 2013, the most recent data available.

To be fair, these states aren?t maxxed out on their credit cards, but they may be doing damage to their scores nevertheless.

?In most scoring models, the credit utilization ratio represents approximately 30% of your credit score. That makes it a critical issue, but most people aren?t exactly clear as to what it is,? says Credit.com Co-Founder and Chairman Adam Levin.

He adds, ?Though there isn?t an exact code, the rule of thumb is that consumers who use less than 10% of their available credit tend to be those with the highest credit scores.?

All 50 states had a credit utilization ratio that was above the recommended 10% or less, and the states with the highest ratios all fell between the 20% and 30% range, meaning many residents may be damaging their credit by putting too much on their plastic.

[Related Article: 7 Money Habits That Can Make or Break You]

Alan Ikemura, Senior Product Manager of Experian Decision Sciences, says the good news is that bankcard utilization ratios are generally on the decline.

?We?re actually seeing the utilization ratio going down overall,? he says. ?Except for the deep subprime groups, which had an average utilization ratio of 80.9% in 2012 and 81.7% in 2013.?

It?s not uncommon for subprime groups to have high utilization ratios, Ikemura says.

Many of these groups are close to being tapped out on their credit lines, which is a signal to lenders that they are a riskier borrower than those with lower utilization ratios.

[Related Article: How to Pay Off a Mountain of Credit Card Debt]

Here are the top 10 states with the highest bankcard utilization ratios.

10. Louisiana

Average Balance: $3,503
Average Limit: $16,257
Average Utilization: 21.55%

Louisiana comes in last on our list, with a decently low average balance per consumer. The Bayou state could benefit from asking their credit card issuers to up their limits though ? a tactic that can lower your utilization without forcing you to cut spending.

9. Texas

Average Balance: $4,072
Average Limit: $18,857
Average Utilization: 21.59%

The saying goes that ?everything?s bigger in Texas? and that must be true of the state?s credit cards too, as the Lone Star state has the highest average limit of all of the states on our list. The high credit limit doesn?t mean that Texans aren?t spending though, as they also have the third highest balance.

8. South Carolina

Average Balance: $3,786
Average Limit: $17,351
Average Utilization: 21.82%

7. Oklahoma

Average Balance: $3,579
Average Limit: $16,396
Average Utilization: 21.83%

6. Arkansas

Average Balance: $3,469
Average Limit: $15,751
Average Utilization: 22.02%

Arkansas takes the prize for lowest average balance of any state that made our list. Perhaps residents of the Natural state could use a new credit card, which can add to their overall limit and decrease their utilization ratio.

5. Nevada

Average Balance: $3,999
Average Limit: $18,047
Average Utilization: 22.16%

4. Alabama

Average Balance: $3,618
Average Limit: $16,085
Average Utilization: 22.49%

3. Georgia

Average Balance: $4,246
Average Limit: $18,520
Average Utilization: 22.93%

Though Texas took the highest average limit of all the states on our list, Georgia wasn?t far behind. The state could try to skim more money off their monthly expenses to cut their utilization ratio.

2. Mississippi

Average Balance: $3,384
Average Limit: $14,644
Average Utilization: 23.11%

Though this state comes in second in our rankings, its residents aren?t charging more dollars, on average, than any other state on our list. The high utilization ratio in Mississippi is due primarily to the fact that its average limit per consumer is very low.

1. Alaska

Average Balance: $4,563
Average Limit: $16,453
Average Utilization: 27.73%

While all of the other states in our rankings stayed below a 25% utilization ratio, Alaska broke that barrier.

This should come as no surprise to those who pay attention to Alaskans? personal finances. The 49th state has recently topped lists of the highest credit card balances and highest revolving account debt.

Note: The U.S. territories were excluded from this ranking.

Source: http://www.mint.com/blog/credit/10-states-that-are-maxxed-out-on-credit-cards-0613/

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Fund manager gets 11 years for Facebook, Groupon shares scam

By Bernard Vaughan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former fund manager John Mattera was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Friday, after pleading guilty of defrauding investors of $13 million with a story that he put their money in Facebook Inc and Groupon Inc shares before the companies went public.

U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan said the sentence, at the high end of what prosecutors requested, was warranted because Mattera devastated his clients' savings, and also because of four prior convictions related to fraud and theft. Mattera had requested a sentence of less than four years.

"You hurt a lot of people in a very serious way," Sullivan said, after delivering the sentence. "You've left a lot of wreckage in your path."

Mattera, 51, former chairman of the advisory board for mutual fund Praetorian Global Fund Ltd, pleaded guilty in October to charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud in connection with the scheme.

He admitted transferring $11 million from investors into an escrow account instead of safeguarding it ahead of the highly anticipated initial public offerings.

He also admitted taking $2 million more from investors who thought he was investing in Facebook and Groupon while they were still private. Instead, prosecutors said Mattera spent nearly $4 million of it on luxury cars, jewelry, personal taxes and a lawsuit settlement.

Mattera had two Rolls Royces and a Ferrari when he was arrested, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Ingoglia said.

"It's just blatant fraud," Ingoglia said.

As part of his plea, Mattera agreed to pay restitution to the defrauded investors and forfeit $11.8 million.

One investor, Marisa Light Cain, 51, lashed out at Mattera in court on Friday. She said she lost $100,000 in the scheme after going through a difficult divorce, and Mattera's sophisticated deception included a fake audit letter from KPMG and a full prospectus.

"I want to let Mr. Mattera know that I lost my life savings," Cain said. "I want you to know that I have a son out there who will not be educated in college as he should be" because of the fraud.

Cain said Mattera's 11-year sentence was of little solace. "I don't think it's long enough, personally," she said after the hearing.

"I'm very sorry to all the victims," Mattera told Sullivan before the judge sentenced him. "I'm very sorry to my family."

The sentence was substantially larger than several insider trading-related sentencings Sullivan has handed down in recent months. He sentenced two former hedge fund managers, Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson, for example, to 4-1/2 and 6-1/2 years in prison, respectively.

Sullivan said Mattera got the longer sentence because of his lengthy criminal background. Mattera failed to seize multiple opportunities to turn his life around, Sullivan said.

"These crimes are just so selfish," Sullivan said. "This is money that people took years and years to save, and it was squandered."

The case is USA v John Mattera, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 12-00127.

(Reporting by Bernard Vaughan; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fund-manager-gets-11-years-facebook-groupon-shares-174631964.html

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Samsung Galaxy NX mirrorless camera official: Interchangeable lenses, Android Jelly Bean and 4G LTE

Samsung Galaxy NX mirrorless camera official

True to JK Shin's promise, Samsung is indeed introducing a new Android-powered mirrorless camera: the Galaxy NX. Although it runs Google's mobile OS (version 4.2.2 Jelly Bean) and bears LTE radios, the NX is not quite a direct sequel to the Galaxy Camera, the company's glorified point-and-shoot for all comers. Rather, the Galaxy NX is what Samsung calls an interchangeable-lens CSC (or Compact System Camera), featuring a 20.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, as well as 3G / 4G LTE connectivity -- making it worthy of that Galaxy moniker.

As you can tell from the above image, the Galaxy NX also packs a large 4.8-inch HD LCD display on its rear and is powered by an unspecified 1.6GHz quad-core setup and separate processor for imaging. The UI should look pretty familiar to anyone who's used an Android device before, with the common apps and widgets submenus, as well as the device wheel for its 30 Smart Modes -- employed when selecting imaging settings. And if you happen to own any of the company's other NX cameras, you'll be able to swap out lenses (13 in all) as the Galaxy NX is fully compatible with that range. It also incorporates a hybrid AF, culled from the best of DSLRs and compacts, with a shutter speed of 1/6,000th of a second and 8.6fps shooting.

Developing...

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/20/samsung-galaxy-nx-mirrorless-camera-official/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Video: Bernanke Taper Comments Too Soon?

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52279828/

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What You Need to Know About Hybrid Cloud Security and Other Risks

What You Need to Know About Hybrid Cloud Security and Other Risks


hybrid cloud computing solutionsAccording to a report published by Gartner, the cloud is about to transition into a prolonged phase towards mainstream adoption. Its ?hype? bubble, which affects all burgeoning technologies before they are fully embraced, burst somewhere in the midpoint of 2012. 2013 is considered a critical year for hybrid clouds and they are are an important consideration for businesses because they are still parsing out which functions can be exposed to the risks of public cloud and which are best left private. In the general case this will mean gradual cloud network migration as the risks are vetted by one by one. Some of the challenges hybrid cloud introduces are in compliance, security management, and meeting service-level agreements (SLA).

Compliance

High-stakes enterprises benefit from implementing hybrid cloud solutions, but they must also remain compliant with regulations such as PCI and HIPAA. Maintaining compliance with such standards using cloud systems is not as inherently onerous as some would think ? in fact they were designed to be platform-agnostic. For example, if requirements such as a firewalls or encryption of personal data are in place, it does not matter what technology or architecture is used to implement them. However, with a hybrid cloud data moves with relative ease between public and private, meaning that there are additional points of scrutiny adding to the challenge of compliance. Not only must the public and private components of the solution be up to standard, the coordination between the two must be compliant as well.

Security Management

In order to manage the security of a network, multiple controls must be in place such as authentication and credentials. Hybrid cloud introduces the complication that these security items may need to be replicated on both the public and private side, meaning potential skew and additional points by which access may be compromised.

SLA Issues

Public cloud providers go out of their way to make good on SLA promises of uptime that exceeds 99% and approaches perfect availability. However, when an organization mixes public cloud with private cloud, it must account for the fact that it may not be able to meet such an SLA from the private side and should craft its agreements realistically.

For more on the risks and challenges of cloud network migration, contact a trusted cloud solution provider.

Source: http://www.aetechgroup.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-hybrid-cloud-security-and-other-risks/

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