Author: Serkadis

A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted eight East Europeans on charges of hacking into a computer network operated by the credit card processing company RBS WorldPay, the U.S. Department of Justice said today.

The 16-count indictment alleges the group used sophisticated hacking techniques to compromise data encryption used by RBS WorldPay to protect customer data on payroll debit cards. Payroll debit cards are used by some companies to pay their employees.

The hacking ring allegedly raised the account limits on compromised accounts, and then provided a network of "cashers" with 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards, which were used to withdraw more than $9 million from more than 2,100 ATMs in at least 289 cites worldwide, including cities in the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan and Canada. The $9 million loss occurred within less than 12 hours.

The hackers then attempted to destroy data on the card processing network to hide their hacking activity. The indictment alleges that the "cashers" were allowed to keep 30 to 50 percent of the money, but sent the rest back to the leaders of the hacking ring.

"The charges brought against this highly sophisticated international hacking ring were possible only because of unprecedented international cooperation with our law enforcement partners, particularly between the United States and Estonia," said Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer.

"Through our close cooperation, both nations have demonstrated our commitment to identifying sophisticated attacks on U.S. financial networks that are directed and operated from overseas and our commitment to bringing the perpetrators to justice."

Some of the hackers if convicted in the U.S. could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
 

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>New Zealand Teen Hacker Escapes Charges

 

Remember a few days ago when I hinted at some exciting Tekken news? No? Well, today I can reveal what I was talking about: thanks to the fine folks at Namco Bandai (its publicists, to be exact) we now have three Tekken art books to give away. You can win one! This will be a very easy contest, believe me.

What do you have to do to win the art book? Just leave a comment right here in this post. I’m running this contest, so I’m not going to make you do anything ridiculous. The contest will run through the weekend, and I’ll announce the winners on Monday.

So to recap:

• You can win one of three Tekken art books. That means three people will win. Each book contains drawings, sketches, etc. of the game’s characters. You know, an art book.

• Leave a comment IN THIS POST to be considered. I’ll run the comments through a random number generator on Monday (comment number one is 1, comment number two is 2, etc.) to select the winners. Presumably we’ll have more than three entrants.

• The contest runs till Monday, November 16 at noon EST.

• You need to be a U.S. resident. I’m not paying $8 million dollars to ship this stuff to Manila or Curitiba. Sorry.

I hope I’ve made this clear.

Good luck~!

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

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Download Amazon Kindle for PC 1.0.25338.0 Beta for Windows from Fileforum now.

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Amazon today opened the beta of Kindle for PC, a free application which can act as a PC-based companion to your Kindle e-reading device or as standalone e-reading software.

While this is the same application that Amazon showed off at the Windows 7 premiere last month, so far it displays Amazon’s Whispersync technology and little else. When you start the program up, books you have already purchased in the Kindle Shop appear under a button called “Archived items,” and they can then be downloaded to Kindle for PC’s home menu. The books can be read and kept in sync with your Kindle with highlights and bookmarks appearing just as they would on the e-reader. It’s very similar to the Kindle iPhone application.

But it seems like the missing features actually exceed those present.

You do not have access to content you converted for consumption on the Kindle or directly uploaded via USB, and you do not have access to your newspaper, magazine, blog subscriptions, or clippings. You can shop in the Kindle Store or manage your Kindle account, but neither of those actions take place within the application, and instead launch in your default browser.

Covers and color text show up in full color, and font sizes can be adjusted; and there is touch recognition for Windows 7 users, so Kindle for PC ends up behaving even more like the iPhone app when it’s run in Windows 7.

System requirements for the software are extremely modest: XP SP2, Vista, or Windows 7, at least a 500 MHz AMD/Intel processor and 128 MB of RAM, (800 x 600) screen resolution, and 100 MB storage. Conceivably, if it supported Linux-based operating systems or WinCE, such a lightweight app could actually run agreeably on recycled hardware; providing the foundation for a DIY Kindle actually running Kindle software.

But as far as e-book management, conversion, and acquisition, this beta really has a long way to go before it can perform as well as cross-platform software such as Calibre.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009

Unsustainable, taxpayer-funded “green jobs” focus of Senate Finance hearing today

Washington, DC – As part of the ongoing efforts in the US Senate to enact sweeping, energy-rationing legislation, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing today entitled “Climate Change Legislation: Considerations for Future Jobs.” Following the hearing, Thomas J. Pyle, president of the non-partisan, market-oriented Institute for Energy Research (IER), issued this statement:

“There is perhaps nothing more misleading surrounding the ongoing global warming debate than claims that cap-and-trade legislation will be a jobs boon and will spur economic activity. Look no further than the DeSoto Solar Center in Florida – a Florida Power and Light installation. On his recent visit, President Obama touted the center as the ‘largest solar field in the United States.’ However, the president failed to mention that the panels and other items were all manufactured abroad. The solar cells came from the Philippines; the steel mountings from Canada; the electric boxes from Germany. And how many ‘green jobs’ have been created there? Two full-time employees, six part-time groundskeepers that will work one week a month during the rainy season.

“Cap and trade backers often cite European countries, like Spain and Germany, as a model for the US follow. Yet both of these nations have failed miserably at delivering affordable and reliable energy and creating jobs. Spain’s government has committed more than $753,000 per ‘green job’ over the past 9 years. And in Germany, per worker annual taxpayer subsidies have reached $240,000. Beware of the politician promising you a green job in one hand because he is pick-pocketing you with the other.

“Washington must craft comprehensive energy policies that do not empower Congress or bureaucrats to determine which energy forms win or lose in the market. Cap and trade aims to increase the cost of our most affordable, abundant and reliable energy forms, including coal, oil and natural gas. With unemployment now at a 26-year high, raising energy costs across the board and making it more difficult for us to compete in the global economy is not the right solution to help put Americans back to work.”

READ MORE: Key experts from a recent Washington Post article entitled “Painting a street green hasn’t stimulated one new job”:

In Baltimore, the 300 block of East 23 1/2 Street is getting patched up in time for winter. One economic stimulus program is paying to insulate 11 rental rowhouses, another is paying for furnaces and a third is covering the cost for reflective roofs to be installed by prison inmates in a job-training program.

The block is part of one of the biggest initiatives ever undertaken by the federal government, a nationwide push to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. But as the national unemployment rate crosses into the double digits and Republicans question the stimulus program’s impact, the work on East 23 1/2 — even with all of its activity — has so far not produced a single job.

For additional information, please contact Patrick Creighton, 202-621-2947, or Laura Henderson, 202-621-2951.

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The House-passed health bill bars insurers from selling policies that cover abortion to anyone who gets a federal subsidy. But it does allow insurers to offer optional abortion coverage that consumers could purchase with their own money. Based on some states’ experiences, it’s unlikely insurers would sell such coverage.

The abortion debate rivals the controversy over the public-option – the proposal to offer consumers in the new insurance exchanges a government-run insurance plan. The fight now moves to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is trying to meld two committees’ bills.

Laurie Rubiner, vice president for policy at Planned Parenthood, says she is optimistic about blocking a similar amendment in the Senate. “This is a very broad, middle-class abortion ban in the exchange and once people really understand that I just don’t think there’s going to be the support for it.”

The U.S. Conference of Bishops, which led the lobbying fight in the House for the amendment by Reps. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Joe Pitts, R-Pa., is just as determined. “The Conference will remain vigilant and involved throughout this entire process to assure that these essential provisions are maintained and included in the final legislation,” the organization’s president, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, said in a written statement.

Here’s basic information about the House amendment and private insurance coverage of abortion:

Q: Do the House restrictions apply to all insurance?

A: No. They apply only to policies sold to people who qualify for federal subsidies to purchase insurance through the exchanges. Most job-based insurance, which is how the majority of insured Americans currently get their coverage, would not be affected.

Q: Who can buy through the health insurance exchanges?

A: Initially, the exchanges will be open to the uninsured, people who buy their own coverage and some small businesses. Two years after the exchanges open, Congress could decide whether to allow larger employers to purchase coverage there.

Q: Could consumers using the exchanges buy policies that offer abortion coverage if they use their own money, rather than federal subsidies?

A: Only if insurers decide to offer two types of policies in the exchange: ones made available to subsidy-eligible people that don’t cover abortion, and another set, sold only to those who don’t get federal subsidies, that would cover it. Insurers may have little incentive to offer both, as the vast majority of the exchange marketplace is expected to be subsidy-eligible people.

Q: Are there other options for people to get abortion coverage?

A: Yes, insurers could opt to create “abortion riders,” separate add-on coverage that consumers could purchase with their own funds.

Q: Do such policies exist?

A: Five states – Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma – prohibit insurers from covering abortions except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest, but allow insurers to sell separate abortion riders. Insurance departments in Idaho, Kentucky and Missouri say they don’t track such riders, so it isn’t clear if any are offered. North Dakota and Oklahoma say insurers there don’t offer abortion riders to individuals. In Oklahoma, however, one insurer has filed for a rider to offer abortion coverage to small groups. And in Idaho, one of the state’s major insurers offers abortion coverage to small groups if they pay an additional premium charge.

Q: How many people currently have abortion coverage in their health plans?

A: A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2003 found that 46 percent of workers had insurance that covered abortion. (KHN is part of the foundation.) Experts say most people use their own funds to pay for abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive issues, about 13 percent of abortions are directly billed to insurers.

Q: Are there other restrictions on federal funding of abortion coverage?

A: Yes. The 1976 Hyde Amendment bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortions, except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. Thirty-two state Medicaid programs, the joint federal-state programs for low-income people, limit abortion funding to those cases, according to the Guttmacher Institute. One, South Dakota, pays for Medicaid abortions only to save the life of the mother. And 17 use state funds to more widely offer abortions through their Medicaid programs. Restrictions on payment for abortion coverage are also in place for federal employees, women serving overseas in the U.S. military and women in federal prisons.

Q: How much do abortions cost?

A: First-trimester abortions can cost between $300 and $900, according to Planned Parenthood. Later-term abortions or abortions where women may face a higher risk of complications are more expensive, running several thousand dollars if hospital care is required.

Super Mario Bros. Wii doesn’t come out here in North America for another five days, but, for whatever reason, it comes out in Australia in two days! That explains why you can find the world’s first review (nearest I can tell) on IGN Australia. The Web site gave the game a 9.2 (I swear, these decimal point reviews are 100 percent absurd), but I think it’s safe to conclude that the game is, indeed, fun, which is really all you can ask for.

As is customary from my “oh here’s a review!” posts, I’ll merely highlight the nut graph, which is the wrong phrase to use here but whatever, but I’ll also encourage you to read the whole thing. It’s only two pages (you’ll recall that IGN’s GTA IV review was seven pages long) so get to it.

Whether or not this is the best Mario game to date is purely a matter of personal tastes; it’s certainly the most humble on outward appearances. The red game case – a bold and loud statement of fun – is the first indicator that there’s something special under the hood in this one. Still sorting the men from the boys after 20 years, Mario and Luigi’s new adventure is not important because it’s the continuation of a franchise we know and love – rather, it’s because New Super Mario Bros. Wii demonstrates one more time why Nintendo are masters of the all-ages gaming market; relevant and refreshing but at all times reverent and above all, incredible fun.

I can only add that I played the game for, oh, 15 minutes about a month ago, and it struck like Smash Bros does: it’s fun on its own merits, yes, but the more people you play with, the better.

Or, simply, if you own a Wii, you’ll probably want this under your Christmas tree (or whatever) this year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Info Group (IUSA.O), a business-to-business marketing firm, attracted first round bids from companies including rivals and private equity firms, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Info Group said in December 2008 it retained boutique advisory firm Evercore (EVR.N) to help evaluate its options. That was prompted by its former CEO and chairman, Vinod Gupta, requesting the company explore its strategic alternatives, including a sale of the company.

Preliminary bids were put in last week, said the two sources and other sources familiar with the situation. Interest came from both private equity firms and rival companies of Info Group, the sources said, who declined to be named because the talks are not public.

The sources said that information companies including Dun & Bradstreet (DNB.N) and private equity firm Carlyle [CYL.UL] also put in a bid.

The sources also said that Acxiom Corp (ACXM.O) had also submitted a bid, although the company denied that.

“We have not made a bid,” a spokesman for the company told Reuters.

One of the two sources and a separate source said that it was possible the business could be sold in parts, rather than as a whole. The two sources said it was unclear whether the company had decided that selling parts of the business is an option.

One of the original two sources cautioned that the company could decide not to sell itself if it wasn’t satisfied with the prices offered. It was unclear what the price of the bids were, but one source said at least one bid wasn’t at much of a premium to the company’s recent stock price.

Shares, which closed at $7.96 on Monday, have more than doubled since December 2008. Shares rose more than 12 percent following news of the bids on Tuesday, and were up 41 cents at $8.37 by early afternoon.

Info Group had a market capitalization of around $450 million at the close of trading on Monday.

Omaha, Nebraska-based Info Group changed its name from infoUSA in June 2008, after expanding internationally.

Evercore also advised Info Group on its $155 million sale of research services firm Macro International in April.

Info Group lists 19 different businesses on its website, which provide various marketing, research and database services.

D&B and Carlyle declined comment; Info Group did not return calls made Monday for comment.

By Megan Davies and Jui Chakravorty
(Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Bernard Orr)

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Today the President and the First Lady travelled to Killeen, Texas. They met with families of the fallen and with wounded soldiers and their families at III Corps Headquarters, Fort Hood.

Afterwards, the President spoke to the entire Fort Hood community during a memorial service for the soldiers and civilians killed on November 5th:

We come together filled with sorrow for the thirteen Americans that we have lost; with gratitude for the lives that they led; and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on.

This is a time of war. And yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great American community. It is this fact that makes the tragedy even more painful and even more incomprehensible.

For those families who have lost a loved one, no words can fill the void that has been left. We knew these men and women as soldiers and caregivers. You knew them as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.

But here is what you must also know: your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Their life’s work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – that is their legacy.

Neither this country – nor the values that we were founded upon – could exist without men and women like these thirteen Americans. And that is why we must pay tribute to their stories. 

Read the rest of the President’s remarks as he honors them individually.

 

 

 

Symantec has released two new reports for the month of November – the State of Spam, and the State of Phishing (both PDFs). The reports highlight a dramatic increase in spam that contains malware. On top of that, junk and malicious email now accounts for close to 9 out of 10 email messages.

The security firm says that a new generation of "Spam Princes" are rising, and that the Asia Pacific region, Japan, and South America have surpassed North America, with regards to where spam is originating from.

"Rising spam levels originating from South America, Asia Pacific and Japan are not altogether surprising when you consider the massive growth of internet connections in these regions," says Amanda Grady, Principal Analyst, Symantec. "Meanwhile, the increased threats to social networking websites is interesting because it shows spammers are hiding behind the reputation and brand trust built by legitimate companies. Social networking sites that have a large user base will continue to be targets of malicious and phishing emails."

Symantec shares the following findings:

– In October, an average of 1.9% of all spam messages contained malware. This equates to a 0.6% increase from September, when the number of messages containing malware hit a maximum of 4.5% of all spam

– Symantec observed a 17% increase from the previous month in all phishing attacks
 
– 30% of phishing URLs were generated using phishing toolkits; an increase of 24% from the previous month

–  Symantec observed a 45% increase from September in non-English phishing sites
 
– More than 97 Web hosting services were used, which accounted for 8% of all phishing attacks; a decrease of 19% in total Web host URLs when compared to the previous month

Symantec’s report of an increase of malware-infected spam is made even more unsettling as news reports surface of computer viruses infecting unknowing victims’ machines with child porn.

Related Articles: 

> Stealth Phishing Attack Looks Like Internal Email

> Symantec Urges Windows Users to Patch Systems

> Beware Holiday Emails

When talking about video games, we sometimes hear that Valve’s Steam is one of the few examples of “DRM that works,” but that’s hard to accept when you hear ridiculous stories like this one. Apparently people who downloaded Modern Warfare 2 via Steam, expecting to be able to play the game today (along with everyone else who bought it in a store today) have discovered that the DRM has been setup so you can’t actually play the game until Thursday. Ouch. It’s yet another example suggesting that Infinity Ward really does not care at all about PC gamers. The game will likely sell millions of copies anyway, but it’s really amazing to see how badly the company treats its PC gamer fans.

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Attention all Street View fans: another update’s been announced, and this one could be considered especially significant.  Images of Hawaii were released, meaning Street View now has coverage of all 50 U.S. states.

Street View’s come a long way since its early days of functioning as a fun little distraction/curiosity.  It’s now a useful resource for travelers, an advertising aid for businesses, and even a friend of some tourist agencies (the Hawaii Visitors and Conventions Bureau worked with Google on this latest update).

Street View remains a nifty way to glimpse cool locations, too, of course.  Waimea Bay, which you can see below, is one such spot.  On the Official Google Blog, Laura Melahn also recommended Iolani Palace.

And the new Street View update actually includes images originating from a place other than Hawaii; Mexico, our neighbor to the south, was covered for the first time.  Shots of Cancun, Cozumel, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Playa del Carmen, Puebla, and Puerto Vallarta are all available now.

So if you’re more a fan of warm temperatures and sea breezes than snow-covered pine trees, this is definitely the update for you.  Have fun exploring from your office chair.

Related Articles:

> Street View Coverage Of Two More Countries Goes Live

> Street View: Soon With More Blurriness

> Google Now Identifying Businesses In Street View

 

Nielsen has shared some interesting findings from its research on how Internet users discover content. The research mainly focused on how content is found through search, portals, and through social media.

"In a nutshell, there is a segment of the online population that uses social media as a core navigation and information discovery tool — roughly 18 percent of users see it as core to finding new information. While still a smaller percentage than those who use search engines or portals like Yahoo! or MSN, it is a significant figure," says Nielsen. "And as social media usage continues to increase (unique visitors to Twitter.com increased 959% YOY in August) I can only expect this figure to grow."

If you were still questioning the possibilities of getting traffic from social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., perhaps this information will help ease your doubts. While the traffic may not always be as significant as what comes from search, additional traffic is additional traffic, and the viral potential offered by social networks shouldn’t be ignored.

The following graph from Nielsen shows how big of a role sites besides search engines play in actual searches for new information online.

"At the root of the changing nature of content discovery is the sheer amount of information that is available on the Web," says Nielsen. "If you want to learn more about the latest smartphone released into the market, your favorite search engine is sure to provide you with hundreds, if not thousands, of articles about the device. But with the increasing number of resources available, it’s difficult to know what you should believe or take at face value."

According to the firm’s findings, 26% of "socializers" or those who spend over 10% or more of their online time on social media, feel that there is too much information online. Nielsen says, "So are social networks replacing portals or search engines? Perhaps. Regardless, if we don’t understand and address people feeling increasingly alienated by the amount of information on the Internet, and the need for a human guide, yes, your favorite social network (or something like it) will become the next great content gateway."

Of course the search engines are built on a cross between human and mechanical elements. Google’s search quality team has been discussing this very process. Personally, I’m all for social media, but I don’t usually have too much trouble finding the information I seek using search. If anything, I think the information overload simply stresses the need for the continued improvement in search quality.

Your friends may not have all the answers you seek. Furthermore, if you are asking people you don’t know, why would you trust them any more than search results?

Search and social media are not completely separate entities. Social networks have search functionality and search engines search through social networks. It’s all intertwined.

Do you think social media could ever replace search? Share your thoughts.

If you weren’t at the Surly Girl Saloon last night for the Columbus CrunchGear meetup, then you were somewhere else! You missed John sporting a new pair of Onion Goggles. You missed a nerd-a-thon comparing the Droid, HD2, iPhone, Dream, and whatever other handhelds folks could dig out of their pockets. And you missed an opportunity to put your grubby paws on not only the TwitterPeek but also the Nokia Booklet!

When the TwitterPeek’s battery ran out, John became very sad:

Nerd-a-thon! That guy was doing live speed tests of the phones in front of him.

We had a great time meeting everyone, and we hope those that joined us had as much fun as we did. Let’s do it again soon, Columbus!

The Associated Press reports on Former President Bill Clinton’s pep talk to Senate Democrats today. Stressing what he said was “an economic imperative,” he told “anxious Senate Democrats … to pass a health care bill soon because the U.S. economy can’t resist the toxic combination of exorbitant medical costs and nearly 50 million uninsured for much longer.” He also spoke to them about the bill’s complexities and the lawmakers’ own concerns, but said “there is no perfect bill — you’ll always have unintended consequences. There will be amendments to this next year” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/10).

USA Today on Clinton’s take home message to senators: “‘It’s important to act now, to start the ball rolling,’ Clinton told reporters afterward. ‘The worst thing to do is nothing.’”

“Clinton was the last president to try and fail to enact a sweeping health care reform bill,” an outcome “widely credited with the Democrats’ losing control of the House and Senate the following year. Some Democrats said Clinton’s experience made him the perfect messenger as Democrats face what are likely to be tough votes on a controversial bill. ‘He told us we are on the edge of history and to get the job done,’ said Sen. Paul Kirk, D-Mass” (Keily, 11/10).

Roll Call: “Clinton apparently spent little time explicitly reminding Senators” of his own reform history, instead focusing on why action is necessary. “‘He made the case, first and foremost, on policy, that this is critical to the country both on economic context as well as the health care context,’ Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (N.J.) said.” Menendez also said Clinton reminded the Democrats that failure to accomplish this task would have a “significant political result” (Pierce and Drucker, 11/10).  

Also on Tuesday, “Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid and his No. 2, Dick Durbin, said they hoped to bring the Senate’s healthcare bill to the floor next week and to have the first procedural vote on whether to open debate,” Reuters reports. However, Durbin acknowledged that the calendar could make it difficult to meet the president’s deadline to sign a health care reform bill by the year’s end. “‘I hope so, but just count the days,’” Durbin told reporters in response to question’s about the President’s deadline. Durbin also offered “a new target” for action in the Senate. “‘Our goal is to make sure it is out of the Senate this year,’ Durbin said.” Following that timeline could allow “negotiations to reconcile the House and Senate versions” to take place in January. After that, each chamber would have to pass the agreed upon bill “before Obama could sign it into law” (Whitesides and Ferraro, 11/10).

Bloomberg: “Reid told reporters … he believes the Senate can pass the measure by the end of the year. Asked whether he had the 60 votes needed to begin debate, he said, ‘I hope so’” (Rowley and Jensen, 11/10).

The musical virtuosos at OverClocked ReMix are up to some monkey business. Serious Monkey Business, in fact. That’s the name of their latest project s…

Carbon Harvest Energy’s proposal to turn old landfills into no-waste energy producers has been in the news lately, with stories both in the Burlington Free Press and on Vermont Public Radio. Carbon Harvest Energy will be taking a defunct landfill-based methane facility in Brattleboro and turning it into an active, zero-waste, energy-producing facility. According to the Free Press article, the electricity, heat and carbon dioxide produced by the methane-fueled generator will all be utilized. The former landfill will be able to sell the electricity, heat a greenhouse and a fish tank, and use the carbon dioxide as a contribution to an algae farm. The Vermont Food Bank will be the main recipient of the food and fish raised in the facility, and the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of the Environment and Natural Resources is partnering with Carbon Harvest to study the algae produced.

It seems IO Interactive is keeping quite busy these days. They already got two games in the pipeline — Hitman 5 and Kane & Lynch 2 — and now rep…