business

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26 January, 2017
"Britain and America will no longer invade foreign countries 'to make the world in their own image'" - Theresa May. Britain and America will never again invade foreign countries “in an attempt to make the world in their own image”, Theresa May has said in the biggest shift in UK foreign policy for more than 20 years.

Addressing US Republican politicians in Philadelphia, the Prime Minister pledged not to repeat the “failed policies of the past” in a clear reference to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan by Tony Blair and George W Bush.

And she hailed Mr Trump's election as "dawn breaking on a new era of American renewal".

She told Republicans: “I speak to you not just as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but as a fellow Conservative who believes in the same principles that underpin the agenda of your Party.

“The value of liberty. The dignity of work. The principles of nationhood, family, economic prudence, patriotism – and putting power in the hands of the people.

“Principles instilled in me from a young age. Principles that my parents taught me in the vicarage in Southern England in which I was raised.

“I know that it is these principles that you have put at the heart of your plan for government. “  read more »

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18 Jan 2017
Tourists Flee 'Nightmare' Paris Amidst Rising Theft, Assaults... Paris' regional tourism office last year reported a slump in visitor numbers to the city. Rising violence and aggression account for the drop. President of the Chinese Association of Travel Agencies in France, Jean-François Zhou, said "increasingly violent” thefts and assaults are turning France into "one of the worst destinations for foreign tourists." In 2016, there were 1.6 million Chinese tourists compared to 2.2 million in 2015. The number of Japanese tourists dropped 39 percent and Koreans 27 per cent."

18 Jan 2017
A lone wolf was spotted prowling just 200 miles from Paris - when an expert was quick to point out that they can cover 300 miles in a DAY on foot. French told not to fear wolves roaming Paris streets as 'they only eat four-legged animals.'
Parisians are frightened that the endangered beasts are now within howling distance of the capital and can't be stopped.

Only lone wolves have been spotted so far wandering its streets. Experts and eyewitnesses claim they are freely roaming French 'departments' (an administrative district) of Yvelines and Essone in Île-de-France - which overlaps with the Paris metropolitan area in the south and west - at night.

Warnings were first made last year when a lone wolf was spotted prowling just 200 miles from Paris - when an expert was quick to point out that they can cover 300 miles in a DAY on foot.

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If someone's gain at anyone's loss: who is the fool if there's a fool's bargain?
July 07, 2012: "Mayer was making a fool's bargain
to choose Yahoo over Google as the ambitious executive
shocked the tech world by leaving Google to become Yahoo’s new CEO"
Dec 14, 2015: "If she stays on board for another year and a half,
Mayer will make $365 million for 5 years of work at Yahoo"
"The vast majority of her pay isn't tied to Yahoo's performance as a company"
Jan 10, 2017: Yahoo is sold to Verizon.
"Yahoo's board voted to alter its change-in-control provision
to include the sale of a major business unit as well; and with that,
Mayer's $123 million payday was created."
"Without that vote, Mayer would have walked away with "only" around $14 million."

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Dec 14, 2015
If she stays on board for another year and a half, Marissa Mayer will make $365 million for five years of work at Yahoo.
The vast majority of her pay isn't tied to Yahoo's performance as a company
- it's tied to Yahoo's stock price.

Jan 10, 2017  read more »

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Dec 28, 2016
open a bank account in just 8 minutes? you can lose it even faster - smartphone-only bank N26 German fintech company N26, which made its name mocking traditional banks, has found itself on the receiving end of criticism after a security researcher proved its smartphone apps exposed users to potential account hijacking.

N26, previously known as Number26, has expanded rapidly since it launched in early 2015 as a smartphone-only bank with no local branches, with the backing of major global investors including Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel.

Vincent Haupert, a research fellow and PhD student in the computer science department of the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, told the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg how he and two colleagues found N26 security defenses riddled with holes that could have been used to defraud thousands of users.

"They say you can open a bank account in just eight minutes," Haupert said. "As it turns out, you can lose it even faster." In a statement, N26 thanked Haupert for alerting the company to "a theoretical security vulnerability" and advising it on fixes, which N26 said it completed this month.

N26 offers a range of online banking and other financial services to 200,000 customers in 17 European countries through a banking license granted earlier this year by German financial regulator Bafin. N26 executives have been the most outspoken among new fintech players in arguing traditional banks are failing to serve customers more directly by relying on antiquated local branch relationships instead of modern, phone-based services.

"I don't see banks at all as my competitors. They just can't move fast enough," N26 Chief Executive Valentin Stalf told Reuters last year.  read more »

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Dec 14, 2016
Yahoo announced Wednesday that hackers stole data from more than one billion customer accounts.

Nov 24, 2016
Personal data belonging to 134,386 current and former sailors in the U.S. Navy has been compromised, the Navy said on Wednesday.

It wasn't immediately clear when the hack took place, but the Navy is pointing the finger at a compromised laptop belonging to a contractor as the source of the data breach.

In a statement, the Navy said it was notified by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services that a laptop belonging to one of its employees was compromised. That employee, the Navy said, was working in support of a Navy contract.

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Photo courtesy REUTERS / Denis Balibouse/File photo

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MiamiHerald July 25, 2016 Judge ruled: Bitcoin is not actually money
In a case closely watched in financial and tech circles, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Mary Pooler ruled that Bitcoin was not backed by any government or bank, and was not “tangible wealth” and “cannot be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars.”

A Miami-Dade judge ruled Monday that Bitcoin is not actually money, a decision hailed by proponents of the virtual currency that has become popular across the world.

In a case closely watched in financial and tech circles, the judge threw out the felony charges against website designer Michell Espinoza, who had been charged with illegally transmitting and laundering $1,500 worth of Bitcoins. He sold them to undercover detectives who told him they wanted to use the money to buy stolen credit-card numbers.

But Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Mary Pooler ruled that Bitcoin was not backed by any government or bank, and was not “tangible wealth” and “cannot be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars.”

“The court is not an expert in economics; however, it is very clear, even to someone with limited knowledge in the area, the Bitcoin has a long way to go before it the equivalent of money,” Pooler wrote in an eight-page order.

The judge also wrote that Florida law — which says someone can be charged with money laundering if they engage in a financial transaction that will “promote” illegal activity — is way too vague to apply to Bitcoin.  read more »

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Apr 12, 2016 - ABC News Report: Data Breaches Bigger, Worse Than You Think In addition to 9 “mega-breaches” of personal data in 2015, tens of millions of personal records were likely exposed or stolen the same year but went unreported because the companies or entities involved chose to keep the size of the breach a secret, The report from California-based Symantec said that the number of companies that refused to report the scope of a data breach jumped by 85 percent last year, what one senior Symantec officer said was a “disturbing trend.” Some 429 million personal records were exposed in 2015 -- many of them through mega-breaches like the Office of Personnel Management hack and one that reportedly hit a huge voter database -- but that number is only based on entities that shared the scope of the breach. Symantec estimates that the real number of exposed or stolen records, including those that went unreported, likely tops half a billion. Senior Vice President at Symantec told ABC News that the research shows cyber-crime has moved on from its “start-up phase.” “As a growth business, these guys have figured out how to make money,”

Growing business has moved on from its “start-up phase.”
A “disturbing trend - a market has evolved to meet demand.”  read more »