After 15 years, Yahoo completed its exit from South Korea today, reports Yonhap News Agency. This move also marks the first Asian market that Yahoo is leaving.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HbW3JRzlGy4/
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CHICAGO (AP) ? Tribune Co. emerged from a Chapter 11 restructuring Monday, more than four years after the media company sought bankruptcy protection.
The reorganized company is starting with a new board of directors and new ownership that includes senior creditors Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon and Co., and JPMorgan Chase and Co.
Tribune closed on a new, $1.1 billion senior secured term loan and a $300 million revolving credit line. The loan will fund payments required under the reorganization plan, and the credit line will fund ongoing operations.
The company also will issue about 100 million shares of class A and class B stock to former creditors, along with warrants to buy the shares. Class B shareholders will have limited voting rights and will not be able to vote for directors.
The new board of directors includes Bruce Karsh, Ken Liang, Peter Murphy, Ross Levinsohn, Craig A. Jacobson, Peter Liguori, and Eddy Hartenstein.
"Tribune emerges from the bankruptcy process as a multimedia company with a great mix of profitable assets, strong brands in major markets and a much-improved capital structure," said Hartenstein, Tribune's chief executive officer.
The Chicago Tribune reported late Sunday that Liguori, a former TV executive at Discovery and Fox, is expected to be named chief executive of the reorganized Tribune Co.
Tribune, which was founded in 1847, publishes some of the best-known newspapers in the United States, including the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun and the Chicago Tribune. It also owns WGN in Chicago and 22 other television stations, as well as the WGN radio station.
The company sought bankruptcy protection in 2008, less than a year after billionaire developer Sam Zell led an $8 billion leveraged buyout that left the company with $13 billion in debt.
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This Friday, Dec. 28,2012 photo Kaylee Feight talks about the impact of a minimum wage increase on her job at Quiznos in Helena, Mont. Montana's minimum wage workers are getting a small pay raise on New Year's Day when an automatic cost-of-living increase takes effect. (AP photo/Matt Gouras)
This Friday, Dec. 28,2012 photo Kaylee Feight talks about the impact of a minimum wage increase on her job at Quiznos in Helena, Mont. Montana's minimum wage workers are getting a small pay raise on New Year's Day when an automatic cost-of-living increase takes effect. (AP photo/Matt Gouras)
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) ? With a bump in the minimum wage to $9.19 an hour on Tuesday, high school student Miranda Olson will edge closer to her goal of purchasing that black Volkswagen Beetle she's been researching online.
Olson is only able to pick up part-time hours, working after classes and on weekends. But the extra pennies she'll earn in 2013 will add up over the coming weeks and months.
"It's not much, but it's something," said Olson, 16, who works at Wagner's European Bakery and Cafe in Olympia. "Every bit helps."
Many workers around the country won't be as lucky as the ones in Washington state, which is raising its salary minimum even though it already has the highest state baseline in the country. Workers one state over ? in Idaho ? will make nearly $2 per hour less in 2013.
Automatic minimum wage increases designed to compensate for inflation have steadily pushed up salaries in some states, even through the recession, expanding the pay gap between areas that make annual adjustments and those that don't. Of the 10 states that will increase the minimum wage Tuesday, nine did so automatically to adjust for inflation.
Rhode Island lawmakers approved that state's wage increase this past year.
Paul Sonn, legal co-director at the National Employment Law Project, said he hopes more states will start looking at automatic adjustments as the economy recovers. He said the model ? which Washington state first adopted in 1998 ? helps avoid sudden jolts as states try to catch up to their peers.
"We think there's a case that it's better for everyone, including the business community, to have predictable, regular, small increases every year," Sonn said.
The automatic adjustments aren't much. Washington's bump of 15 cents will mean those who work 40-hour weeks will earn an extra $6 per week ? enough for a couple lattes ? or about $300 per year.
Hundreds of thousands of workers are expected to get a pay increase with the wage adjustments that begin New Year's Day. Along with Washington and Rhode Island, the changes will also occur in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, and Vermont.
Between the nine states with automatic adjustments happening this year, the average minimum wage is $8.12 per hour, up from a little under $8. States that do not have automatic changes operate with an average minimum wage of about $7.40 ? a difference of about $1,500 per year for a full-time worker.
Many states, including Idaho, follow the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, either because they've tied their minimum wage to that threshold or because the state-enacted minimum is lower than that.
San Francisco has set the highest local minimum wage and will have workers paid at least $10.55 an hour in 2013.
Groups like the National Restaurant Association oppose further increases in federal or state minimum wages, arguing that it's an ineffective way to reduce poverty and forces business owners to cut hours, raise prices or lay off workers.
At Tom's 1st Avenue Bento, a downtown Portland lunch spot, owner Tom Hume said he boosted pay for minimum-wage workers before the end of the year in order to get ahead of the game. He also raised prices on one-third of his menu items by 25 cents.
Natasha Baker, 22, who works at Hume's restaurant, recently moved back in with her mother but hopes to move to another apartment in January. She said the extra $5 or $6 she's earning every week with the salary boost is OK but won't make a huge difference.
"I don't usually look at what I get paid," she said. "I'm more directed on what's being taken out, which is more discouraging than anything."
___
AP Writer Steven Dubois contributed to this report from Portland. AP Writer Mike Baker can be reached on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/HiPpEV
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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) ? A brother of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has revealed that the country's largest guerrilla group had initially proposed to hold peace talks within Colombia or in neighboring Venezuela, rather than in Cuba.
Enrique Santos said in an article published in the newspaper El Espectador on Sunday that the government's team had insisted that the talks not be held in Colombia.
"We decided on Cuba for security and above all because it guaranteed confidentiality," Santos wrote in the article.
Representatives of the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, began discussions in Havana on Nov. 19 seeking a deal to end the country's decades-old conflict. They currently are taking a holiday break and are to resume talks on Jan. 14.
Santos, a journalist and former director of the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, is not a member of the team involved in the current talks, though he has acted as an adviser to the government negotiators.
He revealed details of earlier discussions with the rebels starting in February 2011. He said he has been involved "in an irreversible way in this process."
Santos said that one especially complicated matter was getting one of the rebel leaders, Jaime Alberto Parra Rodriguez, to make the trip to Cuba for those initial discussions. Santos said the rebels were distrustful of the plans to shuttle away Parra, who is better known by the nom-de-guerre Mauricio Jaramillo or the nickname "El Medico."
"It was very hard to convince the FARC to ... accept putting (Parra) on a helicopter supplied by the state," Santos wrote. "At the time of picking him up, he appeared guarded by more than 50 men armed to the teeth. In the end there was crying by women guerrillas and a farewell ceremony. That was the first big achievement: getting Jaramillo to Havana. That process lasted nearly a year."
Santos said he and others arrived in Havana on Feb. 23, 2011, ahead of their first contacts with the guerrillas, and that after sitting together about 70 times, they finally signed a preliminary accord in August 2012 to launch the peace talks. Until they reached that point, Santos said, "various times we were on the verge of breaking off" the discussions.
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Posted Saturday December 29, 2012 11:12 AM GMT
Taking time to greet awaiting fans , Scarlett Johansson left the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where she's starring in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," in New York City on Friday (December 28).
The "Avengers" actress was bundled up for the chilly Big Apple weather in a black puffy coat, black winter, hat, and blue jeans.
After its first seven preview performances, the revival is off to a good start, grossing $843,215 - more than any of the last three Broadway revivals of the play made in a week.
However, fans hoping for a super seductive Maggie the Cat might be disappointed. The 28-year-old actress says, "I think her sexuality is often overplayed and over-appreciated. It?s such an unimportant part of this story. I mean, it comes with the circumstance, of course, and the settling and the words ? that?s already there. There?s no need to drape yourself all over the stage and roll around in a satin sheet.?
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Posted by Omari | December 28th, 2012 | Awards & Perks, General Information
With 2013 around the bend ? credit card bills and special offers are about to arrive, making it the perfect time to begin thinking about resolutions for the New Year. For many, that involves better money management, gaining credit card rewards and spending credit if need be, smartly.
Financial and credit managers would say one of the best ways to take control of your financial portfolio and money management is to reduce debt. Assessing your level of debt and why you?ve incurred that debt are the first steps.
Then take measured action to reduce debt and work towards improving your overall financial picture for your 2013.
? Start with your free credit report to better understand your credit standing. You?re entitled to a free credit report from each of the three national credit reporting agencies, including Equifax, each year.
? Establish a budget so you can track where your money goes each month. This will aid in cutting out unnecessary expenditure from your routine.
? Create a goal such as a family vacation or paying back a certain percentage of your debt to make it easier to stave off spending. 
? Make a plan for paying back debt most effectively. Having a financial planner or using an online debt management tool can help you prioritize debts.
? When it?s time to make a major purchase, create a list of pros and cons to help you make a smart financial decision. Also maximize the purchase with a credit card that rewards you for big purchases during the inception period, like the Starwood Preferred Guest? Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN. Or cards that boast zero or low introductory APRs, like the Citi? Dividend Platinum Select? Visa? Card ? $100 Cash Back.
? Don?t let bills pile up; past due bills can incur late fees and will negatively affect your credit score. Several Chase cards come with the Blueprint program, which allows cardholders several payback options for budgeting.
? If possible, make more than the minimum payment each month on credit card balances, which may help raise your credit score. Because some credit card companies take several days to process and post your payment, paying 5-7 days before the due date is wise. 
?It may seem daunting at first, but by taking even small steps in 2013, you can reduce debt and take more control of your own finances,? said Trey Loughran, president of the Personal Solutions unit at Equifax. ?This is a new year?s resolution worth keeping all year long.?
However, if you?re serious about decreasing debt in 2013, one of the first things to do is decease debt load and spend wisely. Dorothy Barrick, a GreenPath Debt Solutions counselor says, ?The money that you have been spending on interest is money that could be going towards building savings and financial security.?
Also look for ways to reduce your overall interest costs. This can include balance transfers, consolidation loans, and/or a Debt Management Plan through a non-profit credit counseling organization.
With 2012 coming to a close and 2013 on the horizon, make it a lucky year for you and your financial portfolio. To find a credit card to fit your financial profile, visit CardOffers.com.
Tags: Budget, Credit Card, debit card, debt management, financial portfolio, money management, New Year, rewards
Filed under: Awards & Perks, General Information |
Source: http://blog.cardoffers.com/new-year-tips-to-maintain-financial-control/
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Dec. 28, 2012 ? Of the three telescopes carried by NASA's Swift satellite, only one captures cosmic light at energies similar to those seen by the human eye. Although small by the standards of ground-based observatories, Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) plays a critical role in rapidly pinpointing the locations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the brightest explosions in the cosmos.
But as the proxy to the human eye aboard Swift, the UVOT takes some amazing pictures. The Swift team is celebrating eight years of UVOT operations by collecting more than 100 of the instrument's best snapshots in a web-based photo gallery (http://www.swift.psu.edu/uvot/coolPics.php). The images also can be viewed with the free Swift Explorer Mission iPhone app (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swift-explorer/id465669299?mt=8) developed by the Swift Mission Operations Center (MOC), which is located in State College, Pa., and operated by Penn State.
Swift has detected an average of about 90 GRBs a year since its launch in 2004. "When we aren't studying GRBs, we use the satellite's unique capabilities to engage in other scientific investigations, some of which produce beautiful images from the UVOT that we're delighted to be able to share with the public," said Michael Siegel, the lead scientist on the UVOT and a research associate in astronomy and astrophysics at the MOC.
The targets range from comets and star clusters to supernova remnants, nearby galaxies and active galaxies powered by supermassive black holes.
"One of our more challenging projects in the past was completing an ultraviolet mosaic of M31, the famous Andromeda galaxy," said Stefan Immler, a member of the Swift team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Because the galaxy is so much larger than the UVOT field of view, we had to take dozens of pictures and blend them together to show the whole object."
An ongoing mosaic project targets the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two small satellite galaxies orbiting our own, and makes the Andromeda effort look like child's play. Although the galaxies are much smaller than M31, they are both much closer to us and extend over much larger areas of the sky. The task involves acquiring and aligning hundreds of images and is far from complete.
With the UVOT's wavelength range of 1,700 to 6,000 angstroms, Swift remains one of few missions that study ultraviolet light, much of which is blocked by Earth's atmosphere.
The 6.5-foot-long (2 meter) UVOT is centered on an 11.8-inch (30 cm) primary mirror. Designed and built by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey, England, the telescope module includes the primary and secondary mirrors, an external baffle to reduce scattered light, two redundant detectors -- only one has been used to date -- and a power supply.
Each detector lies behind an identical filter wheel. The wheel holds color filters that transmit a broad range of wavelengths as well as devices called grisms, which spread out incoming light in much the same way as a prism spreads sunlight into a rainbow of component colors. The detectors retain information on the position and arrival time of each photon of light, an operating mode similar to typical X-ray telescopes.
Because most ultraviolet light never reaches the ground, Swift's UVOT provides a unique perspective on the cosmos. For example, it can measure the amount of water produced in passing comets by detecting the ultraviolet emission of hydroxyl (OH), one of the molecular fragments created when ultraviolet sunlight breaks up water molecules. Other types of UVOT science include exploring emissions from the centers of active galaxies, studying regions undergoing star formation, and identifying some of the rarest and most exotic stars known.
Toward the end of its energy-producing life, a star like the sun will blow away its outer layers as its core transforms into a compact, Earth-sized remnant known as a white dwarf. This chapter of stellar evolution, known to astronomers as the post-asymptotic giant branch phase, lasts only about 100,000 years -- just an eye-blink in comparison to the star's total lifetime. To better understand the process, astronomers need to study large numbers of these unusual stars.
"The UVOT's capabilities give us a great tool for surveying stellar populations and cataloging rare types of ultraviolet-bright stars," Siegel explained.
One of the first targets for the stellar survey was the giant cluster Omega Centauri, which hosts millions of stars and may be the remains of a small galaxy. Thanks to Swift's UVOT, astronomers at Goddard and Penn State have cataloged hundreds of rare stellar types in the cluster and are now comparing their properties and numbers to predictions from theoretical models describing how stars evolve.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/HrIX9RciCqE/121228203202.htm
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks recovered from sharp losses to end only slightly lower on Thursday after the U.S. House of Representative said it would come back to work this weekend in a last-ditch effort to avoid the "fiscal cliff," while the yen hit a two-year low on expectations of bold monetary stimulus in Japan.
It was a fourth straight session of losses for U.S. stocks, while world stocks ended slightly higher.
Wall Street stocks tumbled in morning trade after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the top Senate Democrat, said the United States may be poised to go off the "fiscal cliff." But in late trading, the House of Representatives said it set a work session for Sunday night ahead of the December 31 deadline for reaching a deal, paring losses that earlier that earlier had driven all three major stock indexes down about 1 percent.
Economists warn that the $600 billion in higher taxes and spending cuts set to kick in from January could push the world's largest economy into recession, dragging other countries with it.
"There's no conviction in the move or the overall market, based on the across-the-board reduction we've seen in volume ... but there will be continued weakness until there's sustained positive direction coming from our leaders," said Joseph Cangemi, managing director at ConvergEx Group, in New York.
The House of Representatives may stay in session until January 2, the final day of the current Congress, according to a Twitter message from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
That is the day that another component of the "fiscal cliff" - $109 billion in automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs - is set to start.
The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 18.28 points, or 0.14 percent, to end at 13,096.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 1.74 points, or 0.12 percent, at 1,418.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 4.25 points, or 0.14 percent, at 2,985.91.
Shares of U.S. retailers fell for a second day following the Christmas holiday. The Morgan Stanley retail index was down 0.2 percent.
The MSCI global index was last up 0.1 percent, while European shares ended down 0.01 percent.
President Barack Obama returned to Washington on Thursday, cutting short his holiday to try to get a budget deal with Republican lawmakers.
GRAPHICS:
Asset performance in 2012 http://link.reuters.com/muc46s
Fiscal cliff woes impact http://link.reuters.com/num84t
U.S. consumer confidence http://link.reuters.com/vaq84t
EURO DIPS, YEN SLUMPS
The dollar rose to 86.15 yen on Reuters data, its highest since mid-August 2010. It was last up 0.5 percent at 86.02 yen.
The dollar has risen 12 percent against the yen in 2012, on track for its biggest annual gain since 2005. Yen selling has accelerated in the past two months on expectations that Shinzo Abe would be elected prime minister and would pursue policies to weaken the Japanese currency.
The Liberal Democratic Party won the elections on December 16, making Abe the prime minister. Since then, he has kept up pressure on the Bank of Japan to attack deflation and weaken the yen.
"If everyone is simply going to take Mr. Abe at his word, then we can go a lot further before this move is done," said Kit Juckes, strategist at Societe Generale in London.
The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.3242.
U.S. BONDS TRADE HIGHER, OIL EASES
Prices on longer-dated U.S. Treasuries were higher after Reid's fiscal cliff comments and after the Conference Board, an industry group, reported a bigger-than-expected drop in American consumer confidence in December.
Benchmark 10-year Treasuries prices were 4/32 higher in price, yielding 1.7355 percent.
Brent crude futures ended down slightly as the unresolved U.S. budget talks left open the possibility that mandated tax hikes and spending cuts could be enacted, which could push the United States, the world's top oil-consumer, into recession.
Brent February crude fell 27 cents, or 0.24 percent, to settle at $110.80 a barrel. U.S. February crude slipped 11 cents, or 0.12 percent, to settle at $90.87.
In the precious metals market, gold prices rose for a fourth straight day for their longest winning stretch in nearly two months. But the gains were small for a market seen as a key hedge to the U.S. fiscal crisis.
Gold's February futures contract on COMEX, the most active on the New York exchange, settled at $1,663.70 an ounce, up $3, or 0.2 percent on the day. Over the past week, it has gained $17.80, or just over 1 percent, after hitting a four-month low of $1,645.90 on December 20.
(Additional reporting by Wanfeng Zhou, Robert Gibbons, Richard Leong, Barani Krishnan and Ryan Vlastelica in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-stocks-euro-down-u-cliff-comments-164115011--finance.html
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LONDON (AP) ? It is not often that the president of the United States needs to seek fashion advice.
But when Ronald Reagan was getting ready for a visit to England as a guest of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1982, his people had an important question for the Brits: Just what does one wear to go riding with the queen in the magnificent horse country surrounding Windsor Castle?
The answer: Something smart, but casual, of course. Riding boots, breeches and a turtleneck sweater would do fine ? no need for formal riding attire.
The fashion inquiry is but one tidbit contained in nearly 500 pages of formerly Confidential documents relating to the Reagan visit being made public Friday by Britain's National Archives. The dossier shows the British government ? led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ? to be extraordinarily interested in pleasing the relatively new president on his two-day visit. British leaders also fretted that perennial cross-Channel rivals might triumph in the tug-of-war for presidential face time in a visit that had to be sandwiched between two summits on the European mainland.
The papers show that top Reagan adviser Michael Deaver had a way of annoying his British counterparts with last-minute changes and requests, and also surprised them with some of his objectives. Deaver, remembered as a shrewd image-builder, said he wanted Reagan to be photographed outside of formal venues, so he wouldn't be seen "exclusively in white tie" at palace functions, even suggesting that Reagan go to a village pub to soak up the atmosphere
There were raised eyebrows, and bruised feelings, when the White House failed to formally reply in a timely fashion to an official invitation from the queen ? the sort of invite that usually commands respect and a prompt reply the world over. The queen's invite was left to languish for weeks and weeks, something that the British believe is simply Not Done.
"It is really for the president to respond to her invitation, which he has not done personally, something that I have pointed out several times here," writes Nicholas Henderson, Britain's ambassador to Washington, in a memo to the British Foreign Office. "As you know those surrounding the president are not deliberately rude: It is simply that they are not well-organized and do not have experience of this sort of thing."
William F. Sittman, a special assistant to Reagan who was involved in planning the trip, told The Associated Press that it is possible the delay in responding to the queen was caused by first lady Nancy Reagan's insistence on consulting her astrologer before travel plans were finalized.
"You have to remember that Mrs. Reagan was very strict about his schedule, and she would consult her astrologer to see if this was the right time to travel," he said. "Sometimes she would back up departures."
The documents make clear that Europe's leaders were desperate for Reagan's attention at a time of high Cold War tensions. A memo from U.K. Cabinet Secretary Robert Armstrong on Feb. 5 expresses concern that a gala, summit-closing dinner at the palace of Versailles outside Paris could delay Reagan's arrival in London. But he warns against pressuring the Reagan entourage to skip the meal at Versailles' Hall of Mirrors because "that would not please the President of the French Republic."
Reagan's aides also worried the British by suggesting the president might have to skip the stop in London because accepting it might anger the Germans, who had offered a similar invitation. But feelings are smoothed over a bit when the Americans assure the British contingent that the Germans are not America's top priority.
"Eagleburger emphasized how much the president himself wanted to go to London," stresses one confidential memo from the British ambassador, referring to senior U.S. diplomat Lawrence Eagleburger. "There should be no doubt about that. Eagleburger also said that at the moment the Germans were not America's favorite allies."
The prospect of a chance to relax from international summitry with a bit of horseback riding with the queen seems to have helped carry the day for the Brits. Asked for the president's favorite type of horse, British planners are told simply that he wants a thoroughbred. He ended up riding Centennial, one of the queen's favorites, and wearing a perfectly fitted sports jacket above his sweater, going for an old-time Hollywood look he carried off with ease.
Much of the actual visit was devoted to pomp and pageantry, or to relaxation, but Reagan did make one speech of consequence. He became the first American president to address a meeting of both houses of Parliament and used the occasion to trumpet his distaste for the Soviet Union, calling it an economic catastrophe.
He said Marxism-Leninism would be left on the ash heap of history ? a prediction that would come to pass in the following decade.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thatcher-papers-show-fascination-reagan-visit-012217318.html
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New single-family home sales accelerated in November to the fastest pace in 2 1/2 years and median sales price jumped from the same month in 2011, signs that the U.S. housing recovery is gaining some steam.
The Commerce Department said on Thursday sales climbed 4.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted 377,000-unit annual rate. That was in line with analysts' forecasts of a 378,000-unit annual pace.
Government data for new home sales are subject to substantial revisions. Indeed, the Commerce Department cut its estimate for sales in October by 7,000 to a 361,000-unit rate.
The annual sales pace for November was the quickest since April 2010.
This year, the housing sector has been point of strength in an economy beset by flagging business confidence and cooling demand abroad. The median home price of a new home rose to $246,200, up 14.9 percent from the same month in 2011.
New home building is expected to add to economic growth this year for the first time since 2005. The housing sector, however, remains a shadow of its former self.
The pace of new home sales is roughly a quarter of the all-time high clocked in July 2005 when a housing bubble was still inflating. Shortly thereafter, the bubble began to deflate, helping trigger the 2007-09 recession, which was the deepest downturn since the Great Depression.?
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/new-home-sales-hit-highest-rate-april-2010-1C7660252
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December is "prediction season" in the cybersecurity industry. Every major anti-virus software maker and digital-security provider issues its own forecasts of what computer users face in the coming year.?
So far this month, the predictions for 2013 look a lot like those for 2012: more?Android malware, increased cyberattacks by nation-states and greater activity by "hacktivist" groups such as Anonymous.?
However, a few companies go back and check their own predictions at the end of the year to see what they got right ??and wrong.?
One company that does so is Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, one of the top five anti-virus companies in the world.?
"In 2011, we really saw a number of things rising up: hacktivism; big?database breaches; attacks against Androids; attacks against Macs; data espionage became daily business in 2011," said Roel Schouwenberg, senior researcher at Kaspersky's Boston-area office. "When we look at 2012, we saw a further evolution of all these new trends."?
Kaspersky made the following predictions for 2012:?
Let's examine five of the top security incidents that shaped 2012 and check the accuracy of the Kaspersky researchers in light of those predictions.?
1. More Mac OS X malware
Security experts had anticipated an outbreak of malware targeting Mac OS X for years; 2012 was when it finally happened.?
The bug that did it, called the?Flashback or Flashfake Trojan, first appeared near the end of 2011, but didn't reach its peak rate of infection until March of 2012.?
Flashback infected more than 700,000 Macs around the world, the largest known Mac OS X infection to date.?
"In 2011, we predicted that we would see more Mac malware attacks," said Kaspersky Lab's Costin Raiu and David Emm in a?blog posting. "We just never expected it would be this dramatic."?
Why did Flashback wreak such havoc??
One reason was a well-documented Java vulnerability, which Apple took a long time to patch even after it had been publicly disclosed. The Flashback authors took advantage of Apple's delay to incorporate the Java exploit into their otherwise unremarkable creation.?
The second reason was the general?lack of awareness among Mac users?about security. Proper anti-virus software would have stopped Flashback's attack, yet most Mac users felt they didn't need it.?
Flashback wasn't the only successful attack on Mac OS X systems in 2012. There were multiple espionage-related attacks on Macs used by Tibetan dissidents and exiles. Some of the attacks used corrupted files purporting to?come straight from the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled leader.?
"The espionage angle may be a bigger factor for Mac right now than regular consumer malware," Schouwenberg said. "For general cybercrime, most criminals go after Windows because that's what they know. That's what's easiest for them."?
"But when it comes to these targeted attacks, the attackers go after whichever machines the targets are using. So if the targets are using Macs, they'll go after Macs."?
Schouwenberg said in terms of the proportion of available systems infected, Flashback was the most successful malware outbreak of the year.?
"When you look at relative market share, the Flashback malware in terms of prevalence was the size of [the infamous Windows worm]?Conficker," he said. "This was an absolutely huge event in the Apple world. When you extrapolate [the number of Macs infected] to Windows numbers, that's about 10 million."?
2. Cyberweapons: Flame??
Cyberwarfare is a term that often gets hyped up, especially when a politician or general is speaking.?
In fact, the?Stuxnet worm, which crippled an Iranian uranium-enrichment facility in the summer of 2010, was for nearly two years the only known cyberweapon that had destroyed anything.?
That changed this past spring, when a series of cyberattacks destroyed computer systems at oil facilities in Iran, as well as in the offices of the Iranian oil ministry.?
Wiper, the malware thought to be responsible for the attacks, was never found, although certain tell-tale signs indicated it was similar to Stuxnet and its cousin Duqu.?
During the investigation in May, however, researchers from Kaspersky, the Iranian computer emergency response team MAHER and the CrySyS Lab at Budapest University in Hungary discovered something else ?possibly the most sophisticated piece of malware ever seen. Kaspersky's team called it "Flame."?
The size, age and sophistication of Flame were startling. It was 20 megabytes in size, as large as a complex smartphone game, while most malware is only a few dozen kilobytes in size.?
Flame contained a dozen different modules that could be added and subtracted according to the task at hand, which made it extremely versatile as spyware.?
It could map out networks, index files, record audio and video, log keystrokes, take screenshots and archive emails and instant messages. When its job was done, it would destroy all signs of itself on any 32-bit Windows PC, and sometimes the host system as well.?
Yet despite its size, Flame was at least five years old at the time of its discovery ?an enormous amount of time for a piece of malware to be "in the wild."?
As?Raiu said in a press release, Flame was "an example of a complex malicious program that could exist undetected for an extended amount of time while collecting massive amounts of data and sensitive information from its victims."?
A couple of weeks after its discovery, Dutch researchers found that Flame's creators had pulled off a mathematical breakthrough.?
Using unknown techniques, Flame's creators had created a nearly-impossible?cryptologic collision?that allowed Flame to present itself as a signed, genuine Windows update package direct from Microsoft. No anti-virus software could have stopped it.?
?Gauss...?
In August, Kaspersky researchers found a highly sophisticated Trojan in the Middle East, this time spying on Lebanese banks.?
Like ordinary criminal banking Trojans, this new malware, which Kaspersky researchers dubbed "Gauss," stole online-banking credentials to break into accounts. Yet Gauss didn't steal any money ?just information.
In their year-end review, Raiu and Emmer said Gauss added a "new dimension to nation-state cyber-campaigns," even if it was nowhere as sophisticated as Flame.?
"It appears there is a strong cyber component to the existing geopolitical tensions ?perhaps bigger than anyone expected," they added.?
? and Shamoon?
That would prove to be an understatement. Later in August, Shamoon, a piece of especially destructive, yet simple, malware, made?its world debut.?
Named after a piece of text embedded deep in its code, Shamoon launched an attack against the state-owned Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco and destroyed data on more than 30,000 computers. ??
Shamoon was crude but effective. It searched an infected system for certain files, sent a list of those files to a remote server, and then methodically deleted key parts of the installed Windows system, rendering the infected machine useless.?
"You have the hacktivist movement claiming credit for that attack, which may or may not be the case," Schouwenberg said.?
"Shamoon wasn't really that sophisticated, but when you look at the relevance of the incidence, it's extremely, extremely important," Schouwenberg added, "especially when you consider the fact that Saudi Aramco announced just recently that they strongly believe that Shamoon's real target was to mess with the oil production rather than just sabotaging the machines in the corporate network."?
Kaspersky researchers said many details about Shamoon were still unknown, such as how the malware infected Saudi Aramco's systems in the first place, or who was behind the malware.?
Some observers suspect Iran created and used Shamoon as an attempt to cripple Saudi Arabia's oil production, which would cause oil prices to rise, benefiting cash-strapped Iran.?
3. Exponential growth in Android malware?
During 2011, there was an explosion in the number of?malicious threats against the Android platform. It was obvious that the trend would go on.?
Kaspersky, as well as most of its competitors, accurately predicted that the number of threats for Android would continue to grow at an alarming rate in 2012.?
"We predicted we would see an explosion in Android malware and that's what we saw," Schouwenberg said. "There is a huge amount of Android malware these days, although not anywhere near the amount of Windows malware that we see. But it's grown very dramatically."?
How dramatically??
"The number of samples we received continued to grow and peaked in June 2012, when we identified almost 7,000 malicious Android programs," Raiu and Emmer wrote. "Overall, in 2012, we identified more than 35,000 malicious Android programs, which is about six times more than in 2011."?
So why is there so much Android malware, and so little malware targeting its competition, Apple's iOS??
It's because?iOS is locked down tight. Apple oversees every part of the hardware and software development, and strictly controls which apps can be installed on iOS devices.?
Android, however, is a free-for-all. Dozens of manufacturers make hundreds of Android devices, and the operating system is a little different on each one. Manufacturers and cellular carriers?refuse to update Android?in a timely manner, resulting in security holes that are left unpatched for months or years.?
"Off-road" app markets flourish, especially in China where access to the official Google Play store is restricted. Google has belatedly tightened security in both Android itself and in the Google Play store, yet its efforts have a long way to go before they can match Apple's.?
Still, the tighter security in the latest versions of Android may be having an effect. Kaspersky's own figures show that while the number of new Android threats continued to grow in the second half of 2012, the rate of growth began to slow.?
4. Advanced persistent threats go quiet?
Advanced persistent threat hackers, i.e. cyberspies, were certainly active in 2012, yet didn't have the spectacular successes they'd had in previous years.?
Perhaps the most visible attack on Western targets was the discovery in September 2012 that two pieces of malware had been signed using a?valid Adobe code-signing certificate.?
Apparently, someone, somehow, had broken into an Adobe server and stolen authentication certificates.?
"This discovery belongs to the same chain of extremely targeted attacks performed by sophisticated threat actors commonly described as APT," wrote Raiu and Emmer. "The fact that a high profile company like Adobe was compromised in this way redefines the boundaries and possibilities that are becoming available for these high-level attackers."?
5. Data breach after data breach?
One thing that Kaspersky failed to anticipate in 2012 was the seemingly unending parade of huge data breaches involving companies and organizations with inadequate security.?
In early June, the business-networking website LinkedIn had?6.4 million passwords stolen. The passwords were encrypted, but in a very simple way that meant most could easily be deciphered.?
A day later, online-dating service eHarmony suffered a similar breach,?losing 1.5 million passwords, also poorly encrypted.?
In July, struggling Web giant Yahoo was embarrassed by a data breach that revealed?450,000 passwords?had been stored without any encryption at all. It wasn't entirely Yahoo's fault, since the database was acquired with the 2010 purchase of another company, but it was also evident that no one had bothered to check.?
Worst of all was the revelation in late October that vital personally identifiable information on?3.8 million adult residents of South Carolina, plus 1.9 million dependents and 700,000 businesses, had been stolen from the state tax agency.?
Entire tax records, containing names, addresses, dates of birth and, worst of all, Social Security numbers, were all stored unencrypted. Virtually the entire state population of 4.7 million people was put at grave risk of identity theft.?
Weeks after the breach was revealed, the state government was blaming the federal IRS for not providing strong security guidelines, and was itself being criticized by security experts for not revealing enough about what had happened.?
Looking back, and forward?
"There isn't too much that was shocking news over 2012, just these up-and-coming things [from] 2011 that really established themselves in 2012," Schouwenberg said. "But we also saw some examples of new nation-state [campaigns] like Flame and Gauss. But from my personal point of view, the most significant event of the year was Shamoon."?
As for 2013, "we expect the next year to be packed with high-profile attacks on consumers, businesses and governments alike, and to see the first signs of notable attacks against the critical industrial infrastructure," Raiu said in a company press release.?"The most notable trends of 2013 will be new examples of cyberwarfare operations, increasing targeted attacks on businesses and new, sophisticated mobile threats."
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/2012-year-malware-surged-dramatically-1C7659317
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Perhaps you have experienced financial problems and your credit is very bad. You may find it almost impossible to enjoy some of the things that your friends have. Yet, it is possible to receive your own cellular telephone contract if you look in the right places. Here is helpful info on getting accepted for a mobile phone even with bad credit history.
Portable telephone service is not just a luxury these days. It has become an important communications tool. Maybe your car has developed problems and you are a long ways from home or telephone access. All you have to do is use your personal telephone to contact someone for assistance. This can save you from walking a long distance for help. It is also is an important safety tool for you and your family.
If you are a parent you may want to provide the kids with cell phones. This helps to maintain contact, so you know where they are and if they are safe or not. Cellular phones are a valuable tool for parents with busy and changing schedules. You may need to contact the kids to let them know that you will be late in picking them up after school.
Today?s cell phone providers have many money saving plans. Yet, you may need to possess a good credit history if you want to qualify. Cellular service providers are looking for people that are creditworthy. If you have past difficulties you may not be able to qualify for all of the best plans for the latest smart phones.
Perhaps you own a very limited financial history, and this can cause problems. When you search for cellular providers you may find many doors closed to you. These companies want someone that they can trust for a year or more and they do not know anything about you or your character. In most cases, they will deny your application.
There is no reason to give up if you cannot find a good mobile phone contract because your credit history is poor. If you check the Internet you will find some places that guarantee your approval. These services work directly with the cellular networks. They know who to talk to about the best kind of deals available.
When you look online for guaranteed approval services choose ones that are straightforward. You can visit these sites and see all of the plans that they have to offer. You will notice several plans and they display how many monthly minutes and texts you receive. You also can view the Internet plan and the monthly cost. Once you find the contract that you like you can order it online and the process is straightforward and very easy.
There are ways of getting accepted for a mobile phone even with bad credit history, if you know where to look. You can shop from many excellent plans when you find an assured approval online service. It is very easy to locate the perfect plan to match your budget. There is no need to put up the embarrassment and inconvenience of limited communications.
Getting accepted for a mobile phone even with bad credit history is not difficult if you know how to search. You should take time to visit fan page links for a guaranteed phone contract for additional details.
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ARTICLE 2:
Use of Career Education and Occupation Information Services in
Boosting Enrolment into Vocational and Technical Education
Programs in Nigeria
By:
Igbinedion, V. I.1 & I. J. Ojeaga1
Department of Vocational and Technical Education, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin
(International Education Studies; Vol. 5, No. 4; 2012)
ARTICLE REVIEW:
The authors has discussed about to address issues of youth unemployment, poverty and international competitiveness in skills development towards current and projected opportunities and challenges. Numerous reforms in vocational and technical education programs over the years, they still remain greatly detested by students and parents in Nigeria as evidenced in low enrolment when compared with sciences, engineering, banking and finance, and medicine.
The authors was also describe that technical and vocational education in Nigeria is so misconstrued that it has become extremely difficult in management perspective, to administer the program to meet societal ever changing needs. Presently, the program is bedeviled by many challenges that hinder the realization of its objectives as specified by the National Policy on Education of Federal Government of Nigeria (2004). One of these challenges is low enrolment. It is the concern of that enrolment into technical and vocational programs may be low not because Nigerian youths are lazy nor do not want to use their hands to work. But it may be because many Nigerians do not fully understand the benefits, scope and content of the program and lack of vocational or career education and occupation information services to students while in or out of schools.
The authors also mentioned that many of them make choices without proper understanding of their abilities, interests and attitudes. Most of the young people are said to select occupations like medicine, engineering, accounting mainly because of the positions and prestige attached to the job and not necessarily as a result of conscious assessment of the individual?s interests and abilities. Therefore, career education may be a veritable means of providing career awareness and information services to students in order to improve enrolment in vocational and technical education in Nigeria. Students, parents and the society at large look unto the school to help the adolescents and youth make career decision based on realistic abilities, interests and availability. Therefore, it is required to use of career education and occupation information services in boosting enrolment in vocational and technical education programs in Nigeria.
In addition, from the author?s research, they are also identified some of the factors responsible for low enrolment in TVET in Nigeria which are:
1.? Poor Societal Perception: Many people are yet to understand the meaning, scope and content of vocational and technical education. Some view it as education for the handicapped or education for those who cannot cope with the sciences. (Osa-Edoh ,2008)
2.??? Poor Societal Attitude: The attitude of people towards vocational and technical education contributes to the problems in teaching the subject. It notes that in schools, the teacher could be teaching people who are not interested in the subject that is being taught. (Idialu, 2007).
3.???Elitism: Elitism could be described as the belief of a group in society that because of superior privileges, power and talent they tend to hold on to this belief through a system of education that will sustain this group?s interest. (Oviawe and Anavberokhai, 2008).
4.??? Poor Entry Level: Students who enroll in vocational and technical education programs are considered to have low aptitude. The technical schools find it hard to attract good students because there is a strong misconception that they are reserved for the never-to- do-wells and other negative by-products. Those admitted because they cannot find other things to do barely pass through the program because of poor aptitude and attitude. (Oviawe and Anavberokhai, 2008).
5.?? Lack of Recognition: There is a low recognition associated with manual labor in Nigeria. Unlike her counterparts in developed countries, the skilled craftsman does not enjoy the same recognition. (Oviawe and Anavberokhai, 2008).
6.????Discrimination against Graduates of Technical and Vocational Education: There is also the problem of unhealthy perception or discrimination against technical graduates. It was stated that this discrimination is virtually visible amongst graduates of technical schools (technical college, monotechnics, colleges of technology, polytechnics) and university graduates. Up till now, the former is being managed by National Board for Technical Education while the latter is under the supervision of National Universities Commission. countries, the skilled craftsman does not enjoy the same recognition (Ogidefa, 2010).
DISCUSSION
From the above, it shows that the TVET programmes in Nigeria are still not being acceptable by most of the people. Low prestige given to the TVET is the most factors that hinder the participation of the students to the TVET. Other factors like discrimination to the TVET programme, poor entry level to TVET, elitism, etc are also will become crucial if no actions taken to this issue. It is agreed that it was difficult to the government in enhancing or rebranding the educational systems especially TVET as it requires a lot of financial support and resources. However, due to the current globalization of the economy systems, the government of Nigeria needs to do something in promoting TVET as the economy will grow with the support from the TVET. The growth of the country is actually depending on how many unemployed in that country. The less number of unemployed, the more established the country. Few actions can be taken in promoting TVET like career conference, field trip, collaborating industrial training, providing career information center, etc.
REFERENCE
2.? Ogidefa, I. (2010). Enhancing Technical Vocational Education in Nigerian Schools. Socyberty. Retrieved from:
3.??? Osa-Edoh G. I. (2008). The Place of Vocational And Technical Education In Skills Acquisition By Secondary School Students ? Implication For Counseling. Technical and Vocational Education Journal. 1(2). 84-90.
4.? Oviawe, J.I. & Anavberokhai, M.O. (2008). The Role of Entrepreneurship Education In The Realization Of The National Economic Empowerment And Development Strategy (NEEDS). Technical and Vocational Education Journal, 1(1).
Prepared By: Nurihah Mohamad Saleh (MP 111227)
Source: http://citve1213.blogspot.com/2012/12/critique-article-2-use-of-career.html
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