Chinese hackers target remote conferencing gear: Dell researchers

By Joseph Menn

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Chinese hacking group tied to the breach of security company RSA two years ago has targeted a maker of audio-visual conference equipment in a likely attempt to tap into boardroom and other high-level remote meetings.

Security researchers at Dell Inc's SecureWorks unit were able to monitor the computers used by the group to process communications from machines infected with stealthy software for stealing data, according to a paper they are releasing today.

Although the researchers could not tell what information was being extracted, they were able to discover many of the companies and offices unknowingly transmitting information. The compromised computers were in five different offices of a global maker of conferencing equipment, said SecureWorks researchers Joe Stewart and Don Jackson.

"I think they were looking for the source code," Stewart told Reuters, because that would help them find flaws they could use to eavesdrop in further attacks.

"If your final target is this vendor's customers of the conferencing product, you would want to be able to connect on their premises."

Stewart declined to identify the manufacturer, but he has notified both the company and law enforcement. Researchers had previously found security flaws in high-end conferencing gear and the new findings suggest they are a prime target.

As a hacking strategy, such a multi-step effort would track with other major attacks, including the one on RSA, a unit of EMC Corp.

In that case, the hackers took information that helped them duplicate the rapidly changing passwords on SecurID tokens used by defense contractors and others to authenticate users when they log in remotely. The contractors were the real targets in that case, researcher said.

Stewart attributed the new round of attacks to a prolific group based in Beijing that he and others have studied for years. Stewart's paper with Jackson tracks only one of the three dozen sophisticated malicious software programs that group favors.

That one family of code has hundreds of variants and has been used in at least 64 campaigns, including the penetration of the audio-visual equipment company, Stewart said. The same program has been used against government offices and 10 industries, including mining, media and communications.

Of the infections the researchers were able to identify, the greatest number were in Japan, followed by India, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

Stewart said the Beijing group is probably as big as the Shanghai-based crew that drew wide attention in February after security firm Mandiant said it was a specific unit within China's People's Liberation Army. China disputed the report and said it does not hack Western companies.

Although characteristics of both the Beijing and Shanghai groups sometimes show up inside the same compromised company, the Beijing group tends to focus more on activists, including those involved with Tibetan issues, Stewart said.

He has cataloged about 275 families of malicious software to date.

(Reporting by Joseph Menn. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-hackers-target-remote-conferencing-gear-dell-researchers-170216930.html

leann rimes Jacintha Saldanha pearl harbor japan earthquake thursday night football Butch Jones Star Trek Into Darkness

Samsung's 14-megapixel WB250 point-and-shoot now posts directly to Evernote

The WB250 Smart camera, Samsung's $179 WiFi-enabled point-and-shoot, just scored a major sharing boost. The pocketable cam can now boot images directly to Evernote. After downloading a software update, WB250 owners will be able to sync their images with the service seamlessly -- shots can then appear on connected smartphones, computers and tablets simultaneously. Users will also be able to tap into a 3-month Evernote Premium trial, bringing a 1GB monthly upload allowance and additional sharing options. Update your software to get started.

Filed under: Cameras, Samsung

Comments

Source: Samsung (download link)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/31/samsungs-wb250-evernote/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

Scandal denver broncos new england patriots Zayn Malik miss america 2013 Oscar Nominations social security

Pain: Should Women be treated differently than Men? ? Headache ...

Dr. Paul Spector, certified Health Fitness Specialist and director of Pantheon Medicine, wrote a fascinating article which appeared in the Huffington Post earlier this month (Women in Pain). ?In the article, he challenges the way that women with chronic pain are treated in the health field.

It?s the same old debate, in a way.??We all want to see men and women treated ?the same?, in the sense that they both get quality health care. ?On the other hand, getting ?the same? treatment must mean that men and women are treated differently, simply because they?re physically different.

Some of those differences are, of course, partly cultural. ?For example, men may be more reluctant to show weakness. ?Which means women are more open and more likely to tell their doctors about pain. ?Which could mean that women are perceived as ?over-reacting? or ?emotional?, when in reality they may just be coping better. ?Which means they may not be taken seriously.

Dr. Spector suggests four ways in which women are different:

• Women are more sensitive to pain than men
• Women have a higher prevalence of painful conditions than men
• Women seek medical help more often than men
• Women have received less pain medication than men and have had their condition discounted as psychogenic or emotional and therefore not worthy of treatment

Dr. Spector is actually responding to a discussion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC Telebriefing on Deaths from Prescription Painkiller Overdoses Rise Sharply Among Women. ?In the discussion, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden (director of the CDC) suggests that, although men are more likely to die from an opioid overdose, the gap is narrowing.

What seems to be happening is that women are being prescribed more and more opioids (think methadone, codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and meperidine).

Most of these deaths are not intentional ? we?re not talking about an increase in suicides. ?Sometimes it would be an intentional overdose, or a mix of drugs or drugs and alcohol, etc, that would end in a death. ?There could also be situations when someone is sharing drugs with someone else.

From the standpoint of headache disorders, in the widespread problem of migraine disease women are more likely to have migraine. ?Both men and women can be stigmatized, there?s no doubt. ?But from a strictly anecdotal standpoint, it certainly seems like many women are written off and ignored in a way that I never have been.

Because of the prevalence of migraine in women, it does tend to be studied more than migraine in men. ?And that?s only natural.

But maybe there are problems with treatment for both genders ? for different reasons and in different ways.

Do you feel that you?ve received poorer treatment because of your gender? ?How do you think doctors could do better? ?If you?re a doctor, what have you seen? ?What have you done to ensure that a woman or man with a headache disorder gets the treatment they need?

These other posts might relate:

Tagged as: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic pain, gender, migraine, opioid, Paul Spector, Thomas R. Frieden

Source: http://headacheandmigrainenews.com/pain-should-women-be-treated-differently-than-men/

jessica simpson Ray Donovan despicable me dwyane wade anna nicole smith Meagan Good janelle monae

Quip (for iPad)

Quip is billed as "a modern word processor that enables you to create beautiful documents on any device." From what we've experienced in our testing, it doesn't quite live up to that lofty statement. The free iPad?app does let users create collaborative, editable documents on Apple's slate (or via an iPhone or web browser), but it lacks numerous features that one associates with a word processor, as well as basic saving and sharing abilities.

Start Me Up
Quip takes you to its home screen?ironically referred to as the "desktop"?after logging in with your Google credentials. Despite tapping the Big G as a log in, Quip doesn't sync with Google Drive.

The desktop is divided into two sections: a left-aligned column that gives you fast access documents, and the main area that houses folders. A few sample documents and folders are included so that you may play with the app a bit before leaping in wholeheartedly. In fact, the "Introduction to Quip" document is one you should eyeball to learn about the app's feature set.

Tapping the "+" icon in the lower-right corner opens a blank page so that you may begin working. Quip's interface is clutter-free, but there's a reason for that?a dearth of features. The style menu (which is part of the virtual keyboard) lets you tweak the heading size, create bulleted lists, insert images, add a table, and create links to another document or folder. The default font is very legible, but you can't change its size or text color. Google Drive for iPad,?on the other hand, lets you change the font size, text color, and background color?features that Quip lacks. ?That's not all that Quip lacks; word count, grammar check, and other traditional word processing features are M.I.A.

Quip also lets you leave messages for others within the document using the "@" symbol, which assists in the collaboration process. And, frankly, collaboration is the one area where the app truly shines.

It Takes Two (or more) to Tango
As you add messages, words, tables, and images to your document, Quip's excellent Inbox?and saving grace?becomes populated with your changes, too. Think of Inbox as one part instant messenger and one part track changes. When fellow PCMag analysts Max Eddy and Will Greenwald tweaked my Terminator/The Matrix fan fiction by adding transforming robots and magical ponies via the browser-based Quip, I could see their text (represented in a boxes remembering torn of bits of paper called "diffs") added in real time. Very cool. Quip even posts the time when the text was added, the platform (Web, tablet), and highlights new text (green) and deleted text (red). Quip does a good job of letting users when and where changes occurred.

Keeping an eye on Inbox instead of the actual document page yields another advantage: Inbox sometimes updates faster than the document itself. On more than one occasion I would see Max and Will's changes in Inbox several seconds before they appeared on the page. That's not a huge issue, but it should be noted. You can also leave Inbox messages for the other document editors (such as my "needs more ninjas" suggestion) that make collaboration a breeze. Documents and folders, thankfully, are set to private by default.

You cannot, however, save document to the iPad or iCloud. If you want to do that, you must fire up the browser-based Quip that lets users print documents or save them to their PCs' hard drives as PDF files. Yup, it lacks Word support. It's very disappointing that users can't do that from within the app itself.

Extra, Extra
Like Google Drive, Quip has an offline mode that lets you continue working in a document even when a cellular or Wi-Fi connection isn't. That said, offline modes negates Inbox's ability to broadcast messages and edits, but they sync when you connect to the Web again.

Quip lacks a major feature that Google Drive possesses?the ability to upload files for general use. Quip, however, lets you snap a photo (or pull one from your iPad's Camera Roll) and use it as an Inbox message or document insert.

Quip Can Wait
Quip, oddly enough, recalls the late, great Google Wave?a real-time collaboration tool with some head-scratching feature selections (or in this case, lack thereof). Whether or not you should use Quip instead of Google Drive depends how entrenched you are in the Google ecosystem (and whether you're willing to part with the font/color tweaking that app delivers). Despite tapping your Google credentials as a login, Quip doesn't sync with Google products?or any others.

Quip is a decent first attempt at a cloud-based word processor. The collaboration tools are neat, but the overall app needs refining. If you have lightweight team-based word processing needs, Quip may be worth exploring. Otherwise, wait for version 2.0.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/AMiODIieaVs/0,2817,2422559,00.asp

James Holmes Minka Kelly sex tape Colorado shooting Colorado shooting victims aurora Angie Everhart tom hardy

Beam me up, Scotty! Would teleporting humans into space be possible?

[unable to retrieve full-text content]In the science fiction show, Star Trek, teleportation is a regular and significant feature. But how much time and power is required to send the data needed to teleport a human being?

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/physics/~3/ZpJ8aWCv_20/130730091152.htm

adam sandler tim lincecum Tyson Gay Riots Zimmerman angela corey e news Money in the Bank 2013

These Hot Celebs Are In Their 40s!? We Were Surprised, Too!

Everyone cringes at the thought of tuning the big 4-0. But why does it have to be so scary? With the right amount confidence and exercise, anyone can look ten years younger.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/these-celebs-flaunting-their-beach-bodies-are-their-40s-no-we-didnt-realize-it-either/1-a-542557?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Athese-celebs-flaunting-their-beach-bodies-are-their-40s-no-we-didnt-realize-it-either-542557

Omar Borkan Al Gala kylie bisutti jimmy carter lunar eclipse Sunil Tripathi Tavon Austin Ella Fitzgerald

TD Bank warns of insurance loss due to weather claims

, Canada's second-largest lender, said it will take a third-quarter charge after tax of C$418 million ($406 million) due to recent severe weather in Alberta and Ontario and to boost its reserves for auto insurance claims.

The weather-related hit on TD's insurance and mortgage lending business was largely shrugged off by investors and analysts as a widely expected one-time expense. But its move to strengthen reserves on auto insurance claims suggested the business may not be as profitable as the bank would like.

Competitors, including Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, are also expected to take an insurance hit in the third quarter due to flooding and storms, but TD has the largest home and auto insurance business of the big banks.

Shares in TD, which routinely notches up quarterly profit near the C$1.72 billion recorded in the second quarter, were down 1.6 percent in early afternoon trade at C$87.43, while the other Canadian bank shares were mixed.

TD said the charges, which hit both its insurance and its Canadian banking units, will result in an after-tax net loss of between C$240 million and C$290 million in its wealth and insurance business in the third quarter.

Excluding the charges, third-quarter insurance earnings are estimated to be in the range of C$130 million to C$180 million after tax, it said.

The third-quarter charges are broken down in three categories, two of which reflect estimated claims for evacuation and home and auto damage due to severe storms in southern Alberta on June 20 and in the Toronto area on July 8.

TD said it would take weather-related insurance charges of C$125 million after tax, which impact its insurance profits, and C$93 million for provisions in mortgage lending due to the Alberta flood, an indirect consequence of the weather which hits its Personal and Commercial banking profits.

Floods in the Western Canadian province of Alberta in June shut down the country's oil capital, Calgary, displaced more than 100,000 people and left many without power for days.

In Toronto, a severe rainstorm this month caused flooding, power cuts and transit chaos.

Canadian Pacific Railway's second-quarter also suffered due to the floods and insurer Intact Financial warned last week that quarterly results would be hurt by weather-related claims.

TD's remaining C$292 million after-tax charge is for increased reserves against claims in its auto insurance business, which is the area analysts focused on.

The Toronto-based bank had already increased its auto insurance reserves in the fourth quarter of 2012 in response to auto insurance reforms in Ontario, Canada's most populous province. But it said it needs to further strengthen reserves to deal with rising third-party bodily injury claims and fraud.

"The Ontario auto insurance market has presented a significant challenge to our business," Chief Executive Officer Ed Clark said in a statement.

The business earned C$360 million a year earlier.

"(The charge) raises questions about Ontario pricing adequacy, what changes TD may make in how it serves the Ontario auto insurance market and whether there could be further strengthening of reserves," Desjardins analyst Michael Goldberg wrote in a research note.

Ontario's Liberal government has proposed at 15-percent cut to average auto insurance rates in Canada's most populous province, a move considered widely popular with voters, but which has angered auto insurers.

(Additional reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; editing by Don Sebastian, Janet Guttsman and G Crosse)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/td-bank-report-loss-insurance-business-due-bad-105036677.html

1930 census nike new nfl uniforms nfl uniforms andrew bailey the village dallas fort worth tornado dallas tornadoes