A security researcher has discovered a flaw in Internet Explorer that could allow hackers to steal cookies to log onto password-protected websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and others.

Rosario Valotta, an Italian security professional, unveiled the attack, which he called cookiejacking at a security conference earlier this month. The hack affects all versions of Internet Explorer.

Whos vulnerable? This cookiejacking could affect any website. Any cookie. Limit is just your imagination, said Valotta.

To execute the hack, an attacker would need the users Windows username. To retrieve it, he would have to trick a user into dragging and dropping an object across the screen before stealing the users cookie. For example, Valotta created a jigsaw puzzle game on Facebook where users undress a photo of a woman. The hacker would also need to know the users operating system.

I published this game online on Facebook and in less than three days, more than 80 cookies were sent to my server, he told Reuters. And Ive only got 150 friends.

Microsoft said in an emailed statement that it doesnt consider the hack a high risk issue.

In order to possibly be impacted a user must visit a malicious website, be convinced to click and drag items around the page and the attacker would need to target a cookie from the website that the user was already logged into, Microsoft stated. We encourage all customers to protect themselves against potential issues by avoiding clicking on suspicious links and e-mails, as well as adjusting Internet settings to higher security levels.

An Internet privacy proposal that would require social networking firms to remove personal information when requested has stalled in the state Legislature Friday amid vocal opposition from Facebook, Twitter, Google and other companies.

Los Angeles Times reporter Patrick McGreevy reported that the Senate deadlocked 16-16 on the legislation, which would also give parents the right to edit home addresses, phone numbers and other information out of their childrens online postings.

Sen. Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) told McGreevy that her constituents had lobbied for the measure because of worries that criminals made ill use of personal information gleaned from social networking sites.

Meanwhile, the tech companies in opposition have argued that the proposal restricts interstate commerce, violates free speech and is badly written.

For McGreevys original blogpost, click here.

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Consumers Union pushes Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg to do more to keep out underage users [Updated]

Facebook executive warns senators that restrictive privacy rules could squelch benefits of social Web

– Shan Li

Photos: Users of Facebook Places check in while on the go so that friends can keep up with and maybe join them. Credit: Facebook / Associated Press

Gloucester City Council has improved its business efficiency by using a budgeting and forecasting system from Advanced Business Solutions (ABS). The software has helped the Council to reduce its budget loading time from ten days to just minutes and to better monitor, evaluate and improve its financial performance by replacing spreadsheets.

Janet Parrott, Financial Planning Accountant at Gloucester City Council, explains, “It used to take several members of the finance team over a week to complete their budget loading by collating information from various Excel spreadsheets. This process was extremely inefficient, prone to errors and didn’t provide us with an accurate picture of our finances.”

The web-based budgeting and forecasting system, which has been tightly integrated into Gloucester City Council’s existing ABS financial management system, enables the creation and real-time monitoring of financial plans and forecasts. Budgetary information can be quickly extracted, consolidated and reported to authorised users, eliminating time-consuming manual processes and the consolidation of spreadsheets,

Parrott comments, “ABS’ system has significantly streamlined our budgeting processes and made it quicker and easier to produce reports. It used to take us approximately ten days to load, validate and consolidate budget data from various standalone spreadsheets. By automating these processes with ABS’ system we have reduced this to minutes, dramatically improving efficiency, whilst eliminating errors around data manipulation.”

Parrott adds, “ABS’ system has helped to increase financial transparency and visibility at every stage of the budgeting cycle. With quicker access to financial data in a user-friendly format, this has assisted us to more accurately budget against Government performance targets whilst ensuring greater financial control and improved decision making.”

Going forward authorised users at Gloucester City Council will also be able to use ABS’ system to compare budgets to forecasts in real-time and easily input, process and view financial data directly from the desktop. This will enable issues connected with under and over spending to be addressed far earlier.

Dean Dickinson, Managing Director (Public Sector Enterprise) of Advanced Business Solutions, says, “This is another example of how our local authority customers are gaining considerable efficiency savings as a result of implementing our budgeting and forecasting system. This system enables organisations to increase financial control by providing an on-going real-time and accurate view of their budgets and forecasted spend, allowing any budgetary issues to be addressed as and when they occur.”

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors:

About Gloucester City Council www.gloucester.gov.uk/

Gloucester City Council services the historic city’s population of approximately 56,000 households comprising of over 100,000 citizens.

About Advanced Business Solutions www.advancedcomputersoftware.com/abs

Advanced Business Solutions (ABS) provides leading integrated business applications and services that enable public, private and third sector organisations to retain control, improve visibility and gain efficiencies whilst continually improving corporate performance. ABS prides itself on getting close to its customers by understanding their businesses and responding to their evolving needs.

ABSs software systems comprise core accounting/financial management, procurement, human resource and payroll systems, integrated with a range of collaborative, document management and business intelligence solutions to extend the value and effectiveness of the finance, human resource and payroll departments, which can also be delivered as a managed or bureau service option.

Customers come from both public and private sectors and include Companies House, Newcastle City Council, WH Smith, Royal Bank of Scotland, Aer Lingus, National Express Group, DFS, RSPB and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust.

Advanced Business Solutions is a division of Advanced Computer Software Group plc, a leading supplier of software and IT services to the health, care and business services sectors.

Contacts:
Ben Carey and Tim Palmer, Advanced Computer Software Group
pr@advancedcomputersoftware.com
+44(0)1625 856505

This press release was distributed via Response Source, a service from Daryl Willcox Publishing, on behalf of Advanced Business Solutions (formerly COA Solutions). For more information visit http://www.dwpub.com/pressreleasewires

(Updates with analyst, government reaction in 5th-10th paragraphs.)

— Fitch lowers its outlook on Japan’s sovereign debt to negative from stable

— Cites the increasing debt load of over 200%, the highest for any country it rates

— Notes that net debt levels are much lower and that country has large reserves

TOKYO (Dow Jones)–Fitch Ratings on Friday lowered its outlook for Japan’s burgeoning sovereign debt to negative from stable, citing the risks associated with the nuclear power plant crisis and noting that the country’s gross debt ratio is already the highest of any country it tracks.

Fitch carries an …

3 days ago

SAN FRANCISCO — Internet technology will blend with coveted vintages next week to open a premier Napa Valley wine country charity auction to the world.

Oenophiles from anywhere on the globe will be able to bid in real-time against rivals at the Auction Napa Valley site for lots featured online at napavintners.com/anv.

“We like to say you can have a virtual Napa Valley experience from wherever you are in the world — you could bid in your pajamas if you want to,” said Andy Schweiger of Schweiger Vineyards, who heads the auction’s online component.

“It’s a never-before-seen, really amazing global outreach that brings together the best of Napa Valley, all for great causes that support healthcare, youth services and affordable housing non-profit programs.”

Online bidders will get to duel with rivals lucky enough to be able to take part in auction festivities that start June 3 and culminates during the weekend in a live auction at the prestigious Meadowood Napa Valley resort.

Bidders able to make it to the Napa Valley venue will be able for the first time to use smartphones to access information about lots by snapping pictures of “QR codes” that automatically connect them to data hosted online.

Online bidding gets under way on May 29 and will continue into the evening of June 5 in California.

“I don’t know of any charity wine auction that engages the wine-loving community so broadly,” said Linda Reiff, executive director of the Napa Valley Vintners Association trade group behind the event.

“The discussion on social media has been fantastic and the excitement is gaining momentum every day.”

This is the 31st year for the annual charity event, which has raised a total of $97 million, according to Reiff.

“This is our chance to take this venerable charity auction to the next level,” Reiff said of opening the event to the world using Internet technologies.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
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Affordable new cars are sometimes a bad credit car choice when financing with no credit auto loans

Working with bad credit

Even if you have bad credit you should know that in some cases it is possible to finance a new car with online car loans bad credit.

We know this can happen because Auto Credit Express has been working in bad credit auto sales for over twenty years. During that time we’ve helped hundreds of buyers get horrible credit auto loans.

We’ve also shown them how they can stay away from a tote the note dealer (applicants outside our retail areas can fill out our online auto loans application to find the right kind of dealer near them) while teaching them about the loan process (to prevent repossession).

Bad credit auto loans

Having been in the bad credit car loan business for some time, we have seen the number of banks that deal in subprime car loans grow from just a handful to many times that.

Many of these lending programs include the possibility of financing a new car. And while the lending requirements for horrible credit auto loans are much stricter than a typical car loan, there are still quite a few new car models that could qualify for these programs.

Financing new cars

There are a number of benefits to buying a new car:

1.    These vehicles come with a new car  warranty
2.    Many new car warranties include free roadside assistance
3.    Many new cars come with the option to purchase an extended warranty to cover the entire loan term.
4.    Buying a new car also means you have a choice of colors and options.

Disadvantages

The biggest drawback to purchasing a new car when financing with a regular or bad credit auto loan is depreciation. A new car will typically lose at least 15% of its value as soon as it’s driven off the lot. This means that most of your monthly payments during the first couple of years will be lost to depreciation. This means you’ll be “upside down” in the loan for at least 2 ½ years of a 5 year loan.

The solution: put at least 20% down and shorten the length of the loan to 48 or even 36 months.

As we see it

Many bad credit customers financing with bad credit auto sales may have the choice of financing a new car.

Another suggestion if you have bad credit: driving around from dealer to dealer can be time consuming as well as embarrassing and discouraging. At Auto Credit Express, we specialize in placing customers with bad credit with dealers that can help get them financed.

So if you are serious about getting your car credit back on track, you can begin now by filling out our online auto loans application now.

Tags: affordable new cars, Bad Credit, bad credit auto loans

This entry was posted

Governments, give a red light to unproven budget stopgaps

By Michael Lewis

Commentary

Our governments soon must feel the pain of budgeting just as Miami-Dades total property value falls another 5% to 7%, reducing tax receipts.

You have to feel for those who make the hard choices. Do they raise taxes just after voters recalled a mayor who pushed through a huge hike as values fell even more, or do they cut already-tight spending?

Faced with the dilemma, expect some to budget for new revenue streams to meet laws requiring balanced budgets.

Thats the ideal solution, avoiding the pain of spending cuts or tax increases. Its every officials dream: money from nowhere.

Unfortunately, as Miami is painfully learning, its often just that, a dream. The city has to patch a big budget hole now because it bought into a nice, soft dream to avoid a hard budget reality.

The soft dream was to install 41 red-light cameras at 18 intersections, pay all costs with traffic fines and pocket $8 million profit in just nine months.

The reality is that in the first three months the city collected just $363,903 from the cameras, so Mayor Tomás Regalado says its cutting estimated camera revenues to $2 million to $3 million for nine months although at the current pace it will collect just $1.09 million.

But even $1.09 million is illusory, because from proceeds the city must pay its camera vendor $1.665 million. While the vendor at years end wont get more from any camera than the citys share of fines there, the city must pay in full for each profitable camera. So Miami is on the road to lose on the deal, not make $8 million or anything at all.

The good thing: cameras might save lives. Theyre safety devices, not a waste.

The bad thing: theyre a cost, not a profit center for a cash-strapped city that was counting on $8 million from them.

Before buying into the cameras as a massive revenue generator, officials undoubtedly did the math, but did they tell commissioners?

The numbers are simple enough. The city must pay American Traffic Solutions Inc. about $185,000 per month for cameras at 18 intersections. The city gets $75 of each $158 ticket from the courts. To pay the bills plus pocket $8 million in nine months, the city would have had to collect for 14,319 red light tickets every single month.

Even that great leap of faith in the lawlessness of Miami drivers assumes every ticket is paid. But they arent. Well-advertised firms make a very good living beating traffic tickets for a fee.

And because of that, a large number of tickets go to court and police with them. If officers arent there on overtime, theyre not on the streets working. Either way, the city pays trained officers expensive court time. If police dont show up, the city doesnt get paid the ticket mills do.

Any assessment of the profitability of red-light cameras must subtract police time from a $75 city share of the fine. It also must include how many tickets finally go unpaid.

Surely the city did the math. Didnt it?

Then, how in the name of political expediency did officials buy an $8 million profit in nine months? That assumes the city will collect in full for 128,867 tickets from just those 18 intersections at absolutely no cost. What were they thinking?

Assistant City Manager Johnny Martinez told commissioners last September the aim of the cameras was not revenues but lives saved: You can only change behavior if theres consequences. Our goal is to have zero revenues generated from this in the future because streets will be safer.

If thats the goal, the city has succeeded: certainly there is zero profit from the cameras right now which would be perfect if the city hadnt budgeted them at almost $1 million a month profit.

The problem isnt the cameras but the grasping at straws: The city needs money. Lets say we can get $8 million in nine months from cameras. That makes it easier to budget. We can deal with reality down the line. Lets not look at numbers at all.

And, because Miami isnt likely to end up making a dime from the cameras and property tax rate hikes arent likely in our economy, as budgeting for the coming year wraps up expect other revenue-generating ploys geared to balance the budget. Later on, somebody will have to plug those budget holes too.

Miami isnt alone in battling budget pressures. It wont be alone in groping for new revenue streams, which is fine if theyre realistic.

But please, commissioners, before you buy into the next bonanza of newly found money that will help avoid painful spending cuts, get someone to do the math and then see if its logical.

If its not, give those boondoggles the red light.

Read the complete issue of Miami Today online. Subscribe to e-Miami Today.Youll have access to original, local Miami business information that is found nowhere else anywhere you have Internet access.

By Preston Gralla

Microsoft may be spending enormous amount of money and development effort on Windows Phone 7, but for now, its making more money off of Android than it is from Windows Phone 7. So says Citi analyst Walter Pritchard in a just-released report.

Gizmodo says that according to Pritchards report, Microsoft gets five times as much money from Android than it does from Windows Phone 7, because of a settlement in an intellectual property infringement case against HTC. The terms of the settlement call for HTC to pay $5 to Microsoft for every Android device HTC sells. Citi claims that HTC has sold 30 million Android smartphones, and so Microsoft has taken in $150 million so far as a result of the suit.

Gizmodo says that Microsoft has sold two million Windows Phone 7 licenses, at an estimated cost of $15 per license. That translates into $30 million — one-fifth of what Microsoft has gotten so far from Android sales of HTC devices.

And that may be just the beginning. Microsoft has sued other makers of Android devices, and Citi estimates that after settlements, Microsoft will get between $7.50 and $12.50 per device.

Pritchard said that he expects Microsoft to file more suits against other Android makers. According to Business Insider, the effect of that may be more than just bringing Microsoft additional income — it will also cut into the profit margins of Android device makers, which will help Microsoft in the long run as well.

So when it comes to mobile, for now it appears that Microsofts profit is tied to its lawyers, not its designers and engineers. That may be good for the short term, but in the long run its no business plan. If Android continues to bring in more money for Microsoft than Windows Phone 7, the company will have failed in mobile.

SOME MUSICIANS still have nothing but contempt for the Internet.

Others, at least, open themselves to the fact that fan-captured, YouTube-posted videos of their concert performances are a positive, viral marketing tool.

Then theres the unique and daring ploy Daryl Hall has taken with Live from Daryls House, a popular, Internet-only TV show that tonight makes the leap to the stage of the intimate Music Box at the Borgata in Atlantic City, co-starring Halls kindred spirit and fellow Philadelphian Todd Rundgren.

Available on the Web since late 2007, with a new episode going up almost every month, Live from Daryls House brings the talent to Halls home for a jam-packed hour of music, casual conversation and food preparation and enjoyment.

Shameless hypocrisy is nothing new in politics, but its rarely laid out as nakedly as it has been this week on Capitol Hill.

In the coming days each chamber will hold one vote on one dead-on-arrival piece of legislation, to expose divisions within the minority party. Senate Democrats will force a vote on the dead-on-arrival House GOP budget, complete with its plan to phase out Medicare. And next week, House Republicans will force a vote on a clean extension of the debt limit, to prove they have a mandate to tie the debt limit to significant spending cuts.

You might not be surprised to learn that the leaders of both parties have contradictory views on these messaging votes. But you wouldnt expect them to contradict themselves so quickly.

Heres Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Tuesday, at his weekly Capitol briefing, on forcing the vote on the House GOP budget: When we had HR 1 the Republicans kept saying, Why isnt Reid allowing a vote on HR1? So we finally had a vote on HR 1. They dont have to say that to me this time. They dont have to say that to me this time. Were going to have a vote on the Medicare killing bill that the House has passed.

Here he is, moments later, on Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) forcing a vote on a clean debt limit extension: My personal feeling is I think it sends a terrible message to the international community. Bringing up something that they know is going to fail? Bringing up something so they show it wont pass. How does that help what were trying to do.

Not to be outdone, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took the mic to make exactly the opposite points in equally quick succession.

This is the first time in the history of the United States Senate that a majority leader has brought up a budget passed by the other House of the other party, McConnell said, decrying political gamesmanship such as what well be to some extent involved in down here in the Senate this week, because none of these budgets are actually going to be adopted.

Moments later, on the Houses debt limit vote, he said Itll be interesting to see how many members of the House of Representatives of either party any longer believe that its a good idea to pass a clean debt ceiling, to raise the debt ceiling with no spending reduction at all. My guess is therere not going to be many members left who believe thats a good idea. … I think its important for the markets and for everybody to understand that Congress doesnt intend to raise the debt ceiling without doing something about spending.

Posturing is good, except when its bad, and the true test of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time and still function.