Fisher Capital Management Directory News:’Smishing’ scams targeting wireless users | Fisher Capital Management Scam Reviews

http://fishercapitalmanagementnews.com/2011/04/fisher-capital-management-newssmishing-scams-targeting-wireless-users/

Smishing' scams targeting wireless users

Ric Romero
More: Bio, E-mail, Facebook, Home Page, News Team

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- It's getting rough in the world of wireless technology.

More than 300 million people in the United States have wireless devices and many use mobile apps to bank, trade stock, even track their tax refund.
Responding to the wrong message or downloading the wrong app on a cellphone or tablet could be costly. It's a growing concern for cellphone providers and wireless security companies who intercept spam and suspicious texts daily.
"It could be as serious as a significant financial loss if they are able to access their bank account," said Jamie de Guerre, chief technology officer at Cloudmark, an online security provider.
How do the scams work? It's called Smishing, combined from SMS and phishing. Criminals try to swipe personal info via text messages. For example, users may get a text claiming to be from a credit union asking to be called at a number.
"When you call the number, they're actually looking to scam you out of your personal information," said John Walls of the CTIA the Wireless Association.
Another example of this is receiving a text claiming to be from a friend that asks you to download an "incredible media player." When the user downloads it, security experts say their screen will blink because they just downloaded mobile malware. That could allow hackers to monitor their accounts or send high-priced text messages from their phone, running up their bill.
So how can users protect themselves?

• Before downloading an app, they should check out reviews and make sure it seems reputable.
• If an app asks for a lot of permissions to access information, that's a big red flag.
• Don't respond to texts that appear to be from their bank. Contact the bank on the phone or at a branch to make sure.
• Be suspicious of any text asking to text, email or call in personal information.
• Don't download an app from a link in a text.

"Just as we learned in the PC world how to take measures to protect ourselves, a lot of those same steps and lessons can be applied to wireless to keep yourself out of trouble," Walls said.
Users should also make sure their phone is up to date with the latest software so they've got current protection against any new threats.

(Copyright ©2011 KABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Reviews | DHS: Imported Gadgets Possibly Include Malicious Software

http://diannehann.newsvine.com/_news/2011/07/20/7127787-fisher-capital-management-scam-reviews-dhs-imported-gadgets-possibly-include-malicious-software

By Chloe Albanesiushttp://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388361,00.asp

Date: TUE July 12, 2011

A Homeland Security official confirmed last week that tech components imported from overseas, many of which end up in some of the most popular American gadgets, are often infected with malicious software.

A Homeland Security official confirmed last week that tech components imported from overseas, many of which end up in some of the most popular American gadgets, are often infected with malicious software.

“This is one of the most complicated and difficult challenges that we have,” Greg Schaffer, acting deputy undersecretary at DHS’ National Protection and Programs Directorate, said during a Thursday hearing.

Schaffer was responding to questions from Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations.

“Clearly, supply chain risk management is an issue that the administration is focused on,” Schaffer said when asked how the U.S. was battling this problem. When pressed for details, Schaffer was reluctant to expand except to say, “I am aware that there have been instances where that has happened.”

“The range of issues goes to the fact that there are foreign components in many U.S. manufactured devices,” Schaffer continued. “There is a task force that DHS and DOD co-chair to look at these issues with goals to identify short-term mitigation strategies and to also make sure that we have capability for maintaining U.S. manufacturing capability over the long term.”

Chaffetz expressed concern that the private sector was not in the loop with what the government was doing on this issue, but Schaffer insisted that DHS does indeed consult its private-sector partners.

This is not the first time this issue has been raised. In a 2009 Cyberspace Policy Review, the White House said “a broad, holistic approach to risk management is required rather than a wholesale condemnation of foreign products and services. The challenge with supply chain attacks is that a sophisticated adversary might narrowly focus on particular systems and make manipulation virtually impossible to discover.”

Of course, while “foreign manufacturing does present easier opportunities for nation-state adversaries to subvert products; however, the same goals could be achieved through the recruitment of key insiders or other espionage activities,” the White House said.

“The best defense may be to ensure U.S. market leadership through continued innovation that enhances U.S. market leadership and the application of best practices in maintaining diverse, resilient supply chains and infrastructures,” the administration concluded.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing, entitled, "Cybersecurity: Assessing the Nation's Ability to Address the Growing Cyber Threat" on July 7th. The hearing followed and incorporated information gleaned from a hearing held by the Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations on May 25, 2011, entitled, "Cybersecurity: Assessing the Immediate Threat to the United States," which focused on the cyber threat, as well as investigated the need to develop well-coordinated strategic cybersecurity partnerships with the private sector.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News: S Korea, China Bust Phone Scam Ring Targeting S Korea

http://digg.com/news/business/fisher_capital_management_scam_prevention_news_blog_archive_fisher_capital_management_scam_prevention_news_s_korea_china_bust_phone_scam_ring_targeting_s_korea

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=581379

April 24, 2011 12:40 PM

SEOUL, April 24 (Bernama) — Chinese prosecutors have arrested 23 suspects over phone fraud on South Koreans, Seoul’s prosecutors said Sunday, the first bust on a scam ring after the two neighbouring countries agreed to thwart voice phishing scams that have caused huge financial damage in South Korea in recent years.

Voice phishing involves random phone calls to dupe victims to siphon their bank accounts, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Callers, growingly traced to networks in China, masquerade as police or bank officials, or sometimes demand ransom claiming they are holding a family member hostage.

The damage from phone fraud has reached over 200 billion won (US$185 million) over the last three years, according to South Korean prosecution data.

More than 1,500 suspects of the scams are believed to have fled to China during the past five years.

A Chinese ringleader and 22 other scammers allegedly swindled several billion won from South Koreans by impersonating officials of financial institutions and fooling them into depositing their money at certain bank accounts.

The Chinese prosecutors are also chasing other members of the busted phone scam ring that allegedly has about 100 members, according to Seoul’s prosecutors.

The bust came three months after South Korean Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu and Meng Jianzu, China’s public security minister, agreed to cooperate in rooting out voice phishing scams.

South Korean prosecutors said they can soon extradite 15 separate suspects from China over similar scams that caused some 150 billion won ($138 million) in damages from 20,000 victims. The prosecutors did not give any specific time frame.

– BERNAMA

We provide (subscription-based) 
news coverage in our Newswire service.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News : News of the World staff stow parting barbs in final edition’s crosswords

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/11/news-of-the-world-crossword

Beatrice Woolf

Date: TUE July 12, 2011

Jibes against Rebekah Brooks survive her alleged order to comb the final edition for hidden messages

Article history

The final edition of the News of the World. Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

If the staff at the News of the World felt bitter towards the woman who kept her job when they lost theirs, it seems they found an unlikely outlet for their anger.

It was not until page 47 of the final edition that a series of scarcely concealed digs appeared under the guise of crossword clues and answers.

The clues for the quickie and cryptic crossword included “woman stares wildly at calamity”, “catastrophe”, “stink” and “criminal enterprise”, seemingly a thinly veiled reference to Rebekah Brooks and the phone hacking scandal. Answers included “deplored”, “stench”, “disaster”, “menace”, “racket”, “desist” and “tart”.

The word “Brook” also appeared as a clue in the quickie puzzle, another possible reference to the News Internationalchief executive,

Brooks was said to have ordered two senior figures at the company to search the paper for hidden messages from disgruntled staff but it appears they overlooked the crossword.

Other clues in the cryptic puzzle include “string of recordings”, “mix in prison” and “will fear new security measure”.

The answer “firewall” is possibly a reference to staff being unable to use the internet following the announcement of the paper’s closure.

The failure to spot the jibes may have brought a small amount of joy to an otherwise dejected staff.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News : Leaked HP Memo Tackles TouchPad Shortcomings

Hewlett-Packard is taking mixed reviews for its new TouchPad tablet with webOS pretty seriously, going by a leaked internal memo from the head ofHP’s Palm Global Business Unit to staff that declares it will be “a marathon not a sprint” to fix the initial shortcomings of the device.

John Rubenstein, senior vice president and general manager of HP’s Palm unit, sent the memo on July 1, the day the TouchPad was officially released in the U.S. It was apparently leaked by an anonymous tipster to Pre Central, a specialist tech website covering HP’s mobile business.

While the memo cites The New York Times reviewer David Pogue’s opinion that the TouchPad shows “signs of greatness,” Rubenstein also concedes that Pogue and other “reviewers rightly note things we need to improve about the webOS experience.”

That’s a tacit admission that the TouchPad has a long way to go in areas like app availability and user friendliness before it lives up to one HP executive’s pre-release boast that the tablet would take onApple’s market-dominating iPad and “become better than number one.”

PCMag’s Lead Analyst for Audio and Video Timothy Gideon didn’t disagree with Rubenstein’s assessment (reprinted below), offering up the “general feeling that the good outweighs the bad with the TouchPad.” Our full review of the tablet offers much the same sentiment.

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard is planning to follow up on its Wi-Fi-only, 16GB and 32GB TouchPads with a “white glossy” model due out in August that sports a more powerful processor and 64GB of internal storage, as well as a 32GB TouchPad with support for AT&T’s 4G HSPA+ network in the same August timeframe, according to leaked HP product roadmap slides, also published this week by Pre Central.

Here’s the leaked internal email:

“Team,

“Today we bring the HP TouchPad and webOS 3.0 to the world. The HP team has achieved something extraordinary—especially when you consider that it’s been just one year since our work on the TouchPad began in earnest. Today also marks the start of a new era for HP as our vision for connected mobility begins to take form—an ecosystem of services, applications and devices connected seamlessly by webOS.

“If you’ve seen the recent TouchPad reviews you know that the industry understands HP’s vision and sees the same potential in webOS as we do. David Pogue from The New York Times says, “[T]here are signs of greatness here.” … You’ve also seen that reviewers rightly note things we need to improve about the webOS experience. The good news is that most of the issues they cite are already known to us and will be addressed in short order by over-the-air software and app catalog updates. We still have work to do to make webOS the platform we know it can be, but remember—it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

“In that spirit, Richard Kerris, head of worldwide developer relations for webOS, reminded me yesterday of the first reviews for a product introduced a little over ten years ago:

“…overall the software is sluggish”

“…there are no quality apps to use, so it won’t last”

“…it’s just not making sense…”

“It’s hard to believe these statements described MacOS X—a platform that would go on to change the landscape of Silicon Valley in ways that no one could have imagined.

“The similarities to our situation are obvious, but there’s also a big difference. Like David Pogue, our audiences get that webOS has the potential for greatness. And like me, they know that your hard work and passion, and the power of HP’s commitment to webOS, will turn that potential into the real thing.”

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News: ANZ sounds warning on economy as profits jump

http://www.smh.com.au/business/anz-sounds-warning-on-economy-as-profits-jump-20110503-1e6se.html

Eric Johnston

May 4, 2011

 

Warning … structural shift in the economy. Photo: AFP

ANZ has warned of a structural shift across the economy where industries such as manufacturing, tourism and retailing need to confront to the reality of a persistently high Australian dollar.

The bank’s chief executive, Mike Smith, also called on the Reserve Bank to curb any further interest rate rises, warning that parts of the economy had hit a ”flat spot” with confidence levels among business and consumers still fragile.

Mr Smith made his comments as the Reserve Bank left official cash rates unchanged at 4.75 per cent at its monthly board meeting yesterday. But the bank board suggested a mid-year rise could be be possible if inflationary pressures persisted.

Advertisement: Story continues below

Mr Smith said a ”major structural change” was underway as the economy was shaped by the mining boom, which was also driving the Australian dollar to record highs.

”I don’t think the magnitude of this shift is still fully understood, nor its implications for industries like manufacturing, tourism and retail where business models are clearly going to have to adapt to a lower margin, lower growth environment,” he said.

Mr Smith unveiled a 38 per cent jump in ANZ’s first-half cash profit to $2.66 billion, putting the big-four bank on track for a record full year.

The result for the six months to the end of March was driven by a sharp drop in bad debts, while ANZ’s institutional business regained some momentum.

ANZ declared a first-half dividend of 64¢ a share, up 12¢ on the first half last year.

The bottom-line result was struck on a 19 per cent increase in first-half revenues to $8.61 billion, mostly as wealth management and trading income improved.

But this was largely offset by a 19 per cent increase in costs, which  has been a continuing sore point for ANZ. A stronger Australian dollar wiped 2 per cent from profit.

The bank revealed its flagship Australian division experienced sluggish growth over the past 12 months and went backwards in the first half on an underlying profit basis.

It turned in first-half earnings of $1.32 billion, just 2 per cent higher on the previous corresponding period but down 6 per cent on the second half of last year.

ANZ’s Institutional business continued its recovery from its low points with profits up 24 per cent, while New Zealand operations returned 63 per cent growth despite the effects of the Christchurch earthquakes. Much of the profit life there came from widening margins.

The Asia-Pacific division continues to expand, with profits coming in 44 per cent higher at $396 million.

ANZ recently outlined plans to generate nearly a third of group profits from its Asian operations by 2017, a doubling of current profit contribution from those divisions.

The bank’s net interest margin, a core measure of profitability, dipped to 2.47 per cent from 2.50 per cent in the September half last year amid renewed pricing competition in institutional lending.

Provisions for bad debts fell 40 per cent to $660 million. The health of ANZ’s lending book continued to improve, but further gains would be at a slower pace, Mr Smith said.

ANZ set aside $79 million to cover potential lending losses arising from recent natural disasters, particularly the Queensland floods.

Return on equity continued to push higher, suggesting bank profitability was inching back to pre-financial crisis levels. ANZ’s return on equity of 16.7 per cent was up from 14.7 per cent a year ago.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Reviews : iTunes hack goes global, new affected games identified

http://www.betanews.com/article/iTunes-hack-goes-global-new-affected-games-identified/1307564070

By Ed Oswald | Published THUR June 09, 2011

As coverage of the apparent hack of the iTunes Music Store expands, so have thereports from readers. The newest round of reports indicate that the issue is not limited to the US: Betanews has been able to identify victims in at least five foreign countries. Worse yet? It’s no longer just Sega’s Kingdom Conquest anymore: several other games have now been identified. Betanews first reported about the spreading hacks one week ago.

To date, reports have been received primarily from the US. However, since then reports have been received from Britain, Ireland, and Germany. Betanews has also been able to source reports through its investigation to New Zealand and Canada as well. Since the reports are not centered to one particular region per se, it’s likely this has become a worldwide problem for Apple.

Reader reports also have begun to become more diverse in the games they describe to be the source of their woes. In addition toKingdom Conquest, fraudulent transactions have been sourced to Storm8′s World War, and Kamagame’s Texas Poker. An investigation continues into whether or not other titles could be affected.

With Apple all but silent on the issue, it has been difficult to determine what may be the source of the problem. However, with the quantity of reports received now numbering over three dozen, a pattern has emerged: every game targeted is a free download, and the fraudulent charges are all due to in-app purchases.

For this reason, Betanews now has reason to believe that this particular hack affecting iTunes is likely sourced to an exploit existing in Apple’s in-app purchasing mechanism. It is the only similiarity between every report received.

While a majority of users reporting in as victims have had their iTunes credit balances drained, some also saw fraudulent charges to linked credit card and PayPal accounts. While an issue may exist there as well, it’s likely not the primary cause of the hack.

Repeated requests for comment from Apple have gone unanswered as of press time. Requests for comment from game developers affected were also not returned.

Betanews is still actively collecting reports. If you’ve been hacked, whether it’s Kingdom Conquest or not, we’d like to know. Send your reports to ed at edoswald dot com. We are also asking for your location (city and state is fine) for a future feature we’ll run showing visually where the location of victims of the iTunes hack are.