US ramps up cybersecurity focus

The White House should take direct control of US cybersecurity, the woman tipped to be President Obama's net security Czar has said.

Melissa Hathaway told a conference in San Francisco that the net had not been built with safety in mind.

read more | digg story


Researchers recently concluded the average number of unique new infected sites grew from 100,000-200,000 a day to 200,000-300,000 a day and this trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. In addition, the world recently witnessed the third cyber attack against a country (Kyrgyzstan).

ANALYSIS: Glenn Beck & Bill O’Reilly Save $400,000/year

Conservative commentators Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly regularly rail against President Obama’s budget which would fix the Bush tax system. Maybe it’s because Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck benefit tremendously from the broken status quo. According to a new analysis, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly each save $400,000 under the current Bush tax system.

read more | digg story

#DiggCons: The HQ for conservatives spamming Digg

From the site: "How do I give? It's simple. When you see a link in the #diggcon Tweet stream, click on it and Digg it, Stumble it, R-igg, it, etc." Provides a realtime stream of right-wing Digg stories, all meant to be upvoted by a cadre of members in a coordinated fashion.

read more | digg story

It Was The Irresponsible Leveraging, Redirect The Blame

Enough Demonizing The Mortgage Holders, It Was The Irresponsible Leveraging

Over and over, it has begun to drone on throughout society and media. “Loser homeowners”, “irresponsible borrowers”, et cetera… the mantra is being touted the main reason behind the current financial collapse. The responsible parties at the helm of major banks and government have shifted blame to those who do not have the means nor the power to defend themselves. It is easy for the well-connected CEO’s and government insiders to get their faces on TV and get the meme of their faultless leadership into the public psyche.

...(A) major banking institution leveraging itself at 35:1 is not the effect of poor home loans but the irresponsible management and leadership of the institution.

The persons holding the cards look down upon and even blame the defaulting homeowners (they are not blameless, but are hardly the key players in the collapse), when it was the the banking lobbyists pushing to relax regulation and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who relaxed leveraging rules to allow banks more room to game the system. And when it all crumbled… it was the banking CEO’s with hat in hand before congress begging for the socialist handouts, not the homeowner who was being booted to the street for taking an ill-advised, poorly managed home loan that the banks were all too pleased to use as a means of leverage by granting to sub-prime borrowers.

read more | digg story

4 million lost health insurance since recession began

An estimated 4 million Americans have lost their health insurance since the recession began, and as many as 14,000 people could be losing their health coverage every day, according to a report by the Center for American Progress' Action Fund...also claims at least half of the 4 million who lost their insurance coverage still are uninsured...

read more | digg story

AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs - BusinessWeek

"Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.

"The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines...

"Goldman Sachs' tab for leased cars and drivers ran as high as $233,000 per executive. The firm told its shareholders this year that financial counseling and chauffeurs are important in giving executives more time to focus on their jobs."

Welcome to the 419 Eater

Welcome to the world of Scambaiting!

Does somebody want to transfer millions of dollars into your account?
Does someone want you pay you to cash cheques and send them the money?
Met a new friend/penpal on a friendship/dating site who's asking you for money?
Has a dying person contacted you wanting your help to give his money to charity?
Have you sold an item and are asked to accept a payment larger than the item amount?

IT'S A SCAM!

Don't fall for common scams like this - fight them!

So what is scambaiting? Well, put simply, you enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their time and resources. Whilst you are doing this, you will be helping to keep the scammers away from real potential victims and screwing around with the minds of deserving thieves.

Oregon Woman Loses $400,000 to Nigerian E-Mail Scam

An Oregon woman who is out $400,000 after falling for a well-known Internet scam says she wasn't a sucker or an easy mark.

Her family and bank officials told her it was all a scam, she said, and begged her to stop, but she persisted because she became obsessed with getting paid.

Spears, who is a nursing administrator and CPR teacher, said she mortgaged the house and took a lien out on the family car, and ran through her husband's retirement account.

"The retirement he was dreaming of — cruising and going around and seeing America — is pretty much gone for him right now," she said.

She estimates it will take two years to clear the debt that accumulated in the more than two years she spent sending money to con artists.

read more | digg story