educationalist reasoned: December 2011

Friday, December 16, 2011

Google pulls dozens of apps from Android Market for SMS scams (Digital Trends)

android virus

Google?s popular Android operating system appears to still be the mobile operating system of choice for fraudsters and malware authors: Google has just pulled dozens of apps from the Android Market because they trick European users into paying premium SMS charges. According to the mobile security firm Lookout, Google has removed 22 apps from the market for essentially being wrappers around a new RuFraud threat; Lookout says they?ve since found and reported an additional five apps bearing RuFraud to Google.

Some of the apps offer horoscopes or claim to be wallpaper apps for popular movies (including the Twilight series), while others purport to be downloaders for well-known games (like Angry Birds, Assassin?s Creed, Tetris, and Cut the Rope) or software that?s available for free from legitimate sources (like Opera Mobile). The apps present an initial screen where the only option for users is to continue; that is taken as consent to the apps? terms of service. Buried deep in the TOS behind a number of obfuscating links are agreements to pay premium charges.

North American users would not have been impacted by the apps because the premium shot codes used by the apps are gated by country; however, users in a number of western and eastern European countries would have been susceptible to the apps.

Lookout reports some of the apps were removed very quickly with minimal exposure to Android Market users, but estimates some of the apps may have reached more than 14,000 people.

Lookout?s alert follows closely on a report from Juniper Networks that found a 472 percent increase in the incidence of Android malware since July 2011.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More than 100 million EU citizens have never surfed web (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Almost a quarter of the European Union's 500 million people have never used the Internet and there is a widening division between the web-savvy north of Europe and the poorer south and east, figures released on Wednesday showed.

More than half the population of Romania and just under half of those in Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal do not have Internet access at home, according to the figures from Eurostat, the EU's statistical agency.

As well as highlighting geographic disparities across one of the world's most-developed regions, the figures underline the lack of opportunity people in poorer communities have to take part in advances such as the Internet that have delivered lower cost goods and service to millions of people.

"For many people today it seems difficult to live without the Internet," Eurostat said.

"However, a decreasing, but still non-negligible, part of the EU population has never used it," it added, reporting that 24 percent of 16-74 year olds across the 27 countries in the European Union have never accessed the Internet.

Although overall Internet access has risen in the past five years, the range is still wide, with just 45 percent of the population connected in Bulgaria compared with 94 percent in the Netherlands.

Others in the top tier include Luxembourg, Sweden and Denmark, all with access rates of 90 percent or above.

At the bottom end of the scale, 54 percent of those in Romania have never used the Internet, whether via home access, at an Internet cafe or over a smart phone.

Those countries with the lowest usage rates also tend to be those with the least number of fixed-line broadband connections and those that make least use of e-commerce -- buying goods and services online.

Online business is most advanced in Britain, Denmark and Sweden where it contributed between 5.8 percent and 7.2 percent of total gross domestic product in 2009, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

Britain, the EU's third largest economy after Germany and France, has become the dominant force in online commerce and government services, with more than 80 percent of 16-74 year olds making Internet purchases in the past year.

The lowest rates were again recorded in Romania and Bulgaria, with just 13 percent of those surveyed.

Perhaps one of the survey's more surprising results was that Spain, a modern economy at the heart of Europe, has a relatively modest rate of Internet access and e-commerce use: just 64 percent of households are connected and only 39 percent of people shop online, the figures showed.

For full survey results, please double click:

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/11/188&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

(Reporting By Claire Davenport; editing by Luke Baker)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111214/wr_nm/us_eu_internet

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Video: You?re hired? Gingrich visits Trump

>>> now to presidential politics . newt gingrich is launching his first ads in iowa after his face-to-face meeting with donald trump right here in new york. in a moment we'll talk about the state of the race with former utah governor jon huntsman . first nbc's political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd has the latest. chuck, good morning.

>> reporter: good morning, matt. call it newtmentum. another poll confirming newt gingrich 's front runner status. not only is he surging in iowa , closing the gap in new hampshire but he's got a commanding lead in the state that has determined every republican nominee since 1980 , south carolina . the new republican front runner, newt gingrich , campaigned in new york city on monday, saying he can put reliably blue states like new york in play next november.

>> if i do become the nominee, we're going to compete in all 50 states . i don't believe in a red versus blue model.

>> reporter: gingrich paid a visit to businessman donald trump , who has become an unusual power broker of sorts in this year's race.

>> donald trump is a great showman. he's also a great businessman. if we are trying to figure out how to create jobs, i think one of the differences between my party and the other party is we actually go to people who know how to create jobs.

>> reporter: trump is said to moderate a republican debate.

>> what the heck are the rip candidates doing showing up at a debate with a guy who says i may run for president next year as an independent? i think the republican national chairman ought to step in and say we strongly discourage every candidate from appearing at a debate moderated by someone who's going to run for president.

>> reporter: that got a rise out of trump.

>> karl rove gave us george bush and george bush crashed and burned and because of that we have obama.

>> reporter: rick santorum , michele bachmann and newt gingrich of committed to the debate. ron paul and jon huntsman turned him down.

>> ron paul has zero chance of getting the nomination. mr. paul called my office and then he went on the debate and said i didn't meet with mr. trump like everybody else in the room. i'm sure he'll tell the truth because he's a mormon.

>> reporter: mitt romney will be endorsed pie dan quayle today in arizona. as gingrich surges in the polls he is struggling to gain his infrastructure. his ad is set to start airing in iowa today.

>> some people say the america we know and love is a thing of the past. i don't believe that. because working together, i know we can rebuild america.

>> reporter: you know, the obama re- election campaign and the dnc have focused all their fire on mitt romney . that is up until yesterday. for the first time we heard from david axelrod and what he thinks about gingrich and he says this. you talk about the godfather of gridlock here, the guy who two decades ago invented the tactics that have become common place in washington. so, matt, maybe the obama campaign will start focusing fire on newt.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/45565253/

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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Secret Santa in the Senate: The wisecracks (The Week)

New York ? A bipartisan gift exchange might not bring Republicans and Democrats any closer together, but it's good for a few laughs

In a bid to spread some Christmas cheer among warring Democrats and Republicans, Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) have organized the Senate's first "Secret Santa" gift exchange. Fifty-eight senators have signed up, 21 Republicans and 37 Democrats. Johanns tells Reuters the exchange could ease tensions on Capitol Hill, although he doesn't "have any great expectations that we will suddenly fix Medicare and Social Security and the budget." That may be true, but the gimmick did give political commentators a fresh, much-appreciated reason to ridicule Congress. Here, a sampling of the snark:

It's a Christmas miracle!
This is big, big news, says Joseph Morton at the Omaha World-Herald. Both sides agreed to cough up no more than $10 for these gifts, which means that "Senate Republicans and Democrats have finally reached an iron-clad, bipartisan agreement to cap spending."

SEE MORE: 'In God We Trust': Did Congress waste time reaffirming the U.S. motto?

Wait until you see the gifts
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) won't need to shop extensively to find that special something for the Republican on his list. "It doesn't take long to get a lump of coal," he tells the World-Herald.

At least this will provide another occasion to laugh at Congress
"After an acrimonious year of arguing over taxes and spending, and an almost-government shutdown, the Senate is going to need a lot more than 10-buck Best Buy gift cards to mend itself," says Nicole Fabian-Weber at The Stir. "Will it fix the Republic? Nah. But those photo-ops of all those clowns in reindeer ears and Christmas sweaters will be priceless."

It's Congress. Somebody's going to go over budget
"There's a $10 gift limit," says Jim Newell at Gawker, "but you just know that Lieberman's going to break the rules and buy someone a Mercedes, like an ass."

Sign me up for the Fed's gift swap
"I wish our senators all the best in their attempt to manufacture Christmas cheer," says Jason Linkins at The Huffington Post, "but what I'd really like to know is how I can get hooked up with the Federal Reserve's 'Secret Santa' exchange, which seems much, much cooler." Those guys give their banker buddies billions.

View this article on TheWeek.com
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Saturday, December 3, 2011

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PSA: Mophie and Best Buy issue separate iDevice battery pack recalls due to overheating concerns

Sporting an external battery pack on your iPod Touch or iPhone? If it happens to be from Mophie or Best Buy's Rocketfish brand, we'd advise you to take note and avoid getting burned. Rocketfish's RF-KL12 battery case for the iPhone 3G / 3GS has been reported in a small number of burn and "minor" fire incidents, while Mophie's announced that a select number of Juice Pack Air models for the 4th generation iPod Touch (seen above) are at risk for overheating, and potentially even melting. Suffice it to say, if you're currently in possession of said battery extenders you should stop using it immediately. Best Buy asks that owners of the Rocketfish case get in touch to facilitate a return, which will be met with a $70 gift card in the US ($105 in Canada) as compensation. As for Mophie? If your Juice Pack Air is among the affected serial numbers, you'll be able to initiate a swap for a fresh unit via a return form on its website. Hit those source links below for all the details -- this is one case where you definitely won't want to feel the burn.

PSA: Mophie and Best Buy issue separate iDevice battery pack recalls due to overheating concerns originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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