Jake Davis, allegedly known online as ‘Topiary’, released on bail after being charged with five offences Jake Davis, an 18-year-old from the Shetland Islands, was released on bail on Monday after being charged with five offences relating to computer attacks and break-ins by the LulzSec and Anonymous hacking groups earlier this year. The black-haired Davis, wearing a black T-shirt under a blue denim shirt and holding a copy of a book called Free radicals: The Secret Anarchy of Science, showed little reaction as the charges were read out at the City of Westminster magistrates’ court in Horseferry Road, London. Davis was granted bail to stay with his mother at their new home in Spalding, Lincolnshire, on condition that he does not access the internet either directly or through anyone else. He also has to wear a tag to ensure a 10pm to 7am curfew. Davis, whom police believe used the online nickname “Topiary” and was a member of the LulzSec and Anonymous hacking groups, was arrested at 2.10pm last Wednesday in Mid Yell, an northern island of the Shetlands. He was charged on Sunday night with offences under the Computer Misuse Act, the Serious Crime Act, and the Criminal Law Act. Davis is accused of gathering data from National Health Service computers, being involved with attacks on News International and being part of an attack that caused the website for the Serious Organised Crime Agency to collapse. It is claimed that the hacking attacks compromised personal data for hundreds of thousands of people via the NHS, and the bank details of a large number of people when Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked. LulzSec Hacking Anonymous Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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• Scale of UK job cuts not revealed • HSBC awaiting results of banking commission • First-half profits up 3% to $11.5bn HSBC on Monday warned the coalition government that radical reform of the banking industry could put more UK jobs at risk as it confirmed 30,000 roles are to be lost across its global banking group over the next three years . The new chief executive Stuart Gulliver, who took the helm in January after 32 years at the bank, revealed that 5,000 roles had already gone so far this year and that another 25,000 would need to be removed from the 296,000 global workforce. Revealing the extent of the job cuts for the first time, Gulliver had signalled in May that roles would be shed as he set about achieving $3.5bn (£2.14bn) of savings within three years to bolster the bank’s return on equity to 12%-15% from 9.5% in 2010. He stressed that some of the reductions would come through natural staff turnover and that the bank would continue to hire in some of its faster growing markets. But the bank refused to be specific about how deeply the job axe would be wielded in the UK – where 700 roles were cut in June – and warned that no decision would be taken until the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) published its recommendations on 12 September. Gulliver said that the number of job cuts “did not take account of what the ICB might recommend” nor the impact of disposals of any businesses in the 20 countries – out of 87 where it has operations – where the retail business is earmarked for closure. David Fleming, Unite national officer, said: “It is now necessary for the bank to confirm to its UK workforce how this news will impact on them. The employees being hit by these extensive cuts were in no way responsible for the banking crisis, yet it is these staff, many of whom are low paid, who are having to pay for the bank’s recovery. Several UK banks, including HSBC, have lobbied against proposals that they should “ringfence” their high street operations away from their investment banking arms. HSBC’s chairman, Douglas Flint, would not specify what action the bank might make in response to the ICB but kept up his challenge to worldwide regulatory changes because of the impact they might have already on fragile developed economies. “The pace and quantum of regulatory reform continues to increase at the same time as the global economy appears to be losing momentum in its recovery,” Flint said. Profits beat forecasts The pair, who took the helm of the bank at the start of the year after messy boardroom reshuffle, were speaking as the bank reported better than expected first-half pre-tax profits of $11.5bn, up 3%, with the fastest growth coming from Asia and Latin America. The shares were among the biggest gainers in the FTSE 100, rising 4% to 612p by midday as the market digested the figures which were published at 9.15am and set a better than expected tone for the rest of the London-listed banks which report this week. Some $2.1bn of profits were made in Europe, although they were down 39%, with the majority now generated in Hong Kong – some $3bn – and the rest of Asia Pacific – $3.7bn – where profits are up 32%. The troubled North American business managed a 5% increase in profits to $606m, the smallest generator of profit, with the Middle East bringing in $747m and Latin America $1.1bn. The investment banking operations suffered a 12% fall in revenue as markets dried up during the eurozone and US debt crisis, but Gulliver said they had held up more strongly than rivals. Gulliver, who had announced in May after a day-long investor meeting that he had concluded that retail business in 39 out of 61 countries was “subscale”, said: “I am pleased with these results, which mark a first step in the right direction on what will be a long journey.” The loan impairment and other credit risk provisions were down 30% on the same period last year, reaching $5.3bn. A provision of £65m was made against HSBC’s holdings of Greek bonds but it has taken no fresh hits against its Irish or Portuguese debt. The second interim dividend for 2011 is $0.09 per ordinary share – the equivalent of $1.6bn. HSBC Banking Job losses Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite HDD invites Android users to its media streaming party
August 1, 2011 No Comment
When we took a look at Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite back in May , we recommended that non-iOS buyers hold off until the company rolled out an app for different operating systems. Android users take note, the storage company today took the wraps off of an app that lets users wirelessly stream content like HD videos from the external hard drive to devices running their favorite dessert-themed mobile OS. No internet connection is required to stream, you just need to be in range of the drive. The 500GB GoFlex Satellite has a built-in battery that can stream video for up to five hours. The drive will run you $200, but the Android app is decidedly more free. Check the relevant press info below. Continue reading Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite HDD invites Android users to its media streaming party Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite HDD invites Android users to its media streaming party originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …The debt ceiling deal quickly helped calm hyperventilating markets, with S&P 500 stock futures up 1.5% on overnight trading, Asian stock markets up, and gold down, reports Reuters . But with the US dollar mostly unchanged, long-term US treasury bonds down, and the continued threat of a downgrade to the…
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âAmerican Idolâ winner Fantasia Barrino announced some big news during a Jacksonville, Fla., concert over the weekend: sheâs pregnant! The singer, 27, revealed the happy… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : PopEater Discovery Date : 01/08/2011 06:09 Number of articles : 3
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HCL reveals News International’s various requests for deletion but tells MPs it knew of nothing untoward The technology firm HCL has told the home affairs select committee it was aware of the deletion of hundreds of thousands of emails at the request of News International between April 2010 and July 2011, but said it did not know of anything untoward behind the requests to delete them. HCL has sent the letter to the home affairs select committee chairman, Keith Vaz , revealing it had been involved in nine separate episodes of email deletion. HCL says it is not the company responsible for emails on the News International system that are older than a couple of weeks. It says another unnamed vendor is responsible, but confirms it has co-operated with this vendor in deleting material. Through a letter from HCL’s solicitors Stuart Benson, the firm says: “My client is aware of nothing which appeared abnormal, untoward or inconsistent with its contractual role.” It adds: “It is entirely for News International, the police and your committee as to whether there was any other agenda or subtext when issues of deletion arose and that is a matter on which my client cannot comment and something you will no doubt wish to explore direct with News International.” It stressed that since it was not the company that stored News International’s data “any suggestion or allegation that it has deleted material held on behalf of News International is without foundation”. HCL identified three sets of email deletions in April 2010, including a deletion of a public folder of a live email system that “was owned by a user who no longer needed the emails”. A further 200,000 emails stuck in an outbox were deleted in May 2010 to restore email functionality. In September 2010 a further pruning of historic emails occurred to help stabilise the email archival system, which had been having “frequent outages” since November 2009. In January 2011 HCL was asked about its ability to truncate a particular database in the email archival systems. HCL “answered in the negative and suggested assistance from the third party vendor”. HCL stated no reason as to why it was unable to assist. In February 2011 emails were deleted in an older version of Microsoft. Finally, in July 2011 HCL helped delete emails from the live system as relocation errors had occurred during migration from one system to the other. HCL said it did not have the resources to review every set of deletions. Separately, a firm of solicitors drawn into the News International phone-hacking scandal is expected to reply shortly to the home affairs select committee as to how it came to write a key letter to the newspaper group that was then used by the company to contend that phone hacking had not been widespread. The firm, Harbottle and Lewis, is consulting the Metropolitan police before deciding how to reply to requests from the select committee to spell out how it came to write a letter taken to mean that only one reporter was aware of phone hacking at the paper. The New York Times reported at the weekend that the letter sent by Harbottle and Lewis to the culture, media and sport select committee was redrafted more than once. The firm had been hired to review the email of the tabloid’s royal reporter, Clive Goodman, who had pleaded guilty to hacking the mobile phone messages of royal household staff members. The letter said “no reasonable evidence” had been found that senior editors knew about the reporter’s “illegal actions”. The New York Times alleges that the letter sent to the culture select committee in May 2007 was constructed to give the company a clean bill of health over phone hacking, but was silent on the issue of payments to the police. The home affairs select committee asked: • “What was the exact remit given to Harbottle and Lewis when it was instructed by News International in 2007?” • “The contents of emails and information held in the file you mentioned in your letter.” • “What advice was provided from Harbottle and Lewis to News International in 2007 following examination of the emails and information?” • “Why the evidence you had in 2007 that was later examined by Lord McDonald in 2011 was not acted upon sooner?” Phone hacking News International Newspapers & magazines News of the World Newspapers Computing Email Media business Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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Agreement criticised on both sides of the political divide, amid concern it may fail to be approved by Congress America has moved away from the brink of a catastrophic default after a deal was reached overnight to raise its debt ceiling. Stock markets around the world rallied on Monday, in relief that the world’s largest economy would probably avoid running out of cash this week. But the agreement, which includes around $2.5 trillion of spending cuts over the next decade, has been criticised by some on both sides of the political divide, and will probably not save America’s triple-A credit rating. There is also concern that the deal could still fail to be approved by Congress, which is due to vote on the package on Monday night. Some liberals are angry that the plan, which has been hailed as a triumph for the Tea Party movement, relies on spending reductions rather than tax rises to reduce the US budget deficit. The Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, has already warned that some Democrats may be unwilling to support the deal. Under the plan, announced by Barack Obama late on Sunday, the US debt ceiling will be raised by about $2.4tn, in two stages. In return, the US government deficit will be reduced by a similar amount over the next decade. “This process has been messy and taken too long,” said Obama, who also admitted that the weeks of frustratingly slow negotiations in Washington had not delivered the deal he wanted . “This compromise does make a serious down-payment on the deficit reduction we need, and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year,” Obama said. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, and his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, both indicated they were optimistic that Congress will approve the deal. McConnell, who will meet with Republican senators on Monday, said: “We can assure the American people … that the United States of America will not for the first time in our history default on its obligations.” The full details of the plan have not been released. However, a fact sheet released by the White House showed that spending would be capped by $900bn over the next ten years. A bi-partisan committee will then be set up to agree a further $1.5tn of deficit reduction measures, which could include tax rises. If this committee cannot agree a deal, then an “enforcement mechanism” will trigger around $1.3tn of spending reductions beginning in 2013. Paul Krugman, the Nobel prizewinning US economist, accused Obama of surrendering to Republican opponents. “The deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-term deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana republic status.” Markets rally, but AAA rating under threat Many economists believe that America could soon lose its triple-A credit rating, despite a deal being agreed. Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency, recently said that a credible fiscal plan would need to include $4tn of deficit reduction measures. “Avoiding the worst case scenario of a default on US Treasury obligations will not prevent a downgrade of the triple-A sovereign rating,” predicted Kevin Daly, emerging market debt portfolio manager at Aberdeen Asset Management. “So it’s time for us all to figure out just what it means when the US gets downgraded.” Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of HSBC, said the progress made over the US debt ceiling was “very welcome”, but also warned that America could see its credit rating cut. Wall Street is expected to open around 1% higher when trading begins on Monday. In London the FTSE 100 rallied by almost 1.5%, jumping 83 points to 5898, as traders welcomed the news that the US would probably not run out of cash. “Investors have breathed a collective sigh of relief that the risk of default has been avoided – albeit a few weeks ago nobody would have expected it to go down to the wire like this,” said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index. “It still has to be approved by Congress, so there is always the potential for a stumble here, but market reaction today seems confident that it will pass.” Most major commodities gained ground, pushing the cost of a barrel of Brent crude oil up by $2 to $119.40. Gold, which has benefited from the crisis as investors looked for safe havens, fell by 1%. Overnight, Asian stock markets rose strongly on the news. The Japanese Nikkei was up more than 2% at one stage, closing up 1.34% at 9,965 having broken through the 10,000 barrier earlier. United States Barack Obama US economy Republicans Democrats US politics Tea Party movement US economic growth and recession Ewen MacAskill Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
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On Friday night’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher touched on one of the most ridiculous aspects of the debt ceiling debate: the GOP’s use of a scene from “The Town” as a motivational tool. Like Jon Stewart did earlier this week, Maher suggested a few other scenes from movies that Republicans might want to draw inspiration from when trying to convince Tea Partiers to back their plan. What do you think of his choices? WATCH: Via Gotcha Media
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Late last night, President Obama announced that Democrat and Republican leaders had agreed on a plan with Obama's approval to raise the debt ceiling. The plan would prevent any possible defaults that could occur on August 2 if the deal is not passed in Congress. The plan is still subject to congressional approval, and many Democrats and Republicans are already speaking out against it. Check out a summary of the deal after the break, and let us know your thoughts in the comments. As the Daily Caller's Amanda Carey explained , the deal has a similar framework to House Speaker John Boehner's original plan. According to a summary of the bill provided by Speaker of the House John Boehner’s office, the plan immediately cuts discretionary spending by $917 billion over ten years, and raises the debt ceiling by $900 billion. There are no tax hikes included. The debt limit increase is expected to last until February. Like the Boehner plan that was tabled in the Senate on Friday, the current plan requires a vote on a balanced budget amendment after October 1, but before the end of the year. In February 2012, the president can request another debt limit increase of $1.5 trillion, if either a newly created Joint Committee authorizes spending cuts greater than the hike, or a budget amendment has been passed by the states. ( For a more detailed summary, visit Reuters ) In addition to Boehner's approval, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both lent their support to the plan as well. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi was not as enthusiastic, explaining she would review the plan with her caucus today. Many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle shared Pelosi's lack of enthusiasm. Some Democrats believe it does not ask enough of the rich, while many Republicans believe the budget cuts are not sweeping enough. Senator Bernie Sanders explained, “I cannot support legislation like the Reid proposal which balances the budget on the backs of struggling Americans while not requiring one penny of sacrifice from the wealthiest people in our country. That is not only grotesquely immoral, it is bad economic policy.” Rep. Raul Grijalva echoed Sanders, saying, “This deal does not even attempt to strike a balance between more cuts for the working people of American and a fairer contribution from millionaires and corporations.” Tea Party Republicans, including Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee, have been voicing their concerns for a plan without a balanced budget amendment all week. Senator Ron Johnson explained, “It may be a step in the right direction but it is not fixing the problem. And you know, again it’s not about the August 2 deadline. It’s about the amount of spending and debt that this country is incurring…We have way too much debt for the size of our economy.” Rep. Allen West took a different approach, tweeting last night, “Before conservatives go criticising [sic] this agreement consider what would have happened if Pelosi, Reid and Obama were still in control.” What do you think of the plan? Do you think it will pass through Congress?
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