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So Macs can be infected with malware. Who would have ever thought? The malware at issue here is the dreaded ransomware. Ransomware scrambles up your files, and the hacker at the helm says he’ll give you the cyber “key” in exchange for a handsome payment.

Ransomware historically has primarily impacted Windows users, but recently it got into OS X—its latest version, Transmission.

• The virus cyber-incubates for three days.
• Then with a Tor client, it connects to an Internet server and locks vulnerable f

Someone else might file your taxes if you don’t get to it. And they won’t be doing it as a favor; they’ll be doing it to steal your identity.

Here’s how it works:

• Cyber thieves send fraudulent e-mails to a business’s employees.
• The e-mails are designed to look like they came from the big wigs at the company.
• As a result, the targeted employees are tricked into revealing sensitive data about the company’s employees.
• The crooks end up with all this valuable data—enough to file phony tax returns.
• This pl

Earth Day 2016: Humans Are The Most Destructive Species On Earth

Source:

Pratap Antony

 Counter Currents

April 22, 2016

We humans have been in existence for less than 1% of life on Earth – In the short time of our existence, we have impacted everything; every part of our small blue planet. Our home!

We have been around for only 200,000 years – Archaeologists have calculated that humans originated about 200,000 years ago in the Middle Palaeolithic period in southern Africa, and migrated out of Africa

Based on research with almost 200,000 consumers in 40 countries, the ad agency Young & Rubicam developed a Brand Value framework called the Brand Asset Valuator (BAV).  BAV is based on one of the most extensive research programs on branding ever conducted.

Here is the essence of BAV.  Brand Value can be measured by applying understanding and analysis to 4 pillars:

1. Differentiation,
2. Relevance,
3. Esteem, and
4. Knowledge.

As a brand forms and grows, it develops strengths across these 4 pillars, typically in t

Let’s Ditch the Economy of the 1% and Replace it with a Human Economy

Written by:

Winnie Byanyima

Executive Director, Oxfam International

If we want an economy of the 1%, then GDP is very useful. It tells us all we need to know. But if we want an economy that works for us all, we have to pay attention to what it is not telling us.

In the face of a growing inequality crisis, GDP tells us nothing about the distribution of growth. When just 62 people have the same wealth as half the world’s population,

How Millennials will Save us from our Broken Economic System

Written by:

Henrik Storm Dyrseen

Managing Director, Leksell Social Ventures, Stockholm

In a crisis of economic and political leadership, who should we turn to for a vision of the future, for the rebirth of our society? Turn to the young, for they shall inherit the earth.

A crisis of capitalism and leadership

Capitalism is coming under attack. The way of the free market, with its gospel of globalization and the primacy of growth and GDP as a

HOW THE FULL-GROWN QUALITY COMPANY DELIVERS SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE AND CUSTOMER BONDING

By:

Enrique R. Suarez

International Management Consultant & Professor
Master of Education & International Development

Harvard University
suarezenrique@yahoo.com - http://www.wix.com/suarezenrique/delta

In the full-grown organization executives have a systems view of their organization. They see interrelationships, not things. They manage things and lead people. Change is a mosaic of processes, methods, materials, equi

Beyond the Empire of Chaos: Building Ecology into the Economy. Life Capital Value, Base and Measure

By:

Prof. John McMurtry

Global Research, April 18, 2016

Ecological and social science research increasingly demonstrate that ‘globalization’ is not what it seems. It does not produce more prosperity and reduce poverty for the world, but just the opposite. Ever more powerful transnational corporate money sequences multiply through organic, social and ecological life hosts looting and polluting them.  

Debt, Bank Bailouts and Austerity Measures. Proposal for Radical Change

Source:

Eric Toussaint

CADTM

April 13, 2016

Global Research

April 21, 2016

Nine years after the outbreak of the financial crisis that continues to produce damaging social effects through the austerity policies imposed on victim populations, it’s time to take another look at the commitments that were made at that time by bankers, financiers, politicians and regulatory bodies. Those four players have failed fundamentally in the prom

In France, anything is possible. Like getting tossed in jail for posting your children’s photos on Facebook.

Yes indeed, it’s true. People in France can be put behind bars for putting their kids’ pictures on Facebook. Or, they may face heavy fines. This is because the French authorities deem posting kids’ photos online threatens their security.

Parents are being warned about the consequences of this violation. The authorities believe that posting images of one’s kids online can lead to some pretty

By Jodie Paula Cohen, Producer, Open Data in Finance, www.open-data-finance.com

When I first started following the open data initiative, my banking contacts described it as “a major shift in the established business model of the financial services industry”; while alternative lenders and fintech companies spoke passionately about the power of an open API framework to “change everything about the way that we bank and operate our finances.”

This article condenses an intensive research process into t

Last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) investigated Dwolla, an e-commerce and online-payment company. It found Dwolla guilty of risk management negligence regarding data security practices.

The investigation has some significant implications. Before we take a deeper look, here are a few key takeaways:

1. Dwolla payed a civil penalty of $100,000, despite the fact that it did not suffer a data breach. This indicates “a broader trend among regulators to change the focus of enforceme

Last year, says the security firm Gemalto, over 700 million records were breached. Or, to put it another way, this translates to two million stolen or lost records every day.

2015 Breach Level Report

• 1,673 hacking incidents
• 398 were triggered from the inside of the attacked company: employees and even IT staff who were tricked (social engineering) by hackers into clicking on malicious links or attachments
• Government agencies suffered the greatest data leaks.
• Following that were nation states and heal

Tax Havens • Explained With Maps

Apr 19, 2016

Source:

http://explainedwithmaps.com/tax-havens/

Tax havens play an important role in the globalization of capital markets but also threaten their stability and structure. What are the properties of tax havens? When began tax evasion? What do fiscal paradises offer? How profit private persons, companies and the organized crime from tax havens?

There are many names for the same areas: offshore havens, fiscal paradises or tax havens. In a first list from th

What’s it gonna take for companies to crack down on their cybersecurity? What’s holding them back? Why do we keep hearing about one company data breach after another?

Well, there’s just not enough IT talent going around. The irony is that most company higher-ups admit that cybersecurity is very important and can even name specific situations that could compromise security, such as

having multiple vendors vs. only a single vendor; not having quality-level encryption in place; allowing employees to

“I say the 21st century is a terrible time to be a control freak”

I recently read this Knowledge @Wharton interview “‘Industries of the Future’: Alec Ross Unveils the Winners”. At the end of the interview Ross says, “I say the 21st century is a terrible time to be a control freak. One of the key things is to give up on the kind of control that you’re most comfortable with and begin to understand that a lot of the ground shifting under your feet is going to shift whether you like it or not and to

Well, we certainly can’t blame Dennis Nicholl for breaking the law. Frankly, had I been nearby him when he did it, I would have kept silent and let him continue breaking the law—unless, of course, I was engaged in some loud, planet-moving discussion with a world leader.

Nicholl, 63, was recently on a Chicago subway train. He brought with him a cell phone jammer. Unfortunately for Nicholl that day, Keegan Goudie was on the same train. Goudie is a blogger, noticed the infraction and began blogging

Stop clicking on e-mails about your package delivery! Scam, scam, scam! Look, it’s simple:

• Scammers are also pretending to be from the DHL and FedEx shipping companies, not just UPS.
• Crooks know that at any given time, thousands and thousands of U.S. people are waiting for a package delivery.
• So these cyber thieves send out mass e-mails by the millions, knowing that they will reach a lot of people who are expecting a package.
• The subject line of these e-mails says something about “your delivery” or

The Risk Americas series returns to NYC next month for the 5th Annual Risk and Regulation Convention set to take place on May 3-4, 2016 at the Hilton Midtown. Risk Americas traditionally brings together senior financial risk and regulation professionals from around the globe to address critical challenges within financial risk management. Following extensive research conducted by the Center for Financial Professionals, the Risk Americas 2016 agenda now features CROs from AQR Capital, Lazard Grou

Apparently there are people who take pictures of their airplane boarding pass…and post it online. I’m dead serious. I’ve heard of toddlers getting excited over scraps of paper, but full-grown adults posting images of their boarding pass online? Don’t get me started.

Let’s just only say that this is incredulously absurd. Like, who cares about your bleepity bleep boarding pass, right? OK, you got bumped up to First class. SAVE IT. Well wait a minute. Fraudsters care.

Fraudsters also care about the b