Monthly Archives: August 2015

Shell cuts 6,500 jobs as oil price slump continues

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“Shell sees no quick end to the slump in oil prices and plans to further slash annual spending, sell off assets and bring the total number of job cuts to 6,500 by the end of 2015.  But the Anglo-Dutch group has vowed to press on with its expensive and controversial exploration programme in Arctic Alaska, saying it was a ‘long-term play’ that could not be influenced by current energy prices.  Capital expenditure will be reduced by a further $3bn (£1.9bn) meaning a fall of 20% overall across 2015 compared to last year while more than $30bn assets are to be disposed of by 2018 once its takeover of BG is complete. The company insisted its planned £47bn merger with rival BG was still a good bet.”

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/30/shell-to-cut-6500-jobs-due-to-continuing-oil-price-slump

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Italy’s Saipem Plans 8,800 Job Cuts After Oil Price Falls

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“Saipem SpA, Italy’s biggest oil and gas contractor, will cut jobs and exit businesses as writedowns led to an unexpected loss and an earnings target reduction.  The company, controlled by Italian oil producer Eni SpA, posted a second-quarter net loss of 997 million euros ($1.1 billion), after total writedowns of assets for 929 million euros. Analysts were expecting a 39.1 million-euro profit.  ‘The further steep fall in the oil price has resulted in a major disruption, which is not likely to be reversed in the short-to-medium term,’ Chief Executive Officer Stefano Cao, who replaced Umberto Vergine in April, said in a statement.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-28/italy-s-saipem-plans-8-800-job-cuts-after-unexpected-loss

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Microsoft Extends Parental Leave, Netflix Gives New Parents A Year Off

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“Following Netflix’s Tuesday announcement that its employees can take a full year of unlimited, paid parental leave, Microsoft responded Wednesday with an extension of its own policy that will give mothers up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave.  Microsoft said mothers and fathers can now take up to 12 weeks for parental leave and receive 100 percent payment.  Microsoft added two new holidays to the company calendar, giving its employees Martin Luther King Day and Presidents Day starting in 2016. The company also beefed up its 401(k) benefits and said it will now match 50 percent of all employee deferrals.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/microsoft-extends-parental-leave-after-netflix-gives-new-parents-year-2040898

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Google Removing Google+ Requirement From Other Products

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“When Google first revealed its answer to social media giants Facebook and Twitter in 2011, it was met largely with a fizzle. With membership in Google Plus far underperforming its goals, Google took a somewhat drastic step: much to the chagrin of users, Google began requiring people to have a Google Plus account to use Google services like YouTube or Google Drive.  Despite immediate backlash from users, Google pressed on with this endeavor for several years. Now, however, Google seems to have finally caved to its users, and will begin to remove Google Plus requirements from its most popular service, YouTube, in the coming months.”

http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/2015/07/28/407356-google-removing-google-plus-requirements.htm

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Google, Samsung phones will now receive monthly over-the-air security updates

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“Mere hours after Samsung shared plans to issue over-the-air (OTA) security updates ‘about once per month’ for its Android devices, Google has announced pretty much the same strategy. Starting this week, Nexus devices will receive regular OTA updates each month focused on security, in addition to the usual platform updates.  Just like Samsung, Google didn’t explicitly say why the new Android security update process is being unveiled now, but it did mention Stagefright, a vulnerability disclosed last week that affected roughly 95 percent of Android devices. In short, the security hole could allow a hacker to remotely access an Android smartphone using only a person’s telephone number.”

http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/05/google-announces-nexus-devices-will-now-receive-monthly-over-the-air-security-updates/

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Google pushes fixes for critical code-execution bug in Android

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“Google and its Android partners on Wednesday started distributing a fix for a vulnerability that could cause millions of phones to execute malicious code when they’re sent a malformed text message or the user is lured to a malicious website.  The flaw in an Android code library known as Stagefright was disclosed last week, several months after security researchers privately reported it to engineers responsible for Google’s Android operating system. Google engineers, in turn, have introduced changes to the Android text messaging app Messenger. The changes mitigate the threat by requiring users to click on videos before playing them.”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/08/google-pushes-update-for-critical-android-bug-but-wont-say-if-its-fixed/

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Rowhammer.js Is the Most Ingenious Hack I’ve Ever Seen

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“The bad news is that if your computer is vulnerable, it’s a hardware issue, and there’s very little you personally can do about it. No software patches are coming to the rescue any time soon. The good news is that this hack is so complicated to pull off, you’re probably safe just from its level of difficulty alone.  So what exactly is Rowhammer.js? While it still needs to be tested further, the researchers claimed it is the ‘first remote software-induced hardware-fault attack’ in existence, written entirely in JavaScript. In other words, it’s scalable, powerful, takes more than a little luck to pull off, and if you understand how it works, it’s the most clever thing you’ll see all week.”

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/rowhammerjs-is-the-most-ingenious-hack-ive-ever-seen

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0-day bug in fully patched OS X comes under active exploit to hijack Macs

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“Hackers are exploiting a serious zero-day vulnerability in the latest version of Apple’s OS X so they can perform attacks that install malware without requiring victims to enter system passwords, researchers said.  As Ars reported last week, the privilege-escalation bug stems from new error-logging features that Apple added to OS X 10.10. Developers didn’t use standard safeguards involving additions to the OS X dynamic linker dyld, a failure that lets attackers open or create files with root privileges that can reside anywhere in the OS X file system. Researchers from anti-malware firm Malwarebytes said a new malicious installer is exploiting the vulnerability to surreptitiously infect Macs.”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/08/0-day-bug-in-fully-patched-os-x-comes-under-active-exploit-to-hijack-macs/

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New attack on Tor can deanonymize hidden services with 88% accuracy

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“Computer scientists have devised an attack on the Tor privacy network that in certain cases allows them to deanonymize hidden service websites with 88 percent accuracy.  Hidden services allow people to host websites without end users or anyone else knowing the true IP address of the service. The deanonymization requires the adversary to control the Tor entry point for the computer hosting the hidden service. It also requires the attacker to have previously collected unique network characteristics that can serve as a fingerprint for that particular service. The new research underscores the limits to anonymity on Tor, which journalists, activists, and criminals alike rely on to evade online surveillance.”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/07/new-attack-on-tor-can-deanonymize-hidden-services-with-surprising-accuracy/

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Buy Greek Shippers Now and Start Earning a Double-Digit Yield

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“Investor sentiment about Greece is nearing the point of maximum pessimism… the point at which almost nobody wants to buy.  Prices of Greek stocks have already crashed headfirst into the pavement. The Athens Stock Exchange General Index is down more than 84% from its 2007 peak. We’re close to the best time to buy. As Baron Rothschild advised, the time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.  We’re not the only ones who see tremendous value in Greece. Recently, legendary investor Warren Buffett reportedly bought the Greek island of Agios Thomas for €15 million.  For the average investor, though, we believe that the best opportunity is in Greek shipping companies.”

http://www.internationalman.com/articles/buy-now-and-start-earning-a-double-digit-yield

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