Archive for the ‘with’ Category
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New estimates show that least 56,000 people become infected with the AIDS virus every year in the United States — 40 percent more than previous calculations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday.
The CDC stressed that actual infection rates have not risen but said better methods of measuring newly diagnosed infections and extrapolating these to the general population led to the higher estimates.
“CDC’s first estimates from this system reveal that the HIV epidemic is — and has been — worse than previously known. Results indicate that approximately 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2006,” the CDC said in a statement.
“This figure is roughly 40 percent higher than CDC’s former estimate of 40,000 infections per year, which was based on limited data and less precise methods.”
The CDC said the epidemic has been stable since the late 1990s, “though the number of new HIV infections remains unacceptably high.”
“The analysis shows that new infections peaked in the mid-1980s at approximately 130,000 infections per year and reached a low of about 50,000 in the early 1990s,” it said.
Dr. Kevin Fenton, who heads the CDC’s AIDS branch, said 15,000 to 18,000 Americans die every year of AIDS.
“The data really confirm that there is a severe impact of this epidemic among gay and bisexual men in the United States … as well as black men and women,” Fenton said in a telephone interview. Continued…
Since a secret emergency meeting of computer security experts at Microsoft’s headquarters in March, Dan Kaminsky has been urging companies around the world to fix a potentially dangerous flaw in the basic plumbing of the Internet.
Dan Kaminsky, a Web security specialist, showing a list of servers and whether they are patched.
While Internet service providers are racing to fix the problem, which makes it possible for criminals to divert users to fake Web sites where personal and financial information can be stolen, Mr. Kaminsky worries that they have not moved quickly enough.
By his estimate, roughly 41 percent of the Internet is still vulnerable. Now Mr. Kaminsky, a technical consultant who first discovered the problem, has been ramping up the pressure on companies and organizations to make the necessary software changes before criminal hackers take advantage of the flaw.
Next week, he will take another step by publicly laying out the details of the flaw at a security conference in Las Vegas. That should force computer network administrators to fix millions of affected systems.
But his explanation of the flaw will also make it easier for criminals to exploit it, and steal passwords and other personal information.
Mr. Kaminsky walks a fine line between protecting millions of computer users and eroding consumer confidence in Internet banking and shopping. But he is among those experts who think that full disclosure of security threats can push network administrators to take action. “We need to have disaster planning, and we need to worry,” he said.
The flaw that Mr. Kaminsky discovered is in the Domain Name System, a kind of automated phone book that converts human-friendly addresses like google.com into machine-friendly numeric counterparts.
The potential consequences of the flaw are significant. It could allow a criminal to redirect Web traffic secretly, so that a person typing a bank’s actual Web address would be sent to an impostor site set up to steal the user’s name and password. The user might have no clue about the misdirection, and unconfirmed reports in the Web community indicate that attempted attacks are already under way.
The problem is analogous to the risk of phoning directory assistance at, for example, AT&T, asking for the number for Bank of America and being given an illicit number at which an operator masquerading as a bank employee asks for your account number and password.
Microsoft launches advertisements on mobiles in battle with Google – Times Online
Posted on: May 23, 2008
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Microsoft has opened a new front in the battle with Google, the search engine group, in the increasingly ferocious struggle for control of the online services market.
The software giant has said that users of its popular e-mail and instant messaging tools on mobile phones will display advertisements for the first time. Those using Windows Live on phones will also see ads.
Mobile telephony is regarded as an increasingly important component of the digital advertising market as new devices, such as Apple’s iPhone, improve the use of web-based services.
While it represents a small part of spending on digital advertising, it has significant potential because of the ability for advertising to be coupled with location using GPS.
Microsoft bought ScreenTonic, an advertising platform, which was an early leader in delivering advertisements to mobile phones, for an undisclosed sum last year.
Microsoft, whose share of the search market has slipped as Google’s has grown, is trying to recover the initiative in the online advertising market, which is expected to double in size to $80 billion by 2010.
Google has built a $20 billion (£10.2 billion)-a-year business from online advertising, mostly from sponsored links next to search results. It began testing a mobile version of its search-based advertising service in 2006.
Mobile advertising spending in Western Europe is expected to rise from $1 billion in 2007 to $1.5 billion this year, according to eMarketer, the research firm.
Microsoft launches advertisements on mobiles in battle with Google – Times Online
Posted on: May 23, 2008
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Microsoft has opened a new front in the battle with Google, the search engine group, in the increasingly ferocious struggle for control of the online services market.
The software giant has said that users of its popular e-mail and instant messaging tools on mobile phones will display advertisements for the first time. Those using Windows Live on phones will also see ads.
Mobile telephony is regarded as an increasingly important component of the digital advertising market as new devices, such as Apple’s iPhone, improve the use of web-based services.
While it represents a small part of spending on digital advertising, it has significant potential because of the ability for advertising to be coupled with location using GPS.
Microsoft bought ScreenTonic, an advertising platform, which was an early leader in delivering advertisements to mobile phones, for an undisclosed sum last year.
Microsoft, whose share of the search market has slipped as Google’s has grown, is trying to recover the initiative in the online advertising market, which is expected to double in size to $80 billion by 2010.
Google has built a $20 billion (£10.2 billion)-a-year business from online advertising, mostly from sponsored links next to search results. It began testing a mobile version of its search-based advertising service in 2006.
Mobile advertising spending in Western Europe is expected to rise from $1 billion in 2007 to $1.5 billion this year, according to eMarketer, the research firm.
Facebook to open the gates with ‘Facebook Connect’ | The Social – CNET News.com
Posted on: May 10, 2008
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This post was updated at 1:56 p.m. PDT.
Social network Facebook announced Friday the debut of Facebook Connect, a new technology for members to connect their profile data and authentication credentials to external Web sites. It makes the company the latest major Web site to embrace the concept of data portability.
The formal announcement was made through a post on Facebook’s developer blog by senior platform manager Dave Morin, who has been one of the company’s most visible evangelists in the developer community over the past year. Facebook Connect will launch within the next few weeks.
Through Facebook Connect, members will be able to use their Facebook identities across the Web–profile photos, names, photos, friends, groups, events, and other information. Facebook profile content, for example, could appear on other social sites, and Facebook event listings could theoretically connect with external event and invitation services.
Facebook will handle the authentication process, and while privacy controls have not been made clear, the company has stressed that user security will be a priority. And there’s reason to believe Facebook will be particularly careful: The company already partners with outside services to share data in its Beacon advertising program, and the PR missteps surrounding Beacon’s launch are something that Facebook likely does not want to repeat.
It’s a big move for the site. Until this point, Facebook has had a reputation for keeping its cards close to its chest–even banning the account of popular blogger Robert Scoble when he used a script to export his Facebook contact list to Plaxo. But Facebook has a representative in the Data Portability Workgroup, and executives have said that Facebook has wanted to bring its information outside the site eventually.
The Associated Press: Yahoo teams with McAfee to offer search results security
Posted on: May 6, 2008
This April 30, 2008 file photo shows an exterior view of Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. Microsoft Corp. has withdrawn its $42.3 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc., scrapping an attempt to snap up the tarnished Internet icon in hopes of toppling online search and advertising leader Google Inc. The decision to walk away from the deal came Saturday May 3, 2008 after last-ditch efforts to negotiate a mutually acceptable sale price proved unsuccessful. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
Yahoo Inc. and McAfee Inc. are joining to offer alerts about potentially dangerous Web sites alongside search results generated at Yahoo.com.
With the new security feature — slated to take effect Tuesday — people who search the Internet using Yahoo will see a red exclamation point and a warning next to links McAfee has identified as serving dangerous downloads or using visitors’ e-mail addresses to send out spam.
Dangerous downloads can include “adware,” which shows unwanted advertisements; “spyware,” which secretly tracks users’ keystrokes and other actions; and other malicious programs that can give criminals control over users’ computers.
Yahoo and McAfee hope the move will quell users’ anxiety about accidentally clicking on malicious links.
“Yahoo users have clearly told us that among the most important concerns for them are all these lurking threats on the Internet,” said Priyank Garg, director of product management for Yahoo’s search division. “They know the damage they can do but they don’t know how to protect themselves.”
Yahoo has decided to simply nuke the worst offenders — sites that attempt “drive-by downloads,” or trying to automatically install malicious code on visitors’ computers by exploiting coding flaws in their Web browsers.
If McAfee has identified a site as having employed such tactics, Yahoo users won’t see the link at all.
“When a user gets a set of search results, there’s really no indication of who’s a good guy and who’s a bad guy,” said Tim Dowling, vice president of McAfee’s Web Security Group. “You’re really leaping off a platform of faith that you’re clicking on a site that’s safe and not one that’s bad. And the bad guys really try hard to look good.”
The companies declined to reveal the financial terms of the partnership.
The deal represents the latest attempt by Sunnyvale-based Yahoo to lure more search requests, snap out of its recent financial funk and steal advertising dollars from search leader Google Inc. as it tries to justify its rebuff of Microsoft Corp.’s $47.5 billion takeover bid.
“Japan, China pledge to bolster ties with Hu’s visit
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Yang Jiechi (L) talks with Yasuo Fukuda |
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TOKYO (AFP) — Japan and China pledged Friday to build on a recent thaw in icy relations when President Hu Jintao visits in May, setting aside differences over Tibet, disputed gas fields and poisoned dumplings.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and other top officials as part of a trip aimed at clearing the way for Hu’s trip, which will be the first visit here by a Chinese head of state in a decade.
‘China would like to build a framework with Japan through the visit (by Hu) so that the two countries will prosper in the long term,’ Yang told reporters.
‘I showed my appreciation to Prime Minister Fukuda as he said he supported a successful Olympics in China,’ he said.
The ministers appeared to have largely steered clear of the sensitive issue of Tibet on the second day of Yang’s visit, though the Japanese government’s number two, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, said he had raised it briefly.
‘I only said there was a problem’ in Tibet, Machimura said. ‘I hear the foreign ministers discussed the matter for quite a long time last night.’
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura called for more transparency and dialogue over Tibet when he met his Chinese co”
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