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Citigroup to Pay $285 Million to Settle S.E.C. Charges – NYTimes.com

October 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Citigroup agreed to pay $285 million to settle charges that it misled investors in a $1 billion derivatives deal tied to the United States housing market, then bet against investors as the housing market began to show signs of distress, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday.

The S.E.C. also brought charges against a Citigroup employee who was responsible for structuring the transaction, and brought and settled charges against the asset management unit of Credit Suisse and a Credit Suisse employee who also had responsibility for the derivative security.

The S.E.C. said that the $285 million would be returned to investors in the deal, a collateralized debt obligation known as Class V Funding III. The commission said that Citigroup exercised significant influence over the selection of $500 million of assets in the deal’s portfolio.

Citigroup then took a short position against those mortgage-related assets, an investment in which Citigroup would profit if the assets declined in value. The company did not disclose to the investors to whom it sold the collateralized debt obligation that it had helped to select the assets or that it was betting against them.

via Citigroup to Pay $285 Million to Settle S.E.C. Charges – NYTimes.com.

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Motorola: Future ‘Atrix’ devices as Android alternative | Nanotech – The Circuits Blog – CNET News

May 1, 2011 By 1 Comment

Future versions of Motorola’s Atrix smartphone-laptop combo will be rolled out as Android “alternatives” to tablets and other newfangled devices, Motorola’s chief executive said this week.

The phone maker’s first crack at the Atrix smartphone-laptop convergence wasn’t perfect. CNET Reviews said the lack of Google’s Chrome operating system hurts (Atrix uses a FireFox-centric “Webtop” operating environment). And performance in the laptop configuration (i.e., the ‘lap-dock”) is sluggish.

Motorola Atrix 4G in laptop dock. Atrix smartphone is docked behind the laptop’s screen. The laptop is essentially a keyboard, touchpad, speakers, ports, and battery–all powered by the Atrix 4G smartphone’s silicon.

(Credit: CNET Reviews)

Motorola Atrix 4G lap-dock and original iPad.

(Credit: CNET Reviews)

But that doesn’t mean it’s toast, considering all of the praise the Atrix 4G and laptop dock received at CES 2011.

Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobility, said Thursday there’s a lot more to come for Atrix, stating that the device is an “alternative” way of merging mobility (smartphones) and computing (PCs). Code for an alternative to the iPad and other devices that straddle the space between those two established markets.

“In the Android ecosystem, there is a need for us to differentiate,” Jha said. “[With] Atrix devices with the Webtop and lap-dock we really think there is an alternative way of viewing the convergence between mobility and computing. And we will continue to focus on that,” he said during the earnings conference call, responding to an analyst’s question.

via Motorola: Future ‘Atrix’ devices as Android alternative | Nanotech – The Circuits Blog – CNET News.

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Credit Card Squares: Square Releases a Credit Card Reader for the iPhone – iSmashPhone iPhone Blog

April 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The iPhone has made a major step forward to interacting with customers financially, and credit cards have another step towards use in even the most casual of situations.

Square, Inc. has just released an iPhone app / Hardware combination that allows you to read credit cards right on your iPhone.  The ability to use your iPhone as a credit card reader has been discussed for years, and now it has been made practical on the consumer level for average users.

via Credit Card Squares: Square Releases a Credit Card Reader for the iPhone – iSmashPhone iPhone Blog.

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Hacked laptops lead banks to warn of data breaches – Computerworld

January 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recent data breaches at two banks underscore what’s becoming a gnarly problem for companies that handle sensitive information: When does a hacked PC become a data breach?

Sovereign Bank noticed its problem on Oct. 15, when staffers discovered a computer on their network connecting to an unusual IP address. After investigating, they found a keylogger program on a company laptop. Sovereign isn’t releasing many details on the incident, but in December it notified 50 customers nationwide that their data may have been compromised.

Over at Pentagon Federal Credit Union, a bank used by nearly 1 million U.S. service members, a hacked laptop led to a bigger problem. On Dec. 12, the company found that someone had hacked a laptop on its network and used it to access a company database that contained credit card numbers, addresses, Social Security numbers and other sensitive information. A PenFed spokeswoman wouldn’t say how many customers were affected, but the company is re-issuing 514 credit cards in New Hampshire alone.

Both incidents underscore how easily a hacked laptop can be used to gain access to sensitive information, an issue that’s becoming more of a problem for corporate IT as criminals continue to hit workers with malicious e-mail and links to drive-by-download websites — the two most popular hacking techniques to get malicious software installed on a computer. Criminals set up drive-by-download websites to install malicious software on victims’ computers. Typically they leverage known computer flaws to silently install their malicious software.

via Hacked laptops lead banks to warn of data breaches – Computerworld.

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Hacked laptops lead banks to warn of data breaches – Computerworld

January 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recent data breaches at two banks underscore what’s becoming a gnarly problem for companies that handle sensitive information: When does a hacked PC become a data breach?

Sovereign Bank noticed its problem on Oct. 15, when staffers discovered a computer on their network connecting to an unusual IP address. After investigating, they found a keylogger program on a company laptop. Sovereign isn’t releasing many details on the incident, but in December it notified 50 customers nationwide that their data may have been compromised.

Over at Pentagon Federal Credit Union, a bank used by nearly 1 million U.S. service members, a hacked laptop led to a bigger problem. On Dec. 12, the company found that someone had hacked a laptop on its network and used it to access a company database that contained credit card numbers, addresses, Social Security numbers and other sensitive information. A PenFed spokeswoman wouldn’t say how many customers were affected, but the company is re-issuing 514 credit cards in New Hampshire alone.

Both incidents underscore how easily a hacked laptop can be used to gain access to sensitive information, an issue that’s becoming more of a problem for corporate IT as criminals continue to hit workers with malicious e-mail and links to drive-by-download websites — the two most popular hacking techniques to get malicious software installed on a computer. Criminals set up drive-by-download websites to install malicious software on victims’ computers. Typically they leverage known computer flaws to silently install their malicious software.

via Hacked laptops lead banks to warn of data breaches – Computerworld.

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Chrome continues usage gains over rivals | CNET News

June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google’s Chrome browser continued to carve away share of worldwide browser usage from rivals in May, new statistics show.

Chrome’s usage share worldwide bumped over the 7 percent mark in May 2001, according to Net Applications.

(Credit: Net Applications)

Chrome rose 0.3 percentage points to 7.1 percent of share, said Net Applications, which monitors browser usage on a network of Web sites.

The statistics reflect activity, not the number of people using a browser, as people load up about 160 million pages each month on sites Net Applications monitors. Because Web usage is increasing, the absolute number of people using a browser can increase even as its fractional share of usage drops.

The share losses came from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which dropped 0.3 percent to 59.7 percent, and Mozilla’s Firefox, which dropped 0.2 percentage points to 24.4 percent. Fourth-place Safari from Apple rose 0.1 percentage points to 4.8 percent, and Opera rose 0.1 percentage points to 2.4 percent.

via Chrome continues usage gains over rivals | Deep Tech – CNET News.

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T-Mobile Offers $350 Credit Towards HTC HD2 If You Give Up Your iPhone – HotHardware

April 5, 2010 By

How's this for a little friendly competition? Apple’s iPhone has stood strong against the smartphone rivals over the past few years, but HTC and other Android-utilizing brands have begun to seriously catch up. And really, there’s nothing like a little incentive to get an iPhone user to ditch what they’re used to and come to another carrier for another brand (and another operating system, for that matter).

According to internal communications dug up, T-Mobile will be allowing users to actually trade in their existing iPhone as a trade-up to the company’s HTC HD2, an exclusive here in the U.S. The real news is the discount. iPhone users who give up their smartphone (and hand it over to T-Mobile) will get a “up to a $350 credit when purchasing an HD2,” which is largely viewed as the most beautiful touch-screen-based phone available in the States today.

via T-Mobile Offers $350 Credit Towards HTC HD2 If You Give Up Your iPhone – HotHardware.

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H-P snagged in IRS foreign tax crackdown – MarketWatch

February 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Hewlett-Packard Co. has become an unlikely member of a group of companies targeted by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in a coordinated legal assault on suspect international tax credits.

H-P  is one of roughly a half-dozen firms, nearly all in the banking and insurance industries, now ensnared in the IRS&’s “three-and-out” litigation strategy targeting so-called foreign tax credit generators, experts say. The IRS has pegged a handful of such cases as promising enough to pursue, in hopes of winning at least three decisions in a row — and thereby gaining a more solid legal footing on the issue.

“Usually the government does a good job of starting with cases that are very weak for the taxpayer, and developing law,” said University of Southern California Law Professor Edward Kleinbard.

Foreign tax credit generators are investments by U.S. companies that earn income and result in taxes overseas. Companies can then claim foreign tax credits, to offset their tax payments in the U.S. However, the IRS alleges that many are designed to unnecessarily load up on foreign tax credits, and create an artificial financial benefit.

via H-P snagged in IRS foreign tax crackdown – MarketWatch.

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U.S. says Credit Suisse schemed to evade sanctions | Reuters

December 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

U.S. and Manhattan prosecutors detailed on Wednesday a “decades-long scheme” by Credit Suisse to hide thousands of transactions on behalf of clients in Iran, Sudan, Libya and other nations, and said the Swiss bank had agreed to pay $538 million in fines.

More than $1.6 billion was moved through the U.S. financial system through the transactions, prosecutors said.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau told a news conference that other banks were being investigated for similar transactions.

“There will be other prosecutions,” he said. “Not only of financial institutions, which carry the money, but also of the suppliers.”

In Zurich, a source who declined to be identified, said nine banks were involved and that four had settled, including Lloyds TSB Group of Britain and Credit Suisse.

While the majority of the transactions involved Iran, other transactions violated U.S. sanctions against Sudan, Libya, Myanmar, Cuba, and the former Liberian regime of Charles Taylor, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

The department called the settlement the “most significant” in the history of its Office of Foreign Assets Control and said the penalty could have been “substantially higher” had the bank not cooperated with the government over the past two years and agreed to take remedial action.

via U.S. says Credit Suisse schemed to evade sanctions | Reuters.

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