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Social Networks

Submission + - LinkedIn Profiles Contain Fewer Lies Than Resumes (neoacademic.com)

Submitted by RichDiesal
RichDiesal writes: New research reveals that personal information provided on LinkedIn may contain fewer deceptions about prior work experience and prior work responsibilities than traditional resumes. However, LinkedIn profiles contain more deceptions about personal interests and hobbies. This researchers believe this may be because participants are equally motivated to deceive employers in both settings, but perceive lies about work experience on LinkedIn as more easily verifiable.
Government

Submission + - RIAA CEO Hopes SOPA Protests Were a 'One-Time Thing' (internetevolution.com)

Submitted by hapworth
hapworth writes: Cary Sherman, CEO of the RIAA, is at it again. After posting a controversial op-ed in The New York Times saying Wikipedia and Google "misinformed" the public about SOPA and PIPA, Sherman said in an interview yesterday that he hopes the SOPA protests were a "one-time experience." He also said that Wikipedia and Google users were duped into thinking SOPA was a bad bill because they assume "if it comes from these sources, it must be true." In another hilarious comment, Sherman blames the Internet for making it impossible for Congress to get out its side of the story, and for not spreading information with the same "clarity and integrity" of broadcast journalists.
IT

Submission + - How do you deal with priorities inflation in IT projects?

Submitted by NetDanzr
NetDanzr writes: I work for an IT company that has a steady stream of projects, new features to our existing products and technical support issues. As it is customary, though, our development resources are not sufficient to cover the amount of projects. As a result, our delivery dates are slipping, and as a result the average priority of projects is rising. Where the goal was to have only 10% of projects rated high, within a year nearly 50% of projects is rated as such. Our solution is to completely wipe out the project list once per year and start a new, properly prioritized list. How does your company deal with this inflation of priorities?
Privacy

Submission + - Female Passengers Say They Were Targeted for TSA Body Scanners (wired.com)

Submitted by wiedzmin
wiedzmin writes: TSA agents in Dallas singled out female passengers to undergo screening in a body scanner, according to complaints filed by several women who said they felt the screeners intentionally targeted them to view their bodies. Allegedly, women with "cute bodies" were directed through the body scanners up to three times over by female agents, who appeared to be acting on a request from male agents viewing the scans in a separate room. Apparently this was done because the scans were "blurry", possibly due to autofocus problems with agents' smartphone cameras.
Iphone

Submission + - Unauthorized iPhone Apps Leak Private Data Less Than Approved Ones (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: In the wake of news that the iPhone app Path uploads users’ entire contact lists without permission, Forbes dug up a study from a group of researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the International Security Systems Lab that aimed to analyze how and where iPhone apps transmit users’ private data. Not only did the researchers find that one in five of the free apps in Apple’s app store upload private data back to the apps’ creators that could potentially identify users and allow profiles to be built of their activities. They also discovered that programs in Cydia, the most popular platform for unauthorized apps that run only on “jailbroken” iPhones, tend to leak private data far less frequently than Apple’s approved apps.

The researchers ran their analysis on 1,407 free apps in the App Store and in Cydia, the unofficial app market for jailbroken phones. Of those tested apps, 21 percent of official App Store apps uploaded the user’s Unique Device Identifier, for instance, compared with only four percent of unauthorized apps.
Microsoft

Submission + - Hotmail's spam filter: the best in the business? (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "Microsoft claims an "independent" report proves it has the best spam protection in the industry — an argument deconstructed by PC Pro. “Our own internal metrics, customer feedback, and even a recent third-party report confirms that no mail service offers better protection than Hotmail,” Microsoft's Dick Craddock wrote in a Windows Live blog post earlier this week.

What Microsoft’s Craddock and the 14-page report don’t tell you is that the research was commissioned and paid for by Microsoft. Microsoft chose the webmail services to be tested, Microsoft had right of veto over publication of the results. Indeed, in 2009 Microsoft commissioned the same research firm – Cascade Insights – to do a similar piece of research. Hotmail came second to Gmail. Did Microsoft publish the results? What do you think?"
China

Submission + - Chinese hackers enjoy unfettered access to Nortel (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hackers based in China enjoyed widespread access to Nortel's computer network for nearly a decade, according to a report.

The hackers – who appeared to be based in China – had unfettered access to the former telecommunications giant as far back as 2000, according to Brian Shields, a former Nortel employee who launched an internal investigation of the attacks, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Canada

Submission + - Against enhanced electronic surveillance? You must be 'for' child pornography (thestar.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Following up yesterdays story Canadian Govt To Introduce Massive Internet Surveillance Law Today the star is running with a story with the headline: Against enhanced electronic surveillance? You must be 'for' child pornography. Those against include: Law professor Michael Geist, Open Media, Canadian Civil Liberties, Association (CCLA), The Council of Canadians and others. Ircoically Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told a Liberal MP he could either stand with the government or “with the child pornographers” prowling online, is enjoying his Parliamentary Privilege which grants him the freedom to say pretty much anything he wants without fear of a slander suit.
Science

Submission + - Sand dune patterns predict climate change tipping point (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by
garthsundem
garthsundem writes: "A study of dune patterns in the White Sands National Monument in NM pinpoints the climate change tipping point that can make range lands go from grass to desert. Especially cool is modeling how a boomerang-shaped dune "inverts" as plants grow on the wind-protected sides of the boomerang's tips, thus anchoring these tips and allowing the center of the boomerang to blow through. If plant growth outpaces wind-driven dune shift, grasslands develop. If not, desert wins."
Security

Submission + - Job Seeking Hacker Gets 30 Months in Prison (securityweek.com) 4

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: A hacker who tried to land an IT job at Marriott by hacking into the company’s computer systems and then unwisely extorting the company into hiring him, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.

The hacker started his malicious quest to land a job at Marriott by sending an email to Marriott containing documents taken after hacking into Marriott servers to prove his claim. He then threatened to reveal confidential information he obtained if Marriott did not give him a job in the company’s IT department.

He was granted a job interview, but little did he know, Marriott worked with the U.S. Secret Service to create a fictitious Marriott employee for the use by the Secret Service in an undercover operation to communicate with the hacker. He then was flown in for a face to face “interview” where he admitted more and shared details of how he hacked in. He was then arrested and pleaded guilty back in November 2011.

Marriott claims that the incident cost the company between $400,000 and $1 million in salaries, consultant expenses and other costs.
Android

Submission + - Google in battle with its own lawyers (itproportal.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google is at daggers end with a law firm it's been using since 2008, after discovering that lawyers in the law firm, named Pepper Hamilton LLP, were representing a patent licensing business that sued Google's Android partners last month.

Google has claimed that Pepper Hamilton LLP never provided notice that it was hired by Digitude Innovations LLC, the firm that filed patent infringement complaints against Google's business allies.
Businesses

Submission + - Simulators Take the Humans Out of Hiring 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Ken Gaebler writes about a new way of hiring called "employment simulations," that are gaining popularity among high-tech firms that are seeking data from prospective employees that you can't get from sit-down interviews. In a typical employment simulation, candidates participate in online "video games" that leverage simulation software to determine how well candidates perform in actual job situations. "There are no questions about your former work experience and office habits. There's simply a computer game. If you win, you get the job. If you lose, game over." As one example, Call centers are very amenable to simulations because the work environment (a series of computer programs and databases) is relatively easy to replicate and the tasks that make up job performance are easy to measure (data entry speed and accuracy, customer service, multitasking, etc). Other employment simulation programs have been written for healthcare, insurance, retail sales, financial services, hospitality and travel, manufacturing and automotive, and telecom and utilities. "Robust employment simulations can deliver two to three times more information than traditional hiring processes, and hiring accuracy levels that can be as much as four times greater than other testing approaches," says Joseph T. Sefcik, Jr., President of Employment Technologies Corporation. But skeptics says employment simulators and other computer-based hiring models have some drawbacks. "Like any technology, the effectiveness of employment simulations is limited to the quality of the software and its accessibility to users," says Gaebler."

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