| MasterCard scandal: More details emerge
More details emerged on Monday about the cyber break-in at a payment processing company that exposed more than 40 million credit card accounts to fraud. The data security breach, possibly the largest to date, happened because intruders were able to exploit software security vulnerabilities to install a rogue program on the network of CardSystems Solutions, a MasterCard International spokeswoman said. The program captured credit card data, she said. The malicious code was discovered after a probe into the security of CardSystems' network. That investigation, by security experts from Cybertrust, was triggered by a MasterCard inquiry into atypical reports of fraud by several banks. The trail led to CardSystems, said the spokeswoman. The probe also found that the Atlanta-based payment processor did not meet MasterCard's security regulations.
Edwards: “Giuliani is Bush on Steroids”
What's more interesting, their families are great friends and business partners. Hummm!! To boot, our leaders have followed UBL's plan to the letter. I really don't think they are that incompetent. We must realize quickly, our true enemy aims to destroy all life on this living rock, third from the sun. Must we help them do it? .
Housing bailout: winners and losers
A deluge is on its way. Without any intervention, an estimated 3.5 million homeowners could default on their mortgages in the next 2 1/2 years, says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, a West Chester, Pa. economic research firm. That's the equivalent of every family in both Dakotas, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming losing their homes. For starters, a sharp spike in foreclosures will increase the number of houses up for sale; additional inventory in an already glutted market will further depress prices. Second, houses in foreclosure generally fall into disrepair. Clumps of empty, boarded-up dwellings surrounded by weeds lower prices not only in the immediate area but also in nearby neighborhoods. And for every 1 percent increase in the foreclosure rate, a neighborhood's violent-crime rate rises 2.3 percent, according to a study by Dan Immergluck of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Geoff Smith of the Woodstock Institute.
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