Net Nuetrality is pretty much dead now...thanks Comcase

If you’ve never really grokked what the lack of net neutrality would mean for the Internet, Comcast and Netflix provided you with a handy object lesson on Sunday.

The Internet service provider and the streaming video service announced on Sunday that they had struck a deal that speeds up streaming of Netflix content into the homes of Comcast subscribers. In a joint statement, Netflix and Comcast hailed this “mutually beneficial interconnection agreement” that provides “a more direct connection between Netflix and Comcast, similar to other networks, that’s already delivering an even better user experience to consumers, while also allowing for future growth in Netflix traffic.”

And all Netflix had to do is pay up for the privilege. That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, which first got wind of the Netflix-Comcast deal on Sunday. The Journal says that Netflix gets direct access to Comcast’s broadband network in exchange for a payment to the cable and Internet provider. (Neither Netflix nor Comcast outlined terms of the deal in their public announcement.) What’s more, the Journal says, Netflix’s Comcast arrangement “could set a precedent for Netflix’s dealings with other broadband providers.”

Netflix certainly has plenty of incentive to pony up. Comcast falls near the bottom of Netflix’s rankings for which ISPs deliver the best streaming experience to its subscribers, and less than a week ago, Netflix groused that streaming performance for its service on major ISP networks was getting worse.

In that sense then, Sunday’s announced deal is good for Netflix in that it can promise improved performance on the nation’s largest cable provider to its subscribers. It’s certainly a good deal for Comcast, which not only stands to get some money out of Netflix but has the muscle to extract similar arrangements with other streaming services. And it may even work out all right for Netflix subscribers on Comcast who can look forward to better performance for their buck—assuming that the streaming service doesn’t pass on the cost of the agreement to them, of course.  Click here for the rest of the article

Tired of online fraud...apparently so are the banks..

To ward off cyber-crooks trying to break into customers’ accounts, banks are expanding their security efforts beyond desktops and onto iPhones and other mobile devices.

Take HSBC Bank USA, for instance, which last week announced it’s handing out free two-factor authentication tokens in the next few months for customers to use in their personal Internet banking. These digital and physical security tokens from Vasco Data Security can generate unique one-time passwords each time a customer logs in. And another financial institution, U.S. Bank, this week said it’s testing how voice biometrics in a mobile banking app for smartphones can let customers authenticate via their own voice for access to their payment-card accounts rather than having to type passwords.

“We take security very seriously,” says LuAnne Kingston, senior vice president at HSBC, which is especially encouraging use of two-factor tokens in sensitive transactions such as bill paying, wire transfer or changing account information. Cybercrime is a fact of life on the Internet, and “we’re trying to stay ahead of the game,” she adds. “The bad guys are constantly trying to access customer data.”

Gartner analyst Avivah Litan notes that other banks, such as Bank of America, have also tried mobile two-factor authentication, and that Schwab and E*Trade offer this on an opt-in basis. She says it’s unclear how many customers actually do opt in. But it’s particularly interesting that HSBC will utilize the consumer’s mobile phone for loading the one-time password software, Litan adds.

One-time passwords generated by tokens or other devices do not provide any absolute guarantee of security, because “sophisticated thieves using common banking Trojans” have shown one-time passwords can be “circumvented,” Litan says. However, one-time passwords  ”still add another layer of protection for the consumer” and their use “is likely to send the bad guys to other accounts that are not so well protected,” Litan points out.

Make your password harder to hack...please!

There’s nothing you can do if hackers get into a database with your password in it, but you can still protect yourself for all the other worst-case scenarios involving hacking. In this video, we go over ways to make your passwords harder to crack.

First, don’t make it easy on hackers by choosing a common password. Splashdata uses security breaches to gather 'most popular passwords' lists each year. The word 'password', number sequences, and other simplistic phrases or numbers fill the top spots. Also, don’t use your name, a password related to another one you might have on a different site, or a login name.

Instead, experts recommend using 15 characters, upper-case letters, better yet nonsensical words with special characters and numbers inside them.

Need help? Check out some free websites, like Strong Password Generator. This Macworld article on security in the iCloud age also has some suggestions on strong password creation.

XP is not the only program dead on April 8....Office 2003 too!

Microsoft will call it quits not only on Windows XP in less than two months, but will also pull the plug on Office 2003 the same day.

After April 8, Office 2003, which debuted on Oct. 21, 2003, will no longer receive security updates, no matter which flavor of Windows it's running on.

Although Microsoft has made noise about ditching Windows XP, it has spoken infrequently about Office 2003's deadline. One of the few places on its website where it has talked about the latter's end-of-life, or EOL, is here.

With the end of public support, Microsoft will no longer provide security patches for Office 2003. And Microsoft has been aggressively patching Office 2003: In 2013, it released 10 security bulletins for the edition. It has shipped one so far this year.

Bad Idea Mozilla...Ads coming to Firefox browser

Ads are coming to Mozilla's Firefox browser.

The company today announced that it is experimenting with something known as Directory Tiles, which will display ads in new, blank tabs.

Right now, new users who open the Firefox browser see nine blank boxes (pictured below). As they use Firefox, those boxes are populated with quick links to the sites they visit most. Going forward, those boxes will display a mix of Mozilla-recommended sites as well as paid ads.

"The sponsored tiles will be clearly labeled as such, while still leading to content we think users will enjoy," Darren Herman, Mozilla's vice president of content services, wrote in a blog post.

"We are excited about Directory Tiles because it has inherent value to our users, it aligns with our vision of a better Internet through trust and transparency, and it helps Mozilla become more diversified and sustainable as a project," Herman said.

Full details are still being worked out and ads have not yet begun showing up. Herman said Mozilla will "start showing Directory Tiles to new Firefox users as soon as we have the user experience right."

It's such a bad idea.....smh

Skydrive to become OneDrive with more free storage

Microsoft will soon rebrand its SkyDrive cloud storage service OneDrive. The OneDrive splash page currently reads “Coming Soon.”

It now appears that there is more to the coming OneDrive rollout than a simple name change. According to leaked screenshots posted by LiveSide, Microsoft will roll out a number of incentives for users in an effort to boost their usage of the service, and bring their friends aboard as well.

Microsoft declined to comment.

SkyDrive, Microsoft’s current and soon-to-be-renamed cloud storage service, provides users with 7 gigabytes of free storage. Presuming that Microsoft maintains that level of free storage in OneDrive, users will be able to pick up a total of 15 gigabytes of capacity, given that the new incentive structure will allow users to agglom another 8 gigabytes to their account.

5 of the 8 potential gigabytes will come from referrals: 500 megabytes per referral, up to 10. And, OneDrive will reward users who link their phone’s camera roll to OneDrive with another 3 gigabytes of storage.

Users can create the link either through the OneDrive — currently SkyDrive, of course — iOS and Android apps, or with the built-in function that exists in Windows Phone.

All this is unconfirmed with the company, but mirrors similar methods employed by the rival storage firm Dropbox, meaning they are unsurprising and almost proven tactics.

Why would Microsoft want to get people to automatically upload their photos to OneDrive? Increasing user buy-in to the service not only boosts the service’s total revenue and use, but also draws potential oxygen from competitors. And given the importance of cloud storage to Microsoft’s larger services vision, anything to bolster that effort is worthy.

We’re seeing a decline in the cost, and price of delivering a gigabyte of cloud storage. As Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and Microsoft vie for both consumer and enterprise market share in the space, expect more of this sort of effort.