3 more US banks report possible cyber attacks

15 hrs.

NBC News and wire services , NBC News

U.S. Bank and PNC reported problems with their customer websites Wednesday after a financial services security group warned about possible cyberattacks.?Meanwhile,?SecurityNewsDaily?reported that on Tuesday,?Wells Fargo may have also?been?the victim of a sophisticated campaign of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

These reports follow last week's attacks, which affected JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.

U.S. Bank spokesman Tom Joyce told the Associated Press that some customers experienced intermittent delays. He said the bank was working to fix the problem and was working with law enforcement.

A spokesman for PNC, Fred Solomon, told AP its online operations were mostly normal but some customers had trouble accessing PNC.com on their first try. He said the bank was aware of a similar threat for Thursday and was taking precautions.

In all three cases, each bank received hundreds of complaints from users who could not access their sites. Although Chase and?Bank of America?stopped short of declaring that they'd been victims of an attack, security experts and at least one politician made the assertion for them.

The U.S. Bank spokesman told AP that?the issue appeared to be related to problems at the?other banks in the past week.

Last week, the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, an industry group, raised its cyber threat level to "high" from "elevated" because of potential cyber?attacks.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., told C-SPAN last week he believed Iran was behind the Chase and Bank of America attacks.

National security officials told NBC News?that the continuing bank?cyber attacks last week?were being carried out by the government of Iran. One of those sources said the claim by hackers that the attacks were prompted by the online video, "Innocence of Muslims"???mocking the Prophet Muhammad???was just a cover story.

The attack was described by one source, a former U.S. official familiar with the attacks, to NBC News,?as being "significant and ongoing" and looking to cause "functional and significant damage." Also, one source suggested the attacks were in response to U.S. sanctions on Iranian banks.

But over the?weekend,?Iran denied its hackers were involved in the bank attacks, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.?

The hacking of websites and corporate networks at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup began in late 2011 and escalated this year, people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

"We officially announce that we haven't had any attacks,"?Gholam Reza Jalali,?head of Iran's civil defense agency, told Fars, when asked about the report.

Dmitri Alperovitch, chief executive officer of security company CrowdStrike, told the?Wall Street Journal?Wednesday that?the "attack" on Wells Fargo was larger than most he's seen.

"The amount of bandwidth?that is flooding the websites is very large, much larger than in other attacks, and in a sense, unprecedented," he told the newspaper.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/3-more-major-us-banks-report-possible-cyber-attacks-6126050

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New Land for Endangered Species | Big Island Real Estate

Big Island?s Southern Coastline, Photo by Robert Pagano

Hawaii?s distant location and climate has made it the last remaining natural habitat for the largest number of endangered species in the world.? While this sad fact is nothing to boast about it does place Hawaiians in a unique position.? As stewards of the land it is our responsibility to protect the 317 species of endangered or threatened plants and animals living in Hawaii and to provide them with safe havens.

Recently the US Fish and Wildlife Service gave Hawaii two grants worth $2.4 million to purchase 7,500 acres of land on the Big Island.? The first grant of $1.2 million will be used in the ?Kukaiau Acquisition and Palila Habitat Restoration.?? This project includes buying 4,469 acres of mamane forest on the northern flank of Mauna Kea where a rare species of Hawaiian honeycreeper, the palila, lives.? The palila survives almost exclusively on the yellow seeds of mamane trees, a food source also enjoyed by feral sheep.? The new land will be fenced in to keep feral animals at bay and provide the palila with a larger habitat.

Hawksbill Sea Turtle off the Kona Coast, Photo by Steve Dunleavy

The second grant of $1.2 million will be used in the ?Hawaii Kahuku Coastline Protection and Management? project to acquire 3,128 acres of coastal lands.? This includes over a mile of breathtaking coastline in the south of the Big Island and an anchialine pool where native crustaceans live.? The new land will provide a safe habitat for endangered species such as the Hawksbill sea turtle, Hawaiian monk seal, Hawaiian green sea turtles, and three species of endemic shrimp.? Hawksbill sea turtle has been hunted almost to extinction because of their decorative shells and meat that is thought of as a delicacy.? The purchased coastal land will provide them with sanctuary.

This new coastal refuge is adjacent to the Manuka Natural Area Reserve.? If you are visiting the Big Island, you should plan a hike down the two-mile Manuka Nature Trail to take in the beauty of these preserved habitats.

About the Author

Dodie MacArthur ,

_$$_

Dodie MacArthur began her real estate career in Honolulu in 1972. She quickly rose from top sales agent and project manager of major Honolulu developments to representing prominent estate and development properties on Oahu and the Big Island. With her honed real estate skills and experience, Dodie founded MacArthur and Company in 1989 with the objective of creating a unique boutique firm, where the clients needs came first. In the first year of operation, the company gained immediate recognition as a leading Big Island firm and continues to thrive as a market leader today. With her abundant energy, creative marketing and dynamic leadership skills, Dodie is responsible for business development and overall company management at MacArthur and Company/Sotheby?s International Realty. She works closely with clients and agents in the marketing and sales of their properties. Her many years cultivating client and broker relationships ensures the firms clients unrivaled exposure. Along with her management staff and team of successful sales agents and brokers, Dodie is able to provide local, national and international clients with unparalleled customized service, fulfilling her promise that the client?s needs come first.

This entry was posted in Big Island, Big Island Lifestyle, Big Island Real Estate, Featured and tagged Big Island, Big Island Hawaii, Endangered Species, Hawaii, Hawaiian vacations, hawksbill turtle, Palila, wildlife refuges. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.bigislandreale.com/new-land-for-endangered-species

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Jay-Z Brings Kanye West, U2, Coldplay To 'NBA 2K13' Video Game

'I'm just gonna be honest: I felt that they cheated us on the music,' Jay-Z tells MTV News of the yearly video game series.
By Rob Markman

Jay-Z at the 40/40 Club on Wednesday night
Photo: Johny Nunez/WireImage

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1694551/jay-z-nba-2k13-kanye-west-u2-coldplay.jhtml

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Japan, China move to dampen island dispute

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) ? Japan and China are taking small steps to dampen a bitter dispute over a group of small islands in the East China Sea following an intense but seemingly controlled confrontation over the islands' sovereignty that introduced wildcard Taiwan in the fray.

Foreign ministers from Tokyo and Beijing met late Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York to discuss the issue, two weeks after the Japanese government's purchase of some of the islands from private owners sparked bitter anti-Japanese protests in China and raised tensions between the two Asian giants to their highest level in years.

Vice foreign ministers from the two countries met the same day in Beijing.

Despite the promise of the meetings, it is still too early to conclude that the crisis has passed. China is almost certain to send its own vessels to challenge Japanese control of the islands, raising the possibility of armed conflict arising from mistake or miscalculation.

Tuesday's Japan-China meetings came just hours after Japanese and Taiwanese coast guard cutters exchanged water cannon blasts just off the islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu or Diaoyuitai in China and Taiwan. Taiwan also claims the islands, which sit astride rich fishing waters and potentially large reserves of natural gas.

Taiwan, which split from China amid civil war in 1949 but has been drawing ever closer to Beijing in the 4 ? years since Ma Ying-jeou became president, has become a wild card in the Japan-China dispute, staking out what it claims is an independent stance to assert its sovereignty over the islands.

But reflecting its claim that Taiwan is part of its territory, China has gone out of its way to suggest that Taipei's interest in the islands is identical with its own. Following Tuesday's confrontation between the two coast guards, China's state-controlled media offered clear validation of the Taiwanese actions, presenting detailed coverage of the presence of some 50 Taiwanese fishing boats and 12 coast guard vessels in the disputed island area.

During the confrontation, the two sides used water cannon for the first time, an apparent escalation in their previously low-key tactics. But the almost ritualistic nature of the exchange ? the sides separated after only a few minutes, and the Taiwanese flotilla returned to Taiwan ? suggested that Tokyo and Taipei were operating within carefully prescribed parameters and they had no interest in letting things get out of hand.

Neither Tokyo nor Beijing has released a full account of the New York meeting, though the mere fact it occurred raises hopes of a peaceful solution to the crisis between an ascendant China, flush with tens of billions of dollars of foreign exchange reserves and a rapidly expanding military, and a Japan that seems eager to prove that despite long years of economic drift it still remains a power to be reckoned with.

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told Japanese counterpart Koichiro Gemba that the Japanese government's island purchase constituted "a serious challenge to the post-war international order."

"China will not tolerate the Japanese side taking any unilateral action on the Diaoyu Islands," the Xinhua report said. "China will continue to take firm measures to safeguard its territorial integrity and sovereignty."

Earlier, senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official Naoko Saiki repeated Japan's claims to the islands, and said that while compromise with Beijing would likely be difficult, the two sides should keep talking.

"We don't want to have any wars or battles or use of force," she told reporters. "We have to stabilize the situation through dialogue in a peaceful manner, in accordance with international law."

___

Associated Press writer Louise Watt in Beijing contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-china-move-dampen-island-dispute-103600299.html

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Benefits & Drawbacks of Rent to Own | Geoff Brand Real Estate

If you?re considering buying a home, but just don?t have the financial resources, thenrenting to own may be the right option for you. For those who don?t yet have the money for a down payment on a home or don?t qualify for a mortgage loan, but are right there on the cusp renting-to-own or the ?rent to own? may accelerate the homeownership process.

In a lease option, you, the buyer, and the owner agree on a potential purchase date and?a price. Then you rent the property for a little more than the market rate, and part of the? rent is credited to the down payment on the home. You and the owner work out the length?of the lease?it can run for a few months or a few years?and you may purchase the?property at any point during that period. If you decide not to or are unable to exercise the option to buy, the owner is then free to rent or sell the property to someone else.

The ?rent to own? option benefits sellers in a number of ways, namely if the seller ishaving a tough time selling, it is an alternative to lowering the home?s price. Opting for a??rent to own? option is financially appealing to buyers as well, but it does have some downfalls.??Most of these downfalls concern the chance of dealing with a seller who isn?t responsible or honest.

If you?re considering a ?rent to own? option, you should do your research first. First?check out your seller?check their credit report. Make sure they?re not in debt or have?let accounts become delinquent. Remember that a ?rent to own? option comes with a?rental period, so pay attention to any signs that the seller may be experiencing financial?troubles. The seller could lose the property in the lease process, and if this happens, youlose the option to buy it as well as the extra rent you?ve paid.

?Rent to own? home ownership is an option that possesses both upsides and caveats. From what we?ve gathered, conducting due diligence is beyond essential.? ?Rent to own? home ownership has the potential to be a great option, notes Marc Holland, who is the Community Outreach Coordinator with Home Star Search, an online rent to own housing?resource. ?However, it should be noted that ?rent to own? housing is not a viable option for everyone. While it?s conducive for some circumstances, it?s sensible for some to consider alternative options. Furthermore, it is essential that the prospective buyer conducts necessary research into the property owner?s position.? Besides encountering an irresponsible seller, there are other considerations. If you?re?thinking about a lease option because of financial reasons, be sure that you will be ableto obtain the mortgage loan required to make the purchase. You can talk to a mortgage?broker to ensure you will be able to qualify for a mortgage loan or consult a financial?planner to be prepared to purchase before entering a ?rent to own? agreement.

Also, be aware that you have to consider the housing market?s future. If it declines, you?will still have to pay your higher contract price. Do the market research before you enter?a lease option agreement. You should obtain a home inspection as well. This can save?you some headache by highlighting problems or potential problems with the home. You?can always decline to buy at the end of the lease option, but you will lose that extra rent?meant for a down payment.

Despite some potential downfalls, the ?rent to own? option has many benefits. The first,?and most obvious, is the financial one. If you don?t have the down payment or income toqualify for a mortgage, the ?rent to own? option allows you to speed up the homeownership?process. Again, be sure that you will have the financial means to buy at the end of your?lease. The benefit to signing a contract now is that you don?t have to worry about rising?home costs.

You also don?t have to worry about saving the money for property taxes, home owners insurance or private mortgage insurance. Those extra expenses are the owner?s?responsibility. The owner usually takes care of the maintenance as well, but you could?opt to do that.??Perhaps the biggest plus is that you get to live in the home before deciding to purchase it.? The owner could also agree to let you make changes and upgrades, but be sure that this?stipulation is in your contract.? At the end of the lease period, if you decide that the home?just doesn?t fit your needs, you have the option of walking away. The only thing you?ll?lose is the extra rent.

The bottom line is that the ?rent to own? option has its downfalls, but it is an excellent wayto speed up the homeownership process. If you trust your seller and can agree on a price?and arrangement, the lease option could be a win-win situation and a faster way to get?you out of someone else?s property and into your own.

Tagged: Buy, Housing, property, Real Estate, Rent

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Source: http://www.geoffbrandrealestate.com.au/benefits-and-drawbacks-of-rent-to-own/

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Georgia Power files largest solar initiative in state history - Business ...

ATLANTA, Sept. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --?Georgia Power today filed a new solar initiative ? the Georgia Power Advanced Solar Initiative ("GPASI") ? with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC). If approved, the initiative would create the largest voluntarily developed solar portfolio from an investor-owned utility.?Through GPASI, Georgia Power would acquire 210 megawatts of additional solar capacity through long term contracts over a three-year period.

(Logo:? http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050216/CLW066LOGO )

"We believe the Georgia Power Advanced Solar Initiative will encourage new opportunities for solar development in our state and catapult us to the forefront of this clean, safe energy technology," said Georgia Power President and CEO Paul Bowers. "This initiative builds upon our record of maintaining not only one of the nation's safest and most reliable electric systems at rates below the national average, but one of the most innovative as well. We will continue to build a diverse generation portfolio that utilizes the most cost effective and advanced technologies to benefit our customers."

To meet the target of 210 megawatts, Georgia Power's Utility Scale program would purchase 60 megawatts annually for three years through a competitive request for proposal (RFP) program with projects ranging in size from 1-20 megawatts. By as early as 2013, a Distributed Scale program would provide opportunities for up to 10 megawatts per year of smaller solar projects with specific reservations for Small Scale (less than 100 kW) and Medium Scale (100-1,000 kW) projects.?

RFPs for the Utility Scale program will be conducted in 2013, 2014, and 2015, and require commercial operation dates in 2015, 2016 and 2017.?Georgia Power could begin signing solar contracts under the Distributed Scale program as early as first quarter of 2013.

Developed in cooperation with the PSC, the GPASI will complement the company's existing solar resources, which include leading-edge research and demonstration projects and a 50-megawatt Large Scale Solar program already in place.

Since the creation of the company's Green Energy Program in 2003, which enables customers to support and foster the growth of renewable energy resources, Georgia Power has consistently pursued opportunities to grow solar in the state. Through various initiatives, including the Large Scale Solar Program approved in 2011, Georgia Power has worked closely with the PSC to add solar economically to its portfolio. There are currently 61.5 megawatts under contract ? enough green energy to power approximately 7,600 homes.

Additionally, Georgia Power recently launched a new "solar energy expert" initiative and website that provides comprehensive information and personalized assistance for customers interested in learning more about solar energy.? For more information, please visit: http://www.georgiapower.com/solar.

Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation's largest generators of electricity. The company is an investor-owned, tax-paying utility with rates below the national average. Georgia Power serves 2.4 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties.

SOURCE Georgia Power

Source: http://www.businessrevieweurope.eu/press_releases/georgia-power-files-largest-solar-initiative-in-state-history

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Anticipate Substantial Elements Because Of Small-scale Business ...

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So, the following time you discover an evaluation on website hosts, try to ask by yourself this dilemma, ?Can online host comments be dependable??.

Please explore to Ideas On How To Pick Out the Precise Managed Weblog Hosting Resolution? in case you need much more data to the matter.

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5. Lower Expenditure Internet Hosting Is Excellent For Smallish Small Businesses

Source: http://mysixstringsblog.com/anticipate-substantial-elements-because-of-small-scale-business-internet-hosting/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=anticipate-substantial-elements-because-of-small-scale-business-internet-hosting

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