banks

No, Facebook doesn't want to be your online bank. Not yet

With more than 900 million monthly active users, the question is why Facebook wouldn't aspire to be an online bank? Given Mark Zuckerberg's ambitions to build out the platform to the point where social infuses as many aspects of our daily online existence as possible, it's hardly a radical notion.

So it was that a report surfaced earlier today to the effect that Facebook is working with Australia's Commonwealth Bank on a way to allow bank transactions "to third parties as well as Facebook friends through the social media channel." That inspired the usual scrum, … Read more

Hacker claims breach of 79 banks, releases customer data

A hacker claiming to have broken into networks of dozens of banks and stolen customer data, has released as proof a file that contains names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers in plain text, but no credit card numbers.

"I penetrated over 79 large banks, I've been targetting these banks since 3 months," read a tweet from the Twitter account of Reckz0r. "Actually, I didn't hacked VISA & Mastercard, I hacked the banks, #Chase..etc."

A Pastebin post from today has a link to a downloadable file on the AnonFiles.com site that appears … Read more

How to create a quote bank

Keeping track of the awesome quotes you come across can be a tedious process. You could write them down and try to keep track of where you wrote them; or you could start a Word document dedicated to being a quote bank. While both of these options are possible, they're not as useful as Quick Quote. This open-source app will allow you to input the quotes you love and easily search through them when it's time to use one.

Step 1: Download Quick Quote from Sourceforge and extract the RAR file to a convenient location.

Tip: You can … Read more

Apple to keep tablet lead over Android in 2012, say analysts

Apple will hold onto a big chunk of the tablet market in 2012, according to a report from IHS-iSuppli and a research note from Deutsche Bank today.

Apple will take back a bit of market share lost to Android in the fourth quarter, while maintaining more than the 60 percent of the market in 2012, according to iSuppli.

iSuppli's key points for iPad in 2012--Rhoda Alexander, analyst:

2012 market share: 61 percent, up from 57 percent in the fourth quarter, down one percentage point from the 62 percent share in 2011. 2012 total tablet shipments: on track to reach … Read more

PayPal demands 'obscene' e-books be pulled

Mark Coker, the founder of e-book publisher Smashwords, got an alarming e-mail from PayPal's enforcement division last month. It was an ultimatum telling the company to pull certain books with "obscene" content from its inventory, Coker said in a blog post.

"Their hot buttons are bestiality, rape-for-titillation, incest, and underage erotica," he wrote. "PayPal gave us only a few days to achieve compliance otherwise they threatened to deactivate our PayPal services."

Smashwords isn't the only e-book publisher targeted by PayPal, according to the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), similar emails were also … Read more

Man charged with stealing NY Fed Reserve Bank source code

Authorities arrested a computer programmer today and charged him with stealing source code worth $9.5 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Bo Zhang, 32, is accused of taking the software last summer while he was working as a contract employee assigned to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Zhang allegedly admitted that in July 2011 he checked out and copied the code onto an external hard drive and on to his own computers, according to the complaint unsealed today. He said he used the code in connection with a computer programming training company he operated, … Read more

Middle East cyberwar hits Israeli banks, stock exchange, airline

Hackers in Israel and other Middle Eastern countries are in the middle of a cyberwar that has led to disruptions of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, several Israeli banks, and an airline. As a result, some Israeli banks have blocked or are threatening to block international access to their sites to avoid attack.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks Monday that crippled the Web sites of the Tel Aviv bourse Web site and El Al Airlines, as well as the marketing sites of the First International Bank of Israel (Fibi), Massad bank, and Otzar Hahayal bank, according to … Read more

Track finances on your iPhone

Mint is the iOS mobile companion to Mint.com, the popular financial services site that helps you track all of your accounts and budgets.

You have to set up an account with Mint.com to use the app (which involves giving Mint.com access to your bank, credit card, and investment accounts), then you can monitor your accounts, budget, and cash flow from the site or the app. The passcode-protected app presents your finances in summary form, with the capability to drill down to the item level of a purchase. Follow the trail to the end to edit an item'… Read more

Bank of America 'brandjacked' by phony Google+ page

A fake Google+ page for Bank of America has put both the bank and Google in a bad light.

Just one day after Google rolled out its new business feature last Monday, a group of hackers set up a Google+ page using Bank of America's name, but without the bank's knowledge.

Designed to look just like an official BofA page, it was instead devised by people who tricked Google into letting them create a page with the bank's name and contact information, according to Sophos' Naked Security blog. Rather than promoting the bank, the page mocked it … Read more

Personal Capital: Mint for rich people

Pity the "affluent Americans." With financial futures too complex to be forecast or planned by Quicken or Mint, but with insufficient resources to get top-flight financial planning from a wealth management firm like Goldman Sachs, these (approximately) 15 million households are woefully underserved.

That's the start of the pitch from Personal Capital, a new financial adviser firm with a strong, free online financial management app. The founders I talked with, ex-Intuit execs Bill Harris and Jim Del Favero, told me that most financial planning tools just don't sell. Harris said, "I built a tax planning tool twice. It sold practically zero, both times."

So he's trying to build instead a "complete solution" for the connected, sort-of-high-net-worth consumer: a product that gives Mint-like ease of use and information, but with a focus on giving these users grown-up insight. In particular, Personal Capital shows you your investment allocation across all your accounts, so you can see if you're, for example, too heavily invested in U.S. stocks vs. emerging market stocks, bonds, currencies, and so on.