Home Depot says about 53 million email addresses stolen in breach

Reuters) - Home Depot Inc, the world's largest home improvement chain, said hackers stole about 53 million email addresses in addition to customer data for 56 million payment cards previously disclosed by the retailer.

The company, which confirmed the breach in September, said the files that contained the email addresses did not include passwords, payment card information or other sensitive personal information.

Home Depot, which had estimated that the theft would cost about $62 million, was one of a string of U.S. retailers attacked by hackers over the past year.

Criminals used a third-party vendor's user name and password to enter the perimeter of its network, Home Depot said in a statement on Thursday.

The hackers then acquired "elevated rights" that allowed them to navigate parts of Home Depot's network and to deploy unique, custom-built malware on its self-checkout systems in the U.S. and Canada, according to the company.

Home Depot said the stolen credentials did not alone provide direct access to the company's point-of-sale devices.

Since September, the company has implemented enhanced encryption of payment data in all U.S. stores and said the rollout to Canadian stores will be completed by early 2015.

This, however, was "really lipstick on a pig" and the proper solution was to add chip and PIN, or EMV technology, to U.S. credit cards, said David Campbell, chief security officer at SendGrid, a cloud-based email delivery service.

Home Depot said it was already rolling out the EMV technology.

The company reaffirmed its 2014 sales growth forecast of about 4.8 percent and earnings per share forecast of $4.54.

The forecast includes estimates for the cost to investigate the data breach, provide credit monitoring services to its customers as well as legal fees, the company said.

"I think the big takeaway was that they are able to maintain their sales guidance for the full year, which means people are still showing up at the stores, still spending.." Joseph Feldman, analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, told Reuters.

The company maintained that it has not yet estimated the impact of "probable losses" related to the breach.

"Those costs may have a material adverse effect on The Home Depot's financial results in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 and/or future periods," the company said.

Home Depot shares closed up 1.6 percent at $97.29 per share on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Target Corp's unprecedented breach saw hackers steal at least 40 million payment card numbers and 70 million other pieces of customer data in 2013.

(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in Bangalore; Editing by Rodney Joyce, Joyjeet Das and Cynthia Osterman)

የቦሌ ልጆች ስራ ፍለጋ ወጡ (Comedy Video)

Post by Siyum Teshome.

ጥሩነሽ ዲባባ ነፍሰጡር ሆነች። ሌላ ጀግና ኢትዮጵያዊ ሊወለድ ነው

ጥሩነሽ ዲባባ ነፍሰጡር ሆነች። ሌላ ጀግና ኢትዮጵያዊ ሊወለድ ነው

Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time outdoor world champion, is expecting her first child and will skip the 2015 track season, IAAF.org reports.

The 29-year-old’s titles include the 2013 10,000-meter world championship, which she will not be able to defend in Beijing next summer.




Dibaba won gold medals in the 5000- and 10,000-meter run at the 2008 Olympics and repeated as 10,000-meter champion in the 2012 Games, where she also won bronze in the 5000. She is the world record holder in the 5000 at 14:11.15.

She made her marathon debut in London in April, placing third in 2:20:35. Her most recent race was a victory at the Great Manchester Run, a 10K in England, in May in 31:09.

Dibaba’s 32-year-old sister Ejegayehu, the 2004 Olympic 10,000-meter silver medalist, gave birth to a daughter in January of this year.

Dibaba’s countrywoman and archrival Meseret Defar, who won 5000-meter gold at the 2004 and 2012 Olympics, missed the 2014 track season due to pregnancy.

Dibaba's husband is Sileshi Sihine, silver medalist at 10,000 meters in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

የዘጠናው አመት አዛውንት እና ፓስተር የተራበ ጎዳና ተዳዳሪ በመመገባቸው ታሰሩ

To Arnold Abbott, feeding the homeless in a public park in South Florida was an act of charity. To the city of Fort Lauderdale, the 90-year-old man in white chef's apron serving up gourmet-styled meals was committing a crime.

For more than two decades, the man many call "Chef Arnold" has proudly fired up his ovens to serve up four-course meals for the downtrodden who wander the palm tree-lined beaches and parks of this sunny tourist destination.

Now a face-off over a new ordinance restricting public feedings of the homeless has pitted Abbott and others with compassionate aims against some officials, residents and businesses who say the growing homeless population has overrun local parks and that public spaces merit greater oversight.

Abbott and two South Florida ministers were arrested last weekend as they served up food. They were charged with breaking an ordinance restricting public feeding of the homeless. Each faces up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

"One of the police officers said, 'Drop that plate right now,' as if I were carrying a weapon," Abbott recalled.

The arrests haven't deterred Abbott, and pastors Dwayne Black and Mark Sims.

In fact, on Wednesday evening, Abbott and Black went back out for a feeding along Fort Lauderdale beach as police videotaped them serving up fresh-cooked entrees: a chicken-and-vegetable dish with broccoli sauce and a cubed ham-and-pasta dish Abbott said he topped with a "beautiful white onion celery sauce."

Nearly 100 mostly homeless people and volunteers cheered his arrival in the park.

"God bless you, Arnold!" some in the crowd shouted.

 "Thank God for Chef Arnold. I haven't eaten all day. He feeds a lot of people from the heart," said 56-year-old Eddie Hidalgo, who described himself as living on the streets since losing his job two years ago.

At one point, an Associated Press staffer said she watched as Abbott was called over beside a police car by officers where an officer wrote up something and handed Abbott a copy as he stood by.

Police spokeswoman DeAnna Greenlaw late told The Associated Press by email that Abbott was issued a citation on a charge of breaking the ordinance. She said no one else was cited and police had no further comment.

"I'm grateful that they allowed us to feed the people before they gave us the citation," Abbott said afterward. He has said feeding the homeless is his life's mission.

Fort Lauderdale is the latest U.S. city to pass restrictions on feeding homeless people in public places. Advocates for the homeless say that the cities are fighting to control increasing homeless populations but that simply passing ordinances doesn't work.

In the past two years, more than 30 cities have tried to introduce laws similar to Fort Lauderdale's, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. The efforts come as more veterans face homelessness and after two harsh winters drove homeless people southward, especially to Florida.

Mayor Jack Seiler said he thinks Abbott and the two pastors have good intentions, but that the city can't discriminate in enforcing the ordinance. He said it was passed recently to ensure that public places are open to everyone and stressed that the city was working with local charities to help with the root causes of homelessness.

"The parks have just been overrun and were inaccessible to locals and businesses," Seiler said.

San Diego Taxi drivers hit the street, this time in protest

Taxi drivers hit the street, this time in protest

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) – There's gridlock over a proposal to lift the cap on the number of taxi permits issued by the City of San Diego.
Taxi drivers and owners drove to the City Administration Building downtown Thursday to protest either for or against raising the cap that currently stands at 993. Opponents say allowing more taxis would lead to less income for drivers.
On the other side, supporters say most permit owners don't even drive cabs, and instead lease out their permits at an astronomical rate.
"Drivers are then exploited, they pay $400 to $900 a week in leases. The majority of taxi drivers are living in poverty, we need to lift the cap," Sarah Saez of United Taxi Workers said.
The City Council will consider the issue at a meeting on Monday.

 

Washington D.C., Alaska and Oregon Enter the Marijuana Tourism Arena

With the overwhelming passage of Proposal 71 in Washington D.C. the nation’s capital has joined Colorado and Washington State in legalizing recreational use of marijuana. With Oregon and Alaska also approving measures to legalize recreational marijuana use in Tuesday’s election, the tide seems to be moving clearly toward marijuana legalization across the nation.

Once the laws go into effect, three more states or districts will join the list of places where it is legal to smoke marijuana, and their tourism industries will receive whatever benefit the legalization of marijuana confers, a benefit that is so far extremely hard to measure.

The Washington D.C. law is more of a de-criminalization than a full-fledged legalization. It removes the legal penalty for people at least 21 years old possessing up to two ounces of marijuana or as many as three plants.

But a majority of city council members have said that if the measure passes they will submit legislation to Congress to allow the selling of marijuana and to establish a system for taxing it.

Proposal 71 could still be blocked by the U.S. Congress. Unlike the states, the District of Columbia’s laws can be overturned by Congress. Republican Representative Andy Harris of Maryland has already said he would “blunt” the measure through an act of Congress. But if not stopped the new law will go into effect in January.

In Alaska the new law allows the possession of an ounce of marijuana or six plants. It sets up a regime for regulating and taxing the sale of marijuana and will go into effect 90 days after the certification of the election, which is expected to take place in late November.

Alaska legislators now have nine months to put together the system under which marijuana businesses will operate.

Oregon’s law will not create any changes until July 1, 2015. The law will allow adults to possess up to one ounce in public or eight ounces at home. Public consumption is not allowed, and driving under the influence is prohibited under current DUI laws. Legal sales of marijuana cannot take place until 2016. Oregon’s Liquor Control Commission must draft regulations for the sales of marijuana by Jan. 1, 2016.

Until then, Oregon residents can’t legally buy marijuana, though they can grow their own after July 1, 2015. Until that date, Oregon’s standing laws still apply, under which possession of four ounces of pot is a misdemeanor, more than four ounces is a felony, and possessing one ounce or less is not a criminal offense.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, which is nearing the one-year anniversary of its legalization of recreational pot, the effect on its tourism industry is hard to measure.

The Drug Policy Alliance released a report in mid 2014 that showed Colorado’s crime rate in 2014 was 10 percent lower than in 2013, and its violent crime rate had reduced 5 percent. No correlation can be made with the legalization of marijuana, but the data does defy predictions that the opposite would occur.

The effect of legalization on tourism is still debatable. Colorado’s tourism in fiscal year 2014, which ended June 30, hit all-time records. But it is impossible to say what combination of factors led to the increase.

Source: Travel Pulse

የፈረንጇ እንጀራ ጋጋሪ። አይናማ እንጀራ

Post by ERTA.