By Lauren Keiper | Reuters
BOSTON (Reuters) - A Yale University student was killed in an accident at a campus chemistry laboratory, school officials said on Wednesday.
Michele Dufault, a senior, died on Tuesday night "in what appears to have been a terrible accident involving a piece of equipment in the student machine shop in Sterling Chemistry Laboratory," according to a statement posted on Yale's website from vice president and secretary Linda Koch Lorimer.
No other details were immediately available.
Yale Daily News reported that Dufault was an astronomy and physics major from Massachusetts and a member of the Yale Precision Marching Band.
"By all reports, Michele was an exceptional young woman, an outstanding student and young scientist, a dear friend and a vibrant member of this community," Lorimer's statement said.
The lab was closed on Wednesday, and classes there were canceled, the statement said.
Graduates' chances at a job steadily improve
Source: Philly.com
By Patricia Kitchen
Newsday (MCT)
MELVILLE, N.Y. - New college grads may at least have a fighting chance to get jobs this year.
After two years of bleak prospects, there's a flicker of hope for the Class of 2011 as national projections show the job market may be opening up.
Hiring for the class of 2011 is expected to be up 13 percent to 14 percent compared with last year, according to two polls, one in the fall with 197 employer respondents and one in February with 112, conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, said Edwin Koc, director of research.
The market for new college grads took a dive starting in the spring of 2009, as the recession and financial meltdown led to layoffs, hiring curbs and a national jobless rate that rose to a high of 10.1 percent in October 2009. The unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds with bachelor's degrees was 8.8 percent in 2009 and 9.2 percent in 2010. As a result, more former students have taken on survival jobs outside their fields of study, moved back home with parents or applied for graduate school.
But John Hyde, dean of career services at the New York Institute of Technology, said there is a "brightening up" in this year's entry-level hiring market.
Recruiters who shied away the past couple of years are calling, and employers recently posted about 18 new job openings, many sales and marketing positions, on the school's proprietary job board.
While this is a positive trend, Koc said, "We're not back yet to the levels of the class of 2007," when students had a median of 2 offers by April. Last year, more than 60 percent of new grads had no offer by April.
Hyde said he's seeing an uptick in interest in engineering and computer science students, especially those with a background in cyber security; occupational therapy and physical therapy majors; and hospitality management majors, as some hotels and high-end restaurants are resuming entry-level hiring.
But they're not alone. Some employers are looking for business, marketing and communications majors from among this year's graduates.
Enterprise Rent-a-Car, which was No. 2 last year on the CollegeGrad.com list of top entry-level employers, wants to recruit 40 new grads in the coming months as management trainees in New York's Long Island area alone, about a 25 percent increase from last year, said Dylan Schweitzer, group talent acquisition manager. "Our business is growing. More people are renting cars," he said.
Enterprise has 68,000 employees nationwide.
Although the focus is on business and communications students, "we hire all majors," Schweitzer said, looking for candidates who show leadership skills and "the ability to speak confidently about themselves and what they've done."
As part of its continuing expansion, TD Bank plans to open 10 new branches on Long Island this year and early in 2012, creating about 150 new jobs, some entry level, said Chris Giamo, regional president.
Bank representatives are recruiting at college job fairs, seeking candidates to be tellers and customer service representatives, he said. Ideal candidates will have retail or customer service experience, as well as studies in business or finance.
Even with a glimmer of improvement, the job market will still be competitive, say directors of college career centers, with employers seeking candidates with internship experience and good communication skills. When it comes to local hiring, "it's still hard to call," said Fred Burke, executive director of Hofstra University's career center, which just hosted its annual job and internship fair with the same number of employers as last year.
Lynsey Rocco, 23, said that "last semester, I was really nervous about going out into the world" because of concerns that there would be no jobs.
A senior majoring in accounting, Rocco said she's been taking the advice of her Molloy College professors, who emphasize the value of networking.
One interview in December with an accounting firm led to an internship, but not a full-time job.
However, a friend at a midsize accounting firm in Manhattan passed her resume along, which resulted in two interviews. She said her meetings went well, as she practiced ahead of time and "prepped myself with questions to ask."
On March 5, she received a coveted letter, one that started out with: "Dear Lynsey, It is with pleasure that we offer you a position as a staff accountant."
Rocco, of Oceanside, N.Y., said, "I was really, really excited." Her job starts in the fall, so she's planning to use the summer to study for the certified public accountant exam.
"Networking really is your best bet. ... It's all who you know," she said.
Even though she didn't get the job, Tiani Kennedy, 21, took heart that she was among the top three candidates out of 100 applicants for a full-time position with a literary management agent.
Kennedy, who graduated from Adelphi University in December with a degree in English, has been searching for an entry-level job with a publishing house or literary agency. But she said she's found that most are looking for candidates with some experience in the field.
Kennedy, who lives in Brooklyn, said she's been networking with professors and looking for opportunities on Bookjobs.com, as well as the school's job opportunities site, called Pantherzone. Read more...
By Patricia Kitchen
Newsday (MCT)
MELVILLE, N.Y. - New college grads may at least have a fighting chance to get jobs this year.
After two years of bleak prospects, there's a flicker of hope for the Class of 2011 as national projections show the job market may be opening up.
Hiring for the class of 2011 is expected to be up 13 percent to 14 percent compared with last year, according to two polls, one in the fall with 197 employer respondents and one in February with 112, conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, said Edwin Koc, director of research.
The market for new college grads took a dive starting in the spring of 2009, as the recession and financial meltdown led to layoffs, hiring curbs and a national jobless rate that rose to a high of 10.1 percent in October 2009. The unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds with bachelor's degrees was 8.8 percent in 2009 and 9.2 percent in 2010. As a result, more former students have taken on survival jobs outside their fields of study, moved back home with parents or applied for graduate school.
But John Hyde, dean of career services at the New York Institute of Technology, said there is a "brightening up" in this year's entry-level hiring market.
Recruiters who shied away the past couple of years are calling, and employers recently posted about 18 new job openings, many sales and marketing positions, on the school's proprietary job board.
While this is a positive trend, Koc said, "We're not back yet to the levels of the class of 2007," when students had a median of 2 offers by April. Last year, more than 60 percent of new grads had no offer by April.
Hyde said he's seeing an uptick in interest in engineering and computer science students, especially those with a background in cyber security; occupational therapy and physical therapy majors; and hospitality management majors, as some hotels and high-end restaurants are resuming entry-level hiring.
But they're not alone. Some employers are looking for business, marketing and communications majors from among this year's graduates.
Enterprise Rent-a-Car, which was No. 2 last year on the CollegeGrad.com list of top entry-level employers, wants to recruit 40 new grads in the coming months as management trainees in New York's Long Island area alone, about a 25 percent increase from last year, said Dylan Schweitzer, group talent acquisition manager. "Our business is growing. More people are renting cars," he said.
Enterprise has 68,000 employees nationwide.
Although the focus is on business and communications students, "we hire all majors," Schweitzer said, looking for candidates who show leadership skills and "the ability to speak confidently about themselves and what they've done."
As part of its continuing expansion, TD Bank plans to open 10 new branches on Long Island this year and early in 2012, creating about 150 new jobs, some entry level, said Chris Giamo, regional president.
Bank representatives are recruiting at college job fairs, seeking candidates to be tellers and customer service representatives, he said. Ideal candidates will have retail or customer service experience, as well as studies in business or finance.
Even with a glimmer of improvement, the job market will still be competitive, say directors of college career centers, with employers seeking candidates with internship experience and good communication skills. When it comes to local hiring, "it's still hard to call," said Fred Burke, executive director of Hofstra University's career center, which just hosted its annual job and internship fair with the same number of employers as last year.
Lynsey Rocco, 23, said that "last semester, I was really nervous about going out into the world" because of concerns that there would be no jobs.
A senior majoring in accounting, Rocco said she's been taking the advice of her Molloy College professors, who emphasize the value of networking.
One interview in December with an accounting firm led to an internship, but not a full-time job.
However, a friend at a midsize accounting firm in Manhattan passed her resume along, which resulted in two interviews. She said her meetings went well, as she practiced ahead of time and "prepped myself with questions to ask."
On March 5, she received a coveted letter, one that started out with: "Dear Lynsey, It is with pleasure that we offer you a position as a staff accountant."
Rocco, of Oceanside, N.Y., said, "I was really, really excited." Her job starts in the fall, so she's planning to use the summer to study for the certified public accountant exam.
"Networking really is your best bet. ... It's all who you know," she said.
Even though she didn't get the job, Tiani Kennedy, 21, took heart that she was among the top three candidates out of 100 applicants for a full-time position with a literary management agent.
Kennedy, who graduated from Adelphi University in December with a degree in English, has been searching for an entry-level job with a publishing house or literary agency. But she said she's found that most are looking for candidates with some experience in the field.
Kennedy, who lives in Brooklyn, said she's been networking with professors and looking for opportunities on Bookjobs.com, as well as the school's job opportunities site, called Pantherzone. Read more...
Forces capture Ivory Coast strongman (Laurent Gbagbo) in bunker
By MARCO CHOWN OVED, Associated Press
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Forces loyal to Ivory Coast's elected president ended the 10-year rule of strongman Laurent Gbagbo on Monday, storming the bunker where he had holed up and putting him under arrest following a crisis that left hundreds dead and threatened to re-ignite a civil war.
Gbagbo's dramatic arrest came after days of heavy fighting during which French and U.N. helicopters fired rockets at his presidential residence. Forces backing the internationally recognized winner Alassane Ouattara had begun a rapid offensive to oust Gbagbo late last month.
Issard Soumahro, a pro-Ouattara fighter at the scene, told The Associated Press that the ground offensive to seize Gbagbo came after the French launched airstrikes until at least 3 a.m. Monday.
"We attacked and forced in a part of the bunker. He was there with his wife and his son," Soumahro said.
He added that Gbagbo was tired and had been slapped by a soldier, but was not otherwise hurt.
Gbagbo was interrogated and brought to the Golf Hotel, where Ouattara has been trying to run his presidency since the Nov. 28 vote. Officials were waiting for him to sign a document that formally hands power over to Ouattara, Soumahro said. TV footage from the Golf Hotel showed Gbagbo in a white sleeveless undershirt, and then donning a colorful print shirt.
"The nightmare is over for the people of Ivory Coast," Ivory Coast's U.N. ambassador said.
Youssoufou Bamba, who was appointed U.N. ambassador by Ouattara, said Gbagbo will face justice. He predicted that fighting that has wracked this former French colony will stop as soon as pro-Gbagbo forces learn of his capture.
But it will be very difficult for Ivory Coast to mount a domestic court to try Gbagbo, said Richard Downie, an Africa expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that it would "probably be a lightning rod for more unrest."
"(Ouattara) didn't want to come to power this way, through the barrel of a gun," Downie said. "He was elected fairly and freely. But this is the situation he was dealt. It's going to be incredibly difficult for him to bring the country together."
In western Ivory Coast, rebels fired into the air in jubilation in Duekoue, causing a panic among refugees who fled in all directions or dropped to the ground in terror. In villages going east from Duekoue people danced in the streets, waving tree branches. In one village, young men paraded with the orange, white and green Ivorian flag.
"It's a victory ... considering all the evil that Laurent Gbagbo inflicted on Ivory Coast," Ouattara's ambassador to France, Ali Coulibaly, told France-Info radio. He emphasized that the man in power for a decade would be "treated with humanity."
"We must not in any way make a royal gift to Laurent Gbagbo in making him a martyr," Coulibaly said. "He must be alive and he must answer for the crimes against humanity that he committed."
Some critics had accused Gbagbo of clinging to power in part to avoid prosecution by the International Criminal Court. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has begun preliminary examination of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ivory Coast, including accusations leveled against forces seeking to install Ouattara.
Ivory Coast was divided into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south by a 2002-2003 civil war. The country was officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal. The long-delayed presidential election was intended to help reunify the nation but instead unleashed months of violence.
Gbagbo, who won 46 percent of the vote, held power for a decade and already had overstayed his mandate by five years when the November election took place. When the country's election commission and international observers declared he lost the election after it was finally held, he refused to step down.
The former history professor defied near-universal pressure to cede power to Ouattara. The two set up parallel administrations that vied for control of the West African economic powerhouse.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that dictators should take notice that "they may not disregard the voice of their own people in free and fair elections." She added that "there will be consequences for those who cling to power."
Ouattara drew his support from the U.N. and world powers. Gbagbo maintained his hold over the country's military and security forces who terrorized his opponents.
He wrapped himself in the country's flag as he took the oath of office at his shotgun inauguration.
"No one has the right to call on foreign armies to invade his country," Gbagbo, still taking a nationalistic stance, declared in a televised address on New Year's Eve. "Our greatest duty to our country is to defend it from foreign attack."
Ivory Coast gained independence from France in 1960, and some 20,000 French citizens still lived there when the civil war broke out.
French troops were then tasked by the U.N. with monitoring a cease-fire and protecting foreign nationals in Ivory Coast, which was once an economic star and is still one of the only countries in the region with four-lane highways, skyscrapers, escalators and wine bars.
Gbagbo had described efforts to oust him from power as tantamount to a foreign coup d'etat. On Monday, the French government sought to distance itself from Gbagbo's arrest. Cmdr. Frederic Daguillon, the French forces spokesman in Abidjan, said French forces were not involved in Gbagbo's arrest.
Other West African nations had considered military intervention to remove Gbagbo, but those efforts never materialized and sanctions imposed on Gbagbo and his inner circle by the U.S. and European Union failed to dislodge him. Human rights groups accused his security forces of abducting and killing hundreds of political opponents as the deadlock dragged on.
While the United Nations passed resolutions allowing its peacekeepers to intervene to protect civilians, anti-Gbagbo neighborhoods in Abidjan continued to be pummeled with mortars. So many people were killed that the local morgue began stacking corpses on the floor because they had run out of space in the refrigerated vaults.
Ouattara attempted to assert his authority from the Golf Hotel, protected by U.N. peacekeepers, while the would-be president tried to financially strangle Gbagbo by imposing an embargo on cocoa exports. In a desperate move, Gbagbo seized control of foreign banks in Abidjan — prompting their flight and a liquidity crunch.
After months of political deadlock, forces backing Ouattara began a dramatic offensive in late March, taking the administrative capital and reaching the largest city and commercial capital, Abidjan, in just days. They met resistance in Abidjan, where Gbagbo and his family sought refuge in an underground bunker at the presidential residence.
Last week, U.N. and French forces intervened to destroy Gbagbo's arsenal of weapons used on civilians, firing rockets from helicopters and ultimately sending French tanks to the strongman's home.
___
Associated Press writers Michelle Faul in Duekoue, Ivory Coast; Rukmini Callimachi in Indianapolis, Anita Powell in Johannesburg, Anita Snow at the United Nations, and Angela Charlton, Sophie Tetrel, Cecile Brisson and Julien Proult in Paris contributed to this report.
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Forces loyal to Ivory Coast's elected president ended the 10-year rule of strongman Laurent Gbagbo on Monday, storming the bunker where he had holed up and putting him under arrest following a crisis that left hundreds dead and threatened to re-ignite a civil war.
Issard Soumahro, a pro-Ouattara fighter at the scene, told The Associated Press that the ground offensive to seize Gbagbo came after the French launched airstrikes until at least 3 a.m. Monday.
"We attacked and forced in a part of the bunker. He was there with his wife and his son," Soumahro said.
He added that Gbagbo was tired and had been slapped by a soldier, but was not otherwise hurt.
Gbagbo was interrogated and brought to the Golf Hotel, where Ouattara has been trying to run his presidency since the Nov. 28 vote. Officials were waiting for him to sign a document that formally hands power over to Ouattara, Soumahro said. TV footage from the Golf Hotel showed Gbagbo in a white sleeveless undershirt, and then donning a colorful print shirt.
"The nightmare is over for the people of Ivory Coast," Ivory Coast's U.N. ambassador said.
Youssoufou Bamba, who was appointed U.N. ambassador by Ouattara, said Gbagbo will face justice. He predicted that fighting that has wracked this former French colony will stop as soon as pro-Gbagbo forces learn of his capture.
But it will be very difficult for Ivory Coast to mount a domestic court to try Gbagbo, said Richard Downie, an Africa expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that it would "probably be a lightning rod for more unrest."
"(Ouattara) didn't want to come to power this way, through the barrel of a gun," Downie said. "He was elected fairly and freely. But this is the situation he was dealt. It's going to be incredibly difficult for him to bring the country together."
In western Ivory Coast, rebels fired into the air in jubilation in Duekoue, causing a panic among refugees who fled in all directions or dropped to the ground in terror. In villages going east from Duekoue people danced in the streets, waving tree branches. In one village, young men paraded with the orange, white and green Ivorian flag.
"It's a victory ... considering all the evil that Laurent Gbagbo inflicted on Ivory Coast," Ouattara's ambassador to France, Ali Coulibaly, told France-Info radio. He emphasized that the man in power for a decade would be "treated with humanity."
"We must not in any way make a royal gift to Laurent Gbagbo in making him a martyr," Coulibaly said. "He must be alive and he must answer for the crimes against humanity that he committed."
Some critics had accused Gbagbo of clinging to power in part to avoid prosecution by the International Criminal Court. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has begun preliminary examination of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ivory Coast, including accusations leveled against forces seeking to install Ouattara.
Ivory Coast was divided into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south by a 2002-2003 civil war. The country was officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal. The long-delayed presidential election was intended to help reunify the nation but instead unleashed months of violence.
Gbagbo, who won 46 percent of the vote, held power for a decade and already had overstayed his mandate by five years when the November election took place. When the country's election commission and international observers declared he lost the election after it was finally held, he refused to step down.
The former history professor defied near-universal pressure to cede power to Ouattara. The two set up parallel administrations that vied for control of the West African economic powerhouse.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that dictators should take notice that "they may not disregard the voice of their own people in free and fair elections." She added that "there will be consequences for those who cling to power."
Ouattara drew his support from the U.N. and world powers. Gbagbo maintained his hold over the country's military and security forces who terrorized his opponents.
He wrapped himself in the country's flag as he took the oath of office at his shotgun inauguration.
"No one has the right to call on foreign armies to invade his country," Gbagbo, still taking a nationalistic stance, declared in a televised address on New Year's Eve. "Our greatest duty to our country is to defend it from foreign attack."
Ivory Coast gained independence from France in 1960, and some 20,000 French citizens still lived there when the civil war broke out.
French troops were then tasked by the U.N. with monitoring a cease-fire and protecting foreign nationals in Ivory Coast, which was once an economic star and is still one of the only countries in the region with four-lane highways, skyscrapers, escalators and wine bars.
Gbagbo had described efforts to oust him from power as tantamount to a foreign coup d'etat. On Monday, the French government sought to distance itself from Gbagbo's arrest. Cmdr. Frederic Daguillon, the French forces spokesman in Abidjan, said French forces were not involved in Gbagbo's arrest.
Other West African nations had considered military intervention to remove Gbagbo, but those efforts never materialized and sanctions imposed on Gbagbo and his inner circle by the U.S. and European Union failed to dislodge him. Human rights groups accused his security forces of abducting and killing hundreds of political opponents as the deadlock dragged on.
While the United Nations passed resolutions allowing its peacekeepers to intervene to protect civilians, anti-Gbagbo neighborhoods in Abidjan continued to be pummeled with mortars. So many people were killed that the local morgue began stacking corpses on the floor because they had run out of space in the refrigerated vaults.
Ouattara attempted to assert his authority from the Golf Hotel, protected by U.N. peacekeepers, while the would-be president tried to financially strangle Gbagbo by imposing an embargo on cocoa exports. In a desperate move, Gbagbo seized control of foreign banks in Abidjan — prompting their flight and a liquidity crunch.
After months of political deadlock, forces backing Ouattara began a dramatic offensive in late March, taking the administrative capital and reaching the largest city and commercial capital, Abidjan, in just days. They met resistance in Abidjan, where Gbagbo and his family sought refuge in an underground bunker at the presidential residence.
Last week, U.N. and French forces intervened to destroy Gbagbo's arsenal of weapons used on civilians, firing rockets from helicopters and ultimately sending French tanks to the strongman's home.
___
Associated Press writers Michelle Faul in Duekoue, Ivory Coast; Rukmini Callimachi in Indianapolis, Anita Powell in Johannesburg, Anita Snow at the United Nations, and Angela Charlton, Sophie Tetrel, Cecile Brisson and Julien Proult in Paris contributed to this report.
Hackers hunt prey on smartphones, Facebook
By Glenn Chapman | AFP News – Tue, 5 Apr, 2011 9:58 AM EDT
Hackers are following prey onto smartphones and social networking hotspots, according to reports released Tuesday by a pair of computer security firms.
Cyber criminals are also ramping up the sophistication and frequency of attacks on business and government networks, one of the companies, Symantec, said in the latest volume of its Internet Security Threat Report.
Symantec depicted a "massive" volume of more than 286 new computer threats on the Internet last year, continued growth in attacks at online social networks and "a notable shift in focus" by hackers to mobile devices.
"The major mobile platforms are finally becoming ubiquitous enough to garner the attention of attackers," Symantec said in its findings.
In March, smartphones running on Google-backed Android software were the target of the largest attack ever on the devices, noted a PandaLabs report focused on the first three months of this year.
"This assault was launched from malicious applications on Android Market, the official app store for the operating system," PandaLabs said.
Within a four-day span, seemingly legitimate Android smartphone applications rigged with malicious "Trojan" computer code were downloaded more than 50,000 times, according to PandaLabs.
"The Trojan steals personal information from cellphones, and downloads and installs other apps without the user's knowledge," the computer security firm said.
"Google managed to rid its store of all malicious apps, and several days later removed them from users' phones."
The Symantec report indicated that cyber crooks were also infiltrating news-feed capabilities at popular social networking services to "mass-distribute" attacks.
Such tactics typically involve getting into one person's account at a social network and then sending others links to websites booby-trapped with malicious computer code.
"Social network platforms continue to grow in popularity and this popularity has, not surprisingly, attracted a large volume of malware," Symantec said.
PandaLabs gave an example of a 23-year-old California man facing sentencing after pleading guilty to using information found on Facebook to hack email accounts to find compromising messages for blackmail.
Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saw his fan page at the social networking website hacked this year, the security firm noted.
PandaLabs researchers logged an average of 73,190 new snippets of malicious computer code daily during the first three months of this year in what was said to be a 26 percent jump from the same period in 2010.
Hackers showed a strong predeliction for a kind of malicious code used to mine bank account data and, ultimately, get into people's accounts, the computer security firm indicated.
China, Thailand and Taiwan had the highest rates of infection, with nearly 70 percent of the computers in those countries "riddled with malware," according to PandaLabs.
Many attacks on company or government computer networks involved hackers researching key employees and then duping them or colleagues into enabling access to protected networks, Symantec's report showed.
Researchers warned that onslaughts by "hacktivists" such as the group "Anonymous" and others with seeming political goals could signal a dangerous cyber arms race.
"Stuxnet and Hydraq, two of the most visible cyber-events of 2010, represented true incidents of cyberwarfare and have fundamentally changed the threat landscape," said Symantec Security Technology and Response senior vice president Stephen Trilling.
"The nature of the threats has expanded from targeting individual bank accounts to targeting the information and physical infrastructure of nation states."
Hackers are following prey onto smartphones and social networking hotspots, according to reports released Tuesday by a pair of computer security firms.
Cyber criminals are also ramping up the sophistication and frequency of attacks on business and government networks, one of the companies, Symantec, said in the latest volume of its Internet Security Threat Report.
Symantec depicted a "massive" volume of more than 286 new computer threats on the Internet last year, continued growth in attacks at online social networks and "a notable shift in focus" by hackers to mobile devices.
"The major mobile platforms are finally becoming ubiquitous enough to garner the attention of attackers," Symantec said in its findings.
In March, smartphones running on Google-backed Android software were the target of the largest attack ever on the devices, noted a PandaLabs report focused on the first three months of this year.
"This assault was launched from malicious applications on Android Market, the official app store for the operating system," PandaLabs said.
Within a four-day span, seemingly legitimate Android smartphone applications rigged with malicious "Trojan" computer code were downloaded more than 50,000 times, according to PandaLabs.
"The Trojan steals personal information from cellphones, and downloads and installs other apps without the user's knowledge," the computer security firm said.
"Google managed to rid its store of all malicious apps, and several days later removed them from users' phones."
The Symantec report indicated that cyber crooks were also infiltrating news-feed capabilities at popular social networking services to "mass-distribute" attacks.
Such tactics typically involve getting into one person's account at a social network and then sending others links to websites booby-trapped with malicious computer code.
"Social network platforms continue to grow in popularity and this popularity has, not surprisingly, attracted a large volume of malware," Symantec said.
PandaLabs gave an example of a 23-year-old California man facing sentencing after pleading guilty to using information found on Facebook to hack email accounts to find compromising messages for blackmail.
Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saw his fan page at the social networking website hacked this year, the security firm noted.
PandaLabs researchers logged an average of 73,190 new snippets of malicious computer code daily during the first three months of this year in what was said to be a 26 percent jump from the same period in 2010.
Hackers showed a strong predeliction for a kind of malicious code used to mine bank account data and, ultimately, get into people's accounts, the computer security firm indicated.
China, Thailand and Taiwan had the highest rates of infection, with nearly 70 percent of the computers in those countries "riddled with malware," according to PandaLabs.
Many attacks on company or government computer networks involved hackers researching key employees and then duping them or colleagues into enabling access to protected networks, Symantec's report showed.
Researchers warned that onslaughts by "hacktivists" such as the group "Anonymous" and others with seeming political goals could signal a dangerous cyber arms race.
"Stuxnet and Hydraq, two of the most visible cyber-events of 2010, represented true incidents of cyberwarfare and have fundamentally changed the threat landscape," said Symantec Security Technology and Response senior vice president Stephen Trilling.
"The nature of the threats has expanded from targeting individual bank accounts to targeting the information and physical infrastructure of nation states."
Value your backup plan
When Does Plan B Become Plan A?
April 5, 2011, 9:30 AM ET
Source: Wall Street Journal
By Emily Noonan
It’s a familiar scene. While skimming the latest job postings, I discover a listing that sounds too good to be true. Entry-level position with prestigious company XYZ in (fill in the blank with a decently sized city), must be willing to travel and so forth. Then just as I’m already mentally forming a cover letter, I glimpse at the qualifications: Minimum two years of full-time experience required.
Many of the jobs that I suspect were offered to recent graduates several years ago are now reserved for those who have already been in the field a few years. With more and more jobs seeming out of reach, there’s one question I’m still grappling with: when does your plan B become your plan A?
Essentially, when is it better to give up the pursuit of a full-time job in favor of internships or fellowships? While many of my friends are now happily employed in entry-level positions, I’ve noticed a growing number accepting temporary positions. From one-year fellowships to even the unpaid, friends latch on to anything they think can be used as a launch pad for their eventual career.
There are benefits to both positions. Many internships turn into jobs or can get you the experience for your resume. Yet, many programs I’ve come across are low-paid to the point of not covering loan payments or are dead-end career paths. I can’t help but wonder if the people who accept such positions are giving up too soon, that maybe if they had kept on applying, they would have landed the full-time job.
For my part, I have become more open to an internship or short-term stint. Even if it is not the ideal full-time employment, I want to be doing something beyond watching TV on my parents’ sofa. However, as I catch myself considering jobs that are far away from my personal preferences, I try to find compromises between my ideal locations, career goals and living expenses. I find myself with thoughts like, “Dallas wouldn’t really be that bad,” or “Maybe, I’m more interested in finance than I thought,” or “How would a year of service benefit my career?”
With 1½ months until graduation, it’s time to start moving ahead with plans A, B and C. But I’ll put a hold on plan D(esperation).
April 5, 2011, 9:30 AM ET
Source: Wall Street Journal
By Emily Noonan
It’s a familiar scene. While skimming the latest job postings, I discover a listing that sounds too good to be true. Entry-level position with prestigious company XYZ in (fill in the blank with a decently sized city), must be willing to travel and so forth. Then just as I’m already mentally forming a cover letter, I glimpse at the qualifications: Minimum two years of full-time experience required.
Many of the jobs that I suspect were offered to recent graduates several years ago are now reserved for those who have already been in the field a few years. With more and more jobs seeming out of reach, there’s one question I’m still grappling with: when does your plan B become your plan A?
Essentially, when is it better to give up the pursuit of a full-time job in favor of internships or fellowships? While many of my friends are now happily employed in entry-level positions, I’ve noticed a growing number accepting temporary positions. From one-year fellowships to even the unpaid, friends latch on to anything they think can be used as a launch pad for their eventual career.
There are benefits to both positions. Many internships turn into jobs or can get you the experience for your resume. Yet, many programs I’ve come across are low-paid to the point of not covering loan payments or are dead-end career paths. I can’t help but wonder if the people who accept such positions are giving up too soon, that maybe if they had kept on applying, they would have landed the full-time job.
For my part, I have become more open to an internship or short-term stint. Even if it is not the ideal full-time employment, I want to be doing something beyond watching TV on my parents’ sofa. However, as I catch myself considering jobs that are far away from my personal preferences, I try to find compromises between my ideal locations, career goals and living expenses. I find myself with thoughts like, “Dallas wouldn’t really be that bad,” or “Maybe, I’m more interested in finance than I thought,” or “How would a year of service benefit my career?”
With 1½ months until graduation, it’s time to start moving ahead with plans A, B and C. But I’ll put a hold on plan D(esperation).
Part-Time MBA Degree Listed Among Top Programs in the U.S.
By Scott Manning
Source: US News
According to PayScale.com, MBA degree holders can earn an average of between $63,909 and $168,906, depending on their career path and experience. Those who wish to earn an MBA degree in finance or business may want to consider how business schools rank when compared to other institutions.
In recent weeks, U.S. News & World Report announced in a press release that it has published its annual list of America's Best Graduate Business Schools. Included in this year's compilation in Bentley University McCallum Graduate School of Business, which was ranked among the top 75 institutions.
Part-Time MBA Degree Listed Among Top Graduate Programs school's part-time MBA program moved from the 51st spot last year to number 36 this year. This degree track focuses on topics such as statistics, economics, marketing, operations, accounting and finance. The part-time format gives students the opportunity to customize their degree by selecting two of eight concentrations.
Additionally, the university's master's in information technology is acknowledged as the third best in New England and ranked 18th in the country.
Source: US News
According to PayScale.com, MBA degree holders can earn an average of between $63,909 and $168,906, depending on their career path and experience. Those who wish to earn an MBA degree in finance or business may want to consider how business schools rank when compared to other institutions.
In recent weeks, U.S. News & World Report announced in a press release that it has published its annual list of America's Best Graduate Business Schools. Included in this year's compilation in Bentley University McCallum Graduate School of Business, which was ranked among the top 75 institutions.
Part-Time MBA Degree Listed Among Top Graduate Programs school's part-time MBA program moved from the 51st spot last year to number 36 this year. This degree track focuses on topics such as statistics, economics, marketing, operations, accounting and finance. The part-time format gives students the opportunity to customize their degree by selecting two of eight concentrations.
Additionally, the university's master's in information technology is acknowledged as the third best in New England and ranked 18th in the country.
How to become a billionaire
Keywords: Becoming a billionaire
7 real-life ways to become a billionaire
By Annie Mueller, On Friday April 1, 2011, 10:45 am EDT
INVESTOPEDIA
Becoming a billionaire seems like a great goal, but unfortunately it's only a dream for most of us. The thing is, many billionaires didn't start out as such. Some certainly had economic and educational advantages, but even without those, their smart decisions and business choices, plus a few characteristics that can't be overlooked, led them from Point A to Point B (Billionaire). So, what can we learn about our own real-life options for becoming billionaires? (More than 70 years after his death, this man remains one of the great figures of Wall Street. See J.D. Rockefeller: From Oil Baron To Billionaire.)
First things first: find a way to make money. Four of the most oft-methods of money making in the world of billionaires are inventing, investing, innovating and being an entrepreneur, but remember that how you pursue your billions is just as important as what you do to get them.
Do This: Invent
Inventing is a tough road to take, but if you've got the smarts to successfully create, patent, produce and market a product that people need (and thus, will buy in droves), you can build your future billionaire life on it. Successful inventions aren't necessarily complicated or high-tech items, either; James Dyson invented a better vacuum cleaner, and Gianfranco Zaccai invented a better mop, the Swiffer. Seems like things that help people clean more efficiently might be a good market to pursue.
Do This: Innovate
Innovation is the fine art of considering a current mainstream market and finding a creative way to improve the current offering. Successful innovators will identify the real needs behind customer demands, and will meet them with a smarter, better, more efficient product, or with a service that provides more than its competitors, or with a business that works in a way just different enough to stand out from the rest. IKEA founder is a great example of innovation leading to billions; furniture doesn't seem like a very exciting market, but his approach of providing modular, economical pieces with a modern flair from Sweden and other European designers and manufacturers to a global market has taken him all the way.
Don't Do This: Think You Know It All
The moment you think you have nothing left to learn is the moment you kill your potential for becoming a billionaire. Especially if you're interested in building your wealth through inventing or innovating, you have to be curious, open-minded and always learning. Those qualities allow you to look at old things in a new way, to see the potential for change and profit where others see only what already had been done.
Do This: Invest
Warren Buffett, the self-made billionaire, is famous for his frugal ways and for his smart investments. Investing, of course, requires a little seed money and some accurate insight into what investments are smart and what are a waste of money. If you can follow in the footsteps of billionaire investors like Buffett, then this might be the route for you.
Don't Do This: Make Flashy Investments
The latest and greatest is always fun to talk about, and one of the pitfalls of would-be billionaires is to jump in on the "next big thing" which doesn't always turn out to be so big. Investors who make billions from their investments avoid flashy, fun and high-risk picks and instead choose those with long-term potential to provide great returns. Real estate, energy, steel, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and energy are among the picks, while high-tech and intriguing but risky options may go either way.
Do This: Be an Entrepreneur
The third option for becoming a billionaire is in the time-honored tradition of entrepreneurial pursuits. Starting a business and taking it to success isn't always easy, but for those with good business sense and the ability to spot start-ups that have potential to be great, entrepreneurship can be the vehicle to great wealth. Billionaire entrepreneurs might work in one of two ways: either by coming up with a great idea and taking it all the way, as in the case of Bill Gates and Microsoft. Or by spotting someone else's good idea and investing in it early on, helping to carry it to huge success. Both are viable ways to reach success that can get you into the billions of dollars when it comes to your own net worth. (Quit your job; be your own boss and earn a paycheck. Find out what to do to make it happen, in Start Your Own Small Business.)
Don't Do This: Quit Too Soon
Entrepreneurial types who succeed must realize that success rarely comes overnight. One business idea might not pay off, but the next might. Or your company might hit a low point, and you have to make the choice to hang on with it and bring it back or let your dream die and your debt increase. It's not easy to build something from scratch, especially when your something is a fortune of billions. Time is on your side, if you don't rush it.
The Bottom Line
Of course, luck has something to do with success; it helps to be in the right place at the right time. However, if you don't know what to do when you're there, luck won't help you out much. Smart choices, smart investments and long-term learning and growing will however; once you hit that first billion, remember you heard it here.
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