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Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Thomas Jefferson

EU proposes a central cybersecurity platform, urges companies to report online attacks

EU proposes a central cybersecurity platform, urges companies to report online attacks

The European Union has officially published guidelines for a central cybersecurity framework that will allow countries to share information about threats and require companies to disclose when they've suffered major security breaches. The proposal, which was first reported last month, must be approved by the European Parliament before going into effect; it's meant to improve what the EU calls "fragmented" past efforts. If it's passed, countries will have 18 months to adopt a Network and Information Security plan, and to designate an authority to manage cybersecurity. From there, the EU will organize a system to share information and conduct peer reviews of individual countries' systems, though it says it's not looking to dictate specific policies.

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It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

Albert Einstein

Anonymous hacks MIT after Aaron Swartz's suicide

Just hours after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology pledged an investigation into its role in events leading up to the suicide of Aaron Swartz, online hacktivist group Anonymous defaced the school's Web site. 

Swartz, a Reddit cofounder who championed open access to documents on the Internet, committed suicide on Friday. The 26-year-old was arrested in July 2011 and accused of stealing 4 million documents from MIT and Jstor, an archive of scientific journals and academic papers. He faced $4 million in fines and more than 50 years in prison if convicted. 

After MIT President L. Rafael Reif issued a statement this afternoon promising a "thorough analysis of MIT's involvement from the time that we first perceived unusual activity on our network in fall 2010 up to the present," Anonymous targeted at least two MIT Web sites. Lacking the loose-knit group's usual feisty language, the message posted on the Web site was a call for reform in the memory of the late Internet activist.  

Read the rest at cnet.

FDIC Leadership Becomes Official

WASHINGTON — It was a long time coming, but the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. officially has a permanent chairman and No. 2 running the agency.

Following nearly 17 months of Martin Gruenberg taking over for former Chairman Sheila Bair on only an acting basis, the agency announced Friday that President Obama had late in the week formally validated Gruenberg's Senate confirmation to run the FDIC for a five-year term, as well as Thomas Hoenig's confirmation to be vice chairman. 

The presidential orders brought to a close a somewhat complicated process to appoint a successor for Bair. Obama had nominated Gruenberg as chairman back in June 2011, and Hoenig as vice chairman the following October, but their Senate confirmations were caught up in a political stalemate between the parties over presidential appointments. The Senate in March approved the two men for six-year seats on the FDIC's board of directors - with Gruenberg continuing as acting chairman - but passed on voting on their leadership designations until after the election. GOP members were hoping a Republican presidential victory would give a new administration the chance to select its own chairman.

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'Congratulations, you've become a Goldman Sachs partner'

The phone call lasts just a few seconds. The words "congratulations, you've become a partner", are just about all Lloyd Blankfein, the boss of Goldman Sachs, will have time to say to the 85 or so bank high-flyers he will ring next Wednesday to invite into one of the most prestigious and lucrative cliques on Wall Street.

It is a day of huge expectation for individuals spanning time zones from Sydney to New York who are waiting to hear that they have been given a role for which there is no job advert and no interview.

The whittling down of the candidates is under way this week in Goldman Sachs's head office in New York. Stretching across several days, a team of partners led by London-based Michael "Woody" Sherwood are deciding upon whom to bestow the glittering title of Goldman Sachs partner.

The decision comes at the end of a thorough, secretive and sometimes brutal decision-making process that happens only every two years. This year's deliberations began in the summer and include the selection of managing directors, one rung below partnership.

With the title of partner comes prestige that is, arguably, unrivalled in the financial world. It also brings vast wealth in the form of a partnership bonus pool that pays out millions of dollars each year. And it opens the door to high-profile career moves: former US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson was in the golden circle, as was one-time BBC chairman Gavyn Davies. Annual payouts can reach tens of millions of dollars – each – on top of annual salaries which are thought to start at almost $1m. Blankfein, for instance, took home more than $16m last year, according to Forbes, but received $68.5m (£43m) in 2007.

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Illegal file-sharer gets slapped with $1.5 million in damages

The damages award against illegal file-sharer Kywan Fisher will most likely send him to the poor house. Illinois federal court Judge John Lee ordered Fisher to fork out $1.5 million to adult entertainment company Flava Works this week, according to TorrentFreak.

Flava Works sued Fisher for sharing 10 movies he'd previously paid for via BitTorrent. The damages award amount was reached by fining Fisher $150,000 per movie. This is the largest damages award ever ordered in a BitTorrent case. 

Flava Works caught Fisher sharing its movies by tracing the illegal copies he was accused of sharing back to him using an encryption code inserted in the films he originally bought.

Read the rest here.