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latest abney and associates technology news Google's Eric Schmidt Invests in Obama's Big Data Brains During the 2012 campaign, Barack Obama's reelection team had an underappreciated asset: Google's (GOOG) executive chairman, Eric Schmidt. He helped recruit talent, choose technology, and coach the campaign manager, Jim Messina, on the finer points of leading a large organization. "On election night he was in our boiler room in Chicago," says David Plouffe, then a senior White House adviser. Schmidt had a particular affinity for a group of engineers and statisticians tucked away beneath a disco ball in a darkened corner of the office known as "the Cave." The data analytics team, led by 30-year-old Dan Wagner, is credited with producing Obama's surprising 5 million-vote margin of victory. For all its acclaim, the analytics team's main achievement is often misunderstood as "microtargeting" or some variant on wooing voters. This reverses the relationship between campaign and voter at the heart of Wagner's method. Recent campaigns have employed a top-down approach to identify what they thought were vital demographic groups such as "soccer moms." Wagner's team pursued a bottom-up strategy of unifying vast commercial and political databases to understand the proclivities of individual voters likely to support Obama or be open to his message, and then sought to persuade them through personalized contact via Facebook (FB), e-mail, or a knock on the door. "I think of them as people scientists,'' says Schmidt. "They apply scientific techniques to how people will behave when confronted with a choice or a question." Obama's rout of Mitt Romney was a lesson in how this insight can translate into political strength. Traditional marketing has the same inherent limitation as traditional campaigning: It's impossible to appeal to everybody, even among the groups likeliest to favor a product. "Budweiser might target football fans with an ad s

Internet Reviews Abney Associates Blog Articles The US Federal Trade Commission has carried out a huge international crackdown on a number of "tech support" scams being run out of India which have conned people in the UK, US, Canada and elsewhere out of millions of pounds since 2008. As explained by the Guardian in 2010, the scams used "boiler room" tactics, dialling through phone books for English-speaking countries. People who answered the phone were told the call came from Microsoft or their internet service provider, and that the person's computer was "reporting viruses". The caller would then perform an unnecessary "fix" on the computer and charge the person for it - and sometimes sign them up to multi-year "support" contracts. The cost could run to hundreds of pounds. People in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were targeted because they, like the people carrying out the scam, are English-speaking. The Guardian understands that the scam was worth millions of pounds a year to the organised gangs carrying it out. At the FTC's request in six cases, a federal district judge froze the US assets of 17 people and 14 companies that have been accused of taking part in the operations. The FTC has also shut down 80 internet domain names and 130 phone numbers used in the US to carry out the scams. The FTC is seeking an end to the scams, and repayments for people who were conned out of money. Though the FTC said it could not put a figure on how many people had been scammed, or how much they had lost, Microsoft - which has been working with the commission for the past two years to try to catch the criminals - provided data on more than a thousand people who had been scammed, whose losses averaged $875 each. Microsoft has repeatedly pointed out that it would not call people about any problems with their computers. In some cases, the scammers would try to sell antivirus software from reputable companies, and in some cases would install new copies of Windows

Scams are all over Facebook. There are stories telling users that Facebook will end on a certain date, miracle diet pills, celebrity sex tapes, and other shady posts. With a little vigilance, though, users can make sure that they're not continuing the chain. Miranda Perry, staff writer for Scambook, spoke with AllFacebook about ways that people can make sure that they're not giving away information to scammers or spamming their friends' News Feeds with malicious links. Scambook is a complaint-resolution platform where customers can air their grievances and let others know about unscrupulous business practices and identity theft. The company also informs people of scams on social media, using its blog to write about the newest hoaxes that are going viral on Facebook. Perry shared with AllFacebook some ways that users can protect themselves (and their friends) from Facebook scams. Consider The Source One of the most common Facebook scams involves links that either infect computers with malware or automatically share content to users' Timelines. Perry said that by taking a couple of extra seconds to examine not only suspicious links, but the people who shared them, people can protect themselves. For instance, if a fitness buff friend shares a link showing how she's lost 30 pounds by using a weird old trick, or if a pastor shares a link purportedly showing Rihanna's sex tape, odds are extremely high that it's a scam. Perry said red flags should go up whenever someone shares something to Facebook that seems atypical of their nature. If users truly aren't sure, Perry recommends calling or contacting that person offline to see if their account has been compromised: The No. 1 step is just to look at the source and avoid clicking on links or sharing anything on Facebook that seems suspicious. For instance, if you know that your friend is a super-skinny athlete, they are probably not going to be telling you that they've just used weight loss pills. If t

http://www.writerscafe.org/groups/Abney-Associates/9883/forum/20088/ Forbrugere, finansielle modtager der er fra indgående sårbare opkald institutioner leaders over for telefonen phishing-svindel, hvor karakterer uddrag tvivlsomme private data under forudsætning den, er at finansielle forbrugerens tjenesteyder. Overvej et eksempel på et realkreditlån låntager, der modtager et opkald, hvor blokeret opkalds-er ID. Kaldende Kunne forsket har i offentlige register for at Laere navnet realkreditinstitut ejerens af og på identitet. Med disse oplysninger i händen, kaldende forbrugeren foregiver at være långiver begynder anmoder personoplysninger og som om af sikkerhedsprocedurer. Kalderen ender med til at oplysninger personlige give in Ukendt part. JPMorgan Chase & Co talskvinde Amy Bonitatibus erkendt, at Chase anmoder om kunde Verifikation, give them således at oplysninger ikke med på andre beboere Hjemmet. "Men saw you Altid introducere Jungle, og vi til opkaldet oplyse årsagen OGSA," sagde hun. Et andet indebærer et opkald scenario, der er som kun på telefonsupport free identificeret opkalds-ID. Dette er af med fra opkald tilfældet Bank America Corp., kontrol personlige som om af Beder OGSA data. BofA kommentere som ikke har på svar on anmodning om om sine afklaring procedurer. Mens et frikaldsnummer i kan opkalds-ID visningen virke beroligende for låntager, tager meget for det ikke til operator in kriminel at opnå et frikaldsnummer og telefon udføre in phishing-systemer. Afdeling bestemt Jungle Chase om om opkalds vile vise-ID, New York-baserede selskabets nødvendigvis navn vises ikke er, Bonitatibus sagde. blokerer Men sit nummer Chase fra aldrig caller ID. På Citigroup Inc., afgiftsfri opkaldet nummer stammer fra HVIS vises in dialer, mens den forlængelse direkte vises, NAR opfordringen kommer fra office-gruppe, til i talsmand erklæring sagde. Jeg har bemærket, at selskabet vises ikke på telefonnumre blokere caller ID . In tredje