Tuesday, November 10, 2009
IBM launched the IBM Cloud Academy
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Works with Linux. Thanks to jerusalemonline. Good Things Under the SUN
SUN bought up happily by Oracle and not by IBM.
Hope our customers will use Linux SUN Oracle IBM with our help.
To Prepare for Tomorrows Business.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Ehud Tenenbaum at it again???
Israeli hacker suspected of $10m theft
Ehud Tenenbaum, a notorious Israeli hacker arrested in Canada last year in relation to the theft of around $1.5 million, is now suspected of breaking into the systems of four US institutions as part of a global "cashout" conspiracy that resulted in the loss of at least $10 million.In 1998 Tenenbaum gained notoriety as "The Analyzer" after being arrested following hacks on computer systems used by the Pentagon, Nasa, the Israeli parliament and Hamas.
In August he made the news again as one of four gang members arrested by Canadian police for allegedly stealing C$2 million by hacking the database of a Calgary-based business and loading money onto pre-paid cards.
The gang allegedly compromised the company's computer system and loaded money onto the pre-paid debit cards before withdrawing the cash at ATMs in Canada and several other countries.
He was granted bail by a Canadian court but was detained after US authorities asked for him to be kept in jail while they worked on extradition.
Details of the US allegations have now emerged after Wired magazine obtained an affidavit filed by officials with the Canadian court handling Tenenbaum's extradition case.
According to the affidavit, in January and February 2008 a US Secret Service investigation into a computer hacking "conspiracy" against banks and other firms, uncovered attacks on the systems of Texas-based OmniAmerican Credit Union and pre-paid card distributor Global Cash Card.
The attacker allegedly gained access using a SQL injection before stealing credit and debit card numbers that were then used to withdraw more than $1 million from ATMs around the world.
In April and May 2008, authorities investigated further SQL injection attacks on 1st Source Bank in Indiana, and pre-paid debit card processor Symmetrex, which resulted in losses of over $3 million.
The Secret Service traced the attacks to servers in Virginia acting as a routing point for systems at Dutch Web hosting company LeaseWeb.
Authorities in the Netherlands were asked to track and intercept traffic from three servers, resulting in the discovery of communications thought to be between Tenenbaum - using the e-mail address Analyzer22@hotmail.com - and other known criminals discussing the four hacks as well as moves against "many other" financial institutions.
According to the affidavit, in an MSN instant messenger conversation, on 18 April 2008, Tenenbaum revealed that he was responsible for hacking into the network of Global Cash Card, adding "yesterday I rechecked [Global Cash Card] they are still blocking everything. so we cant hack them again."
He also exchanged over 150 compromised card numbers stolen from Symmetrex.
On 20 April, the affidavit says he received updates on a "cashout" operation, where accomplices used stolen card data to withdraw money from ATMs in the US, Russia, Turkey and Canada, among others.
"Tenenbaum stated that after paying his cashers, he earned approximately "350 - 400," which, based on this investigation, most likely refers to 350,000 to 400,000 dollars or euros," says the affidavit.
Authorities say identifying Tenenbaum as Analyzer22@hotmail.com was surprisingly easy - he used his real name and date of birth to register for the account.
In addition, someone using an IP address registered to Internet Labs Secure, where he was a director, accessed the hotmail account. The address was also used to access the network of Global Cash Card and check and increase the balances of compromised accounts.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Information Technology and Gaza Operation
Media Matters: Cloudy skies over Gaza :Jpost
Chanasys: Technology not the Same in Gaza Conflict compared to 2006 Lebanon 2
From the Jerusalem Post
Ruthie Blum Leibowitz , THE JERUSALEM POST
As missiles from Gaza continue to bombard the South, the entire country is being blitzed by another airborne force: the news. This is as natural as it is necessary.
Operation Cast Lead is the story - the only one, other than the weather report, that anyone is really interested in right now. Proof of this lies in Channel 10's decision to take the hit, Survivor - the second season of which began with a bang, so to speak - off the air "until further notice."
This future date could be, say, when there's a cease-fire, or another reason for reality shows to resume receiving higher ratings than reality itself. You know, the point at which the parents of combat soldiers, whose cellphones are confiscated before they enter the battle zone, no longer need to rely on reports from the field to feel connected to their sons. That this connection is a bit of an illusion, since crews have been reporting from the home front, not from inside Gaza, makes little difference. As one worried father put it this week, "I'm like a junkie who can't tear myself away from the TV, even though it tells me nothing of my boy's actual whereabouts or condition."
He is not alone in his addiction. And the media are dutifully supplying the national drug.
So much for why the news barrage is natural. Why it is necessary goes even deeper.
The media have become a chief branch of society, government and even of the IDF, whichever way you slice the pie chart.
This is not to say that the press is controlled by any of the above. On the contrary, if anyone has been calling the shots in recent years it's been the "watchdogs of democracy." Well, they and their rival for influence on politicians - the polls.
There is no getting around the fact that the media have become central players in all dramas-of-state, whether that state is democratic (in which case the production is improvised) or totalitarian (in which case it is staged).
Nor can anyone deny that modern technology is as responsible for the phenomenon as it is manipulated by it. When amateurs and professionals alike have access to digital equipment and the Web, photos, footage and ongoing commentary fly around cyberspace as freely as Kassams, Grads and Katyushas do over Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba and Nahariya, to name but a few of the locales within Hamas and Hizbullah rocket range.
As a result, a country like Israel, which has been under physical and ideological assault since its establishment, is in a constant quantitative and qualitative information predicament. And never is this predicament more apparent than when the country is engaged in an actual war.
Quantitatively, Israel is at an information-dissemination disadvantage by virtue of its small size and that of the sum of its supporters worldwide. This is not new, nor is it the main problem. Public diplomacy on the part of people unwilling to lie in order to convey a message simply has to be heavier on the brains than on the brawn. It's a challenge, to be sure, but one that is as accepted as it is assumed.
It's the qualitative predicament that presents the larger quandary. As a democracy with a free press - and a foreign one greeted with a welcome mat and red-carpet treatment - Israel is like an open book. This means that it has many editors and even more critics.
We wouldn't have it any other way. But neither would those who don't have its best interests at heart.
HERE IS where the army enters an arena that we in the media normally would view as our sacred space, never to be invaded. Under any other circumstances, the curtailing of our freedom of expression would be construed as a ground invasion into our sovereign territory.
Indeed, even under the current circumstances, correspondents and editors often are chagrined when the Military Censor's Office exercises its might. At best, we feel inconvenienced by being coerced into submitting our work to a body viewed by many of us as anachronistic in the age of the Internet. It seems silly to remove certain details from an article or a broadcast, when the very same ones are being revealed elsewhere for all to see. Even more ridiculous: An item that is given the heads-up one day by the censor's office might be nixed the next, depending on the staff member whose shift it is.
Still, we also recognize and respect its task: to prevent the leakage of information that could endanger individuals, jeopardize national security or - no less important - cause emotional pain to families of fallen soldiers or civilians. It is for this reason that, in spite of our bitching and moaning, we uphold the written law as we would an unspoken code of honor.
This wasn't always our behavior. During the Second Lebanon War, clashes between journalists and the censor erupted over coverage of troop movements and casualties. There was a lack of coordination and rumors ran wild. There were even cases of parents learning that their sons had been wounded or even killed through TV channels, rather than military ones.
Among other lessons supposedly learned from the failures of that war was the importance of caution and restraint where exposing details of military operations is concerned. This is why extra care is being taken by reporters not to reveal the exact location of missile hits, for example - a rule the censor insists is golden, as is keeping quiet about which missiles turned out to be duds, which fell into the sea and which struck strategic targets or IDF bases. According to guidelines released by the censor's office at the start of Operation Cast Lead at the end of December, the purpose of the above is to prevent the "other side" from being able to adjust its rocket launchings, based on details of their landings.
KEEPING A haze over the precise goings-on of the operation may be responsible journalistic practice, but it creates a different kind of difficulty for members of the press, particularly those on screen. Which brings us back to the original point.
Filling up hours upon hours of airtime with the news everyone so craves these days is no easy feat when much of that news is censored. This has led to the phenomenon of there being more punditry provided than actual reportage. One can't help but feel sorry for the likes of Channel 1's Yoav Limor and Yinon Magal - for instance - standing in the cold, on camera, with a vague, dark Gaza skyline in the background, trying to blah-blah their way intelligently through entire broadcasts.
Then there are the endless interviews in the studio with ex-generals and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome experts, Mideast analysts - and regular appearances by the Home Front Command's Col. Gil Shenhar, reiterating procedures for the public follow prior to, during and after an attack.
This should only be our worst problem in the upcoming days.
Chanasys: Do Google on Generation Facebook by Mona Eltahawy
I call it Overcoming the FaceBook War.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Amazon says 2008 holiday season was 'best ever'
SEATTLE - Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. called this holiday season its "best ever," saying Friday that it saw a 17 percent increase in orders on its busiest day — a rare piece of good news in a season that has been far from merry for most retailers, including online businesses.
Amazon customers ordered more than 6.3 million items on Dec. 15, compared with roughly 5.4 million on its peak day last year, the company said. It shipped more than 5.6 million products on its best day, a 44 percent rise over 2007, when it shipped about 3.9 million on its busiest day.
The company did not provide dollar figures and wouldn't say whether the average value of orders had changed, and the jumps it reported Friday are in line with increases Amazon has seen since it started releasing the figures in 2002.
Amazon's best-sellers included the Nintendo Wii game console, Samsung's 52-inch LCD HDTV and Apple Inc.'s iPod touch.
Analysts agreed Amazon's report was good news for the online shopping giant, but they were divided over whether the results indicate strength in online commerce in general.
Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said Amazon's experience shows the current economy is favoring discount retailers, both online and offline.
"The Amazon story doesn't surprise me because Amazon has always traditionally been a leader on price, and they're one of the first places consumers go when they're looking for things online," Mulpuru said. "In many ways they're like the Wal-Mart of the online world."
Wal-Mart is one of very few traditional retailers where revenue has risen this holiday season over last.
Holiday sales typically account for 30 percent to 50 percent of a retailer's annual total, but rising unemployment, home foreclosures, the stock market decline and other economic worries led many shoppers to slash their shopping budgets this year.
SpendingPulse — a division of MasterCard Advisors — said its preliminary data show that online sales fell 2.3 percent compared with the 2007 holiday season, while retail sales overall fell 5.5 percent to 8 percent, including sales of cars and gasoline. The decline was 2 percent to 4 percent when auto and gas sales are excluded.
Online shopping may have gotten a boost from winter storms during last two weeks before Christmas, which made travel to brick-and-mortar stores more difficult.
And, although Amazon's orders rose, the company didn't say whether orders were, on average, worth more or less than last year. Spokeswoman Sally Fouts said the company would release revenue results in its fourth-quarter earnings report, due in about a month.
But she said this was Amazon's "best season ever."
Orders to Amazon on the peak day of its holiday season have jumped in the double-digit percentage range for at least the past 5 years, according to data released by the Seattle, Wash.-based company since 2002. Last year, Amazon's orders spiked 35 percent to 5.4 million at their peak, from 4 million in 2006.
Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst Scott Devitt said online retailers' sales tend to grow much faster than those of brick-and-mortar retailers, but he said that difference narrowed this year. That's in part because shoppers tend to go to stores for necessities and online for discretionary purchases, he said. And in an economic downturn, consumers focus on their most-needed purchases and cut back on more frivolous items.
Devitt said Amazon benefited from a vast infrastructure that allows for faster, more reliable shipping than most of its online peers offer. He called Amazon's announcement an "extremely positive data point" and said the company is "uniquely positioned to do well in an environment like this."
That environment has left many retailers in a tough position. NPD Group senior retail analyst Marshal Cohen said they will be forced in coming weeks to take still more drastic measures to drive sales and raise whatever cash flow they can.
Amazon's shares gained 34 cents to close Friday at $51.78, a 0.7 percent rise.
___
AP Business Writer Lauren Shepherd contributed to this story from New York.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Haaretz: YouTube allows Web users to interview Israel's future prime minister
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| Last update - 01:36 23/12/2008 YouTube allows Web users to interview Israel's future prime ministerBy Oded Yaron, Haaretz Correspondent The 2009 elections appear to be the first in which the political system has been invaded by the internet and its tools. With more and more resources being invested in Israel in online campaigning, and with politicians' blogs and videos being virally disseminated via email, the influence of the recent U.S. election is apparent. Now, a Channel 2 news initiative, in cooperation with the popular video sharing website YouTube, is riding the America-style elections trend with a new interactive Web page devoted to the upcoming general elections. The page, (http://www.youtube.com/Elections09), invites internet users to upload 25-second videos addressing Israel's political candidates with questions. The page's viewers will be able to vote on the uploaded videos, and the most popular entries will be aired on Channel 2 and answered live by the candidates themselves. In addition, the project promises that the winning entrants will be invited to the Channel 2 news studio to take part in a live interview with the prime ministerial candidates. Related articles: |
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Happy New Year with Israeli Hitech as Reported on BBC
Collaboration ( from an article on bbc today about Israeli Hightech)
You can find further evidence of fruitful collaboration on the outskirts of Jerusalem, home to a joint Israeli-Palestinian company, G.ho.st.
The brainchild of serial entrepreneur, Zvi Schreiber, G.ho.st stands for Global Hosted Operating System, a free web-based virtual computer which, as the company puts it, offer users a personal desktop, files and applications "available from any browser, anywhere".
Uniquely the company operates across the physical and psychological barriers that divide the country, with 40 employees based in Ramallah, and six in Jerusalem. This is not about outsourcing - the employees on both sides are shareholders in the company and are paid competitive salaries.
Despite the logistical challenges - the only full company meeting so far took place in a petrol station restaurant on the Dead Sea - Ori Weinroth from G.ho.st's Jerusalem office believes the business model "seems to be working smashingly".
And some believe this is exactly the kind of creative innovation that could make a contribution towards helping to resolve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
With economists identifying key challenges including the soaring cost of occupation and a growing "brain drain", companies like G.h.ost that can bring the two communities together are being watched closely by leaders the world over.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Yahoo! comes to Israel
Last update - 02:06 14/01/2008
Yahoo! comes to Israel
Internet giant Yahoo! is coming to Israel, and not only over the Net. The company is taking its battle for survival against Google and Microsoft to Israel on two levels. It will open a research and development center in Haifa, and will also enter the content side of the business here for the first time through a cooperation agreement with Walla!, which is partly owned by Haaretz.
Yahoo! is following Google, which set up R&D centers in Tel Aviv and Haifa, as well as establishing a marketing center that also deals in joint content arrangements with Israeli portals. Microsoft, meanwhile, has set up a sales and marketing branch in Ra'anana, as well as R&D centers in Tel Aviv and Herzliya.
Yahoo! is now negotiating office space in the Matam high-tech park in Haifa; and is expected to open its research center within a few months.
Google kicked off in the Middle East with its Haifa R&D center in July 2006, despite the Second Lebanon War at the time; the center was its first in the region and only its fourth outside of the U.S. Other well-known companies in the Matam industrial park include Intel, Microsoft, Elbit and Zim.
Yahoo!'s first foray into the Israeli content market is based on a strategic deal signed with portal Walla!. The goal is to threaten Google's hegemony in the Israeli search market for the first time and the real challenge is to compete in search-based advertising.
Under the long-term deal signed between Yahoo! and Walla!, the technology and databases will come from Yahoo!, but the search engine will be branded as Walla! Search, the name of Walla!'s present engine.
Only six months ago there were reports that Walla! was negotiating with Google in the search market, but no agreement was ever reached. Google usually partners with a local search engine by providing the technology and the advertisements, while the revenues are split.
The joint Walla!-Yahoo! venture will continue using Walla!'s AdVantage platform. This will allow Walla! to continue to manage the advertising itself, and it will receive a higher percentage of the revenues than in a deal that also included advertising, such as Google proposed.
According to Walla! CEO Ilan Yeshua: "The search and advertising in search results sector is one of the fastest growing in the world, and also in Israel. The agreement with Yahoo! allows us to offer Walla!'s surfers an excellent search product ... for the Israeli user. The agreement will help Walla! increase its market share in the search-based advertising market. The existence of another strong player in the search and textual advertising sector will contribute to competitiveness , both in the search experience and in the range of possibilities available to advertisers."
Yahoo! and Walla! had previously discussed technological cooperation in the past, but nothing serious came of it. Walla!'s previous management, replaced in 2006, was never willing to allow outsiders to share its advertising revenues.
Israeli Internet advertising was estimated at $90 million in 2007, 10% of the total advertising pie. Of this figure, search engine advertising took about half, $40-50 million, the large majority of which went to Google.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Chanasys.com Our New Website
Your Link to Advanced IT From Chana Systems