A security solution which protects against the most serious threat to online banking customers, responsible for millions in annual losses, is being rolled out across Europe by a Cambridge University spin-out.
Hemant Mohapatra set his sights on getting a job at one of three prestigious American companies—McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group or Google. As a student at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School in the U.K., he knew a few people who worked inside the companies but didn’t feel comfortable asking them to coach him extensively on his applications. Though each firm offers career advice, on its website, he had specific questions, like how to customize his résumé for each potential job. He also wanted to run through a series of mock interviews.
By Russell Flannery, Forbes Staff
Young, talented Chinese geek Zhang Yichi arrived at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom in 2008 to ascend to a new rung of success. He had graduated from elite Tongji University in China with an undergraduate degree in computer science, and from there gone on to earn a master’s degree in the same at York University. His interest at Cambridge was “the theory and logic of computers,” and he aimed to land a research job after graduating, Zhang told me in a recent interview. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Margaret Thatcher felt betrayed by close ally President Ronald Reagan over the Falkland Islands, according to newly released papers that reveal how isolated Britain’s prime minister was in her determination to repel the Argentine invasion by force.
When Argentina seized the British territory off the South American coast in April 1982, Thatcher’s government presented a united front in public.
But private papers released Friday by the Thatcher archive at Cambridge University show that the British leader’s closest advisers urged her to negotiate over the islands’ future rather than go to war. And the Reagan administration backed a peace plan that called for Britain to drop its insistence on self-determination for the islanders — a stance that led Thatcher to say Anglo-American friendship had brought her “into conflict with fundamental democratic principles.”
The war was one of the pivotal moments of Thatcher’s career. But many doubted she would triumph in retaking the South Atlantic islands, 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) from London and home at the time to fewer than 2,000 people.
On April 6, four days after the invasion, Chief Whip Michael Jopling sent Thatcher a note outlining the views of Conservative lawmakers.
The blunt assessments ranged from “my constituents want blood … invade as quickly as possible” to “we are making a big mistake.” One lawmaker was described as “hopelessly defeatist, depressed and disloyal,” another as “desperately depressed.”
Historian Chris Collins of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation said the documents reveal confusion, uncertainty and dismay inside 10 Downing St.
“I think the range of opinion and the degree of confusion is startling,” Collins said. “Particularly in the first few weeks, people don’t know how to react.”
Thatcher’s opponents weren’t just the liberal “wets” she often derided, but loyal lieutenants who shared her uncompromising economic policies.
Thatcher’s economic adviser, Alan Walters, wrote in his diary — also made public Friday — that he had proposed that “we should get Argentina to pay compensation to the Falklanders.”
John Hoskyns, head of Thatcher’s policy unit, wrote in his diary of his fear “that we are about to make almighty fools of ourselves.”
He said it would …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Filed under: Technology
A new study by Cambridge University professors shows that “undisclosed” private data that Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) might collect could be used to predict extremely sensitive information about members. Does Facebook use systems identical to those set by Cambridge experts? Probably not, but the social network almost certainly has related ones, whether its uses the information to make money or not.
It remains a constant wonder that privacy experts, researchers, the media and Facebook members for some reason believe the social network, and most other large Internet sites, do not collect reams of information about user behavior. Many of these Internet businesses do not sell the information to marketers, but the data most likely are used to improve site content, navigation and the introduction of features. The data collection might even be considered a benefit to users, to the extent that it betters how users benefit from the sites.
For every accusation that Facebook misuses data for purposes beyond member experience there are solutions. The New York Times recently ran an article about how Facebook users can protect their identities in the face of the social network’s latest search features that could be co-opted by outsiders to track Facebook user habits. The paper went so far as to report about the new “personal vault” tool:
It can be scoured by police officers, partners and would-be employers. It can be mined by marketers to show tailored advertisements.
Still, Facebook has the data, no matter how much of the outside world has access to it. So, the data is almost certainly not “safe” from the social network itself. That is a risk that goes with the reward of the use of Facebook without fees or membership charges.
The most well-known public charge against Facebook collection of personal data can be found in the large settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over the issue. The agreement showed that Facebook had “deceived” its members about “telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.” Facebook likely still has access and does analysis about the same kind of information, even if it is no longer shared with the outside world. That does not mean the information is not used to allow marketers to narrowly target users, even if data on individual users remains hidden.
Privacy issues are the toll people pay to use a service with one billion members. Facebook would be a poorly run business if it did not use data about it members, to the extent it is legal and does not go over the line of its own privacy policies, which are too complicated for most users to decipher.
The Cambridge study offers nothing new.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Internet, Research Tagged: FB
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(Medical Xpress)—A research team with members from Cambridge University in the U.K. and Korea University College of Medicine, has found that a protein expressed in nematodes may also be responsible for controlling an ion channel involved in hearing in mammals. In their study, described in the journal Nature, the team found that a protein expressed due to the TMC-1 gene, allows nematodes to avoid areas of high salt concentrations. Because TMC-1 genes have been linked with hearing problems in mammals, the researchers suggest that the same protein found in nematodes might be responsible for controlling ion channels in mammalian hearing.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
