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Thursday, September 19, 2013WASHINGTON - When Aaron Alexis received an access card to enter the Washington Navy Yard, the Pentagon relied on a 5-year-old background investigation completed before here most of his brushes with police and signs of mental illness, a senior Defense Department official said Wednesday. But the 2008 investigation was considered recent enough under federal rules for Alexis to be granted permission to enter the Navy Yard, where he worked, merely by flashing his card to a guard at the gate. Monday's shooting rampage, in which Alexis killed 12 people before police shot him dead, has raised questions about how the troubled computer contractor was able to keep a secret-level security clearance. The answer appears to be simple but troubling: The government relies mostly on the honor system - or blind luck - to keep tabs on many of the 4.9 million people who hold security clearances. If an employee of a Pentagon contractor is arrested or exhibits mental problems, the company is supposed to report the incidents to the Defense Department, officials said. But doing so could result in the person's clearance being revoked, rendering him useless to work on classified government contracts. A senior U.S. official said the government checked to ensure that companies complied with requirements to disclose information about employees that could result in lost security clearances. But the number of people holding clearances makes it impossible to monitor every pass holder closely enough to detect those in trouble, officials and outside experts say. The federal government is looking at ways to create a system in which agencies would receive automatic notifications when people with security clearances are arrested or involved in an incident that could jeopardize their clearance. The Navy Yard shooting is the second major incident this year that has created questions about the efficacy of the government's system of security clearances for contract workers. This spring, National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked a large number of classified documents to news organizations. Although the two cases differ widely, both have prompted calls to reform the system. Some experts warn, however, that the government's response to the Navy Yard rampage could lengthen the delays that already frustrate many with a legitimate need for a security clearance. "There's always a pendulum swing in response to the latest incident," said Steven Aftergood, an expert in classified procedures with the Federation of American Scientists. "Finding the optimum balance between security and productivity is a tricky matter that can't be prescribed by regulation." As for Alexis, he underwent the months-long process of getting a security clearance after joining the Navy in 2007. The background investigation by the federal Office of Personnel Management required him to fill out a lengthy form asking about many aspects of his life, including arrests, foreign travel, loyalty to the U.S. government and whether he had ever sought mental health counseling. The personnel office relies heavily on contractors to process and double-check the thousands of background investigations it handles every month. In 2008, after the background check was complete, he received a clearance at the "secret" level, valid for 10 years. Although most details about this initial investigation into Alexis' past remain unknown, one official said investigators probably were aware of his 2004 arrest in Seattle after he shot out the tires of a construction vehicle in what he described to police as an anger-fueled blackout. Navy officials said Wednesday they knew about Alexis' arrest when he enlisted but decided it did not disqualify him since he was neither charged nor convicted of a crime. A "secret" clearance is a relatively low level, requiring nothing close to the scrutiny that comes with "top secret" or higher. Holding onto a secret clearance is also easier. While still in the Navy, Alexis was able to keep it despite a 2008 arrest for disorderly conduct in Georgia after being thrown out of a bar at 1 a.m. Navy officials said he had disciplinary problems, but because he was not convicted of any crime he was not in danger of losing his security clearance. When he left the service in early 2011, his clearance became inactive. But under government rules, he could get it reactivated without undergoing another investigation as long as he took a job requiring a security clearance within two years. In 2012, when Alexis went to work for the Experts, a computer consulting company, his clearance was restored. The company did a background check on him in July that turned up no issues, according to Thomas E. Hoshko, chief executive officer of the Experts. Even in recent months, when the company received calls from Alexis indicating potential trouble, none triggered an alarm. Alexis "performed well and was a good worker," said Lou Colasuonno, a spokesman for the Experts. Questions about his conduct "never rose to the level where it needed to be reported," he said. david.cloud@latimes.comD-Link knows networking, so the company almost gets it right with the Day/Night Network Cloud Camera 1150. Setup is straightforward, and if your network is built with the latest D-Link products, no setup is required-just plug the camera into an AC outlet and your router and it's ready. Compared with the $200 Y-Cam HomeMonitor Indoor or even the $150 Dropcam HD the $99.99 (list) Cloud Camera 1150 is a good deal. It's a bit under-equipped with a standard-definition sensor, weak night vision mode, here and a lack of online DVR service. While there is an online service for viewing the video feed, it doesn't include any cloud-based storage, putting it on par with the $120 Compro Cloud Network Camera (TN50W).
Design and Setup The camera has far fewer infrared LEDs than other models we've tested, with just four, instead of a nice ring array to nearly invisibly illuminate the area for the camera's IR-sensitive mode when it's dark. D-Link only guarantees night vision to about 15 feet while Y-Cam promises 50 feet. On the other hand, the Compro TN50W we tested has no LEDs at all, so D-Link is ahead of that one. According to the company, setup is "zero configuration" if you already have a relatively recent D-Link Cloud Router and a mydlink account. My D-Link router is officially ancient at four years old, so I went through the full setup. This involves installing software on a Mac or Windows PC, rather than just a quick scan of a QR code with a mobile app (like that found on the Zmodo) or going to a website to enter a code from the camera (like with the Y-Cam HomeMonitor). The setup leads you through connecting the camera, via Ethernet, to a router (D-Link includes a ribbon-thin 10baseT cable for this purpose), plugging in the power, then waiting for an LED on the back to turn solid green. The wizard auto-detects the camera's MAC and IP addresses. You can assign a password to the camera at this point, which is highly recommended. Switch the camera to wireless mode using either the simple Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), or by finding an available Wi-Fi network SSID to connect to. Finally, you have to sign up for the mydlink cloud service, if you don't have an account already. Download the mydlink Lite apps for your phone or tablet, and get ready for some surveiling. Features and Performance To view the camera in a browser on mydlink.com, you need to install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). I was also told by the wizard to perform a firmware upgrade. It's not exactly a fast setup, but it worked despite the constant Java errors I had with my Chrome browser. Thankfully, Java worked in IE 10. Once in the mydlink.com interface, you can activate and adjust the motion detection and audio detection under the settings tab. Motion detection has a nice screen that lets you define an area of the image for detection (so the ceiling fan or dogs don't set it off, for example). A slider bar lets you increase or decrease the motion sensitivity. You can also schedule motion detection for individual days of the week. No matter how I set the sensitivity, I got far too many email alerts and false positives. The audio detection settings are unique among the surveillance cameras I've tested. Mydlink displays a decibel level graph of what the camera currently hears up to 90db, so you can make an educated guess on what setting to use. This model supports listening to live audio with the video, but there's no two-way audio-you can't talk to the camera's subjects from a mobile app or remote computer, for instance. Whenever a motion or audio event is detected, you get a time-stamped email with a still 640-by-480-pixel (VGA) image attached. The camera doesn't just support SMTP email; you can easily input settings for Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail, as well. It automatically sends the alerts to the email address you signed up with, so using a different address here can mean double the alerts. Utterly unique to the Cloud Camera 1150 is a wireless extender mode. This lets you extend the range of your home wireless network, and could come in especially handy if you get multiple D-Link Cloud Cameras. Don't set it too far away, though; that could actually hurt wireless network performance. Many of the above settings can also be modified from the mydlink Lite app on a phone or tablet. Generally, however, the apps are just for accessing the live camera feed, and perhaps taking a still image here or there. Where's all this under-the-hood power I mentioned? In the mydlink settings, click the "Advanced Settings" button. You'll need the special password you assigned the camera (it may not be the same as your mydlink account password). This gives you access, via your browser, to the internal settings of the camera itself, everything from changing the password, to changing video quality, setting up dynamic DNS, creating mail accounts for alerts, or altering the extender mode to have its own SSID. In Advanced Settings, you can set up alerts to email a video clip rather than a still image, and there are also options for sending video or stills to an FTP site. That's as close as the Cloud Camera comes to an online "DVR" service for surveillance footage, though the company claims it will work seamlessly with D-Link network-attached storage devices to store video. The camera uses the H.264 codec, so the video looks good, but it only records up to 640 by 480 resolution, which just doesn't cut it compared with the 720p images on cameras from Zmodo and Dropcam. Conclusion Monday, September 16, 2013Ilvliat Ilvliot Ilvlii đã thêm bạn vào sổ địa chỉ trên Twoo và muốn kết nối với bạn
Saturday, September 7, 2013JPMorgan to stop making student loans: company memo
(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) has decided to get out of the student loan business, after the biggest U.S. bank concluded that competition from federal government programs and increased scrutiny from regulators had limited its ability to expand the business.
JPMorgan, which already restricted student loans to existing Chase bank customers, will stop accepting applications for private student loans on October 12, at the end of the peak borrowing season for this school year, according to a memo from the company to colleges that was reviewed by Reuters on Thursday. Final loan disbursements are expected before March 15, 2014. "We just don't see this as a market that we can significantly grow," said Thasunda Duckett, chief executive for auto and student loans at Chase, in an interview. Not making more loans "puts us in a position to redeploy those resources, as well as focus on our No. 1 priority, which is getting the regulatory control environment strengthened," Duckett said. JPMorgan's decision comes after Congress acted in mid-2010 to bypass the banks and have the government lend directly to students. The federal government now issues 93 percent of student loans. Banks and other private lenders have also come under pressure from regulators and politicians to offer more flexible repayment terms on student loans. JPMorgan's portfolio has been shrinking by roughly $1 billion to $2 billion a year since then, and is a small fraction of its assets. The company's student loan portfolio at the end of June held $11 billion - less than 0.5 percent - of its $2.44 trillion of assets. Last year, Chase made education loans to 12,500 people for a total of about $200 million. Hundreds of thousands of students, however, still look to private lenders when they have exhausted their federal borrowing limit. Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, said decisions like JPMorgan's show that the government's direct lending policies are leading to "less competition in the marketplace." He said the government programs encourage students to take on more debt than they can afford because the loans, unlike those made by banks, do not require assessments of the ability to repay. But many experts have said that the primary problem with student lending lies in how much college costs and in the sheer size of the debt taken on, not in who makes the loans and how they are structured and how much they cost in interest. Moreover, others may fill in the gap. Other major lenders that remain in the business include SLM Corp (SLM.O), known as Sallie Mae; Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N); and Discover Financial Services (DFS.N). Both Wells and Discover said on Thursday that they would continue to make student loans. Danny Ray, president of Discover Student Loans, said although competition from the government has taken business from lending for graduate studies, his bank found more demand from undergraduate students who have already reached their government borrowing limits and are still short of the money they need. Credit unions could also use exits by banks such as JPMorgan as an opportunity to do more business. Many entered the market in 2010 and have made about $2 billion of student loans since then, according to Paul Gentile, executive vice president of the Credit Union National Association. JPMorgan's decision follows a broader, ongoing review of businesses amid new regulations, heightened scrutiny and capital requirements. In July, the bank said it would exit physical commodities trading, as Wall Street's role in the trading of raw materials comes under political and regulatory pressure. In June, the bank said its private equity unit, One Equity Partners, would become independent, as it increased its focus on client businesses. At the time, a source said the move was also driven by the bank's decision to simplify its operating structure. (Reporting by David Henry in New York. Additional reporting by Elvina Nawaguna in Washington.; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Gunna Dickson, Douglas Royalty, Andrew Hay) 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