IntellectBeat

BOSTON (Reuters) - A rash of hacking attacks on U.S. companies over the past two years has prompted insurers to massively increase cyber premiums for some companies, leaving firms that are perceived to be a high risk scrambling for cover. On top of rate hikes, insurers are raising deductibles and in some cases limiting the amount of coverage to $100 million, leaving many potentially exposed to big losses from hacks that can cost more than twice that. "Some companies are struggling to find the money to buy the coverage they want," said Tom Reagan, a cyber insurance executive with Marsh & McLennan Co's Marsh broker unit. The price of cyber coverage - which helps cover costs like forensic investigations, credit monitoring, legal fees and settlements - varies widely, depending on the strength of a company's security. But the overall trend is sharply up. Retailers and health insurers have been especially hard hit by the squeeze after high-profile breaches at Home D...

Aspire R 14 - R5-471T Acer today introduced Aspire R 14 (R5-431T / 471T) convertible notebook and Aspire Z3-700 portable all-in-one PC features a built-in battery. Both these run on the latest Windows 10 OS. The Aspire R 14 can convert to Tent mode to fit in confined space and the magnet design allows the device to be used in the Tablet mode without any gaps. Aspire R 14 - R5-471T The Acer Aspire R 14 (R5-431T / 471T) has a 14-inch (1366 x 768 pixels) display, is powered by 6th Gen Intel Core processor, supports up to 8GB DDR3L memory, SSD storage and has WiFi 802.11ac with MU-MIMO and the usual set of connectivity features. It weighs 1.9 kilograms. Aspire Z3-700 portable AiO The Acer Aspire Z3-700 portable all-in-one PC has a 17.3-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) 10-point capacitive multi-touch screen, is powered by Intel Pentium or Celeron processors, supports up to 8GB of DDR3L system memory, and SSD or HDD storage options. It is 15.6 mm thick and weighs 2 kgs. light It also supports...

On Sunday, a Redditor named "System_Requirements" made a mysterious discovery: If you try to post "everyone will know" on someone else's Facebook page, the system would block you indefinitely. Conspiracy theories ran rampant: Maybe "everyone will know" means something insidious. Maybe Facebook is scheming to shape the global dialogue. Or maybe (read: definitely) that particular phrase just happened to get snagged in Facebook's spam filter - which is its own sort of Internet puzzle. For starters, Facebook doesn't just block malware, phishing or other explicit forms of spam: Its researchers have defined spam, broadly, as any communication that the recipient doesn't want to get. ("Different cultures have different social norms around communication," an in-house team wrote in a 2010 paper. "Acceptable behavior in one region may be interpreted as unwanted contact in another. This makes a uniform definition of spam difficult....

PepsiCo Inc said on Monday it is working with a licensing partner to market a line of mobile phones and accessories in China in the next few months. The food and beverage company however has no plans to get into the mobile phone manufacturing business, a PepsiCo spokeswoman said by email. "Available in China only, this effort is similar to recent globally licensed Pepsi products which include apparel and accessories," the spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman did not name the licensing partner or give any further details about the phone. Technology website Mobipicker was the first to report, on October 11, that PepsiCo would release a smartphone, called Pepsi P1, with "decent but not high-end specs" on October 20. PepsiCo already has many licensees across a number of categories. Last year, it tied up with companies such as Danish luxury stereo and TV maker Bang & Olufsen and Italian shoemaker Del Toro for a range of products for its football campaign. PepsiCo...

Symphony, a financial industry messaging startup, announced Monday that it has raised $100 million (roughly Rs. 649 crores) in a new round of funding from backers that included Google. An encrypted messaging platform launched by the year-old company has become a fast-growing rival to a service offered by Bloomberg. Google was joined in the new funding round by Swiss bank UBS, French banks Natixis and Societe Generale, and venture capital firms Lakestar and Merus Capital, an existing investor, according to Symphony. The new funding was reported to up Symphony's value to $650 million (roughly Rs. 4,222 crores). The Silicon Valley-based company expected the cash infusion to power worldwide expansion and efforts to win more users, which the startup says currently number more than 40,000 in 100 countries. "$100+ million is more than what we anticipated to raise!" Symphony CEO David Gurle said in a blog post on the company website. "This amount gives us the runway to...

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Facebook Inc wants its users to shop for clothes and other products from their mobile phones without ever leaving its app. In an effort to move further into e-commerce and compete with Amazon Inc's retail offerings, Facebook announced Monday it is testing several ad features that allow users to shop directly through its app. Few users make purchases on mobile phones because it is slow and cumbersome, but Facebook hopes to win over more ad dollars by smoothing the process. Mobile purchases make up less than 2 percent of all retail sales, according to research firm eMarketer. "We're looking to give people an easier way to find products that will be interesting to them on mobile, make shopping easier and help businesses drive sales," said Emma Rodgers, Facebook's head of product marketing for commerce. Among the new features are ads that take a user through a specific brand's products without redirecting them to another site. For example, a user who clicks on...