If you were one of the 100,000 people who signed up for InstLike, the Instagram app with the lame name that promises free likes, it's time to change your password. Users downloaded the app for the free likes and followers that it guaranteed, but after downloading, the app asked for their Instagram username and password — a red flag right there — and made them part of a giant, scammy botnet that followed and liked other accounts randomly. At its highest point, the app was in the top 25 "utility apps" in the Apple store, and it was among the highest-grossing utility apps after it convinced users to pay for "coins" to get more likes and followers. Symantec security researcher Satnam Narang told Mashable that InstLike took an innovative approach to scamming users, which is why so many fell for it. So don't feel too bad. But definitely delete that app. [Source]
Friday, December 27, 2013
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Despite plastic gun ban, 3-D printed firearms still have a future
YouTube
Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, fires a 3D-printed handgun known as the Liberator.
The provocative demonstration prompted fears from politicians that criminals would be able to arm themselves in the future by simply printing guns in their basements.
On Monday, the U.S. Senate addressed those concerns by voting to extend the Undetectable Firearms Act for another 10 years, mirroring similar action last week by the House. The legislation, expected to be signed by President Obama, continues the ban on the sale or possession of firearms that aren't detectable by X-ray machines or metal detectors, a category that could include 3-D printed guns.
“In 1988, when we passed the Undetectable Firearms Act, the notion of a 3-D printed plastic firearm slipped through metal detectors, onto our planes in secure environments was a matter of science fiction,” Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., said on the House floor. “The problem is that today it is a reality.”
The law, as extended, requires 3-D guns to have a metal strip that would make them visible to metal detectors. Some Democratic senators wanted stricter controls, including a requirement that 3-D printed guns have permanent metal components. They argued that a non-permanent metal strip could be taken off the gun, allowing it to pass through metal detectors and scanners before being reinserted. But in the end the Senate simply approve the House-passed bill, meaning that regulations for 3-D printed firearms will look pretty much the same tomorrow as they did yesterday.
For 3-D gun proponents like Wilson, the vote was a mixed bag. On one hand, he told NBC News, it means that completely banning the technology was likely "off the table."
"As the technology is adopted and gets more popular, it looks like 3-D printed guns have a future now," he said. But, he also said, he was "not optimistic" about what it meant for 3-D printed guns overall, claiming that it could lay the groundwork for further regulations. "I'm still expecting more restrictions as a result of this law being passed."
MORE: Senate extends ban on undetectable guns but nixes tighter restrictions
It's not clear just how advanced 3-D printed guns can get. In November, the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) attempted to build and fire one of Defense Distributed's Liberators, only to watch it explode.
"Will fully plastic handguns will ever be as reliable as regular handguns?" said Wilson, a self-described "crytpo-anarchist" who opposes gun control. "The answer is no, not directly. Down the road, there will be hybrid materials that people might use, but right now, it's more impractical, more experimental."
Local governments have also made moves to regulate 3-D printed guns. In Philadelphia, the city council passed an ordinance that would hit anyone caught with a 3-D printed firearm with a fine of up to $2,000.
While the Philadelphia Police Department has never caught anyone using or making weapons with a 3-D printer, it supports the new law, Lt. Francis Healy, special adviser to the police commissioner, told NBC News.
"It’s a good idea," he said. "It's not like we saw a rash of 3-D printed guns in Philadelphia, but the city council is just trying to be proactive."
State and local legislators in California, New York and Washington, D.C., have proposed similar measures.
This isn't new technology. Large manufacturers have been using 3-D printers to build plastic parts for decades. Over the last few years, however, their cost has come down, making them relatively affordable for people who want to print anything from plastic hangers to 3-D portraits of themselves.
In May, however, Wilson raised the profile of 3-D printing by posting a video of himself firing the Liberator on YouTube, an event that created intense media hype. He didn't break the law, because he put a 6-ounce metal strip in the gun.
Most of the legislation in Washington and local governments has centered around punishing people found with 3-D printed guns, not preventing people from printing the guns in the first place.
"There is no way of purging the Internet of these files. It's just like the file-sharing conversation that played out over the last decade," Wilson told NBC News."That's why no legislation is being written to stop it — everyone already understands how difficult it is."
Printing a gun isn't prohibitively expensive. The printer and the plastic combined can be bought for as little as $1,400, Cody said, while an ideal set-up would involve a higher-end 3-D printer that normally sells for around $6,000.
Of course, much more reliable, traditionally manufactured handguns sell for under $400 — cheaper on the black market — and don't require the technical know-how to read CAD files and hook up a 3-D printer.
"The gun laws are so weak in this country, it's hard to imagine that there is any reason for someone to go out and buy a 3-D printer, download these blueprints, and test-print a gun, when even people who are clearly dangerous can get guns, if not through licensed sales, then through private ones," Ladd Everitt, director of communications for The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told NBC News.
Everitt warned that despite their relative scarcity, guns that can evade metal detectors are a legitimate concern. As for Wilson and Defense Distributed, Everitt said that he was more concerned about the ideology the organization was spreading as a result of widespread media attention than the guns themselves.
"He has been very honest in saying that the point of promoting 3-D printed guns is to essentially foment insurrectionism," he said, "to send a message to our government and other governments around the world that you cannot regulate firearms because we can print our own if necessary, and if you go too far, we can use them."
Keith Wagstaff writes about technology for NBC News. He previously covered technology for TIME's Techland and wrote about politics as a staff writer at TheWeek.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @kwagstaff and reach him by email at: Keith.Wagstaff@nbcuni.com
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Gene therapy scores big wins against blood cancers
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
In one of the biggest advances against leukemia and other blood cancers in many years, doctors are reporting unprecedented success by using gene therapy to transform patients' blood cells into soldiers that seek and destroy cancer.
A few patients with one type of leukemia were given this one-time, experimental therapy several years ago and some remain cancer-free today. Now, at least six research groups have treated more than 120 patients with many types of blood and bone marrow cancers, with stunning results.
"It's really exciting," said Dr. Janis Abkowitz, blood diseases chief at the University of Washington in Seattle and president of the American Society of Hematology. "You can take a cell that belongs to a patient and engineer it to be an attack cell."
In one study, all five adults and 19 of 22 children with acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, had a complete remission, meaning no cancer could be found after treatment, although a few have relapsed since then.
These were gravely ill patients out of options. Some had tried multiple bone marrow transplants and up to 10 types of chemotherapy or other treatments.
Cancer was so advanced in 8-year-old Emily Whitehead of Philipsburg, Pa., that doctors said her major organs would fail within days. She was the first child given the gene therapy and shows no sign of cancer today, nearly two years later.
Results on other patients with myeloma, lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, will be reported at the hematology group's conference that starts Saturday in New Orleans.
Doctors say this has the potential to become the first gene therapy approved in the United States and the first for cancer worldwide. Only one gene therapy is approved in Europe, for a rare metabolic disease.
The treatment involves filtering patients' blood to remove millions of white blood cells called T-cells, altering them in the lab to contain a gene that targets cancer, and returning them to the patient in infusions over three days.
"What we are giving essentially is a living drug" — permanently altered cells that multiply in the body into an army to fight the cancer, said Dr. David Porter, a University of Pennsylvania scientist who led one study.
Several drug and biotech companies are developing these therapies. Penn has patented its method and licensed it to Switzerland-based Novartis AG. The company is building a research center on the Penn campus in Philadelphia and plans a clinical trial next year that could lead to federal approval of the treatment as soon as 2016.
Talking with the researchers, "there is a sense of making history ... a sense of doing something very unique," said Hervé Hoppenot, president of Novartis Oncology, the division leading the work.
Lee Greenberger, chief scientific officer of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, agreed.
"From our vantage point, this looks like a major advance," he said. "We are seeing powerful responses ... and time will tell how enduring these remissions turn out to be."
The group has given $15 million to various researchers testing this approach. Nearly 49,000 new cases of leukemia, 70,000 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 22,000 cases of myeloma are expected to be diagnosed in the United States in 2013.
Many patients are successfully treated with chemotherapy or bone marrow or stem cell transplants, but transplants are risky and donors can't always be found. So far, gene therapy has been tried on people who were in danger of dying because other treatments failed.
The gene therapy must be made individually for each patient, and lab costs now are about $25,000, without a profit margin. That's still less than many drugs to treat these diseases and far less than a transplant.
The treatment can cause severe flu-like symptoms and other side effects, but these have been reversible and temporary, doctors say.
Penn doctors have treated the most cases so far — 59. Of the first 14 patients with CLL, four had complete remissions, four had partial ones and the rest did not respond. However, some partial responders continue to see their cancer shrink a year after treatment.
"That's very unique to this kind of therapy" and gives hope the treatment may still purge the cancer, said Porter. Another 18 CLL patients were treated and half have responded so far.
Penn doctors also treated 27 ALL patients. All five adults and 19 of the 22 children had complete remissions, an "extraordinarily high" success rate, said Dr. Stephan Grupp at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Six have since relapsed, though, and doctors are pondering a second gene therapy attempt.
At the National Cancer Institute, Dr. James Kochenderfer and others have treated 11 patients with lymphoma and four with CLL, starting roughly two years ago. Six had complete remissions, six had partial ones, one has stable disease and it's too soon to tell for the rest.
Ten other patients were given gene therapy to try to kill leukemia or lymphoma remaining after bone marrow transplants. These patients got infusions of gene-treated blood cells from their transplant donors instead of using their own blood cells. One had a complete remission and three others had significant reduction of their disease.
"They've had every treatment known to man. To get any responses is really encouraging," Kochenderfer said. The cancer institute is working with a Los Angeles biotech firm, Kite Pharma Inc., on its gene therapy approach.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center will report on 13 patients with ALL; the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will report about two-dozen patients with ALL or lymphoma, and Baylor College of Medicine will give results on 10 patients with lymphoma or myeloma.
Patients are encouraged that relatively few have relapsed.
"We're still nervous every day because they can't tell us what's going to happen tomorrow," said Tom Whitehead, 8-year-old Emily's father.
Doug Olson, 67, a scientist for a medical device maker, shows no sign of cancer since gene therapy in September 2010 for CLL he had had since 1996.
"Within one month he was in complete remission. That was just completely unexpected," said Porter, his doctor at Penn.
Olson ran his first half-marathon in January and no longer worries about how long his remission will last.
"I decided I'm cured. I'm not going to let that hang over my head anymore," he said.
Online:
Emily Whitehead's story: http://bit.ly/VxB0dL
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
A few patients with one type of leukemia were given this one-time, experimental therapy several years ago and some remain cancer-free today. Now, at least six research groups have treated more than 120 patients with many types of blood and bone marrow cancers, with stunning results.
"It's really exciting," said Dr. Janis Abkowitz, blood diseases chief at the University of Washington in Seattle and president of the American Society of Hematology. "You can take a cell that belongs to a patient and engineer it to be an attack cell."
In one study, all five adults and 19 of 22 children with acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, had a complete remission, meaning no cancer could be found after treatment, although a few have relapsed since then.
These were gravely ill patients out of options. Some had tried multiple bone marrow transplants and up to 10 types of chemotherapy or other treatments.
Cancer was so advanced in 8-year-old Emily Whitehead of Philipsburg, Pa., that doctors said her major organs would fail within days. She was the first child given the gene therapy and shows no sign of cancer today, nearly two years later.
Results on other patients with myeloma, lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, will be reported at the hematology group's conference that starts Saturday in New Orleans.
Doctors say this has the potential to become the first gene therapy approved in the United States and the first for cancer worldwide. Only one gene therapy is approved in Europe, for a rare metabolic disease.
The treatment involves filtering patients' blood to remove millions of white blood cells called T-cells, altering them in the lab to contain a gene that targets cancer, and returning them to the patient in infusions over three days.
"What we are giving essentially is a living drug" — permanently altered cells that multiply in the body into an army to fight the cancer, said Dr. David Porter, a University of Pennsylvania scientist who led one study.
Several drug and biotech companies are developing these therapies. Penn has patented its method and licensed it to Switzerland-based Novartis AG. The company is building a research center on the Penn campus in Philadelphia and plans a clinical trial next year that could lead to federal approval of the treatment as soon as 2016.
Talking with the researchers, "there is a sense of making history ... a sense of doing something very unique," said Hervé Hoppenot, president of Novartis Oncology, the division leading the work.
Lee Greenberger, chief scientific officer of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, agreed.
"From our vantage point, this looks like a major advance," he said. "We are seeing powerful responses ... and time will tell how enduring these remissions turn out to be."
The group has given $15 million to various researchers testing this approach. Nearly 49,000 new cases of leukemia, 70,000 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 22,000 cases of myeloma are expected to be diagnosed in the United States in 2013.
Many patients are successfully treated with chemotherapy or bone marrow or stem cell transplants, but transplants are risky and donors can't always be found. So far, gene therapy has been tried on people who were in danger of dying because other treatments failed.
The gene therapy must be made individually for each patient, and lab costs now are about $25,000, without a profit margin. That's still less than many drugs to treat these diseases and far less than a transplant.
The treatment can cause severe flu-like symptoms and other side effects, but these have been reversible and temporary, doctors say.
Penn doctors have treated the most cases so far — 59. Of the first 14 patients with CLL, four had complete remissions, four had partial ones and the rest did not respond. However, some partial responders continue to see their cancer shrink a year after treatment.
"That's very unique to this kind of therapy" and gives hope the treatment may still purge the cancer, said Porter. Another 18 CLL patients were treated and half have responded so far.
Penn doctors also treated 27 ALL patients. All five adults and 19 of the 22 children had complete remissions, an "extraordinarily high" success rate, said Dr. Stephan Grupp at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Six have since relapsed, though, and doctors are pondering a second gene therapy attempt.
At the National Cancer Institute, Dr. James Kochenderfer and others have treated 11 patients with lymphoma and four with CLL, starting roughly two years ago. Six had complete remissions, six had partial ones, one has stable disease and it's too soon to tell for the rest.
Ten other patients were given gene therapy to try to kill leukemia or lymphoma remaining after bone marrow transplants. These patients got infusions of gene-treated blood cells from their transplant donors instead of using their own blood cells. One had a complete remission and three others had significant reduction of their disease.
"They've had every treatment known to man. To get any responses is really encouraging," Kochenderfer said. The cancer institute is working with a Los Angeles biotech firm, Kite Pharma Inc., on its gene therapy approach.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center will report on 13 patients with ALL; the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will report about two-dozen patients with ALL or lymphoma, and Baylor College of Medicine will give results on 10 patients with lymphoma or myeloma.
Patients are encouraged that relatively few have relapsed.
"We're still nervous every day because they can't tell us what's going to happen tomorrow," said Tom Whitehead, 8-year-old Emily's father.
Doug Olson, 67, a scientist for a medical device maker, shows no sign of cancer since gene therapy in September 2010 for CLL he had had since 1996.
"Within one month he was in complete remission. That was just completely unexpected," said Porter, his doctor at Penn.
Olson ran his first half-marathon in January and no longer worries about how long his remission will last.
"I decided I'm cured. I'm not going to let that hang over my head anymore," he said.
Online:
Emily Whitehead's story: http://bit.ly/VxB0dL
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
Related Stories
- HIV cure hopes dashed for two US cancer patients AFP
- Bone Marrow Transplants Are Increasing World-Wide The Wall Street Journal
- Novartis bone marrow cancer drug meets goal in late-stage study Reuters
- Gov't to keep ban on paying bone marrow donors Associated Press
- Cancer Centers, Longtime Rivals, Launch Company to Develop New Drug The Wall Street Journal
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Report: NSA tracks billions of cellphones daily
The NSA inadvertently gathers the location records of "tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad" annually, along with the billions of other records it collects by tapping into worldwide mobile network cables, the newspaper said in a report on its website.
Such data means the NSA can track the movements of almost any cellphone around the world, and map the relationships of the cellphone user. The Post said a powerful analytic computer program called CO-TRAVELER crunches the data of billions of unsuspecting people, building patterns of relationships between them by where their phones go. That can reveal a previously unknown terrorist suspect, in guilt by cellphone-location association, for instance.
As the NSA doesn't know which part of the data it might need, the agency keeps up to 27 terabytes, or more than double the text content of the Library of Congress' print collection, the Post said. A 2012 internal NSA document said the volumes of data from the location program were "outpacing our ability to ingest, process and store" it, the newspaper said.
The program is detailed in documents given to the newspaper by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. The Post also quotes unidentified NSA officials, saying they spoke with the permission of their agency.
Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, declined to comment on the report.
The DNI's general counsel, Robert Litt, has said that NSA does not intentionally gather bulk location data on U.S. cellphones inside the U.S. — but NSA Director Keith Alexander testified before Congress his agency ran tests in 2010 and 2011 on "samples" of U.S. cell-site data to see if it was technically possible to plug such data into NSA analysis systems. Alexander said that the information was never used for intelligence purposes and that the testing was reported to congressional intelligence committees. He said it was determined to be of little "operational value," so the NSA did not ask for permission to gather such data.
Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said at the time that Alexander could have explained more. "The intelligence leadership has decided to leave most of the real story secret," Wyden said, though he would not elaborate on the extent of the program.
Wyden and two other Democratic lawmakers have introduced an amendment to the 2014 defense spending bill that would require intelligence agencies to say whether the NSA "or any other element of the intelligence community has ever collected the cell-site location information of a large number of United States persons with no known connection to suspicious activity, or made plans to collect such information."
Alexander and other NSA officials have explained that when U.S. data is gathered "incidentally" overseas, it is "minimized," meaning that when an NSA analysts realize they are dealing with a U.S. phone number, they limit what can be done with it and how long that data can be kept.
Rights activists say those measures fall short of protecting U.S. privacy.
"The scale of foreign surveillance has become so vast, the amount of information about Americans 'incidentally' captured may itself be approaching mass surveillance levels,'" said Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program.
"The government should be targeting its surveillance at those suspected of wrongdoing, not assembling massive associational databases that by their very nature record the movements of a huge number of innocent people," said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Operation Dead-Mouse Drop
The U.S. government is planning to drop toxic mice from helicopters to battle the snakes, an invasive species that has decimated Guam's native bird population and could cause billions of dollars of damage if allowed to spread to Hawaii. (Eric Talmadge/AP)
A group of 2,000 dead mice equipped with cardboard parachutes have been airdropped over a United States Air Force base in Guam in order to poison brown tree snakes.
It may sound like the plot to an animated movie starring the vocal talents of Gilbert Godfried, but we assure you this is actually happening.
NBC News reports that the dead mice were pumped full of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. The hope is that the snakes, which are invasive to the area and cause harm to exotic native birds and the island's power grid, will be drawn to the toxic rodents, eat them, and then croak. Other animals face minimal risk, reports the Air Force Times.
Dan Vice, the Agriculture Department's assistant supervisory wildlife biologist for Guam, told KUAM that the mice are dropped in a time sequence from low-flying helicopters. Each rodent is strung up to a tiny parachute made of cardboard and tissue paper.
Via NBC News:
So how will workers know if the plan is working? After all, it's not like the mice can radio back to base. Or can they? The workers behind the plan told NBC News that some of the mice will have data-transmitting via radios.
It may sound like the plot to an animated movie starring the vocal talents of Gilbert Godfried, but we assure you this is actually happening.
NBC News reports that the dead mice were pumped full of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. The hope is that the snakes, which are invasive to the area and cause harm to exotic native birds and the island's power grid, will be drawn to the toxic rodents, eat them, and then croak. Other animals face minimal risk, reports the Air Force Times.
Dan Vice, the Agriculture Department's assistant supervisory wildlife biologist for Guam, told KUAM that the mice are dropped in a time sequence from low-flying helicopters. Each rodent is strung up to a tiny parachute made of cardboard and tissue paper.
Via NBC News:
"The cardboard is heavier than the tissue paper and opens up in an inverted horseshoe," Vice said. "It then floats down and ultimately hangs up in the forest canopy. Once it's hung in the forest canopy, snakes have an opportunity to consume the bait."
The mission is part of an $8 million program from the Interior and Defense departments, Phys.org reports. If the mission is successful, experts may expand it to other parts of Guam. In other words, maybe a sequel is forthcoming.
Obama on Affordable Care Act: 'We're not repealing it as long as I'm president'
Carolyn Kaster / AP
President Barack Obama at a health care event, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, in Washington.
"Do not let the initial problems with the website discourage you, because it's working better now, and it's just going to keep on working better over time," Obama said at an event at the White House intended to promote the health law and its benefits.
"If I've got to fight another three years to make sure this law works, then that's what I'll do," he defiantly added later.
"We're not repealing it as long as I'm president," Obama said at another point during his remarks, a thinly-veiled reference to repeated Republican attempts to undo or eliminate the law.
December is also a crucial time for Obama and the law. Proponents of the Affordable Care Act have always circled this month on the calendar as a crucial month in which they expected enrollment to spike as the end of the year approaches.
President Obama says that the Affordable Healthcare Act is helping people, and if he needs to spend the remainder of his second term making sure the law works, he will.
The administration is now highlighting the website's improved capacity -- 1 million users visited HealthCare.gov on Monday without major issues, and over 380,000 users had visited the site by midday on Tuesday -- in hopes of encouraging Americans to enroll in insurance plans.But Obama and Democrats suffered in the polls as scrutiny over the troubled rollout grew. Tuesday's event was meant to turn the public's focus back toward some of the law's benefits, and criticize Republicans for threatening those very benefits should they finally make good on their threat to repeal the law.
"My main message today is we're not going back," Obama said. "That seems to be the only alternative that Obamacare's opponents have."
Just hours earlier on Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, demurred on the question of whether the GOP would produce and vote on its own health care plan next year. Obama challenged Republicans to produce their own health care plan if they found his law so distasteful.
To that end, Obama also culled stories of Americans who either benefited or stand to benefit from some of the provisions in the law -- like the ban on lifetime caps for benefits, or allowing younger Americans to stay on their parents' plans through age 26.
Perhaps predictably, Republicans in Congress were dissatisfied by Obama's remarks.
"Another campaign-style event won't solve the myriad problems facing consumers under Obamacare," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said of the president's 12-minute remarks delivered from the White House complex. "The only 'fix' is full repeal followed by step-by-step, patient-centered reforms that drive down costs and that Americans actually want."
Monday, November 25, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Online dating network hit with tens of millions of passwords hacks
Cupid Media
Cupid Media, a niche dating site based in Australia, admitted to a password breach in January.
The Australian-based Cupid Media, which owns more than 30 niche dating sites such as AsianDating.com and and BrazilianCupid.com, has disputed that number, but admitted to Krebs that a breach did occur in January 2013.
Why is this such a big deal? Because 42 million is one of the largest breaches to happen this year, made worse by the fact that the exposed passwords were stored as plain text.
Many people aren't vigilant about creating a different password for every site they log onto, which is why unencrypted passwords are so problematic.
"Even the most inept web companies usually use a cryptographic hash to represent user passwords," Chester Wisniewski, senior security adviser at Sophos, told NBC News in an email. "Not only does this allow crooks to potentially impersonate [users] elsewhere, it also allows unscrupulous employees at their own organization to log in to users' accounts without authorization."
In this case, according to information reviewed by Krebs, 34 million of the Cupid Media users registered with email addresses from Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail. Another reason to worry: More than 1.9 million of the hacked accounts used the classic password 123456, while another 1.2 million used 111111. (The top non-numeric password was reportedly "iloveyou," followed by "lovely," "qwerty" and "password.")
While Cupid Media says it only has 34 million users, the report claimed that the discrepancy between that number and the 42 million breached accounts could be attributed to the fact that "many companies have a habit of storing data on customers who are no longer active."
Andrew Bolton, Cupid Media’s managing director, told Krebs that all of the company's affected users had been notified in January after the breach and that their passwords had been reset.
NBC News attempted to contact Cupid Media, but the company did not immediately respond.
The breach happened on the same server as the recent Adobe hack, which, according to the company, resulted in 38 million user mail addresses, encrypted passwords and password hints being compromised. Earlier this month, however, security firm LastPass claimed that information from more than 150 million user accounts had been exposed.
Despite the size of the Adobe breach, the Cupid Media hack is probably worse, claimed Wisniewski.
"The unencrypted nature of the sensitive information would arguably make this the worst breach of 2013," Wisniewski wrote. "While Adobe lost 150 million records, they had at least protected the user account information with encryption, albeit incorrectly."
Keith Wagstaff writes about technology for NBC News. He previously covered the tech beat for TIME's Techland and wrote about politics as a staff writer at TheWeek.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @kwagstaff and reach him by email at: Keith.Wagstaff@nbcuni.com
How an online rant can hurt your credit
A customer who wrote a negative review after a company failed to deliver a product is discovering painful consequences of a clause in a sales agreement.
By Money Staff
This post comes from Christine DiGangi at partner site Credit.com.
Consumers regularly complain online about a disappointing service or product, whether to get the attention of a company’s customer service or inform potential customers. Many people appreciate such reviews and find them helpful.
Merchants may not enjoy negative feedback, but what can they do about it?They may be able to fine you, according to a story reported by KUTV.
After Jen Palmer’s husband ordered Christmas gifts from Kleargear.com a few years ago, the items never arrived and the payment was canceled. The company never provided an explanation and Palmer’s attempts to connect with customer service failed, so she wrote a negative review on Ripoffreport.com.
Three years later, Kleargear.com demanded the post be taken down, or Palmer’s husband would face a fine for violating a non-disparagement clause in the site’s terms of sale. The clause says customers have 72 hours to remove the post or face a $3,500 fine, and unpaid fines will be reported to credit bureaus.
Because Kleargear.com says the fine is valid, the Palmers haven’t been able to successfully dispute the collections account.
Collections accounts stay on credit reports for about seven years, damaging credit scores and hurting consumers’ access to credit and lower interest rates.
Even if the Palmers decide to pay the debt, that won’t necessarily help with credit scores -- paid and unpaid collections affect your credit scores just the same (there is one exception -- VantageScore 3.0), but at least the debt is dealt with and prevents lawsuits for unpaid debt, collections calls and restricted access to loans.
If you're concerned about an unpaid debt affecting your credit, you should check your credit reports to be sure all accounts are listed accurately, and check your credit scores to assess your standing. You're entitled to your free annual credit reports from each of the three major credit reporting agencies.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Cool beans: New coffee machine roasts, grinds, then brews
Bonaverde
The final designs for the Bonaverde, after more than 150 prototypes and dozens of crowd-sourced designs.
It's true that in a coffee-loving city like Seattle or Portland, you may be lucky enough to get beans picked only a couple months back and roasted last week. But Bonaverde thinks the process can be shortened and simplified, resulting in more money for growers, fresher beans, and potentially better coffee. The Berlin-based coffee enthusiasts and engineers are hoping to raise $135,000 on Kickstarter to get the machine out the door.
The Bonaverde has a roaster built right in, and a single load is put in whenever you request a pot to be made, and roasted to your preference. Naturally, it's going to take longer than putting a "pod" into a machine in which all that needs to happen is hot water passing through the grinds — but if you can wait 15 minutes for your coffee, this will probably be a better brew.
Bonaverde
Bonaverde hopes to simplify the process of getting coffee from growers to consumers.
Will it end up saving you money? It's hard to say. But buying things in bulk is usually cheaper — and at $300 (the price for backers), the Bonaverde itself is cheaper than many home espresso machines. Of course, you can't make espresso or steam milk with it, but some people prefer drip to begin with.
Because it's Kickstarter, there's always the possibility it won't be funded, or that the whole project will self-destruct before the delivery date a year from now. But it appears to be a pretty professional operation and it's well on its way to the $135,000 mark as of this writing. There are a limited number available for backers, though, so if you're interested, better hop to it.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
Rossen Reports
In a Rossen Report that aired on TODAY in February, a reformed iPhone thief said that stolen smartphones can fetch hundreds of dollars apiece on the black market.
"As horrible as it may sound, I tend to look for women — the older the better, generally," he said. "If I think that you can't catch me, I'm going for you."
The numbers are staggering: More than a million cellphones are stolen each year, more than a hundred every minute — and it gets violent. The thefts can happen fast — criminals snatch phones right out of people's hands, on train platforms and on busy streets — and in some cases, beat victims senseless.
On Tuesday, attorneys general from 31 states are demanding action, sending a letter to leading cellphone makers Samsung, Motorola and Microsoft demanding the companies "take all steps necessary to put consumer safety and security ahead of corporate profits..."
Do you want a scam, rip-off or issue investigated?
Law enforcement officials say there's technology that could curb celllphone thefts right now. New York's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, is leading the effort to get companies to install anti-theft technology. He says that if all smartphones had a simple "kill switch," we'd all be safer.
Here's how it would work: If a thief steals your phone, you report it and built-in technology would deactivate the phone, locking the thieves out and making it useless no matter how many time it's wiped and rebooted. But officials say companies still haven't installed it as a standard feature.
"They don't have the financial incentive to do it," Schneiderman said. "In fact, they have the financial incentive not to do it."
Why? Often when people lose their phone, they just go back to the cell phone maker to buy another one. In fact, consumers spend $30 billion a year to replace lost and stolen phones. "That's a huge part of their business," Schneiderman said. "They're in business; it's all about money."
In response to the letter from the attorneys general, Microsoft said it has features to protect personal information, and that the company is working to address the issue. Motorola and Samsung declined to comment.
If the companies don't comply, the AGs say they will consider legal action.
In the meantime, there are a few ways to protect yourself.
Samsung has developed an app called "Lo-Jack" that can lock thieves out of your phone, but experts say it's not enough because you have to pay extra for it. Officials say Apple is doing a better job — if you have an iPhone, you can activate the "find my phone" setting for free in the latest operating system iOS7 (just go to your phone's "settings" icon, and then click the "iCloud" tab). When "find my phone" is turned on, no one can wipe and reactive your phone without first entering your Apple ID and password, making your phone useless to thieves.
Right now, you have to manually turn this feature on. Authorities want Apple to make it automatically on as standard in every iPhone.
Full statement from Microsoft:
“Windows Phone has built in capabilities enabling users to find, lock and even remotely delete data from a lost or stolen phone. We agree this is an industry-wide issue and are working closely with the CTIA and other organizations to address.”
Officials to cellphone makers: Install technology to curb thefts
Video: With more than a million cellphones stolen every year, attorneys general from 31 states are demanding that cellphone makers install technology that would make the devices useless to thieves. Jeff Rossen investigates.
"As horrible as it may sound, I tend to look for women — the older the better, generally," he said. "If I think that you can't catch me, I'm going for you."
The numbers are staggering: More than a million cellphones are stolen each year, more than a hundred every minute — and it gets violent. The thefts can happen fast — criminals snatch phones right out of people's hands, on train platforms and on busy streets — and in some cases, beat victims senseless.
On Tuesday, attorneys general from 31 states are demanding action, sending a letter to leading cellphone makers Samsung, Motorola and Microsoft demanding the companies "take all steps necessary to put consumer safety and security ahead of corporate profits..."
Do you want a scam, rip-off or issue investigated?
Law enforcement officials say there's technology that could curb celllphone thefts right now. New York's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, is leading the effort to get companies to install anti-theft technology. He says that if all smartphones had a simple "kill switch," we'd all be safer.
Here's how it would work: If a thief steals your phone, you report it and built-in technology would deactivate the phone, locking the thieves out and making it useless no matter how many time it's wiped and rebooted. But officials say companies still haven't installed it as a standard feature.
"They don't have the financial incentive to do it," Schneiderman said. "In fact, they have the financial incentive not to do it."
Why? Often when people lose their phone, they just go back to the cell phone maker to buy another one. In fact, consumers spend $30 billion a year to replace lost and stolen phones. "That's a huge part of their business," Schneiderman said. "They're in business; it's all about money."
In response to the letter from the attorneys general, Microsoft said it has features to protect personal information, and that the company is working to address the issue. Motorola and Samsung declined to comment.
If the companies don't comply, the AGs say they will consider legal action.
In the meantime, there are a few ways to protect yourself.
Video: NBC’s Jeff Rossen provides a quick tutorial on how to protect your iPhone from being used by thieves.
Right now, you have to manually turn this feature on. Authorities want Apple to make it automatically on as standard in every iPhone.
Full statement from Microsoft:
“Windows Phone has built in capabilities enabling users to find, lock and even remotely delete data from a lost or stolen phone. We agree this is an industry-wide issue and are working closely with the CTIA and other organizations to address.”
Clinton: Government should 'honor' health care pledge
President Barack Obama should consider changes to his health care law to honor his pledge to allow consumers to keep their health care plans if they so desire, former President Bill Clinton said in an interview released Tuesday.
Clinton told the website OZY that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has been, on balance, a good thing. "The big lesson is that we're better off with this law than without it," Clinton said. But he also lent some credence to GOP attacks on the law.
"I personally believe, even if it takes a change in the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got," Clinton said.
The former president was referencing the pledge Obama made repeatedly during his sales job of the health care law that if individuals liked their current health care plan, they could keep it. In an interview with NBC News last week the president apologized for cancellations many individual policy holders are receiving and said his administration is looking at ways to change that part of the law.
Republicans have seized upon instances in which consumers have had their health plans canceled since the opening of the new insurance exchanges on Oct. 1, which effectively forces those consumers into new plans, either with their current insurers or the government exchanges. Those impacted are Americans who purchase their own insurance, accounting for about five percent of Americans. Those who receive their insurance through their employers are not impacted by that part of the law.
Moreover, the price tag for consumers forced to buy new plans has varied. For consumers eligible for subsidies under the law, the total cost of the new insurance plan might actually be lower, and they get broader coverage. For some consumers, though, the cost to them will be higher.
This Friday, the House is set to vote to approve legislation that would allow consumers to keep their health care plans if they so wished, even though those plans are regarded as substandard under current law.
Clinton told the website OZY that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has been, on balance, a good thing. "The big lesson is that we're better off with this law than without it," Clinton said. But he also lent some credence to GOP attacks on the law.
"I personally believe, even if it takes a change in the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got," Clinton said.
Lucas Jackson / Reuters file photo
Former President Bill Clinton laughs after doing an impression of artist Bono during the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York September 25, 2013.
Republicans have seized upon instances in which consumers have had their health plans canceled since the opening of the new insurance exchanges on Oct. 1, which effectively forces those consumers into new plans, either with their current insurers or the government exchanges. Those impacted are Americans who purchase their own insurance, accounting for about five percent of Americans. Those who receive their insurance through their employers are not impacted by that part of the law.
Moreover, the price tag for consumers forced to buy new plans has varied. For consumers eligible for subsidies under the law, the total cost of the new insurance plan might actually be lower, and they get broader coverage. For some consumers, though, the cost to them will be higher.
This Friday, the House is set to vote to approve legislation that would allow consumers to keep their health care plans if they so wished, even though those plans are regarded as substandard under current law.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
By Dr. Mary Fuller
Pet Poisons From A to ZIt can happen to even the best pet owners. You turn around for one second and the dog is into the chocolate that was sitting on the counter, or the cat has discovered the Easter lily you thought was safely out of the way.
How to Safeguard Your Pet
It's also a good idea to post the organization's phone number - 888-426-4435 - on your refrigerator for easy reference in the event of an emergency. The call center is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Pet Poisons From A to ZIt can happen to even the best pet owners. You turn around for one second and the dog is into the chocolate that was sitting on the counter, or the cat has discovered the Easter lily you thought was safely out of the way.
"We just don't realize how determined our pets are to eat the things they shouldn't," says Dr. Tina Wismer, DVM, medical director for the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center.
Of the more than 180,000 cases that the organization handled in 2012, most of them involved pets who'd ingested human prescriptions. "Many children with ADHD don't want to take their medications, so they leave pills on their plates, where pets can get at them," Dr. Wismer says. "Even nonprescription medications, such as ibuprofen, can be a problem because many brands have a sweet coating, so it's like candy for dogs."
See Also: 10 Human Foods Dangerous to Pets
Vetstreet has compiled an A to Z list of some common pet poisons that should be on your radar. This list is not all-inclusive, so for more information on these and many other toxins, check out the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center website and talk with your vet.
Pet Poisons From A to Z - Acetaminophen, which is found in Tylenol and other medications, can cause liver damage in dogs. Cats are even more sensitive: Ingestion of a single 325 mg tablet by a 10-pound cat can cause anemia and even be fatal. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe.
- Batteries can be toxic to both dogs and cats, leading to ulcers in the mouth, esophagus and stomach. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe.
- Chocolate can cause seizures and death in dogs and cats. Darker chocolate, such as unsweetened baker's chocolate, is more toxic than milk or white chocolate. Even cocoa bean mulch, when eaten in large quantities, can be a problem. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe.
- Detergents and fabric softener sheets can cause ulcers in the mouth, esophagus and stomach in dogs and cats. Toxicity Ranking: mild to moderate.
- Ethylene glycol is found in antifreeze, windshield de-icing agents and motor oils. Dogs and cats are attracted to its sweet taste, but as little as a teaspoon in cats or a tablespoon in dogs can cause kidney failure. Recently, antifreeze and engine coolant manufacturers have agreed to voluntarily add bittering agents to reduce the products' appeal to pets and children. Toxicity Ranking: severe to fatal.
- Fertilizers can contain poisonous amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron, zinc, herbicides and pesticides. Keep dogs and cats away from treated lawns until they are dry. Check the product packaging, though, since some products must be rinsed into the lawn before it is safe to walk on. Toxicity Ranking: mild to moderate.
- Grapes, raisins and currants - even grape juice - in small amounts can cause kidney failure in dogs. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe.
- Household cleaners, such as bleach, drain cleaners, ammonia and toilet bowl cleaners, can cause gastrointestinal ulcers and other problems in dogs and cats. Toxicity Ranking: varies.
- Insecticides in flea and tick products can cause problems if not used according to labels. Insecticides that are meant for dogs can cause severe toxicity in cats, leading to signs such as vomiting, seizures and difficulty breathing. Products intended for treating the yard or house should not be used on pets. Toxicity Ranking: mild to severe.
- Jimson weed, also known as devil's trumpet, can cause restlessness, drunken walking and respiratory failure in dogs and cats. Toxicity Ranking: moderate.
- Kerosene, gasoline and tiki torch fluids can cause drooling, drunken walking and difficulty breathing in dogs and cats. If these products contain antifreeze, they are even more problematic. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe (potentially life threatening).
- Lilies - Easter, day, tiger, Japanese and Asiatic varieties - can cause kidney failure in cats. Lilies of the valley can cause heart rhythm problems and death in dogs and cats. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe.
- Mothballs, especially if they contain naphthalene, can be toxic to dogs and cats, resulting in vomiting, diarrhea, increased drinking and urination, and seizures. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe (potentially life threatening).
- Nonprescription medications, such as ibuprofen, can lead to severe ulcers and anemia, as well as liver and kidney failure in pets. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe (potentially life threatening).
- Onions, garlic, leeks and chives can be toxic in dogs and cats. When chewed or swallowed, these ingredients can cause anemia and gastrointestinal upset. Toxicity Ranking: mild to moderate.
- Prescription medications, such as antidepressants and ADHD and cardiac drugs, are commonly ingested by pets when pills are dropped on the floor or left on counters. Even a small dose can cause problems. Toxicity Ranking: varies.
- Queensland nuts, also known as macadamia nuts, can cause lethargy, vomiting and difficulty walking in dogs. Toxicity Ranking: mild to moderate.
- Rodenticides, such as mouse and rat poisons, can contain a number of different toxins, which have different effects on dogs and cats. Several common ingredients, like warfarin and coumarin, can cause blood clotting problems and hemorrhaging. Toxicity Ranking: mild to severe.
- Sago palms are one of a number of toxic plants for dogs and cats. Ingestion can lead to vomiting, diarrhea and seizures, as well as liver failure in dogs. Toxicity Ranking: severe.
- Tobacco can be toxic to both dogs and cats. Ingestion of nicotine in the tobacco plant or in cigarettes or patches can lead to vomiting, tremors, collapse and death. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe.
- Unbaked bread dough can expand in the stomach. If the stomach twists, cutting off the blood supply, emergency surgery is needed. The yeast in the dough can also produce alcohol, leading to seizures and respiratory failure. Toxicity Ranking: mild to severe.
- Veterinary prescriptions, such as arthritis medications, are often meat-flavored, which can be enticing to dogs. Ingestion of large quantities can result in stomach ulcers, liver failure or kidney failure. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe.
- Windshield wiper fluid can contain methanol or ethylene glycol. Ingestion of methanol can cause low blood sugar and drunken walking in dogs and cats. Toxicity Ranking: mild to moderate.
- Xylitol is a sugar-free sweetener commonly found in chewing gum, breath mints and toothpaste. In dogs, it can lead to dangerous drops in blood sugar and liver failure. Toxicity Ranking: mild to severe.
- Yard products, including snail and slug bait, herbicides and fertilizers, are never good for pets. Signs will vary by the ingredient. Toxicity Ranking: varies.
- Zinc toxicity can happen when dogs and cats eat metal or coins. Ingestion of even a single zinc penny can be fatal. Zinc can cause anemia, as well as liver, kidney or heart failure. Toxicity Ranking: moderate to severe.
How to Safeguard Your Pet
So how can you prevent your pet from an accidental poisoning? Start by visiting the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center website to learn about other potential poisons, how to poison-proof your home and what to do if you suspect that your pet may have been poisoned.
It's also a good idea to post the organization's phone number - 888-426-4435 - on your refrigerator for easy reference in the event of an emergency. The call center is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
"To poison-proof your home, don't keep medications where pets can get at them," Dr. Wismer says. "Keep cleaning products behind doors, and take your medication in another room, behind a locked door."
While dogs can be notorious for refusing to take their own medications, Dr. Wismer adds, "we sometimes say that the surest way to pill a dog is to drop one on the floor."
Few options for Obama to fix cancellations problem
That means the latest political problem engulfing Obama's health care overhaul may not be resolved quickly, cleanly or completely.
White House deputy spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday that the president has asked his team to look at administrative fixes to help people whose plans are being canceled as a result of new federal coverage rules. Obama, in an NBC interview Thursday, said "I am sorry" to people who are losing coverage and had relied on his assurances that if they liked their plan, they could keep it.
The focus appears to be on easing the impact for a specific group: people whose policies have been canceled and who don't qualify for tax credits to offset higher premiums. The administration has not settled on a particular fix and it's possible the final decision would apply to a broader group.
Still, a president can't just pick up the phone and order the Treasury to cut checks for people suffering from insurance premium sticker shock. Spending would have to be authorized by law.
Another obstacle: Most of the discontinued policies appear to have been issued after the law was enacted, according to insurers and independent experts. Legally, that means they would have never been eligible for cancellation protections offered by the statute. Its grandfather clause applies only to policies that were in effect when the law passed in 2010.
More than five weeks after open-enrollment season started for uninsured Americans, Obama's signature domestic policy achievement is still struggling. Persistent website problems appear to have kept most interested customers from signing up. Repairs are underway. Friday the administration said the website's income verification component will be offline for maintenance until Tuesday morning. An enrollment report expected next week is likely to reflect only paltry sign-ups.
Website woes have been eclipsed by the uproar over cancellation notices sent to millions of people who have individual plans that don't measure up to the benefits package and level of financial protection required by the law.
"It was clear from the beginning that there were going to be some winners and losers," said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, who supports the health overhaul. "But the losers are calling reporters, and the winners can't get on the website."
In the House, a Republican-sponsored bill that would give insurers another year to sell individual policies that were in effect Jan. 1, 2013, is expected to get a floor vote late next week. In the Senate, Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu has introduced legislation that would require insurers to keep offering current individual plans. Democrats, who as a group have stood firmly behind the new law so far, may start to splinter if the uproar continues.
The legislation faces long odds to begin with, but it may not do the job even if it passes. The reason: States, not the federal government, regulate the individual insurance market. State insurance commissioners have already approved the plans that will be offered for next year. It may be too late to wind back to where things stood at the beginning of this year.
"It has taken the industry many months to rejigger their systems to comply with the law," said Bob Laszewski, a health care industry consultant. "The cancellation letters have already gone out. What are these guys supposed to do, go down to the post office and buy a million stamps?"
The insurance industry doesn't like the legislative route either. "We have some significant concerns with how that would work operationally," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans.
Behind the political and legal issues, a powerful economic logic is also at work.
Shifting people who already have individual coverage into the new health insurance markets under Obama's law would bring in customers already known to insurers, reducing overall financial risks for the insurance pool.
That's painful for those who end up paying higher premiums for upgraded policies. But it could save money for the taxpayers who are subsidizing the new coverage.
Compared with the uninsured, people with coverage are less likely to have a pent-up need for medical services. At one point, they were all prescreened for health problems.
A sizable share of the uninsured people expected to gain coverage under Obama's law have health problems that have kept them from getting coverage. They'll be the costly cases.
Obama sold the overhaul as a win all around. Uninsured Americans would get coverage and people who liked their insurance could keep it, he said. In hindsight, the president might have wanted to say that you could keep your plan as long as your insurer or your employer did not change it beyond limits prescribed by the government.
Meanwhile, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said late Friday he had issued a subpoena to Todd Park, Obama's top adviser on technology, to appear before his committee next week. The White House has said Park is too busy trying to fix the health care website to appear.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Top tech officer at health insurance agency resigns
Video: Speaking to 75 volunteers from the Dallas Area Interfaith Coalition at Temple Emanu-El, President Obama says that nothing "drives him more crazy" than the fact that people can't get to the affordable health care website.
Tony Trenkle, the CIO for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, "made a decision that he was going to move to the private sector," CMS spokeswoman Julie Bataille told reporters.
Members of Congress have been calling for someone to be fired to take responsibility for the embarrassing debut of the centerpiece of health reform -- many even calling for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to resign. Bataille would not say whether Trenkle had been asked to resign.
Sebelius told Congress earlier on Wednesday that a team of tech whizzes working through nights and weekends to fix the troubled health insurance marketplace website will be hard-pressed to finish repairs as promised by the end of November, and that as a result, not many people will have been able to sign up.
"We are not where we need to be," Sebelius told a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee. "It is a pretty aggressive schedule to get to the end of the punch list by the end of November," she said.
"I can tell you our early enrollment numbers will be very low."
She said "a couple of hundred functional fixes" had been identified.
The site was having trouble again on Wednesday, Bataille said. "The site is performing slowly. We know that some users are having difficulty logging in," she said.
But Sebelius again rejected the idea of shutting down the website to fix it for good, saying the site can be repaired while it's live.
"Delaying the Affordable Care Act wouldn't delay people's cancer or diabetes or Parkinson's," Sebelius said. "We want to save families from going bankrupt," she added. "Delay is not an option."
And, Sebelius said, the administration plans to reach out to people who may have tried to sign onto the site and stopped trying because they were frustrated. "We have a plan to re-invite people to the site," she said.
Later Wednesday, President Barack Obama visited Dallas to meet volunteers helping people to sign up and to sell his administration’s take on the law — which is that, despite problems with the site, people will get better insurance as a result of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
"This is like having a really good product in the store and the registers aren't working and not enough parking spots, and no one can get in the door," Obama told a crowd at Temple Emanuel-El in Dallas.
The healthcare consulting company Avalere Health released an estimate Tuesday that suggested Texas alone could account for 9 percent of all the people signing up for insurance on the online exchange. That makes Texaqs an important target for the administration.
"Given delays in launching the federal website, the administration may focus year-end outreach efforts on large states like Texas. These states have significant numbers of uninsured individuals who can help bolster national enrollment statistics," said Caroline Pearson, vice president at Avalere Health.
And even as hostile Republicans in Congress grilled Sebelius and questioned whether health reform is working, Democrats chalked up a win with Terry McAuliffe's victory in Virginia. McAuliffe says one of his first priorities will be to embrace Obamacare and expand Medicaid in Virginia, one of the Republican-led states that has resisted doing so.
Obama pressed for Texas to do the same, but got a rude retort from the states Republican governor, Rick Perry. "Now he's coming to Texas in a desperate attempt to salvage his ill-conceived and unpopular program from a Titanic fate by preaching expansion of the same Medicaid system he himself admits is broken," Perry said in a statement.
"In Texas, where Medicaid already consumes a quarter of the state budget, we simply need the flexibility to implement fundamental, state-specific reforms to our Medicaid program, instead of a one-size-fits-all Washington mandate, before it bankrupts our state."
It wasn't much friendlier back in Washington.
"It is clear to me you are working as hard as you can to fix Healthcare.gov," Montana Sen. Max Baucus, the Democrat who chairs the committee, told Sebelius. But while he made it clear the hearing was a friendly one, Baucus expressed disappointment that Sebelius and her deputies did not foresee just how badly the new health insurance marketplace would falter.
Video: Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, levels heavy criticism toward U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius Wednesday at a hearing on the rollout of healthcare.gov.
"Two separate reports, one from the General Accountability Office in June and another from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General in August, identified significant challenges months ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline," Hatch said. "Yet there is no indication that the warnings from these two independent, non-partisan watchdogs, were heeded by the government."
Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, who had a decades-long relationship with Sebelius, repeated calls for her to resign. "I believe to protect the administration, you chose to ignore these warnings and as a result, you put the entire healthcare system, and one-sixth of the U.S. economy, in jeopardy," Roberts told Sebelius, a former Kansas governor.
"You have said Americans should hold you accountable which is why today, Madame Secretary, I repeat my request for you to resign."
Sebelius stayed unrattled under two and a half hours of questioning, deflecting repeated and often heated queries about the White House promise that people who like their insurance policies can keep them
"We know that lying to Congress is a crime, but unfortunately, lying to the American people is not," Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, said. "I'd just like to ask you a simple true-or-false question. Is that statement on the White House website true or is it false?"
"I think the statement is that..." Sebelius started to answer. But Cornyn testily interrupted. "Is it true or is it false, Madame Secretary?"
"The vast majority of Americans who are insured are in the employer market or in public plans or in veterans' plans, and the -- those plans have stayed in place and continue to offer benefits," Sebelius said. An estimated 15 percent of Americans don't have health insurance and the exchanges are meant to be a way to get them signed up for either private insurance or for Medicaid.
Sebelius said 11 million people who now buy their own insurance on the private market "will have stronger coverage". She noted that policies on the private market often change every year, and that a third of people with such policies hold them for six months or less, anyway.
Several Democrats came to the rescue. West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller railed against what he called the "maniacal Republican attack machine" and said he was proud of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. "I think it's a magnificent work," Rockefeller said.
On Tuesday Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs the website, told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee that her department would be able to provide numbers of how many people have been able to enroll in health insurance on the exchanges next week.
Tavenner says the site is being fixed and says it can handle 17,000 people a day now. She also said the administration has been planning all along for people to wait until the last minute to sign up —one big batch in December, and another batch in February and March.
Sebelius said the open enrollment period for Healthcare.gov is far longer than for most insurance policies. For employer-sponsored insurance, open enrollment, when people can change plans or sign up for new plans, is usually only two weeks long. The open enrollment for the first year of Healthcare.gov lasts six months, from Oct. 1 to March 31.
Video: Although more than 3 million Americans who buy their own health insurance have received cancellations letters, Kathleen Sebelius rejected bipartisan calls to postpone part of the healthcare law. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
The hidden marriage penalty in Obamacare
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REX Features: Brendan O'Sullivan
Hand holding wedding rings.
![The Atlantic]({"default":"http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/eb/8a07f81213c7d48e146f287814d/_h17_w0_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg"})
By Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic Childless couples and empty nesters pay more. Much more.
The first time I heard Nona Willis Aronowitz talk about getting divorced to save money on health insurance I thought she couldn't really be serious. We were at Monte's, an old Italian place in South Brooklyn, having dinner with a group of New York women writers in late July.
"Don't do it!" I urged her, certain, having watched my friends over the years, that no matter how casually she or her husband might treat the piece of paper that says they are married, getting unhitched would inevitably change their relationship as profoundly as getting hitched in the first place.
But with the arrival of the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges, the question for Nona and her husband Aaron Cassara moved from the realm of casual conversation to a real financial conundrum. Aged 29 and 32, respectively, they were facing tough times for their professions, a wildly expensive city, and the scary prospect that both of them could shortly be uninsured. Right now Nona only has a COBRA plan—"which I can barely afford"—that ends January 1, she tells me. Her last staff job ended when the media outlet she was working for laid off its whole editorial team; she's been a full-time freelancer since. Aaron, a filmmaker who works part-time and also freelances, has been uninsured since her layoff, because it would be too expensive to have him on COBRA too.
Related: Obama promises complicate rollout
Any married couple that earns more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level of $62,040 for a family of two earns too much for subsidies under Obamacare. "If you're over 400 percent of poverty, you're never eligible for premium" support, explains Gary Claxton, director of the Health Care Marketplace Project at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
But if that same couple lived together unmarried, they could earn up to $45,960 each—$91,920 total—and still be eligible for subsidies through the exchanges in New York state, where insurance is comparatively expensive and the state exchange was set up in such a way as to not provide lower rates for younger people. (Subsidy eligibility is calculated using a complicated formula involving income in relation to the poverty line, family size, and the price of plans offered through a state's marketplace.)
Nona and Aaron's 2012 income was higher than the 400 percent mark, but not by much. In New York City, that still doesn't take you very far for two people. If their most recent months of income are in the same range, they will get no help at all with buying insurance through the exchanges if and when they apply, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and eHealth subsidy calculators. Premiums for the two for silver-level plans came in at $9,248 for the year.
But if they applied as unmarried individuals with something like their 2012 income, one of them would get at least $3,964 in subsidies toward the purchase of a plan, or possibly even be eligible for Medicaid, thanks to their uneven individual earnings that year. And if they fall below the 400 percent threshold, which Nona says they might this year, they could get substantial subsidies as a couple that are still worth less than what they'd be eligible for as individuals. These gaps are the marriage penalty.
Married people who are uninsured make up just a small fraction of the uninsured, for obvious reasons: It is easier to be insured if you have two potential pathways of getting there.Only 15.4 percent of married people were uninsured 2012, according to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation; the uninsurance rate for "single adults living together" was more than twice as high—33.4 percent.
That may be one reason the Obamacare subsides are more generous to single people and one- or two-parent families with children in the house than to couples who lack children. They were designed to help single moms and struggling middle-class families with children, not married creative-class millennials in pricey cities who have not yet settled into well-paid work, or barring that, work for a single employer.
Health insurance isn't the only place where there's a marriage penalty. The federal income tax also hits married couples with similar earnings harder than couples with one main breadwinner.
"In the tax code, you have a different set of tax rates for married couples that mitigates the marriage penalty to some degree," says Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation who has been writing about the marriage penalty in health reform since 2010. Under Obamacare, however, there are "dramatic" penalties that are "substantial—particularly with couples in the upper age range," he says.
"What you are doing is saying ... you have to pay a penalty of multiple hundreds of dollars—a substantial portion of your income—to stay married," Rector says. "It's saying society is basically hostile to the institution of marriage."
Experts on the impact of marriage penalties were skeptical that many couples would consider divorce over insurance rates. Still, there is some data to suggest that marriage penalties embedded in government programs can discourage marriage among those who are benefiting from programs that favor the unmarried.
"The received wisdom in public finance is that marriage per se can be financially discouraged if both members of a couple have decent earnings potential and would face a higher combined tax rate as a married couple than as a pair of singletons," explains Gary Burtless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "At the lower end of the income scale, if the combined earnings potential of the couple is not very promising, marriage might prevent the mom and kids from receiving as much government assistance as they can receive if the adult couple remains unmarried."
There's no data yet on the potential size of the population potentially affected by such concerns under the Affordable Care Act, but Medicaid and other means-tested programs "already created that kind of potential marriage penalty," he notes. At least half of the newly insured under ACA will be insured under Medicaid.
The great irony, Nona explains, is "we wouldn't be married if it weren't for a situation that happened in 2009 where he needed health insurance."
Despite its administrative beginnings, their City Hall marriage has lasted so far. Aaron was on Nona's insurance at first; later, when their job arrangements changed, she was on his. Now Nona is looking to land a full-time staff job, in hopes of once again having an employer-based plan that Aaron, too, can join.
"I guarantee you that in six months I will either be divorced or I will have a full-time job," she says.
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