After hack, LivingSocial tells 50M users to reset passwords

After hack, LivingSocial tells 50M users to reset passwords
Users' names, email addresses and passwords may have been accessed, CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy said

More than 50 million users of the daily deals site LivingSocial are being asked to reset their passwords after hackers attacked the company's servers and potentially made off with personal data.

The cyberattack "resulted in authorized access to some customer data on our servers," including names, email addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords, LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy said in an email to employees and in a separate email being sent to customers.

The database that stores customer credit card information was not affected, nor was the database that stores merchants' financial and banking information, the Washington, D.C.-based company said.

Although decoding users' passwords "would be difficult," the site says it is taking "every precaution" by expiring its users' passwords and asking them to create a new one. Emails are being sent this afternoon to the more than 50 million users whose data may have been compromised, a LivingSocial spokesman said.

LivingSocial says it has 70 million members worldwide. Customers in Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines aren't being contacted because the company uses different computer systems in those countries, it said.

The group behind the attack has not been identified. "We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue," LivingSocial said on its website.

The hack may have resulted in users' accounts on other sites being compromised. "We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s)," O'Shaughnessy said.

"We need to do the right thing for our customers who place their trust in us," O'Shaughnessy said in the employee email, adding, "We'll all need to work incredibly hard over the coming days and weeks to validate that faith and trust."

The hack follows a slew of attacks on Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and other companies. LivingSocial said it is "redoubling" its efforts to prevent future breaches.

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4 video editors: Pro results for ambitious amateurs

Video-editing software now offers features formerly only available to pros. We review four of the top packages (with video examples).

With HD-resolution cameras now standard-issue items in smartphones, 4K-resolution cameras falling into consumers' hands and multi-core processing power standard issue on desktops and laptops, the need for video editing suites with high-end features has moved into the mainstream.

In this roundup, I explore four well-known video editing packages -- Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, Corel VideoStudio Pro X6, CyberLink PowerDirector 11 and Sony Vegas Pro 12 -- that are suitable for the ambitious amateur or for the professional who wants to complete a quick project. These are available both as standalone items and as parts of larger suites or packages, and there's a price range and a feature set for most every budget or need. (Note: Only Adobe offers a version for Mac users.)

What constitutes a "high-end" feature -- or product, or suite -- is at least as much about implementation as whether or not it's included. For example, 4K-resolution video (3840 x 2160 pixels), used by a growing number of consumer-level devices, is supported by all the products in this roundup. However, not all of them support Redcode, the 4K video format generated by Red pro-level cameras. Not a big deal to those editing cellphone footage, but a potential deal-killer if you end up working with such high-tier technology.

To that end, I've looked at each of these products with an eye towards how well they handle top-of-the-line features like 4K support, general usability, value for the money and bonus features. My test system for this roundup was an Intel Core i7-3770K quad-core (eight-thread) system running at 3.5 GHz, with 16GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD system drive and a 2TB secondary drive; NVIDIA loaned me a Quadro 5000 GPU.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
Adobe Systems
Price: Standalone: $799 or monthly starting at $19.99. Suites: CS6 Production Premium ($1,899); CS6 Master Collection ($2,599); Creative Cloud, ($49.99/mo. w/annual commitment, $74.99/mo. cancel at any time)
OS: Windows 7 and later, Mac OS X v10.6.8 and later

Adobe has done a lot of work with Premiere Pro -- both as a standalone product and as part of the Adobe Creative Suite -- so that video professionals will take it more seriously. With each successive revision Premiere Pro has become more tightly integrated with Photoshop and other Adobe products (and vice versa).

In addition, Premiere Pro CS6 has gained features to keep it competitive with professional-grade editing products. Among the biggest new additions, and one sure to be attractive to high-end camera users, is native support for footage from 4K-resolution camera systems: the Red Epic, the Red Scarlet-X, the ARRI Alexa series and the Canon Cinema EOS C300, among others. A great deal of processing power and throughput is needed to handle these files (a single minute of Redcode footage can eat up 4GB). However, Adobe has made it possible to speed up the process considerably with its accelerated Mercury Playback Engine -- provided you have a graphics card that supports it.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
A professional-level program for a professional audience, Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 introduces a new pay-as-you-go licensing for both the suite and the standalone program.

The Premiere user interface hasn't been changed a great deal over the previous version, but a few incremental tweaks here and there do make it easier to work with. For example, editing clip boundaries can now be done by dynamically sliding an edit point, typing a number (such as -5 frames from the current point) or by using a side-by-side editing view that shows where one edit ends and another begins, and which can be adjusted by either mouse or keyboard controls. I'm comfortable editing right in the timeline, but veteran editors used to a side-by-side view from other products will like this.

Premiere Pro CS6 introduces a few new plugin effects for processing problematic footage. The Warp Stabilizer, for instance, uses image-synthesis algorithms to correct for camera shake. Previous plugins of this type either zoomed in on the image or left black borders around it as part of the compensation process, but Warp Stabilizer attempts to reconstruct the edges of the image as well. It's best used for individual moments in shots that need it, since it takes a long time to process footage (almost 20 minutes for a single 45-second clip, even on my multi-core system), and can introduce some artifacts of its own, mostly at the edges of the images.

The same goes for the Rolling Shutter Repair plugin, which corrects wobbling or skewing artifacts common to some CMOS-based camera sensors but can introduce other artifacts unless it's used carefully.

One truly useful new feature inspired by Photoshop, Adjustment Layers, lets you apply effects to whole groups of clips at once. You no longer have to add those effects to each clip and tweak them separately, which was clumsy and time-consuming.

Other new pro-level feature tweaks include an easier-to-work-with color-correction plugin (you can also use Adobe SpeedGrade as a more high-end substitute), better handling of multi-camera footage (you're no longer limited to a maximum of four cameras) and pixel-level support for high-resolution screens like the MacBook Pro's Retina Display.

A big selling point for Premiere Pro has been its close integration with the rest of the products in the Creative Suite, especially in terms of workflow. Sequences created in Adobe After Effects, for instance, can be launched from Premiere Pro by simply double-clicking on the sequence in a project timeline or asset list. Changes made to any such object are automatically updated in the Premiere timeline. The same goes for almost every other kind of Adobe file type, such as Photoshop image files.

The single biggest change to both Premiere Pro and Adobe's entire Creative Suite isn't in the software, but the licensing. While you can still purchase the boxed products (Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 retails for $799 and the Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection for $2,599), both the individual programs (including Premiere Pro) and the whole of Creative Suite can now be licensed on a month-to-month basis.

Premiere Pro alone can be rented for $29.99/month or $239.88/year. Creative Cloud, the newly rebranded, pay-as-you-go version of Creative Suite, offers every program in the suite (including Premiere) for $49.99/month if you agree to a one-year commitment, $74.99/month if you want to be able to cancel at any time. Thirty-day trials for individual apps and for the whole suite are also available.
Bottom line

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 is a top-of-the-line, professional-grade product that also commands a professional price. The new pay-as-you-go pricing, though, may open up the product to a new audience.

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Smart glass market could hit 9.4M shipments by 2016

Shipments of smart glasses will start to soar in 2014, when Google Glass is due for release, research firm says

Worldwide shipments of computerized smart glasses are expected to hit nearly 10 million units by 2016, largely driven Google's Glass project, a research firm said.

That's an impressive number considering that Google's Glass eyewear, the major force in this market, isn't scheduled for official release until sometime in 2014.

IMS Research is predicting that 9.4 million units of smart glasses will ship by 2016, with 6.6 million pairs shipping in that year alone. This year, smart glasses shipments are expected to grow 150% to hit 124,000 units.

IMS Research is crediting this year's growth to developers' buying early versions of Glass. Google also is selling as many as 8,000 pairs to testers, called Explorers.

In 2014, when Glass is expected to hit the market, IMS expects smart glass shipments to jump 250%.

What will drive the success of Glass is less about the glasses themselves and more about what they can do.

"The applications are far more critical than the hardware when it comes to the success of Google Glass," said Theo Ahadome, a senior analyst at IHS, which is now part of IMS Research. "In fact, the hardware is much less relevant to the growth of Google Glass than for any other personal communications device in recent history. This is because the utility of Google Glass is not readily apparent, so everything will depend on the appeal of the apps. This is why the smart glass market makes sense for a software-oriented organization like Google, despite the company's limited previous success in developing hardware."

Google, he added, is betting that developers will produce compelling applications for Glass.

Ahadome noted that he expects developers to create Glass apps that will offer live updates for travelers, location reviews and recommendations, nutritional information and personal references.

Just this week, Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Glass won't be on the market for about a year.

"We've just started distributing it to the first developers," Schmidt, told a BBC reporter. "It's fair to say there will be thousands in use over the months and there will be changes made based on feedback. But it's fair to say it's a year-ish away."

While Google is expected to be the dominant player in the smart glasses market, it's not expected to be the only one. China's biggest search engine, Baidu Inc., reportedly is working on its own computerized glasses. Sports sunglasses maker Oakley also was reported to be working on a smart glass model.

Glass computerized eye glasses are designed to take photos and video, send and receive email, and post comments and pictures on social media. Users control the glasses by voice, gesture and touch.

Last week, Google started distributing Glass to developers and its Explorers.

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How big data will save your life

Even as patient information moves to electronic records, important data is often siloed

Dr. Robert Walker, director of health innovation for the U.S. Army Surgeon General, has been more a frustrated data entry clerk in recent years than a physician, a frustration shared by thousands of his colleagues.

Instead of freeing him for more face-time with patients, the electronic health record (EHR) system he uses has become a third person in the exam room, drawing his attention away from patients. The issue isn't the EHR Walker uses, however; it's the shortcomings of technology in general.

"The electronic medical record has become an impediment versus something that was going to streamline your day," Walker explained in a recent interview. "It took the focus away from the patient and put it all on the computer. People are clicking boxes and turning their backs to patients. It's all about jamming data into this thing."

EHRs make it possible for every medical care facility to electronically capture a patient's family history, illnesses, treatments and current lifestyle. The promise of EHRs was that they would save the U.S. healthcare system up to $81 billion a year by streamlining workflows and creating massive clinical data warehouses that could be mined for information that could improve preventative care and disease treatment.

That has not yet happened, and doctors are less enamored with EHRs as a result. Last month, the American College of Physicians and AmericanEHR Partners released a survey of 4,279 physicians that showed fully 39% of them would not recommend their EHR to a colleague. That's up from 24% who felt that way in 2010. And 34% said they are "very dissatisfied" with the ability of EHRs to decrease workload.

Under the auspices of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, (HITECH Act), the U.S. government is requiring healthcare providers -- hospitals, clinics and private practices alike -- to implement EHRs. Providers must also prove their meaningful use of those systems through a three-stage government process that is taking place over the next four years.

Despite what has so far been an uneven rollout of EHRs in the U.S., Walker and others are already, in effect, building what a treasure trove of patient information that can be tapped to improve patient care, a repository that will revolutionize medicine for decades to come. That is, if everyone can figure out how to categorize it, sort it and access it easily.

The promise

Big data analytics engines such as Hadoop have the capability to mine the clinical data warehouses created by EHRs, warehouses filled with valuable unstructured data that can be used to help doctors make decisions about patient treatment.

Today, physicians and pharmaceutical companies still rely largely on text books and infinitesimally small clinical studies that typically use healthy patients with only one disease. That pool of subjects hardly mimics most real-world patients, many of whom have more than one health problem.

About 25% of hospitals use some form of data analytics to mine traditional databases to learn more about past treatments and about how future treatments can be improved. But, what is contained in the columns and rows of databases represents an almost insignificant portion of the information about patients that's been collected; the most important information lies in unstructured data - the physicians' notes, radiological images and lifestyle information gathered from patients using mobile devices.

"That's the real renaissance that's going to happen in health care," Walker said. "With big data, what happens in a doctor's office is going to be vastly different from what we see today. The top five or 10 things that people die from in America are life-style induced. That's absurd. Maybe instead of vital signs, I'm just going to look at what you buy in a grocery store."
With big data, what happens in a doctor's office is going to be vastly different....
Dr. Robert Walker, director of health innovation for the U.S. Army Surgeon General

Today, data analytics in most hospitals is used to manage costs and increase the quality of care. The more promising use for big data, however, is the ability to discover treatment-and-outcome correlations using physician and nurse notes and data driven by genetic profiles.

By combining big data and genetics analytics, scientists today can determine how a patient will react to a medication and may someday even be able to predict who may become ill and -- if they do -- what customized medications can best treat diseases.

"When I look at the historical growth rate, [big data] is definitely a hot application in the marketplace," said James Gaston, senior director of clinical and business intelligence at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Healthcare and IT

Currently, one of the more promising areas of big data analytics involves drug therapies devised through the study of genomics, also known as personalized medicine.

Genetic diseases are akin to buggy code in software; the key to finding the cause of an illness is to uncover that error in the code, according to Alexis Borisy, co-founder of Foundation Medicine, a cancer diagnostics company.

"Cancer, for example, is a disease of the genome where something has gone wrong with the programming code and a mutation occurred. There are actual errors in the code and that's a core reason why cancer develops," Borisy said.

While sequencing the first human genome took eight years and cost about $1 billion, genetic sequencing costs have fallen dramatically in the last decade. It now costs from $5,000 to $10,000 per human genome, and companies are working hard to cut that cost to $1,000 in the next few years. Sequencing a DNA strand is becoming so inexpensive that hospitals will soon be able to do it for on most patients and add the data to an EHR, according to according to Nigam Shah, an assistant professor of Medicine at Stanford University's School of Medicine.

Shah works in biomedical informatics, meaning he works toward making sense of the information in clinical data warehouses.

Sequencing of a human genome yields a massive amount of data, and storing one person's genetic code can require up to 1TB of data storage capacity, Shah said.

The human genome contains 3.2 billion lines of code, which means that finding a flaw in that code requires sophisticated computer algorithms and massive, clustered server farms. Adding to the complexity is that disease is often the result of multiple mutations, according to Shah.

While diseases such as Huntington's or Alzheimer's disease are caused by common genetic mutations, and are more easily spotted, most illnesses are caused by rare mutations. Diabetes, for example, is thought to be caused by a number of genetic mutations, which on their own confer a small amount of risk, but in combination can be more serious.

"If you genome type someone, and out of the 50 [mutations associated with diabetes] you have 10 of them, it's very hard to say what's going to happen to you," Shah said. "Part of the problem is that we just need to do more research and collect more data, and some of it we just need better methods."

But tremendous progress has been made. To date, scientists now know the genetic causes of about 5,000 rare diseases.

One of the most promising areas of genetic research is pharmacogenomics, which uses a person's genetic makeup to determine how they'll respond to drugs, tailoring treatments to specific mutations -- even mutations found in cancer tumors.

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