Guess who is going to join the Dow? Apple!

Apple is joining the Dow effective March 19.

Apple will replace AT&T.

More to come...refresh for the latest.

Here's the press release:

Apple Inc. (NASD:AAPL) will replace AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) after the close of trading on Wednesday, March 18. The change will be effective with the opening of trading on Thursday, March 19. 

The index change was prompted by Visa Inc.’s (NYSE:V) 4:1 stock split which is scheduled to be effective at the same time. The post-split adjusted lower price of Visa will reduce the weighting of the Information Technology sector in the index. Adding Apple to the index will help to partially offset this reduction. In price weighted indices such as the DJIA, a large change in price of a high priced stock can have a material impact on sector representation in the index and this index change is designed to minimize that impact. The Telecommunication Services sector will continue to be represented in the DJIA by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ).

“As the largest corporation in the world and a leader in technology, Apple is the clear choice for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the most recognized stock market measure,” says David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The DJIA is price weighted so extremely high stock prices tend to distort the index while very low stock prices have little impact. The timing of Apple’s addition to the DJIA hinged on two stock splits: Apple’s 7:1 last June and Visa’s 4:1 on March 19th this year. Apple’s split brought the stock price down closer to the median price in the DJIA. The Visa split will reduce the technology weight in the DJIA and make room for Apple. Among the current DJIA constituents, AT&T has one of the lowest prices. Moreover, the DJIA is over-weighted in telecommunications and AT&T and Verizon are quite similar, though AT&T has a smaller market capitalization.”

Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, CA, designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players. The change won’t cause any disruption in the level of the index. The divisor used to calculate the index from the components’ prices on their respective home exchanges will be changed prior to the opening on March 19. This procedure prevents any distortion in the index’s reflection of the portion of the U.S. stock market it is designed to measure.

Read more:  http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-is-joining-the-dow-2015-3#ixzz3TcAtKR6u

FYI: Tracking the FREAK Attack

"On Tuesday, March 3, 2015, researchers announced a new SSL/TLS vulnerability called the FREAK attack. It allows an attacker to intercept HTTPS connections between vulnerable clients and servers and force them to use weakened encryption, which the attacker can break to steal or manipulate sensitive data. This site is dedicated to tracking the impact of the attack and helping users test whether they’re vulnerable.

The FREAK attack was originally discovered by Karthikeyan Bhargavan at INRIA in Paris and the mitLS team. Further disclosure was coordinated by Matthew Green. This report is maintained by computer scientists at the University of Michigan, including Zakir Durumeric, David Adrian, Ariana Mirian, Michael Bailey, and J. Alex Halderman. The team can be contacted at freakattack@umich.edu.

For additional details about the attack and its implications, see this post by Matt Green, this Washington Post article, and this post by Ed Felten." 

Continue Reading at https://freakattack.com

Russian Malware Is Infecting 100,000+ Wordpress Sites

About 100,000 or more websites running the WordPress content management system have been compromised by mysterious malware that turns the infected sites into attack platforms that can target visitors, security researchers said.

The campaign has prompted Google to flag more than 11,000 domains as malicious, but many more sites have been detected as compromised, according to a blog post published Sunday by Sucuri, a firm that helps website operators secure their servers. Researchers have yet to confirm the cause of the infection, but they suspect it's related to a vulnerability in Slider Revolution, a WordPress plugin, that was disclosed in early September. Update: In a new blog post published after Ars went live with this brief, Sucuri says it has confirmed the so-called "RevSlider" vulnerability is the culprit.

Continue reading at http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/some-100000-or-more-wordpress-sites-infected-by-mysterious-malware/

Microsoft, Adobe Push Critical Security Fixes

If you use Microsoft or Adobe software products, chances are that software is now dangerously out of date. Microsoft today released seven update bundles to fix two dozen security vulnerabilities in Windows and supported software. Adobe pushed patches to correct critical flaws in Acrobat, Reader and Flash Player, including a bug in Flash that already is being exploited.

Four of the seven updates from Microsoft earned a “critical” rating, which means the patches on fix vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malware or attackers to seize control over vulnerable systems without any help from users (save for perhaps visiting a hacked or malicious Web site). One of those critical patches — for Internet Explorer — plugs at least 14 holes in the default Windows browser.

Another critical patch plugs two vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word and Office Web Apps (including Office for Mac 2011). There are actually three patches this month that address Microsoft Office vulnerabilities, including MS14-082 and MS-14-083, both of which are rated “important.” A full breakdown of these and other patches released by Microsoft today is here.

Adobe’s Flash Player update brings the player to v. 16.0.0.235 for Windows and Mac users, and fixes at least six critical bugs in the software. Adobe said an exploit for one of the flaws, CVE-2014-9163, already exists in the wild.

“These updates address vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take over the affected system,” the company said in its advisory.

Read more on http://krebsonsecurity.com/

Apple goes green with renewable energy

Apple is moving to shrink its carbon footprint, building the nation’s largest privately owned solar farm to run its data center. NBC chief environmental correspondent Anne Thompson reports.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Learn more https://www.apple.com/environment/

BBC News - Heartbleed Bug: Public urged to reset all passwords

Several tech firms are urging people to change all their passwords after the discovery of a major security flaw. 

 "On the scale of one to 10, this is an 11” -Bruce Schneier Security technologist 

 The Yahoo blogging platform Tumblr has advised the public to "change your passwords everywhere - especially your high-security services like email, file storage and banking". 

 Security advisers have given similar warnings about the Heartbleed Bug. It follows news that a product used to safeguard data could be compromised to allow eavesdropping. 

 OpenSSL is a popular cryptographic library used to digitally scramble sensitive data as it passes to and from computer servers so that only the service provider and the intended recipients can make sense of it.  

If an organisation employs OpenSSL, users see a padlock icon in their web browser - although this can also be triggered by rival products.

Continue Reading BBC Heartbleed Bug Story

Security Now 450

How the Heart bleeds
The end of updates for Windows XP, AnyDVD, the Heart Bleed Bug, and more.
View or listen to Security Now 450

Security Now 451

TrueCrypt & Heartbleeds Part2
The previous week consisted of nearly a single story: Heartbleed. It was only "nearly", though, because we also received the results from the first phase of the TrueCrypt audit.
View or listen to Security Now 451

littleBits the future of your child's education?

littleBits (spelled lower case L, upper case B, all one word) consists of tiny circuit-boards with specific functions engineered to snap together with magnets. No soldering, no wiring, no programming, just snap together for prototyping, learning and fun. Each bit has a specific function (light, sound, sensors, buttons, thresholds, pulse, motors, etc), and modules snap to make larger circuits. Just as LEGO™ allows you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are small, simple, intuitive, blocks that make creating with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together.

With a growing number of available modules, littleBits aims to move electronics from late stages of the design process to its earliest ones, and from the hands of experts, to those of artists, makers, students and designers. 

littleBits make BIG things happen for MoMA Stores

Make Something That Teaches Something

Visit them http://littlebits.cc/