Obama wants action on government's borrowing limit

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, file photo, the dome of the Capitol is reflected in a skylight of the Capitol Visitor's Center in Washington. By delaying hard choices on spending, the fiscal cliff deal guaranteed more confrontation and uncertainty this year, especially when Congress must vote later this winter to raise the government?s borrowing limit. That?s likely to keep businesses cautious about hiring and investing. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, file photo, the dome of the Capitol is reflected in a skylight of the Capitol Visitor's Center in Washington. By delaying hard choices on spending, the fiscal cliff deal guaranteed more confrontation and uncertainty this year, especially when Congress must vote later this winter to raise the government?s borrowing limit. That?s likely to keep businesses cautious about hiring and investing. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Chart shows major individual income tax provisions

HONOLULU (AP) ? President Barack Obama is hailing a last-minute deal that pulled the country back from the "fiscal cliff," but warned that he "will not compromise" over his insistence that Congress lift the federal debt ceiling.

Obama said in his radio and Internet address Saturday that the fiscal cliff deal, approved by Congress on New Year's Day and signed Thursday, raises taxes on the wealthiest Americans while preventing a middle-class tax increase that could have thrown the economy back into recession.

With one crisis behind him, Obama faces new battles in Congress over raising the country's $16.4 trillion borrowing limit, as well as scaling back more than $100 billion in automatic spending cuts for the military and domestic programs. The cuts are delayed by two months under the compromise.

Lawmakers promise to replace those across-the-board cuts with more targeted steps that could take longer to implement.

Obama, speaking from Hawaii, where he is on vacation with his family, said he is willing to consider more spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the deficit.

But he said he will not compromise over his insistence that Congress lift the debt ceiling. The nation's credit rating was downgraded the last time lawmakers threatened inaction on the debt ceiling, in 2011.

"If Congress refuses to give the United States the ability to pay its bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic," Obama said. "Our families and our businesses cannot afford that dangerous game again."

If elected officials from both parties "focus on the interests of our country above the interests of party, I'm convinced we can cut spending and raise revenue in a manner that reduces our deficit and protects the middle class," Obama said.

In the Republican address, Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan said that as attention again turns to the debt limit, "we must identify responsible ways to tackle Washington's wasteful spending."

Americans know that "when you have no more money in your account and your credit cards are maxed out, then the spending must stop," Camp said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-05-US-Obama/id-968dc632e1864231a058291d8e7a5578

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Pakistani officials say US drones kill 9 militants

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) ? Pakistani intelligence officials say suspected American drones have fired several missiles into three militant hideouts near Afghan border, killing at least nine fighters.

Three officials said the Sunday morning strikes targeted Pakistani Taliban's hideouts in the South Waziristan tribal region.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

They say identity of the killed militants is not known yet, but two important commanders of the Pakistani Taliban may be among them.

A suspected U.S. missile strike on Thursday killed a top Pakistani militant commander, Maulvi Nazir, whose fighters focus on attacks against U.S. and allied NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistani-officials-us-drones-kill-9-militants-084308962.html

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Asian shares drop on Fed minutes, dollar extends gain

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Friday, tracking overnight weakness in global equities, but the dollar gained as U.S. debt yields rose after several Federal Reserve officials expressed concerns about continuing to expand stimulative bond buying.

Minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting released on Thursday showed some voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee were increasingly concerned about the potential risks of the Fed's asset purchases on financial markets, even if it look set to continue an open-ended stimulus program for now.

The Fed's asset buying policy has been a crucial factor underpinning investor risk appetite and supporting global equities, so the more hawkish Fed minutes unnerved financial markets on Thursday, driving benchmark U.S. Treasury yields up to a near eight-month high and weighing on equities and oil, while bolstering the dollar.

The dollar extended gains early in Asia on Friday, hitting its highest since July 2010 against the yen at 87.78 while the euro fell to a three-week low of $1.3022. The U.S. dollar <.dxy> hit a near four-week high against a basket of major currencies on Thursday.

"The minutes have added a fresh degree of uncertainty into the investment climate, which is likely to mean a steeper yield curve. But equity investors should take heart from the fact that the Fed's perception is qualified on an improving economy," Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co in New York, said in a note to clients.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> fell 0.4 percent, after scaling its highest since August 2011 on Thursday.

Australian shares <.axjo> slipped 0.5 percent, with investors pulling back after a sharp two-day rally which took shares to their highest in more than 19 months on Thursday.

"U.S. equities were due for a correction at any rate ... and the same is true of the KOSPI. Investors would do well to buy while shares are easing," Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities, said of South Korean shares <.ks11>, which opened down 0.1 percent.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average <.n225> opened sharply higher, up 2 percent, to its highest since March 2011 on the back of the tumbling yen. Japanese markets were closed from December 31 to January 3 for the new year's holidays. The Nikkei ended 2012 with the sharpest yearly gain since 2005. <.t/>

U.S. lawmakers earlier this week narrowly avoided falling off a "fiscal cliff" of automatic higher taxes and spending cuts, which had been set to kick in at the start of the year and threatened to derail the U.S. economy, providing an immediate boost for financial markets.

But U.S. President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans face tough talks on spending cuts and an increase in the nation's debt limit as the hard-fought deal to avert the fiscal cliff covered only taxes and delayed decisions on expenditures until March 1.

Investor sentiment was, on the other hand, supported by recent data showing activity in China's services sector and at U.S. factories expanded in December, which brightened the outlook for global growth.

The U.S. jobs market remained on a recovery track, with data on Thursday showing U.S. private-sector employers shrugged off the budget wrangling and stepped up hiring in December, heightening hopes for a strong nonfarm payrolls report due later on Friday.

The U.S. economy likely added 150,000 jobs in December, according to a Reuters survey of economists, up from 146,000 in November. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 7.7 percent.

Resolution of the U.S. fiscal cliff crisis could spell trouble for some Asian assets that are coming off a stellar 2012 as investors could start to shift some money out of overpriced Asian investments in favour of the U.S. on a view that the fiscal deal manages to avert a U.S. recession and so boosts the prospects for American stocks.

U.S. crude inched down 0.2 percent to $82.78 a barrel.

(Additional reporting by Somang Yang in Seoul; Editing by Eric Meijer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-drop-fed-minutes-dollar-extends-gain-004137166--finance.html

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Computer scientists find vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP phones

Jan. 4, 2013 ? Columbia Engineering's Computer Science PhD candidate Ang Cui and Computer Science Professor Salvatore Stolfo have found serious vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP (voice over internet protocol) telephones, devices used around the world by a broad range of networked organizations from governments to banks to major corporations, and beyond. In particular, they have discovered troubling security breaches with Cisco's VoIP phone technology. At a recent conference on the security of connected devices, Cui demonstrated how they can easily insert malicious code into a Cisco VoIP phone (any of the 14 Cisco Unified IP Phone models) and start eavesdropping on private conversations -- not just on the phone but also in the phone's surroundings -- from anywhere in the world.

"It's not just Cisco phones that are at risk. All VoIP phones are particularly problematic since they are everywhere and reveal our private communications," says Stolfo. "It's relatively easy to penetrate any corporate phone system, any government phone system, any home with Cisco VoIP phones -- they are not secure."

Cui and Stolfo analyzed the phones' firmware (the software running in the computer inside the phone) and they were able to identify many vulnerabilities. They are particularly concerned with embedded systems that are widely used and networked on the Internet, including VoIP phones, routers, and printers, and have focused their research on developing new advanced security technology to protect these systems.

"Binary firmware analysis is commonly used to identify faulty software by the 'white hat' hackers and security scientists and researchers like our team," Stolfo says. "We performed this analysis to demonstrate a new defense technology, called Software Symbiotes, that protects them from exploitation."

Software Symbiotes is designed to safeguard embedded systems from malicious code injection attacks into these systems, including routers and printers.

"This is a host-based defense mechanism that's a code structure inspired by a natural phenomenon known as symbiotic defensive mutualism," Cui notes. "The Symbiote is especially suitable for retrofitting legacy embedded systems with sophisticated host-based defenses."

The researchers see these Symbiotes as a kind of digital life form that tightly co-exists with arbitrary executables in a mutually defensive arrangement. "They extract computational resources (CPU cycles) from the host while simultaneously protecting the host from attack and exploitation," explains Cui. "And, because they are by their nature so diverse, they can provide self-protection against direct attack by adversaries that directly target host defenses."

"We envision a general-purpose computing architecture consisting of two mutual defensive systems whereby a self-contained, distinct, and unique Symbiote machine is embedded in each instance of a host program," adds Stolfo. "The Symbiote can reside within any arbitrary body of software, regardless of its place within the system stack. It can be injected into an arbitrary host in many different ways, while its code can be 'randomized' by a number of well-known methods."

The Symbiote, which at runtime is required by its host to successfully execute in order for the host to operate, then monitors its host's behavior to ensure it continues to operate correctly, and, if not, it stops the host from doing harm. Removal, or attempted removal, of the Symbiote renders the host inoperable.

"The beauty of the Symbiote," says Cui, "is that it can be used to protect all kinds of embedded systems, from phones and printers to ATM machines and even cars -- systems that we all use every day."

Cisco has since released a patch to repair these vulnerabilities but it is ineffective. "It doesn't solve the fundamental problems we've pointed out to Cisco," Cui observes. "We don't know of any solution to solve the systemic problem with Cisco's IP Phone firmware except for the Symbiote technology or rewriting the firmware. We plan to demonstrate a Symbiote-protected Cisco IP Phone at an upcoming conference."

The research conducted by Stolfo and Cui was funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity), and DHS (Department of Homeland Security).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. The original article was written by Holly Evarts.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/r1zidhzaFag/130104155009.htm

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Stocks Rally on Fiscal Cliff Deal: What&#39;s Next ... - Yahoo! Finance

One day into the new trading year and we're off to a fantastic start. A giant market rally is underway, fueled by a hollow hope that has gleefully back-filled the void left by the agonizing conclusion of the fiscal cliff negotiations. Investors clearly know that all is not well, and yet they are more than happy to partake in the celebration, however fleeting the fiscal patch may be.

It's as if Wayne's World has come to Wall Street and the blanket answer to virtually any quandary is the same: "Party On, Garth. Party On, Wayne."

For veteran market watcher Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ, the opening-day pop is fine ? to a point.

"I think investors are saying, 'I can at least push this market up to recovery highs, but I still want to wait and see what actually transpires before I push it to all-time highs,'" Stovall says in the attached video.

His thoughts are echoed by Raymond James' chief investment strategist Jeff Saut, who sent a note to clients today urging them to "never confuse motion with action."

The post-deal legislative window offers less than 60 days of visibility before the next round of budgetary battles (rumored to be even more vicious) kicks in, but don't let that get in the way of a good party. In the short term, Stovall says he is watching for at least two things that could carry the markets and investor confidence to the next level. Namely, a spate of seasonal buying patterns that have historically proven to be a positive time to own stocks, as well as the upcoming earnings seasons, which gets underway next Tuesday when Alcoa (AA) reports its fourth quarter results after the close of trading.

"Earnings growth estimates [for the S&P 500] have fallen from the mid-teens to 3.5%," Stovall's research shows, meaning the perennial pattern of lowering the bar, so to speak, to a point where it can be easily cleared has once again been achieved. Add in the fact that, on a fundamental basis, stocks are trading at a 23% discount to projected and trailing earnings, and Stovall begins to build his case for why he can see this aging bull market grinding higher for another year, lead by cyclical stocks and sectors such as Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Tech and Financials.

I hope he's right, but in the meantime Wall Street's standing ovation for Washington's dysfunctional performance has left me slightly underwhelmed. Or as Garth used to say, "I think I'm gonna hurl."

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/stocks-rally-fiscal-cliff-deal-next-171435319.html

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