Thursday, October 6, 2011

By Laurie Segall @CNNMoneyTech August 30, 2011: 3:01 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Facebook wants you to try to hack into its site — and if you succeed, it will pay you for the details.

Facebook said this week that that it has paid out more than $40,000 under its new “bug bounty” security initiative. Launched three weeks ago, Facebook’s program invites security researchers — both the professional kind and hacker hobbyists — to send it the details of any Facebook vulnerabilities that they uncover. If the report checks out, Facebook will pay a finder’s fee of at least $500.

It’s willing to go higher for extra-impressive bug spotting.

“We’ve already paid a $5,000 bounty for one really good report,” Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan wrote in a blog post. “One person has already received more than $7,000 for six different issues flagged.”

Although the social networking has its own security team, Facebook launched its bug bounty program to tap into the collective wisdom of the site’s 750 million users.

“We hire the best and brightest, and have implemented numerous protocols,” Sullivan wrote. “We realize, though, that there are many talented and well-intentioned security experts around the world who don’t work for Facebook.”

Researchers from more than 16 countries have successfully submitted bounty bugs, Facebook said. Its public “thank you” list names dozens of contributors.

Facebook also took pains to assure bug-hunters that it won’t take any legal action against those who submit bugs, even if they were uncovered through less-than-legal routes into Facebook’s systems.

That’s often how hackers find vulnerabilities, but even those without any ill intent — so-called “white-hat hackers” — can land in hot water with companies if they tell them about their intrusion.

“We worked with several third-party groups to ensure that the language in our policy protects researchers and makes clear our intent to work with, not punish, those who report information,” Sullivan wrote.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that often weighs in on Internet-related legal issues, is a fan of that approach.

“We hope to see others follow Facebook’s lead and go even further,” the EFF wrote last year about Facebook’s security policy. “The more transparent companies are about their approaches to vulnerability disclosure — and the more they encourage users to come forward — the more often they will learn about problems that need to be fixed.”

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

D. E. Shaw & Co. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia | Shaw Capital Management Equities

The firm was founded by David E. Shaw, a former Columbia University faculty member and has more than 1,200 employees. In 2011 it had $19 billion dollars in investment capital. ^[2] The company's focus is the intersection between technology and finance.^{[citation needed]} The firm and its affiliates applies quantitative and qualitative trading strategies to hedge fund management and other investments. It makes private equity investments in technology, health care, and financial service firms and distressed company acquisitions.^{[citation needed]}

In August 1996, Fortune described the firm as "the most intriguing and mysterious force on Wall Street". The company has managed up to $40 billion in aggregate capital and is considered one of the world's largest hedge funds as measured by assets under management.^[3] In October 2010 the company was managing approximately $20 billion in investment and committed capital.^[2]^[4]^[2]

The company has offices in Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.^[2]

D. E. Shaw supports educational programs such as Math-M-Addicts (teachers are D. E. Shaw & Co. employees),^{[citation needed]}American Regions Mathematics League^[5] Worldwide Online Olympiad Training (WOOT), United States of America Mathematics Olympiad and theInternational Mathematics Olympiad, Mathematical Olympiad Program, the MIT 6.370 Battlecode Competition,^[6] and The Center for Excellence in Education^[7]

[edit]History

In 1997, the firm returned capital to most of its early investors in favor of a structured credit facility of nearly $2 billion from Bank of America, with terms that allowed Shaw to keep a higher fraction of profits than hedge fund investors normally allow.^{[citation needed]}After the Russian debt default in 1998, Shaw, like Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) and many other hedge funds, suffered significant losses in its fixed-income trading.^{[citation needed]}Shaw suffered a couple of lean years thereafter, but attracted new investors as its investment performance recovered.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998, Citigroup made an unsecured loan to the company in the form of credit and monies allocated to arbitrage trading software the company developed to buy derivatives and debt instruments.^[8]

Many of D. E. Shaw's headline-making transactions are related to investments in bankrupt companies with valuable assets.^{[citation needed]} In December 2003, a subsidiary of one of the D. E. Shaw group funds acquired the toy store FAO Schwarz, which reopened for business in New York and Las Vegas in the fall of 2004. In the same year, D. E. Shaw affiliate Laminar Portfolios acquired the online assets of KB Toys, which continued operating as eToys.com.^[9] In August 2004, D. E. Shaw along with MIC Capital, proposed to inject $50M into the bankrupt WCI Steel. In December 2004, Shaw bought 6.6% of USG Corp, a wallboard manufacturer seeking bankruptcy protection as a result of rising asbestos liabilities.

In 2006, Lawrence Summers became managing director at D.E. Shaw until 2008, receiving at least $5.2 million in compensation during that period, according to a 2009 report.^[10]^[11] ^[12]

In addition to its financial businesses, the D. E. Shaw group has provided private equity capital to technology-related business ventures, including Juno Online Services, an Internet access provider.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, David Shaw sold a 20% minority stake in the Shaw group to Lehman Brothers, as part of a broader strategy to diversify his own holdings.^{[citation needed]}

Early in 2010 D.E. Shaw set up its Portfolio Acquisitions Unit, the aim of which was to acquire illiquid assets from rival hedge funds.^[13

Specialist in International Shipping

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Shaw Capital Management and Financing offer funding for a wide range of industries and flexible funding requirements that most businesses can easily qualify for.

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