Another major retailer possibly hit by credit card number thieves
Home Depot admitted that hackers may have infiltrated their network and stolen customers’ credit card numbers. Their Web site announcement says that “unusual activity” alerted the company to a potential problem, and they are “working with our banking partners and law enforcement to investigate.”
Home Depot assures customers that if indeed a breach occurred, “you will not be responsible for any possible fraudulent charges. The financial institution that issued your card or Home Depot are responsible for those charges.”
The company advises customers to closely monitor their accounts and contact their card issuers if they discover any unrecognized charges.
Court rules Yelp can withhold a business’s positive reviews if they don’t pay for advertising
Search Engine Journal (@sejournal) reports that small business owners saw their federal appeals court case against Yelp thrown out recently. Companies had alleged that Yelp advertising salespeople threatened to remove businesses’ positive reviews if they didn’t sign up for paid advertising on the site. While Yelp denies condoning such devious behavior by its minions, the social reviewing site maintains that they don’t owe businesses any positive reviews and wouldn’t be violating federal law by withholding them.
SEJ’s article quotes plaintiff’s attorney Lawrence Murray as saying that Yelp users should question their trust in Yelp’s ratings since the company could potentially manipulate them for their own financial benefit. “If you had any concern about Yelp’s accuracy before, you’re going to be up a creek now.”
You dropped a bomb on me
Forbes Magazine reported that CBS COO Joseph Ianniello dropped a potential bombshell last week at the Nomura Digital Media Conference in New York. CBS owns Showtime, and Ianniello mentioned that Showtime’s contracts with cable and satellite TV providers don’t preclude Showtime from selling its programming directly to consumers.
Says Forbes, “In other words, there’s nothing stopping CBS from offering an online standalone Showtime service that cord cutters could subscribe to without a cable or satellite subscription.”
Though Showtime apparently has nothing in the works, the possibility should get the attention of numerous fans of Showtime programming who would cut the cord with pay TV if it didn’t mean giving up popular shows like “Homeland” and “Masters of Sex.”
While many pay TV networks like HBO and ESPN allow viewers to watch their programming using apps, you have to sign in with a cable or satellite account in order to access them. Shared via @ForbesTech.
You should care about celebrity photos stolen from cloud storage
Cryber criminals’ theft of photos from the cloud storage of Hollywood stars should bother everyone, for several reasons. Hackers don’t normally look for photos. For normal folks like us, they look for ways to access our online banking and credit card information, and the ease with which they can accomplish this is downright scary.