Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: Microsoft kicks off $250,000 security contest

For Storms, that sounded like Microsoft was looking for a technology or technique to mitigate so-called “return-oriented programming,” or ROP vulnerabilities.

ROP is a focus of researchers right now, said Storms, because it can be used by attackers to sidestep current Windows security technologies like ASLR, or address space layout randomization. ASLR is an anti-exploit technology used in Windows to make it more difficult for hackers to predict available blocks of memory that are available to execute their malicious code.

Storms described ROP as piecing together function calls in ways that are not intended, and can be used for some advantage to the attacker in order to load code into memory.

“There’s always going to be some bit of memory that could be useful for ROP,” said Storms. “If Microsoft is able to do away with the ROP method of execution, that’s a big win.”

BlueHat Prize winners will retain the intellectual rights to their invention, but must license it to Microsoft on a royalty-free basis, said Moussouris. Eligible entries must provide a prototype that runs on Windows and be developed using the Windows SDK (software developer kit), according to the contest rules.

A panel of Microsoft employees from the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), the Windows group and Microsoft’s research arm will judge the entries.

“Microsoft knows there will always be bugs in its code, but a defensive technology to add to ASLR and DEP [data execution prevention, another anti-exploit safeguard in Windows] will prevent those bugs from being actionable,” said Storms.

But the contest’s payback could be years down the road.

“I think [the technology] could show up in Windows 9, or maybe in a version of IE, like IE 11 or IE 12,” said Storms. “Windows 8 is already over the hump in their production cycle.”

It’s possible Microsoft would be able to integrate the winning technology in a service pack for Windows 8, which is expected to debut next year, perhaps as early as April or as late as next fall, Storms added.

“It’s one thing for someone to come up with the idea and prototype, it’s another for Microsoft to actually implement it in Windows,” Storms said.

Microsoft hasn’t committed to rerunning the contest next year, but said today that it would evaluate this first run, then determine how or if the competition changes in the future.

Fisher Capital Management Investment: Stark warning as turmoil adds to recruitment fears

RECRUITMENT giant Michael Page international has cast another shadow over the banking sector with a warning that the recent financial turmoil is adding to a recruitment slowdown.

Shares in the group have already dropped by nearly 25% in the past month as investors reacted to a report from fellow recruiter Hays of a weak UK market being held back by the financial services sector.

The shares opened 12% down yesterday as Michael Page said: “In the first six months our banking business grew strongly.

However, following the recently announced hiring freezes in the past few weeks, gross profit growth in this sector, which accounts for approximately 10% of group gross profit, has slowed.”

Major European banks including Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and UBS have announced job cuts and hiring freezes over the past two months, as the industry grapples with tougher regulation and the impact of the eurozone debt crisis on investment banking operations.

On top of that, recent sharp falls in world stock markets on global growth fears, have prompted banks to hold off any hiring decisions.

Steve Ingham, chief executive, said: “Since this turmoil has arisen in the last few weeks these announcements have meant a lot of our banking clients have just held their breath and slowed down on recruitment, and therefore our growth has slowed a little.”

Michael Page was reporting a 38% rise in first-half pre-tax profit of £45.5m, which however fell short of analysts’ consensus forecast of £51m.

Robert Morton at Investec said he would be reducing full-year forecasts, adding that “the recent turmoil in world financial markets will have some impact on global growth rates”.

Lloyds Banking Group declined to comment on its current recruitment, while RBS would say only that it was recruiting “where we have vacancies in specific areas where we need to recruit staff”.

Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: Moody’s: Recent Increase in Asbestos Claims a Warning for U.S. Insurers

Recent disclosures by three insurance companies regarding increased asbestos claims are a “warning flag” for those companies and the U.S. property and casualty industry as a whole, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

In its Weekly Credit Outlook, Moody’s notes that The Hartford, MetLife and American Financial Group have all said asbestos claims increased over the last two weeks. The Hartford reports a pre-tax charge of $290 million due to increased asbestos reserves, and American Financial reports a pre-tax charge of $28 million. MetLife did not disclose the impact on its reserve estimates, Moody’s says, but the company did say that new asbestos claims increased by around 14 percent during the 2011 first half relative to the same time period in 2010.

“Increases in both the frequency and severity of mesothelioma and other cancer claims, increased legal costs, and an expansion of defendants to smaller, more peripheral insureds were cited as the primary drivers of the increase in expected losses,” Moody’s explains.

Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: SEC CHARGES CALIF. COMPANY WITH $10 MILLION BOILER ROOM SCHEME

http://fishercapitalmanagement-corporatenews.com/2011/04/fisher-capital-management-corporate-news-sec-charges-calif-company-with-10-million-boiler-room-scheme/

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged a Santa Ana, Calif.-based e-mail marketing company, along with a father and twin sons who are the company’s executives, with defrauding investors in a $10 million boiler room scheme.

The SEC alleges that mUrgent Corporation, chief financial officer Vladislav Walter Bugarski, and his sons Vladimir Boris Bugarski (chief executive officer) and Aleksander Negovan Bugarski (chief operating officer) operated a boiler room to sell mUrgent stock.

Boiler room employees cold-called investors, used high-pressure sales tactics, and misrepresented to investors that mUrgent had a prospering business and would imminently conduct an initial public offering.  The SEC also alleges that mUrgent and the Bugarskis falsely told investors that stock sale proceeds would not be used to pay cash salaries to the Bugarskis.

“mUrgent falsely portrayed itself to investors as a successful company with imminent plans to go public,” said Rosalind R. Tyson, Director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office. “Instead, the Bugarskis used the company as their personal piggybank.”

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles, mUrgent and the Bugarskis conducted two unregistered securities offerings beginning in 2008 that raised nearly $10 million from at least 130 investors nationwide.

The Bugarskis misused investor money to fund more than $1.3 million in cash salary and bonuses for themselves. They also established a separate “slush fund” of more than $500,000, and used investor funds to pay for luxury cars and other personal expenses.

The SEC seeks permanent injunctions against mUrgent and the Bugarskis for violations of the antifraud, offering registration, and broker registration provisions of the federal securities laws, disgorgement, financial penalties, and an order prohibiting the Bugarskis from serving as officers or directors of any public company.

Triad Boiler Room Systems Launched New Commercial Boilers

Fisher Capital on Boiler Room Equipment, Inc: Triad Boiler Systems manufactures uniquely rugged small-footprint hot water boilers, steam boilers, and radiant heating systems. All our boilers use 12 gauge firetubes in compact vessels that fit through very small doorways! Inputs range up to 2,000,000 BTU's. Create a highly efficient system with millions of BTU's by sequencing a string of these modular vessels.
TRIAD's commercial boilers and industrial grade Hot Water Heating, Domestic Hot Water, and Steam boilers are used in a wide variety of applications. Our commercial boilers are used at schools, universities, apartments, hospitals, office buildings, retirement communities, and churches. Industrial uses have included bakeries, smelting operations, food processing, quenching systems, and various heating applications for manufacturing. Triads’ modular boilers and radiant heating systems can be natural gas fired, oil fired, or dual fuel fired. For simplicity of operation and maintenance, all controls on our boilers are well known, off-the-shelf products. There area no proprietary parts on these boilers! This simplicity of operation is part of our philosophy, and an important reason why our customers return to us again and again.

TRIAD has been manufacturing high-quality boilers since 1926, and developed the modular boiler concept with primary/secondary piping, receiving a patent for it in 1967. We put this experience, knowledge, and expertise into every boiler.

We believe in quality - it is the overriding characteristic driving our company. This is why we manufacture extremely rugged, well-designed hot water and steam boilers that can provide decades of dependable service. We welcome your inquiries.

Benefits of Modularity
TRIAD's elegantly simple design maintains consistent water volume where heat is required.

• Boilers are activated sequentially, drawing water from the main loop into the next hot water boiler until the heating need is meet.
• firing boilers remaining isolated, so no heated water circulates through cold boilers.
• During most of the year the unfired boilers provide additional backup.
• Outdoor temperatures and loop water temperatures are constantly monitored.

Fisher Capital on Boiler Room Equipment, Inc: The efficiency of this design is most apparent during warmer months, when a conventional hydronic heating or steam boiler could still be operating at full capacity.

Primary-Secondary Piping
TRIAD integrates modularity with a single pipe primary-secondary system. TRIAD was the first company to employ a Primary-Secondary concept. It operates with two loops, (i) the primary loop, or building main loop, and (ii) smaller secondary loops off of each hot water boiler, which supply heated water to the primary loop.

Upon a call for heat, the boiler pump begins pushing the return water into the boiler and out through the secondary loop, supplying this hot water up into the primary loop (the main header), where it mixes with the cooler return water from the main loop of the building.

• Supply and return water are blended, avoiding the need for expensive and unreliable mixing valves commonly used in two pipe systems.
• The secondary loop isolates each hot water boiler, resulting in a very efficient system that minimizes thermal shock.

Control Panel
TRIAD Boilers can be sequenced by the use of our control panel that provides many attractive features:

• Temperature set-back when less heat is required, such as nights and weekends.
• Adjustments for latent heat, to take advantage of hot boiler water that retains heat after the burner shuts down.
• Outdoor reset based on atmospheric temperatures.
• Monitoring of return water temperatures to maintain accurate heating output.

It is also very easy to sequence our boilers using the panel of any other major manufacturer.

Packaged ProductFisher Capital on Boiler Room Equipment, Inc: All TRIAD hot water boilers and steam boilers are fully assembled, packaged products, which offer several advantages over boilers that must be assembled at the jobsite

• Onsite labor costs are minimized.
• Quality control is higher at the factory than at the jobsite
• The ease of installation of a packaged boiler allows for quicker start up.

Benefits of Steel Boilers

Easy to Clean
To maintain boiler efficiency, heating surfaces must be kept clean and free of combustion by-products. All TRIAD heating surfaces, especially the firetubes, are easy to access. It is impossible to clean all the heating surfaces of a cast iron boiler, and what can be reached is difficult to clean.

TRIAD also makes it easy to maintain clean water surfaces. The cleaning of the interior of a cast iron boiler is a major undertaking, and even then only the vertical surfaces can be cleaned. The inability to clean the horizontal surfaces can have a significant impact on operating efficiency.

Easy to Repair
Because of their steel construction, TRIAD hot water and steam boilers can be repaired in the field with minimal disruption. A leak can be permanently welded or the tubes re-rolled with little difficulty. It is impossible to permanently weld a cracked cast iron boiler section or a leaking copper fin-tube boiler. The firetubes are easily accessed through the top and through the firedoor.

Fast Water Circulation
Poor circulation of water within the typical cast iron boiler is very common due to their design limits, while TRIAD's steel hot water boilers provide for faster circulation.

Fisher Capital Management | Boiler Room

"Boiler Room" tells the story of a 19-year-old named Seth who makes a nice income running an illegal casino in his apartment. His dad, a judge, finds out about it and raises holy hell. So the kid gets a daytime job as a broker with a Long Island, N.Y., bucket shop that sells worthless or dubious stock with high-pressure telephone tactics. When he was running his casino, Seth muses, at least he was providing a product that his customers wanted.

The movie is the writing and directing debut of Ben Younger, a 29-year-old who says he interviewed a lot of brokers while writing the screenplay. I believe him. The movie hums with authenticity, and knows a lot about the cultlike power of a company that promises to turn its trainees into millionaires, and certainly turns them into efficient phone salesmen.

No experience is necessary at J.T. Marlin: "We don't hire brokers here--we train new ones," snarls Jim (Ben Affleck), already a millionaire, who gives new recruits a hard-edged introductory lecture crammed with obscenities and challenges to their manhood. "Did you see `Glengarry Glen Ross'?" he asks them. He certainly has. Mamet's portrait of high-pressure real estate salesmen is like a bible in this culture, and a guy like Jim doesn't see the message, only the style. (Younger himself observes that Jim, giving his savage pep talks, not only learned his style from Alec Baldwin's scenes in "Glengarry" but wants to be Baldwin.) The film's narrator is Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi), an unprepossessing young man with a bad suit who learns in a short time to separate suckers from their money with telephone fantasies about hot stocks and IPOs. Everybody wants to be a millionaire right now, he observes. Ironically, the dream of wealth he's selling with his cold calls is the same one J.T. Marlin is selling him.

In the phone war room with Seth are several other brokers, including the successful Chris (Vin Diesel) and Greg (Nicky Katt), who exchange anti-Jewish and Italian slurs almost as if it's expected of them. At night the guys go out, get drunk and sometimes get in fights with brokers from other houses. The kids gambling in Seth's apartment were better behaved. We observe that both gamblers and stockbrokers bet their money on a future outcome, but as a gambler you pay the house nut, while as a broker you collect the house nut. Professional gamblers claim they do not depend on luck but on an understanding of the odds and prudent money management. Investors believe much the same thing. Of course, nobody ever claims luck has nothing to do with it unless luck has something to do with it.

The movie has the high-octane feel of real life, closely observed. It's made more interesting because Seth isn't a slickster like Michael Douglas or Charlie Sheen in "Wall Street" (a movie these guys know by heart), but an uncertain, untested young man who stands in the shadow of his father the judge (Ron Rifkin) who, he thinks, is always judging him.

The tension between Seth and the judge is one of the best things in the film--especially in Rifkin's quiet, clear power in scenes where he lays down the law. When Seth refers to their relationship, his dad says: "Relationship? What relationship? I'm not your girlfriend. Relationships are your mother's shtick. I'm your father." A relationship does grow in the film, however, between Seth and Abby (Nia Long), the receptionist, and although it eventually has a lot to do with the plot, what I admired was the way Younger writes their scenes so that they actually share hopes, dreams, backgrounds and insecurities instead of falling into automatic movie passion. When she touches his hand, it is at the end of a scene during which she empathizes with him.

Because of the routine racism at the firm, Seth observes it must not be a comfortable place for a black woman to work. Abby points out she makes $80,000 a year and is supporting a sick mother. Case closed, with no long anguished dramaturgy over interracial dating; they like each other and have evolved beyond racial walls. Younger's handling of their scenes shames movies where the woman exists only to be the other person in the sex scene.

The acting is good all around. A few days ago I saw Vin Diesel as a vicious prisoner in the space opera "Pitch Black," and now here he is, still tough, still with the shaved head, but now the only guy at the brokerage that Seth really likes, and trusts enough to appeal to. Diesel is interesting. Something will come of him.

"Boiler Room" isn't perfect. The film's ending is a little too busy; it's too contrived the way Abby doesn't tell Seth something he needs to know; there's a scene where a man calls her by name and Seth leaps to a conclusion when in fact that man would have every reason to know her name; and I am still not sure exactly what kind of a deal Seth was trying to talk his father into in their crucial evening meeting. But those are all thoughts I had afterward. During the movie I was wound up with tension and involvement, all the more so because the characters are all complex and guilty, the good as well as the bad, and we can understand why everyone in the movie does what they do. Would we? Depends.

Fisher Capital Management: Boiler Room - Live Music, Asheville NC

BOILER ROOM features a host of live music, and performance artists brought to you by Asheville locals and out-of town entertainers.

Located in the GROVE HOUSE Entertainment Complex
11 Grove Street, Downtown Asheville, NC
(828) 505-1612 www.thegrovehouse.com