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Sunday, August 21, 2011

New data spill shows risk of online health records (AP) : Technet

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New data spill shows risk of online health records (AP) : Technet

New data spill shows risk of online health records (AP)

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 01:33 PM PDT

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writer – Sun Aug 21, 4:33 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Until recently, medical files belonging to nearly 300,000 Californians sat unsecured on the Internet for the entire world to see.

There were insurance forms, Social Security numbers and doctors' notes. Among the files were summaries that spelled out, in painstaking detail, a trucker's crushed fingers, a maintenance worker's broken ribs and one man's bout with sexual dysfunction.

At a time of mounting computer hacking threats, the incident offers an alarming glimpse at privacy risks as the nation moves steadily into an era in which every American's sensitive medical information will be digitized.

Electronic records can lower costs, cut bureaucracy and ultimately save lives. The government is offering bonuses to early adopters and threatening penalties and cuts in payments to medical providers who refuse to change.

But there are not-so-hidden costs with modernization.

"When things go wrong, they can really go wrong," says Beth Givens, director of the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which tracks data breaches. "Even the most well-designed systems are not safe. ... This case is a good example of how the human element is the weakest link."

Southern California Medical-Legal Consultants, which represents doctors and hospitals seeking payment from patients receiving workers' compensation, put the records on a website that it believed only employees could use, owner Joel Hecht says.

The personal data was discovered by Aaron Titus, a researcher with Identity Finder who then alerted Hecht's firm and The Associated Press. He found it through Internet searches, a common tactic for finding private information posted on unsecured sites.

The data were "available to anyone in the world with half a brain and access to Google," Titus says.

Titus says Hecht's company failed to use two basic techniques that could have protected the data — requiring a password and instructing search engines not to index the pages. He called the breach "likely a case of felony stupidity."

One of the patients affected was Paul Thompson, who learned of the breach from Titus.

The Sugarloaf, Calif., electrician blew out his shoulder four years ago on a job wiring up a multiplex movie theater. His insurance company denied his claim, which led to a protracted dispute. He eventually settled.

Thompson says his injury has been a "long, painful road."

Unable to afford surgery in the U.S. to fix his torn rotator cuff, he paid a medical tourism company that was supposed to schedule a cheaper procedure in Costa Rica. The company went bankrupt, however, and Thompson said he lost nearly $7,300.

To have his personal information exposed on top of that was a final indignity.

"I'm totally disgusted about everything," he said, calling the breach "another kick in the stomach."

Thomson is worried that hackers may have spotted his information online and tagged him for future financial scams. He contacted his bank and set up a fraud alert with the credit reporting agencies.

He says the prospect of all health records going electronic — which federal law mandates should happen by 2014 — "scares the living hell out of me."

When mistakes occur, the fallout can be more severe than the typical breach of email addresses or credit card numbers.

In the wrong hands, health records can be used for blackmail and public humiliation. The information can also be used by insurance companies to inflate rates, or by employers to deny job applicants.

Usually when personal data are exposed, it's the result of a network break-in by a hacker or a theft of computer equipment. Sometimes, it can be a simple case of someone mishandling the information.

Leaks are more likely the more data are passed around within the health industry's increasingly interconnected networks.

Dozens of companies can be authorized to handle a single person's medical records. The further away from the health care provider the records get, the flimsier the enforcement mechanisms for ensuring the data are protected.

That's exactly what happened at Hecht's company. "Our internal security policies and procedures weren't followed," Hecht says. "When we were notified, we took immediate steps to remediate the situation and took long-term steps to make sure it never happened again."

The firm has since put the information behind a password, an approach that has its own security risks.

Hecht declined to go into further detail about how the information ended up online. He says many of the Social Security numbers and basic details about people's injuries were part of a database his firm compiled from information regularly sent by the state.

Patricia Ortiz, spokeswoman for the state Division of Workers' Compensation, says doctor's notes and other documentation in such cases are publicly available, but they have to be requested one by one.

The state stopped including Social Security numbers in those files in 2008; the exposed data came from older files.

Ortiz said that once workers' compensation information leaves the state's control, its security is the recipient's responsibility.

California, like most states, has a law requiring companies to notify consumers when their information has been breached. Hecht did not return calls from the AP seeking an update on how many patients had been notified.

Large-scale medical data breaches have been on the rise in recent years.

In one of the biggest, government health data was at risk in 2006 when a laptop with data on 26.5 million veterans was stolen from a government employee's home. The computer equipment was recovered, and the FBI said the sensitive files weren't accessed.

This year, hard drives containing health histories, financial information and Social Security numbers of 1.9 million Health Net insurance customers disappeared from an office. State regulators launched investigations into Health Net's security procedures.

The California company declined to comment, saying the incident was still under investigation.

The latest incident is "an eye-opener, and we're going to get eye-opener after eye-opener," says Jim Dempsey, a security and public policy expert at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

As instances of data mishandling become more commonplace, government officials may seek greater control over security policies of companies with access to health care records that aren't currently regulated.

"It should be yet another warning bell for companies: You've got your reputation on the line, and you're also facing enforcement action if you don't pay attention to the security of the data you collect and process," Dempsey says.

___

Jordan Robertson can be reached at jrobertson(at)ap.org.

Verizon workers return to work, without a deal (AP)

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 03:50 AM PDT

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber, Ap Economics Writer – Sun Aug 21, 6:50 am ET

NEW YORK – Thousands of striking Verizon workers will return to work starting Monday night, though their contract dispute isn't over yet.

Both the company and the union say they have agreed to narrow the issues in dispute and have set up a process to negotiate a new contract. But the talks are likely to be contentious. The two sides still disagree on touchy subjects such as health care benefits, pensions, and work rules.

About 45,000 employees went on strike on Aug. 7, after their previous contract expired. They work in the company's landline division in nine states from Massachusetts to Virginia.

Verizon says that it needs to cut costs in the traditional landline phone business, which is in decline as more Americans switch to mobile phones. The company has proposed freezing its pension and switching union workers to its non-union health plan, which has higher costs for employees.

The unions counter that the landline business supports the growing wireless business and that Verizon, which earned about $3 billion in the first half of the year, can afford to maintain the benefits in the contract that expired on Aug. 6. They also say Verizon put too many proposals on the table.

Of the 45,000 striking workers, 35,000 are covered by the Communications Workers of America, while 10,000 are covered by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Jim Spellane, a spokesman for the IBEW, said the strike occurred because Verizon "came in with an extreme set of proposals and never really moved off of them."

But after the 14-day strike, "I think they realized the unions are serious," he said. "It's in everybody's best interest to get back to work."

Verizon spokesman Richard Young said that many of the benefits and work rules were put in place when Verizon faced much less competition in its landline business. "The contracts are not reflective of today's marketplace," he said.

Spellane said that much of the traditional phone network helps support the faster-growing wireless business. And many of the technicians that went on strike install and maintain the company's new fiber optic network, FiOS, which provides Internet, video and phone services.

Verizon has 196,000 workers, with 135,000 of those non-union. The wireless division, which wasn't affected by the strike, is mostly non-union.

Nearly 30 percent of U.S. homes have dropped landline phone service and rely on mobile phones only, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Verizon Wireless added 1.3 million wireless customers in the April-June quarter, for a total of 89.7 million. That growth has been helped by the addition of Apple Inc.'s iPhone in February. The company owns 55 percent of Verizon Wireless, with Britain's Vodafone owning the rest.

Meanwhile, total voice connections, which measures FiOS digital voice connections in addition to traditional landlines, declined 7.9 percent to 25 million. But the company has seen increases of more than 20 percent in customers subscribing to both FiOS Internet and TV services over the past 12 months.

Candice Johnson, spokeswoman for the CWA, said Verizon is asking $20,000 per worker in annual concessions. The company has disputed that but hasn't offered its own figure.

Johnson said earlier this month that the union's best-paid Verizon workers get about $77,000 a year in New York. The company puts the figure at $91,000 and said benefits average $50,000.

"These are very important issues" being negotiated, she said. "They are issues that help families ensure a middle-class life."

While union workers walked the picket lines, managers and non-union employees performed their duties.

Verizon's Young said the company began training managers and non-union workers at the beginning of the year to prepare for the strike. Thousands of employees were brought in from as far away as Texas, California, and Colorado, he said. They have worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, he said.

The company also used newer technologies to resolve 50,000 problems a day remotely, Young said, such as resetting set-top boxes and routers and testing lines.

Peter Thonis, Verizon's chief communications officer, acknowledged there was "a little bit of a slowdown" in installing new services like FiOS, but said replacement workers largely kept up on repair work.

The company said in its statement that it will "quickly address any backlog in repairs and unfulfilled requests for service."

While customers who will now get their FiOS services installed on time may be winners, Verizon's Thonis said neither the company nor the workers could claim a victory.

"We still have a lot of hard and difficult bargaining to do. None of the major issues that were on the table before the strike, are off the table," he said.

____

AP radio correspondent Julie Walker contributed to this report.

Facebook's spam program catches innocent users (AP)

Posted: 20 Aug 2011 11:59 AM PDT

Tecca TV: TechLife on underwater art, Star Wars currency, healing through social media, and more (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 07:21 PM PDT

Where did webOS go wrong? (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 04:57 PM PDT

Sorry, This is Not the End of the PC Era [OPINION] (Mashable)

Posted: 20 Aug 2011 11:15 AM PDT

Todd Wasserman Todd Wasserman – Sat Aug 20, 2:15 pm ET

This post reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of Mashable as a publication. After Hewlett-Packard's announcement on Thursday that it planned to spin off its consumer PC unit, many were quick to pen obituaries for the PC epoch. The iPad, the thinking goes, has dealt the knockout blow to the personal computer, just as it turned 30.

[More from Mashable: HP Tablet: How to Find a Deeply Discounted HP TouchPad]

No doubt there's some truth in this. A portion of the market is heading toward a "post-PC" environment. But the masses still lag behind and probably will for some time. At the moment, the general market isn't even close to being there. If anything, the end-of-an-era pronouncements say more about the tech blogosphere's skewed perspective than anything else. But despite what pundits observe at cafes, Apple isn't the dominant supplier of notebooks and a fairly small amount of the public -- roughly 1% -- has an iPad. HP's exit from the market, meanwhile, actually signals that attempting to brand yourself mid-tier in the market is futile.

Post-PC? Not So Fast

First, let's look at the numbers. Apple has sold about 28.7 million iPads since the device hit the market in March 2010. That's an impressive figure, to be sure, and Apple is clearly dominant in the tablet PC market. But compare that to the 400 million licenses of Windows 7 that Microsoft has sold since its July 2009 release. Moreover, those iPads don't seem to be replacements for desktop or laptop devices. Owners of iPads are "not likely to report they're making tradeoffs on purchases," says Sarah Rotman Epps, consumer analyst with Forrester Research, who also notes that owners tend to be "relatively wealthy individuals."

[More from Mashable: Microsoft to WebOS Devs: Work With Us Instead, Get Free Phones]

The real problem dogging PC manufacturers such as HP and Dell isn't the iPad or the burgeoning of the post-PC era, but a confluence of factors, including the economy, the Windows upgrade cycle (Windows 8 isn't due until late 2012 or so) and commodification. The PC industry has suffered from the latter since the mid-'90s, but things have been stepped up of late, Epps says. HP is making a 2% to 6% margin on its consumer PCs, and getting consumers to spend more seems like folly.

In fact, this is how Apple is killing off rivals such as HP and Dell in a roundabout way: Consumers decide if they're not going to spend the extra money to buy a Mac, they might as well get the cheapest PC they can find. The race to the bottom is one reason that HP is exiting the business.

However, concluding that just because Apple is growing market share at PC makers' expense means that no one is buying PCs anymore is a mistake. Even if you lump in iPad sales, as researcher Canalys recently did, Windows PCs still have an 82% market share. Is that majority of the market likely to make the switch to iPads and Macs?

An Economic Argument for the PC's Survival

If you live in New York or San Francisco, it may seem that way, but the rest of the country may not be on board for the revolution. Consumer spending per household fell by 2.8% in 2009, which was the first time that happened since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking such data in 1984. A recent report by Bernstein Research called "U.S. Telecommunications and Cable & Satellite: The Poverty Problem" points out that consumers on the lower end are often choosing between telecom services and their next meal and opting for "good enough" services like Netflix rather than pay TV. As the report goes on to explain, U.S. households at the lower 40% of income really don't have any disposable cash. That will frustrate the growth of post-PC items like smartphones and iPads.

The other factor to consider is that, as Canalys notes, businesses are quite happy with their PCs. "We have been encouraged by the popularity of Windows 7 and the willingness of businesses to replace their install base," said Canalys principal analyst Chris Jones in a release. "High-performance PCs are still clearly seen as a major driver of business productivity around the world." Moreover, "few businesses had yet to replace notebooks with pads or smartphones," the release states. Canalys expects that it will be a long time before businesses can overcome security concerns and application compatibility issues and embrace the so-called post-PC world.

The mass of consumers who are not thriving in this economy may feel the same way. When you're pinched for cash, you start running your household like a business, scrutinizing every expense. At that point, an iPad may seem more like a luxury than a necessity and a Wintel PC may look like a great bargain.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Missouri teachers sue to block social media law (Reuters)

Posted: 20 Aug 2011 10:48 AM PDT

Comcast withdraws complaint over DirectTV's package (Reuters)

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 06:16 PM PDT

By Tim Kenneally Tim Kenneally – Fri Aug 19, 9:16 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Comcast has dropped the ball in its court offensive against DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket package, Comcast announced on its corporate blog Friday.

Comcast had argued in court that DirecTV's ads for the package were misleading, as the commercial spots claimed that the service was offered for "free" and "no extra charge." Comcast claimed that the ads neglected to mention that customers needed to sign a two-year contract in order to receive the package, and that the package automatically renewed, at full price, after the first year.

According to Comcast's announcement on Friday, its ceasefire decision came after DirecTV altered its ads.

"DirecTV has discontinued or modified its false and misleading advertising to consumers regarding its NFL Sunday Ticket package as a result of our legal action," the announcement reads. "As such, we have elected to withdraw our complaint on this matter."

DirecTV, however, calls Comcast's claim a hollow excuse for cutting bait when they sniffed defeat. Noting that a judge slapped down Comcast's request for a temporary restraining order against the ads earlier this month, DirecTV said in a statement, "Comcast lost the TRO last week and they withdrew their case today because they knew they were going to lose. Our NFL Sunday Ticket campaign will continue to air as planned."

According to DirecTV, no ads were pulled and only a "small graphic enhancement" was made to one ad a week ago.

"The campaign will continue to air as planned," a DirecTV spokesperson asserted.

Comcast did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment on this story.

Signs mounting that an LTE 4G iPhone is coming (Digital Trends)

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 05:46 PM PDT

Derek Mead Derek Mead – Sun Aug 21, 8:46 pm ET

Good news for Apple users who love high-speed mobile connections: there's more and more evidence the company is readying LTE 4G capability for the iPhone. The real question then is: when will it show up to market?

On Friday, Forbes reported that Apple had posted job openings on LinkedIn searching for wireless field test engineers with experience in working with LTE. Par of a field engineer's job is to cruise around with a new phone in hand, testing its ability to find a signal through the network. Presumably, Apple would only need field engineers versed in the ways of LTE if they already had a phone that was LTE capable for the engineers to test.

Prior to that, Boy Genius Report announced it had obtained evidence that carriers were testing LTE-equipped versions of iPhones. BGR found a copy of a test build of iOS5 designed for use in carriers' testing protocol. Within the build was a property list (.plist) file for LTE functionality. While it's only a test build, and not the final version of the firmware, it's not possible to know if LTE will arrive with the iPhone 5. But the fact that carriers are testing it suggests the technology is close to release.

AppleInsider has verified the existence of the .plist file BGR reported, this time in multiple iOS5 developer builds. That developers are receiving the LTE-supporting firmware suggests that the 4G iPhone is pretty close at hand.

Furthermore, Engadget has reported that AT&T was installing LTE equipment in a "major" Apple store. While Engadget has since removed the photo evidence, the equipment was allegedly being installed to show customers just how fast LTE networks are. That Apple is reading demo equipment in its stores would seem to be the best evidence that a 4G iPhone is near.

But although all signs are pointing to an LTE iPhone coming, no one can be sure when it will actually appear. One thing is for sure: with Apple (and its giant market share) planning to use LTE, it looks like that tech will be carriers' 4G network of choice.

Economist app brings weekly business news to your Android (Appolicious)

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 11:30 AM PDT

How Underage Google Users Can Bypass the Age Limit (Time.com)

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 08:05 PM PDT

Nintendo launches serial number checker for 3DS Ambassador Program (Digital Trends)

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 10:55 AM PDT

Adam Rosenberg Adam Rosenberg – Sun Aug 21, 1:55 pm ET

Nintendo had to do some quick sleight of hand when it announceed an $80 price cut on its 3DS portable gaming device less than six months after its launch. To appease disgruntled gamers who had just spent $250 on the now-$170 device, the company offered an open invitation to all pre-price slash 3DS owners for its Ambassador Program, which will reward members with 20 free downloadable games on the platform before the end of 2011.

Ensuring your admittance to the program was as simple as firing up your 3DS and signing into its online eShop by August 11, the day before the price drop went live. 3DS owners quickly learned that there was no confirmation of Ambassador admittance on the 3DS side, you simply had to take Nintendo's word for it that signing in would set you straight. You can double check just to be sure now though, thanks to an update on the company's support site.

Simply follow the above link and input your 3DS serial number into the text box. You'll find it on the back of your portable, located just beneath a SKU code on a little white sticker. It's an 11-character string, so make sure you enter in that last number as well, the one inside the little box. For the record, I have one of the pre-price cut 3DS's, I signed onto the eShop the day the Ambassador Program was announced and, sure enough, I'm listed as confirmed.

The first 10 games will arrive starting September 1, all of them classic NES games ported to the eShop's Virtual Console. The other 10 will come before the end of the year, and those have all been confirmed to be Game Boy Advance titles. A handful of the included games have been revealed so far, with fan favorites like The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. on the NES side and Metroid Fusion and Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 on the GBA side.

PopoJumpHD tops iPad Games of the Week (Appolicious)

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 06:30 PM PDT

How to stay 5Degrees ahead in creating an app for professional social networking (Appolicious)

Posted: 20 Aug 2011 12:00 PM PDT

BlackBerry's music service costs $5 a month, 50 song limit with library sharing (Digital Trends)

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 09:00 PM PDT

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – Sat Aug 20, 12:00 am ET

blackberry-7-phones

Details on RIM's BlackBerry music app leaked out today from CrackBerry. According to their report, the music service is priced at $5 a month. However, BlackBerry owners will be able to activate a free trial of the application after downloading the BlackBerry music app. After activation, the user can download up to 50 songs at a time onto the phone. While the amount is extremely minuscule compared to Spotify's offline caching of up to 3,333 tracks per mobile device, users will be able to listen to the song library of anyone using the app on the contact list. The amount of allowed connections is currently unknown at this time, but potentially offers access to thousands of songs for users with many connections. 

blackberry musicIt's rumored that RIM recently signed a deal with one of the four leading music labels and is in the process of setting up deals with two other labels. The major music labels include Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, EMI Music and Universal Music Group. The BlackBerry music app likely represents RIM's attempt at broadening the appeal of the BlackBerry smartphone line beyond the business user. However, it's unclear if users will pay for a monthly music rental service with the ability to add a SD card in a BlackBerry phone for access to media like MP3-encoded tracks. Assuming a user owns a great deal of music, a Blackberry owner can fit hundreds of albums on a 32GB SD memory card that costs about $40.

There's currently no Spotify application for the BlackBerry. On other smartphones, access to unlimited music streaming costs $9.99 a month and the user has the ability to sync playlists to the device with an offline mode switch. Paying for the service also removes the 20-hour limit of the free version and cuts out advertisements as well. The premium service also allows users to access alternative devices like the Logitech Squeezebox line, Sonos wireless music system and Onkyo home cinema receivers.

With HP tablet dead, who can challenge Apple? (Reuters)

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 05:42 AM PDT

By Liana B. Baker Liana B. Baker – Sun Aug 21, 8:42 am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters)- The sudden demise of Hewlett-Packard Co's WebOS TouchPad after just seven weeks on shelves was a reminder of how tech giants have failed so far to take a bite out of Apple Inc's iPad.

The TouchPad joins Dell Streak 5 in the tablet graveyard and weak sales for many offerings suggest others are bound to follow.

"The non-iPad tablets just won't sell at retail. That's the clear message from events over the past few days," said Mark Gerber, an analyst at Boston research and investment firm Detwiler Fenton.

Other tablets that have failed to click with consumers include Asustek Computer Eee Pad Transformer and the Xoom from Motorola Mobility, which Google Inc plans to buy.

Research in Motion's PlayBook received scathing reviews and sales have been slack, but it will probably survive since it is key to RIM's strategy.

"I do not expect RIM to be shutting down PlayBook sales any time soon or abandoning that platform, because RIM views it as its future," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial in New York.

Apple's rivals have not fared any better in designing software for tablets.

Apple's iOS tablet software accounted for 61.3 percent of the tablet market in the second quarter, more than double the 30.1 percent share held by Google's Android, its nearest competitor. Microsoft held a paltry 4.6 percent share and RIM 3.3 percent, according to Strategy Analytics.

COMPETITION COMING

But the landscape could soon change. Google's move this week to buy Motorola Mobility, a hardware manufacturer, has also potentially raised the stakes against Apple as it will give the Internet leader devices to showcase its software -- just as Apple does.

All eyes are now on Google's "Ice Cream Sandwich" system, which will unite the Android software used in tablets and smartphones. That is expected to encourage developers to flock to the platform and create better apps.

Microsoft could also pose a threat when it releases its tablet software, code-named Windows 8, but this probably won't be until the fall of 2012.

"The ecosystem built around Microsoft is the largest computing ecosystem out there, so this makes it the company most likely to get significant traction in the tablet marketplace," said BGC's Gillis.

Microsoft has said the software will run on a range of devices from traditional PCs to laptops and tablets, and incorporate mouse and keyboard commands.

Amazon.com, the maker of the popular Kindle e-reader, is also expected to announce plans to release a tablet this fall, providing a challenge to Apple.

The Amazon offering could be a "game-changer," Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert Baird & Co, said in a recent note. The tablet will likely feature Android's Honeycomb OS system, a 7-inch screen and be priced under $300, he said.

Sebastian forecast sales of up to 3 million units in the first year and said they would eventually outsell other Android-enabled tablets from Motorola and Acer, and could potentially surpass Samsung's Galaxy Tab.

Amazon's as-yet unnamed tablet poses a significant threat to Apple because of the Kindle's popularity and the movie and music services the company sells. Analysts also expect Amazon to subsidize the tablet's price, which could also boost sales.

"Amazon is widely viewed as a wild card. It has the potential to be disruptive," said NPD analyst Ross Rubin.

The crowded market has not discouraged Sony Corp either. The consumer electronics giant is going full steam ahead with plans to release its first two tablets in the fall.

"We're going to see many competitors come and go," a Sony spokeswoman said.

"We're going to bring the best of all of the assets at our disposal to bear: hardware, content and network services."

(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco, Bill Rigby in Seattle and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; editing by Peter Lauria, Ted Kerr and Andre Grenon)

SAP says strong demand defies talks of crisis: report (Reuters)

Posted: 20 Aug 2011 09:25 AM PDT

– Sat Aug 20, 12:25 pm ET

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany's SAP (SAPG.DE), the world's biggest maker of business software, said confidence among its clients in no way reflected reported fears of a looming economic downturn.

"Things are still looking good with our customers out there. There is a lot of momentum at the companies," Co-Chief Executive Jim Hagemann Snabe told Sunday paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

"What I hear on the Radio doesn't correspond at all with what we are experiencing in real life," he said in an interview that was in parts made available to the media on Saturday.

He also confirmed that SAP expects to reach the upper end of its target range of 10-14 percent growth for software and related services in 2011.

SAP said last month it expects to reach the high end of its previous 2011 forecast range after a strong second quarter, confounding fears of a slowdown in economically fragile Europe and lifting its shares.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; editing by James Jukwey)

AP ENTERPRISE: Sand for sale; environment ravaged (AP)

Posted: 20 Aug 2011 09:01 PM PDT

By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Denis D. Gray, Associated Press – Sun Aug 21, 12:01 am ET

KOH KONG, Cambodia – Round a bend in Cambodia's Tatai River and the virtual silence of a tropical idyll turns suddenly into an industrial nightmare.

Lush jungle hills give way to a flotilla of dredgers operating 24 hours a day, scooping up sand and piling it onto ocean-bound barges. The churned-up waters and fuel discharges, villagers say, have decimated the fish so vital to their livelihoods. Riverbanks are beginning to collapse, and the din and pollution are killing a promising ecotourism industry.

What is bad news for the poor, remote Tatai community is great tidings for Singapore, the wealthy city-state that is expanding its territory by reclaiming land from the sea. Sand from nearby countries is the prime landfill and also essential building material for Singapore's spectacular skyline.

As more countries ban its export to curb environmental damage — entire Indonesian islands have been all but wiped off the map — suppliers to Singapore scour the region for what still can be obtained, legally or not. Cambodia, a poor country where corruption is rife and laws are often flouted, is now the No. 1 source.

Singapore is by no means the only nation taking part in what is a global harvest of sand from beaches, rivers and seabeds. Officials and environmentalists from China to Morocco have voiced concern and urged curbs. As construction booms in emerging economies and more sources dry up, however, exploitation of the remaining ones is likely to intensify.

Sand mining began anew in May on southwestern Tatai River, which empties into the ocean almost directly north of Singapore, across 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) of open water.

Despite denials by the main owner of sand mining rights in Koh Kong province, two Cambodian officials told The Associated Press that the sand is destined for the island nation.

Singapore will not say where its sand comes from; the Construction and Building Authority said it is not public information. The National Development Ministry said the state's infrastructure development company buys it from "a diverse range of approved sources."

The mining visible on the Tatai River clearly violates some of Cambodia's own legal restrictions, not to mention a recent government order to suspend it temporarily.

Vessels of a Vietnamese company were tracked by boat from about 10 kilometers (6 miles) upriver to the Gulf of Thailand, where nearly a dozen seagoing barges, tugs hovering around them, took on the sand.

The AZ Kunming Singapore, a 5,793-ton (5,255-metric ton) barge pulled by the AZ Orchid, was seen arriving empty from the open ocean, its tug flying a Singaporean flag. Both are registered with the Singapore government, which would not comment on the barge's cargo or destination.

Ships from several countries, including China, were spotted in sand-mining operations in Koh Kong province, where residents joked about going to Singapore and planting a Cambodian flag there.

The vessels included one from Winton Enterprises, a Hong Kong-registered group that was subcontracted to export sand to Singapore, according to Global Witness, a London-based environmental group that published a detailed account of the trade last year.

The report said that miners had penetrated protected mangrove, estuary and sea grass areas, breeding grounds for marine life along a coastline and hinterland harboring some of the country's last wilderness areas.

Cambodia's cabinet spokesman, Siphan Phay, who was investigating the issue in Koh Kong, appeared angry that the temporary halt order was being ignored. He described the activity as illegal mining destined for Singapore, a surprising statement given that government ministers awarded the concession.

A police officer in the economic crime division, who demanded anonymity given the issue's sensitivity, also said the sand is going to Singapore.

Ly Yong Phat, who holds the major concession in Koh Kong, has at times openly acknowledged the Singapore connection. But in a recent AP interview, amid tightening restrictions and mounting criticism, he said his company had not shipped sand to Singapore for more than a year because "our sand did not meet their standards."

The dredging, he added, was for local sale and to deepen river channels.

However, a Malaysian company, Benalec Holdings, said it was ready to tap up to 530,000 tons for a reclamation project in Singapore from several sources in Cambodia, including Ly Yong Phat's LYP Group.

Known as the "King of Koh Kong," Ly Yong Phat is one of Cambodia's biggest tycoons and a senator with close ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen. His holdings include hotels, a casino and agricultural plantations.

Land reclamation has enlarged Singapore by more than a fifth, and up to 100 square kilometers (nearly 40 square miles) more are slated for reclamation by 2030. What was once seabed is now Changi, among the world's finest airports, and more recently the Marina Bay complex, which includes a 2,560-room hotel and casino developed by Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Mountains of sand are needed for such fills. U.N. statistics show Singapore imported 14.6 million tons last year, ranking it among the world's top customers. Global Witness estimated that nearly 800,000 tons a year, worth some $248 million, were streaming to Singapore from Koh Kong alone.

The U.N. figures show that Cambodia supplied 25 percent of Singapore's imports in 2010, followed by Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines. With its secrecy and lax enforcement of environmental regulations, Myanmar could emerge as a major supplier.

The damage caused by sand extraction has spurred clampdowns on exports.

Malaysia imposed a ban in 1997, though the media there frequently report on massive smuggling into neighboring Singapore. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad complains that sand pirates are "digging Malaysia and giving her to other people."

An Indonesian ban came in 2007, following years of strained relations with Singapore over the sand on islands lying between the two countries. When miners finished with Nipah Island, reportedly all that was left was three or four palm trees protruding above the waterline. Environmental groups say smuggling is believed to be continuing.

Vietnam banned exports late last year.

Cambodia outlawed the export of sand from rivers in 2009 but allows it from some seabeds. Recently, some government officials said that rivers where seawater flowed into fresh water, replenishing sand naturally, were exempt.

Global Witness spokesman Oliver Courtney said the trade in Cambodia revealed a "mismatch between Singapore's reliance on questionably sourced sand and its position as a leader for sustainable development." The city-state prides itself on environmentally sound urban planning.

The dredging of the Tatai River began on May 17 "with a fury," creating a veritable traffic jam on the water, said Janet Newman, owner of the riverside Rainbow Lodge.

"Before you could see crab pots bobbing in the river everywhere and fishermen going out. Now there is nothing and nobody," the British woman said.

Chea Manith of the Nature Tourism Community of Tatai said 270 families along the river have seen an estimated 85 percent drop in catch of fish, crab and lobsters and were being forced to eke out a living from small garden plots. Tourists have all but vanished.

Armed with a petition, village leaders, tourism operators and a wildlife group met with Ly Yong Phat in early July. He appeared sympathetic, Newman said. He substantially reduced the dredging and has promised to stop altogether in October.

A subsequent letter from the Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology ordered the LYP group to halt operations temporarily on the Tatai, citing a breach of regulations. The letter was obtained by Cambodia's Phnom Penh Post newspaper, which made it available to the AP.

Hun Sen himself expressed concern over the mining in the river.

"We hoped that the prime minister's recent promise to review the impacts of the sand trade would lead to proper regulation of dredging operations," said Courtney of Global Witness. "Unfortunately, the pledge does not appear to have been followed up with meaningful action."

The mining has continued on the Tatai, and violations, such as dredging closer than 150 meters (165 yards) from riverbanks, were clearly evident.

The Post also obtained a Ministry of Industry, Mining and Energy letter extending LYP Group's concession in Koh Kong until Sept. 2012.

"We are just little people. We cannot do anything," Chea Manith said.

Newman sounded a more optimistic note. "It's my hope that the LYP Group will become sympathetic through this experience of having seen the reaction from people passionate about protecting their environment," she said. "It would be sad if they just went somewhere else to dump the same on others."

___

Associated Press writers Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Alex Kennedy in Singapore; Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines; Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar; and Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, contributed to this report.
at 9:44 PM

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