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Snapchat Update: The New Features Everyone is Talking About

Jonathan Antonio
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Snapchat Update: The New Features Everyone is Talking About

Snapchat has officially released a new design and user interface.

Initially, Snapchat tested the new user interface and user experience on a small group of Android users. On Monday, the company unleashed a behemoth of new features. Snapchat’s new UI/UX include a brand new universal search bar. The goal of the new search bar is to make it easier for Snapchat users to send messages to friends, watch Stories, chat with groups, and search other users.

The company also changed their animations, chat user interface, camera display, updated Stories features, and added Bitmoji to the Snapchat app; Bitmoji will allow for users to make customized avatars.

These were not the only new features Snapchat upgraded. The New York Times reports, Snapchat published new guidelines for their publishers using Discover. From now on, Snapchat will restrict publishers from using clickbait images or writing misleading headlines. Ultimately, Snapchat is attempting to position themselves as a serious news source by cutting down on clickbait stories on the popular social media app. The New York Times reports, Snapchat also plans to implement age-restrictions on certain news stories to prevent minors from seeing inappropriate content on the Discover section.

Rachel Racusen, a Snapchat representative spoke with the Times about the new changes. Racusen states the new Discover section will “empower our editorial partners to do their part to keep Snapchat an informative, factual and safe environment for everyone,” said Rachel Racusen, a Snapchat representative.

Snapchat’s recent updates

Snapchat has been actively upgrading their platform. Earlier this month, Sony Pictures CEO, Michael Lynton, left Sony Pictures to join Snapchat. Michael Lynton will become the Chairman of the Board of Snap Inc. In a statement Lynton explained,  “I have been involved with Evan and Snapchat since its early days, and given its growth since then, decided the time was right to transition and focus on my role as Chairman of the Board of Snap Inc.”

Snapchat Spectacles
(NYCStock / Shutterstock, Inc.)

Outside of hiring new talent to help run the growing business. The social media company released a new product, Spectacles. For $129 dollars, users can purchase Spectacles via a Snapchat vending machine. After a pair of spectacles are purchased, the device is pairable with a smartphone; this feature allows users to record Snapchat videos. After recording a video, the video will appear under the memories tab within the Snapchat application.

After the company acquired Bit Strips, Bitmojis became extremely popular on the application. Bit Strips allow for users to create personalized emojis, also known as, Bitmojis. Bit Strips was founded 10 years ago. Bit Strips allowed for users to create personal digital comics. By 2014, the company reinvented itself by making digital cartoon avatars. Last March, Snapchat acquired Bitstrips. According to a Fortune report, Snapchat may have paid around $100 million in cash and stock.

Snapchat is consistently updating their social media app. Piper Jaffray, an investment firm, conducted a study in 2016; the study found millennials are spending more time on Snapchat than on Facebook. In fact, 80 percent of teens said they checked Snapchat at least once per month. While only 52 percent of teens said they used Facebook in the past month, which was a 15 percent drop from Jaffray’s previous survey.

JAY Z Sells 33% of TIDAL to Sprint

Reginald Edward
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0
JAY Z Sells 33% of TIDAL to Sprint

On Monday, Sprint announced they will acquire 33% of Jay Z’s music streaming company, TIDAL. Sprint will make TIDAL available to Sprint’s 45 million customers. TIDAL will provide exclusive content to Sprint customers. The telecommunications company explains the new terms and conditions will help Sprint gain new business and “reward current customers”.

In a statement, Sprint reported their company purchased 33% of TIDAL. JAY Z and artists on TIDAL’s platform will continue to provide music content for their subscribers.

Sprint argues the partnership with TIDAL will help both companies to expand and gain new business.

Jay Z also commented on the deal, stating, “Sprint shares our view of revolutionizing the creative industry to allow artists to connect directly with their fans and reach their fullest, shared potential.”

“Jay saw not only a business need, but a cultural one, and put his heart and grit into building TIDAL into a world-class music streaming platform that is unrivaled in quality and content,” said Sprint’s CEO Marcelo Claure. “The passion and dedication that these artist-owners bring to fans will enable Sprint to offer new and existing customers access to exclusive content and entertainment experiences in a way no other service can.”

What is Tidal?

Tidal Sprint
(BestStockFoto / Shutterstock, Inc.)

Tidal is a music subscription service similar to Spotify and Apple Music. The company features over 25 million songs and over 85,000 music videos. Tidal also pays the highest percentage of royalties to music artists.

Currently, there are two different subscriptions: Tidal Premium and Tidal HiFi. The difference between the subscription packages is a matter of streaming quality. For example, Tidal Premium features sound and quality is not exactly perfect. However, Tidal HiFi is the company’s high quality sound package featuring lossless CD quality.

Tidal was first launched three years ago by a Swedish company called Aspiro. The company was able to obtain distribution agreements with three of the major labels including several independent recording companies. JAY Z’s company, Project Panther Ltd., for $56.2 million in 2015.

In an interview with Billboard magazine, JAY Z explained he was interested in partnering with other groups to purchase TIDAL. However, he decided to take this venture alone.  “We talked to every single service and we explored all the options,” Jay Z said, “But at the end of the day, we figured if we’re going to shape this thing the way we see it, then we need to have independence. And that became a better proposition for us, not an easier one, mind you,” he added.

Under the control of JAY Z, the company launched a media campaign to market and reintroduce the TIDAL streaming platform. Many recording artists changed their social media profiles to color blue and the hashtag #TIDALforALL quickly went viral. On March 30, 2015, several of the biggest pop recording artists, including JAY Z, Beyoncé, Madonna, Daft Punk, and many others, held a press conference announcing the new music platform.

But what makes JAY Z’s TIDAL different?

TIDAL
(JStone / Shutterstock, Inc.)

In a 2015 interview with the New York Times, JAY Z said the biggest difference between TIDAL and its competitors was the way the company treats their recording artists. “This is a platform that’s owned by artists,” JAY Z said. “We are treating these people that really care about the music with the utmost respect.”

TIDAL also offers exclusive content to their subscribers. TIDAL subscribers were able to see exclusive Beyoncé and Madonna music videos. Also, Rihanna fans were able to obtain exclusive access to new song and music video, “American Oxygen,” via the TIDAL service.

Early TIDAL problems

JAY Z Tidal
Debby Wong / Shutterstock, Inc.

Initially, JAY Z’s company needed to overcome challenges. By April 2015, reports surfaced the company fired the original Aspiro staff, including CEO Andy Chen. TIDAL then replaced Chen with Peter Tonstad. Less than a year later, TIDAL replaced Tonstad and hired Jeff Toig, as the new CEO of the company.

TIDAL faced major backlash and criticism. Recording artists, critics, and fans, criticized TIDAL for the inflated monthly subscription fee. Many artists argued the monthly fee will only promote piracy. For example, recording artist Lily Allen took to Twitter to voice her frustration with TIDAL. “I love Jay-Z so much, but Tidal is (so) expensive compared to other perfectly good streaming services, he’s taken the biggest artists… Made them exclusive to Tidal (am I right in thinking this?), people are going to swarm back to pirate sites in droves,” she said.

Lily Allen When Kanye West released his new album The Life of Pablo as a TIDAL streaming exclusive album. Kanye West’s album was downloaded illegally over 500,000 times, according to Torrent Freak. Subsequently, Kanye West released the album to other major streaming companies.

‘Star Wars’ Botnet: Researchers Discover 350,000 Twitter Bots

Jonathan Antonio
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0
‘Star Wars’ Botnet: Researchers Discover 350,000 Twitter Bots

Earlier this week, Twitter’s CEO apologized after the social network forced users to follow Donald Trump’s (@POTUS) Twitter account. A new study found a hidden network of “Star Wars” bots on Twitter.

Researchers from the Department of Computer Science, at the University College London, revealed a secret bot network with over 350,000 Twitter bots.

The study reported the creator of the bots controlled thousands of bots. “Here we report our discovery of the Star Wars botnet with more than 350k bots. We show these bots were generated and centrally controlled by a botmaster,” Juan Echeverria and Shi Zhou, the lead researchers in the study explained.

Researchers explain a large percentage of Twitter users are actually bots. These bots have the ability to “spam, manipulate public opinion” and even alter research data uses Twitter’s API. In fact, one of the biggest problems with using Twitter as a data source is the fact it can be easily skewed by bots, Echeverria and Zhou reported in their study.

University College London scientists explain bots have the ability to manipulate people. For example, a large groups of bots, can spam, create fake trending topics, alter public opinions, and contaminate Twitter’s API.

Echeverria and Zhou explained the discovered “Star Wars” bots had key characteristics. One of the key features included tweeting random quotations from “Star Wars” books.

“Each tweet contains only one quotation, often with incomplete sentences or broken words at the beginning or at the end,” the researchers reported.

University College of London researchers argue, the ability to tweet quotations helped the bots to go unnoticed. Echeverria and Zhou explained by using quotes, the bots were able to communicate in the same way as a typical Twitter user. The Star Wars bots never included URLs within their tweets. Nor did they mention other users, or reply to anyone else. Ultimately, bots avoided detection by using these key features.

A large majority of the “Star Wars” Twitter bots never retweet or mention any other Twitter users. After registering, Twitter bots immediately started tweeting. The “Star Wars” Twitter bots tweeted up to 150,000 times per day. On July 14, 2013 all of the bots immediately stopped tweeting. Zhou and Echeverria argue this demonstrates someone controlled the large network of bots.

What does the ‘Star Wars’ botnet mean for cybersecurity?

Zhou and Echeverria’s study illustrates how people can manipulate and hide within the social network. Botnets can possibly control public opinion by affecting trending topics. Not to mention, the botnets are being sold on the black market as fake followers. Zhou and Echeverria explain this research should alert cybersecurity experts about the vulnerabilities within Twitter’s social network.

Researchers also revealed their research has led to another discovery; Zhou and Echeverria recently discovered over 500,000 bot network.

This is not the first time bots made headlines. Hackers used bots and stole $3,000,000 per day from video advertising companies by using bot farms. According to analysts, hackers used bots to watch as many as 300 million video ads per day on fake websites designed to look like a premium websites. This resulted in the biggest fraud operation against digital advertising in history.

Twitter Apologizes After Accidentally Forcing Users To Follow Donald Trump

Jonathan Antonio
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Twitter Apologizes After Accidentally Forcing Users To Follow Donald Trump

Over the weekend, Twitter users noticed they were suddenly following the official Twitter account of the President of the United States, against their will. On Sunday, the social network’s CEO Jack Dorsey apologized.

Dorsey took to Twitter addressing the issue. He explained that a problem occurred after the social media platform was migrating users from the previous @POTUS account to the new one. Dorsey revealed over 500,000 accounts became affected following the migration.

Dorsey stated that the Obama administration worked on creating a transition plan for the 45th President of the United States. But, because @POTUS is not a personal account, the Obama administration felt that they should transition accounts with followers but have the new @Potus account have 0 tweets.

Jack Dorsey emphasized that the transition started at 12PM on January 20th. The plan was as follows, “If you were following @POTUS before 12p ET, by end of day, you’d be following *two* accounts: @POTUS44 (44th Admin) and @POTUS (45th Admin),” Dorsey explained.

But, two problems occurred. The first problem was that people who followed @POTUS44 were also set to follow @POTUS. People who unfollowed @POTUS in the past were now following @POTUS.

“We believe this affected about 560,000 people. This was a mistake, it wasn’t right, we own it, and we apologize. No excuses,” Dorsey said.

Twitter during the election

Launched was launched in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. The Twitter app gained in popularity and by 2012, the social network had more than 100 million users with over 340 million tweets a day. According to a New York Times report, Twitter was the biggest social media mover and shaker during election day 2016. In fact, there were more than 27,000 posts every minute by 11 a.m.

Despite Twitter’s extreme popularity during the election, Twitter has struggled to make a profit. Consequently, the company announced a plan to lay off 9% of their staff; this resulted in the end of Twitter’s social video app Vine, which officially shut down earlier this month.

Lavabait: Edward Snowden’s Encrypted Email Service is Back Online

Jonathan Antonio
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0
Lavabait: Edward Snowden’s Encrypted Email Service is Back Online

Lavabit is back. On Inauguration Day, Lavabit relaunched their service.

On January 20th, Lavabit announced on their website, this day was a symbolic day for the company. Since January 20th was a symbolic day for Lavabit, Ladar Levision,  the company’s owner and operator, decided to relaunch the company. 

“In August 2013, I was forced to make a difficult decision: violate the rights of the American people and my global customers or shut down,” Levison said. “I chose Freedom. Much has changed since my decision, but unfortunately much has not in our post-Snowden world. Email continues to be the heart of our cyber-identities, but as evidenced by recent jaw-dropping headlines it remains insecure, unreliable, and easily readable by an attacker.”

“Today, we start a new freedom journey and inaugurate the next-generation of email privacy and security,” Levison added.

Lavabit plans to release DIME, also known as Dark Internet Mail Environment. DIME is a new type of encrypted email service. In addition to launching an encrypted email service, Lavabit will release Magma, an open source and free mail server. Together, Lavabit hopes to provide several layers of e-mail security. In addition, Levison calls the new product “radically different from any other encrypted platform, solving security problems others neglect.” The company also asserts that the new email encryption service is secure on both ends providing users a way to send encrypted emails.

At the moment, Lavabit is pre-registering new users and the products and services are 50% off. The standard package has 5 GB and costs $15 per year. The Premier package is 20 GB and costs $30 per year.

How does DIME work?

The company explains that DIME is a secure communications platform that uses PGP based encryption. “By encrypting all facets of an email transmission (body, metadata and transport layer), DIME guarantees the security of users and the least amount of information leakage possible.” In addition, there are several types of encrypted email service including Trustful, Cautious and Paranoid mode.

What is Lavabit?

Lavabit first launched in 2004. However, nine years later on August 8, 2013 the U.S. government ordered the company to turn over their private SSL keys in order to obtain Edward Snowden’s email account information.

The company first launched after the company’s owner reported privacy issues with Gmail, Google’s popular email service. At the time, Google was able to scan the content of a gmail user’s email in order to present targeted advertising. In order to increase privacy protection Lavabit offered encryption services. The company specifically used asymmetric encryption. A type of encryption that requires two different keys. One key encrypts a message and another key has the ability to decrypt the message. By August 2013, the company had over 400,000 users.

Lavabit’s association with Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden
Stock Photo:
WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 26: Signs held by protesters during a rally against mass surveillance in Washington, DC on October 26, 2013. (Rena Schild / Shutterstock.com)

By July 2013 Lavabit was in the middle of a media circus. It was revealed that Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked confidential information to the public before escaping to Russia used Lavabit’s email service.

Edward Snowden made international headlines after leaking information revealing several surveillance programs that showed cooperation between telecommunication companies, European governments and the NSA.

The federal government would later charge Edward Snowden with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 along with theft of government property. Two days later, Snowden traveled to Moscow, Russia. Since then, Edward Snowden has lived in an undisclosed location in Russia after obtaining asylum.

However, it was after using the email address ed_snowden@lavabit.com Snowden was able to hold a press conference at the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia. That is when Lavabit and the company’s owner Ladar Levison’s problems started.

Lavabit (temporary) Shutdown

In July 2013 the federal government obtained a search warrant demanding that Lavabit reveal the SSL keys used to encrypt the email service. By August 2013, Lavabit shut down their operations. Levison later explained he was under a gag order. In turn, he was unable to explain why the service had ended. According to an NBC news report, Levison explained that it was a “difficult decision” to shut down Lavabit. Levison argued that he did not want “to become complicit in crimes against the American people.”

Following the Edward Snowden controversy another email encryption company shut down. Silent Circle announced that they would also shut down after the company reported being able to “see the writing on the wall”.

In 2017, Lavabit explains that they suspended their service to protect their customers. Levison argued their decision to suspend their service came after the federal government ordered them to release their private keys. “We said NO to protect your digital privacy and freedom. We have and always will protect you.”

Pet Rats Linked to Seoul Virus Outbreak

Brent Edward
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0
Pet Rats Linked to Seoul Virus Outbreak

After a norovirus outbreak in Chicago caused a school to temporarily close, the CDC reveals a Seoul virus outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have discovered a link between pet rats and a Seoul virus outbreak. After working with the Illinois and Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the CDC discovered virus infections in eight different people who worked at rat-breeding facilities.

This type of virus infection in the United States is not common. In fact, this is the first known outbreak linked to pet rats.

The investigation into the virus first started in December after a rat breeder was hospitalized after exhibiting a fever, headache and other symptoms. The CDC then tested the blood and confirmed that the infection was caused by the Seoul virus. A family member who worked with rats also tested positive for the virus. Fortunately, they have recovered.

The CDC points out that after an investigation “several rat breeders that supplied the initial patient’s rats revealed an additional six cases of Seoul virus at two Illinois rat breeding facilities,” the CDC said.

Health Departments will be working with the CDC to continue investigating the virus outbreak. Furthermore, the CDC will be reaching out to rat breeders to further investigate how people became exposed to the virus.

What is the Seoul virus?

Seoul virus spreads after someone comes into contact with infected blood, saliva or other infectious bodily fluids. Asia has a high rate of Seoul infections. Symptoms include fever, severe headaches, abdominal pain, blurred vision, or a rash.  However, the recovery rate for this type of virus infections are high.

To prevent a Seoul virus infection, the CDC suggests for people to frequently wash their hands. The CDC also recommends rat owners to keep rodents secured in their cages, clean and disinfect rodent areas. In addition, rodent owners should avoid bites and scratches from rats.

Researchers Create A.I. That Can See and Think Like Humans

Jonathan Antonio
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0
Researchers Create A.I. That Can See and Think Like Humans

As Silicon Valley invests into Artificial Intelligence, one university’s research team is working on making A.I. to see like humans.

Northwestern University announced this week their ability to make an A.I. system as smart as human beings. Using a computational model, researchers at Northwestern University were able to have an A.I. system perform at the same level as humans on standard intelligence tests. The goal is to make artificial intelligence systems see the world in the same way humans do.

In a statement, Northwestern Engineering’s, Ken Forbus, explained that they were able to create an A.I. computational model to answer spatial reasoning questions at the same intelligence level as the 75th percentile of Americans; the Northwestern University researchers were able to make an A.I model slightly smarter the average US citizen.

“The problems that are hard for people are also hard for the model, providing additional evidence that its operation is capturing some important properties of human cognition,” Forbus explained.

Researchers used CogSketch, an artificial intelligence platform developed by Ken Forbus. According to their website, CogSketch is a ‘sketch understanding program’ that allows for a computer to understand pictures. “CogSketch has been used by cognitive psychologists to gather data in laboratory experiments and by AI researchers to explore spatial reasoning,” the Northwest Qualitative Research Group explains on their website.

Ultimately, CogSketch is a tool that allows for psychologists to gather data in laboratory experiments and for A.I. researchers to understand and explore how people understand objects otherwise known as spatial reasoning.

The results of the study were published in the Psychological Review and researchers explain that the ability to solve complex problems is what makes humans different than most animals. In turn, researchers explain that developing A.I. systems that can think like a human, can potentially change the way artificial intelligent computers connect with humans.

“Most artificial intelligence research today concerning vision focuses on recognition, or labeling what is in a scene rather than reasoning about it,” Forbus said. “But recognition is only useful if it supports subsequent reasoning. Our research provides an important step toward understanding visual reasoning more broadly.”

Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more popular in Silicon Valley. In fact, just last week, Microsoft acquired Maluuba, an A.I. startup that develops A.I. technology that can understand “natural language”.

Calorie Restriction Diets Helped Monkeys Live Longer – Will It Work for Humans?

Brent Edward
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0
Calorie Restriction Diets Helped Monkeys Live Longer – Will It Work for Humans?

Do calorie-restriction diets work? The key to many weight loss diets is the process of cutting the amount of calories a person eats. Essentially, burning more calories than you consume will lead to weight loss. But, a new study examining calorie restriction diets shows that it helps monkeys live longer and healthier lives.

A new study published in the journal of Nature Communications titled, “Caloric restriction improves health and survival of rhesus monkeys” studied how calorie restriction diets impacted monkeys and their health.

After a long running study on monkeys researchers concluded that monkeys who were on a calorie restricted diet were able to live three years longer than normal. The study suggested restricting calories could prevent the development of age-related disorders. Two research teams from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the National Institutes of Aging revealed their results and concluded calorie restriction helped monkeys live longer.

Scientists from both academic institutions cut calories by about 11% for two years. Researchers found reduced risk factors associated with heart disease and metabolic disorders in monkeys that were on the calorie restriction diet. However, towards the end of the study researchers did point out that many of the monkeys did exhibit signs of low bone density.

Previous research from the University of Wisconson-Madison found that there are benefits in survival from a calorie restriction diet. Their results included reduction in cancer, cardiovascular disorders and insulin resistance.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers kept primates under observation in which one group were allowed to eat whatever they wanted. Meanwhile, another group were fed nutritious food, but had 30% fewer calories than the other unrestricted monkeys. At the end of the study, researchers found calorie restricted monkeys had a lower risk of age-related disorders and diseases than those who were not a regulated calorie deficient diet.

However, a similar study conducted by the National Institutes of Aging found that there were no significant improvement in survival, when they conducted their study.

The conflicting study results had many researchers wondering if calorie restricted diets actually affected the aging process.

Consequently, both researchers decided to work together. The collaboration found that conflicting results were due to monkeys being put on calorie regulated diets at different ages. Ultimately, adult and older primates actually benefited from the diets. While, younger monkeys who were on the calorie restricted diets did not. Furthermore, the food quality fed to the monkeys also had an impact on the study results.

Ultimately, researchers explain that a moderate calorie restriction of 30% had a beneficial impact on the monkeys. While, severe caloric reductions such as 50% did not benefit a monkey’s health.

Julie A. Mattison and her team of researchers explained that a caloric restrict diet without causing malnutrition allowed for monkeys to live longer. In addition, monkeys had a delayed onset of age-related diseases. Researchers argue that this data on monkeys suggest that by eating less humans can live longer and also avoid age-related disorders from developing.

While the type of monkeys, rhesus monkeys, involved in the study are genetically similar to humans, it is not clear if a calorie restricted diet can make humans live longer. However, a study published earlier this week found that sitting for long periods of time made people approximately 8 years older.

 

President Trump Reverses FHA Mortgage Insurance Premium Cuts

Reginald Edward
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0
President Trump Reverses FHA Mortgage Insurance Premium Cuts

Hours into Trump’s presidency, Donald Trump’s administration has indefinitely suspended a reduction to the Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance premium, which is a program Obama’s administration announced in his waning days in office.

In the statement, Trump’s administration asserts, “FHA is committed to ensuring its mortgage insurance programs remains viable and effective in the long term for all parties involved, especially our taxpayers. As such, more analysis and research are deemed necessary to assess future adjustments while also considering potential market conditions in an ever-changing global economy that could impact our efforts.”

As a result, the plan to reduce annual premiums by 25 basis points from .85 to .60, will no longer be implemented. The cut to the FHA program had the potential to save the average FHA backed homeowner $500 in 2017.

The program was first announced earlier this month and was supposed to go into effect next week. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer fired back at Trump’s administration on Friday and called for the 45th president to reverse his decision. “President Trump, with the flick of a pen, ended that new policy, making it harder for Americans of modest means to obtain their piece of the rock, the American dream — home ownership.

FHA supported loans help first time homeowners and low-income individuals buy a home. FHA loans help people put lower down payments. In effect, the insurance is required to help protect lenders just in case borrowers are unable to pay for their mortgage.

Early reports suggest that mortgage rates are expected to increase and the Obama administration’s decision to cut FHA loan premiums was seen as an effort to help people afford their mortgage payments.

But during Ben Carson’s confirmation hearing last week, Carson explained his concern over Obama’s decision to cut Federal Housing Administration loan premiums saying, “Certainly, if confirmed, I’m going to work with the FHA administrator and other financial experts to really examine that policy.”

According to reports, approximately 20% of all mortgages are FHA loans.

Anonymous Warns Donald Trump That He Will “Regret the Next 4 Years”

Jonathan Antonio
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0
Anonymous Warns Donald Trump That He Will “Regret the Next 4 Years”

Days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, hackers were called to action by the infamous hacking group Anonymous.

Anonymous warned President Donald Trump that he will regret becoming the next President of the United States, NBC news reports. The group took to Twitter tweeting to their 173,000 followers calling for hackers to expose damaging information about the 45th President of the United States.

“This isn’t the 80’s any longer, information doesn’t vanish, it is all out there. You are going to regret the next 4 years. @realDonaldTrump,” reads a tweet from @YourAnonCentral, which is a Twitter account that shares information from the hacking organization.

The tweet now has over two thousand retweets and four thousands likes. But, not everyone was too impressed with Anonymous’s new campaign. Twitter user @doctorcherokee responded by saying “I didn’t realize Anonymous became a leftist organization overnight.”

Donald Trump has not responded to the tweet. But, it is important to point out that group has a long history calling for damaging information regarding Donald Trump. Last March, Anonymous posted a video on YouTube calling for hackers to shut down his websites and expose the businessman turned politician.

“We need you to shut down his websites, research and expose what he doesn’t want the public to know. We need you to dismantle his campaign and sabotage his brand,” the hacking group explained in their video.

Anonymous is unlike any other hacking group as they are a loosely associated group of “hactivists”. The group first started 14 years ago on the messaging board 4chan and are now associated with the Guy Fawkes masks from the movie V for Vendetta. Anonymous made headlines for targeting the Church of Scientology, publicly supporting WikiLeaks and being a proponent the Occupy Wall Street movement. By 2012, Time named Anonymous one of the “100 most influential people” in the world.

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