Articles by Stephen Foley

We found 5 results.


European Leaders Rail against ‘Oligopoly’ of Rating Agencies
Stephen Foley in New York – The Independent, 11 Jul 2011

Like a conscientious pupil waiting for grades from the teacher, every government wants straight As from the credit rating agencies. A rating is simply a measure of how likely it is that an investor who lends money to a government (by buying its bonds) will get their money back and the interest they were promised. At the top end of the scale, AAA, or triple-A, means there is practically no chance of a default. Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, Fitch and a handful of smaller rivals all calculate probabilities to place bonds on a sliding scale that heads down through A- and BBB+ to B-. Below a certain cut off point in the Bs, bonds become “junk” – off limits to all but the most speculative investors.

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Your Mobile Phone May Be Bugging You, Hackers Warn
Stephen Foley – The Independent, 16 Aug 2010

A British internet security company has demonstrated how to turn the Palm Pre into a secret bugging device, ideal for corporate espionage, and issued a warning that many other popular smartphones are also vulnerable to hackers.

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Hackers Turned Gatekeepers: Digital Vigilantes with a Moral Code
Stephen Foley – The Independent, 9 Aug 2010

Legions of tenacious computer savants are fighting to get at our personal data. But these cybermen and women are actually helping to make the web a safer place.

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Has The Internet Just Sold Its Soul?
Stephen Foley in New York – The Independent, 9 Aug 2010

Google stood accused last night [5 Aug 2010] of betraying the founding principles of the internet, as it readied a deal that will abandon key parts of its support for “net neutrality”, which has guaranteed equal access to the worldwide web since its inception.

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GOLDMAN SACHS: THE GREEK CONNECTION
Stephen Foley in New York – The Independent, 15 Feb 2010

Investment giant’s role in eurozone debt crisis falls under spotlight.Goldman Sachs, the giant investment bank, is today at the centre of the row over the Greek government’s finances, amid recriminations over complex financial deals that allowed the eurozone nation to skirt its debt limits. With European finance ministers meeting in Brussels today and tomorrow to […]

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