Posts Tagged ‘online’

November 27, 2011 - 4:52 am Comments Off

We already knew: the end of July with the recruitment of the Argentine Javier Pastore, 42 million euros, PSG beat this year's record for the most important transfer window of the history of Ligue 1. More than 80 million euros on the table to secure the services of Kevin Gameiro, Blaise Matuidi or Mohamed Sissoko, in addition to the Argentine star.

But these numbers make you dizzy do not stop there. According to information from Parisiende this Friday, players Parisians would also take the upper hand with regard to wages. If this is the side of the Canebière found the most important emoluments (midfielder Lucho Gonzalez for 360,000 euros gross per month), 11 players received wages in the capital to more than 200,000 euros according to the daily gross , 9 against Olympique de Marseille.According to the survey, the highest salaries are in fact looking in the stands payday loan no faxing. For the largest stamp in Paris, would be to … Leonardo. Each month, the sporting director of PSG would receive 400,000 euros gross in fact, about 200,000 euros net. Almost three and a half times what his counterpart perceives Marseille Jose Anigo …

Hours before the "Clasico" between the league leaders in the tenth current is therefore the capital club who won the prize of wages. The findings of this match organized by the newspaper should not fail to elicit reactions to two years of the transition to "financial fair play" in the world of football, which calls among other things, the moderation of the wage bill. From this point of view, the pills of the stars of the French capital, however, reach the peaks found in other European leagues.

Until recently, searching for health insurance quotes was a rare occurrence, not only in the online world of private coverage providers but also among their brick-and-mortar counterparts.

Wall Street should remain febrile

October 21, 2011 - 10:40 pm Comments Off

The future of Standard Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 predict a small increase in opening of U.S. stock markets on Friday. Thursday already, the New York Stock Exchange ended without direction.

U.S. investors, like their counterparts in Europe and Asia, should be particularly attentive to the development of the debt crisis in the eurozone. They should avoid taking risks when to begin a crucial summit on the debt crisis this weekend. Paris and Berlin have announced that Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel would speak well Saturday in Brussels to prepare an "ambitious and comprehensive response" to the crisis. Concrete measures will be considered Sunday to be adopted during a second peak "no later than Wednesday."

Discussions will focus on how to increase the capacity of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), but also on the rescue of Greece.Meanwhile, in Greece, the anti-austerity continues. A new law has been de rigueur in the Greek Parliament voted Thursday.

Summit high risk in Europe

For many observers, however, profound differences remain between France and Germany. "There is no joint proposal" European at the moment, has acknowledged Thursday the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. For his part, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso called on Europeans to "compromise" to reach decisions "resolved" and "immediate."

Another failure might further undermine investor confidence in the ability of Europeans to fight effectively against the debt crisis.They would now have a highly sensitive situation at the G20 to be held in early November.

Pressure rating agencies

Rating agencies are increasing the pressure on the euro area. After Moody's, S & P raised doubts about the AAA rating of the long-term debt of France. The agency suggests a probable degradation of notes France, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal according to economic conditions no fax pay day loan.

On the macroeconomic front there is no any major indicator on the agenda of U.S. investors on Monday.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro retreated slightly to 1.3741 dollars against 1.3772 dollars on Thursday night. Oil prices were, themselves, up in the wake of the announcement of the disappearance of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.The barrel of "light sweet crude" for December delivery gained 71 cents to 86.78 dollars on the New York Mercantile Exchange while in London, a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for December delivery was appreciating eight cents to 109.84 dollars on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

Earnings up for Microsoft

The side of values, after the close, Microsoft released the first quarter, revenues of $ 17.4 billion, up 7% year on year. Net income reached 5.74 billion, up 6%, while earnings per share rose 10% to $ 0.68.

Sandisk has reported a turnover in the third quarter of $ 1.4 billion, up 15% year on year.Earnings per share were $ 0.96 against $ 1.34 last year.

Altera has recorded sales of 522.5 million dollars in the third quarter, down 1% year on year and down 2% from the previous quarter.

Capital One Financial has released the third quarter net income of $ 813 million against 803 million last year and 911 million in the second quarter.

Chubb Corp in the third quarter earnings per share of $ 1.04 against $ 1.8 last year.For the full year, the U.S. insurer expects operating earnings per share of 5.1 to 5.2 against the dollar from 5.55 to 5.85 dollars in a previous estimate.

Note also, from Monday, October 24, the company Groupon, which specializes in online distribution of discount coupons for shopping in local markets, should do its IPO on the basis of a valuation from October to December billion. However, it is far from the capitalization of 15 to 20 billion, of which Andrew Mason, founder of the company was still dreaming in June.

SNCF, RATP: Insights on the disturbances

October 12, 2011 - 4:16 am Comments Off

Traffic in the transport is disrupted Tuesday, following the call for mobilization of CGT-CFDT, UNSA, FSU-Solidarity, who report an austerity program "inadmissible" the government and require "a different distribution of wealth. "

With the exception of SUD-RATP, who filed a notice of indefinite strike on July 31, no organization has called to stop work in transport.However federations CGT filed a notice with the RATP and SNCF, as well as SUD-Rail, to enable staff who wish to go forward.

Here are the latest traffic forecasts:

• At the SNCF

Tuesday, more than 4 of 5 TGV move on departure or arrival in Paris, except for the Atlantic TGV trains close to 3 to 5, and more than 2 runs a train on the TGV on average province-province.

For Transilien, traffic during rush hour is on average close to 2 trains of 3, and the TER, the traffic is close to 2 of 3 services at the national level. Locally, the traffic is 4 trains of 10 to a near-normal movement between regions.

For Intercités day (including Teoz), traffic is on average a train 2.

No Lunea (national traffic at night) will flow, however the nights of Tuesday to Wednesday.On international routes to night, no disturbance is expected to Germany and Italy. Traffic will also be normal day on the Eurostar (England) and Thalys (Belgium, Germany) and near normal on Lyria (Switzerland).

The other lines of Paris and Paris-Nord-Est have a service close to two out of three trains, and those of Paris-Saint Lazare, Paris-Montparnasse and Paris-Lyon train in two.

• In the RER RATP zone

Traffic is normal on the line A and the interconnection is maintained at Nanterre Prefecture. A train runs on two rush hour on the line B, and a train of four off-peak payday advance lender. Interconnection is suspended from Gare du Nord, but maintained at Nanterre Prefecture.

For portions of RER managed by SNCF, the traffic is normal on the line A (from Nanterre Prefecture in Cergy and Poissy) and Line E.There is a train of two outstanding on lines B and C of the RER, without interconnection to Paris Nord. On line D, it takes two to three trains with an average interconnection between Paris-Lyon and Paris Nord.

• In the metro and bus in Paris

In the metro, the traffic is normal on all lines except line 5, where it takes with two trains of 3.

Traffic is normal on lines 2 and 3 of the tramway. For T1, a train of 2 is outstanding.

• In the province

Strike notices were filed in 39 urban transit systems, including Lille, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Strasbourg.Such notice having been filed in most cases by a single union, the traffic should be only slightly affected.

The notice concerning the networks of the following cities: Amiens, Angers, Angouleme, Belfort, Besançon, Bordeaux, Bourges, Caen, Cannes, Chambery, Dijon, Douai, Lille, Limoges, Lorient (strike 55 minutes), Lyon, Le Mans, Marseille (strike 3:30), Maubeuge, Metz, Montluçon, Montpellier, Moulins Mulhouse, Nantes, Nice (strike from 9 to 12), Nîmes (strike 9:30 to 10:30), Pau, Poitiers, Reims, Rennes, La Rochelle, Rouen, Royan, Saint-Nazaire (strike from 10:30 to 14h), Strasbourg, Toulouse, Tours, Vichy.

• To monitor traffic

Hotlines are available to travelers by SNCF: 0805.90.36.35 for the Outline, TER, Téoz and Intercity, and 0805.70.08.05 for Transilien.

For traffic forecasts, two websites are available: www.sncf.com and www.infolignes.com for all traffic forecasts.

For the RATP, the number is 0800.15.11.11.

"Italy can say thank you to the agencies'

October 5, 2011 - 5:20 pm Comments Off

Lefigaro.fr – Italy can it fail?

Jean-François Jamet – Nobody knows. This is the total blur as both a politically and economically. This will depend on the coming weeks. Today, investors doubted the credibility of the Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi in particular, entangled in scandals about his private life. They do not believe in his ability to find consensus in the short term and implement structural reforms to end a decade of stagnation. Italy is in the situation of a country whose financial situation is very dependent on the psychology of financial markets: the deficit depends on interest rates payable on its debt.

What will happen if Italy does not make structural reforms?

Italian debt will eventually become unsustainable. The risk of panic can not then be excluded.It would then interest rates will soar as investors withdraw massive failure and would become a likely scenario. However, unlike Greece, the risk is lower. First, the country just to pay interest on public debt. Then Italy had a primary surplus, that is to say, it generates a budget surplus, excluding interest payments on public debt. And so if going to Italy the confidence of financial markets – that if the interest rate is not found at high levels (above 6% for bonds to 10 years) – it should not have difficult to stabilize its public debt.Finally, unlike Spain and Ireland, Italy has no problem with private debt.

Just accept the Italian population does a tax increase?

Italy is able to reform itself, it has proved in 1992 and 1993. But if she will be unable Silvio Berlusconi remains in office. The government's failure to carry out structural reforms to boost growth, coupled with the antics of "Il Cavaliere", eventually to exasperate the Italians. As in Spain, early elections must be organized. By this election, a new government must be established: either a national unity government, a government technique, including bureaucrats.This was the case in 1993, a year after the start of the crisis in Italy: the governor of the Italian central bank, no political label, was then elected Chairman and appointed several ministers among its senior officials. The choice of a technical government would nevertheless be a sign that politicians have lost the hand and have not lived up issues.

Finally, is not it a blessing in disguise that the note of Italy was worse?

Paradoxically, Italy can probably say thank you to Standard & Poor's and Moody's. The deterioration of the Italian note the merit of the heart of the debate lack of credibility of Silvio Berlusconi and increase pressure for his departure.While it is regrettable that the rating agencies and interfere in the democratic, political pressure has been mounting in recent months with the electoral success of the opposition and critics of the Confindustria (Italian MEDEF) and even its own majority. One can also regret that the rating agencies and the European states have expected the crisis to sound the alarm about the structural problems that have existed for many years.

Europe can sustainably support it Italy?

It is already doing through the interventions of the European Central Bank to calm speculation on the Italian debt. Once the Member States of the euro area have all ratified the agreement reached in July, the European Financial Stability Fund will take over. However, this support to Italy by its European partners can only buy time.Only reforms and the return to growth will allow Italy to escape the trap of debt inherited from the patronage and corruption which had prevailed during the years 1970 and 1980.

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Budget 2012: what changes for businesses and individuals

September 28, 2011 - 6:04 pm Comments Off

• Individuals involved to the tune of 5.6 billion euros

– Removal of exemptions for allowances holding period on capital gains property, excluding exempt principal residence (2200000000)

– Increase of 12.3% to 13.5% payroll taxes on capital income (1.3 billion)

– Removal or reduction of exemptions from the CSG (800,000,000)

– Increase in tobacco prices by 6% (600,000,000)

– Increase the tax and social taxes on liquor (300,000,000)

– Introduction of an outstanding contribution of 3% on very high incomes, above 500,000 euros.Some 10,000 homes were affected (200,000,000)

– Creation of a tax on sugary drinks (100 million)

– Device Scellier: decrease of 22% to 14% rate of tax reduction for investors buying new low-energy housing for rental (about 100 million euros)

– Introduction of a progressive tax (from 10 to 40%) for owners of "good rooms" applying the rents to be too expensive (over 40 euros/m2), mainly in Paris (1 million)

– Decrease of 18% to 12% rate of tax reduction for purchases in retirement homes, tourist and student (nearly 10 million)

• The companies affected to the tune of 4.8 billion euros

– Reduction of deferred losses for a harmonization of corporate taxation with Germany.- Revision of scale of the tax on company cars (100 million)

– Creation of a 2% tax on hotel stays at or above 200 euros (90 million)

– Creation of an exceptional tax next year on sales of large industrial duty subject to quotas of CO2 (200 million)

– The draft budget provides for operators to bear the costs of a possible interference of DTT with the new 4G mobile radio frequencies that will be awarded in early 2012.

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Half of French lives with at least 19,000 euros per year

August 30, 2011 - 4:32 pm Comments Off

The debate is raging right now about the notion of "very high income" – the government, which plans to tax them, has so far estimated at 500,000 euros per year, but lawmakers are likely to set the lower threshold above. That of poverty, by contrast, is much more accurate.

In a study published on Tuesday, INSEE said that the threshold is 60% of the median standard of living – one who shares the French population in half – or 954 euros a month (11,450 euros per year) in 2009. That same year, 8.2 million people lived below the poverty line.

Thus 13.5% of the population that was struggling to cope with loan repayments, which was regularly exposed or who would dip into its savings to balance its budget.Or 0.5 point more than in 2008, where they were 7.84 million.

The gaps widen

This increase in the number of poor people is due to the increase in unemployment during the economic slump. "However, one-off measures and the ramp-up phase of active solidarity income helped limit the effects of the crisis," the study said payday advance. The fact remains that in 2009, 10.1% of assets in excess of 18 are poor.

While the differences in living standards between the French the most fragile and the richest had decreased until 2004, they continue to grow since.In 2009, 10% of French people living with the smallest less than 10,410 euros per year (a figure calculated per consumption unit, which takes into account economies of scale when several people are in the home), down 1.1 % compared to 2008.

Meanwhile, the wealthiest 10% had a standard of living of at least 35,840 euros, up 0.7%, but less strong than in previous years.

As for the median standard of living, it is 19,080 euros per person per year, or 1590 euros per month. It increased by 0.4% compared to 2008 (an increase also lower than in previous years).

Overall, the economic crisis "affects all households, but it is the smallest that are most affected," says INSEE.

Guéant: "The teaching will be paid by radar fines"

August 6, 2011 - 11:40 pm Comments Off

After the publication of figures showing a drop in road deaths in July, Claude Gueant, Interior Minister, said these positive results. But it is clear that motorists continue to use warning radars, despite the ban. However, serious accident, said he, there is always a judicial inquiry.

LE FIGARO. -Less killed in July: how do you explain these good numbers?

Claude Gueant. -A 21% decrease in July (358 against 453 killed, Ed), this means first that it is possible to make further progress! This result is related to the strong mobilization of law enforcement, especially on the occasion of the leave.

The balance of the year is pretty bad. Moreover, the French lost more than 10 million points allowed in 2010. A record. Up including speeding and alcohol-related offenses.What do you do?

I recall that in 2009 75% of French drivers have all their points and only 0.2% of drivers had their licenses invalidated the 40 million motorists. Regarding the results of 2011, waiting for the end of the year. If the trend continues in July we will once again below the threshold of 4000 deaths. With regard to speeding and drinking and driving, these twin evils remain government priorities in road safety.

Is there not been, lately, a certain cacophony around the various measures taken on the radar?

The measures of the last IRB (Interministerial Committee for Road Safety) is essential if we are to achieve the target set by the president to go below the threshold of 3,000 killed.Among the measures agreed, that relating to the removal of signs announcing speed cameras has sparked debate. We have heard comments from elected officials and, in agreement with the Prime Minister, we decided to launch a plan to install radar teaching. There was no cacophony. There has been listening and dialogue.

How quickly are they teaching radars to be installed?

To date, 80 radars are installed in 47 teaching departments. 200 more will be installed by the end of September 2011. The new market will eventually install 4,000 cameras teaching.They will be installed in hazardous areas, which may or may not include fixed cameras, but also mobile controls.

What is the cost of these facilities and the withdrawal of the previous panel?

The cost of installing a radar teaching will depend on the installation conditions, but the average cost is estimated at € 10,000. Be financed by the proceeds of fines. The unit cost of removing a panel from its destruction by the standards in force (with reprocessing of materials) and the restoration of the original site but is difficult to assess the overall cost could reach 4 fast cash.5 million euros.

The warning radars will become a driving aid.What this will change for their users?

On 28 July, I signed with Afftac (French association of providers and users of technology-driving) a memorandum of understanding to transform the warning in wizard driver assistance. These technology tools will indicate dangerous areas and points of specific hazards, such as the presence of a school.

Is it possible to effectively fight against those who still use alarms, implemented in a mobile phone?

The agreement signed provides for the end of such applications, but I am well aware that some will always use technology to possibly circumvent the rule. I want to remember that every serious accident resulting in a judicial inquiry at which the investigation will test the use-or not-of this type of material.Possession of prohibited materials or application involves the responsibility of each and may result in sanctions.

Industrial PV: State attack victims

The nightmare continues for motorists who, having sold their car, receive the PV from the new owner. While the Interior Ministry promised to remedy the situation related to the new system of vehicle registration, they are still likely to see their accounts seized. This is what the National Association denounced the defense of victims of injustice. Thursday, 74 of its members have given their record in the hands of a lawyer to attack the state. And require 1 million in damages. "It has all the evidence the administration, but to no avail.Moreover prefectures overwhelmed accumulate delays of several months to process cases, "lamented the president of the association, Daniel Merlet. "I sold my car a year ago, and I still received a ticket," he said. Another has received several hundred dollars, and yet another saw its PV canceled but immediately reissued in his name.

Last April, the Interior Ministry had made changes to the administration takes into account the declaration of assignment of the seller. Far and to update its files, it was waiting for the formalities of acquisition. If they were not made, the former owner of the vehicle was therefore responsible. Nevertheless, the anomalies continue."It deals with situations case by case," they say Place Beauvau.

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Lagardère: Guy Wyser-Pratte against attack

August 5, 2011 - 8:16 am Comments Off

American financier Guy Wyser-Pratte does not disarm in the folder Lagardère. Almost eighteen months after the general meeting of 27 April 2010 during which the two resolutions he had proposed were rejected at 76% and 78%, Guy Wyser-Pratte against attack. Wednesday, August 3, he sent a letter to the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), in which he contested the vote count at the meeting of shareholders of the group.

The American activist took some time to gather evidence to support its contention. Today, it provides the AMF documents showing that the ten funds managed by AllianceBernstein (a subsidiary of AXA Group), a leading shareholder group Lagardere with 10% of the shares, would have voted for he had presented two resolutions.

For investigation

A resolution was to appoint him to the Supervisory Board of Lagardère.Resolution B was to amend the prerogatives of-stock by requesting that the general partners do not vote more consistently before the sponsors. Guy Wyser-Pratte also produces documents from two firms specializing in proxy voting investors (ISS and Broadridge). They would have gathered the voices of various U.S. institutional investors in favor of two resolutions A and B. Finally, he instructed the firm McKenzie to a total of U.S. investors vote in favor.

"In total, we can demonstrate that counting only the votes of shareholders represented by American myself, AllianceBernstein, Broadbridge and ISS, my application to the supervisory board received 44% of the vote of the quorum present at the meeting. In addition, it is likely that other European shareholders have also voted in my favor.I therefore request the AMF to conduct an investigation to understand the origin of the discrepancy between the results of the AG and the counting done by us, "said Guy Wyser-Pratte. In 2010, the AMF had already audited BNP Paribas, which had been in charge of counting votes at the annual meeting of shareholders.

Returning to the issue today, Guy Wyser-Pratte hopes remobilize American and European shareholders for the next general meeting of 2012.

In March 2010, Guy Wyser-Pratte had burst into the capital of Lagardère by buying up 0.53% of the shares. He then publicly criticized the governance of the group protesting against the existence of a partnership limited by shares and had criticized the lack of strategy of management.The tone was mounted and Philippe Camus, a member of the sponsorship of the Lagardère group, the AMF had seized a few days before the general meeting, marveling at the distortion between saber rattling by Guy Wyser-Pratte and the reality of the impact of the two draft resolutions.

Strategy of focusing

Arnaud Lagardère had benefited from the rostrum of the General Assembly to address the critical Guy Wyser-Pratte. Some time after the general meeting, it had sold substantially all of its shares, pocketing a nice way to gain. Today, he is left only about 100,000 titles.

The tension had fallen, but after this episode heated, the Lagardère Group has implemented a strategy of refocusing on its core businesses – publishing, distribution, media and sport – and the country where he holds a position leadership.Suddenly, the group undertook to sell all of its minority, especially in Canal + France, the Amaury group and the group Marie-Claire. For now, these sales have stalled. However, Lagardère Active has led to the charge of selling most of its international press center to the American group Hearst, to 654 million euros. This represents a hundred titles in a dozen countries.

Why the euro remains so strong as Europe goes wrong

July 6, 2011 - 4:56 am Comments Off

Eighteen months after the initial concerns about the European debts, the situation on the old continent is still fragile. However, the euro remains surprisingly strong. The euro hovered around $ 1.45 since April, and rose more than 8% since the beginning of the year, and 15.5% in one year. "The first explanation that justifies the euro strengthens and weakens the dollar is in the interest rates: in Europe, they are likely to be faced by the ECB on Thursday, reaching 1.50% while those U.S. Federal Reserve and will still remain long remain between 0 and 0.25%, "says Bruno Rodier, private banker and portfolio manager at Pictet & Cie.This differential rate encourages investors to take advantage of the "carry trade", this technique to generate returns by borrowing in dollars at a rate unusually low, and place it in euros, which pays better.

"The situation should not change in the coming months because when the European Central Bank has the sole purpose of containing inflation by raising interest rates, the Fed also has the task of supporting growth and employment and maintain long-term rates low and a weak currency to do so, "said Harry Sebag, an analyst at Saxo Bank.He said the Fed will not change its monetary policy anytime soon because it looks especially the real estate market across the Atlantic, the one who caused the economic crisis and financial crisis in the summer of 2007, which is still not out business.

The dollar is kept artificially low

But even more than the strengthening of the euro, especially on the weak dollar that the experts agree. And has been a little more than a year: the Fed announcement as it injects new astronomical quantities (600 billion) dollars in the global economy. Instantly, the dollar lost its value against other currencies, and the effect lasted until now."There is also the effect 'end of world supremacy' of the dollar plays, including the report of the World Bank has recently anticipated that by 2025, that is to say tomorrow, the market currencies will be dominated also by the Chinese yuan, not only by the dollar and the euro, "notes Vincent Juvyns, strategist at ING IM.

The role of the dollar as the global benchmark fading as global governance wants to reform the international monetary system. In this perspective, little by little, investors include the future landscape of the exchange market and exchange their dollars into yuan and euro. "At the same time, we must take into account the cultural dimension of geographical areas: Europe, under the influence of Germany was a culture of rent, we want to keep a strong currency.This contrasts with the current pattern of currency war, which is to artificially push down its currency to promote its own foreign trade, "said Bruno Rodier.

Europe is going less badly than the U.S.

Finally, if Europe goes wrong, it will hurt less than the United States. Bad news on the macroeconomic front here and on the other side of the Atlantic, lower the respective currencies, but the U.S. figures are still worse than the European data, the dollar fell more than the euro. So the euro / dollar rate goes up anyway. "If you took away the effect debt, the euro was trading at least $ 1.50," Harry Sebag plans.Recently, the growth forecasts for the European Union were found, while those for the United States have been degraded.

Thus, the twists in the case of Greece, or fears of contagion from the crisis of sovereign debt of countries in the euro area peripheral to Italy or France, they have had little effect on the euro itself. "The currency market is highly sensitive to very short term. But in the coming weeks, the scenario of an outbreak of the euro area remains the least plausible of all, "says Vincent Juvyns, underlining that" challenges remain whole in the longer term. " The markets seem optimistic about the ability of European governance to agree to find solutions to problems of public finances of member countries."And Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, and Jean-Claude Trichet has always reassuring words to soothe the markets when tensions rise," added the expert.

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The exorbitant cost of cyber attacks

July 2, 2011 - 8:08 am Comments Off

The numbers are staggering. In Germany, the financial damage caused by cyber crime amounted to 61.5 million euros in 2010, according to figures released Thursday by the criminal police and the Federation of high tech Bitkom. This is equivalent to an increase of 66% over the previous year. As the United States, the FBI estimated the cost of crime to some digital $ 560 million in 2009. A world-wide, according to McAfee, cyber crime would have generated some 1000 billion in 2008, about 1.64% of world GDP for that year. Remains that, without minimizing the scale of the scourge, these figures are perplexing.

Many experts give little credence to these studies because most of them emanate from computer security specialists. For the record, other than McAfee is the world number two antivirus software.In addition, "less than 10% of companies report having experienced cyber attacks," said Jean-Paul Pinte, senior lecturer in strategic intelligence at the Catholic University of Lille. According to the specialist risk management and cyber terrorists of enterprises affected societies fear the bad publicity due to media coverage of cyber attacks.

Jean-Paul Pinte, "we know nothing of the legacy and financial losses suffered indirectly." He added: "If an attack is to relieve a company of sensitive information, loss of data will generate multiple costs, such as loss of competitiveness, or the upgrading of security."

"Hard to get a comprehensive view"

Director of the National Security Information Systems (Anssi), Patrick Pailloux abounds in this direction."When a site is the victim of an attack, he takes as an example, it is first blocked, causing a shortfall. Then we must add additional costs to set up a hotline strengthened. "And on the practices of industrial espionage initiated via the Internet," How can we measure in terms of losses that a competitor could steal ?, "asks the director of Anssi. Clearly, "it is difficult to get a comprehensive view of the problem," says he.

Despite these criticisms, these figures are held up to each event on Cybercrime. However dated, the estimated one trillion dollars of McAfee is authoritative. Last May, it appeared even in the "reminder" of the fourth Parliamentary Forum on Information Society in Geneva, on the initiative, among others, the United Nations.Trompe-l'oeil, the text quoted a source stamped Europol, the pharmacy police intergovernmental European Union, which actually refers to the numbers … the software publisher.

If governments do not hesitate to chopping these impressive figures, it is often necessary to legitimize, but costly reinforcement of their agencies against digital piracy. Or clear, make the pill easier to swallow from taxpayers. In January, the UK has estimated that cyber attacks cost him a whopping 27 billion pounds per year (32.2 billion euros) in a government study.An amount (by far) greater than the harm claimed by the United States … A few days before making public figure, London has announced the release of 650 million pounds over four years to "strengthen its cyber security "…

International cooperation in the war-horse

Without waving the national figures, France is no exception, as evidenced by the announcement of piracy Bercy in March. Patrick Pailloux it was for the state to "lead by example" to encourage companies to report piracy they wipe. The Director of Anssi said that 150 computers were then infiltrated by hackers to steal documents for the French presidency of the G20. "We were able to counter the threat," he goes on, noting that thirty experts have been mobilized for two months to "clean up" more than 130,000 positions in the Department.A communication that is timely, since Anssi plans to double its workforce (360 employees) by 2013.

Such methods may be distasteful, but experts and politicians agree: there is no time to waste on the face of digital crime. "For a long time in France, we thought that hacking and computer intrusions were not really dangerous, says Jean-Paul Pinte. But now we know that it's become a real business, and that the threat can come from anywhere: a simple USB key, hard drives or even photocopiers, which, connected to the Internet can become the target of hackers ".

Therefore, international cooperation, which requires significant resources, is "a priority," insists Patrick Pailloux. And for good reason: "90% of attacks are international," says the director of Anssi.In the columns of The Tribune, Laurent Wauquiez, Minister for European Affairs, recently recalled that a hacker "can be installed in Latvia, while in France to intervene through a Canadian site." He even considers urgent that Europe adopts "a kind of cyber-FBI-backed Europol" to stem the digital crime. And one last statistic to shoot, ensuring that "a user of thirty lost money in Europe over the last year" due to a hacker.

Businesses, prey selection

Having surveyed 45 U.S. companies in 2010, the Ponemon Institute found that on average, the financial damage caused by hackers and data theft was $ 3.8 million.Like that of McAfee, this figure is to be taken lightly, as though Ponemon shows his independence, his study was commissioned by ArcSight, a specialist in digital security. However, it appears that large groups are increasingly being targeted by hackers. Since the beginning of the year, the list of companies or institutions that have suffered cyberattacks has continued to grow. Sony has suffered more than ten attacks since mid-April, leading to theft of confidential data of more than 1 million customer accounts. Recently, Sega has had the same misfortune: the editor of the series of Sonic hedgehog found in mid-June have been stolen names, email addresses, birth dates and passwords of almost 1.3 million customers on its servers.Google or Citigroup also suffered cyber attacks.

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"Europe declares war on cybercrime

"When Internet users are fighting against cybercrime

"A French arrested for hacking Twitter

"Exchange: cyber attacks concern to governments