Facebook says it was hacked, not harmed
Facebook Inc. says it was the target of hackers but no user information was compromised during the attack.
The social media giant said Friday on its security blog that the company discovered in January that its system had been targeted in a sophisticated attack. The attack occurred when a handful of the company’s employees visited a developer’s compromised website, which led to malware being installed on their laptops.
Facebook says it has found no evidence that user data was compromised.
The company has fixed the infected machines, informed law information and an investigation remains under way. Facebook also says it was not the only company targeted in the attacks but was one of the first to discover it.
Chicago bank closes, third so far this year
WASHINGTON – Regulators say they have closed a small bank in Chicago, bringing to three the number of U.S. bank failures this year following 51 closures in 2012.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday seized Covenant Bank, which had about $58.4 million in assets and $54.2 million in deposits as of Dec. 31.
Liberty Bank and Trust Co., based in New Orleans, agreed to assume all of Covenant Bank’s deposits and buy essentially all of the failed lender’s assets.
The failure of Covenant Bank, which had a single banking branch, is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $21.8 million.
Groundwater lawsuit settled for $16 million
CONCORD, N.H. – Citgo will pay the state of New Hampshire $16 million to settle a lawsuit over groundwater contamination by the gasoline additive MTBE.
Court documents filed Friday say the attorney general’s office will be in charge of distributing the funds to remediate contaminated wells and public drinking supplies.
The state filed suit against 26 petroleum companies a decade ago. Citgo and ExxonMobil were the remaining two defendants when trial began Jan. 14.
Two days into the trial, Citgo filed a request to be removed from the case, signaling settlement talks were under way.
The marathon trial continues with ExxonMobil as the sole defendant and is expected to stretch into April.
Attorneys’ fees and costs will be deducted from the $16 million before it is distributed by the attorney general’s office.
Rig count climbs by three this week
HOUSTON – Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose by three this week to 1,762.
The Houston-based company said in its weekly report Friday that 1,337 rigs were actively exploring for oil and 421 for gas. Four were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, Baker Hughes counted 1,994 working rigs.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states Texas gained 14 rigs and Wyoming one. Pennsylvania declined by five rigs. Oklahoma lost two and Arkansas, Louisiana, North Dakota and West Virginia were down one each. Alaska, Colorado, California and New Mexico were unchanged.
The rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.