Author: Staff Writer

Cybersecurity and Internet Governance

Staff Writer

Editor’s note: This brief is a feature of the Council of Councils initiative, gathering opinions from global experts on major international developments. Cybersecurity is now a leading concern for major economies. Reports indicate that hackers can target the U.S. Department of Justice or Iranian nuclear facilities just as easily as they can mine credit card data. Threats have risen as the Internet has become a critical infrastructure for the global economy, with thousands of operations migrating onto it. For example, the innocuous practice of bring-your-own-device to work presents mounting dangers…

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Start-ups founded by immigrants are creating jobs all over America

Staff Writer

ON APRIL 19th Jack Markell, the governor of Delaware, is due to visit a new factory being built in his state by Bloom Energy, a start-up based in Silicon Valley. Bloom makes clean power-generation systems using a novel fuel-cell technology. It is investing over $40m in its facility in Newark and plans to hire hundreds of people. Some will be carworkers who lost their jobs in 2008 when Chrysler shuttered a factory that once stood on the same site. Gary Convis, Bloom’s chief operations officer, says that the company has…

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The battle for .Africa is not yet over !: Rejoinder to IT Web South Africa ‘New Local Domains See Breakthrough’

Staff Writer

The Editor-in-Chief ITWeb South Africa Dear Sir, Our attention has been drawn to the news story written by Bonnie Tubbs titled ‘New Local Domains See Breakthrough’  click here for news story) that was published recently on your news web site. DCA Trust believes that in light of recent ICANN Post-Beijing developments regarding the new gTLD program, it is important to correct any wrong impressions that have been unwittingly conveyed by your article and the comments that were purportedly attributed by your journalist to Mr. Neil Dundas of UniForum ZA Central…

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U.S. gives big, secret push to Internet surveillance

Staff Writer

Senior Obama administration officials have secretly authorized the interception of communications carried on portions of networks operated by AT&T and other Internet service providers, a practice that might otherwise be illegal under federal wiretapping laws. The secret legal authorization from the Justice Department originally applied to a cybersecurity pilot project in which the military monitored defense contractors’ Internet links. Since then, however, the program has been expanded by President Obama to cover all critical infrastructure sectors including energy, healthcare, and finance starting June 12. “The Justice Department is helping private…

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Africa Union Tyranny of .africa and the African Community Circus

Staff Writer

The GAC shall provide advice and communicate issues and views to the ICANN Board. The GAC is not a decision making body. Such advice given by the GAC shall be without prejudice to the responsibilities of any public authority with regard to the bodies and activities of ICANN, including the Supporting Organisations and Councils.” GAC Principle 1   Following the article written on Kenya’s position being ignored at GAC, the former Vice chair at GAC Ms. Alice Munyua has reportedly forwarded a 12th April 2012,a letter that was written by Kenya…

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DotConnectAfrica Participates at the ICANN 46 International Meeting in Beijing, China

Staff Writer

DCA’s application for .Africa new gTLD received an ICANN GAC Policy Advice Objection which the organization hopes to resolve by following the due process provisions within the ICANN new gTLD Program. PRLog (Press Release) – Apr. 17, 2013 – The DotConnectAfrica Trust delegation led by its Executive Director/CEO, Ms. Bekele participated and contributed at various sessions of the ICANN 46 International Meeting held in Beijing China from 7th – 11th April 2013. Beijing, is the capital of the People’s Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in…

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‘Bangladeshi’ hacks Google’s local domain, users redirected

Staff Writer

Internet users trying to access Google’s search engine on Monday morning quickly discovered the company’s local domain was compromised. A hacker, who identified himself as Bangladeshi, defaced the company’s Google.co.ke domain, replacing the page with a black background with the word ‘hacked’ engraved on it. The error was quickly fixed. Google Kenya, however, denied claims it had been hacked into. The company explained that it was the domain name server (DNS) which hosts google.co.ke that had been compromised. Adapted from nation.co.ke

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Hackers attack 90,000 WordPress blogs

Staff Writer

Keeping the default settings on any Internet-connected service is just asking for trouble. It’s easy enough to scoff at people whose brilliant “12345” password fell victim to hackers, but it’s just as simple to target usernames. A number of WordPress bloggers discovered this the hard way, when their “admin” accounts became part of a hostile, exploitative botnet. The attacks began last week, and have affected more than 90,000 blogs so far. The hackers behind the attacks have combed through WordPress accounts and attempted to guess passwords via brute force. Adapted…

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Crowdsourced videos, photos could aid Boston blast investigations

Staff Writer

Law enforcement officials could have something very different on their hands as they investigate the dual bomb blasts that struck the Boston Marathon finish line today: a potential abundance of photo and video evidence from the public. Government surveillance, while growing, still misses more than it catches. But events with thousands of spectators offer the potential for a detailed crowdsourced record of what happened. This public panopticon is changing how we see the world. February’s Russian meteor was captured by many dash-cams mounted in Russian cars, but in this case…

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Interruption-driven Content Consumption

Staff Writer

Where you sit defines what you know I recently moved my desk from a plum spot near the windows with lots of natural light to the other side of the newsroom. I did this for a couple of reasons, but first, let me explain why I sit in the newsroom with the devs, designers, and editors instead of in an office. When I sit an office I feel isolated and it becomes a big ceremony for someone to chat with me. Since communication is the number one problem in any…

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