Staff Writer, Author at itbusinessdirect

Twitter removes the 140-character limit from Direct Messages

August 13, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

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Twitter has today removed the 140-character limit on direct messages (DMs) for all users. The move was first flagged in June, hours after CEO Dick Costolo announced he’d be standing down as CEO of the social platform. From today, the change becomes reality, as the update is rolled out to users across the world. The changes referred to here being the removal of restrictions on who can DM whom – previously you could only DM those following you, now users have the choice to receive direct messages from anyone –…

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Enter ABC.xyz: Google will now be part of Alphabet

August 11, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

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Google announced a new holding company called Alphabet today, and it’s using the domain name ABC.xyz. This is a huge win for Daniel Negari’s .xyz, and new top level domains in general. Reports Domainamewire “For Sergey and me this is a very exciting new chapter in the life of Google — the birth of Alphabet,” Larry Page, the chief executive of Google, wrote in a blog post on Monday. “We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations,…

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ICANN Hacked! Resets encrypted passwords after user profile database breach

August 6, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

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The overseer of the Internet’s addressing system said Wednesday that someone obtained information related to user accounts for its public website, although no financial information was divulged. ICANN, short for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said user names, email addresses, encrypted passwords and other data, such as bios, interests and newsletter subscriptions, were contained in the accounts. Despite the breach, the accounts as well as internal ICANN systems do not appear to have been accessed, the organization said in a post on its website. Although an investigation…

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U.S. Senators introduce DHS Cybersecurity Bill to Protect ‘Dot-Gov’ Domain after breach

July 24, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

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A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation on Wednesday to give the Department of Homeland Security more authority to protect government Internet addresses in Cybersecurity bid. The goal is to prevent more cyberattacks like recent massive breaches at the government’s hiring office. Hacks targeting the Office of Personnel Management put the personal data of some 22 million Americans at risk and prompted the resignation of OPM chief Katherine Archuleta earlier this month. The cyberattacks prompted calls in Congress for huge improvements in monitoring and protection of government systems. Reports…

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Twitter Shares Rise After Faked Bloomberg Report

July 15, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

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Takeover rumors about Twitter surface with seeming regularity every couple of months. But one on Tuesday showed a new level of sophistication in an effort to pump up the company’s stock. Shares of Twitter, the social network, briefly spiked after an article that appeared to come from the Bloomberg News website contended that the company had received a takeover offer worth $31 billion. Analysts and Twitter users quickly started poking holes in the online piece and deemed it a fake. (No such report ran on the Bloomberg terminal, where its…

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Women Entrepreneurs Are Key to Accelerating Growth

July 14, 2015May 16, 2016 Staff Writer

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Latest Kauffman Policy Digest explores barriers to women entrepreneurs and offers five policy recommendations to address the gender gap (KANSAS CITY, Mo.) July 20, 2015 – While the number of women entering the workforce has significantly increased over several decades, they are still half as likely as men to start a business. According to the most recent Entrepreneurship Policy Digest released today by the Kauffman Foundation, the lack of women entrepreneurs is not just a gender issue, it’s an economic issue. The Policy Digest highlights the skillsets of women that…

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Ethiopian Entrepreneur Sophia Bekele spoke on #GES Panel in San Francisco

July 13, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

DotConnectAfrica speaks at #GES-Global Entrepreneurship Summit #AfricanEntrepreneurs #SiliconValley

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Sophia Bekele, Founder/ CEO DotConnectAfrica, Yes2dotAfrica was invited to speak on Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) forum, hosted by the White House and USAID on “African Entrepreneurs & Silicon Valley Forum: Bridging Gaps and Making Connections” The forum held at the Silicon Valley Bank’s WeWork Golden Gate location, San Francisco, California, and hosted over 100 delegates comprised of VCs, impact investors, African diaspora entrepreneurs, tech leaders, policymakers and U.S. government members from Washington DC and San Francisco, focused on spurring and supporting innovation ecosystems and investment in Africa. Various high-level panel…

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Microsoft admits Nokia acquisition was a bad deal

July 9, 2015February 17, 2016 Staff Writer

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Barely a year after Microsoft paid $9.5 billion for Nokia’s handset unit, the company says it has lost $7.6 billion of that value. That’s equal to about 95 percent of what Microsoft paid for the assets, excluding the cash that came with them. Along with a hefty writedown, Microsoft plans to cut as many as 7,800 jobs, many of them related to the purchase of the Finnish mobile phone maker. Reports Bloomberg “I am committed to our first-party devices including phones,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s current CEO, wrote in an email to employees about the moves.…

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