Staff Writer - itbusinessdirect

WSJ: Google Hit With Antitrust Lawsuit In Europe

April 15, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

“European Union regulators formally accused Google Inc. of violating the bloc’s antitrust laws by abusing its dominance of online search, escalating a long-running case that had stalled for years despite three separate attempts at a settlement. Wednesday’s move is the first time that any regulator has filed formal antitrust charges against the California search giant, putting the EU in the vanguard of a global debate over the regulation of giant Internet platforms.” Adapted from WSJ

Why investors should be concerned about cybersecurity breaches

April 8, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

Major security breaches continue to hit headlines, as businesses are forced to shift from focusing on the imminent nature of threats to calculating their potential financial impact. Companies are investing billions of dollars in cybersecurity, but the average return on spending for security technology is only 14%. Every year the cost of a data breach continues to rise. In spite of this, investors and shareholders don’t react strongly to news of a breach. Target’s stock fell 11% after it revealed it was the victim of one of the largest breaches ever to…

Russians Implicated In White House Hack After Obama Makes Cybersecurity Executive Order

April 8, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

The same Russian hackers who breached the State Department system for months also gained access to an unclassifed White House computer system, according to a report from CNN. Although the system did not contain classified information, the Russians reportedly had access to the president’s private schedule. The connected cyberattack on the State Department in recent months has been characterized as the “worst ever” hack on a federal agency. The White House is no stranger to attacks from foreign spies. The Chinese have been implicated in several high profile attacks of White House unclassified systems and employee emails. News…

EU hopes to abolish Internet geoblocking as it stands in the way of a modern digital market

March 27, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

The European Commission has said it is resolved to do away with the common practice of the user IP-based blocking of some digital content on the Internet. It said geoblocking stood in the way of a modern digital market. The EU executive announced Wednesday it had reached a decision in principle to tear down national Internet usage barriers by scrapping the widespread practice of what’s become known as geoblocking. It’s a method of preventing users from accessing certain websites, videos, music and other content based on their location and has…

Understanding the Impact of Internet of Things

March 19, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

While Apple and Samsung have had the benefit of being the large, dominant players in the mobile smart phone space, there are likely to be many successful entrepreneurial companies with many different Internet of Things products that help drive the next wave of innovation. It’s amazing when you stop and think about it. Your mobile phone has instant access to the sum total of human knowledge … and yet something important is missing: Contextual Awareness. Through sensors both stationary and wearable, the Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to change…

Cybercriminals Are Misappropriating Businesses’ Web Addresses

March 12, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

As a Result, Customers Can’t Find the Real Companies on the Web Cybercriminals targeting businesses are stealing more than customer passwords and credit-card numbers these days. Some are misappropriating the very Web addresses—or domain names—of the businesses themselves. When Pablo Palatnik of Miami glanced at a Google analytics report showing Web traffic on his office TV monitor one day last month, he was alarmed to discover that traffic to his business website, Shadesdaddy.com, had plunged 80% from its usual level of as many as 10,000 visitors a day. At first,…

CIO: The Cybercrime Economy Personified

March 5, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

While the Center for Strategic & International Studies and McAfee estimated the annual cost to the global economy from cybercrime at $375 billion conservatively and $575 billion maximally as of June 2014, at least one expert stands by cost figures that are many times those numbers. “U.S. companies and the U.S. economy lose approximately $500 billion each year to theft of trade secrets and innovation. This includes all forms of economic espionage where cybercrime plays a major factor. When you factor the 10-year life of the investment in innovation, the…

Business spotlight on cybercrime

February 24, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

In the wake of the Sony email hacking case, business expert Rachel Bridge looks at cybercrime and how you can protect your business. Online cybercrime is not just the stuff of sci-fi movies and urban myth. It is very real and it can pose a huge threat to your business. What’s more, contrary to what many people think, cybercrime is just as likely to affect small firms as large ones. Indeed, a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that over a 12-month period, 41 per cent of…

Kim Kiyosaki: The Business Case for More Women Entrepreneurs

February 18, 2015June 2, 2016 Staff Writer

Why the world is better served when women start more businesses Given the fact that women make up 85% of all consumer purchases, it’s interesting to think that, according to the latest census data from 2007, women own only 28.7% of businesses. This statistic has some interesting implications when you consider the following facts I found over at she-economy: 59% of women feel misunderstood by food marketers 66% feel misunderstood by health care marketers 74% feel misunderstood by automotive marketers 84% feel misunderstood by investment marketers 91% of women in…

Sophia Bekele: The rise of “Exclusive Multistakeholder” – Analysis on ICANN Africa Strategy

February 17, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

Sophia Bekele has taken an inside look into the ICANN Africa Strategy in the article on CircleID quoted below… ICANN Africa Strategy – A View from the Inside: The rise of “Exclusive Multistakeholder” “In fact, the implementation of the strategy, so far, in the opinion of many Africans, is a failure in the multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance we aspired for. The entire ICANN Africa Strategy is an apparent usurpation of the model by a Special Interest Group who has appointed themselves as “Leaders of the African Internet Community” and…