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Online retail begins to click in Africa’s biggest market

July 6, 2013 Staff Writer

The headquarters for this Internet startup is cheekily nicknamed “Graceland” and its co-heads are young Harvard graduates with grand plans who have rapidly expanded the business over the past year. Silicon Valley? Not even close. This emerging world Internet company, called Jumia, is now located in Nigeria, and the founders of the business here say there is no better place to pursue their strategy. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest market of 160 million people, has seen Internet access expand rapidly in recent years, opening opportunities for companies to exploit. While major obstacles…

Ad group blasts cookie-privacy project from Mozilla, Stanford

June 26, 2013 Staff Writer

Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO Randall Rothenberg calls the effort to determine which cookies should be blocked or allowed a “Kangaroo Cookie Court” that will hurt small Internet publishers. The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School is working with Mozilla on a project called the Cookie Clearinghouse to try to improve Internet privacy controls. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, a group that represents hundreds of Internet advertisers, has attacked Mozilla’s involvement in a Stanford Law School privacy project to judge whether individual Web sites can be trusted to set…

DotConnectAfrica Registry Services Participates in ICANN DNSSEC training at AFRALTI Nairobi

June 20, 2013June 20, 2013 Staff Writer

DotConnectAfrica Registry Services (Kenya) Ltd. (‘DCA Registry Services’) participated in a rigorous two-day training programme on DNSSEC. PRLog (Press Release) – Jun. 19, 2013 – DotConnectAfrica Registry Services (Kenya) Ltd. (‘DCA Registry Services’) participated in a rigorous two-day training programme on DNSSEC that was conducted at the AFRALTI Nairobi on 11 -12 June, 2013. KeNIC, the manager of the .ke ccTLD extension and organizer of the training programme, had also sent invitations to ISOC Kenya Chapter members who also participated.The DNSSEC training will enable DCA Registry Service staff gain essential…

Global Name Branding Challenges & the New Digital Age

June 18, 2013 Staff Writer

ADOTAS — Naming rules originated from common sense, transformed into common laws, and later created the trademark philosophy to govern “naming” as a prime and civil component of businesses across the globe. This centuries-old thinking is almost like what electricity is to the Internet. Basically without the core component they are just useless. The current ICANN gTLD expansion now requires a worldwide awakening, particularly in the diverse domain-name industry that without well-balanced trademark rules, is basically headed toward disaster. ICANN is faced with major policy decisions whether to accept a…

Man behind NSA leaks says he did it to safeguard privacy, liberty

June 11, 2013June 11, 2013 Staff Writer

He’s a high school dropout who worked his way into the most secretive computers in U.S. intelligence as a defense contractor — only to blow those secrets wide open by spilling details of classified surveillance programs. Now, Edward Snowden might never live in the United States as a free man again. In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, Snowden revealed himself as the source of documents outlining a massive effort by the U.S. National Security Agency to track cell phone calls and monitor the e-mail and Internet traffic…

U.S. Confirms That It Gathers Online Data Overseas

June 7, 2013 Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The federal government has been secretly collecting information on foreigners overseas for nearly six years from the nation’s largest Internet companies like Google, Facebook and, most recently, Apple, in search of national security threats, the director of national intelligence confirmed Thursday night. The confirmation of the classified program came just hours after government officials acknowledged a separate seven-year effort to sweep up records of telephone calls inside the United States. Together, the unfolding revelations opened a window into the growth of government surveillance that began under the Bush…

Apple loses US trade panel ruling in Samsung dispute

June 5, 2013 Staff Writer

Apple has lost a ruling by a US trade panel in a patent dispute with its rival Samsung. The International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that Apple infringed on a Samsung patent, which could mean some older models of the iPad and iPhone are banned from sale in the US. The patent relates to 3G wireless technology and the ability to transmit multiple services correctly and at the same time. Apple said it plans to appeal. The ruling could also be reversed by a US presidential order within 60 days. The…

DotConnectAfrica’s Sophia Bekele Named One of 50 African Trailblazers by NewAfrican Magazine, UK

May 30, 2013May 31, 2013 Staff Writer

March 20, 2013, Mauritius, Port-Louis, Sophia Bekele, Executive Director of DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust), has been named as one of the ’50 African Trailblazers under 50‘, by the influential New African magazine UK, a member of the IC Publications group. New African is a well known publication that is in the vanguard of contemporary Pan-Africanist projection and thinking. www.newafricanmagazine.com The special “Collector’s Edition” of New African for May 2013 has been put together by the editors of the magazine to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the…

Kaspersky plans source code reveal to avoid Huawei’s fate

May 30, 2013May 30, 2013 Staff Writer

By Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor • Get more from this author Posted in Security, 30th May 2013 05:56 GMT Free whitepaper – European migration survey Eugene Kaspersky thinks Huawei’s products contain “some doors, they are not back doors, but somewhere in-between”, but that overall “there is nothing really wrong with Huawei”. Th Russian security supremo is nonetheless taking steps to ensure his company doesn’t experience the same less-than-welcoming reception Huawei has found in the US market. Kaspersky offered his opinion to Vulture South yesterday. Kaspersky breezes into Australia most years and…

IT Suffers From Obama Admin’s Jekyll & Hyde Approach to Privacy Rights

May 30, 2013May 30, 2013 Staff Writer

Recently, the Obama administration has been of two minds where privacy rights are concerned. On one hand, you have an administration that vowed to veto CISPA and mandated open data for government websites. On the other hand, you have an increasingly out-of-control Department of Justice on a fishing expedition at AP and demanding legislation to let the FBI wiretap private, encrypted communications and levy fines if a company fails to comply. To paraphrase Eminem, will the real Barack Obama, please stand up, please stand up. As it turned out, we…