Internet - itbusinessdirect

Opera shuts down its Opera Max Service

August 16, 2017September 1, 2017 Staff Writer

Opera Max has been the rising star in Opera’s portfolio. The service offered a system-wide data-saving proxy that funnelled all app data through Opera’s servers to compress images and videos. Initially, opening a web page required users to calculate the amount of data that they would spend. Smartphones have been always data hungry and people tried all sorts of ways to save the smallest KiloBytes of data. It is this where Opera’s data saving app came to the rescue. Opera developed some clever algorithms and used in their Opera Max…

Hackers Threaten ‘Game of Thrones,’ as HBO Confirms Cyberattack

August 1, 2017September 1, 2017

HBO has been the latest target of a cyber-attack. HBO confirmed on Monday that the network had been the target of a cyberattack, as an anonymous hacker boasted about leaking full episodes of upcoming shows along with written material from next week’s episode of “Game of Thrones.” The hack was announced to media via an anonymous email which claimed 1.5 terabytes of data from secure HBO networks was accessed, according to Entertainment Weekly. Unaired episodes of “Ballers” and “Room 104” may have been published online, and the hacker vowed more…

Cyber spies use female ‘honey pot’ to lure LinkedIn targets

July 28, 2017September 1, 2017

MIA Ash is an attractive 30-year-old British woman with two art school degrees , a successful career as a photographer with hundreds of social media connections. She has common favorite hobbies with social media users, so when she adds a target as a friend, they probably get flattered and a little bit excited. After exchanging messages on LinkedIn, The target is happy to continue the conversation on Facebook and WhatsApp. One problem though, Mia does not exist. Instead, she’s a persona, her biography fabricated and her photos stolen from another…

Global Tech Websites unite to save Net Neutrality

July 12, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Net neutrality is a principle about fairness on the Internet. It holds that no ISP should be able to unfairly manipulate your Internet usage or your experience of the Web, particularly in ways that harm other businesses. It means that ISPs don’t get to choose which data is sent more quickly, and which sites get blocked or throttled and who has to pay extra. About 200 internet companies and activist groups are coming together today to mobilize their users into opposing US government plans to scrap net neutrality protection. Facebook,…

Doctors warn against internet, gaming disorders in UAE

April 28, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Medical professionals in the UAE are warning that addiction to smartphones and technology among young people can be as powerful as addiction to gambling and drugs, with its own host of health and psychological problems. In many developed nations – the UAE included – it isn’t uncommon to see young children on a tablet or smartphone, with their parents besides them seemingly oblivious to any potential health risks. “Mental health risks of increasing addiction to technology are clear and present,” said Dr Binu George, Consultant Paediatrician (paediatric neurodevelopment and neurodisability)…

Internet users in Middle East approach 150 million mark

April 28, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Conventional travel agencies are losing ground in favour of their online counterparts, with recent statistics showing that the use of Internet in the Middle East region is increasing by 15 percent annually, the world’s highest growth rate, approaching the 150 million mark. This came during panels sessions featured by the Digital Transformation Summit, held on the sidelines of the now-running Arabian Travel Market 2017 in Dubai. Participants in the summit called for examining recent trends in tourists’ use of technology to discover, plan and provide untraditional options that are likely…

ISPs argue Web history isn’t “sensitive” they should be able to sell it

March 21, 2017April 21, 2017

Internet providers are continuing to argue that they should be free to share and sell users’ web history without permission because it isn’t “sensitive information.” “Web browsing and app usage history are not ‘sensitive information,’” CTIA said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday. CTIA is the main lobbyist group representing mobile broadband providers such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, and Sprint. The disagreement is around whether internet providers should be treated differently than web companies, like Facebook and Google. Internet providers argue that it’s unfair that the…

Wikipedia goes data-free in Iraq

February 28, 2017March 3, 2017

Mobile internet is available everywhere but the price can be expensive. As part of the Wikipedia Zero scheme that has operated in 59 countries around the world since 2012, the organization has announced that Access to Wikipedia will not incur mobile data charges to customers of the Asiacell mobile phone provider in Iraq The community curated content website says it wants to “bring the sum of human knowledge” to as many people as possible by removing one of the biggest hurdles to access to knowledge: data charges. However some argue…