Staff Writer - itbusinessdirect

AT&T hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down, “throttling” its ‘unlimited’ data

June 18, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

Washington Post reports that the Federal Communications Commission slapped AT&T with a $100 million fine Wednesday, accusing the country’s second-largest cellular carrier of improperly slowing down, throttling Internet speeds for customers who had signed up for “unlimited” data plans. The FCC found that when customers used up a certain amount of data watching movies or browsing the Web, AT&T “throttled” their Internet speeds so that they were much slower than normal. Millions of AT&T customers were affected by the practice, according to the FCC. The fine, which AT&T says it will fight, is the largest ever levied…

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Tech IPOs indicate slowest pace since the banking crisis

June 12, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

With the end of the first half of the year in sight, it looks like Fitbit may be the last tech IPO of what so far has been the slowest year for new public offerings in the sector since 2009. That was the middle of the banking crisis and just after Sequoia Capital made its “RIP:Good Times” presentation to its portfolio CEOs in 2008. There have only been two tech companies from the Bay Area to go public so far this year — Box and Apigee — and San Francisco-based…

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Microsoft opens a ‘No Back Door’ Transparency Center to allow European governments a look at its source codes

June 8, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

Microsoft has opened a Transparency Center in the Belgian capital, offering European governments a look at its source code. The center, opened in Brussels last week, will “enable governments to review and assess the source code of Microsoft products and to access important security information in a secure environment,” Microsoft said. The center is the second such facility the company has built – the first was opened in Redmond last year – and will be open to governments that have signed up to the company’s Government Security Program, which lets…

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How 5 most valuable internet companies have changed over the past 2 decades

June 5, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

It’s mind-boggling how the 5 most valuable internet companies have changed over the past 20 years In 1995, the internet was just about to get started. It was only a year after big internet companies like Yahoo and Netscape were founded. Fast forward 20 years later, and the web business landscape looks a lot different from back then. In fact, only 1 out of the 5 most valuable public internet companies from 1995 are still in the top 5 list, according to Mary Meeker’s “Internet Trends” report. Check out the…

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Startups are bringing mobile banking to the last mile in Africa

June 5, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

Mobile banking has provided financial inclusion for developing countries. A new wave of startups is now taking the tech beyond mobile wallets. When Ismail Ahmed moved from Somalia to England in 1988, he regularly sent money back home. He experienced exorbitant fees, transfer offices with erratic opening hours, and was often worried about how easily his family would be able to retrieve the money. In 2010 Ahmed founded WorldRemit, an online service that allows users to send money internationally via a PC or phone. Today, more than 250,000 transactions flow…

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Simple Website Security Flaw Exposes Data Of Charter Internet Customers

May 27, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

A Website Security flaw discovered in the site of Charter Communications, a cable and Internet provider active in 28 states, may have exposed the personal account details of its customers. Security researcher Eric Taylor discovered the cable provider’s vulnerability as part of his research, and demonstrated how a simple header modification performed with a browser plug-in could reveal details about Charter’s Internet subscribers. After Fast Company notified Charter of the issue, the company said it had installed a fix within hours. The vulnerability could reveal personal information of “millions” of the…

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Confirms it was Hacked

May 20, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO — The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis confirmed on Tuesday that hackers had successfully hacked the bank, redirecting users of its online research services to fake websites set up by the attackers. The breach was just the latest in a spate of hackings against government systems in recent months, affecting the White House, the State Department and even the president’s own email account. In this case, the attack appeared to compromise the Internet’s routing system, known as the domain name system, or D.N.S thus was hacked. In…

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Is Quantum computing about to make big trouble for cybersecurity?

May 12, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

There is a race to build quantum computers, and (as far as we know) it isn’t the NSA that is in the lead. Competing are big tech companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft; startups; defense contractors; and universities. One Canadian startup says that it has already developed a first version of a quantum computer. A physicist at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, Ronald Hanson, told Scientific American that he will be able to make the building blocks of a universal quantum computer in just five years and a fully-functional demonstration machine…

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