Author: Staff Writer

Washington: US to woo Africa with billions in new funding deals

Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The US will announce nearly $1bn in business deals, increased funding for peacekeeping and commit billions of dollars to expand food and power programmes in Africa during a summit this week, US and development officials say. President Jacob Zuma will be in the front row at the August 5-6 summit in Washington to which US President Barack Obama invited 50 of Africa’s 53 heads of state or government “in good standing with the US and the African Union (AU)”. This criterion has excluded Eritrea, Sudan and Zimbabwe. US…

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NEW YORK: Target sent victims to Experian, which leaked data to criminals

Staff Writer

Companies can’t keep your data safe. It’s that simple. When Target lost data on some 110 million customers, it recommended them to credit bureau Experian for “identity theft protection,” offering to cover the cost for a year. Think you’re in better hands? Think again. Sometime before the Target (TGT) hack, Experian had its own data leak — via a subsidiary. It unknowingly sold the personal data of millions of Americans — including Social Security numbers — to a fraudster in Vietnam. That guy then sold the personal information to identity…

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BlackBerry finally cedes to Indian government monitoring its servers

Staff Writer

Blackberry appears to be losing an ongoing dispute with the Indian government over the state’s access to its data, as today an internal document from the state’s Department of Telecommunications stated “the lawful interception system for Blackberry Services is ready for use.” According to the Economic Times, after over two years of pushback, BlackBerry has finally ceded to the Indian government’s insistence that the Canadian phone maker provide the state with access to portions of data exchanged between any of its users. The company has provided a solution that allows…

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Evidence is growing of Open Data’s potential economic benefit

Staff Writer

One of the key policy drivers for Open Data has been to drive economic growth and business innovation. There’s a growing amount of evidence and analysis not only for the total potential economic benefit but also for some of the ways in which this is coming about. This evidence is summarised and reviewed in a new World Bank paper published today. There’s a range of studies that suggest that the potential prize from Open Data could be enormous – including an estimate of $3-5 trillion a year globally from McKinsey…

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Facebook unprecedented reveals search warrant of hundreds of accounts

Staff Writer

Facebook revealed that since last summer it’s been fighting a court order that required it to disclose social-media information involving hundreds of people. “This unprecedented request is by far the largest we’ve ever received — by a magnitude of more than ten — and we have argued that it was unconstitutional from the start,” Chris Sonderby, Facebook’s deputy general counsel, wrote in a statement Thursday. The situation raises concerns over privacy in the digital age, when much of a person’s sensitive information is often available online and on mobile devices.…

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Understanding the Copyright’s Volition Requirement After Aereo

Staff Writer

Jonathan’s post continues DisCo’s ongoing coverage of the Aereo case.  Last week, Prof. Michael Carrier wrote a post for DisCo on the possible effect of Aereo on investment.  Previously, DisCo writer Matt Schruers guest-posted on SCOTUSblog about how Aereo creates uncertainty for the cloud. One of the great attractions (or frustrations) of copyright law is that it is based on metaphysical distinctions. The most obvious of these is the idea/expression dichotomy. The Second Circuit in Computer Associates v. Altai observed that “drawing the line between idea and expression is a tricky business.”…

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Private undersea cable ventures validate network growth trends

Staff Writer
Liquid Telecom

Google may invest in a multi-million-dollar undersea cable across the Pacific Ocean that will help handle increasing amounts of undersea traffic being sent across private networks, according to The Wall Street Journal. Despite arguments about Net neutrality, privately owned undersea cables, for example, give the companies that own it more control over traffic prioritization long before it reaches consumers. Google’s potential move makes sense in terms of a recent TeleGeography Global Bandwidth Research Service report, which found that while international backbone operators are still the primary users of international bandwidth,…

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Big IT vs SME IT in government – it’s really about changing IT suppliers’ behaviour

Staff Writer
Compulynx

The Cabinet Office plan to bring in more SME IT suppliers and reduce dependence on the old “oligopoly” of big systems integrators (SIs) was always going to come under greater scrutiny once some of those SIs saw their lucrative outsourcing deals come to an end. The Financial Times ran a strange article recently featuring unattributed claims that ministers including business secretary Vince Cable were telling David Cameron that the pro-SME IT policy was wrong, after his department suffered email problems soon after it transitioned away from a Fujitsu mega-outsourcing deal.…

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Report: NSA was allowed to spy on Africa since 2010

Staff Writer

Virtually no foreign government is off-limits for the National Security Agency, which has been authorized to intercept information “concerning” all but four countries, according to top-secret documents. The United States has long had broad no-spying arrangements with those four countries — Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — in a group known collectively with the United States as the Five Eyes. But a classified 2010 legal certification and other documents indicate the NSA has been given a far more elastic authority than previously known, one that allows it to intercept…

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Germany cancels Verizon contract over spying anxiety

Staff Writer

The German government has cancelled a contract with Verizon over concern that US firms may be giving data to US authorities. Verizon has provided internet services to a number of German government departments and the current contract was due to run out in 2015. The firm did not comment on the move. There was anger in Germany over allegations that a US agency bugged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone. Earlier this month Germany announced an investigation into those allegations which were made by a former contractor of the US National Security…

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