Staff Writer - itbusinessdirect

‘Bangladeshi’ hacks Google’s local domain, users redirected

April 16, 2013 Staff Writer

Internet users trying to access Google’s search engine on Monday morning quickly discovered the company’s local domain was compromised. A hacker, who identified himself as Bangladeshi, defaced the company’s Google.co.ke domain, replacing the page with a black background with the word ‘hacked’ engraved on it. The error was quickly fixed. Google Kenya, however, denied claims it had been hacked into. The company explained that it was the domain name server (DNS) which hosts google.co.ke that had been compromised. Adapted from nation.co.ke

Share this

Hackers attack 90,000 WordPress blogs

April 16, 2013 Staff Writer

Keeping the default settings on any Internet-connected service is just asking for trouble. It’s easy enough to scoff at people whose brilliant “12345” password fell victim to hackers, but it’s just as simple to target usernames. A number of WordPress bloggers discovered this the hard way, when their “admin” accounts became part of a hostile, exploitative botnet. The attacks began last week, and have affected more than 90,000 blogs so far. The hackers behind the attacks have combed through WordPress accounts and attempted to guess passwords via brute force. Adapted…

Share this

Crowdsourced videos, photos could aid Boston blast investigations

April 16, 2013 Staff Writer

Law enforcement officials could have something very different on their hands as they investigate the dual bomb blasts that struck the Boston Marathon finish line today: a potential abundance of photo and video evidence from the public. Government surveillance, while growing, still misses more than it catches. But events with thousands of spectators offer the potential for a detailed crowdsourced record of what happened. This public panopticon is changing how we see the world. February’s Russian meteor was captured by many dash-cams mounted in Russian cars, but in this case…

Share this

Interruption-driven Content Consumption

April 16, 2013April 16, 2013 Staff Writer

Where you sit defines what you know I recently moved my desk from a plum spot near the windows with lots of natural light to the other side of the newsroom. I did this for a couple of reasons, but first, let me explain why I sit in the newsroom with the devs, designers, and editors instead of in an office. When I sit an office I feel isolated and it becomes a big ceremony for someone to chat with me. Since communication is the number one problem in any…

Share this

Location information to make mobile ads more valuable

April 16, 2013 Staff Writer

NEW YORK–Hyper-targeted advertising based on your location is coming to mobile phones and could finally bring money into the mobile advertising market, say experts at the All Things D mobile conference here Monday. In two separate interviews, the CEO of the mapping app Waze and ad executives Jason Spero from Google and Mollie Spilman of Millennial Media talked up the importance of users’ GPS location information to help tailor advertising. Adapted From cnet.com

Share this

Are Your Ill-Informed Policies Widening The Digital Divide?

April 16, 2013 Staff Writer

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” – Rabindranath Tagore The words above were brought to my attention by Susan Bearden, CIO at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy and one of The 50 Most Social CIOs on Twitter. Susan took to the podium at the Consortium for School Networking annual conference to implore K-12 CIOs, CTOs, and Technology Directors to tap the power of social media. Of all the compelling reasons Susan spoke about, two warrant special emphasis, not only for K-12 CIOs,…

Share this

The European Commission’s Tech All Stars competition returns to honor the EU’s best startups

April 16, 2013 Staff Writer

The European Commission is really keen to support the EU tech community these days. It’s honoring the top tech entrepreneurs with Europioneers and meanwhile, the second edition of its startup competition Tech All Stars has just kicked off and is looking for entries. Tech All Stars was launched last year, with automated complaint resolution tool CogniCor emerging as the winner. This year’s competition is now looking for entries, and the finals are an international affair taking in Germany, the UK and Ireland. Adapted from thenextweb.com

Share this

The Basics of Domain Names for Your Business

April 12, 2013 Staff Writer

o stay competitive businesses have to have an online presence. But if you aren’t web savvy, navigating all the ins and outs of creating a website can be confusing. How do you choose a domain name? What must you do to maintain it? And what happens if your domain name expires? We spoke with Paul McGrady, a trademark and domain name lawyer in Winston & Strawn LLP’s Chicago office about what business owners can do to keep their sites running smoothly, here’s his advice: adapted from news.terra

Share this