Category: TECH

Facebook to Pay $19 Billion for WhatsApp

Staff Writer

Messaging Startup to Operate Independently, Retain Brand, Facebook’s $19 billion purchase of the WhatsApp mobile messaging service ranks as the largest-ever purchase of a company backed by venture capital. Facebook Inc. FB +1.13% agreed to buy messaging company WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock, a blockbuster transaction that dwarfs the already sky-high prices that other startups have been able to recently command. The 55-employee company, which acts as a kind of replacement for text messaging, has seen its use more than double in the past nine months to…

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Why did Target take so long to report data security breach?

Staff Writer

The Target data breach affecting 40 million of the retailer’s credit and debit cards stems back to Nov. 27, two days before Black Friday. So why are we just hearing about it now, three weeks later? Blame protocol.  Although it might seem like ages to affected consumers, in the scheme of data breaches, even three weeks is a pretty quick time frame to spot a breach and notify customers, said Will Pelgrin, president and chief executive of the Center for Internet Security. “No matter how quickly an entity notifies you,…

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Google’s ‘Zeitgeist’ Top Searches For 2013 Revealed

Staff Writer

Google has revealed its annual look at the top searches for 2013, and as ever it’s revealing, interesting, and mildly disturbing. This year Google split the list into the top “trending” searches – IE those with the most intense periods of interest – and “most searched” terms overall. Among the highlights were the fact that Paul Walker was the top trending search of the year, after his untimely death following a car crash in November, followed by ‘iPhone 5S’ and ‘royal baby’. The top “What Is?” search was led by…

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Vietnam, China and India gamers most vulnerable to cyberattacks

Staff Writer
Video game

Summary: The number of attacks could spike as millions are expected to receive games as presents in the holiday season, especially with the launch of newer consoles like PlayStation and Xbox, says Kaspersky Lab. Users worldwide are being hit by an average of 34,000 attacks related to gaming malware daily, according to a study by Kaspersky Lab. The total number of attacks on gamers was 11.7 million in 2013, and the number is expected to rise with millions of users receiving games for Christmas, especially wih the launch of newer…

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4G-LTE Networks Set To Double In Number By 2017

Staff Writer

When 1BN Of 8BN Total Mobile Connections Will Be 4G The number of 4G-LTE networks in service globally is set to roughly double over the next four years, according to data by GSMA Intelligence, the research arm of the global mobile carrier association, the GSMA.  Some 465 LTE networks are forecast to be in service across 128 countries by 2017, which it says is roughly double the number of live LTE networks today. 4G-LTE offers a considerable speed bump over 3G mobile technologies, in the region of 10x, although theoretical peak speeds —…

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Google removes record-breaking 200m piracy links so far in 2013

Staff Writer
Privacy

BPI and RIAA filed more than 74m takedown notices combined this year, with FilesTube topping list of removals Google has been forced to remove over 200m “pirate” links from its search listings by rights holders in 2013 a four-fold increase over 2012. Data released as part of Google’s transparency reports, compiled by TorrentFreak, show that at the current rate removal of alleged piracy links, Google will have been forced to delete over 250m by the end of 2013. The UK and US recording industry trade bodies BPI and RIAA lead…

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Google barges moored in San Francisco Bay, could be floating data centres?

Staff Writer

Mystery grows about Google barges moored off US coast The barges have a four-storey structure on deck and rumours are circulating about what the company plans to use them for. One suggestion is that they could be turned in to floating data centres powered by wave action. Others believe they could be fitted out with new showrooms for Google Glass with a “party deck” on top. So far Google has declined to comment on what the the vessels are being used for. “It’s an interesting concept,” said Nick Layzell, of…

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The BRICS Internet Cable: Back to Cable Geopolitics?

Staff Writer

News of the laying of a BRICS-cable triggered public attention as news of laying telegraph cables did a century ago. The ‘cable rush’ by Britain, Germany and France – then major industrial and colonial powers – heralded the start of cable geopolitics which still exist today.  Despite all the promises of the end of geography and Internet ‘virtuality’, geography remains as important as ever. Are we facing a renewed interest in cable geo-strategy? In Part 1 of this article, we will look at the emergence of cable geo-strategy. In a…

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Big data pitches the EU against US government and corporates

Staff Writer

The benefits of big data are being squashed under a steamroller of short-term corporate interests and the privacy abuses of security infrastructure, argues Joe McNamee. Joe McNamee, is the executive director of European Digital Rights (EDRi), an NGO that campaigns for civil rights in the digital environment. “What legal framework should be implemented when companies and governments increasingly know more about individuals than they know about themselves? This is the stark – and vastly underestimated – question that is facing European policy-makers in the reform of the data protection framework.…

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DCA Registry Services Kenya Participates in 2nd African IGF – Updates its .africa Bid

Staff Writer

The 2nd African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) successfully concluded. The conference was held from 24-26 September 2013 at the Multimedia University, Nairobi Kenya. The AfIGF conference was organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the IGF Secretariat in cooperation with the Kenyan government among other stakeholders. DCA Registry Services Kenya delegates also attended the conference and contributed to important discussions and pertinent proceedings. In his opening address that was communicated via a recorded video message, Fade Chehade, ICANN’s President & CEO noted that the African IGF…

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