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Microsoft Admits Its Datacenters Are Wide Open To NSA Attacks

November 15, 2013 Staff Writer

When the NSA news started breaking this past summer, it was noted that Google quickly realized where the NSA might be hacking in, and rushed to encrypt the links that connect their data centers. While some may criticize this, it’s easy to see why companies never bothered to encrypt these links. They’re internal networks, with no direct access to the outside world. The threat likelihood was quite low… unless you’re a giant government spying operation. That said, once it was revealed that, indeed, this is how the NSA hacks in,…

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

November 14, 2013 Staff Writer

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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Markets are suddenly tumbling all around the world, right as Twitter is going public

November 8, 2013 Staff Writer

North American stocks have been sliding all morning. The S&P 500 index is down 0.6%, trading at 1760, 14 points off the highs of the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.2%, but the NASDAQ is the big lagger, down 1.0%. The index is being dragged lower by QUALCOMM (down 3.8%), Whole Foods (down 8.9%), and Tesla (down 7.5%), which all missed expectations on earnings this week. And after a boost earlier, European indices are now giving up gains. The Italian FTSE MIB is down 1.6%, and the…

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

November 5, 2013 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?

October 29, 2013October 29, 2013 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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New gTLDs: does your business know a thing about new domain names

October 25, 2013 Staff Writer

New generic top-level domains are set to shake-up the way businesses pick names for their websites. We explain how they work The starting gun has been fired on the biggest land grab in the history of the web. Beginning today, thousands of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) will be unleashed, giving businesses the opportunity to be more creative with their website addresses. No longer will businesses be restricted to .co.uk, .com or the slightly more esoteric likes of .net or .tv. Instead, they’ll be able to put their brand name…

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Why the world’s technology giants are investing in Africa

October 15, 2013 Staff Writer

“I don’t understand. Why is it that the media only seems to talk about Africa when bad things happen?” The man behind the counter at my hotel in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, was talking to me about my job, and why I was visiting. He looked genuinely pained. He told me he is a big fan of the BBC – in west Africa the World Service and language services have a big following – but it seemed to him that the media outside the continent often only noticed when bad…

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During Shutdown, IRS Computers Still Churn Out Tax Liens, Levies And Bills

October 7, 2013 Staff Writer

At 1 A.M. Tuesday, just an hour after the budget standoff forced the partial shutdown of the federal government , Forbes contributor Kelly Phillips Erb (aka Taxgirl) delivered two pieces of bad news to taxpayers: you still have to pay any taxes due, and if you have problems, tough luck, the Internal Revenue won’t be answering its phones. (Yes, you cynics, that is news. Even during the busy tax return filing season more than two thirds of callers do get through to a human being at the IRS, although they…

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Twitter to raise $1bn in its stock market launch

October 4, 2013 Staff Writer

Social networking company Twitter has said it plans to raise $1bn (£619m) in its stock market debut in documents filed with US regulators. In the filing, revealed on Thursday, the seven-year-old company said that it now has 218 million monthly users and that 500 million tweets are sent a day. It made a loss of $69m in the first six months of 2013, on revenues of $254m. It will be the largest Silicon Valley stock offering since Facebook’s listing in 2012. Analysts said that the offering was likely to get…

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ICANN and Your Internet Abuse

October 3, 2013 Staff Writer

In spite of the material we were presented with in Durban something has gone very wrong inside of ICANN Compliance. KnujOn has published a report which demonstrates that ICANN Compliance appears to completely collapse between September 2012 and December 2012. Following December 2012, ICANN seems to stop responding to or processing any complaints. It is around this time certain compliance employees start disappearing. This was not limited to the Sydney office as some would have us believe, all while we have been given assurances the compliance team was being ramped…

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