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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,…

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…

Microsoft’s second biggest investment is Africa

September 9, 2013 Staff Writer

Technology giant Microsoft last week announced a partnership with the South African government’s Jobs Fund – an alliance that will provide assistance to small businesses who operate online to expand their companies and help grow the local economy. Microsoft South Africa’s Managing Director Mteto Nyati sat down with ITNewsAfrica to explain why Microsoft has invested so heavily in Africa. Nyati explained that although Microsoft is indeed heavily invested in the African continent, with projects such as the newly-announced BizSpark and Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative, the company is actually involved in all territories where it has a…

Deal Is Easy Part for Microsoft and Nokia

September 4, 2013 Staff Writer

Microsoft Corp. MSFT -4.55% struck a $7 billion bargain with Nokia Corp. NOK1V.HE +1.15% to bolster a mobile future for the software giant. But the odds are long that a deal can reverse the fortunes of two laggards in a cutthroat market. Microsoft Corp. MSFT -4.55% struck a $7 billion bargain with Nokia Corp. NOK1V.HE +1.01% to bolster a mobile future for the software giant. But the odds are long that a deal can reverse the fortunes of two laggards in a cutthroat market. Microsoft is wagering a purchase of Nokia’s phone business will…

Microsoft to acquire Nokia’s device and services division

September 3, 2013September 3, 2013 Staff Writer

Microsoft will acquire Nokia’s devices and services unit and license the company’s mapping services in a deal worth $7.2 billion in a bid to bolster the company’s position in the smartphone market. The software giant will pay $5 billion for “substantially all” of Nokia’s phone unit and another $2.2 billion to license its patents, the companies announced late Sunday. As part of the deal, Stephen Elop will step down as Nokia chief executive to become the executive vice president of the devices and services division. Elop, a former Microsoft executive,…

The danger of blindly trusting the technocrats

May 28, 2013 Staff Writer

We are living in the age of the technocrats. In business, Big Data, and the Big Brains who can parse it, rule. In government, the technocrats are on top, too. From Washington to Frankfurt to Rome, technocrats have stepped in where politicians feared to tread, rescuing economies, or at least propping them up, in the process Technocrats are in vogue within the intelligentsia, too. It is well nigh impossible to pick up a book about any social or political issue nowadays (including, I hasten to acknowledge, my own) without coming…