slideshow - itbusinessdirect

Apple Gains Support From It’s Greatest Rivals

March 2, 2016March 2, 2016 Dianne Jacobs

The last couple of weeks have been interesting in the world of tech, as we are in the throes of what might be the biggest tech battle of the decade. As we had reported last week, Apple was facing pressure from the FBI and the Department of Justice to not only hack into the San Bernadino shooter’s iPhone but to also create a permanent backdoor into all future versions of the iOS. In the beginning, tech enthusiasts declared their support for Apple but now tech giants have gone a mile…

Guarding your online brand against cybersquatters

November 13, 2015February 11, 2016 Staff Writer

If you had a business called Widgets R Us and somebody set up shop right next door with a business called Widgets R U, you’d probably be a bit miffed. Especially if the interloper then demanded money to move elsewhere. cybersquatters: But this sort of thing is happening all the time online. It’s called cybersquatting – buying up website addresses, or domain names, that sound very similar to existing well-known brand names. When Google recently launched its new parent company Alphabet, and the abc.xyz web address, there were more than…

How can Financial Institutions make IoT Technology payoff?

November 4, 2015February 11, 2016 Staff Writer

Deloitte have produced a new fascinating report about the size of the market for the Internet of Things (IoT). Here’s the management summary and you can download the whole report here . Can financial services, which deals mostly with the intangible, benefit from Internet of Things technology? Absolutely—and not only from more and better data about clients’ physical assets. IoT Technology applications aim to transform finance along with every other sector. IoT may be as broadly transformational to the financial services industry as the Internet itself, and leaders should make…

Sophia Bekele: The rise of “Exclusive Multistakeholder” – Analysis on ICANN Africa Strategy

February 17, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

Sophia Bekele has taken an inside look into the ICANN Africa Strategy in the article on CircleID quoted below… ICANN Africa Strategy – A View from the Inside: The rise of “Exclusive Multistakeholder” “In fact, the implementation of the strategy, so far, in the opinion of many Africans, is a failure in the multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance we aspired for. The entire ICANN Africa Strategy is an apparent usurpation of the model by a Special Interest Group who has appointed themselves as “Leaders of the African Internet Community” and…

Snapchat Is Launching A New Discovery Feature That Will Make It A Bigger Threat To Facebook

January 28, 2015February 17, 2016 Staff Writer

Snapchat just announced its new Discover feature, a collaboration with media companies such as Vice, CNN, Yahoo News, Comedy Central, and National Geographic to bring news to users in the form of Snapchat stories. News stories released through Discover will be available in multiple parts, allowing for media companies to string together a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. In typical Snapchat fashion, each news story will last for 24 hours before disappearing. The introduction of Discover will help Snapchat further compete with Facebook, which now includes links to…

The creators of Google Inbox explain why it’s the future of Gmail

October 31, 2014February 17, 2016 Staff Writer

Google’s on a mission to reinvent email. Its weapon: Inbox, a standalone app that launched last week. Inbox aims to make email more useful with several new tools. It surfaces relevant content (photos, for example) and information from within individual messages so you don’t have to open anything to get at what you really want. Bundles sort your messages for you, letting you find important messages faster. Plus you can add your own reminders that work with Google Now. But there’s something important that Inbox isn’t: Gmail. Although the whole…

Cyber Crime a big cost for small businesses

October 17, 2014February 17, 2016 Staff Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s not just big businesses like JPMorgan Chase, Target and Home Depot that get hacked. Small companies suffer from intrusions into their computer systems, too. The costs associated with computer and website attacks can run well into the thousands and even millions of dollars for a small company. Many small businesses have been attacked — 44%, according to a 2013 survey by the National Small Business Association, an advocacy group. Those companies had costs averaging $8,700. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) said the attack on its computer servers…

Apple vs. Google: New privacy battle looms

October 1, 2014March 3, 2016 Staff Writer

A new battle is brewing over privacy for mobile devices, after moves by Google and Apple to toughen the encryption of their mobile devices sparked complaints from law enforcement Washington (AFP) – A new battle is brewing over privacy for mobile devices, after moves by Google and Apple to toughen the encryption of their mobile devices sparked complaints from law enforcement. The issue is part of a long-running debate over whether tech gadgets should have privacy-protecting encryption which makes it difficult for law enforcement to access in time-sensitive investigations. FBI…

Forbes lists 10 Emerging Women Entrepreneurs To Watch In Africa

September 30, 2014February 25, 2016

In June this year, She Leads Africa, a Nigerian-based social enterprise that aims to foster business growth in Africa by providing female startup entrepreneurs with the knowledge, networks, and financing to build and scale strong businesses, launched a business pitch competition. The purpose of the competition was to select ten exceptional young female entrepreneurs doing business in Africa to participate in an Entrepreneur showcase, whereby the entrepreneurs would pitch their businesses to a panel of esteemed business leaders and investors, including Nigerian multi-millionaire telecoms tycoon Hakeem Belo-Osagie, Standard Chartered Nigeria…

Disrupting mobile banking in Kenya; Equity Bank joins the list

September 17, 2014February 18, 2016 Staff Writer

EQUITY Bank, whose micro-loans offerings have helped increase the number of Kenyans using formal financial services, is looking to break into Kenya’s booming mobile telecoms market. The bank says it will use the Mobile Virtual Network Operator licence it was granted in April to make financial services even more accessible and affordable. Kenyans transacted more than US$20 billion through their mobile phones in 2013, and Kenya leads the world in its adoption of mobile payments. Equity is looking to tap into this booming market by employing innovative Taiwanese-made ultra-slim “subscriber…