Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC) today announced it will be tracking malicious activity on the Internet relating to the soccer World Cup, which starts on June 11. On its dedicated Web site, www.2010netthreat.com, Symantec will provide data, commentary, safety tips and useful links for football fans surfing the Internet for news, tickets and information on the tournament.

According to Paul Wood, senior analyst at Symantec Hosted Services, the tournament, which attracts the attention of more than 1 billion soccer fans worldwide, is becoming a theme for cybercriminals. “Historically, any large-scale sporting event has shown an increase in all kinds of cyberthreats,” said Wood. “Phishing attacks increased by 66 percent during the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The fact that two undersea communications cables landed on South African shores last July will exacerbate the threat levels; history also shows that malicious activity increases in a country after new bandwidth is made available.”

Symantec has already installed additional network sensors in South Africa and southern Africa to monitor traffic and feed information to customers who are looking to take steps to secure their networks against additional threats. “As an example, two of our configured partners in Africa have submitted unique malicious files that have not been seen elsewhere by Symantec,” said Wood.

Much of the threat activity will not be new to the world of cybercrime – so-called 419 scams, spam and phishing attacks will face users in the guise of special offers for the event. “The rule is, if something looks too good to be true, then it’s likely to be a scam,” said Gordon Love, Africa regional director, Symantec. “Also, in all cases these days a cybercriminal is looking to steal a user’s personal information – identity details, bank account numbers, passwords and credit card numbers – to steal money from a user. The 2010 Net Threat site will aim to tell people how they can protect themselves against such attacks.”

Internet users must be on the alert for new varieties of scam. “Attackers are even going as far as ensuring their fake Web sites or sites they have ‘poisoned’ with malicious code appear at the top of search results,” said Love. “Users tend to assume that the sites that appear first tend to be legitimate, and may click on them without first examining the source.”

By the time the World Cup kicks off, 3.1 million tickets will have been sold. More than 400 million people worldwide will watch each match on television. The number of fans using the Internet to find tickets, accommodation, flights and ways to stay connected to this year’s most popular sporting event will amount to hundreds of millions.

“The site will provide people with the information they need to protect themselves on the Internet,” said Love. “However, attackers are always finding new ways of duping people into disclosing their personal information. Being well informed and alert is as important as keeping up to date with the latest protection software updates.”

Mobile ad network AdMob has just released its latest stats tracking the rise of Android, and it’s clear that Google’s mobile platform is quickly gaining steam. AdMob writes that between October and December, the number of ad requests worldwide from Android devices increased a whopping 97% to over 1 billion ad requests. In other words, the number of Android devices doubled in just two months.

AdMod records the number of ad requests its system generates, meaning this leap has come about through more people downloading and using ad-supported apps via the Android market.

Here are the higlights of AdMob’s latest metrics:

• 97% increase in worldwide requests from Android devices, totalling to 1 billion ad request between October-December
• 98% of the ad requests came from HTC devices in October, 56% in December from HTC devices and 30% from Motorola DROID.
• Among the Android devices that generated more than 3% of ad requests are Motorola DROID, HTC Dream, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Motorola CLIQ, HTC Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Magic and HTC Hero.
• Motorola DROID received 30% ad requests in December making it the number one Adroid handset in terms of ad requests.

Interestingly, these data have to come in just in time for Google’s announcement of the Nexus Phone. And even more interesting is the fact that AdMob is already owned by Google.

Will the Nexus One phone add spike to Android’s current achievement in terms of ad request?

This just in – Internet marketer and entrepreneur Randolf Jorberg just blogged the news that eTRAVELi has acquired Cape Town based Travelstart’s Nordic operations – this adds just another success story to serial entrepreneur Stephan Ekberghs list of achievements. Travelstart is a South African company and generated sales of approximately ZAR 1.5 billion during 2009. eTRAVELi and Travelstart combined produce a monster booking engine with expected revenues of 5 billion (Rand and Swedish kronor are nearly on par) in 2010. The report does not state the acquisition price, we are waiting for a reply from Stephan with further details.

Reportedly brokering 50,000 bookings a month on the Travelstart SA platform, Travelstart is a travel giant in the e-commerce market of South Africa and I do seriously hope that this is not the last positive news we hear from this travel powerhouse, operating from Cape Town.

Update from Stephan -

Just to clear some basic facts:
The Deal covers our european business and our brand in Europe.
We will still continue to do business outside of EU with our new global HQ in Cape Town.
Our main efforts will be directed towards continental Africa for a while as well as launching a global kick ass mobile app.
Our ZA business is doing very well and we expect to break the 1 billion zar mark in 2011.

Come by and see us at 56 Shortmarket.

I have written some personal reflections on the sale on my blog:
http://ekbergh.blogspot.com/2010/01/when-to-let-go-2930-decade-with.html

(edit – we have fixed our confusing headline)

From today, Nimbuzz users on Symbian can enjoy integration with the world’s fastest-growing social network, as Nimbuzz incorporates a feature-rich Twitter client that includes Timelines, Direct Messaging, Searches, Trends and Profiles, and outperforms standalone Twitter applications.

A groundbreaking world first for Symbian handsets is the introduction of pop-up notifications, notifying users of incoming chats and events, while the application runs in the background.

Further significant additions to the Symbian update include kinetic scrolling for 5th edition touch screen phones, new chat screen and contact list layout, chat history, plus a direct link to the NimbuzzOut rate calculator for international calls have also been added.

Available as a free download from Symbian app stores, such as Nokia’s Ovi Store, and from www.nimbuzz.com, the new Nimbuzz for Symbian is unique in offering a centralised messaging client with the most comprehensive all-in one feature set – VoIP calls, Instant Messaging and file-sharing with the world’s most popular social networks, plus presence, profiles, location and now Twitter – making it the ‘must have’ application for Symbian users.

The Symbian release comes at a time of phenomenal growth for Nimbuzz; having passed the 13 million registration milestone last month, Nimbuzz now enjoys a current growth rate of over a million new registrations each month (that’s a new Nimbuzz user every 3 seconds!), an active user base of over 30% and an international user footprint of 220 countries, covering every corner of the globe.

Evert-Jaap Lugt, founder & CEO of Nimbuzz commented: “We are delighted to announce the integration of Twitter with our new Symbian client. Nimbuzz for Symbian is by far our most sophisticated client and the only product available to offer users such a comprehensive range of features and such a complete communications experience on one.”

20Fourlabs (together with Blueworld Communities) walked away with the top honours last night in the Nokia Africa Calling All Innovators app competition. Their entry, Afridoctor, won the $85 000 first prize beating 125 other entries from developers all over Africa.

Afridoctor has enjoyed huge success since its official launch into the Nokia OVI app store – after 3 weeks of being available in the app store Afridoctor has been downloaded over 5500 times from users around the world.

The application fills a void that currently exists in many African countries where there is a huge demand for basic health related information yet this information is not very reliable or easily accessible.

“Thanks to all those within 20fourlabs/BWCOM for your help in designing and building the product. Thanks also go to Danie Pauw and the Health24 team for partnering with us on this project and supplying key content. It is a great honor for us to win the Nokia application competition and that is testament to our ability to innovate and rapidly execute brilliant ideas in limited time frames.” says Bradley Voges, Business Development Manager for BWCOM.

There are already serious discussions underway to expand Afridoctor and ensure the application reaches those who need it most – development has already begun to port Afridoctor to all capable Nokia handsets to ensure mass adoption.

What is Afridoctor?

Afridoctor is Africa’s first personal mobile health clinic, turning your device into a powerful first aid information kit, a doctor-location service, and an emergency distress notifier. Its revolutionary “SnapDiagnosis” system allows users to submit photos of their ailments and remotely receive advice from a panel of professionals. Afridoctor’s mapping feature enables users to find doctors, clinics and all health industry related services within their proximity. Read the rest of this entry »

Vodacom’s the Grid, South Africa’s first location-based mobile social network available to everyone who has a WAP-enabled cellphone, has mapped out close to 11,000 HIV-related support services covering prevention, treatment and support across South Africa.

By utilising the Grid’s location-aware technology, South Africans are not only able to see on their cellphones which HIV support service is closest to them, but they can also obtain the centre’s contact details and get directions to it.

This initiative sees the Grid partnering with the HIV-911 programme – a comprehensive guide of HIV and AIDS related support services in South Africa. The main objective of the programme is to ensure that information about HIV support services are accessible to all South Africans. HIV-911 is funded by United States Agency for International Development / President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through the Foundation for Professional Development.

Says Shameel Joosub, Managing Director, Vodacom South Africa: “By utilising the broad reach of cellphones in South Africa and tapping into the large user base on the Grid, we are able to make crucial HIV and AIDS support information readily available to all South Africans. This is a great initiative to communicate the value of getting tested to a younger target audience in a social networking environment. It’s just another example of how mobile technology can help create a better life for ordinary South Africans.”

All the HIV-911 information is available in the Grid’s latest application release to coincide with this year’s World Aids Day. To access the Grid SMS ‘GRID’ to 33313 (50c/SMS) or visit http://onthegrid.mobi/

2009 has been a year of change in South Africa and Google has shown that people having been using Google Search to keep abreast of the most interesting news and trends as well as their favourite websites. As part of its year-end Zeitgeist trends results, which monitors search trends around the world, Google has released results of what South Africans have been searching for this year in the categories of politics, sport, celebrities and recession related queries.

In the political arena, some of the most popular searches included firebrand ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema, who pipped Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance and Mvume Dandala of COPE as the third most searched for politician. Despite having a high volume of searches to his name, the Youth League president had to make way for his seniors, Jacob Zuma and Nelson Mandela who demonstrated their staying power by leading the rankings.

Former Springbok Joost van de Westhuizen had us all scrambling for our keyboards and heading for the Google search box when he released his biography. Joost’s relatively late entry into the gossip columns meant he was no match for perennial celebrity, DJ Sbu from youth radio station YFM who led the ‘most for searched for celebrity’ category. He was followed by socialite Khanyisile Mbau. Benoni-girl done good, Charlize Theron, was not to be outdone coming a close third in the rankings. Read the rest of this entry »

New licensing regulations to safeguard Internet users who register .za domain names have been released for comment. The .za registration process includes sending a plain text email to Uniform (.za registry) to register your domain. This is a very outdated and tedios process that has not changed in over 10 years. Some of the highlites of the new regulations are -

In addition, registries will be required to substantially automate the registration processes, so that names can be registered online quicker and more easily. This is an important measure which will upgrade .za to operate at a level on par with the leading domains such as .com, .net, .de (Germany) and .uk (United Kingdom).

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“While there may be cases where it is justifiable for a registrar to list itself as the holder of a name which belongs to its client, such practice is unfair and unethical if the domain name holder never consented to such an arrangement.”

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In addition, ZA DNA may be able to force a registrar to delete names belonging to cyber-squatters where the registrar is found to be hosting cyber-squatter names. This will help protect the .za namespace better from being used by Internet thugs to send spam and attack the Internet infrastructure worldwide.

Since launching Street View cars in South Africa in September this year, Google has heard from people around the country that they’d like us to include even more images of South Africa’s amazing attractions in Street View and put its famous landmarks on the map.

That’s why we’re giving people a sneak preview of our latest groundbreaking invention – the Google Trike. This mechanical masterpiece comprises 3 bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image-collecting gadgets. It also comes with a very athletic cyclist in customised Google apparel. The Trikes are not only a low-emission means of collating street-level imagery, as we are currently doing with the Street View Toyota Prius cars, but they also help Google collect imagery in places inaccessible by cars.

We can also reveal that we’re polling the South African public to vote for their special spots, such as historic landmarks and popular tourist destinations that the Trikes might visit. Google has teamed up with South African Tourism, with its unrivalled knowledge of South Africa’s tourist treasures, to compile a list of 20 exciting locations around the country, for which the public can vote and choose the top 3 locations that the Trikes will visit first.

Roshene Singh from South African Tourism said, “We have been only too happy to join forces with Google for its Street View initiative in South Africa, to bring our country’s remarkable diversity to the world in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. The new Trikes that are arriving shortly will help to showcase even more of South Africa’s unique travel offering, and we look forward to enthusiastic voting from the public”.

Do you want to see one of the World Cup stadiums on Street View? Or perhaps the Apartheid Museum, Kruger National Park or the Valley of the Zulu Kings? You can vote via an online form, which is available in five languages, at www.google.co.za/trike and also from your mobile phones at www.google.co.za/mobile/trike. As we only collect images from public roads, we have been working closely with the relevant organizations to collect images of privately-owned locations.

Stephen Newton, head of Google South Africa, said, “Street View has been a hit for tourism around the world, and now we want to make it even better for showing off South Africa’s history, nature and culture. The Trikes are designed to go down footpaths and tracks to collect images of areas of natural beauty or tourist sites. The Trikes will be here in South Africa for just a short time so in order to pick the very best spots, we’re asking the public to get involved and tell us where they want us to go. We want it to be a really fun, new aspect of the website – depending on what the public vote for, users will be able to virtually tour historical monuments or scenic locations before visiting – or check out which side of a football stadium they need to be on before leaving the house.”

Due to operational factors such as light levels and the weather (and what could be a pretty tired cyclist), the Trikes will only be in South Africa for a limited time during the summer. Images collected by the Trikes will be processed and carefully stitched together, a technological process that can take several months. They will be made available at a later date in Street View on Google Maps.

About Street View in South Africa

Street View is a hugely popular feature of Google Maps which is already available in more than 100 metropolitan areas around the world. We launched Street View driving in South Africa on the 1st of September 2009. The launch of the product is expected in 2010.

In countries where Street View is available, you can access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange “Pegman” icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street. You can check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, get a helping hand with geography homework, or just explore and get to know your town better.

As well as its consumer appeal, South African businesses will also benefit from the Street View technology by embedding Google Maps directly into their site for free, helping them to promote a chain of hotels or increase awareness of a local library or restaurant.

South African media sharing site Zoopy.com has entered into an international partnership deal with leading online video distribution and analytics service, TubeMogul. Zoopy is the first African company to partner with the Silicon Valley company, alongside media heavyweights such as YouTube, Microsoft, and MySpace.

Under the terms of the deal, Zoopy will be added as a syndication partner on TubeMogul, which allows users to upload a video once and then automatically deploy it to the Web’s top video sites. The partnership forms part of TubeMogul’s growth across the globe, with Zoopy being added to a select list of top video sites.

Brett Wilson, CEO and founder of TubeMogul, comments: “Zoopy provides advertisers and content creators a unique opportunity to reach the African continent, which is obviously exciting.”

Java mobile application

In addition to the partnership with TubeMogul, Zoopy has also released a java application that makes it possible for anyone to easily share videos, photos and audio clips from their mobile phones. The J2ME application, which is about 260KB in size, gives you convenient access to Zoopy’s content, including ZoopyTV, Zoopy’s professionally produced channels covering everything from movie reviews and fashion to current affairs and news.

“People love using their phones to take videos and photos, and Zoopy makes it really easy for them to share it, anytime, anywhere” says Jason Elk, CEO of Zoopy. “With the development of new technologies in this field, we’re making these services accessible to all people with mobile phones. It started with our mobile WAP site and will now grow into a richer experience with our java app.