Hi there,

It’s six months since the Christchurch mosque shootings brought terror attacks to home soil and this week saw Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hailing the ‘real strides’ made to prevent and respond to extremist content online.

Apart from Facebook's intervention of users entering dodgy search terms, the Christchurch Call seems to have delivered little.

Ardern's 'real strides' reference is to the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism which this week moved to recreate itself as an independent body. One prominent role of the GIFCT is to manage the hash database – the coded tags on photos, videos and URLs of extremist content that is shared among members as a means to identify and remove offensive content more quickly.

But is the GIFCT and the decade-old hash tagging technique effective? What atrocities have the platform companies actually intercepted?

In other news:

Harvard ranks NZ’s ease of doing digital business – how do we stack up?
Heard of WiFi 6? – yep it's a thing
WhereScape owners close exit deal
Dealing with the data blockers

And, in a world where being strategic is just business as usual for CFOs, we look at different ways to become more strategic and deal with new technology, while still juggling traditional responsibilities.

Enjoy the read,

Heather Wright
Editor
editor@istart.co.nz

COUNTER TERRORISM

Platform companies unveil details on extremist content

Just how many moles are being whacked with online hate prevention tools?…

Digital ‘fingerprints’ related to the Christchurch terrorist attacks accounted for over 1,000 of the unique hashes collected by the GIFCT, a new report has revealed.

The new, independent, status and governmental oversight doesn’t however confer any new teeth.

[Read more]

DIGITAL NATIONS

Harvard releases ‘ease of doing digital business’ rankings

A/NZ results highlight key areas of weakness…

If you’re looking to set up a digital business, Australia’s the place to be in APAC, excluding Japan – so long as it’s a platform business – with the country topping the region.

Ease of doing digital business requires distinctive policy focuses and investments.

[Read more]

NETWORKING

WiFi 6: Faster internet, and a big boost for IoT?

And no you didn’t miss 1-5, it’s just 802.11 was feeling uncool…

It’s promising faster speeds, latency improvements and – in what could be a key selling point for businesses – more reliable performance on congested networks.

“It’s coming soon, and it’s built for IoT.”

[Read more]

ACQUISITIONS

WhereScape converts success to cash

Kiwi-made solution to join Idera’s data stable…

Kiwi data infrastructure automation company WhereScape has been snapped up by the United States’ Idera for an undisclosed figure.

"The business had grown up enough to take this step.”

[Read more]

OPINION

The five things that impede data culture

So you’re onboard with data analytics; now to deal with the blockers…

There are pretty clear signals from corporate Australia and New Zealand that they are onboard with data and the importance of enabling an internal data culture.

Data doesn’t drive anything. It’s people that drive the success or failure of data projects.

[Read more]

WHITEPAPER

The future of finance is in the CFOs hands

Learn why CFOs should look at different ways to become more strategic...

CFOs need to operate in an ever changing world.

"Meet the self-driving car of software”

[Read more]

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