New site for Northern Virginia Business News – http://ping.fm/7Vs0q or http://ping.fm/pkKrs – publish here!

Happy Thanksgiving – Northern Virginia Business News and a Commercial Cleaning Special!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009! Hopefully your travels, entertaining and family fun events are safe and healthy this year. We’re looking forward to a little downtime and giving thanks for the highlights of what’s otherwise been a difficult year for many businesses. While hiring and long-term business investing hasn’t exactly picked up yet, there are many signs of pickup among Loudoun and Northern Virginia small and home businesses, as consumers and other small businesses begin to pick up buying activity or at least begin planning to do so. Social media business traffic is high right now, for businesses discussing and finding ways to more efficiently market and communicate their services, for example.

New this Thanksgiving – keep track of all the growing business news in Loudoun County and Northern Virginia, at Northern Virginia Business News online. A new online business and marketing publication service of KME Internet Marketing, Northern Virginia Business News (or “NOVABizNews“) provides fully search-optimized and free exposure of all Northern Virginia Business News events, press releases and social media announcements. Follow us also on twitter, @novabiznews.

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Two Factor Authentication Identity Management – http://Anakam.com wins Government Security News Homeland Security Award http://bit.ly/28FKAJ

Two Factor Authentication Identity Management by Anakam wins Government Security News Homeland Security Awards

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – November 2, 2009 –Anakam TFA® Two Factor Authentication has been selected as the winner for “Best Authentication/Identification Product” at the GSN: Government Security News 1st Annual Homeland Security Awards competition. About 300 government officials and industry executives packed the grand ballroom of a Manhattan hotel on Oct. 27, 2009 to witness GSN announce the names of the winners in multiple security categories.

Read the full Two-Factor Authentication and Identity Management Anakam award press release…

Anakam is headquartered in San Diego, though with offices around the country, including a substantial presence here in Washington DC and Northern Virginia – where Anakam supports Multi-factor Identity Management, Authentication and Secure Collaboration system and product implementations for eGovernment clients, including National Defense, Homeland Security and Intelligence Government customers.

Wikipedia defines Two-Factor Authentication as follows: “An authentication factor is a piece of information and process used to authenticate or verify the identity of a person or other entity requesting access under security constraints. Two-factor authentication (T-FA) or (2FA) is a system wherein two different factors are used in conjunction to authenticate. Using two factors as opposed to one factor generally delivers a higher level of authentication assurance. Using more than one factor is sometimes called “strong authentication”, however, “strong authentication” and “multi-factor authentication” are fundamentally different processes. Soliciting multiple answers to challenge questions may be considered strong authentication but, unless the process also retrieves ’something you have’ or ’something you are’, it would not be considered multi-factor.”

Allan Camaisa, Anakam’s Founder and CEO, was on hand at the GSN ceremony to accept the Anakam “Best Authentication/Identification Product” award personally. “We are honored to be receiving this award for our efforts to deliver a truly unique technology which provides for the trusted identity management of citizens logging on to Government portals- thereby allowing agencies to provide more valuable online services at a greatly reduced cost.”

“Congratulations to Anakam, our winner in the “Best IT Authentication/Identification Product” category, whose innovative technology enables massive scale, cost-effective and secure two-factor authentication for eGov applications. Anakam’s system has enabled remote identity proofing and strong authentication for millions of citizens, while lowering costs of service delivery dramatically by shifting to Web-based applications,” said Adrian Courtenay, Chairman of GSN.

This technology is extremely important in enabling greater security and privacy protection with respect to the proliferation of eGovernment services expanding through leverage of online Portals, Internet-based Web 2.0 technologies and mashup widgets, and government-branded social media channels – accessed across an extremely wide variety of fixed and mobile devices. Check out in LinkedIn the “Anakam Trusted Identity” and “Homeland Security Information Sharing and Social Media” groups and topics for more related information.

Anakam’s winning entry, Anakam.TFA® Two Factor Authentication, provides enterprises with trusted access through two-factor authentication without the burden associated with issuing tokens or cards and by harnessing the ubiquity of common devices such as cell phones and pagers. Winners in each category were carefully reviewed by a panel of judges and chosen out of multiple entries.

About Anakam

Anakam enables strong identity authentication and identity management at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions, without encumbering customers, partners, and employees with cards, software downloads, tokens, or fobs. With tens of millions of end users, the Anakam Identity Suite® is unique in the industry, providing end-to-end multi-channel capabilities that allows enablement of secure, trusted eBusiness to very large user-communities in a single platform. The suite includes two-factor authentication, remote identity proofing and identity verification, professional credentialing, and secure collaboration and authentication. For more information, visit Anakam.com.

NOVA and Loudoun County Real Estate Notes – First Time Homeowners Credit Extended – FOX 5 News Report – http://ping.fm/CJD5M

Loudoun County Real Estate Notes – First Time Homeowners Tax Credit Extended

Following the Senate’s approval this week, the House overwhelmingly voted to extend the First Time Home Buyer’s credit program from November 30th 2009 until April 30, 2010, and include benefits for current homeowners as well.

From the FOX 5 WTTG news station, courtesy of Melanie Alnwick (FOX 5 Money Reporter), “There is now a $6,500 credit for existing homeowners. They must have lived in the home for five years of the last eight years, and purchases must be less than $800,000. Income limits were also increased. Now couples making up to $225,000 and individuals making up to $125,000 can qualify. The National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales rose in September for a record eight straight months. Vice President of Research Paul Bishop says 1.8 million people have taken advantage of the stimulus already, and it would like to see the momentum continue.”

Ingrid Myers, Realtor in Loudoun, Prince William, Fairfax and other Northern Virginia and Maryland locations, says “it’s a huge deal”, and many people waiting in the pipeline to buy homes will likely be motivated to buy now.

Find more about Loudoun County Real Estate and Leesburg Real Estate market values at this report, a Retweet of @novarealestate and @averyhess…

See Melanie Alnwick’s full report on the First Time Home Owner’s Credit Extension and its impact on Northern Virginia and Loudoun Real Estate

Hey, @tweetbots – answer the customer service desk phone – or at least respond to your helpdesk forums!

Twitter Conference for Business | @GrandHyattDC – Washington | Oct 22 2009 – http://twtrcon.com/ @twtrcon #twtrcon

Bloggers for Good – http://www.bloggersforgood.org/ Wednesday, October 21 at Finnegan’s Irish Pub in Ashburn from 5-7; 30% to Cole’s Closet

NOVA Brewfest Fall 2009

NOVA Brewfest Fall 2009 World Beer Festival
http://www.twitter.com/novabrewfest http://www.novabrewfest.com/fall