IT News
Vulnerabilities in Windows and Chrome Used in Series of Highly Targetted Attacks
In April, Kaspersky experts discovered a number of highly targeted attacks against multiple companies utilising a previously undiscovered chain of Google Chrome and Microsoft Windows zero-day exploits. One of the exploits was used for remote code execution in the Chrome web browser, while the other was an elevation of privilege exploit fine-tuned to target the latest and most prominent builds of Windows 10. The latter exploits two vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows OS kernel: Information Disclosure vulnerability CVE-2021-31955 and Elevation of Privilege vulnerability CVE-2021-31956. Microsoft has patched both today as part of Patch Tuesday. Zero-Day Attacks Recent months have seen a wave of advanced threat activity exploiting zero-days on the internet. In mid-April, Kaspersky experts...
SA President Ramaphosa Finally Gives Greenlight for Private Companies to Boost Country’s Power Grid
Image sourced from SAFA /* custom css */ .tdi_4_c82.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_c82.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the SA government will finally lift the threshold for embedded generating electricity capacity from 1 MW to 100 MW in South Africa. This move will allow private households and businesses to self-generate power on a larger scale. Ramaphosa says that the increase in embedded generating capacity threshold is vital in creating new ambitious, bold and urgent responses to aid with the country’s ongoing energy crisis. “We are today announcing a significant new step in further reforming our electricity sector towards achieving a stable and secure supply of energy,” the President says. /* custom css */ .tdi...
Confidential Computing – Why Privacy Should be the Heart of Digital Experiences
Image sourced from Intel. In this past year, the consumer experience came to the forefront. As we faced various stages of lockdowns, we turned to online banking, seeing our doctors remotely, running our businesses using technology and socialising through a screen. Digital interactions became a part of our lives – ever-present and normalised as we navigated changes swept in by this pandemic. As our digital interaction became seamless and permeated through every aspect of our lives, privacy continued to be top of mind. We carried out our lives predominantly online – making many of us more vulnerable to fraudsters. As we navigated living our lives digitally, data theft dominated 2020 as the most common attack in the Middle East and Africa. Across the region, data theft and leaks accounted for...
Mobile Authentication Can Be the Key to Negating Cybercrime in East Africa
Image sourced from BICS. The rapid pace of digital transformation in East Africa has had a significant impact on not only how people live their lives, but also on how communication and commerce are conducted, allowing the modern customer to do everything – immediately. This has also had the unintended consequence of altering the way we are targeted by fraudsters and cybercriminals, notably changing the nature of cyber threats and attacks that we face in a mobile-first digital world. The Price of Cybercrime According to an Accenture report published in 2019, the total value at risk of cybercrime over the next five years is an estimated $5.2 trillion. The average cyberattack costs $13 million, according to the same report, with phishing, social engineering and stolen device crime making up $...
How COVID-19 Has Changed E-Learning Forever
Image sourced from Entrepreneur. E-learning has changed. Much of this change is due to COVID-19, and there’s no going back to the way we were before, however, many organisations may want to do so. “COVID arrived and new technology came to the fore – like Zoom, Meets, Teams and so on. How did you upskill your people on it? Were they ready for it? Are you teaching people to get the best out of things like LinkedIn?” says Michael Gullan, CEO of corporate e-learning consultancy G&G Advocacy. “Executives may not be as equipped to deal with online networking now that physical networking events aren’t as common anymore. Can your C-Suite execs use these tools? Can your sales team?” Companies can no longer afford to see their e-learning as a grudge purchase or an afterthought, says Gullan. “Tha...
INTERVIEW Africa’s Business Heroes Awarding $1.5-Million to Africa’s Next Top Tech Entrepreneurs
Image sourced from China Daily. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_240.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_240.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } The worldwide pandemic has spurred digital transformation across the African continent. Tech is booming in Africa, it is all too clear to see. Now more than ever, driven African entrepreneurs and startup founders are innovating new waves into the ocean of technology. All they need is funding. Enter: The Africa’s Business Heroes (ABH) initiative – Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s flagship philanthropic program is spotlighting and celebrating the continent’s top entrepreneurs and startups. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_600.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_600.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Africa’s Business Heroes is calling for applicants to the ...
SA, Nigeria & Kenya: Top E-Commerce Drivers in Sub-Saharan Africa
Sourced from Legit.ng /* custom css */ .tdi_4_e6c.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_e6c.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } A recent Visa report has shown that the top market contributors to e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the last 3 years were South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, with Ghana also showing growth, having replaced Kenya in the top three contributors in 2020. SSA may be one of the smallest regions of e-commerce globally, but it shows steady growth potential. During lockdown, the region saw new e-commerce users rise by 5% when compared to the active base in SSA the previous year. “The three leading markets in SSA are starting to mature, providing the region with an established foundation and when twinned with the growing penetration of e-commerce, it offers p...
4 Security Loopholes Have Been Found in Microsoft Office Apps Including Excel, Word
Sourced from Wikimedia Check Point Research (CPR) urges Windows users to update their software, after discovering four security vulnerabilities that affect products in the Microsoft Office suite, including Excel and Office online. The loopholes were found in sections of legacy code, the vulnerabilities could have granted an attacker the ability to execute code on targets via malicious Office documents, such as Word, Excel and Outlook. Malicious code could have been delivered via Word documents (.DOCX) , Outlook Email (.EML) and most office file formats. Vulnerabilities are the result of parsing mistakes made in legacy code, leading CPR to believe security flaws have existed for years CPR responsibly disclosed to Microsoft, who then issued fixes: CVE-2021-31174, CVE-2021-31178, CVE-2021-311...
Nigerian Lawmakers to Investigate Government’s Twitter Ban
/* custom css */ .tdi_4_050.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_050.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Nigeria’s House of Representatives passed a new resolution to investigate the legality of the indefinite suspension of Twitter operations in the country. The investigation was announced on Tuesday. This represents the first major move by the legislative body on the suspension of the social media service. The government’s decision to suspend Twitter has been met with significant criticism from Nigerians. The country’s National Assembly has also been criticised for their perceived silence and inaction on the matter, reports Tech Cabal. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, says that the members of the lower chamber have been “inundated with comments about the ...
Airtel Nigeria Awarded “Best in Test” – An Interview with Hakan Ekmen of umlaut
Hakan Ekmen, CEO of Telecommunications for umlaut. Hakan Ekmen, CEO of Telecommunications at umlaut – an international, full-service, cross-industry, end-to-end company that offers advisory and fulfilment services to clients all over the world – chats with ITNA about umlaut’s recently published telecommunications report in Nigeria and the company’s future plans in Africa. Here’s what transpired: umlaut is well known in the Telecommunications industry, but that’s only part of the story. Can you please tell us a little bit more about umlaut? umlaut is a technology-driven and future-oriented company, providing services to numerous sectors and industries, like automotive, energy, aviation, rail and telecommunications. We transfer our expertise and knowledge across the industries. Our own value...
Safaricom’s eSIM – What is it and How to Get It
Image sourced from Techweez. The much-rumoured eSIMs developed by Safaricom have officially been released in Kenya. All your biashara and personal lines can now be managed on one device. Better yet, you don’t have to switch physical SIM cards! Switch to #SafaricomEsim at a Safaricom shop near you. Available on select devices. #TwendeTukiuke pic.twitter.com/Nm3FtJnHj5 — Safaricom PLC (@SafaricomPLC) June 8, 2021 What is an eSIM? eSIM or embedded SIM is built into your phone. It is a tiny device, much smaller than even the smallest available micro SIMs. The smallest “nano” SIM is 8.8 mm by 12.3 mm, whereas an eSIM is 2.5 mm by 2.3 mm with a thickness of 0.2 mm. Since eSIMs are installed directly on your device’s motherboard, they are re-writable, which opens many more customization options f...
Undiscovered Software Bug Triggered Massive Internet Outages Worldwide
Image sourced from Newsweek. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_b0c.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_b0c.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } A massive internet-wide outage struck the web on Tuesday. Several major websites were impacted by the outage that originated at Fastly, a key content delivery network that supports many major companies and sites online. Websites affected included huge internet cornerstones like Reddit, Twitch, Amazon, PayPal, Spotify and CNN amongst many others. Many websites weren’t taken off the internet completely but were affected in other ways. PayPal users complained that payments weren’t being processed, Twitter users were unable to post certain emojis. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_cec.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_cec.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0;...
