tech news
5 Reasons Why (Not Only) Financial Companies Struggle with Cybersecurity
Financial services companies have been a popular target for cybercriminals for a long time. Not without good reason, since beyond working with money, financial companies handle a slew of sensitive client data that criminals utilise in various fraud schemes or sell-off on dark web bazaars. According to Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, in the past year alone the financial industry has suffered more than 1,500 incidents, with 448 confirmed data disclosures. Carey van Vlaanderen, CEO of ESET says that in addition to the long-standing threats, most companies have had to contend with the rapid transition to remote work. “The shift happened on extremely short notice, leaving companies with little time to deploy adequate cybersecurity measures or to prepare employees for looming c...
Paratus Zambia Introduces New Unlimited Internet Deals for Businesses
Image sourced from Patriot Paratus Zambia has introduced a new range of Infinity business deals. The telco says that these packages have been designed to give business customers access to more affordable and unlimited connectivity in Zambia, a market where a quality affordable internet connection is difficult to obtain. “We have created these Paratus Infinity packages because we fully understand how important it is for businesses to have access to quality unlimited connectivity,” says Paratus Zambia Country Manager, Marius van Vuuren. “We do not cap or shape our connectivity solutions because we know that our customers need to be always online to do their business.” The Infinity packages give customers access to uncapped and unthrottled data without dips in service quality or speeds due to...
Best and Worst Mobile Networks in South Africa Revealed
2020 was a tumultuous year for the South African telecommunications sector which saw network providers left to grapple with calls for data price cuts in the face of a pandemic-driven demand for connectivity and digital customer service. From the perspective of consumers, however, the performance of local telcos has left much to be desired. That said, having tracked over two million social media posts about Cell C, MTN, rain, Telkom, and Vodacom throughout the year, BrandsEye’s latest Telco Sentiment Index – conducted in partnership with Deloitte Africa – found that some telcos received significantly more negativity than others. MTN comes out tops while rain gets left in the gutter Newcomer rain ranked last, scoring over 20 percentage points below the industry average. On the other end of t...
Nutanix and CLC Africa Partner to Provide Digital Skills Across East Africa
Image sourced from Glassdoor Nutanix and Computer Learning Centre (CLC AFRICA) have joined forces to provide access to technical and sales skills across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda. The partnership is expected to help provide access to valuable certified digital training to a region where demand for hyper-converged and cloud solutions is growing. “As legacy environments come to their end-of-life, African businesses are rapidly upscaling their environments to software-defined environments based on hyper-converged infrastructure solutions that will ready them for the cloud,” says Rowen Grierson, Sales Director for Sub-Saharan Africa at Nutanix. “We are delighted to announce that CLC is now an official ATP for the region. Their experience in training, the quality of their ins...
Elon Musk Confirms Tesla Now Accepts Payment in Bitcoin
Image sourced from CNBC Telsa CEO, Elon Musk has confirmed that the electric car company will now accept Bitcoin as a form of payment – news that has caused the price of Bitcoin to rise 5%. In a tweet, Musk says “You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin” and then goes on to reveal that Tesla is only using internal and open-source software and operates Bitcoin nodes directly. And that Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency. You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021 According to Simon Peters, crypto analyst at eToro, the decision for Tesla to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment “will likely build more momentum for the cryptoasset“. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_65b.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_65b.td-a-rec-img...
4 Tips to Protect Your Family Online
A recent survey revealed that 51.5% of South African children have been cyberbullied. “The reason for this is the increase in connected societies, more and more people are online, especially the youth,” says Simon Campbell-Young, co-founder and VP of global sales at Digimune. “There is clearly a lack of good cyber education and defensive tools. With this in mind, here are four tips to protect you and your family: 1. Remember that education is key This is the first awareness step. The vast majority of children have access to a wide variety of online devices — either shared or their own device — from a young age. By the age of 10, 30.5% of children have their own smartphone and 41.5% have access to a shared smartphone. It is thus imperative to take time to go about the internet – the good an...
Nutanix Appoints New Channel Director for Sub-Saharan Africa
Nutanix has appointed Andrew Gill as Channel Director for Western Europe & Sub-Saharan Africa (WEURSSA). Responsible for leading all channel and OEM activities in WEURSSA, Gill will oversee Nutanix’s go-to-market relationships with resellers, distributors, regional system integrators and technology partners in the region. Additionally, he will play a key role in driving channel-focused initiatives such as Nutanix Cloud Bundles, a strategic and unified offering to access Nutanix enterprise cloud software and solutions, while providing partners with greater value and autonomy through the sales channel. This unified management bundle enables Nutanix to expand access to its solutions, with an offering that meets the needs and budgets of any company as an essential addition to their En...
Amazon Appoints Former Exec as New CEO of AWS
Image sourced from CNBC Amazon has appointed Adam Selipsky as the new CEO of cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Selipsky succeeds Andy Jassy who is set to become CEO of Amazon after it was revealed that Jeff Bezos would step down this year. “Adam is not a new face to AWS. Back in 2005, Adam was one of the first VPs we hired in AWS, and ran AWS’s Sales, Marketing, and Support for 11 years (as well as some other areas like our AWS Platform services for a spell). Adam then became the CEO of Tableau in 2016, and ran Tableau for the last 4.5 years,” writes Jassy. “Adam brings strong judgment, customer obsession, team building, demand generation, and CEO experience to an already very strong AWS leadership team. And, having been in such a senior role at AWS for 11 years, he know...
MetroFibre’s South African Network Rollout Backed by Investec
Investec has taken charge of arranging R2.5 billion in debt funding for MetroFibre Networx, a South African fibre infrastructure provider. “There’s a massive demand for fibre connectivity in many outlying regions. Filling that gap makes sense not only from a business perspective but also from a socioeconomic upliftment standpoint,” says Wayne Edwards, Financial Director of MetroFibre. “In a growing and fiercely competitive market, the timely funding arranged by Investec, together with our recent R1.5 billion equity raise, will enable us to take fibre to more individuals and more businesses, giving them the opportunity to participate in the globally connected economy.” The funding agreement builds on an existing relationship between the two companies that dates back to 2016 when MetroFibre ...
Fake COVID-19 Vaccination Certificates for Sale on the Dark Net
While the global roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations continues to accelerate, it’s worth remembering that only around 1% of the world’s population have received their full course of injections. Billions are still waiting for their first dose, which inevitably leads those people to question exactly when they will get it. Especially as plans are being made internationally to allow those that have been vaccinated, or can prove they have had a recent negative test, the freedom to travel to other countries, attend large-scale events, take a new job, and more. So there’s a strong and growing demand for vaccinations and test results because of the greater freedoms they will give to people. And of course, there will always be people who don’t want to wait for their official vaccination, or for an of...
Huawei Mate40 Pro to Launch in South Africa
Huawei is set to launch its newest flagship smartphone – the Huawei Mate40 Pro – in South Africa on 1 April 2021. The device is expected to combine innovative features and striking design elements that elevate the user experience. It also has a strong focus on 5G performance, trendsetting design ethos and smartphone videography. The Huawei Mate40 Pro continues with its smartphone design trend thanks to its iconic Space Ring design with its unique colourways of Mystic Silver and Black. This is then complemented upfront with the ultra-curved Huawei Horizon Display, which curves at 88 degrees, allowing for a completely borderless and futuristic viewing experience. By curving the display to this extent, Huawei also gives users the option to use the volume rockers either with the physical ...
New MVNO Launches in South Africa
Shoprite has launched k’nect mobile – its own mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). This offering – which piggybacks off the mobile network infrastructure of Cell C – is expected to offer competitive rates and several other rewards to customers. k’nect mobile’s airtime, data bundles and rewards only expire after 60 days, rather than the more common 30-day expiry. Call and data rates are as follows: 50c per minute all day k’nect to k’nect calls 99c per minute all day calls to other networks 15c per megabyte for any size data bundle, up to 1GB k’nect mobile also offers the following Xtra rewards: 10% free on recharge 10% Xtra for Xtra Savings cardholders 5% Xtra when recharging via Money Market Account Double airtime rewards on Xtra Savings airtime deals Other rewards include early access ...
