tech news
The Role of Connected Technologies in the Automotive Sector
After many months of downtime, the much-anticipated resumption of major motorsport races has begun. However, like all other real-world sports, there have been various changes brought about because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, a series of amendments were made to almost everything in Formula 1 – from the race-start procedures and team operational rules to podium ceremonies. Some say the Coronavirus may change motorsports forever. However, what has already changed both motorsports and vehicles forever is connectivity, which has thrived in the past decade. How did the decade change both racing and ordinary cars? Motorsport enthusiasts may characterise the past decade as the era of two outstanding racers – Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. But for F1 engineers and the bigger backst...
Facebook Moves to Prevent Election Interference, Bans New Political Ads Beginning October 27th
Despite what Donald Trump or Mark Zuckerberg say, it’s pretty clear at this point that foreign interference on Facebook helped sway the 2016 presidential election. While Zuck has been slow to take responsibility or hold users on the platform accountable, Facebook has started initiating some changes to prevent further manipulation in 2020. Today, the company’s founder/CEO announced new steps Facebook and Instagram are taking to combat election tampering — including banning new political ads beginning one week before November 3rd. In his post announcing the changes, Zuckerberg explained barring ads beginning October 27th ensures Facebook has enough time to investigate any claims of misinformation. Trump has already been routinely criticized for pushing ads with false claims about his opponen...
Why Security Systems are Only as Successful as the People Who are Behind Them
In May 2020, the personal records of more than 24 million South Africans and nearly 794,000 companies were handed over to someone impersonating a client. The personal records, identity numbers and addresses of millions of people and thousands of businesses were given to this person because they had fooled the system. It’s a hard lesson in how important it is to embed security not just into the technology and the devices of a company, but into its people. According to Anna Collard, SVP of Content Strategy at KnowBe4 Africa, security is not just the responsibility of IT – it is the responsibility of every single person in an organisation. “It is critical that organisations create a culture of security in order to combat this increasingly hostile security environment,” she adds. “A successful...
Here’s what can cause Airtime Theft in South Africa
Sourced from Forbes Nearly 1.7 million mobile subscribers are infected with mobile malware in South Africa alone, reports 2019 data by mobile security company, Secure-D. According to the company, malware is the main culprit responsible for airtime theft and mobile ad fraud evident in the country, with 18,000 instances found on South African users’ devices. How malware highjacks mobile devices Mobile malware can either be downloaded on the device by the user via an app or come pre-installed. Once activated on the device, mobile malware becomes part of a “botnet” (short for robot network) of infected devices. These botnets, networks of malware-infused devices, are being remote-controlled at scale by a “bot-herder”. In the case of mobile ad fraud, the malicious application visits websites, cl...
Data Mining Company Founder is Accused of Experian Breach
Sourced from Republic Title Founder of a data-mining company, Karabo Phungula has been accused of gaining access to the personal data of nearly 24 million South Africans and 793 749 businesses from credit bureau, Experian. It is alleged that the information was handed over to Phungula after he ‘impersonated a legitimate Experian client’. However, Phungula says that he has been framed. He went on to tell MyBroadBand that he has “no idea what’s going on”. Phungula has since been issued with an Anton Piller order which grants the Sheriff the right to search and seize ‘evidence’ without giving any warning. “They came to my parents’ house which is the address they have as my business registered address and requested all devices, I further went with the Sherrif to where I stay to take my compute...
vivo Launches X50 Series in South Africa
vivo has released the X50 and X50 Pro — part of the all-new vivo series of flagship smartphones. “The X50 series is a professional photography flagship smartphone for consumers to record and share the best moments of their lives in a simple way,” says Jet Xu, Head of Middle East and Africa Business at vivo. “With stable-shooting capabilities, outstanding lenses and sensors, and an overall advanced camera system, the X50 series flagship devices allow users to capture all of life’s stories with professional quality. These are the first X series devices to be launched globally and we are excited to share the best of our innovative technology and design concepts with consumers.” The new devices are kitted with cutting-edge stabilization, night mode, zoom, and portrait technologies in an attemp...
WhatsApp is Working on “Vacation Mode” Feature, Again
WhatsApp is again working on its “Vacation Mode” feature, according to reports from WABetaInfo, after it abandoned the project last year. The feature, when enabled, is expected to allow users to access a dedicated menu with two new notification options for their archived chats. Image sourced from WABetaInfo Notify new messages – “it’s the current behaviour. If you decide to disable it (when the feature will be available for everyone), you will have the vacation mode, so archived chats continue to stay in the archive when new messages arrive.” Auto-hide inactive chats – “this is an extension of the vacation mode. If enabled, if a chat is older than 6 months, it will be automatically archived. Probably WhatsApp needs to change the description of this option because it’s not perfectly clear n...
Paratus Activates Network Line Connecting Johannesburg to Maputo
Paratus announced that it has completed a new terrestrial crossing to Mozambique by lighting up a 750km route from Maputo, through Eswatini onwards to Teraco Isando DC in Johannesburg. “It has taken months of meticulous planning and we experienced significant delays due to the pandemic sweeping across the globe. This week, we were able to commence with link testing and the first live traffic traversed the link,” says Rolf Mendelsohn, CTO of the Paratus Group. “Prior to activating this shorter route, the majority of traffic to Maputo would need to go via Mtinzini on either the SEACOM or EASSY cable systems. Latency is halved from 18ms to 9ms. For this route we decided to deploy the latest Infinera coherent technology, operating at 100Gb wavelengths.” Barney Harmse, CEO of Paratus, says, “Th...
TECNO Launches the Camon 16 Smartphone
TECNO has just unveiled its newest smartphone – the Camon 16 – at its virtual Grand Launch event. The tech company has placed great emphasis on the device’s camera set up by including an industry-best 64MP rear camera and 48MP front camera. The device features a quad-camera array on the back which consists of 64MP, 8MP, 2MP and 2MP lens modules. Each lens has a dedicated function that allows the user to shoot in wide-angle, zoom or portrait modes. On the front, the Camon 16 is fitted with a 48MP dual-camera array that includes an 8MP ultra-wide-angle selfie lens. Thanks to its TAIVOS (TECNO AI Vision Optimization Solution) technology, the smartphone can easily handle low-light and night shots. It’s also able to process and enhance image and video quality by running a series of algorithms t...
Mellanox Sponsors Award-winning Showjumper
As part of NVIDIA, Mellanox Technologies, a leading supplier of high-performance, Ethernet and InfiniBand networking solutions for servers, storage and hyper-converged infrastructure, is currently sponsoring award-winning showjumper, Mellanox My Hot Chocolate, and his owner and rider, Belinda Duke. It is a wonderful example of the phrase ‘Small is mighty’ – and an innovative, ‘right-brained’ kind of idea to unpack. Duke is a Product Manager at Networks Unlimited Africa, which distributes Mellanox’ intelligent interconnect solutions throughout the continent. She explains, “NVIDIA is in the business of being fast, innovative, agile and forward-thinking. The Mellanox SN2010 switch is small but it does a huge job. Mellanox My Hot Chocolate is a small horse but he is a proven winner. Bigger doe...
Syinix to Launch its First Android TV in Ghana and Nigeria
Syinix is set to launch its first Android TV in Ghana and Nigeria this month. The Syinix Android TV features a frameless design, offering a greater field of vision. The TV will be sold in a wide range of sizes ranging from 32″ to 75″ to cater to the diverse needs for large screens. The TV has 4K Ultra HD Resolution. It also has improved image processing with HDR 10+, Dolby Vision, enabling users to see richer and more realistic colours. The TV is equipped with immersive 5.1 Surround sound with a Dolby decoder that optimizes its sound quality for a seamless entertainment experience that allows consumers to immerse themselves in their content of choice. Syinix Smart Android TV is equipped with Bluetooth 5.0, which works with many Bluetooth devices such as soundbars, speakers, or a keybo...
Why SASE Should Extend Beyond Cloud
The emerging Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) model for cybersecurity, which is now gaining traction, needs to extend beyond cloud delivery to meet future needs. This is according to Patrick Grillo, Senior Director of Solutions Marketing at Fortinet, who was addressing the CNBC Africa Summit on The Future of Work. “SASE is a framework to bring together what are normally two distinct environments – network and security, so that connectivity and security options can be delivered from the cloud as a service. The principal connectivity option or networking feature is SD-WAN, which has been disrupting the industry for the past two to three years, a catalyst for SASE”, Grillo said. This emerging enterprise strategy combines network and security functions with WAN capabilities to support the dyn...
