tech news
New US Lawsuit Alleges MTN Paid off Terrorist Groups in the Middle-East
Sourced from Business Tech A lawsuit filed in the United States that claims that telecom giant MTN paid protection money to terrorist groups al-Qaeda and the Taliban have been expanded to include new claims. The Wall Street Journal reported that the newly expanded lawsuit now also claims that two US contractors – which ran aid projects in Afghanistan – paid protection money to the Taliban. The suit in question was filed by certain families of US soldiers who were killed or wounded in Iran and Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017. Initially launched last year, the case is now hearing new allegations at the United States District Court. The suit, which also includes claims against seven other international companies including the security company G4S, alleges that MTN violated the US Anti-Terro...
How to Fight COVID-19 in Africa’s Informal Settlements
Sourced from eNCA. The COVID-19 pandemic has cost hundreds of thousands of lives in the world’s richest cities but poses an even greater threat to cities in the developing world. There are now more than 150,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across Africa, in all 54 countries, with South Africa and Egypt the worst affected. One of the most pressing concerns for Africa is that over half the population (excluding in North Africa) live in overcrowded informal settlements. In these areas where several people have to share one badly ventilated room, diseases such as COVID-19 spread fast and it is impossible to practice physical distancing whether in homes or outside. Other preventative measures are equally challenging. Only a third of households in Africa have access to basic handwashing facili...
Global Video Game Market to Hit $92 Billion in Value This Year
Sourced from Wikimedia. As one of the leading forms of entertainment today, the video games industry continues to generate remarkable profits from its huge player base. According to data gathered by GCN, the global video games market is set to jump over $92 billion value in 2020, growing by 10.9% year-on-year. With $54.6 billion profit or nearly 60% of that amount, mobile games remain the most significant revenue stream of the global video games industry. Video Games Revenue Increased by $15.56 billion in Three Years In 2017, the global video games industry reached $76.5 billion in revenue, revealed Statista Digital Market Outlook. By the end of 2018, this figure rose to $79.2 billion. The increasing trend continued during the last year, with the revenue reaching $83.1 billion. /* custom c...
Huawei Y7p Users in Kenya Discover Android 10 Update
Image sourced from Huawei Huawei Y7p users in Kenya were shocked to discover that their devices were eligible for Android 10 in the form of an EMUI 10 update. “Yesterday, I got a notification that I can download Android 10 for the Huawei Y7p. The Huawei Y7p was launched by Huawei Kenya back in April this year and it was their first phone in the market without Google Services. I was not expecting this update at all and it was a nice surprise,” writes Kiruti Itimu for Techweez. Before purchasing this device, Huawei wanted users to note that it’s one of the first devices to come with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), Huawei’s new ecosystem. And while HMS looks and feels similar to Android – it works differently and you may have to take a few extra steps when setting up your new smartphone. Luckil...
How COVID-19 Has Emphasised the Need for Digital Transformation
When it comes to digital transformation, COVID-19 has been a massive accelerant. Businesses with long-term transformation deadlines have been forced to bring them forward dramatically: what was once planned for 18 months’ time, now has to be ready immediately. Consumers are engaging with businesses that are digitally astute now more than ever before. Those that are able to innovate, and to make their products and services available quickly, easily and reliably, are sure to succeed; those that aren’t sufficiently transformed will likely be left behind. This digital transformation drive has far-reaching implications: for how we work, for the tools we use, and for businesses’ long-term relevance. It is shaping the future of our working world. The evolution of office space /* custom css */ .td...
Mukuru and WorldRemit Expand Network of Remittances into Zimbabwe
Mukuru, one of Africa’s largest remittance providers, has announced a partnership with global online money transfer service WorldRemit to facilitate money transfers to Zimbabwe from across the globe. The partnership will be instrumental in bringing world-class financial services to Zimbabweans and generating new synergies for African financial inclusion. “We are excited to be able to extend Mukuru’s valuable pay-out footprint to more customers and to harness this opportunity with WorldRemit’s global reach to expand our fast-growing global presence – while simultaneously creating new opportunities for customer-led innovation on the continent. These types of synergies bring immediate value to our customers, and alleviates their day to day challenges with user-friendly solutions,” says Andy J...
Opportunities & Risks From the 4th Industrial Revolution in Africa
Sourced from Shutterstock. Insurance provider and risk mitigator Aoncyber has published a new report titled “Cyber Risks in Africa.” The report focuses on the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) which is ushering in a new economy and a new form of globalisation, both of which demand new forms of governance to safeguard the public good. This new chapter in human development is enabled by extraordinary technological advancements, and along with this progress comes inherent risks. African states need to equip themselves better when it comes to cyber resilience in order to actively participate in the global economy, by effectively managing and mitigating the effects of data breaches and cybercrime on their economy and citizens. The 4th Industrial Revolution brings many opportunities, as well as in...
Understanding the Need to Secure SD-WAN Platforms
An increasing number of businesses are switching to a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), which is a unique approach to wide-area networking because it combines traditional WAN technologies with the Internet and provides more visibility within an organisation. The move to SD-WAN is largely driven by distributed enterprises with multiple remote offices, which are increasingly using business-critical, cloud-based applications and tools that are migrating away from performance-inhibited wide-area networks (WAN). According to Louis Kirstein, DSM Expert for Connectivity Services at T-Systems South Africa, the visibility provided by an SD-WAN enables network administrators to oversee the network and monitor traffic for inconsistencies. From a security perspective, this functionality all...
African Union Forms Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Testing on the Continent
The Commissioner for Social Affairs, Amira Elfadil Mohammed, today rolled out the Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Testing (PACT) at the African Union Commission headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In his message to participants in the rollout event, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, says that “We have set four goals for PACT: to scale-up testing for COVID-19, to continue training healthcare workers on the continent, to establish a platform for pooled procurement at Africa CDC, and to deploy one million community workers who will help trace contacts of confirmed cases. PACT is a vital component of the continental response to COVID-19 and it is the key to ensuring that we unlock our economies in a safe manner.” Anchored on the African Union Joint Con...
How Will AI Reshape Leadership Practices in a Post-COVID-19 Economy?
Sourced from Shutterstock. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Today, business leaders are able to augment their decision-making and problem-solving capabilities through a myriad of capabilities powered by AI. With a continued rise in the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Analytics, Machine Learning and Big Data, organisations have access to many data sources across their entire ecosystem, which previously was not always available to them. The tools to digitise analogue data sources and then mine and analyse them for insights are becoming more powerful. Organisational leaders in both developing and developed economies now have access to world-class AI-powered systems, that are able to significantly en...
COVID-19 Threatens Cybersecurity in South Africa
According to researchers at IBM X-Force, Sphinx, a modular malware based on leaked source code of the infamous Zeus banking trojan began resurfacing in December 2019. However, a substantial increase in volume was reported in March 2020. This was due to Sphinx’s operators taking advantage of the interest and news around government relief payments in the U.S, Canada and Australia. Across the globe fraud and cyberattacks have soared. This is of particular concern for South Africa as funds are collected to uphold the economy during lockdown and new grants are implemented to ensure the wellbeing of citizens. The local situation South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced a significant package of social and economic relief to address the fallout from the country’s COVID-19 lockdow...
Investment in Digital Transformation is Expected to Reach $7.4 trillion by 2023, says Report
As organizations look to transform their business operations and revolutionize customer service, Digital Transformation (DX) is at the top of most CXOs’ agendas; in fact, DX spending is expected to approach $7.4 trillion between 2020 and 2023, a CAGR of 17.5%. However, according to the latest industry data released today from Veeam Software, almost half of global organizations are being hindered in their DX journeys due to unreliable, legacy technologies with 44% citing lack of IT skills or expertise as another barrier to success. Moreover, almost every company admitted to experiencing downtime, with 1 out of every 10 servers having unexpected outages each year — problems that last for hours and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – and this points to an urgent need to moderniz...
