tech news
SADV ISP Appoints New MD
SA Digital Villages (SADV) ISP has appointed telecommunications industry veteran, Junaid Munshi as its new managing director – effective 01 June 2020. The company recently became a standalone entity after its fibre network division was absorbed by Vumatel in April of this year. SADV ISP says that the appointment signals the company’s focus and commitment to delivering world-class Internet access to its customers. Munshi, who brings more than two decades of experience in telecommunications – spanning four countries, will be instrumental in driving customer uptake and delivering growth across the business Speaking on his new appointment, Munshi says “I am super excited to be joining the team at SADV. I believe that we have a unique opportunity to establish a new digital dawn for all South Af...
Google Launches Website to Help People Avoid Online Scams
Sourced from Google. Ever opened your emails and received a poorly-worded message about a payment that you weren’t expecting? What about one proclaiming that you’ve won a competition you never entered. “Congratulations!” it reads, beneath, a sinister attachment that you probably should not open. This is becoming more and more common, and now Google has unveiled a website to teach people how to spot and avoid online scams. Digital hoaxes, malware and cyberattacks have been surging during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The website – Scamspotter.org – tries to show users how to identify things such as false stimulus checks, fake vaccine offers, or other fake medical information. The site also attempts to make clear certain patterns that are typical of hoaxes, like a romance scammer asking ...
Will Crypto Enter The Mainstream In Africa?
Cryptocurrencies are garnering interest across the globe, and have been for the last decade, but it is in Africa in which many are starting to think that these new digital currencies will take off with vigour. The reason for this could well be that Africa finds itself in a rather unique monetary situation, along with an equally unique technological one. Mobile and crypto, the perfect combination Whereas in Europe and North America Internet connectivity took off mainly through fixed-line broadband, Africa has been at the forefront of truly mobile-first Internet infrastructure. While cities are indeed rolling out fixed-line broadband, the vast majority of Africans get online through their data connection solely on their mobile phone. This has lead to a situation where 5G is expected to...
Understanding African Markets During COVID-19
Sourced from iStock. We are living in unprecedented times. COVID-19 has swept throughout the world, and governments globally have taken drastic measures to stop the spread in an attempt to save lives. In February 2020, as African countries watched Asia and Europe begin the implementation of lockdown, a study by Survey54, an automated mobile-led data collection platform, found that approximately 80% of Africans interviewed felt almost immune to the virus as they were yet to hear of any confirmed cases on the continent. This did not last long and by Mid-March, lockdown procedures were initiated across Africa. Despite the swift response, lockdown came with many challenges that drastically affected a continent which heavily depends on the informal sector. With roughly 90% of Africans now conce...
Vodacom is The First Telco to Zero-Rate what3words
The what3words technology, available as an app or online map, has divided the world into a grid of 3m squares, giving each square a unique combination of three words: a what3words address. Vodacom has become the first telco globally to zero-rate the lifesaving addressing technology, what3words, for its more than 43 million subscribers across South Africa. The UN estimates that 75% of countries in the world have a poorly maintained addressing system – or none at all. This is an issue that South Africa knows well, with large parts of the country still lacking spatial planning. This might be an inconvenience when you are expecting a delivery, but it is a far graver issue for locals living in rural areas or informal settlements when it comes to emergencies. Without an address – or in the event...
Trump Threatens Twitter and Other Social Media Platforms After Being Fact-Checked
Sourced from Politico. US President Donald Trump has threatened to regulate or even “close down” social media platforms in a series of tweets over the last day on Twitter. This comes after Twitter added a fact-check label to some of his posts. The labels entail that particular tweets contained misleading information. The president (ironically) tweeted that republicans feel that social media platforms such as Twitter are trying to censor their political views. ….happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020 He then warned, “Big action [is]...
Pablo Escobar’s Brother Suing Apple for $2.6 Billion Over Life-Threatening iPhone Hack
We all know major corporations like Apple are notorious for failing to deliver on their technological promises, even hoodwinking users into spending more money on upgrades. A long-fought legal case finally brought some redress to iPhone users who had their devices intentionally slowed, but some still aren’t happy with the company’s misleading practices. Namely, Roberto Escobar, brother of infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, who is suing Apple for $2.6 billion (that’s with a B) for an alleged hack of his iPhone X. According to TMZ, the lawsuit claims Escobar purchased an iPhone X in 2018. Escobar, also known as El Osito, was concerned for his safety after reportedly being the target of numerous assassination attempts, and was looking to protect himself from hackers. After being told by an ...
Cashless and Contactless Payments Beyond COVID-19
The emergence of COVID-19 has made the need for digitising payments more critical than ever before and for this to be a success, electronic payments need to offer similar benefits to those afforded by cash. Globally, economies are in various stages of development having either started developing, replaced or are busy replacing daily batch payment systems with real-time systems that execute payments in seconds with the flexibility to meet the needs of the future digital economy. The drive towards digital payments and lowering the reliance on cash is not new to South Africa’s payments market. There are several mechanisms already in place to enable this and banks, card companies, fintechs and retailers are all involved in rolling out digital, non-touch payment mechanisms. Contactless cards us...
Use of Cloud Collaboration Tools Surge Across the World and So Do Attacks
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed companies to adapt to new government-mandated restrictions on workforce movement around the world. The immediate response has been a rapid adoption and integration of cloud services, particularly cloud-based tools such as Microsoft Office 365, Slack and other video conferencing platforms like Zoom. A new report by security firm McAfee shows that hackers are responding to this mass migration to these platforms with an increased focus on abusing cloud account credentials. After analyzing cloud usage data that was collected between January and April, from over 30-million enterprise users of its MVISION cloud security monitoring platform, the company estimates a 50% growth in adoption of cloud services across all industries. Some industries, however, saw a much...
Entersekt Integrates Digital Banking Software with Huawei Mobile Services
Sourced from Getty Images. Mobile fintech solutions company, Entersekt announced that it has successfully integrated with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). HMS is Huawei’s alternative to Google Mobile Services, a collection of applications and application programming interfaces that are typically pre-installed on Android phones and tablets. Entersekt fast-tracked work on its mobile software development kit (SDK) to facilitate push messaging and ensure that consumers could continue to bank and transact securely after upgrading to newly manufactured Huawei mobile devices. The fintech provider holds an 80 per cent share of the South African digital banking authentication market and counts major overseas banks as customers too. The updated SDK is now ready for release to app developers across the ...
Twitter Labels President Trump’s “Potentially Misleading” Tweets
Image sourced from Al Jazeera Twitter said Tuesday that it added a label to the United States (US) President Donald Trump’s tweets for containing “potentially misleading information about voting processes,” a rare move that shows the social media company is taking a tougher stance against misinformation. Twitter reserves these labels for tweets that contain information flagged by the website as false. It’s the first time that Twitter has displayed such a label on one of Trump’s tweets. That same Tuesday, Trump tweeted “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-in-Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent,” a claim that has been debunked by fact-checkers and news organizations. He continues his remarks in another tweet, stating that it will be a “rigged election.” Mail-in-Ballots ...
7 Techniques Cybercriminals Could Use to Steal Your Private Data
Cyber threats do not rest and they continue to evolve as bad actors develop new attack techniques. Good cybersecurity hygiene requires more than a strong password to avoid compromise. The most important thing is to know how exactly cybercriminals may attempt to gain access to your data. Here are seven techniques they might try: Password Spraying: A form of brute force attack that targets multiple accounts in which adversaries try multiple guesses of the password on a single account that often leads to account lockout. With password spraying, the adversary only tries a few of the most common passwords against multiple user accounts, trying to identify that one person who is using a default or easy-to-guess password and thus avoiding the account lockout scenario. Key logging attack: By insta...
