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Vodacom Partners with Cloudflare to Enhance Cyber Resilience
The global cybercrime pandemic triggered by COVID-19 may be here to stay making it critical for businesses to ensure they are protected. News reports of the recent local attack of a critical healthcare organisation earlier this month indicate that South African businesses are not exempt, with South Africa seeing a 33% increase in the volume of cyber-attacks since March. To continue to support and protect customers, Vodacom Business has announced that it is partnering with Cloudflare to provide businesses of all sizes, faster, more secure and reliable website services. Cybersecurity has become a major concern for organisations of all sizes as protecting devices, networks, client data and apps is an essential component of doing business in today’s digital world. According to the World Econom...
US Companies Urge Employees to Delete TikTok
Sourced from Cosmico Wells Fargo has urged employees to uninstall the popular Chinese video-sharing app, TikTok, from their company devices over privacy concerns. “We have identified a small number of Wells Fargo employees with corporate-owned devices who had installed the TikTok application on their device,” says a Wells Fargo spokesperson. “Due to concerns about TikTok’s privacy and security controls and practices, and because corporate-owned devices should be used for company business only, we have directed those employees to remove the app from their devices.” This comes a few days after Amazon sent a company-wide email asking employees to delete the app – however, it quickly cleared the air and formally announced that there was “no change to our policies right now with regard to TikTo...
60% of South African Organisations Fall Victim to Cybersecurity Incidents
Sourced from Forbes Six in ten (60%) organisations from South Africa experienced a public cloud security incident in the last year – including ransomware (25%), other malware (28%), exposed data (28%), compromised accounts (27%), and cryptojacking (26%) – according to The State of Cloud Security 2020 from Sophos. Globally, organisations running multi-cloud environments are greater than 50% more likely to suffer a cloud security incident than those running a single cloud. Europeans suffered the lowest percentage of security incidents in the cloud, an indicator that compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines are helping to protect organisations from being compromised. India, on the other hand, fared the worst, with 93% of organisations being hit by an attack in the ...
What Preinstalled Adware Means for Mobile Users
Following analysis of attacks on mobile devices, cybersecurity researchers at Kaspersky have uncovered that 14.8% of its users who were targeted by malware or adware in 2019 suffered a system partition infection, making the malicious files undeletable. Moreover, pre-installed default applications also play a role here: depending on the brand, the risk of undeletable applications varies from one to five per cent in low-cost devices and goes up to 27% in extreme cases. A system partition infection entails a high level of risk for the users of infected devices, as a security solution cannot access the system directories meaning it cannot remove the malicious files. According to Kaspersky researchers, this type of infection is becoming a more common way to install adware – software creat...
Samsung May Not Include Chargers When Shipping New Smartphones
Sourced from Shutterstock Samsung might not include chargers alongside new smartphones as soon as next year, according to reports from ETNews. ETNews writes that a number of industry officials believe that “Samsung Electronics is already discussing how to remove the charger from smartphone components with related companies.” Rumours behind the claim say that Samsung’s chargers – a standard component that’s included when purchasing a new smartphone – have become so widespread and the company is now looking at ways to reduce the cost of their devices. Not including a charger in the box might seem like a drastic move, but Samsung is reportedly not the only tech giant considering this. Last week, reports suggested that Apple would also be ditching the charger as well as its Earpods. Apple...
3 Things You Should Do if You Suspect Infected Apps On Your Android Device
Sourced from Forbes A new variant of the Joker Dropper and Premium Dialer spyware has been discovered in the Google Play Store, according to researchers at Check Point. Joker, one of the most prominent types of malware for Android, keeps finding its way into Google’s official application market as a result of small changes to its code, which enables it to get past the Play store’s security and vetting barriers. This time, however, researchers report that the malicious actor behind Joker adopted an old technique from the conventional PC threat landscape and used it in the mobile app world to avoid detection by Google. To realize the ability of subscribing app users to premium services without their knowledge or consent, the Joker utilized two main components – the Notification Listener serv...
Google and Telkom Launch Balloon-Powered Internet Service in Kenya
Image sourced from MIT Technology Review Google’s Loon Project and Telkom Kenya have announced that it’s balloon-powered mobile Internet service is now available and covers more than 50,000 sq.km of the country with a fleet of 35 balloons – specific areas include Iten, Eldoret, Baringo, Nakuru, Kakamega, Kisumu, Kisii, Bomet, Kericho and Narok. According to the companies, this is the first balloon-powered internet to launch in Africa and the first non-emergency commercial deployment in the world. The Loon service will work by beaming Internet connectivity from ground stations to balloons 20 km overhead. The balloons (floating base stations) are linked to the ground stations that have been connected to Telkom’s network. These ground stations utilise millimeter wave spectrum to send connecti...
Mastercard and FASTA Launch South Africa’s First Virtual Credit Card
Mastercard has teamed up with FASTA – a digital lending fintech – to launch the FASTACard, South Africa’s first virtual credit card. The FASTACard – backed by Standard Bank and Tutuka – is said to give locals access to instant credit which is loaded onto a secure digital card that can be used online and in-store. This virtual card will help to meet the demand of today’s cash-strapped consumers who are increasingly seeking ‘no contact’ digital payment solutions in the wake of the pandemic. South Africans who choose to apply can select their own credit limit – up to R8,000 – and repayment plan – with up to three instalments paid over four months. Within minutes, the loan application is approved and customers are sent a virtual card which is valid for three years. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_070....
TikTok Glitch Makes Views and Likes Disappear
Sourced from Gadgets 360. Popular video-sharing platform, TikTok has confirmed that some users have experienced a glitch where their account page, following feeds and For You Page all displayed zero likes and views. Hi TikTok community! We’re aware that some users are experiencing app issues – working to quickly fix things, and we’ll share updates here! — TikTokSupport (@TikTokSupport) July 9, 2020 “Some of our users experienced app issues around notifications, the display of likes and view counts, and trouble loading videos on some pages of the app,” says the Chinese app in a statement to The Verge. “The issues appear to have been caused by higher traffic than normal on our servers, causing temporary service disruptions. We’ve resolved the problem and are investigating the cau...
Google Maps is Testing New Traffic Light Feature
Sourced from Shutterstock. Google has confirmed that it is testing a new feature that’ll show Google Maps users the location of traffic lights. In a statement reported by The Verge, Google says “To help people stay better informed on the road, we’re testing a Google Maps feature on Android that shows the location of traffic lights in select cities across the US”. Image sourced from The Verge This feature was first spotted by droidlife which notes that “the little traffic light icon isn’t that easy to see just yet and Google doesn’t seem to be actively letting users know about lights, but the icons could be a start to more meaningful info.” This feature isn’t exactly new as it’s been used successfully by Google Maps users in Japan for a few years now – however, a global rollout of...
REVIEW: Fujifilm Instax Link Mini Smartphone Printer
The resurrection of the polaroid-aesthetic camera has been massive, with Fujifilm leading the charge in Africa. Now, lovers of the old-school instant print photos are in for a wild ride as Intax’ Link Mini Smartphone printer mixes new tech with old tech to create something that needs to be seen to be believed. The Instax Link Mini is sleek in design, it features a rounded shape that is deceivingly small and comfortably fits in hand. The device is mostly controlled through a large Instax button at its centre and features a backport for the film and an output slide for printed photos. Most of its connectivity and usage is done straight through the Instax Mini Link app, available on Android and iOS via instant Bluetooth connectivity. Through the app, the printer can be used ...
MTN Ranked as South Africa’s Best Network during Lockdown
Image sourced from Pinterest. MTN has been named as the best mobile network in South Africa during lockdown – a title awarded by MyBroadband in their lastest insights report. The report is based on 278,890 speed tests which were performed by thousands of Speed Test App users across the country between 1 April and 30 June 2020. The research shows that South Africa had an average mobile download speed of 27.13Mbps and an average upload speed of 10.53Mbps. Telecoms and Lockdown During the lockdown, there was pressure on mobile networks to maintain good service levels amidst the increased demand for data. The higher data traffic, which increased by up to 50%, would typically result in a decrease in network speeds. However, this was not the case thanks to the temporary spectrum issued by ICASA ...
