Tag: featured

Increased ransomware and IoT hacks predicted in 2017

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banking security

2016 saw companies rocked by over 90 million cyberattacks. In 2017 the number could double. Cybersecurity expert Sameer Dixit explains how new innovation leads to increased vulnerability. The threat of cybercrime looms ominously over companies and individuals. To raise awareness of the growing threat, October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month in the United States and Europe. The economic damage caused by cybercrime is massive and quantifiable. In 2016 companies and individuals will be hit by 90 million attacks. That’s 400 raids every minute. Nearly 70% of of these attacks…

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Africa’s Smartphone shipments rate falls

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Online Shopping

hipments of smartphones in Africa fell 5.2% to 23.1 million units in the second quarter of 2016, according to the latest figures from International Data Corporation (IDC). These figures, presented in IDC’s recently published ‘Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker’, indicate that the boom in smartphone sales in Africa is slowing, despite the fact that overall mobile handset shipments were up slightly in Q2 2016, with shipments of basic feature phones rising 31.9% year on year to total 29.8 million units. South Africa and the North African countries of Morocco, Algeria, and…

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Massive data breach hits 500 million Yahoo accounts

Information from at least 500 million Yahoo accounts was stolen from the company in 2014, the company said Thursday, indicating it believes a state-sponsored actor was behind the hack the Sunnyvale, California-based company confirmed. The theft may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers, Yahoo said. Even in an Internet-dependent population accustomed to the regular occurrence of massive data breaches, the size of this one —  thought to be the largest ever in terms of user accounts — is attention-grabbing. And the possibility that another…

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New devices connecting to the internet increase risk of corporate cyber attacks

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Is the Internet of Things putting your business at risk? Network security needs to be top of mind for decision makers within the business, as more and more device connect to the internet via wireless network technology. According to Palo Alto Networks, wireless network technology is simultaneously necessary and risky for organisations, and the Internet of Things could be putting businesses at risk of a cyber attack. “Most businesses are aware that wireless connections can be risky so they look to mitigate the risks by protecting their internal infrastructure,” says…

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Banking Trojans remain the most lethal cyber threats says Kaspersky Lab

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banking security

Banking Trojans have retained the reputation as the most dangerous cyber threats. This is according to a kaspersky Lab report. The study says financial malware attacks on online users raised by 15.6%. The main reason for the spike is the nexus between the authors of two leading banking Trojans: Gozi Trojan and Nymaim Trojan, pushing both into the top 10 ranking of financial malware. These malware are often propagated via compromised or fraudulent websites and spam emails and, after infecting users mimic an official online banking page in an attempt…

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Mobile tech and services generated $150 billion in Africa, 725 million unique subscribers expected by 2020

Staff Writer

The GSMA study ‘The Mobile Economy: Africa 2016’ was launched at the GSMA Mobile 360 – Africa event held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from July 26 – 28, 2016. The report highlights the increasing contribution of Africa’s mobile industry to the regional economy, including employment and public funding, and mobile’s role a platform for digital and financial inclusion. Industry overview At the end of 2015, 46% of the population in Africa subscribed to mobile services, equivalent to more than half a billion people. The region’s three dominant markets –…

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Verizon will buy Yahoo for $4.8 billion

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US internet firm Yahoo will be sold to American telecoms firm Verizon Communications for nearly $5bn (£3.8bn) in cash. Yahoo will be combined with AOL, another faded internet star, which Verizon bought last year. The deal does not include Yahoo’s valuable stake in Chinese firm Alibaba. The price tag for the deal is well below the $44bn Microsoft offered for Yahoo in 2008 or the $125bn it was worth during the dot.com boom. Verizon said the deal for Yahoo‘s core internet business, which has more than a billion active users…

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Second 7000 USD Seed Funding for STEM Initiatives announced by Miss.Africa

Staff Writer

The Miss.Africa initiative from DotConnectAfrica Trust has announced a second offering for its annual Seed Fund  for Tech initiatives in Africa led and founded by Women. In the first round, the Miss.Africa Seed Fund, a sum of Seven Thousand United Stated Dollars (USD 7000) received an overwhelming number of applications of over 90 applicants from more than 18 Countries in Africa across the African continent and anticipates a big turn of applications for the 2016 phase. As statement on the announcement by Sophia Bekele CEO and Founder DotConnectAfrica Group noted that…

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Cybersecurity expert warn ‘Pokemon Go’ fans of cybercriminals

The release of “Pokemon Go” has sparked a frenzy among players and prompted a raft of warnings from lawmakers eager to prevent fans from putting their lives in danger. But the fevered anticipation of the game has also created opportunities for attackers, a cybersecurity software firm said. “The vulnerability from ‘Pokemon Go’ is due to the fact that Nintendo didn’t have a global release of the game,” said Michael Petit, Africa, Middle East and Asia head of mobility at Check Point Software Technologies. The mobile gaming app first rolled out…

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WEF Tech. Report 2016: Top 10 African countries ranking in harnessing technology

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10 Africa’s most industrialized countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2016 has included Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria among others that have shown an improvement in this year’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI) rankings (see table below) despite a deteriorating business and innovation environment . Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Israel, Singapore, the Netherlands and the United States are leading the world when it comes to generating economic impact from investments in information and communications technologies (ICT), according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2016. On average,…

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