Just a few months after Netflix launched in African countries, one of its competitors, Showmax has followed in its footsteps and launched in 36 Sub Saharan countries. Showmax, which was launched last year in August and which is backed by Napsers will for $7.99 per month, provide unlimited viewing Internet TV services with approximately 15,000 TV show episodes. Barron Ernst, Chief Product Officer for Showmax said: “The speed and cost of connectivity are significant hurdles for any internet-based service in Africa. Getting it right means you’ve got to do much…
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The 2016 Verizon Data Breach Investigative Report (DBIR) Is Out
10 African countries featured including Kenya and South Africa The 2016 DBIR by Verizon has been released. The report has revealed that there has been a 16% increase in ransomware attacks over the last 12 months, ItNewsAfrica reports. According to the DBIR, 89% of attacks involved financial or espionage motivations. Financial motivations were a clear catalyst. Because of the organizations that are being targeted and how prevalent ransomware has become, ransomware is a hot topic. Businesses have a higher degree of risk attached to them even though every individual is susceptible to…
Read MoreAfrica Code Week: SAP To Train More Than 150,000 Youth
SAP has said that it will train more than 150, 000 youth from 30 African countries in a bid to foster digital literacy and equip the continent’s youth through their Africa Code Week. Africa Code Week 2016 is slotted to run from October 15 to October 23rd. It will involve thousands of free coding workshops and online trainings for children between the ages of 8 to 24. The Africa Code Week kick off coincided with The World Economic Forum(WEF) on Africa that is being held in Kigali. The Minister of Youth…
Read MoreVodacom Will Discontinue M-Pesa South Africa From 30th June
Earlier in the year, Vodacom said that it was reviewing M-Pesa South Africa. The service that was launched in 2010 and re-launched four years later, was expected to have millions of users but it only garnered 76,000 active users. Shameel Joosub, CEO, said in a statement that the decision was based on the fact that the business sustainability of M-Pesa is predicted on achieving a critical mass of users. Their revised projections and the high level of financial inclusion in South Africa meant that there was little prospects of…
Read MoreA Greener South Africa Thanks To UberGreen
A new initiative by Uber seeks to make the South African environment cleaner by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In South Africa, 13% of carbon dioxide emissions are on account of the transport industry. Uber through a partnership with BMW and Nissan is seeking to bring that percentage down with UberGreen. UberGreen is a pilot project where Uber users will be able to request Electric vehicles, the BMW or the Nissan LEAF. These vehicles will be operated by drivers at Uberx prices giving Uber users the satisfaction that they are helping…
Read MoreAfrica’s banking security in Africa is reaching a tipping point for growing cybercrime risk
Africa’s relative lack of infrastructure is both a blessing and a curse for banks. While access to traditional services is still a challenge, innovation in technology can offer big opportunities. Mobile has become the de facto means of banking in many parts of Africa and, as mobile penetration – particularly smartphone penetration – increases, this is allowing banks to connect with more of the population than ever before, and to do so in a more targeted, personal way. A study looking at trends in banking in sub-Saharan Africa, released in…
Read MoreCyber Crime Predicted To Reach $2 Trillion By 2019
During the last ten years, our lives have changed. The increased usage of the Internet made blurred some lines between the virtual and the real world making some processes faster. Ordinary people are enjoying this change, as life is becoming much easier for them. Large companies and enterprises experience some negative sides of such changes, though. They are preparing for a huge increase in cyber crime. General Crime Numbers Ginni Rometty, the Chairman of IBM Corp, mentioned in his recent interview that cyber crime wave, as they named it couple…
Read More31pc of employees consider themselves the biggest threat to cyber security
Both companies and employees are aware of the damage cyber-attacks can make, and know that employees are the weakest link in a company’s security chain. Those are the results of two separate studies conducted by security firm WinMagic. During the Cloud Security Expo, it released the studies in which it asked 250 IT managers and 1,000 employees about the importance of IT security in the workplace. The data shows that businesses have taken actions to protect themselves following high-profile data breaches, such as the one which happened to TalkTalk. Almost…
Read MoreWhatsApp launches end-to-end encryption on messages for all its users
Instant messaging service WhatsApp in seeking to reassure its users about their privacy will be encrypting all messages sent via its app. WhatsApp’s announcement comes in the heels of one of the most high-profile clashes in the debate over encryption and data privacy between the government and a technology company. In February, the FBI asked Apple to unlock one of the San Bernardino shooters’ iPhones so authorities could access his data. Apple refused, stating a breach of privacy; the FBI took Apple to court but was eventually able to unlock…
Read MoreHackers Breach Top Wall Street Law Firms, Including Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
Reuters: Hackers broke into the computer networks of some big U.S. law firms, including Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Federal investigators are looking to see if confidential information was stolen for insider trading, as these law firms represented Wall Street banks and big companies, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Other law firms were also targeted, but the probe has not amounted to any clear information on what details have been stolen, the newspaper…
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